A/N- I'm starting to like this story a whole lot more the further I get into it. I love writing conversations for these two; they practically write it for themselves. Really, they are both just so snarky. And I had lots of inspiration in this chapter.

I had a major typo last chapter. When I wrote about Kuwabara and his battles, I said 'Bui'. :( It wasn't Bui. It was Byakko. They're both 'B' names, so you can forgive me, right? Uhm. Sorry?

By the way, I am thinking of taking back my declaration that this story is going to be action-y. I don't think I'm cut out to write in-depth action scenes, and I know that you guys probably don't care any which way. Just know that in the next few chapters, there's going to be a lot of shit goin' down. It'll be fun, promise. :D (P.S. Reviews are lovely and I'm lacking)

Chapter 4- In Which an Omen is Sent

The sky was already dark when Hiei finished. Or rather- he didn't have the chance to finish.

Bloody sword, heavy breathing—a nightmarish situation by anyone's standards but his own.

He needed to find that girl. Just where had she got off to?

Sheets of sweat amplified cold wind and almost made him shiver. His opponent, opposite, seemed to take away no effect.

He had her pinpointed; the Jagan never failed to disappoint. And yet, that girl was as elusive as a small insect.

She had been worse off; her body displayed many cuts, bruises, and scratches resulting from crashing through brambles. Hiei was frustrated with his inability to land as many hits as he would have liked, and frustrated with his inability to figure out what she was doing to evade his attacks.

Perhaps his sense of direction was waning. Hiei told himself this, although knowing that it was in no way true. He also told himself to quit this anxious feeling of What if I don't find her? What then? Panic, even that minimal, was not something to which he was accustomed.

He finally understood that the enemy was not using speed to avoid a neat stab here or a flash of fire there, but a primitive form of hypnotism. He smiled, then, when he grasped at the concept. His opponent's expression did not change, however badly off she was.

Hiei leapt from tree to tree, eyes taking in every detail, ears taking in every sound, carefully blocking out those that were his own and the wind's. That woman would be the death of him someday. Quite literally.

His sword whistled through the air towards the woman's head. She seemed to duck at the last minute, moments before collision. There it was. Hiei grinned and pulled the blade violently downwards, making a turn so sharp and clean that the cut would be equally as such.

Through the bare branches overhead, he saw, with growing displeasure, the darkening of the clouds. He had to get out of here by morning. That meant swallowing his shame over losing his enemy, and losing the girl. Botan, not girl. He turned his gaze from the barren canopy above to the crunchy leaves of the forest floor, scanning the area with an urgency he was not used to.

The girl moved once more, to the right, and he knew that he had only cut the after-image. The words he had said then went along the lines of knowing her battle secret, but she had responded with a more jeering tone than was appropriate for her position.

"I know a secret about you that you don't even know yet."

He had, at that very moment, pushed the cold steel into her side, catching both her and himself off-guard. He hadn't been truly aiming for her then, only meaning to keep her running. This was the reason for the shallow wound. The slice didn't even break her ribs.

At the time, Hiei had shoved her implication in the back of his mind, and it still remained there, but he knew that it would come back up as a tormenting subject in the near future. It would be ready to test his curiosity, to tantalize his patience to see just how far he would go in his race to find out what the secret was.

"Hiei!"

The apparition nearly broke his neck looking back over his shoulder to the origin of the voice.

He yanked his weapon out of her side as she fell to the floor, placing one foot on her hip as leverage. It came free in a gruesome spray of dark red blood that would be fitting for any horror movie. He didn't waste one more look at her and activated his third eye, ready to search.

"Hiei!" She shouted again, as if she hadn't thought he would hear her first ear-shattering call. She was curled up against the trunk of a particularly large and gnarled tree, with a diameter bigger than she was tall. The roots spread out like long spidery fingers and created craters of woody material and pools of still water. Botan had found a small cove in the grandfatherly tree and took up residence there to avoid the bone-biting winter chills.

He had been walking away from the fallen warrior quickly, with every intention to leave, but was just as swiftly halted. She stood up slowly, smiling, although he would have no way of knowing about her amusement. He did not turn to look at her. One of her hands held her side, now completely stained red with her own blood.

"There is always tomorrow, Hiei-chan. And you certainly shouldn't waste your time fighting me when you should be searching for your woman."

And he let her go. He wasn't entirely sure what possessed him when he did that; but he was certain that it was the strange words whispered to him by that same winter breath sweeping through the area that distracted him. He didn't know if the wounded person had also heard.

'These woods are lovely, dark and deep.'

He looked down at Botan in her little nook and the words seemed to come crashing around him like a déjà vu.

"Hiei?" She saw him now, and stopped yelling his name.

Falling from the tree, he landed in front of her gracefully, and, rather ungracefully, glared at her. "You better not have hurt yourself."

She couldn't hide a smile, and held two fingers in a salute. "It was against your orders, sir."

Hiei eyed her suspiciously.

"You didn't get hurt either, did you?" Botan stood up next to him and checked him with mock-sincerity. "It took you a while to finish."

Hiei wrenched his arm out of her grasp. "It took a while to find you."

Botan grinned proudly. "I was trying hard not to be found, that's why."

"Try a little less hard next time."

Botan couldn't pass the chance up. "Aw, are you sad that you couldn't find me right away?"

Hiei had a bad taste in his mouth. "I just don't want to waste my time hunting for some useless woman."

Botan was affronted. "I most certainly am not useless!"

