A/N: This chapter backtracks to what Yashiro and Kanae were doing before Ren got home.

~ Fields of Heaven ~

"Where did the harpy go?" Yashiro murmured, half to himself.

"Dinner," Kanae replied flatly, and for a moment the human man's panicked mind pictured the lamia devouring the poor little harpy girl. At his wide-eyed look, she elaborated, "Kyoko went to finish fixing dinner."

"Oh..."

Yashiro felt like an idiot for assuming otherwise, but this situation was hardly typical and he couldn't really be blamed for his thoughts going off in odd directions! He let out a heavy sigh, and it was almost as though his entire self deflated with this massive exhalation of air. His body sagged into the embrace of the still-clinging lamia, and she took the burden of his weight easily, shifting her hold on him so that she could stroke one hand through his hair comfortingly.

"So, uhhh... you want a tour of the house or something until the food is ready?" Kanae said, the uncertainty of her tone at odds with the casual familiarity with which she cradled him against her body.

Well, it would be nice to learn the layout of the place, since he'd be living here for the foreseeable future.

"Sure, that sounds like a plan."

Despite his words, he remained leaning limply against her. The lamia seemed to be in no hurry to let go of him, and he had to admit he rather enjoyed the feeling of being pressed against her this way, and the way her fingers combed through his hair. Maybe this whole Interspecies Exchange hosting thing wouldn't be so bad...


"And this is our bedroom," Kanae announced, flinging open the door to the room at the very end of the upstairs hallway. The bedroom was dominated by a bed that was larger than king-size. Even so, he wasn't sure it looked big enough to comfortably fit the entire tail of a lamia.

"Wait... did you say our bedroom?"

"Yes, ours," she answered, scowling. "Didn't you read the file the coordinator gave you? Lamias are cold-blooded. If I'm not kept warm at night, I have a hard time getting up in the morning. Blankets are fine for warm-blooded creatures but they don't do much for me, so we're going to be sharing body heat. Do you have a problem with that?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

"No, no," he hastened to assure her. "I don't have a problem with it. That sounds..." He trailed off, blushing as thoughts of the way he'd been pressed up against her earlier bubbled up in his mind. Would she want to wrap him in her coils as they slept?

Her gaze softened as she watched him get lost in his own dirty thoughts for a moment.


During dinner, Yashiro noticed that Kanae's possessive behavior was ratcheted up in the presence of the other girl, even though Kyoko was polite to the point of being servile and exhibited zero signs of attraction toward him. The little harpy did nothing to deserve the lamia's ire, but pointing that out would most likely only further fuel her unfounded jealousy.

Yashiro tried to think of a way to diffuse to situation without setting off Kanae's temper, or offending the little harpy girl who was trying very hard to please both of them.

"Kanae-chan," Yashiro said, "I just remembered there was something that I wanted to watch coming on TV at eight. Why don't we go eat in the living room?" He stood and picked up his plate, leaving her little room to argue. "Kyoko-san, you aren't a servant here. Please sit down and eat."

He addressed her with a formal honorific rather than the affectionately familiar one by which he called the lamia.

The harpy plunked herself down in a chair at the human's suggestion, but he noticed that she did not begin to eat. Perhaps she was shy about eating in front of other people?


They settled themselves on the living room couch, Kanae holding both of their plates while Yashiro fiddled with the TV remote.

"So, what are we watching?" she asked, with an air of disinterest.

"Forest of Spirals," Yashiro replied distractedly as he tried to find the right channel. "It's the new drama that Ren is starring in."

"Ren... that's the same name as the guy who is supposed to be the host family for Kyoko. Are you telling me that the famous actor Ren Tsuruga is going to be coming here to be with her?"

"Yes, the very same," Yashiro answered. "So now that you know who her companion is, do you think you could tone down the jealousy a bit? I highly doubt that she'll want to steal me away from you once she meets Ren. He tends to have that effect on women..."

"Hmph!" Kanae snorted. "Well, he won't have that effect on me! I appreciate his acting skills, of course, being an aspiring actress myself, but pretty faced playboys aren't my type."

Yashiro chose to ignore the insult to his client.

"Oh, you're an actress?" he inquired. "You should come to agency with me tomorrow and we'll see what can be done about getting you started working."

"Agency?"

"I work for LME."

"You're an actor?"

"Ha ha - me, an actor? No. I'm actually Ren's manager," he answered, laying the remote on the coffee table, having finally found the channel on which Forest of Spirals was playing.

Kanae handed him his plate and they both began to eat.

~to be continued~