Please see disclaimer in Chapter 1. Comprehensive author's notes will appear at the end of the final chapter. In the meantime, comments and criticism are relished. Please enjoy your reading.

~~~~~

"Going Gently"
By Port

Chapter 3

White marble walls glistened in the Spirit World sunlight, and a holy echo called just beneath the range of hearing within the palace. It was morning in the Land of Life After Death.

Botan's soft footfalls made quiet sounds as she walked down a hall lined with glowing, golden windows. Soon, she heard louder, quicker footsteps, whose clicks sounded like they were made with human dress shoes. In a moment, she turned a corner and saw, with disappointment, someone who'd been in the palace a lot lately.

"Good morning, Botan."

"Good morning, Kurama."

"It is good to see you again," he said. "I hope… everything has been well with you."

"Oh, it has, thank you. Well, goodbye."

He nodded, passed her and walked on. Botan had never been colder to anyone in her life. It made her feel crummy.

Botan didn't consider herself petty. She had a generous sense of humor, and a mild personality. Few things had ever really gotten on her nerves, and certainly embarrassment meant little to her. But Kurama…! He made her as angry as she'd been in centuries.

First he defies the laws of nature—never mind he did so by outsmarting her. Then he steals the sacred regalia and puts two of the pieces into the hands of demons who want to use them for evil. No big deal, right? Apparently not. After all that, he and Hiei get rewarded with Spirit World jobs! After all the trouble they caused!

Holy people were applying for palace jobs by the hundreds, and Kurama got a top position. It was beyond her. Still, everyone had the right to redeem himself. So she might have been able to forgive him and become his friend, if not for one thing.

It had taken place the night of the robbery, before they'd left her on the outer wall.

"Are you comfortable?" he'd asked. "It may be a while."

Botan glared up from the stone floor, where she sat with her hands tied behind her back and her feet tied together. Nearer to the edge of the wall, Hiei and Gouki waited impatiently. Hiei kept eyeing Gouki suspiciously while Gouki kept eyeing the bag of loot. Kurama—she had recognized him as soon as he'd called her clever earlier—stood in front of her with her first oar in his hand, still held like a weapon, but at ease. His red hair waved softly in the wind, and his face somehow looked both solemn and amused.

"Do you really expect to get away with this? The Spirit World will track you down. You must know that."

His eyes shifted, bored. "I get the same speech every time I rob somebody and leave them tied up. I'm disappointed. Somehow I thought you might be different."

"Fine then. I'm not comfortable at all. You'd better loosen the ropes or I might faint."

He chuckled. "That's more like it."

Hiei's voice came from the edge of the wall. "Kurama, stop flirting and get over here."

Kurama nodded, more businesslike at once. "Goodbye, Botan." He bowed, then leaned over to her side and picked up her newer oar. Hefting them both in his hands, he began to walk away.

She hated to do it, but she had to. "Kurama!"

He stopped and looked at her. "Yes?"

"I…. Is it necessary to take my new oar? You already have my first one, and… I'm certain I'll get in trouble for losing another one so quickly." She found with surprise that she was fighting back tears. This night had not gone at all as planned, and she needed something to go right. Still, she asked proudly, without tears or a quavering voice.

And Kurama grinned. "I'll take good care of it. Goodbye, Botan."

Moments later, they were all gone.

His grin stayed with her. All through the next months, it acted as a wall between her and Kurama. Many times she wanted to forgive him. When he saved his mother's life using the sacred mirror, she'd been so impressed… until she remembered his grin. Later, when he, Hiei, Kuwabara and Yusuke returned from the city of the Saint Beasts, she'd been in awe of the four of them. There they were, bloody, bruised and victorious.

They'd saved Keiko's life (Botan's own too, if she thought of it, since she had a human body at the time…). Kuwabara had been carrying an unconscious Yusuke when they arrived back in the Human World. Hiei had been stoic, yet plainly he was hurting. And Kurama's entire right sleeve had been covered in blood. Relieved that she'd managed to ditch Keiko, Botan set about healing the boys' wounds, using her own spirit energy. Yusuke regained consciousness, flashed her a cocky smile, asked about Keiko, and fell asleep again as soon as the word "fine" left her mouth. Kuwabara carried him over his shoulder back home, leaving Botan with Hiei and Kurama. Then Hiei flitted off, refusing her offer of help, leaving her alone with Kurama.

He really was impressive, with his torn and stained school uniform, disheveled hair, black and blue skin, and of course the arm.

"May I have a look at that, or would you rather just go home?" she asked, not unkindly. Hiei's quiet disdain set her on edge. She hoped Kurama would allow her to help. He had just helped save the world, after all.

"I would be grateful if you looked at it," he said, inclining his head. "I'd rather my mother not see me like this."

Botan laughed as she helped him remove his jacket and shirt. "You don't plan to tell her?"

"I doubt she'd believe me," he said. "Normal humans have a limited perception of reality. What you and I take for granted they take for fairy stories."

"I keep forgetting that," she said. "But I just had to explain to Keiko that what we experienced has a scientific explanation. It took some time for her to believe me."

"Perhaps she's more intelligent than average."

"Hm. All done."

Kurama experimentally flexed his arm. "This is as good as new. You are a talented healer, Botan."

Something in his tone betrayed the lie. It was too generous. Botan knew she needed practice healing human bodies. It wasn't in her normal job description, after all. And she caught him suppressing a wince. For some reason she was disappointed. She would have appreciated his honesty more.

"I need to get back to the Spirit World. If that's all?"

"That's all," he said, smiling. "Thank you, Botan."

When she left, she couldn't get his farewell grin out of her mind. Something about the thought of Kurama being happy made her blood itch.

So when Botan occasionally saw Kurama and Hiei in the halls of King Yama's palace, or visited Yusuke and found Kurama visiting too, she treated him as a minor acquaintance, coldly even. She hardly said more than politeness required she say to him. He responded with disinterested reserve, but he looked puzzled the first few times. Sometimes he would even try to draw her into conversation, but she wouldn't accept the bait. Finally, he accepted her iciness, and all their conversations became empty exchanges of pleasantries much like the one that had just taken place in the palace hall.

Botan walked on as Kurama's quiet footsteps faded away. She felt lousy and wished there were a solution, but she could see none. Then Kurama's footsteps paused before quickly approaching her again. She turned to see him running toward her.

"Botan," he said, stopping before her.

"Yes, Kurama?" What could he want now? Maybe her third oar? She squeezed it with her hand, to make sure it was safe.

"Botan, I think we've had a bad start."

"Oh?"

"I've offended you twice now, and I would like to make up for it. If we are to be teammates, we should learn to get along. Don't you agree?"

Alarm bells were going off in her mind. This sounded suspiciously similar to his words fifteen years ago, on that log in the Demon World. She casually clasped her hands behind her back, hiding her oar there too.

"What do you have in mind, Kurama?"

The skin around his eyes relaxed, brightening his whole face. "Let me take you out to dinner in the Human World."

~~~~~

To be continued in Chapter 4.