Sasuri woke up the next morning, but didn't open her eyes immediantly. She was praying that this whole thing was a nightmare. *When I open my eyes, I'll find myself in the woods, leaning against Diablo.* She finally opened her eyes, and found herself looking into two golden, curious
eyes. Her eyes widened and she held her breath, her lip trembling, then let out a cry and flung back the blankets covering her, falling out of bed in the process. Landing on her back, she looked up and watched in the still dark morning as the small form got off the bed; all she was able to make out were those peircing eyes and a faint outline, and crawled across the floor towards her. She backed away, terror striking through her for a split second. She hit the wall and tensed up as the form crawled up onto her chest. Sasuri felt something like a forked tongue flick over her cheek and closed her eyes.
"JACKNIFE!!!!!" A voice shrieked. The torches went on and a small girl around 13 ran in. Sasuri looked down at her chest and saw a small dragon staring at her, it's head cocked to the side, tongue flicking in and out and smoke furling slowly from it's nostrils. She stared at the dragon, stunned at how much the small, baby dragon looked like Diablo. "I am so sorry." The little girl said, scooping the dragon up in her arms, her purple hair fluttering into her silver eyes. "I turn my back on him for a moment and he's gone." She looked at Sasuri. "He didn't bite you, did he?" Sasuri stared at her for a moment.
"No, no he didn't."
"Good. Sorry if he scared you!" She called out as she ran out of the room. Sasuri sat where she was for a moment. After a second, she stood and walked over to the dresser across
from her bed and started exploring. To her horror, the only clothing she was able to find were
dresses. "They expect me to wear these." She muttered to herself. "I can't believe this." Feeling a
low throb below her shoulder, she glanced at it and saw a bite that was bleeding rather badly.
"Well, d*mn. I guess he did bite me." She studied the wound on her arm, wiping off the blood that
was running down her arm. Just then, 3 handmaidiens came into the room, and dragged her into a seperate chamber.
When Ryu walked in to check on Sasuri, he found her standing amungst handmadiens, her arms crossed and an extremely infuriated look on her face. As he looked over the sight before him, he found it hard to find his voice, let alone his breath. It was a sleek, titanium sliver dress that stopped at her ankles, and had the sleeves stopping in the middle of her well toned upper arms. Her hair had been brushed back so it fell in sleek waves down her back which the dress had left bare. Her eyes flicked over to rest on him, and she sighed, rolling her eyes and muttering about men. When the madiens finally backed away and left the two alone at last, Sasuri stared at Ryu for a moment, then walked over to where the madiens had thrown her training clothing as they looked through the bag that she carried her possessions in (money, food, weapons, training clothing, personal belongings, etc.) for any, "decent clothing", as they put it. When they didn't find any, they had retreated to putting one of the dresses in the closet on her.
Snatching her clothing, she walked in behind the changing screen and started to change. "If one more handmadien comes at me with a dress, or even touches me, I will break their fingers, then their wrists, then their necks. And I am fully capable of doing just that." Ryu turned away from the sight before him, having trouble breathing properly.
"So what do you plan on doing now?" He asked her, talking in the Dragon tongue as she didn't know enough of the English language to have a flowing conversation.
"Is there a training room around here?"
"Five, actually."
"Which one will I have an extremely good chance of NOT running into Murdoc in? Or anyone else for that matter."
"That would be the last one. MY training room. No one but me usually goes in. I don't know why, since as long as they clean up afterwards, I don't care if they use it."
"Perfect." She muttered as she walked out, combing her hair back with her fingers, then grabbing her bag and, checking the bandage on her arm that the madiens had put on for the bite that the little dragon Jacknife had given her, walking out of the room. Ryu watched as the door slammed shut behind her, startled.
When he walked into the training room, he found her already panting and sweating from her workout.
"Want a sparring partner?" He asked. She stared at him for a moment, contemplating it, then smirked, one hand on her hip.
"Fine, but no weapons. Only had-to-hand combat."
"Fine with me."
