“Come on Kaoru,” Misao demanded as she dragged her friend down the streets of Tokyo. “This is the perfect solution to your problems and you know it. I mean, who wouldn’t want a cute little kitten or puppy to spice up their lives?”

Kaoru rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand how this could be the ‘perfect solution’ and if I may remind you, the ‘perfect solution’ to having curly hair our freshman year of High School turned my hair bright pink. Besides, they’re cute as babies, but when they get older, there just huge and slobbery; or in the case of a cat, they think they are the owners and you’re the pet.”

Misao waved a brightly manicured hand around in the air. “How was I supposed to know that mixing those particular chemicals with the natural base of your hair was going to produce that reaction? No, this is even better!” She completely ignored her friend’s attempt to argue against her.

Kaoru whimpered low in the back of her throat. All her protests were ignored, just as Misao had ignored the fact that she was sleeping on her couch, because her bed was covered in dirty laundry and her couch was closer to her front door. Just like Misao had ignored the fact that she was rumpled and probably needed to shower, and that her hair was reaching the stage that screamed ‘clean me’.

“Anyway, we are going to get you a pet!” Misao crowed. Kaoru decided it must have been the end of some sort of ramble. With Misao, not paying attention was dangerous.

“A pet?” Kaoru said continued doubtfully. “I had a hard time keeping my goldfish alive in college Misao, and we are not even going to talk about what happened to the little turtle you brought home.”

Misao turned to her. “Teetree? They let you near my baby? Well that explains what happened to the poor thing…” rolling her eyes Misao kept on walking. “See, Kaoru, the point is; even you can’t possibly screw this place up!”

Kaoru didn’t even have time to look up at the sign before she was dragged into a door. The first thing she noticed was a set of stairs, which Misao took with her usual vibrancy, dragging Kaoru down them into what not only looked, but felt, like another world.

The place was old fashioned and almost baroque in appearance. There were splashes of red everywhere, random pieces of Chinese furniture, and the unmistakable feel of the Victorian class. There wasn’t a cheesy little bell to ring to tell someone that they had arrived; Misao’s footsteps had been loud enough for that, and the man that entered startled her.

He was tall and thin, with a white face and chin-length blue-black hair; it fell in an almost unnatural straightness. His outfit was both elaborate and slightly ridiculous, and she doubted anyone else could manage to pull it off. His fingers were long and white, with deep red nail polish that seemed to match the paint he wore on his almost feminine mouth. The silk brocade of his own clothing was outlandish in style and in a way that she supposed only Misao and this man could ever understand. There was something about his eyes, some curious mixture of mystery and horror that raised the fine hairs on the back of her neck. Misao seemed not to notice, because she never batted a lash.

“Count D!” Misao crooned as she danced forward, dragging Kaoru even closer to the man in front of her. “We want a pet! Do you have any of those adorable bunnies left?” Her eyes were large and hopeful and Kaoru wondered how she was going to manage to get out of there without having two baby bunnies in her purse.

His expression was cool, but something flickered in his eyes as he stared at her; some cool sense of amusement. One eye was the pale shade of violet, the other cool amber. The violet eye was half-hidden by his hair as he tilted his head to stare down at the bouncing woman in front of him.

“Does she now?” Count D mused, turning those Fae-eyes of his on her. Kaoru suddenly felt like he knew everything about her, down to the chipped color of the polish on her toes. She was wearing tennis shoes. He raised a cool brow and shrugged elegantly. There was something there...if she could just put her finger on it.

Kaoru swallowed a bit nervously.

“Welcome, Kamiya Kaoru,” he breezed and Kaoru jerked at the fact that he knew her name. He offered her a thin-lipped smile and gave her that lingering look. “I think I have something very nice for you…” he turned to Misao. “Perhaps you would like to go look at those bunnies?” Misao squealed and disappeared, already bouncing as she moved down the hall. He gave an elegant shrug and made a motion with his long fingers. “Come.”

“I must warn you, Miss Kamiya that my pets are made to offer love and fulfill desires.” His voice was gentle. “However, because some of my pets are fairly dangerous; I will require a contract from you.” He gave her another one of those looks, as if the color of her skin or eyes would determine everything about the pet he chose for her. She also had the sinking sensation that whatever he was going to offer her was worse than whatever Misao wanted to give her.

“What type of pet requires a contract?” Kaoru questioned, but he turned on one elegant heel, somehow reminding her of an outraged Megumi, and then he disappeared for a moment.

She stood there, alone in the grandeur of his ‘pet shop’ and felt a little out of place. Alright, she felt a lot out of place. There was something about the furniture, the perfect pristine condition of the place that gave her goose-bumps. There was the occasional flutter as if something not human was skittering around the edges of her awareness. She clamped down on her urge to bolt.

Count D came back.

He paused, as if his entrance said everything. His pale eyes flickered at her before moved with grand precision, an other-worldly elegance, to a curtain which he pulled back dramatically. Kaoru stared at the creature that stood there, watching her warily.

It was a young man. Or it appeared to be a young man. His face was angular and the bone structure wasn’t quite human, something about the angle of his jaw and cheekbones. His eyes were a few shades darker violet than the count’s right eye and his mouth was thin. He was small and looked as if the wind could knock him over. There was something about his eyes that caught her attention and she stared at him for long, long moments.

“A human? What is this?” Kaoru demanded, spinning to stare at the Count with wide eyes. “This had better not be some sort of underground slave ring!”

“Dragon,” Count D said, his elegant hands waving as if to dismiss her warnings. “A dragon who is forced to be a man,” he pinned her with his eyes. Something about the now straight line of his mouth conveyed that he was amused. “Perfect for a woman who is learning to live again.”

“Dragon,” Kaoru repeated, her voice telling him what her words couldn’t. Disbelief, outrage that he would think her so gullible, and anger that he would do that to a person fought for dominance in her voice. Her eyes flashed at him for a moment and Count D kept his face bland as he watched as his Dragon’s head lifted a bit at the sign of temper from the girl.

“Dragons are scattered throughout all human mythology.” Count D purred. “I find it difficult to believe that they aren’t real.”

Kaoru gaped at him and then turned back to the man standing there. Dragon standing there; trying to figure out how he was a dragon (assuming they existed) and blinked faintly startled when he shifted, and his hair almost threw sparks. There was something about the angle of his eyes that captivated her.

“If he is a dragon,” Kaoru answered, attempting not to sound breathless and startled and disbelieving, “what am I supposed to do with him?”

“Dragons are known for their loyalty, and their temper.” Count D said causally. “There are certain…characteristics, shall we say, that make them very sought after. You are very lucky.” He gave another smooth shrug and offered her that slight tilt of his wide mouth. “It is as easy to be owned by your pet, Kaoru, as it is to own them.”

Kaoru blinked at him, unsure at what he was getting at.

Count D moved forward. “You will take him then.” It sounded like a question, but somehow she thought it was a warning.

Kaoru bit her lip, opening her mouth to tell him no, she was not taking him, he was insane, she was reporting him to the police, but to her surprise a squeaky yes came out instead. Count D smiled and Kaoru shivered, starting at the creature.

Assuming he was really a dragon and not some poor man. Assuming this entire thing wasn’t some crazed experience (Misao might have slipped something into the tea) then she was willing to think a bit outside the box. Besides, there was just…something…about him that tugged at her. Something about his eyes that fluttered through her like honey.

He smiled. “Wonderful.”

"The first part of our bargain is this: you must not, under any circumstances, allow him to hold a sword.” There was an edge to his voice. “I will not be held accountable otherwise.” His voice was firm and Kaoru heard the 'broken contracts are not mine to fix' even if he didn’t say it.

