Recap: There was plot! Hiei and Botan said they would stop what they were doing, but after Hiei publicly lost a fight – and his dignity – to Mukuro and Botan was there to console him, they went right back to the smut. Yay, smut!


Chapter 9: This Could Be Messy

Hiei was confused – but not so much so that he was about to stop what he was doing. Although she was mostly keeping her eyes shut, the ferry girl was occasionally looking up at him as he let his hands explore her body. She was still fully dressed, but her kimono was made of three layers of very thin silk, and he could feel every detail of her through it. She had asked for full sex – which he was still quite surprised at, as she had always maintained something of a demure act before that moment – and he intended to give her what she was asking for. It was the polite thing to do, after all. That and he had as much of a need for it as she did, and since they were both there and willing, it seemed too convenient an opportunity to shrug off.

He moved his hands slowly, musing at the way she moaned softly and writhed beneath him, pushing herself into his touch, her eyebrows rising and lowering in pleasure and frustration as his hands touched and then moved past points she wanted them to remain on. There were worse ways to pass time, he thought, and, seeing how eager she was to be pleasured and to give pleasure, Hiei had to wonder how Yusuke had managed to keep his hands off of her for thirty years. He supposed Yusuke was still committed to his former human companion, which was admirable in a sense, but if she truly had taken a human lover and forgotten about him, then Yusuke was a fool for continuing to pursue her. The only thing more foolish was the fact that the ferry girl could not see how foolish it was: rather she sympathised and empathised with Yusuke, all the while denying her own needs.

"Kiss me."

Hiei grunted involuntarily, his eyes locking onto the ferry girl's as he found them again open and looking up at him. He was surprised by her request – and it was barely a request, her tone flat and her words punctuated with a slight sense of urgency as though it was more of a demand than a request – but again he was not about to deny her, and so he slowly leaned over her, watching her carefully as he closed the distance between them. To his surprise, she kept her eyes open and on his, only closing them the instant before their lips touched. He was not really sure how he felt about her looking at him, but any doubts he had rapidly faded as she massaged her lips against his. Her kisses were unlike any other he had ever felt: her lips were soft, warm and sweet and her movements tender and hesitant. Her kisses, just like the rest of her, did not blatantly demand something more intimate, but they did have a way of weakening Hiei's will with their understated passion.

As they kissed, Hiei began stripping her of her obi, carefully easing it from her body and quietly discarding it to one side. He then took hold of the collar of her kimono in both hands and slowly and carefully opened out the frustratingly multiple layers of silk. He could feel his body overtaking his own common sense as he exposed her shoulders and breathed in the delicate scent of her skin, their kiss becoming more fervent as he lost the ability to control his movements in his need to have her: and so when she suddenly grabbed his wrists and began struggling to pull back from him he growled and almost refused to let go, feeling cheated and infuriated that she was teasing him so just to stop short before he got what she had promised him.

"Not like this," she said as he reluctantly pulled his lips from hers.

"What?" he asked, frowning down at her.

Her eyes were open, but they were cast down and so he could not clearly see what she was feeling.

"Not here," she said. "Not out in the open like this. Somewhere more private. Somewhere special."

"Somewhere special?"

Hiei had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but when she gently teased the nape of his neck with her fingertips and breathily whispered "please" into his ear he had gathered her up in his arms and started running before he even registered what he was doing. He was not thinking clearly – it was quite difficult to think at all when the woman was kissing at his neck as he ran and massaging her hands over his chest and shoulders – and he did not even know where to take her. On instinct he started towards Mukuro's headquarters, his only thought being that the most private place he could take her to was his own room, but before he was even halfway there he had regained enough sense to see the many flaws in that plan, and so he redirected himself towards the miserable motel they had been staying at. The ferry girl had at least had no problems engaging in acts of adultery there before, so, he reasoned, she ought to have no problems doing so again.

When he finally reached the motel room his first instinct was to kick down the door, an instinct that he only questioned when the girl in his arms produced a key and held it up in front of his face. He considered ignoring her offer, but then the idea occurred to him that she might get nervous if the room had no door on it, and so he begrudgingly let her unlock and open the door before proceeding through it and carefully pushing it shut with his foot. He then marched up to the bed and deposited the ferry girl onto it and made to clamber on with her, stopping short as she somehow managed to slide off the bed and dart across the room before he had fully transferred his weight onto the knee he had resting on the edge of the bed. He turned his head, looking back over his shoulder, and found her at the door, one hand clutching at her loosened kimono to hold it closed and her other hand by the door handle.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Locking the door," she replied.

