The Lock and Key : Two Miserable Souls

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I'm really sorry that the updates have been sparse, but school is over whelming, and looking for colleges whilst doing so is a nightmare. *crosses fingers* Hopefully I'll get into Drexel and... from there, become a screenwriter. Read and Review!

I

Death was coming.

Botan could feel it in her veins. She heard it in Yukina's cries and in Kuwabara's shouting. She tasted it in her saliva. Smoke filled the air, and on the other side of the door, they could hear the fire burning. Hiei squeezed her shoulder. Even the fire demon was in denial. The chaos was about to break down the door. Yukina prayed, tear gems spilling down to the floor.

Kuwabara hugged her close.

Yusuke and Kurama held the door shut. Their mouths hung open as they pushed, their dwindling hope making their muscles ache.

"Come on!" Hiei pulled Botan back. "We're going to fall back. We'll regroup and..." Hope was gone. As soon as he saw her pink eyes, he knew. Dropping her wrist, he began to back away. "No! No, we can win and we can beat him."

Botan wanted to apologize, but she simply didn't have the heart. The shrieks on the other side of the door grew to a shrill wail.

Then... an idea wiggled its way into Botan's brain. It was suicide. It may not be enough. Hell, it could be completely useless... but she did not want to die without trying. However, as quickly as the thought came, it was squashed.

No... she did not want to know. What if... what if...?

Hiei's Jagan Eye was glowing. He had read her thoughts. Botan screamed when he grabbed her, his nails breaking her skin.

"P-Please! P-P-Please, don't Hiei!"

She could already feel him opening her mind.

"I don't have a choice."

"Hiei... H-Hiei, please, I'm s-scared!"

"Yukina will die if I don't try." Tears rolled down his cheeks. Botan snarled in his grip, trying to escape from his grasp. She turned wild, her most primal instincts taking over. Her eyes jerked as Hiei tore all the walls down. "I'm sorry, Botan."

The caretaker woke up screaming. She ran to the bathroom and threw up, shaking as she did so.

"Oh, God." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Oh, God."

Botan sat in her kitchen in silence. She did not eat, she did not drink, and she did not move for a long time. She felt... grey.

She did not realize she was walking until she heard her own voice calling into the wind. Botan was in the woods, shivering in her denim jacket.

"Hello?" She felt like Elliot from E.T. Snorting, she smiled a bit when she wished she had brought some Reeses M&Ms with her. "Jin?"

The wind stopped, then swayed in the opposite direction. She heard the Irishman's voice in the breeze.

"What do you want?"

"I um... I wanted to see if you and Chuu were okay... and... if Hiei was—"

In a whirlwind of leaves, the boy appeared, thick bandages covering his nose.

"Hiei isn't here." His tone made the caretaker bristle, but then he saw her pale face and red eyes. "I mean... he didn't show up to work today... so he couldn't talk to you if he wanted."

Botan didn't even hear him. She reached out, touching the side of his face.

"Gosh... Jin, I'm so sorry."

"Hey, you weren't the one who did it. How were you supposed to know he'd go nuts?"

His unconvincing laugh told Botan that he thought that she should have known.

"Yeah... well... I'd like to talk to him. Do you know where he lives?"

Jin looked away as he nodded.

"Come with me, and don't say anything."

II

Botan was led deep into the woods until Jin said, "Fuck it. Are you afraid of heights?" When Botan said 'no', he clasped her hand in his and the next thing she knew, she was flying. The wind pushed her along, and they soared above the trees and into Demon World.

Jin swooped low to the balcony of a castle.

"Don't stare at anything too long."

"Okay."

It was difficult, but Botan obeyed. People walked past her, but many would consider those people to be monsters. However, they struck up conversations with Jin and were friendly, so Botan concluded that to call them monsters would be ignorant.

"Here it is."

The door was made of stone. Botan turned the handle, but it didn't budge.

"Jin, it's locked." She turned to see that she was alone. Fear prickled her skin as she pressed her forehead to the stone, trying not to panic. "Christ... come on."

She pulled on the door, but to no avail.

