Chapter 13

Warning: Lemon

Mugen woke up in a flash to the sound of what he would find out later was a door being kicked in and running feet in the inn corridor. He swiftly pulled on his shorts and unsheathed his sword as Fuu opened her eyes groggily. "What is it?" She asked. He put his fingers to his lips and pointed at the corridor. Suddenly wide awake, she draped the covers around herself, as someone knocked quietly on their door. Rising an eyebrow, Mugen opened it carefully to reveal a man in the official looking clothing of the district police.

"Sorry to bother you and your wife so late at night, but have you seen this man? He's been forging and passing out counterfeit money." He unrolled a handbill. Mugen looked at the thin man in the picture. "Nope. Have you?" He asked Fuu. She looked at it. "Yeah, I've seen him. He has a room down the hall." "He does?" Mugen frowned. "Yep. You just don't notice these things…honey." She grinned. Mugen looked at her in surprise. "We know that he was renting a room here. They've just raided it, but it looks like he left in a hurry. Do you know where he could have gone?" "No sir. He mostly kept to himself. When I came back here last night, I could hear voices talking through his door though. But I wasn't paying attention to what they said." "Well, thank you for your time. If you do run into him, be careful. He runs with some pretty nasty thugs. Although it seems you can take care of yourselves." The policeman eyed Mugen's partially raised sword. He turned and walked back down the corridor as Mugen shut the door.

"Don't." He heard Fuu say from behind him. "Don't what?" He turned to face her as he sheathed his sword. She had seen the excitement in his eyes when the policeman had mentioned the thugs that hung out with the counterfeiter. "Don't go after them." "Why the hell not?" "Don't we have enough trouble without going looking for it?" She frowned. "These guys are probably easy to beat. It's like exercise to me, okay? It's fun. You should know that by now. So don't coddle me. Have some faith it me already." She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his torso. "I do. It's just that… I worry about you. I'm afraid." She whispered this last. "I don't want our time to be cut shorter than it already may be." She said grimly. "Don't be afraid. I'll be fine." He said, annoyed but secretly pleased that she worried for him. No one else ever had. Except maybe old four eyes on occasion.

Sighing, she nodded. She never really expected to change his mind. And the Fuu of two years ago would pretend she wasn't worried and let him go, but she found she couldn't, even when she figured he'd find her worrying irritating. "Make sure you get the reward for his capture then. We would have plenty of money to travel with." He found himself once again surprised by her reaction. "Yes honey." He teased, unsure of how else to react. She didn't respond to this.

As he pulled on his shirt and haori, he told her "You know, if you want to call me that, you could always marry me. 'Though I don't really like being called honey. It sounds kinda' dumb and too domestic for me." He didn't look at her. "It's weird." He muttered. "Maybe later. Anyway, I don't need to be married to you to call you that." She shrugged. He finally turned around. "What, you want the kid to be a bastard?" He said harshly. Without waiting for an answer, her slung his sword over his shoulder and left the room, sliding the door shut a little too hard.

Fuu blinked as tears rose in her eyes. She didn't want to hurt him. But she still wasn't ready to be any man's wife. She wished he could understand that. It wasn't him, it was her. Hadn't she seen what happened if you got married? It wasn't all fun and roses. And it wasn't mandatory for two people who loved each other. So what if their child was born out of wedlock? It's not like they had relatives that would be disappointed. It's not like they lived in a single place where that would matter for the child.

Fuu woke to the sound of the door being slid open. Mugen was back, carrying sacks of something that clinked. Cheerfully, he set them down and stretched his arms. "What's all that?" she asked groggily. "Money." He grinned. "They had a lot on them, and then I went and got the reward too." "Won't their coins be fake?" She was finally awake. "Nah, they're all cut to show they are real coins. The guy must have got rid of the fakes." "What time is it?" "Still early. Go back to sleep. We got to leave today, right?" She watched him carefully, expecting him to get annoyed with her again about the marriage thing. But he just slid himself down next to her and closed his eyes. Within minutes, he was snoring lightly. Relieved, she watched him sleep for a bit, her chin proper up on her hands. She always found it surprising how his face changed as he slept so he looked almost like an ordinary young man who hadn't seen the things he had. His face seemed softer and more human. She smiled and swept some errant hair out of his face. A hand snatched her wrist. "What are you doing?" Mugen didn't open his eyes. She shrugged. He sighed sleepily and pulled her to him. "You've gotten softer since we started fucking. Sillier or something." He mumbled, half asleep. "I'm not the only one. …And I'm not silly." She huffed. "And I'm not soft." He mumbled back with a slight frown before snoring again. "Mhm. Sure." She softly kissed his cheek and lay down to sleep in his arms.