“Part two is easy: only feed him meat.” He smiled at the dragon, a bit more of teeth in this one than anything he had given her. “Vegetables will make him ill, and I will not tolerate you abusing him.” He turned and gave her another look while pulling out a piece of paper. “Everything else is outlined.” The way he raised his brow clearly indicated that if she had questions, she should ask them now.

Kaoru hesitated, wondering exactly how you ask about draconic habits, but decided against it at the last second. “No.” She didn’t have any questions.

Count D nodded. “The last item between us is this: no one can see your pet.” He gave the direction Misao had gone a delicate glance. “Your friend will be busy for a while yet.”

Count D finally gave another of his thin smiles and Kaoru hide her shudder with a force of will. ‘What was I getting myself into?’

“Then that should be all of the normal stipulations. Remember, he must not touch a sword.” Count D reminded her. He paused slightly. “This particular dragon’s name is Kenshin.”

Kaoru paused and timidly asked a question. “If no one can see him should I go and get my car and fetch him later?” Her voice was still slightly skeptic. First a dragon and now magic, what was this place?

Count D shook his head. “No, the illusion of being a human should manage itself fine this once. But do not allow anyone to see him after this. It will be dangerous.”

Kaoru signed the piece of paper and left with a dragon following her.

....

Count D met Kenshin’s eyes as he followed Kaoru up the stairs. The dragon blinked at him once and then he was gone. Count D went about cleaning up the place a bit, getting ready for the company he knew was coming. He was taking a risk, of course, letting this particular dragon go with access to a possible maiden, but it was a risk he was willing to take. If the distractions were still working, then the smaller woman would be busy in the backroom with all the normal pets for another half-hour.

“You sold him,” the voice was hard and Count D turned to see another Dragon filling his shop. This one was taller, with golden eyes almost similar to the color his last pet would have had if he had not been under the spell of someone. “After I gave you instructions to never, ever do that.”

Count D met Saitoh’s expression with an unflappable one. “My pets are not meant to spend an eternity in their cages. I made sure the girl wouldn’t give him a sword. I believe if your spell is still working, then only touching his sword would unleash him.” There was a note of distain in his voice. “I shall be keeping an eye on them. Really, Saitoh, you’re the one who has spent three hundred years attempting to locate his horde and failing to do so. You know he isn’t going to be able to not bring her presents.”

Saitoh snarled at him. “There is a chance he could find his sword and if he gets his hands on it he can take control of the spell I have on him.” There was a great deal of irritation mingled with satisfaction in his voice. “He will never be able to be rid of it, not now, but he could get control if he gets his magic back.”

Count D shrugged. “The girl is under strict instructions not to give him a sword.” His tone suggested that repeating himself was both boorish and insulting. He also decided to not mention that it was entirely possible, from the smell of her, that she could be the one who was hiding the sword from Saitoh.

Saitoh lit up a cigarette. “We all know how well your normal contracts hold out.” He gave him one last furious glance. “If he managed to make it back into the mainstream, I will be coming after you.” He left the room.

Count D smiled a bit when his pet landed on his shoulder. “No, I am not particularly worried about that threat either.”

....

Kaoru opened the door, attempting to figure out what she was going to do with the man…with the person behind her. Her place was still in the same mess it had been when she left it. The place was littered with dishes, clothes, papers and books and several other random things she wasn’t sure belonged there. Chewing on her lip she moved so that Kenshin (his name had been Kenshin…) could move in. His violet eyes flickered across the room in one slide, and she knew he had taken in everything. She wasn’t sure what had given her that impression, but it was there.

“Sorry about the mess,” Kaoru tried, suddenly feeling unsure. His eyes flickered back to her face and for a moment she thought there was something there, but then he smiled. His eyes lightened to almost blue and he ducked behind his bangs. He didn’t say anything, but Kaoru could almost feel something coming from him.

Maybe he was just adjusting himself to his new home. What did you expect from a dragon? Moving quickly, she cleaned the couch off, folding the blanket up and grabbing the pillow. The couch was the cleanest thing here, and she was suddenly grateful for it.

“Here,” Kaoru said, diving into the crease between cushions. “You can um….watch TV!” She pulled the flipper up with a smile that died a bit when she caught him watching her, something in his curiously angular face catching her breath. “Um…” spinning around she turned the TV on, suddenly thankful it was stuck on the History Channel. Setting the remote down on the messy table in front of her, she wiped her palms down her thighs and turned back to him. She jumped straight in the air.

He was standing right next to her. He hadn’t moved, or she hadn’t heard him move, yet there he was; standing as if he belonged there. His eyes were flickering from the TV to her face and she attempted to offer him another smile. “Its called a TV, and this is the history channel….if you want to change the channel you can.”

She was backing away as she spoke, pointing to the flipper and turning away. She was running away, and she knew it, but she needed time to think about what she had just done. A dragon? When did a dragon come in the form of a small, red-haired man with eyes that trapped the light and hair that shimmered like a prism? It was obvious he wasn’t human, his bone-structure was to…unearthly, and there was something about his thin-mouth that suggest at one point he had been very cruel.

As the hot water turned on and ran over her body, she struggled to figure out what she was going to do with him. Count D had said he was a dragon, and thus had all the tendencies of a dragon. She had no idea what that meant. Somehow she thought it might have something to do with all of those ancient stories she hadn’t read as a child. The shampoo was rubbed into her long hair with a sigh. What exactly did you do with a dragon? Let him have a bunch of pillows to have a fort in? Offer him rocks so he could feel more comfortable and more in an environment of his choice? Didn’t they like cold, smelly places with lots of torches? Sighing as she rinsed the conditioner from her hair, she guiltily realized that her shower had taken up more time that it should have.

Stepping out of the shower she rubbed herself dry and tied her hair up with a towel to absorb the moisture as she pulled on the same draw-string pants and baggy t-shirt she had worn to the pet-shop. It was probably the cleanest thing she had at this point. Taking her hair down she watched as the stuff fell way past her shoulders. She decided, for once, to give herself a big hard look.

According to Misao, the happy, loving idea of a new pet should not only have put a sparkle back into her blue-eyes, but bring color back to her face.

Her face was always pale. That came from a lack of sunlight. Her eyes were still blue, the same vivid color of her father’s, but there was no…spark; not since the accident. Her throat closed up a bit after thinking about that, but she forced it down. She had cried enough. As far as she could tell, as she ruthlessly braided her hair and twisted it into a knot; nothing had changed. Except that she had a dragon watching her TV.

Stepping into the living room, she paused on the threshold, her hands gripping the towel in front of her as her eyes scanned the apartment. The scattered clothes had been picked up and apparently sorted by color. The little coffee table had been cleared of months of clutter; textbooks she had buried under magazines and take-out boxes. Her DVD cases were organized and the DVD’s were put back into their proper cases. Her eyes swung to the kitchen, where the dishwasher was humming merrily, and then her eyes flickered to the man who was sitting straight-backed on her couch. She had never seen a man who sat with his back not touching the back of the couch before. She licked her lips and he turned, his violet eyes partially shaded by his bangs.

Kaoru stared at him. He blinked long lashes and she felt the towel slip from her nerveless fingers. “What...” she swallowed. He continued to stare at her, his violet eyes wide. Kaoru was flustered, knew she was flustered. Reaching down she picked up her towel and walked back into the bathroom and hung it up.

She didn’t look at him when she went into the kitchen. D had said that she could only feed him meat. She needed to go shopping. However….Kaoru threw open her freezer and chewed her lip. Misao and Megumi, had, for some reason, taken it upon themselves to restock her fridge and buy her edible food. It had taken several trips downstairs to her dumpster to clean out her fridge once everything had gone bad, but the meat they had bought should still have been good.

