Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.

A/N: I usually like to put these in the bottom but in this case, I wanted to warn you of the PoV change. I cannot stand first person so I've gone back and edited for third person. More freedom that way too! Cheers, my dear readers!

/_/_/

She heard he never graced his subjects with any proper forms of passion. It made this rare moment all the more precious. His aggressive tone had softened and he reached for her, kissing her once she was close enough.

She returned it with an unfamiliar enthusiasm that made her blush. Her ecstasy crumbled when the dragon spoke within her mind.

'You are a married woman.'

'…Yet I was given the mission of seduction. Is this so different, comrade?'

'Yes. You've formed feelings for him.'

/_/_/

When Sakuno slowly crossed into reality from the dream world, she was immediately disappointed. She just had a sweet dream of someone she truly cared about…Although his face wasn't clear, the effect he had on her was tremendous: shivers ran down her back and she could feel his hand on her stomach. The warmth she felt slowly faded away and she dreaded having to wake.

Who was it..? Such familiarity was rare.

"Good morning, Sakuno-chan. Since we've shared a bed, I feel like I've gained the right to call you that?"

Her attention snapped to the right, where she regrettably found Fuji under the covers, propping himself up by elbow on the pillow. He lay there with a smile.

The delay between thought and action had never been so slow: it was his hand on her stomach. She nearly screamed from shame, embarrassment and other terrible emotions when she finally realized that Fuji was in her room, specifically in her bed. She didn't know it was possible for a heart to beat so fast. Before she could release such a scream, he placed a finger on her lips firmly.

"I'd probably do the same in your position. Before Sumire-chan flattens me into a pancake, I want you to know I have no idea how I got here and sharing a bed with a girl who I'm not in a relationship with isn't my style. Just letting you know since I doubt I'll have a chance to explain before we get discovered."

He was right as a minute later, Sumire came into check on her and Fuji had a black eye seconds after. He passed out as he wasn't able to withstand her brutish strength. Sakuno panicked and explained what happened so fast that she couldn't believe she was speaking in a coherent language. Sumire's anger subsided and an expression of annoyance replaced it.

"Shit, I hit a high schooler."

She murmured and paced in a very slow circle, clearly in thought. "Well, we'll leave it for now. Come on, Sakuno, dress properly before coming down – Yuki-kun made breakfast and I don't want him seeing you like that."

Sakuno resisted looking down to see what she was wearing; may God help her shame if she was wearing that transparent negligee Sumire bought in order to tease her of a suspected crush on Tezuka. Why she'd go to such an extent though…Sakuno didn't know – oh dear God, she was wearing it!

Her face never felt so hot before and she released a held breath. Did-did Fuji see…? Oh God, oh God, oh GOD! She began hyperventilating and the image of him lifting the covers and…and she was still next to him!

In a new wave of panic, Sakuno fell off the bed and tried to calm her breathing. Once she had it become manageable, she quickly picked out decent clothing and ran to the bathroom to change. After, she crept back to the room to toss the nightwear into the closet and left the bedroom as quickly as possible.

She…didn't know what to think anymore. All of this was ridiculous; how could he have gotten into the room without being noticed? Clearly Sumire wouldn't have okay-ed it. Plus, Fuji didn't seem to be the kind of guy to do something like that.

"Good morning, my lady." Yukimura's voice called out from the kitchen, causing her to look up. "Hard to believe I'm in the presence of nobility."

He chuckled as she entered the doorway.

"G-good morning, senpai…."

"Sounds like something unfortunate happened upstairs."

"E-eto…um, yeah…" It was the most she could manage because she did not want to give an explanation.

"Well, no matter. Why don't you take a seat? I'll serve you in a moment."

"No need to do that, senpai! This is my home, after all."

As Sakuno and Yukimura got into a polite argument, Sumire couldn't help but chuckle on the way down. Leave it to those two for such a feat, eh? She was thankful to Yukimura, though, for his calm demeanour and returning Sakuno to normal. Unfortunately, all of this was going to be for the moment only.

"Is Fuji-kun awake, sensei? I wouldn't want to start without him." Yukimura asked as soon as she entered the doorway, breaking away from the stalemate he and Sakuno had gotten into.

"Ah…he's still knocked out. I'll make sure he gets something to eat later." Sumire said so normally that Sakuno pondered how many times something like this must've happened with her.

"What a shame. We were lucky to have been missed." Yukimura said as while placing the food into proper sized serving bowls. Sakuno was setting the table and enquired what he meant.

"You passed out again, Sa-chan, after hearing about the battle. Luckily Yuki-kun caught you then as well, make sure to thank him after." Sumire said.

"No need, Ryuzaki-chan, it was a matter of convenience since I was closest to you. After I did, a glimmer emitted from you and went out of control in the living room. It only hit Fuji-kun, which is why I truly believe sensei and I have been lucky this past 24 hours." Yukimura finished.

"O-oh…obaa-chan, what do we do now? I-I…" She didn't even question the glimmer. What was the point? Not like anyone here knew what it was.

The stress of being a saviour of sorts overwhelmed her. Last night was terrifying and she still sported the injuries. The dragon still wasn't speaking to her but right now, she could feel a weakened presence within.

Suddenly, two hands took hers gently. Looking up, she found the kind faces of Sumire and Yukimura.

"We're in this together, Ryuzaki-chan."

"I'll be your support, Sa-chan, so you'll never feel alone."

Sakuno's lips quivered and she nodded gratefully. Yukimura's smile quickly disintegrated when he saw Fuji descend the staircase.

"Fuji-kun, what happened? That wasn't there last night."

"…I think I was attacked by a banshee."

"A hag-born scut shouldn't think itself higher than true nobility." His rival scoffed.

