Kyra exhaled heavily, her lung burning, as she strained to listen; the task almost daunting in her present condition. Her muscles were screaming, her legs threatened to give way, her heart pounding like thunder against her ribs and sweat snaking into her eyes; but she pushed all aside and listened. Something, she needed something. The rustle of fabric, a shift in the air around her, vibrations from the floor; something, anything, to aid her in finding her opponent.

Her arms were trembling from the strain of keeping them aloft, her shoulders aching from the position. Her hair was sticking to any piece of damp flesh it could find again making her feel like her head was in a brace; she should have cut it off.

The mat beneath her bare feet shifted slightly as the swish of nylon pants sounded from her right. Kyra swung out her fist, connecting only with air. Her arm was caught in an iron grip; a solid kick to the back of her knee caused her to lose her balance. She struggled to regain her footing but it was too late; her world was up ended as she was thrown, her back meeting the mat with enough force to drive what little air to be had from her lungs.

"You let yourself become distracted," A voice sounded smugly from above her as Kyra fought for breath, "How many times do I have to tell you, Ky? Your mind and body are yours to control, not the other way around."

Kyra forced herself into sitting, her entire body protesting the change, "Thanks for the advice, O'wise master Feng shui." He reached down, flicking the side of her head, "You know I hate it when you call me that."

"Shuang Ming Yue, Feng Shui. What's the difference?" She quipped with a shrug. Shuang let out a disgusted noise, "Americans." He helped her to one of the low slung benches that encircled the mats, plopping down next to her as she wiped at her neck and face with a towel. "Seriously though, Ky, what was with you tonight? You were distracted the entire time, hardly attacking, always on the defensive. It's not like you."

Kyra took a hard draw from her water bottle, "Despite what you may think, Shu, I'm not a superhero. I may have better senses than an average human but I'm still just that, a human. If you wanted to train a blind superhuman you should have moved to New York."

"Sell your bull to someone else, baby girl, because I'm not buying," Shuang stated tersely with a snort, "I've been training you for nine months now; I know exactly what you're capable of. You're right, you're just a human but you've been able to plant me on my ass more often than I'm comfortable admitting. You can tell when a person is lying just from the way they talk, when a car is coming from the shift in the air and the vibrations on the ground. Your abilities may not be superhuman level or even vampire level, for that matter, but they are damn close."

She smiled with a shake of her head, "Vampires are better than superheroes?" Shuang laughed, "My kind is real, baby girl, and have enough sense to know that there is no pulling off a spangly spandex suit."

Kyra laughed at that as she stood, pulling at her arms and twisting her back to relieve some of the burning ache that had settled into her joints and muscles, "You're my superhero, Shu, and I'm fairly certain that you have a spangly suit or two tucked away in the back of your closet."

"What has Momo been telling you?" Shuang asked, suspicion edging his voice. She laughed again, tossing him a coy look over her shoulder, "You were explained the rules when the two of you started dating: there are no secrets between Momo and I. He tells me everything whether I want to know it or not, Chinese Thor."

"I'm going to fucking kill him," He groaned, burying his head in his hands, "Seriously, what kind of conversation were the two of you having where that came up? You know what? No. Just no, I don't want to know."

"Oh relax, he didn't tell me about that. I mean, he did the next day but only after I teased him about it," Kyra admonished with a wave of her hand, "Yeah, I heard it. Through the walls. I have really good hearing, you know." She could feel his glare as the door to the dojo opened, "I hate you, you know that right?"

"Hey, now," Momo stated as he walked around the thick mat to them, "Don't be picking on my girl. Whatever it is, it's not her fault." Shuang rolled his eyes at his boyfriend, "Yeah, we'll get back to that but, first, I told you to call me when you got off of work."

Momo shrugged, "We finished with the last few orders we had early and I figured the two of you weren't quiet finished yet, so I walked. It's only a few blocks, Shu." Shuang shook his head, "That's not the point, Mo, we've talked about this. There may not be a lot of vampires in this area but there are plenty that pass through here on their way down to New Orleans; and all of them can smell me on you, they'll know that you're mine. That attracts attention. I'd feel better if you didn't walk around after dark alone."

Momo held up his hands in surrender, "I know, I know. I'll call next time, Mom, I promise." Shuang smiled at his sass, threading a hand through Momo's hair to tug him into a heated kiss, "You know that this means I have to punish you, right?"

