Part b
Seeing the genuine sincerity in her words,
Kitsuryuu crept forward keeping an eye on the
woman the whole time. When she got closer Koori's
mother knelt on the floor and stretched out her
hand. She sat perfectly still as Kitsuryuu inched
forward. First Kitsuryuu sniffed at her palm and
then her clothes and when nothing bad happened she
sat down in front of the woman within arm's reach.
/Kitsuryuu, this is my mother, Yukina. Momma
this is Kitsuryuu,/ Koori said and signed at the
same time.
Remembering what Koori had told her about
being polite, Kitsuryuu extended her paw and
placed it in the woman's outstretched hand.
Yukina smiled and gently shook the offered paw.
After the niceties were over Koori's mother
reached out her hands and tried to place them on
either side of Kitsuryuu's head. Before she could
Kitsuryuu noticed a faint blue light emanating
from her hands and Kitsuryuu jerked away.
/It's OK Kitsuryuu. Momma just wants to look
inside to see if your hurt, you know, like Kiseki
does,/ Koori explained quickly.
Kitsuryuu nodded her head in acceptance, but
kept her eyes locked with Yukina's. She wanted
the other woman to know that she was watching her
closely, but as soon as Yukina's hands touched
her, Kitsuryuu knew she had nothing to fear.
As Yukina's hands traveled over her body,
Kitsuryuu couldn't help but purr slightly. The
woman's touch was so light and warm it was like
sleeping in the sunshine. All of Kitsuryuu's
nerve ends sang with contentment. Before she
realized what she was doing, Kitsuryuu laid her
head in Yukina's lap, closed her eyes and flatten
her ears to show her pleasure. It was rudely
interrupted, however, by a gentle shove at her
shoulder.
/Momma wants to know if this hurts,/ Koori
explained when Kitsuryuu opened her eyes.
Kitsuryuu looked down her body and saw that
Koori's mother was rotating her injured leg in
every conceivable direction. She was truly
surprised that this manipulation of her limp was
not sending her into muscle cramping pain. The
only thing she did feel was the constant ache she
had felt since she woke up. Kitsuryuu shook her
head to answer the young girl's question.
/Momma wants you to change to your other
form, Kitsuryuu. Can you?/
Kitsuryuu thought for a moment, she was a bit
weak but she should be able to change without too
much trouble. She pulled herself from Yukina's
lap knowing that while laying in the woman's lap
as a fox was all right, laying there as a person
was a breach of manners.
Slowly, much more slowly than she ever had
before, Kitsuryuu changed. The pain she had felt
in her leg before turn ugly and she had to grit
her teeth to keep from crying out. The crouch
that Kitsuryuu was in was far too painful for her
to maintain so she quickly laid on her side, bad
leg on top. Koori's mother placed her hands right
over the site that gave Kitsuryuu the most pain.
By inches, Yukina chased the pain away, and left
an ache in its place.
/What is wrong with my leg?/ Kitsuryuu asked
the women, knowing that Koori would translate for
her.
/Momma says that you leg is broken and healed
wrong./
Her leg was broken? How could that have
happened? Kitsuryuu couldn't remember doing
anything that could have done that kind of damage.
When she really thought about it, the last thing
Kitsuryuu remembered before waking up here was
running in the woods away from this place. At the
moment Kitsuryuu didn't care how she had done it,
all she knew was that animals with broken legs
died.
/Fix it,/ Kitsuryuu told Yukina, hoping that
Koori's mother had that ability.
/Momma says that you have to brake your leg
again to fix it right. She says.../
Koori didn't get to finish her mother's
explanation before Kitsuryuu brought down the heel
of her own hand down on her leg. Kitsuryuu felt
her bone snap under her palm and grind halfway
into place. She had expected pain but she hadn't
realized how much. Without meaning to Kitsuryuu
let out a scream that even vibrated in her own
head.
Kitsuryuu tried to grab her leg, but it hurt
too much to touch. She wanted to bite
something... hit something... anything to ease the
pain. Kitsuryuu bit her own lip and the pain that
it caused didn't help the agony below. She felt
tears start to burn her eyes when she notice her
fire friend kneeling on the floor next to her.
He had both of his hands out in front of him
just like Mechiko did when they trained in
punches. Knowing what he was offering, Kitsuryuu
used her left arm to support herself and swung her
right arm back for a punch. She hit her friend's
hands several time, but to her annoyance he didn't
even move a fraction. Even as weak as she was,
Kitsuryuu knew that Mechiko would have at least
flinched a little.
