AN: So sorry for the late update. But hey, I originally intended to update by the end of the week, so updating earlier should make most of you happy. And the kiss between them will be in the next chapter!
Crystal Koneko – Yes, Hiei did torch Zinan's ass. And since you seem to like Zinan suffering so much, I may make a scene just about that if you like.
Darkness... – Thanks for reviewing. No! Don't kill Koenma. He's important for the story. I need him for the ending. You can kill Kurama. He may be a pain when he next shows up.
Pen Against Sword – Thank you for reviewing. Like I said before, I knew that you'd like that quote. I love it too. I'm trying the best I could with the updates, but I don't have a lot of time to do them. And thanks for the tip.
Hiei'sgirl13 – Thanks. Don't worry, Zinan will die. Just not in this chapter.
Robin Autumn – It betrayed you? (blinks confused) I'm trying to update as soon as possible. Please don't cry.
botan's horse – I think you're confused. I only said that I was thinking of making a squeal of Good, not put something like it in this story. Because you're right, it would mess up the story. I wrote it because I read a lot of Vegeta and Bulma fics, and the best ones were rated R, so you can see why I had to write one similar to it. Never fear! Good and Courtship Dance shall continue to stay separate!
Priestess Rin – Here's an update.
Hiei's Ice Maiden – Here's an update. And what do you know, it's about Hiei and Botan!
Kitsune Kit – Yes. Poor poor Koenma. But 100percent on the go Hiei. Go Hiei!
Harpra – Here's the next chapter.
Silver Spell – I wanted to elaborate on torture but I was that it might go over the rating. Do you really think that Botan's being naïve? I tried to put her as much in character as I could.
Jake Jackal – Here's more!
Runaway Kogoro – I'm happy that you reviewed! I miss your reviews. Can you do me a favor and make my day by updating your story? Because I love it so much and wish that you'd update soon. And your one shot gave me inspiration to write another story. It's a Hiei and Botan, but Botan sort of raises Hiei and has motherly feelings for him. Hiei is just in love with her. What do you think?
animagrl – Thank you. It took so long because I was too busy with school work and still am, and because I had a bit of writer's block.
alex – Nah, he won't get mad. He knews that they're only friends and nothing more. Unlike Kurama. And thank you.
Daine-Weirynsra – I updated! Yes, let's all kick Zinan!
Danielle – Thank you and I am trying to update as soon as possible.
jj – Thank you and I'm pretty sure that I will finish it.
Suntiger – Yes, you're right. There is a reason behind it. COOKIES FOR YOU! You are the only one who seems to have noticed the worry the Koenma has for Botan and thinks that something might happen. And also about the demons the Hiei has to deal with. And because of your observant questions and because you are the only one to notice, if you review and leave me your e-mail, I will answer one of your questions. One only and you could ask a new one if you want.
Red Ribbon
When the first of the early morning sunlight hit her eyes, Botan slowly opened them and then shut them again quickly in pain. She rolled over so that her stomach was facing her bed and buried her face on her pillow while at the same time, hugging it with her arms. She just wanted a few more minutes of sleep. A few more minutes of peaceful dreaming and then she would get up and get ready for the day. A few more minutes of sleep, that's all she asked. Her body felt tired, and she didn't want to go against what her body wanted to do. And that was to stay on her comfy bed and snuggle with her blanket.
What felt like five minutes to her, was actually an hour that passed when Yukina knocked on her door to wake her up. Gradually, Botan forced herself out of her bed and sat up. Rubbing her eyes in attempt to become more awake, she stood up and went to her window where her beloved flower was, un-blossomed from the lack of moonlight. She smiled down fondly at it and then glared at the sun. It was the reason why her flower wasn't in full bloom, the sun wasn't moonlight, so she wouldn't be able to see her Aysel showing off its beautiful colors and the also because it was morning. All of a sudden, Botan wished that it was night so that she could just fall back asleep again.
Then she remembered that Hiei would be coming for her that morning. That perked her up and caused a bigger smile to spread across her face. She practically floated to her closet to pick out an outfit to wear for the day and her eyes immediately caught sight of the kimono that she had bought with Yukina the week before. She took it out and laid it across her bed and then she opened all her drawers in search of her ribbon that would look perfect with it. Finding it in the bottom of her socks, she didn't know how it got there, she smiled with triumph and laid it on the bed as well. Then she began to dress.
When Botan entered the place where Genkai, Yukina, and herself were to have breakfast, Yukina paused on her work of assembling the table to take at good look at Botan's outfit. Her eyes took a careful look at Botan's kimono and ribbon. Botan started to fidget nervously. She felt like she was waiting for Yukina's approval, which was ridicules. She didn't need Yukina's approval, they were friends. Then again, she kind of was dating her brother.
Then Yukina smiled calmly, dispelling Botan's edginess.
