Hello my darklings. Thank you all so very very much for reading, and alerting and favouriting. It makes me feel so much better. And I needed that cheering up. I hurted myself, and I'm suffering to give you this installment. Reviews will help me feel better.

Once again, I do not own the YYH characters. Unfortunately, I own the villans. I also own pyro, tess, and the other OC's.

The girl glanced across the table at her friend, and the spiky-haired man off to the right. The other girl had always been insistent on the truth of the things she was speaking of, so, now that Tess had been witness to it, she thought her friend might not be quite as crazy as she'd thought.

Pyro grinned at her friend. "You chill, homie?"

"Lemme get this straight. You had some kind of demon in your head, and she was hell-bent on taking over, killing, maiming... and you left because you were a target for demon assassins?" Tess said after a deep breath. She shook her blue-black hair out of her face, keeping her hands tightly clasped on the table.

"Pretty much. Well, the first time anyway. Then I got whisked away by the demon police here, and wound up getting, erm, married to spikey here." Pyro grinned and laid her head on Hiei's shoulder.

Tess threw a napkin ring at her friend. "Bitch! You said I could be the maid of honour!"

Pyro laughed and batted the object away. "I know. But demon marriages don't exactly come with all the pomp and circumstance of a human marriage."

"Unless you have the fortune to marry a demon lord." Hiei chuckled.

"Oh my gods, I know." Pyro straightened to look at her mate. "Did you know that idiot Nathair pushed the ceremony back another two months?"

"Hn. That baka needs to get his ass in gear. The other lords are getting annoying." Hiei grumbled.

"Is he the lucky man? And why the hell aren't you wearing a ring?" Tessara leaned on her elbows and gave her friend a pointed look.

Pyro looked at her hands. "Oh goddamnit, not again."

Hiei chuckled. "Relax. I pick it up from the jewelers tomorrow, just in time for dinner. It was too big for your demon fingers, remember?"

"Right." Pyro bopped herself on the forehead. "Anyway. Demon mate marks are a little more, shall we say, personal and permanent." She tugged the collar of her shirt low enough to expose the dragon-shaped scar. Next to her, Hiei also exposed his mark, now in the shape of a cat.

Tessara went a little wide-eyed. "Does it hurt?"

Pyro let her shirt collar go and shrugged. "Not at the time. But it hurts like hell for a few days till it heals."

"The detective almost lost his hand more than once because he was careless with his shoulder slapping." Hiei smirked.

Tessara leaned back in her chair. "P, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of demon are you now?"

Pyro thought for a moment. Her body lengthened, and her kitty ears and tail grew. "I'm a cat demon. The bitch in my head wasn't, but I guess I had more influence over that than she did."

Hiei called up a bit of the black fire he controlled. "I am half fire demon, half ice apparition. This is the only one of my powers I can safely show you."

"Wicked." Tessara turned her gaze on her friend. "Aren't you just the cutest kitty? And you have the most adorable dye job."

Pyro started laughing and threw the napkin ring back at her friend. "Oh piss off, wanker."

Hiei growled when the human's hands twitched closer and closer to his mate. "Do not even think of petting her ears, ningen."

"Oh stoppit, Hiei." Pyro put her hand on her mate's. "Tess has been keeping my secrets since 5 years before I 'died' in an explosion." She made air quotes when she said 'died.'

"And it is such a good thing I have never been fond of her family. Helped me keep mum about her surviving." Tessara got a thoughtful look. "Though, it would almost be worth it just so we could introduce her to Hiei."

Pyro started laughing at the thought of that meeting. "Almost. But I have learned one thing from being and living around demons. Anyone in one's family who is weaker will have a big fucking bullseye on their back." Pyro looked away. "You were attacked because of me, I'm..."

"It is not your fault! You are not the one who went and made those demons become complete sociopaths." Tessara jumped out of her seat.

Pyro stood and went to make her friend sit back down. "Tess, honey, it is my fault, because attacking you is the best way to get to me, and through me, they get to Hiei."

Hiei coughed. "Unfortunately, this was all about you, Onna."

The colourful cat demon turned to fix her mate in a glare. 'And when, pray tell, were you planning on telling me this little tidbit?'

The fire demon looked away. 'Er, soon?'

Tessara glared at both demons. "Telepathic fighting around the non-telepath is seriously bad form."

"Sorry, Tess, just trying not to make my lord mate seem the idiot he truly is right now." Pyro drawled, glaring at Hiei again.

"That is the last time I listen to the detective's advice." Hiei grumbled and was out the door in a blur too fast for Tessara to follow.

"That's right, Oni-san, run the fuck away again!" Pyro yelled through the open door before slamming it shut.

Tessara nearly fell over from laughing at the pair. "Damn you two are fast. And he couldn't have heard you yelling at him, he's probably half way to the park by now."

Pyro shrugged and sat down in the seat next to the raven haired girl. "He never goes very far. Besides, I'm in danger again, he only hid around the corner."

Tessara reached up and touched one of Pyro's kitty ears. "So, tell me about the rest of the protection detail? Please?"

