Recap: Hiei had an enlightening conversation with Yukina (plot!), he got sucked into playing the "what if" game and was almost caught out when Kurama made it clear that he knows Hiei is the wrong Hiei (plot!), and then there was a whole bunch of fluff and smut (not plot…)

Chapter 26: One Defining Moment

Hiei stood in front of a wide mirror, wrapped up in a fluffy white towel, watching Botan's reflection as she wrapped her hair up in a towel and collected another, smaller towel and started towards him with it.

"I'm so glad that you're here this weekend," she said sweetly.

"Well, I was–"

Hiei stopped abruptly as Botan dropped the towel she had been carrying over his head and began rubbing at his hair with it. He growled and tensed but she seemed not to care, finishing her task and whipping the towel off again. He glared at her reflection but she kept her eyes on his head as she began combing her fingers through his still damp hair.

"That was unnecessary," he said in a low voice.

"I know, but I like looking after you," she replied.

She kissed him softly on the cheek and his counter-argument faded from his mind before ever making it to his lips.

"I hope Monzan is behaving himself," she commented casually.

"Hn, he's probably too busy eating to cause any trouble," Hiei replied.

"That's the problem," Botan said slowly. "Yukina baked a lot of sweet things to take with us this weekend, and if Monzan finds out where she hid them, he'll eat the lot and he won't sleep tonight. He's turning into a sneaky little thief."

"Like me?"

Hiei turned his head to look directly at Botan, who giggled at his remark.

"Yes, I suppose so," she said. "He can be stubborn and sneaky sometimes, but he's a good boy. I'm always glad to have him and I'm especially glad that my son is also your son, Hiei."

Hiei smiled and closed his eyes as Botan leaned closer to him and kissed his forehead just below his jagan eye.

"I would probably just spoil him or make him too soft," she continued, brushing the backs of her fingers against his cheek. "You teach him how to be strong and to carry himself with honour and pride. I just teach him how to play games and give hugs."

"You taught him not to kill in a sparring session," Hiei said without even thinking. "And you've taught him to be polite and respectful. And because of you, he understands love and friendship. He doesn't need to hold back his feelings because he's not afraid of them. You've done well by him."

"Oh Hiei, that's such a sweet thing to say!"

Botan kissed Hiei's cheek again and a glance in the mirror told him that he was still smiling: and the expression looked quite odd on him. Hiei was not sure that he had ever seen his own face smiling out of happiness before. He had often seen himself smirking in a condescending or cocky manner, but never simply smiling in a contented way.

"You have such a beautiful soul Hiei," Botan said, drawing his attention back to her face. "And although you don't often voice your feelings, when you do, you always do it so eloquently."

"…Eloquently?"

Hiei knew what the word meant, but he had never heard anyone use it around him, least of all towards him.

"You're so clever and noble and yet humble and simplistic," Botan said.

That was also an odd description of himself, Hiei thought.

"You're quite clever yourself," he answered her. "Deceptively so. Mukuro told me about that little trick you pulled giving Monzan a bunch of flowers to give to her."

Botan smiled as gently as she usually did but Hiei saw something change slightly in her eyes.

"It was important for me to make peace with Lady Mukuro," she said. "We couldn't have lived with her if she wouldn't accept me or our children."

"And you want to live with her?" Hiei asked.

"Of course I do," Botan replied without hesitation.

"Even though you know that she initially hated you and Monzan and she disapproved of me marrying you?"

"I thought perhaps she just didn't understand me. I thought that maybe she thought I was just a silly ferry girl with a crush on demon world's sexiest citizen."

Botan kissed Hiei on the cheek again and again he felt his smile widen.

"And I wanted to show her that I was not a fool," she continued. "And nor did I have any designs on marrying you for your position as her heir. I wanted us to be friends, and I thought that the best way to make an offering of peace was to send a message to her. Here in the living world people send different varieties of flowers depending on the message they are trying to send, so I asked Kurama to help me choose some flowers here that would show Mukuro that I wanted to make peace with her and that I accepted and respected her position of authority. And I know my plan worked because she accepts Monzan and she even lets him call her "aunty Mukuro"."

"It was very sneaky of you," he said. "Maybe Monzan gets his sneakiness from you, not me."

