Thanks for the reviews,follows and favs!

and Lil'OldNarcissisticMe – Natsume is so polite and with all the hints to how bad his past was he seems like the kind of guy to thank his kidnapper after a little while. I don't mean for the Stockholm syndrome to be a major part, though Natsume is to nice not to be mean to. ( I'm a bully) I don't think Taki will play a big part in this story but Madara is going to be released very soon!

Also I'm planning for this to be a story, though I started it with only a vague plot. I'm working on making something more definitive now.

I forgot to put this on the last chapter but WARNING this may contain spoilers for both the manga and the show. Your discretion is advised.


I think we are lost. Really lost. Like 'we took a wrong turn an hour ago and have only turned left since' kind of lost.

Matoba had decided to drive us, he said we wouldn't have as many people at this branch house so he wanted to get used to driving again. That had been the mistake that had taken us to the random empty highway we were cruising down. As the fields flew by he grew increasingly agitated and I grew increasingly nervous.

We turned again, left, and Matoba looked at more signs. He looked furious now. He wasn't noisy when he got upset he was just unnervingly quiet. He hadn't said a word for a long time now. I stayed quiet with him, looking around to see if I might be of any help.

Something caught my eye. "Ah! Matoba-sama look!" I yelped pointing at a roadside café and diner. We could stop and ask for directions there!

Then everything lurched and the tires screeched in agony underneath us. I pitched forward, throwing my hands out in a desperate attempt to steady myself; I slammed into the cars' dash in front of me. We hadn't crashed, Matoba had just decided to take out his pent up anger on the brake pedal.

I could feel his angry glare burning into the back of my head, I didn't look up. After of few seconds of being stopped in the middle of the empty road we started up again. Loose gravel crunched under our wheels and the car began to roll forward, turning and pulling into the parking lot of the diner.

I didn't raise my head until we had parked. "Get out," Matoba had snapped angrily. I'd lifted my hands off the dash and followed behind obediently.

The diner was mostly empty; there were only three people other than the server. A man and a woman sitting together, they looked tired and were drinking coffee like it was an elixir of immortality. The other person was a man who sat at the counter talking to the female server. She was so engrossed in the conversation that she didn't even look up when the bell chimed.

The talking man exuded a thick aura, a sparkly aura. I looked up at my master who was also staring at the sparkly man. The man didn't look back but as soon as my master took a step forward the man's shoulders tensed.

"Natori Shuuichi, what a pleasant surprise." My masters' voice dripped with venom. The server finally looked up at us, then back at the man, Natori's, face. I wondered what kind of expression he had on his face. My master wore his usual smile but the server's blissful look had turned into nervousness.

"H-how can I help you sir?" She stuttered.

I stood closer to Matoba, following behind as he walked up to the counter. He ignored the waitress and she hurried back to the kitchen. Matoba sat down, I sat down beside him. The man Natori looked up from his coffee and smiled, I could feel his personality radiating from his pearl white teeth. Bright and friendly and most definitely fake.

"Well Matoba what brings you here? Another capture or kill mission?" My master chuckled. In my head I thanked Natori, my master's nasty mood seemed to have faded away some. It was odd though since I couldn't sense any amity between the two.

It was then that Natori really noticed me. His eyebrows crinkled in a flash of confusion, and then he looked at me intensely. I squirmed in my seat. Matoba let the exchange happen, a pleased smile on his face the entire time. As the blonde man looked me over two ayakashi started to form by his side.

One had cropped messy brown hair with two large white horns that curled around her head. There was a thick white blindfold over her eyes. The second one had long black hair and a plain looking face. This man had shiki! That means that he is an exorcist.

Was he part of the Matoba clan i wondered? He looked powerful, yet I hadn't seen him at any of the many gatherings the Matoba clan held. I looked at Matoba, waiting for him to introduce me or to give me permission to introduce myself.

After a pause Matoba finally spoke. "We're on our way to one of our branch houses, taking a break from all that capture and kill stuff as you put it."

"Who is the boy Matoba?" Natori seemed more interested in me now "He is a human right?"

"Yes."

"I wasn't aware that the clan had any new heirs." He flashed me one of his dazzling smiles, his aura made me a little ill, "Hi, I'm Natori, an actor and exorcist. Who might you be?"

I looked up to Matoba, waiting patiently for permission; he gave me a slight nod. We were both aware that Natori had observed the exchange.

"I'm Natsume, I am Matoba's sh-"

"My assistant and a good one at that." My master cut in quickly. I felt my cheeks heat up; the rest of the clan knew I was playing at being a shiki. Only someone who wasn't in our clan would not know me. I pulled the sleeves of my sweater down, making sure they covered my entire arm.

The man just gave me a sad little look. He seemed unsure of what to do. Then one of his shiki whispered in his ear. As he turned to reply a black lizard began to crawl up his neck. My eyes widened in shock. There was an ayakashi living on this man's skin. He noticed my eyes and his own widened a little, seemingly in surprise as well.

"Not many people can see this Natsume. You seem to have an intriguing amount of power, I'd love to stay and chat more but sadly I have my own business to attend to. Natsume I have a feeling we will be seeing each other again though." He stood and placed his money on the table, with a nod of his head he and his two shiki left. They seemed strangely hurried, one of his shiki must've been trying to get his attention for quite some time.

