Chapter 20: Preparing for the Storm

Natsuki's POV:

"Ow!" I hiss, feeling the alcohol of the soaked tissues that Nao's wielding burn my wounds, even if she was trying to heal me.

"Oh, quit your whining, will you?!" I heard her harshly demand, putting the torturous bandages on my back's wounds. I swear, if I had known that not only getting hit with a tazer would be painful, but also getting treated for it would be painful, I would have used some kind of back armor!

Nao, although I was wondering if she was being suggestive, had asked only a few minutes ago, "Now why don't you just take off your jacket and shirt and I'll be able to look at your back."

As suggestive as I was hoping her to be, I had known at the time what she wanted to look at: my back wounds which were still sore from that bitch…..what was it Nao had said her name was? Mikoto, right. Little bitch.

"Alright," I heard Nao's voice say simply, "Now, I'm gonna put some bandages around you, and over your back, so it'll probably hurt like a bitch for a while. But try not to whine or anything."

"Easy for you to say," I snip at her over my left shoulder, "You're not the one with the tazer burns on your back, are you?! I swear, I don't give a crap if the person you're protecting is your friend, I'm gonna kill her for this!"

"Oh, shut up, wolf," Nao answered me, deliberately I'm sure, whacking my sore back, forcing me to jump in pain, "She was doing what she thought was good, and that was protecting me, her Kumicho. So don't blame her. Anyway, if you want to blame anyone for doing their job then bitch at yourself for being there intending to kill me."

I grumble something under my breath that not even I can make out what it is I'm grumbling. I hear an aggravated sigh from behind me, and I'm well aware that Nao is trying not to scold me for complaining.

I feel Bandages being wrapped around my back, there's moisture along the section that's being pressed against my sores, and I realize that there must be some kind of aloe on that part of the bandages.

I feel the rest of the bandages wrap around my waist and there's tape on the ends that stick to my stomach as Nao wraps my back up.

I can't help but close my eyes at the feeling of Nao's hands on me. Maybe it's just the healing affects of the aloe kicking in, but my eyes are fluttered close as I almost sigh at the feeling of Nao's strangely feather light touches, which I'd never expect of her.

Her hands seem to be performing some kind of magic on me, and when I come to realize this, I grab her left wrist with my hand to stop her.

Nao's POV:

I tell myself that I'm just going to wrap her wounds, make sure nothing happens. That she's in pain, so she needs some aloe on her wounds, yet when my hands come into contact with her skin, the palms of my hands stroking the flesh of her waist and back, I feel a strange electrical thrill run through me.

I vaguely wonder if it's just static from Natsuki being on the bed or something, yet I know that that isn't correct at all.

Almost as if possessed, I continue stroking my hand around her stomach, stroking her abs gently, feeling her up as it seems without even realizing it. I want to continue doing it, even though there's a part in the back of my mind hissing, "What are you doing?!"

I still stroke and stroke, till I feel a hand roughly grab my wrist, halting my actions. I freeze as I realize who must have grabbed me. I look up at her face, startled by the sudden action and blinked a little when I saw her startled and questioning look.

"Um, I think you're just supposed to aid me," I hear her say, though I'm busy blanking out, "Not grope me."

When it's processed in my brain what it is she's said, I almost burst out into a furious blush and snarl, "Oi, oi, don't give yourself so much credit, Kuga. I was just trying to figure out if the tazer blast hit anywhere else on your body."

I predictably saw a smirk covering that haughty, beautiful face and the Ice Wolf chuckled, "Sure. Okay. By the way, Nao, did you like what you felt up?"

Now I blushed and hiss, whacking her chuckling face sideways. "You baka!" I snap, flushed.

I just heard Natsuki giggle harder at my embarrassment. I roll my eyes. What an idiot. I wrap the bandages some more, knowing that there was more of a burn on her upper back as well her lower back.

Ignoring, the smirk on the idiot's face, I wrapped her other wounds.

I can feel her tense up at every time the aloe covered bandages cover her still sore wounds. I can't help but wince at the sight. I don't know why seeing her in such pain affects me so, but I hate seeing her flinch like this.