Tossing the meat onto her countertop she left it out to thaw and dug out the tuna. Tossing together the makings for a tuna sandwich she threw it together and slapped it onto some bread and then hesitated. Chewing on her bottom lip she turned back to the couch and noticed that he was watching her. He made no move to hide, and even offered her an encouraging expression that made her feel useless. She was supposed to be the owner of sorts, and here her pet was encouraging her to feed it.

Part of the problem was, probably, the fact that he looked so human. If it wasn’t for those eyes and that hair and the bone structure of his face; then he would be human. This was almost slavery. Taking a deep breath she moved and set the plate down.

“Those are for you,” she told him softly. “Count D said you couldn’t have vegetables so I am hoping this is okay…um…” she bit her bottom lip hard and then took a deep breath. “There aren’t going to be that many rules. The bedroom is yours to do what you will with it.” She would never sleep there again. Not after all the hours she and her beloved mother put into decorating and coordinating it. Not after the memories that still kept her up at night. She didn’t want to deal with them.

For some reason her bedroom never failed to remind her of her family. She didn’t know if it was the warmth she had worked so hard to create in that room, or the stark lack of it everywhere else. She supposed it didn’t really matter. She had hidden all her pictures and precious memories in that room and she was almost thankful that she could give it to someone to use. Maybe it would help her forget what was in the boxes under the bed. She ignored the startled expression on his face.

“I can’t sleep in there so one of us should be comfortable.” Kaoru continued lightly. “I really didn’t…I mean…” she tried again. “Thank you for picking up the apartment,” how in god’s name he managed it, she didn’t know. “But you won’t be required to do that again.” She swallowed. “You can’t touch the sword case.” She watched his face for some sign of something. He didn’t even bat a lash at her words. “Please don’t try, I have no idea what I am supposed to do if you do and I would rather not have to figure that out.”

He nodded at her, and she took that for acceptance. She supposed, since she had never heard him say a word, that speaking wasn’t something he could do. She didn’t have much experience dealing with a dragon who had been turned into a man, but she supposed that vocal cords might be one of those things that didn’t transfer. “Otherwise, please make yourself comfortable. I really don’t know what a dragon would need so…” she shrugged again. He offered her a faint smile and she attempted to return it and ended up turning the TV up and curling up against the armrest until it was time to scrounge around for dinner.

....

“A lizard?” Misao demanded, her voice more than just a bit outraged. “Why in gods name would you buy a lizard?” Her voice continued to rise in pitch until she was forced to hold the phone away from here ear and Kenshin turned from where he was sitting on the floor.

It was the most curious habit he had. Or at least, the one that few hours had given her time to see. He would find a perch, somewhere the sun fell and let his back rest against the wall and seemingly be content for hours there.

Today he was in a pair of loose pants she had bought him and a white t-shirt. Casual clothing that did interesting things to his shoulders. Not that she had noticed, because he was a pet and a dragon. Lizard.

“Misao,” Kaoru scolded as she turned away from the curious violet-eyes. “Some of us just aren’t the cuddle bunny types.”

Misao snorted into the phone and she could just image the girl’s expression. Included, for free, a dramatic rolling of her eyes. “Right and Megumi actually likes cats. It’s a lizard! They have scales and tails and sharp pointy teeth and are completely not-cuddle worthy. How is that a pet?”

Kaoru grinned. “This is coming from the girl who mourned for a turtle!”

“Turtles, baby turtles, are cute!” Misao argued fiercely. She sighed. “This is Count’s fault! You’re still in trouble for leaving me behind! When do I get to come over and see him?”

“Him?” Kaoru repeated, finally getting into her role. “What makes you think it’s a boy?” She heard something like a snort come from the dragon behind her and she thought she caught the faint scent of smoke, but that was mostly her imagination.

“Because you have a hard enough time playing nice with Megumi and me, how would you manage to play with another woman taking up your space? Even if it does have scales you would feel threatened.” Misao pointed out and Kaoru heatedly argued, one hand dropping to her waist even when her friend couldn’t see it.

“Misao!”

“It’s the truth! Anyway you haven’t answered my question!” She declared authoritatively. “You just don’t share well with girls.”

Kaoru snorted again. “Anyway, you can’t. He isn’t tame. I mean…he doesn’t really care for strangers and Count D suggested that I keep him away from strangers. Indefinitely.”

Kaoru could practically feel her friends pout. “But Kaoru! I am not a stranger, I am Misao! At least you can tell me what you named the poor thing!”

“Kenshin,” Kaoru said softly, unsure suddenly. “His name is Kenshin.”

Misao was quite for a long time. “You would give a pet a name that involves a sword. Really Kaoru, you can’t keep something like this a complete secret forever!”

Kaoru grinned to herself. “We will talk about this some other time. I need to start dinner and you know I can’t do two things at once when it involves my stove.”

Misao grumbled under her breath but let her go not soon after.

Kaoru sighed, “Next time she is going to be going on about various flee dips I need to purchase and have several packets on how to litter-train my lizard.”

There was silence and she wondered for a moment if she hadn’t just imagined the noise earlier.

....

The next few days sort of blurred for Kaoru. She was slowly growing used to her ‘pet’ and all the things that came with it. Misao had dropped by once to see ‘the lizard’ as she called him, and scowled when Kaoru had refused. Kaoru had apologized to her friend, who had frowned at her for a moment before grinning and handing over a bag full of useful pet things (Kaoru had promptly thrown all of them out, since Kenshin wouldn’t need a chew toy) and stuck around so that by the time she left she was attempting to sear a steak she had found hidden in the back of her fridge to feed her dragon. She faintly wondered if the count had told her she had bought…but…she wondered. Kenshin really didn’t say anything, alright he never said a word, but his expressions said it all.

He clearly disapproved of their sleeping arrangements. She would wake up and shove the gigantic blanket she had bought to replace her mother’s comforter and find him staring at her while she slept. There was something in his eyes as he watched her pick her blanket up, all rumpled from sleep; that made her nervous. He never said anything, not that she really expected him to, and stumbled off to the shower. In fact, he was almost better than any alarm clock she had ever had. When she climbed out of the shower, bacon would be sizzling and the smell of coffee would permeate her kitchen. She wasn’t sure that dragons were supposed to cook, but this one apparently had the knack for it.

He never cooked the eggs, though. He left that up to her. He would still eat a dozen slices of bacon however; he had only tried her coffee once. She would attempt to fry him some ham slices when she thought to buy some, but he would watch her cook something once and then the next day, mimic the motions. His food always came out better and she was completely jealous.

He would pick up after her when she got distracted, and when she came home from shopping, or sulking in the library, he trailed after her and picked up everything she dropped. Always giving her those assessing glances. Sometimes she would curl under her blanket and hide from the world in general and when Misao and Megumi came by, paste on her fake smile. Kenshin always retreated to the bedroom when her company arrived, but sometimes she thought he knew what was going on anyway. There was always a slight tang in the air, as if he was unhappy about something but he never, ever made another sign of it.

She knew Misao and Megumi were attempting to cheer her up, Misao had attempted to help her pay for Kenshin, (she had gotten an itemized ticket from Count D, hand written, and had blinked rapidly. She had thought it would have been much higher) but Kaoru didn’t want to ‘go back to living’ and take up her classes again. Her life as an art teacher no longer held the appeal now that her mother was dead and her attempt to help run her father’s Dojo for an after school program hurt too much to think about. Her bokken was hidden somewhere and her sketch and art books were in a box. Under the bed. In the room she pretended didn’t exist. Their attempts to remind her what she was missing only managed to remind her who she was missing and she generally felt the need to curl up under her blanket on the lumpy couch and hide.

