When I woke up the next morning I was surprised by how little I hurt. I blinked my eyes a couple times to adjust to the light but I wish I hadn't. My body didn't hurt but I couldn't say the same about the serious headache I had. I groaned and tried to rub one of my temples. When I did, I felt a damp cloth on my forehead.

"Oh, you're awake."

I turned my head to the side and saw Yukina kneeling next to me. After I did a quick look around I noticed I was laying on the ground in some kind of bare room, there wasn't any kind of furniture at all. Maybe it was some kind of room for healing? No idea. I'm not used to these traditional Japanese compounds.

"How long have I been out?" I slowly sat up. Yukina tried to get me to lie back down but I simply waved her off. "No, I'm fine. Really, I actually don't hurt at all. Well, besides this horrible headache." I went to rub my temple again but stop short when I saw my bracelets back on my wrists. Huh, maybe my mixed powers aren't going to be as easy to deal with than I thought. "So, how long?"

Yukina slowly got up to her feet. "Not very long. Less than 24 hours. Now if you'll excuse me, Master Genkai told me to go find her when you woke up."

While Yukina was gone I crossed my legs and stretch my shoulders and neck. I guess my body didn't come out of that ordeal unscratched—kind of—my body was stiff as hell. I twisted my spine around to try and crack my back. When I successfully cracked my whole spine I let out a relaxing sigh.

"Ewe! That's so gross."

I jerked my head towards the door in surprised. There was Kuwabara who looked completely disgusted. However, he wasn't alone. Genkai, Yusuke, and Yukina were with him. Plus, there were two other people. One of them was close to my height—yes!—that had spiked black hair with a white streak, he also had the same red eyes as Yukina. The other had a gentle face with long red hair.

I quickly got to my feet but stumbled a little bit; I probably should have stretched those a bit too. The short guy rolled his eyes and looked away. Jeez, sorry for being out cold for a long time and not being perfect in body and mind. Fucker... I sent him a glare even though he didn't see it.

Genkai looked me up and down. "You appear better than I thought you would."

"Yeah, I guess I got lucky on that one." I frowned down at my bracelets. "Well, I'm assuming what happened in the clearing wasn't successful?"

"I wouldn't say that. From what happened I was able to see what kind of struggle your body is going through."

Genkai went to continue but I couldn't help jump to answer it myself. "You mean how my fire side wanted complete control while my water side tried to balance the power?" They all seemed surprised that I knew that. I looked down and rubbed the odd pressure in my chest. "I... I felt it happening. It was kind of like two people having some kind of battle." The short guy looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. It wasn't until then when I realized how irritated I was that I didn't know the other two guys names. I took a step towards them. "I'm sorry, my name is Aly-Jay. And you are?"

The red headed guy kind of blushed then stepped forward. "Forgive me. I'm Kurama while the guy behind me is Hiei." I shook his hand when he offered it.

"It's nice to meet you two." When I stepped back I couldn't help but rub my chest again. I didn't feel right for some reason. Which was weird because I didn't feel the usual restlessness or the hunger. Maybe that was why I felt weird.

Genkai must have sensed my uneasiness because she didn't ask anymore questions. In fact, she told Yusuke and the guys to show me to the room that I'll be staying in. I barely made it out of the door before I realized something. "Mizu! How could I have forgotten about him?"

All of them stopped to stare at me like I had gone crazy. Kuwabara was the one that had realized what I was talking about. "Oh, do you mean your kitty? I set up your cat stuff in your room and I saw Mizu was watching me so I'm pretty sure he knows that you guys have moved in."

I smiled at him sweetly. "Thank you, Kuwabara."

"Oh, ha-ha. It was no problem." He scratched the back of his head as we continued to walk.

We barely took two more steps before Hiei just vanished. When I saw him disappear through the corner of my eye I tried to look and see where he went.

"You're going to have to mind Hiei sometimes, Aly-Jay," Kurama said, when he noticed my confusion. "He tends to be a little anti-social." I nodded at that. It was something I could relate to, I can be the same way.

We continued to walk away from the main part of the compound. Kurama explained that Genkai had a separate building for all of us to live in. And since she tends to get a lot of unexpected visitors she wanted it away from the main area. I thought it made sense.

As we finally entered the house Kurama went on to explain, "Yusuke and Kuwabara live here permanently." I could tell when I saw both Kuwabara and Yusuke flop on the couch as if they've been here for years. "I, on the other hand, leave every so often to visit my family. But I do spend most of my time here as well."