Once I secured the last tape part of the bandages around Natsuki's ribcage, desperately trying to avoid touching…..a certain area of her body, which unsurprisingly earned me a tense feeling from Natsuki as her body stiffened, I removed my hands almost immediately.

"Sorry," I say, startled at my own apology, "Was I too rough?"

"No," Came the chuckling answer, "I wish you were rough, otherwise I wouldn't like it so much and feel as embarrassed."

My usual routine which I was starting to get used to of my deep red blushing cheeks went into session once again and before I could stop myself, I grumble to myself, "Well, you're not the only one that's fucking embarrassed."

I wasn't expecting this of myself and apparently neither was Natsuki. She looks at me with a startled look, and instead of holding that irritating look, she broke out into a smile, not a joking one that would usually make me want to slap her, but a gentle one.

"It's okay, Nao," She said in a gentle tone that matched her smile, "I'm kind of embarrassed too. Feel like I'm really happy when you touch me……but it's awkward when I realize it."

I'm totally unprepared for what I'm hearing from the Ice Wolf. As a result, I know what the feeling of a deep blushing fever feels like for the next one or two minutes. I hiss under my breath to get my thoughts off of the situation, "Move it, you ass. We need to get ready. I've informed my people that Fujino is coming so they've gotten themselves and a possible bomb shelter ready. But you need to hide as well."

Natsuki couldn't seem to help but nearly laugh at the "bomb shelter" mention, but nodded and got up off of the bed to stand up in front of me, who unconsciously also stood up to look at her.

In truth, though I'll die before admitting it out loud, I was pretty happy that her back wounds were healed. It would be a bitch to have to hear her whine all the time about her wounds. That was the only reason why I helped her.

However, as soon as she got close, I could smell that wonderful smell again of leather, motorcycle fuel, gunpowder, grass and rain that came off of her so easily. I smelled it very clearly when I was tending to her wounds a few seconds ago, another reason why I pulled away, so that I didn't get intoxicated.

"Nao?" I heard my name being spoken from the Ice Wolf's lips, "What is it? You've been avoiding eye contact with me lately."

"What's so important about that?" I find myself demanding, "I just feel like we shouldn't get too attached to each other given how we're probably going to go right back to enemies, anyway."

I don't hear any response to my somewhat bitter statement, I just hear a slight sigh…of what, disappointment?

I don't dare hold up that as a possibility.

"Nao," I hear her say my name again, "We should get your troops up, they're probably getting eaten up with anxiety because of Shizuru coming."

I felt uneasy by whatever Natsuki seems to be avoiding answering. She glanced at the stairs behind her and said, "Come on, shall you cover my ass so that your minions don't think I'm trying to hurt you?"

I vaguely felt a small desire to make a statement about the "ass" part, but kept quiet, and said, "Alright, but unless you want my guards to think you're an enemy as much as they see Shizuru, then do what the fuck I say."

I walk past her, feeling embarrassed so my harshness speaks for me. I can sense Natsuki's shock at my angry remark, but she follows me down the spiral staircase nonetheless.

Once we got down, we were both faced with my lackeys, who all predictably suddenly all seemed shocked and on guard when they saw Natsuki with me.

"The Ice Wolf?!" One of them snarled, "What the fuck is that bitch doing here?"

Immediately I heard a growl next to me. As I turn to look at Natsuki, I hear her snarl, "You wanna start something with me, little man?"

"Why you…." I hear him hiss again, which just about annoys the hell out of me after my conversation with Natsuki.

"Everyone shut your fucking mouths!" I snarl, making everyone shut up almost immediately, all of them now shaking fearfully. I start again, making my voice slightly calmer, "The Ice Wolf is going to help us with Fujino. If Fujino comes here, we could use the Wolf's help if Fujino turns hostile on us."

They all were terrified of me, but seemed to ignore their fear so that they could glare at the Wolf and I heard another protest, "But she was sent to kill you, Yuuki-san!"

