AN: I am so sorry! I tried doing the update once a week thing, but I largely underestimated how much school has taken up my life. I guess it comes with the package of being a junior. I will try to update next week since I have a whole week off! Yay! No promises though. I have an important test the following week that I have to prepare for. Again, sorry for the wait.

MarialeBenitez – Thank you for liking my story. Yes, Kurama is interested in Botan. There will be a chapter about his thoughts after the next one.

tuathafaerie – Of course it's okay for you to think that. I had an idea of doing that actually. But it would freak Botan a little too much. You got anything for as an alternative? I would love to do something somewhere along the lines of it. And there is huge progression here. Hope you like it.

Crystal Koneko – Yes, Hiei is very possessive. Even more so in this chapter!

Botan Jaganshi- Hiei's Girl – Thank you. I'm very flattered. I like your stories too, but I am such a lazy butt because I don't review. I really should.

Dragon Tamer103088 – Well, this is what happens next… After I'm done with thanking the reviewers. Like you. Thank you!

Hiei's Ice Maiden – Yukina has ruby reds eyes too. And it isn't that suspicious. Is it?

Heartluv – He didn't buy her anything… really. You'll see. Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Priestess Rin – No offence, but you name is a dead give away to who you are. Thank you for reading. No there is no kidnapping here in this fic. I think.

Kitsune Kit – Is it really confusing? But thanks for loving it. And Kurama has his own chapter after the next one, just to let you know.

Silver Spell – Wow. You gave me the longest review for the chapter. I want to see that movie! But a last, I can't. One because I'm poor. Two because I have no time. Three because no one wants to see it with me! And thank you very much. Your compliment really touched me.

psychopyro16 – Why thank you very much. I just love HieiBotan fics.

Anime's-mistress – I really did try to update as fast as I can. Hopefully I'll be able to update again next week.

Ranerou Black – Thank you! Hope that you like this chapter too.

Tsuki Koorime – Thank you for reading my fic! The reason why she seems so submissive is because why you are courting with someone; you try to get the other person to like you. Hence Botan tries to get Hiei to like her. Hiei does the same thing too. but his way is more subtle. Plus, Botan's got a secret.

Runaway Kogoro – It's been a while since I saw your name on my review list. But thanks for reviewing. Hope you like this chapter.

botan's horse – I tried to update soon! But I just couldn't. Hope that I could update again next week.

BoTaN JaNaGaShI AKA.yukieitan – I love Hiei and Botan as a couple. And aren't they so cute together? Thank you for your compliment!

Daine-Weirynsra – Someone has been reading Tamora Pierce! I love her books and have most of them in my possession. And its Daine and Numair! I love them! Yes, books are friends, not food.

Hostility Begins

When she opened her eyes, she saw ruby red. And then she opened her mouth and screamed. He moved quickly. The sense of danger was ringing piercingly throughout his whole body.

But let's not jump ahead too quickly. Let's go back to a time where it was quieter. Like, thirty minutes ago. In the forest surrounding Genkai's house. And to a specific tree where a small figured clothed in black appeared out of no where. He checked who was inside the house first. Three females: one sleeping, one getting up, and the last wide awake and moving about.

Hiei surveyed the area before hoping down to the ground. He circled around the perimeter of the house, making a wide circle around it. After doing several rings, he stopped and smirked at his handed work. He would see if he would dare break that. He also hoped that Genkai wouldn't break it. He would have to make it clear that it would have to stay there.

For a while, he just stood there, thinking. She would be a perfect mate. Instinct told him to start putting his scent on her. The kitsune was after the onna after all. He needed to start marking her before a single dander of the kitsune's flies to her. He would be damn before she started smelling like Kurama. His instincts were growing more and more wild, and out of his control as each day passes. The time had to be soon.

Just a few more days. Maybe a week more. Maybe even a day or two after a week. But he knew that the day where he could officially mate her was coming fast.

