Morning Roses

Chapter 3: At least my plants like me

Disclaimer: (Checks pockets) Well, I don't think I own them…

A/N: About the (1) note from last chapter which I neglected to put…

(1) "How dare you admonish ME, vermin?" is from Demon Diary volume 1.

Now that that's out of the way, check out my LJ for responses, as I don't feel like using their new system, since I tend to back reviews up anyway. Call me old-fashioned, lazy, whatever, that's what I do.

And now, our feature presentation.

.x.x.x.x.

A knock on the large mahogany doors of the kitchen startled Botan's head up, her cheeks flushed from the heat of the oven, a cheerful saffron kerchief holding her hair out of her face. "Come in," she called.

Yoko strode purposefully in, silver ears twitching with excitement. "Hello once again."

"Ah…Lord Yoko!" she acknowledged brightly. "Is there some reason you're here? Was the food satisfactory?"

"It was…" he paused and flicked his tongue over his pearly fangs. "…Quite delicious."

This made Botan SLIGHTLY uncomfortable. "Ah…well then…umm?"

"I'd like to show you around the castle!" he said conversationally, as if the last ten seconds had never happened. He walked briskly out the room, and Botan had no choice but to follow him, head spinning.

What IS this guy?

.x.x.x.x.

"…And my personal favorite, the gardens!"

Botan gazed around in obvious awe. "Wow…who tends all these?"

The gardens were well worth her admiration. The low bushes of white roses rimming the garden blended gently into first pale, then bright pink ones. Perfectly manicured lawns ran between hedges, with sturdy little white benches in the sweet-smelling caves of flora. A tiny stream filled with glistening gravel cheerfully bubbled through the center, and it was on a footbridge over this sparkling water that Yoko and Botan were standing. A smug smirk crossed his face as he answered her. "Why, ME, of course!"

Most other women would stare, laugh, or at the very least write the guy off as a, no pun intended, pansy. But Botan was not most women. Instead of any of these, she beamed hugely. "That's incredible! You run the country and still manage to find time to garden?"

He shifted uncomfortably and rocked on his heels. "Well…I don't REALLY run the country…Hiei takes care of that. And the plants mostly tend themselves…they just like me."

She frowned. "I've never heard of plants liking a person…"

His face was openly hurt. "Everyone…or thing…likes me!"

Botan raised an eyebrow challengingly. "-I- don't like you."

A silvery ear twitched. "OH?"

She nodded, fighting back a grin.

He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her close enough that she could feel his breath on her ear. "We'll just have to work on that then, won't we?"

Just as Botan was about to respond by melting into him, two loud coughs interrupted them. Yoko's head whipped around to see the (very annoyed) chocolate eyes of the head of household, and the (equally annoyed) ruby ones of his friend. The sight of a pissed-off Shizuru was enough to make him let go of Botan in a flash, raising his hands in a gesture of truce. Hiei glared at him.

"Can you not control your hormones out of my sight for ONE day?"

"I was just playing!" he whined, disappointed that Botan had left with Shizuru.

"She is too emotionally fragile for your 'games'!" snapped Hiei.

Yoko glared at a rosebush. "Who made YOU the father? And what were you doing with Shizuru in my rose garden?"

"Don't change the subject!" Hiei snapped again, but his cheeks were most definitely pink.

.x.x.x.x.

It was quite a while later when Botan discovered the pink rose at the top of her ponytail. Beneath her blush she wondered when Yoko had put it there, if indeed he had. Hadn't he said something about the plants tending themselves? Still mildly curious, she placed the rose in a shallow bowl of water on her windowsill and slid into a chair beside it. Resting her chin in her hands, she gazed at it thoughtfully, enjoying the way the late afternoon sun shone through the glass in a warm palette of oranges and reds, glancing off the water and refracting all over the small room. Suddenly, her head snapped up, a devious smile on her face.

THERE was a way to get Lord Koenma all his information.

So simple, and so perfect.

