A/N: Hi Readers! So sad, yes, the story does have to end. It would be a truly awful story if it just rambled on and on forever. But – I could be convinced to do a series of one-shots for bits of the story that you never got to see. For example – the moment that Hiei realized he was in love? :3


Hiei was pacing around my tree, hands shoved deep into pockets, eyes narrow and annoyed. He was positively seething.

"You've got to let it go, darlin'." I called from my position high in the tree.

Hiei grumbled something dark on the ground. "Aren't you done yet?" He called up.

"These trees bloom only on the top branches, so it's a long climb." I poked my head out of the thick branches to glare threateningly at him. "And I don't want to take shortcuts!"

He grumbled again, and I ignored him.

We hadn't talked about my main concern – that I be considered more as a wife than as a possession. Mukuro had given me an easy out on that pending argument, and I was waiting for the right time to bring it up. I dreaded the arrival of said window.

I was enjoying the surveys of Alaric. It was slightly warmer than Gandara, but cooler than the deserts of Tourin. It reminded me a lot of my home climate of North Carolina, actually. I had started out on the ground and underbrush as I built my strength back up, but I was already back to top fitness only a week later. I credited my hardy new organs with the improvements in my strength and stamina.

It had taken a few rounds of explanations from Yusuke for me to grasp my new classification. I was a demon now. There wasn't any such thing as a half-demon – the energies just wouldn't marry well, so you were either human, spirit, or demon. Period. My demon energy was weak, but it positively classified me as a demon. How it developed remained to be seen, as well as if any physical changes manifested. But, Kurama assured me it would take a few decades of training and practice before any useful abilities emerged.

In the mean-time, I was enjoying feeling like a well-trained Olympian.

I plucked one of the golden flowers from end of the tree branch, enjoying the soft honey smell before dropping it into a sample jar. It was rare, but the nectar stored in the blossoms did wonders for treating burns.

"Ok – I'm coming down!" I hollered.

I knew as soon as I saw the flicker of black that I was about to make an abrupt descent to the ground. Before I knew it, I was wrapped in warm arms, falling through the air. As soon as we touched down Hiei let go of my legs and half-dropped me, and I had to stumble to stay upright.

"What is your problem?" I yelled, shoving him away from me.

He snapped a sharp glare. "You were taking too long. Let's go."

I took a big step backwards. Had we stepped back in time? Was this the same person I had chosen to be my husband? "Is this what it's going to be like? Is this it? You got what you want and I get ordered around for the rest of forever?"

"Stop your gibbering and move."

"No! Not until you talk to me!" I crossed my arms, and tried to steel my resolve.

His power flared, and the grass under his feet burned away. "You will not question me!" He roared. I took another step back, fear evident in my eyes. His anger wavered, and the flare of power receded. He leaned heavily against the tree, and buried his face in his hands. He looked so tired.

God help me. I prayed silently. I approached him cautiously, pulling his hands away from his face. "Look – I love you, really, and I think we're going to be amazing together." He didn't lift his head, so I had to kneel in the ground to look up into his eyes. "You aren't like this – you don't treat me like less of a person, and I never imagined that I would… be expected to be submissive." I smiled sadly, squeezing his hands. "It's not me. That's not who I am. So…I don't know what you want from me."

I held my breath as he moved, pulling his hands from my grip and very gently cupping the sides of my face. "I need you to be safe." He ground out. "I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you."

I covered his hands with mine. "If you smother me in safety I will wither away."

I can't lose you again. His thoughts just barely brushed mine.

I stroked the back of his hands with my thumbs. "You will lose me like this. I will become a hollow shell."

I don't know what to do, he thought to me. And there it was; the root of it all. There we were, stumbling through this hard life together, both hoping that our actions would keep the other happy, and alive. We couldn't see far on the path ahead, so we were just doing our best. But our best kind of sucked.

I stood to wrap my arms around his waist, and rest my head on his shoulder. "I don't either, darlin'. But if we push each other away we won't have anything left."

Hiei returned my hug, holding me a little too tightly. I didn't ask him to loosen his grip.

We stood there just like that for a while, holding on to all that we had left.

"You walk too slow." Hiei snapped, but the venom had all but drained from his voice. He was back to just moderately irritated.

"And you're obnoxious." I retorted, smiling.


Bag jingling merrily with sample containers, we walked back to the mobile fortress in a far better mood than when we left that morning.

"How many more samples do you plan to collect?" Hiei asked.

