A/N: I do not own To-Love Ru
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...
Deviluke Throne Room
When the first drops of blood hit the floor, the room freezes in a collective breath to see what happens next. Creed smiles as he grasps Rito by the shoulders, removing Zastin's spiked tail from his enemies chest, freshly flecked with crimson liquid. Rito falls to the floor, pushed down with Creed's help, as he begins to laugh out loud at seeing the shock on Rito's face. "Rito?" Lala cries out, as she struggles against her sisters holding her back, "RITO, NOOOO!" She breaks free, the pearl tucked into her dress falling out as she tumbles to the floor in despair. With a clink of stone on stone, the silken wrapping rolls free and out onto the cold floor to reveal its contents to the room. "RITO!" Lala cries out, as she reaches out for him, "Rito, no!" The room catches the opalescent orb in such a way it shines for the barest of seconds, before it muddles the light that shines onto it. Creed stares down at the princess at his feet, as she sits over her faced down, dying lover, within the small pool of blood leaking from beneath him. He doesn't waste a minute to do as he pleases with his prize before him, taking the fallen princess roughly by her hair, dragging her up screaming in pain and misery.
"Now witch, for polluting my families bloodline..." Creed states staring the defiant princess down, as she looks up at him with broiling hatred and... fearful understanding? Reflexively letting go of her, Lala stumbles back down onto the floor, landing hard as Creed looks on. "Wh-what..." he states out of confusion, looking down at his hands, which have begun to tremble, "What are y-you doing to me witch?" He looks up seeing nothing but a sliver of understanding on her face, despite the cruel way he handled her. "I don't understand, your eyes, they speak- pain, understanding..." He steps back, nearly stumbling over Rito's body lying on the floor, "Why do I see wisdom in your eyes?" He fearfully glances down at the floor, and sees for the first time the pearl on the floor between them. It had lost its luster, a pale, ashy gray instead of the pure white he knew it should be. "The pearl!" Creed hisses, looking straight up at Lala in anger, as the fallen princess wipes a streak of blood from her cut lip, "What did you do?" The fallen prince goes to move forward, to beat the answers out of the princess as to why the Pearl was altered, but he suddenly stops as he feels something grab at his tail.
Creed turns to see what it was his tail has caught upon, when he feels his heart skip another beat as he realizes a bloodied hand belonging to the fallen Rito, now grasps the base of his tail. He notices that the left hand has been run through by the looks of the blood flowing freely from it as the body shifts, and Rito stares up in defiant anger at the shell-shocked soldier. "S-sur-prise!" Rito hoarsely states with a bloody looking smile, red flowing from the corner of his mouth, "You don't get to k-kill me that easily, you cheating bastard!" Creed's eyes widen as Rito pulls himself up to a kneeling position, keeping Zastin's body where it is by grasping the rest of the base of his tail with his free hand, causing him discomfort as he applies pressure to it. Grimacing as he goes to break the boys hands, Rito savagely smiles up at him, causing his heart to skip a beat in surprise.
/CRACK/
Eyes widen around the whole room, no more surprised than Creed/Zastin, as the two howl as one at the sudden burst of paralyzing, breathtaking pain that surges into his weary body. Falling tot he floor in unimaginable agony, Creed could only wish his back had been broken, as numbness would be preferred to the destructive act Rito had just done to his host's body, mercilessly. Rito had literally snapped the cartilage making up his sensitive, flexible tail up, rendering it veritably useless and limp. He felt lucky that Rito had only decided to break the base, if he had any intent of actually hurting Zastin, the more lithe and harder to repair tip would have rendered him unable to use his energy shots, or worse, caused his body to reactively shoot a massive blast of energy in defense, likely killing them both in the exchange. Lala stared in wonder at her husband to be, as she stares down in pity at Creed. He could live through the agony and be manageable until they deal with him and return control to Zastin; if Rito had not made it a clean break, Zastin could possibly even regain use of the fractured appendage within a year of therapy.
