Title: The Right Words
Pairing: Hiei x Botan
Genre: meh Angst?
Words: 600. I'm tasting pineapples again.
Warnings: Nothing really. You decide if they are OOC ;)
Notes: I promised myself that I would try to use baka & onna sparingly. I couldn't think of anything that sounded right, and to be quite honest, I can't remember how Hiei addresses Botan in the anime—or even if he does.


Kurama may have been the wit. Yuusuke held the trophy for innuendo. Kuwabara ruled over flowery prose.

Hiei was the master of the sarcastic retort.

In the Makai, it was said that the only thing sharper than his sword, was his tongue.

He prided himself on always having a quick comeback. It was what made goading Kuwabara fun. But though he would never admit it, trash-talking— and the occasional snippet of advice— was the only kind of talk he was good at.

"Come on, Hiei! Just admit it and we'll quit rilin' you all the time."

"Yes, Yuusuke does have a point. You've been acting strangely...tolerant of her lately. Care to explain?"

"Yeah, with your messed up head, I'm guessing that's the closest you're ever gonna get to real feelings!"

"...I am most certainly not in love with that baka ferry onna!"


She was a blabbermouth. There was no getting around it.

If there was a wrong thing to be said at the wrong time, Botan could always be counted on to say it.

From where she was floating near the top of the temple, Botan could see their four faces clearly. Yuusuke was curious, his eyebrows drawn together in an expression of uncharacteristic contemplation. Kurama was watching Hiei for any tell-tale reactions and Kuwabara was quiet, simply waiting for a response.

Hiei, unsurprisingly, refused to give anyone that satisfaction.

She brushed away any wayward tears—when had they come? —with the pink sleeve of her kimono and decided that enough was enough. She coughed slightly to let them know that she was there—really, how could they have missed her? —and slowly floated down to join them.

"I never asked you to love me."

Three horrified faces, and one impassive one, turned to her in perfect synchronization. Before they could say anything else, she raised up a hand to stop them. She took a deep, slightly-shaky breath, before starting again.

"And I never told anyone—she swallowed convulsively—that you did."

Hiei's eyes narrowed, as though he expected an attack. His fists clenched tighter until his nails almost broke the skin.

She turned to Yuusuke.

"Yuusuke, I am n-n-not in love with Hiei."

It seemed that she was getting better and better at lying. She had only stuttered twice.

He nodded quickly, probably under the impression that the implied rejection—thank goodness she never told him—had damaged her. Botan ignored this and went back to addressing them all as a whole.

"See? It doesn't hurt Yuusuke's feelings."

"Botan...I'm so sor—"

She turned to Kuwabara, from whom the interrupted apology had come.

"You have nothing to apologize for. No one here...has anything to apologize for..."

The awkward silence that descended upon them was a quick one, but it didn't make it any less painful for the girl with the cotton-candy eyes to pick up the tatters of her tired heart, with a promise to sew them back together later, when she was ready, and when it didn't feel quite so empty.

"Well, that's settled then. No feelings were hurt. Now, onto the reason I'm here. Koenma has a new mission for you all..."

Her pale purple eyes were glistening, but for once, the right words were coming out of her mouth.

As he watched her explaining the specifics of the new case, her hands gesturing with their awkward grace, blue hair waving in the night wind, tear-tainted eyes avoiding direct contact with his own, Hiei wished he could say the same.


.

Thank you for reading. Review, please!