Had a bit of a struggle moving this along. Not sure what will happen next but seems to be getting fluffier on its own accord. I'm not done yet though so watch this space.

Part 5

Raizo drove. Mika's car hadn't survived the battle with the Ozuno the year before and she'd not go round to replacing it. Raizo had fashioned a sling for Mika to wear for the next 24hrs at least. It made packing her bags and getting in and out of the car a little tricky.

They'd been on the road for over an hour. The radio station played middle of the road soft rock to fill the silence.

"So how long have you had this place?" Mika asked.

Raizo took a left on to what seemed to be a country lane. "Not long. I bought it a few months ago to serve me should I need a safe house."

"So no one knows about it but us?"

"No one but us. Does that concern you?" Raizo didn't look at Mika but the connotation of his words gave the air in the car a weight previously unnoticed.

Mika shrugged, "Should it?"

Raizo took a right. "I don't know Mika. I've been called a very dangerous man."

Mika smiled. "glad you're on my side then."

"Always," Raizo smiled back.

Mika settled back into her seat. Her shoulder was beginning to throb again. She reached up absently to massage it then thought better of the idea. Raizo noticed but said nothing. She turned her head towards him. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

Raizo kept his eyes on the road, "You can ask."

Mika rolled her eyes, "do you always have to be so damn enigmatic?"

Raizo smiled, "habit of the job I suppose. But that wasn't what you wanted to ask me is it?"

Mika grew uncomfortable but she was still curious. "The girl you mentioned,"

"Kiriko." When he said her name it was tinged with a sweet sadness.

"Kiriko. Were you guys…"

"Lovers?" Raizo offered.

"Yes, well no, I mean…you don't have to answer, I just…"

Raizo shook his head with a small smile. "I cared for her a great deal. I don't think I realised how much until she was gone. Were we lovers? No. That sort of behaviour would not be tolerated by Master Ozuno. Kiriko was the only light in that place. She was courageous and continued to see good in a world that we were being brainwashed to see only pain and hate. She had hopes and dreams of a better life when the rest of us had given up on ever being free again."

Silence again. Raizo so rarely spoke so much and when he did it almost seem to swallow the air in a space. His words dripped with passion, pain, adoration.

"Why did they want you to kill her?"

Raizo pulled up onto a gravel driveway. The dying sun was dappling through the leaves of overhanging trees. His hands were gripping the steering wheel with more force than he had been before.

"She'd tried to escape. She wanted me to come with her but I refused. The punishment was for both of us. Master Ozunu knew that I cared for her, that I brought her water when she was being punished in the hot box. They tied her to a post in the yard. A lesson to all of us about betrayal. When I hesitated to put a blade through her heart, my clan brother gladly obliged, securing himself in Master Ozunu's favour."

Raizo had driven up to a cottage and stopped the car outside of the garage door. "I can still see her face when I close my eyes. The way she looked at me with so much compassion even as I was being ordered to kill her, " His hand was on the key in the ignition unmoving.

Mika's heart broke for him. She reached over and placed her hand over his, turning the key to shut the car engine off. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pried." Mika placed her hand on Raizo's shoulder and once again he covered it with his own.

"No, I'm glad I could tell you about her. I've not been able to tell anyone and sometimes I fear the memories of her will fade. Now she lives on in both of us." He gently squeezed her hand. "We are here."

It really seemed like the middle of nowhere. Mika couldn't remember seeing another property for at least the final 20mins of the drive. She could hear the ocean it was so close. It was a small stretch of beach that got broken up by jutting cliffs and haphazard rock formations creating small pools. Mika stood on the porch facing the water and exhaled a breath she didn't remember holding. The sun was setting casting an orange glow across the horizon and it was almost picture perfect. She didn't even mind the slight chill in the cooling air. Here there were no Ozuno, no Europol, no therapists just stillness.

"Mika?" She jumped from surprise, the action causing her shoulder to throb again. She placed a hand on it gently, the subtle warmth, soothing.

"I didn't mean to startle you." Raizo had his hands up in apology.

"It's alright. I was just lost in the view."

Raizo went to stand beside her, his left shoulder gently brushing her right, "It is something isn't it." He pulled his hair into a ponytail again noticing Mika cradling her left shoulder. "How is it?" He asked reaching for her before she could respond.

