I know it's been forever but I'm starting college and I've had tons of stuff to do before that and then I went on vacation for a month phew... But here you go!

" Yumi."

I snapped my head away from the window, facing my mother who was studying me from the doorway. "Have you been getting enough rest?"

I lowered my head in an attempt to hide the dark circles forming from lack of sleep. "Of course, I've just been a little stressed lately."

She frowned. "Upstairs now."

Surprised I glanced up from my spot at the table, blinking in attempt to make sense of her order. "What?"

"You heard me." She crossed her arms in annoyance. "I want you to march upstairs right now and get some sleep."

I shook my head in protest. "I can't, I promised to help father in the lab today."

"I'm sure he'll understand now do as you're told, you're no help to anyone this way."

I sighed internally at being told what to do but complied for the sake of humoring her. Though instead of going straight to bed I went to the nursery I had spent the entire night in.

I sat in the rocking chair, facing the window and gently pushed my feet against the floor, moving in slow back and forth motions.

What was I going to do? What was HE going to do? Too many questions surfaced with a lack of answers.

I must have fallen asleep because when I awoke ain drizzled down the windows creating a waterfall effect. Something I had once taken great joy in but like everything else rain was a memory associated with him, ruining it. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I sighed, picking up an already awake Hiro from his crib.

I ran a hand through my hair, If only everything could disappear as if it was all just a bad dream. It was dark, but I wasn't the least bit tired anymore. So, instead of going back to my room, I headed for the living room.

"Yumi, dear?" My father stopped me, before I entered the kitchen. "That man out there, is he one of you're special friends? You know from the Demon tournament?"

"What?" I snapped my attention to him, shock overtaking my thoughts.

"He's been out there for quite some time." He mused, rubbing his chin. "I thought he might be waiting for you."

Looking from the living room window out into the backyard, there he was perched on a single tree branch leaning his back against the trunk with one knee propped up, his gaze led to the sky letting the rain soak through his clothes, and as if he knew I was watching him, his eyes shifted to meet my hard stare with equal contempt.

"Hold him for a minute would you?" I spoke softly, holding Hiro out to my father.

"Of course." He beamed, taking him from my grasp. "Come on Hiro, you can play with grandpa while mommy talks to her friend."

Grabbing an umbrella from the hall closet, I slipped on the shoes already at the backdoor before leaving the protection of the warm cozy house.

At the base of the tree, I craned my neck up to the branch he currently occupied, tilting the umbrella just enough so that it still blocked the drops of water. "Are you just going to sit here all night in the rain?"

His eyes narrowed, peering down at me from his position. "It's not as if I have a choice now do I?"

"And who's to blame for that?" I stated boldly, unaffected from the hard glare I used to cower from. "If you didn't let your anger best you, it could have been a different scenario and you would be allowed inside."

"Oh that's rich, coming from you." A dark chuckle escaped his lips jumping to the ground. Eyes as intense as ever, he lessened the proximity between us as a means of intimidation. "How dare you?"

"How dare I what?" I repeated narrowing my own eyes, wanting to hear him say it himself.

"Intentionally hiding it from me." He answered coldly. "Even going as far as to get the people I consider closest to what your pathetic race calls friends, to help you."

"I didn't tell any of them, so don't feel left out." I snapped. "And he's not an it, he's your son."

He snorted. "One I would have never known about, no thanks to his mother."

I bit the inside of my cheek, my expression cross. "Then if I told you I was pregnant a year ago, would you have rejoiced?"

His silence answered my question and I let a soft laugh escape my mouth. "It was the first time we had ever done anything and at the time you were in a dark place in your life Hiei. The people you associated yourself with were dangerous but more than that I worried about your reaction. Would you reject the child growing in my stomach or would you deem me, a human unworthy of raising your child and take him away."

"Think me ridiculous all you want but were my worries really that far off mark?" The silence following made me sigh out loud. "He's just like you, you know? Ignoring me when things don't go the way he wants."

He scoffed, jerking his head to the side at my accusations. "I'm no child."

Allowing my gaze to fall to the grass, I turned to the back door. "You can come in, if you want." I said almost too quickly, gripping the handle of my umbrella.

"I thought my anger wouldn't allow me?" He mocked.

"It's about to be your tongue that won't." I stepped forward. "I'm not going to beg you but just to let you know, it's not supposed to stop raining until morning."

