I do not own FY, I do own Karen Ha…and this story…the outcome…which I have no idea what that is at the moment! Heheh…

A Sweet Tooth

Tasuki closed his eyes and breathed in slowly, not turning around to face Karen. He couldn't. Not after what he almost did.

It kept replaying in his mind.

The fear in her eyes.

The way her body shook in her attempts to stay a bit calm.

The way she plead that he'd return to normal.

And then…

She didn't leave his side, she wouldn't. Not even when he was sure she knew she could have faced the worst if she hadn't.

She still had trusted him.

Why?

"Tasuki?" she asked, breaking his thoughts.

He tensed and lowered his gaze in front of him.

"Tasuki, please look at me?" she begged.

"I…can't." Tasuki admitted.

"You weren't yourself, Tasuki…it's fine, I mean--" she was cut off by his almost harsh laugh.

"This has happened before. I'm not any stronger than a regular man when it comes to testosterone! I can't even protect those that I vow to protect!" he was hurt by his words, and scared that he could hurt those close to him, especially her.

She stepped closer to him slowly. "Tasuki, don't say that. You battled it, you won."

"Yea, barely. And it's not a victory if it was my fault." he bit out coldly.

Karen glared at his back, "Tasuki, you better look at me right now."

"No."

Karen stepped closer and grabbed his hair, pulling at it, "Tasuki! Damnit! Look at me!"

"OW! Hey!" He yelled as his lowered defense made it able for her to pull him to face her.

She ducked down in front of him. He froze and stared at her. Speechless.

"Tasuki." she said calmly and put her hands on his shoulders, assuring him she wasn't angry at all. "You scared me. But you aren't half as bad as the men that are around that would hurt girls just to hurt them. In any way." he looked down a bit to the side, he wasn't even trying to look at her body. He knew what it looked like and he didn't want to scare her again or make her uncomfortable. "You are probably the strongest guy I know, Genrou." she used his bandit name.

He looked up at her quickly at the name. She smiled then, a warm glimmer of hope in her eyes. "But…"

"Tasuki, it happened. It's over. Let it be over. Ok?" she said.

He hesitated and then she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him to her as if she would do it normally to anyone else. As if he was never a threat to her. He tensed a bit and after a few seconds, relaxed as much as he had since she came to Konan.

"Please Tasuki, stop beating yourself up over it. You're more of a man than that and you know it, and believe it with all of your being. So stop worrying."

His arms found their way around her back as he lowered her head over her shoulder and returned the embrace. "I can't promise that but I can promise I'll try everything not to do that again."

Karen smiled a bit, he could feel it against his neck, "That's enough for me."

When they broke the embrace, Tasuki stared into her eyes and smirked some.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Your eyes…are really green."

Karen smiled, "Yea, though it's hard to tell, I've been told."

Tasuki shrugged and stood up, changing the subject and walked to the bars. He frowned, "Man…"

Karen stepped up beside him and looked at them, "Yea. Pretty strong."

"No, not really." Tasuki shrugged and Karen looked at him strangely and kicked the door off it's hinges.

Karen gasped, "Man! Where was that when I needed it!" she jested.

Tasuki wasn't too amused and walked out of the cell block. He looked around, "Anyone 'ere!" he called out.

"Tasuki!" Karen blanched, "What are you doing! You could give our escape away!"

Tasuki looked at her strangely, "I was figuring out if the others were in this dungeon."

"Oh…well, I guess they aren't." she muttered.

"That means they're on the other side of the palace." Tasuki sighed and walked up the steps, Karen right on his heels.

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The leader sighed, "I love the smell of death to be."

One of the soldiers raised his brow at the boss and shook his head and walked off, 'He's finally lost it.'

The leader smirked, "This woman will not bring peace to Konan and the other countries. Kutou will be the strongest again, ruler of them all." he smirked.

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Tasuki and Karen slipped past the other guards and Tasuki knocked out the guards in front of the dungeon when they had to.

Karen walked down the corridor in front of the cells, "They aren't here…"

"Karen?" they heard Hotohori's voice, barely.

Tasuki looked around, "They here…but…where?"

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"They can't see us, you know?" Chichiri said.

"But they can barely hear us, right? I mean, she heard Hotohori…" Nuriko said.

"A bit…I have to make the hole a little bigger." Chichiri said and focused his energy more on the gap in the shield surrounding their cell.

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Tasuki shivered and looked at the same cell Karen was looking at strangely. "Tasuki…something is weird about this cell."

"Yea." Tasuki agreed and stepped beside her, "Stand back."

Karen nodded and stood behind Tasuki.

"Rekka Shinen!" he chanted loudly and the enchanted flames hit an invisible wall against the bars of the cell. "I knew it!" he growled, "Bloody bastards!" he called and let out another wave of fire.

Karen gasped as some guards came down at the commotion, "Oh dear…keep at it Tasuki." she whispered, patting his shoulders and stepped between him and the guards.

Tasuki looked over, "Shit…"

"No, keep it up." she said in a scared voice, "I'll buy some time…"

Tasuki looked at her strangely and nodded slowly, "Right." his gaze became more intense on the cell, "C'mon guys! Put some force into it!" he yelled and the other seishi gasped and nodded. They all began to focus their energy on the hole to widen it. Chichiri's barrier would protect them from Tasuki's flames so they didn't worry about that.

Tasuki waved his fan around a bit, "Rekka Shinen!" he yelled again, the hole widening slowly but surely.

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Karen smirked, "You guys wouldn't gang up on a defenseless girl, wouldya?"

The guard in front smirked, "We're ordered to kill you."

Karen paled some and coughed a bit, "Well, do you always follow orders?"

"For our lives, yes." the leader retorted and launched towards Karen.

She let out a small yelp as his sword sliced into her stomach as she barely dodged.

Tasuki and the others finally broke the barrier as he kicked the cell open, "C'mon!" he yelled.

They ran out of the cell beside Tasuki and gasped, "Karen?" Houki cried.

Karen was leaning against a cell block, holding a gash in her stomach that was clearly losing a lot of blood quickly.

The guard kicked her legs from beneath her and lifted his sword, ignoring Houki's cry and lowered his sword to kill Karen.

Karen closed her eyes and ducked down, as if that would save her life.

CLANG

Karen quickly looked up and saw Tasuki with his harison against the sword, about an inch away from her neck. He glared at the guard. "Back off."

The guard stepped back some and looked over to see the rest of the seishi standing there, Hotohori unsheathing his sword. "We will not be fooled again." he said royally.

Houki and Boushin stood behind the others as Nuriko put his hands on his hips and smirked, "You guys didn't think we'd let you win, did you?"

In an instant, Nuriko picked up the fallen door and threw it at them, knocking them all down and unconscious as their heads ricocheted off the floor. It was a miracle they didn't all die.

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Karen began to stand up and fell back, wincing. Mitsukake walked up and knelt beside her quickly, "You've lost a lot of blood. You should rest." he held his hand over Karen's stomach as the wound began to heal.

Tasuki was seeing red. This had to stop. It was bad enough that he could have hurt Karen but someone had actually tried to kill her, again!

This was not fairing well under Tasuki's skin.

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Reviews please .