The hut was on fire. A dark haired woman put something into his palm. Opening it, he saw the earring she always wore. Looking up, the woman was now Fuu, bleeding to death. Before he could reach out for her, a crow man materialized next to her, blocking Mugen's path. She died. The crow man pointed at the huts entrance. Eyes burning, Mugen looked out and saw a noose hanging from a wooden post. The tortured, broken man in it suddenly changed to Jin. His legs were kicked out from him and he swung, lifeless. Mugen stumbled from the hut in a daze as a man approached the corpse of Fuu lying next to the wood post, with a lecherous look in his eyes. Mugen raised his sword to cut the man down, but found he held sunflowers instead. He dropped them and leapt at the man, overpowering the man easily, as crow men gathered, looking on. Mugen broke his neck in a fury. The dead man was Jin. A pair of crow men grabbed Jin while another pair took Fuu, cut the dead baby from her womb, and began to drag their corpses away. 'No! You don't have to take them! It's me you want.'

"It's me!" He woke up with a start, not realising he had spoken out loud. His abrupt movement woke Fuu. As he struggled to throw of his disorientation, she sat up, fully awake now that she sensed how tense he was. He looked over at her in the dark. "Fuu?" She slid her arms around him. "I'm here." He pulled her into his arms, trying not to let his body tremble and betray how rattled the dream had made him. She had a way of noticing these little give always that no one ever noticed about him, not even the whores he'd slept with. He didn't want to tell her he was afraid of sleeping again for fear of dreaming of it again, and afraid the dream was the crow men letting him know they'd come for her and Jin before this was over. He didn't want her to know.

But she did know. He could tell by how firmly she held onto him, and how she stroked his back comfortingly, without a word. Damn her, how did she always know? She pulled him down to receive her soft kiss and he felt some tension leave him. "It must have been some dream." She murmured into his ear as she pulled him to her. "It's the same one as last time. Anyway, I always dream about the crow men." He shrugged as if it was nothing. "The crow men?" She asked. He looked out beyond her into the dark room, as if he was looking at something far away. "They are always there when I almost die. They wait for me." He shrugged again, more to himself.

Fuu looked disturbed by this, but even if he had noticed, it was too dark to see her face. She realised him dreaming of spectres that appeared in his near-death experiences meant he must dream about death a lot, and that perhaps he dreamed of other horrible things too. She supposed it made perfect sense considering the things he must have seen in his life, but that didn't make it any less disturbing. She thought back to his tension on waking from the dream. These spectres scared him. They must, for him to react that way. He was pretending he wasn't bothered, when moments ago he'd been so tense you could have cut it with a knife. "Come here." She reached out and pulled him down next to her. "Relax and sleep. I'll make sure they don't bother you tonight." As he lay down, he grinned; imagining Fuu giving the crow men hell. "You will huh?" Better them than him. Then he mentally shook his head. "I don't know why they want you. You'd just piss them o-." He shut up, realising what he'd said.

Fuu rolled to face him in surprise. That he was dreaming of his spectres…his crow men… killing her…was very telling. It meant he was very afraid for her life. She was surprised he cared that much. The intensity of it was flattering, but frightening too. It literally took her breath away. She hadn't known he loved her that much.

She tried to see his face, but it was too dark. Reaching over, she found his face and felt along his cheek. "Trying to pick my nose or something girly?" He asked. "No." She said softly. In reality she was gauging his tension, for a confirmation. Let him think she was just feeling up his face or something. She didn't want to have to explain. He probably wouldn't believe her anyway.

As he kept quiet, she could feel the tension, just barely. It was in the slight straining of his cheek muscles, like everywhere she felt.

Then she pulled him to her and held him. "You're one strange broad sometimes." He commented with a yawn as he closed his eyes. She shrugged. "Either way you can sleep easy now. I won't let those crow guys bother you." He grinned at this. She smelled nice. She felt soft and comforting. He forgot the crow men as sleep began to reclaim him again. He could have sworn that the last thing he felt was the soft brush of her lips on his before he lost consciousness.

The day was very hot. As they walked, they saw almost no travelers despite it being in the middle of the day. When they stopped under a tree for a lunch break, Fuu sat down against it carefully with a soft groan. She opened the flask and guzzled down as much water as she could. "Geez Louise! Its soo hot!" After taking a long swig of water, Mugen tossed her a rice ball in seaweed paper. "Maybe we should wait till its cooler to go on?" he asked. She raised an eyebrow at him. Normally it would be her whining for a break and he would get annoyed or tease her for it. "Kid." He pointed at her stomach, giving her a look. Oh right.

