"Where should I go?" I stared at the road ahead of me. "Back to my hometown? Reside in a new location?" Their training was over, so I didn't know where else to go. This was my new beginning and yet I was afraid of being alone.

"Go home with Giyu," Shinobu teased, laughing away as she was going back to her estate. "The next time when I see you, you'll be full term."

"Come on," Giyu tugged my sleeves, indicating me to follow him.

"Wait! You still want me to come with you? But why?" I started to catch up to him since I knew he wouldn't stop moving to talk.

"Where else are you supposed to go? You yearned for adventures than residing in your hometown. Why would you go back there? There's no way to gain new experience without following me."

"But… Are you sure you're okay with it?" I moved myself in front of him, halting his movements. "I don't want to be a nuisance. Giyu, don't force yourself to… it doesn't matter if we've known each other for a long time." I was going to blabber on, but he squished my cheeks together to lock my mouth from speaking and further.

"If you were a nuisance, you wouldn't be at my side right now. I'm taking you in because I want to."

"Really?!" My eyes lit up from his heartwarming words. I felt so special and cared. "Okay, just wait! Don't move." I was wrapping a long cloth to cover my face for precaution of people staring at me.

"Why do you need that?" Giyu stared at me in confusion as we continued to walk.

"Because…" I thought back to my hostage days where beauty was painful, and tilted my head down. "Being beautiful is a curse… so to me it's better to cover up my face in public." I quietly spoke. I didn't understand why I felt so weak talking about my new fear.

"Let them be jealous of your beauty—"

"But I don't want to be kidnapped again…!" I latched onto his arm, stopping our walking again. "Giyu, it's a scary situation to be in, and… and…" my head was full of unprocessed thoughts that I was jumbling over my words.

"I'm sorry." He pulled the head covering forward to hide my face and started walking, holding my hand like a child.

"Giyu, you don't need to hold my hand. I can walk perfectly fine without any help." I tugged my hand from his hold. "It's kind of you to care, I appreciate it very much." I gently smiled at him. "I look forward to what kind of life I hold now. Where are we going?" I asked, since he never told me where we were going.

"Home," Giyu simple replied, peaking my curiosity even more now.

"Home? You mean our hometown we grew up in? Or it's a new location where you reside in?"

"You'll just have to wait and see," A small smile curled on his lips, causing me to question him even more.

"Giyu…!"

After some time of walking, we had to make a pit stop due to the sun setting. The horizon was colored red-orange. "Let's go find a place to sleep tonight," Giyu again held my hand as we jogged to find an inn nearby us.

Staring at his running figure made my heart leap. At a different angle, he looked like a man than a childhood friend. His mature, stoic face and tall body made him looked handsome.

"Oh god!" A spoken thought slipped out of my mouth.

"What's wrong?" Giyu stopped and geared his attention toward me. "Did you see something?" His face appeared closely to mine, causing my face to flush.

"No! Don't worry about me. L-let's get going before nightfall!" I ushered him to keep on moving. I couldn't believe my thoughts of Giyu shifted from an old friend to a man. Maybe it was all because of Shinobu's influence by saying dumb stuff about me and him. My mind couldn't revert back to seeing him nothing more but a friend. In a new lens, he was very attractive, to which it was hard to look away from.

"Here's a room for you both," the receptionist led us to our shared room since separate rooms weren't available for either of us. "Use the outdoor bathhouse before it's too late. Have a goodnight to you both," the receptionist left, closing the door behind us.

"Umm…" I felt more flustered to see only one futon on the ground. "You go bathe first!" I gestured him to go ahead of me. I had to calm myself from my head playing tricks with me about a new image of Giyu.

"Why? Let's go so we can rest faster," It didn't phase him at all that we both had to be naked in front of each other.

"G-Giyu?!" My face turned into a tomato. "It's okay! I can wait…" my body was on fire of lewd thoughts and embarrassment.

"Come on, let's go." Giyu wouldn't listen to my pleads, thus dragging me with him.

"C-can you go into the water first and look away? I don't want you to look at me nude… it's embarrassing," I muttered quietly, as I fiddled with my kimono.

"Yes," his footsteps made his way to the bathtub and submerged his body into the steaming water. "Alright, you can go now. I'm not looking,"

Although I did trust Giyu, I still wanted to double check if he wasn't looking at me. I was taking precaution, and started to undress myself as each article fell onto the ground.

I rushed to the bathtub and jumped inside, putting myself far away from Giyu as possible. My arms were covering my boobs as I looked away from making eye contact with him.

"Why are you sitting so far?" Giyu questioned, but it didn't seem like he was understanding the situation. Who knew he could be this dense?

"I'm giving myself space since… you know," I tried hinting at him that we were two different gender naked in front of each other.

"I know what?" His face wasn't registering what I was saying.

Curling my legs up to my chest, I continued to avoid explaining any further. "You know, Giyu. It's not that hard to figure it out between a man and a woman. That's all I'm going to say…"

Silence fell between us as running water was the only noise in the bathhouse. "I'm going to head out now…cover your eyes," I moved as my submerged body was hiding from embarrassment and taboo. I would kill myself if he saw how my body looked since we weren't married nor lovers.

"I'm almost done," I was fully covered and excused myself from the bathhouse to give Giyu space to get ready.

In the room we shared, I paced around, fanning my body from every second of remembering Giyu in the steaming tub. He was relaxing more than worrying about taboo. It was like he was letting off steam about slaying demons and saving people. He looked like a fine man to stare at for centuries. "I need to calm down…!" The memory was letting weird thoughts enter into my head.

"Kirika," his voice calling my name jumped my soul out of my body.

"Y-yes?!" I placed an anxious smile on my face.

"This lady brought us some alcohol to drink. I was going to pass, but I didn't know if you wanted to drink or not." Giyu was holding the bottle and two cups at hand already.

"Sure since you brought it, and drink a little bit so I'm not completely drunk and the bottle isn't wasted either," I was going to drink my sinful thoughts away.

A few drinks flew by and Giyu succumb into the alcohol. "Wow, I didn't know you were such a talkative person while drunk…!" His face was red and he was smiling a lot too.

"Did you know…" Giyu spoke of nonsense. Some of the things he said didn't even add up with each other, which made me laugh even more.

"Ahahaha! You're so cute when you're drunk." I took another gulp of alcohol before stopping another round of bitterness running down my throat.

"Cute?" Giyu seemed unamused by me calling him that, then he moved closer to me. "You think I'm cute?" I couldn't tell if he was offended or not.

"Hehe…" I scooted back to the futon, putting more distance than needed to be far from him. "Yes…" I quietly admitted. "I'm heading to bed!" Before I could throw on the covers, Giyu appeared right before my eyes, hovering above me as he stared at me.

"You call a grown man 'cute'? Only little boys are called 'cute'."

"Giyu, don't be so butthurt about it. Go to sleep okay? You drank too much," I tried to push him over so he could sleep, but he wasn't budging to roll over into the futon.

"I'll show you what a man is," Giyu boldly declared, surprising me with an attack on my neck.

"G-Giyu…!" I squirmed underneath him as he sucked on my delicate skin. The sensation felt so good that it struck waves of pleasure throughout my body. The temperature of my body was rising from every movement of his lips. I didn't want him to stop as I was in euphoria. My body and soul wanted more from him, maybe it was the alcohol that was talking but I didn't care. "Keep going!" Our lips passionately met, battling for dominance.

It was a passionate drunken night where we let ourselves free, as our sticky bodies molded together.