A/N: Thanks you guys for the reviews! I love 'em! Please keep them coming! I sort of like this chapter more than usual. It's a little darker and is definitely one of the chapters that kicked up the rating of this story for things other than strong language. I hope this is well received, please let me know how it came out!

"I wish you would just eat."

Mai turned her eyes to the moody fire demon. He glared at her from his seat across the kitchen table, arms crossed. His eyebrow was twitching slightly in annoyance.

"We both know I can't."

"Onna, this is bullshit."

Green eyes rolled in exasperation and Mai folded her own arms, resting them across her rib cage. "We have two options: I can get disqualified from the competition, leaving you and the others to try and win with some new partner, or I can keep this up for a little while longer and we can dance our way to Kazai."

"You are going to destroy your body."

"What good is a healthy body if I can't do what I want with it?" she countered.

Hiei shut his eyes in immense frustration. She had him there; he had once been willing to do anything to get off his parole, and that had at least still granted him the run of the whole city. The only thing he couldn't do was harm a human. But Mai… she was as good as a puppet on Kazai's strings. If he told her to do something, she had to do it. If she was to be an object for his clients, she had to let them get their fill.

"I am going to make that bastard wish he had never seen you, let alone put his seal on you."

Mai said nothing, her eyes unfocused. She was clearly lost in her own thoughts. After a moment, she mumbled something about a headache and pressed her forehead against the tabletop.

"He is as good as dead, onna. I will see to it," he assured. Clenching his hands, he added, "You will be nobody's property ever again."

"I am so tired of this," she said, almost in a whimper.

The fire apparition didn't know what else to say, and settled for resting what he hoped was a comforting hand on her forearm.

"Is it…" the hanyou stopped, took a shaky breath, and tried again. "Is it too much to ask for you to stay with me tonight?"

"I have stayed with you before," Hiei reminded.

Mai nodded against the table. He had a feeling that she wasn't satisfied with the conversation, but didn't want to press it.

Deciding to push for details for once, Hiei asked, "What did you mean by staying with you?"

"I don't want to fall asleep on the couch together, or for you to sleep on the window seat in my room," she replied, lifting her head off her arms to look at him.

"You want to stay together in your bed," Hiei concluded perceptively.

The blonde nodded, a light pink tint rising to stain her cheeks. Hiei leaned back in his chair for a moment, thinking on the request. He supposed it wouldn't be so much different than sleeping on the couch or in his tree. It was a mental thing, more than physical closeness. As long as he kept in mind that they weren't going to be doing anything other than sleeping, he figured it could be alright.

"Fine, onna. Let me go get different pants to wear, and it will be okay, I think."

He stood up and began to leave the room, but stopped when she spoke up again.

"Thank you, Hiei."

The fire demon turned away from her, a faint tint of color and a small smile on his face. "You're welcome, onna."

Mai curled up in her bed beneath her usual layers of blankets. She rolled to her side, facing the wall. Her body shook with cold, but she barely noticed, lost in her thoughts. It was obvious that Hiei was incredibly angry about her situation. She knew male demons were possessive, but she had never seen it first-hand before. If that was even the root of his anger.

The blonde didn't want to think about it. She wished she had telepathy so she could just know what Hiei was thinking, and be done with it. Reading him was like reading another language sometimes. But it didn't change the effect he had on her. The effect she craved so badly at that moment.

"Onna, are you really that cold?"

She jumped, surprised at the reappearance of the very demon she had been thinking about. Rolling back over, she saw that he had changed into black sweat pants and a dark grey t-shirt that stretched magnificently across his broad chest. For a moment, Mai was jealous that he could look so attractive even as he was about to go to bed, but she quickly wiped the thought from her mind, turning her thoughts instead to his question.

"Yes, I am cold," she said, curling in tighter on herself.

Hiei pulled the blankets back and slid into the bed next to her. He readjusted the covers before sliding his arms around the petite blonde's waist and pulling her into his chest. She pressed her face against him. He actually shivered slightly as her freezing nose brushed his exposed collarbone.

