Ami was so cute.

Ryo wondered if she knew that her hair was sticking up at odd angles. She rammed her fingers through it and tugged again, completely unaware of what she was doing as she squinted at another page of ancient, crumbly text.

The dark circles under her eyes weren't cute.

Ryo tugged at his collar again and shifted uneasily in his seat. He'd given up a long time ago trying to interpret anything in the books around them. He'd had a moment of sharp alarm when Ami had suggested trying to use her computer to make the translation go faster. Ryo had shut that down immediately. The idea of watching her writhe in pain as her ears bled was intolerable.

She'd been going at it since. For hours. Ryo had paced, shuffled, explored, and made his way back to this seat at least 30 times since then. She was exhausted. She was dealing with injuries from battle. Her stomach had growled, through she'd ignored it. She had the most intense focus of any person he'd ever met. It was incredible. It was admirable. It drove his respect for her into new heights.

It was also driving him crazy.

He'd promised himself another hour or two before he interrupted her at least four hours ago. Her stomach growled again, and his tether snapped. "Mizuno? Mizuno. Mizuno! AMI!" Deep, crystalline blue eyes blinked up at him at the sound of her first name.

"Oh. Sanada. I'm terribly sorry. Have we been sitting long?" she murmured. He blinked at her. Ami sighed, ruffling her bangs and frowning at the book in front of her. "It's no use, I'm afraid. I just can't make any sense of it at all." She shot him such a despairing look his hackles went up for a second.

He gave her his best smile. "Hey, don't worry about it, right? I mean, you did your best, but we should really get going." He cast a nervous look over his shoulder. They'd been in one place way too long. He'd been as patient as possible, but a terribly dark energy had slowly tucked itself in around them, and it felt absolutely oppressive now. He was no Seiji, but it didn't take a sage to figure out they might be on someone's dinner menu.

Ami blinked again and made a little Oh! gasping noise, rising up from her chair on legs that had probably fallen asleep. He winced in sympathy as she stumbled away from the table, bent over, and attempted to rub feeling into them briskly. Then he averted his gaze as he realized where he was staring, color creeping into his cheeks.

He cleared his throat and forced himself to focus on their surroundings. The dark, creepy atmosphere went a long way toward sobering him up. Yeah, he didn't like where this was going, and he definitely didn't like the idea of Ami anywhere near it. He reached again for Rekka, frustrated beyond belief when he slammed into a wall of darkness where Rekka should have been, nestled warmly inside him. He could feel its comforting heat, but the armor was blocked.

"Drat!" Beside him, Ami was furrowing her delicate brows. He fought the urge to reach over and smooth them back out gently with his thumbs, then wondered where in the world it had come from. What was wrong with him right now? He'd been having weird feelings since he'd woken up alone with her.

She met his gaze then, sadness and a kind of trepidation in her own that made his guts clench.

"Sanada, I can't tell what might be waiting for us here. Not without my computer." Ryo stormed over to her, and placed his hands firmly on her shoulders, giving them a little shake. She felt so tiny and delicate in his grip, he couldn't help the small tremble that wove through him at the thought of anything happening to the porcelain of her frame.

"Mizuno, we talked about this. A lot. I remember. In fact, most of what we've been talking about is you, not using that thing. What if it kills you next time?" he growled. Ami flushed and dropped her gaze, but he really couldn't make his hands let go. He needed to know she understood him. Understood that he wasn't going to tolerate her putting herself at risk again like that. Finally, she gave him a tiny nod, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

"I – I know I shouldn't Sanada, I just feel so useless without it!" she blurted to her shoes. Ryo smiled at her, even though she couldn't see it.

"Hey, look. We'll be ok. We'll be careful, do the best we can. But I can't accept you putting yourself at risk like that Mizuno. I can't. So don't ask me to again, all right?" Ami looked up, nodding at him shyly again.

Then her eyes went huge as her face contorted into an expression of sheer terror. She screamed and the world went white for a second. He felt his body bounce a few times before his back slammed into something very solid. A wall? A wall. His head was spinning.

What happened? Where was he? Why wouldn't his head stop spinning? Everything was swimming in and out of focus, and he couldn't make his vision cooperate.

"Sanada!" The desperate feminine shriek jump-started his heart, urging it to a gallop inside his chest. Ami. That was Ami. Ami was screaming. Ami was screaming his name. Terror and rage burned through his veins and he felt his head clear immediately.