"You're alive!" Lala cries out, jumping onto him from her spot so close, she watches him wince in return, "You're hurt, bleeding, where?" She grabs his left hand, the now bloody ring still on it, while a clean cut seems to have been made through his palm, cleaving bone. He gasps in pain as she gingerly handles it, looking up and noticing his shirt, now heavily stained with blood. Quickly ripping his shirt open, she realizes that while Creed had indeed cut into Rito's chest, thankfully it seemed that Rito had had his hand in the way, turning a possible fatality into a minor wound that seemed more bloody than it actually was. "It wasn't a dream!" she cries out, hugging him and remembering her life flash before her eyes, a world where Rito had actually died from the impalement, "Don't ever leave me..." He chuckles weakly in response, as Lala gently helps him stand, intent on helping him to a doctor or a nurse for aid.
"Don't -wheeze- think y-you've beat me, Rito," the broken form of Creed/Zastin states from the armed guards now holding him back, "I may have lost, but now Zastin will never return to you, not while I control this body..." He smiles, a crazed look in his eyes as he stares a battered Rito and a bruised Lala down. Creed tries to break free of his guards, only for someone to walk up to him and slap him across the face. Lala and Rito stare in surprise at who it was that approached Creed, while Rin and Aya try to restrain the angry woman who is suddenly beginning to tear up.
"Don't- don't you dare make threats like that, with his voice, you m-monster!" Saki states, standing and staring a surprised Creed down, as he is befuddled as to whom this girl is, "My Zastin would never make threats to the people he loves, my Zastin would never be so heartless or cruel as to take another love from this life so carelessly..." She slaps him once more, this time a back hand, and the terror in his eyes is genuine, while no one tries to stop the heiress. "My Zastin would never go so far as to be so... dishonorable, to cheat, betray, and backstab someone he treated like a friend," Saki states, tears having pooled and emptied from her eyes, as sobs begin to wrack her body, " A-and m-my Z-Zastin, wou-would come back t-to me!" Creed is honestly stunned by the girl assaulting him, and Rin and Aya finally manage to pull her away from the man, so he can be taken away. She stares as Creed is lifted up and taken before the King, who stares down at the man who had underhandedly taken him down, leaving a bruised ego and an angry King in his place.
"I will find a way to break your hold over Zastin, and I will get you back my friend," King Gid states in a surprising act of tenderness, putting a hand on Zastin/Creed's shoulder, before his face turns hard and merciless, "Creed Diskenth, for crimes against the crown of Deviluke, against the very family you and your families descendants have sworn to protect, you are hereby-"
"Wait!" Rito croaks from his leaning position against Lala, who stops to look up at him in concern, "Please, King Gid, don't judge him- not yet, since I believe I have something-ngghh." Rito grimaces in pain as he shifts on his weary legs, walking slowly over to the forgotten pearl on the floor, holding his hand to his somewhat bleeding chest. Lala goes to stop him from picking up the pearl barehanded, before she realizes that he already has it in his hands, grasping it tightly as he shifts to get up. "Trust me, Lala," Rito smiles a dazzling her, causing her heart to skip a beat, before he leans in to whisper in her ear, "We promised to help her, remember?" Lala blinks in surprise, but she nods and chooses to trust Rito's decisions. He walks up to Creed, held back by two armed men, even as he tries to fight Rito's touch. "I want to know why, Creed, why you would hide yourself within Zastin, why go after Lala, why attack me at all? Rito asks, holding his gaze with Greed, who stares up at him brimming with hate, "Because I know a little bit about you from everything you've said and my own experiences, I know you still wanted to return to your planet, become a Hero that made everyone proud; so why is it you've returned the villain of everyone else's story?" Creed's anger turns to confusion at Rito's words.