"Maybe he does," Botan mused, looking genuinely thoughtful. "But he's better able to hide his sneaky deeds than I am. I'm hopeless at lying or hiding things. I can't keep anything to myself. Monzan can, and he definitely gets that from you… Like how you won't tell me whether I'm going to have a boy or a girl…"

"You asked me not to tell you," Hiei reminded her.

"Yes I did, but it's very sneaky of you to keep it hidden. I would have told you by now if it was the other way around. Maybe you'll accidentally tell me soon."

"Not going to happen."

Botan pouted and Hiei shook his head.

"I don't know how you do it…" she muttered, turning from him. "Dry yourself off, I'm going to put a dressing on that wound for you. You'll let me at least do that, right?"

She looked back over her shoulder at him and he nodded. He shifted the towel around his body to hang around his hips, fully exposing the wound he was still sporting – and always would be. He poked at it experimentally, a little surprised to find that it was both highly sensitive and starting to heal faster than before. He had never suffered a prolonged injury on any part of his body – intentionally or otherwise – and the closest thing he could think about was the hole he had in his head where his jagan eye had been implanted: and that had been left to heal. He tried to push from his mind the small nagging thought that keeping himself injured might prove harder than he had predicted and instead turned his attention to Botan, watching her open up a low cupboard and produce a little plastic case like the one Hiei had seen Kurama take bandages from in his shop. He noted where she had taken it from and made a point to return there when there was no-one else around and steal anything of use from it.

She returned to him with a roll of bandages, her eyes on his wound as she walked. Hiei started to feel a little apprehensive about dealing with any more questions she might have about his persistent injury, but when she knelt down in front of him and touched her hands to his waist he started to lose focus again. He watched her dress his wound with meticulous care and then tucking the end of the bandages back in on themselves. She made to move – possibly to stand up – but stopped short as she noticed the effect her position and actions had had on Hiei. She looked up at him curiously but he turned his head away to avoid having to see the questioningly and almost judgemental look on her face and having to explain himself. However he swiftly turned his head back again as Botan pulled the towel loose from his waist.

And his curious and mildly angered scowl dissolved in a groan of pleasure and appreciation as she gently took hold of his taut manhood in both of her hands and dragged her tongue up the length of it.

"Oh dear," Botan said, looking about herself with a slight frown. "It looks like they left without us…"

Hiei paused in the kitchen as Botan walked around the dining area, where dirty dishes still laid out on a long table indicated that the others had all been there earlier. When he was sure that Botan was not looking, he carefully recovered the note pinned to the fridge door, and read over it. Written in Yusuke's hand-writing it said: "got bored waiting for you two to finish sucking each other dry, so started without you. Sure you'll manage to catch up, Yusuke. PS we took Monzan and the cakes".

"We have to go," Hiei said, closing his fist around the note and stuffing it into his pants pocket.

"Yes, they've gone up the mountain," Botan replied. "Monzan must be with them, I hope he behaves himself."

Hiei resisted the urge to tell her that Monzan eating his own weight in cakes was their biggest concern, instead focusing on what she had said first.

"Let's just get up the mountain," he said. "I'll carry you, we'll get there faster that way."

"Oh, are you sure?" she asked.

She was looking at him as though he had offered her something that other Hiei never would have, which only made Hiei hate that other Hiei all the more.

"Let's just go," he said.

"I packed you some warm clothes," she replied, moving back over to join him, "We'll need them, it's cold up there."

Hiei followed her back to their room where he reluctantly donned the long coat and gloves she had packed for him, but he drew the line at wearing the knitted cap she had packed. He saw her stuff it into one of her pockets, apparently under the misguided belief that she could convince him to wear it later. He chose to ignore her little act of deception and instead walked her to the back door, looking out up the mountainside. He could not see the others ahead of them but it was a steep climb, and Hiei had no idea how long he had spent in the bathroom with Botan – it had possibly been two hours – so it was possible that the others were already at the top.

"Climb on my back," he said, crouching down in front of Botan.

"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly. "I'm heavier now you know, and I'm bigger with this bump–"

"I'm not weak woman, now get on!" he insisted.

"Well, alright then…"

She carefully wound her legs around his waist and Hiei hooked his arms around them, waiting for her to grip onto his shoulders and settle against his back before standing up.

"Hold on," he warned her.