With a swift glance around the vicinity, he leisurely went to the front door and went inside. There he found Yukina heading towards another room.

"Hiei, you're early," his sister greeted and went to hug him. She could feel a conflict tormenting inside her brother. He wrapped his arms around her unsure but not lightly. Hugging was not something that he was use to or exposed to.

"Are you going to stay for the whole day or just in the morning?" she asked after she let go.

"The whole day."

"Are you worried that someone will take her away from you?"

"Hn." He looked away from her searching eyes.

"Then I will go ask Genkai-san to not break what you've created. Why don't you go wake Botan-san? She usually wakes up around this time."

With a nod of his head, he went up the stairs. He didn't ask where Botan's room was located because he already knew. When he arrived at her door, he didn't even bother to knock. He just opened her door silently and stepped inside. She was still asleep. Hiei never saw an angel before, and he doubt that he ever will, but he was sure that angels looked similar to what he saw right now. She looked peaceful when she slept. Maybe when she's sleeping, she has good dreams. He mostly had nightmares.

Instinct whispered that she would bear strong kodomo.

He drove that thought down and instead wondered what she was dreaming about. No longer needing to take out his headband to use his Jagan, he opened his mind open into hers. What he saw in her mind surprised him. She was dreaming about fire. Each flame had its own unique style and detail. What kind of baka onna dreams about fire?

One who is in courting with a fire demon, his instinct replied.

Hiei smirked, pleased.

Botan slowly woke from her deep sleep. Hiei, being too busy with his mental images of Botan's dream and his instincts providing him with even more, stronger mental images of Botan waiting to be taken on his bed, did not see or sense Botan waking up. He became engrossed with seeing her body lying across his bed, blue hair spread around wildly, legs tangled with the sheets in his mind's eyeShe was panting, waiting for him to come to her. His instincts gave a very detailed image of her. He watched her stomach rise with each breath she took. Beautiful shaped legs slowly being uncovered from beneath the sheets. Her eyes were dark and wanting. He could almost smell her.

When real life Botan opened her eyes, she was met with ruby red eyes staring at her. What she didn't notice was the far away look to those eyes. Or the slight smirk of pleasure on his lips. Nor did she notice whose eyes they belonged to. So she screamed.

Loudly.

Hiei snapped out of his thoughts and was greeted with Botan's pillow to his face. He moved away quickly after that. The sense of danger was ringing piercingly throughout his whole body. He may be a proud demon, but he had seen what the ferry girl could do when provoked.

"HENTAI!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and threw whatever was available at him. Books, the clock, picture frames, paper weights, her shoes, and the list went on. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM! YOU HENTAI!"

How right she is.

He got out of her room like she said and slammed the door shut. Then he growled. If they had been in Makai, he would teach her some manners to the one she was courting with. But alas, they weren't. She was too much like a ningen. Her being a ningen did also added to the problem. He knew that he couldn't change what she was, but maybe he could install some demonic traits into her. The training was part of that plan. So she would learn how to fight and not be just a simple, useless ningen.

He reached the stairs and then stopped. Why did he choose the baka onna of all people to court? She wasn't a demon.

Because, she is the only female that considers you a friend that has no real blood relations to you. And you are attracted to her beauty.

Her beauty. He smiled. Yes, he was attracted to her beauty. But there was something more growing inside of him. Something that he never really felt before. But he wasn't ignorant to the type of emotion that he was feeling. He knew exactly what it was. It wasn't a strong feeling, and he didn't care if it grew or not. If it will, it will. If it doesn't, it doesn't. He acknowledged it and that was that.

When he arrived at the kitchen, Yukina and Genkai had just finished making breakfast.

"From the sounds of it, she must've been happy to see you," Genkai said with a smirk as she walked past him with a tray filled with food.

He growled at her retreating form.

"I hope that you didn't scare Botan-san too much," Yukina place a hand on her brother's arm.

"She'll get over it," he stopped glaring at Genkai's back upon feeling his sister's touch.

