Literally a bodice ripper. Sorry…not sorry. -Velvet

In the hotel suite Tyki so graciously left her in by herself, Star showered her bruised but healing body and half-changed into the gown he had left for her. She left the pretty gown itself on the bed but put on its undergarments. Not thirty minutes later, she was on the run, the chemise's petticoats swirling around her ankles and legs as she dashed down corridors, avoiding anyone who might see her. Looking for a safe yet unseen route out of the building and back to the Black Order.

I'll show you saucy, Noah.

The lower floor of the hotel that Star had run off to was dark and cold. Lamps dotting the ceiling every few feet cast eerie shadows over the storage area.

"Every entrance and exit in this place can't be covered by Akuma," Star muttered as she sprinted down a dim corridor line in sheet-covered hotel equipment, decorations, and furnitures. Tyki could be back any moment. She quickly followed any and every exit sign she came across. As she came to the next exit, a bulky Level 1 Akuma drifted forward from the darkness around the door, revealing its grotesque face and silently screaming mouth eternally frozen in agony.

Star backed away. The Level One stayed stationary at the door, its eyes perpetually peeled open in horror following her movements. With a curse, Star thought, Not attacking. Obviously, Tyki told them to keep me here without deadly force. The Noah was well-aware that she wasn't at 110% just yet. Turning around, she backtracked, determined to find some way out the Akuma had missed. Even if she could summon enough power in her still weakened state to destroy a few Akuma, she couldn't risk the lives of the people upstairs.

Halfway along the dark hall, Star stopped, facing a familiar figure dressed in a top hat, white gloves, and tailored formal wear.

Tyki.

His polished shoes snapped on the stone floor as he slowly and without a word walked towards her. More threatening than any Akuma.

Damn. That plan backfired sooner than expected. Spur of the moment, Star turned and ran down the hall away from him.

But Tyki was faster. At the end of the hall, he caught her and shoved her into the wall.

Turning her around, Tyki gripped her throat in one hand, his hat vanished and his elegant black suit tails melted into the revealing and provocative white uniform the Noah wore when they weren't playing dress-up as members of European high society.

He eyed the buttons lining the bodice of her chemise.

"You dare try to escape. Defy me.

"Duh. I'm a prisoner," Star couldn't resist biting out while trying to pry his hand off her neck.

In that instant, Tyki's golden eyes flashed. He raised his hand and slammed it through her chest.

Star choked back her scream with a sharp, loud gasp. For a long second, neither of them moved. She was so stunned she didn't breathe or think. Having a man's hand in your chest wasn't a sensation she wanted to remember obviously. Was he really going to kill her like this? She looked into his eyes and saw that intense emotion from before had vanished, replaced by the unreadable stare of an impassive observer.

Then, very slowly, Tyki drew his hand out of her body. Expecting to see her heart in his hand, Star's gaze inched downward in horror.

The Noah's fingers caught the buttons of the chemise as they came out of her breast and ripped them free from their threads. In the silence, the buttons pinged dully to the floor.

Screeching at him, Star grabbed the edges of her open bodice and held them together.

"Tyki, you horrible little flirt!"

"You deserved that," he grabbed her again and shook her by the neck lightly like a rag doll. "Now how should I punish you…"

Star eyed him almost fearfully, pouting. "I'd say that was punishment enough unless you've decided to kill me."

His eyes narrowed. "I get to choose. Not you." Pulling her around by her scruff, Tyki guided her down the corridor and back toward the door that would take them upstairs.

"Akuma guarding the main exits. Was that necessary?"

"Says the prisoner who just tried to escape," Tyki scoffed.

"I was just sneaking off for a little fresh air. You know how it is."

"Sneaking off and escaping are the same thing."

"I didn't want them to alert you." Them being the Akuma guards he'd put all over the hotel.

"Hence the sneaking which leads to the escaping."

Upstairs in the elegant suite, Tyki slammed the door shut. Letting go of the back of her neck, he turned and put his finger in her face.

"No more running away. No more escaping. Got it, girl?"

For now. Mahoja, Jump, Gaia—they were on the clock here. Star swept an exaggerated bow.

"Oh yes, Lord Tyki Mikk. Whatever you say."

Tyki glared at her before shoving her onto the bed. Star bounced for a second, set herself right on her back and elbows, then looked at his face. Trying to figure out what he was going to do next.

"You weren't too scared," he said, staring down at her.

Star shrugged. "When you put your hand inside my chest? Naw."

"Why?" he frowned.

"There's either a chance I can figure out a way to stop you from ripping out my heart or I can't. So why panic."

He got that crazed Noah look on his face and she did panic. Star panicked and cast a spell without thinking. Tyki fell onto the bed, unable to move.

"Ah-hah," she said as if she'd planned it like this. Scooting back on the bed and pulling her legs out from under Tyki, she poked his prone body.

Spells weren't really her specialty under pressure but she'd somehow managed to cast one.

"Girl, what did you do to me?" Tyki growled, his voice muffled as he was face-down in the expensive bedding.

"As a Bookman, I also know a few spells. Hah! Now who's the pet, Tyki-pon."

"I'll ask you not to call me that," Tyki mumbled.