HI!!!! Okay, now onto my first chappie! Hope you guys like it!

Chapter 1: Finding Peace and Redheads

As the strange symbols around me danced around in the strange bluish mist, I felt a temporary sense of peace settle over me, and I sighed. The translucent floor beneath me felt solid, but was also as soft as velvet under my fingers, and it almost begged to be stroked.

Absentmindedly, I did, watching the odd-shaped symbols twist and turn in infinitely different patterns. I was in my own little world, or, to be more specific, in between worlds. At least, that was the feeling I got whenever I visited this special place. A place where I could think, and no one would ever discover my innermost secrets.

Suddenly, a small breeze tickled my face and caused my dark red locks of hair to sway a bit. That's odd, I thought, looking around. There's not supposed to be any wind here… Are you imagining things again, Yuki?

A small flicker of black to my right caught my eye, and I turned my head so that my dark green gaze caught a glimpse of someone stumble out of one black hole into another. A figure cloaked in black, but I also saw a flash of fiery red, and that's what sparked my curiosity.

Normally, I would have paused, but I had seen the strange blackness begin to fade, and before I could even give it a chance to get away, I had run through it headlong into an unknown place.

Now, I know what you're thinking: What kind of idiot is this girl? Why would she be risking her neck just to satisfy her curiosity?

Well, I've been known to be catty, and you know the old phrase 'Curiosity killed the cat'? It's the explanation of my life. Thankfully, the 'killed' part hasn't applied. Yet.

So one second, all I saw was an impenetrable blackness, and the next, I was standing in a very old style bedroom, dizzy as a dodo bird. But not too dizzy to hear someone turning the knob on the closed door that led into the room. Snapping out of it, I quickly took refuge in the only hiding spot that I saw first: the bed.

Okay a smart person would have goneunder the bed, right? As I said earlier, I'm not the smartest girl in the world. So I sprang under the extremely fluffy quilt, instead of being smart enough to crawl under. Fortunately, my little quick hide was just in time, for the door opened and shut as I stopped moving under the quilt enough to hide my body under.

As the person came in the room, I waited nervously, unable to still my fingers, which twitched uncontrollably. Thankfully, it wasn't enough to attract the attention of whoever it was that was walking…no, that's not the right word. The correct term would be stumbling all over themselves as they tried to reached the bed.

Whump.

The person landed on the very soft bed and grabbed the blanket in one swift movement. They covered themselves up, and in a few moments, I heard them breathing evenly, although somewhat ragged sounding.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity, but was actually only a few minutes. When I thought the coast was clear, I tried to slip silently off the bed. Unfortunately, the instant I moved, I was pinned down by super strong arms, and pinned beneath a heavy body.

A thrill of panic forced me to look up at whoever it was that held me down. But I couldn't hold back a gasp when I saw those eyes.

Emerald. A beautiful emerald green was what I saw. I blinked, thinking that it was a trick of the light. But it wasn't, and those beautiful eyes didn't vanish. I had to force myself to look past them at the rest of his face. I saw that the person was a lanky man. His face was long and lean, with a semi-pointed chin. On his cheeks below his eyes were purple tattoos in the shape of upside-down triangles. Then I saw his hair, swept back in what I can only describe as a porcupine fashion. Not only that, but it was red. The same fiery locks that had sparked my curiosity in the first place.

It was like looking in a mirror. Well, if that particular mirror had a spell that made you look like the opposite gender.

I found myself wanting to laugh at the ridiculousness, but the expression on his face stopped me. A mixture of anger, pain, fear, and most of all, sadness. We stared at each other for a split second more, and then he saw the resemblance.

"Huh. It seems I've caught a little cat." His voice was low, ragged, and filled with mocking. It vibrated through me, and woke me from my shock. Anger flared inside of me, and I lashed out at him.

The man caught my wrist a split second before I smacked him. He grabbed my other one and held to both of them tightly. I started to struggle, but to no avail. All the time I was wearing myself out, the man chuckled darkly. It made my temper flare more, but it also made my fear increase.

"Let me go!" I cried out, fed up with this. He stopped chuckling, and then got a thoughtful look on his face. I glared up at him, which only made him laugh again.

"I mean it, asshole," I snarled through clenched teeth, itching to wipe that look off of his face. What the hell was so complicated about letting me up?

The man spoke. "I might. But how about a little deal?"

I hissed at him through my teeth. "What?!"

"You heard me," he said, his tone as smug as the smile on his face. "If I let you up, would you help me with a problem I've got at the moment?"

My glare deepened, and I spat at him: "Go to hell!"

He grinned, then told me, "I'd rather not, but thanks for the invitation." A puppy dog pout appeared and he said cutely, " I'm weally hurt. Can't you do this? I'll let you go after, I promise. Pwease?"

Damn it. How'd he know that I couldn't resist a puppy-pout? Stupid, girlish instincts of mine…

I turned away from his pouty face and whispered, "Fine. But only until the problem is dealt with!"

At those words, his whole face broke out into a wide grin. He rolled off of me, and I sat up, trying to adjust to the weightlessness. God, he was so freakin' heavy!