"Starting to make a bit of a fuss but it's fine."

Raizo gently felt around the joint. Mika tried not to wince. "You'll feel better in a few days. Just rest it."

"No Oxy?"

Raizo feigned a stern look. "No oxy."

Mika sighed, "fine. I'll suffer."

Raizo turned to go back into the house, "Come inside, I'll show you where you'll sleep."

Mika followed him. The cottage was all one level. The kitchen and the living room were all open plan with huge sliding glass doors facing the water. A hallway past the living room led to two bedrooms and the bathroom. Mika's room was at the end of the hall. Raizo carried her bags inside and set them down on the double bed. The bed was spread like it was waiting for her. The white pale grey wooden floorboards creaked gently under her bare feet. She had her own door to the porch also. She noticed two small lamps on either side of the bed and something inside her became slightly uneasy.

"I'll leave you alone. I've ordered us something for dinner." Raizo motioned to another door inside the room. "There is an en-suite there. It's shower only so if you would rather a bath, use the main bathroom down the hall."

Mika nodded. "Thank you."

Raizo left. He'd already set himself up in his bedroom down the hall from Mika's. He'd chosen the bedroom nearest the front door. He pottered around the living room, checking stashed weapons were still hidden and secure. He went into the kitchen and pulled out some plates, cutlery and glasses. The doorbell rang 25mins later. Raizo called out to Mika that dinner had arrived but got no response. He went to her room to call for her again but before he could knock on the door he heard muttering from inside. She sounded frustrated. He proceeded to gently knock, "Mika, are you alright?"

" Um, yeah. Sorry, I'm just…damnit!"

Raizo was growing concerned. "Mika? Is it your shoulder?"

"Yes, well no, I mean yes but…" she let out another grunt of frustration.

"Mika let me help you. Are you decent?"

Mika exhaled a ragged breath, "That's kind of the problem. Come in."

Now Raizo was apprehensive. What did she mean that was the problem? "Are you sure?"

"Yes please just come in!"

Raizo turned the door handle in what seemed like slow motion. He pre-averted his eyes so that he was looking at the floor when he entered. Inside the room, he slowly raised his eyes. First, he saw Mika's bare feet, then her toned brown legs. He involuntarily closed one eye as his gaze rose higher. Dark blue pyjama shorts. He sighed in relief but the relief was short lived. Mika stood with her bare back to him. Her injured left arm was cradled by her hip while her right arm was pulled over her chest with a grey sleep bra hanging from her fingers. Her head was hung low in defeat.

"It was bad enough getting the other one off, but now I can't this damn thing on!"

"Oh, I see." Raizo stepped forward. "Can't you just leave it off?"

Mika glanced over her shoulder at him, "No way, I'm not having these knocking around unmanaged. They'll be on the floor in a fortnight!"

Raizo smiled. "Alright." He took the bra from her right hand still standing behind her and looped both her arms into it drawing it slowly up to encase her ample bust. He pulled the straps up over her shoulders. Her back was perfect save for the scar from the sword wound. Not even trying to stop himself he brushed his fingers gently over the puckered flesh. Every time he saw it his mind flashed back to the image of her impaled. The room became still again. Mika dared not breathe. Raizo said something in a language Mika didn't understand. His head hung low in regret but under the sorrow, there was the spark of anger and then the realisation that they would never hurt Mika again. Not while he still lived.

Raizo fastened the bra and helped Mika put on her t-shirt before re-tying her sling to better support the healing shoulder.

"Thanks."

Raizo stepped back away from her, "Dinner's getting cold." He'd turned towards the door before she could respond so she just followed him in silence.

Raizo had ordered Italian food. Mika approved. They sat at a small table together near the porch doors. Mika's phone buzzed on the countertop behind her. She reached for it and glanced at the screen then put it back down. Raizo raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Ryan," Mika replied fishing around her cannelloni. "I'll call him tomorrow and let him know I'm out of town."

Raizo went back to his Pollo Pene. "I only ask that you don't give him the location of this place. I'd like to keep it off the radar for now."

"Sure, of course," Mika said as the phone buzzed again this time indicating a voicemail had been left.

"Maslow cares for you a great deal," Raizo said not looking up from his plate.

Mika shrugged, "We've worked together a while. I guess you get used to each other."