She would get Yoko to fall in love with her.

After all, how hard could it be? She had seen him eying her figure, and then there was the matter of the rose…simple, really. A bat of the eyelash here, a bell-like laugh there, and he would be hers.

Maybe she could even MARRY him, and then…

Whoa. Hold it, Botan. Marriage would mean that YOU would have to love HIM, too.

And that is one thing that will NEVER happen.

.x.x.x.x.

Hiei grumbled to himself as he strode along the stone corridors of the castle, kicking at carpets and the odd cat. Curse that Yoko. Why did he have to go after almost everything female that crossed his path?

It's because he's a damn womanizer, that's why.

Well, the real reason Hiei was striding along the stone corridors of the castle kicking at small animals was simply that dinner was late, or WOULD be if he didn't start smelling some cooking very soon.

Hence why he was on his way to the kitchen. To get that lazy blue-haired cook moving.

However, he would never fire her.

How could I? She's…her

Annoyed at himself for growing soft, he quickened his pace, trying to ignore the little white kitten pouncing on his shoes.

.x.x.x.x.

Opening the door to her little room after banging on it for a solid three and a half minutes, Hiei confirmed what he was almost certain of to begin with. That troublesome cook had fallen solidly asleep. The room was dark, so he grabbed a match and lit a candle, setting it on the windowsill opposite the side that she was leaning her head on. He glared at her for a moment before trying to shake her awake. She mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "just five more minutes," then turned her head on her crossed arms and faced away from Hiei. His right eye twitched twice, and he shook her again.

"Get up. Supper is late and Lord Yoko is irritable."

She didn't so much as have a minor muscle spasm.

Ruby eyes narrowed in pure irritation. "Get up, you lazy woman, or I'll be forced to sent Yoko himself down here to wake you up."

Not an eyelash flutter.

A hiss of air escaped from between his teeth. Well, she asked for it…

.x.x.x.x.

Yoko was not very pleased by the news that his cook was sleeping on the job. No matter that she was attractive. A food-deprived fox is not a happy fox, and Yoko was definitely NOT HAPPY.

Consequentially, he stormed down to the kitchen, fully intent upon firing the woman if he did not get food SOON.

Livid with rage and hunger, he flung open the door behind which our blue-haired sleeping beauty lay. Sat.

Glowering fiercely, he crossed his arms and attempted to wake her with the power of his mind alone. This failing, he stepped closer. "Woman…" he growled, "if you do not wake up and make me food SOON, you will no longer have this job. Is that clear?"

Botan gave him exactly the same response she had given Hiei. That is to say, absolutely none.

"WOMAN!" he shouted.

A finger twitched, but that was it.

He planted his feet firmly on the floor in front of her, glaring down on her sleeping face. Then the pink rose caught his eye, and a smirk of pure male satisfaction flitted briefly across his features, dissipating his anger in a flash. He grabbed the trunk and pulled it over, sitting down on it and staring at her closed eyes with a kind of childish intensity. Slowly his gaze traveled lower, over her pale blue lashes and small, upturned nose, down to her rosy lips and pointed chin, slowly taking in the long lines of her soft neck and elegant collarbone to the inevitable neckline of her dress. This was stared at intently for a moment, before her welcome small shift and the drop of the fabric.

Yoko didn't even notice that he was leaning forward to get a clearer look at this freshly exposed skin until a firm hand whacked him painfully across the cheek, sending him backward off the trunk.

"Good evening, Botan," he managed congenially, rubbing his offended facial area.

She glared at him. "Next time it won't be my hand, but a frying pan."

"I don't doubt it," he murmured, slightly frightened of the irate woman.

It was with relief that he watched her storm into the kitchen, and with relief that he went back up to the dining hall to await his food.

.x.x.x.x.

A/N: (Bows) I'm sorry it's so short (and late), but I would like to postpone the next part to the next chapter…which should be MUCH longer. Really, think of this as a half chapter. Please review, despite its brevity. …Please?