Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho doesn't belong to me. Its rightful owner is the one and only, Yoshihiro Togashi.

Summary: Being the every playful fox that he was, Kurama was always the one embarrassing her. Well... maybe she could finally have her payback. KxB.

A/N: Random one-shot. Just kinda thought of it and went up and wrote it. Hope you enjoy it, anyways. On to the story!

"You should really be more careful," Kurama adviced wisely, but Botan could tell that from the twitching of his mouth, he was trying hard to stifle a smile.

She scowled.

"I'm alright," she murmured softly, taking his hand as he extended it to help her up.

He tugged her gently upwards, before crushing her body against his. A bright crimson blush adorned her cheeks, causing him to smirk amusedly, a touch of mirth and mischief dancing in his emerald eyes.

Botan was more than relieved when he slowly released her, the small smirk still lingering at the edge of his lips as she cleared her throat, looking away in a vain attempt to hide the -stupid!- blush on her -stupid!- face.

No doubt he was laughing at her.

From the inside, of course. He wasn't the kind who would laugh out loud.

She shot him a death glare, glowering at him as he spoke calmly to Kuwabara. She nearly hated him for being such a tease. Nearly. Sometimes she wished she could literally hate his guts, but she knew that was practically impossible.

Regardless, it wouldn't hurt him if he stopped being infuritating.

She knew, he knew she had a crush on him. Although he claimed he had suspected it for a long time - which didn't come much as a surprise, because he was unbelievably smart and observant - he hadn't had his "suspicions comfirmed" (his words, not hers), until Yusuke, being overly careless due to being drunk at the time, accidentally let the cat out of the bag.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to tell Yusuke, even if he was one of her bestest friends...

Anyway, since then, Kurama had been relentlessly playful towards her, constantly poking fun at her and teasing her with those little, brief skin contacts. Seriously, what was the point? She didn't even know if he liked her back. Was he making fun of her?

Look, he was doing it again.

Botan couldn't help the blush that crept up her cheeks, as tender fingers, noticeably longer and bigger than hers, suddenly grazed the back of her hand. She made to pull away, but he caught her wrist in a gentle yet firm hold before she could even move an inch, teasingly trailing his fingers up and down her arm, before moving back to her palm, and intertwining with hers.

Good grief, was he deliberately trying to kill her?

Botan felt like she could faint with all the blood rushing to her head.

And she wanted so desperately to wipe that cheeky grin off his face.

Why did she have to fall for a fox demon, of all things? Maybe she could have fallen for Yusuke - but then he had Keiko - or Kuwabara - Yukina! - or even Hiei, for god's sake!

... Okay, scratch Hiei's name. He'd probably butcher her before she could even think of him in that way.

Shudders.

Kurama let go as soon as Koenma came close, the Reikai prince sauntering his way towards them. The loss of skin contact left Botan torn between heaving a sigh of relief or kicking Koenma in the stomach for interfering.

Although he seemed to have an iron will when it came to teasing her to no ends, Kurama seemed to be afraid of Koenma finding out. Heck, the Reikai prince was the only one in their group of friends who had no inkling of idea of his top ferry girl's feelings for the fox demon. Due to fear of what might happen, even if they weren't exactly dating.

Then again, sometimes it almost felt like it was something close to that...

Okay, whoa, Botan. No. He would never think of you that way.

She shook her head.

But then again, why would he be teasing her about it...?

He was playful, but never to the extent that he would actually "humor" a silly girl's crush on him.

Maybe she wasn't silly.

But she was, sometimes, Botan realized.

... Maybe she should just stop thinking about it.

When Koenma turned and walked away to talk with some of his other Reikai companions, that was when Botan finally snapped out of her chain of thoughts - although, mostly for the reason Kurama was holding her hand... again!

Damn fox.

Kuwabara chattered with Yusuke some more, before the two best friends as close to that of brothers excused themselves, leaving Kurama and Botan alone. The latter understandably less calm than the former.

"You should relax," the redhead said softly with a hint of amusement in his voice, despite it having dropped a few octaves lower - a fact Botan tried very hard not to think about.

"I am relax," she retorted, sort of giving her lie away when her words came off sounding high pitched.

Could she run?

But, she didn't want to let go of his hand.

And he wouldn't let her escape even if she tried, anyway.

"We are just holding hands," he spoke - and was that a chuckle? "You should stop being so tense."

"I'm not being tense!"

"Yes, you are." His hand lightly squeezed hers, another lopsided smirk reaching its way up his lips when her blush darkened. "Your hand is shaking."

"I'm cold," came her answer, which she didn't think through before she let it out.

He arched an eyebrow at her, to which she inwardly kicked herself for making a fool of herself. Good god, he was probably entertaining himself - especially now that she made a stupid comment of a room crowded with people as something "cold".

"Then," He leaned in closer to her, blowing a hot breath over her ear, a chuckle escaping him when she whimpered at the feel, "Should I warm you up?"

Botan felt like she was on the verge of fainting. She could have sworn her head was spinning.

"N-no," she finally uttered her response after a while, all the while trying to brush off the fact she just stuttered. "I'm fine. I'll be fine."

Fortunately, he leaned away, and almost as instantly, his hand released hers. A part of her screamed at him to not let go, but another part of her was more than grateful. Who knows how long she could last if he went on?

It was always this way. It was sort of a routine. He would tease her. Then, all of a sudden, he would abruptly stop his ministrations.

She was thankful - but also hated him a lot for that.

However, as she watched him turn to look away with a smile playing at his lips, an idea flashed in her head.

A devious grin.

Oh, yes... This would surely be good...

"Hey, Kurama?" she called.

He hummed in response. "Yes?"

"Look at me for a sec."

As instantly as those words left her, Kurama slowly rotated his head to the right to face her - just in time for her to crush her lips against his. Brief, featherlike, and tender, the kiss was broken off almost immediately. The flecks of gold glimmering in his eyes told her he ached for more, but the red shade coloring his cheeks informed her that she had succeeded.

She laughed as he looked away, cupping one hand on his cheeks in a futile attempt to hide the blush. For a moment, she wondered what he was thinking, only to brush off the question sooner than expected as a surge of satisfaction overwhelmed her senses.

Being the playful fox that he was, Kurama was always the one embarrassing her.

It felt good finally getting her payback.

And the look on his face was priceless-!

He cleared his throat, as the blush on his face turned lighter in colour. He took longer than expected to get over the embarrassment, which would come as a surprise to Botan during any normal occassion. But not now. Now she was smirking in pride.

Because this time, she won their little game.

Although, she couldn't help but wonder if he - in a 5 out of 100 percent chance - reciprocated her feelings. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. Maybe she was right. But, even if she was, Kurama wasn't the kind who would admit it out loud.

Still, she would settle for the blush on his face as his most obvious hint of his -possible- affections for her. That, and the fact that it showed that she managed to "pay him back" for all those embarrassing experiences - which when she looked back on it, were one of her most memorable and joyful memories ever.

And the look on Kurama's face promised her more in the future. But of course, she wasn't one to back down. Not now that she knew she had the same effect on him as he had on her.

A moment of silence, and then came his smirk.

"Well played."