"Um, I'm not sure yet. I have to take a look at what I've got." I was stalling. Not in my answer, not really, but in the survey. I liked it in the Makai. I didn't need to worry about a lot of my typical human concerns, and I could focus on my work, and on Hiei.

I was also slowly coming to realize that I didn't want to go back to the Human World at all. But I was using the excuse of wanting to do a good job on the surveys as my personal reasoning for now.

We made a brief side-trip to my makeshift "office" to drop off the sample jars – my desk was overflowing with the things – before heading to eat with Kurama. Kuwabara had returned to the Human World, and Yusuke to Tourin. Kurama had stayed, albeit unwillingly. He was an unfortunate victim of my slow pace, helping to identify plants and gauge fire reactions. But he accepted his torture with grace.

"Good evening." He greeted us as we sat at the table. "How is the survey progressing?"

"Quite well, thank you. Did you find the book I needed?" I had sent Kurama back to the Human World a few times in search of a book I needed. As of yet he hadn't been able to find it.

Kurama chuckled, and slid a heavy book across the table. "With a lot of help from a very patient librarian, yes. Not surprisingly, it is quite difficult to find a taxonomical book in English in the heart of Japan."

I grasped the familiar book, and sighed at happy memories. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas was my favorite plant identification reference.

"Might I ask what is so special about this book?" Kurama asked, looked amused at my loving expression.

I stuck my tongue out him for the mocking comment that must be floating around in his head. "This delightful book is going to be a model for sorting the massive number of plants that need said sorting."

"Well, you have it for three weeks, and then the Interlibrary Loan is up and the college wants it back."

"This is from a college library?" I flipped it over, looking for the library barcode on the back cover. They always include the name on the barcode. I found it in under a second, and blinked. I blinked again. Third time, I burst out laughing. It was somewhere between hysteria and mania – a very delicate balance – and the men at the table seemed distinctly disturbed.

"Onna…?" Hiei was first to interrupt.

I tried to contain myself, wiping the tears from my cheeks. "I'm sorry, it's just… this is my school!" I pointed to the name above the barcode. "This is my alma mater. The coincidence was just… too much."

I continued giggling for a few more seconds while Kurama and Hiei shared a concerned look.

"I'm ok, really." I patted the book. "I just had a moment."

I took the book and stood, just grabbing a piece of fruit from the table. "I'm going to get started on my samples, and see what's left to collect." I walked out of the room quickly, clutching that book tightly to my chest.

I was greeted with nods and grunts from demons as I walked back to my office – a small room with a desk and overflowing with sample jars – and I nodded and greeted in return. I'm not sure why most of them felt the need to acknowledge my existence at all – maybe it was my connection to Hiei, or maybe even a veiled threat from Mukuro.

I also really didn't understand Mukuro. Like, really. She had made an unexpected drop-in to my office a few days in, stared at the sample jars piled high, and kept walking down the hall. She didn't say a word. Weirdo.

I shut the office door behind me to prevent looky-loos from sticking horned heads into my broom closet. It happened. I flipped on the light, and a happy little sigh worked its way out of my lips.

I really liked my little room, and the little jars, and the little plant bits. It was peaceful, and I felt like I was surrounded by my closest friends, all whispering little secrets to me. I had to learn the language, and it took time and effort, but it was always worth it in the end.

I opened the golden tree flower jar, and took a small sniff. Delightful. I took the flower out of the jar with a pair of tweezers, and shook the dusty pollen into a new sample container. Once that was done, I laid out the flower on a clean sheet of cloth, and carefully dissected it, letting the nectar fill another new container, and scribbled a few notes about the structure of the flower in my notes. It reminded me a lot of a Tulip tree, and their heavy, meaty flowers, only with that gorgeous gold color and sweet honey scent.

Alaric was full of things like this, hidden in the underbrush, or high in treetops. Beauty and kindness and gentle things were hidden away in the secret corners of Alaric. I wondered what that said about Mukuro.

I let that thought go as I transitioned to my next sample, referring to my new book to ensure I was using the proper terminology for plant parts. I hummed quietly and happily to myself, surrounded by a hundred of my closest friends, waiting their turn to reveal their secrets.


A/N: Hi readers! Quiet little ending to a shorter chapter, and no cliffhanger this time!

So, to help soften the upcoming (like 10 chapters from now but whatever) ending of this fanfic, there is some news. There will be one-shots to follow. Aaaaaaaanddddd I'm going to write a Kurama/OC fic after all. I've worked out her profession (not telling), and her name, and a small number of key plot points, but it's still in development. If you want to have a hand in the creation of this storyline, send me a message with what you've truly hated in other K/OC fics, and what you would have loved to see.