Silver

Summary: When Kurama gets afflicted by a deadly curse, Botan is the only one capable of curing him. Forced to go back in time to save him, Botan meets THE Youko Kurama. He's cold, belligerent and cunning. The best she could hope for is to settle the mission while trying to get him to at least stop looking like he wanted to kill her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Chapter 4

He smells nice, came the line of thought as it involuntarily crossed her mind. The elegant fragrance of roses permeated her nose as she observed Youko ambling into the area that acted as both a chamber and a living room in the surprisingly spacious cavern. The flowery scent harbored a decent amount of strength to it as she noted that it wasn't strong enough to trigger a sneeze from her, but ample to elicit some sort of soothing effect on her.

Youko's footsteps were light and barely audible as he sauntered towards the fire that she had succeeded in creating whilst he was in the hot spring. Botan had not been one to have a talent in making fires, but Yusuke had been generous enough to teach her how – granted that he did so while spouting out complaints the entire time. She had taken an ounce of pride in herself when the first spark had greeted her sight.

"Cooking the meat I see," Youko remarked, voice as dry as the cold, skin-stinging air surrounding them in the cavern as he gave a small nod to gesture at the bear meat she had hung over the fire. She offered no response at once, instead waiting for him to flop down on the ground in front of her at the other side of the fire.

"Humans have always been picky eaters. Demons could consume raw food without a problem," he went on when she justified him with no reply, arms reaching forward to hover his hands over the gentle sunset-tinctured flames as if to soak in a shred of warmth into his lukewarm fingers. They had been freezing before, though the warm water from the hot spring served to lessen the iciness of his form more than slightly.

She wanted to indulge him in the fact that, in the future, humans would eventually become capable of eating raw food as she recalled a couple of restaurants that she had gone to with the gang that provided just that. There were videos she saw online of them swallowing down a whole life octopus as some kind of delicacy, a few of them displaying the creators ingesting them in large amounts. The sight had shocked her system for a good while when Shizuru first showed it to her before she gradually grew accustomed to the idea of them gobbling down live creatures like that. She would still prefer them to be already dead and cooked though.

"You can't judge me for not wanting blood to spray all over in my mouth," Botan retorted with a feigned indignant huff, pursing her lips forward into an adorable pout. Youko had the audacity to roll his eyes at her.

"A little drop of gore does wonders," he echoed the sinister rejoinder, a slow but chilling smile slanting at the corners of his lips as his gilded orbs flashed a dangerous glint at her. Botan paid no heed to the shivers that traveled down to the base of her spine, or the hair rising all over her arms as she simply proferred him a stony stare.

"Maybe for you, can't say the same for me," she persisted still, and couldn't help the self-satisfied smirk that tugged at her mouth as the fox raised his arms up in defeat, the display accompanied with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"Do as you like. It really is of no importance to me either way," he told her in his ever impassive baritone, a scoff lingering at the end of the sentence as he fixated his aurelian gaze on the dancing flames. "Don't think you can avoid answering my questions just by starting some irrelevant small talk, woman," he quipped in soon after, a warning edge lurking underneath his detached voice as he enunciated the letters, almost as if he had perceived her efforts for some time now.

The quirk on her lips faltered into a thin line of displeasure as the revelation settled in on her that he was none the wiser and had caught on to her tactics all along. It made her ponder if he had been humoring her just to blurt out that he knew what she was doing in order to lull her in some sense of security for a brief period of time before he would then take pleasure in destroying her peace. He could stand to be less open with his sadistic tendencies – it made Botan all that more aware of the loitering fear pooling at the pit of her gut.

"Well, the farce was nice while it lasted," she murmured under her breath before giving out a dismissive shrug of her right shoulder. She watched as the once rose-colored meat adopt a brown, more crisp texture as the scent of their meal being put together conferred her a little remnant of comfort. "So, what were you planning on asking me? Might as well get started with your onslaught of inquiries, milord."

He shrewdly opted to ignore the sarcasm dripping heavily in her voice as he accentuated his curiosity into words. "I suppose I've been intrigued about your origins for a while," he drawled out in a purposely sluggish manner, almost as if deliberately attempting each and every endeavor he could conjure to make her as uncomfortable as possible. "You don't come across humans with spirit energy that often. You're quite a rare find, I must say, even if you're a little bit of a nuisance."

