The Fates Have A Twisted Sense of Humor

By ArtikGato

Disclaimer: If you thought for even ONE second that I MIGHT own Yu Yu Hakusho, you need to go visit the mental ward.

Author's Notes: Once again, I'd like to thank everyone that reviewed. You're all good people!! I send you all imaginary hugs! ^_^ I wish you all peace and prosperity! Thankies again!

Read the Author's Notes at the end of the chapter. I don't feel like ruining any surprise(s) by putting them up here. Suffice to say that this is NOT the last chapter! The next to last (unless I get random and decide to stretch out the epilogue...)

Okay, now on with the show! Er, story. Well, whatever. Here we go!

Chapter Five

            'I want to apologize. Meet me in the park.'

            That is what the note had read. Botan was still a little skeptical of the note, even as she walked slowly through the 'park' that Hiei called his home.

            "Hiei wouldn't apologize. What else does he want?" she thought. She suddenly reached a familiar part of the park: the clearing that Hiei's tree was in. She cleared her throat.

            "Hiei? You wanted to meet me?" Botan asked. Truthfully, she was also a little nervous about this. After all, it wasn't like Hiei to want to talk to her willingly outside of a mission. The demon appeared a few feet away, leaning against a nearby tree.

            "Actually, I did," Hiei said, stepping off from the tree and walking up to her. She blinked, but didn't say anything. They stood there for a couple of silent seconds, before Hiei unexpectedly grabbed her by the chin and kissed her.

            Had they not already kissed three times before, she might have been shocked. Now, she was mildly surprised.

            "I've been wanting to kiss you...without you slapping me... or pushing me," Hiei explained. Botan blushed, not really sure whether she should be shy or ashamed. She had to admit that she did feel a bit guilty for slapping him all those times...but what did me mean by just wanting to kiss her? She felt very confused.

            "Umm, yeah...sorry about that," she said. He smiled slightly.

           "I didn't come here to apologize, so neither should you," he said. She looked a little suspicious, and she could literally feel her blush getting darker.

            "But the note said-"

            "Yeah...well, I actually DID have the intention to apologize...but now I don't," he said. She looked confused.

            "So what do you have the intention to do now?" she asked. He suddenly put his arms around her, and, before she could even realize what he was doing, he was kissing her passionately. Her senses screamed at her for her to shove him away, or to pull back away from him, but for some unknown reason she didn't want to. He slipped his hands down to the middle of her back moved his hands in a gentle rubbing motion, which made her press closer to him and moan into his mouth. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, making her practically melt in his arms.

            Inhibitions forgotten, she subconsciously pressed herself even closer to him, grabbing him about the waist, and at the same time rubbed his tongue roughly with her own. This made him growl low in his throat and reach behind her, and grabbed one of the ends of her sash, as he had before. This time, Botan just kissed him harder as he tossed the sash to the side, letting her kimono hang loose about her. After a bit of struggling, she managed to get his cloak like thing off of him, and made quick work of his shirt as well. It was when she reached for his belt that Hiei stopped the kiss.

            "Botan," he started, and gulped, looking her straight in the eyes, "If you go any further, I won't be able to control myself. I won't be able to take back whatever I do," he warned her. She smiled.

            "Just shut up and kiss me, youkai," she said, purposefully letting her kimono slip off of her shoulders. Hiei shook his head.

            "Not yet. I have to do this right." he said, grabbing her shoulders. She gave him a confused look, but he ignored it and enveloped her neck in a kiss. She still looked confused, until she felt him sink his fangs into her neck. Suddenly, everything clicked. Botan knew exactly what was going on. She had come to know a lot of things over the years as the ferrier of the River Styx, after all.

            Youkai and humans were alike in the way that they outwardly showed their emotions. They glared when angry, blushed when embarrassed, paled when scared, ect. However, the one emotion that youkai showed differently was one of the rarer demon emotions: love. Youkai showed possession of their mates by biting them. Their bite mark was how they claimed their mates... and once a demon has chosen a mate, nothing less than death could separate them. 

            "Hiei..." she started. She felt him remove his fangs from her neck. "D-does this mean...?" she trembled, and her throat tightened, making her unable to finish. He brought his head up and looked her straight in the eyes.

And then he smiled.