"How in the world do you get this cold at night?" he asked, concentrating on bringing more heat to the surface of his skin.

"By nighttime, I'm too tired to keep away the air," she muttered, already feeling sleepiness fogging her brain.

"What do you mean?"

"Air, it's attracted to me, and tries to blow around me all day. Gets pretty cold…" She yawned before continuing, "I usually just keep it at bay all day, but by night, my energy is kinda low, so I just let it do as it will. Throw some blankets on and hope it'll be warm enough."

The fire apparition kicked it up a few more degrees, noting that he did feel just the barest hint of cool air fanning across Mai's skin. It was so slight he had to actively feel for it, but he could imagine how cold it would be to have even that slight breeze blowing around him all the time, especially without a blanket shielding the majority of it.

"Onna?"

She hummed an indication that she was listening and idly moved an arm to wrap around his shoulder, pulling them closer together.

"Are you okay?"

"I am now."

Hiei raised an eyebrow at her. "Now? What changed?"

"Now I have you with me. I feel… safe."

"Then sleep. I'll be right here."

She hated dancing. It was vile and disgusting.

Well, this kind of dancing.

Mai rolled her hips once more before hooking her leg around the cool metal pole. Gripping it tightly in her hand, she spun on the thin heel of her shoe, using her anchor on the pole to spin in a wide circle. Once she reached her start point, she swung the other leg up, flipping herself upside down on the pole. Clenching on with both hands, the hanyou did a split in midair, allowing herself to slide down a few inches. Twisting her body in the air, she swapped the way she was facing, no longer facing the crowd, but the pole itself. Her legs wrapped around metal, then she bucked her hips up against it a few times. A few groans surfaced from the crowd.

The blonde slid down several more inches before moving off the pole in a cartwheel-like motion. She caught a glimpse of herself in one of the many mirrors on the wall; she wore tight booty shorts, torn fishnets and a tightly bound corset. She felt like garbage, noting the hungry looks of the men in the crowd.

As her green eyes roamed over the crowd, she found Kazai in the corner and her heart skipped a beat. He was glaring at her with his dark, terrifying eyes. Slowly, he gave her a hand motion. The familiar flame of pain burst from the seal on her hip and her hand flew to the ties on her shorts. Undoing them, she sensually shimmied out of the fabric, flicking them off the stage into the hands of one of the audience members. She was left in her tiny G-string, and if it hadn't been for the lack of lighting in the room, everyone would have seen the deep blush on her face.

She was such trash.

Her eyes found Kazai's once more and he motioned for her to take her turn working the crowd so the next girl could come on stage and perform. She obligingly strutted down the steps and began weaving through the tables. She nearly yelped as someone reached out, pulled at her G-string and slipped a dollar bill beneath it. More hands followed, pulling at the tiny article of lingerie and stuffing the money inside, taking care to brush any skin they could get to. Her stomach churned in disgust.

A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. She turned to the man. He looked to be in his late thirties, with thick brown hair and blue eyes. He was looking at her with a tense, stony expression. He lifted his free hand and between his middle and index fingers was a fifty dollar bill. She felt her heart drop, knowing what it meant she had to do. The man placed the bill on the table beside his booth as Mai moved to stand in front of him. She began dancing along with the music, running her hands over her chest, stomach and between her thighs. The guy watched, drinking in her movements until his mouth twitched down in impatience. Mai took it as her hint to get a move on and stood with one leg on either side of his chair. She slowly dropped down into his lap, circling her hips provocatively. Grinding into his lap, she felt him twitch slightly in his pants. It brought on another wave of nausea.