A fiery insult teased at the tip of her tongue as he bluntly included the ill-conceived barb, but the ferry girl plucked up a splinter of self-restraint at the last minute as she pressed her lips together to bite back her own snappy remark from climbing its way out. She was at least grateful that Youko was a huge enough narcissist to have taken a considerably long time in the hot spring as it had permitted her ample room to come up with some kind of elaborate story.

"You've heard of priestesses, right?" she answered him with a question, and cut him short before he could utter another jibe, his expression contorted in an offensive look as if to signify his irritation that she would even bother asking him the foolish inquiry. "Well, I'm one of them, believe it or not. I've been guarding…er, some ancient artifacts for some time now, and that's why I had to learn how to use my spirit energy and the such," she continued to apprise the fabricated plot, stammering for a split moment when she discerned the touch of disbelief in his pools of gold.

It was not an uncommon concept and was a substantially feasible story, though Youko's lie detector remained as powerful as ever despite her best but fruitless efforts to fill him in with bluffs. Nevertheless, he made no move to call her out on it, so Botan concluded that perhaps her backstory mattered only a miniature, non-existent amount to him. She considered the reason behind his demanding interrogation if that was the case, but wisely decided to keep her findings to herself. She had no desire to purchase a fast ticket to her demise, after all. Not that she was certain if he was going to cause her any harm, what with the pendant still in her possession. Youko was not the epitome of another Hiei at least, and appeared patient enough to wait without letting his impulses get the better of him.

"I see." He merely nodded his head, his facial features the exact definition of indifference. Nice try, woman, but not quite. He thought to himself, refraining the amused smirk that threatened to crawl its way up to his lips as the corners twitched only slightly before he composed himself. Although the priestess plot was a real prospect that he had heard – and seen – a few times in his life, Youko could at least hazard the guess that she was far from human. She didn't smell like a normal mortal, for one. Still, she remained as an entity that provided little to no threat to him.

You must have utilized the only two brain cells you have to their utmost advantage in order to come up with that. Well, I suppose I'll let it slide. For now. He decided to let her off the hook. Granted, he had been fairly interested in what she was – but her hard-headed endeavors to maintain the secrecy shrouding her roots no matter whether he chose to have faith in her or not proved to discourage him. His fascination towards her was a mere bug-sized curiosity after all, and he was far from being riveted enough to push for more information.

"Then, what about your hair?" he prodded, somewhat deriving tiny pieces of entertainment from her reactions as he eyed the panic sinking in to her in the form of a sheepish but anxious grin. "I've never had glimpses of humans with odd colors for their mane. They're usually either a pretty chestnut shade or pitch black."

Botan made an inadvertent jump, a startled gasp leaving her lips before she could stop it as the realization that she hadn't taken that small detail into account slapped her hard across the face. It had slipped her mind that dye was still a foreign notion in that era. Great, now what was she supposed to do? She hadn't managed to produce a lie for that one.

"Um, er, uh…" she stumbled over her words for some time, her arms flailing around in the manner that they would whenever she was either alarmed or taken off guard. In this case, it was both. The gears in her head turned and clicked, but still, nothing came to mind. The brewing panic in her belly seemed to puddle to higher heights as more time passed by, with Youko's steadfast gaze growing more intense as he waited for another string of deceptions. Eventually, when she couldn't overdrive her brain any longer, she supplied the only response she could think of at that moment: "Genetics?"

Youko was uncertain whether it was the sheer idiocy behind her answer, or the unassertive tone of her voice that prompted his conflicting opinions. On one hand, he wanted to laugh out loud at her stupidity. On the other, he was completely dumbfounded, and to a certain degree, also offended that she would even consider him that big of a fool to fall for such an ignorant explanation – or lack thereof, in this case.

Either way, he was beginning to mull over the pros and cons of simply butchering her right then and there. But the bloodthirst quickly waned from his system, gone as sudden as it visited as Youko's mind proceeded to reel with a mountain-load of musings. Even during their pseudo-interrogation, the thief's brain was still functioning to come up with methods in order to gain her trust. Nonetheless, did her circumstances or the reason why the pendant was in her incapable hands matter that much? It did, to a certain extent, but perhaps not as much as how he was going to snatch it away from her though.