"You going to bring down the hammer, Thor?" Kyra asked with a smile. Shuang turned on her with a teasing snarl, his fangs sliding out, "Don't make me kill you, Ky."

Momo tapped him on the nose, "I'd leave you if you did." He pulled his boyfriend back into his arms, stealing another kiss, "Besides, babe, she's just jealous that you're my hero now." Kyra let out a sickened noise, "Your love is giving me cavities. I'm going to get my bag."

"How is she doing?" Momo asked once Kyra had disappeared into the office in the back of the dojo. "She was out of it tonight, I threw her all over the place," Shuang said as he led Momo to the door, flicking off the lights, "What happened?"

Momo sighed, running a hand through his closely cropped, blonde hair, "Her aunt called again this afternoon. Third time this week." Shuang took an unneeded breath, "No wonder. Ky always gets like this when she calls. It's been, what, a year since her cousin went missing?"

"Fourteen months technically, and Miss Sarah isn't doing so well. She's desperate for answers and Ky can't tell her aunt the whole story of what went down; which, in turn, makes Ky feel guilty. It's a mess no matter how you slice it."

"She hasn't told me the entire story either." Shuang reminded him. Momo sighed again, "Babe, the only piece you're missing is the vampire's name, and she'll never tell you that. She knows you, Shu, you'll go looking for a fight; and trust me, no matter how good you are, this dude is better. I only saw him once but that was enough for me to figure out that he is death on two legs."

Shuang shook his head, pulling the ponytail from his shoulder length ink black hair, "Are you certain that the two of them hadn't performed a bond? Even once?" Momo shook his head, "The blood exchange thing that you and I did? I don't think so; she would have told me if she had. Why?"

"The way she acts sometimes, she seems so sad at times. It's like she's suffering from bonding separation but then she's fine the next moment." Shuang stated, roping his arm around Momo's waist. "Or maybe she fell in love and got burned," Momo said, "Ky has only dated a few times since I've known her and none of those ended up with a second date. He was the first person that she had ever fallen for and it ended badly. I don't think Ky holds that against him or anything but I think that it stings occasionally."

"Hey, you know that I can hear you, right?" Kyra suddenly asked as she strolled across the mat from the office, "Are you two mother hens done? I'm getting sick of hiding back here while you talk about me."

Shuang pulled her into a brief hug when she was near, "I'm sorry but I worry about you, baby girl. You and Momo are the only two things that I care about in this world. Meeting the two of you kept me from walking into the sun. So, you'll have to forgive me when I worry. You've been out of it for the last few days and you weren't telling me anything so I went to Momo. I want you to know that this shit blizzard with Audrey isn't your fault; you have nothing to feel guilty over. And this vampire is a blight on my kind if he was stupid enough to not to realize what he had. If I could claim two humans at the same time you'd belong to me too, Ky. But, unfortunately, that's against the rules and I love Momo more, so he wins."

Kyra laughed as they led her from the building, pausing so Shuang could set the alarm and lock the door, "Please, you only love him because he likes it when you two play 'hide the Asgardian staff'."

"I take it back. All of it, every word," Shuang snapped, carefully pushing her off the sidewalk and into the empty street, "I hate you."

The next morning Momo carefully slipped out of his light-tight bedroom, adamantly making sure that none of the sunlight that poured into the living room was able to make it passed the doorway. Their new apartment was great for many reasons, one of which was the light-tight option but the sheer number of windows in the living area still made him nervous. Flash frying his boyfriend was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.

"You can leave the shutters down until you're out of the bedroom, you know? It's not like the darkness would bother me or anything." Kyra offered from the breakfast nook, holding a large cup of coffee towards him; which he gladly accepted, brushing a kiss along her forehead. "I would still act that way even with the shutters down. It makes me nervous."

Kyra tilted her head, the thick whirling mass of curls pooling on the dark tabletop, "You really care about him, don't you?" Momo shot her a toothy grin as he pulled out fixings for omelets, "Don't be jealous, baby girl, you're still my main squeeze." She laughed, the bright noise filling the apartment, "Please no. I've never understood that saying but I'm fairly certain that it doesn't apply to us."

She stood, fingers gracefully sliding along the countertop until she located the expresso machine, queuing up another cup, "I like him too, if that counts for anything." Momo paused, the whisk stilling in the frothy egg mixture, "Of course it counts, Ky, you're my everything. What you are to me goes beyond a label. I love Shu, I can honestly say that. He's my forever, the love of my life, but you're my soulmate, baby girl. Where ever my path may take me, you'll be a part of it; just like I'll be a part of yours. Never, ever, doubt that."