"He must be on an exorcist job himself. And to think he called me out on my work ethic!" Matoba chuckled then smiled quietly to himself.

"Should we be going too?" I asked politely. He was in a considerably better mood now, though he didn't seem to particularly like the exorcist actor Natori.

"I'm going to call for a driver. You can pick up a snack if you want Takashi. We won't arrive until after supper now."

I wandered around and ended up buying a melon bun, Matoba had handed the server money while still busy on his phone. I got tired of milling around quickly and started feeling uncomfortable because of the couple across the dinner staring at me. I was wearing a pale magenta hoodie and normal jeans today. Much to my master's disdain, he figured I should just wear my yukata's. It had been one of the female exorcists who had chided him about forcing me to do that. I would be eliciting a lot more stares in a pink yukata.

I decided to leave the store and wait by the car. The black steel was too hot to touch so I sat on the gravel and leaned against the tire instead. I opened the bread and started eating; Matoba was busy talking to the server girl. She looked a little intimidated but answered his questions readily. He was probably trying to figure out where we were.

The sunlight felt warm against my skin. It would've been nice if we could have made it to the branch house quickly. This was the perfect day to move into a new house. I was happily munching on my melon bread and waiting for Matoba when I heard a quiet voice.

"Oh noes! The sun shines again today!"

Another little voice called out after it.

"Our crops will wilt! We will starve!"

The first one called out again.

"Death is imminent! Death is nigh!" Soon the two voices were chanting this over and over again in sync. I peered around the back of the car so I could see them.

There were two ayakashi, they looked like mice but their ears almost reached the ground and were shaped like a rabbits. They were as tall as a cat on its hind legs and plump like a turnip. They looked cute, unlike most ayakashi I had hunted before. They were dancing around a tuft of grass, it was yellowed and dead. Perhaps from their perspective it looked like wheat.

I questioned for a second if ayakashi actually needed to eat. Matoba never feed any of his shiki, other than me of course. But his weren't like regular youkai either. And if they could eat could they eat human food.

I broke of a tiny piece of melon bun and reached my arm around the car slowly. "Do you want some of this?" The two mice-rabbits spooked, ducking behind the other side of the car. For a second I thought they had run off but then one stuck its head out from underneath the car.

"You can see us human child." I gave it a smile and a nod before mutely thrusting the piece of melon bread at it.

"Is this perhaps a peace offering?" The second mouse-rabbit chittered, popping out from under the car and promptly snuffling the bread. The second mouse-rabbit had a pink nose while the first one had a black nose.

"It could be poison." Black nose said, coming out from underneath the car completely. Pink nose seemed to give it serious thought before eating the food right out of my hand.

Pink nose and Black nose stood very still, they stared deep into each other's eyes. I waited. They stared. Then Pink noise gave a triumphant nod.

"It is not poisoned so it must be a peace offering."

"Yes!" Black nose agreed. I smiled as the two youkai came and sat at my feet. Before long the melon bread had been shared out equally between the three of us. The two looked very content, with full stomachs they leant on the car beside me.

"What are those paper talismans on your arms human?" Pink nose asked. I had rolled up the sleeves of my hoodie after eating because I felt hot. The paper binds around my wrist were in full display.

"They are only visible to youkai and those who can see youkai." I said brushing the white paper with my fingers. "My master put them on me when I was younger as a way to keep track of me. They make sure I obey him."

"That doesn't sound very pleasant!" Black nose cried out, "You should just take it off."

"Yes! I didn't think strong nd nice humans like you could be forced to do anything!"

"It's not that bad." I said defensively, though I knew I was lying I just smiled pleasantly. "Matoba-sama helped me get away from a really scary place, he saved me. I owe him a lot."

"Nice people don't bind their friends." Black nose whimpered sympathetically. I almost agreed when a voice stopped me.

"I'm not a nice person."

"Matoba-sama!" He gave me a chilling glare that screamed 'shut up!' I listened.

"Those binds little ayakashi, are to make sure that no ayakashi or human can steal him away. Think of them as something akin to collars. Natsume Takashi belongs to me and he will wear these binds as long as I want him to. Now run off little ayakashi before I exorcise you."

The mouse-rabbit ayakashi tore off, sprinting away on all fours. Matoba gave a gleeful grin.

"I'm sor-"

"Shush Takashi, I'm going to pretend it never happened as an apology for earlier. But don't let it happen again."

"Yes Master!" I chirped, knowing that I was dodging a bullet here. He just nodded and stalked off, looking down the road for one of our cars. It wasn't long before another black car pulled into the lot. A man stepped out and bowed to Matoba, they spoke only briefly before Matoba ushered me back into the car and we were on our way.

Matoba sat in the front with our new driver and I sat in the back seat watching the fields flash by. The binds on my arms felt heavy again, the sensation becoming all too familiar. My mind drifted back to the mouse-rabbit ayakashi. Friendly youkai were becoming a familiar part of my life too. If this kept up my life was going to get very hard.

The binds that Matoba had wrapped around my arms weren't something I had the power to remove on my own. That was something I knew to be true. But the words of the ayakashi still bounced around my head.

Even though I knew liking youkai was wrong I couldn't help but smile at the thought of the cute youkai. The bright sun blared through the tinted windows.

I hoped it rained soon.