Good lord, look at all the compromise I've made, the horrified thought occurred to him as he, once more, opted to give her some space to protect her identity despite his better judgement. He was not one to be this lenient on his prey as it went against his no-nonsense persona, but he would have to make an exception for her, if only reluctantly.

If she was that desperate to keep everything a secret, Youko decided that he was more than unbothered to figure her out. Given her pea-sized brain, she most likely still served no menace to him anyway. His goal was the pendant around her neck, not the truth of her inception, he reminded himself. In fact, Youko didn't really care if she wanted to brief him with the details of her background or not – he was merely intrigued, but nothing more. After all, she was quite the specimen; an ignoramus, fragile, little thing that couldn't possibly have sunk her fingers into such a powerful artifact without some trick up her sleeve.

If anything, he was simply irritated that he was being consistently lied to. Falsifications were only one of the few things he despised, especially if they were far from believable. It made him want to sink his claws into her, and yet he repudiated the murderous urge. He would have to stand her presence for some time – at least until he claimed The Augmented Necklace as his belonging if he really wanted to realize his desire of offing Raizen and Mukuro in the future. Then he could have his way with her and leave her to die somewhere else once he was finished.

Regardless of his negative perceptions of her though, Youko opted against letting his guard down. She was weak, but certainly not a normal human. Although, that wasn't much credit to be given to begin with.

He disregarded her constant squirming, intentionally not addressing her patent unease as she fidgeted here and there and instead decided to focus his attention on their food. He considered her tapping her fingers nervously against her lap from his peripherals, the girl seemingly becoming more and more restless with the unbearable tension in the painstakingly long silence in the air as the seconds ticked by. However, she proceeded to preserve the awkward stance as more shuffling sounds reverberated in hushed octaves in the cavern, the distinct but still perceptible noise coming from her serving to get on his nerves.

Youko abruptly realized that his own patience was starting to skyrocket to its limit. "Will you stop wiggling around like a worm and be still? Your clothes are scratching against the ground with each movement. It's too grating in my ears," he growled, low and feral, baring his sharp fangs at her.

That granted him an admittedly cute display of trepidation as she visibly flinched at his words. "Y-yes," she squeaked before clamping her jaws shut in an instant as she forced her own body to be as stiff as a statue. She pursed her lips, clenching her hands into tiny fists on her lap as she downcasted her eyes from him and fixated them on the bear meat nearing its fully cooked condition instead.

Botan ensnared a residue of solace in watching the sparks fluttering out of the red-orange flames as she stared down at the fire. The sight brought forth a nostalgic sensation to swirl around at the centre of her chest as lingering memories of the last camping trip she had gone with the gang proceeded to suddenly infiltrate her subconscious.

Kurama had been nice enough to fry for her an eel that he had succeeded in seizing in his humoring Yusuke's request to go fishing with him. The recollection simply sufficed as a stinging reminder of his gentle and amicable demeanor, which was a direct contrast to Youko's cold and hostile bearing currently biting into her. She chewed over two things: one being that was the most delicious eel that she had ever had the pleasure of gobbling up in her lifetime, and the second being that Youko could stand to be less of a prick. It only made her all the more self-conscious of the fact that she was alone, didn't know what she was doing, and that he terrified her to the core.

And I was trying so hard to ignore the fear so that I don't have to come across as such a coward, she mused bitterly to herself, tears beginning to well in her eyes as the realization sunk into her flesh that the mission this time was probably too much for her. She had thought that she was capable of seeing it to completion, but what with the person she was trying to save being Youko Kurama, Botan couldn't even begin to see the solution to the current task she was facing.

He was so unfriendly. Merciless. Dangerous. Emotionless. It scared her. But it also ignited pity and sorrow from the depths of her stomach. Something about him reminded her sorely of a lonely pup standing alone in the midst of a bone-chilling snow. He had no one that he cared for, and that, in and of itself, was a sympathy-inducing notion. Even right now, with his mouth tugged down into that line of muted chagrin, she could detect that he was wavering ever so slightly.

They were both alone in this predicament. He didn't trust her enough to consider her a partner, and that wasn't that odd or surprising when she took into account his cautious personality. Or the fact that they had just met. But him being the way he was only made things even more difficult.

