Disclaimer: Get Backers doesn't belong to me, I don't own the characters; you know the drill. Nothing in this story goes beyond the rating I set for it unless you decide on using your imagination, because I don't agree on being over-descriptive when it comes to certain…ahem…scenes in the storyline. I wouldn't have included them if they weren't absolutely necessary to the plot I have in mind, and hopefully they've turned out tastefully and not disgusting.

A/N: Sorry to disappoint anyone who was hoping for more of Kagami's point of view, but for this chapter I'm going with Sakura for plot development (such as it is), etc. I want to clarify that I am not following manga continuity so this fic is going to be rather AU. (Explanation for this will follow.) Oh, and I'm going to make an effort this time and reply Chapter 3 reviewers at the end of this chapter. Really. (Grin.)

Ash blond hair brushed her cheek, like silk against her skin. Short but smooth, the fine strands seemed to radiate with light in the darkness, like a halo for the young man that practically glowed with vitality and life.

For a moment, she locked gazes with him. She saw everything–things that she has told herself she cannot be sure of, yet things that deep down she knew. His unbelievably beautiful eyes, like a misty, foggy mirror and yet crystal clear, burned into her own–sunlight piercing a diamond. And in that one moment, she saw and knew that she saw.

Fear. Apprehension. Desperation. Hesitation. And a reckless determination to go on despite all that.

She wanted to ask why, why go on, but she already knew the answer. It was because of need. An inexplicable need, one that has no rhyme or reason, but simply exists and turns the heart into a black hole that is never full no matter how many emotions it experiences, and will only be satiated by an answering yearning for tenderness and security, and even then only temporarily. Whether the answer came from him or from her, she did not know.

His lips were so soft and supple that it felt as if her own were chapped and rough. And yet he was firmer, more insistent, demanding and begging for more, while she yielded to him, offering no resistance whatsoever and responding tentatively.

Their kiss lengthened, and their embrace continued. He felt lean and toned beneath his clothes as he leaned into her, strong and masculine despite the beautiful symmetry of his face, his exquisite features, his slenderness.

Mugenjyou was so different from her home in the country.

Kakei Sakura would have never dared to even touch a man she was not related to in so much as a friendly manner if she had been in that traditional compound, with her mother and cousins and other female relatives and their shawls, learning all the basic skills needed for housekeeping, how to make more cloth, how to defend one's young.

But in Mugenjyou, when any day could be your last…do all you can do to make sure you die without regrets. It is never good to go thinking of all the things you should have done or wanted to do, but never did because you were afraid to get it for yourself, or because you kept putting it off, or because it wasn't right. This wasn't right, she knew, but who was to say that it was wrong? Makubex's most trusted subordinate or not, anything could happen to her at any time. She wanted to be able to go through life knowing that she had had everything she wanted, even if it was only for a little while, just in case something happened and she never got through it.

And oddly enough, this was something that she wanted.

He sighed out her name, breaking their kiss. She knew he was undoing the buttons near her collar, because she could feel the cool air against her neck. But she did not stop him, and gasped quietly when his lips settled butterfly-like on her pulse.

A sharp buzz filled the air, and Sakura bolted upright, hand near her throat almost defensively. Her embarrassment was nearly palpable as she realized that she was actually dreaming about Kagami Kyoji. And not any ordinary sort of dream either.

Of all people… She shook her head strongly, as if she could shake him right out of her mind.

It was true that she found him attractive. Which woman wouldn't, especially if she was as thrown together with a man overflowing with sex appeal as Sakura was? And she rather liked him during the times he was alone with her–less cocky and not so full of himself, more human somehow. Almost unsure of himself and what he was doing, in fact, yet very irresistibly so. And the way he looked at her…it made her cheeks feel hot and pretend she hadn't seen him, but it flattered her very much. Sakura smiled, recalling Kagami in all his blond glory with that irritatingly sexy smile and breathtakingly intense stare, but stopped almost immediately.

He was not like her, Makubex, Juubei or the others. He was from Babylon City. That alone should have turned her against him. He was one of them. Pretending to work for Lower Town's boy king, but still very much one of them. She had known that from the moment Makubex introduced him to the entire organization. It was nothing Makubex said, nothing Makubex did, but knowing him as well as she did she knew at once that the silver-haired genius did not trust him. And so she did not trust him either.

