OK. Here we are. Prompt #20. The prompt from hell… BODY BUTTER. Why the fuck did they put this one on the list?

Anyway. Two people (tammywammy9 and a guest) mentioned Shizuru in conjunction with this prompt since she's a beautician, and others (cestlavie) mentioned Junko and Amagi or the other Not-Quites (a guest). One more person (RandomR15) mentioned Hiei/and Kurama reacting to Keiko wearing body butter… SO I WENT WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE, sorta-kinda-maybe. Some characters (AKA the Not-Quites) are only mentioned in passing, but still.

Also… "body butter" is basically a type of moisturizer that's really thick, held in a tub and is heavily perfumed, for those who weren't sure what the prompt even meant (and given how random the prompt is, I don't blame them one bit for that).

Day 20: "Body Butter"

If it had been the late 2010s, I'd call the market at the edge of town a "farmer's market." It had that vibe, you see. Homegrown produce, local goods, handmade crafts, and absolutely nothing mass-produced filled the stalls staffed by the community's friends and neighbors, which meant the event—held twice monthly—more than earned it status as "a community bazaar." Apparently some locals had started it some years prior, and when Shizuru asked me to attend it with her one balmy morning in early spring, I strode into the marketplace at her side with a spring in my step. I'd been to the event more than a few times, you see, and always enjoyed the experience.

And it showed in the way the vendors treated me. More than a few waved when I passed, and still others offered me (and my rather stoic friend) a piece of fruit to tide us over before lunch. But Shizuru didn't allow us time to stop and chat. She just kept walking through the thicket of stalls and booths, slipping with fluid grace between knots of patrons and milling attendees. I followed as best as I could, barely able to keep up in the thick crowd.

"You're popular," Shizuru observed when I managed to find a place at her elbow.

"My dad and I come here every week or two to get things for the restaurant." Gesturing at a nearby display of jewel-red apples that gleamed beneath the sunny blue sky above, I said, "Everything tastes better fresh and local. It's a nice selling point, too."

"I see," said Shizuru with a sage nod, and she kept marching on.

She led us straight to the vegetable market toward the back of the establishment, past a few stalls smoking fragrant cuts of meat and a woman hawking hand-blown glassware. I knew quite a few of the vegetable vendors, smiling at them as Shizuru waded into the displays of greenery with shrewd, sharp eyes. Soon her hand lashed out to snag a bundle of parsley, which she examined with her well-manicured hands before thrusting under my nose.

"How's this?" she said.

"Uh." I gave it a sniff, not sure what the hell else she wanted. "Smells fresh. But why…?"

Shizuru tossed the parsley down and grabbed a bundle of cilantro. "And what about this?" she said, pushing that under my nose, too.

"Also nice, but if you're after an aromatic, try the basil over there."

"It's nice," she said, after taking a sniff of the herbs I'd indicated. "But what would it go with?"

"Um…" I considered that for a minute. "Strawberry and basil go nice in a dessert. Pretty European. But if you want something more Italian—"

"Don't think about flavor," said Shizuru in her curt, short way. "Think about scent."

"All right…" But before I could start picking out the best-smelling stuff for her, I asked, "Do you want to tell me what this is about, though?"

She didn't speak, at first. She just sized me up for a minute, eventually running a hand through her silky hair with a sigh. Behind her, a few men stared appreciatively at her long, athletic figure, but if Shizuru noticed, she gave no sign. She reached for a parcel of lemongrass beside the basil I'd recommended, rubbing the thin greens through her fingers.

"I'm starting a product line." Shizuru smelled the lemongrass, then placed it back on the counter before her. "I want to, anyway. Gonna start with some simple things like lotion and soap, first, then branch out into haircare and cosmetics."

"Oh. Well, that's cool. Congratulations."

Amber eyes flashed bright. "Don't celebrate yet. Gotta make prototypes before I can get a loan to fund the project. Make a business proposal. That sort of thing." She studied my face for a moment. "You know what I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, actually. I help my parents with some parts of their business, so…"

A satisfied smile played across her mouth. "That's what I thought. And you said you worked in marketing in your past, right?" Voice pitching low, she murmured, "I've been working on this for a while, you know. I would've asked for your help sooner if I'd known your secret six months ago."