He paused reluctantly before falling in step with my pace, and without saying a word, I stood aside for him, the door handle in my grasp and wide open.

He waited a beat before entering, his shoes creating wet sounds against the tiled floor of the kitchen. I closed the door behind him, then turned and watched as he stopped near the living room, his head turning left and right, then up and down. Had it really been over a year since I'd last seen him? It seemed like much longer.

I allowed my eyes to travel downward, taking in the subtle changes in his body and clothing. He was still wearing his usual black cloak over a pair of equally black pants and shirt. "You're soaked."

His eyes narrowed and he peered at me from his peripheral. "You're observant." He sneered.

I felt myself frown at the obvious statement I had made and began to walk ahead of him, a hand waving in a follow me gesture upstairs.

"This is one of the finished quest rooms, you can stay here..." I trailed off, unsure of of what else to say. He stood in the doorway, his eyes taking in the space of the room. I followed his gaze, then turned back towards the door leading to the hallway and began to leave. "Well… I guess I'll just leave you to it…"

I never felt so awkward in my life.

When I opened my eyes It was already 11:00 By the time I finished my hair and dressed myself only 30 minutes had passed.

After checking the nursery to find Hiro nowhere in sight, I figured my mother had already taken him downstairs as she often did on Saturday mornings to give me some sort of break from the stressful work week.

Heading down the hall towards the stairs, I passed the closed door to Hiei's room and the events of last night came rushing back. I couldn't believe I had almost forgotten he was here.

"Morning". I entered the kitchen to see my father as usual with an open newspaper and my mother currently feeding Hiro in his high chair.

"Morning Yumi". My father chirped not looking up from his paper.

I sat down next my mother offering my hand out to take the spoon and resume the rest of Hiro's breakfast. She passed it over before getting out of her seat to straighten her suit. "I would like to inform you that your father and I are going out to the company to tie up some lose ends with the Sumari deal, we should be back before 2'oclock hits so keep an eye on Hiro."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes internally and let out a small smile at her overprotective need to remind me to watch her grandson, which was my own son.

"But I have things to do in the lab today." He protested in vain.

She took him by the arm, hoisting him up. "You can do that when you get back, I need you today."

He grumbled but allowed himself to be dragged out of the kitchen, through the living room and out the front door.

With no one here other than myself and and a baby who rarely ever made much noise it became quite all too quickly. Placing my chin on my hand I leveled my face with his. "So what I should we do, sweetie?"

"You do realize he's not going to answer you?" A voice snidely remarked.

There went my good mood. "That doesn't mean he doesn't understand, it's good to talk to babies it teaches them to form words themselves."

"Not with degrading words like "sweetie"." Hiei snorted in disgust. "My son will grow up to be a man not some weak human mamma's boy."

"Your forgetting he's my son too Hiei." I frowned, but it hadn't sounded as powerful as I'd of liked. Looking between Hiei and Hiro it was like an exact replica except Hiro's hair didn't stand straight up in the shape of a flame, it fell flat with just the tiniest strands of white, the same amount as his father's.

"How could I possibly forget?" He sneered rolling his eyes. "Thank whoever he didn't inherit that insufferable pink hair."

"Oh yeah?!" I retorted. "Well at least he doesn't have your stupid spiked up hair."

"I didn't hear you complaining when I had your body pinned beneath mine, in fact I remember you couldn't keep your hands out of it." He smirked, amused with his comment.

I rose out of my chair so fast it scraped against the floor. Marching in front of him I shoved my face so close to his, our noses almost touched.

"Your such a-!" I didn't get to finish because he grabbed the end of my hair in his fist. "Ow! What the heck are you-?"

"Your hair, you cut it?" He spoke, disbelief in his voice as he let go.

Touching the place where his hand once was I felt my cheeks burn. "Uh yeah. You only just now noticed?"

"Why?" He narrowed his eyes, anger seeping through.

At that I felt slightly offended. "Because I'm a grown woman and I can do whatever I want with my hair." I said as a matter of fact.

His eye twitched in annoyance at my answer. "You've changed." He mocked, smirking with malice.

"No I just grew up." I scowled turning my head away and crossing my arms. "Having a child who depends on you does that." I placed my hands beneath Hiro's arms scooping him up in my own.