When I got off the bed and came to stand in front of him, the man handed me a box with a big red plus sign on it and said, "You'll need to use the fire bandages. They're the only ones that can withstand my body temperature." As he said it, he began to take off his leather robe-thing, then his shirt.

When I saw what was hidden underneath the fabric, I felt my heart stop, and then began to race wildly. Oh. My. God. He was freaking H-O-T! I felt my mouth drop open in astonishment, and my eyes locked onto his lean, but very muscular, chest.

He saw me freeze, looked down, back up to me, and asked, "Is something wrong?"

I blinked, and then shook my head to clear it. Okay, so he was hot? So what? You got lucky, that's what! A tiny voice in my head screamed at me. I came towards him, only to see him gawking at me in much the same manner I had seconds ago. "What?" I asked.

In response, I got was a low whistle. "You're lucky I hadn't seen your figure earlier," he commented, his eyes trained on me still. "The deal would have been much, much different then.

I felt heat rising in my cheeks at that last sentence. I resisted the urge to box his ears, and instead rolled my eyes and said," Very funny."

I was still nervous, and I looked down at myself. Cropped tank-top, short-shorts, and leather knee-high combat boots. All in black; this accented my pale skin, red, red ankle-length hair, green eyes and athlete's body perfectly. What was so important about it?

I tried to clear my mind as I began to rummage around in the first-aid kit, looking for the so-called 'fire bandages.' The guy waited for about two minutes before reaching in and selecting the bandages right under my hand.

"Oh. Sorry."

He held them out for me to take, but I got up and refused by saying, " What is it that got hurt, Sparky?"

He mearly laughed at his new nickname, then turned enough for me to see the huge burn on his back. It was large, taking up almost all of his back, and was still fresh, red as his hair almost. I winced at the thought of the scarring that was sure to happen. "Okay. Where's a bathroom? And before you ask, it's so we can clean that up," I added quickly.

The redhead started to stand, but suddenly sat back down onto the bed, hissing in pain. He looked up at me with a hopeful spark in his eye, and I couldn't help but sigh. I went over to his side and hoisted him up around the waist, using his black pant's belt loop.

His arm came up around my shoulder as he staggered to his feet, steadying himself. But before we moved, he turned his face to me and said, "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

"Whatever, Sparky." I said to him, more worried about getting his heavy body to the bathroom.

"No. Not Whatever. I'm Axel. And you are?" Axel's eyes bored into me, and I sighed in frustration.

"Okay, 'Axel'. I'm Yukiru, but my friends call me Yuki. At least they would if I had any friends."

I let him wrap that around his brain while I found the bathroom, which thankfully wasn't too far down the hall from the bedroom. It was an old timey one, with a tub that stood up on feet. The décor was nice enough, at least, white with gold trim. I closed the door, set Axel down on the toilet in there, and then turned on the hot water, waiting for it to heat up enough.

Next thing I knew, there was a loud crashing and scrabbling sound from behind me. I turned around to see Axel frantically trying to claw his way through the door, but only managing to start the blood flowing down his back. It was pitiful to see, but instead of pity, I felt anger.

I stopped him and held him back. "What the hell are you doing?" I screamed at the hysterical red head.

"Are you crazy?!" he yelled back, still trying to get away. I pinned his arms to his side, actually able to hold on, he was that weakened. Yet he still struggled, and I got even madder.

I smacked him upside the head, stunning him, and then proceeded to drag his sorry butt to the tub. "Chill out, you idiot! It's just hot water!"

Weirdo that he was, he actually perked up at this. "It's hot?" he asked, eyeing the tub warily.

I found myself face-palming, and then glared at him through my fingers. "If you see steam rising from the damn tub, you don't think that the water wouldn't be scalding?!" I asked, incredulous. What the hell was up with this guy?

"Oh." That was the only word he said, and Axel actually managed to look sheepish.

I rolled my eyes, and then said, "Get ready to get in. And keep your underwear on at least!" I added as an afterthought. When I turned to put some cold water in the flow, he smacked my hand. I yelped, and turned to glare at him, but wound up blushing when I saw his figure. Then I was confused. Why would a guy have those kind of hips? It made him look like a freaking hour-glass!

Shaking my head to clear it once more, I turned back to the scalding flow. Grabbing a cloth I took from the room, I dunked it in, and told Axel, who had just slipped into the water with absolutely no cry at how hot the water was, "This is going to sting..."

Axel flinched at the shock of the wet cloth on his open wound, but other than that, the redhead didn't seem affected. He tried to help me, but I mumbled that I knew what I was doing.

I finally finished up and drained the tub. The 'fire bandages' were held out to me, and I began to wrap Axel's upper torso in the cloth. I secured them in the front for ease of access, and then looked up to find Axel's face dangerously close to mine. I felt my heart skip a beat.

Axel blinked in surprise, but his emerald eyes quickly switched mischief, and he grinned as he said in a husky voice, "So, you know what you're doing, huh? Let's see about that one, Yuki."

And before I could even react, he had leaned down a whole head lower to connect our lips together in a mind-stopping kiss.

Alright, mina-san (everyone) please review! tell me what you like and don't like, and what you expect later, kay? I want to know!!!

^w^ kittykittykitty!