Recap: Botan managed to get an audio feed from Yusuke's communication mirror and Koenma's office, where she learned that spirit world believe her to have been "tainted" by demon world and beyond salvation, whereupon she challenged Hiei to teach her about demon world love – which ended in her embarrassing herself and very little happening between them.

Chapter 10: This World of Loneliness

"You should eat something."

Botan paused, her hands hovering over the mess of broken glass, plastic and wires, silently wondering how she ought to answer Hiei, if at all. She eventually decided to ignore him, as he was chomping his way through another appendage of one of the vaguely pig-like beasts he had brought up to their temporary accommodation, and, as hungry as she was, she was not quite desperate enough to eat a creature she could not readily identify.

"Here," Hiei said.

From the corner of her eye she could see the shadow of something he was offering her. It seemed odd to her that he would care enough about her welfare to bring food to her. Slowly she turned her head towards him. Frustratingly his features were cast into shadow by the light spilling into the room from a strategically placed hole in the roof, but despite not being able to see his face, she could clearly see the plate of finger-food he was offering her, a remainder of the food she had taken from the banquet the day before – which seemed even more considerate and unlike him.

"I'm just trying to get this fixed," she said, pointing at the remains of her communicator.

"You haven't eaten anything yet today," he replied. "You've got a physical body now, ferry girl, it has physical needs that you would be unwise to ignore."

Botan wished that she could see Hiei's face in that moment to determine whether or not he was still just talking about food.

"I'm not hungry," she lied. "And besides, shouldn't I just be concentrating on fixing this so that you can start torturing me in front of Lord Koenma?"

"Hn, the torture won't be any joy for either of us if you pass out from starvation and can't even feel what I do to you," he replied.

Botan sighed and then shuffled around on her knees – she had changed into her pants and vest again for practicality's sake – and picked up a single piece of sushi, glancing up at Hiei as she did so, trying not to look too sarcastic. She put it in her mouth and faked a smile, but her act ended there as she inadvertently opened the scab that had formed on her lip after she had bitten it that morning.

"Ow," she muttered through a mouthful of food.

She subconsciously touched a hand to the point of injury and withdrew it again, looking down to see a small red mark on her fingertip. She heard Hiei grunt something that could have been a word, but she did not bother looking up as she assumed that he was disgusted with her and she could not see his face to confirm his feelings anyway. She swallowed the contents of her mouth only to almost choke it all back up again when Hiei knelt down in front of her, bringing his face level with hers.

"You really are of no use to me if you die before I can get what I want out of you," he said quietly.

Botan almost felt brave enough to ask just what it was that Hiei wanted out of her, but she stayed silent when he placed down the platter and reached a hand out towards her. She suppressed a gasp of surprise when his thumb touched the wound on her lip, his touch both unexpected and mildly uncomfortable as he pressed the pad of his thumb onto the cut. His face was mostly blank bar the mild look on concentration in his eyes as he stared at her lip. It was a strangely intense and intimate moment, and despite having initially been confused and a little afraid, Botan almost moved an instant ahead of Hiei when he removed his hand and leaned in to take her wounded lip between each of his. She was not really sure that it counted as a kiss – in fact, she did not know what it was or what his intentions had been – but she closed her eyes regardless and relaxed into it.

At first, it was a gentle, warm and pleasant sensation having his lips on hers, and, in her moment of weakness, she even allowed herself to enjoy it. However, the feeling started to change when he began to gentle suck on her lip, drawing blood from the cut. Botan started to moan as it began to hurt and, just as it reached the point of becoming almost painful, he lessened the pressure and slowly pulled his lips from hers, pulling her lip a little as he did so. She opened her eyes again, finding him already looking at her, a small amount of her blood forming a line between his lips. As she watched him his tongue slid out just enough to lick her blood from his lips and she distinctly saw something in his eyes change.

"You could search forever for the type of love spirit world tells you is worth waiting all eternity for," he whispered. "Or you could just let go and enjoy the type of loving demon world abides by."

"You mean with you?" she asked, surprising herself with her own courage at voicing such a bold and direct question.