As Kitsuryuu pulled back for another punch, a
pair of strong hands grabbed her leg, just above
the knee, and pulled, making the two ends of the
bone fit together correctly. A wave of nauseating
agony hit her gut, and she let loose her fist.
Though pain blurred eyes Kitsuryuu was pleased to
note that her fire friend had slid backward an
inch with her last strike.
Kitsuryuu became dizzy and let herself fall
to the ground from her propped up position. She
could feel someone wrapping her leg tightly, but
she was too tired and pain-sick to care. The
events of the afternoon were wareing on her and
before she had a chance to thank Yukina, Kitsuryuu
slipped into unconsciousness.
The next day Kitsuryuu awaken to find Maryoku
reading quietly by her side. She tried shifting
her position and found that between her shoulder
blades and her neck ached terribly, and her butt
was asleep. The sharp pins-and-needles feeling in
her posterior made her whence, but it was the ache
in her neck she couldn't stand. Kitsuryuu hated
sleeping in her fire form.
She tried to sit up on her own her but her
broken left leg was perfectly straight and stiff.
Her injured leg was wrapped in many layers of
white material making it impossible to bend it in
any way. Kitsuryuu noticed that her usual jeans
had been replaced with loose shorts and her over
sized T-shirt was now a white button up dress
shirt.
Kitsuryuu tried again to sit up, hoping that
if she threw more of her weight into it she could
force her body upright. She didn't even get half
way when she found out that her midriff was
bandaged also. Kitsuryuu laid back down stunned.
For the life of her she couldn't remember what she
had done to cause this much injury.
Maryoku saw her trying to move and carefully
marked his place in the book before he placed it
on the floor. Without a word he helped Kitsuryuu
to her feet and wrapped her arm around his
shoulders for support. For the next few minutes
the two of them just limped around the room and
soon Kitsuryuu found that the ache in her neck and
the pain in her posterior was gone.
As Maryoku helped her around the room,
Kitsuryuu noticed a strange tension in him.
Somehow she knew that he was troubled by something
and he didn't want her to know about it. When he
tried to lead her out the door, Kitsuryuu grabbed
the doorjamb and refused to go farther.
/Where are we going?/ she asked him
worriedly.
/In to the other room where there's more
space to talk./
Kitsuryuu liked the 'more space' idea, but
she wasn't too crazy about the 'other room' part.
Trusting Maryoku to not but her into a situation
that could not be handled, Kitsuryuu allowed him
to lead her. They entered the room where she and
Koori's father had run into each other the
previous day and Kitsuryuu found that all her
friends were there.
All of them were huddled together talking
with happy-sad faces. Kitsuryuu had realized long
ago that her friends' emotions tended to be
confusing at best. Most of the time they were
happy, or content but sometimes they had so many
emotions inside them that they didn't know which
one to feel. Kitsuryuu could never understand why
they never could make up their minds on how to
feel, either your happy or your sad. Right now
Kitsuryuu could clearly see the happy-sad faces
her friends usually wore when they went on
'vacation'. Maybe they were going to visit their
grandparents or aunts' again.
As she shuffled into the room, the others saw
her and immediately stop their conversation.
Koori came immediately to Kitsuryuu's side and
started to tug on her hand with excited and
cheerful exuberance. Maryoku lead her to one of
the chairs and tried to make her sit but with
Kitsuryuu's track record in this room she would
rather face what ever was going to happen standing
up.
Maryoku gave up trying to get her to sit down
and left her to stand shakily on her own with
Koori pulling at her unmercifully. She watched
him walk away from her to the window across the
room, but once he was there he didn't turn around.
He just stood there with his hands in his pockets
staring out at the dark, rain heavy clouds.
Kitsuryuu felt her heart grow heavy for Maryoku.
He was obviously very upset and when he got this
upset he usually refused everyone's attention.
Maryoku was the only friend that Kitsuryuu felt
like she could understand, but right now she
didn't know what was wrong with him.
Koori yanked at Kitsuryuu's hand almost
making the injured girl lose her balance.
Kitsuryuu finally tore her eyes away from
Maryoku's tight shoulders and looked down at the
little girl.
/We have great news, Kitsuryuu! You stay
right here and I'll bring him to you!/ Koori
beamed with delight before she rushed into the
joining room.
Kitsuryuu looked at her friends across the
room and took comfort that they didn't seem
frightened. Fuyu smiled brightly at her and one
shining tear glistened on her cheek. The teenage
ice maiden caught the tear before it had a chance
to fall to the floor, but the smile never left her
face. Mechiko had the same type of smile on her
face, but it was tempered by her gruff nature.
