Introductions
He found her sobbing in the corner of her private gym. 'Private' as in it was only used for the three occupants of the mansion. She was only seven years old - three years younger than him, but the adopted heiress had an air of severe depression about her. That was most likely the result of today being her parents' death anniversary. Agatha Davis was an anomaly here in Japan. Taken from her American relatives by the multi-millionaire Hiko Seijuro, she was currently being raised in Kyoto. According to her adoptive father, it wasn't going well. Even at her young age, she was picking up Japanese slowly and therefore had no friends. Her dark skin made her a target for bullying and her loneliness was apparent.
Enter Hiko's oldest business associate's son. Tyr Anasazi was meant to be a playmate for the girl. Someone that understood English and Japanese and could also entertain the girl while Hiko continued to train his other adopted pupil, Kenshin Himura, in his ancestral sword style; the Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu. The African-American hadn't relished this latest assignment from his father. He was being well paid for the summer, but the prospect of hanging out with a girl wasn't an appealing one for him. He frowned, the heart-wrenching sobs pulling at his heartstrings. This was no spoiled princess for him to tolerate. No, this was a miserable child who needed a friend.
"What's the matter with you?" he asked softly in Japanese. The girl jumped and looked up. Their brown eyes locked, hers a shade lighter than his and bloodshot from crying. The instant their gazes met, his dragon, young as it was, knew that she was meant for him. He felt it low in his gut, like an electrified punch. He would claim this lost little dragon for his own, for dragon she was. Her instincts might not be awakened, but she was his just as surely as if she'd married him on the spot. The girl seemed to understand none of this, shivering as she stood up to face him.
"Who are you?" she asked in Japanese, her misery forgotten in her shock. Tyr smiled and the girl shivered again to his delight.
"I am Tyr Anasazi. Why were you crying?"
"I'm Agatha Davis. My friends used to call me Aggie. And I can't tell you," she looked down suddenly. Before she could walk away, he touched her arm.
"Why not?"
"Poppi said I'm not allowed to speak English," she whimpered quietly. "And I don't know the Japanese words for what's wrong!" He cast a speculative look at the quietly crying girl, feeling the need to do something. In the end, he hugged her until her tears dried up, gratified when she snuggled against him.
"Why don't you tell me how you feel, and I'll translate it for you?" he suggested once she was calm.
"I'm not allowed-"
"I'm sure it's alright to do it this way. How else are you going to learn the words to express yourself?"
"O-okay," she said in English. 'I'm sad because it's my mother's death day." She stopped when he said it in Japanese for her, then she parroted it back to him. "I miss her so much!" Again, he translated and she repeated, letting him correct her pronunciation the rare times when she needed it. "My father was okay and I miss him too, but not like I miss mommy. I hate Japan, but I don't want to go home, you know? My family back home is greedy and awful; I don't want to go back home until I don't have to rely on them. And even though I hate it here, I hate feeling stupid even more. I was at the top of my class in America! But this year it's like I'm running behind all the time! I'm not stupid. It's just this language that has me falling behind in class. I feel bad that Poppi adopted such a stupid daughter." Tyr dutifully translated her words, and she parroted them back to him, sentence by sentence.
"I don't think you're stupid, you know," he said once he was sure that she was finished expressing herself. "Learning a second language is hard, especially when you've been suddenly immersed in the culture itself. It takes time and talent to-"
"But I don't have the time! I'm behind in all my studies! The teachers were actually considering holding me back a year to catch up! I'm a laughingstock all over the school. People keep teasing me about my studies, my skin tone, everything. I wish I wasn't so dark and noticeable."
"Don't," he said, touching her shoulder gently. "Don't ever wish yourself different. You're beautiful. You have to know how beautiful you are."
"I want to be thinner," she said with a petulant look. "Poppi said that he thinks I'm too fat for this country. I'm my mother's daughter. She was a big lady. I miss her so much!" She was about to start crying again, but he hugged her and she stopped.
