Kurama lay on his bed one night, pondering the previous year of his life. He'd returned to school, maintained contact with Yusuke and Kuwabara and Hiei, and even helped out the current spirit detective with a couple of problems. He'd even tried to go on some dates. But in his head he was constantly analyzing them to see how *he thought* they would handle him telling them about his demon side. That invariably led to thinking about Chloe, about the fact that he didn't have to explain that to her, that-

He sighed and shook his head. His thoughts, when not occupied with school, always seemed to go back to her. It had been a year to the day since she'd gotten on that plane and walked out of his life. He knew he should move on, but he couldn't seem to move past her. He rolled over and close his eyes. Tomorrow was day 366 since she'd flown away; as good a time as any to start something new.

Chloe leaned back in her chair and laughed. She and Haru had just finished a late lunch. "Did he really try to claim that he was 'just giving her a physical exam'? In court?"

Haru nodded and wiped his mouth. "Yep. The judge didn't even pretend to believe him."

Chloe wiped at her eyes and set her napkin on the table. "No surprise there. Who would?!"

Haru chuckled, then cleared his throat. "Chlo? There's a question..I wanted to ask you."

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "You're being oddly enigmatic. What's up?"

He motioned to a waiter, who brought a tray forward holding a little black box.

Chloe picked it up, her eyes wide. In her head she was praying desperately that it wasn't what she thought it was. Slowly she lifted the lid, her eyes getting wider, if that was possible.

Haru leaned forward and placed his hands on hers. "Will you marry me?"

A week later Chloe stepped off the plane in Japan, her brown eyes taking in the familiar place. She took a deep breath, found her bag, and hurried out to a taxi. "Osaka University!" She told the driver.

Chloe bit her lip and looked down at the map of the university campus for the fifth time. She lifted her gym bag onto her shoulder and set off down a path. Fifteen minutes later she looked up at the apartment building before her and took a deep breath. "It's now or never." She straightened her shoulders and walked to the front door, running her finger down until she found the right number. Once she found it she pushed the button and waited.

"Hello?"

She felt her stomach flutter when she heard his voice. "Shuichi?" It was almost a whisper, but she heard his breath hitch.

"Chloe?"

"Can I come up?"

"Of course."

Chloe pulled open the door when she heard the buzzing. She pushed the button for the elevator and waited, her stomach fluttering nervously. Once in she pushed the button for his floor and leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths. She hadn't seen or spoken to him in a year. Would he be mad at her? Would he have moved on a gotten a girlfriend? There were so many unknown variables. She chewed her lip, her old nervous habits coming out again.

Finally the elevator stopped and she got out. The hallway seemed to stretch out forever in front of her; she kept putting one foot in front of the other. She stopped at the end, stretched out her hand and knocked.

The door opened.

Shuiichi looked down at her. She looked up at him.

"Hello."

"H-Hi. Can I come in?"

He nodded and stepped back, motioning for her to enter.

She walked in, slipping off her gym bag as he shut the door behind her. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" She asked, turning to face him. His apartment wasn't that tiny, but right now it made her a little claustrophobic.

"Not at all. I was just finishing up some research. Would you like something to drink?" He took a step towards the kitchen.

"No, thank you. Actually, I was..hoping you might go for a walk with me."

He paused, then nodded. "I'll put some outdoor shoes on." He walked back to his bedroom, leaving her to try and collect her thoughts. He returned in a few minutes with shoes and a jacket on. He held open the door for her, locking it behind them.

She walked silently next to him while they exited the building, her mind racing, unsure of where to begin. Since she didn't know the school, she let him take the lead as they wandered away from his building. After a few minutes of silence she took a deep breath and started. "I'm sorry."

He glanced at her. "For what?"

"I'm sorry for running away like that, and I'm sorry for not calling this past year."

He touched her arm and motioned to a bench, sitting down before he spoke again. "I understand why you did it. I wouldn't have stayed around me either."

Chloe turned so she was facing him on the bench and reached over to touch his shoulder. "You have been nothing but kind and supportive to me. When I grouped you in with Carmen and Alexander, that wasn't fair – I was throwing everything you'd shown me in your face. And I'm sincerely sorry for that."