The house was really simple which, I thought, added this certain charm to it. Right in front of us was this living room area. There were couches a coffee table and a TV. At the far wall there was an archway leading to another room. I pointed to it and asked, "Kitchen?" Kurama nodded.

Since I still had my headache, I thought I could ask if they had any pain killers. "Would you happen to have anything for a headache?" Kurama nodded again and lead me to the kitchen.

The kitchen was bigger than I expected. There was everything we would need. Plus, there was an island and stools in the middle, with a dining table to the right. For some reason, I had a feeling that the dining table didn't get a lot of use. A house full of boys? They probably just eat at the island since it's more convenient.

Kurama went over to a small cabinet above the fridge and pulled out a small bottle of pills. As I helped myself to two, he went to get a glass to fill with water. I made a mental note on where to find the glasses for next time. After I thanked him and took the pills, he continued our little tour.

"What about Hiei? Does he have a room?" I asked, as I followed Kurama up a flight of stairs that was just right of the front door. "He doesn't seem to be the type that would like to stay here."

Kurama chuckled at that. "Yes, I can see why you would think that, but he does have a room here as well. He actually just arrived today but I'm sure he'll be staying for a while. This is your room here. While it's at the end of the hall, it's right across the second bathroom. The one next to yours is Hiei's, then mine, then Kuwabara's, then Yusuke's."

"Thank you," I said. When I reached to open my door I noticed there was another door beside the bathroom. "What room is that?"

"Oh, right," Kurama seemed embarrassed to answer. "That's another bathroom. While we we're a house of boys, Kuwabara and Yusuke always seem to fight over the bathroom so Genkai was forced to put in another one."

I laughed at that. "Good thing I'm not a bathroom whore." Kurama's eyes opened wide at my language. "I mean..."

Kurama chuckled again. "It's okay. I've gotten used to language like that after hanging around Yusuke and Kuwabara. You just seemed so formal towards Genkai, but now I see you were just being smartly respectful. You don't have to worry about what you say around us, if anything it might make you closer to the others a lot faster."

After thanking Kurama again I opened the door to my new room. While this one is smaller than my old one back in town, this room had a more homey sense. There was just enough room for a single bed against the wall to the right, drawers for my clothes in front of me, and a desk and chair to the left. It was definitely smaller than what I'm used to but I had a feeling I wasn't going to be spending a lot of time in here anyways.

I went over to my new bed that had my bags on them. As I started to open them I heard a scratching at my window and a tiny meow. When I opened it I saw Mizu standing on a tree branch that just reached my window. Mizu jumped into my room as I stuck my head out the window to see a small tree that had enough branches to allow Mizu to climb up and down whenever he pleased. He's a sneaky little bugger. I closed the window with enough room for Mizu to get through and made a mental note to keep it that way.

As Mizu patrolled the area I went about unpacking my bags. While I thought it would help take my mind off things, every time I reached for something I saw my bracelets and got that uneasy pressure in my chest. I couldn't get my mind off my unbalanced powers. Was there really any hope for me? Or was I stuck trying to deal with this inner battle? As my mind began to race I pulled out my pointe shoes. I stopped to stare at them for a second. Hmm, I guess it was a good thing I brought them. I didn't bother with the last of packing as I grabbed my iPod and a cord to attach it to a stereo. Dance would be the perfect thing to get some of this stress off my mind. It has always helped me in the past.

I quickly changed into my tights and black leotard then put a pair of sweats and a wife beater on top. After that I put on my ballet flats and took my ballet shoes and iPod stuff to the bathroom so I could wash my face and put my hair in a bun. When all was said and done I left the house to find Genkai. I was grateful for not running into any of the guys, I wasn't in the mood to give my "Yes, I dance" speech. The first place I looked was the main room at the entrance of the compound. It was the first room I entered so I thought it would be a good place to start. Good guess on my part, because I found her there drinking tea.

"Master Genkai?" I hoped I wasn't disturbing her.

"Yes, Aly-Jay?" Genkai didn't even turn around to confirm it was me.

"Would you happen to have a room or area with a bit of empty space? And maybe a stereo?"

Please say yes. Please say yes.

This time Genkai turned her head to look at me. She eyed the pointe shoes I had flung over my shoulder, then pointed in the direction of the building across the one I had woken up in. "That one should do."

