A/N: I'm not going to talk very long. First of all I just wanted to say that this is simply a one shot with male Akito/OC. It is a little confusing because I kind of had a dream similar to this (yes I sometimes dream in anime, where do you think my good story ideas come from?).

Anyways, there will be an * when the time or scene changes. This isn't meant to be a full story. That may change in the future, God knows I don't need to write a NEW story but sometimes working on side projects actually stimulates the creative process and so forth and so forth.

Wow I suppose that was longer than I intended. Oh well, I hope you will enjoy.

"Akito-sama, I would like to introduce you to your full time caretaker. This is Malia Hawthorne. She has been briefed in her duties concerning your care." Hatori's voice was calm, pleasant even, but the tone he held carefully in check was one of breathy fear. He knew Akito hated, no loathed, the idea of having a caretaker other than Hatori himself but waiting on the dying God 24/7 was an exhausting task, even for the hardy Dragon.

"Briefed?" His laughed was cold and bitter as he surveyed the girl.

She couldn't much older than himself, if she was even that old. She wasn't very tall, topping at 5'4, maybe 5'5 at the absolute maximum. She was petite, slender in shape with a nearly flat chest but generous swell of hips that gave her an almost pear shape.

She would never be able to lift him on his bad days. His intense loathing for the girl increased slowly.

Her mane was a decorative variation of rich auburns, honeys and mahoganies- lovely enough to be perceived as superficial, something she had paid to have done special but the evenness of the colors that curled very gently around her elbows led him to believe the rich display of color was very natural.

"Does she know that she is going to be wasting her time caring for a dying man?" He spat bitterly, glaring at the girl with the full force of his hatred.

She met his gaze calmly, as if she were empty herself, nothing watched him from behind those cold blue eyes, so like sapphires, nothing but a shrewd cunning and an intelligence that made him shiver unnaturally.

"Are we not all meant to die some day Akito?" She asked philosophically, meeting his eyes without a shred of fear. "Might as well shut the hell up and quit bitching about it." She added, setting her back on the ground with a solid thud.

He met her cold eyes as hatred well up in him, what the hell had Hatori done to him?!?

*

"Akito-sama?" A gentle voice broke through his musing but he didn't even have the energy to look to see who it belonged to.

Of course, he knew who it was. Who it always was. Malia.

"You need to eat something. You're already weak from sickness…"

There was a cool hand cupping his forehead gently. His body blazed and his stomach gave a fierce roll.

"Go away." He croaked, his voice breaking twice as he shoved at her, weak as a newborn kitten.

"We're not going to have this fight Akito. You will eat everything I have brought or I will get Hatori's medicine out, so help me I will." She threatened quietly.

Malia didn't raise her voice, she never had to when he was having one of his bad days. He simply didn't have to energy to argue.

He could feel her slender hands gently cupping his rib cage underneath his arms as she shifted him away from the window and shut the door with an ominous snap. "You're not going to get better sitting in front of an icy window, that's for sure." She muttered, sitting behind him and gently cradling his frail body against hers.

It may have been the fever's delirium but her warm curves suddenly felt like paradise to him. He leaned into her, using her as his only support as she cradled his head in the crook of her elbow. The soft long sleeved sweater she wore had faded from black to a soft charcoal from wear he noticed as she slowly poured a rich chicken broth down his throat.

"HOT!" He screeched, choking up the burning fluid. The gentle rhythmic thumping on his back helped to clear to pockets of liquid from his aching lungs and he drew an unsteady breath before turning his head to glare at her.

"If you have enough energy to glare at me like that Akito, then you certainly should have enough energy to feed yourself." Her voice was calm but he knew what was going to happen before he felt his head slam into the floor with a resounding crack!

He groaned, feeling the pain shoot and throb through his entire body. "Malia…" He moaned, feeling his voice take on an edge of a whine that he didn't like one bit.

He could hear her feet pad slowly back to where he lay moaning before her cool hand pressed against his forehead and her arm around his shoulder slowly supported his taller frame against her smaller one.

"Malia?" He murmured after a moment of complete silence. He hoped she wasn't mad at him. He didn't want to be this sick and have Malia mad at him. He wasn't sure he could survive it…

"Hush. Now open your mouth." She murmured softly, tracing one slender, tapered finger lightly across his cheek, near the corner of his mouth.

