Chapter 1
Life can be strange sometimes. Things can happen that you never really expected. You can become friends with the least likely people. The slightest change can have drastic results. One day your life can be going on normally then, poof, something happens that changes everything. How you feel about people. How you look at the world and everything in it. The smallest change can be devastating... unless... you're ready for it or are expecting it. Change can happen any time and any where. You should be wary of unexpected surprises...
Botan wasn't expecting any changes or surprises. In fact; she was perfectly content in the little rut she was in and didn't welcome change. Her life and none life was finally in order and she was on a break from work so she was in her living world apartment sipping coffee and reading the morning paper when the doorbell rang. Since she wasn't expecting visitors she was a little surprised and curious to hear the little chimes going off. Her first change.
"Who could that be?" she asked herself, setting down her coffee and paper and getting up to answer it.
When she opened the door a man in a suit stood in the hall.
"Yes?" she said, looking up at him.
"Are you Botan Pure?" he asked (Pure was the last name she was using)
"Yes," she said again. "What do you want?"
The man handed her an envelope. "This is for you," he said. "I was asked to deliver it personally."
Botan took the envelope and looked at it. There was no return address just her name and address. "Who is this from?" she asked.
The man gave no answer. She looked up and him and saw him walking down the hall. She thought about calling to him but changed her mind. He probably wouldn't answer her question anyway. Sighing, she closed her door and walked back to the table where her coffee and paper waited. She sat down in her chair and set the envelope on the table. She picked up her coffee and eyed the white envelope for a few minutes, not sure if she wanted to open it or not. For all she knew it could be her electric bill which she'd forgotten to pay that month or her tax notice. She didn't know which would have been worse and didn't really want to know. She tried to go back to her paper but the mystery of the contents of that letter stayed in her mind the whole time. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore and opened the letter.
As she read the letter her eyes grew wide in horror and her hand went to her heart. No! Not now! Why now? After all this time! How did he find me? Botan let go of the letter and it fluttered to the floor. She rested her head in her hands and moaned. Just when I thought I'd finally gotten away from him for good...
Hiei wasn't expecting or wanting any changes either. He was in a point of his life where change was an unwelcome neighbor that came over at inappropriate times and didn't know when to go home. He had enough problems to deal with right now and didn't need a new one to bother him. Most of his other problems had followed him his whole life, though some had been resolved and were no longer an issue. Penance was costly but smart. The same morning Botan gotten her letter, but a little later in the day, Hiei was in the park, training.
It was his daily routine. Wake up from whatever tree he'd slept in the night before, head to the park and train then do whatever else he could do in the boring city he'd been confined to. Though that sentence was over he didn't really trust Botan's word that she'd talk to Koemna about it and didn't want to risk getting a worse sentence if he had. It wasn't that he didn't trust her word to the fullest extent he just wasn't sure how far he could trust the baka onna's word, not after the things he'd said to her. He didn't care one bit about her but she was Koemna's pet, in a way, and he didn't want to risk her getting him a bad sentence just because she was mad at him. Which, since an incident the night before, she was.
Hiei never wanted to see her face again after what had happened either so he was more than a little surprised when he found her in the park around the same time he had gone there to train. He'd just gotten there a few minutes ago but before he'd even started he'd heard crying. Since crying was one of the few things he couldn't stand people (mostly girls) doing, he decided to look for the source. He didn't have to look for very long before he found the one crying.
It was Botan. She was sitting on a bench, near the little pond, leaned over like her stomach hurt, her long blue hair down and over her face. He hadn't expected to see Botan in the park this early and felt confused and a little angry. Why was she crying? Why had she chosen the park to do it? Had she known he'd be there and wanted him to comfort her or something? He doubted it but with Botan he never knew. Still, she was crying and girls crying was one thing he hated to see. It wasn't that he felt sorry for a girl who was crying, it just gave him this weird feeling. Don't cry. You know I can't stand to see girls cry. Stop crying. STOP CRYING!
"Onna," he said in a voice that was a little too loud.
She looked up with a start. "Hie?" she said, wiping away a tear with the back of her hand.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
She wiped her eyes and looked away. "I needed to find a quiet place to think," she replied her answer vague enough.
So you came to the park even though you know darn well I train in it at this time of day?! "There were other places you could have gone," he said.
She didn't say anything to that. Instead she began babbling about something. "This never happened to me before. I thought I would finally be free of that. I thought he'd never find me or give me another thought. He should have done that. I'm not worth it. He should know that. He should just find someone else," she rambled, rocking back and forth on the bench.
What is she going on about? He could have just left her to stew about whatever was bothering her and almost did but something told him to at least find out what was the matter before he did so. "What is wrong?" he asked.
