"Not a problem," Peggy assured him. "We were amusing ourselves. And looking at the plants."

"So I see," Kurama replied. "Gardening is a... hobby of mine, you could say."

"Somehow I'm not surprised." Peggy grinned a bit. "You've got some interesting plants in here, I don't even recognize all of them."

"Just some breeds I've come across in my travels," Kurama replied. He looked at her, a bit curious. "I take it you do some gardening yourself, then."

"Oh nothing fancy," Peggy assured him. "Nothing like this. Mostly flowers, some bushes, succulents, things like that."

"I see," Kurama said. He glanced at Winter. "You as well?"

"Oh god no," Winter said, holding up her hands and shaking her head. "I'm no good with plants. I can't keep them alive."

"It's true, she's killed all the succulents I gave her," Peggy said with a grin. "Even the nice easy ones."

Kurama blinked and looked at Winter, who shrugged.

"She stopped giving them to me after the sixth one," she said. "I only had it for a week or so, and only watered it once. I still don't know how it died."

"That's... rather impressive," Kurama said carefully.

"That's one way to put it," Peggy agreed with a snicker. "Mildly terrifying is another." She grinned. "So I'm in charge of any plants we actually want to live. I gave her some weeds once, just to see, and she killed those too."

"Except the dandelion," Winter admitted. "That one, I couldn't kill. But the nettles died, and I kept picking the crab grass for grass whistles."

"A wise decision," Kurama said, nodding. "A friend of mine is similarly disinclined to plant life, although to be fair, he has no interest in them to begin with."

Peggy snorted at that. "Some people just have no appreciation for nature," she agreed.

"Indeed," Kurama agreed with a small smile.

"Okay, if you two are going to settle in and talk about gardening, is there anything I might be able to borrow and read for a few hours?" Winter asked before the two could really get talking about plants.

"Sorry," Peggy said with a somewhat abashed smile. She did however end up talking gardening with Kurama for about an hour, and then got everyone into several card games, which Kurama mostly dominated. Not that she was very surprised.

She was, however, surprised when she noticed four hours had passed since Yusuke had dropped them off.

Kurama sighed when he realized what was happening. Yes, he thought Yusuke would pull something like this.

"It seems that you and your friend are likely going to stay the night," he said to Peggy. "I apologize that I don't have anything better than a fold-out couch." Because there was no way he was going to put them in the guest room that Hiei had essentially claimed for himself.

"We can sleep on the floor for a night or two, won't kill us," Peggy said after a moment with a shrug of surprising nonchalance, considering her internal mental state was back to flailing. "We'll manage."

"As I said, the couch folds out, but you know how those tend to be, I'm sure," Kurama said.

"We'll be fine," Winter said. "Really, you've already done so much by letting us stay."

"We'll be fine," Peggy assured him. "Thank you for letting us stay, really."

"Think nothing of it," Kurama said. "Give me a few moments to fold out the couch, and then you'll be able to settle in."

It only took a few minutes to unfold the couch, grab blankets and pillows, and then Peggy and Winter were alone.

"See I told you it would get easier with practice," she muttered to Winter.

"I'm still not certain that I won't turn into a babbling idiot," Winter replied. "We only have like six sagas worth of things to accidentally let slip, and I don't know about you, but I can't keep the Jagan out of my head once Hiei is in the picture."

"I'm trying not to think about that," Peggy admitted. "Although mostly right now I'm trying not to think about much of anything because if I start thinking properly again I'm afraid I'll open my mouth and stick my whole leg in it."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, too," Winter said, nodding. She grimaced. "Especially considering I'm the one who blabbed in the first place to Genkai."

"Oh c'mon, it's Genkai, she would have found out either way," Peggy pointed out reasonably. "The guys, on the other hand... I don't know that they'd take it quite so well." She swallowed. "I don't fancy being turned into plant food."

"I can think of a number of unpleasant things that could happen," Winter said. She shook her head. "Yeah I'm just going to keep my mouth shut on the subject. It's safer that way."

"It really is," Peggy agreed. "Okay, so, mind-numbing terror out of the way... His hair is even prettier in person."