"He would like it to be more." Raizo raised his gaze.

"No way. Ryan? Me and Ryan? No, I don't think that's true. We could never…"

"You're not attracted to him?"

Mika took a sip from her glass of sparkling water. All of a sudden the temperature in the room seemed to rise by about 10 degrees. "I mean he's attractive enough. I guess. I mean. No, no it's Ryan. That's too weird. Besides he has the same middle name as my Father. That's creepy enough."

Raizo smiled. "Are you and your Father close?"

Mika gave a sombre smile. "We could have been closer. He was in the Navy stationed between Berlin and Helsinki. My mother was working as an Archaeologist in Stockholm when they met. They met at a fundraising gala. I think they kinda gravitated toward each other when they realised they were two of the very few brown faces in the room. Turned out they went to the same college back in the US although they graduated ten years apart. They did their best with me for a time but eventually, they sent me to an International boarding school in Cologne. I guess they thought that was best for me. Maybe it was." Mika gazed out of the porch window into the darkness beyond. "My Mother died when I was 18. Pancreatic Cancer. My Father never really recovered from that. I thought her death would have brought us closer but I feel like it's pushed us further apart. I think I remind him too much of her."

"I'm sorry for your pain Mika. No child should have to live without their parents." Raizo got up and went over to a cabinet taking out two wine glasses.

"I thought you said no more booze?" Mika was perking up.

"I think we've both had a trying few days. Maybe we bend the rules tonight." He took a bottle of white wine out of the refrigerator and half-filled both their glasses. It wasn't the hard liquor Mika had become accustomed to over the past few months but it was just what she needed and she savoured every sip.

"What about your family? I know the Ozuno tended to round up orphans. Do you know any of your family back home?"

Raizo took a sip from his glass. "I have no memory of my parents. I was raised in an orphanage from 4 months old. I was told that my mother was young, unmarried and died in childbirth. There is no information about my father."

It pained Mika to hear Raizo speak so matter of factly. "Did you ever want to search for your family?"

Raizo considered the question a moment. "There are times when I'm alone and I feel the weight of time upon me. I don't know how best to explain it. It's as if I know I am or maybe should feel tethered to something, a people I've never met but the time spent with the Ozuno sought to train any weaknesses from us. Nostalgia, mercy, love."

Raizo became silent. His fingers absently circling the base of his wine glass. He then bought a hand up to rest his chin on his knuckles in contemplation. "I suppose I can not miss what I never had."

It was getting late and the night was taking a sombre turn. Mika and Raizo retired to their respective rooms. Mika could barely sleep. She was in a strange new place with entrances and exits she had no control over. She only had two lamps in the room and they cast too many shadows for her to truly relax. She opted for closing the window blinds as it was so dark and remote where they were, that you could barely see what was out there and she didn't need her imagination filling in the gaps.

For 2 hours Mika lay in bed tossing and turning or staring up at the ceiling light. She had a handgun under her pillow. She'd packed it out of habit. It gave her some comfort but not enough to stop her standing outside of Raizo's door for ten minutes willing herself to knock, to tell him she was afraid and whether she could sleep in his room for the night, even if it was on the floor.

"Stupid." She muttered under breath. "Stupid coward." One place to take the fear to make it more manageable was anger. The anger she could work with, it was a good distraction, but it would be even better if it wasn't always aimed inwards. She eventually returned to her bed and tried to will herself to sleep. She slipped in and out of consciousness but nothing substantial enough to call it rest.

By 5 am the sun was starting to colour the sky with pinks and yellows. Mika opened to blinds to a beautiful scene of grey-blue sky, sand, rocks and birds. She heard subtle noise coming from the hall. She brushed her teeth, washed her face and ventured out slowly. When she got to the edge of the living area she peaked around the corner to see Raizo outside on the porch doing diamond push ups. He was dressed in nothing but his black boxer briefs and Mika could not take her eyes off him. She'd only ever seen him topless but covered in blood. Here now she could drink in everything that she'd missed. He was beautiful. Raizo moved into a set of headstand push-ups. His arms and stomach were bunched tightly with corded tension. Raizo's eyes were closed in concentration. When he lowered himself back to the ground he continued with some tai chi style drills. Mika pulled back away from the edge of the wall when she thought he might see her watching. She decided to go back to her room and wait a while longer before making her presence known.