"You won't open it like that." Botan turned to see a one-eyed woman with two mechanical limbs. The woman's eye widened, and she quickly dug into her pockets. "Here." A key was thrust into Botan's hands. "Maybe... seeing you will help him."

And just like that, Botan found herself closing the stone door behind her. She walked in the room. It was big... and there was barely any furniture. Looking into one room, there was only a bed. Another, a toilet, shower, and sink. Then she made it to the living room.

The caretaker gasped. A large television loomed on a wall, which the other three were shelves. Her lips fell open when she saw movie after movie, books after book, and countless CDs. Hiei had the most up to date surround sound and a high definition television and DVD player.

Botan couldn't stop the smile that grew on her face. She might have found something that she could relate to. She spent most of her money on media, only needling food and hygienic supplies to keep her comfortable. She skimmed over the titles of the movies and... slowly realized that she had seen... almost all of them.

She had read all the books and was familiar with all of the music.

Chills gripped Botan tightly. She bit her lip.

"Hiei? Hiei are you here?"

A low moan sank into the air. Botan moved quickly to find her killer slumped over in the kitchen. A bottle rolled at his feet. Booze. The caretaker stopped. Her heart told her that this man... no, demon in front of her did not get drunk, pass out, and wake up with a murderous hang-over.

Certainly not.

"Hiei?" Botan bent over him. He groaned, his eyes squinting. "Christ... c'mon, lets get you up."

The caretaker hoisted the demon up.

"No..."

"Yes. Trust me, you're going to thank me for this."

Stumbling due to the extra weight on her shoulder, Botan made her way to the bathroom. Hiei walked on his own inside, and Botan closed the door behind him. She sighed and grimaced when she heard him retching into the toilet.

Ugh, I've been there.

III

Hiei panted, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. He must have emptied his entire stomach into the toilet. Ugh... never again. The fire demon groaned, swallowing foul tasting spit. He stood, washing out his mouth with cold water from the sink as he flushed the toilet.

Emerging from the bathroom, Hiei heard soft music. Closing his eyes, he left the soft strings seep into his skin, building up a tragically beautiful melody. Adagio for the strings, Opt. 11. It was from the German film Lives of Others.

Yet another film that he had seen due to Botan's log.

Just as the song reached a teary peak, he heard her voice.

"Are you feeling better?" He walked in to the living room, nodding. She was staring at him, turning down the music. "Good. You shouldn't drink a lot of that sort of liquor. The sweet stuff always kills in the morning."

Swallowing, Hiei nodded.

"You cut your hair."

It was shorter now. It didn't touch her shoulders like it once cascaded down.

"I, uh, cut it about... about a month ago." Her fingers grabbed at the ends of her blue hair. "How... how long was it... before?" Hiei's hands traced her, his nails scraping the back of her shirt as he stopped halfway down her back. She smiled as best she could as she scrutinized his face. "This," she touched a scar that dragged down across his right eye, "this wasn't here before."

Hiei flinched away from her soft hands.

"That one is new."

"How did you get it?"

"You gave it to me."

"Oh." She sat down, switching the CD to a John Williams collection. "Sorry."

"I deserved it." Blue hair fell in front of pink eyes when Botan turned away. A tense silence began to grow between them as the caretaker... Botan walked back to the shelves. "Why are you here?"

A rush of air fell from her lips.

"Because... I... I can't sleep without seeing you... seeing you in... in all these different places and times..." Her hands shook as she found the log of films. Her log. "I feel like I know you... that I know you, like you... and yet... some of the things I see... they terrify me." She was flipping through the book, reading until her hands shook so hard that she couldn't read anymore. "Who are you? Who are you to me?" Hiei watched her turn, her eyes flashing dangerously. She looked like a wild animal, scared and angry. The fire demon had never seen the Botan he knew like this. Unhinged and insane. "Tell me who the fuck you are!"

She slammed the book down, her hair curling. Hiei flinched, almost backing away. Almost.

"Botan... Botan, I—"

"I am me! I've always been me... and now... and now I don't know... I don't know anymore."

