A/N: 'Kay, people, listen herre. This is my first Hiei/Botan fic. So tell me YAY! or nay. So make sure and review. I love this pairing, but I've been scared that if I try to write one it will end up horribly awful and then I'd feel SO BAD! But I've decided to take a crack at it. So please remember to TELLA MEHA WHATA YOUA THINKA! WOOT(a)!

Disclaimer: Must you remind me?

SHOW THE WITH ON YEHA!

"Hiei? Wait!. . .Please?"

I stumbled after him. We were in the woods, and I was tripping over roots and things. He was shining to me; my only ray of light in this dark and desolate place, the only light at all. I could hear (or rather, feel) smaller youkai snickering at my chase; it was almost impossible. His experience in the trees counted to far against me to have a chance.

"Hiei, please!" Tears started to fall down my cheeks and disappeared into the dark, hard ground. The saltwater stung the cuts and scratches that low hanging branches and brambles had given me as I was running. I tried to ignore the pain.

"Hn," Came his reply. I let out a sob.

"Hiei, please! Come back," I whimpered.

"What, onna? Stop screaming."

"AHHHHHHH!" I thrashed around, the bed covers tangling my legs. In the process somehow I ended up on the floor.

"ONNA!" I stopped moving.

"Oh, hello, Hiei, what brings you to this part of town?" Instantly my voice retained its normal cheery composure. I plastered a huge smile on my face, hoping that I had only cried in my dreams and not in real life. I wouldn't let anyone see me cry. Especially Hiei. Especially Hiei.

At my little comment he just stared in disbelief. "You were calling my name and tossing around. Your voice is hard to ignore, onna, especially when you're yelling."

"Sorry," I said softly.

He had been sitting in the window, but now he crossed my room to the corner farthest away from me. Inwardly I hurt.

Hence a moment of akward silence. Surprisingly, he broke it.

"Why were you dreaming about me?" I could feel his intense gaze on me as I looked down at my hands. I was still tangled in my covers, but I didn't notice.

"I was having a nighmare."

"Why was I in your nightmare?"

I turned my head so he couldn't see me blush. But I did notice that for some reason he seemed tense.

"Was Ihurting you?"

I turned to him, my blush forgotten and replaced with confusion. "What?"

He was looking at the floor so he didn't have to meet my gaze. "In your nightmare. Was I..."

"Oh! No," I said, waving my hand. "You weren't hurting me."

He seemed a little relieved. If that was an emotion he felt. "Hn. You still haven't answered why I was in your nightmare."

I flushed again. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you, just don't laugh, okay?"

"Hn."

I glared at him. "I was running in the forest. Smaller demons and things were watching me, but no one would help. You were running ahead of me. You knew I was there, but you kept running. You wouldn't help me. I called after you, starting to cry. And then you woke me up."

You studied my face silently for a moment. "Onna, you should know better than that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I huffed.

He walked over to the window and looked out. He seemed prepared to leave, but as if acting on a second thought, he turned and said, "You should know I'd never leave you."

And then he was gone.

2 Weeks Later

After that day, when he'd woken me up and then reassured me (in his own, odd sort of way) that my dream would never come true, I realized that I didn't have them again. I'd had more than just that one about him not caring for me, him not loving me the way that I'd always love him, about him leaving me to die a hard and cruel death. But they all stopped after he'd said that.

Because it proved that he did care for me. But a demon of his stature most likely didn't know emotion very well. Not that he was thoughtless, or heartless, but meaning that he blocked out all emotion. The only emotions he let himself feel were hate, and anger, but occasionally-like with Yukina-an emotion was so strong that it broke through his barrier. Apparently I was starting to cause on of those emotions.

Change of POV: Hiei

I ran through the forests around her house, aimlessly going at speeds I'd never felt before. I blamed it on myself being weak and needing the exercise, even though I really knew it was because I wanted to leave my blush behind.

Lately, I admit, I had been feeling a bit differently about the onna. I would feel my heartbeat quicken and a slight blush coming on, but I blamed it on my demon instincts being attracted to her beauty. After what she'd told me, though, I immediatly realized that wasn't the only reason. It excited me to find myself in her bedroom, seeing her in bedclothes and in the bed, but moreso I was astonished to hear that she was dreaming about me.

At first it pained me that she thought I'd do that to her. Of course I'd given her plenty of reason to, but still. And then immediatly the same excitement spread through my body. She was afraid I'd leave her. That I didn't care for her. She wasn't afraid that the fox didn't like her, or the idiot, or the spirit detective. It was me. And that removed any doubt in my mind that I'd ever had...wait.

I don't like talking to people. She talked to much. I like staying in a bad mood and depressing (and/or insulting) other people. She liked staying in a good mood and cheering people up.

So why did I feel this way about her?

That old saying 'Opposites attract' came immediatly to mind. I snickered. We really were opposites.

But no. It would never work. She could never find out. I mentally slapped myself.

Why had I risked it? Unbeknowenst to her, every night I would occupy a tree near her window. It was my way of making sure she was safe. Hearing her call my name...I couldn't help but go and see if she was okay.

But telling her I'd never leave her was a mistake. Something I rarely doact without thinking. Now she knows that I care for her. At least a little more than others. But she knew nonetheless.

But that had to stop. She could have no idea.

Change Of POV: Botan

But even when I saw him he acted normally. I took his lead and acted normally as well, feeling my heart shred a little more each time. The hope he'd given me by his visit, the words and assurance in that simple sentence, slowly died away to be replaced by a dull, hard ache.

Pretty soon my nightmares started to come back. And this time they were worse then ever.

This time, it wasn't simply me running, and him ignoring me. It was a life or death situation, and he was choosing death. But he shouldn't have the right to choose, as it was my life.

