This fic was inspired at 1am by listening to the Irish Jig from Titanic. If you can imagine Kurama and Botan dancing to the song that Jack and Rose danced to in the movie, then good for you! Because that's how I imagine it and it's spiffy-cool!

Ok, well, anyway, Yu Yu Hakusho is not owned by myself in any way, shape, or form. Neither is some of the dialouge I took from Titanic, which is mostly during the dance scene.

Enjoy!

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Botan sighed and shifted in her seat. Her dress kimono was heavy. Demons didn't have air conditioning and the crowded room was making her hot and sticky. 'Why am I even here?' she thought, miserably, to herself.

'Because Koenma asked you to come.'

'Damn voice-in-head. Maybe I've had a little too much wine.' But even as she thought this, she lifted her glass to her lips and took another sip. It was mostly out of boredom. She had polished off four glasses already. They were small glasses so she wasn't drunk or anything, but the alcohol was only making her hotter in the already overheated room.

She placed her elbow on the table and leaned her chin on it, gazing at the people around the room. Some rich demon friends of Koenma were having a ball, or whatever demons called it. She was too tipsy and bored to think of the correct term at the moment.

Botan sighed. She should never have come to this thing in the first place. Hell, she didn't even know Koenma had demon friends until he invited her along. She wasn't all too familiar with many demons holding parties either, but enormously wealthy demons were rare, and they were probably just trying to show off.

Botan pried her sticky hair away from her face. Why, oh why, did she decide to let it hang down? It only made the heat worse.

Oh well.

Gaze boredly.

Sip wine.

Sigh.

Repeat.

Just as she was beginning to doze off on the table, she felt someone sit down next to her. 'Oh great. Just what I need. Some stuck up demon hitting on me.' It had already happened once that night. She really didn't care for an encore. She flickered open her eyes and sat up in surprise. "Kurama!"

"Hello, Botan." The kitsune smirked at her shocked expression.

Botan gazed him over. He looked sharp all dressed up in a tuxedo. Very sharp. She slapped herself mentally. 'Bad Botan! Get your head out of the gutter!' "W-what are you doing here?" she managed to stammer.

"I was invited," Kurama answered simply. "Koenma invited the whole group, but-"

"But you were the only one who was polite enough to show up," Botan finished for him.

Kurama chuckled softly. "Not exactly what I was going to say, but pretty much the jist of it."

"Where have you been all night? I haven't seen you."

Kurama sighed. "Some cat demon glomped me as soon as I came through the door. I finally had to send her on a search for a pen I dropped to make her leave my side."

Botan burst out laughing. Kurama raised an eyebrow, quizzically. "Did you just say 'glomped'?" Botan asked after calming down a bit. Kurama nodded. The blue haired deity errupted in laughter again.

Kurama mock glared at her until she was finally able to subside her giggles. "Sorry, I'm sorry," she muttered into her drink as she took another sip of wine.

Kurama sighed and smiled to himself. She didn't look very sorry. In fact, she was still smiling broadly. Botan opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted as a cat demon, dressed in a silky black kimono, rushed up to their table. "Is this the pen, Kurama?"

Kurama pretended to study the pen, then firmly shook his head. "No, my pen is red."

"Oh, of course." She looked disappointed and out of breath, but seemed determined to please. She suddenly glared at Botan. "And who is this, Kurama?" she demanded, coldly.

"This is-"

"I'm his grandfather."

Both Kurama and the cat demon stared at her for a moment with unreadable expressions. Botan remained absolutely solemn. After a minute, the cat demon gave her a weird look, and slowly walked away.

Kurama errupted with laughter. Botan smiled to herself for this accomplishment. The usually calm and serious kitsune hardly ever laughed. Especially like that. "Well, I think you've successfully scared her off for the rest of the night," he said, smile still on his face.

"I didn't mean to," Botan said, once again picking up her wine glass. "I think it was just the wine kicking in." She didn't take a sip, just studied the glass for a second before turning to Kurama. "Is there even a pen?"

Kurama smirked and gave her a look that plainly said, 'Are you kidding?'

Botan laughed and set the glass down, her hand resting on the table.

Without warning, Kurama placed his hand atop hers and leaned over so his mouth was practically brushing her ear. Botan almost shivered at the contact, but kept herself together.

