Nabiki back-winged for a landing on the balcony of the suite that she shared with Ukyou while they were in Paris. She folded her wings and ruffled her feathers against the breeze blowing in from the Seine. Another scouting trip for a new Ukyou's franchise, and with it yet another adventure amongst the city's animal population, Nabiki clacked her beak in frustration at the thought. She hopped down from the railing and exchanged her raven body for human form, whispering a spell to clothe her nakedness with her favorite pajamas and terrycloth robe.

When her hand grasped the balcony door, the darkness and silence beyond the door were suddenly banished by the suite's television and a harsh cawing laugh. Sitting on the sofa and watching TV was a humanoid raven clad only in his plumage. Nabiki clenched her fists and walked inside to confront the avian intruder. "What are you doing here, Corey?" she demanded of him.

The raven turned his head to face Nabiki, "Why hello there, Ms. Tendo! I'm sitting here in your hotel suite watching Frasier on the tube and snacking on road kill. As to why I'm here, I was getting lonely back in Seattle, and I thought to visit with you. Relive our experiences together, perhaps even re-kindle our relationship on a deeper and more permanent level. Speaking of road-kill, would you like some? It's been aged to perfection, so it practically melts in the beak," Corey said as he held out a bowl filled with strips of semi-rotten raw meat from various animals and fish.

"No thanks, Raven. Tempting as it may be, I have already eaten dinner and I'm not one for midnight snacks."

Corey cocked his head and placed his right wing-hand over his heart, "My dear Nabiki! No need to be so formal as to use my True Name. Surely we've moved beyond such formality in our relationship."

Nabiki rolled her eyes, "Oh spare me, please! There's no way that you would've chosen to manifest here unless you were on business as the Trickster." Nabiki thoughts returned to the chaos surrounding previous business trips; trips that should have involved nothing more difficult than obtaining business and health licenses, but instead drew her and Ukyou into adventures. "And not just here in Paris either. You're the the cause of all this, from the Amazon, to San Francisco, and twice, twice, in New York, aren't you?!"

Corey hopped up from the couch and gave Nabiki a glare of his own. He spread his wings and gaped his beak in outraged disbelief, "Nabiki, how could you dare to accuse me of such things?! Upon my Honor and Name as Raven the Trickster, I swear to you that I have never manipulated Chaos to cause you, or your family and friends, trouble." He lowered his beak into his chest feathers in misery at the prospect of losing his future mate, "Nabs, I love you. I want us have eggs together someday. I could never do something to anger you, to make you hate me," he mumbled into his plumage.

Nabiki breathed out a sigh and sat on the couch. She patted the cushion next to her in invitation, "Okay, okay, I forgive you. I hate it when you look miserable like that. I can't quite put my talon on why. . . finger, finger damnit! See what you make me do?" Nabiki threw up her arms in exasperation. She sighed as she rubbed her temples, "Sorry about that, Corey. It's just that I sometimes think that the raven is taking over. Even when I'm human, I can't seem to be able to get away from the bird. Never mind that the wrong word will sometimes come out, the real problem is, well," Nabiki trailed off, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment.

Corey resumed his perch on the couch next to Nabiki and placed the snack bowl between them. "What is it, Nabiki? I might be able to help, but I can't do anything if I don't know what the problem is."

"Sometimes parts of the raven manifest themselves when I'm human. The craving for carrion never goes away anymore. That's not the worst of it, though. I have problems with other, more physical, reminders of the raven showing up. I've woken up several mornings with a head full of feathers instead of hair, a couple times my feet have turned into talons. But the one that truly takes the cake? Whenever I get," Nabiki paused as she tried to find the words that would allow her to retain some sense of decorum, "excited, my plumbing decides to re-arrange itself."

Corey croaked softly, "Dearest Nabiki, the person for whom I chose to live as a mortal being of flesh, the answer to the dilemma of why your raven side tries to make itself known when you're in human form is simple. While you tell yourself that Nabiki Tendo, the Woman, is able to turn into a raven, that is not strictly true. The deeper truth is this; the Raven is not the mask that you wear, but the Woman is."

"The woman is the mask?" Nabiki laughed bitterly, "Well, if that doesn't put the cap on my messed up life, I don't know what would. You know, I'd like to be able to live something that resembles a normal life, if only vaguely. Fat chance of that happening now, huh? The woman is the mask," Nabiki's bitter chuckles threatened to turn into sobs as she hiccuped.

Corey reached out a wing and took the tears that were about to spill from Nabiki's eyes with his feathers. "Put away your tears of pain, Nabs. Let the Trickster instead give you tears of joy. For I am Raven, the greatest of the Tricksters, Dear Nabiki. Laughter is at the core of my essence, even in the face of adversity. Enough of worries and troubles, we're here together, and safe from interruptions. So, let's eat some snacks, watch my favorite TV show, and enjoy each other's company."

Nabiki wiped her face and chuckled softly as her left hand drifted to the bowl set between woman and avian deity, and picked out a strip of graying meat. When she put it in her mouth and began to chew, her eyes widened, "You weren't kidding, Corey, this tastes just heavenly." She leaned back in the couch and closed her eyes to savor the carrion's flavor. "Mmmm, squirrel, four days dead, with hints of soy sauce and pineapple juice."

"There are perks to godhood, you know. While I have given up the Ethereal Planes to live as flesh and blood, I can still have my ambrosia," Corey said as he reached into the bowl with his beak and took out a strip of fish.

For nearly an hour and a half they watched the commercial interruption-free Frasier marathon. Nabiki leaned over to Corey, "We're in Paris, France. So how is it, exactly, that we've been watching an American sitcom for more than an hour, with no commercials, and in English?"