She looked up at him. "What do you care?" she asked.
"I don't care but I want to know why you're crying," he said, feeling stupid at that answer.
She looked him over than said. "If you want to know then-" she held out a piece of paper-"read this."
Hiei took the paper and read it. It said:
My Dear Botan
It seems you've been hiding from me again. Why do you keep doing that, you bad girl? Do you want me to spank you? Your little game of hide and seek lasted longer than usual this time but I finally found you. You shouldn't hide yourself so well. It almost seems as if you don't want to be found. But I know that's not the case. You enjoy this don't you and I can't say I don't either. I wish you'd give me hints though. Well now that I found you I'm ready for you to come back to me. If you don't come willingly I can always have someone bring you back for me. You know you can't stay hidden forever. This time when you come back please wear something besides that pink kimono, it's not even cute anymore.
Sincerely Donovan
Hiei looked up from the letter and stared at Botan. "What is he talking about?" he said.
Botan hated to say it. "He's an old boyfriend," she replied.
He raised an eyebrow. "Old boyfriend?" he said. He coudln't believe she'd ever had one. "This guy sounds like he still thinks you're together."
"I know but he won't take no for an answer," she replied, looking at her feet. "When I was with him it was hell. Where ever I went he'd wind up being too. It was cute at first but then it kept happening and getting worse and worse. When I told him he was smothering me and we needed to break up he thought I was joking with him."
The koorime gave her a look. "Why would he think that?" he asked.
She hated to admit it. "I wasn't such a good girl then," she replied, embarrassed and ashamed.
Hiei stared at her. Not such a good girl? He tried to imagine her other than that. He only knew her as a stupid goody goody onna who could never do wrong though he'd seen her get violent once in awhile. "So the angel onna isn't such an angel after all," he said, looking smug.
She scowled at him. "So now he won't leave me alone," she said. "Even though I told him I was being dead serious when I told him it was over. He just snickered and said I made a joke because I'm the grim reaper and I said "dead." she shook her head.
Her old boyfriend sounds like a complete moron. "So why'd you come here?" he asked.
"I thought maybe-" she began.
"That I could help you get rid of him for you?" he finished for her. "What were you planning on doing? Hiring me to assassinate him?"
She looked away.
"You dumb baka," he said, disgusted at the idea. "Did you really think I would agree to that? It's your problem. You deal with it. I don't want to be involved."
"But Hiei," she began.
"Forget it," he cut her off. "If this guy has such a problem realizing that it's over you should kill him yourself or better yet tell someone who will care enough to act. Besides," and when he said this he looked her right in the eye. "Why should I do anything for you after the way you treated me last night? It wasn't my fault that that happened. It wasn't like it was my idea anyway."
"I'm sorry for that," she said. "But you treated me badly too," she pointed out. "You could have reacted differently."
"I reacted like I always would," he said. "Especially after what they wanted me to do. I wasn't about to try it and didn't want to. I knew you didn't either."
She frowned at him. She knew he was right about that but she wasn't going to admit it and this wasn't the time to argue about it. She needed his help and if he wasn't going to do it the easy way then... "I didn't want to tell you this but," she began. "This involves you too."
He sneered at her. "Hn, I doubt that," he said.
"But it does," she said. "You see, Donovan knows about you. In fact, he told me he met you once. He said he wanted to kill you and had some of his men out looking for you," she folded her arms and gave him a long look. "If he knows where I am then he knows where you are. Which means it's your problem too."
Hiei said nothing. He did remember Donovan. He'd been a pansy like bastard with a big ego. The man was angry at him for not giving him an honorable death. Hiei would have been happy to if he hadn't of been told to kill him and the man wasn't worth killing anyway. He probably still wasn't. If you want to die then kill yourself.
"Does he still want to die?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "He wants you dead and he's willing to send S class demons after you to do so." she put her hands on her hips. "He thinks you're being a coward and hiding from him. Do you want him to keep thinking that way about you?"
"That coward is just doing that because he's afraid to face me himself," Hiei said, angry at the thought. "He knows I'm no coward. But if he thinks I'm hiding from him..." He glared at her. She was doing it again. She always knew how to get him to comply. He hated that about her but she had him. She's said the right thing. "Hn," he said angry that she'd gotten to him with her words again. "Fine. I'll help you."
She got up and bowed to him. "Arigatou."
A/N
You'll find out what happened to them the night before later. I don't know where I got this idea. I was just typing randomly and this came to me. It hope you'll enjoy it anyway. If you read this please leave some kind of feed back. Thank you in advance.
All I want is at least one review. Can you at least give me that much? Please? If I don't get at least one I might as well delete this. :(