"Take, for example, the fact you wanted to return, if only to save your cousin from traitorous nobles who could have betrayed him," Rito asks, turning to look up at the pictures on the vaulted ceiling above, "These walls tell that he lived on, even without you saving him, and King Gid, even Zastin whose body you inhabit now, shows somehow that you weren't needed; time passed on without you, Creed." Creed grits his teeth at that, but Rito patiently reflects on his next words. "You're fighting for a cause that died out an innumerable amount of years, centuries, past, yet here you are proving that your family was right to exile you," Rito lets a smirk ghost his face, before letting that feeling pass, "If you were even half as honorable as the man whose body you now inhabit was, you'd have realized whatever hate you're holding onto isn't yours, whatever misguided sense of right and wrong you have left, isn't yours..." He spies the forgotten sword that had once been his, the Ninth Blade, forgotten on the floor, so he limps as retrieves it and brings it back to lean on it in front of Creed. "This sword, did you know it once held the monster that used your body, perverted your legacy into one of bloodshed, until I burned him all away?" Creed stares at the blade as Rito talks, entranced by his dirtied reflection in the gleaming blade, "I never knew the blade wasn't whole, that a piece of it was purposely withheld to cause me problems- except you feel it, don't you?" Rito kneels down to become eye level with Creed, as he holds the sword flat on his palms. "Adam is balanced, he was born from a part of myself, and he has never tasted the blood of spilled innocents, but you Creed, but you feel it, don't you?" Rito sees Creed sweating, darting between the sword and himself, "The hunger... the thirst that seems unquenchable, the desire to feel it again run over you... the real reason you're targeting Lala isn't the crown, or honor, or even really hatred."
Rito stands up and pulls the sword away, as Creed fights against restraints to follow him as he walks away. Rito grasps the handle of the sword, looking between Creed and it, before he plunges it into the floor, cracking the stone he embedded it in. Creed howls as he watches Rito plunge it deeper and deeper into the stone, burying it halfway into the impossibly thick stone. The face of the man named Zastin contorts to anger, as the body of the possessed man begins to foam at the mouth and thrash in the grip of the men holding him tight, as everyone watches. "That is not the face of a man possessed by his ancestor, but a parasitic blade still pretending to be more than a weapon, and I'm ashamed to note I didn't notice it at first," Rito states, looking at Creed with disdain, "So stop pretending before you force me to do something drastic to Zastin, something I think he or you will survive unless YOU. LEAVE." Rito pulls his own sword, and positions himself between Zastin/Creed and the sword. "I'll give you a choice, leave Zastin, prove that whatever bit of Creed Diskenth is inside there is still an honorable man, worthy of redemption," Riot offers, as he pulls his sword and holds it as if to aim at the air, charging it with a bit of his own power and setting it aflame in a dark blaze, "Or prove to us your the monster you all really are, a monster I'd be glad to kill more than once!" Tiredly holding the sword up and weak from his wounds, Rito begins to let the sword fall blade first, until Creed calls out in alarm.
"STOP!" Creed yells out in fear, as Rito's blade stops mid-swing. The action was enough, even as it stops in its arc by Rito, the glint of light is enough to reveal the truth before everyone. Darkness spreads across invisible threads, a hum of energy and sound makes it seem like a strum of a guitar, and the connection spreads between sword and wielder. Creed snarls as he stares up at Rito, the threads of metal connecting him to the sword now exposed, and Rito smirks knowing he has made his point. "Why do you care, Rito," Creed asks, as he looks around the room at everyone around him, "These people, all they know of my holder is that he was bodyguard, a lackey, easily replaced, so why do you care?" Rito's smile diminishes at that question, turning into a frown.
"Do you really understand his position then, Creed?" Rito sets his sword down and kneels to get into a better sitting position, his legs failing him, "Sure, he may not be a prince, or in line to be king, but he is more than just a bodyguard, he's a boss, a friend, a rival, and he's so much more to the people you see around you..." Rito smiles and chuckles at Creed's obliviousness. "He was my teacher, both in my duties as a prince consort and a swordsmen, he is my friend, and I think everyone would agree that Zastin doesn't deserve everything that's happened here," Rito says, looking over at Saki for a moment before focusing back on Creed, "You once had someone you loved, didn't you Creed; why take the opportunity to figure out he's loved just as you were once, away from the woman who loves him?" Saki is blushing at his words, as Creed looks from Rito to the young Tenjouin woman, and he stares at the young maiden. As if he understands, Creed smirks, a chuckle escaping his lips, before he looks back to Rito.