I thanked her before I went into the room she pointed to. The moment I opened the door I had to just stop and stare. Um, yup, I think this would do... It was obvious that this room was meant for training. All along the side walls were training weapons and other such tools and objects. In one corner there was a TV with a game console and a stereo beside it. The room even had floor to ceiling mirrors along the back wall. Oh, and not to mention the place was fucking huge. This was more than I expected.

I plugged my iPod into the stereo then went to go stretch. I had only intended to stretch so I didn't pull a muscle or anything but the moment I started I noticed that I was a lot more stiff than I had realized. With that thought in mind I put my iPod of shuffle and stretched until all my muscles loosened up. When that was done I went about to quickly stretch the arches of my feet and covered the necessary toes with the hockey tape I always store in one of the shoes. I put on my pointe shoes and did a couple more stretches to break in my stiff shoes.

Once satisfied I took off my sweats and wife beater then went to my iPod to change the song to my Esmeralda variation. Even thought this dance required a tambourine, I didn't really carry them around with me on a daily basis... so I just pretended to hold one in my right hand. I quickly went to the centre of the room close to the wall. The track had a few seconds of silence before the actual music started so I took that time to close my eyes. The moment I did that I took a deep breath to find some sense of relaxation. It felt like the oxygen that went through my body gently massaged my muscles and allowed me to not stress over the movements. It made me feel... at peace.

The moment the music started I opened my eyes and let my body do the thinking for me. Ballet wasn't something that I really had to work hard on, or at least not as hard as my other classmates. The other girls in my class had to focus on getting their leg high enough during kicks, or getting enough power to make their pirouettes a triple. I, on the other hand, had to make sure I didn't kick too high—depending on how high they need to be anyways—or that I didn't put too much power into my turns. It was hard at times but since I've been on pointe for years now it wasn't something I struggled with like when I was younger.

When I was in the finishing pose I realized I had a smile on my face when I hadn't tried. Yup, this was something that I needed. As I got up and went to my iPod I knew I had to keep dancing. My dance did help a bit but it wasn't enough. The pressure in my chest was still getting to me, but at least I knew dancing was going to help. I didn't think ballet was going to take the edge off so I took off my pointes shoes and pulled my convertible tights over my feet. After putting my sweats back on I changed my music to shuffle in my "My Underwear Dancing" playlist.

The first song that came on was "Run Devil Run" by Girls' Generation. I chuckled at that, not only was it a perfect song to take the edge off, it was the Japanese version too. I had intended to just do some kind of freestyle but the moment I heard the song start I felt like doing the actual dance from the music video. That thought made me think of Emily back home... She's always looking for music videos that had a lot of dance in it and whenever she found a good one she would force me to try and learn it then show it to her. This song was definitely one of them...

And I was pretty grateful for it now since it helped relax some of the pressure in my chest. I could just have fun with this dance and, because I can, I would put more emphasis on the hip movements or make some of the arm work more jerky whenever I thought it called for it. By the end of the dance I couldn't hold in my small giggle anymore. I always have so much fun with that dance so when I got half way through it was like the pressure in my chest just disappeared. I totally felt better but now I was in "Dance Mode" so I kept going.

I must have gone through at least five whole songs before I decided to stop. I didn't want to completely tire myself out before dinner. Plus, I had a serious sweat going on and I didn't want to stink up the whole compound with my B.O. After throwing my shirt over my shoulder I quickly gathered up the rest of my stuff and left.

The moment my foot touched the dirt Hiei appeared in front of me. "Holy fuck!" I cussed in English as I jumped back. I didn't mean to speak in English, or cuss for that matter, but at least I didn't stumble when I jumped.

Hiei eyed me for a second. "We're starting your training right now."

I was about to agree but then his words actually sunk in. "Wait, what? Right now this very moment?"

"Did I stutter?" He narrowed his eyes on me.

"No you didn't, Mr. Big Shot. I was just hoping that if I had training, I would have been notified sooner..." I returned the same narrowed eyes. If I learnt anything from being short it was that I don't take shit from anybody. Intimidation was nothing on me.

"What did you call me?" He took a step towards me and I returned it.

"Mr. Big Shot. Now where is this training going to take place?"

"Huh, I can't tell if you're stupid or brave." Hiei seemed to relax a bit.

"I'd like to say brave, but I've been told otherwise sometimes." Before Hiei could comment I said, "So... where's this training going to take place?"

"The same clearing that you were at yesterday."

I let him know that I got it before I ran off towards the house. I wish I knew earlier that I would start training right away, otherwise I wouldn't have danced so much. Refusing to show that I was tired and unable to step up to this challenge, I ran up to my room to quickly change.

