Step One: Still

Sweet cider, sweet clover, sweet corn, sweeten, sweetener, sweet flag, sweet gale, sweet gum…Here!

As the tip of Hiei's clawed index finger ended its brief stroll down the heavy cream page he felt a twinge of gratitude to Kurama for his generally annoying obsession with being correct and basic perfection. Otherwise, he didn't know where he'd find such a ridiculously extensive dictionary.

Though he did have to ask himself why the famous thief of Makai had such a flimsy lock on his window…

But that was a question for another time. For the moment he'd simply have to settle for answering this one:

Sweetheart-1. either of a pair of lovers in relation to the other. 2. (sometimes cap.) an affectionate or familiar term of address (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, subordinates, ect.). 3. Informal. A generous, friendly person. 4. Informal. Anything that arouses loyal affection.

As his mind began to pick apart the definition, he found himself tapping the heavy oak-tag page, a nervous habit he was beginning to annoy himself with. The moment realization set in he stopped, instead busying himself with returning the large and awkward leather-bound book back to the empty spot on the shelf, concealing any evidence he had taken it. He did not want to have to explain to the fox exactly what had suddenly peaked his interest in human words and pronunciation.

So a sweetheart could be several things. Botan certainly was a 'generous, friendly person', so he supposed she was indeed a 'sweetheart'. But in relation to being his sweetheart…

Hiei didn't think so. In fact he was pretty sure about that. But as he continued to think about it, he decided that was what he wanted her to be, and, perhaps, tonight would set things on the path to making her just that.

But he didn't think he'd ever use the word.

The returning journey to Spirit World was a disappointingly uneventful one. Demented as it seemed, even to himself, Hiei rather liked when troubled, restless spirits wandered through the planes looking for methods, usually violent methods, to ease their torment. Usually these attacks were strange occurrences in the weather, (Meaning one never knew exactly what to wear in the Realm Between Worlds; though, many such spirits did seem quite taken with huge, violent lightning storms. So raincoats and rubber-soled shoes have generally been agreed on.) but very few were more inclined to attack in more physical forms, which, on a good (Or bad, depending on the point of view.) day, had the potential to provide Hiei with a few hours' worth of entertainment.

It was a little sick, he had to admit, but Hiei never felt quite as alive as when someone was trying to kill him.

He supposed, however, that the quiet journey was a good thing in any case. This time he was not on his way to appear before a toddler that would give him orders to fix problems he didn't care about in a world that he would more or less prefer didn't even exist. Or, at the very least, existed without him in it.

No, he couldn't afford to be late. This time he was on his way to see a pretty girl who talked too much if had any opinion on the subject, cared too much for her own good, didn't seem to be in touch with reality every so often, and was so gullible it was sad.

This time it was important.

The impressive red and gold doors at gate opened without so much as a squeak, much to Hiei's instant relief. Not that it showed, but in an ironic twist of the emotions, the fire demon had been terrified he'd arrive to find the doors stuck tight again and be locked outside the palace. A favorable situation any other time, but damn near heartbreaking in this one.

The marble halls seemed to be back in order, the only thing out of place appeared to be a small group of multi-colored ogres gathered in a huddle still trying to figure out exactly where that stupid lampshade came from, and can they send it back there because really what would they do with a lamp shade?

In a few brief moments of curiosity, Hiei allowed his eyes to sweep across the various rooms and halls as he made his way through the now dangerously lively, but clean, halls of Spirit World. He had never seen much of the palace before, always heading straight for Koenma's office and back to the front gate again (Baring his first trip), and, although he'd never given it much thought before, now that the opportunity had been presented, he decided he would like to see what all the fuss was about.

The palace was worthy of its admirers, he decided, with marble halls the glistened in the light and shown with ghostly elegance in the more shadowed places. The space also seemed to be practically used, every inch put to work and not wasted on artistry as he would have expected from the self-important Koenma.

Unfortunately, the organization system of Spirit World was…well an insult to the word at best. He guessed that was probably why the ogres were constantly running around the place and, if it was even possible, making a bigger mess of things. It was no wonder Koenma had so much trouble keeping order, and Hiei wondered how the whole palace had avoided crumbling into dust by now.

Then again, the very fact that this mess had, for lack of a better term, worked for such an extensive amount of time did make a valid point about the system. There were hundreds of ogres running into each other, ferry girls losing papers, entire life histories of people from every realm vanishing, but at the end of the day, everything still worked. Perhaps there was some big secret behind it all.

Hiei felt that he had wasted enough time caring.

The light perfume of safety and relaxation found in every home told him he'd reached the rooms of the ferry girls. This hall was lined with dark cherry wood doors, identical except for names written in every style, color, and place along each one; a little taste of the person one would find inside.

No two were the same in any aspect, some were very similar, as even snowflakes often are, but the color would be just the slightest hint darker, the slant a little sharper, the script not quite as elegant, the placement on the door a touch lower. Each was an individual and stood out in its own way

Ignoring the natural curiosity of all living creatures, Hiei pulled his eyes from the various and fascinating doors to focus on one.

A barely noticeable smile edged itself onto his lips as his crimson eyes swept over the door in front of him; it was exactly how he had pictured it. Her name was encased in a silvery light blue that made the mind jump immediately to stars. The letters were big, but not huge, just enough to be eye-catching, written in a…cute…scrawl of half handwriting half printing, slightly slanting upwards in the top left-hand corner. Bright, cheerful, childish, inviting. Botan…

The fire demon felt a light burst of pride in his chest at knowing the ferry girl so well.

This pleasant thought in mind, he gently curled his fingers into a fist and lightly tapped the door.

Ok, let me just say I am really, really, really sorry. I hate that it takes me so long to update and I know how irritating it is to wait and wait for the next chapter. But I promise I'm trying, and while I can't promise it won't take so long for the next one, or any future chapters, I promise I will not just stop writing the story.

That being said, what do you think? Once again, I'd intended to begin the date in this chapter, but I took so long updating I had to put up SOMETHING. And it just seemed like such a good place to stop…but again, I want your opinions, so let me know what you think.

"Hiei never felt quite as alive as when someone was trying to kill him."-Stolen almost directly from Terry Prattchet's Men at Arms. I recommend this book to everyone. It's a little confusing and rambly, but that's one of the great things about it. It's part of a series, but while it's a little less confusing if you've read at least Guards! Guards! First, they don't need to be read in any order.

"Sweet cider, sweet clover, sweet corn, sweeten, sweetener, sweet flag, sweet gale, sweet gum

Sweetheart-1. either of a pair of lovers in relation to the other. 2. (sometimes cap.) an affectionate or familiar term of address (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, subordinates, ect.). 3. Informal. A generous, friendly person. 4. Informal. Anything that arouses loyal affection."-A courtesy of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary.

I'm fairly certain that's everything I took from other people, well, ya know besides the idea for the story. In any case if you happen to find something else, bring it to my attention and I'll address it in the next chapter.

Again, really sorry!