An hour later, she was staring at him with an confused look on her pretty face as her ears and tail flicked a little bit at the tips. Her garnet colored eyes were fixed on his face as if she were trying to gauge whether or not he were lying to her.

She exhaled and then slowly said, "Okay, let me get this straight. You're the big blond guy that fought that jerk that grabbed me six months ago." He nodded his head soberly in confirmation since he'd already shown her the video footage that he had saved up on his cell phone from the incident. Including the close ups of her face that one of the reporters managed to catch on film.

"And you've been looking for me ever since the fight?"

He nodded his head again as he watched her face anxiously. Waiting for things to finally click into place for her so that she wouldn't seem so...distraught. He didn't like that this conversation was upsetting her. But figured that it was inevitable.

"But couldn't find me anywhere-" He didn't need to nod at that since it was pretty much self exclamatory. "And then today at the café, you found me again and decided that you weren't simply going to let me walk away from you again."

Okay, he felt a little bit incensed by the way that she had phrased her words there since it made him sound like an absolute jackass. But he was trying to let her completely understand everything without getting upset.

Which was a little bit of a difficult task, especially since she'd already told him that she had worried that he was a serial killer, and yes- he was a tad bit angry about that. It was totally understandable. Especially from where she was standing. After all, she was a very beautiful young woman.

But it was nevertheless outrageous and irksome to him to be lumped in with such low lives.

"And you are also planning to...uh offer me a place to stay with you? For my heat?" She sounded a tad bit disturbed by this fact. And again, he could sort of understand her point of view. It sort of rankled though.

"That about sums it all up, yes." He finally said after a moment or two of silence.

She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed her mouth again and simply thinned her lips as she continued to stare at him completely baffled before then saying, "I-I don't know what to think about any of that. I mean, when I left the fight that day I never thought that I'd be searched for. Least of all by you of all people."

"I wanted to find you because I was worried for you. I've looked for you myself whenever I could. I'd given your picture to other pro-heroes. And even the local police so that they could find you more easily. I didn't care how long it took or what state they would find you in as long as you were alive."

"But why? That's the part that I still can't seem to understand here. I'm no one to you. You didn't know me, didn't know what kind of person that I am-"

"You helped, even if it was simply by accident, to defeat one of the most notorious and monstrous criminals in the known world. You gave me the opening that I needed to stop him for good. And then you just disappeared as if you were a ghost. It doesn't matter to me if it was an accident or not- you're part of the reason that the world is a safer place today. You're probably a huge reason that I'm still even alive." He said fiercely. His electric blue eyes searching her face for something that he couldn't quite name.

"If nothing else, I owe you for you're help. And I want to protect and help you in any way that I can-" He was startled when he suddenly found her leaning across the island with her hand covering his mouth and she had a strangely panicked look in her garnet colored eyes.

"Don't say anything more about it," She said after a moment or so of silence. "I mean it. You don't owe me anything. And I don't need anything." She slowly started to remove her hand from his mouth, worried that he was going to finish what he'd started unknowingly.

Most people didn't know what a life debt was, but she was well versed in them thanks entirely to having a few of her friends swear their lives to her service both knowingly and unknowingly. So while she knew that he probably meant well and all, she wasn't going to let him unwittingly do the same.

Mostly because there was a very thin line between what was and wasn't allowed as far as life debts went. Most of which depended entirely on the person that had been sworn to.

But she'd made the shocking distinction between someone sworn to service and slavery early on.

And she had absolutely hated it.

She'd hated lying awake in her bed most nights and worrying over the power that she wielded over others. She had hated how sick she got whenever she accidentally gave an order. How much it had hurt her to try to avoid those things just to protect the others.

Their lives had been like chains tightly wrapped around her very throat, constricting and slowly tightening with each and every event that had happened.

There had been a lot of bad days when she'd thought that she would finally, actually suffocate.

He waited until her hand was away from him before asking, "Why does it bother you so much that I want to-" He didn't get to finish his sentence because she'd grabbed a carrot and quickly stuffed it in his mouth and then shushed him. His teeth bit into the sliver with an audible crunch as he narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance as he chewed it.

"It's all well and good to want to help someone," She finally said after a heartbeat or so. "Really it is, but you don't walk up to a stranger- no matter how much you think you know about them- and swear yourself into a life debt. I mean, really? Are you crazy?"

He swallowed what was in his mouth as he canted his head to the left a little bit and regarded her curiously. He'd heard of life debts before. It was an old school, cultural phenomenon mostly done amongst hardcore traditionalists in different cultures and yakuza nowadays.

Still, he knew what it was.

A life debt is a phenomenon in which someone whose life is saved or spared by another- becomes indebted or in some way connected to their savior. A life debt sometimes involves a form of servitude. Possibly until the indebted can return the favor.

No wonder she's worried. He thought to himself as he carefully went over every minute detail that he knew about such things. Sure enough, his behavior was much like someone trying to swear themselves into another's service. And if not for the fact that he was used to serving others in one capacity or another, he might have actually been alarmed.

However the fact that she was trying to stop him from possibly making a monumentally grievous error simply made him even more stubbornly determined to do something for her.

"Ichigo-"

"The answer is no. Now drop it. I'm going to feed you something good that will maybe stick to your bones a little bit. And then afterwards I'm going to walk you to a safer part of town and then I'm going to bid you goodbye."

"No." He said before he could really stop himself as she started to check the stew to see if it was done yet.

She was overly anxious about getting rid of him. And he had this horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that if he left her now, he really wouldn't ever find her again. She probably intended to send him on his merry way and then return here to pack up her things and leave.

"What?" She asked as her head snapped around so that she was looking at him again.

"I said no," He said firmly. "I'm not leaving you alone so that you can disappear."

"I-I'm not going to disappear! For gods sake do you think it's easy for someone like me to find a place to live at the drop of a hat?! Even in this god forsaken neighborhood- looking for a place that has a half decent rent is horrible!" She said in an indignant tone.

He blinked at her, taken slightly aback by her sudden outburst before a chuckle bubbled up and he had to cover it with his hand to keep it from being heard by her.

He saw her cute little ears flick and quickly cleared his throat before he could be caught laughing at her as she turned her head to look at him again.

This time a little bit suspiciously.

He tried to keep a straight face. Truly he did. But it was somewhat difficult given how adorable she looked. She sort of had a mad kitten look to her at the moment that was making it increasingly hard for him to keep a straight face.

"B-Be that as it may. I refuse to leave you alone." He said in a stern tone. She gnashed her teeth and ferociously hissed at him, the fur on her tail practically standing on end as she did so, before abruptly turning back to the stew and glaring at it menacingly as she growled out.

"Fine. But you're sleeping on the couch."

He nearly fist pumped in triumph. Yes, one small step forward. Was he weird for being so excited about being given permission to sleep on a pretty girl's couch? He wondered as he propped his chin in his hand so that he could observe her while she finally set about making the grilled cheese sandwiches.