~10~minutes~later~
Ryu blocked the well aimed fist coming at his face, then the one directed to his waist, yet wasn't able to block her next fluid movement and recieved a powerful roundhouse kick to the chest. He stumbled back a few paces, and she went back to the starting stance, a confidant, almost mocking glint in her eye. Recovering almost instantly, he stepped forward, then blocked three more attacks before he managed to land one on her. But she either barely felt it or ignored it, as she layed a series of hits against him, turning on the spot and attacking him with both her fists and her feet. He grabbed her foot and flipped her, but she landed on her feet and attempted another roundhouse. This one was not as successfull, as he blocked it and managed to swing in behind her and gripped her around the waist, pinning her arms down. After struggling in his grip for a moment, she managed to flip backwards and got loose, then went back into the starting position.
"I have been beaten many times by that move, so I studied it the closest and found a way out." She explained, her eyes never leaving him as he circled her.
"You're good, Sasuri. Almost as good as I am."
"No." She said, grinning. "I'm better." With this said, she started attacking him again. No matter what hold he put her in, she always managed to find a way out of it. *There is just no way of beating her. It's like she's unstoppable. But there has to be a way to beat her somehow. What's her weakness?* He grunted as she landed a powerful blow with her heel to his stomach. *She was risen by dragons, so...how do you beat a dragon?* He then got an idea. When she swung at him again, he managed to get out of her range, then before she could regain her balance, moved to trip her. As he expected, she backflipped over his leg, then turned a few more to regain her balance. To her shock, the moment she came to rest, she felt something trip her and she fell onto her stomach, then rolled over to see Ryu standing over her. She went to flip up onto her feet, but he grabbed her by the leg, so she slammed her foot into his stomach, causing his grip to to loosen, allowing her to get away, resting on her knees. Rubbing his waist, he looked up at her.
"I think it's safe to say that this round was a well earned draw." He muttered, wincing as
he breathed in. She sighed, panting as hard as he was, and hung her head, trying to catch her breath. Ryu looked her over to see if he inflicted any serious injuries, and saw some blood running down her arm.
"Sasuri, your arms bleeding. I didn't do that, did I?" She glanced at her arm and sighed.
"No. This morning, a little black dragon named Jacknife came into my room and bit me while I was sleeping. The maidens wrapped it, and the bandage must have come loose when we were fighting." She explained as she straightened out the saturated cloth, then stood. "So, do you have any plans for today, or does everyone sit around doing nothing in this place?" She asked with a sour note in her voice. He shook his head.
"Not that I know of, but we might get word from our commander to-"
"To go out and create another massive slaughter, while claiming more land for your
leader and causing millions of people's lives to be ruined as their blood stains the ground?" She demanded, crossing her arms. He just raised an eyebrow at this remark.
"I wouldn't have had such a morbid approach to it, but yeah, basically." She seemed absoulutely horrified at this, so he laughed. "Relax, I wasn't planning anything of the sort."
"Very funny, I just loved the way you gave my heart what was as possibly close to a heartattack without actually having one." She snapped, standing and walking over to her sack to pull out a towel and ran it over her face and neck, then thrusted it back into her bag before peeling the old bandage off. Ryu came over and took hold of her arm, studying the bite. She tried to wrench her arm out of his grasp, but failed, so she gave up and let him examine her wound. "It's not that bad." She snapped.
"Sasuri.....what did you say the dragon's name was?"
"Jacknife, well, that was what the little girl that came in to get him called him, why?"
"What little girl?" He asked, his head jerking up, startling her.
"I-I don't know, I didn't get her name. Why? Ryu, what's going on?"
"Sasuri, there's no little girl on board here."
"What?" She was stunned. "Then who was the girl that came in to get the dragon?" Ryu seemed confused for a moment, then looked down at her wound.
"Well, it doesn't seem infected, and it looks pretty much healed, but you will have a scar." Sasuri stared at the bite.
"But it was just bleeding a second ago."
"I know, but you do have blood that heals, remember?"
"Heals others, not myself."
"That must suck." He muttered, running his finger around the new scar. She looked at the scar, then down at the floor. Ryu could practically feel her mood change, so he lifted her chin with his free hand, and was surprised to see tears just starting to form. She quickly stopped them and looked away. "Sasuri? Is something wrong?" She shook her head.