Well, that's just the way it is, Botan eventually concluded before blinking away her tears, finally plucking up the courage to brave through the terror she harbored towards him. In any case, sitting there being afraid of him wasn't going to help her. If he refused to supply her an ounce of faith, she would have to worm her way through his walls. Not that it was going to be an easy feat of course, but she was quite known for being as stubborn as a mule.

There was a hesitant pause before Botan eventually forced herself off the ground, standing up before sauntering around the fire to take a seat right beside him. She was probably in his personal space, she noted, when she perceived the warmth of his shoulder as it grazed against hers. It was the first time she had seen Youko so flabbergasted as his agitated posturing dissipated, giving way instead to bewilderment and surprise.

But it only took him a milisecond to brush past that shocked confusion. "You've got a lot of nerves sitting next to an infamous fox thief known for leaving chaos and corpses in his wake, little girl," he started, syllables sluggish and as impassive-sounding as always. "And here I thought I managed to petrify you enough to want to be out of my presence."

"I'm not a little girl," she dismissed him with a hushed mumble, somewhat offended by his treatment towards her. It was as if he deemed her as a child, and that aggravated her. She disregarded the baffled frown that she earned from him in return as she articulated the cryptic response. He still hadn't caught on to her being a ferry girl, which was a good thing. Although, I probably shouldn't drop any hints. She spared an inward nervous laugh at herself. Reaching forward, Botan clutched in her hold a piece of cooked, delicious bear meat.

She had prepared it into a collection of sticks, the food in front of her resembling a shish kebab as she began to place it into her mouth. She paused to take in the taste, proud of herself when it melted nicely on her tongue. Before, she would regularly overcook everything anytime they had their annual camping trips. She had gotten better, though it took her some time to locate any hint of a blade in the cavern, and a longer time to cut the meat into small portions when she did find an average-sized knife. When she thought of it that way, Youko really did take a while in that hot spring. He was a narcissist to a tee it would seem.

"Are you only going to watch me eat or are you going to join me?" she went on when he continued to gawk at her. His stare bore into her, threatening to burn holes into her skin as he stared her down as if she had two extra heads protruding from her shoulders.

There was another moment of silence, the fox diffident before he then proceeded to do the same, wolfing down on the bear meat that she had so graciously put together for them. She at least knew how to make his food taste heavenly, he would give her that.

"I'm not entirely certain whether you're idiotic or courageous. No one has ever dared to converse with me as if they're comfortable around me before. They're either frozen in place due to fear or scurrying away so I don't end them. In a sense, you probably have a death wish," he remarked more to himself than to her, appearing as if he mulled over the possibility of her looking to perish at his hands. But, strangely enough, her odd behavior didn't supply him with the need to gut her open. If anything, it piqued his interest even more.

Perhaps she could attribute it to her being death herself, Botan inwardly mused. She was unafraid of the concept of an impending doom, and was in fact, more familiar with being uncomfortable with the prospect of pain than the disquietude of demise. She wasn't particularly scared of dying; she wasn't positive she was able to in the first place. If anything, she was more scared of losing Kurama due to her failing to complete the mission.

Maybe she was biting more than she could chew, but this was the task handed to her, and she wasn't one to abandon her friends in order to perserve herself. She was going to make Youko warm up to her, even if he didn't want to. Maybe when she would later have to return to the present once her goal was fulfilled, Botan could boast about being best friends with the fox to the rest of the Reikai Tantei.

Just kidding. She laughed to herself. It wasn't as if she was looking to be his closest peer. But she did harbor a surprisingly evident urge to befriend him – not simply for the sole purpose of altering the past, but also to satiaste her need to get rid of that touch of loneliness lurking beneath his composed, gilded gaze. She had a bad habit of being unable to leave strays alone, that much was obvious with her constantly taking in stray cats back at the ferry girls' headquarters. Koenma had a lot to say to her every time.

"Maybe a little bit of both." Her wisecrack came ten minutes too late, she knew, but Youko didn't seem to be in the mood to make fun of her.

"At least you're self aware," he snorted at her instead.

Oddly enough, he felt at ease with her. But he couldn't quite comprehend her ever-changing moods. One moment she was as angry as thunder, another second she was as dejected as the rain, and the next she was terrified to shreds. Then she would suddenly adopt a warm and welcoming demeanor. He was unconvinced of her motives, and even more confused with her familiarity with him. Whether the cordial persona was genuine or a façade to deceive him, Youko couldn't decipher her thoroughly. However, he recognized the warm and fuzzy sensation pooling in his stomach as her shoulder brushed against his once a while. The emotion irritated him as much as it fascinated him.