She started to tell him that she already knew to hold on, but her voice dissolved into a scream of surprise as he started to run, her hands closing into fists around the material of his coat. It took slightly longer than Hiei had expected to catch up to the others – partly because he had not been running as fast as he usually would for fear of dropping or hurting Botan and partly because the others had made impressive progress up the mountainside – but as they did start to near them and Hiei slowed his pace, he started to realise why Botan was dressed for winter and why she had packed warm clothes for him: they were surrounded by snow.

Hiei slowed to a walk, the snow rapidly getting deeper around him. He could see Kurama, Keiko, Maya and Kuwabara's sister sat on a blanket drinking hot drinks and eating cakes and he instinctively aimed for them, mostly because of the lure of the warmth of the drinks and blanket. As he reached them he gently lowered Botan back down to the ground, where she released her hold, kissed him on the cheek and passed him the stupid hat she had been carrying in her pocket. Without complaint, he put it on.

"Mommy!"

Botan and Hiei turned to see Monzan and Yukina waving at them.

"We're making snowmans!" Monzan called over.

Hiei was unsure what he found more ridiculous: the fact that Monzan was wrapped up in so many layers of clothes that he looked like a dumping with eyes or the fact that Yukina was still dressed in just her knee-length skirt, ankles boots and thin, long sleeved sweater, rolling a giant snowball without gloves.

"Isn't that sweet?" Botan said to Hiei. "But where is Yusuke?"

She looked about herself and Hiei copied her actions, speaking his next thought without giving it due consideration.

"Where's Kuwabara?"

Hiei tensed slightly as he saw every head turn in his direction, multiple pairs of eyes staring at him curiously.

"Not that I care, I'm just curious," he hurriedly added.

"They're at war," Kurama said.

Hiei thought that Kurama perhaps said the word "war" a little too heavily, but he tried to ignore it as just over-suspiciousness on his own part.

"They're having a snowball fight," Keiko added. "You know how immature they can both be sometimes."

"Needless to say, Yusuke's beating Kazuma," Kuwabara's sister said. "They're trying to get us involved."

"But we're not interested," Maya finished.

Hiei and Botan sat down by the others and Botan poured out tea from a flask, adding some sugar and handing it to Hiei along with a cake, which he greedily ate, feeling a little cheated that he had missed breakfast: he was becoming increasingly sympathetic towards Monzan, as he was growing addicted to Yukina's fine cooking himself. As he made his way through his third cake and started on his second cup of tea, Hiei noticed Kuwabara running towards them and then leaping behind a rock as Yusuke appeared, flinging a balled handful of snow at him.

"Hey!" Yusuke called out, waving his arms in the air. "Kuwabara's losing and it's no fun! Somebody come over here and help him! Come on, me against Kuwabara and someone else!"

"Absolutely no way, Yusuke!" Keiko called back. "You throw too hard and it's too cold!"

"It's just a game!" Yusuke said. "Come on, somebody else get over here! Hey Kurama, what about you?"

Yusuke grabbed up some snow, hurriedly compressing it into a ball and hurling it towards Kurama. With almost laughable ease, Kurama reached out an arm and backhanded the projectile away from the group, sending it flying off out of sight.

"No thank you," he called over.

"Damn!" Yusuke groaned, forming another snowball in his hands. "What about you, Hiei?"

He threw a snowball as Hiei, who held up a hand, producing enough heat to melt it before it got close enough to be a threat.

"You guys are so boring…" Yusuke grumbled, making another snowball. "Hey, I bet you wanna play too, right Monzan?"

Yusuke threw the snowball at Monzan, who had been too busy trying to roll over a snowball bigger than himself to notice what had been going on. At the sound of his name being called he started to turn, Yusuke's snowball hitting him hard in the face.

"Ha!" Yusuke said. "C'mon kid, join us!"

Hiei was unsure if Monzan was going to cry or lash out in anger, and when he did finally respond, Hiei felt confused. Instead of reacting extremely, Monzan simply wiped the snow from his face and turned back to Yukina, who was pushing stones into a ready-built snowman that was almost as tall as Kuwabara. Monzan quietly continued rolling over the large snowball he had been working on, lining it up by the snowman Yukina was standing beside, apparently unaffected by what Yusuke had just done to him.

