Hello everyone,

I just wanted to thank everyone for the kind words and PM's. Now this chapter is a little longer for a good reason there are a sequence of events that couldn't be broken up to lead to one great moment. this chapter is RATED M for a reason. IF you have a problem with two women having sex please don't read. Aside from that I tried to name a Japanese island and if I botched the meaning I am very sorry I used google translate. as always I dont own Mai Hime or the Bodyguard.

~Snow


She led Natsuki, and Nina to her car. Reito, and Midori stayed behind to preform damage control and cancel all of Willow's future concert dates. With her nondescript car they slipped from the estate unnoticed. She wound around the mountain and down into town. She checked her mirrors, and backtracked and double backed in the city then came to a gate. Natsuki constantly looked around and watched and wondered where the next threat was going to come from. Shizuru watched as she shifted in her seat uncomfortable with the stop. Shizuru hit buttons on the key pad then the gate opened. They drove by trees and then the trees opened into a concrete strip of land with a large building. Shizuru drove up the building and hit a button similar to a garage door opener. When a smaller door opened she pulled her car into the building and instructed Natsuki and Nina to get out of the car. She popped the trunk of they all retrieved their bags and nervously followed Shizuru in the dark garage. When they all turned the corning in the garage Natsuki paused. There were cars. Not just any cars. There were Jaguars, Ferraris, Mercedes, and bikes, Natsuki almost swooned when she saw the motorcycle collection. Natsuki looked to Shizuru.

"Who are you?" asked Natsuki amazed. Shizuru smiled.

"Far more than you would ever think to imagine," Shizuru replied softly and a bit sadly.

"How can you afford this?" Natsuki asked bluntly as Shizuru began walking again. How to answer a question without completely giving away her life's story. The truth is easiest.

"I never knew my father but he knew or knows of me. He is more like a silent benefactor, than a father. He stayed away but provided for my mother and me. To be perfectly honestly with you being in Japan sends shivers up my spine knowing that he could be right next to me and I wouldn't know it," Shizuru shared then she hit a button on a wall and the roof retracted just like another garage door opener but this time the ceiling opened up and light streamed in. There in a sun provided spotlight was a helicopter and Shizuru walked toward the machine.

"So your father owns everything," Natsuki derived from Shizuru's uncharacteristic moment in which she shared part of her life. Shizuru paused and looked up at the chopper and stuffed her hands in her pockets. Natsuki saw the sadness in Shizuru's up turned gaze and almost reached out for her hand to comfort the woman she loved but stayed her actions.

"This is all mine from the land the airstrip lay on to the machines in side of this building," Shizuru spoke lowly then reached out a hand to the helicopter door.

"I don't understand how does your father have anything to do with this?"

"Because in some twisted way my dad is my boss, and in a further twisted way the company he runs made me who I am. The killer you know," Shizuru leaned down and reached for Nina, "Come Nina let's get you strapped in."

Natsuki climbed into the helicopter with a sense of never learning all of Shizuru's secrets. Could she live with that act and still love a woman that kept her life from her?

"Where are we going?" asked Natsuki in to her headphones as Shizuru fired up the engine. Shizuru slipped on her aviator sunglasses and lifted them into the air.

"My mother's."

The sun had fallen by the time they'd landed and gotten loaded into a car and then a short drive to the small boat on a shore. It was cold and Natsuki and Nina shivering in the boats wheelhouse. Frost began to creep along the windows as the boat sped along the water going further north. It was late October and she knew cold front was due to blow across the nation but she never imagined she would be traveling so far north on the open seas. Natsuki shivered, standing close to Shizuru as the stood shoulder to shoulder.

Shizuru inhaled and exhaled taking in the scent of Natsuki. Shizuru looked down and saw Nina huddled in blankets and her coat passed out from the rocking boat. She looked forward and saw it then pointed out the light house for Natsuki to see. Natsuki nodded still shivering.

"Another hour and I promise you and Nina will be huddled in a warm futon next to a roaring fire. I'm sorry to take you so far from what you know but this is how I can see protecting you until we figure things out with the guy," Shizuru said. Natsuki shrugged.

"I just didn't think I was going to be meeting one of your parents under such circumstances," Natsuki joked as her teeth clattered.

