O Matsu

Yay! Welcome back! More Kayura and Steve but this will definitely be more focused on them with some of the other Ronin and Avengers stuff combined. There might be some more mature stuff in here later, but I will either warn you or change the rating. (I haven't quite decided how mature just yet.) Feel free to comment and let me know if there's anything cute that you would like to see happen! I'm open to exploring how their relationship grows. :)

Prologue

The air was cool as she trudged through the snow up to the castle, the sky was clear and she shivered as she looked up at the stars and moons. She shook as her armor vanished and she felt the cold take her despite every thought urging her to move. Darkness soon followed the cold and a pleasant dream came.

Kayura missed him terribly, had it only been a week since she knew the man? A god in every right who seemed to find her as attractive as she found him. A single red thread broke her pleasant dreams of the man with the golden hair and she felt it tug. Her eyes fluttered open, she was so tired but dreams were not the real thing. She wanted his warmth for real, not an illusion of it. She pushed herself to her feet in the terrible winter, when was the last time the nether realm had a winter? She never remembered snow before.

She managed to stumble to the gate only feet away and knocked with a heavy hand. The air was freezing her throat with every breath and her arms were starting to go numb. She slid to her knees and she mumbled, "please, let there be someone..."

She could feel the cold grab her strength again and she collapsed into the dust. She would just sleep for a little while and knock was a creak and groan and she felt someone grab her up. Her eyes were too heavy to see who saved her from the cold but she felt the darkness again. It wasn't until she was warm that her eyes opened to the familiar castle.

"Bout time you woke up," said a male voice.

She squinted as she sat up and saw blue hair, "Tenku-Sama?"

The man who sat by her bed should have been long dead. His hair and eyes were both the same, but there was something dark behind his eyes and in his smile. He wore an all black kimono like he was morning and carried a bow against his back. He smiled as he reached to pour her some tea, "glad to see you didn't freeze."

She sat up slowly and looked at him with suspicion, "but you're...am...I?"

"No," he said as she took the cup, "but I definitely am. The Yomi was a lot stronger than Hoshi assumed it was."

"The armor of death," Kayura said as she warmed her hands on the cup and then looked him over. He was pale as death, "are you Yurei?"

"Goodness no," he smirked and pinched her cheek. "Real but only of this world now."

Kayura sipped her tea, "we're in the same castle?"

"Yes, I was pretty surprised too," he said as he looked her over. "You look like you've had a hard week."

"You really need to talk to Sage about showing off," she frowned.

Rowen shrugged, "what can I say, that man has the charms of Denzel Washington but all the brilliance of reading the room like a blind elephant."

She was quiet for a moment and looked at him with her brilliant blue eyes.

He leaned over and hugged her, "I'm sorry for putting so much burden on you. The armors were a mistake."

"Most definitely," she replied. "But...I can't say it was all bad."

He raised an eyebrow but ignored her comment as she sipped down the tea. She was feeling better at a moments notice, "is this..."

"Yeah...some flower from the mountains," he said with a shrug. "Is that how you Warlords always seemed to one up and never be tired or injured?"

"The flower of the stars is a very potent healer," she said slipping out of the bed. "Why am I here?"

"I shouldn't say."

"I'm here to see someone," she asked and he only nodded with a deep breath out.

He reached for a pipe and lit it, taking a deep breath and letting out a puff of fragrant smoke, "yes but you don't have to go now, it can wait..."

She still had Steve on her mind, "no, I want to go as soon as possible."

"She asks that you be presentable at least," he replied with another slow puff of smoke. "There is a bath waiting for you and a change of proper clothing."

Kayura looked down at the filthy human clothes, it was definitely no way to be presented in the dynasty court and then rubbed her neck wishing for her long hair again. She loved having it done up in a rich fashion that befit wearing silks. "Will you show me?"

"Yes, if you would like," he said putting down the pipe and standing up to meet her. They started out of the room together and down the maze of halls, "how is she..."

"A mess..."

"And the kids?"

"A wreck."

"And Kento?"

"He's fine."

Rowen laughed at her last comment, "I always disliked his crazy optimism. How are you?"

She looked at him, "I want to go back."

"That's a first," Rowen analyzed looking at the small woman. She seemed so small to him in that moment. Where was the raging beast who kicked his ass on several occasions. This meager and mild mannered woman seemed so...lost. "Why?"

She rubbed her arm, she had known Rowen a long time. She liked the man a lot, after all, he decided not to kill her despite how many times Badiman had used her body to try and kill him. It's hard to be friends with someone like that. Even if Kento was the optimist, he was never a forgiving one, but Rowen couldn't stay mad at anyone willing to be better versions of themselves. Was she better? She felt terribly weak but not because of Steve. In the last week she had her head smashed by a nendo; broken by Sage; possessed by her own armor; and then fighting Kunito several times and not winning several of those times. Long week for sure and all she could think about was how to get back to her blonde god.

He had proposed right?

She didn't dream that?

He wanted to be with her and her crazy life?

Rowen noticed her lost in her thoughts, "seriously, Kay. You can't go meet them like this..."

He saw her cheeks turn red as she rubbed her arm nervously, "I think I've fallen in love..."

"God, it better not be Ryo..."

"No," she interrupted as they approached the bath house. "No...you met him a few times. Steve Rogers."

Rowen tried to remember that name, "oh...isn't he...OH! Captain America? Captain...bloody hell...America?"

She scrunched her nose at his reaction, "you don't approve?"

"No," he replied, "I mean...wait...he's a soldier...and an Avenger...You saw what they did to New York and Sacovia."

"Have we not done similar," she asked. "And aren't we just soldiers as well when all things are said and done?"

"I mean...damn," he said rubbing his face. "Just be careful, Kay. You have plate full enough with this sort of stuff, do you really want to go down a path of super spies and aliens."

She smiled at him as she opened the door to the bath house, "yeah...I kind of think I do."