And yet she was still drawn to him. He had an aura of infinite depth, incalculable intelligence and intangible power. He was dangerous, yes, but that danger was to her the same as the danger an experienced, confident dog-trainer feels when approaching an unknown but apparently docile dog. She knew she should be more wary of him, but he never showed his fangs around her. In fact, judging by the way he seemed to keep getting the crap beaten out of him by retrieval teams and the like, he hardly seemed that threatening. But the air of mystery surrounding him, as powerful but more arresting than Midou Ban's in her mind, would never dissipate no matter how many fights he lost.

She had never thought herself to be one for enigmatic pretty boys, but somehow she still harboured some feeling for him. She did not know what it was, but it made her do things that she normally would not do for others. Like leaving her post to tend to him. Letting him drink tea brewed in the traditional Kakei style, a secret recipe handed down from generation to generation in her family. Allowing him to stay in her quarters in the wee hours of the morning.

Odd. Very odd.

Sakura went to the heart of Makubex's base, where he monitored the flickering images on the screens as if he was some divine entity watching over Lower Town instead of just an overburdened worried boy who needed to sleep. She smiled affectionately at the sight of him, the same way she used to smile when Juubei purposely went off alone so that Uryuu Toshiki could monopolize Kazuki's attention so long ago. Most children his age did not carry his burden, especially willingly. An amazing boy, this was, even if his ruthlessness in getting what he wanted was rather unsettling. But Sakura knew he would come round in the end. Look at that whole IL business and how it turned out, even without her actively trying to change his mind.

"Good morning, Sakura," Makubex greeted her without averting his eyes from the images.

"Good morning," she replied, resisting the temptation to ask him how much sleep he got the night before because she knew he would simply stare at her and go back to what he was doing without a reply. The dark circles under his eyes gave her the answer she wants anyway. She was about to tell him to go to sleep while she takes over for a while when he suddenly pointed at one of the screens. Kagami was walking on a cobbled back lane, his hands casually stuck in his pockets and his hair picturesquely lifting away from his face as he moved forward with an effortless grace that tends to inspire unavoidable envy and unwilling awe in both men and women.

"He likes you," Makubex stated. The tone of his voice made Sakura turn to him, the maternal side of her instantly pricking up its ears in suspicion. Makubex rarely took notice of the romantic affairs of his followers unless they interfered with their performance at work. After all, he did have Emishi Haruki working for him.

"You don't know that," Sakura said lightly, wondering if he was about to throw a childish tantrum out of jealousy as he occasionally did, the same way a toddler will when his mother is so absorbed in another child that she does not pay attention to him for a while.

"I've calculated the odds, and after the numerous psychology websites and romance fiction sites I've visited I think I can safely say that he does like you."

"Romance fiction?" Sakura smiled a little in amusement, ruffling his hair affectionately. "My, Makubex, I never thought you would grow up to be a Harlequin romance-type…"

The teenager looked rather affronted, throwing her a rather reproachful glance and then returning to his original point. "Something about you seems to have captured his fancy."

"Even if it does, what's the use of it?" Sakura asked in a tone that was just a little too dismissive, as the other half of her brain tried to stop her body from reacting too violently (or delightedly) at the idea that Kagami might actually 'like' her, as Makubex put it. Turning the rotating chair around so that Makubex was no longer facing the monitors, she gently pushed him out of his seat. "You need your sleep. I'll take over from here."

"I'll go. But I want to ask you something first."

"Yes?"

"Would you, if I asked you, accept his favours if he should act on his interest?"

Sakura tried not to look too shocked. Accept his favours? What exactly does he mean by favours Instead, trying to look calmly at the boy now removing his lengthy bandana, Sakura raised one eyebrow, hoping that sarcasm would kill whatever idea was germinating in his formidable brain. "And why would you ask me to do that? Aren't you afraid that he will further infiltrate our system through me?"

"I am asking you because I trust you, and you are the one he is attracted to. He is from Babylon City. Think of what you could do with him if he falls for you hard enough." Running his fingers through that mass of silver hair in an exhausted gesture, Makubex walked to the door that leads to his room tiredly. Sakura watched his retreating figure, lips parted in indignation and shock. At first she held her tongue, because as a subordinate she felt it was not her place to question her leader's judgement. But there was another side to Sakura as well, the shepherdess that kept her flock together, the mother that would never let any of her children stray. That side came out in full force, and she found herself saying sharply,

"Makubex!"