Kitsuryuu closest friend gave her a 'thumps-up'
sign, a wink and then pointed to the door.
Kitsuryuu followed Mechiko's direction and
saw Koori emerge from the darken doorway, pouncing
as she always did. Behind her a shadow formed and
then showed itself to be the red haired human
Kitsuryuu had seen the day she had tried to run
away.
/Kitsuryuu, this is your new Father!/ Koori
proclaimed proudly as she pointed towards the
door.
Cautiously, Kitsuryuu looked into the human's
deep green eyes and realized that they were
identical to her fire friend's baby. She
remembered the way her friend seemed to trust this
one human above the others and came to the simple
conclusion that this strange human was her
friend's mate. That confused Kitsuryuu greatly,
two males were not the usual mating pair, at least
in her limited knowledge of the forest. Maybe
that was the way humans mate.
The human shifted nervously in his place
before stepping to the side, away from the
doorway. For some reason Kitsuryuu could not tare
her red eyes from his emerald green ones. She had
not met this man formally, but somehow she knew
him... remembered him... from a dream. Kitsuryuu
oftened dreamed the things she painted or drew. A
thousand new ideas blossomed with the inspiration
this handsome human gave her.
Kitsuryuu realized that her mind was
wandering and forced herself to focus on the
situation at hand. Koori had said something about
her 'Father'. Kitsuryuu could only remember her
fox mother that had raised her. She knew now that
the fox that took care of her was not her real
mother, but Kitsuryuu also knew that she had to
come from somewhere. She had to have parents of
her own, but was it possible that this *human* was
her father?!
Kitsuryuu looked into the human male's eyes
and began to bring her hands up to ask who he was
when a second shadow emerged from the doorway.
The man that entered was taller than the red head
and defiantly *not* human. His short, light brown
hair was just long enough to fall into his
slanted, gold eyes. He seemed rather young,
almost her own age, but an instinct told Kitsuryuu
that he was far older than anyone in this room. A
furious tugging on her shirt caused Kitsuryuu to
look down at her young friend.
/This is your Father, Koenma,/ Koori stated
cheerfully and with grand flare.
Kitsuryuu looked back at the man called
Koenma and was intrigued by the blush that stained
his cheeks. He seemed nervous and he cut his eyes
to the side to look at the red haired human. If
Kitsuryuu was understanding the look Koenma was
giving the human correctly the taller man was
asking permission. To do what, Kitsuryuu had no
clue.
The human gave no visible answer that
Kitsuryuu could see. He just turned his back to
everyone in the room and looked out one of the
windows. Kitsuryuu looked around the room in
confusion. Something was going on that was just
beyond her understanding, and from the faces
around her, Kitsuryuu knew that none of them were
going to tell her or couldn't tell her.
Mechiko broke the still by leaving her place
against the wall to come to Koenma's side. The
young lady gave the man a small push and Koenma
came slowly towards Kitsuryuu. Not knowing how to
react, Kitsuryuu looked towards the red haired
human for help. It made no sense to her why she
wanted the human to guide her, but she did.
The human didn't turn around. He continued
to look out the window into the quietly falling
rain. Outside, where the forest met the grass,
sat her fire friend. He sat with his arms crossed
over his bent knees and his face pointing upwards
towards the gray skies. The warm summer rain had
soaked his clothing through and had molded them to
his body.
A warm gentle hand touched her own and
Kitsuryuu looked back, startled. Koenma had taken
the fingers of her right hand lightly in his own
and was bringing them up to his face. He gave her
an incredibly charming smile and kissed the back
of her hand. The gesture put Kitsuryuu at ease
and she found herself smiling back at him.
/It is a pleasure to finally met you,
Kitsuryuu./
Kitsuryuu was so shocked that Koenma could
sign that she didn't see the red haired human
leave, but she did miss his presence. With
Mechiko's help, Kitsuryuu sat down on the long
seat and Koenma joined her. The two of them began
talking and Kitsuryuu realized that she genuinely
liked this man... her father.
The realization that this man could possibly
be her father finally sank into Kitsuryuu's mind.
She felt almost giddy with the knowledge that she
finally had someone like her friends did. Someone
to take care of her and love her. For some
unknown reason Kitsuryuu looked out the window and
searched the edge of the forest for her fire
friend. When she could not find him, it saddened
her. She had wanted to share this happiness with
him. Her father had come for her.