Kurama looked at her, his green eyes seeming to search for something. Now that he looked, her hair was much shorter than it had been. Her face hadn't changed much, but her eyes were so different from the last time he'd seen her; older, wiser, peaceful. "You sound like you've changed a lot during your time in Austria."

She smiled a little and nodded. "Austria was good for me. I met some good people, I got to know my aunt and uncle better, and I got to travel around Europe."

"Sounds like you had a good time."

She turned so she was facing forward on the bench again. "Yes…and no. I wasn't there for sightseeing – I was there trying to recover from losing my entire family. You can't really have a good time when you're trying to move past that."

"I-"

"Wait, please. I'm not finished yet." She placed her hand on his arm. "I'd be lying if I said I was completely better, but I am doing so much better than I was. And I've grown up a lot in the last year. It's weird, but I learned so much when I started looking back on everything that happened to me."

Kurama smiled, looking down at her hand on his arm. "That's wonderful to hear. Did…was Haru with you during all of this?"

Chloe nodded. "He never left my side, even when I wanted him to. He even proposed to me a week ago."

Kurama felt his stomach tighten uncomfortably. "What did you say?"

Chloe stood up and shoved her hands in her pockets. "Let's walk some more."

She hadn't answered the question. Kurama stood up, his mind reeling. He hadn't thought that Haru would propose, least of all on the heels of her family's murder. Mercifully she didn't leave him hanging for long.

"Haru's my best friend in the whole world, and I love him dearly. I wanted to say yes. I tried to say yes." She licked her lips. "But as soon as I opened my mouth to say yes, I couldn't breathe. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn't marry Haru. I love him, but not the way you have to love somebody if you're going to marry them. Plus I'm still working through my grief. That's not the time to accept an offer of marriage – the offer is twenty times as tempting just because of wanting to fill the void inside."

Kurama felt relieved on the one hand because she'd turned down Haru, but a little sad that she hadn't turned Haru down because of him. "How did he take it?"

"As well as could be hoped. We're still friends. He said he wants me to be happy, regardless of if that's with him or with someone else. All the same, he's taking a long trip by himself. But," she grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop facing her "there was another reason I turned him down. The first thought in my head when he proposed was of you. I…I know I ran away from you, but I never stopped caring for you. I wasn't running away from you so much as from" she waved her hand in a vague circle "everything that happened. I was trying to outrun my grief, and I'm so sorry." Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

Kurama looked down the path, his thoughts inward. "But you did run away from me." He spoke finally. "You left because I am..different." His green eyes watched as a pair of students walked past them. "That part of my life isn't going away. It will always be a part of my life. What's to stop you from running away again?"

She looked down at the ground, her cheeks flushing. She'd thought, naively, that all she had to do was came back, apologize, and he would just take her back. Easy as that; apparently not. "I'm not scared anymore." She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. "I ran because I was scared. I was scared of you, I was scared of everything I had seen, I was scared of what you are, I was scared of being alone, I-" Her voice cracked and she looked away hastily, her eyes filling up with tears. "I guess I shouldn't say I'm not scared anymore, because demons and everything like that still scare the hell out of me." She swiped at her eyes and looked at him again. "But I'm not letting that fear control me anymore."

Kurama contemplated her. He wanted to believe her. But his was not a nature that forgave easily. He was mercifully saved from having to respond by raised voices coming from around the corner of the building they were passing. He felt a coldness run through his stomach when he recognized one of the voices – Carmen.

"How the hell could you keep something like that from me?!" She shouted, followed by the sound of something large crashing.

"Because I knew that if YOU knew, then I'd never get you to leave this damn place!" A woman neither Kurama nor Chloe recognized was backed up against the building, a dented dumpster to her left, the hem of her white dress getting filthy from the dirty water in the alley.

"How long have you know?!" Carmen looked absolutely furious.

Chloe stared openly. She hadn't seen Carmen this livid before.

Eric grabbed Carmen's arms, pushing her back. "Calm down, Carmen." His voice was calm, but stern.

"You calm down!" She snapped, pushing him aside and lunging at Kali.

Eric was too quick and caught her waist from behind, throwing his weight backwards. "Stop this Carmen! She told you now, so what's the problem?"