Hiei was a little surprised at her answer, as he had expected her to start accusing him of something or else making a tearful confession about how she had changed her mind about what she had proposed they do: but she remained true to her word and locked the door in place. She turned around, her eyes only briefly meeting his before she took on that pale, almost sickened look of guilt, and she hurried back over to the bed, crawling onto it and burying her way under the bed-sheets.

"You won't be needing those," Hiei told her, grabbing at the sheets as she tried to conceal herself beneath them.

"At least let me have some sense of security!" she snapped, tugging at the sheets.

Hiei held onto the sheets until she stopped trying to wrestle them from his grasp – which required no effort on his part, so was easy enough to do. When she eventually gave up she sighed and then turned paler again, that vaguely nauseated and guilty look tugging at her features once more. He sighed in defeat and released the bed-sheets, allowing her to wrap herself up in them. If it gave her some sort of sense of contentment and it stopped her nagging then it was worth it, he silently decided. Besides, he thought, the last time they had been in that bed together everything – clothes, pillows and bedding – had ended up discarded on the bedroom floor anyway. And so, as she burrowed down into the sheets, Hiei kicked off his boots, discarded his cloak and then crawled fully onto the bed, waiting for the inevitable moment that her own curiosity and desire began to overwhelm her modesty and pride.

And the moment came far faster than he had expected it to. As her eyes passed over his bare chest, her fingers began to relax, her grip on the sheet lessening. When he moved closer to her she sat up and touched a hand to his shoulder, tilting her chin up expectantly as he leaned closer to her, apparently unaware or else beyond caring when the bed-sheets slid down to her lap. Hiei started to grin at her diminishing inhibition, but shortly found her lips on his, and he began to once more lose focus on anything other than fulfilling his more immediate physical needs. He moved his hands to her shoulders to ease her down onto the bed, her kimono sliding from her as he did so, exposing the upper half of her body completely. He carefully positioned himself on top of her and gently eased himself down against her, delighting in the feeling of so much of her skin against his. Her hands seemed to be grabbing at him a little more fervently than usual, her fingers pressing into his shoulders and then raking down his back and finally fumbling around the waistband of his pants. He shortly realised that she was trying to remove the remainder of his clothes, which again amused him.

He pulled back from her and began opening out his belts, smirking down at her as she lay panting beneath him, her arms sprawled at her sides and her kimono wide open. The sheets had already slid down to her hips and a few more wriggles and kicks were bound to have them off the bed entirely, Hiei thought, which was something of a relief. And she was still watching him, which was something of a shock. Her eyelids were slightly drooped, but her eyes were still clearly visible and still blatantly on him, her pupils dilated with lust.

He supposed she was becoming as addicted to their little trysts as he was.

He finished unfastening his belts and with a sharp tug he pulled his pants down to his knees: and suddenly the ferry girl's eyes were enormous. He had not really considered it before, but he realised then that, in their previous encounters, she had kept her eyes closed and usually the lights had been out or else she had been at the other side of the room, and so this was obviously the first time she had actually looked at him naked, up close and in detail. He only paused long enough to come to that conclusion before continuing to shed the remainder of his clothing and then yank the sheets from his prey and fling them aside: and to his surprise she neither said nor did anything to stop him. Taking advantage of her temporary departure from her sense of modesty, Hiei manipulated the ferry girl out of her kimono completely and grabbed a hand at the last remaining item of her clothing – her panties – and made to take them from her by any means necessary, but stopped short when she suddenly yelped out the word "no".

He sighed and moved his eyes to hers, the fearful look on her face telling him that it had all been too good to be true after all: apparently she still was too prudish and stuck in her ways to surrender herself completely to him.

"P-please," she whispered in a shaky voice. "Please be gentle."

Hiei's eyes almost popped out of his head and he had to quickly hide his surprise behind a frown and twitch of his upper lip.

"I just… Well, you agreed with me that the first time for a woman can be painful, and you're…"

Her eyes wandered downwards and he followed them to his erect member hovering in the air between them.