"Well, Rito Yuuki, it seems you had lower standards than I thought, if you consider a man like me worth redeeming, but I finally understand your point," Creed states, before he looks up at Rito as neutrally as possible, "If you truly are as good and fair a man as you are proving to be, Yuuki Rito, then promise me something..." Rito nods, looking him straight in the eye to at least listen to his request. "Promise that Creed Diskenth won't be the name haunting these halls as the man who nearly ruined his planet over selfish interests, but as the man who always had the best interests of his people at heart, even if they didn't always understand," he chuckles and lets his head fall down to his chest, "Let it be known that he didn't sacrifice his life for his people in vain, that he wished to become the hero of his own story until he was imprisoned by a monster within a place so dark that it ate away at his mind and morals, until a brave young child burned away that darkness and reminded him to never lose hope in the ever changing future..." Going limp in the arms of the guards, Creed Diskenth releases Zastin. The burning threads between the sword and Zastin begin to collapse, as the threads retract themselves back to the sword.
"Sorry, Creed, but t won't be that easy," Rito states, grabbing the threads from the air, surprising everyone as he reveals the Taoist Pearl in his other hand, "I can't l-live knowing your stuck within a sword, and I won't force you back into a never ending sleep until the next foolish warrior comes along..." Grasping the threads and keeping the sword immobile, Rito feels as the others coming to approach him, to stop him, force him to let go. "No, stop, let me do this!" He yells out, as he stares at Gid, who is charging his energy in his fists, or Darkness who is readying herself for another fight, or even Kuro with his weapon charging Tao energy, "I need to do this- I can't let this stupid, cursed sword claim another life with its madness, but..." He doesn't even need to speak, before he feels Lala at his back, grabbing him by the shoulder with one hand, before resting her own hand over his containing the pearl.
"We do it together than, forever and always," she states, resting her head against his as they both concentrate on the pearl, while the sword begins to scream with energy, "We can't change anything for ourselves, but we will always face the future together!" As the energy begins to pick up turning into a whirlwind that surrounds both sword and user with an impenetrable wall of darkness, the cascade of outcast dark energy and sounds of screaming is joined by two more voices emitted from the center of the storm. The others are forced to watch as the cascade of energy sends bolts that strike stone walls, leaving scorched marks in their wake. A high pitched burst of energy is felt as a concussive wave forces the unprepared to be blow back, leaving only Gid and Darkness standing to watch, while the others recovered to see the storm of energy collapse into itself, ceasing all energy output. Finally the unnatural wind dies down, as the swirling wall of darkness begins to dissipates, revealing Lala and Rito lying on the floor next to each other, the pearl between the grasp split in two halves, and the sword embedded in the stone gone, along with most of the ground itself. Yami approaches to grab the two halves of the pearl, knowing she would be unaffected, only for the broken artifact to crumble to dust before she could even remove them from Rito and Lala's conjoined hands. Momo and Nana then approached their older sister who was left in the torn and tattered remnants of her wedding dress, now ruined beyond repair.