Someone's hurting Ami he thought, getting to his feet, staggering backward, and leaning against the wall as he tried to catch his balance when the room seemed to sway back and forth on a giant pendulum. Another scream had him lurching forward blindly. Hell no. Hell. No.

Not Ami. Ryo blinked his eyes clear and tried to understand what was happening when all he saw was complete and utter darkness. He blinked again, trying to figure out why he couldn't see. His eyes were open, right? They were definitely open.

There was a lot of crashing and thumping happening forward and to the left a little ways, and he shuffled in that direction. Gurgled whimpers and delicate grunts propelled him faster. The distinctive sound of a fist hitting flesh, hard was followed by a female crying out in pain. Rage burned through him, hot and bright. He was going to murder someone.

He charged toward the sounds blindly, hoping to either tackle Ami to safety and put himself between her and the enemy or tackle the enemy. He leapt and felt himself collide with a delicate body. Small, shaking arms wrapped around him and clung, a startled noise sliding on the air in front of him. He had Ami. She was startled but seemed coherent enough to recognize him. Ryo set her behind him and growled into the darkness as he whirled around.

"Stay away from her." His angry demand was met with amused and wicked laughter.

"Oh no – it's been centuries since I've eaten. Centuries. But don't worry, I'm hungry enough for two." It trailed off into wicked laughter that seemed to bounce around the room, sending Ryo's blood to a boiling point. He opened his mouth to tell whatever it was exactly what he thought about that, but a bright blue glow began emanating softly from behind him. It grew steadily, overtaking the darkness until he was blinded by light instead.

"I'm afraid I can't allow this to continue." Ami's voice was quiet, but strong. She yelled, and the blue light flared, bathing them all in an eerie glow. He closed his eyes when it became too much for his retinas, and wondered if this was how the other Troopers felt whenever he used the Sou En Zan. The suffocating darkness faded with a shriek of rage, and the light dimmed.

Ryo found himself staring stupidly at Ami.

He was practically on top of her. He flushed at their nearness, but before his sense of proprietary virtue got the better of him, he noticed dark bruising already beginning to mottle the small line of her jaw, creeping up and around her cheek and down to her chin. He couldn't help but curl his lip and let out a low growl.

His hands moved of their own accord, reaching up and gently cupping her cheek, turning her head in the dim light. She flinched, and he gentled his grip further, rubbing along the coloring with the lightest of touches. Ryo felt impotent rage well up in him. He'd been so busy flaking out like an idiot that he'd let his guard down, when he'd known it was dangerous. And Ami had paid the price. He let his hands fall to his sides, curling into fists so tight his nails bit into his palms.

"You were hurt. I'm sorry." He gritted out. Ami blinked at him, a blush staining her cheekbones. At his visible upset, she grabbed one of his hands in her two small ones, gently uncurling his fingers and easing his grip until his palm was cool and relaxed between her own.

"Apologizing is silly. I was caught off guard as well. It's a good thing we both recovered quickly. And I didn't even use my computer." She beamed up at him, radiating goodwill, and he wrestled fiercely with the urge to tuck her up against him, where he could keep her safe. He flushed with the thought, casting his gaze aside. He needed to get himself together, and he needed to get out of this weird mood that seemed to take hold of him…well…any time he even looked in her direction, honestly.

"Thanks." He was still busy averting his gaze when he realized that they'd staggered out into a corridor, and it was currently coated in ice. He gasped in awe and alarm. "Mizuno—" he started. She shook her head and smiled.

"It's alright, that's just me. I was able to reach some of my powers and thought they might help get us free. I'm glad my hunch was correct." She flashed him a cheerful smile.

He rocked back on his heels, thrown. Not only had he been caught unaware, but he'd been saved by a girl. She was tiny. She was fragile. She'd saved his ass. That was humbling as hell. And now he was disappointed in himself. She shouldn't have had to save his ass. He should have had her back instead. Should have paid better attention. It was like he couldn't think when she was around. Maybe it was this place. Maybe it was messing with his head.

Either way. He wasn't going to let it happen again. Warmth crept into his body as he stared at her. Almost as if Rekka were active, but not quite. Not exactly.

When he'd been watching her, watching over her in the weird, creepy library, he'd felt a little strange in his chest. He rubbed at it absently now, wondering what it meant. He cleared his throat again, and held out his hand to her, offering her a tentative smile.

"No one's getting past me again Ami Mizuno, I promise," he vowed, meaning every word he said. She returned his smile and tentatively placed her fingers in his.

"I believe it."