Whenever she was ready to come out of her little tent and face the world she had to face her dragon first. If it was later she would sigh and apologize and go and round him some grub. Those angular features seemed so much more expressive than a human’s. Sometimes he was the best thing that had happened to her. She would get the giggles and laugh herself to tears on more than one occasion: the first time he tasted coffee; the first time she introduced him to American football; the first time she asked him where she was going to get him a nice girl dragon. The expression of horror, bafflement, and downright disgust on a face that looked like it belonged; set in smug satisfaction had been priceless. She found herself finding new things to shock him with.

It got to the point that she wondered if he knew all her little habits, her reactions to situations, what she needed; better than she knew herself.

She found he had two obsessions: learning and cleaning.

She had a small bookshelf that held a complete set of encyclopedias and several books she had bought from National Geographic. It wasn’t so much that he flaunted that he could read them; she would just notice that they were…displaced. Nothing large, but a little displacement, as if he had attempted to put them back; so she started picking up books she thought he might like and leaving them on the coffee table for him.

She wouldn’t even be aware that she had dirty laundry, because most of it just got shoved into the hamper in her bathroom and left there. She didn’t know when he went in there to collect it, because she never saw him; but the laundry basket she would throw her clean clothes into to sort would have folded, neat clothing she had worn a few days earlier that was wearable again. Dishes that she made mental notes to clean would be put away before she could wash them.

The only real complaint she could have was that he hogged the shower and used up most of her hot water. The memory of explaining to him how to use the shower still put a smile on her face, and his expression when she brought home manly body-wash was just as amusing. She had noticed more than once that he had a very sensitive nose and she had attempted to find something that wouldn’t bother him. She noticed that the bottle was used. She knew, somehow, that if it had bothered him that he would never have touched it. Even if it was to simply pour it down the drain to keep her happy. She doubted his self-control went that far.

Then one day she got a surprise.

Digging through her clothes basket she found a bundle of hair ribbons. They were similar to the ones she used to tie her hair up but they were much nicer. She wasn’t an expert but she was almost sure that they were silk. And that a few of them were hand embroidered. The colors were stunning: pale pink, blood red, hunter-green, indigo, and a pale yellow. The pale pink and yellow had jewels the size of sugar grains sewn into the patterns, and the green had a gorgeous fringe on the edges that she ran her fingers through for several long moments.

Ribbons like these were expensive. Not like the cheap ones she bought to hide the elastic in her hair. She gathered them up and was surprised that it almost took two hands to carry them to a drawer. She put them away, trying to figure out where they came from. The only other person in her apartment would be Kenshin…yet…

She didn’t say anything and he didn’t watch her with anything new in his expression so she decided that Misao must have hidden them on her last visit. Her friends really had to stop. Perhaps she could sell the ribbons to someone to help lighten up the load on her budget.

Most of the meat in her freezer had been quickly devoured by a hungry dragon. The bacon and the ham weren’t exactly expensive but in the mass quantities she found herself buying them in, she was starting to have to wonder about future rent.

Misao and Megumi’s visits were always so…interesting. The last one, where Megumi was demanding to know if Kenshin had fleas had almost been her undoing.

“Fleas?” Misao repeated while Kaoru coughed up her coffee. “Lizards don’t have fleas, Megumi.” There was a sulky note in her voice that suggested she wasn’t happy that Kenshin was still hiding.

Megumi sniffed a little bit and took a careful sip of her drink. “That’s not what I have heard. I think maybe you should buy him a flea-collar or something, Kaoru. And I don’t understand why you keep him hidden away in that tank in your room. I want to see him.” She exchanged a glance with Misao. “We both do.”

Kaoru shook her head. “The pet shop I got him from said he would spook easily and that I should keep out of company’s sight while I had him. He might bite someone and he only goes to his…tank…when there is company. Otherwise he just wonders around so he might not be in his tank if I was to take you in there and I would hate for you to get bitten.”

Misao chewed on her cookie as if she was attempting to hide her laughter. The idea of Megumi being mauled by a lizard was rather amusing. Kaoru had to bite her tongue several times to keep from blurting out her secret. However, she was a woman of her word.

Megumi looked skeptical but continued. “If you say so... but Kaoru didn’t you mention that he keeps leaving you surprises?”

Kaoru thought back to the ribbons and shrugged. “I suppose.”

Misao looked horrified. “He poops on your carpet? How big is lizard poop?”

Megumi sighed. “Have you attempted to paper train him yet? What deodorizer do you use? It must be much better than the brand that Misao used when she was training that monstrosity of a dog she calls Sunshine.”

Misao looked offended. “Sunshine is a beautiful animal and I still say he doesn’t have fleas.”

“You say that while scratching your hair,” Kaoru pointed out. “And no, he doesn’t err…leave me present on the carpet.”

They had left soon after that, and she barely managed to keep from laughing until they had, but when she turned around to see Kenshin’s clearly affronted expression, his brow cocked up at her as if to ask about his bathroom habits, she lost it. She giggled until she couldn’t breathe and even then it took several long moments before she could get a hold of herself. When Kenshin handed her brown paper sack to breath into, showing that he clearly thought her in danger of hyperventilating; that she went off again. By the time she finished she was forced to clutch her gut from the twinges and she snickered her way into the kitchen to cook him something for dinner. It was rare that she managed to make it into the kitchen before him and it was even rarer that she didn’t have to chase him out with a knife.

The next day she found his next stash. She was cleaning out the bottom layer of her coffee table when there was the unmistakable clinking of coins. Moving the books she had been staring at a small pile of old gold coin; and they startled her enough that she had swung her eyes to the man doing the dishes. He didn’t turn her direction but she got the impression that he was paying attention to everything she did. It was the way the air caused the fine hairs to raise on the back of her neck.

So she did the only thing she could.

She put the books back exactly as they were and pretended it never happened. Then she spent the next day locked up in her local library searching up draconic habits and trying to figure out if most people with dragons ended up with little hordes of coins and pretty ribbons. She couldn’t find any people who had pets (well besides the story of the one that turned into the cat and the other one that was fed too much and blocked the access to the treasure) so she supposed she was going to have to wing it. Most of the tales surrounding dragons were completely ridiculous ones that involved them taking a maiden and their instinct to horde things.

She supposed that was what he was doing. Hording her things. Or his things. Or collecting a horde and storing them in her house. She just hoped it wouldn’t become too obvious a problem. She already had a drawer full of ribbons and a coffee table hiding a bunch of gold coins. Coins that probably were worth more than her home and college education put together and belonged in a museum.

By the time the set of pearl jewelry ended up on the couch, she was slightly prepared for it. This time he did watch her reaction, his eyes never leaving her face as she dumped the bag open on her lap, shoving her bangs out of her eyes. His eyes were swallowing her. Drinking her in and pulling her into the dark violet depths were a shadow sometimes raged to be free. Instead of looking up to meet his gaze, she concentrated on the jewelry in front of her. The necklace was double stranded, while the two bracelets had three strands and beautiful shell clasps. The combs were beautifully polished and the earrings were wonderfully dangly. Taking a deep breath she had carefully put them back into the careful velvet bag and licked her lips.

“You don’t have to,” she told him gently. “You know. Thank you, for the gesture, but... they’re not necessary.” His eyes darkened but never left her face and she wondered vaguely if she had offended him. Perhaps she should apologize. Before she could open her mouth; he had smiled, this little secret smile, and gotten up to start the bacon.

