Maribella slowly sat next to the lake, her toes just barely reach into the cool afternoon water as she hugged her knees to her chest. She felt embarrassed as she sat there, Hiei joining her on the slope though he didn't put his feet into the water. "I'm sorry that this happened Hiei," she said softly, staring into the water before her.

Hiei didn't reply at first, considering his own last three days. The first day he'd spent as far from her as he could until night time when a part of him demanded that he return to the forest outside her bedroom to watch over her just in case. He knew which part. It was the part that demanded his complete attention each moment; the part that was starting to really piss him off. He hardly knew her; hardly had gotten along with her up to this point. Their relationship to up to this point had been a bunch of hissing and spitting and punching and ultimately a choking attempt at both physical and mental levels.

The second day he'd stayed closer, growing accustomed to the new throbbing in his neck that told him when she was sad, or worried, or relaxed. It was something he didn't need his Jigan for. He just had to feel the throb to know. Any shift and the throb changed. His left hand hummed with closeness to her now.

The day before he'd decided that he couldn't just wait around for her to come out of her self-isolation. He had gone to do things he normally did during off times and he didn't have a job— He found work to do and he watched over Yukina. He'd just been about to cut the head off a demon when he'd felt a wall break between them and her step out into the sunlight. Which had been an odd sensation to be sure.

And then worry, panic, fear. That had made him turn from the demon and sprint as quickly as his body could take him back to the dojo. Arriving, he had seen a person shimmer out of sight and then… He'd seen her. Black and blue hair shimmered in the sunlight, stormy grey eyes sparkling with fear and apprehension at seeing him so close. He'd known in that instant that if he had turned around and left, they would have never been able to talk to one another again, no matter if they were soulmates or not. So he'd come forward, feeling her flight or fight instinct kicking in, wanting, demanding she leave the area, but she'd stayed, quivering like a fearful horse.

How was he supposed to handle the fact that the cosmos had decided to destroy his relatively peaceful life by throwing in a gothic soulmate who hated him and his entire fire demon kind. Not that he really was a fan of other demons anyway. The only one he wouldn't take on in a fight was Kurama. And only then because Kurama was a ruthless bastard and wouldn't hesitate to fight Hiei with all of his abilities.

"Did you choose to have me as your soulmate?" Hiei asked. Ari shook her head quickly. Perhaps a bit quicker than Hiei would have liked but then again he didn't really like the entirety of this whole situation did he? "Then don't apologize. It was out of your control. And it was definitely out of mine. Soulmates… As useless as they are, they do offer us some skills, right?"

Ari was quiet before nodding. "I can feel when you are near," she said, looking down at her wrists as she spoke. "Constantly I can feel when you are near."

"And I can feel your emotional state. I don't even have to use the Jigan to see you or read your thoughts. I just know them," Hiei offered. He got a glare from her. Obviously she didn't like that. Didn't like was an understatement. Hated really. "Like right now you hate that I can do that. You don't like others being able to read you."

She stuck her tongue out at him before looking back at the lake. "I don't like others acting like they know me just because they can read my mind or emotions. It's a horrible invasion of my privacy and I don't appreciate it."

"Well I don't have much control over it yet. Maybe there are things we can do to mitigate the issues caused our sudden connection?" Hiei proposed.

"Maybe… I hope so. It's odd feeling someone else's heartbeat in my wrist, or constantly having a cat purr against my skin; very odd."

Hiei hid a smirk before sighing. "So, what does a soulmate mean to you? What are you expecting out of this? I can feel that you had expectations that were skewered by this."

"Get out of my emotions Hiei!" Ari snapped, air crackling around her before she smoothed it out with a few deep breathes. Everything that had been hers and hers alone was being stolen from her—first the fire demon took her pride, and now Hiei was trying to take her emotions? No!

Hiei watched her out of the corner of his eye, waiting silently. She shifted restlessly and then sighed. She ran a hand through her hair and let it just kinda fall wherever it pleased. "A soulmate is someone who completes you in whatever way you need. As a friend, a lover, a guardian, a protector, a partner. It doesn't matter what, you are supposed to meet those needs and fill them, just as I would for you."

"Then let's start with friends," Hiei said with a nod. "I have no interest in being lovers. And I already have to be your guardian or we'll both end up in hell according to Koenma. I don't have need of a partner either. I have Kurama if I need a fighting partner." He stopped as he felt her emotions swell in indignation. Whatever he was saying was not helping the situation. What had he done now? He was trying to give her a reprieve. Just because they were soul mates didn't mean they had to immediately run into each other's arms and screw one another. There were other concerns, other parties involved. They had only just met after all. "What? What have I done this time to anger you?"

"Nothing. Just… Nothing," she muttered, slouching a little more.

"Obviously something."

She pushed herself to her feet and shook her head. "Nothing Hiei. Just leave it alone."

"No."

Her stormy eyes turned to glare at him. "Why must you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"Argue with me? Why can't you just accept what I say and go with it? I don't need someone who argues with me all the time. I don't need someone who treats me like less than a person just because I happened to get beaten by one of his kind," she told him.

"What do you need Ari?"

The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she stalled for a moment. What was it that she really needed? Someone who wouldn't judge her for her defeat, or her scars. Someone who could protect her but fight with her. She wanted to find someone she could curl up with at night, who would let her have a child or two when they were ready. And she just couldn't see Hiei accepting that with her. He didn't even tell his sister that he was there. He'd never want children.

Hiei felt her doubt, knew she was struggling with words that evaded her. "What do you need, Maribella?" He asked again, trying to get her attention; trying to get her to talk to him.

"I need a friend," She finally said before looking back down at him. "I need a friend who is willing to become more if I need it, just as I would for you if you needed me to."

"You want something I cannot give," Hiei warned, feeling her sadness double and hating that he was the cause of it. He watched as her shoulder's dropped a little as a few silent minutes which seemed to take forever and a day to pass as the sun finally fell beneath the horizon. She looked alone, standing there, staring out at the forest and lake. Utterly lonely and his own heart, what he had left of it that was, called out to hers as a kindred spirit.

She finally straightened a little and took a slow breathe. "I'll take what I can get then," she said, though she didn't dare meet his gaze, hell she didn't even look at him. And while he refused to show it, that in and of itself made him feel like the piece of shit he was. She then turned and left him there on the lake bank.

He'd known before she even began to walk he'd screwed up somehow, but when she began to move away he knew it even more. He pushed himself up quickly and went after her. He grabbed her hand, flames sparking around there joined hands as their soulmate marks appeared. "Maribella—" He growled, screwing trying to tell her anything and just pulled her back into his arms. She didn't struggle, just kinda lean against him. "I'm sorry I'm a fuck-up soulmate. I'll do my best, but this isn't easy for me, just like it isn't easy for you to get near me wth me being a fire demon."

She let the breath she hadn't known she was holding out and rested her forehead against his shoulder. "I just always dreamed of meeting my soulmate and there being something other than fear and anger and hatred fueled between us," she said mournfully.

"Yeah, well… I never thought soulmates existed until three days ago."

They remained like that in the raising moonlight, just getting used to one another's presence.