She shrugged. "I guess." He rolled his eyes at her. "Not my lookout if you want it to die of overheating. You're the one that wanted to keep it." "You jerk! Don't give me a hard time. We'll wait. Geez!" Crossing her arms she looked away, scowling. He grinned. It was too easy to rile her up. He scooted next to her. "We could do something else while we wait." He leered, hovering over her, and put a hand on her thigh. "It's too hot, remember?" She smacked his hand away. Blowing out his breath in frustration, Mugen frowned. "Well then what do you wanna do?" "I don't know." The heat was making her short tempered.

Then she had an idea. "We could ask each other questions and the person has to answer, no matter what." Asking Fuu questions she had to answer sounded fun, but the flip side was she'd probably ask all sorts of questions he didn't want to (or couldn't) answer. "Sounds dumb." "Oh come on. Please?" Fuck! That look she gave him of hopeful optimism made him want to agree to anything even though he didn't want to agree to this. Dumb broad.

"Fuck, fine. You start then." Fuu grinned and then thought. "Why didn't you want to have kids?" Was she kidding? "Seriously Fuu? Me and kids don't mix. Period. They are messy, smelly, loud, annoying, and prone to an early grave if they hang around me." Fuu nodded at this. It's what she had thought. "My turn: When did you stop loving Jin?" She gaped at him in surprise. "I didn't…" "Don't bullshit me. Answer the question. You have to, right?" He smirked. She sighed. "I'm not sure. I think I realised it after he rescued Shino from the brothel. Then I knew he wouldn't ever love me like that." Hearing her talk about having been in love with someone else before him annoyed him, though he remembered being more annoyed about it back then. "When did you first start loving me?" She asked. First love her huh? Hmm. He knew she'd ask him hard questions. He thought about this. "I think… it was in episode two- I mean- when you passed out from one drink and slept, and Jin had to cart you back to the hut were staying at. You looked…I dunno…peaceful." "Jeez, when that bimbo poisoned you? Why the hell did you go with her then?" "I was horny, what do you expect." "You could have woke me. Told me." "No. I didn't even know until a lot later. I'm not even sure it was then. Okay? And what, you wanted me to be your main squeeze? You weren't exactly into that kind of thing… 'Till recently." He smirked. "And you had a thing for Jin, not me." Frowning, he rubbed the stubble on his chin. He didn't want to keep talking about it. "Now you've had two questions, so I get to ask you two." "Geez. …Fine." She leaned back against the tree, fanning herself as she waited for his questions. He thought. "If those thugs of the government hadn't burned down that old broad's house, would you have really stayed in that town forever?" "Yeah, probably." Fuu shrugged. "Why?" He watched her. "Um…well, Mrs. Aino was like a grandmother to me. And she said that she was leaving the house to me when she…died." She looked down sadly and muttered "Not like any of that matters anymore." Mugen pulled her to him. Despite the fact that he radiated body heat and was sweating which made it a bit hard to breathe with the heat of the day added to that, she leaned against him for comfort. He didn't want to make her any promises he wasn't sure he could keep, but he wished he could promise her that they'd find the person who pulled the strings on the assassination attempt and kill him. It pissed him off whenever she got sad like that.

Sometime later, Fuu felt him shaking her. She had fallen asleep. The sun was no longer blazing in the sky. "Time to go." He told her as he helped her to her feet. She nodded and followed after him, still rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"I would give anything for a bath." Fuu groaned as she walked. It was three weeks later, and they hadn't run into any towns or villages in that whole time. Mugen figured they had to be close to their destination. He wasn't particularly good with directions; he normally went wherever he felt like it and Kami be damned. But he figured they couldn't be going the wrong way because he had followed the same road the whole time. "Next puddle or river or whatever, I'm dunking you in." He grumbled. She had been whining about baths all week. "Fine with me." She retorted with a small grin.

A few hours later Mugen heard a low burbling sound. 'Probably a river.' He thought. Then he grinned, recalling their earlier conversation. He picked Fuu up and ran down the road, laughing as she squealing in indignation and surprise of the sudden action. Soon they reached the river through the trees to the right of the road. It was hidden from the road by the trees and foliage. It flowed into a small pool and out, off to the west. Kicking off his geta he walked right into the water until it was up to his waist. Realising what he was about to do, she struggled. "No!…Mugen! You J-" He dumped her in. She came up, spluttering and coughing. "What? You wanted a bath. You got one. Aren't you happy now?" He feigned innocence, but couldn't help but grin broadly at her expression of anger. "You bastard! I'll get you for that!" She slogged through the water towards him, but he easily dodged her and headed more towards the center of the pool. She nearly lost a shoe as she turned, so she stopped to take them off and flung them towards the edge of the pool. They barely cleared the water.