Momo whispers something to Nana, who then gets up to grab a jacket from the nearest man, who happens to be Saruyama holding Rito's forgotten blazer before engaging in the fight. Nana took the jacket and placed it over her sisters battered form before picking her up to carry her, while Momo hefted Rito with her own hands to take them both to somewhere they could be treated. If anyone had noticed Rito's hand as it fell limply to his side, save the ever observant Yami, they would have noticed the once black ring on his hand now matching Lala's own golden colored band, dripping slightly of blood. This was forgotten in the chaos of the moment, as the smallish cut in Rito's abdomen had only grown with every ragged breath and strained step, forcing more unseen damage to reveal itself and making it apparent they both required medical attention
OoOoOoOoO
Waking was the hardest thing for Rito to do, though the fact he felt incredibly warm and was having a nice dream regarding an all too friendly pup licking him all over, forced him to surrender to the blinding light trying to dig into his skull through his eyes. Groaning as he covers his eyes to filter out the harsh light, allowing his tired eyelids to discard the sleep from them and allow an adjustment period, he tries to shift away from the light but finds it difficult. Taking in a deep breath, he smells the familiar scent of ginger and pears, and he chooses to abandon the futile quest of joining the waking world, if it meant snuggling deeper into the warmth and familiarity of the body pressing against his own. "Good morning, Lala," he mumbles to the warm, familiar body that he now realizes is licking his neck, "S-stop, it's too early for this, princess..." She seems to ignore him and continues to suck away at his unprotected neck, this time seeming to get a bit more suction as she shifts her own body into a more comfortable position, gently straddling his leg and pinning his leg under her. He smiles as he attempts to open his eyes again, before he feels her long, pink locks flow over his nose, tickling him as they cover his face from her shifting. "Lala, be serious now, wake up," he says, trying to force her off with his free hand, "If you keep straddling me like that, I might get..." Rito blinks when he finally realizes that beyond Lala, sitting up and staring him down from the foot of the bed, is a pissed off looking Nana and Mikan, with a sleeping Peke dozing between them, whose combined scowls cause Rito's heart to skip a beat in fear.
"Wait, it's not what it looks like!" He springs up, knocking Lala to the side, still drooling in her sleep from sucking on his clavicle, "I swear, she was just here when I woke up-" He stops when he realizes that this isn't his room, and that the bed he was sleeping on had actually been two of those kind of beds you find in a hospital pushed together. It seemed that Lala had been sleeping on her own side, before finding her way next to him like she always seemed to do in her sleep. He almost forgot how much he missed waking up to the sometimes innocent body contact, before his brain caught up to him and realized he was sitting in a hospital room with very little memory telling him how he got there. "What happened, and why is Lala sleeping next to me?" he asks, looking up at Mikan and Nana, as he swings his body to the side, trying to get out of the hospital bed, when he notices the gauze covering his left hand and the left side of his body, "Why do I look like a mummy, and fell like I've been stab-" Rito didn't even get to finish his sentence when he was jumped by Mikan and tossed back onto the bed by her force.
"IDIOT!" she cries out in tears, quite opposite to her earlier reaction to the situation Rito woke up to, "You had us all worried, I thought I was going to have to tell Mom and Dad you died in space fighting an alien parasite!" Rito feels her sobs against the thin hospital clothing, that truly was universal it seemed, and he felt the hot tears soak his gown as they streamed down her face. "We-we thought you died on the o-operating t-table-" she says, causing Rito's eyes to widen as he lets her continue, "We thought it was your body reacting to the alien drugs, but you seemed to stop crashing when Lala-" She stopped speaking, descending into fresh tears and sobbing, when Momo steps in from the outside, let in by Nana who went to tell the others.
"Our sister got struck by one of those energy bolts you were giving off when you both were holding the pearl, she won't have any nerve damage thankfully, but she now has a scar over her sternum now that looks pretty wicked," Momo supplies, taking over for Mikan, "She fought tooth and nail against us insisting she was fine, after her dress was literally burned away from her body, just so she could be near you while Mikado and the castle surgeons were patching you up from Creed's underhanded attack..." She walks to her sister's side and wipes away a bit of drool with a smile on her face, leaning against the bed as she looks back over to Rito. "After Lala showed up, the doctors had an easier time getting you to cooperate with them, so she stayed up all night watching over you to help you make it through the night, even had us bring in another bed so she could sleep with you." Momo brushes a little bit of hair from her sister's eyes that had caused her to scrunch up her nose and make a face at the offending follicles. "We think something happened in that storm, whether it was the bolt or the pearl, something has connected you two unexpectedly," Momo brings up her left hand as she speaks and taps her ring finger, "Check out what you and my sister now share in common, despite the fact that you and her haven't been declared official." Rito looks at his bandaged hand, removing it from under the firmly planted Mikan who was slowing down in her sobbing, and unwrapping the gauze to reveal a nearly healed looking hand adorned with a pink and orange encrusted, golden ring.
"But we aren't married yet?" Rito croaks in confusion, as he sets his hand on Mikan's head to soothe her, "How can the rings have been activated, if they were only meant to be activated by Lala and I marrying each other and becoming husband and wife?" Momo chuckles at that, as she tries to gently wake up Lala from her spot on the bed.