"No, nothing's wrong."
"You miss Diablo. It's a little obvious. I would say I know how you feel, but I doubt you would believe me." He took hold of her hand, brought it to his lips and brushed it with a light touch, then placed it on his shoulder. Amused at her shocked look, he did the same with her other hand and placed his hands on her hips. She felt a blush rising up her face at the sudden movement.
Sasuri saw something in his eyes that she had never seen in anyone else's: compassion.
Her breath caught in her throat, and Ryu felt a shiver run through her body. She saw something flicker through Ryu's eyes; something about the look on his face had her tensing up. Ryu could see she was nervous and had a feeling that this was a first for her, so he knew he had to leave it at a gentle gesture, instead of letting out the want that had been building up in him.
Sasuri swallowed hard and as she watched, Ryu started to lean forward slowly, causing her heart to speed up. She knew exactly what he was going to do, and, though she felt herself wanting to lean forward as well, she couldn't move.
Soon Ryu was just a whisper away from her trembling mouth, and almost had to remind himself to breathe.
"Ryu-" The next words went sliding down her throat as Ryu silenced her with a gentle, almost hesitant kiss. The reaction he found there had him reeling; her didn't expect her to feel as tempting pressed up against him the way she was. The female taste to her was powerful, yet almost fearful, had him deepening the kiss, searching for more as she angled her mouth to fit his. Before she realized what she was doing, she had fisted her hand in his hair, strengthening her end. He had to pull away for several reasons: he was running out of air, someone was knocking at the door, but mainly because he knew that if he didn't stop now, he wouldn't be able to stop at all. He looked down at her and saw she was breathing hard, close to panting, and her eyes were, if possible, even wider with shock.
"I'm coming already!" He snapped to the impatient banging. After a glance at Sasuri and a stroke over her cheek, he turned and left, snapping at the man who had come for him. Sasuri fell to he knees where she stood, ready to collapse. She touched her mouth lightly, then looked up at the door.
"Did that just happen?"
A/N: Well? What did you think? I know!! You can tell me in, a, REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!
Please? Don't you think that I've worked hard enough for one, even if this chapter
sucks? PPPPLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAEESSSSSSEEEEEE?????????
eyes. Her eyes widened and she held her breath, her lip trembling, then let out a cry and flung back the blankets covering her, falling out of bed in the process. Landing on her back, she looked up and watched in the still dark morning as the small form got off the bed; all she was able to make out were those peircing eyes and a faint outline, and crawled across the floor towards her. She backed away, terror striking through her for a split second. She hit the wall and tensed up as the form crawled up onto her chest. Sasuri felt something like a forked tongue flick over her cheek and closed her eyes.
"JACKNIFE!!!!!" A voice shrieked. The torches went on and a small girl around 13 ran in. Sasuri looked down at her chest and saw a small dragon staring at her, it's head cocked to the side, tongue flicking in and out and smoke furling slowly from it's nostrils. She stared at the dragon, stunned at how much the small, baby dragon looked like Diablo. "I am so sorry." The little girl said, scooping the dragon up in her arms, her purple hair fluttering into her silver eyes. "I turn my back on him for a moment and he's gone." She looked at Sasuri. "He didn't bite you, did he?" Sasuri stared at her for a moment.
"No, no he didn't."
"Good. Sorry if he scared you!" She called out as she ran out of the room. Sasuri sat where she was for a moment. After a second, she stood and walked over to the dresser across
from her bed and started exploring. To her horror, the only clothing she was able to find were
dresses. "They expect me to wear these." She muttered to herself. "I can't believe this." Feeling a
low throb below her shoulder, she glanced at it and saw a bite that was bleeding rather badly.
"Well, d*mn. I guess he did bite me." She studied the wound on her arm, wiping off the blood that
was running down her arm. Just then, 3 handmaidiens came into the room, and dragged her into a seperate chamber.
