CHAPTER 4

Hiei watched Botan faint from his perch in the garden and wondered what was wrong with her now. It must be what that idiot said to her, he figured. She was so overwhelmed by his words she fainted. he shook his head and sighed. Baka ferry onna.

He heard voices coming his way and hopped down from his perch, blending in with the statues shadow. A moment later he saw two people walking by. One looked like a maid and the other was dressed like the gardener. Something told Hiei to listen in, though he didn't really want to, until he heard the maid mention Botan. "I see Donovan finally found his little hoe bag," the woman was saying, her voice dripping with contempt. "It took him longer to find her this time but he got her back. I wonder how much she's going to charge him this time?"

For some reason the woman's words made Hiei feel defensive and angry for the onna. What did this woman know about the blue haired girl to give her liberty to say such things? If I wasn't keeping a low profile... he thought, his fists shaking.

The man she was talking to wasn't any better. "Master Donovan likes her," he told the maid, as he leaned down to pull some weeds out of a flower bed. "He knows he can do her for free because she likes him so much. If I didn't know any better I'd think she was just marring him for his money."

"She is marrying him for his money!" the maid corrected him. "I can tell by the look she had on her face when she got here."

Whose face were you looking at, you foolish girl? Hiei thought. The onna looked scared to death. Like she'd rather be anywhere else but there. he was tempted to say it but didn't. he was even tempted to pretend the statue he was hiding behind was talking but that was something Yusuke or Kuwabara would do, not him. Instead he kept on listening, shaking his head at the two servants as they bashed Botan.

"She'll probably kill him after she marrys him too," the maid went on. "Then she'll inherit all his money because she married him."

"Yeah probably," the gardener agreed. "That's what girls like her usually do."

Hiei peeked around the statue and glared at the servants, knowing they wouldn't see him. Stupid humans! he thought grinding his teeth together. What gives you a right to say things like that about her? You're worse than I am. At least what I say about her is true. He couldn't stand listening to them anymore and disappeared only to reappear a few feet away by the fountain. He could still hear the two talking but not as clearly so he could easily tune them out.

He chased a glance into the pool under the fountain and took in his reflection. He noticed the scratches on his face and his mind returned to the night before...

Botan must have thought he was going to do something inappropriate to her. It wasn't like he had planned on biting her neck it had just been an impulse. Maybe he'd been planning on marking her so other demons would keep their hands off of her. Either way she screamed like a mad woman and elbowed him in the stomach. Though it hadn't done anything he'd let her go just the same. That's when she'd over reacted and started beat and scratching at his face. He'd only grabbed her hands to stop her...

Hiei shook his head now, realizing how stupid the whole situation had gotten after that. It hadn't even been his idea in the first place. Stupid Yusuke and Kuwabara, he thought. Why do they have to have such sick minds anyway? Then he remembered something about Kurama he'd been there too but he hadn't stopped them. In fact he'd encouraged it. What was with them? he wondered, glaring at his reflection. Did they want Botan to hate me?! "No!" he said out loud, hitting the water with his hand and causing his reflection to become distorted. "That would just make them all fools. They must have had another reason for their foolish behavior." Hiei heard voices coming down the path toward and quickly disappeared, leaving the illusion that he'd never been there.

Botan felt a tickling under her nose and scrunched up her face as she sneezed and came to. She opened her eyes to find a fat old maid stuffing something under her nose while Donovan sat on the couch beside her staring at her worriedly.

"She's back," the maid said, looking right into Botans' eyes.

"Thank you, Akita," Donovan said to the maid. "You may go now."

"Yes sir," the maid said bowing then walking out of the room.

When she was gone Donovan scootched closer to Botan and took her hand in his, the ferry girl fought back the urge to scream and pull away. "Botan," he said. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, not trusting her voice.

"That's good," he said in relief. "I was so worried. What happened?"

What happened? Your words made me faint! "I was a little over whelmed by what you said, that's all," she told him honestly. "I wasn't expecting you to ah... decide to keep the wedding going as planned after I ran away from you," she said lamely.

"Why would I cancel it?" he asked her. "I knew you'd come back."

Only because if I hadn't agreed to come back on my own free will you would have forced me to, she thought, frowning. "Still it would have been better if you had," she said out loud.

He gave her a sharp look. "Now why would I want to do that?" he demanded, his voice getting an edge to it. "I love you. I want to marry you even if you are shy about going through with it."

I'm not shy! I don't want to marry you!

"Anyway," he said standing up and pacing in front of her. "The wedding is planned for the end of the week so we only have four days to prepare for it. I know It's short notice-"

"Very short," she cut him off.

"-But I still think we should give it a try," he said, ignoring her remark. He looked back at her. "I am glad you came back. Once we are married I'll never let you out of my sight again."

"I can't wait," she said, trying to stay calm. I have to get out of here! When I see Hiei tonight I'm going to ask him if he has any ideas.

Later that day Hiei decided to get a better lay out of the inside of Donovan's house and quietly slipped inside, unnoticed. The servants were so busy doing whatever that they wouldn't have spotted him even if he'd walked right in front of them. He had no idea what they were doing but if he had to guess it seemed to him like they were getting ready for the wedding Donovan was planning.

If the onna doesn't come up with some sort of plan I might have to kill him, he thought realizing the consequences for that. Donovan was a human. A stupid human but a human none the less. If Hiei killed him he'd be in even worse trouble then he had when he'd stolen the Shadow Sword. I hope the baka onna can think of something...

Suddenly he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye but when he turned his head he saw nothing. Strange, he thought, staring intently at the spot where he'd seen the movement. For a moment I thought someone was watching me...

Little did he know was that someone was...

A/N

I think I figured out why my writing style changed. I started drawing doujinshis (fan manga) and for some weird reason it changed how I write stories. Hmm is that a bad thing or a good thing?