Slowly, Mai reached behind her and undid the bindings on her corset. Her hand paused before her seal burned excruciatingly and her wrist, of its own accord, flicked the garment off to the side, leaving her torso bare for the man to see. His eyes locked on her breasts and she continued to grind against his groin. Her hands moved to his wrists, bringing his hands up and pressing them to her breasts. He groped them roughly, squeezing and pulling at the flesh and sending pain shooting through her. His fingers moved to grasp at her nipples, pinching them tightly and twisting them.

Tears were threatening to spring to her eyes, but she fought against the pain and the shame. He tugged at her nipples harshly before his hands moved to grip her backside in a tight hold. His finger slid over the string of her thong and she felt his arousal begin to poke her thigh. The finger suddenly dipped farther up and into the tiny article of clothing, reaching for her womanhood. She pulled away and stood up. Her knees almost buckled from the pain that erupted from the seal. Her vision turned foggy and it took every ounce of willpower she had to slip away from the customer and out of the room.

She walked down the hall, the pain increasing with each step. Her hands ran blindly across the wall, searching for a door – for anything. She found a door knob and all but fell inside what turned out to be a closet. The blonde sank to the floor, gasping for breath as the pain burned through her veins. She walked away from a client and forgot his money on the table, two strikes against her, and the seal would not let her forget it. A particularly powerful wave of punishment burst from her hip, setting her skin aflame…

"Onna! Onna! Goddammit, Mai, wake up!"

Green eyes flew open. Her chest rose and fell with her quick breaths, desperately trying to fill her lungs with air. Her eyes cleared and she found Hiei hovering above her, a hand braced on the mattress on each side of her.

His crimson eyes searched hers, watching as they began to blink back tears. He cupped her face in his hand, gently running his thumb over her cheek.

Mai opened her eyes again, and found that it wasn't just the normal ruby orbs gazing at her, but his Jagan as well.

"You saw what I was dreaming," she stated. She didn't need to ask, she knew from the third eye focusing down on her.

"Are you mad?" he asked, then added, "You wouldn't wake up. I had to know."

"I'm not mad." There was a pause. "Are you?"

"For what, onna?" The fire demon leaned down and nuzzled his nose into the side of her neck.

"What you saw."

"None of that was your fault. You fought through all the pain so nothing else would happen. You are strong, Mai. The only person I'm mad at is Kazai. He will suffer dearly for doing such things to you."

"Hiei… I don't deserve you," she whispered, shutting her eyes tightly. The action caused a few tears to leak from her eyes and roll down her cheeks.

"That's nonsense," he replied shortly.

"It's true. I am… I am trash."

The dark haired demon shook his head. "No. Don't ever think that again. You had no choice. Those men that…" he had to force himself to say it, "touched you, they are the ones who are trash."

Mai shook her head in disbelief.

Hiei growled, vowing to make Kazai feel as much pain as possible in his death. He swallowed a lump in his throat and forced out the words he was thinking. "You deserve… your body should be cherished, and you should be loved. If anything… I don't deserve you."

"What are you saying, Hiei?" whispered the blonde, her body tensing.

"I don't know if I can love you like you should be," he replied softly.

Another drop of moisture accumulated in the corner of her eye, dropping down the curve of her cheekbone and into her hair. Hiei watched the tear, regretful that he was its cause. It surprised him when he felt her hand on his cheek.

"I know you are capable of more than just a demonic sex drive, Hiei. If that's all it was… you'd have taken me by now."

"Don't think so highly of me. It's something on my mind more often than-"

"Hiei, stop."

He looked down on her in surprise again.

"You need to stop doubting things, especially right now. I'm scared, and now you know the kind of power the seal has over me. I hate remembering that things like that have made up the past five years of my life and that even worse could be to come. Whether you think I do or not, all I want right now is you; I need you to be with me."

"Okay," he whispered, surprised at her openness. "You have me, then."

They settled back down beneath the blanket, Hiei holding onto her tighter than before. He placed a kiss on her temple before tucking her under his chin. After a while, Mai had fallen back asleep, but Hiei lay awake for a long time, turning her words over in his mind.

Could he love her?