She must have gotten her point across because he stopped leaving things around the house. Well, that she could see. However, he seemed to turn his attention to other things, like the laundry and making sure when she took random cat-naps that she was covered with a blanket. Little brushes of slender fingers against her skin to reassure her when she was struggling with her emotions.

Eventually it fell into a sort of pattern as she grew comfortable enough with her dragon that when he sat down on the couch next to her at night, she didn’t pick her feet up and move so he had room, but allowed him to put her feet into his lap until she fell asleep. She didn’t worry about her hair in the morning and ran almost on automatic when it came to making the bacon.

....

“This,” Kaoru declared impishly, “is pizza!”

The dragon standing next to the table with a confused expression on his face as he peered down at the masterful creation was nothing new. Yet.

“Now,” Kaoru continued. “This is your half. See, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and sausage; better known as the Meat Lovers Pizza. Count D said no veggies; he never mentioned the evils of bread or cheese. I even had them create it with no sauce in case you’re allergic to tomatoes. This is my half. See that? That’s a bell pepper. That’s a vegetable. Do not eat this half.”

Kenshin continued to stare at the pizza until Kaoru sighed and picked up a piece and dropped it onto his plate. “That is root beer. I am hoping that it is also on your dietary list, and as such; I apologize if it is not. Pizza does not exist without root beer.”

Kaoru reached down, scooped up her slice of Supreme Pizza, and sighed in bliss as she munched quietly. Opening her eyes she watched as the dragon mimicked her motions, as if he was slightly unsure if he was doing things correctly; and then the surprised look that crossed his features.

Kaoru nodded at him, attempting to ignore the way his eyes devoured her expression. “See? The god of pizza is a blessing for all who partake. Try the root beer.”

....

Kaoru supposed she shouldn’t feel guilty. What was there to be guilty about? Looking around the library she made sure that no one was looking her direction. Kaoru blew her bangs out of her eyes in exasperation.

It wasn’t like she was looking at dirty magazines.

Perhaps it was because she had already done a massive search for material once. Perhaps it was because it was almost like she didn’t trust him anymore. She hadn’t found anything new about his possible culture since she had left Count D’s and yet here she was, looking at another insipid title, struggling to figure out why.

Pulling open the first book her eyes scanned the cover page, and she snorted. She highly doubted anything in this particular book was going to do her any good but at least she could try, again. A notebook half-filled with various notes lay open next to her, and she cringed to see she had chewed a bit too much on the eraser again.

“This is why you always had pens in High School,” Kaoru reminded herself darkly. She scanned the content of the book, occasionally writing something down. There really wasn’t something new to be looked over. Dropping the books she laced her fingers together and glared at the table.

“Dragons are throughout all human folklore,” Kaoru mimicked Count D’s voice as she could. “Right, then why the hell can’t I find out anything?” Sighing she massaged her temples. It wasn’t that she felt some undying urge to learn everything, but there were…things, about her dragon that were starting to get under her skin.

First of all where those little presents he had left around her home; gold coins, hair ribbons, and pearls. What was he attempting to prove? She had read that dragons supposedly collected hordes, had known that, but what on earth did that have to do with her living room? It wasn’t a dragon’s cave and it certainly wasn’t somewhere she would want to leave priceless artifacts lying around. For certain, she had a hard time leaving anything around anymore.

Then there were all these…stories about dragons and maidens. And the authors were very, very clear about the woman needing to be virgins. Rolling her eyes she put the second largest piece of evidence against him wanting to do…well, collect a horde for. She wasn’t a virgin and hadn’t been since at least six months after her eighteenth birthday. She remembered that encounter and the accounts since. She wasn’t as promiscuous as someone like Misao, but she had felt the need for the occasional activity between the sheets when she had found someone she wanted to be with.

Misao had gone through boys like toilet paper in college, and while the meeting of her current boyfriend had left her clinging to only one man, Kaoru couldn’t doubt that the dreamy look that was in her eyes these days had quite a bit to do with him. Shaking her head, she stacked up the books and closed her notebook.

Time to admit what was really bothering her.

Sometimes she wished he could talk, because she had the feeling that it would close up a large communication gap between them. It just wasn’t his eyes, although those caused her all sorts of problems; it was his hands as well. The casual little touches at the small of her back, on her shoulder, the way his fingers would ghost across the back of her neck when she was distracted or upset. The way his eyes would swallow her whole if she let them some nights. Occasionally there was something in his violet eyes, some shade of a shadow that utterly stole her breath.

Just how pathetic had she become, when she was starting to imagine the impression of a large predator in the eyes of the helpless dragon who couldn’t even talk to complain about how she cooked his meat?

‘Get a grip, Kamiya.’ Kaoru scolded herself. ‘He is... well, a lizard masquerading as a man and you’re just lonely.’ Except she wasn’t. Not since a dragon had started making her coffee and doing her laundry, offering her a comforting presence to lean against in some part of her house while she hid from her own shadow at night. He was her pet. Well, he had been bought from a pet store, but she wasn’t sure he was a pet. But whatever he was, her half-starved libido was just going to have to get over it.

“Kaoru, what are you doing here?” Misao’s delighted voice broke through her mental bashing and she looked up in surprise as the small girl dropped a stack of books on the table and grinned at her.

“Reading,” Kaoru said without thinking and blanched when Misao looked down and picked a book up.

“Tales of Dragons?” Misao questioned blinking a bit. “I read this in seventh grade…why would you…it’s that lizard isn’t it?” Misao questioned as she flopped into the large chair next to her. “Has you wondering what else is out there.” She dropped the book with a grin.

Kaoru swallowed a bit. “Something like that, what are you doing here?”

Misao picked up a book, with two half-naked people sprawled out on the cover. “Getting reading material; Aoshi is supposed to be gone this weekend and I am going to need something to do.”

Kaoru wisely kept her mouth shut. “That’s nice.” She looked down at her watch and made a show of wincing. She just didn’t feel comfortable talking to Misao with all this stuff just lying down for her to look at. Had to be that guilty conscience again, “I really need to be getting back. I have some bills I need to make sure and get out today and I think I forgot to feed Kenshin.”

Misao grinned at her, completely at ease. “I told you having a pet would make you come back to us. You sure you don’t want to take any of this home with you?”

‘And have Kenshin take one look at it and raise his brow in that fashion that clearly indicates he thinks I am being silly,’ Kaoru thought mildly. “No, not really, I decided they really weren’t worth the read after all.”

Misao nodded in agreement. “The problem with most stories involving dragons is that the dragons are always the bad guys. Always raping and plundering helpless virgin maidens or having large tempers and eating everything human within sight.” She grinned. “Personally, I always thought it was amusing that people always offered them the virgins. I would have thought they would have liked someone a little broken in, you know? Less screaming and crying.” She shrugged. “Of course I always wanted the dragons to be the good guys as well.”

Kaoru both found logic in her friend’s words and felt a bit of a blush rise into her face at her crude phrasing. She did not want to think about dragons liking people a ‘bit broken in’ nor did she want to think about them eating people. She was having a hard enough time wrapping her brain around other things. Important things.

‘Just keep chanting that one,’ Kaoru scolded herself as she began the walk back to her car. ‘Perhaps eventually it will sink in.’

~*~

She supposed it should have been some sort of foreshadowing. She only noticed it one day when she was checking the mail and there wasn’t the normal blare of the TV or the sounds of him moving around her house. Sticking her head into the living room she caught him staring at her swords. It had once belonged to a larger collection, but her father had sold them off through the years to pay for her college education. She had never forgiven herself for that either, and had taken the last two swords her father had left and kept them. It would take more than a late rent payment to get her to sell them, and she wondered if her obsession with them was healthy.

There was something in Kenshin’s eyes, something obscure that she couldn’t put her finger on. She knew the sword he was looking at intimately.