"You're kinda big," she said in a tiny voice.

Hiei smirked and his manhood twitched appreciatively at what he thought was a compliment: or at least, it ought to have been a compliment, though by the way the girl was shuffling back from him and eying him warily he began to suspect that she had not intended it that way.

"If it's going to hurt, I'd rather I did it with someone I trusted!" she said, her voice a little louder and firmer.

"You don't trust me?" he asked.

Her answer may have been a no, but it came out as more of a squeal of fear and surprise as he grabbed the backs of her knees and pulled her down to the bed again, bringing her hips flush against his thighs. She whimpered pitifully, her eyes staring at the part of his body she now apparently found so offensive.

"If you want me to be gentle, I will," he conceded. "But trust me, you'll regret asking for that."

Her head snapped up and she fixed him with an angered, accusatory glare.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"It means you might find that gentle isn't hard enough to satisfy your needs, idiot," he flatly replied.

"Well I don't want you using me like some sort of sex object!" she snapped, slapping the sole of one foot against his chest.

She was perhaps trying to push him away, as he could feel her heel pushing into his skin and see the contorted shape of the tautened muscles in her leg, but it was, of course, a futile attempt.

"Wouldn't that only be fair?" he asked, pushing her foot from his chest.

"Wh-what?" she asked, her anger giving way to confusion.

"Me using use like some sort of sex object," he explained. "I think that would be fair, since that's how you treat me."

She gasped, looking genuinely horrified at his words, but he shortly proved to them both that she was either a hypocrite or in denial as he leaned over her again and she gladly lifted her chin, her lips meeting his in another almost violently passionate kiss. Hiei contemplated pausing to tell her how ironic her behaviour was, but he eventually decided against it, as doing so would probably only lead to her hiding under the bed-sheets for another few minutes and pleading her innocence, and he was growing tired of that act.

And really, he thought as she fisted a hand in his hand and hooked her other arm under his and pulled him down to the bed, her innocent ferry girl act really was only an act.

He let her pull him down, using the motion as an excuse to work his knees between her legs and push them apart. She seemed not to even notice at first, but as he pressed his hips to hers, nestling himself against her he felt her hips buck slightly beneath him and her body tensed. He thought she might then have a change of heart, but, again to his surprise, she hooked one leg over his hip and put her arms around his shoulders, holding onto him tighter than before. She was holding on almost too tightly for comfort, but Hiei allowed her to do so at first, mainly because he still thought that she might end the moment as soon as he tried to advance their interactions any further. He tried to subtly slide his hands down her sides to her panties in the vain hope that he could slip them off without her noticing or causing a fuss, but again he felt her tense as his fingers began tugging at the fabric. He tugged a little harder and broke away from their kiss, studying her face carefully to see how she would respond: and once again she surprised him by simply looking back at him with only the smallest hint of apprehension in her otherwise eager and desirous eyes.

Hiei kept his eyes on hers as he removed her underwear, suppressing a smirk when she allowed him to continue without verbal or physical dispute. He then flung aside her flimsy undergarment and pressed himself against her again, groaning involuntarily as his length came to rest against her heat. She squirmed slightly beneath him and logic began again fading from his mind as she unwittingly ground herself against him in an infinitely pleasurable way. He hesitated there for so long that the ferry girl began to moan and pout at him, but he needed to take the time to regain some sense of control over the situation: she had asked him to be gentle and he intended to comply with her request, but doing so was going to require a lot of will power on his part.

He gripped at the sheets as he eventually began to move, his fingers tearing the fabric as the strain of restraint became almost unbearable. He bore it as best he could, easing his hips back to drag his member against the ferry girl's already perfectly wet and invitingly hot flesh. He then carefully positioned himself over her opening and, fighting down the instinct to drive himself fully into her, he gently pushed forwards until the entire head of his penis had disappeared from sight between her taut and quivering lips. He paused for barely a second before slowly easing himself out again and once more resting his length flat against her folds and leaning forwards to rub their genitals together again. He looked into her eyes and saw that she was still almost inebriated in a haze of her own desire, and apparently as yet unaware of the game he was playing with her. She was so naïve and inexperienced, he thought, it would probably take her a few more minutes to realise exactly what he was doing to her and then another few minutes more for her to realise that it was an act of teasing that bordered on cruelty.