"He knows that he's not allowed to respond with violence," Botan explained when Hiei turned to her for an explanation. "I've had to teach him to contain his responses if someone hits him because I couldn't let him kill the other children at the kindergarten. He knows he's stronger than they are, he doesn't need to prove himself."

Hiei was surprised that any four-year old son of his could be that sensible and rational – especially since Hiei himself was not that sensible or rational.

"What about you, Botan?" Yusuke asked.

"What?" Botan echoed.

She screamed and dropped her tea as a snowball suddenly hit her in the face, knocking her back. Hiei quickly caught her before she fell onto her back, turning to glare at Yusuke, who was laughing. All sense and rationale gone from his mind at the thought of his pregnant wife being hurt, Hiei stood up, intending to beat some sense into Yusuke, only stopping when an enormous snowball suddenly smacked into Yusuke and took him off his feet, burying him in the snow.

"Don't hurt my mommy!" Monzan yelled.

Hiei turned to his son, seeing Yukina standing by him, her hands over her mouth, and the large snowball Monzan had been rolling suddenly gone.

"Monzan!" Botan snapped.

Monzan flinched at the sound, but his eyes did not lose any of their anger.

"He hurt you!" he said sulkily.

"He was just playing, Monzan!" Botan snapped. "That was unnecessary!"

Botan started to stand up but Hiei put up a hand to stop her.

"I'll deal with this," he told her.

"Oh, are you sure?" she asked quietly.

He nodded and stomped over to Monzan, who looking increasingly fearful as he drew near.

"I was defending my mommy's honour," he said stubbornly as Hiei stopped in front of him.

"If someone throws a snowball at your mother, you don't throw one back like that," Hiei said.

Monzan lowered his head and tried to look cute.

"You're technique was completely wrong," Hiei continued. "You put your back into the throw, like this."

Yukina yelped as Hiei hoisted up the snowman at her side and launched it at Yusuke, who had just stood up. Yusuke cried out briefly before he landed facedown in an explosion of snow. Kuwabara stood up from his hiding place to point and laugh and Monzan laughed and clapped his hands. Yusuke re-emerged from the snow after several seconds of chunks of snow shooting out from the point he had fallen in, spitting out a mouthful of snow as he got to his feet.

"Hey, I thought you didn't play games, Hiei," he said, glaring at Hiei almost accusingly.

"I wasn't playing," Hiei replied.

Yusuke gave him a long hard look before moving over to where the others were sat on the blanket. Hiei thought that he had given up his childishness and so he turned to Monzan and touched a hand to his head before turning to Yukina.

"Did you need that?" he asked her, pointing at the remains of the snowman.

She shook her head.

"It's no problem," she said with a smile. "We can play something else – I mean Monzan and I can play something else."

Hiei nodded and started to turn to leave, finding Yusuke approaching Monzan.

"Hey kid, here's a game you can play instead," he said.

"Yusuke, don't do that, it's really mean!" Keiko yelled after him.

"Here you go," Yusuke said, ignoring Keiko and holding out something towards Monzan.

Hiei frowned, moving closer to see what it was: but before he could get a good look at it Monzan had slapped it from Yusuke's hand.

"No!" he yelled at Yusuke, sounding uncharacteristically petulant.

"Aw, what's the matter little guy?" Yusuke said teasingly. "You can't figure it out?"

"Yusuke, don't tease him!" Botan called over.

"What are you doing?" Hiei asked.

"Playing a game with your kid," Yusuke replied, retrieving the item from the snow.

"Give me that," Hiei said, snatching it from him.

He shook the snow from it and slowly turned it over in his hands. It was a simple cube covered in coloured squares, and shaking it by his ear told him it was not a box containing anything.

"It's a Rubik's cube," Yusuke explained, taking it back from Hiei. "You're kid doesn't like it because he can't figure it out. It really, really pisses him off. Watch this."

Hiei's face dropped as he watched Yusuke lean over and wiggle the cube in front of Monzan's face.

"No!" he yelled, smacking it out of Yusuke's hands again.

"Monzan, stop that!" Botan shouted. "And you too, Yusuke!"

"Botan's right, Yusuke," Yukina said, walking over and retrieving the Rubik's cube from the snow. "You shouldn't tease Monzan. He's a good boy, it's unkind to be so cruel to him."

Yusuke sobered a little at Yukina's words, but Hiei's attention was on the object in Yukina's hands.