She made her way towards him, but he didn't try to escape her. "Come on then porky. Don't worry if you can't swim; you'll surely float." He taunted jovially. "Erg! I'm pregnant! Not fat! Just because I started showing does not mean I'm fat!" "Same difference." She punched him. "No its not! Anyway, you can't even see a difference with my kimono on." "Pity. We could change that." He gripped her wrist and hovered over her in her personal space, leering. "Seriously? You insult me, and then think I want to make love to you?" She pretended he wasn't turning her on. Barely. "Maybe you do." He kissed her wrist on the pulse point and then licked it, his lips still on her wrist. She shivered. "Maybe I don't!" She yanked her hand away. Smirking, Mugen pulled off his haori and shirt. Balling them up, he flung them towards the shore, where they landed with a wet thump next to her shoes. He raised an eyebrow. "You sure?" He gripped the edges of his shorts at both hips and tugged them down a little. Fuu turned beet red. He could feel her body give of more heat at this distance. If she wasn't turned on, then Mugen had never been in jail. "That's not fair." She murmured, staring at his hard body. Grinning triumphantly, Mugen moved even closer to her and nuzzled her neck with his nose before kissing her where her neck met her shoulder. "What's fair got to do with it?" He breathed against her skin, feeling her shiver. He loved how responsive she was.

Kissing her collar bone, he brought up his hands to skim her ribcage next to her breasts, and then let them rove down underneath them, never touching them. Fuu felt her nipples harden and sucked in a breath. Unable to hold back anymore, just wanting to touch him, she laid her hands on the taught muscles of his stomach. She swept them upwards, fanning them over his chest, brushing his nipples. She felt his muscles contract at the movement as he hissed. Mugen felt himself swell significantly, and all pretense of restraint fell away. He grabbed he breasts and squeezed, then kissed her hard as he frantically tried to undo the bindings on her clothes. Fuu moaned into his kiss and slid her hands down below his belly button, sliding them slightly past his pants, like she couldn't decide if she wanted to slide them off or touch him. His eyes bulged as he felt himself engorge even more. If he didn't fuck her soon he was going to scream with the pressure. Finally her clothing fell away and he had managed to kick his way out of his shorts. "Please." Fuu moaned. He didn't need to be told twice. He rammed into her as hard as he could. Instead of relieving some of the pressure, it just intensified it. Fairly mad with need, he thrust into her repeatedly, her moaning adding to the mounting tension. He felt her squeeze down on him harder with every thrust. Finally, she squeezed down so hard he felt himself pop. With a loud groan, he came long and hard into her, his eyes rolling so the whites showed, not noticing that she was also cumming hard, quivering and shuddering with him.

When it was over, he carried her to the shore, knowing she'd need to rest a bit. Sure enough, the moment he deposited her on the grass, she lay back slowly to rest, her feet dangling into the water a bit. He sat next to her. "Wanna go again?" Still breathing heavily, she glanced at him. "Give me a minute. Geez. You're so insatiable." He grinned. "Damn straight. Good thing you can't get pregnant again at the moment, or we'd almost have a litter of kids in two minutes." He leaned over her and started to stroke her side. "You know I need to rest. Stop teasing me." "But it's fun." He whispered in her ear.

Suddenly he froze, and his demeanor changed from playful lust to serious attention in a flash. He looked around and seemed to be listening for something.

"Fuu, put your clothes on. Now." He growled lowly. In a flash he was up and throwing on his shorts, slipping on his geta and had his unsheathed sword in his hand. "Mugen?" "Put on your clothes. Now. And hide." He repeated, his eyes flashed like he was angry about something. Jumping up she hastily fumbled with her clothing and shoes.

"That was quite a show." A low male voice said, coming out of the trees behind Fuu. She whirled around and saw herself face to face with the owner of that voice.

My comp is working again, but I know it won't last. I really have to get a new one, but I can't atm. Also I'm moving in November. This means I'll be busy packing/ prepping on top of everything else. But I'm currently working on chapter 15, so don't worry; I'm still writing this thing! I'll try to post the 14th chapter by mid October latest. Thanks for reading!

Please rate and review. :)