A/N: Sorry this took longer than I had been anticipating. Here is the final chapter for Tora. One more chapter will be coming from Gene and then that will be it for the first story of Gene and Tora.

I really hope all of my readers really did enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. I also wanted to thank every one of you for all your support when I sent all of you the message aboud possibly leaving Fanfiction.

I hope that all of you also go to my homepage and give me your input on the two Originals I have posted there, I know they are not finished, I had some nasty personal problems that put a total stall on the stories. Your input and ideas (and reviews) would be great help in getting them started again (Thanks goes out to WorldsAngel for giving me some good food for thought n_n)

Thanks again everyone!

Please Enjoy

P.S. YES I know I... borrowed... parts of the fight scene from the movie The Notebook. I wanted them to have this big fight and my favorite (and probably one of the most memorable) fight is the fight at the end of The Notebook between Alley and Noah. I couldn't help myself, it was perfect for Tora and Hiei. That's their kind of relationship and it really fits the bill there. So don't kill me, please?

Chapter 34

Tora grasped the handle of the foreboding door as her mind raced in opposite directions. She knew no one was in there but her body had frozen, refusing to twist the knob and push the door inward. 'Come on… Just get this over with and you can go back home and never have to think about this place again.' She told herself as she steeled her mind and opened the door.

The interior hadn't changed since she left almost two months ago. 'Only that long…? It felt like ages…' She sighed as she walked around the tiny house. Her mind thought back to the months before. "Before it all fell apart…" She murmured.

Her heart felt as if it were burning as she ran her fingers over the familiar surfaces. "It's all a dream right…? I'll turn around and wake up from this mess. Maybe I'll wake up to before the fight. Or maybe everything was a dreams and I'll be back in Faerie before Gene had even taken me away, then everything would fade." Her words fell on empty ears, but she had to try.

Her legs carried her into the bedroom where her eyes fell upon the mask still sitting on the nightstand.

That mask is special. It is said that it cannot come off unless one's true love that the heart truly desires takes it off himself.

The words of the Summer Queen echoed in her heart and mind, giving her a small hope before she shook her head and cast away such ideas.

"Nothing was said about ever lasting true love. Hearts change, humans and demons can fall in and out of love before they find the one. It's possible that He really loves me, but I also doubt that. Faeries don't belong in either worlds. We are different; we can never grow old and die. We would outlive the one we loved and even children if we had any. How can a demon love a Faerie? We're too different." Tora snatched the mask off the table before she grabbed anything else that was hers in the house.

As she tossed everything into a bag she kept talking to herself. "I'm okay with this. I understand that there are differences that will become a problem later on down the road. Things will be better if I return home. I have things there that I must do, things that will keep me from ever returning to the Human World. I will be out of sight and out of mind and maybe one day he will be out of my heart and mind." But she knew she was lying to herself.

She sat down in a chair as her eyes wondered around the room. "I should not be here any longer…" She told herself as she stood. "Just one more thing…" She grabbed a large glass and arranged a bouquet of wild flowers in it, adding a few human Amaranths into it and hidden deep in the center, the tiny blue flower of Faerie.

"Okay…" She sighed as she placed a folded piece of paper against it. "It's time to go…" Her eyes took in the small house once more before she closed the door behind her for what would be the last time.

Tora's gaze fell on the sparkling world of Faerie as she walked down the stone path that led to the Seelie Mound. 'It will always be beautiful here…' She thought as she inhaled deeply. "I'm home…" She whispered.

The flowers hummed with the beating of the wings of the prime rose fairies as they flew out and around. "Tora!!" "Princess Tora!" they called as Tora walked by. "Tora is home!" "The Princess came back!"

Tora nodded and smiled as they little fairies buzzed their happiness around her, she had given up on making the others not call her Princess anymore.

"Tora!" A familiar voice exclaimed in shock.

"Milady…" Tora answered as she bowed her head.

"I wasn't expecting you to come back." The Summer Queen smiled. "What a pleasant surprise. Come, we shall have a banquet to celebrate your visit."

"It's not a visit." Tora answered. "I'm coming home…"

The Summer Queen gazed down at the smaller girl, her eyes scanning over Tora's face. "Well…" She mused. "It's nice to have you home."

"It's nice to be home…" Tora answered quietly.

Hiei pushed the door open to the house he had left only months ago, expecting to see the bright orange hair of the girl he was searching for, but the house was empty. 'Maybe she's late.' He thought but knew he was fooling himself.

After he had gone to speak with Gene he returned to the clearing only to find the Dryad as she picked up pieces of the broken trees and after tremulous amount of yelling and questioning on his part he finally found out that Tora had left moments before he had shown up; he had literally just missed her.

He gazed around the empty rooms as he slowly began to realize that she had already come and gone, her stuff was missing. He cursed as he threw his hand into the wall beside him. "That stupid fucking Faerie! Why do I even bother with her?" He yelled as he released his fist from the hole he had made in the wall.

Color in the corner of his eye caught his attention making him turn and finally notice the bouquet of wildflowers sitting in a glass on the tiny table, the letter leaning against it. Quickly he snatched the little folded piece of paper and opened it.

Hiei.

I've had a lot of time to think about everything and I've begun to question whether or not being in the human world is the right idea, and if being with you is helping or hindering you.