The fourteen-year-old turned around swiftly, hearing the anger in her voice and sensing the tension emanating from her. Walking towards him with a frown plastered on her brow, she flatly refused to Delilah information out of Kagami. She was disappointed with him for even coming up with an idea as underhanded and despicable as that.

"I am willing to follow you when you make decisions, and I am willing to work to make your dreams for Lower Town a reality. But I will not let you insult my dignity by asking me to play on affections that you do not even know for a fact exist, or lose my sense of honour and morality to trick an enemy." Sakura paused, her shock and annoyance alarmingly present in the way she could not seem to string sentences together properly. She came off as if she was sputtering indignantly, and she knew it all too well. Fortunately, however, Makubex looked a little chastened and embarrassed.

"Forgive me," he whispered, large eyes gazing up at her brown ones. Then he looked away. "I forget sometimes that not everyone is as obsessed or cold-blooded as I am when it comes to bringing down Babylon City. Forgive me." Before Sakura could speak, he turned around again and trudged wearily to the door with his name on it. Just before he went in, however, Makubex's eyes met hers again. "But just think about it, Sakura. We have an advantage, and we must make use of it somehow."

Alone now, Sakura stared at the monitors and saw nothing. Think about it. She was thinking about it, and while she found herself thinking of hidden desires that only expressed themselves subconsciously, she knew that she could never manipulate someone the way Makubex wanted her to without loathing herself completely and totally. If she was going to act on a mutual attraction, she would want to keep her personal affairs separate from her work, not have an affair for work. Lost in her thoughts, Sakura hardly noticed her surroundings until something with a mass of brown hair, ridiculous purple glasses and a very big mouth popped up right in front of her face, roaring in a would-be ferocious voice.

"Emishi!" Sakura jumped, barely stopping her reflexes from wrapping his head up in pink cloth. Heart still racing from the unexpected surprise, she settled back down in front of the monitors and turned to the Joker. "What is it?"

"You looked so serious just now, I thought someone just died. I had to do something." The whip wielder pulled another funny face before settling for just grinning boyishly at her.

"Yes, give me a heart attack. But what do you want, why aren't you patrolling outside?" Sakura tried to sound stern, being the one in charge when Makubex finally took a break, but she could not help smiling a little at Emishi's goofiness that was never really funny in the true sense of the word, but so silly that it wound up being comical anyway. However, business was business, even to the Fresh Blood Joker. (Well, most of the time anyway…) Looking a little more serious, he spoke again.

"One of the residents came running to me earlier, saying the area of Lower Town nearest to the Belt Line was being attacked. He said there were about twenty of them, and they were moving down towards the more densely populated areas. I tried to send a message to the base asking for back-up, but nobody answered, so I ran here to see if anything was wrong." Emishi tilted his head sideways and opens his eyes wide, scanning Sakura's face earnestly as if trying to read it. "Nothing is wrong, is it?"

Sakura did not want to answer. Instead, busying herself with the computers, she paged Kagami and several other low-ranking members of Makubex's hierarchy. A pop-up on the computer screen told her that delivery of the message to Kagami had failed. He must be out of range. This is not good. Recalling that Juubei had gone off to the hot springs with Kazuki and that Fudou was nowhere to be found after the IL fiasco, Sakura got up, her shawl held ready. "Let's go, before it's too late."

"You're coming along?" Emishi's eyes opened even wider than anyone had ever thought possible before.

"There's no one else, Juubei is with Kazuki and I can't get Kagami. I've paged the people that I could get, but they aren't very experienced and two of them are new. Show me where the place is."

By the time they reached the parts of Lower Town that were under attack, the five that Sakura managed to reach were already there. Some of them looked frightened, and one was shaking so badly that it was surprising she had not fallen down yet. Kanan, she suddenly remembered the girl's name, a new member who had never been in a skirmish before. But two of them looked alert and anticipative, eager for battle. Taking command, Sakura told two of the frightened girls to help her evacuate the residents that had not already run away screaming while Emishi and the others held off the Belt Line invaders for as long as possible.

"Will you be all right with just three people?" Sakura asked before Emishi went. He glanced at the three frightened ones, and seemed rather pleased that the one who was supposed to go with him had a determined look in his eyes even though he was still pale. He gave Sakura the benefit of his thousand-watt smile.

"I'd be all right with just you, but I'll take what I can get," Emishi winked roguishly before heading off with the trio. Sakura chalked it up as Emishi's 2653rd Failed Attempt at Flirting, shaking her head with a brief smile. Turning to the two girls left with her, Sakura snapped back to seriousness. "We need to get these people out of here."