"I swear I only saw him yesterday. But like I said, I knew you wouldn't even consider leaving this place if you knew that there was the slightest chance of seeing him again!" Kali glared at her friend.

Carmen pushed Eric's hands off her waist and leapt over to Kali, raising her fist and slamming it into the wall next to the woman's head. "You had no right to keep that from me! You nearly had me actually believing that that line was irreversibly gone, that there was no reason for me to stay here anymore! Chloe and Kurama hate me, so without any chance of him reappearing I would have nothing to lose." Carmen's voice had dropped low for the last sentence, her golden eyes flashing dangerously.

Kali swallowed. She had misjudged Carmen's affection for him.

Chloe pulled Kurama unwillingly into the alley. "Carmen? Eric?"

The three demons seemed to suddenly realize they had an audience.

Carmen took a deep breath, calming herself down before turning away from Kali. "What are you doing here?" She asked dryly.

"We were out taking a walk. What's going on?" Chloe responded. She could tell Carmen was still unsettled.

"They were just having an argument." Eric responded, coming closer. "It's good to see you guys."

Chloe nodded, her brown eyes taking in the beat up dumpster, the multiple holes in the wall. "We can see that." She smiled a little.

"Would you guys like to go get some drinks? I know these two could use something to calm things down a bit." Eric motioned to Carmen and Kali.

Chloe looked at Kurama, unsure of his wishes.

Kurama didn't really want to be in Carmen's company, but then again she had saved his life. "We are not pressed for time." He assured the girl.

"Then we're in."

Eric balanced five glasses in his hands, managing to not spill and set them on the little table successfully. "Here you go everyone." He passed out the drinks, taking a good swig from his own.

Carmen downed hers and motioned for another from a passing server.

Kali sighed and took a sip from her own. "Carmen, you really are cantankerous sometimes, you know that?"

Carmen snorted. "Only when people hide things from me." Her smile was pleasant, but fake.

Eric leaned down to Chloe to whisper "Change the topic."

Chloe looked at him, then at Carmen. "Carmen, what are you?"

Carmen looked at her, a little bit of contempt in the lines of her face. "Haven't you figured that out yet?"

Chloe's eyes narrowed, but she shook her head. "No. I mean, I had my suspicions, but I never did figure it out."

Carmen rolled her eyes but remained silent.

"And what did you think, Kurama?" Eric asked, trying to keep the conversation moving.

Kurama shook his head. "Frankly I didn't either, not for sure at any rate. But it would appear that she is something akin to the goddesses from the fairytales of Yoko's childhood."

Kali chuckled. "Not akin to – one of."

Chloe's eyes were wide. "Y-you're a goddess?!"

Carmen snorted. "You really are quite dumb sometimes Chloe." She finished off her drink and motioned for another.

Chloe pursed her lips, then suddenly exploded "Carmen, don't talk to me like that."

All eyes turned first on Chloe, then on Carmen.

Carmen cocked her head a little. "I'll talk to you how I damn please." She replied coolly.

"This is why you don't have friends Carmen. You treat them like shit." Chloe hopped out of her chair and walked off towards the bathroom.

Carmen sat there for a minute, tapping her finger angrily on the table.

"Just have another drink, give her a few minutes to cool off." Eric waved, trying to get the attention of a server.

Carmen knocked her chair backwards as she jumped out of it and walked furiously after Chloe.

Kurama started to get up, but Eric put a hand on his arm. "Let them sort it; Carmen's not used to having anyone talk to her like that. She won't take kindly to having any of us around. With the mood she's in she'd as like as not try to start a fight with one of us."

"What was the argument Chloe and I walked in on about?" Kurama asked, uneasily glancing at the door Carmen had just followed Chloe into.

Eric and Kali looked at each other. "I didn't tell her that I had seen the timeline with the love of her life. If she hadn't found out, I might have been able to convince her to leave this realm."

Kurama was a little shocked. "Leave this realm? Can't she come and go as she pleases?"

Kali laughed lightly. "Hardly. In any case, Carmen was banished here as punishment, so she wasn't allowed to leave until she'd righted the timeline, which she screwed up in the first place, I might add."

Kurama took a sip of his drink, trying to wrap his head around the new information. "Why was she banished here?"