"After our recent disputes I didn't think you would want to have anything to do with me," Shizuru confessed as the shore line of the small island loomed closer and closer. Natsuki sighed deeply and turned to Shizuru and bade Shizuru look at her. Their eyes met and both were caught by the confessions that only eyes could reveal.

"I was frustrated, am frustrated because what I want keeps running away from me," Natsuki whispered. Natsuki pressed a finger to Shizuru's lips before she could respond. "I can't bear to hear you say you can't right now," Natsuki looked forward out the window, "It breaks my heart when you do."

Shizuru nodded but took a chance and pulled Natsuki to her side and shared her warmth with her for one moment, one quiet moment before they pulled to the dock on the shore. What they didn't notice were the small twinkling eyes of a hopeful little girl watching two love struck fools.

Natsuki and Nina stood on the dock with their bags and watched as a woman flanked by two other younger women came toward them. Natsuki watched the graceful figure come closer and closer in heavy black pea coats, thick black pants, and boots. Natsuki's eyes furrowed when she looked to the woman's face. Not one single line, wrinkle, or flaw. Where Shizuru's eyes were the color of dried blood this woman had eyes the color of rain, a blue-grey so milky that only way to describe them were the color of rain clouds. Natsuki looked from the woman then the Shizuru as Shizuru walked up to the woman. There was a twinkle in both of their eyes. Then arms wound around bodies. When they broke looks the woman looked at Shizuru, and nodded in understanding.

"Mother this is Natsuki Kuga and her daughter Nina Kuga. Natsuki and Nina this is my mother High Priestess of the temple we shall be staying at. Her name is Hanako Fujino," Shizuru introduced the woman.

"This is Aya and Emi, and they will take your things and get you set up within the temple," Hanako looked at Natsuki. Natsuki felt her stare weigh her down, and look at her as if she were looking for something more than just a singer or a woman. It was as if she were looking for a reason to the question why. Then her milky gaze landed on her daughter and where Natsuki straightened her back and pretended to be keep her composure she watched Shizuru naturally and easily regard her mother. The way Shizuru looked upon her mother stood out.

"This is the woman?" Hanako asked with a gentleness to her voice and Shizuru nodded. When the woman's gaze fell on Natsuki for a second time if was different as if there was acceptance in her eyes instead of suspicion.

"You are a flower child, Hanako. You name is pretty," spoke a small voice. Shizuru laughed as Hanako regarded the child surprised. Shizuru lifted Nina in her arms and smiled. Shizuru's mother tiled her head regarding the scene of her daughter with a child and a smile lit up her face.

"Come, it is cold and dinner is being served. I will have your food sent to you please settle in. We can talk tomorrow until then welcome to Omoide no Shima," Hanako paused as she inhales and closed her eyes and looked to her daughter while carrying a child, "the Island of Memories."

Shizuru and Natsuki followed behind the mysterious woman as Shizuru shifted Nina to her back. Natsuki's nervous heart beat picked up a notch. Settling down in the houses they placed the bodyguard and the family were apart from the priestesses, and for that she was thankful.

Natsuki woke the next morning to the sounds of nature, birds, and swaying trees. She lay on her back in the smaller room on her surprisingly comfortable futon and stared at the ceiling, thinking. Shizuru looked just like her mother. Her mother knew something she did not that was very apparent. Then when Shizuru lifted Nina in her arms like her own guardian or a daughter the mother's eyes lit up. When she looked at Natsuki it was calculating but not malicious. Natsuki sighed as her craving for caffeine over rolled her desire to stay in her warm bed. The old traditional styled house was actually warmer than she expected and she walked into the living room and toward the kitchen area in hopes of coffee and a coffee maker. What she found as she silently slipped into the room was a kneeling Shizuru in the garb of a Shinto priestess. Red bottoms, and white top, and her hair drawn back.