"I approve."
Yukina went back to setting up the table, leaving a dumfounded Botan. She blinked. "Eh?"
The rest of their morning meal went by in a dream like daze to Botan. The majority of it she spent looking at Yukina with perplexity, who in returned just evenly smiled. It was almost as if she was brushing off Botan's questioning stare and had absolutely no intention of answering her. This confused Botan to no end.
When Yukina left the room for some unknown reason, Botan leaned towards Genkai and whispered, "Is it just me or has Yukina been acting strange lately?
Genkai shrugged and sipped her tea. "Demons. Whoever said that they were normal?"
Botan nodded her as if she understood, when in her mind was saying, 'What the heck does that mean?'
A few minutes had gone by and Yukina still hadn't returned to finish what's left of her breakfast. Botan frowned at the empty place where the female demon had previously sat. Thoughts of Yukina wondered to Hiei. Where was he at that moment? Was he still at Makai? What time would he be coming? What would she give him as a gift? And which side of the family did he get his eyes from? They looked like ruby red, but darker, and sometimes looked like they glowed. And if Hiei was considered a curse to his mother's people and never knew who his father was, how did he get his last name? Does Yukina share the same last name?
"Is the miso soup really that interesting?" Genkai asked. She gave a throaty chuckle at Botan's flushing face, who had been staring a little too closely at the soup.
"It's just… um…" Botan stammered. "Hot! That's it. It's just a little too hot for me." She took a deep breath and blew on her cold soup. She giggled nervously.
At that time, Yukina returned into the room with Hiei close by. The remains of something close to pride shone in his eyes and appeared to be aiming at Yukina. Botan stopped giggling and smiled warmly at Hiei. Her heart beat excitedly at the sight of him. She was almost overwhelmed by the feeling of happiness at being with Hiei after missing a day with him and barely held down the urge to hug him. Hiei just curved the corner of his lip and nodded his head in her direction as greeting. When he caught sight of what she was wearing, he paused in his tracts. Botan was wearing a red kimono with black dragon prints all over and a red ribbon tied on her hair to complete it.
It was meant especially for him.
Hiei smiled ever so slightly at her. Botan's smile grew wider at Hiei's look of appreciation.
"How was the meeting Hiei?" Botan eagerly asked, wanting to hear him talk, as he sat next to her. Yukina placed a plate in front of him.
"Long." Hiei grabbed some rice and stuffed it in his mouth.
Botan frowned.
Hiei sighed. "It was long and boring. If anything, it made me lose my temper."
Zinan comes to mind. Hiei's anger rose. Picturing Zinan on fire made Hiei relax.
Botan frowned some more. "Did something happen during the meeting?"
Yukina faintly coughed. "Botan-san, would you like some more rice?"
The ferry girl declined and was soon distracted by the ice maiden's offer of more food. Hiei was grateful for his sister's actions. He wanted to delay mentioning the existence of Zinan as much as he could. It would be even better if she never found out about him. Hiei would have felt better if he had killed Zinan earlier in the morning before he came to Ningenkai. Unfortunately, Zinan had left as soon the meeting ended. Though he had trouble walking with no feet.
Genkai looked suspiciously at Yukina's actions, but didn't say anything. She looked at Hiei to confirm her thoughts. Hiei looked at her through his peripheral vision.
"Hn."
Once Botan was done eating and became too full to eat another bit, after Yukina's continual offer of more food, she felt tired again. The desire for sleep grew. She covered her mouth and yawned. The only thing that kept her from laying her head on the table and taking a nap was Hiei's hand in an offer to help her up and to signal to her that it was time to leave. She took his hand in hers and he helped her up.
"Ja ne, Yukina-chan! Genkai!" Botan yelled her farewells to the women that she was leaving behind. They waved back. She turned to face Hiei, whom was still handing her hand. "So, where are we going today?"
Hiei smirked. "Makai."
Botan's eyes widened with disbelief. "Nani?"
Hiei pulled on Botan's hand, bringing her close to him. Then the two of them disappeared. They next reappeared in a vast area of trees. Botan's eyes showed surprise and her mouth was agape a little.
"How…" she trailed off.
"I did not waste my time solely improving on techniques that I already know," he smirked with pride.
"You teleported! There was no way that you could have run from Ningen to Makai in so little time. Not even you are that good. But… but… how? Is that even possible? How did you ever managed to do it? What about the barrier? How did you get pass that? Do the Special Forces know? Does Koenma know? Can anyone else do that?" Botan ranted shock.
"No, they don't know," he glared at Botan. "And they should continue to not know."
"Of course, of course," Botan waved her hands in front of her to show that she understood. "They won't find out. You can count on me. You know how good I am at keeping secrets."
"Good," Hiei turned away from her, grabbed her hand once more, and started walking through the trees. "I'm the only one who can teleport between worlds, bypassing the barrier. Not even Mukuro knows about my special ability."
