He was almost used to her by now. Almost. The constant following, the endless questions, the fact that she was almost always there...

Kaze had wanted to be by himself after the ship docked, so he had walked off to find a secluded place to think. She had seen him sneak off though, and followed insisting that 'Momoko wanted to keep Kaze-kun company because Kaze-kun is by himself much too much.'

So on they walked. Kaze did his best to tune Momoko out, and Momoko did her best to point out everything she saw on the way. "Look at that bird Kaze-kun! Oh those leaves look so pretty Kaze-kun! Kaze-kun, something fuzzy landed on your head! Kaze-kun that dance you did was so funny!"

Five spider-less minutes later they had arrived at a small meadow with green grass and a gentle breeze. Momoko ran out into the sunshine. A large smile was plastered on her face. She spun around once, twice, and then fell into the grass laughing. Sitting up, she waved over at Kaze who still stood beneath a tree.

Kaze walked over, bored and not completely sure why he was 'obeying' this little woman-child's wishes. He was by her side in moments. He half glared down at her, noticing that Momoko was laying down again with her eyes closed. She appeared to be asleep. Kaze silently hoped so, thinking he might be able to sneak away.

"Hi Kaze-kun." came the happy chirp.

Kaze didn't respond of course. He simply continued to stare down at the girl he dubbed as his 'stalker'. He wasn't surprised that she was awake. Like her father and her brother, Darito, she seemed to have more energy than she knew what to do with. Unlike them, however, she was able to just sit and relax. So he could hope.

"Kaze-kun should lay with Momoko."

He was surprised at that. If he was capable of blushing he just might have, but he didn't. "Do you realize what you just said?"

Momoko tilted her head to the side. "Momoko said that Kaze-kun should lay in the grass with her." Well that was slightly better.

"And if I don't want to?" he asked.

Not a good thing to say. Momoko wasn't a spoiled girl, but when she wanted something, she would get her way. She turned from her back to her stomach and then moved to a kneeling position all before Kaze had blinked a second time. By the time he realized her intent and had taken a step back, Momoko had already jumped. While in mid-air she had locked her arms about his neck. Kaze's slightly off step combined with the force of Momoko's body was what inevitably brought him down.

As he laid on the ground in a slight daze, he heard Momoko giggling. She sat up so that she was straddling him, and smiled. A slight growl came from the back of his throat as he pushed her off him. He glared at her yet again, but paused when he saw her pointer finger aimed at him right between the eyes.

"Stay!" It wasn't shouted, but it was firm. And he did stay. Not because she had told him to, but because, unknown to both of them, Momoko's powers had affected him. Kaze wasn't frozen in place, but he felt compelled to stay.

Crawling forward, Momoko moved so she was lying with the top of her head a few inches from Kaze's. If someone could've looked at them from a high altitude they would have seen them lying in a straight line. They had a perfect view of the sky overhead. Of course, if Kaze was looking at the clouds he never mentioned it. Most likely he was listening to the birds, or perhaps enjoying the breeze. Or maybe, like Momoko, he was thinking about something that had been on his mind for a while.

"Kaze-kun? How old is Aunt Stray?" she asked.

"Old." He smirked slightly at imagining how his mother would react to him saying that.

"…More than a hundred?" Momoko asked curiously.

"Yeah…like two hundred and something."

"And…most people don't live that long?"

He scoffed, "Of course not."

Momoko was quiet at that. She was thinking back to a couple of weeks ago. The crew had been celebrating Stray's birthday. Momoko had been sitting with her mother and her godmother when she heard something she didn't like.

Stray sat with a drink in hand, watching as the crew made a general commotion on deck. She smiled fondly when she remembered that the cause of this party was her birthday. She may act differently, but she was always filled with a feeling of being loved whenever the crew celebrated the day of her birth. They were happy she was alive to be there with them. Especially Kiri. Speaking of which. The Neko had been sitting next to her laughing as she saw her sons along with Cloud and Kaze start playing a game and then get into a fight because they thought Darito had broken the rules. But then she turned to Stray. "So birthday girl," she gave Stray a playful jab in the ribs with her elbow, "What are you now? Two million?"

