Author's note: Pretty straightforward, 30 stories about the relationship between two of my favorite characters. Reviews are always appreciated;-P

Title: Sin

Author: zi ling

Fandom: YuYu Hakusho

Pairing: Minamino Shuuichi (Kurama) and Botan

Theme: #11 gardenia

Disclaimer: I can hope….

He was a rose.

He, like a rose, was vibrant, brimming with egotistical attraction. A beauty of the highest caliber, bought and paid for in blood red and green greed. It was passion and violence given form. Those who had tried to acquire it remained no more than a memory; another notch on the bedpost of possessiveness' senseless desire.

One had come close to stripping his thorny ire. That one had been consumed by his lust, his eyes reflecting the bloody hue of his opponent's features as they emptied of life.

Roses grew in the garden of his home. Shiori had come upon him tending them, a feral gold light in his eyes. Blood welled from his fists, where the thorns had gouged his skin, and snaked its way down his pale arms to drip steadily upon the ground. The drops disappeared as the plants greedily sucked down the offering. She had brought him into the house, seating him at the kitchen table as she searched for bandages and antiseptic. The hungry gleam in his eyes had faded to a clouded green as she had cleaned the wounds.

Later that year, when the buds opened in the middle of winter, their color reminded her of the scarlet of her son's hair, and of the dark rivers which had marred his white skin.

He never gave her roses.

For all that she was the Harbinger of Death, she remained innocent and untainted. The delicate scent of it trailed about her, filling her smile and her eyes with its warm honesty. It was in her arms that he felt the color drain away from his scarlet-drenched petals. Her lips stole his color and her soft sighs dimmed his vibrancy, soothing the hunger and the lust that dominated him. Yet, not one mark marred her perfection; no crimson stained her sky blue hair and no green touched the violet of her eyes.

The flowers he gave her were white and delicate; bleached, like sin removed.