"Why don't we work on your core strength? That'll keep your weight down. And while we're at it, we can work on your studies too. You won't fall behind. I won't let you."
"Easy for you to say," Aggie griped. "I'm sure you're not falling behind in-"
"No, I'm not. And neither will you. Bring me your textbooks. We'll start right away. I'm here for the next three months, so I should be able to help you until I have to go back to school."
"You would… You would do that for me?" she murmured, staring at him in wonder.
"I don't have anything better to do while I'm stuck in this country," he shrugged, placing an awkward hand on his shoulder-length braids.
That was how their friendship began. By the end of that first year's three months, Little Agatha was caught up to her classmates. She'd also lost several inches off her body. Hiko was so impressed with this that he started training the girl as well. It took several years for him to realize that the child, while good, would never be the prodigy that Kenshin was. He continued to teach her, but she continued to modify the moves so that she could handle them. At age ten, he enrolled her in the Kamiya dojo to learn the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu, bringing a great deal of business to the family-owned and operated business because of his notoriety. The girl was quick to advance in the training. The latest descendent and master of the style, Kamiya Koshijiro, was quick to put her and his daughter, Kaoru, into competition with other dojos. The rivals remained on friendly terms though, not fighting each other outside of the dojo.
When a recently orphaned Makimachi Misao moved to Kyoto from Tokyo to live with her grandfather and work at his place, The Aoiya, it was a stroke of good fortune for the girl at age fourteen. Misao latched onto the American, often testing her martial arts skills against her own. Agatha was still not allowed to speak English, but she bent the rules from time to time to show her friend American music videos and translate them for her.
… …
"I don't think this is a good idea," Kaoru said, putting her bag in the back of the jeep.
"Oh, come on, Kao-chan! It'll be fun. And it's only for the weekend. Hiko-sama will be back to pick us up on Sunday, in plenty of time to get ready for classes on Monday."
"So… I'm the only one that completed my homework in study hall to be ready for this trip?" Aggie asked with a mischievous grin. "I've been so excited all day! I can almost taste the hot springs at the Onsen. It's going to be amazing!"
"Yeah, and while we're there, you can tell us all about that yummy-looking boy on your wall."
"Oh my gosh, will you give it a rest? That was just Tyr. We've been best friends since I was seven years old," Aggie explained for what felt like the hundredth time. "You'll actually get to meet him this summer. He always comes to visit me on his summer vacation."
"Oh, but Aggie-chan, if he's going to be eighteen this year, he might be too busy with college things to visit you this year," Kaoru pointed out.
"Oh Kami, you're right! I hadn't even thought about that!" the teenager groaned in despair. "I'm sure that he won't have time for some crummy high-school student once he gets a look at all those fine college honeys. I'm… I'm about to lose my best friend." She sat down heavily on the curb in front of her house, suddenly not interested in the trip at all. The girls sat down next to her, making sympathetic noises. Aggie didn't hear any of it, thinking of all the times he'd been there for her over the years. Thanks to his tutelage, she was fourth in her class in terms of her studies. And between his workouts and her martial arts training, she was in the best shape of her life. She was a slender 127 lbs, the perfect weight for her 5-foot-5-inch frame. The camera crews that followed her around occasionally trying to get a scoop on her father called her 'Hiko's African Princess' and they liked to compare her to Nefertiti for her waistline and classic good looks. If they could see her now, defeated and close to tears…
"Are we ready to go?" Hiko asked the distressed girls a few minutes later.
"No, sir. Aggie-"
"Of course, Poppi," Aggie said over her friend, a fake smile suddenly plastered on her face. The CEO looked over his daughter with a heavy sigh. She was so like her mother in that regard; unable to hide her emotions for the life of her.
"What's the matter, Agatha?" he asked. He gave a fond smile at her guilty twitch. No, his little one wore her heart on her sleeve, and right now, something was upsetting her greatly.