It had been her father’s favorite. The blade itself was plain, with only the usual fuller and an interesting line of kanji. The hilt itself had always seemed to be hand crafted, as if made to fit into the hands of one man. He turned; she must have made some noise, and met her look. She wondered if her expression said how sad she was that she couldn’t take the sword out and give it to him.

She wanted to give it to him. He did so much for her and asked so little that the idea of giving him something he really wanted, besides all the books she found herself checking out for him, but knew she couldn’t. The warning look on Count D’s face and the firm tone of his voice, “You will never allow him to hold a sword” and turned away from him.

She was a woman of her word.

....

Because things had been going so well, she should have expected things to suddenly go bad. She remembered waking up, her eyes snapping open under her blanket, just as the sounds of muffled breathing reached her ears. Kenshin would have felt no need to mask his movements around her house. Her heart thundered in her chest as she caught the unmistakable sounds of the glass case where she kept her fathers swords creaking open.

She would let the thieves have anything they wanted, but they could not have her father’s swords. Moving carefully, in case there as more than one, she maneuvered her body away from the blanket. She had gotten part-way out from under it when someone saw her and chaos erupted. She found herself jerked forward and she simply reacted. Her hand shot up into the man’s throat and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. She didn’t expect herself to be tackled from behind, she was still slightly groggy, and she gave a startled scream as she hit the floor. She wrestled with the man, attempting to find the leverage, when she was suddenly free from the weight of him.

Looking up she met furious, glowing violet eyes. His eyes burned as he scanned the room, a hot violet, and she gasped a bit. “They’re after the swords,” she rasped at him, her eyes wide as she accepted his hand to pull her up as another man came after him. Kenshin moved quickly and picked the man up off the floor and threw him at the man attempting to move back towards the window and Kaoru lunged after the sword.

Her hands grasped the hilt of her father favorite just as hands grabbed her ankle. Kaoru twisted mid-air and tossed the sword back to the couch. She didn’t expect Kenshin to catch it and hardly had time to think about the repercussions of that as she was picked up and glared at. Kaoru glanced over the man’s shoulder and froze. Kenshin was holding the sword in his hands like he had never seen one and the air between them was suddenly charged with something…and then things suddenly changed.

Kaoru could only watch as Kenshin looked up from where he had picked up the sword. There was something different, she knew there was. It was in the way his entire body seemed to have changed, his posture suddenly liquid, and his flaming hair seemed to glow in the darkness. Even his skin, pale in the moonlight, seemed to have this unearthly glow to it.

Distracted for a moment, she stumbled in surprise when hand shoved her hard, one hand against her sternum and the other against her thigh, into a wall. She hit hard enough to daze her, and she slipped down in surprise. She lay there, registering the pain in the back of her skull, attempting to blink past it to see what was going to happen. There was the sound of a sword unsheathing, and she couldn’t se anything. The glow of the moon seemed almost extinguished, and she frantically looked around as she heard the sounds of steel cutting into flesh.

Why couldn’t she see anything?

Suddenly, there was silence. She recognized the sound of her own breathing and the sound of someone else breathing. Had they killed her dragon? She didn’t know when she had started thinking of Kenshin as her dragon, but there it was. She had never been one to lie to herself, and there was no denying that she thought of him as hers.

She jumped in surprise when he did appear.

His hair tumbled wildly around his shoulders, a brilliant crimson, even in the lack of light. His eyes were hot and raging amber. His pale face still seemed almost unearthly in the pale glow that stuck to his skin, and when he moved to crouch down in front of her, she fought down the urge to bolt. She sucked in a surprised breath when his fingers wrapped around the bare skin of her ankle.

They rested there, light and almost insubstantial, but when she went to pull it out of his reach, they tightened just enough to inform her that he wasn’t letting go. They sat there for a long moment, both waiting for the other to break the silence. Kaoru, in her ridiculous t-shirt and nothing else and Kenshin in his draw-string pants and tank-top; both watching the other.

His thumb was brushing back and forth against her skin. Kaoru realized in surprise and her eyes flickered from his face to his hand and back to his face. There was something in his eyes…they were now slitted almost like a cat’s, but not quite; and they sent shivers down her spine. What was she supposed to say?

“Those men?” she finally broke the silence and a sigh like satisfaction fell from his firm lips.

She didn’t expect him to actually answer.

“They’re dead,” he purred at her, and Kaoru jerked in surprise. His voice was hot and rich, a deep baritone that should never have come from such a small man. But he wasn’t so small anymore, was he? His shoulders seemed broader, thicker, and there was something untamed about the way he stood. That liquid grace again. His fingers shifted against her skin, and there was almost something rough about his touch. As if the skin was being coaxed from scales, and just so; “they won’t hurt you again.”

Kaoru stared at him. “You... you can talk now?

A curious smile crossed his face. It brought out the angle in his cheekbones and the curious slits of his eyes. “Hmmm…the spell that was used to give me to Count D is broken, and my price has been paid.” He pronounced the word “paid” in a way that allowed his teeth to click together in something all together predatory. “The spell binding me to my human form is mine again.” His eyes gleamed for a moment and she swallowed.

“What...” her question was cut off when the hand holding her ankle flexed and brought her foot towards his mouth so that he kissed the delicate skin at her ankle, his tongue flickering to taste. “What are you doing?” She demanded, breathier than she meant to be.

“You taste good,” he told her, a note in his voice that sent a shiver down her spine before he dropped a series of light kisses up her calf. She stared at him, eyes wide, while his tongue flickered against her skin in small, dragging strokes. His tongue was slighter rougher than a human’s and her gut clenched.

Breathing deeply through her nose, she met the hot yellow of his eyes.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Her voice came out weaker than she liked, so she jerked her foot a little, testing his grip. Her heart was pounding and it was difficult to think. All he had done was kiss her calve. Her nails bit into the carpet as she realized exactly how vulnerable she was. One foot was resting on his shoulder; the other bent at the knee and tilted away.

“Everything,” Kenshin assured her, turning his head to lay down more of those nibbling kisses. His teeth scrapped her skin carefully, the sharp edges followed by the heated rasp of his tongue until he reached her knee. His body had followed the path of her leg until her knee was bent over his shoulders, her toes curling into his spine when he sucked on the sensitive skin where thigh met knee. She bit the inside if her lip to stifle a gasp. Yellow eyes watched her from under dark lashes, the edges of his thin lips curving in a knowing smile.

“You taste like jasmine and salt.”

Swallowing at the note in his voice – possession, lust, desire – she jerked when his long fingers settled behind her knee. Lips trembling, she watched the way his fingers brushed the soft skin of her leg, wondering where he was going to place that mouth next. She liked the feeling of his tongue against her skin. She didn’t know his motivations. It was hard to collect her thoughts; they kept trying to disappear into those little echoes of pleasure that were melting her brain. Biting her tongue until she could breathe, she lifted her eyes back to him.

“What are you doing?”

Those lips curved just enough to show the glinting of –almost- fangs, and she froze. She wanted to scoot back, but her balance was precarious now that she wasn’t braced against the wall. The long slit of pupil wasn’t human and she could only stare helplessly into those eyes.

“Possessing you.”

His hand tugged and her backside slid along the floor. Overbalancing, she landed on her back. Lifting her eyes again, her stomach fizzled with butterflies as he deliberately moved her leg, twisting it away from her body. Her breathing swallowed into short pants as she realized exactly what position he had contorted her body into.

“Teaching you,” He continued before lowering his mouth to her upper thigh, teeth nipping strongly before that hot, hot tongue stroked along the skin.