"Yeah, we got in touch with some experts on soul metals, the same people who created the rings, and they were just as stumped as we are," Momo states, as she pokes her elder sister in the cheek, hoping to annoy her into the waking world, "Best guess we can make is that it is something with that pearl, or that crazy dark energy storm you conjured up when the sword disappeared..." Rito raises his eyebrows at that, turning to look over at Momo, just as there is a knock at the door. Lala yawns as she awakens, sleepily looking up at her sister and their friends as they come in from outside of the room.
"How is my cinder-fella doing?" Nemesis states as she glides in behind Nana and Yami, Mikado holding Celine as they walk in behind her, "Seems like you're up and about, and ready to face the world with more questions than answers now, eh?" Mikan pulls away from the bed, straightening herself back up now that everyone else is in the room, and allowing Nemesis to saddle up the side that Rito was hanging off of. Mikado passes Celine off to Mikan before approaching Rito's bedside with a chart from the foot of the beds. "Ryoko-sensei thought you were going to die before she ever warped over here," Nemesis states cheekily, brushing her body against Rito to hang off of the bed, "Quite a brave thing risking your life in an honor duel, then risk both of your necks destroying one of the most important Taoist artifacts in the known galaxies, along with your possessed sword; I didn't know you had it in you to sow such chaos, Rito!" Her smile is unnerving as she hangs off of him, much to his discomfort and the glares from Nana, Momo, Mikan, and the others in the room.
"King Gid and Queen Sephie will be quite pleased to hear their son-in-law has woken up from his coma, Rito, and I'm sure your parents will be relieved when we alert them to your status as well," Mikado states with a smile, while Rito focuses on the word 'coma', fearing the worst at that word, yet Ryoko raises a hand to ease him, "You've only been a sleep for a little over a week at most, it took me a bit of time to get here after all from earth, but I was able to help your recovery process since I'm the one most familiar with your new biology." She smiles down at Nemesis, catching the living weapon's gaze for a second, before returning her bright eyed smile to Rito and Lala, who groggily leaned against Rito as the later tried to fully wake up. "When the castle physicians informed me that your wounds weren't healing when they were stitching you up, even with only a basic understanding of human physiology, I knew that it was something more to do with either your newly activated Trans genomes, or the dark matter infused into your various cells and tissues," Mikado announces, keeping eye contact with Rito, despite the added distraction of Lala pressing against him, as Nemesis did the same on his other shoulder, "Unfortunately what I found was both promising, and concerning..." She brings up the clipboard with more information on its pages, thumbing through them as she read them over. "Since your initial wound hadn't been healing, even growing worse and causing other problems to crop up in your major organs, I thought the problem was something with your blood clotting factor, or perhaps your kidney's failing to filter something out, but what I found needed confirmation from someone more suited to your 'unique' physiology," Mikado states, "Which is why I just had Nemesis run a full body analysis on your cells and the nanites in your body, as I didn't want to alert you to the news, in case what I found was... dire."
Nemesis pulls away as Rito looks down at the mischievous imp, Lala finally becomes alert once she realizes that this line of talk was becoming serious. "Is Rito going to be okay Mikado-sensei?" Lala asks, as she refuses to let go of Rito's arm in concern. Mikado nods, as Nemesis goes to stand between Yami and Nana.
