A/N: Just in case anyone was confused, Kyoko's wings are on her back, and she has normal human arms. She doesn't have wing-arms like Papi.

~ Fields of Heaven ~

Ren felt vaguely horrified at the harpy's behavior.

"None of that," he said. "You're not a servant. Stand up."

"But, Master..." Kyoko protested, no doubt confused by him telling her she wasn't a servant and then in the same breath giving her an order.

"My name is Ren. Call me 'Ren', not 'Master'," he said, frowning as he strode to where she was kneeling on the cool tiles of the kitchen floor.

He leaned down and placed his hands on her elbows, gently pulling her to her feet. She was tiny. The top of her head barely came up to his chest.

"Ren-sama," she murmured, as if trying out the sound of it.

"No '-sama', either," the actor said, frowning. "Just 'Ren'."

"Ren," she repeated, blushing at the lack of formality.

"Yes, that's good," he said, resisting the urge to pat her on the head. Just because she was small and somewhat dimwitted didn't mean she should be treated like a child. Even though she could easily pass for younger, she was of marriageable age.

"OK! Let's start over from the beginning!" Kyoko exclaimed, hopping up and down in her excitement. She backed away from him a few steps and gave a quick, shallow bow. "Welcome home, Ren!"

Not knowing how else to respond, the actor smiled and said, "I'm home."

"Dinner is ready!" the harpy chirped. "Yashiro-san and Moko-san already ate and they went to bed a while ago, but I was waiting for you."

"Thank you for waiting," Ren said sincerely. "Let's eat."

He really didn't feel like eating, but he didn't want to upset the girl by refusing to join her for dinner after she had postponed her own meal so that they could dine together.

After dinner, Kyoko gave Ren a quick tour of the house and then they retired to their separate bedrooms for the night.

It was only when he starting to drift off that Ren realized he had forgotten to ask her what species the other non-human girl who lived with them was.

Agent Smith awakened suddenly, jerking upright in her chair.

She had fallen asleep at her desk and was now suffering from a quite horrendous case of Waffle Face from having spent several hours with her right cheek pressed firmly against her computer's keyboard.

"Hmm... what was I doing? Oh right, paperwork... Oh, well. It's just the routine stuff and I can finish filling it out tomorrow. It's way past time for me to be out of here already," she said to herself as she quickly gathered her things, then left the office.

Of course, tomorrow she would have to deal with a phone call from a distraught middle-aged woman who was supposed to be the new host family for a mistreated otherspecies girl who had been scheduled for an emergency placement, but Smith had no way of knowing that.

A more competent Interspecies Exchange Coordinator (or at least one who was less lazy about filing their paperwork) would have most likely realized their mistake, but while Smith had the capacity to be competent when the situation called for it, she was also a fan of letting the universe sort out her personal failings rather than admitting that she'd made a mistake in the first place.

Kanae was awakened by the feeling of her prey - ahem, her potential future husband that is - shifting uncomfortably within the confines of her coils.

"What's wrong, Yuki?" she asked. "Do you need to go use the bathroom or something?"

"Ha ha, no," Yashiro answered with an embarrassed laugh. "I thought I heard something... but when I tried to get up, I couldn't... and I kind of panicked before I remembered..."

Kanae might have felt a bit insulted that he'd forgotten about her so quickly, but she had been disoriented upon waking up as well. It was a good thing she hadn't tightened her coils without thinking, or she might have seriously injured him!

"Huh... what you heard was probably just Tsuruga getting home, or him and the little harpy girl going to bed."

"You don't know which...?"

"Of course I don't. I slept through whatever you heard. I didn't wake up until you started thrashing."

"I was not thrashing."

"Then what would you call it? Flailing?"

"I wasn't flailing, either!"

"What are you so embarrassed about? So, you heard a sound in the middle of the night and panicked, so what?" He relaxed, relieved she didn't think him a coward, when she continued, "Don't worry, you have me to protect you."

~to be continued~