She jerked, the pain mingled with the pleasure of his tongue bringing her out of the web his words had wrapped about her brain. Suddenly realizing how dangerous this was, he was, she wiggled in an attempt to find a safer position.

He flexed his shoulder, lifting her a little off the floor and she stilled.

“Now, now, darling” he chided, “Count D told you not to give me a sword.” Those eyes gleamed at her as the moved over her form, lingering in places almost as firmly as any touch. “There must be some consequence.”

His breathed moved across the sensitive skin of her wet thigh as his lashes lowered, hiding his glittering gaze. She shivered as his fingers danced a pattern across her outer leg.

“I think you will find my price,” his head dipped, mouth slide low against her leg, tongue stroking. “Is not what you expect. You know so very little about dragons,” his hair slid against her leg as he tilted his chin, golden eyes watching her. He must have found something in her face, because he rested his check against her skin.

“Oh yes, I think will enjoy the teaching.”

Trembling arms worked to push herself up, but his lips were skimming again, lower and in longer, more defined slides and she was holding her breath, trembling as he seemed to ignore anything but smooth skin.

She jerked as he moved his hand. Slowly sliding down her thigh, those scrapping fingers slid in lazy circled until they found the edge of her panties. Swallowing, she watched, mesmerized, as he slid his fingers along the seam. A flex of his shoulder, and she found herself starring at the ceiling, her limbs weak even as her heart thundered in her ears.

The fingers continued to trace and she closed her eyes, a low hiss of air escaping her teeth as his cheek nuzzled a thigh. Sudden, cool air had her eyes snapping open in time to see scraps of cloth flung away. Leg tightening on his shoulder, she gasped as he pushed her thighs wide with his shoulder. A hand slid underneath her hips, lifting her just before his tongue stroked across her in a way that stole her breath. She could feel his amusement as he licked, the tip of his tongue moving in ways that arched her spine. The unnatural warmth of his mouth, the rasp of inhuman texture against her sensitive flesh scattered her mind of anything but what he was doing to her. How he teased her just beyond where she was striving so hard to go, the faint bite of claw against her back, until her body trembled and arched, tangled in rush of completion.

When she could think again, he was stroking her thigh, leg hanging bonelessly from his shoulder. He shifted, lowering her unresisting limb until it rested on the other, moving them both until they curved around his waist.

“You are so sweet.” He murmured as he watched her pant. There was a sated, dazed expression in the blue of her eyes. Running his tongue cross his bottom lip, he watched the way her pupils contracted just a little. Reaching up, he traced the line of her neck with his fingers. “We are just beginning, Kaoru.”

She seemed to gather a little coherence. “But…”

Sliding his hand between her thighs, he chuckled at her startled look. “Ah, Count D warned you. You are mine now.” Ignoring the noise she made when he removed his hand, sliding his hands to easily lift her into his arms has he stood, he bounced her a little.

“But…” she tried again, struggling to think past the longing that one, soft brush of fingers had stirred in her gut all over again. His teeth caught her ear and her brain blanked for a moment. Blinking, she struggle to reclaim that thought. “The contract is broken…”

The soft feeling of her mattress cut off her words. His bed. In the room she pretended didn’t exist because of memories and the smell…. Her next breath was shaky, but it brought the scent of heat and hot metal. Forcing herself onto her elbows she watched as he calmly pulled the shirt from his back. The way his skin rolled on top of muscles, the way his hair glided across his skin. The way he still faintly glowed in the dark.

“What are you doing?” Kaoru asked, suddenly faintly alarmed at the curve of his mouth. The way his eyes lowered from her lips to her chest, lingering until her hands fisted in the sheets.

“Teaching you desire, Kaoru.” He chided lightly, uncaring that she was watching as he kicked off the pants that had casually hidden him from view. “Teaching you what it means to belong to me.” His eyes gleamed fire in the dark.

“I was a good little pet, don’t you think?” He climbed into the bed, crawling over her legs so that the heat of his chest warmed her breasts as she suddenly found it difficult to breathe, his breath ghosting over her lips. “I think it’s your turn to be very, very good.”

“I never…”

His mouth glided over hers, hot, so very hot. Her mouth opened without her conscious permission and she moaned when the rasp of his tongue stroked against hers. His fingers buried in her hair as he lowered her to the bed. Sliding her hands around her shoulders, she dug in her nails when he nibbled on her lip. His tongue stroked and licked, courting her mouth with its raspy caress until she had wrapped herself tightly against him, arms and legs holding him close. Makes more sense without it: “His fingers buried in her hair as he lowered her to her bed.”

When he pulled back to trace her moist bottom lip with his forefinger, the clawed edge lightly brushing her top lip, absorbing the way she panted against the digit, he sighed. His sultry eyes closed for a moment, as if he was absorbing the press of her lips against his finger for several long moments.

“How long have I wanted you like this?” He asked her, the air between them, and the heat building in them. “Do you have any idea what is like, to need to possess, to take, to bathe in the fire of your body and yet unable to do so?” He reached down and nibbled on her bottom lip, careful with his sharp teeth. “To know that I can bind you to me so that you would never be able to leave me, never desire to leave me, and that being unable to do so is almost a physical ache?”

“N-no…” Kaoru managed, unable to look past his glowing eyes.

“You will,” he assured her, never taking her eyes from his as his fingers trailed down her neck to brush her delicate collarbones. “Because you are mine now.” His voice was like wet velvet. “You are my possession now, little Kaoru.” That note was in his voice again, something greedy that sapped whatever strength she had to hold out against him. Her lips parted, but the sudden heat of his hands on her breasts, fingers massaging and stroking carefully, sucked the air from her lungs. Her back arched as his mouth lowered to her chest, tongue stroking wetly through the thin material of her shirt. Her legs tightened around his waist and she fisted her hands into his hair.

His hands moved away from her breasts and she made a noise of protest. He smiled at her as he lifted his head, taking in her flushed face and dilated eyes. Feeling the way she had curled around him.

“I won’t leave you wanting,” he soothed, brushing his fingers down her cheek. “I will make you beg, listen to your voice as you cry for me, but I will never leave you wanting. You taste so sweet.” His eyes flickered down to the shirt between them.

His fingers easily unbuttoning, carefully parting the fabric until it showed off the valley of her breasts, the line of her firm little tummy, down to the dark triangle of curls that led to those slender legs he had admired with his mouth earlier. He took a deep breath, breathing in the scent of her skin. He pushed the shirt away from her breasts, and he admired the pale skin and dusky nipples, peeked from the rasp of his tongue and fingers. Lifting his eyes, he lowered his mouth slowly to the skin of her chest, ignoring what her eyes so desperately wanted.

Instead he sampled the skin in the valley of her breasts, tasted the soft skin of her abdomen, the well of her navel. He trapped her legs with his when she shifted and writhed; begging. Her hands were running and down his back and he loved the catch of her calluses on his skin. Her eyes were closed as she gasped for air. Her nails scraped and his eyes fluttered closed and he purred.

“What…” she started but he didn’t let her. Instead, he lowered his mouth to one round breast and deliberately licked. Her spine arched as he did it again. His other hand lifted to her breast as he continued to lick, rubbing gently.

Kaoru dug her nails into his back as he did something with his tongue that shot sparks across her eyes, noises and half choked screams falling from her lips. Her body was humming with what he was doing and she didn’t want him to stop. She cried out as he lifted his head, eyes opening to stare at him.

“This is how you will be for me,” he told her, flicking his tongue across her nipple just to feel her reaction. The way she shuddered. “This is how you will always be for me. Gripping me, needing me, begging for me,” his tone was all male satisfaction. His angular face was so easy to see, even in the darkness. “I will always have you like this.”