"As far as I can tell, he's not there anymore, Ryoko," Nemesis states looking up at the school's alien nurse, "I searched all of the nanites within Rito's body, and though they do seem to be breaking down the excess dark matter in his system, they aren't showing any signs of his presence." In the confusion of that statement, Yami raised her eyes in confusion as if she understood what Nemesis was stating. The raven haired delinquent turns to the rest of the room and puts it simply for them all. "Rito shared his body with the Trans Weapon born of the Ninth Blade, myself, and the power of the Black Taoist Pearl, he was the 'filter' for Rito's excess energy," Nemesis states, "When we retrieved the First Blade from the throne room I couldn't find Adam's energy within it either, I can only assume that Adam's last act to save Rito was the sacrifice of his life energy to infuse him with his own energy, giving him enough time to do what he could against Creed until he finally ran out doing whatever it was with the pearl and the Ninth Blade." Rito looks down at himself, grasping his chest and over his heart with his left hand, feeling the phantom pain of the sharp tail piercing his body. Knowing Adam was gone, it hurt Rito knowing a part of him had sacrificed itself to save the whole, yet despite the pain he felt, new opportunities to spend the rest of his life with Lala gave him hope he could heal from this revelation. He grabs Lala's left hand with his right, squeezing it gently as he looked over to her, before Ryoko cleared her throat.
"Physically, even a couple of days ago I would have had grim prospects for Rito's health, but I believe I have a theory in the works as to the sudden change," Mikado states, as Nemesis nods in agreement, "Before you woke up Rito, Lala was also in a coma for a few days, in that time your health began to deteriorate and required many life support systems to keep you alive, up until Lala woke up." She moves over to Lala's side of the two beds, Momo graciously moving back to allow the doctor to approach Lala and grab her hand to study it. "Lala insisted that she be near you while your health was at its most critical, and it was as if her presence was actually improving your health the longer she stayed by your side, allowing us to ease you off of medical instruments until we were sure you were stable enough to leave the two of you alone with one of us on constant rotation as we all waited for you to wake up." Mikado produces a needle from her pocket, a cotton swab, and a sterile wipe and looked to Lala, who nodded and flexed her hand. Finding a vein and swabbing it, she pricks the needle into her arm and slowly takes a blood sample from her. "Your body had been flushed with enough dark matter that it had attacked itself trying to rid itself of the excess, so with your miraculous recovery I merely assumed Adam had simply woken up from whatever had knocked him out, it hadn't occurred to me that I was looking at this all wrong," Mikado states as she holds up the vial of blood, swirling it a bit, "Yami, would you draw the blinds, and Momo, would you get the door and lights?" Both nodded, the blonde girl drawing the heavy curtains over the window, muting the light in room, before Momo got the lights after closing the door shut.
Plunging the room into darkness, everyone was quite shocked by the sight of light still in the room. Mikado still held the vial up, and from within it golden light drifted like a lava lamp in the Devilukean Princess' blood. Blinking as the light turned back on, Rito noticed the smile on Mikado's face as she turned back to Rito and Lala. "Ladies and gentleman, I believe that we've discovered the reason why Rito made a miraculous recovery, though I will need to do a bit more comprehensive tests with your permission princess," She smiles and pockets the vial, "For now I wouldn't suggest staying apart more than you need to, we don't want to test Rito's limits after having his immune system as compromised as it is, but as of now I can safely say Rito is in perfect health; better than even after the initial accident if I say so myself, and I do." Ryoko looks to the others in the room and motions for them to leave. "As your doctor, I expect you both to keep interactions with everyone else after this to a minimum, just rest up and in a few days of testing I can clear you both to return to Earth," she puts her arms on her hips and looks down everyone else in the room, "So if we aren't dropping off meals, or handing out medicine to either of them, I suggest we all just stay clear of these two lovebirds and let Rito make himself presentable after a week of no bathing..." Shooing the others out of the room, Ryoko winks at Rito and the boy blushes in return at her honesty, as he takes a whiff and realizes he was in fact in need of a shower.
Lala gets up off of the bed, as Rito slowly moves of the bed, feeling still a bit weak despite having held a conversation with everyone else. He feels something hit his back, and he turns, only to get whiplash as he turns away from Lala stripping out of her own hospital issued clothes. "L-Lala, what are you doing?" he asks blushing, despite feeling little more than a thin gown and nothing else on his body now that the covers are off of his overly warm body. He hears her giggle, before he feels the bed shift and her arms snake around his neck, as he tries to fight off the thoughts entering his head as bare skin touches his exposed back.