"Are you serious?" Botan said still astonished. "How did you get the power to do it?"
"Someone owed me," was his answer. "Besides, I can only teleport twice in one day. Anymore and I would be destroyed by the barrier."
"But still, that's very impressive. More than impressive. It shouldn't be possible. That barrier was specially created by King Enma himself! Who gave you the ability?" Botan asked.
"Onna, you ask too many questions," Hiei irately said. He knew that she would ask nonstop questions, but it still annoyed him all the same. Hiei took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He knew that the annoyance was mostly leftovers from the day before and he hadn't had any time to properly vent it out. "The gift is temporary, only for a couple of days. As for who gave it to me, he wishes for no one to know."
Botan nodded her head, satisfied with Hiei's response. She held onto Hiei's hand tighter and began to look around the place that they were walking through. Nothing of real interest but trees. When they finally got out of the forest, they saw giant doom shaped rock with windows in the middle of an open field. There were several demons loitering and milling about outside the rock with bored expressions. Some turned their head towards Hiei and Botan. Botan moved closer to Hiei, somewhat afraid and a lot intimidated by the demons. Most of them were at least six feet tall. Only two or three were shorter then Botan and even they had more muscles that were bigger than Botan.
"Is this Mukuro's castle?" Botan whispered to Hiei. She smiled nervously at a red skinny demon with un-proportioned yellows eyes and a tongue that he left to hang in the open. Silva slid to the ground slowly forming a small pool that was enough for tiny fishes.
"No, this is mine. I have another castle that is being made as we speak," Hiei replied. He vaguely nodded his head at another demon to his left and stopped before him. "Onna, this is Takeru. Takeru, this is the onna."
Takeru was a humanoid demon with short golden yellow hair and clear blue eyes that were almond shaped. The only remote demonic feature Botan could see on Takeru was his ears; they were curved, the bottom part was noticeable a little longer than humans, and sharply pointed at both ends and top. He didn't look like a demon, but Botan assumed that he was.
Takeru carried the air of perfect calmness though his body stood in stern attention and his face showed no emotion. "I am the head of the security of any and all of Hiei-san's homes."
Botan stepped away from Hiei a little, but still keep her hand clasped with his. She was a little put off with Hiei's introduction of her to Takeru by calling her 'the onna'. She smiled warmly at Takeru, though was still a bit tense.
"My name is Botan. Are you an elf?" she meant to say demon, but elf came out instead.
A smile broke onto Takeru's lips. He turned Hiei, his eyes cracking with hidden laughter and approval. Botan was confused with Takeru's expression and turned to Hiei as well for answers, only to find that he had a small smile as well.
"What? What did I say?"
Takeru let out a deep chuckle. "Not many people can see through my disguise."
Botan titled her head at a lost. "You mean that you have another form that people see?"
"Yes, but because you saw through it, means that you can be trusted," Takeru said.
"Takeru has a spell on him that disguises him from all those that would betray his secret," Hiei explained. "The fact that you saw through it means that despite your big mouth, you can keep a secret."
"Of course I could keep a secret! I kept yours didn't I?" Botan said offended.
Takeru laughed some more, catching the attention of the other demons in the immediate area. Noticing this and the fact that some were whispering to each other and pointing at her, Botan flinched. Others were looking at her like they were trying to figure out her worth. All were relieving their ennui with their newfound interest with Botan. She shifted with uneasiness, feeling like a piece of meat that a costumer was debating on; to buy it or not.
Her distress was broken by Takeru's voice. "To your earlier question, yes I am an elf. Have keep up the illusion, there aren't that many of us left."
He winked at her, causing Botan to grin. "That's because most of them reside in Reikai."
Hiei tugged at Botan's hand, silently telling her that it was time to move on. She waved to Takeru and followed Hiei. Takeru waved back. A light breeze ruffled his short hair and he quietly said, "I like her."
The words carried themselves to Hiei's ear. He lowered his head to hide his smile and squeezed Botan's hand. Now that Botan had the approval of Takeru, many more will accept her. Like Hiei, he liked few. However it was extremely difficult to tell who he liked and those he disliked.
Not wanting to share the onna with other demons that Hiei knew that Botan should meet, he took her body in his arms, heard a squeak of surprise and confusion from her lips, and carried her off to a more exclusive place. Once there, he set her down and smirked at her disheveled form. She glared at him.
"Thanks for the warning." And then she began to rearrange herself.
"You must be prepared to move at any second. In Makai, you could die without even knowing. There are those who will sneak up on an unsuspected demon doing absolutely nothing to offend anyone."
"Are you going to start training me again now?" Botan pouted. Her kimono was new. She didn't want to ruin it when it was the first time that she was wearing it.
