The door slid open a crack and Liya drew back from it, surprised.

"Could you hand me my clothes?" Yoshi asked from somewhere beyond the door. The room was lit brightly enough to throw Yoshi's shadow across the floor, past the cracked door. Liya realized his face was in his hands, his head bowed, and she backed off.

"Y-Yeah."

She couldn't help but ask, though, as she traipsed across the room to the table, "Um...how come your clothes din't change with you? Ain't they supposed to?"�His shirt was draped over the table as though he'd laid his head down on his arms, and then simply melted out of it.

"They need spell tags to do that," Yoshi answered, and added sort of sheepishly, "I wasn't planning to fall asleep in those."

Liya's head jerked up, suddenly connecting the dots.

"Is that what Shinobu meant by 'night problems?'" she asked incredulously, returning to pass Yoshi's shirt and skirt through the cracked door; Yoshi took them with a mumbled thanks. "You fall asleep an' become the darkness itself? Shit, that ain't embarrassing! I thought she meant you wet the bed or somethin'," she added lightly, grinning.

Yoshi didn't answer. Liya withdrew her hand and, her smile fading, asked quietly, "...Is it scary?"

There was no immediate response; she leaned against the door frame, rubbing her neck.

"I mean," she went on, "it's so cool-lookin'--your nerves all lit up like stars, an' the fire in your belly. But it's gotta be scary, wakin' up feelin' like you don't have a body."