She swallowed, unable to answer, immediately distracted when his hand slid around her breast, feathered across her taunt tummy, and brushed against dark curls. Her body jerked and he smiled. Shutting her eyes, her body straining closer to that hand, she barely noticed the way his lips skimmed her throat, her chin, her cheeks. Instead, her brain was locked on the slide of his fingers as they moved back and forth. Her world centered around that, his weight pinning her body so all she could do was let those fingers move. Head falling back, she begged wordlessly. A sudden move of those fingers pulled a scream from her throat and she shuddered, body arching with the force of that sensation. Her body reacted on its own, knowing what it wanted, her hips tilting, her thighs and muscles clenching as he rubbed along her inner walls.

Her brain shut down as his thumb rubbed a counterpoint to his fingers and her muscles clenched and trembled with soft tremors. He kissed her bottom lip, sucking lightly; and removed his hand from her slick insides. Her eyes lids parted enough to show the darkness of her eyes and he brought his gleaming fingers to his mouth so he could lick them clean.

“I wonder if you feel as good as you taste?” He mused, dragging the tip of his tongue down his bottom lip to catch the rest of her essence. She wanted to answer him, when his hands tilted her hips as his legs suddenly disentangled from hers. Her eyes flew open as his hips surged forward, thrusting fully inside her so that the sensation of being filled was suddenly there. Her hands fluttered against his back, her thighs pressing against his hips, her body clenching around him.

He lowered his head to her neck and growled, hips lifting before lowering again.
Her voice rose and reverberated in the air, and he sucked on the skin in the juncture of her throat for a moment. Then he lost himself in the feel of her. In her cries. The way her nails bit into his shoulders and her body moved in counterpoint to his. There was no resistance, nothing to keep his spell from binding them. Nothing to keep him from feeling the surrender of her body.

As the shattering heat filled her belly and exploded outward, she clung to him. dimly she noticed that something had changed, something in the heat of her chest. It was in the way her body felt as the after-glow settled into her muscles. The way his body purred under her hands, as he licked the salt from her skin with his tongue.

He made no move to lift away from her as they gasped together. Instead he continued his exploration of her collarbones and shoulders, the graceful line of her neck. Kaoru moaned a bit and dug her nails in when he found a particularly good spot with his tongue.

“Why are you…” Kaoru started, attempting to meet his eyes with hers. He pushed himself up and propped up on one elbow and traced her face with those curiously padded fingertips.

“I know you too well,” he soothed, “and if I don’t take precautions to make sure you can’t get up and run on me, then I would have to chase you down.” He kissed the tip of her nose, his eyes glittering. “Not that I would really mind, Kaoru, I do love a challenge, but I have other plans.” He leaned down and took her mouth, his lips moving lazily as his tongue plundered hers. When he pulled back, he watched her with covetous eyes.

Kaoru panted, her breasts heaving; damp with sweat. His mouth quirked up at one corner and she barely had time to open her lips before he was kissing slow circles around the aroused flesh. He took his time, finding each sensitive nerve-ending, careful to coax the rushing heat from her tired body. He took his time and enjoyed her breasts, giving each equal attention, stroking her back into a rush of flames. Kaoru gave into her body’s demands and simply let go of reality. The darkness tucked around almost as warmly as the man who sighed against her neck and pulled her limp, sweaty body close.


....

Kaoru woke up to the sun falling into her eyes brightly. That was displeasing that early in the morning so she attempted to roll over and hide. However, a very uncomfortable twinging low in her belly had her making a noise in the back of her throat before she could help it. She thought she heard something like laughter float in from another room but she was to busy attempting to relocate into a position that was both not painful and out of the sun.

“Morning, Kaoru,” Kenshin’s voice breathed into her ear and she swatted at him. She really didn’t expect to hit him, but the fact that he caught her limp hand and laughed at her, while dropping a few kisses on her knuckles; was anything but nice.

“Go ‘aw,” Kaoru complained as she pushed her nose back into her pillow, suddenly aware that she was sticky and probably smelly from last night’s activities. He really chuckled then and Kaoru squeaked a little when she was simply picked up out of the bed and hoisted against a naked chest. Kaoru suddenly realized that it was around noon, yet the man holding her hadn’t put on a single stitch of clothing.

“I thought you would be a bit sore,” he teased as he moved towards the bathroom. Kaoru glared up at him and snorted.

“I wonder why?” She grumbled, feeling slightly irritable. He chuckled again and lowered his mouth to kiss her lightly before he opened the door. Kaoru suddenly noticed how easily he held her, as if he barely noticed her weight.

“You weren’t complaining overly much last night, darling.” He reminded her with golden eyes flickering over her face. “However,” he bent down and Kaoru suddenly found herself immersed in water hot enough to almost burn. He brushed a finger down the arch of her nose and sighed. “My hot springs would have been much better, but this will do, for now.” Then he left her to soak out her soreness.

Kaoru stared at his retreating back (telling herself it had nothing to do with the fact that he was naked) and reached behind her to gather her now wet hair up and pin it to the top of her head. Then she sunk down low enough that the water hit the back of her neck.

What did he mean, for now? What on earth was he doing, talking about hot springs? Kaoru shivered a little as she remembered last night and his words, the hinting that she was to become a maiden. She chewed on her bottom lip. Count D had told her that this dragon could fulfill her desires but she should be careful, because sometimes you didn’t want all your desires fulfilled.

Lying there, in the tub of water, she wondered if he hadn’t meant something else. There was something in the dragon’s eyes as he looked at her now, something possessive and dark and watchful. Even with the night before, even with the gentle teasing this morning, she wondered if she had gotten herself into something she would learn to hate. Everything he had done had hinted at a larger picture, had hinted at something she couldn’t understand. As if she was his now and that meant she was only his. Biting her bottom lip even harder she stared at nothing.

He had been with her for almost a month now…what conclusions had he drawn about her desires? What was he going to do? Once the worst of the ache had left she stood up and turned on the shower and washed her body with her favorite jasmine soap and scrubbed her hair clean. Normal things. Soothing things. Things that had nothing to do with human skin that was almost scales and a tongue that did things that should have been illegal.

What about that sword last night? Her father had always complained that he could never find the exact origin, and last night…she didn’t want to say it glowed. There had been something there, however; that suggested that it wasn’t just a sword. The lingering scent of heat in the air, and she felt a surge of fear flutter in her belly at the idea that the bodies were still in her living room; why hadn’t the alarms gone off last night?

Growling she stepped out of the shower and found her favorite comfort clothing waiting for her on the bed: big baggy pants, a soft shirt.

It was then, seeing him in her kitchen cooking bacon and another, larger slab of meat she knew she hadn’t bought; recognizing the sword belted at the hips now clad in trousers. It was the way he turned and looked at her, the curious reflection of her form in his eyes, the way his mouth curved to show off teeth that were slightly pointed and the muscles in his shoulders; to show the raw power, that she understood.

His eyes were all hot and claiming, and she felt the bottom of her stomach fall to her feet even as her heart rose into her throat. Pleasure that he could look at her like that, fury that he thought he could possess her and the unstated desire to be possessed all warred within her.

She wanted to be wanted. Wanted to be devoured by his eyes; had come to look forward to those little touches he gave her throughout the day. The brush of his fingers against the nape of her neck when she struggled with her emotions, she had become so used to the knowledge that, even as she shook with the remnants of the nightmare of her parents death, if she peeled back her blanket; a set of oddly set eyes would be watching her. Waiting for her to acknowledge him so he could…well, apparently ravish her senseless.

Licking suddenly dry lips she crossed the last barrier between them and met the claiming in his eyes with the unsurety of her own.

She supposed only time would tell.