When Ryu walked in to check on Sasuri, he found her standing amungst handmadiens, her arms crossed and an extremely infuriated look on her face. As he looked over the sight before him, he found it hard to find his voice, let alone his breath. It was a sleek, titanium sliver dress that stopped at her ankles, and had the sleeves stopping in the middle of her well toned upper arms. Her hair had been brushed back so it fell in sleek waves down her back which the dress had left bare. Her eyes flicked over to rest on him, and she sighed, rolling her eyes and muttering about men. When the madiens finally backed away and left the two alone at last, Sasuri stared at Ryu for a moment, then walked over to where the madiens had thrown her training clothing as they looked through the bag that she carried her possessions in (money, food, weapons, training clothing, personal belongings, etc.) for any, "decent clothing", as they put it. When they didn't find any, they had retreated to putting one of the dresses in the closet on her.
Snatching her clothing, she walked in behind the changing screen and started to change. "If one more handmadien comes at me with a dress, or even touches me, I will break their fingers, then their wrists, then their necks. And I am fully capable of doing just that." Ryu turned away from the sight before him, having trouble breathing properly.
"So what do you plan on doing now?" He asked her, talking in the Dragon tongue as she didn't know enough of the English language to have a flowing conversation.
"Is there a training room around here?"
"Five, actually."
"Which one will I have an extremely good chance of NOT running into Murdoc in? Or anyone else for that matter."
"That would be the last one. MY training room. No one but me usually goes in. I don't know why, since as long as they clean up afterwards, I don't care if they use it."
"Perfect." She muttered as she walked out, combing her hair back with her fingers, then grabbing her bag and, checking the bandage on her arm that the madiens had put on for the bite that the little dragon Jacknife had given her, walking out of the room. Ryu watched as the door slammed shut behind her, startled.
When he walked into the training room, he found her already panting and sweating from her workout.
"Want a sparring partner?" He asked. She stared at him for a moment, contemplating it, then smirked, one hand on her hip.
"Fine, but no weapons. Only had-to-hand combat."
"Fine with me."
~10~minutes~later~
Ryu blocked the well aimed fist coming at his face, then the one directed to his waist, yet wasn't able to block her next fluid movement and recieved a powerful roundhouse kick to the chest. He stumbled back a few paces, and she went back to the starting stance, a confidant, almost mocking glint in her eye. Recovering almost instantly, he stepped forward, then blocked three more attacks before he managed to land one on her. But she either barely felt it or ignored it, as she layed a series of hits against him, turning on the spot and attacking him with both her fists and her feet. He grabbed her foot and flipped her, but she landed on her feet and attempted another roundhouse. This one was not as successfull, as he blocked it and managed to swing in behind her and gripped her around the waist, pinning her arms down. After struggling in his grip for a moment, she managed to flip backwards and got loose, then went back into the starting position.
"I have been beaten many times by that move, so I studied it the closest and found a way out." She explained, her eyes never leaving him as he circled her.
"You're good, Sasuri. Almost as good as I am."
"No." She said, grinning. "I'm better." With this said, she started attacking him again. No matter what hold he put her in, she always managed to find a way out of it. *There is just no way of beating her. It's like she's unstoppable. But there has to be a way to beat her somehow. What's her weakness?* He grunted as she landed a powerful blow with her heel to his stomach. *She was risen by dragons, so...how do you beat a dragon?* He then got an idea. When she swung at him again, he managed to get out of her range, then before she could regain her balance, moved to trip her. As he expected, she backflipped over his leg, then turned a few more to regain her balance. To her shock, the moment she came to rest, she felt something trip her and she fell onto her stomach, then rolled over to see Ryu standing over her. She went to flip up onto her feet, but he grabbed her by the leg, so she slammed her foot into his stomach, causing his grip to to loosen, allowing her to get away, resting on her knees. Rubbing his waist, he looked up at her.
"I think it's safe to say that this round was a well earned draw." He muttered, wincing as
he breathed in. She sighed, panting as hard as he was, and hung her head, trying to catch her breath. Ryu looked her over to see if he inflicted any serious injuries, and saw some blood running down her arm.
"Sasuri, your arms bleeding. I didn't do that, did I?" She glanced at her arm and sighed.
"No. This morning, a little black dragon named Jacknife came into my room and bit me while I was sleeping. The maidens wrapped it, and the bandage must have come loose when we were fighting." She explained as she straightened out the saturated cloth, then stood. "So, do you have any plans for today, or does everyone sit around doing nothing in this place?" She asked with a sour note in her voice. He shook his head.