"Why not?" he responded.

"Well, for a start, you are incredibly–"

Botan's words quickly turned into a muffled cry of protest as Hiei slid a hand around the back of her neck and pushed his lips against hers again, this time in what was undeniably a kiss. She tried to pull away, parting her lips slightly as she did so and Hiei took advantage of her move, easing his tongue into her mouth. She tried to moan out a complaint but he growled in response and moved his other hand into her hair, grabbing at it almost painfully and lifting himself up into a crouch to lean over her. He forced her to tilt her head back, keeping his mouth sealed over hers in a hungry, almost aggressive, kiss. Helpless against his vastly superior strength she merely crumbled beneath him, his hands on her head holding her in place as he continued to relentlessly ravage her mouth with his tongue.

On instinct, she reached up her hands and grabbed at the shirt he was wearing, the need to hold onto something consuming her. She had wanted to push him away to allow herself a chance to draw breath but she instead found herself tugging at his shirt, a strange rush of something hot flooding her chest as she dared to move her tongue in rhythm with his. He growled appreciatively in response to her actions and moved one hand to one of her legs. She moaned in shock as he grabbed at her knee and straightened it out, almost off-balancing her, his lips stubbornly never leaving hers throughout the short struggle. Once he had straightened out her leg he moved his hand back to her hair and then moved his other hand to her other leg, straightening it out too. Again she clung desperately to his shirt and moaned in surprise, but she was almost glad when their lips remained locked together.

Hiei then slid his hands downwards one stopping at the back of her neck and the other continuing down to the small of her back. Once his hands were in position he carefully leaned further forwards, easing Botan down onto her back beneath him. She was not really sure what his intentions were, but right then she felt so lonely and confused and so reassured by his closeness that she no longer cared. Arching her back to press more of her body against his, she decided to simply give in to whatever it was that was making his attentions seem so right to her – demon world taint, loneliness, confusion or just the simple physical needs he claimed her human body had.

Botan was sure that Hiei's demon senses – if not just plain common sense – would see through her vain attempt to pretend to be asleep, but she persevered regardless, keeping her eyes closed and breathing as slowly as her racing heart would allow her to. She would never know if her ruse had somehow been effective or if Hiei had simply decided to humour her, but eventually he did cautiously untangle himself from her and carefully lay his coat over her naked form. On the off chance that she had somehow managed to fool him, she continued the pretence until she could no longer hear his footsteps, which had gradually faded in the direction of the tower steps. She then slowly opened her eyes, the sight of the semi-ruined room around her making her so far controlled memories of the last hour seem suddenly painfully real. She was not really sure that she felt any remorse or regret, but in that moment she knew for sure that she could never undo what had been done and she knew that her life would never be the same again.

She rolled onto her back, letting her limbs flop out at her sides. As she lay staring up at the roof, with its broken sections revealing patches of blood red demon world sky, Botan contemplated how, from thenceforth, she would refer to her memory of that morning – which she was sure would be everlasting. Would she remember it as the time when, in her human body with its strange needs and desires, she had succumbed to the temptations of lust, or would she remember it as the first step of her education in love – demon world style.

It was not love, she told herself stubbornly. Love was a beautiful, eternal, gentle thing that fulfilled the heart, challenged the mind and blessed the soul. The best way to describe what had transpired between herself and Hiei that morning was that they had shared an act of loving. The worst way to describe it was that they had shared an act of raw, unadulterated sex.

Botan slapped a hand over her eyes. Somehow she found that blocking her vision helped ease the feeling of having done something terribly sinful and dirty. And it somehow helped her forget just how much she had enjoyed every minute of it too.

Botan did not know what the spirit world opinion was on one of its ferry girls having an illicit affair with a demon – though she supposed no such legislation existed, since no ferry girl had ever taken physical form before. Even if such a ruling did exist she doubted it would be favourable to the practise. Hiei had said it best himself: she was of spirit world, and as such, the control and eradication of demons ought to be her main priority. She could still remember how agitated Koenma had been over Hiei's demon energy injuring her hands when she had tried to stop Keiko's transformation into a demon: she could only imagine how he would react upon learning that Hiei had burst through something far more intimate than the skin on her hands that day.

But by far Botan's biggest concern was that she had enjoyed every minute of Hiei's attentions, and she was left feeling incredibly guilty because of it. In fact, it was her guilt that she felt more keenly than anything else. Except the pleasure she had felt during her shared moment of passion with Hiei.

Botan howled in frustration and sat up abruptly, almost immediately regretting her action as her head buzzed and her legs twitched beneath her. She had not exactly done anything other than to lie on her back and moan, but her body felt more exhausted than it had after using the Spirit Gun attack on the man-eating ghouls. She was a little bit tender and more than a little bit sore in some areas, but for the most part she just felt strangely relaxed and contented; though only physically speaking, since mentally and emotionally speaking she was a wreck.

She clumsily pulled Hiei's coat over her head and thrust her arms through the sleeves. She then carefully stood up, smoothing the coat down around her thighs in an attempt to regain some of her dignity. Her legs still felt weak and she was mildly amazed that they held her weight. She staggered forwards a few steps before stopping still again as she noticed two things that left her feeling concerned: her own clothes were lying strewn about the floor where Hiei had flung them after so expertly removing each garment with the sleight of hands movements of a practised thief, and Hiei's own clothes were also still lying on the ground. She leaned over slightly to blink curiously at the piles of black cloth around her, shortly confirming that every last item of Hiei's clothes were indeed present, meaning that he had either left the tower completely naked or else he had somehow fashioned himself an outfit from the remains of the two beasts he had slaughtered and eaten.

When Botan spotted the charred bones and other inedible parts of the beasts she stopped speculating.

She could not imagine Hiei wandering around the city of ghosts and apparitions – or even just around Maze Castle itself – in the nude, but she could not deny that he had been perfectly confident stripping off his clothes in front of her eyes. Not that he had any reason to feel otherwise, she thought, as he did have a flawless physique – memories of which made her face grow hot and her legs buckle awkwardly beneath her. She staggered a few steps to regain her balance, feeling all the more disgusted with herself for reacting so strongly to something so depraved. She managed to stumble over to a pile of rubble before she started to fall over, her legs failing her entirely. She quickly put out her hands and braced herself on the fallen stonework. She then slowly and carefully manoeuvred herself around to sit down onto the stones. However, as soon as her weight pressed against the hard stones she realised that sitting might not be any better than standing had been, her uneven choice of seat putting unnecessary pressure on parts of her body that were still extremely tender. She started to stand again and again her legs quivered.

She paused, her hands on the rubble holding herself at a 45 degree angle, her mind undecided which was the lesser of two evils: standing on shaking legs or sitting on tender body parts. She eventually decided to take her chances on her feet and pushed herself into an upright position, swaying slightly before regaining her balance by arranging her feet at awkward angles beneath her and somehow managing to find a point of equilibrium. She sighed in relief and then began looking about herself for water, as she had become aware of being quite thirsty, her survey of her surroundings ending abruptly when her eyes passed over and then almost immediately returned to Hiei, who was standing by the entrance to the room, watching her impassively.

Botan blurted out a noise that had been somewhere between the words "hello", "Hiei" and "what" before staggering awkwardly as her legs threatened to give up on her entirely. She stumbled back a few steps, yelping as her bare ankles collided with broken rock and she accidentally stepped on some of the sharper pieces of debris. She finally found her balance again when Hiei moved over to join her, casually grabbing a handful of his coat by her waist, holding it in place to support her back until she had straightened herself out. As soon as she was steady and fully upright again she stared down unblinkingly at Hiei, who continued to look back up at her with the same air of disinterest, his hand still holding onto the coat as though he did not trust her to remain on her feet if he were to let go.

"You're not wearing anything, Hiei!" she eventually snapped, her face changing colour so fast that she could see the redness spreading over her nose in front of her own eyes.

"That didn't bother you this morning," he flatly pointed out.

She growled and tried to look indignant, but knew that the redness in her face was probably making her fail miserably at looking anything other than immature.

"Just… Put something on!" she demanded.

Hiei lowered his eyes to his fist, still bunched around his coat. He lifted it up slightly and she screamed, her hands grabbing desperately at the hem to pull the coat back down over her thighs at her sides.

"I won't wear your clothes," he said, lifting his eyes back up to hers. "Either you give me back my clothes or get over your spirit world repression."

Botan opened her mouth to argue with him, but the look on his face told her that she would only be wasting her breath, and if she did push him, he would probably just forcibly remove the coat from her body, leaving them both naked, which was definitely worse than just him being naked.

"Hn, you needn't bother with the demure ferry girl act any more," he said, opening out his fist and finally releasing his hold of his coat.

"Just because you saw me naked and we…" she began. "Did… Made… Had… Just because of that, don't think it means I'm now your…"

"My what?" he asked, still looking and sounding far too casual about the situation for Botan's liking. "My lover?"

"No, absolutely not!" she snapped, barely managing to stop herself from yelping in outrage.

"But you are," he said.

"What?"

"You are."

"I am what?"

"…My lover, you idiot."

"No! It doesn't work like that!"

"…Yes it does."

"No it doesn't!"

"Yes it does."

"It does not!"

"It does!"

"It absolutely does not! We can't be luh… We can't be anything if I don't want you!"

Hiei gave Botan an almost pitying look before slowly raking his eyes over her and then replying.

"I don't think that will be a problem," he said.

"Did you read my mind?" she asked. "Do you know what I'm actually thinking about you right now? Here, read this!"

Botan tensed herself and began thinking about Hiei back inside a prison cell in spirit world, but he had turned his head from her and seemed to be more interested in watching the wall than conversing with her any further.

"Hiei?" she said when she realised that he was not really paying any attention to her.

"I don't need to read your mind," he replied, turning back to face her with the same indifferent look in his eyes as before. "And it doesn't matter what you think anyway. I read your body, and whether your mind wishes to admit to it or not, your body has already told me exactly what you think about me."

"Oh really?" Botan sneered sarcastically.

"Yes," he replied. "That was why we had sex."

Botan gasped, her jaw dropping open as she was no longer able to contain her horror at Hiei's severe lack of tact.

"You wanted it, so did I, and here in demon world we don't repress our desires like your kin do in spirit world or the humans sometimes do in their world. If we want something here in demon world, we just take it," Hiei continued. "And since you are now living here too – by choice, so you say – you are no longer required to live by the rules of spirit world either."

Botan tried to argue, she tried to get across the point that it did not matter where she resided, her morals were what they were, and she did not agree with what they had done that morning, but for some reason her mouth could not put any of those valid points into coherent words, and, after blurting out a few disjointed syllables of utter gibberish she resigned to accept defeat.

"I was going out to wash and collect water," Hiei said after a few seconds of silence had passed between them. "But when I heard you moving about I decided to come back. Fly me there on your broom, it will be quicker."

"You're ordering me around again," she muttered.

"You need to come with me because you need to wash too," he told her. "Get your stick."

Again Botan wanted to argue with him but again she could not find the words as she remembered that she did smell quite bad and having a wash did sound like a good idea, not to mention that going with Hiei would allow her to finally see where the fresh, drinkable water in the city came from.

"Well let me get dressed first," she conceded. "And… Maybe you could put on some pants?"

"What's the point?" he asked.

Botan sighed quietly.

"Because it's indecent to go out naked in public," she said in a low voice.

"That's a spirit world prejudice," Hiei replied.

"There are women and children in this city," she pointed out.

"Are you worried about other women seeing me naked?"

"Yes, very much so."

"Why?"

"Why do you need to ask that question?"

"…I think you don't want other women to see me naked."

"You think right: I don't."

"Because you're a possessive sort of lover."

"Yes, and you should consider the – wait, what?"

Botan glared at Hiei in disbelief and he returned her look with a smug smirk that seemed completely inappropriate and without foundation.

"You don't want to share me with the other women in the city?" he asked in an almost mocking tone.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she blurted out.

Though by the time he had finished asking, she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"It's been a long time since I've taken an insecure, possessive lover," he said casually. "Though I should have known that would be your type, since you are clearly neurotic, unstable and clingy."

"What?" she growled.

"I don't like your kind, generally," he continued.

"I don't like your kind either!" she said haughtily.

"Too suspicious and needy. But most of all, I don't like having my integrity called into question: when I make an agreement with someone, I always see it through to completion. I never go back on my word."

"You mean like how you came back to the living world from the city of ghosts and apparitions like you promised Lord Koenma you would?"

"I never made that promise. I never promised anything to that brat or to spirit world. But I do promise to remain faithful to you until our love has run its course."

"…Okay, first of all, don't ever refer to what we did this morning as love again. Second of all, I wouldn't trust a promise from you if my life depended on it. And finally what do you mean "run its course"?"

Hiei smiled and Botan thought that she knew why: her last question had sort of contradicted her previous two points and suggested that she was actually interested in having some sort of relationship with him. Some sort of sordid, unnatural, immoral relationship, she thought darkly.

"It won't last," he said. "Nothing in demon world ever does."

"Why not?"

Hiei raised his eyebrows slightly and Botan quickly realised her mistake.

"Why am I even asking that?" she wailed, covering her face with her hands.

"Just remember that it's demon world loving, and not spirit world love," he told her.

"What?" she asked, parting her fingers to peer through them at him.

"Don't get attached to me and assume that this is a spirit world, everlasting, devoted, romantic thing," he explained. "It's just loving."

Botan was a little bit confused – before, Hiei had claimed that love was just a word with three different meaning, depending which world it was being used in, but now he seemed to be denying its existence altogether.

"Love and loving are two different things," she said.

She was mostly challenging him to argue her point, but she was also partly saying as much out loud to reassure herself and distance what was going on between herself and Hiei from her more ingrained definition of love.

"Get your broom, woman."

Botan narrowed her eyes angrily at Hiei, but since he was pulling on his pants she said no more on the matter: partly out of relief that he was getting dressed before he left the castle with her and partly because when he bent down to collect his clothing she got a mildly explicit view of his anatomy that left her speechless.

Hiei sat watching the ferry girl. He was almost pleased with himself for having managed to find a rock that was smooth enough to make a comfortable seat, and sitting on it conveniently submerged his body from the middle of his chest downwards. The water was quite cold, but the ferry girl seemed not to mind as much as he did, so presumably it was mild by human standards. She was standing several yards away from him, her back turned to him. She had been standing still for some time and he was not really sure why, and although her air-brained thoughts held no interest for him, he could not take his eyes off of her. Either she had misjudged the depth of the water or else she did not realise because she was distracted, as the lower half of her body was submerged, but the curves of her hips were above the water level, and as the river flowed along, the water rippling against her body, he was afforded flashes of more of her skin in a way he was sure she could not be aware of.

Or maybe she knew exactly what her position was doing to him, and maybe that was why she was holding it.

Hiei tried not to admit it to himself, but he could not stop the idea that the girl was secretly more sensual than a creature from her world ought to be from flooding his thoughts. She acted as though the thought of heated sexual encounters of no real consequence disgusted her and she certainly did nothing to seek out such activities, and yet that morning she had given in to his touch quite readily. It had – very obviously – been her first experience of sex, and, as she was a ferry girl in a human body, Hiei had expected her to be even more afraid and reluctant than a demon girl on her first try: but strangely that had not been the case. He had not been especially gentle with her – though he had made a bit of an effort to restrain himself in case he had accidentally killed her – and although she had clearly struggled to keep up with him, she had taken everything he had given her surprisingly well and had even attempted to return some of his gestures with reasonable success. As much as it pained him to think about it, it had been a long time since he had been with a woman, and he had really only intended to have a go on the ferry girl to get rid of the initial release of tension he knew he had built up. He knew that if he had been with a demon girl that morning, she would have walked out on him laughing at how out of practise he had let himself become, and since his hostage was a woman, it had seemed like a convenient excuse to get himself back up to pace.

He had not expected to enjoy it, especially not as much as he actually had.

He had of course also been trying to demonstrate to her the difference between that restraining, sappy, romance crap that spirit world promoted versus the free, real passion that demon world acknowledged as love. He had hoped to either completely disgust and horrify her or else to make her realise the wrong of her ways and beg him for more. Neither had proven to be the case, which he supposed meant that he would have to try again.

And, rather annoyingly, he actually wanted to try again.

Hiei had rarely been with the same woman more than once. He had been with some partners for several weeks, but it was not something he ever made a habit of. He did not believe in the sort of devoted, attached love that the spirit and human worlds glorified the importance of, and he was sure that every other demon agreed with him – but he had always secretly harboured a fear that one day he would take a lover who would believe in that sort of love and end up falling in love with him. He knew that he would never fall in love with anyone – not in the spirit or human world sense of the word, anyway – but he had frequently worried that someone would fall in love with him. Hiei only loved two things in life: gaining power and maintaining his freedom. Having a silly girl hanging around him threatened to rob him of both of those things. Hiei liked to be alone, and the only times he was willing to change that was for brief periods of time that allowed him to pursue the two loves of his life – he would form brief alliances with others like Kurama to help him gain power and he had tolerated working with Kurama and two humans to gain his freedom from spirit world prison.

The only possible exception to any of that was his sister Yukina. He saw it as his duty to protect her from harm and sadness, but he would never dare let her so much as see him, let alone find him and learn who he was. Part of protecting her involved never letting her become a part of his own dangerous life and even for Yukina – as much as he did concern himself over her happiness and welfare – Hiei was not willing to sacrifice his single, independent, loner lifestyle.

"This city is full of life."

Hiei narrowed his eyes slightly, focussing his sights onto the back of the ferry girl's head. She had not posed her words as a question and so he saw no need to answer her, but he did have to wonder why she had voiced them.

"And with this barrier containing us all here, it's almost like we're in a little world of our own," she continued.

She then turned her head, looking back over one shoulder at him. She looked ludicrously vulnerable standing there completely naked and wet, her hair clinging to her head, face, neck and back, her eyes large and uncharacteristically sorrowful.

"It's like we're in a little world of our own, and it's full of life," she said. "But it's a world of loneliness. I'm surrounded by others, but I'm still alone. It's almost like I'm invisible. It's like I'm back in my ferry girl form and I'm walking around the living world, where nobody can see or hear me, nobody can feel my presence and most people don't even believe that I exist… Sometimes I wonder about the beliefs of humans: if they all stopped believing in ferry girls, King Enma and spirit world, would we all cease to exist? Would spirit world just vanish?"

"Don't try to be philosophical," Hiei warned her. "It doesn't suit a simpleton like you."

"Well I'd rather be an amateur philosopher than a full-blown philophobic!"

Hiei did not answer her. Not because he thought she had said something stupid and unworthy of an acknowledgement (as was usually his reason for not answering her) but because he had no idea what the word "philophobic" meant. He understood that the "phobic" part meant "fear of", but the "philo" part was completely alien to him. He had just accused her of being a philosopher, so maybe "philo" was related to philosophy somehow. Was she accusing him of fearing intellectual analyses? And if she was, was he offended or not? It was an offensive remark, but coming from a fool like her, it lost a lot of its impact as an insult.

"I've seen your type before," she said, turning her head slightly away from him, but still keeping her profile within his line of sight. "Even in the living world there are humans as blind and stubborn as you are. It's been a long time since I have personally met a soul as philophobic as yours, but that's not to say that I've never met anyone as thoroughly entrenched in illusion as you are. They all regret it, Hiei. They all break down and admit the error of their ways, even the toughest of them. Sometimes it's not until they are being judged and sentenced in the afterlife, but they all eventually realise that they wasted their lives and that their foolish pride caused them to lose out on the most beautiful thing life has to offer any soul: love."

Hiei growled quietly under his breath. He should have known that she would be talking about that sentimental nonsense again. It had almost been a nice moment before she had opened her mouth, and he had almost been enjoying her presence, but now she had ruined it completely.

"Those souls were always the ones that I pitied the most," she said with a sigh. "Because they had missed the most fundamentally wonderful thing about being alive. I'll never know true love because I don't have a life to experience it in, but those souls had a life, they had a chance – they had plenty of chances – and they wilfully chose to shun them. I always wonder why they do. Do you like being hated and alone all the time Hiei?"

She turned her head further, her torso twisting at the waist so that she was looking almost directly at him. It was a stupid question, in his opinion, since it ought to be obvious to anyone with even an ounce of common sense that he liked being alone and actually quite enjoyed being hated, but apparently the ferry girl was not only intellectually idiotic, but she was also lacking in the basics of good sense too.

"Do you like living in this world of loneliness, Hiei?" she pressed. "Do you like being king of your own empty emotionless empire of–"

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you," he cut her off.

"Then I'll have it on my own," she said. "I think I can guess what your answers would be anyway, you're surprisingly one-dimensional. You act all vague and cryptic, but the real reason you're so quiet is because you have nothing of substance to say. Instead you just judge everyone else like you have a right to, whilst hiding behind a mask of–"

"Stop talking or I will leave you alone here."

"I'm the one who flew us here, I'm the only one who can make my oar fly, you need me to get back to the castle."

"I don't need you for anything, woman. I can run faster than you can fly and finding my way through the maze again is only a minor inconvenience, one I will gladly overcome to save my ears the pain of listening to your endless drivel about the virtues of the spirit world way of life."

"Well go ahead and leave then."

"If I do leave, I'm taking your clothes with me."

She gasped and staggered around in the water to face him fully. She was – as he had guessed from the positioning of her shoulders – hugging her arms over her chest as though she thought she needed to hide her breasts from somebody who might actually care enough to watch her as she bathed.

"Why do you have to be so mean, Hiei?" she snapped.

"Why do you have to be so irritating?" he retaliated.

"I'm just being myself!" she yelped. "If you find that irritating, that's your problem, not mine!"

"You should show some shame," he advised. "And I too am "just being myself". If you find me too "mean" maybe you should toughen up a little. I thought you were trained to deal with all possible characters and temperaments, you ought to be able to handle me, especially since I have gone out of my way to tolerate you so far."

"It's comments like that that make it very difficult for me to like you, Hiei!"

"I'm not asking you to like me."

"Wouldn't it be easier for us both if I did?"

"…No."

Hiei genuinely did not want her to like him. In fact, he wanted her to hate him. The more passionately the better. There was nothing quite so satisfying as angry, hate-fuelled sex.

"I'll never understand you," she said quietly.

"I'm not asking you to do that either," he said.

Thanks to her screeching voice nagging him and spoiling the moment, Hiei was finally able to stand up without the risk of embarrassing himself and so he did so and began wading his way through the water towards her. She was pouting at him moodily as he approached, but once he got within arm's length of her he saw her expression soften.

"Have sex with me on the riverbank and then fly me back to the castle," he told her.

She sighed, looking slightly disappointed, and gave an answer that surprised and confused him and again left him strangely curious to find out more about what she was thinking after all.

"Okay."

She turned towards the bank they had left their clothes on and began wading towards it, more and more of her body coming into his view as the water became shallower around her. He wanted to understand what she was thinking, but he was also no fool: if she was willingly offering him what he wanted, he was not going to hesitate to take it.

Next Chapter: The bird returns with news of Yukina, and Hiei is left irate. Botan finally manages to fix the mirror, revealing more of the situation in the living world to herself and Hiei. Chapter 11 – My Heart's Crippled

A/N: Today's instalment of "Bleeding Love" was sponsored by the 2010 Megallica Reunion World Tour. For your chance to win front row tickets to see Megallica at a venue near you, click the "Review this Story/Chapter" button below. Good luck!