Kuwabara was dead. Yusuke was traveling somewhere in a separate dimension, once again fighting for not only his life but the lives of all those on Earth. KuramaI don't want to talk about that.

These people were unlike anyone we'd ever fought. They were demons, like Kurama and Hiei, but they were impossibly strong. There were eight of them and they could each control an element to the extent of causing intense havoc. The leader was the worst. On top of being able to control and summon fire at anytime, she could sense your deepest fear just by looking at you. And then she could make it real, but only in your mind, forcing you into insanity.

I had only gotten away. Hiei had shown a kind side I'd thought he only reserved for Yukina. He thrust me out of the way when I was about to be hit, and taking this opportunity I ran away. I quickly conjoured up a portal, which used up all of my energy, and I didn't even designate a specific place, which is how I got where I was right now.

My wildest fears were being left alone in the quiet. Alone with music, or with strangers, I could handle, but silence? Wave goodbye to my sanity. I start hearing things in my head when it's quiet...voices of the dead that I'd ferried long ago, voices of those dying right now, voices of the living that fear death...and voices of mine that remind me of my fears, which make it worse.

So, as I lay here on a dusty road, mountains faint in the distance and the heat making them blur, the voices fought to free themselves. To talk to me, convince me living wasn't worth it. And slowly, ever so slowly, I was starting to believe them.

I couldn't feel my own limbs, and my eyes were slowly drifting closed. I'd been there so long the pain was second nature; the numbness was, of course, because of all the pain but I'd come to ignore it.

I used most of my energy lifting my head up. The wind that gave me no solace had blown stray grains of dirt and sand, which stuck to my cuts. The ground around me was stained in blood, to which my cuts and gashes had only recently stopped adding to.

I had tried to fight. But I'm not a fighter. I'd gotten some severe cuts and gashes and bruises all on my legs and arms, on my chest and back, and my face. It hurt to move.

I knew death was closing in. A churning in my stomach, an uneasiness, told me that I didn't have long. I had seen so many people to the other side but no one had ever told me how it was to die. Was it like falling asleep? You didn't notice? Still. I didn't fear dying, really, I didn't fear what happened afterword, but I feared what it felt like.

But that's not the reason why I looked up. No, I wouldn't have looked up at all if I hadn't heard footsteps.

"H-Hiei?" It couldn't be. But sure enough, as the figure got closer, it was him. But he didn't look at me.

He was staring straight ahead. "Hiei!" I said again, my voice raspy. Finally, he glanced at me. But that was it. A glance.

"Hiei!" I yelled, my voice growing thick with tears I didn't know I even had. "Please! Help me! Help me. . ." the last plea was a whimper. He didn't even look at me again.

Now he was right beside me...beyond me...getting smaller...smaller...gone.

"No!" I cried. I looked around me. Everything was growing black. No! I can't die! If he just would have helped me...I thought he cared...nooo...

"HIEI!" I screamed, sitting up in my bed so fast it gave me a head rush. I held my head in my hands, staring down at the blanket over my legs. "Hiei...why?" I started to sob.

((Hiei's POV))

Remembering what happened the last time she screamed out my name in a dream, I tried to stay put in my tree and go back to sleep. But then she started to cry.

The smell of her tears reached me almost a second before I heard it.

"Hiei...why?" I heard her whimper, and then her tears came full force. My nose was swamped with the smell. I couldn't ignore this.

I stood up and jumped to her window ledge, without making a sound. Hmm. How should I do this? Aha.

I stepped over to her bed, and (thankfully) she couldn't see me because she had her eyes covered. I slipped on top of the bed and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. Immediatly, her crying stopped. She looked up into my eyes.

Confusion clouded them, as unshed tears swam and slightly blurred her vision. Quickly, she reached up to brush them away, and then looked back at me. "H-Hiei?"

Instead of speaking, I just pulled her closer and gently brushed my lips against hers.

((Botan's POV))

((The Next Morning))

I woke up to the warmth of sunshine falling across my face. Moving onto my side, I felt the warmth of a fire demon lying next to me. I looked over at his face and smiled silently. I guess he felt my gaze because he woke up.

"I had another dream last night."

He arched an eyebrow at me. "Really?"

"Yep," I said, and, snuggling up closer to him, "we were in a desert, and everyone but us was dead, and I was almost dying. I'd had the same dream before, and you were in it, but you walked by and let me die."

"And in this one?" he said, propping himself up on one arm and studying my face.

"This time," I said, "you saved me, and we lived happily ever after."

He snorted. "Happily ever after?"

I shrugged. "It can happen. It was a dream."

He rolled over on top of me and held his upper body above me with his arms. "And what about real life?"

"Does it matter?" I asked him. "I love you."

The side of his mouth twitched as if he almost smiled. He bowed his head so that his forehead was touching mine. "You humans and your foolish emotions."

I giggled. "You have no idea."

He lifted his head back again, studied me for a minute, and then bent down again, kissing me. Then he rolled back off of me and got up. "I have to go for a while. I promise I'll be back."

I nodded. "Okay. Soon, though, alright?" He nodded back. Right when he was at the window, though, he turned back to me.

"I love you too." And then he left.

I rolled back so that I was sprawled out across my bed and laughed out loud.

"Oh Hiei, you confuse me!" I stopped laughing and sighed. "But I love you just the same."

I put my hand on the space where he had laid. It was still warm.

"It's true, though," I said outloud to myself. "He has no idea. No idea at all."

Yawning, I closed my eyes, and settled back into sleep. For once in my life I wasn't afraid of the dreams. Instead, I welcomed them. "No...idea...at all..."