If Hiei was going to have to train this demon then he wanted to get an idea on what he had to deal with. He was standing on one of the trees when he saw Aly-Jay leaving the house with a few odd items in her hands. This might be his chance. While keeping a safe distance in the trees, Hiei followed the odd demon until she stopped to talk to Genkai.

"Would you happen to have a room or area with a bit of empty space? And maybe a stereo?" Hmm, why would she need that? He didn't get the impression that she knew how to fight but maybe he was wrong. He, most of all, knew that being small in size means nothing on skill.

As Aly-Jay moved to the other room Hiei eyed the odd pair of shoes she had hanging over her shoulders. He'd never seen anything like them before; what could they be used for? It was obvious that Aly-Jay knew her body well, especially when she started to stretch. Hiei couldn't deny that he was impressed. The way she bended her body and how she knew which muscles to work at... Maybe she wont be as horrible to train as he had thought. Hiei continued to watch as she put on the odd pair of shoes, he was curious as to what she'd do next. Was she standing on her toes? That had to be painful... Again, Hiei couldn't help but be impressed. He had first thought she was some weak, pathetic, half human that couldn't control her own power, but now it was seemed like she knew what she was doing and plus some. But what is up with her shoes?

Hiei felt planted as Aly-Jay suddenly started to dance. He'd never seen anything like this... While Hiei was familiar with what dancing was he had never seen anything so graceful. Her balance was incredible, and the way she would dance around on her toes as if it were nothing... Hiei couldn't turn away. And Aly-Jay looked so... comfortable, and at peace. Hiei had to admit that he enjoyed watching her.

"It's ballet, Hiei."

Hiei tensed as he tried not to jump at the sound of Kurama's voice. He looked down and frowned at Kurama. "I just wanted to see what I have to deal with if I'm being forced to train her."

"Of course," Kurama said before he jumped up to join Hiei in the tree. He watched with Hiei for a little longer before he continued. "What she's doing is really impressive. It takes years to be able to do what she's doing while making it look like it's nothing."

Hiei simply nodded as he thought that over. "I'd like to see what she can really do... We'll start to train her in an hour."

Kurama looked down at Hiei. "Are you sure? She might not be able to handle any kind of training so soon."

"Then maybe I wasn't wrong. If she can't handle something basic than she's not worth my time."

"If you say so. I'll go tell the others, I'm sure they'd like to see how she does." Kurama jumped down. He looked up at Hiei before he left. Aly-Jay is a good performer, the type of dancer where people could just stare and watch her all day. Kurama can clearly see it for himself, but when watching Hiei watch her... Kurama smirked, it's nice to see that Hiei is being a little bit more open with himself. Even if he only does it when he thinks he's alone.

Hiei continued to watch as Aly-Jay kept dancing. She has a lot of stamina and Hiei couldn't wait to see how far he could push her. He only hoped she wouldn't stumbled all over the place and that she could actually take a beating. Hiei kept telling himself that he was only watching so he could study her movements and guess how she would handle her training but the more he watched the more he began to enjoy it. When he finally realized that he huffed and looked away. Great, he's been in the human world for less than a day and he's already going soft.

Just as Hiei was about to leave he heard Aly-Jay turn off her music. He looked to see her gathering all her stuff before finally leaving. Perfect, just in time for her to start her training. Hiei waiting for Aly-Jay to take a few steps before jumping down in front of her. As she jumped in surprised she said something he didn't understand but at least she was able to stand on her feet. Good.

"We're starting your training right now."

Hiei watched as she just seemed to accept that but then seemed kind of shocked. "Wait, what? Right now this very moment?" She appeared to slouch a bit.

Hmm, she is weak. "Did I stutter?"

"No you didn't, Mr. Big Shot. I was just hoping that if I had training, I would have been notified sooner..." She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin a bit. Hiei could tell that she had gotten tired but liked the fact that she didn't back down.

But he didn't like the fact that she had insulted him. She's weak and stupid. "What did you call me?" And just to see what she would do, he took a step closer to her. He was surprised that she took a step closer as well. She didn't seem scared at all. What is up with this girl?

After they had finished talking, Hiei watched her run off. She is definitely an odd girl... But there's something so different about her that he couldn't decided if he'd want to kill her or actually train her...

(Link to the dances are in my profile if you're interested. You don't have to watch them if you don't want to =D )