"Not that I know of, but we might get word from our commander to-"
"To go out and create another massive slaughter, while claiming more land for your
leader and causing millions of people's lives to be ruined as their blood stains the ground?" She demanded, crossing her arms. He just raised an eyebrow at this remark.
"I wouldn't have had such a morbid approach to it, but yeah, basically." She seemed absoulutely horrified at this, so he laughed. "Relax, I wasn't planning anything of the sort."
"Very funny, I just loved the way you gave my heart what was as possibly close to a heartattack without actually having one." She snapped, standing and walking over to her sack to pull out a towel and ran it over her face and neck, then thrusted it back into her bag before peeling the old bandage off. Ryu came over and took hold of her arm, studying the bite. She tried to wrench her arm out of his grasp, but failed, so she gave up and let him examine her wound. "It's not that bad." She snapped.
"Sasuri.....what did you say the dragon's name was?"
"Jacknife, well, that was what the little girl that came in to get him called him, why?"
"What little girl?" He asked, his head jerking up, startling her.
"I-I don't know, I didn't get her name. Why? Ryu, what's going on?"
"Sasuri, there's no little girl on board here."
"What?" She was stunned. "Then who was the girl that came in to get the dragon?" Ryu seemed confused for a moment, then looked down at her wound.
"Well, it doesn't seem infected, and it looks pretty much healed, but you will have a scar." Sasuri stared at the bite.
"But it was just bleeding a second ago."
"I know, but you do have blood that heals, remember?"
"Heals others, not myself."
"That must suck." He muttered, running his finger around the new scar. She looked at the scar, then down at the floor. Ryu could practically feel her mood change, so he lifted her chin with his free hand, and was surprised to see tears just starting to form. She quickly stopped them and looked away. "Sasuri? Is something wrong?" She shook her head.
"No, nothing's wrong."
"You miss Diablo. It's a little obvious. I would say I know how you feel, but I doubt you would believe me." He took hold of her hand, brought it to his lips and brushed it with a light touch, then placed it on his shoulder. Amused at her shocked look, he did the same with her other hand and placed his hands on her hips. She felt a blush rising up her face at the sudden movement.
Sasuri saw something in his eyes that she had never seen in anyone else's: compassion.
Her breath caught in her throat, and Ryu felt a shiver run through her body. She saw something flicker through Ryu's eyes; something about the look on his face had her tensing up. Ryu could see she was nervous and had a feeling that this was a first for her, so he knew he had to leave it at a gentle gesture, instead of letting out the want that had been building up in him.
Sasuri swallowed hard and as she watched, Ryu started to lean forward slowly, causing her heart to speed up. She knew exactly what he was going to do, and, though she felt herself wanting to lean forward as well, she couldn't move.
Soon Ryu was just a whisper away from her trembling mouth, and almost had to remind himself to breathe.
"Ryu-" The next words went sliding down her throat as Ryu silenced her with a gentle, almost hesitant kiss. The reaction he found there had him reeling; her didn't expect her to feel as tempting pressed up against him the way she was. The female taste to her was powerful, yet almost fearful, had him deepening the kiss, searching for more as she angled her mouth to fit his. Before she realized what she was doing, she had fisted her hand in his hair, strengthening her end. He had to pull away for several reasons: he was running out of air, someone was knocking at the door, but mainly because he knew that if he didn't stop now, he wouldn't be able to stop at all. He looked down at her and saw she was breathing hard, close to panting, and her eyes were, if possible, even wider with shock.
"I'm coming already!" He snapped to the impatient banging. After a glance at Sasuri and a stroke over her cheek, he turned and left, snapping at the man who had come for him. Sasuri fell to he knees where she stood, ready to collapse. She touched her mouth lightly, then looked up at the door.
"Did that just happen?"
A/N: Well? What did you think? I know!! You can tell me in, a, REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!
Please? Don't you think that I've worked hard enough for one, even if this chapter
sucks? PPPPLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAEESSSSSSEEEEEE?????????