A/N: This chapter is Rated M due to containing Lemon (That's sex for any noobs.) If this offends you I recommend you skip the first half of this Chapter. You have been warned.

In Memory of Alex
...
Rockstar to the end

Ronin

Chapter Ten

As soon as the Spartan PMC choppers returned, the contractors disembarked and returned to their HQ building with barely a word said until they returned to their team ready rooms and started their post-mission rituals.

"Phew!" Kohta sighed as he peeled off his sweat-soaked body armour, stripping the kit off his body armour and turned it in for cleaning. "Well, that was fun."

"Too right," Dino replied as he flipped on the coffee machine in the corner. "And you nearly got your arse chowed again mate! Looks like the first rounds on you tonight!"

"Fair enough." Kohta laughed. It was a long-standing Spartan tradition that whoever came the closest to getting killed in the last mission bought the first round of drinks in the bar when they got back.

"Speaking of which…" Tex cut in, "Mary, Kohta, get your gear in for cleaning, then get upstairs and get it outta your system. Rest of you get some food, take a shower, whatever makes you human. Post mission briefing at 17:00."

Mary's face hardened as she grabbed Kohta by the arm and practically dragged him out of the room by the elbow. Skye, Tex and Dino smiled at each other.

…

Mary forcefully dragged Kohta upstairs to her room in silence, although Kohta was making protests to being dragged and asking where she was taking him all the way up. She pushed him into her room and locked the door behind her.

"Mary?" Kohta asked, "What is this abou…"

Mary spun on her heels and without warning, punched him in the face. Hard.

"FUCKING ASSHOLE!" She screamed as he stumbled back, a stinging red mark forming on his face.

"What did I do?!" Kohta cried, confused. This just served to piss Mary off even more as she dived at him, red-faced and started screaming at him, punctuated her shouting with hitting while Kohta did his level best to block her without hurting her.

"WHY! ARE! YOU! ALWAYS! FUCKING! LIKE THIS?! YOU NEARLY GOT FUCKING KILLED! HOW ARE YOU SO FUCKING CALM?!"

"Well hang on," Kohta said, his hands up and just letting her pound on his chest. "You nearly got killed today too!"

"Don't you DARE change the subject, Kohta Hirano!" Mary seethed, having finally stopping pounding him and switching to pointing a slender finger in his face. "You nearly got killed and you're acting like you don't even care! Did you ever think about how I'd would feel if you died?!"

"Better me than you!" Kohta replied forcefully. Mary stopped as Kohta started ranting back. "You think I don't care?! Why do you think I told you to move first when we were on the stairs? I couldn't leave until you were out of harm's way!"

"What?! You think I can't take care of myself?!" Mary snapped. "Did you forget I'm a contractor too, Kohta? I knew and accepted the consequences same as you! Or was is because I'm a woman?!"

"Oh! You want to play the sex card, do you?!" Kohta shouted, properly angry now. "You know damn well I would've done the same thing if it was you! Or Skye! Or Tex! Dino! Krieger! Slater! Harry! Hobbs! Janet! Mike! Bill! Or even fucking Takashi! Because I have just about had enough of my friends getting killed when I could've saved them! So newsflash! I didn't do it because you're a woman! I did it because I…"

He hesitated.

"… Because I care about you, Mary." He finally admitted. "And I don't want to see another of my friends get killed on my watch. Man or Woman."

Kohta sank onto the bed and sat while Mary stared shocked. She didn't expect the argument to get so out of control like that. And she was just starting to realise what her life meant to Kohta.

"I didn't know you cared." She said softly, sitting down next to him on the bed. "You should safeguarded your own life before mine."

"Of course, I care," Kohta replied, eyes still fixed on the wall ahead. "But maybe I think my life isn't worth living if you're not in it."

Mary put her hand on the back of his head and he turned to look at her.

"Prove it."

He answered by pressing his lips to hers. He'd wanted this since he'd first met her, since he'd first seen her in combat, and since she'd held his hand at the passing of a comrade.

Kohta deepened the kiss, tentatively at first, as if he were still afraid that his feelings were one-sided, but deepened it into intensity as Mary parted her lips and brushed his with her tongue to try and draw his out. He gladly complied, one of his hands brushed itself through her fiery red hair as he pulled her close while the other explored the small of her back and descended lower along the smooth curve of her spine.

Mary broke the kiss and pulled away smiling. For a horrible moment, Kohta thought she'd changed her mind or that he'd gone too far. But such thoughts vanished as she ran the zipper on her zombie blood stained combat shirt and pulled it over her head, discarding it to the corner of the room and bent over before him and started pulling at the laces of her boots.