"Then for your sake, I hope that she gets over it soon. Kurama is near."

He growled once more. Of course he felt the kitsune coming. They both sensed him stop just outside the territorial scent marks that Hiei placed around the house. He didn't move. Kurama was most likely thinking of what to do next.

"You should apologize to her now. If Kurama ignores the marks and comes here, she will ignore you and pay full attention to him instead. She may even forget the dangers of what that act alone could do in her anger with you," Yukina said.

Hiei scowled. He apologized to no one but his sister. But if he wanted to be in the onna's good graces, he would have to swallow his pride. Stupid courting ritual. So he left his sister in the kitchen and proceeded to head to Botan's room again. He met her just as she opened the door of her room, fully dressed for the day. She glared at him. He glared back at her, still upset at having a pillow being thrown at his face.

Then he felt Kurama continue his walk to the house. Hiei's scowl deepened. The kitsune was brave.

"Don't look at me like that you pervert," Botan said, still glaring. "You are the one who went into my room without permission."

"Yukina said that I should go wake you up."

"But you didn't even try to wake me up!" she yelled. "You just stared at me like a pervert! You pervert!"

Kurama walked into the house.

Hiei grabbed Botan's arm to make her stop yelling. "Look, I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Now will you shut up!" It was a command, not a request.

She yanked her arm out from his grip and glared. "Fine!" Then she smoothed out invisible wrinkles out of her shirt. "You're forgiven," she said in a tone that clearly said that he really wasn't. She moved past him and then stopped. "You actually apologized." Her eyes widened. She spun around to face him. "Was that my gift?"

"What?"

"The apology. Was that my gift? Kurama said—"

Hiei's scowled at her. His glare looked like it could kill. He wanted to kill. She wasn't making it any easier. By mentioning the kitsune's name alone, his hand went to his katana.

Botan swallowed hard. She was doing it again; speaking without thinking first. Her voice was caught in her throat. She couldn't tell him how sorry she was. His penetrating glare was preventing her from doing so.

Hiei closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. It would do him no good to yell at her. Not when the kitsune was beneath the same roof as they were. Kurama would hear him. He would instantly know that there was trouble with their courtship. Hiei slowly removed his hand from his katana, growled, and marched to the stairs.

Botan, realizing what was happening, ran to Hiei's descending form down the stairs. She tripped on the second step, but she managed to do what she had originally planned to do. She almost fell flat on her face if she hadn't grabbed Hiei's body from behind and embraced him in a hug. Hiei stopped, and would have fallen flat on his face if he wasn't a strong fighter or a demon. The most that he did was stagger forward a little on his step from the impact. He stiffened.

"I'm sorry," Botan whispered. Her voice sincere. "I'm really sorry." She tightened her arms around him and buried her face on his back. "I never meant it in that way. I'm so sorry. Please… forgive me."

They stayed in that position for a while. Botan's face hidden on Hiei's back, Hiei looking down at nothing. His face eased away from his scowl. Neither of them moved. Neither of them wanting to move. Finally, Hiei relaxed his body.

"Let's go onna. Yukina will be worried if we're not there soon," His voice was calm.

"Hai," Botan reluctantly let go of him. Hiei immediately felt cold where Botan's warm body had held him. He told himself that it didn't have any effect on him. That he was use to the cold. He knew that he was lying.

They went into the dining room, side by side. A comfortable silent followed them. But when Hiei saw Kurama, sitting down and waiting to eat, the aura around him changed. His scowl was back. Botan looked at Hiei's face and then to Kurama, seeing the reason for Hiei's sudden change of moods. The usual morning greetings were exchanged. Hiei never took his eyes away from Kurama. Kurama wisely chose not to meet Hiei's glaring face.

Hiei sat in front of Kurama. His eyes telling the other demon to not even think of trying anything. Botan sat to Hiei's left. Yukina sat to Kurama's left and Genkai at the head of the table. The silence was uncomfortable. Botan fidgeted in her sit.