I couldn't help but wince. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. All's well that ends well." Her mild words brought me some comfort, I admit. "Kazuma said you have the best nose he's ever seen, too."

"That was nice of him." I wanted to read into that statement—to ask when he'd said that, and if it had been recent, which perhaps meant he wasn't so mad at me anymore—but I refrained. Didn't want to make things awkward. Reaching for her discarded lemongrass, I asked: "So you brought me along to help pick scents and things, too?"

"I wanna go natural," Shizuru replied. "Organic fragrances, no dyes or extra colors. Better for the skin, you know." A pause. "Think that'd sell?"

"Yes. And you're ahead of the curve, actually." Keeping a shit-eating grin off my face proved impossible. "If I were a trend forecaster, I'd say with a plan like that, you've got a 100% chance of makin' it rain."

The joke fell quite flat in Japanese, admittedly, but I was still pleased with it. Shizuru, meanwhile, didn't laugh at all. She just picked up some rosemary and gave it a sniff, frowning at the twiggy plant like it had personally offended her.

"Is this what people even like, though? In a lotion, I mean." She sniffed the rosemary again. "It's not very girly. And I figure I'll get buyers who are mostly women."

"It's a stronger herbal scent, yeah. Pairs well with mint, too. I personally like it a lot." I caught Shizuru's eye and smiled. "Also… body butter."

Her brow shot up.

"Don't call it a lotion. Put it in a little jar and call it 'body butter' instead." If Shizuru's discerning taste could craft an all-natural, organic body butter that smelled nice and did good things for the skin (which it absolutely would, knowing her) she'd one day make a killing when the organic craze caught on. Hell, maybe she'd even help launch that craze. "Trust me. Call it another trend forecast."

"Thanks, kid." She put the rosemary back and grabbed the lemongrass again. "This is why I brought you along."

"I have some people in mind if you ever want to try to a focus group for people my age, too," I said, filling the air with absentminded chatter as we moved deeper into the produce area, sniffing herbs and fruits and spices along the way. "Amagi and Junko are into this kind of thing. So is Ka—um, I mean, my friend Sakura." Better not to mention a certain Not-Quite's real name. And as for the other Not-Quite, Minato was surprisingly into self-care, though obviously he didn't really represent Shizuru's target demographic. Still, though, I was getting ahead of myself. "But before that, we really should talk about brand positioning, so…"

As the day wore on and Shizuru and I talked shop, I learned quite a bit about her business ventures. She honestly didn't need much help from me, having done most of her research long before she roped me into it to hear my opinions. Mostly she just wanted a second set of eyes—or a second nose, as the case may be. But whatever the reason she'd decided to ask for my assistance, I was happy to give it… and if Kuwabara had recommended me for the job, that was just icing on the cake.

A few weeks later, Shizuru arrived on my doorstep bearing a small wooden crate under one arm. Inside sat a dozen small jars with ribbons tied around their slightly tapered necks, each jar's lid decorated with a cute label (Shizuru's name rendered in elegant calligraphy) and a dainty picture of a strawberry and a basil leaf. If it weren't for the Japanese writing, the jars of body butter would look damn near Parisian, and they most certainly looked boutique thanks to the loving attention to detail lavished upon each jar. As soon as I took my next bath, I smeared the butter all over my clean skin, enjoying the cosmetic's silky finish and elegant, clean scent.

Hiei, however, was not nearly such a big fan.

Not long after my bath, Kurama came by to do homework, and shortly after that, Hiei knocked on my window to demand ramen and shelter from the rain falling in sheets from the sky outside. It was nice to see him, but my feelings on the matter took a turn for the worse when he shook the water from his hair (splattering it all over my homework in the process, that rat bastard), did a double-take in my direction, and then curled his lip in one of his trademarked sneers.

"What," he demanded, "is that smell?"