"You act like that's my fault?" He scoffed when a glint appeared in his eyes. "When clearly it was you who nearly begged me on your knees for me to make love to you."

For the second time in my life I felt my heart break and tears almost, almost surfaced. Instead I squared my shoulders and walked past him before stopping at the door. "Do you even have a clue what I gave up just for your so called love? I have never regreted having Hiro but you know there was once a time when I would have given you the world." I admited, chuckling at my foolishness. "In fact I did. And now how do you act? You start talking to me like I'm just some regular tramp trying to screw you over! I can promise you one thing though whatever we did that night, wasn't love at least on your part."

At that I left, before my heart could tear itself open from the inside out.

It had been two days since the confrontation I had with Hiei in the kitchen and after passing his room I closed the door he left open to the empty room. Somewhere In the back of my mind I wondered where he could have possibly gone. Not that it was any of my business

I placed Hiro in his play pin in the living room, before grabbing a cup of coffee from the kitchen. Instead I came to face a pursed lip mother and leaning her back against the counter, while my father sat with his newspaper.

I blinked at the sudden atmosphere as my father pulled his collar after my mother shot him a pointed look. "Yumi, about that young man you're friends with..."

"He's outside currently destroying the backyard." My mother finished for him with a disapproving scowl.

"What?!" I nearly tripped trying to get to the window just in time to see Hiei slice a shrub in half with his sword.

I felt the heat in my face rise and I jerked open the backyard door. I marched outside in his direction, a stern look on plastered on my face. "What do you think you're dong?!"

"Training." He answered curtly, sheathing his sword out of sight.

I felt a vein pop outside of my head in irritation. "Hey here's and idea, do you think you could, oh I don't know...train without destroying the entire backyard!"

His eyes flashed with challenge, in response. "Wasn't it you who once welcomed me with open arms into your house with sparkling doe eyes that screamed of a girl with a hopeless crush?"

My eye twitched in irritation at his description of me in the past. Placing a hand on my side, I shifted my hip to the right. "It's been 4 years since I extended that invitation, it's far past it's expiration date I'm sure."

"And 3 nights ago renewed that." He bluntly stated with arrogance only he could have.

"Grrraahh! Whatever, I don't care what you do, just stop breaking things!" I turned on my heel to almost smack into my mother.

"Oh sorry." I apologized and she raised a brow before her eyes shifted to Hiei. "Oh uh Mother this is Hiei."

"Hiei." I motioned my hand to him and he scoffed turing his head way. "This is my mother."

"Charmed." She answered flatly before turning her attention back at me. "Your father wants you in the lab, now if you'll excuse me I have a few phone calls to make to the landscaper."

We watched her march back inside, slamming the door behind her.

"Lovely woman." Hiei remarked sarcastically.

I couldn't control the laugh that came out. "Well what what were you expecting, her to come out offering you a plate of cookies and a glass of milk? Yeah not my mother."

"Tch Like I'd know." He growled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "You never mentioned your parents unless I asked and even then you were vague about them."

"What's there to talk about?" I rolled my eyes towards the sky before crossing my arms. "My mother is a very complicated woman, with a sharp tongue and a hard exterior that most can't see past and until recently I couldn't either, She's afraid of opening up so she distances herself, even from her own family sometimes."

He didn't really have a response in his actions but he did continue speaking. "I ran the old man in the kitchen the other day, you seem to take more after him.

"My father? Hardly. In the many twists and curves in his brain he's a genius. He does have a very easy going personality but don't let that fool you, towards others it's only a persona. With me he only uses it when he wants to get me to do something other times he really is easygoing, at least with us, but sometimes I feel he secretly his kindness isn't fake."

"The others I've heard, don't seem to know much more about you either aside from the basics, you don't talk much about yourself." He continued suspiciously. "Why is that?"

"Because it isn't important." I simply shrugged. "Some things you generally keep to yourself, every one has problems with at least one aspect in their life, no one wants to hear what you find unsatisfactory in yours they can't do anything about it anyway and anyone who says otherwise is just lying.

"You're a walking contradiction." He scoffed. "You listen with a smile when others spill their load of problems on you, yet you believe that?"

I scrunched my nose at his accusation. "It's different, anyways I'd love to stay and chat but unfortunately I have to be somewhere." I answered defensively before turning heel and hightailing my butt back inside, not bothering a second glance.