"It's just a stupid little toy," he said. "I don't understand why he hates it so much."

"It's a puzzle," Yukina explained. "You have to make it so that each side of the cube only has one colour on it. It turns like this, see?"

She gripped each side of the cube and twisted upwards, rotating it around on itself and then twisted it to one side, rotating it around again.

"Hn, that's simple," Hiei scoffed, taking it from her. "It moves it both directions, moving all the colours to one side is easy."

Yusuke snorted and Hiei glared at him.

"I heard a Chinese girl who's about the same age as your son could do it in under two minutes," Yusuke said.

"So it is just a stupid child's game," Hiei said, looking down at the cube again. "If a human child can do it, anyone can."

"It's not as simple as it looks," Yukina warned.

"Hn, just watch."

Yusuke chuckled to himself but Hiei ignored him, turning the rows of the cube around and around until, in mere seconds, he had all the white squares on one side of it.

"You see how easy this is?" he said, showing it to Yusuke, Yukina and Monzan.

"Keep going, smart-ass," Yusuke said.

Hiei gave him a brief glare before turning the cube over and arranging all of the red squares onto one side.

"There, two sides done already," he said, holding it up.

"Except it's not," Yusuke said, grabbing his wrist and forcing his hand around.

Hiei started as he saw that the white side he had created had become a jumbled mess of colours again.

"How did that happen?" he asked.

"All the pieces rotate when you move a section of the cube, brother," Yukina explained.

"But I had completed that side!" Hiei protested.

"That's not how it works," Yusuke said.

"Well that's stupid!" Hiei snapped, throwing the cube away.

Yusuke turned away but not before Hiei caught him smirking darkly. He retrieved the cube and Hiei thought that he intended to torment Monzan with it once more: but instead Yusuke took the cube over to Hiei.

"Aw, what's the matter little guy?" he said teasingly. "You can't figure it out?"

"Fuck off!" Hiei snapped, slapping it from Yusuke's hands.

Yusuke laughed openly, and, much to Hiei's chagrin, he noticed that Kuwabara, Kurama, Keiko, Maya and even Kuwabara's sister were laughing too.

"It's even funnier when you do it!" Yusuke laughed.

"You're all being ridiculous!" Botan said, marching over to them.

She grabbed up the Rubik's cube and wiped the snow from it.

"Yusuke, if you can't do this yourself, don't tease other people about it!" she said, holding it out towards Yusuke.

"I know I can't do it," he replied. "But the difference is, I don't care that I can't do it."

"It's really difficult," Yukina said.

"There is a technique to it," Kurama called over.

"If you're a genius like Kurama it's easy," Yusuke said.

"Oh don't be silly, Yusuke!" Botan said with a short sigh. "It's nothing to do with cunning, it's simple algorithms of possibility. It's just like another day at work in spirit world."

"…What?" Yusuke echoed.

"Watch," she said flatly.

Hiei watched in fascination as Botan pulled off her gloves and handed them to Yusuke before rotating the cube back and forth in various directions, her nimble little fingers working quickly. She seemed to be undoing bits as she did them, but gradually he started to see the colours building up uniformly on each side of the cube, and within a matter of minutes she had each side showing only one colour.

"Easy," she said, pushing it into Yusuke's chest.

"Holy sh…" Yusuke said, taking hold of the Rubik's cube and glancing back and forth between it and Botan in disbelief.

"Now stop trying to torment my son, it's not funny, he's just a child!" she scolded him.

"…Okay…" he said slowly.

"Come on Monzan, we'll make statues instead," Yukina said, beckoning to Monzan to follow her.

Monzan smiled and hurried after her and Yusuke shrugged at Botan.

"He's forgotten about it already," he said. "It was just a bit of fun."

"Well I don't like it," Botan said. "Monzan sometimes gets teased by the other children at the kindergarten and he never lashes out at them, he doesn't need that sort of treatment when he's among friends, it might break his good nature."

"Okay, I'm sorry," Yusuke said. "He's just so–"

"Wait," Hiei interrupted, holding up a hand in front of Yusuke's face. "What did you say about my son getting mistreated by human children?" he asked Botan.

"It's nothing Hiei," she said. "It's mostly just one boy in the class who's very tall for his age, he picks on Monzan for being so small. Monzan doesn't mind because he knows he could snap that boy in half with a wave of his hand, but I don't want him to think that it's okay for him to actually do that."