"And that is my problem, not yours!" I answer coldly, "Do you think you have any authority here, Yomani? She is in our territory, so we can overpower her if we want, and I'll watch her the whole time, now fuck off."

All of them look uncertain and still don't seem to like this situation very much. However, they back off slowly. They back away towards the other rooms, though some of them are still watching Natsuki and some of them are even giving her dirty looks.

I noticed, once they had all cleared out, that Natsuki seemed to be uncertain about something.

I find myself surprisingly worried about her.

"Natsuki?" I ask, startled at the tenderness in my own voice, "What's wrong?"

She seems to almost awake from her depressed spell and looks back at me startled. "Nao?" She asks gently, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"You didn't." I lied, "What's wrong, Wolf?"

Natsuki seems hesitant for a second, but then she says, slanting her eyes to where my lackeys used to be, "It's just…..see what our lives are like, Nao. I mean, sure, I chose this life out of my own free will when I was only eight. But it just feels like we're in some kind of hell zone. Look at how untrusting your lackeys were until you told them that you were going to watch me the whole time. I just feel like our kind don't have that much of what we'd refer to as a "life" outside of being bastards."

The wolf's claim took me by surprise, yet I couldn't say that I didn't agree with her. We, after being on the streets for so long had become so cold and angry towards everyone. So untrusting.

Look at how we treated each other. Hell, even I knew deep down that what I did to Fuyama and Munlin two nights ago when I had used a bunch of tazers on them had been wrong.

Yet I still did it because I knew that it was kill or be killed here.

I sigh, "You said it yourself, we chose this life. We all did." I then decide to put some humor into it, "Besides, it's better than having a boring white-collar job."

Natsuki seems to think about this a moment and says, chuckling, "You're right. It is. I guess it's like it that stupid Disney movie that my "siblings" had me watch with them. What was it? Aladdin, Return of Jafar?"

I now was confused. Okay, where did the Disney movie thing come from?

Seeing my confused look, Natsuki said laughing, "There's a line in that at the beginning that goes, 'Pack your shield, pack your sword, you won't ever get bored, though beaten and gored you might.' It just feels like that's all of our lives."

Blinking at hearing this, I actually found sense in her words. We were not living boring lives, but man was it brutal. I actually burst out laughing as I realized what she just said and what I realized.

This time it was Natsuki looking at me like I had lost it.

Deciding to elaborate on my reason for humor, I said, "God, look at us. We're killers and street punks. We live a life of violence, you're an assassin and I'm a Yakuza leader and here we are comparing our lives to a song in a freaking Disney movie!"

It seemed to take a moment for Natsuki to get it, but then she burst out laughing along with me. Boy our lives really were screwed up, weren't they?

Through our laughter, we glance at each other, feeling completely relieved, though in an odd way. When we were about to say something else, we were interrupted yet again as another of my lackeys, Taiken ran over, his face seeming distressed.

"Yuuki-san!" He cried, "It's Fujino, she's right outside the door with a militia of her people!"

I look over to Natsuki, and she looked at me. The both of us felt a grave sense of dread, even though we had both known that she was coming.

Natsuki, while looking strong as usual, also seemed to look a little scared. I couldn't blame her.

"Okay, Wolf," I say, trying to make my voice sound strong and without worry, "Listen, she won't find where you are if you make yourself scarce. Hide somewhere upstairs and I'll take Fujino to where Midori is and she'll torture her ass, which will distract her from you for at least a little while."

"No," Natsuki said sternly, making me startled, "I will not leave you, Nao. I'll admit, I was sent here to kill you, but I won't leave you to Shizuru's wrath. You won't be alone at least."

I needless to say was shocked, but I felt a strange amount of pleasure at hearing her loyalty. Unable to stop myself, I smiled.

Just when I was about to say something, our little "moment" was interrupted by the sound of a knock at the door and the voice of a thick Kyoto accent as the person spoke, "Ms, Yuuki, I've come, open up if you will."

We both, along with the terrified Taiken stiffened. Here we go.