Laughing, Stray took a sip of her drink before reaching over and giving Kiri a playful tug on one of her cat ears. "No baka," she said, "I'm only two hundred and…"

Two hundred and what? Momoko couldn't remember. But just the fact that her godmother was over two hundred was troubling for her. She had asked her mother about it the next day. Kiri had explained that Stray wasn't from this world, that she was from a place where there were such creatures that lived many, many years longer than humans. That was because eleven and a half years in this world was just one year in that world. So…what about Kaze?

"Will Kaze-kun live a long time too?" She asked him.

"Well yeah. My mother will eventually die, but I should live to be her age."

Kaze felt a lock of hair flick against his face. He had closed his eyes after Momoko had gone silent, but he opened them now. Momoko had moved so that her hands were planted on the ground on either side of Kaze's head, and she was looking down at him.

"Will…will Momoko live as long as Kaze-kun?"

"Tch. You'll be lucky if you live another seventy or eighty years. If you're lucky."

Their eyes were mirrored. Dark purple, which held a gentle and fragile heart. Light blue, that contained a silent but determined soul. Children they both were, in their own ways. Yet…so different. Was it their genders that set them apart? No. Their looks? Perhaps. Their dreams? …Definitely.

Momoko moved so that she was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest. Kaze sat up as well. They both stared forward, at nothing in particular. Then Momoko saw two birds fly out of a tree together.

They were flying close enough to touch one another. Suddenly, one bird landed in the grass about ten feet away. Momoko gasped, thinking that the bird would be left behind. But the other bird didn't fly away. It waited, hovering in the sky, watching the other bird as it hunted for seed. Soon it became impatient, and called for its friend. The first bird chirped back, and soon took off into the sky alongside its companion.

Momoko smiled. 'Perhaps,' she thought gently, 'that could be Kaze-kun and I.'

"Are you alright?" Kaze asked in an annoyed tone. He didn't mean to upset her. He hoped she wasn't upset…she better not be upset! He didn't want to deal with it.

Momoko reached out and placed her hand on Kaze's. He had one hand resting on his knee, the other on the ground. The latter is the one Momoko reached out to hold. "Kaze-kun…please…you have to tell me…would you miss me if I went away?"

Kaze looked at her. So many thoughts running through his head. 'Why is she holding my hand? She better stop it. What does she mean 'if she goes away'? Where the hell does she think she's going? She wouldn't run away. She's not that type. Is she talking in the first person? Miss her? Would I miss her…would I?'

Would he miss her? As far as he could see, he had two options before him. He could say yes, that he would miss her. He could say it just to make her happy, though he would never admit it. Or…he could tell her what he believed was most likely true. That no, he wouldn't miss her. Could he say that though? Was it true? Would it be right to lie to her either way? It would never sit right with him.

"…No. It's OK Kaze-kun. You don't have to tell me." She said softly.

"…"

"Momoko will be OK."

"…What?"

She turned to look at him. "Momoko will be OK. She realizes that she might not live as long as Kaze-kun. That makes her sad…that she can't have very many years to make memories with him. But if Kaze-kun remembers her…if he remembers her after her time is over…then she'll be OK, and she'll be happy too."

Momoko let a beautiful smile grace her features. Kaze didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. And…that seemed to be all that was needed.

He didn't flinch like he thought he would when she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. He probably should have yelled at her when she let her lips linger. But he didn't. He couldn't kiss her back…not yet. But that didn't mean he couldn't close his eyes and enjoy the feeling of it. It didn't mean that he couldn't commit to memory the way her hand felt as it rested over his own, or how soft her lips were, or how much he wan—

"HEY! KAZE! DAD SAID THAT IT'S TIME FOR LUNCH!" Cloud bellowed. "STOP KISSIN' YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND GET DOWN HERE!"

Yet another growl filled Kaze's throat as both he and Momoko looked toward the interruption otherwise known as Kaze's brother, Cloud. He and Darito had been sent to look for them so that they could eat lunch before it got cold. Darito was waving to them in an overly eager way, not realizing that his best friend's brother had been kissing his sister. At least…that's how it had appeared to them.

"You shit head! SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Kaze quickly stood up, placed a hand under Momoko's arm, lifted her to her feet, and then took off running after Cloud. The two ran around the field for a few minutes before Darito got bored watching and joined Kaze in the chase after Cloud. Pretty soon Momoko started chasing after them too. They soon had run all the way down to the ship. And the entire way Momoko was laughing, and she prayed she would have many more wonderful memories like this with her Kaze-kun.