2 hours later Mika had showered and changed. She managed to get her bra on but couldn't fasten it so just slipped a t-shirt on top to match her shorts and padded down the hall toward the kitchen. She could smell something being fried and as she turned the corner she saw Raizo plating up two mushroom and cheese and spinach toasties.

"Morning," he greeted her. "Coffee or Tea?"

Mika had a flashback to his near naked self earlier that morning causing her to become momentarily distracted. Raizo was now wearing sweat pants and a vest. His hair tied up in his trademark high bun.

"Mika?"

"Oh…sorry, yes. Coffee, please. Thank you."

Raizo bought the plates over to the small dinner table ushering Mika to sit. "Are you ok? You seem distracted. Did you sleep alright?"

Mika sat down and pulled her plate to her. "Can you still tell when I'm lying?"

Raizo placed a cup of coffee and a glass of water in front of her. "Yes."

Mika sighed, "It's an adjustment sleeping in a new place."

Raizo sat down opposite her. "You should have knocked."

Mika put her hand to her face with embarrassment. "You knew I was there last night?"

Raizo bit into his toastie and nodded. "I should have been more considerate of how you have been coping these past few months. Tonight would you like us to sleep together?"

Mika nearly choked on her coffee. Raizo didn't even blush but he did notice his innuendo. "I mean in the same room until you feel more comfortable," he clarified.

Mika wasn't sure how to respond to that. Well, that was a lie. She wanted to shout yes please and high tail it to his room quick like a bunny but she wasn't sure she could trust anything she thought or felt anymore.

"I'll see how I feel tonight." Hopefully, that sentence was innocuous enough that Raizo's spidey senses couldn't pick it apart. Raizo just tilted his head in agreement.

"You managed to dress yourself this morning?" Raizo asked knowing she would still be struggling for another few days.

"Well I tried but only got 95% of the way."

Raizo looked quizzical.

"I couldn't fasten the clasp at the back." Mika clarified smiling. "I gave it a good go."

Raizo smiled shaking his head. "Up." He ordered gently. Once Mika was on her feet he pulled up the back of her shirt and saw the two straps dangling. She was right, she did do a pretty good job to get that far. He clasped them together for her and lowered her shirt. "Better?"

Mika bent over to shake her breasts evenly into the cups then stood back up. "Better. Thank you." She sat back down. "I can't keep relying on you to dress me like I'm some kind of invalid."

"I don't mind helping you," Raizo responded.

"I know and I'm grateful, it's just…."

"Up." Raizo cut in before she could finish. "Couch".

Mika was confused. "Huh?"

"You are fiercely independent Mika. I've come to realise this about you. I can help your shoulder heal quicker. Then you need not 'rely' on me to get dressed anymore."

Mika made her way to the couch, "Will it fix it?"

Raizo sat beside Mika and positioned her to face away from him. "It won't fully fix it but you'll gain more mobility without making the injury worse. It will be painful at first. Do you want me to continue?"

Mika nodded.

Raizo placed a palm on the back of her shoulder and one on the top side of her shoulder. "I need you to close your eyes and breathe deep and even. When you feel pressure building, breathe through the pain, you must remain even."

Mika nodded. She took a deep breath in. Raizo pushed what felt like two fingers into the socket of her shoulder from behind. She fought the urge to cry out and exhaled raggedly and as evenly as she could. She took another inhale and Raizo scooted closer to her and pulled her injured arm across her chest while firmly holding onto the joint. Again she forced her breath even. She felt like he was dislocating it all over again.

Raizo held Mika to his chest firmly. He released her injured arm from across her chest and let it hang loosely by her side. This time he applied pressure from the front and top in a pinching motion with one hand while the knuckle of his other hand pushed into the joint again. Something clicked and shifted in the joint and Mika nearly lost her control. Raizo started breathing with her. "Deep inhale. Exhale…keep breathing." He gently placed his palms back where they were at the start, one on the back of her shoulder and one on top only this time they felt like they were heating up, hotter and hotter to almost burning and then cool. Mika kept breathing and moments later. Raizo guided her to lay down on the couch. She still had her eyes closed.

"Rest," he whispered. "When you wake up you will feel better."

And she did.