She watched at Shizuru stood and put something together in front of her blocking Natsuki's view. Natsuki leaned against the entrance way and crossed her arms comfortable watching Shizuru. Then a pole made of folding parts appears with a large slightly curved blade attached to it. Natsuki knew it was a modified naginata and watched amazed at the grace in which Shizuru wielded the weapon in the room. You could hears Shizuru's feet lightly pound the floor matting, and you can hear her even breathing as she twisted turned, and spun her weapon. Natsuki watched her face and saw a mask of stone, and a faraway look as if she were not even there. She fought with such intensity in that small space as her breathing grew deeper, then she gasped and dropped her naginata and dropped to her knees on the floor clutching her shoulder. Natsuki rushed to her side and knelt in front of Shizuru. Shizuru's pain etched on her face as she let Natsuki move her hand from her shoulder. Natsuki was about to move the cloth to the side before Shizuru's hand caught her and stopped her.

"No, don't, I'm fine," She panted from the pain and the exertion. She made it to her knees and stayed kneeling in front of Natsuki as Natsuki did the same.

"I was wounded a very long time ago protecting someone I loved more than life its self," Shizuru confessed between breaths. Natsuki noticed it was the same place on her upper chest and shoulder that Reito had touched weeks ago, when Natsuki found her on the floor in the pool house.

"What's going on, Shizuru? I noticed that my brother and you can't be within 100 feet of each other or you both are about to collapse. I asked him what his relationship with you was once. I even asked if you two were lovers," Natsuki confessed blushed when she heard Shizuru laugh. Natsuki turned to the sound and smiled in return.

"He laughed just as you did, and by the way I miss the sound of your laugh. In high school you laughed all the time. God I remember when you were flocked by boys and girls alike just to be noticed. You were very popular," Natsuki said as she sat back on the floor and pulled her knees to her chest afraid that the confession would ruin her in Shizuru's eyes.

"I'll tell you a story. You can believe it or not. The facts around why this happened, to a specific unnamed high school boy and girl are still a mystery that makes no difference to solve," Shizuru paused and Natsuki nodded,

"One day a girl's life changed by an unlikely turn of events. Fuka Academy became a battleground and girls were forced to fight each other to save the people they cherish the most in this world. The details of the battles were not important but you were allowed two weapons. One particular little girl was quite good with a naginata," Shizuru smiled sadly at Natsuki as she watched her friend enthralled in the story, "Well in order to keep their loved ones safe and out of harm's way the girls had to fight each other," Shizuru looked into her hands as if she could still see the blood staining her skin, "Some people were better killers than others, some people were better at keeping their cherished one alive. Natsuki I…"

Shizuru couldn't get the words out. She couldn't let her finish the story. She just confessed she was a killer for the person she loved she just confessed that Reito was somehow involved but she was afraid Natsuki wouldn't understand.

"It was real," Natsuki whispered. Shizuru slowly looked up to Natsuki and didn't see a woman in disbelief, or a woman shunning her existence but a woman who had just had a secret verified. Something she believed was real and everyone thought was fake was a real, flesh and bone, live or die truth. Natsuki's eyes were wide and her lips wormed and 'O' as Shizuru nodded.

"That's why you were missing towards the end of senior year. How does Reito factor into the mix, he's not a girl?"

"He was the spiritual puppet of the Obsidian Prince," Shizuru confessed softly, "We are the only two that survived. He feels the pain I inflicted upon him during a final fight, and so do I since he used a poisoned sword. It was no one's fault just that of the tide of destiny."

Natsuki's head shook as she spoke softly with tears in her eyes, "Did Reito kill those girls as the Obsidian Prince?"

"I don't know," Shizuru lied. She knew for a fact her was responsible for at least three deaths but she was responsible for so much more. Shizuru sat back and watched as Natsuki digested all of this knowledge.

"I don't even know why I wanted to know all of this. It was so horrible. It was ugly and disgusting," Natsuki looked at Shizuru with a mixture of horror and disbelief, "How could you have done those things, Shizuru?" Natsuki whispered. Shizuru knew the question would come but she wasn't ready for the reality of the inquiry. She stood slowly, and spoke softly, gently, and sadly.

"When the person I loved was threatened nothing would stop me from protecting them. May it be my own life of the life of another, my loves life will be safe. I'm sorry Natsuki. I know this changes everything but I will not lie to you," Shizuru knelt back to her knees then placed her finger tips together and placed her head to the mat before Natsuki.

"I can't change the past, all I can do is ask for your forgiveness and the forgiveness of all those I have killed," Shizuru pleaded then slowly stood up and looked Natsuki in her green eyes, eyes full of sadness, then walked away to the sliding door.