They sat there, eating in companionable silence, before he all but abruptly discerned her adoration towards the fox ears irregularly twitching at the top of his head. From his peripheral vision, he could perceive the rosy hue coloring her cheeks in an enchanted blush as she continued to drink in the sight of his ears with that beguiled look dancing in her violet orbs. The open display of captivation that he elicited from her prompted blood to rush to his own face, though he calmed himself down at the last minute – the initially scarlet tint on his cheeks now a faded pink.

"Will you please stop eyeing me like a deviant?" Youko articulated after he cleared his throat to garner her attention, his deep baritone possessing an exasperated surface despite its undertones of suppressed embarrassment. "You're making me uncomfortable."

"Oh-" Her mouth formed an 'o' as the revelation dawned on her that she had been so transfixed on his ears that he had noticed. Then again, he took notice of every little thing so perhaps she hadn't been that obvious. Hopefully. The once mesmerized flush on her cheeks darkened into a deeper shade of crimson as the embarrassment finally entered her system. "I'm not a deviant. I wasn't trying to stare," she paused as Youko regarded her with a deadpanned glare before she then teasingly added, "Not too much at least."

"You seem to be unable to grasp the gravity of your situation," Youko droned, voice tart and impartial as his sharp, hawk-like gaze scrutinized her relaxed posture. The mischievous gleam in her pools of amethyst dragged forth warmth from under his skin. He had to take back a semblance of himself before she'd managed to find a way under his flesh and somehow snatch a piece of him out of his ice cold heart.

"If you let your guard down around me, you might find yourself without a head around your shoulders, woman." He announced this in a considerably high-pitched octave, almost as if to remind her and himself that they were predator and prey. Not friends.

But the girl was adamant not to acknowledge his attempts at regaining the distance between them. She scooted closer just as he tried to stealthily increase the space between them, prompting the fox to heave out a heavy sigh as she refused to budge away from his shoulder.

"You should really improve on your social skills," came her muffled words in the midst of her chewing on food. She tried not to let it show that she was nervous herself at their near proximity, and was both unnerved and…somewhat comfortable with the feel of his bare arm grazing against hers.

"I don't need to," he scoffed, "nor do I wish to." He paid no heed to the fluttering butterflies in his gut even as the scent of her vanilla fragrance permeated his nostrils. She smelled sweet, he inwardly noted before he briskly repudiated the musing. "You should be put in your place," he muttered under his breath, hoping for the sentence to slither out of him in a malicious threat. But it lacked any bite, and came across as a hushed, uncertain whisper.

"Then why don't you put me in my place?" she probed, not at all frightened with the lack of sincerity in the empty threat as she caught no remnants of murderous intent in his mumbled baritone. "I'll have you know that the more you try to scare me, the more I want to show off that I'm not," she goaded with her chin up and her nose high in the air in arrogant posturing when he supplied her with an icy glower in return.

Her odd declaration caused a fracture in his neutral mask. His lips twitched – almost a smile, almost a laugh. But he forced it into a scowl a second later, refusing to let her in that easily.

"I'm not sure if you're a sadist or a masochist. Perhaps both," he remarked drily, though this time he made no endeavor to pull away as she proceeded to lie her head on his shoulder.

Strands of sky blue hair tickled at his nose and cheek, and he tried to banish the warmth trying to break into the middle of his chest. Never mind. I'm trying to get close to her for the pendant anyway. He wavered just a little when she laughed at his snippy retort. For the pendant. He told himself over and over, despite the reminder getting chipped away with every word they exchanged to each other.

This didn't mean anything. She was still his prisoner, he was still going to dispose of her once he got his hands on the necklace. This wasn't going to change anything. But a part of his wall crumbled every time she gave him that warm smile.

…It didn't mean anything.

A/N: Could have been better, I think. But never mind. I hope you enjoyed reading this, more than I was pleased typing it lol. Please do leave reviews from time to time. While it's not my main driving force for writing, it does help a lot to motivate me.

CrazyOfTheShippers- Lmao, I know right? Botan's hilarious, to be honest. Not sure if I captured her charms perfectly though.