I've never been away from my world until this past year and everything was turned upside down on me. I wondered if it was right for me to be in the world of humans, and I had decided I would have rather returned home than stay there. That is… Until I met you…

Everything was different when I met you; at first I absolutely hated you. I hated that you could find me when no one else had, how you were able to stick me in a jar and basically forget about me, how you always called me names. I even hated how you could careless about what I was and what it meant to have me in your possession, but even with all that I had started to fall in love with you. The things I hated about you suddenly became reasons that made me want to stay with you. I knew that no matter what happened to me you'd always be able to find me. How, after the jar incident, you took great care to make a little place for me. Or how because you didn't care that I was a Faerie that you could actually talk to me without wanting to force me to do things for you. Even the name-calling became something I enjoyed. It made me know that you had some sort of feelings for me, be it that you hated me or you cared about me I didn't really care, you were at least thinking of me.

When Gene came and took me away from you I was so upset. It broke my heart that I may never see you again, but I thought it was for the best, so I stayed in Faerie, learned about my clan, and had an arranged marriage set up for me. Then I found out I could go back to the human world. So I came up with this lame excuse that I needed to come thank you properly for taking care of me when in reality it was just another way for me to see you. I didn't tell you the truth of my visit nor what I was doing while there because I didn't want to admit it to myself that I would have to leave again and never see you. And, of course, my neglect led to such a large fight that I left thinking you absolutely hated me, but you proved me wrong by hunting me down to 'give me a piece of your mind'.

Living with you and knowing that you loved me was the most amazing thing that I ever felt. Everyday was a blessing to me because every day you were there with me. I thought nothing could go wrong, but when we fought that day at the tournament I was jarred into reality. I was made to look at the truth of things, at the differences between us. I realized that we were raised not only in a completely different way but also in a different world. I struggled through the iron stadium because I thought that was what I needed to do, to make myself part of the team. I didn't see that there could have been repercussions for such a silly act. Then I began to wonder if I was a mistake in all of this. I guessed that there would always be problems between us because I don't always understand everything about the ways of demons or humans. We're so different in how we were raised, what we were led to believe, how we were taught to live. I had begun to wonder if I would always be a problem for you because I just don't understand all the time. So, in the end, I thought it was best if I were no longer in the way.

What I want you to know from all of this, blubbering, that I all I ever wanted was what would be best for you. I love you with all my heart, and if your life leads you away from mine because your time is ever flowing onward while mine is stuck standing still, I won't be upset about it. I know that humans and demons can fall in love with more than one soul until they find the "real one", and I've become okay with that fact. And so, though your heart may have changed I wanted you to know that I will always love you, until the last flower wilts and fades as time ever moves onward.

Tora.

Hiei sneered as he crushed the note in his hand. "What a load of bull shit, that stupid fucking Faerie…" He growled as he knocked over the flowers.

A bright dash of blue caught his attention as he turned away from the flowers. Pushing aside the taller amaranths and daisies he unveiled the tiny dazzling blue flower that Tora had been holding the day before her fight with Toguro. Even in his fuming anger the tiny flower pulled at emotions buried deep under the harsh emotions, and as he stared at it, he sighed.

"This is the last time that I do this you stupid bug." He mumbled as he walked out of his small home, the flower in hand.

Tora sat quietly in the silence of the forest around her. 'It's not really silent…' She thought as she closed her eyes and really listened. The leaves of the trees rustled softly in the gentle breeze as the sound of animals passing by just out of sight disturbed the soft grass. In the distance she could hear the sound of the little stream that ran between the Summer and Winter courts. 'It's peaceful though…'

"Get up you lazy brat." Someone commanded, breaking the silence around her.

Tora's eyes ripped open only to catch sight of black marring the perfect green surroundings. "Hiei…?" She questioned as she stood up. "What in the heaven's name are you doing here?"

"I'm coming to drag your happy ass back. Do you honestly think you can just skip out like that?"

"Like what?"

"Leaving that sappy note and flowers without saying a single damn thing. Do you seriously think you get to make all the fucking decisions?!? Don't be such a pain in the ass!"

"This is exactly why I left that way!

"Why don't you just admit it?"

"Admit what?"

"That you want to stay with me!"

"Ugh! You're such an arrogant son of a bitch! Why would I want to stay with you? I mean look at us, we're already fighting!"

"Well that's what we do, we fight! You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing!"

"And you think that because of that we should be together? So what!" Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as she glared up at Hiei.

"Yeah I get it, it's not going to be easy. It's going to be really hard and we'll have to work on it everyday, but I'm willing to do that because I want you and if you didn't want to be with me you wouldn't have left that stupid note. Are you really going to be such a pain in the ass and act like you don't know what I'm talking about?"

Tora looked away, biting her lip as she fought with her emotions.

Hiei growled, clenching his hand into a fist. "What do you want Tora?"

"What?"

"What…do…you…want…? WHADDYA WANT!!"

Tora's lip quivered as she gazed at the grass below her feet. "I want to be with you…" She whispered.

"What?"

"I want to be with you, okay?!" She gazed back up at him, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I want to stay with you, spend my life with you. I would rather be fighting with you than living a lie with someone else."

Hiei's gaze softened as he wiped away the tears falling down her face. "Why didn't you just say so…?"

"Because I was afraid you didn't want me anymore…" She murmured as grasped his hand.

"You're such an idiot…" He muttered as he smiled. "Come on… Let's go home…"

Tora nodded as she moved under his arm, curling in close to his side. "I love you Hiei…"

He stopped for a moment and gazed down at her. "I love you too Tora… It just doesn't mean I like you all the time." He smirked as he tucked the tiny blue flower into her hair.

Tora smiled as she touched the flower. "I can live with that… I don't like you all the time either."

Hiei chuckled. "Then we're even."

"Yeah…" Tora agreed. "Even."

Thanks again all of my readers for everything! (I promise to not stop writing on here, just won't be putting as much .)

Written By: Pyro