At Home With Mother

A/N: Like I decided in a different fic, from now on I'll only note a POV at the beginning of the chapter if it changed between chapters; otherwise, it's whoever was talking last in the previous chapter.

Supper was an uneasy time tonight. I kept stealing glances at Mother, and Mother was glancing constantly at the new mark on Machiko's collarbone – my sister hadn't bothered to put a shirt on since getting home, which would have hidden it. Machiko was the only one of us three still acting normal.

Meanwhile, I was studying Mother a little more carefully. Now that I knew she was an apparition just like Father had been…just like we are…I could spot a few extra differences. When we'd come home from Demon World, Machiko – having learned from me what Koenma had told me – immediately confronted Mother about the lie.

"Why'd you tell us we were half-demons? Why'd you tell us you were human?"

"…Because in order to resign myself to the fact that I was trapped here, I had to do my best to forget what I truly was. And I had to raise you two alone. I needed to live as a human; and if accepting that easier meant forgetting, at least temporarily, that I was a demon, so be it."

All I'd been curious about was which of our parents we'd actually gotten our appearances from. When I'd asked, she'd laughed.

"Technically, you'd gotten your appearances from both of us. The fact that you can spread wings and grow horns comes from your father. Not every demon looks like a monster – a great deal of them wear human faces. I'm one of those, in fact, which is why I could work to fit in somewhat easier than others. And I'm the reason you can attain a more human form. Machiko, your coloration comes from both of us – he'd been pure white and I…well." She ran her fingers through her long black hair. "You got his eyes, too."

"So I got your eyes?" It was all I could think of for my purple eyes.

She turned to me and nodded. "Frankly, your colors have confused me. I've tried to do research on both our lines, trying to find out if that has happened before. So far, I haven't had any luck tracing the chameleon ability."

Watching her now, something occurred to me. In all my life, I've never once seen Mother wearing anything of a lower cut than a turtleneck – she didn't wear turtlenecks, not all the time, but neck-huggers. She seemed to even judge T-shirts to be too low-cut for herself. Could she…could she have a similar mark to Machiko's?

I'd picked up from Machiko while we were flying home what the mark meant.

Then, finally, Mother asked. "Who is he?"

Somehow, the fact that she knew what the mark was didn't surprise me.

Machiko had just gotten a large mouthful. She glanced at me.

I glanced at my hair where it lay over my shoulder and saw the stripes forming. Mother apparently noticed it as well, for her attention became divided.

I sat up straight and, not under my own power, spoke. "You probably don't know him. His name's Hiei."

Mother's eyes hardened. "Actually, I have heard of him, Machiko. I hear he's a criminal trapped in the Human World as punishment for what he's done."

Machiko shrugged and I spoke again. "He's not so bad. He helped save the Human World a while back."

"Because there was something in it for him, no doubt."

"Yeah, there was something in it for him, but when he finally got it, he wrecked it on purpose!"

Machiko having me say that…I wasn't exactly surprised that she knew – we pick up on stuff fairly easily from each other, and we have no secrets; what one of us knows, the other soon does. (Yeah, it took me a little while to figure out she had a crush on Hiei, but she deliberately shielded that one from me.)

Mother's eyebrows lifted. "Really?"

Finally Machiko was able to swallow and take her speech back. "Really. Hiei's not as bad as he seems to be. He cares deeply about his sister, and he's actually friends with the newest Spirit Detective Yusuke."

Mother studied my sister for a few seconds without speaking. Then she cocked her eyebrows ironically. "I'd forbid you from seeing him, but you'd probably just ignore it, and besides, Hiei has already marked you as his wife; if you try to stay away from him, he'll likely just hunt you out again. However…" she went silent for another second, her gaze intensifying. "Has this relationship been…consummated?"

"No. He…he wanted to, pretty badly, but I was able to ward him off…somehow. If we had, I probably wouldn't have made it home in time to set the table."

Consumm…oh. That. Right.

"Well, before you do, I want to meet him. That is the only requirement I'm placing on this relationship – that before you have any of his children, I must see him."

Machiko nodded.

Then Mother turned her attention to me with an ironic smile. "And what about you? Are there any demon-boys with their eye on you, or vice versa?"

I turned neon-pink – which is my standard color combination for shy (pale pink) and embarrassed (bright red). "Um…yes and no?"

"How can it be yes and no?"

"Um…I don't know if any demon-boys have their sights on me…but…remember my telling you about Suichi?"

"Yes, I remember; a very sweet boy in your class with very good grades, right?"

"Yeah…apparently, he's a demon, and Suichi's his human name."

"Oh!"

Machiko decided to be an obnoxious sister right then. "Yeah, and Kami's got her sights set on him!"

I glared at her, letting my color darken to somewhere between my anger-shade and my embarrassment-shade.

"Machiko, behave. So, if Suichi's his human name, what's his name really?"

I glanced at her again, my color fading in my uncertainty. If she wasn't keen on Hiei the criminal, what would she say to my dating… "…Kur…a…ma?"

Mother stared at me. Then she pushed her chair back. "We'll talk in the morning."