"Who were you protecting?' Natsuki called out. Shizuru let a tear roll from her eyes and she brushed it away. She didn't look at the woman, she knew the woman watched her , she feel her eyes on her back. Shizuru shook her head. And whispered only one word.

"You."

She heard the gasp behind her. She heard the woman move to reach out for her. She remembered a time when she would have loved to have Natsuki reaching out to her, wanting, never letting her go, but at that moment all Shizuru wanted was to fix this situation and get off this Island of Memories.

The purification rituals had been finished and Shizuru walked quickly to the main temple house to take a shower she refused to go back to the house right not when the memories of Natsuki's face had haunted her during her rituals. She showered quickly and noticed a pair of jeans, heavy, socks, undergarments, and a heavy sweater laid out for her once she was through. When she walked from the shower to the exit she placed her hand on the door not wanting to go outside not wanting to be near a woman that despised her. With a deep breath she shouldered her responsibility and walked out on to the deck that went around the house and then connected to the house where Natsuki, Nina and Shizuru were staying. She shook her head when she was met with a welcome site of her mother in her priestess garb and a blanket over her legs looking out over the garden with a cup of tea and a teapot waiting. Shizuru sat and took her tea and sighed watching water vapor escape her mouth. They looked out over the perfect scene of manicured bushes, and stone walkways, and of course a pond with a traditional bridge flanked by a Zen sand garden.

"You told her then?" asked Hanako but with a finite tone. Shizuru wished there was something stronger than tea at the moment in time. Then as if reading her mind Hanako dropped liquid in the tea and Shizuru smiled and sipped.

"Did you tell her she was the person you were protecting?" Hanako whispered. He mother knew better than anyone that talking about the Hime's most treasured people was slightly taboo but this was her mother, a person she could never hide from and trusted with her life. Shizuru nodded once again, then stared at the tea in her cup as memories flooded her.

"You know I hate this island mother," Shizuru stated.

"I know and so do I. It is like the ancient Greek Temples of Mnemosyne when people would pilgrimage to worship the goddess of memories. Some would give up their memories and become blank slates and some would face their memories. Others would meditate and reflect on their memories. For some reason this place has always brought out the very best and the very worst memories in people. That's why I named it as such. You need to face your past daughter, but I think you already knew that and have begun that process," Hanako looked out over the garden. It was in these small moments when Shizuru felt her mother was the epitome of wisdom and grace.

Shizuru looked up from her tea cup and looked in her mother's line of sight. Raven colored hair black mixed with blues danced on the cold breeze as Natsuki stood on the bridge and looked at Shizuru. It was an open look but a look that Shizuru could not read. She continued to watch the woman then Natsuki's gaze broke as Nina ran into her mother's arms. Shizuru smiled as Natsuki spun with the girl and raised her high above her head then back down into a hug to her chest.

"I was shocked to see that motherhood looked so good on you, Shizuru," spoke Hanako. Shizuru knew her mother well enough to know that was not a tease but the truth. They do not speak of motherhood in jesting terms. Shizuru absently rubbed a spot in her lower abdomen where Rieto stabbed her and ruined all of those chances for motherhood. In a way she surmised that as the reason why she lived her live so recklessly. She would never have the chance to form a relationship let alone have a child and then there came Nina.

"I love that child mother as if I had given birth to her myself. I don't know what it is but that child had stolen what was left of my heart," Shizuru confided in Hanako.

"If this were the festival who would you be fighting for, Nina or Natsuki?"

"I can't answer that question for I love them both. I love Natsuki as a lover would and I Nina as a mother would. I have heard that the bond of motherhood is more powerful than those of a lover so I am very grateful I am not in the festival right now. I wouldn't have a chance. I'm too close," Shizuru waved back to Nina as the little girl waved from the bridge.

"I will be taking Nina tonight to sleep in the main house. You and Natsuki need to settle things. The child is sensitive and she knows more than she lets on and knows you and Natsuki are not right with each other," Hanako finally looked at her daughter sternly, "I am not saying bed the girl but Shizuru, my daughter, you both need each other tonight."

"How do you know mother?" Shizuru asked as her mother made to collect the tea and the blanket when Nina came running on the deck toward them.