==============
end chapter 20
Seeing the genuine sincerity in her words,
Kitsuryuu crept forward keeping an eye on the
woman the whole time. When she got closer Koori's
mother knelt on the floor and stretched out her
hand. She sat perfectly still as Kitsuryuu inched
forward. First Kitsuryuu sniffed at her palm and
then her clothes and when nothing bad happened she
sat down in front of the woman within arm's reach.
/Kitsuryuu, this is my mother, Yukina. Momma
this is Kitsuryuu,/ Koori said and signed at the
same time.
Remembering what Koori had told her about
being polite, Kitsuryuu extended her paw and
placed it in the woman's outstretched hand.
Yukina smiled and gently shook the offered paw.
After the niceties were over Koori's mother
reached out her hands and tried to place them on
either side of Kitsuryuu's head. Before she could
Kitsuryuu noticed a faint blue light emanating
from her hands and Kitsuryuu jerked away.
/It's OK Kitsuryuu. Momma just wants to look
inside to see if your hurt, you know, like Kiseki
does,/ Koori explained quickly.
Kitsuryuu nodded her head in acceptance, but
kept her eyes locked with Yukina's. She wanted
the other woman to know that she was watching her
closely, but as soon as Yukina's hands touched
her, Kitsuryuu knew she had nothing to fear.
As Yukina's hands traveled over her body,
Kitsuryuu couldn't help but purr slightly. The
woman's touch was so light and warm it was like
sleeping in the sunshine. All of Kitsuryuu's
nerve ends sang with contentment. Before she
realized what she was doing, Kitsuryuu laid her
head in Yukina's lap, closed her eyes and flatten
her ears to show her pleasure. It was rudely
interrupted, however, by a gentle shove at her
shoulder.
/Momma wants to know if this hurts,/ Koori
explained when Kitsuryuu opened her eyes.
Kitsuryuu looked down her body and saw that
Koori's mother was rotating her injured leg in
every conceivable direction. She was truly
surprised that this manipulation of her limp was
not sending her into muscle cramping pain. The
only thing she did feel was the constant ache she
had felt since she woke up. Kitsuryuu shook her
head to answer the young girl's question.
/Momma wants you to change to your other
form, Kitsuryuu. Can you?/
Kitsuryuu thought for a moment, she was a bit
weak but she should be able to change without too
much trouble. She pulled herself from Yukina's
lap knowing that while laying in the woman's lap
as a fox was all right, laying there as a person
was a breach of manners.
Slowly, much more slowly than she ever had
before, Kitsuryuu changed. The pain she had felt
in her leg before turn ugly and she had to grit
her teeth to keep from crying out. The crouch
that Kitsuryuu was in was far too painful for her
to maintain so she quickly laid on her side, bad
leg on top. Koori's mother placed her hands right
over the site that gave Kitsuryuu the most pain.
By inches, Yukina chased the pain away, and left
an ache in its place.
/What is wrong with my leg?/ Kitsuryuu asked
the women, knowing that Koori would translate for
her.
/Momma says that you leg is broken and healed
wrong./
Her leg was broken? How could that have
happened? Kitsuryuu couldn't remember doing
anything that could have done that kind of damage.
When she really thought about it, the last thing
Kitsuryuu remembered before waking up here was
running in the woods away from this place. At the
moment Kitsuryuu didn't care how she had done it,
all she knew was that animals with broken legs
died.
/Fix it,/ Kitsuryuu told Yukina, hoping that
Koori's mother had that ability.
/Momma says that you have to brake your leg
again to fix it right. She says.../
Koori didn't get to finish her mother's
explanation before Kitsuryuu brought down the heel
of her own hand down on her leg. Kitsuryuu felt
her bone snap under her palm and grind halfway
into place. She had expected pain but she hadn't
realized how much. Without meaning to Kitsuryuu
let out a scream that even vibrated in her own
head.
Kitsuryuu tried to grab her leg, but it hurt
too much to touch. She wanted to bite
something... hit something... anything to ease the
pain. Kitsuryuu bit her own lip and the pain that
it caused didn't help the agony below. She felt
tears start to burn her eyes when she notice her
fire friend kneeling on the floor next to her.
He had both of his hands out in front of him
just like Mechiko did when they trained in
punches. Knowing what he was offering, Kitsuryuu
used her left arm to support herself and swung her
right arm back for a punch. She hit her friend's
hands several time, but to her annoyance he didn't
even move a fraction. Even as weak as she was,
Kitsuryuu knew that Mechiko would have at least
flinched a little.