After designating a half-hidden house in a narrow lane as a safe house and leaving the less scared of the girls to guard it, Sakura and her one helper began searching the mainly empty houses for young children, old folks, disabled people or injured victims that had not been able to leave when the screams from the higher parts of Lower Town had alerted everyone else to the attack. They found two terrified children that had run inside a house to hide, and then one old woman who was recovering from a stroke and could not walk. Sending Kanan off to the safe house with the woman and the two young siblings, Sakura continued the search with more urgency now. The sounds of fighting were drawing closer now, and she could hear the screams as the unlucky ones who had not been able to flee were cut down mercilessly.

Going into a house, Sakura heard someone crying. Curled up in a corner of the kitchen, she found a toddler, a little boy with short black hair sobbing his eyes out. He tried to back away from Sakura at first, but after a little persuading she managed to get him to let her carry him. She could even hear Emishi's frustrated shouts now, telling someone in his group to watch her back and another to fight like he meant it because it was life or death now. Where on earth is Kagami when you need him? She frowned angrily as she ran towards the safe house, but she knew that it was possible that the pager had just malfunctioned. They weren't always dependable, she knew, hers seemed to have mood swings and did not work every few days. She should have told Makubex to get newer ones…a scream made her lose concentration for a moment and she stumbled, tripping over some rubbish that had spilt onto the streets earlier when people had stampeded in their haste to get away. By twisting and landing on her back, she was able to stop herself from squashing the actively wailing toddler, but it hurt. Unable to move for a split-second, she could hear a man screaming someone's name, and then Emishi shouting at him to concentrate on defending himself before getting cut off mid-sentence. Another man yelled, she didn't know what, only that he sounded worried. But she did realize that if he was yelling at Emishi, Emishi wasn't responding…

That silence from Emishi spurred her into action, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and her throbbing spine. She didn't know if he had suddenly stopped talking because he needed his full concentration for fighting or because of something worse…running even faster now, Sakura bent all her will on reaching the safe house so she could leave the boy with Kanan and the other girl before going to find Emishi and his party. She had known Emishi since the days of VOLTS, and even though he was rather annoying sometimes he was one of the mainstays of her life. He was a constant, a given in her existence, always there to flirt badly, to try to be funny, to be fearless, the same way Juubei was a reassuring presence in the way that all brothers are, the same way Makubex was the first person she saw in the morning when she went to the room with the monitors. She couldn't imagine going through a day without hearing one of his bad jokes. Damn Joker, what's happened to him? She was worried.

Finally, her lungs burning, she reached the safe house. Barely able to gasp out instructions to Kanan to go and find Kagami and tell him to get there immediately, and then to the other girl to make sure the rescued stayed very quiet if the Belt Line attackers came, Sakura took off again at full speed. She couldn't breathe properly anymore and her legs were starting to feel like they would give out on her any minute now, but she couldn't afford to stop to catch her breath. Impatiently loosening her collar and ripping it when she tugged too hard, she unwound the shawl from around her forehead and body, holding it ready. She reached the battleground just in time to see the frightened-looking man get smashed against a wall as one of the hideous monsters swiped him with a disproportionately muscular arm. There were eight left, and all of Emishi's party were scattered here and there, unconscious, comatose or…No, don't you even dare think that!

The Kakei Cloth Technique was meant to be purely defensive, for the Kakei women to defend themselves and their children by incapacitating enemies long enough for them to escape, and usually that worked well enough for Sakura. But this was different. She had to stop them, or they would continue their rampage once they got free of her cloth traps. During the days of Fuuga, Kazuki had taught her how she could use her cloth in ways similar to the Fuuchoin thread manoeuvres. She hadn't used those moves in a long time. Moves not to disable, but to maim, to kill…

Glancing at the girl that had bravely gone with Emishi earlier, her neck now at an improbable angle as she lay next to a bloodstained wall, Sakura tensed. Two of them rushed at her…she didn't know what the other six were doing, but it sounded like they were having fun pulling the unconscious body of one of her people to pieces. Using the shawl, she wrapped one up first before letting the shawl loop around the neck of the other. Casting the rest of the shawl around a wooden pole that supported a roof in front of a house, she pulled the material sharply and was rewarded with a very loud crack as he flew forwards headfirst, hitting himself hard on the pole and then snapping his neck when his body was thrown forward, but with the cloth tightening to a strangle-hold on his throat. She pulled loose the wrappings on the other one, who was struggling like a mummy back to life, just enough for the shawl to settle around his neck before she strung him up and left him to hang to death from the upper story of a house. Gathering the rest of her shawl, Sakura ran towards the group of Belt Line attackers that were practically tearing off the man's arm. She couldn't stop herself from letting out a scream when she realized that they had dug out both his eyes…that was the gelatinous mess on the ground…his eyes