Hiei smirked amused. Grabbing her by the hand again he proceeded to walk. He felt her relax at his touch as he led her around the more peaceful part of Makai. He watched her head move left to right and then back again, trying to look at the place in every angle she could. Occasionally she would make comments and ask questions about living in Makai. Then she started to tell him about the visit of the once detective, his soon to be mate, the baka, and the baby king. As she talked, Hiei knew that she was hiding something from him. But he didn't question her about it. He was content enough to watch her eyes sparkle as she recounted about her day.
The simplest things amuse her, Hiei observed.
Botan didn't how long they've been walking or where to. She knew next to nothing about the places of Makai. Time also felt a little different than in Ningenkai. It felt more laid back as opposed to the feeling of time running downs one's fingers like water. Perhaps it was because demons had such long lives and the very place and sense of time itself ran alone with it. Ningen lives were short, so it made sense that time seemed to run faster there. In Renkai, time had little to no meaning.
"Hiei, how old are you?" They had reached the edge of a cliff when she asked.
Hiei looked at her with surprised eyes. It was a question that he didn't expect. "Why? Does age really matter to you?"
Botan shrugged. "No. It was just curiosity. Besides, I want to know if I'm older than you."
He rolled his eyes at her kitty-cat face. Before he could retort his answer, he instantly tighten his hold on Botan's hand, pulled her closer to him, and jump away from where they were previously standing. Looking down from the air, Botan saw a huge cloud of dust clearing way to reveal ten demons that tried to attack them. They glared darkly at both of them. In his hold, Botan could feel Hiei already ready for battle. Gracefully landing on the ground far away from the demons, he set her down and leapt to face them head on. She didn't see him unsheathe his katana, nor did she see him promptly kill the first demon on his path to the biggest, and most likely, strongest one there.
Within seconds, Hiei had dispatched four of the demons. He spoke with them, they answered, and then he snarled at them. Botan couldn't hear what they were saying, but whatever it was it made Hiei angry. The remaining demons had no chance against him. His alacrity confounded, distracted, and upset what ever tactics they had planned beforehand. Hiei was just too good. Botan took several steps closer to the battle. She knew that it wasn't the wisest move to make, but she want to a closer look at the battle and to hear whatever it was they were saying.
Soon enough, only the big ugly demon who appeared to be the leader of the once group of demons remained. The demon shook of the amount of blood that he lost and the limps that were missing. What was once six arms now reduced to one. Botan heard Hiei growl something and she saw the fear in the enemy's eyes. The only word that she heard coming from his lips was, "Zinan."
That did it for Hiei. No sooner did the name come out did Hiei decapitated his head. Anger and fury rose inside him and threatened to overwhelm him. How dare he? After he had been so nice as to let him live at least for another day. But now, to be so stupid as to send his soldiers to attack him and his potential... Zinan would pay. He would pay dearly.
Hearing movement from behind, Hiei put his katana away and spun around to see Botan. Her hair flowing with the wind. Along with it was her red ribbon. It was a different shade from the blood that pooled around him, darker. Silently, his eyes asked for something. Almost begging her to give it to him. She gazed at him, her eyes piercing his own.
Understanding what he want, Botan reached up behind her and pulled on her ribbon. Long blue hair that reminded Hiei of the sky on a clear day spilled to her back. The wind blow with more force and her hair flew to her side, making it look like a banner in the sky for those who bothered to look up at them from below. The tail of the ribbon swayed like waves, moving in sync with her hair.
The deity of death stepped closer to the demon and held the ribbon out to him. He took it and saw that the blood that he spilled, covering parts of his hand, didn't stain the ribbon.
Later when the sun had long fallen, Takeru was alone outside Hiei's castle, guarding it from any intruders. He saw Hiei walking towards in an even pace and with something in his arms. As Hiei got closer for his keen vision to see, Takeru saw that it was Botan. Hiei carried the sleeping onna bridal style while her head rested on the crook of his neck. As he got within a few steps away, Takeru could smell the lingering scent of blood on Hiei.
"Was the battle fun, milord?"
Hiei walked passed him and into the castle. "Tomorrow we're going hunting."
"Shall I prepare a unit to accompany?"
"No. The two of us will be more than enough."
There was a sort of calmness as Hiei walked away from Takeru and continued on to his room. The scent of Botan filled his nose and soothed his raw nerves from before. The feel of her warm body against his was enough to make his mind run wild with lustful thoughts and images. Kicking the doors to his room open, he headed straight for the bed. Once there, he laid her down on it gently, not wanting to disturb her sleep.
The onna tried so easily. He would have to fix that soon. He caressed her face as he thought how smooth her skin was. Hiei didn't want to part with her just yet, so he thought that she could just stay with him for the night. Botan made a small smile with his gentle strokes. Hiei's face became almost tender.
He placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered, "Goodnight."