Pyro dragged Tessara out of the room mere minutes later. Tessara wore an expression of complete confusion. Pyro's ears were flat against her head, and the tip of her tail flicked irritatedly.

The pair made quite a sight, Pyro now stood slightly taller than her friend. Tessara was all curves, Pyro, somewhat less so in her demon form.

Kuwabara saw them coming at him down the hall. He made a strange noise, then pressed himself to the wall.

Pyro didn't stop until she'd reached the kitchen, where she knew a certain kitsune was cooking. "Kurama!"

The red head in question leaned on the doorframe. "You bellowed, oh lady of Alaric?"

"I would like to introduce Tessara to your Fox, please." Pyro said in clipped tones. 'For the love of Inari, make her stop petting my ears.'

Kurama chuckled. "Of course, Thistle. But you will have to go keep an eye on dinner, Yoko can't cook still."

Pyro was through the kitchen door before he had completed his sentence. 'I owe you, fox.'

'If she's as fond of petting as you make her out to be, I will owe you.' Kurama turned to the human who still looked confused. "Don't worry, you are perfectly safe meeting my demon self alone. Thistle is a scary, scary person when she gets mad."

Tessara giggled. "Even as a cat, she's still a bitch."

"How long have you known the lady?" Kurama asked.

"I'm the only one alive who knows the name she was given at birth, and cares enough to forget it." she replied. Then she got curious. "She said you're a fox? And why did you call her Thistle?"

"I am a fox demon. I call her Thistle, because I can't seem to wrap my tongue around Feo..." Kurama chuckled again. "When I change forms, they usually call me Yoko, because they like to make the differentiation. If you ask for my identification, it will tell you I am Minamino Suichi."

"That has got to be terribly confusing." Tessara giggled.

"I have had years to get used to it. Generally I just go by Kurama." The red head became obscured by a cloud of mist. When it cleared, his taller, silver haired form stood in his place.

Tessara looked him up and down. "You are absolutely smoking." Her eyes grew wide when he smiled at her.

"Thank you, beautiful." Then, just a bit louder, so that the cat in the kitchen could hear, "Our lovely Thistle has very good taste in, companions." He winked at the girl standing in front of him.

Tessara blushed a deep red. "If I pet your tail, will you get all weird like Pyro did when I pet her ears?"

Yoko shook his head and chuckled. "The kitty is mated. She 'got all weird' as you say, because cat demon's ears are notorious as, ahem, erogenous."

"Shit, Hiei's gonna kill me."

Yoko moved closer to her and flicked a tail in her direction. "He wouldn't do anything that would make his mate truly angry at him." He flicked his tail at her again.

This time she caught it and began stroking it absently. "She does have him wrapped around her finger pretty tight."

Yoko closed his eyes and sighed. "Thank you, Tess, I haven't been pet like that in ages."

Pyro leaned against the door frame Kurama had vacated. "I never believed it, but Kurama here is living proof that kitsune are vain little attention whores."

Yoko made a rude gesture at the cat demon.

"Um, no. Hiei would kill you. Twice." Pyro laughed.

Yoko winked at her. "Doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy it before then."

Tessara tugged Yoko's tail lightly. "Your fur is softer than hers."

"Do not tell me how you know that, because I really do not want to piss off my mate this week." Hiei grumbled. He moved to stand next to Pyro, who was smirking and trying not to laugh at her friend's shocked expression.

She leaned down and kissed the top of the scowling fire demon's forehead. "Chill, fire-bug. Its not her fault she can't resist fuzzies." 'I foisted her off on Yoko to get her to stop.'

Hiei nuzzled his mate's shoulder. 'From your scent, I'd say not soon enough.' He reached up to tap one fuzzy ear. "You could have just retaken your human form."

Pyro gave the fire demon a look. 'Having trouble with that right about now.'

Hiei just shrugged. 'My point exactly, Onna.'

"Yoko? Yoko? Vain little kitsune brat." Pyro tried to get the fox's attention.

Yoko fixed a less than focused gaze on her. "Yes, Thistle?"

"Be a dear, and bring out the red head for about 2 minutes to check on dinner? I'm not familiar with this particular dish, and need to know if its done." Pyro asked sweetly.

Yoko nodded. "He hates it when I make him ruin a meal." He paused while the smoke billowed and cleared. "Thank you for that, Thistle."

Tessara gaped at the red head's retreating back.

"The words he uses when he ruins a dish make ME blush." Pyro winked at her friend. "He's a dirty little boy, and an even dirtier old man" She pitched her voice so the fox could hear.

The only answer was a chuckle.

Apologies for the lag time. It hurts to type more than about 500 words at a time, and I hate to break up scenes. Wish me luck, I go to the doctor's on the 9th to find out what I messed up. ( because my beta was a little slow getting back to me, i have gone to the doctor, and have found that i have a massive pocket of fluid in my wrist, and may need surgery, if therapy doesn't work. so, i will be exceeding slow at updating. my apologies darklings.)