Numb with horror, she couldn't move, just staring at the ruined seeing organs now squashed to jelly on a filthy, blood-soaked road. It had been so long since she had been directly involved in a street-fight that she completely forgot how vulnerable she was, immobile and not looking on her enemies. But then she heard a shuddering, agonised moan from the man they were picking on before he started screaming, clawing at his face and his hollow eye sockets with his one good hand. Oh God…he woke up…he woke up and he can't see and he can't feel his eyes in his face anymore…

"Help me!" the man screamed. Sakura jerked herself out of her stupor. Her shawl wrapped itself around the two running towards her and she pulled the ends in different directions before releasing one, lifting them off the ground as the shawl slid off them so fast that she could hear the burns it left on their skin. The two bodies hurled upwards into the air and landed with a sickening thud of bone shattering upon contact with the gravel. Casting the pink material forward again, she wrapped the wretched man up and snatched him out of their hands.

"It's me, I have you, hold still," she called out when he made to struggle. At the sound of a familiar voice, the man ceased immediately.

She let him roll out of the shawl's embrace so that he stopped next to a still Emishi, and then repeated the process with the other man and the girl so that she could stand between them and the Belt Line crowd. The remaining four were looking at her warily now, moving slowly and deliberately as they watched her. Her heart was thudding painfully in her chest, which was still burning from all the vigorous actions she had been performing after being inactive for so long. Her shoulder and back were still throbbing from her fall, and again her legs felt horribly unsteady as she heard the frightened sobs of the man who had lost his eyes. She could feel the sweat streaming down her forehead, a few beads flowing into her eyes and making her blink.

At that very moment, they all charged. Having realized that she could not defend herself from all of them at once, they attacked simultaneously. Sakura managed to manipulate the shawl enough so that it caught two of them and changed their direction in mid-lunge, making them crash into each other, but she couldn't do anything about the other two. One grabbed hold of her viciously, but the other was simply trying to ram into her and make her fall, so it knocked her out of the first's grasp. She hit the ground on her wounded shoulder and cried out when the back of her skull made contact with the ground, sliding across the rough tar of the road and stopping only when she hit the legs of the people she was trying to defend. Her back was wet with blood from where her skin had been torn by the gravel. Her head span and her vision blurred with stars, making it hard for her to see anything at all. She could hear devastatingly well, however, and what she heard was two heavy treads as they approached her. Trembling violently, she felt tears of fear starting in her eyes through the spots in front of them.

It can't end like this…I've too much to do! There're so many things I have to finish, to start, to know!

Pushing herself up and onto her feet, Sakura blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of those damn stars dancing in front of her eyes. The two she had only managed to stall earlier had got up again and once more she was faced with four opponents. She still had her trump card, although with her depleted strength and lagging limbs she didn't know if she could pull it off. A piteous whimper from the man whose eyes had been ripped out made her determined to try, however.

Throwing the shawl in many different directions and entangling all four of them in it, she knotted them up tightly and then pulled. She had done it before, and what was supposed to happen was that the cloth, when pulled swiftly, would cause a lot of friction and result in rope burn. Only she had found a way in the time of Fuuga to wind the cloth in such a way that multiple burns appeared in the same place for each of her opponents as she pulled the cloth loose. If she did it fast enough, she could set them on fire while throwing them all high up in the air. Then they would come crashing down to earth and nothing living could survive the impact, Belt Line citizen or not.

Exhausted and hurting everywhere, she barely managed it. She did cause a lot of burns, but she didn't have the strength or speed to perform the last part of the move. All she got for her efforts were four very pissed off, smarting attackers. Sakura fell again, her legs finally collapsing under her, but she couldn't be on her knees when she died. All the dignified pride and quiet nobility that became the Kakei clan protested against it, and somehow she got up again shakily. The nearest of her attackers lashed out at her brutally, hitting her backhanded across the face. But when she hit the ground, she heard four other collapsing bodies as well.