As Kitsuryuu pulled back for another punch, a
pair of strong hands grabbed her leg, just above
the knee, and pulled, making the two ends of the
bone fit together correctly. A wave of nauseating
agony hit her gut, and she let loose her fist.
Though pain blurred eyes Kitsuryuu was pleased to
note that her fire friend had slid backward an
inch with her last strike.
Kitsuryuu became dizzy and let herself fall
to the ground from her propped up position. She
could feel someone wrapping her leg tightly, but
she was too tired and pain-sick to care. The
events of the afternoon were wareing on her and
before she had a chance to thank Yukina, Kitsuryuu
slipped into unconsciousness.
The next day Kitsuryuu awaken to find Maryoku
reading quietly by her side. She tried shifting
her position and found that between her shoulder
blades and her neck ached terribly, and her butt
was asleep. The sharp pins-and-needles feeling in
her posterior made her whence, but it was the ache
in her neck she couldn't stand. Kitsuryuu hated
sleeping in her fire form.
She tried to sit up on her own her but her
broken left leg was perfectly straight and stiff.
Her injured leg was wrapped in many layers of
white material making it impossible to bend it in
any way. Kitsuryuu noticed that her usual jeans
had been replaced with loose shorts and her over
sized T-shirt was now a white button up dress
shirt.
Kitsuryuu tried again to sit up, hoping that
if she threw more of her weight into it she could
force her body upright. She didn't even get half
way when she found out that her midriff was
bandaged also. Kitsuryuu laid back down stunned.
For the life of her she couldn't remember what she
had done to cause this much injury.
Maryoku saw her trying to move and carefully
marked his place in the book before he placed it
on the floor. Without a word he helped Kitsuryuu
to her feet and wrapped her arm around his
shoulders for support. For the next few minutes
the two of them just limped around the room and
soon Kitsuryuu found that the ache in her neck and
the pain in her posterior was gone.
As Maryoku helped her around the room,
Kitsuryuu noticed a strange tension in him.
Somehow she knew that he was troubled by something
and he didn't want her to know about it. When he
tried to lead her out the door, Kitsuryuu grabbed
the doorjamb and refused to go farther.
/Where are we going?/ she asked him
worriedly.
/In to the other room where there's more
space to talk./
Kitsuryuu liked the 'more space' idea, but
she wasn't too crazy about the 'other room' part.
Trusting Maryoku to not but her into a situation
that could not be handled, Kitsuryuu allowed him
to lead her. They entered the room where she and
Koori's father had run into each other the
previous day and Kitsuryuu found that all her
friends were there.
All of them were huddled together talking
with happy-sad faces. Kitsuryuu had realized long
ago that her friends' emotions tended to be
confusing at best. Most of the time they were
happy, or content but sometimes they had so many
emotions inside them that they didn't know which
one to feel. Kitsuryuu could never understand why
they never could make up their minds on how to
feel, either your happy or your sad. Right now
Kitsuryuu could clearly see the happy-sad faces
her friends usually wore when they went on
'vacation'. Maybe they were going to visit their
grandparents or aunts' again.
As she shuffled into the room, the others saw
her and immediately stop their conversation.
Koori came immediately to Kitsuryuu's side and
started to tug on her hand with excited and
cheerful exuberance. Maryoku lead her to one of
the chairs and tried to make her sit but with
Kitsuryuu's track record in this room she would
rather face what ever was going to happen standing
up.
Maryoku gave up trying to get her to sit down
and left her to stand shakily on her own with
Koori pulling at her unmercifully. She watched
him walk away from her to the window across the
room, but once he was there he didn't turn around.
He just stood there with his hands in his pockets
staring out at the dark, rain heavy clouds.
Kitsuryuu felt her heart grow heavy for Maryoku.
He was obviously very upset and when he got this
upset he usually refused everyone's attention.
Maryoku was the only friend that Kitsuryuu felt
like she could understand, but right now she
didn't know what was wrong with him.
Koori yanked at Kitsuryuu's hand almost
making the injured girl lose her balance.
Kitsuryuu finally tore her eyes away from
Maryoku's tight shoulders and looked down at the
little girl.
/We have great news, Kitsuryuu! You stay
right here and I'll bring him to you!/ Koori
beamed with delight before she rushed into the
joining room.
Kitsuryuu looked at her friends across the
room and took comfort that they didn't seem
frightened. Fuyu smiled brightly at her and one
shining tear glistened on her cheek. The teenage
ice maiden caught the tear before it had a chance
to fall to the floor, but the smile never left her
face. Mechiko had the same type of smile on her
face, but it was tempered by her gruff nature.
