A/N- Poor Ronin, he keeps having nightmares! Kinda makes you wonder why he sleeps so much, huh? Oh well…

Oh, yes and for DSgurl1123: Toklata's age…well, yes. In the ToklataXRonin pairing sense, she should be older. But they're not intended to be lovers (no matter what Toklata says), if that's what you were thinking. If not…well…Darren couldn't have been too much older when he was blooded, and her being so optimistic and naïve just kind of adds to the whole thing.

Chapter Nine

It never occurred to Toklata that dragging Ronin's cloak across the ground as she walked towards the stream would make it even dirtier. In fact, she hadn't even wanted to wash it in the first place, and was pretty sure that he had known this as well.

Ronin, it seemed to her, was not at all the man he made himself out to be. He was not at all a cold, heartless creature who'd kill whatever was unlucky enough to cross his path. Not at all.

Ronin, it seemed to her, was in fact just a very, very sad man.

She wondered why in the world Konosuke was coming after him at all. Konosuke himself couldn't be so bad deep down, she thought, and he should go find himself a wife or something.

She stopped, closed her eyes, and implanted a picture into her head.

It was sunset. Konosuke got out of his shiny new car and waved to his neighbor, Ronin, who smiled back. He wasn't dressed in his usual dark attire, and was lacking the sword he seemed so fond of. Konosuke too seemed much more welcoming. An older Toklata stepped out of a nearby white house, pranced over to Ronin, and pecked him on the cheek (as her older self was tall enough to do so). He looked back fondly at her through soft eyes for a few moments, before completely forgetting Konosuke and sweeping her into his arms and…and-

Crash-landing back on earth, Toklata felt her cheeks reddening and pulled Ronin's cloak up to cover her face from no one in particular (though she did check to make sure nobody else was around before folding the black fabric again in her arms and continuing towards the stream).

What had that been? It had began merely as a better relationship between Ronin and Konosuke (i.e. they weren't trying to kill one another), but it somehow turned into a perfect relationship between her and Ronin.

She pictured herself running back to the cave, Ronin's clean cloak in hand, jumping up into his arms and exclaiming "I love you" over and over again.

Imaginary Ronin had a bitter reaction to this, grasping her by the throat and leaving her in a bloody lump on the hard, rocky floor.

No, she told herself sternly. No, didn't I just get through telling myself that he wouldn't do something like that? But…surely he wouldn't be too pleased with the idea…

Toklata brushed the image aside and replayed the whole situation in her mind. This time, Ronin set her down lightly and waggled a finger in her face for being silly.

No, that's not it either!

Deciding to try one last ending to her fairy tale, she restarted the moment right at the part where she assaulted the sleepy-eyed vampire and gushed her feelings all over him. Finally, the desired result came, as Ronin pulled her closer, his eyes twinkling like gold pieces. "I love you, too," was his whispered reply. He pulled her head up to his own, so it seemed that their height was matched, and pressed his lips firmly against her own, breathing warm air into her mouth—

"Hey, what's taking you so long?"

Nearly jumping into the real Ronin's arms in surprise, Toklata turned deep crimson at the sound of his voice, thankful that he was a vampire, not a mind reader.

"Jeez. Daydreaming?" Ronin continued when she failed to give an answer, noting the obvious redness of her cheeks. "Oh, and about what? A boy, perhaps?"

"Uh…um, Mister Ronin, I don't think you should be out in the sun," Toklata finally gasped, quick to change the subject.

"You'd think right," Ronin sighed, still clueless about the subject of Toklata's fantasies. "But I'll be okay; for a few hours at least. And I got a little worried about you, with Konosuke lurking around and all."

Her heart fluttered at this, Ronin had been worried about her, and he openly admitted it. She didn't think that anyone had ever worried about her.

And this wasn't anybody, this was a supposedly coldhearted vampire…

She felt her the color in her face rise again and snapped at Ronin. "Don't worry about me so much, I can take care of myself. You're just a big softy, huh?"

Ronin lifted her up by her shirt and growled in a low voice, "You wanna swing that one by me again, girlie?" Toklata kicked him in the stomach, which only succeeded in making him laugh a little bit, before he released her shirt and let her drop the two-and-a-half-foot difference in their height.

"You're not worth my trouble," he mumbled, turning around. "I'm going back to the cave, now, so hurry up! If Konosuke gets a hold of you, I'm not coming to your rescue!"

"Yes, sir!"