I couldn't fathom what he meant for a second—and then a sinking suspicious hit me. "Um…" I held my bare arm out toward him, hoping he didn't mean what I think he meant. "Do you mean… me?"

Hiei's sneer intensified, but nevertheless he leaned toward, only to pull back a second later with a scoff and an exaggerated gag of revulsion.

"Ugh!" said Hiei, spitting like a cat with a fur ball in its throat. "That's hideous."

"It's strawberry basil body butter and it smells great, actually," I said, snatching back my arm with a glare. "There's nothing wrong with it; you're just mean."

"Body what?" Hiei repeated, ignoring the jab at his character in favor of gagging again. "What idiotic human invention—"

"It's Shizuru's idiotic human invention," I warbled in protest, "and it smells fantastic!"

"No, it doesn't!" Hiei shot back with equal fervor. "It's far too strong!"

"Well, I like it and I'm giving samples to all my friends to test, so there!"

"Then you won't be hearing from me any time soon!"

"Don't threaten me with a good time, Hiei."

Hiei's face purpled. "Why, you—"

"At least then I won't have to hear any more of your snobby-ass comments!"

Hiei rolled his eyes and huffed, turning his back on me before he could spot the tongue I'd thrust out of my mouth in his direction. We weren't the most mature when we fought, Hiei and I, but we rarely ever meant any word of our bickering—but perhaps Kurama didn't quite understand our dynamic, because he cleared his throat and looked like he wanted to intervene, raising his hands to pacify. Hiei rounded on him with a ferocious glare, forcing Kurama to back up a pace over the carpet of my small bedroom.

"I'm afraid I'm with Kei on this subject, Hiei," he said, not bothering to look apologetic. "I think it smells lovely. Though of course, Kei smells lovely even in her natural state, which—"

Kurama stopped talking. I stared at him. Hiei stared at him. The atmosphere had gone quite strange, awkwardly thick as Kurama looked at the floor, out the window, and then most desperately toward my bedroom door. He wasn't the type to blush, but Kurama's furtive questing for an avenue of escape amounted to much the same thing. Hiei didn't intend to let Kurama off easy, though. He reached for one of the jars of lotion sitting on my desk, plucked one up, and presented it to me atop his palm—eyes locked on Kurama with every gesture.

"Perhaps," he muttered from the corner of his mouth, "you should wear that frightful concoction, after all."

I took the jar, also without taking my eyes off Kurama. "Perhaps I should," I muttered back.

Kurama regarded the ceiling as if hoping it would fall and crush him. "Pardon me," he said in a remarkably hollow tone of voice. "It appears I need to be leaving now, so that I might drown myself in the nearest pond."

I held the jar of body butter out to him. "You want some of this to take with you, since it smells so lovely and all?"

"No," said Kurama, voice impossibly delicate. "No, I do not."

"He'd hate to pollute the pond," said Hiei.

Kurama left, shortly after that, without a single backward glance.

Once the door closed behind him, I took the lid off the body butter and smeared some on my neck.

That time, Hiei did not object to the way it smelled.

So CLEARLY with that last section, I just went the silly route. NQK has expressed that it's weird for Kurama to use his demon nose on her (see chapter 114 for the most recent mention of this phenomenon), so I guess at this point the "she smells good" thing is a running joke of some kind. IDK. I guess both Keirama and Heiko shippers can read into that scene, what with Hiei being defensive of Keiko and all. Or maybe Hiei thinks of Keiko as his mom and he's not keen on having Kurama as a stepdad. Ironic considering Kurama's own stepdad problems. IDK, HAVE FUN!

Also I think she probably smeared some in Hiei's hair as retaliation. IDK THIS WAS SILLY

Thanks y'all for the help with this one. Wholly unsatisfied with it, but with a prompt like "body butter," I don't think the bar was set high to begin with. As you can imagine, your suggestions saved me. YOU CATS ARE THE BEST: C S Stars, brawltogethernow, EdenMae, xenocanaan, tammywammy9, cestlavie, ladyofchaos, Kaiya Azure, Anonymous and guests!

For those curious, the next prompts are "Maxed," "Landing" and "Aced it." All suggestions appreciated!