"I'm happy for you, Mo. That's all I meant by that." Kyra stated, hoisting herself onto the counter while he dumped the eggs into a hissing pan, tossing in vegetables and some cheese. Silence fell over them broken only by the sounds of the food cooking and the careful sips of hot expresso.

So much has changed over the last year for them both, some of it good, some bad. The following week after her return to their apartment, Kyra had been informed by the headmaster of her school that she was being let go after he learned that she had been associating with vampires. She was then blacklisted from teaching at any school because of it and all of the parents she had been working with had pulled their children from their lessons with her.

She had spent the first few months looking over her shoulder for Malcolm and his retribution but it never came. Malcolm, Audrey, and their entire entourage had never returned to the city. Cellphones were disconnected, no contact or news to be heard. Miss Sarah was distraught, desperate for any scraps of information, but there was none to be found. The police in Dallas had been alerted but had found nothing. They had vanished with no leads.

Their rent and bills were being paid because of Eric, much to her exasperation, but it had been months before she was able to find another job, working as a receptionist at Chris's firm part-time, during that time she sold all of her instruments to help cover her half of the grocery bill; the only thing that Eric wasn't paying. Kyra justified it well, saying she didn't need the instruments anymore but she still had cried for hours when the movers had taken away the piano, leaving her with only the warped little violin.

It had been a rough transition for her, for them both. But no matter how rough it had gotten, never once did Kyra ever renounce her choice to help Eric; claiming, even after everything, that helping him had been the right thing to do. But she still staunchly refuses to spend a single cent of the thousands of dollars that he puts in her bank account every month. The rent, utilities, all of her student loans, even their cellphone bill, she had grudgingly accepted because there was nothing she could to change it; but when she found out that he had been making monthly deposits into her bank account, she had instantly shut the account down sending the check to Fangtasia before opening another account at a completely different bank. The deposits started back up a few weeks later accompanied by a note in their mailbox with a single word scrawled in looping penmanship: Don't.

Kyra, never one to admit defeat, kept meticulous track of her money; making sure that whatever she purchased was with her own earnings and never that of Eric's. She knew full and well that he wasn't going to stop unless she confronted him about it, and that was something she wasn't willing to do.

Shuang had wandered into their lives a few months later. He had stopped in the bakery one night while Momo made Tanghulu, a traditional Chinese sweet, for a wedding, claiming the smell of the sugary confection had made him homesick. They had talked the entire evening and all the evenings that had followed. Momo knew he was the one a month later when Shuang flew into a hissing rage after Kyra had told him about her situation with Eric, furious that someone had dared to treat her like that before informing her that he was going to teach her martial arts so she would be able to protect herself if a situation like that ever occurred again. Momo had asked him to move in with them that night. This led them to moving to a different apartment when their pervious landlord had not-so-kindly informed them that vampires weren't allowed.

Fourteen months had passed since Kyra had broken down in his arms that night. Fourteen months' worth of changes. There were times that he felt as if the entirety of the world had changed but, then, moments like these happen; familiar, well-worn moments that were such common placed between them that it made it seem as if nothing had changed at all.

"I love you," Momo stated after he had plated their breakfast. He moved towards her, wrapping her up in his arms, ignoring the bite of the edge of the counter against his thighs; content just to hold her. "No matter what's happened or what going to happen, I love you. I need you in my life."

Kyra sighed, her small hands fisting in the back of his shirt, breathing in his scent, confectioners' sugar and flour, "I love you too, Momo, no matter what. But you shouldn't be thinking so hard in this early in the morning, it makes you twitchy for the rest of the day." He snorted out a laugh, lifting her off the counter and plopping her back down into her chair at the table, sliding her plate in front of her.

She smiled, shooting him a wink before tucking into the omelet, "What has your mind spinning?" Momo sighed, taking a sip of his coffee before answering, "A lot has changed in both of our lives."

"You think so?"

"You don't? I mean my meeting Shu and all of us moving in together, the apartment, your job, selling all your music stuff, all that crap you had to deal with because of that dick-ass of a headmaster, plus the whole mess with Malcolm and Audi. Not to mention Eric and that whole cluster fuck. You can't tell me that things haven't changed."

