Momo awoke to find herself in a darkened room and on top of something warm and…breathing? "Where…?"

As her eyes adjusted to the dark she realized that she was in Ryu's room, in bed with him. Everything suddenly came back to her. "Oh yeah…Kaiser…."


*
After consoling Ryu for several minutes, Momo had managed to get Ryu into bed, only to find that any attempt to leave the room cause him to 'flare up' again. Finally, she had decided to sleep with him, as they had when camping. "Remember the Rakda?" she had asked an unresponsive Ryu.

When she had fallen asleep, she did so with an arm across his midsection. By morning, however, she had somehow managed to half-climb onto him, holding him like an oversized teddy bear.

*


Momo had just started to carefully pull herself out of bed when Ryu began to stir. She froze, wide-eyed, unsure of how her friend would react to her presence.

Ryu grunted and stretched his arms above him, then stopped as he became aware of an unusual weight on his body. He brought his arms back down and, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, looked down his body.

Momo stared back at him with wide eyes. Then she suddenly threw herself completely on top of him, bringing the two of them abruptly nose-to-nose. "I don't care what you say Ryu you're not leaving me You'll have to throw me off to leave but since that could hurt me I know you won't do it Ryu the fact of the matter is that I think I love you so please don't leave." She dropped her head to his shoulder, pink hair everywhere, exhausted from the early-morning exertion.

Ryu blinked several times, partly to finish focusing his thoughts, partly to remove errant pink hairs. "Momo…I don't really understand love between a man and a woman, but…" A deep breath. "…what I do know is that this…" He wrapped his arms around her and gave a gentle squeeze. "…feels right. Like I'm supposed to be here with you, to protect you, or whatever." He shrugged his shoulder to encourage Momo to lift her head. Once he met her eys he added. "So basically…I'm not going anywhere…without you, that is."

Momo bit her lip and fought the tears that threatened. "Welcome home, Ryu."

Nighttime found them still wrapped in each others' embrace, sleeping off the exhaustion of an entire courtship.


Work complete.