A week later we finally were back at the Moon Palace and I walked straight up to my room, needing to clean up. Gaara had been amazed at all of the sites on the western lands. It was like showing a kid the best park in the world or something. I pulled off my diadem and set it in its box before walking into the bathing room and stripped down. I eased my tired body into the water and dove under the white mineral water to get my hair clean. I clung to a few rocks on the bottom and held my breath, feeling the small currents go around my body. This was a needed thing to do today.

When I felt a shift in the currents, I let go of the rock and emerged my head above the water to see Gaara standing a few feet away. He looked slightly surprised but calm as I kept my body under the water to my shoulders. I saw his clothes in a pile, not too far from my own while his gourd leaned against the wall.

"Your maids said it was okay…"

"Don't worry about it," I smirked and moved to a corner of the room where my soaps were. "There are not that many private hot springs in the palace. The only ones are in the royal wing. The other springs are to everyone else and quite larger."

"I'm not intruding?" Gaara asked as he lowered his body into the water so only his head was above the white water.

"Not at all Gaara," I smiled as I looked at him. "I was just slightly surprised when I felt the currents shift. Not too many get to use this spring."

I grabbed the lavender soap bar and got a rag covered in soap before standing in the waist deep water, keeping my back to Gaara and washed the sweat from travel away from my body. I smelt Gaara's desert scent spike in arousal and laughed silently as I sank into the water to wash the suds away.

I grabbed the shampoo and started lathering my hair when I heard Gaara coming closer. Soon his hands came and moved mine away and he started lathering the shampoo into my hair, being careful around my ears. I dunked under and rinsed out the shampoo and saw that Gaara was putting the conditioner container back on the edge and his hands came back into my hair and finished washing it for me.

"Thanks," I whispered before I ducked under again. I angled my body so I could move to the other side of the pool and emerged by the step and leaned against the rocks. "You know, from what I have heard from your siblings, your personality is almost completely opposite of what it was when you were a child."

I saw him tense slightly and when he turned his eyes were slightly wide. He came back over and sat a few feet away from me and leaned his head against one of the flat rocks.

I looked at Faiza out of the corner of my eye and saw the marks on her shoulders. I had been surprised when she had appeared on the other side of the spring but realized she swam over there so she could relax. I looked back up at the painted ceiling and saw several white dogs on clouds.

"Gaara?" I looked back at Faiza and saw that she was looking at the water as she brought her hands up to rest on her magenta marks. "About this temporary courtship we've been doing…"

"What is it?" I asked and saw that her cheeks were slightly pink, but to know if it was from the spring or something else was a mystery.

"Could you see…it becoming more than that?" she whispered as she closed her eyes.

"What brought this on?" I asked slightly confused.

"It's a law among youkai that any royal hanyou or youkai must be married before they are of human adult age which is 18. Men have til that time but the women have until their seventeenth before they are put into an arranged marriage. The reason that I have always refused suitors was because I want to mate someone for love, not politics or money." She seemed sad as she said this. "Father was one of few who got away with lasting until his 700th century before mating, but that lasted 20 years due to Naraku being a pest. I just want to know my options before I'm forced to mate with someone since my 17th birthday is coming in a few weeks."

She sank in the water so her eyes were barely above the water and they were downcast as she stared at the water before her. I looked at her for a couple seconds before moving closer to her and forced her to sit up and look at me. I saw frustration as well as sadness in her golden eyes as she looked at me. I pressed my lips to hers; wanting to silence her worries but when I pulled back she lowered her eyes again.

"Faiza, look at me," I spoke quietly. "I'm not too good at this. Meeting you was one of the most amazing things that has happened to me in my whole life. Even at the beginning, I silently worried for you once I learned that you were a beautiful hanyou. These past few weeks with you have been remarkable and I think that this courtship shouldn't be temporary. I think that it should become an official courtship, humans call it an engagement. Spending my life with you would be something that I'd never regret; I could promise you that here and now. Here I am in a hot springs, bare and at my most vulnerable, trying to pour my love out to you but I've never been good at saying things…"

She pounced on my and wrapped her arms around my neck as she giggled and I fell backwards into the water, barely able to catch my breath before I was under the surface. I felt Faiza's arms around me as she pressed her bare body against mine and I wrapped my arms around her as I regained my footing and pulled her up with me. I looked down at her and saw that she was smiling, flashing her fangs and all.

"Princess Faiza?" Faiza let go of me and dove into the water and the ripples disappeared as a young girl came in with green hair and green eyes. Her eyes settled on me and she immediately looked at the ground. "Oh forgive me Lord Gaara, have you seen the princess? Young Prince Kouhai is looking for her."

"No I have not," I lied calmly. "Her servants are just slow and she has already disappeared. I think she said she was going to go visit her father's grave."

"Oh, I will inform my lord that she is unavailable." She seemed to pretend to be sad by the news as she bowed and left.

I sat back down and started counting how long Faiza was under the water and looked to see if I could find any bubbles to signalize where she was but found nothing. A few minutes later, Faiza came back up in the center of the spring and groaned. She ran a hand through her hair to get it out of her face before coming over to sit next to me.

"Please kill Kouhai," she muttered. "I'm at the point that I'd rather start a war then have to deal with him."

"Wouldn't mating someone else just be easier?" I asked amused and she looked up at me surprised. "You don't always have to resort to violence for an answer."

"Are you saying…?" she frowned as she stood and looked down at me, her hair covering her chest. I grabbed her arm and pulled her so she fell against me. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled again, practically forcing her to straddle me. "Gaara… are you sure?"

"Positive," I whispered as I pulled her down to kiss her.