Kitsuryuu closest friend gave her a 'thumps-up'
sign, a wink and then pointed to the door.
Kitsuryuu followed Mechiko's direction and
saw Koori emerge from the darken doorway, pouncing
as she always did. Behind her a shadow formed and
then showed itself to be the red haired human
Kitsuryuu had seen the day she had tried to run
away.
/Kitsuryuu, this is your new Father!/ Koori
proclaimed proudly as she pointed towards the
door.
Cautiously, Kitsuryuu looked into the human's
deep green eyes and realized that they were
identical to her fire friend's baby. She
remembered the way her friend seemed to trust this
one human above the others and came to the simple
conclusion that this strange human was her
friend's mate. That confused Kitsuryuu greatly,
two males were not the usual mating pair, at least
in her limited knowledge of the forest. Maybe
that was the way humans mate.
The human shifted nervously in his place
before stepping to the side, away from the
doorway. For some reason Kitsuryuu could not tare
her red eyes from his emerald green ones. She had
not met this man formally, but somehow she knew
him... remembered him... from a dream. Kitsuryuu
oftened dreamed the things she painted or drew. A
thousand new ideas blossomed with the inspiration
this handsome human gave her.
Kitsuryuu realized that her mind was
wandering and forced herself to focus on the
situation at hand. Koori had said something about
her 'Father'. Kitsuryuu could only remember her
fox mother that had raised her. She knew now that
the fox that took care of her was not her real
mother, but Kitsuryuu also knew that she had to
come from somewhere. She had to have parents of
her own, but was it possible that this *human* was
her father?!
Kitsuryuu looked into the human male's eyes
and began to bring her hands up to ask who he was
when a second shadow emerged from the doorway.
The man that entered was taller than the red head
and defiantly *not* human. His short, light brown
hair was just long enough to fall into his
slanted, gold eyes. He seemed rather young,
almost her own age, but an instinct told Kitsuryuu
that he was far older than anyone in this room. A
furious tugging on her shirt caused Kitsuryuu to
look down at her young friend.
/This is your Father, Koenma,/ Koori stated
cheerfully and with grand flare.
Kitsuryuu looked back at the man called
Koenma and was intrigued by the blush that stained
his cheeks. He seemed nervous and he cut his eyes
to the side to look at the red haired human. If
Kitsuryuu was understanding the look Koenma was
giving the human correctly the taller man was
asking permission. To do what, Kitsuryuu had no
clue.
The human gave no visible answer that
Kitsuryuu could see. He just turned his back to
everyone in the room and looked out one of the
windows. Kitsuryuu looked around the room in
confusion. Something was going on that was just
beyond her understanding, and from the faces
around her, Kitsuryuu knew that none of them were
going to tell her or couldn't tell her.
Mechiko broke the still by leaving her place
against the wall to come to Koenma's side. The
young lady gave the man a small push and Koenma
came slowly towards Kitsuryuu. Not knowing how to
react, Kitsuryuu looked towards the red haired
human for help. It made no sense to her why she
wanted the human to guide her, but she did.
The human didn't turn around. He continued
to look out the window into the quietly falling
rain. Outside, where the forest met the grass,
sat her fire friend. He sat with his arms crossed
over his bent knees and his face pointing upwards
towards the gray skies. The warm summer rain had
soaked his clothing through and had molded them to
his body.
A warm gentle hand touched her own and
Kitsuryuu looked back, startled. Koenma had taken
the fingers of her right hand lightly in his own
and was bringing them up to his face. He gave her
an incredibly charming smile and kissed the back
of her hand. The gesture put Kitsuryuu at ease
and she found herself smiling back at him.
/It is a pleasure to finally met you,
Kitsuryuu./
Kitsuryuu was so shocked that Koenma could
sign that she didn't see the red haired human
leave, but she did miss his presence. With
Mechiko's help, Kitsuryuu sat down on the long
seat and Koenma joined her. The two of them began
talking and Kitsuryuu realized that she genuinely
liked this man... her father.
The realization that this man could possibly
be her father finally sank into Kitsuryuu's mind.
She felt almost giddy with the knowledge that she
finally had someone like her friends did. Someone
to take care of her and love her. For some
unknown reason Kitsuryuu looked out the window and
searched the edge of the forest for her fire
friend. When she could not find him, it saddened
her. She had wanted to share this happiness with
him. Her father had come for her.
==============
end chapter 20