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----------------Chapter 2------------------

--In Nozomi’s room--

She sighed, letting her hair down from the pony tail she had had it in. She had just finished her homework, and was stretching when she heard the stairs creak. She glanced at her door, then shrugged. Getting up from her chair, she entered the bathroom located in the far left of her room and closed the door. Turning on the shower, she took her uniform off, folded it neatly, then entered the hot water, letting it wash all her worries away, for the time being anyway.

Outside the bathroom, Youko had just entered her main room. He was surprised not to find it completely pink, like all human girls seem to adore. Instead, he found natural cream colored walls, a wooden desk painted in black, and a bed that had comforters of different shades of blue. The desk was located on the far side of the room in front of the door, next to a balcony outlined by light blue drapes. They were pulled aside and showed the forest that surrounded the house. In the quiet of the night, you could hear the owl hooting in the distance, the crickets chirping into the night. Curious, as foxes naturally are, he walked over to the balcony window, seeing that she could easily open them up and walk out into the night if she so wished. Hearing the water running, he assumed that she was bathing, and decided not to invade her privacy.

“This house is so peaceful…lying in the heart of a forest… The perfect place for youkais to gather…” He said quietly, his golden eyes wandering over the millions of stars visible in the clear night sky. Looking back down at the golden chain that kept the windows closed, then carefully opened them, pushing them open. Satisfied, he stood in front of the windows, the night breeze flowing into the room and causing his hair to flow in the wind as well.

Shutting the water off, she exited the shower, wrapping a towel tightly around her body. Her hair lay plastered to her head, dripping with water. She looked around the bathroom, feeling that something was different.

“Damn it! I forgot to bring my clothes in here with me!” She realized, seeing that only her uniform was there, neatly folded. Groaning slightly, she decided to go out and get her clothes and quickly change.

Opening the door, she held the towel tightly to her body as she exited, closing the bathroom door behind her. She had only taken a few steps forward when her eyes landed on Youko, who was still standing in front of the balcony with the wind blowing through his hair.

“Oh…um…” She said quietly, blushing immensely.

At that moment, Youko turned slightly and looked at her. His face turned a light color of pink as his eyes traveled over her body, noticing all of her curves. He couldn’t stop staring, for some reason. Feeling her face turn even more red, she bravely walked towards him, keeping the towel close to her body.

“Um… Youko, can I ask a favor?” She asked quietly, obviously embarrassed.

Youko, however, did not reply. After a while, he realized that he was staring, and turned quickly away, cursing himself for acting like such a child when seeing something he really, really liked.

“What is it?” He asked tightly, his throat almost closed.

“Um… would you mind if you closed you eyes, and your ears? I don’t like it when someone sees, or in your case, hears me getting dressed?” She asked, her voice strained.

With his face turning a slightly deeper shade of pink, he placed his hands gently on his soft fox ears and forced them down until they were flat on his head; his eyes were closed already. Making sure that he was really doing as she asked, she quickly went to her closet and got dressed.

A baggy shirt, and some comfortable pants, the ones she usually wore while she was relaxing and at home. The shirt was a dark blue, and was just that plain color; no other ornament gave much characteristic to the shirt. The pants were plain black, and had two white lines running down each side of the legs. Putting her hair into a quick pony tail, she went back over to Youko. Tapping him on the shoulder lightly, she signaled him that it was ok to look and listen.

Dropping his hands to his sides, his ears shot up, twitching every now and then. She stared at them for a while, wondering about different types of fuzzy stuff that she would think is cute. Youko’s eye began to twitch, seeing as she was just staring at him now. After a while, it got to a point where his ears began to twitch with annoyance.

She made a small cooing noise, and he grew confused. Then he realized she’s not looking at me, she’s staring at my ears… How to prove that… He lowered his ears slightly. As they moved down, she did too. He blinked. She’s following my ears? How odd…. She seemed to snap out of it, then blush.

“I’m so sorry! Please, forgive me!” She said, bowing deeply.

“You’re acting different from before…” He said quietly, looking at her curiously.

“Hm?” She stood back up, thinking about it. “Oh! Yea, I remember! You see, I wasn’t in a very good mood today when I got home, and I’m used to living alone, so the sudden appearance of you and your men kind of caught me off guard, so it looked as if I were a snobbish know it all.” She explained, smiling sweetly.

There was silence in the room, Youko staying quit since he didn’t really need to talk at the moment. Nozomi was merely smiled at him, knowing that he was caught off guard by her sudden change in attitude.

“Oh, right! C’mon! We should get back down stairs. I’m sure your men are still hungry.” She said suddenly, grabbing his wrist and pulling him along towards the door.

He snatched it away angrily, his ears twitching as well. “I don’t need a foolish woman’s help! And don’t you dare touch me again.” He snarled, then exited the room, heading down the stairs and out the front door and into the night. She shrugged, then went down the stairs herself to be welcomed by the men.

“Please! Please, gimme some more food! PLEASE!!!” Most of the men pleaded, glad that their boss wasn’t there to see them out of character.

She laughed. “Alright, I’ll serve you all some food. Sorry I took so long.” She entered the kitchen and got the pot on the stove to begin heating up. “It won’t take that long, but you guys can go watch some TV, or walk out in the garden if you want. Or, you can explore the house. You guys can go upstairs, just not my room, ok? I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

They stared at her in shock. She blinked. “What is it? Is…something wrong?”

Kuronue walked in. “You caught us off guard with your sudden change in attitude.” He replied simply, wrapping an arm around her shoulders lazily.

She blinked, then started laughing. “Oh, that? I was just in a bad mood. But, don’t worry, this is my normal mood. Now, go ahead and explore the house, I don’t mind. Just…don’t go into my room. Privacy, you know.”

Kuronue’s arm slid down to his side again as he nodded and walked out of the kitchen. Most of the other men did the same, and a few remained.

“Do you mind if we just relaxed?”

“Of course. You can go watch TV if you want to. The remote to it is on top of the TV itself.” They stared at her, completely clueless. “You’re telling me you’ve never heard of a TV before?” They shook their heads no. Sighing, she lowered the temperature to the food and went into the living room, followed by the men.

“This is a television. This is a remote. You push the buttons on the remote in order to change the channel. That’s about as simple as I can put it… Here you go.” She explained, placing the remote into a man’s clawed hand.

“By the way, you and that other man, Kuronue, you seem to be the leaders when Youko’s not around. I know Kuronue, but, what’s your name?” She asked politely, smiling kindly up at him.

“You may address me as Yomi.” He replied simply, yet politely.

“Alright then, I’ll call you when the foods ready.” With that, she bowed slightly then left the room at a slight run.

“What a strange girl…” Yomi said quietly, then looked back at the TV.

“How do you turn it on, Yomi?” A man asked, looking over his shoulder at the remote.

Yomi glared at the man. “We’re youkais, and we’re not stupid. The button that has the word ‘power’ on it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out, should it?”

“Uh….no…?”

Ignoring him, Yomi pushed the power button, then began playing around with the different channels. The other men soon sat down with him and began watching a random TV show.

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There's the second chapter! Please reply and tell me how you like it. ^_^ (I just finished writing it in Microsoft Word, so hopefully it's ok... Oh well.)