It's about time, she thought, but before she could finally pass out knowing that things would be taken care of someone quickly lifted her upper body up.

"Sakura? Sakura, wake up!"

"I am awake," she mumbled, vaguely irritated. Then she remembered the unmoving Emishi, the man whose eyes were gone, the girl with the twisted neck, that other man whom she never even got to look at the whole time, and forced her eyes open. She wasn't in a bad enough condition to be allowed to enjoy dreamland just yet. Kagami was propping her up, aghast at how messed up she was and checking to see if she had broken or twisted or sprained anything. Kanan, who had apparently followed Kagami there, was crying and throwing up alternately somewhere she couldn't see.

"We need to get them medical attention," Sakura said, getting to her feet again with his help. Kagami followed her as she hobbled over to check on the four. The girl was beyond help, and one of the men would never see again, but the unconscious man seemed to be fine except for a very large bump on the back of his head. Emishi looked like hell, but it seemed that he would live to tell another lousy joke. She smiled at that thought. As the only conscious one of the men couldn't walk, Sakura once again wound all of them up in the shawl and looked at Kanan, intending to ask for her help in pulling them to safety. The girl, however, didn't seem to be in much better condition than Sakura herself. She looked like she was going to faint. Sakura couldn't blame her…she remembered the first fight she had been in all too well.

"I'll take them," Kagami proffered quietly, holding out a hand. She turned and found him looking straight at her, a sincere offer to help reflected in his pretty eyes. As they always do in cheesy romance flicks, everything seemed to go in slow motion as Sakura handed him the ends of the shawl, their eyes still locked onto each other. His fingers brushed hers lightly, leaving them tingling, and hovered there as long as propriety would allow. Then he broke eye contact, beginning to drag the three injured warriors to Gen the pharmacist.

Sakura watched him go, his tall white figure hardly seeming to strain at all despite the weight he was pulling with him. Then she turned to Kanan, who was still crying, her hand over her mouth as if to stop herself from vomiting again as she looked on the carnage. Words were of no comfort during times like these. Sakura let her huddle there for a while, sobbing, and then she put the arm that wasn't connected to her injured shoulder around the other girl.

"Come on," she said quietly. But she didn't push. She let Kanan stay where she was until she took in a deep, shuddering breath, nodded to signal that she was better now and then start walking away. As they left, Sakura looked back one last time. She could see blood on the place where she had slid across the tar, her blood. She had nearly died there.

That thought stuck to her mind for the rest of the day. It made everything seem a little removed, as if she was detached from the rest of the world. When Makubex tried to contact her on her pager, she found herself purposely not answering because she knew he would ask her how she was, and the truth was that she didn't want to talk about it at all, something she knew he wouldn't understand. She went through the whole day as if in a daze, saying nothing when Gen and his granddaughter treated her and gave her painkillers. She didn't need them. The thought of how close she had come to the end was enough to numb everything to a low, persistent throb of pain. She sat on a chair facing all the beds, where the three men were all unconscious or sedated, staring at their unmoving figures for hours. When she left at dusk, none of them had woken up.

Sakura walked back to the base like a woman in a dream, not paying attention to others and not watching where she was going, except that it was in the right direction. She went to see Makubex first, because no matter how numb she felt she knew how hurt he would be if she simply ignored him for so long. He was again sitting in front of the monitors, but when she entered he jumped up and went to her eagerly. He looked shocked when he saw the angry bruise where she had been backhanded, and seemed horrified when he saw that her injuries were not confined to just her face.

"I'll be fine," Sakura smiled weakly before he could say anything. His eyes were still as wide as saucers, taking in her tattered condition. She touched his face, still baby-smooth, and smiled again. "Don't worry about me…and please, don't watch me on the monitors. I can walk back to my quarters without dying. Watch the cameras at the areas that were attacked earlier, some people may take this opportunity to burgle empty homes or the Belt Line people may return."

"I know," Makubex said, but there was no resentment in his voice at her telling him what he already knew as there sometimes was. He was still staring at her woebegone figure, dismayed that his cherry blossom's petals were bruised and torn. "I will."

She gave him one last smile and then left, walking back to her quarters. She knew he wasn't watching her, because Makubex saying he knows means that he knows what you want him to do, but he won't, while Makubex saying he will means that he will do what you told him to. He was a nice child that way. In the corridor, leaning against the wall, was a familiar white figure.