"Botan—"

"No! That name... I'm not the Botan you want or know... she was different." Her fingers dragged down her face in exasperation, the whites of her eyes shining brightly. "Dear God... I was different... I've changed... and I'm deeply sorry if that's not what you want to hear..."

Her body twisted as she sank to the floor, her nails digging into her skin. Hiei stared with a strange fascination at Botan. She was in pain, just as he had been. She was leaving red stripes along her skin where her nails had been raking. Dropping to one knee, Hiei reached out and did what he had always wanted to do to Botan since she died.

Fingers trembled as they touched her face. Botan's pink eyes opened to stare into crimson orbs. Hiei licked his lips, taking a deep breath.

"You were... a friend." Memories flashed across his eyes, and he had to close them. "I didn't treat you like one. I never do to... any of my friends. But you were one of them. You loved my sister almost as dearly as I did... you cared for her as if she were your sister... and you were the family that I could never be for her. You were the one bit of light in the darkest times that we had to go through... you were annoying, too happy, and always smiling. You loved everyone, and everyone loved you back."

She hiccuped, the information bombarding her. Hiei took a shuddering breath. Botan placed her fingers on his lips.

"I... I couldn't... I couldn't have..."

Hiei nodded, taking her hand away.

"I remember you singing, I remember you dancing and clapping for me when I would win a battle." He turned away, huffing, his voice cracking. "Up until the end... you were everything that I was not. You smiled. You loved. You lived."

IV

Botan did not think as she moved forward and wrapped her arms around the demon. She felt him jump, tense, but he did not move away. She wouldn't have cared if he did, she would have tightened her grip. Her eyes stared straight ahead, her breathing slowing down to a manageable rhythm.

"I... I..."

She stood outside of the team's door. She wondered if Yusuke was going to take much longer. The doors opened, and Botan eagerly joined her team as they prepared themselves for sleep. The Dark Tournament would continue tomorrow, and they needed rest.

Hiei walked stiffly, and Botan fell into step beside him.

"Did you hear me cheering for you, Hiei?" She smiled at his gruff huff. "I cheered extra loud."

"Hn."

"I remember."

Darkness fell, and just when Botan was going to call it a night, a shadow leaped for her. Before she could scream, a warm hand pressed itself against her mouth. Red eyes glowed in the darkness.

"Don't cheer for me."

Hiei growled, his energy fluctuating wildly. Botan took a deep breath when he took his hand away, calming herself.

"Why not?"

Silence gripped them for a moment. The ferry girl thought that he was going to leave, because really, when did he ever give her straight answers? Instead, he knelt down, covering his face with his hand for a moment before dragging it down his skin. He sighed.

"You'll get yourself in trouble."

"Huh?"

The demon grimaced, wishing that she understood the first time.

"My enemies... they try to find my weaknesses... and if you cheer for me... they will assume that you are one of them. So, for both of our sakes, don't cheer for me."

"Friend. I was... I... I didn't think so at the time... but..."

The demon, the one that was alive now, the one with grey hair at his temples and a scar across his eye, tightened his hold on her. He was so warm. Botan's lips twitched at some hidden memory that had not yet resurfaced.

"I'm sorry. I've wanted to say that... for... a long time."

Normally, in all the movies, this is the part where the woman would say that she forgives the man as they kiss passionately. However... this was far from a movie. This was real. He was not forgiven. Botan was not fully informed on what he did. The only thing she did know was that he killed her.

"You did it to save your sister." He said nothing. "If... if you hadn't... done what you did... would we have had a chance against... whoever that was?"

There were times when Botan used to stare out windows, thinking of someone without a face or name. Wondering about them. Wondering if they were okay, eating right, and making good choices. Up until now, she had no idea who she had been keeping in her heart, worrying about, and hoping for.

It was Hiei all along.

"We didn't have a chance."

V

Shyam boarded a plane destined for Tokyo. First class. One way. He knows that he should be worried about his bloodlust and lack of memories, but he didn't.

VI

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but I've been really busy. It's my senior year, my birthday is coming up, and I'm looking at colleges for writing. Well, yeah. So sorry that the update took so long, but I swear that I will not just forget about fanfiction. Thank you, and please review!

-mia