"You're such a mom, Botan!" Yusuke said with a smile. "Who'd have thought our ditzy, air-headed, thoughtless ferry girl would grow up to be so responsible?"

Botan gave him a flat look but he laughed it off.

"If I wasn't five months pregnant and I still had my oar, I'd team up with Kuwabara and teach you a lesson," she said, poking a finger at his chest.

"Sure you would," he said, nodding at her.

"I have a better idea," Hiei said. "Spar with me. But do it like you mean it."

"Deal," Yusuke said, pulling off his coat with a grin.

Botan sighed and moved away as Hiei began removing his coat: injury or not, he was not going to miss the chance to battle with Yusuke, something he had always enjoyed the challenge of.

"Oh, hey Hiei?" Yusuke said as Hiei pulled off his gloves and hat.

"What?" Hiei asked, turning to him.

Hiei flinched as a snowball hit him square in the face.

"…Idiot," he grumbled, before charging after Yusuke.

That evening, Hiei sat out on the front porch of the house, watching the sky darken as he drank his way through an entire flask of coffee. The day had been quite tiring, between starting it with a long sex session with Botan, running up the mountain with pregnant Botan on his back, sparring with Yusuke at the mountain peak for some time and then carrying Botan back down the mountain again – something she had said he was not obliged to do but he insisted upon when he had noticed her slipping around a little in the snow. He had reasoned that, since she was carrying his child, the least he could do was carry her.

Hiei heard something soft padding against the floorboards behind him, and a moment later he was joined by Monzan, who was in his pyjamas, his feet bare. He sat down at Hiei's side without looking at him or speaking and produced that irksome Rubik's cube, which had somehow become all jumbled again. Hiei watched for several seconds as his son carefully twisted the sides of the cube, apparently possessing more patience than Hiei himself did, as he appeared to be trying to figure out how Botan had managed to solve the puzzle, only moaning slightly when he inadvertently undid some of his work.

Hiei supposed that what he was witnessing was Botan's patience and problem-solving skills combined with his own persistence and determination. It still amused and amazed him that Monzan continued to display traits of both of his parents, in his appearance, his mannerisms and his personality. It made him feel connected to Botan and, at that moment, it made him think back to his days working for spirit world when Botan had been present but he had barely bothered to notice her: he never could have even begun to imagine that she might one day gift him with something that made him feel more pride than conquering the Dragon of the Darkness Flame had, something that gave his life a strange sense of direction and purpose that it never had before.

"There you are!"

Hiei and Monzan both turned their heads to see Botan approaching them.

"It's almost bed time, sweetie," she said.

"I'm not sleepy," Hiei and Monzan both said, turning away from her together.

"…Okay…" she said slowly.

She moved over to sit down on the other side of Monzan.

"Do you want me to show you how to do that?" she asked him.

He shook his head and continued twisting at the Rubik's cube.

"Well don't spend too long on it, it's almost bed time," she said.

"I'm not sleepy," he muttered.

Botan looked over the top of Monzan's head and Hiei and nodded her head, mouthing out the words "yes he is". Hiei wanted to disagree – the boy seemed perfectly lucid to him – but he said nothing, instead finishing off his coffee. As he drank down the last of the contents of the flask he flinched at the feeling of something by his ear, turning to see Botan's fingers hovering by his face.

"You have a bruise on the side of your face," she said softly.

"I was sparring with Yusuke, you know that," he replied.

He turned to look out at the sky again and again he felt Botan lightly touching at the area around his bruise. He was still a little unaccustomed to her touch, especially the light, loving caresses like the kind she was currently administering. He wondered if that other Hiei had learned how to suppress his defensive reflex whenever she touched him like that, because for Hiei, any touch was still something to be shirked away from as it marked the start of conflict, pain and suffering.

"I'm so glad you're staying here with us this weekend," Botan said.

Hiei turned to her, feeling almost annoyed that she kept saying that like she expected him to run out on her at any moment like that other Hiei did.