"How are you? I never got the chance to ask," Kagami said in a would-be casual voice. But he knew as well as she did that his voice was shaking a little, and dropped the pretence of indifference. Approaching her but stopping short before her got too near, as if he wanted to stand closer but wasn't sure if she would let him, he looked her over worriedly. "Are you still in pain?"

Sakura smiled a little at the question, which was honestly rather silly. "What does it look like?"

Kagami unbent enough to grin at her tired humour. She found herself staring into his eyes again and remembered the dream she had that very morning. It felt like ages ago when she had dreamt it. Maybe it was just the numbness. That made her think again of how she had almost died, and that if it wasn't for the young man standing in front of her she would be with that girl with the broken neck, still out there in the streets like discarded trash now that her soul was no longer in that beaten body.

Usually, there was plenty of time for finding men and settling down with them and only then going through the rites of love, as Sakura's mother had always said. But this wasn't 'usual'. This was Mugenjyou; an entirely different ball game. She didn't have plenty of time, as today's events illustrated pretty well. She reached out with one hand and caught the collar of his purple shirt, taking him by surprise. The look of astonishment hadn't quite faded from his face when she pulled him down to kiss him almost violently, her sudden movement aggravating the sore part of her face.

"Come inside," she murmured, a little annoyed at how she sounded so breathless. She blushed at what she was saying, but said it anyway. "I haven't…thanked you yet."

Sakura wouldn't have been far off the mark if she had said that Kagami looked surprised. He was stunned. Speechless for a few seconds, he carefully cupped her cheek again and kissed her very gently, mindful of the bruise on one side of her face. "Not tonight," he said in a low voice, which was oddly hoarse. "You're injured."

Without taking her eyes off him, Sakura opened the door and stepped inside. She didn't know what to say to his unexpected consideration; she'd been in better shape before. But she didn't want to put things off anymore, not after everything that had happened in just one morning. She reached out and grazed his fingers with hers, like they had earlier. He tightened his grip on her fingers briefly, and then let go again. He stepped closer, but he only kissed her lightly on the forehead before turning away, still speaking hoarsely. "Sleep well."

"Wait!" Damn, she sounded desperate. Catching his arm before he could leave, she pulled him back to her. This close, she almost reached his shoulder. Unable to resist, she touched the side of his unbelievably soft face with her fingers. She looked up at him and saw the hesitation and desperation he was torn between, and decided for him, pulling him in. "Be gentle."

A/N: (Evil laughter) Now for the extended author's note which you don't really need to read…once again, I really didn't want to imply premarital sex in this fic, me being the stodgy conservative that I am, but it's unfortunately unavoidable in the interests of the storyline. (Yes, go me, what I intended to be a one-shot is becoming a real story!) And thank you reviewers who were kind enough to be encouraging and constructive concerning the last chapter, which I honestly do not think was up to par. I hope the standard improved with this chapter, so please leave a review if you think so or otherwise! And as promised, replies to my extremely nice reviewers…

Trinity: Sorry you didn't like chapter three as much as the other two…I hope this chapter made a good impression on you. Thanks for consistently reviewing, by the way.

Saruwatari Kaito: I will keep on writing, don't worry. It's impossible to stop me, much to the dismay of my teachers and parents. (Wink.)

TheOriginal: Haha, nice pun. Let's be nice to Kagami shall we…or at least I will be since I don't know what's going on in the manga that's making everyone not like him…

Atropos' Knife: I blush at thy compliments, really. (Grin.) I'm going to admit that the reason I'm using Kagami as my main character is because he's hardly explored in the anime, so I'm free to do a lot of stuff with him without being accused of making him OOC. (Evil, no? Teehee. Besides, I think he has the potential to be a very complex character.) And I've heard something about Ginji's father being someone in Babylon City, but because I don't read the manga and have only watched some of the anime I'm putting this story under 'alternate universe' instead of changing the plot I had in mind to follow a canon that I haven't read and risk being extremely inaccurate. So bear with my take on what Mugenjyou really is and how Kagami figures in it, I hope you'll like my idea. Thanks for being so encouraging!

Rabid Lola: Yep, your compliments make me blush too. I must look like a lobster by now. Glad you didn't have a problem with chapter three, and thanks for reviewing this story every chapter! You and Atropos' Knife are two of my favourite authors, so it's really heartening to see that you both like my work as well. (Faints of happiness.)

Kasumi: Glad you liked this pairing. It's growing on me too. (Wink.)