"I talked to her, and she is in the same state as you, confused as hell," Hanako admitted with a smile then, "Hello Nina, what do you say you spend the night with us in the temple tonight and you see how her do things as priestesses. Maybe make you and honorary priestess for tonight."

"Mama, can I go with Grandma Hanako?" Nina sweetly asked and both Shizuru and Natsuki looked to Hanako wondering about the grandma title. But the saw the woman smile warmly and stretch out her hand to the little girl taking her hand.

"They won't mind Nina," Hanako shot them both a glance and then walked away with the child leaving both women in her wake.

"I didn't think my mother would take Nina so quickly," smiled Shizuru.

"I didn't think she would like being called a grandma by a child not of her own blood," spoke Natsuki surprised.

"She will take what she can get, and I love Nina as if she were my own," Shizuru turned to Natsuki, "If that is ok with you?"

"Oh of course, she loves you too," Natsuki looked down and played with the boards under feet, "Look we need to talk, I mean really talk, but I'm nervous."

"I'm sorry you are nervous around me, I know it hard to talk to someone like me," Shizuru started but cut short as Natsuki threw her hands in the air.

"You need to stop that. What happened to that confident, independent young woman in high school? Sometimes you are so self-deprecating and self-hating it drives me insane," Natsuki shouted, "I'm not afraid of you or nervous that you will kill me. I'm nervous because I love you so damn much and I'm afraid you will run away from me again."

Shizuru sighed and nodded glad that her confession that morning didn't make Natsuki hate her but they did need to talk. Shizuru walked Natsuki to the house they stayed in and once there they agreed there were hungry as it had gotten late and cold. Dinner was a silent affair for two women who needed to talk so badly then Shizuru walked to the door and opened it and motioned for Natsuki to get their jackets.

They began a walk that took them along lantern lit paths as they began to walk they began to speak and finally they found themselves back at their house and they sat on the deck just as Shizuru and Hanako had.

"We are skirting the real issue here Natsuki," Shizuru said sounding like her old self slightly playful.

"Yeah I guess we are. I'll go first," Natsuki took a deep breath, "Since you came back into my life I have begun to see my life in different shades of color, and found myself asking what if. What if you stayed with us? What if you didn't love me? What if we had gotten together in high school? I was shocked this morning when you said I was that person for you. I felt blessed to be loved that much. I often thought of us in high school and how you teased me mercilessly, and flirted. God could you flirt and I knew if you would have asked me to go out or something I would have."

"HA! Oh Natsuki, dear, you would not have. You would have played hard to get and that was one quality of many for which drew me to you. I too have been playing the what if game and found myself losing sight of my real agenda here," Shizuru paused, "When you fell off that stage I felt it was my fault for putting my emotions ahead of my job. What if I paid more attention? What if you didn't fall?" Shizuru swallowed, and placed her hand on Natsuki's that sat on the deck between them but looked out over the garden, "I loved you back then in high school. I love you now. I believe I will love you always," then Shizuru looked at Natsuki and shook her head, "I can't. Not until we bury this person that threatens you." Shizuru stood up and held her hand for Natsuki and walked them back into the house. Shizuru walked Natsuki to her door.

"I'm glad we don't have to hide things from each other anymore," Natsuki said as she spun on her toes and went to kiss Shizuru's cheek but kissed the side of her mouth instead, and then she was surprised to find Shizuru tilt her head and give access to her lips in a chaste kiss good night.

"I'm glad you understand,' Shizuru breathed as their kiss broke. Natsuki turned into her room and slid the door shut. Shizuru walked to her room went in then shut the door behind her. She took a deep breath. She felt better but her insides squirmed and a yearning need for her friend was acutely evident. She stripped off her clothes in the glow of the moonlight as it hit the paper. And then threw the futon on the floor with a heavy blanket. She debated wearing clothes, of putting on pajamas and met that half way with only a robe to caress her skin, and left the sash on the side of the futon.

She heard steps in the house and quickly reached for her gun and pointed it at the door as it swung open. Shizuru watched as Natsuki walked it to her room and looked down at Shizuru holding the gun pointed at her. Shizuru was stunned into stone. Natsuki came into her room in nothing but a robe except belted. Natsuki touched the gun and pushed it to the side and knelt to the floor.