Hiei slid back again and again he pushed himself into her, pushing only a fraction of an inch deeper into her than he had the first time before easing out again and again rubbing his length against her. She moaned and her eyebrows twitched into a faint frown, but otherwise she did not respond, and so he repeated the process of sliding the flat length of his penis against her until he reached her entrance and then gently pushing into her, entering her slightly further than the time before and then gently backing out again. She was still quite tense and so he continued his routine, never breaking pace and each time penetrating her deeper and deeper. He worked past her barrier almost without her noticing, as she barely let out a gasp, and once he had past that point, he began to notice a change in her as she started to wriggle beneath him, apparently growing as frustrated as he was with the painfully slow, overly gentle and excessively teasing nature of his actions.

The ferry girl muttered out something that sounded almost like an alien language and she attempted to push against Hiei as he once more entered her. It took more effort than he would ever admit to to hold himself back and pull out of her again, but he told himself that it was worth it when he saw the way her face flickered with angered frustration.

"Gentle enough for you?" he asked quietly as he rubbed against her again.

"No!" she replied, sounding and looking almost hysterical.

"Not gentle enough for you?" he asked. "I'll be gentler then…"

He lifted his hips to ease the pressure between them and she actually sobbed.

"That's not what I meant!" she wailed.

"Then what did you mean?" he asked, positioning himself at her entrance again.

"I meant too gentle!" she cried. "Not hard enough!"

"You want it harder?" he asked.

"Yes, I want it harder!" she yelled, glaring at him, her eyes flashing with anger.

"Are you sure? Because you definitely begged me to be gentle before we started–"

"Give it to me harder, you bastard!"

There was a brief pause before her anger gave way to surprise and slight embarrassment. As her ire faded, Hiei realised that his face was contorted a little too in his surprise and so he quickly corrected it, expertly hiding his true feelings behind a mask of indifference.

"Okay," he said quietly.

He wrapped his arms around her thighs and pulled her legs further apart before driving himself fully into her. She threw her head back and thrust up her chest, crying out in pleasure. Hiei again suffered a brief moment of warring with his own instincts: although he had thrust into her much harder than before, it was still quite a mild and restrained action by his usual standards. He wanted to tighten his hold of her and ride her as hard and fast as he possibly could, but he knew that he would hurt her if he did, and she would never let him near her again if he hurt her, and so, focusing his attention on restraining himself, he began thrusting his hips against hers with a speed and forcefulness that he hoped was gentle enough not to hurt her but also hard enough to satisfy what she was asking for. When she began to squeal and shiver beneath him he felt that he had found the balance he had sought.

Within minutes she was sweating and clawing at the bed, and before long Hiei could see and feel that she was close to her release. He allowed himself to pump his hips a little harder and faster then to push her over the edge, the sound of her howls of delight almost making him lose concentration again. As she tightened around him he slowed his pace until she had calmed herself and then he lay down onto her, remaining sheathed inside her and letting her cling onto him as she came down from her euphoric high. He was still hard inside her and in need of more, but he hoped that she would be ready to go again soon if he let her cuddle him for a little while – he had heard that women liked cuddling after sex.

"Oh God…" she gasped, her shaking hands clutching at his shoulders. "That was God…"

"What?" Hiei grunted into her shoulder.

"My nurgle…" she moaned.

"Your what?"

"Mwuh-na."

Hiei groaned. She was starting to sound ridiculous.

"It was better than I ever imagined it could possibly ever maybe be," she said, her voice slightly muffled as though she was talking through the sleeve of her kimono.

Hiei brightened though: that at least was a compliment. Not that he needed it, of course, he already knew what a fantastic lover he was. It was just a welcome thing to hear after enduring thirty years of constant put-downs.

"I want to love you."

Hiei stiffened.

"What?" he asked.

"Forever now," she sighed.

"What?"

Hiei rearranged his hands onto the bed at either side of her head and pushed himself up to look down at her face. Her eyes were closed and she had an almost goofy smile on her sweat-glistened face.

"So nice…" she said softly.

She was making no sense, and so he dismissed her last words as just part of her nonsensical babble. That and, as she yet again had her eyes closed, she was probably imagining that she was with Yusuke again and had intended her expression of sentiment for the mazoku.