"Well don't just sit there." She said with a coy smile. "Do you want this or not?"

Kohta threw his shirt off a split second later and started on his boots. He just about had them off when Mary tackled him to the bed, stripped only to a white bra and panties, and started kissing him ferociously while thumbing with his belt buckle. Wasting no time in catching up, Kohta wrapped his arms around her back and squeezed the ample mounds of her buttocks causing her to moan sensually into his mouth as he continued to massage her posterior.

Mary eventually broke the kiss, a small bridge of saliva strung out between them as she worked her way upright and unfastened his belt buckle, pulling down his stained MultiCam trousers and revealing a pair of grey boxers beneath, with a noticeably pronounced bulge beneath them.

"Well now," Mary said, first staring at the budge in Kohta's boxers before lifting her gaze up to meet his eyes. "I must be doing something right."

"I doubt you could do wrong." Kohta murmured, still not quite believing that this was happening. She was beautiful, in face and body, and he couldn't help but gaze as he took in the shape of her. Her blood red hair had worked its way free of its bobble and now cascaded to its full length down her back, contrasting against her toned pale body which was marred by the occasional battle scar and curved in all the right places. His eyes paused at the lacy white bra that held her breasts before continuing downwards over the faintly pronounced abs to where his eyes stopped at the white lace panties that were practically sat on top of his manhood. Close enough that he could feel heat radiating from her and see the slightest shadow of a wet patch beginning to form…

Mary felt his manhood twitch below her, straining against the thin fabric that separated them. She smiled, feeling her own primal heat and arousal flare-up in turn. Without taking her eye of Kohta, she reached up and unhooked her bra. She felt him twitch against her womanhood as she discarded the item.

"Whoa…" Kohta murmured again as she threw away her bra and released her breasts. They were big and full, not as big as Skye's and nowhere near the size of Shizuka's, but slightly larger than Busujima's or Takagi's, and size highlighted by a light dusting of freckles on their upper slopes which only served to enhance their beauty and size. His hard-on throbbed to the point of almost being painful.

Still straddling him, Mary lay down on top of him, pressing her boobs against his muscular chest and once again claimed his lips for her own. This time their kiss was more passionate, desperate and lustful. As her boobs massaged his chest, Kohta once again reached over her back to her shapely ass. This time, he slipped his fingers beneath the hem of her panties and started to massage the raw flesh beneath. As his hands continued their work, kneading her sumptuous rump, he worked them lower and into the crack between buttocks until he came to a patch of warm, moist flesh.

Mary gasped and broke their kiss, moaning as she felt his fingers caress her womanhood. Kohta thought for a moment he'd done something horribly wrong before she shot him a look that begged him to keep going and started kissing him even more fiercely than before, moaning into his mouth as his fingers slipped inside her.

As his fingers explored the entrance to her cave, she snaked a hand down his body between them and past the hem of his boxers and took hold of his throbbing member. His eyes flew open at her touch, but he forced himself to relax as she began to massage manhood.

For a while they stayed that way, letting the heat and pressure build as they explored and fondled each other's bodies until they were forced their lips apart for air. Chests heaving, they looked into each other's eyes. They both wanted it.

Mary got off him and stood beside the bed, removing her panties while Kohta wriggled his boxers free of his hips before she threw them off completely and straddled him again, this time taking his throbbing vertical member in hand and positioning it near the damp heat of her entrance.

"Wait." Kohta paused, stopping her by placing a hand on her supporting elbow. She looked at him, almost angry that she had been stopped.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes." She said huskily, before slipping his member inside her.

Kohta's eyes widened as the feeling of warm, moist tightness engulfed him, both of them moaning in pleasure as he sank deeper into her. Kohta may have been a virgin, but Mary wasn't. He knew that, and encountered no resistance as he sank to his full depth inside her.

"Wow…" he sighed as she pulsed warmly around him. Mary chuckled lightly, blushing furiously as she ground her hips against his and shifted him inside her.

"Now you just relax and enjoy the ride mister." She replied sexily before she started to bounce up and down along his shaft. The feeling of his member sliding in and out of her was exquisite, he placed his hands on her hips and started to buck his hips in time with hers desperately trying to get deeper into her. He could feel the pressure beginning to build in his balls, he wasn't going to last long.