Warmth filled his mouth and slide down his throat in a succulent wave. Out of the corner of his eye he watched a tiny smile curve her rose lips before she blew on another spoonful of that disgusting chicken broth she'd brought.

What a wonderfully ridiculous woman she was.

*

The light burned the back of his eyelids but the warmth on his face felt incredible. So did the hand caressing his hair with a feather light touch. "Akito?" The musical voice questioned from his right. He opened his eyes slowly to the blinding sunlight, blinking rapidly to clear the black spots in his vision before casting his glance to the woman laying beside him in the soft spring grass.

At first he'd been furious that she had dragged him out into the garden so early, claiming the sunlight would be good for him. Something about vitamin D and serotonin… Bull he didn't even understand.

But as the warmth settled into the comfortable black cotton turtleneck and jeans he usually wore out of the mansion, the tension in his neck and arms relaxed slowly and the buzzing of bees and the light aroma of flowers lulled him into a state of calm euphoria.

Azure eyes met absinthe silently, a thousand words flowing between them before he slowly reached up, as if she were one of his birds that could be startled away, to cup her cheek gently in his hand.

Her eyes slowly closed, a small smile curling her lips as she relaxed under his touch.

He became mesmerized by her face, the pale lilac of her eyelids, the dark lace of eyelashes that caressed her cheeks with an angel's kiss. The perfect bow of her full lips, the perfect rose of them so soft, so inviting…

Akito tore his hand away, staring at the woman beside him in surprise as if she had suddenly morphed from an angel at his side to a demon, the stuff of only his deepest nightmares.

Malia watched him with the most peculiar look on her face. She slowly unwound her fingers from his hair and pulled herself up on her elbows, her stomach and legs laying flat against the warm grass.

She watched him for a few more silent moments with those piercing eyes of hers before slowly pulling herself up in a cat's languid stretch before curling her legs underneath her and staring down at him with that same peculiar expression that made him feel as if she knew everything he was thinking yet didn't have a clue at all.

It seemed as if only seconds had passed before his head was tucked into the curve her legs had made, a perfect pillow just for him, as she gently combed those slender, feminine fingers through his hair.

The scent of her made his feel completely at ease but keyed up at the same time. It was the most unnatural sensation but he couldn't feel the alarm that usually followed such new uncomfortable feelings.

She smelled of lilies and sunshine, an innocent but purely seductive aroma that was simply her. He was drowning in it and the taste of her was on his tongue so potently that he had to open his eyes to remember where he was.

Her lovely azure eyes were on him, so bright, but so secretive with their ring of dark blue outlining them to create a perfect blend of color that was so bright like the day but so dark as the night. He endlessly found himself lost in them but not today. He was acutely aware of the hand cradling his face, brushing light circles in his skin as she watched him in silence.

Tell me no. Her eyes begged silently. Please tell me no.

But he didn't want to. He didn't know why he'd fought it for so long as her petal soft mouth massaged his gently. His lips were rough against hers. He could feel that before the moisture of her tongue lightly touched his lips, not forcing entrance, but letting him know her desire to taste him as well as he tasted her.

He started. He watched Malia move back slowly and he had to grit his teeth to keep the pained sound in his mouth. He didn't want her to go.

Akito sat up slowly, meeting her eyes in confusion. He watched as she slowly sank back onto her elbows, spreading her body in a soft embrace against the grass before she lightly ran the palm of her hand up his arm, guiding him down to her until he lay nestled against the line of her body. One leg was thrown between hers, effectively pinning her beneath him.

He could feel the adrenaline pulsing through his veins as he stared down at her. The fan of her hair spread out like a silken curtain beneath them, her lips flushed and her breath coming in soft pants.

He couldn't tell if she was afraid of him or as excited by this power as he was. This trust that he wouldn't hurt her, even though he obviously could.

"I'm not afraid." She murmured, guessing his thoughts as she so often did.

When he had heard the younger Sohmas shyly talk about Sadism and Masochism, he'd seen the appeal but had never actually experienced the rush he was feeling now.

He shifted his weight slowly, the pain in his knee sending a tingling down his leg but he was distracted but the fierce clenching low in his body at the small sound she'd made as he rubbed against her.