"But I was thinking about something," she said, her face becoming serious. "And it's a horrible thought, I know, and please forgive me for saying it, but I can't stop thinking about it. Keiko told me you were playing the "what of" game last night and Kurama said… I just… I can't stop thinking about what she said Kurama said. Can you actually imagine what our lives would be like if you hadn't rescued me from that rock monster? And I know it's a terrible thing to say to you, but… Hiei, if I'm being honest, in that moment when it caught me and I was screaming to you for help, the look on your face when you saw that it was me, I… I honestly thought that you were going to run on and just leave me there to die."

Hiei swallowed hard as he found his throat suddenly very dry. He tried to drink from his flask, having forgotten that he had already finished the contents, his actions being rewarded with a small dribble reaching his tongue.

"It's just that you're so good at thinking these things through," Botan added. "I just wondered how you imagine things might be for us all now if that one little thing had happened differently."

"It wasn't a little thing," Hiei said in a low voice. "And even if it was, even little things can have huge repercussions. It's called "the snowball effect"."

"Yes, I understand that," Botan said.

"You do?" Hiei asked, turning to her with a curious frown.

"Yes, it's something a friend of mine in spirit world often spoke about. She was the guardian of fate, and she often spoke about how one small change can result in something massive with time. Sometimes, after I had collected a soul, she would tell me how things could have turned out differently for that person, but most of the time she would just tell me that a river only ever flows in one direction, and we're just supposed to sail it as best we can because we can't change that."

"Can't change it?"

"Yes, that was what she said. But I always used to say to her "even monkeys fall from trees"."

Hiei pulled a face at Botan but she merely smiled in return, apparently under the belief that what she had just said ought to make perfect sense to him.

"So," she said. "If you had started paddling back upstream instead of following the river in the right direction, if you had just run on that day, what would have happened to us?"

Hiei looked down at Monzan for a long time before looking out at the sky again, finding that the stars were starting to twinkle into existence in the increasing darkness.

"If I had run on and left you?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," she said. "What then?"

"You died," he replied. "Or at least, your human body died. Yusuke, Kurama and even Kuwabara were furious with me and Koenma had me arrested. He took me back to spirit world and tried to make me apologise to you, because by then your spirit had returned there. I refused because I didn't think that I had done anything wrong. Koenma had me banned from spirit world and the living world, and Yusuke and Kurama had me banned from two thirds of demon world. I didn't see or hear from anyone inside this house for ten years after that. During that time, I killed Mukuro's ambassador, Hitoshi, because he called me a human sympathiser. He never gave his famous speech that stopped the war, and so it began. Yusuke and Kurama returned to demon world and permanently reverted to their full demon forms and Koenma and the SDF had the Kakai Barrier put up once more to contain the fighting within demon world. Part of that operation involved purging the living world of any demons there, including Yukina. She was taken from this world by force and returned to the ice village in demon world, where she continues to live, miserable and alone, her spirit crushed, an outcast to the other women there because she chose to leave them and befriend men, their greatest enemy. Kuwabara tried to stop it and he tried to break the Kakai Barrier and go after her, and so the SDF erased his memories of Yukina, how to form his spirit sword and everything he had ever done involving spirit world, including any memories he had of Yusuke or Keiko. Kuwabara works as an apprentice and he lives in a shit-hole little apartment with an obese cat and no pride or purpose. Keiko works long hours in her parents' restaurant because, after Yusuke left, they needed the assistance, but without Yusuke there, they aren't as successful and because she lost Yusuke and had to give up her career and is living with her parents again, Keiko has become bitter. Shuichi, without Kurama possessing his body, has become something quite bizarre, unable to filter his thoughts as tactfully as Kurama did, and he has spent the last three years in an insane asylum because his human mother thinks he is crazy, and her husband left her because she has lost her spirit too. Kurama, in demon world, is steadily and stealthily taking over every bit of spare land in a bid to dominate the other two thirds of demon world, apparently no longer caring for his morals and the compassion he once claimed was his greatest strength. Yusuke has asked Koenma to take down the Kakai Barrier because he misses people in the living world, but it's too late for that and the corruption in all three worlds runs too deeply and there is no trust left on any side. You applied to become a spirit so that you could be Koenma's wife, but you changed your mind after he told you that he wouldn't have children with you and now I suppose you'll return to your life as a ferry girl. You still hate me, but you have forgiven me for what I did. I'm on my way to enact Mukuro's plan to end the war, and it's a suicide mission. I'm the bait to trap Yusuke and Kurama in a confined location so that she can kill us all. It's the only way to break the confidence of the other two armies, and she believes she can initiate peace talks with the three of us out of the way."