"So," he whispered, slyly, in her ear. "You wanna go to a real party?"

~~~~~*~~~~~

Botan looked in wonder around the small bar Kurama had led her to. It was nothing special. In fact, it was quite small and a little run-down. But the tables had mostly been pushed to the side and it was filled with demons. It was a change from how she usually saw large groups of demons. They weren't fighting or gambling. They were laughing and dancing to a tune that sounded sort of Celtic.

"Hey, Kurama!" the bartender called to him, cheerfully. She was obviously a wind demon, middle-aged, with her white hair pulled back into a high ponytail. A few of the demons at the bar turned and called out to him also. Kurama smiled and lifted his hand in greeting, pulling Botan over to a couple of empty stools.

"You come here often?" Botan practically had to shout the question over the noise in the bar.

"I started coming about a year ago. It's a nice place to go to just relax and have fun," he yelled back. Botan noticed that because of the noise in the crowded room, when they talked, they had to lean over so they pretty much pressed up against eachother. Not that she minded or anything.

The barlady came over to them. "Hey, haven't seen you around for awhile! Where you been?" she scolded Kurama in a motherly fashion.

"Work," Kurama explained, simply. It was true. There had been more than usual going on in the Spirit World lately.

"Lame excuse!" she teased, slapping him on the arm. "And who's this pretty lil' thing ya brought with ya?" she asked, directing her attention to Botan.

The ferry girl in question blushed a little at being called pretty and smiled shyly.

"This is my friend, Botan," Kurama explained, grasping her hand. "I just rescued her from a very death-by-boredom affair."

The barlady scoffed and turned to Botan. "Can you believe this guy? 'Rescued you', he says. Makes himself sound like a damn hero everywhere he goes." Kurama and Botan laughed. She winked at Botan. "You keep an eye on him." She smirked and walked down to the other end of the bar.

"That's Hatsuyo," Kurama explained, leaning down next to Botan again. "She owns this place. Great woman."

Botan nodded her agreement.

The song that had been playing ended and the dancers stopped and some made their way off the floor to chairs in the corner of the room. Just as the next song was starting, a little girl with long green hair and sky blue eyes tugged on Kurama's shirt. He had long since ditched his black over-jacket and untucked his white dress shirt. "Dance with me, Kurama!" the little girl requested loudly, and tugged at his hand until he followed her onto the floor.

Botan laughed to herself as she watched the red-haired kitsune humor the little girl and dance a lively jig with her. They were really quite good. Everyone in the room was.

She began clapping along with the other bystanders in rhythm to the music.

She smiled. Even though the room was more hot and crowded than the ballroom had been, it was a good kind of hot and crowded. And it was such a friendly atmosphere; a great contrast to most of the other places in Makai.

Botan looked a little out of place in her fancy dress kimono, where-as, everyone else was dressed plainly, if not a little shabbily. But she figured if she just stayed in the shadows and observed from a distance, she wouldn't cause any trouble.

Unfortunately, Kurama had other plans.

The song ended and everyone applauded. Kurama led the little girl back over to the bar. He bent over and grabbed her small hands in his. "I'm gonna dance with her now, alright?" he told the little demon girl. She nodded, understanding, and stepped back to lean slightly against the wall. Kurama turned to Botan. "Come on." He gestured with his hand.

Botan looked confused. "What?"

"Come with me." Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed her hands and pulled her up.

"But, Kurama! Kurama, wait!" she exclaimed, panic-stricken. He yanked her to the middle of the floor, still clutching her hands in his. She glanced around at the people who had already started to dance and up to the smiling kitsune. "I can't do this," she declared, firmly.

He ignored her and moved her arms into position, stepping a little closer so their bodies were pressed against eachother. "We're gonna have to get a little bit closer... like this."

They started moving slowly, Kurama trying to get Botan to keep up. The ferry girl had never danced like this before and was cautious about her movements. Her breathing was quick and shallow and her heart was pounding. She watched her feet intently. "I don't know the steps."

"Neither do I. Just go with it," Kurama replied, starting to move faster. Botan laughed nervously. "Don't think!" Kurama ordered, smiling, and took them off across the dance floor.

Botan let out a small scream of mixed suprise, nervousness, and joy.

She was starting to get the hang of it. Every time Kurama would pull a surprise move on her, she would let out a little scream, and Kurama would laugh. People were even starting to cheer them on as the song sped up and they went along with it.

Only too soon, at least to Botan, the song ended and they stopped. She threw back her head, laughing, and Kurama smiled, broadly, down at her. Sweat glistened on both of them, and people were cheering and whistling for them in the background.

Botan couldn't stop smiling. Maybe she had had too much wine. She was certainly dizzy. Though she had a sneaking suspicion that it had more to do with the man who was still holding her in his arms than the alcohol.

She looked back up at the kitsune and grinned. He returned the grin and, cupping her cheek gently, bent down meeting her lips with his own.

Botan kissed back, bringing her own hand up around his neck and pushing him closer. She thought, at that moment, about Koenma, who was probably wondering where she had run off too. And of the 'glomping' cat demon who was probably still on a quest for Kurama's pen. But none of that mattered anymore. The only thing that mattered was the smiling kitsune who had just softly pulled back from the kiss, and was leading her into another dance.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Hope you liked! Please leave a contribution in the little box! Oh, and if anyone knows how to get things like italics and underlining in Notepad, then please e-mail me! Good-night!

~DixieGoddess~