This was all incredibly new to him. The others, he hated the others far too much for their freedom, their young lives stretched in front of them while his was constantly teetering on the balance… He hated them far too much to ever be close to him the way he and Malia had become. Being with her was as natural as breathing for him.

He felt her small hands on his shoulders, slowly caressing the taut muscles with gentle probing fingers that made him relax slowly as he hovered over her. The fingers pulling lightly in his hair tore a primal growl from his lips as he instinctually bucked his hips against her.

The surprised little gasp the slipped from her lips was a splendid sound, one that made his lips curl in the tiniest smile as he stared down at her. The pull on his hair was sharp and refocused his attention on the woman below him before he floated down to meet her lips.

He was hesitant at first, letting her lips stroke a gentle rhythm against his before his mimicked her movements, brushing in light strokes against her rose lips before lightly touching the tip of his tongue against her soft mouth tasting her petal soft lips before she opened readily, teasing his tongue with her own, inviting him to come play in the moist cavern of her mouth.

He needed no other invitation to sweep her cavern, memorizing the taste of her, every stroke of her hands against his body, every movement she made beneath him, every little sound she made that drove him closer and closer to the primal animal he had almost become only moments before.

They broke for air a few moments later, leaving the pair gasping, staring at each other as if they had never seen the other before now.

Akito felt himself slowly sink into the line of her body, his head nestled against the softness of her breast, listening to the fluttering of her heart against his ear with a contented smile. Never before in his life had everything felt so… perfect.

*

Malia woke slowly, drifting from the fog of bliss she was shrouded in as she lay cuddled next to a very warm, very male body. "Good morning Akito." She murmured softly, brushing her fingers lightly against the arm around her, feeling the steely muscles underneath the velvet skin.

If it wasn't for the curse, Akito would be like every other man. Malia mused silently. She knew about the curse. It was one of the perks to her job. She was given access to limitless family secrets if it meant their God would live in almost uniform health.

HE certainly looked like a god. A dark, savage God who punished those who did not bend to his whim. Malia suppressed a shiver of delight. On the other hand, she noted with a tender smile as she pulled herself up on one arm and gently ran her fingers through his hair, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. He looked like a lost little boy sometimes, desperately searching for some hint to his existence, something to ease his burden, someone to lose.

I love you…

Those were the words he'd whispered in her ear last night as they had made love. He loved her. In his own strange way, he truly loved her. It made things in her chest clench bitter sweetly.

She hadn't come into this job for glamour. That was for sure. Hatori had needed a favor he'd said. They'd worked together for several years. Right after she was placed with him after finishing her nursing program. She was the only one who was willing to be placed with the mysterious and slightly ominous Dr. Hatori Sohma. But she'd taken on her assignment with a calm eye and a determination to do her job well but she was won over slowly by the ever changing storm that was Akito.

Some days he made her want to run for the hills, some days he made her want to bash his head in with the closest lamp and some days… And some day she simply wanted to kiss him…

Malia's vision whirled as she was suddenly pinned underneath the taut body of her lover. She was left staring up at him but his eyes were shadowed by those unruly bangs that she begged him to cut.

"Akito. Get off me." She quipped playfully. "A woman does not like to be treated this way first thing in the morning." She struggled half-heartedly against him. Akito liked to be in control, it was one of those things that sent him into those ridiculous temper tantrums he flew into. Usually she could throw him off when she got tired of the game but his hands were strong on her wrists and Malia found that she couldn't budge an inch.

What the hell?

She paused, staring up at the man hovering above her, really looking at him for a moment.

He didn't appear to be the unhealthy, almost sallow man with burning eyes she'd made love to last night. His skin nearly glowed with a healthy sheen and his eyes were so full of life that it made her breath catch in her throat, choking her momentarily as she stared up at him. He was still the same Akito but he wasn't. He was alive. And not merely the breathing skeleton he had been for so long. He looked… alive. There wasn't a better word for it.

"What happened?" She asked softly, afraid it would all disappear in a shimmer if she spoke too loud. "The curse…"

"Was broken." He said, a grin cutting his features in half as he watched her expression. "I don't know how Malia but it's gone. That dead feeling inside me is gone. The weight is gone."