"Tell me when you're ready to go again," he said.

"What?"

The ferry girl's eyes opened wide and fixed onto Hiei's.

"I'm not done yet," he reminded her, pushing against her to prove his point.

She yelped and her entire body jerked as he moved deeper into her still tense body.

"When you're ready," he said, before lying down onto her again.

She muttered out something incomprehensible again, but she put her arms around him and touched her cheek to his, so he assumed that she was not objecting to the idea of a second round of love-making; he just hoped that she did not make him wait too long.


Botan's neck and shoulders were starting to ache from over-use. She was sitting in an armchair in the hotel lobby, facing the wall Hiei was standing leaning against, both of them waiting for their respective partners to emerge from the nearby conference room, and neither of them looking directly at each other. Hiei had contented himself with alternating between watching the door to the conference room and watching his feet, but Botan had spent the last half hour trying to look anywhere but either at the conference room or at Hiei. Or at least, she had spent the last half hour trying to look anywhere but either the conference room or Hiei, but her eyes kept wandering back to one or the other, facilitating the need for her to turn abruptly away and seek out something else to distract herself with; and the repeated, exaggerated turning of her head was starting to make her neck and shoulders ache.

She tried to look at things that distracted her thoughts, like the artwork on the wall or the pattern on the carpet, but mostly her attempts were failing, as her mind was overflowing with conflicting thoughts about what she had done with Hiei. She was surprised that it had been so painless and pleasurable – because she had always thought that her first time would be the opposite of both – and she was left wondering just how much of a mistake she had made. Hiei had convinced her that she ought to lose her virginity to him rather than wait for Yusuke by leading her to believe that her first time would be terrible and might make things between her and Yusuke strained. Hiei had made Botan believe that if she was a little more experienced, the first time she did lie down with Yusuke would be perfect: but she could not really imagine anything being any better than what she had done with Hiei earlier that day, meaning that she could have waited and saved herself for Yusuke.

Had Hiei lied to her deliberately to get her to have sex with him? And if so, why? It was not like he even wanted her: he was as devoted to Mukuro as Botan was to Yusuke. Although, when she thought too much about that idea, Botan realised that she had been the one to instigate what she had done with Hiei, she had asked for it and she had wanted it, so perhaps she was more to blame than he was. But he still could have said no, she thought darkly.

Botan found herself glaring at Hiei and unable to look away. She was sure that he knew she was watching him, but he kept his head turned slightly, his eyes on the door along the wall from where she was sat. They both remained that way for several minutes before the door eventually opened and Botan's attention shifted, her eyes quickly moving to Yusuke as he emerged from the room, stretching his arms above his head and yawning shamelessly. He smiled as he met her eyes and she felt her worries fade. She rose to her feet to greet him, but her feelings of ease and delight vanished in an instant when she noticed Kurama behind Yusuke. She was not really sure why seeing him made her feel suddenly guilty and dirty, but when he distinctly eyed over Hiei and then turned to her and smiled knowingly she remembered his earlier suggestion that she and Hiei were lovers, and she began to feel even worse.

"Hey, we weren't in there that long, were we?" Yusuke asked.

"What?" Botan echoed, moving her eyes back to him.

"You look terrible!" he replied. "You look tired and sick and scared! What's wrong with you?"

"Mwnah," she said, shaking her head.

"What?"

"Nothing – fine. There's nothing wrong with me, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine…"

"Maybe just tired or… I'm just tired."

"Oh yeah?"

Yusuke smirked and turned to Hiei, who had moved over to reunite with Mukuro.

"What have you been doing to Botan, Hiei?" Yusuke asked, snorting amusedly. "You've worn her out!"

"I didn't do anything she didn't ask me to," Hiei frankly replied.

Botan squeaked indignantly and Yusuke turned back to her, looking slightly confused.

"Maybe leaving the two of you alone together wasn't such a good idea after all…" he muttered. "I thought you would just ignore each other or else talk about old times…"

"I think we're all just a little tired," Kurama suggested. "We should all call it a night. I have to get back home, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here keen to get into bed tonight."

"Shut-up, fox!" Hiei snapped at him.

"Though in your case, apparently not because you intend to sleep," Kurama added, smiling up at him.

Hiei narrowed his eyes threateningly at his old ally, but Kurama seemed not to care, turning from him to face Yusuke.