"Don't fool yourself."

The blue haired ferry girl placed her hands on her hips, opening her mouth to interject—only pausing to wonder Since when am I not afraid of him?—when her ears pricked at a scuffling noise in the far off corner of the clearing. A squeak escaped from her gaped mouth rather than a rebuttal.

"Well, I'm impressed that even your human ears could pick that up." Hiei told her, not even aware that it was half an insult.

Botan watched with wariness as her companion walked over to the suspiciously rustling bush and kicked it. Hard. A yelp, another rustle, and a small forest creature jumped out of it in alarm and scurried over the massive roots and into the shadow that was the rest of the forest.

"…Oh."

Hiei's face displayed a look of sheer amusement. Silence reigned for a few more minutes as Hiei snickered quietly and Botan felt sheepish.

"Hiei?"

He grunted in response. No surprise there.

"Is it going to snow soon?"

Now that was a surprise to him. He observed her with widened eyes, the only sign of his internal shock. "Yes. Probably noontime tomorrow."

Botan sighed and squatted in her tree-cranny. "Okay." And then, "Hey Hiei?"

He sat on a root and mentally rolled his eyes. What now?

"That was really nice of you."

"I wonder at your definition of 'nice'."

Botan blinked. Oh yeah. "Well, nice for you. It was nice for you, I guess. Common courtesy if it were Kuwabara or Yusuke, I suppose."

"Get some sleep, woman." Botan, his mind scolded him.

She nodded. What time was it, anyway? Certainly too late. "What'll we do tomorrow?"

"Find Kurama. He'll probably have those two with him by the time we meet up, if nothing splits them up further."

"Oh." She really should have inferred that, she knows. "Hiei," She says his name one more time.

"What is it?"

"Take care of yourself."

"What?"

"You're also an asshole."

A small smile struggled over dominance of his face, conflicting with a frown at her previous order.

Botan woke to find Hiei sitting in extremely close proximity, almost shockingly close (she is rarely ever within three feet of the guy), perched on a root. She stared as she waited for him to acknowledge her consciousness, and saw that the Jagan eye was open and on the rove. Because of his concentration, he really didn't notice his immediate surroundings.

The look on his face is kind of… peaceful. Botan sat up to get a better look. It's almost like he's asleep.

Her breath came in a constant shivering moment, with clouds of mist hovering in front of her face. An involuntary tremor ran down her spine, and she dared scooch a little closer. Had he even slept last night at all? Her expression became pensive and almost comically serious. This is Hiei, she told herself. He's very dangerous. He may even have a danger label on him somewhere. You probably shouldn't be doing this.

Childlike. He was childlike. In retrospective, it was the propelling force of many of the situations he got himself in. Botan backed off after assessing his face. Which sounded weird, but it really wasn't, because she hadn't ever really gotten a good look, had she? And, when she really thought about it, this was the longest she had ever been with him alone. It had been hours, and he had done an admirable job at keeping her safe. She hated to admit it, too, but if it had been Yusuke or Kuwabara, they most likely would have kept her close during a fight, putting her in danger. They weren't the types to think of the consequences, they only would have known that they didn't want to lose her.

Hiei thought logically. He understands cause and effect, can weigh the proportions of good and bad, and can almost predict the future. That, Botan knew, is why he is still alive today.

Hiei opened one eye and peered down at her with a scowl.

Botan thanked whatever god was watching over her that she had returned to her spot moments before he woke up from his trance.

"You're awake."

Botan felt a bit like Yusuke when she debated whether or not to snap, 'thanks, Captain Obvious'.

When she didn't immediately say something, Hiei exhaled loudly. "It took you long enough."

Botan looked at the sky. It wasn't that late, was it? No, it had to be early! Because although the snow-clouds were blocking out most of the sun, there wasn't that much light poking through. It wasn't enough to be late.

"It doesn't matter, really. Kurama still hasn't found those two idiots, and he is now searching for us." Hiei clambered to his feet and stretched like a cat. "He suggested that we meet him halfway. I'm wondering if I'll take him up on that."

"Where are Yusuke and Kuwabara?"

"They're at a port on the other side of the island. They, too, met a member of the enemy, only to have them get up and leave after a proper beating."

Botan was shocked. "You lost?"

Hiei shot her a look that could kill. "I most certainly did not lose. I pushed her towards the last inch of her life, and I expected her to lay there and die like a true minion would, but she just got up and left."

"And you let her go?"

Hiei was beginning to rethink his action of telling her what had happened. "She won't be fighting any time soon, I can promise you that. I was… distracted."

"With what?" Botan demanded.

The wind. "I was already looking for you when she left."

Botan's face fell from disbelieving anger to guilt. If Hiei had been watching, the speed at which her features changed would have been shocking. "Oh. Sorry."

Well, it's half true, Hiei reasoned with himself. He did have the Jagan open when the girl decided to show that she wasn't really five-sixths dead.

Hiei dismissed her regret with a wave of his hand, before that specific hand came to rest on the hilt of his sword. "We're going to meet the fox due east. He said he found something interesting, and refused to divulge information."

Botan thought it eerie how Hiei had just had an entire conversation with someone as if he were channeling cell phone waves. "When will we leave?"

"Now," Hiei replied, and, strangely enough, offered her a hand to hoist herself up with. "I plan on arriving long before he does."

"Is this your version of ill-planned revenge? Besting him at things?"

Hiei glared at her. "Of course."