He released her hands slowly, the grin on his face still securely in place as he all but bounced with his joy.

It was so… unlike Akito that she could simply stare in shock for several moments before she slowly reached up and cupped his face in her hands. He collapsed on her, crushing her momentarily before rolling off of her, keeping his arms wrapped around her so that she lay pinned against the front of his body as he hugged her fiercely.

A tear squeezed out of her as she held him tightly against her. It was over. It was gone. If this was a dream she never wanted to wake up. She wanted to be trapped in his embrace forever.

A firm knock on the door that separated his bed chambers from the room he usually sat in made the dark-haired man shift, as if he would answer it but Malia gripped him tighter.

"Go away." She called, loud enough that whoever was on the other side of the door would easily hear her. She ignored the slight teary edge in her voice. She was imagining things surely, those weren't tears rolling down her cheeks as she snuggled tightly against the man that she loved with her entire heart. "I'm celebrating right now. Come back at a more decent hour."

*

Malia watched the dark-haired man across from her with amusement and mild curiosity. An indulgent amusement that was reserved only for her lover. A patient amusement that made him think she knew what he was up to but was merely playing along for his enjoyment.

Candlelight gleamed off his now sun-kissed skin and made her hands itch to touch him. It had been a year. A whole year since the curse had somehow miraculously been lifted. Every day she woke up thinking it had been a dream, that she would wake up and it would all be the way it used to, a sickly depressed Akito lying next to her but the man smiling with reserved affection across the table from her was almost a completely different person.

The sickly pale skin he'd once sported from being confined to the Main House now held a sun kissed glow from the many days they'd share outside in the warm sunshine.

He was stronger now. Healthier looking than he had been in years. The wiry muscles he'd once sported had steeled, stretching taut under the black turtleneck he wore, making him look even more a dangerous predator than she had thought the first time she'd met him. There was so much strength in him but there was an edge of tenderness that he now showed more and more frequently to the rest of his family. It made her heart sore to see.

The barest of smiles curled Akito's lips as he watched his little lover across the table. He could see the reminiscence in her eyes but he refused to let memories of the past taint this perfect evening he had planned for them.

He felt his body stiffen as she slowly reached across the table to roll up the sleeve covering his left arm.

The pretty little cuts across his arms had faded to shiny white scars against the tan of his skin. Always a reminder of the pain of loneliness he'd felt under the weight of the curse but the azure eyes watching him as she slowly as she lay across her arms, placing the lightest kisses across his skin chased back the darkness of the memories.

This was why they were here. For them. Forever… he hoped.

"Malia…" He murmured softly, unsure how to spit the words out so that she wouldn't laugh and call him ridiculous. He was so nervous he could taste copper on the back of his tongue. She was watching him now, patiently, expectantly. He bit the inside of his cheek in irritation before flowing out of his chair onto one knee in front of her.

She was still watching him calmly with open eyes and the light of understanding dawning in her eyes. He'd envied that calm for months but it was something that was purely her, another facet of her personality he'd come to greatly appreciate in the hours he'd simply needed her.

"You saved me my love. I know that I sound absolutely ridiculous but Malia… Marry me? Share this life that we finally have with me." The words were rushed and he'd actually stuttered but she was smiling as if he'd recited some silly poem. He slipped the tiny silver back over her finger, the tiny sapphire winking in the light as her hand moved to cup his cheek gently. She didn't even look at it.

He'd consulted Hatori while planning this night for months. Malia was the type of woman who wouldn't care if he'd put and onion ring on her finger, Hatori had said, as long as he asked. She wanted him to claim her forever. Hatori had said. That was fine with him.

Akito watched her in silence, his smile still in place as their lips met softly before she whispered a very soft, "It took you long enough."

"As long as I can have you forever my angel, I will take as long as you like." He whispered lightly against her cheek before claiming her lips as the cheers of their scattered family echoed around them. Damn Hatori for being such a gossip. He was as bad as Shigure. He'd have to speak to him about that… later. He thought as he tasted the lilies and sunshine taste of his lover and had to suppress a moan. Much later.

A/N: Yes that was a tad OOC for Akito but hey, it's not supposed to be magnificent! Lol. As long as you let me know what you think we'll call it even shall we?