"Says a noble with the foot-licking fetish." He scowled.

They drew their swords and almost duelled to the death had their dearest not stopped them.

"The Allegiance depends on each of us doing our parts. We cannot fail because of our arrogance!" She said as she rushed to stand between them, blocking the other from delivering a blow.

"…Cheh." He muttered in defeat. Honestly, the Allegiance be damned. Everyone'd go plotting their civil wars after their mission was completed…after she'd be gone.

"If our ancestors could see the descendants they sacrificed themselves for." The foreigner, the fourth and final member, laughed. "Princess, at this rate, we ain't making it over the hill."

/_/_/

Akutsu's eyes snapped open when he heard the sound he hated most – the laugh of a child. He growled when the sun pierced his eyes with its brightness. Did he fall asleep in the park again? Fuck, his mom's gonna flip on him when he got back; her ridiculous amount of energy was bad enough to deal with.

He raised his upper body from the bench, rested his arm on the back and took in his surroundings. Mothers were out with their young kids, meaning it was most likely mid-day. He figured his phone was dead, checked it anyway, and yeah, it was dead.

Since it was a weekend, he had time for his personal errands. He had to do some collections in the morning and was going to see Taichi in the afternoon. But now he woke up late and had a lot of catching up to do. It really pissed him off.

As he got up, a discrepancy in the ground caught his eye. Well, shit. He chalked up the events of last night as a semi-hallucination, a consequence of being so high. The new brand of cigarettes he bought was stronger than his usual. So that puny chick did fall from the sky and didn't break any bones. How the hell was that possible…?

Akutsu looked up to the sky and mentally calculated the distance she would've fallen. After he did, he concluded that no normal person could survive and now, this furthered his curiousity. He remembered she was from Seigaku…she did look familiar…maybe because all the chicks in the area had brown hair, small faces and short statures. He still had hours left in his community service so he'd probably see her again; he was stationed near Seigaku, after all.

He reached for a cigarette and placed it between his lips before walking over the hole. He crouched just at the edge and brushed his hand against it to keep his balance.

A flash of red and yellow took him by surprise, making him tumble into the centre. He couldn't regain his balance, not when he kept getting images flashed at him.

"What the fuck?!"

Those images were of him and they weren't flattering in anyway.

/_/_/

'It's time for the awakening, young master.'

Sumire watched Yukimura from her bedroom window for some time as he tended to her ruined flowerbed. She had driven over it to get away from the house in haste. Thankfully, she wasn't questioned on why the house needed to be protected. Sakuno was probably too overwhelmed and Yukimura was too polite a boy to ask.

She wasn't sure of Fuji's ability and it made her wonder if there were more like him out there. The problem with this era was the scientific community and their persistence of wanting to know more about abnormal phenomena. This curse began with an alchemist and it truly worried Sumire what a scientist would do for the sake of knowledge.

But that couldn't be her focus. For now, she needed to locate the likely candidates for the three dragons and that meant researching archives. The families had hidden their descendents quite well in the generations following the bloodiest battle the world would never know of, which made Sumire's mission all the more difficult.

She cursed, rubbed her temple then opened the book on her desk. Particular characters were used for the narrative so surely there would be clues in them.

A sudden knock at the door took her attention.

"Sumire-chan? I'm going to head out now. Seems the swelling won't be gone for awhile."

Sumire sighed when Fuji poked his head through the doorway, smile in place.

"Mah, I'm not going to give you a fake apology for it. I feel a tinge of regret though."

"Good enough for me."

"…Sakuno said you didn't know how you got in there. Is that true?"

Fuji's smile weakened for less than a second.

"I had the strangest dream last night. I kept running towards a luminous green globe but could never catch it."

With that, Fuji nodded his goodbye and left Sumire to work. She sighed, thinking about the headache this boy could cause. Wait, did this mean Fuji was one of the dragons? No…by the logic of viewing capability, then that would mean Yukimura was a dragon too.

"Not possible…" She muttered to herself. A year ago, she thought it and had looked into his background. Nothing of importance stood out to her so she left it alone. She'd need to figure out why he was able to see everything, though.

But when it came to Yukimura, there was another thing that concerned her. It was his quest for bettering himself. Normally this was desirable in anyone but in this case, he was becoming too interested in her family's background. Although it was a great favour that he was fixing her flower beds, she'd rather him not be there.

He'd know too much and in these times, finding trustworthy allies aside from the dragons was something Sumire didn't have time for. She didn't like the steadily increasing interest he had towards Sakuno. Unfortunately, that girl was so naïve that she'd take it for something else completely.

As of now, it was her and Sakuno against the world.

/_/_/

The white dragon hadn't spoken to her today nor last night. The battle had taken too much energy from him. It was after shielding his mistress from the monster's attack that he realized that his immortality was in danger.

His form may not regenerate into a new host if this one died. For many an hour, he struggled with acceptance that his existence was slowly becoming obsolete. Surely, this was his wish coming true?

'…Brother…'

His golden eyes snapped open, agitated at the voice he heard after so many centuries. It was Rakshasa, his twin in birth, the yellow scaled, white eyed dragon.

'Rakshasa…brother, your form is weak, why?'

'Disbelief. The repugnant human prevents the full awakening.'

'Join with us and your form will strengthen. Where are you? We will seek your host.'

'I know not, brother. But soon, we will meet. For now, I demand to discuss the previous night's events regarding the Oracle.'

'Yes, it has been born into this era as well. I will continue to guide it.'

'…My trust is in you, brother. All the hosts have gathered together in the same timeline. Does this mean the end of our punishment?'

The white dragon uncurled its spiked tail and clenched its claws.

'Yes, Rakshasa, we will be free soon.'