Eric snorted. "Have you interacted with Carmen at all? She's the most abrasive creature I've ever met."

"So, she had a fight with the other...gods?"

Kali nodded. "That's about the size of it. Back when they created these realms, though of course they were all one at the time, Devi took an issue with how they wanted to run the world. It got…heated, and they combined their powers and banished here until she had learned that what they had decided was best. Devi, unconsciously at first admittedly, set out to fix what she considered the wrong her fellow gods and goddesses had committed against the world. She has a much larger heart for mortals than any of the rest of us."

Kurama's head was reeling. That had not been his impression of Carmen at all. "Is Devi her true name?" He asked, trying to absorb everything that he was hearing.

Kali shrugged. "It was her first name, but she has many."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Kurama asked, a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "If all of this has been such a great secret, why would you break it all of a sudden, for no reason?"

Kali threw back her head and laughed. "You think this has all been a secret? Just because you all have forgotten doesn't mean we've been actively quashing any knowledge of it. We care little if mortals know about our presence when we're in our realm or not."

"But Carmen was always so secretive."

"Carmen has a flare for the dramatic; she's also intensely private. But we do try and mask our presence when we are down here because, let's face it, the reactions are usually not the most pleasant. Everyone will want to fight us or ask us for something. Bring this person back to life, change this about their life, etc." Kali waved her hand.

Kurama looked at the bathroom door, wondering if he should go check on them.

Carmen burst through the bathroom, shutting and locking it behind herself. "You have something to say to me, say it."

Chloe looked at the green-haired goddess in the mirror. "I already said it."

"Are you angry at me, huh Chloe?" Carmen stalked over, spinning the girl around to look at her. "Spit it out, whatever's eating you, just get it off your chest."

"I'm not angry at you Carmen." Chloe's eyes burned into Carmen's. "However, your personality still bugs the crap out of me. You say mean things and you don't care who it hurts. You are inconsiderate and you think that humans are so pathetic, but at least we know how to be civil. In the year since I saw you last I've changed, and I don't take abuse from anyone, I don't care if you're a demon or goddess or deity or whatever you are. I won't just silently put up with it anymore. If you want to be my friend, fine, but don't expect me to let you walk all over me anymore."

Carmen smiled wryly. "Chloe, that's just who I am. If you really want to be my friend, you've got to understand that."

"No, I don't accept that. You don't treat Eric that way and you seem closer to him than to anybody else."

Carmen got a faraway look in her eyes. "I respect him too much to ever behave like that to him."

"How did he earn your respect? Because I'd sure as hell like to know how to get there."

Carmen raised an eyebrow. "You've sworn more now than I ever heard you do before. It's most unattractive." She turned her yellow eyes onto the mirror. "How did he earn my respect?" She smiled wryly at herself, bringing her fingers up and running their tips down an invisible scar along her jawbone. "He brought me back from a path of pure destruction."

"How?" She pressed, not sure why Carmen was being so forthright, but anxious to take advantage of her candidness.

"When he met me I was concerned only with spilling blood. I was angry at the world, at demons, at the gods, at myself. You have serial killers here that kill a person every week and you call him a monster. I…" She trailed off, seeming to get lost in her own thoughts.

Chloe could hear the raw pain in Carmen's voice. "You what?" She pressed again, both curious and yet a little afraid of what Carmen would tell her.

Carmen straightened up, placing both hands on the counter. "I slaughtered hundreds every day. Every morning was a war, with everyone. The more I killed, the more numb I felt. As long as I kept killing, I didn't have to face my own pain. Every day was judged by how many I had murdered. Men, women, children, I cared not, so long as they had a beating heart for me to stop. I-" Carmen stopped, blinking her eyes rapidly as if to blink back tears.

Chloe was unsure of what to do. She'd never seen Carmen this vulnerable before.

Finally Carmen continued. "There was no good in me. I was the monster of your worst nightmares." She turned to face Chloe. "I have spent thousands of years trying to become a better creature. I'm not good at it. I never claimed to be a good person, Chloe; you assumed. All your disappointment is a product of your own misconceptions. Stop trying to hold me up to your own standards."

"You wouldn't have tried to change if you did not think it was wrong." Chloe countered.