After Hiei stopped talking there was a long silence, eventually broken by the sound of Botan sniffling. He turned to her and saw her staring at him with wide, watering eyes shadowed beneath a worried frown, her mouth open, her bottom lip quivering, and her hands clutching at the material of Monzan's pyjamas – apparently Hiei's long speech had been misinterpreted as a bedtime story by the boy, who had fallen asleep slouched against Botan's thigh.

"That's so sad, Hiei!" she whispered. "Why do you think such sad thoughts? You don't have to be sad any more, remember? Nothing that terrible would ever befall any of us! We would always stand by each other: we're friends, all of us, and that's what friends do Hiei, they stick together and help each other in dire times!"

"I don't have any friends left in that reality," Hiei told her frankly. "They either hate me or just can't remember me."

"Well don't think such sad thoughts, because that reality is not real!" Botan insisted. "This is your life now. You did save me that day, and everything else did work out alright, there was no war, and nobody suffered so terribly as you just described."

"Yes, in this reality, there was–"

"And! Mister Hiei! I would never marry Koenma! What a ridiculous thing to say!"

"…He's always wanted you for his wife."

"Yes, he said as much when I asked to become a spirit in order to have a life with you."

"What?"

"Oh Hiei, don't worry about it, it was a long time ago."

"…Defying Koenma and spirit world can't have been easy for you."

"It was the hardest thing I ever had to do by a long margin, but Hiei, for you, I would do it ten times over, and you know that."

Hiei turned to look directly at Botan again, the determination in her eyes almost overwhelming to behold.

"You really mean that," he said.

"Of course I do!" she insisted. "Hiei, I had my doubts about you, you know I did. I thought you were only pursuing me because you saw me naked a few times in the cave–"

"What?'

"–and even when you kept pursuing me, I was still unsure about you. I refused you the first time you asked me to marry you, but when you came back and asked so sweetly that second time, I couldn't refuse you again. But even then I was testing you. I never intended to have sex with you until after we were married–"

"What?"

"–but that night I wanted to go and meet Lady Mukuro, and you refused, and I got upset, and you…"

Botan touched a hand to her mouth and tears spilled from her eyes.

"Oh Hiei, the things you said to me that night…" she said faintly.

Hiei started to get angry. He had not said anything to her that night, that other Hiei had said it. And whatever it was, apparently it had upset her greatly. What a bastard that other Hiei was!

"You have a such a beautiful soul, and the things you said and the way you said it…" she continued. "Do you remember? You took me out into the forest, to the place where our house was later built, and the moonlight was shining down on us, and you held my hands in yours, you looked me in the eye and you… Took my breath away. After that, I couldn't refuse you anything, because I'd never been more sure of anything in my long, long existence. I never thought anyone could feel even a fraction of the emotion you described for me, you made me feel so loved and wanted and special… You started undressing me, and I was wary, but you kept talking, you kept saying such fancy words and then you opened me up with a touch so exquisite and gentle and careful, I felt myself actually swell and bloom… God I love you Hiei."

Botan grabbed the back of Hiei's neck and pulled him towards her, leaning over Monzan to press her lips against Hiei's cheek. Hiei let her pull him and he numbly let her kiss him.

"…Fancy words…?" he muttered.

"I've never forgotten any of them, my love," she whispered into his ear. "And the strength they gave me made defying spirit world and Koenma surprisingly easy."

"…You don't call him "Lord" Koenma any more here…" Hiei muttered.

"Of course I don't," she replied. "He banned you from spirit world and he never visits us here in the living world. He's never met Monzan, and that's inexcusable."

"But… Fancy words…?"

"Very fancy words, and you know it."

Hiei paused, a vague memory creeping up through his thoughts: one of the alternate Hitoshis had warned him about this. One of them had said that he had asked him for advice on what to say to Botan when she had asked to meet Mukuro.

"Fuck," Hiei grumbled. "Another fucking snowball…"

Next Chapter: Hiei suffers a few inexplicable moments of déjà vu that leave him confused and concerned and he spends some time in demon world where he encounters a few problems with Mukuro and is forced to take a deeper interest in demon world politics than he had ever intended to. Chapter 27 – Talking Politics