"It's just… Did… Is Tyr coming this summer? Or will he be too busy with college stuff?" she blurted out at last, looking up at him with large, vulnerable eyes. Little Aggie was a thinner version of her mother. She'd grown up to look like the woman he'd loved and lost so long ago. She had the same strong, independent spirit; the same determination, and the same indomitable will… But her heart…
"I can ask him if he has time to come here this year while you're on your trip if you'd like," he offered, desperate to have her smile for him. She smiled at that, hugging him for good measure.
"Thank you, daddy," she hummed before climbing into the car with her friends. He got in the car too, his thoughts churning a million miles away as he drove the girls to the onsen. If only his little girl realized how accurate her statement was! She was his daughter, the product of a one-night stand between him and her mother. His navy buddy, Tyler, had been sterile. His wife, Dalia, had been a gentle soul, quiet and refined. She was a good girl, but unable to resist the charms of a dragon lord in the end, especially while being trapped in such an unhappy marriage. Because she looked so much like her mother, even as a baby, they'd been able to keep their secret, but Hiko had wanted more from his woman. He'd insisted that she tell Tyler the truth and leave him so that they could be a proper family. He could never be sure what had happened on that fateful car trip where she'd decided to end their marriage, but he carried a great deal of guilt that she might have told him and he ended her life for it. He should have been there to protect her! Instead, he was raising her child and keeping his secret to protect the daughter's pristine image of her mother. If he explained about her mother, he would have to explain that she was half-dragon. And he was reluctant to do that to her. He glanced at the laughing trio and knew that he couldn't spoil her image of herself.
"Everything okay, Poppi?" Aggie glanced at her legal guardian with a smile. "It's not like you to be so quiet on these trips."
"I just thought I'd see how long it would take you to notice my silence," the man answered, pressing the gas pedal as the light changed. Aggie giggled at that and he noted how different the two women were personality-wise. Where his beloved Dalia had been full of grace and kept her opinions to herself, his daughter was rough and tumble, more likely to state her grievances and damn the consequences. They may look similar, but their temperaments couldn't be more different. He smiled, noting that her personality came from her father most likely. In the two hours it took to drive his daughter and her companions to the onsen, the trio had discussed their favorite and least favorite teachers, midterms, clothes and fantasy wardrobes, boys, and now they were asleep. He pulled up to the hotel they would be staying in and smiled gently at his little girl. He was so proud of her. She'd risen from dead last in her class to number four in the rankings. She was bi-lingual and a martial arts master.
"Dalia would be so proud of the woman you've become, little one," he told her sleeping form. Quickly wiping a treacherous tear from his eyes, he shook her awake. "Wake up, sleepyhead. The hot springs await."
"We're there already?" the girl yawned and stretched, turning to wake her friends. "Thanks for the ride, Poppi. Five hours on the bus is too long for such a short trip."
"Tell me about it," Misao chimed in. "Maybe if we were staying for a week or something."
"Oh no! I left my bokken at home!"
"You mean this bokken?" Aggie smirked, handing the wooden stick to her friend. Kaoru laughingly accepted it. "We're three kenjutsu princesses. We-"
"You mean a ninja," Misao broke in stubbornly.
"Fine! Two kenjutsu princesses and a master ninja. We can't go around unarmed." They went and retrieved their suitcases from the trunk and handed them off to the bellhop who was waiting with a trolley for their things. Aggie stopped suddenly as if she'd forgotten something. She turned and ran back to the jeep just as Hiko was about to pull away from the curb. She leaned in the window and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Poppi. See you Sunday!"
"I'll be here at noon, sweetheart," the man grinned, glad that she hadn't forgotten him after all. After watching the two full-blooded dragons escort his clueless half-blood dragon into the building, he turned up the music as he drove home. There was his baka deshi to train after all.
This is me, off to an action-filled start. Next week: girl-talk in the Onsen. Please feel free to comment and tell me how I'm doing! :D