"May I sleep with you tonight like I used to? Except for one request," Natsuki asked huskily. Shizuru swallowed noisily.

"What might that be?" Shizuru whispered. Natsuki leaned into Shizuru and then slowly, slowly, slowly, lay half on top of her and half to the side. Shizuru's gun was forgotten as she placed it to the side of the futon.

"Sleep with me, Shizuru. I want to wake up in each other's arms," Natsuki said as she slowly lowered her body into the side of Shizuru's and her head on Shizuru's shoulder.

"I see you are not giving me much choice in the matter," Shizuru joked tensely.

"No, I am not," Natsuki affirmed as she curled into Shizuru and against her better judgment Shizuru relaxed and let her arm cradle Natsuki to her. It was heavenly for both women as they simply lay I the others space. The night moved on and neither person moved for fear of ruining the moment. Finally sleep took the women.

Shizuru's dreams taunted her, and moved just out of reach, and then she finally caught the nymph like body and stood skin to skin, flesh to flesh with her dreams. Her mouth caught Natsuki's in Shizuru's dreams and she moaned. Then the dream began to fade and her arms her heavy, and there was a weight across her legs pinning her down. Shizuru slowly woke never wanting the dream to fade but afraid reality was nothing more than her dreams. Her eyes opened and looked around the room from on her back. Natsuki wound herself around her and Shizuru found the reason her departure from her dreams.

Natsuki's hot breath on her naked breast sent chills up and down her spine. And then her thigh had slipped between her own and pressed into her, drawing forth a slick wetness. She wished she would have worn pajamas last night but then she saw Natsuki was in the same situation in terms of clothing. Shizuru inhaled and caught the scent of them together and she swallowed. Natsuki then moved her thigh, and Shizuru tried not to moan but the gods were not kind. Natsuki's eyes fluttered open and looked down at herself and then up into Shizuru's eyes and saw raw unbridled lust coloring her eyes blood red. Natsuki licked her lips and moved once more and watched as Shizuru closed her eyes and arched her back. Natsuki now close to Shizuru's lips spoke.

"Tell me you can't and I'll stop," Natsuki's breathe tickled Shizuru's lips she was that close and slowly dropping her head closer. Shizuru swallowed and closed her eyes.

"I can't," Shizuru willed herself to say. Natsuki rolled off of Shizuru but then found herself on her back. Shizuru pinned her to the futon and looked down at her hovering close to her. Her thigh between Natsuki's, her hips brushing hers, and as she breathed deeply her breasts caressed hers. Natsuki swallowed as she saw Shizuru lick her lips.

"I said I can't not, that I won't," Shizuru softly growled then caught Natsuki's lips. Natsuki's eyes closed as she melted finally into the arms her angel. Finally after so long Natsuki could taste Heaven in Shizuru's lips, and hell in the way Shizuru teased her body, coaxed her to react to her touch. She never thought that loving Shizuru would be so urgent, yet slow at the same time. She arched as lips found her breast and she was lost into Shizuru's love.

The moment she gave in was the moment she knew she would never want to go back, and Natsuki was hers forever. She knew as soon as she felt Natsuki slick warm velvet that she was this woman's slave until her dying day. Her dreams would taunt her no longer. Her reality was far more pleasing. When Natsuki matched her rhythm, their dance brought them both to climax as Shizuru undulated against Natsuki's thigh. She collapsed on top of Natsuki and Natsuki's arms went around her shoulders and kissed her hair her temple, her cheeks, and finally softly her lips. Shizuru looked up into Natsuki's eyes, deep green from lust. Shizuru's sad look gazed away. Natsuki pulled her gaze back to look at her.

"Please don't tell me you regret this," Natsuki pleaded softly. She let a breath go when Shizuru shook her head and caressed Natsuki's shoulder and neck and cheeks and hair.

"Then what is it, Shizuru?"

"I want more but I don't know how to ask you," Shizuru admitted shyly. Natsuki laughed and flipped them over.

"I think you did just fine lover," Natsuki moaned as Shizuru's thigh met Natsuki once more. Then they both dove into the pool of sacred love between two people where destiny made their paths inevitable to avoid.