My color paled into white. Discussing matters in the morning…things aren't boding well for me.

Machiko leaned over and punched my shoulder. "Hey, chill out! She let me have Hiei, so why are you worried? Kurama's living as a human, isn't he? So there's no problem!"

I sighed, and envy-green stripes painted themselves over me. "She let you have Hiei, as you so naïvely put it, because she didn't have much choice – he marked you. She's only got two options in your case: let you keep him, or kill him herself. And she's sworn off killing for the sake of her human life. I don't have any similar mark from Kurama," and I'm unlikely to get one from him, "so she can far more easily forbid me from dating him. For crying out loud, Kurama has yet to kiss me!"

Then Machiko took in my colors. "Kami…are you actually jealous of me and Hiei?"

The green stripes widened and wiped away the fear-white. "What tipped you off?"

Machiko just stared at me for a few seconds. Then she cocked her head. "The bright green with your purple eyes is a very striking look, by the way."

With one final sigh, I forced my colors to return to my standard. "Let's just finish the dishes and go to bed."

Yoko Kurama approached me. His golden eyes, so like and yet unlike my sister's, were fixed directly on me. I was trying to hide, for something about his gaze was unnerving, and yet he could see me anyway.

"You can't hide from me," he said as he reached out a hand with delicate sharp nails towards me. "I will always be able to find you. You are the most beautiful treasure a thief could ever hope to steal."

I moved to get out of his range – but not soon enough. He caught my shoulder and lowered the two of us to the ground, placing me on my back. My wings meant that I couldn't get up, and I really couldn't get up after he settled down over me.

He caught my wrists and anchored them over my head, and I started thrashing my head back and forth, trying to avoid him. But the end result was inevitable – his lips came down on mine, and he forced his tongue into my mouth.

I was in a dilemma. On the one hand, I was feeling amazing sensations I'd never felt before – when he started sliding his hand down my arm and to my breast, it felt like his fingers were leaving behind trails of lightning! But on the other hand, this wasn't how I'd wanted this to happen!

My world started spinning as he moved to set his mouth to my breast and –

I fell out of bed and hit the floor.

I startled bolt upright with my eyes wide open and eyespots blazing.

Daylight was just barely streaming through our window. Machiko was just looking at me from the bed, propped up on her elbow and holding up a hand. "Easy. You were thrashing around, so I decided the best thing to do would be to wake you up."

I glanced around at myself. I didn't have my wings…but I didn't have my nightshirt, either. "Did the temperature go up in the night?" My losing my pajamas when I got overheated wasn't a new thing, though neither of us was sure how that happened without my waking up.

"Apparently." Machiko watched as I found and pulled on my nightshirt again. "You were changing colors in your sleep."

I stared at her again. "What?"

"Don't believe me? Sleep hanging from the ceiling like a bat at some point and I'll film it for you." She cocked her head. "I know we can, I've done it before."

I sighed. "I'll take your word for it." I knew my eyespots were fading again. They'd been fading for the past minute. "So what happened to my colors?"

"Well…okay, apparently when you're asleep, the 'Now You See Me, Now You Don't' coloration kicks in, because normally my bedmate's the Invisible Woman."

That didn't surprise me much: when asleep, one's vulnerable, and even in a 'safe' environment like my own room my body would attempt to protect me by hiding.

"However, when you dream, something else entirely happens. Your colors reflect what you're feeling in your dream. I've watched a few different shows when I wake up earlier than you. At least it helps me wake you up if you're having a nightmare."

"So what happened this time?" I sighed.

"This time…this time was weird. You went all lavender, but your 'Keep Away From Me' eyespots opened. And every so often, really light-colored streaks would appear, sparking like lightning."

My dream came flooding back to me.

"You were scared of something, but at the same time…I think maybe you…liked it?"

I glared at her. "I think I hate you."

"What did I do?"

"You let Hiei touch you."

That silenced her while I got up and went for breakfast.

She caught up while I was eating. "You picked up on what I felt then through our twin link?"

I nodded.

"So what was the dream? Making out with Hiei or something?"

"My own subconscious combined with your possessiveness of the guy did that much, Matchy, it wasn't Hiei."

"Okay…so who was it?"

"Remember what Kurama looked like in Demon World?" An image appeared in my mind of the silver-haired, pointed-eared fox-man. I swallowed my mouthful and added aloud, "I'd almost have preferred it if it was Hiei."

That silenced Machiko again. After a second of staring at me – and I figured she was thinking something along the lines of "your subconscious pulled the Spirit Fox?" – she spoke again. "No wonder your eyespots opened, that guy would unnerve anybody."

"I know. Don't get me wrong, Yoko Kurama's hot, but…it's Suichi that I love."

"I'm glad to hear you say that."

Mother's voice from the doorway got us both jumping, and I know my colors rainbowed.

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd heard me. And Kamiko, I see you know about the Spirit Fox Yoko. And all I will say about you having any kind of relationship with Kurama is: if he should choose to live a human life, you may continue to date him with my blessing."

I went slightly pink, but said anyway, "Thank you, Mother."