Mary was losing herself too. The movement and pleasure from her nether regions began to cloud over her senses to the point that she couldn't keep upright so fell forwards, pushing her arms out in front of her and to either side of Kohta to support herself. It was wild, the waves of pleasure came faster and harder with each thrust he made into her. Drawn breaths became grunts, moans, and then screams of ecstasy. Kohta wrapped his arms around the back of her neck and pulled her closer.

"Mary…" He moaned into her ear. "I'm gonna…"

"Do it." She replied. She could feel her own orgasm building inside her. "Do it now!"

They bucked harder and harder, the moans getting louder as their skin slapped together. They looked into each other's eyes until finally he grimaced and slammed his hips into hers, digging his fingers into her hips as his seed shot deep inside her, her walls clamping down around him as she let out a long, satisfied moan before they collapsed.

They lay there on top of each other for a moment, catching their ragged breath as they came down from their ecstasy filled bliss. Kohta regained his senses and looked at her as she lay just inches away on his chest. Her hair was a cascading mess, her skin was glowing from a thin sheen of sweat that had formed from their exertions, her face was flushed, and her chest was still heaving. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

He reached down and brushed a stray hair out of her eyes with the tip of his finger and tucked it in behind her ear; a gesture he'd always wanted to do to a woman. She looked up at him, her jade green eyes looking into him expectantly.

"Mary, I love you." He murmured at last. She smiled and moved forward to kiss him. He met her halfway and in that instant, they both felt more complete than they ever had.

…

Outside the room, leaning against the door having listened in on the goings on that her friends had been up to, Skye smiled to herself.

"About damn time." She said before she turned down the hallway to leave them in full privacy.

…

Two days after the battle of Tateraoi, most of the contractors involved had yet to buy themselves a single drink in their off time.

People were grateful. The Spartan Contractors, who when they first arrived some considered no better than bloodthirsty mercenaries, were seen as heroes who'd put themselves in harm's way to save others. The helicopter pilots, in particular, were doing well from the hero worship, but there was a rumour going around about a team of heroes who'd supposedly held off ten thousand zombies to protect a woman in labour and her baby.

Regardless, there was work to be done. Lord Takagi had a specific mission for them, and so Colonel Lail was summoned to the Prime Minister's office for a meeting.

"One of our outer settlements is having some trouble." Lord Takagi said, as ever sat at his desk with Saeko Busujima standing nearby.

"What kind of trouble?" asked Lail asked.

"I will be frank Colonel." Lord Takagi sighed. "The Niko Settlement is a problem. They persist in the belief that the infected are simply sick people that can be cured given time, treatment and research. They refuse SDF protection and leach off our supplies while giving only the bare minimum back. Now they ask for a generator and have finally asked for protection against the undead. However, they refuse to increase their tithes to the state in return."

"Right…" Lail replied. He knew the type of people, and also knew that his contractors hated these kinds of gigs. Lord Takagi continued.

"While I am forced to grant their request for a new generator, I will also be sending one of my…" He paused for a moment while he searched for the right word. "Fiercer ministers to impress upon them the importance of shipping their tithes."

Lail couldn't help but notice a smile form on Miss Busujima's face at the Prime minister's choice of words when describing the minister.

"I see. So, what do you require of us?" Lail asked "A personal protection detail for your minister?" Lord Takagi shook his head.

"No." He said, and gestured towards Miss Busujima. "I shall be sending Busujima-san along to act as a personal bodyguard for the minister. I require your contractors to provide transport and to undertake other operations during the negotiations."

"Other operations?"

"The Niko settlement claim they cannot go out and scavenge due to the numbers of infected in the area, yet will do nothing to reduce their numbers," Takagi answered. "So, you will reduce their numbers for them."

"I understand Kakka," Lail replied. "When do they leave?"

"Tomorrow at dawn."

"I'll have a team ready. Please excuse me."

…

Well before dawn the following morning, Saeko Busujima was wide awake and packed for her mission to the Niko settlement with her travel bag beside her. She was dressed in one of her usual suits with Murata-tou hung from her belt, flexible enough that she could move and fight if she needed to, while still looking professional enough to be a presence at meetings. She'd grown from a teenage girl to a full woman over the years, although she could still squeeze her way into her old school uniform, something which Takashi was thankful for when he was busy stripping her out of it…

Saeko put those thoughts on hold as she spotted her young woman she would be acting as bodyguard for the next few days walking into the apartment building lobby.

