Once they got to the edge of the family wing, right where it transitioned into the guest wing, Naomi gestured to a pair of doors.

"The one on the left is mine," she said. "The one on the right should be empty."

Hiei nodded and moved into the room, looking around quickly. It was an average room, plain with only a picture on the wall as decoration. Not that he actually cared. He wasn't likely to be in the room much anyway.

Naomi carefully reached out and brushed his youki with hers. It was a familiar gesture by now, and it was kind of comforting to be able to sense him there.

Hiei settled on the windowsill, returning the gesture. It was familiar, and nice in this place. Briefly he wondered how her family would react if they noticed, then he dismissed the thought. If it came to that, he could defend her.

The gesture made Naomi smile a little. She didn't care if her relatives noticed, really. They couldn't stop her, short of forcing her to lock down her youki. After a moment, Naomi pulled out the Book and glanced around to see if she had a place to stash it where her relatives wouldn't find it. She didn't trust anyone with it at the moment.

Hiei settled in there, idling away the time finding and keeping track of everyone in the building. He figured he might as well, after all. It would give him advance warning if any of them decided to come this direction.

Naomi didn't get the chance to join the family for dinner. Instead, someone (she suspected her father) had a tray sent up to her and a tray sent up to her guest. That was exactly what the note on her tray had said. She rolled her eyes, but didn't protest. It just meant she didn't need to deal with her family until the next day when she had to dress up and attend the Naming. After that, she could go home again.

Hiei looked at the food distrustfully. And decided he wasn't hungry anyway. He'd really rather not take a chance with whatever they might have put into the food.

And no one ever said he couldn't be paranoid.

Naomi knew her family had no reason to drug her with anything, so she wasn't all that worried about the food. Once she'd picked at the tray for a little while, she set it aside and went out onto the balcony attached to her room. To her, it was pleasantly cool outside, even though there was snow on the ground, and the night was clear. From her balcony, she could almost see the window of the room next to hers.

Hiei had pushed open the window, since the cold didn't bother him any, and was sitting with one leg on the windowsill, the other hanging just outside. At least the scenery here was nice.

Naomi sensed him there, and it didn't bother her at all.

"At least it's quiet for now," she commented. She knew he could hear her. "Hopefully, this will only be another day or two."

"Hn. It might not be good to stay longer than that." Hiei didn't try to look back at her, since he didn't want to fall off the window, but he knew she could hear him nonetheless.

"Trust me, I know," Naomi replied. She sighed slightly. "Couple of days, that's all. Then we can go back." She stretched a little. "I hate to admit it, but it's more comfortable around here." It was warmer and more humid back home, and she made an effort not to notice how uncomfortable it tended to be for her outside of the winter.

"So why don't you move?" Hiei glanced off to the side, vaugely in her direction, before he returned to his contemplation of the trees he could see a little ways off.

"Because I don't want to move too far from Osanna," Naomi replied after a moment. "And because I'm already far enough away from my mother. And because this side of my family very rarely ventures so far south."

"Hn." Hiei didn't quite understand all her attachments, but that was okay. He figured it wasn't his business anyway.

"Just because you don't have any attachments doesn't mean nobody else does," Naomi commented. It wasn't hard to figure out what that particular 'hn' had meant. "Where I live now was the best compromise I could come to."

Hiei nodded slowly. He supposed that made sense. Sort of. In a way. He was pretty sure he wouldn't do something like that, but then again, he had changed since meeting up with Kurama.

Naomi sighed, briefly enjoying her breath steaming in the air, and absently drew little circles and spirals on the balcony railing in ice. She wanted to enjoy the cold as long as she could.

Hiei looked over at her. "Do we have to stay in here?" he asked suddenly. "Or can we go out?" He jerked his head out towards the woods not far away. He'd just had an idea.

Naomi shrugged a bit.

"We can go," she said. "Everything for a couple miles belongs to my father." She didn't get to say anything else, because the door to her room opened without so much as a knock. Turning around, she forced herself not to grind her teeth. "Andromeda, what do you want?"

"I've come for the item you stole from Mother, Nomia," Andromeda replied, walking into the room without an invitation. "I assume you brought it with you. You're not one to leave such things lying around, I assume."

"Andromeda, get out of my room," Naomi replied.

"Your room?" Andromeda repeated, sneering. "The room Father lets you borrow when you decide to taint the halls with your presence."

"Don't even start," Naomi warned.

"It's only the truth," Andromeda replied. "I don't even know why Father asked you to come back, but it was a mistake. Of course, who could expect anything more from a half-breed?" She looked down her nose at her half-sister. "None of us would threaten the family with a fire-element. Though I suppose you would have to, all things considered."

"Andromeda..." Now Naomi really wasn grinding her teeth, and the blue in her hair was spreading. "I don't want to be here any more than you want me here, so just go away and we won't have to deal with each other."

"See, that's where you and I differ," Andromeda said. "I take what I want when I want it." She looked down at Naomi. "you just run away, like that human whore you spawned from."

Naomi's vision went red as her control snapped, all of her hair turning completely translucent blue, and she jumped at her sister, intent on hurting her in any way possible.

Hiei was right there with her, quite intent on beating the ever-loving shit out of Andromeda and possibly sending her back in a few pieces. As soon as he landed on the balcony, though, he noticed that something was wrong. Naomi's youki was spiking wildly, and her hair was all blue. It took him a moment to recall what she'd said about it being an indicator of her control.

Well. That wasn't good. While he knew she would come back to her senses eventually, he also knew that if she hurt the pitiful demoness in front of them, the others in the house would kill her. So he went for her first, grabbing her and hauling her back from Andromeda.

"I hope you run fast," he snarled at Andromeda, letting his own power seep from him, warming the room by several degrees. "Because if you don't, I am going to hunt you down and tear you apart, and I will kill everyone who gets in my way to do so."

"Let me go!" Naomi shrieked, struggling to get at her sister. "I'll kill her!" Andromeda took one look at them and bolted from the room. She wasn't afraid of her sister, not by a long shot, but a Level Six fire-element was another thing entirely. Naomi growled in frustration as her sister ran and slumped to her knees, crossing her arms and digging her nails into her own flesh. She still needed to hurt something, she wasn't going to be satisfied until she got to beat on something and work off her rage.

Hiei picked her up and took her outside, going almost a mile away from the house before he set her down again, turning her to face him. "Well? Not just going to sit there, are you?" He smirked, taunting her. "Or am I too scary to face?"

Even that little taunt was enough to set her off, and Naomi scrambled to her feet and threw herself at him with a wordless shriek, ignoring the bleeding marks on her arms from her nails.