Dear Readers,

I was listening to "Reckless Fire" and "Eternal Snow" from Scryed and Full Moon Wo Sagashite respectively and I just loved those songs! You should really try listening to them. :3

Love,

Wolf Princess Aya

Lasting Memories

Botan looked up at the sky, only to find it was still a swirl of purple and gray clouds. She instantly knew a storm was coming, followed shortly by rain. How fitting to her thoughts, she mused sadly.

"BOTAN!" Hari yelled angrily from the house. The young maid sighed and headed back inside.

"Is there anything else?" Botan asked dryly after she lugged the last of five large trunks out into the yard. Her hands dropped at her side, her arms about ready to fall off but what else could she do?

"No, I think that's all," Hari replied coolly, smoothing her skirts (to which her stepsister rolled her eyes). After a few moments of silence the prince came walking briskly outside.

"Ready to go?" he cheerfully asked Hari, who beamed back and nodded. Kurama politely opened the door for her and she got gracefully in. Then he looked at Botan and cocked his head, a ray of light catching his jewel necklace.

Why did he always keep that on?

"Are you going to come in?" he asked slowly and smiling wryly, waiting like a true gentleman. She looked down, embarrassed, and got silently in, sitting on the opposite side of Hari, as the older girl glared at her. The footman, who had spent the night in the carriage, woke up, and grumpily helped the prince load the trunks as Hari continued to glare at Botan. Botan stared back, though weakly.

"Though you are coming to the castle with me, maid," Hari whispered softly, "you will not be receiving any special treatment. You are lower then low and I plan to treat you as such." Botan did nothing to reply to this except look out the window, clenching her fists at her sides.

Hari crossed her legs daintily and smiled when Kurama crawled in, sitting next her and across from Botan. He smiled at the two of them.

"At last we are to leave for the palace!" Hari beamed at him.

"To our new life at the palace!"

'To a new life. . .' Botan thought distantly, looking out the window as the carriage began to roll along, 'I wonder how much worse it will be?'

Ten minutes later, the gentle bumping of the trudging carriage and the soft splattering of the light rain that had begun to fall had caused Hari to drift off to sleep. Botan had been right; a small storm had been brewing all along. Thus this left Botan and Kurama sitting uncomfortably across from each other, staring out the same window.

"It's raining," Kurama said after a moment. The girl smiled a little as she glanced at him.

"Observant, my prince." Kurama smiled gently.

"What a wonderful smile." The girl looked away again and the smile disappeared almost instantly.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked a moment later. 'She's so familiar! I just can't place my finger on it--!' Botan didn't say anything. She didn't even move. The prince was beginning to feel very frustrated when the girl spoke.

"Why do you love Hari?" The question caught Kurama off guard.

"Excuse me?"

"Why do you love her?" Botan repeated, looking out the window sadly. Kurama didn't know what to say for once in his life. All those enigmatic questions, he could solve, and only to be stunned by this one.

"Well," he finally replied, "she was the girl I fell for at the ball."

". . . What if she wasn't? Would you still love her?" These questions were confusing and to simply put it, it was quite irritating to be held defenseless with a single question, but at least the girl was talking to him.

"I suppose. . ." he said slowly, "I don't know. Why do you want to know?" Botan said nothing. Kurama looked over at the sleeping Hari, who looked just as beautiful in slumber as she did awake. And that was very beautiful.

He did love her.

Didn't he? The maid's questions hung heavy on his mind as he watched Hari's sleeping form.

'Why do you love her?'

'Would you if she wasn't the girl?'

'What if she wasn't?'

'But she is,' thought Kurama, as the question played over and over again through his mind.

'What if she wasn't?'

'I'm sure she is!'

'What if she wasn't?'

What if she wasn't . . .?

'A day of being alone with two of the most annoying women on the planet,' he thought grudgingly. Well, he supposed they were. He hadn't met everyone woman on the planet. Not that he would deny the chance if he could.

Yusuke liked women. He liked women a lot. Just not the two, it so happened, he was forced to be with for the next 24 hours.

He sighed as he looked out the window, hoping to spot Keiko as she did whatever she happened to do all day. But, sadly, it seemed she either had a job that kept her inside all the time, or she was avoiding leaving the house for some reason.

"Yusuke!" Maya's shrill voice rang out, "Come and play a game with me!" Just the thought of what sort of "game" that weird girl would want to "play", Yusuke quickly came up with a lie. Not a good one, but a lie that got him out of it, at least.

"Err- my lady, as much as I would love to play with you, it appears I was summoned by the girl next door to- err- help clean out her closet. I will talk to you later!"

And with that, he ran out of the house, leaving a very confused Maya with a deck of cards behind him.

I know it's kind of weird that Yusuke likes women, but I remembered all the times he was being weird with Keiko and I threw it in, just to make things more romantic between the two later…

Oops… I've said too much!

Aya-chan