"Good morning Saeko-san." Saya yawned, stretching out as she walked up to join her best friend. Saya too had changed little in terms of appearance, though she'd since taken on a womanlier body and changed her hairstyle so that it now ran straight down her back to about hip height rather than in the twin pigtails that she'd had it in during the outbreak. She too was wearing a suit like Saeko although hers was black rather than dark blue, and in place of the sword, she had her mother's old luger in a leather holster under her jacket.

"Good morning Takagi-dono," Saeko said, bowing to her friend in a semi-formal manner that she knew Saya hated in others but tolerated as an in-joke from her friends. "This one has the honour to be your personal Yojimbo for this excursion. Our transport and escort await your pleasure. Shall we go?"

Saya's mouth formed into a smirk as her left eye twitched slightly. "Baka. It's too early in the morning for that! Let's get moving."

"As my lady commands," Saeko replied with a smirk as she and Saya departed the building and headed across town in the direction of the mercenaries building.

The streets were quiet and cold at this time of day, most people were sensibly still asleep and tucked away in their futons but it did give Saya and Saeko to have some private girl time together.

"What do you think of the Spartan contractors Saya-san?" Saeko asked. Takagi thought for a moment before replying.

"Honestly, I'm impressed." She admitted casually. "When my father told me that he was hiring mercenaries, I was skeptical as to how effective they could be and whether they'd cause more problems than they solved. But from what I've seen and heard, they're nothing like what I expected. They're professional, respectful, courteous, not to mention very good at gathering resources and teaching. And no one can deny how well they did at Tateraoi, so yes, I'm impressed. What do you think of them?"

"From what I've seen they are honourable men and women who take pride in their work," Saeko answered, and from what she had seen it was true. Though she had only seen them in meetings or occasionally drinking off duty in the Jasmine Dragon, neither she or Saya had never seen them in combat. And they both knew that even the best men could break in combat… Hirano had taught them that much…

…

In the Spartan PMC garage, the object of Saeko's musings was busying himself behind one of the F150's with the exploration of the back of his girlfriend's mouth with his tongue, just as she was doing with his, before they were rudely interrupted by Dino.

"If you two are done with sucking each other's faces off, Skye could use a hand loading some medical supplies and I need a hand with the 240." He announced loudly enough that anyone around could hear them.

They broke the kiss apart and Mary shot Dino an angry glare before giving Kohta a peck on the cheek and jogging over to help Skye with the medical supplies. After a moment, Kohta emerged from behind the pickup and helped Dino install the M240 machine gun on one of the F-150's roll cages.

While they did have a number of ex-US military Humvees, Spartan PMC contractors generally preferred to use modified Ford F-150 pick up trucks as their primary ground transport. Aside from having better fuel mileage than the Humvees, the F-150 was also more practical in civilian environments and used more or less standard components that, if necessary, could be scavenged from other civilian pickup trucks. Spartan ones featured a removable roll cage over the rear bed that also sported a turret mount that could mount a variety of weaponry. They had 2 for the trip to Niko, one was carrying the spare generator for the settlement, the other was fitted with a roll cage and armed as the convoy escort, carrying spare ammo and other equipment.

"Sorry about that Dino." Kohta apologized as he helped install the machine gun into the turret mount. "Things have just been a bit… crazy."

"No worries mate," Dino replied cheerfully. "You finally got yourself a hot ass girlfriend. About bloody time you two got together!"

Kohta laughed and thanked Dino. 'About bloody time' had been the recurring reaction of most of the contractors when it became known that Mary and Kohta had started dating. A few bets had even been won and lost over whether it would be Mary or Skye, much to their collective amusement.

"Just keep it off the field mate. Don't wanna get bitten cause you two were busy in the bushes." Dino stated as he jumped down from the truck's bed. "Alright, I'm gonna grab the zombie bait from the fridge. Stay here and watch the trucks would ya? And keep an eye out for the minister and their bodyguard. They should be here soon."

"Got it," Kohta replied as he hooked up a 200-round bog to the gun and fed the belt into the chamber before moving on to check his personal kit.

Aside from the escort run, this was a search and destroy mission. The plan was they were going to set up a BBQ in the middle of a street, dump some deer guts or similar inedible meat on it, let the smell of cooking meat drawn them in, then fire on them from multiple rooftops from different directions until they were dead. It was a tried and tested strategy that, as long as they had plenty of ammo (which they would), and tore up the stairs to the roof so the undead couldn't get at them, they'd be fine. No near death last stands like Tateraoi this time.

While he was checking his weapon Mary and Skye returned with medical supplies and started loading them into the cargo F150. Kohta had just finished checking his weapon and was helping them when a female Japanese voice rang out across the car park in English.