"Well, good luck with everything and good night," he said.

"Yeah, thanks for stopping by, Kurama," Yusuke replied. "Do you need Botan to fly you home?"

Botan felt a little miffed at once again being volunteered to be used as a tool, but since it was Yusuke who had made the suggestion, she let it go.

"No, that's alright," Kurama replied, to her relief. "I'm sure Botan is keen to get to bed tonight too."

Botan paled, the almost devious smile on Kurama's face only making her all the more certain that he was mocking her and implying that she was going back to the motel to share a bed with Hiei – which was, technically speaking, true, since she would be spending the night in the same bed as Hiei, but that did not necessarily mean that anything untoward would happen between them.

Unless Hiei suggested it, in which case it probably would.

Botan stumbled slightly. Was this really what had become of her? Was she completely morally bankrupt, totally bereft of dignity and so desperate for companionship that she was willing to repeatedly fornicate with someone she could barely stand the sight of?

"Are you sure you're alright?" Yusuke asked her again.

"Fine," Botan replied, shaking her head.

He frowned slightly but appeared to accept her response as he turned to say his goodbyes to Kurama and then he turned to whisper something to Hiei before finally saying good night to Botan and, together with Mukuro, he walked away, leaving Botan alone with Hiei.

"What did he just say to you?" she asked, keeping her eyes on Yusuke's back as he moved towards the elevators.

"He said you're an idiot and he feels sorry for me having to stay in that motel with you," Hiei replied.

"Oh really?" Botan snapped, rounding on him. "Well Mukuro said to me that she thinks you're pathetic and she feels sorry for me having to share a room with you!"

"First of all, Mukuro didn't say a single word to you, and second of all, why are you assuming that I'm being sarcastic?" Hiei shot back.

"First of all, Mukuro spoke to me telepathically," Botan sneered sarcastically. "And second of all, you're always being sarcastic!"

"First of all, Mukuro wouldn't waste energy communicating telepathically with an idiot like you, least of all when you were standing right next to her, and second of all, that's not a reasonable rebuttal: how can you be sure that I wasn't telling you the truth?"

"First of all, maybe you don't know Mukuro as well as you'd like to think you do, and second of all, you're an ass!"

"First of all, stop talking about Mukuro like you're her equal, and second of all, you're just proving that you're an idiot now."

"Well first of all you're still an ass, and second of all, you always will be an ass!"

"…This is a waste of my time, I'm going back to the motel."

"So am I!"

"You're sleeping on the floor this time."

"What do you mean "this time"? You say that like you took a turn sleeping on the floor!"

"Sleep on the floor, or sleep with me."

"Fine, I'll sleep with you!"

Hiei arched his eyebrows and Botan's ire lessened slightly as she realised what they had just said to each other.

"I mean I'll sleep in the bed with you," she corrected herself. "But only because I don't have any other choice."

"You do have a choice," he calmly replied. "You could sleep on the floor."

"I refuse to sleep on the floor."

"Maybe you just need an excuse to share my bed."

"Why would I want to share a bed with you?"

"So far, it's been because you want to have sex with me."

"We've only had sex once, don't say it like it's been a regular thing!"

"Twice, actually."

"You never finished properly, it only counts as once!"

"Once for me, I suppose. But twice for you."

"Stop twisting it!"

Hiei sighed, and looked about himself before turning back to look Botan directly in the eye.

"Do you want to have sex with me tonight or not?" he asked.

"How dare you speak to me like that?" she snapped.

"There's no-one around to witness your stellar performance, so just be honest with me," he replied.

Botan gasped.

"I wasn't acting!" she said weakly.

"Yes or no?"

"Yes!"

"Right, get your oar and let's go."

"Fine!"

Botan stomped after Hiei as he started towards the exit, feeling strangely torn between anger, excitement and confusion. Maybe everything would make sense in the morning, she told herself. Or maybe she would just wake up tangled up in Hiei and they would start their affair all over again.


Next Chapter: More smut (oh, so much more smut) and Hiei and Botan begin speculating about just what Yusuke and Mukuro have been up to during their "meetings". Common sense is lost to jealousy, and Hiei and Botan find something else dubious and potentially dangerous to do together. Chapter 10 – The Both of Us