Carmen stared hard at the girl before her, who seemed so different from the timid girl she knew before. "You sound like someone that I once knew." She murmured, her eyes clouding suddenly so she turned away. "Pray cease your great expectations from me – I cannot meet them. Take me as I am, or leave my sight." She unlocked the door and walked out, leaving Chloe confused and shocked at what she had heard.

Carmen slapped the back of Eric's head as she returned to her seat. "Next time you spike my drink to make me more talkative I'll chop your hand off." She glared playfully at him and took his drink.

Chloe followed shortly to her own chair, giving Kurama a reassuring smile.

"So, Kurama, what-" Eric stopped when Kali grabbed his arm tightly.

"Carmen." She kept her voice low, her eyes focused towards the door. "Do you see that woman who just came in?"

Carmen turned her head. A woman was standing at the counter. She looked about twenty, blonde, and very attractive. She was buying a couple of bottles from the bartender, chatting with him familiarly. "The one at the counter?"

Kali nodded. "She's in his timeline."

Carmen flew out of her chair, struggling against the crowd of people that suddenly began moving their direction.

The woman saw the sudden movement and her eyes went wide. She grabbed the bottles and bolted out the door, moving faster than was possible for a human.

Carmen made one last violent shove through the throng, losing not a second in pursuing the woman out the door. She paused only a moment to smell the air before turning on her heel and launching herself to the right. She was so close to finding him again, she was not going to miss this opportunity, whatever winds that woman was being sped upon!

Meanwhile, back at the bar…

Eric sipped his beer quietly, glancing briefly at Kali before returning his gaze to the table.

"Shouldn't we go after her?" Chloe had not looked away from the door since Carmen had run out.

Kali shook her head. "No, she's a fair distance from here. We can just wait until she stops and then go after her."

"How do you know where she is?" Chloe asked, confused.

Kali smiled amusedly. "You know that demons can sense the aura of a living being, yes?"

Chloe looked at Kurama, nodding her head hesitantly. "I think I remember something of the sort."

"Well I have that same ability, but with perfect precision. I can see where every mortal being is at any given time."

"How do you keep them all straight?" Chloe asked, her eyes wide with wonder. She couldn't imagine what that would be like.

Kali just smiled more widely. "In this body it is a little confusing, I will admit. Mortals' brains were not equipped to handle the knowledge of the gods. We did not foresee any need for that. But once I focus on who I want, then there is absolutely no problem."

"Who is this man that Carmen is so desperate to find?" Kurama asked after a few moments of silence had passed.

Kali and Eric glanced at each other. "That's not for us to tell." Eric responded quietly.

"So we must wait for Carmen to tell us? That may never happen!" Chloe exclaimed.

Kali smiled. "Don't worry. You'll know soon enough. They appear to be slowing down. We should probably get going if we want to see the conclusion to this chase."

Carmen raised her fist and knocked on the door in front of her, breathing heavily. The woman had gone in here, she knew that. "Look, I know you're in there. I just want to talk, I swear." She waited, her acute hearing listening for any sounds of the woman leaving out a back door or making another attempt at escape.

"Carmen!" Chloe called as the four of them ran up to the steps.

Carmen gave them the barest glance, then knocked again. "Please, I only want to talk."

Slowly the door opened a small amount. The blonde haired woman looked out suspiciously. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Grace, who's there?" A male voice called from further back in the house.

Carmen seemed frozen.

The woman, Grace, opened the door all the way. "You're her. You're Cailyn."

Carmen nodded, stepping inside. "Where is he?"

Grace motioned down a set of stairs. "Oh, but Cailyn," she put a hand on her arm "he…is not exactly how you remember him."

Carmen looked at Grace for a moment, then descended the stairs. She turned the corner, halting abruptly as if hitting a wall. A large room lay before her, windowless, with a fire crackling in a fireplace. In front of it sat a man, the only light in the room coming from the fire, thus casting the majority of him in shadow.

"Grace?" His head turned slightly. "Who was that at the door?"

Carmen felt as if she couldn't breathe. "Alexei?"

A/N: Well finally, here is the next chapter! Please let me know what you thought about this chapter. Also, I'd be interested to know what you all think about Carmen. She's one of my favorite characters, despite her flaws and abrasiveness. I hope you enjoyed it! :)