Kyra quietly set her fork down, giving him her full attention, "Are you upset about all of it?" Momo exhaled heavily, running a hand through his hair, "Yes. No. I don't know. There are times I feel like everything has changed and then there are times when it feels like nothing has changed. Maybe, I don't know; I don't know how to feel."

"Change isn't a bad thing, Mo." Kyra offered quietly, "Sometimes, sometimes change is hard and brutal like the breaking of a bone. It hurts. Sometimes is simple and harmless. You're right, things have changed; emotions, people, places, things. But if things don't change they'll begin to rot and fester. Change, no matter how hard, is a good thing."

He wrinkled his nose, pushing away his half-finished food, "Gross, way to ruin breakfast." Kyra laughed, "Hey, I'm not the one that brought this up. Look, Mo, you're thinking too hard about this again. It's rather simple, Shu, good change. The apartment, good. Me getting fired, all those nasty e-mails, losing all my student, bad but I'm a strong person because of it. There were times it wasn't easy, it hurt and it sucked; especially all the crap with my family, but change itself isn't a bad thing. I'm happy, you're happy and Shu is happy. That's all that's really important, don't you think?"

"Are you happy though?"

"What do you mean? Of course I'm happy. I'd be happier if I knew what happened to Audi but there's nothing I can do about it but; yes, in general, I'm happy with my life." She answered.

"And Eric?"

Kyra went still, her coffee half way to her mouth before she set it back down. "I don't want to talk about Eric," She stated quietly, refusing to look at him. "I feel like we should talk about Eric," Momo replied.

"Why?" She asked as she cleared the plates, "Eric isn't a part of my life. There's no point in talking about it." Momo stood while she loaded the dishes into the dishwasher, "Are you okay with that?" Kyra sighed, running a hand down her face, leaning against the counter, "I don't know, maybe? Can't you just let this go?"

"No, baby girl, I'm not letting it go this time." Momo stated, "At first, I didn't want to talk about it, neither did you. I figured you'd come to me when you were ready. When you didn't I chalked it up to all the crap that was going on in our lives. But now, I think that we need to talk about it. I see the way you look sometimes, Ky, like someone just ran over your dog. I've noticed, Shu's noticed, our friends have noticed; everyone knows that there is something going on and you're not willing to talk. So, yes, I'm going to sit here until you talk about whatever the fuck is going on in that pretty little head of yours."

Kyra glared up at him, "I don't know, okay? I don't know. I see you with Shu and I know that you felt like I did. Or I do. Crap, I don't know. It just clicked, something clicked. No matter how hard I fought it or whether I wanted it, it just clicked. It was just, it felt; God, it was just so right. I know you know what I mean. Which is stupid, the whole thing is stupid. I knew him for a month. A month! Nothing should feel that right after a month.

"He's an arrogant, insufferable, egotistical, uncaring ass of a man but he was still right. I miss him and I don't know why, but I do. And I don't understand the why or the how of it. I don't believe in fate, or destiny, or true love. That crap just doesn't exist in the real world. Whatever this stupid feeling is, it's not going to change my mind. I may miss him, whatever clicked, it doesn't excuse the way that he acted. And maybe it only clicked for me, I don't know. But it doesn't matter. I'm not Bella or Ariel, I'm not going to sit and pine away for someone. I won't do it. So, yes, there are times that I'm sad and I hurt but it doesn't matter."

Momo wrapped an arm around her, tucking her against his chest, "What are you going to do about it?" She shrugged, "Forget about him, I suppose. What else can I do about it? Eventually, I'll stop missing him and life will continue."

"I could go and kick his ass, if that would help any."

Kyra burst into laughter, "You kick Eric's ass? Oh God, please try." Momo smiled down at her, "Hey, I never said I wouldn't run away screaming like a girl afterwards."

"You are the world's biggest dork, Momo, and I love you for it."

He leaned down, pressing a kiss against her hair, "I love you too, baby girl. Now, that we have gotten all these gross emotions out of the way, I'll give you a ride to work. Need me to pick you up on my lunchbreak?"

"No, I'm good. I've got to head over to the dojo and help a few of the instructors out. I'll hang out there until Shu gets done with his night class." Kyra said as she yanked on a pair of flats and grabbed her purse from the closet. Momo held the door for her, "You know what we should do tonight?"

"Watch the Princess Bride?"

"Hell yeah! I love the shit out of that movie."