"Excuse me? Are you the team heading to the Niko settlement?"

Kohta stopped and froze, almost dropping the box of medical equipment he was holding. He knew that voice, it belonged to a friend. One who'd betrayed him, hurt him, then cast him aside. He turned to see if he was right. He was.

"Takagi." He breathed. Skye and Mary heard him and turned to first look at him, then at her. Their eyes narrowed, glaring at the woman who'd hurt their friend.

"Yeah, that's us," Tex said, stepping forward to greet Takagi, unaware of the death glares his female teammates were sending her way. "You must be Minister Takagi, correct?"

"Hai." She replied shaking his hand in greeting before gesturing to the raven-haired woman with her. "This is Busujima Saeko, my personal bodyguard."

"A pleasure to meet you." Saeko greeted, bowing slightly.

"I'm Tex, team leader." Tex continued with a slight nod to Saeko before turning to point out the rest of the team. "That's Dino, our explosives guy. That's Skye, our medic. And that's Mary and Kohta, our snipers."

'Kohta?' Takagi mentally repeated. She followed Tex was pointing to where a pair of attractive young women in combat clothes who were glaring at her, accompanied by a young man who looked very familiar. Her eyes widened.

"H-Hirano?" She stammered. "Is… Is that you?"

"Hai, Takagi-daijin. Busujima-san." He said bluntly with a respectful nod to Saeko. "You're both looking well."

"Hai…" Saya replied, slightly caught off guard but the unexpected confidence in his voice. "It…em… its been a while." Kotha glanced at his watch.

"Five years, seven months, ten days, thirteen hours, 27 minutes since you kicked me out," He replied, folding his arms in defiance against her. "Not that I'm counting..."

Takagi's nose flared in anger. The old Kohta would never have dared to speak to her like that" "We didn't kick you out, Hirano." She snarled. "You left!" Kohta didn't rise at Takagi's backlash but instead just bowed his head at her.

"As you say, Daijin." He replied with an air of politeness, though mainly out of professionalism. He turned to Tex. "Boss the gun truck and supply wagons are loaded and ready. If it's alright with you I'll man the two-forty."

"Copy that Kohta," Tex replied with a nod. "Mary, drive the gun truck. Skye go shotgun. Minister Takagi, you and Miss Busujima will ride with myself and Dino in the supply truck. If that is acceptable to you...?"

"It is," Saya replied sharply before pushing past Tex and Dino and heading for the supply truck, Saeko following silently in her wake. Tex shot Dino a look, to which the Australian shrugged.

"Alright. Mount up." Tex ordered. He and Dino turned towards the supply truck while Skye Mary and Kohta headed for the gun truck. Just as he was about to jump in the bed and man the gun, Mary pulled Kohta into a tight hug after planting a kiss on his lips.

"To show the bitch what she missed," Mary whispered in his ear with a smile before they parted and climbed aboard.

In the back of the supply truck, Saya glared at the redhead as she kissed Hirano and held him close. While sat next to her, with a look of quiet concern, Saeko switched between watching Kohta and Saya.

Saeko hadn't known that it would be Kohta's team that would be escorting them, but part of her thought that it was good that it was. She didn't agree with Lord Takagi that keeping them deliberately apart was in their best interest. While Kohta had clearly matured, emotionally as well as physically, during their separation, Saya obviously hadn't. She was still in many ways the angry, emotional girl she had been at the start of the outbreak and in some ways, had even gotten worse.

Kohta had been the first male she liked as more than a friend with the possible exception of Takashi. When he left her to go to America, it had caused her to take an even dimmer view on men who wanted to get close to her, which only got worse after her father became prime minister and she was once again forced to deal with social climbers who wanted to use her to get closer to her powerful father.

Saeko hoped that maybe by putting the two together, they could mend some of the old wounds they'd inflicted on each other. However, it seemed that Kohta was still angry at Saya for what she'd done and found happiness with the red-haired girl that had kissed him in front of them.

And Saeko wondered what that would do to her friend.

Dear readers

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, which is also my first attempt at a lemon scene of any significant length. This chapter is also dedicated to a friend of mine who recently, sadly, past away. Alex was a good friend, who I would often troubleshoot parts of my story with and just rock out with.

As ever, please review/ follow and favorite. I'm keen to hear your feedback, constructive or complimentary.

Don't know when the next chapter will be released but I can say after this we will be entering the final arks of Ronin. I've still got a few more chapters left to go but things will be drawing to a close.

Stay tuned for next updates

Jango