Corey ran his beak through Nabiki's hair, as if he were instead preening her feathers, "To be honest, I find French television to be boring, so I used a little mana to watch Frasier instead. Though even Frasier is becoming less than interesting when I am in your company." With a wave of his left wing, Corey shredded the spell that was providing the TV with electricity and programming. With the television shut off, the only source of illumination in the suite was soft candlelight coming from the bedroom. He gently tugged and nibbled on Nabiki's ear as he whispered to her, "We should take this into the bedroom for some serious snuggling, perhaps even share a kiss. What do you say, Nabs?"

Ukyou and Rémy are having themselves a nice romantic evening. Why should I be a lonely hen watching over an empty nest? On the other hand, I just know that he's responsible for this, whether he's concious of it or not, Nabiki thought, weighing her previous feelings of frustration towards Corey's likely, if tangental, involvement in her adventures with Ukyou over the last couple years against her own feelings of attraction towards the trickster god. "I say that you owe me for the influence you've had, accidental though it may be, in making the last couple years of my life interesting. The ambrosia was a good start, but it is not even close to being complete payment. A little snuggling would help improve your account balance," she said while smiling slyly at Corey.

"Still playing the Mercenary, Ms. Tendo?"

"Now now, Raven. You can't blame a girl for making a little cash, or trading in favors," Nabiki said while chuckling softly.

Corey stood up from the couch and bowed to Nabiki, spreading his right wing to point towards the suite's bedroom.

She popped one last strip of fish into her mouth before she stood. Nabiki curtsied in response to Corey's bow, and led the way into the bedroom. Furnished in the understated elegance that Nabiki preferred when she had to travel abroad, the room was lit by the candles that both outlined the bed that Nabiki had chosen, and formed a path leading to the bed. The arrangement reminded her of an airport's runway as she remarked to Corey, "Coming in for a landing on my bed?"

"It's just a little joke. Not my best material to be sure."

"I think it's rather cute, actually," Nabiki replied as she let her robe fall to the floor. "C'mere and put that beak of yours to use and help me get these pyjamas off." She hooked a thumb in the waistband of her pyjama pants and gently pulled, giving Corey a place to grip in his beak.

Corey croaked in laughter as he took the waistband in his beak and pulled downwards. When he got the pants below the buns of Nabiki's ass, Corey received a close-up view of the crescent moon of her vent. The lips of her nether gateway were reddened and pouting open. "Feeling eager are we, Nabs?" Corey asked lightly.

"You've always been fun to be with, why wouldn't I be eager for your attention? Besides, this is my first time in human form with you. Anticipation of the new is exciting, wouldn't you agree?" Nabiki replied as she stepped out of her pyjama pants. She unbuttoned the top and slowly slid it off while looking over her shoulder at Corey. "Five thousand yen for every ten seconds you look, Naughty Bird."

He squeezed shut his eyes, for while Nabiki's sparsely feathered back was a fine sight indeed, he did not have the several thousand yen that Nabiki was sure to collect. For if there was one thing that Nabiki never joked about, matters of finance would be it.

"Okay, Corey. You can look now, and all it will cost you is some pleasure," Nabiki said with a sultry voice.

Corey opened his eyes to Nabiki lying prone on her bed with a pillow placed under her hips. Her red-lipped vent stood out between her cheeks, the crescent was pouted open in her excitement. Looking at the treasure of Nabiki's cloaca caused a warm tingling to build under Corey's tail feathers. He voiced his loudest caw, laying claim to the hen before him. With a flap of his wings and a hop of his feet, Corey landed on Nabiki's back.

Nabiki felt the weight of her avian lover settle on her back, and she also felt the pricking sharpness of his talons. "Watch the claws, Corey! My back isn't exactly covered in feathers at the moment, you know."

"Sorry, Dearest." Corey shifted his legs to straddle Nabiki's body, rather than standing on her back. He spread his wings and leaned forward to rest on Nabiki's back with his wings spread over her own arms. He gently nuzzled her hair with his beak while he settled his tail feathers between her open legs. He croaked softly as he twisted his crotch, cloacal vent desperately seeking Nabiki's own nether opening. He closed his eyes in bliss as the lovers' vent lips found each other.

Nabiki drew in a shuddering breath as Corey's twisting sent their vents to rubbing and pulling. A clockwise turn would pull her open further, and a downward stroke would push one of his lips inside her cloaca for a moment.

Corey suddenly leaned back and flapped his wings as he pushed his vent tight against Nabiki's body. He cawed again as he found release, filling Nabiki's cloaca with his seed.

Nabiki gasped as she felt Corey's vent forcing her own nether lips open, followed by the surging wet warmth of his seed filling her.

Corey moved from her back to perch next to Nabiki on the bed, his vent still dribbling semen, staining the bedspread. He hugged her with his right wing and sighed in contentment.

"Nabiki Dearest, before I go for the night, there is a little something that I'd like to leave for your business partner and her beau." Corey reaches into his breast feathers and removes a wedge of cheddar cheese and a small stoppered vial of water. "The cheese is for Ukyou, while the water is for Remy. These will help them find a greater level of compatibility."

Nabiki twisted to lie on her side, facing Corey. She took the cheese and

water in her left hand and looked at them, "Okay, Raven. What do these do? I

highly doubt that they're as innocent as they look."

Corey croaked a soft laugh, "You know me too well, Nabiki. The cheese will

'adjust' Ukyou's curse to Spring of Drowned Rat, rather than Drowned Mouse.

As for the water? It is water from the Spring of Drowned Man. With these,

Ukyou and Remy will enjoy greater compatibility than they could ever hope for

otherwise."

"I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not to relay my gifts to them.

Until we next meet, I give you my love." Corey nuzzled Nabiki's hair as he

faded away into Dream.