"We may not be officially married yet, Rito, but the rings don't lie about our status," she purrs into his ear, causing him to gulp out of nervous habit, "You know I've already seen it before, more than once in fact, but if it helps I promise not to look 'down there'." She giggles again as she feels him stiffen against her, as she lets an arm fall down the chest of his gown. "I've always been a good girl, Rito, but now that we're as good as married, I felt it only proper for a wife to do things for her husband, seeing as he's just woken up from a soma, and is in no place to overtax himself," she states, her eyes closed as she sets her head on his shoulder, "I've been staying by your side for the past couple of days, I've barely had the stomach to eat while you've been hurt, and while I don't stink as bad as you I need a bath too, so please, Rito, give me this..." He hesitates, weighing her words and sighing as he realizes everything she says is right, he nods and sees the smile on her face from the corners of his eyes. Rito doesn't even complain as he feels her tug at the loose string held up by his neck, as the rough fabric falls from his body, exposing his body to the cool air of the hospital room. He shivers as Lala scoots off of the bed on his side, her tail wrapping itself around his arm to pull him along, as she looks back pleadingly and he caves. Following her into the bathroom, he doesn't even pass out once, and the refreshing feeling of sweat and grime being washed away by soap and warm water soothes his fraying nerves.
When Lala hands him a set of real clothes, after drying himself off without her watching, he dresses himself and steps outside the bathroom to find Lala dozing on the edge of the bed in expectation of him. He walks around her feet and joins her in the odd positioning of his body across the bed, as lays on his side and relishes in the serene beauty she projects even in her sleep, the innocence on her face reminding him how lucky he was to survive everything thrown at him this far, and all worth it for seeing her here like this. He ruins the moment as he pokes her on the nose, giving her a start as she opens her eyes to find Rito lying next to her. "Oh, I fell asleep again?" she states, yawning and trying to wake back up, "Ever since I've been staying near you, it seems my energy all just drained out of me; I guess we know why, now, if I was helping you heal..." Rito smiles and nods in agreement, as he grabs her ringed hand with his own, staring at the golden, bejeweled band and thinking.
"Lala, would it be bad if I said I wanted-" he pauses, looking her in the eyes to speak with her, "If I wanted to wait to make this official?" Lala sits up, blinking as she tries to figure out just exactly it was he was saying. "D-don't get me wrong, I'm not regretting anything, but o-our marriage, I don't- I don't want to rush into this right now," Rito sits up, his legs falling over the bed as he scoots to the edge, turning back to Lala to say, "I still want to finish school, and I already don't know how I'm going to explain missing a month or more of school already, let alone try and catch up before tests come up..." He turns to her, putting a finger to her lips as he stares into her eyes with a hesitant smile. "Please, don't get me wrong, I know I'm basically going to be king and everything when I marry you, but I still want to accomplish this on my own before I get thrust into that role," he states, removing his finger and finding her smiling in return, "You- you're not mad at me?" Lala shakes her head, grabbing both of Rito's hands in her own and smiling still.
"I understand, Rito, I know gallivanting halfway across the universe and back wasn't exactly what you were expecting to do halfway through the spring term, but I think you're right in wanting to finish this up," she states, much to his relief, "I'll support you anyway I can, that's what a wife does for her husband, isn't it?" Rito smiles and leans in close to Lala, much to her surprise. After a quick kiss, an exchanging of saliva, Rito breaks it off and smiles back at her.
"I love you, Lala," he states, hugging her close to him as she laughs in surprise from the physical contact, "Thank you, I can't tell you how much this means to me!" Lala leans onto his shoulder one last time, smiling up at him before she roughly drags him back down onto the bed with her on top.
"Maybe you can show me how much it means to you," she purrs seductively, before pulling away and putting her finger to her lips as if pondering something, "Then, maybe, I'll find a way to help you catch up with everyone else!" He smirks at her less than innocent suggestion, then pulls her down onto him squealing, with a renewed bout of kissing, this time less chaste and much more surprisingly, full of talent.
A/N: Whelp, I think that does it for the main story...
Expect an epilogue coming up soon, as I start writing up those one-shots I promised earlier. Thanks for staying with me on my writing journey, and please don't forget to favorite and follow my story for updates!