A genuine, caring, loving smile. A rare sight from the youkai. Botan could feel the fresh sting of tears behind her eyes, and her stomach seemed to tie itself into knots at that smile.

She knew she would never be the same again.

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            "Damnit, Hiei," Kurama thought, as he once again intervened in the conversation between Yukina and Kuwabara, making sure that Kuwabara didn't get the chance to ask her on a date or anything like that. "Why can't you just let Yukina date whoever she wants to date?"

            Hiei had left the kitsune in charge of making sure Kuwabara didn't get to say or do anything even slightly romantic with Yukina. Kurama rolled his eyes. "Hypocrite." He looked over at Yukina, and almost laughed.

            "She doesn't even know that she has an older brother. And, guessing from what Hiei said earlier, she's about to have an older sister that she doesn't know about." He thought. Mentally grinning.

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It was almost surreal; unbelievable. Reading that note earlier, Botan could never have imagined what it would have led to. And yet, she was glad. She felt no regrets. But she almost couldn't believe what had happened. Was she dreaming? No, she could never feel this way in a dream. She relished the feeling of the cool grass below her and the warm form above her. She didn't want to open her eyes. Was she afraid? Afraid to open them and find him staring down at her with anger in his eyes? Or worse, guilt? She pushed the thoughts away and just kept her eyes closed. What would be the point of opening her eyes?

            But reality began to seep back into her mind. She became aware of her hands, pinned to the ground just a few inches above her head by his hands, their fingers intertwined. She knew that he was resting his forehead softly on hers, and she could feel him panting for breath as he rested his body against hers. She didn't want to open her eyes, but she knew she had to. A question was blaring in her head, and it absolutely had to be answered. So, regretfully, she opened her eyes, to find his red ones staring down into hers.

            "How are you feeling?" he asked, softly. She saw a small smile on his lips, the lips that she had kissed so many times (though half of the time it wasn't willingly...).

            "I don't know," she answered. There was a brief pause, and the question in her mind finally came back to her. "Hiei..." she started.

            "Yeah?" he asked.

            "...why?"

            The question was cryptic, but Hiei seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. He abruptly rolled so that he was no longer on her, making her shiver. He still kept his fingers wrapped about hers.       

            "I'll just tell you straight forward what happened. You know I was never one to drag things out for longer than they need to be." he said. She nodded.

            "After the mission, for some unexplainable reason, I couldn't stop thinking about you." he started. She sucked in a breath of surprise. "I figured that I was just feeling guilty. So, I decided to just apologize, and that's why I sent you that note." She nodded again.

            "Then...Kurama decided to butt in," he said.

            "Ah," Botan said, understanding.

            "Damn that kitsune and his sweet snow!" Hiei grumbled. Botan arched an eyebrow.

            "Umm..." she started.

            "He bribed me into telling him how I felt," he said, sighing in annoyance, "and then he tricked me into actually doing something about it."

            "Well...I for one am glad that he bribed you and tricked you," Botan said, smiling.

            "Yeah...me too," he replied. There was a long pause.

            "So, what now?" Botan asked, and yawned, suddenly very tired.

            "Now...I think you need to sleep," Hiei said, as she yawned again. He wordlessly stood up and retrieved their clothes, slipping back into his quickly. He just wrapped her Kimono and his long cloak around her like blankets.

           "Sleep well, koibito," he said, and picked her up in his arms, disappearing after a few moments. She just closed her eyes, content.

*Counts up the paragraphs* DEAR LORD!! I'VE WRITTEN SOMETHING SHORT!!! Well, it's short for my style of writing. Anyhow, BELIEVE ME, this isn't the end. The best has yet to come!

Just so ya know, this was almost the lemon chapter. That's why it took so long for me to post the freakin' thing. I was going through an inner debate and blah blah blah. Suffice to say...GO ME!! I managed not only to turn it into total and complete fluff, but I ALSO managed to limit this chapter to some slight lime-ish material!! Yay!

Koibito, NOT koi, means Lover. ^^''' Sorry, I was a bit...well, stupid. Sorry. But, no one is perfect, right?

By the way, for those of you that wanted a lemon...use your imagination, all right? I KNOW that most of you can see where this was leading, I just stopped writing before that.

Thankies again for all the wonderful reviews!