"Well?" Genkai said breaking the silence. "What are you all waiting for? Eat or I'll eat it all for you."

"Itadakimasu!" They all muttered expect for Yukina and Genkai.

Breakfast was mostly eaten in silence. Botan, who usually talked like there was no tomorrow, kept silent to not anger Hiei. She was afraid to offend him. She had already done it once and had no intension of doing it again. Yukina made small talk with her brother. Though it was mostly a one sided conversation. Every time Kurama would open his mouth to speak, Hiei would glare at him, making Kurama shut his mouth. And Genkai just seemed lost in her own thoughts, calmly eating whatever was on her plate.

Hiei constantly had at least one of his eyes on Kurama, watching his every move like a hawk. He was waiting for an excuse to attack the competition.

First offense, kitsune.

Traditional demon courting allowed an intruding demon that attempts to disrupt the courtship after the first week, two free offenses, which comes with warning and death threats only. The offenses had to be small though. After the second offense, warnings were put to a stop and nothing but spilled blood would then be demanded in compensation for the offense.

After Botan swallowed the last bit of her rice, and having already finished with his meal a while ago, Hiei grabbed her hand, forced her to stand up, and ran out the door while Botan made a hasty goodbye.

After the first few steps of running, Botan started to complain. "Hiei! Slow down!" Pant. "I can't run." Pant. "Right after." Pant. "I eat." Pant. "My stomach hurts!"

Without missing a beat, Hiei lifted her to his back and ran faster. Because Botan's body was much larger than Hiei's, she wrapped her legs around his waist for a better support and her arms went around his neck. She tried to hold on mainly with her legs so that she wouldn't choke him. Running past brushes and low branches, Hiei held on to her legs and jumped high into the air. When he land, he jumped again, but this time he jumped horizontally. It was almost like he was flying parallel to the ground.

The warmth of her body pressing against his returned. He unconsciously held on to her tighter. When he noticed, he tried to tell himself that it was only so she wouldn't fall off.

When they finally arrived at their destination, Hiei reluctantly let go of her. His body immediately missed her warmth. Botan looked around her surroundings with awe. All around them were beautiful flowers, tall trees that provided cool shades and a small waterfall in the middle of it all that emptied itself into a miniature lake. Sunlight poured downs its rays around the area, giving it a golden look and heavenly feel. The place was like a miniature forest heaven.

"Wow, this place is beautiful. Where are we?" she asked, still amazed by the wonders of the place. She went in circles trying to see everything at once.

"Approximately 300 miles away from Genkai's temple," Hiei smirked proudly.

That stopped her dead in her tracts. "What! How? We were running (well you were the one running) for about ten minutes!"

"We were actually traveling for six minutes."

Getting cocky.

Hiei smirked at his instinct. He had every right to be cocky. He was, if not one, then the best. He watched her shocked expression turn from shock to awe. He continued to watch her as she dropped her gaze, most likely not knowing what to say next. Her eyes wondered until they spotted a rabbit. Wanting to pet it (and not caring if it has rabies), she walked slowly up to it. She was interesting to watch. Her emotions changed so quickly in a short amount of time that he was fascinated and disturbed by it at the same time.

When the rabbit jumped away, Botan waved at it in farewell. She turned back to him. "This place is lovely. How did you find it?"

He pointed to his hidden Jagan eye.

"I guess I should have figured," she said. "But why this place? It doesn't seem like… the type of place that you would normally go to or look for."

"Why do you think onna?" he asked as if pointing out the obvious.

He watched she forehead wrinkled into a frown. "And what's that suppose to mean?"

"That maybe you should know," he baited her.

"Well excuse me for not knowing!" she yelled. Her emotion changing from happy to confuse and now anger. She was definitely interesting to watch. It was getting dull being around demons who only thought about themselves. Most worried if they would live to see the next day.

"It was close."

"You picked this place because it was close?" her eyebrows knitted together in disbelief. "But it's 300 miles away from where we were this morning!"

"It was close," he repeated, drawing out patience that he reserved for occasions like this whenever he was around her.

"And close to you means?" One of her eye brows rose. It intrigued him how her face would change to match what she was feeling. Each creasing of her face skin, the eyebrows rising, the twitch of the mouth, all had a specific purpose of showing multitudes of emotion.

"Anywhere in this country."

Her mouth opened up in the shape of an O.

To Hiei, it was simple. To impress the one that he was courting, all he had to do was use the same tactics that his competition would use but he would make it even better. Kurama would have brought Botan to a place similar to this place. All Hiei had to do was find a place filled with flowers and other plants that also had a feeling of pure tranquilly and without any annoying ningens to bother them. What made the place even better was the fact the soil was perfect for the gift that he found for her.

When her back was turned to him, Hiei went to a nearby tree and unearth a flower that was rooted there. He put it in his pocket. Then he went back to watching her. She was watching him as well. He took a few steps toward her.

"It was for you."

"What?"

"This place."

She smiled.

It was for you.

They arrived back at Genkai's hours after it became dark. They spent the day in the forest far from the temple. Mostly Botan played with the forest creatures while Hiei watched her. When she got bored, they took a walk. Botan tried to stay quiet for Hiei, but that didn't last very long. Whenever she saw a cute little animal running by, she would squeak with excitement. Hiei didn't seem to mind too much. It became annoying hearing it for more than three times in less than five minutes. Patience was one thing that Hiei was rapidly running out of.

Botan's stomach grumbled as she was dropped off from Hiei's back. "I guess that I should pack lunches if we're to do this again tomorrow then."

"Hn."

"Aren't you hungry?"

"No."

"Well, do you want to come inside? I'm sure that Yukina left something for us to eat. I'm starving. I didn't even get to eat lunch! Not that I'm saying that I didn't like the trip. I loved it! I'm just a little upset that we didn't get to eat lunch! And I still can't believe that we completely lost track of time! I didn't even notice that it was getting dark until you pointed it out to me!"

"You talk too much onna."

She glared at him. "Well I have to talk enough for the both of us."

"Hn."

"So, are you going to come inside and eat or not?"

Hiei reached inside his pocket and took out a flower. What made Botan look at it curiously was that it hasn't even bloomed yet. She could clearly see the yellow petals that have yet to open up, enclosing the sweet buds that were inside.

"This is for you."

"Nani?" she asked shocked and in disbelief.

"It's called an Aysel. It only blooms in the moonlight."

"Oh. That makes sense. Aysel is a person's name that means moonlight in Turkish. But will it still bloom even though it's been unearthed?"

"Yes."

"That's amazing. Do I have to put it back in some soil or water?"

"Soil."

"Wow."

"Are you going to take it or not?" he said impatiently.

Botan blushed in embarrassment. She quickly took the flower from him and mumbled an apology and a thank you at the same time. Then she snapped her fingers after remembering something. "Wait here."

She swiftly went inside. While she was gone, Hiei scanned the area. Kurama wasn't there. He had left a long time ago. Most likely an hour or two after they left. He was being smart by not being there when they got back. Hiei narrowed his eyes. Kurama would be back tomorrow though.

He'll regret it.

Botan came back out and handed him a small box.

"I bought this yesterday. It reminded meof you," she smiled anxiously. Obviously wanting him to open it.

He took out the top part of the box. Inside he saw something inside it shine, reflecting the dim lights that surround them. He took it out and found that it fit into the palm of his hand. It was a crystal dragon. He briefly wondered she if she knew what she had truly given him. Then he discarded the thought. He'll tell her later. It'll be worth it to see the stun expression on her face.

Looking up at her, he gave her his first real smile in gratitude.

AN: Hiei's gift to Botan will have its own chapter. About two or three chapters from now. Anyone got an good ideas for gifts? And I edited some parts in the last chapter.