Chapter 14: Coming Home

"Ah you've returned." Jugo looked up to see the two reenter.

"Is my father still here?" Kazuma asked.

"No, I'm afraid he left. However, Ayano…"

"I know…I shouldn't have-" Ayano looked away.

"Maybe it was a less eloquent then I would have put it, but I stand by the need to patch up our family's misgivings. That being said, I do agree, it has long been Fire before Blood, and I don't believe that is fair to all of us, as a family. I don't know if I blame Genma wholly, because of this…it has long been instilled a pertinence to keep our flames strong due to the competitive and risky nature of our business, however… I stand by your decision Ayano. If anything that proved that you are well on your way to becoming the Head of the Family, and that Kazuma's return has done us, if anything a lot of good." Jugo's head bowed slightly.

"I'm happy that you see it that way." Kazuma said to Jugo and Ayano.

"That being said, I think it would be best to continue to strengthen your abilities Ayano. Maybe more battling and endeavors as a team would all do us well."

Ayano nodded. She didn't know what to say. She hadn't really realized at the time of her speech the relevancy or the complete potency of what she said. She had only realized after that her father had been present for the whole thing and left with Genma to clean up the mess she'd made by saying things so outright. However she was grateful that she wasn't reprimanded for it; should Kazuma have been rejected again, she wondered how far her own hard head would have gone to protest his rights…would she have stepped down too? Given up the Enraiha? Left the family as well? Moved out?

She was happy she didn't need to think about it. It would have been difficult to tear herself in two like that.

"So I expect you'll be staying here the night then? Or would you-"

"I'll stay here. I'll return to the room you gave me. I appreciate all you've done." Kazuma nodded.

"It's not a problem. Kazuma you are not an outsider. Nor do you have to be. It might be a bumpy road at times, but please do not think that you are a guest here." Jugo said. "I will keep looking into new jobs for you all, but for the time being continue your vacations. That being said Ms. Oksana sent me a letter to thank you all again. She now has the money to renovate her inn. As well somebody in the town actually reopened the shrine, which they have all dedicated to the Ikari family… and a certain spirit that has blessed the lake with an abundant amount of fish this year."

"A spirit? You don't think …Mizuko was?" Ayano turned to Kazuma.

"It's possible. She may have moved on, but spirits can return at times, unexplainably to bless or aid, rather than to curse. Maybe it was retribution for what her family did awakening to demon, or for cursing the lake herself. However, it could also just be coincidence." Kazuma speculated.

Ayano swallowed. Maybe Mizuko was happy now…content. She hadn't thought much about it since the weeks that had passed…but she had hoped so. To think that someone died thinking they were all alone in the world, isolated by their loved one, and thought to have been betrayed… Ayano's eyes opened. Maybe she finally understood how Mizuko was actually a lot like Tsui Ling. Tsui Ling may have blamed Kazuma for her death, but Kazuma never meant for her to die, just as Kenshin never meant for Mizuko to jump to her own death alone. Maybe one day Tsui Ling could forgive Kazuma… although Kazuma had once told her it was in his past, and he'd have to live with it, she knew that was far from the real closure he needed. She couldn't heal him either, just like she couldn't heal the wound between Kazuma and his father…but she could help any way that she could. If that meant finding a way to heal Lapis so that Tsui Ling could be herself again…well maybe that was something she'd have to try to help him with one day.

She looked up out of her thoughts. "I hope it's not just a coincidence."

Jugo nodded. "I'd like to think so as well. It's refreshing to remember that there is not only darkness in the after life, but goodness as well. Now, I'm going to retire myself. Kazuma, to be clear, you do have my blessing to date Ayano…" Jugo then left the room.

"So I guess that settles it." Kazuma said.

"Settles what?"

"Well its not very often you live in the same house as your boyfriend is it?" Kazuma gave her one of those dark flirtatious looks.

"No…uh..well…why did you even bring it up? You said my father was trying to set us up from the start anyway…" Ayano stuttered at his look.

"Well it wouldn't be respectful to not at least ask…I don't need both elder members of our family hating me for rather petty reasons…but I also was curious to see his reaction." Kazuma shrugged.

"Do you two always have ulterior motives? I can only pray that I have a girl when I get older…"

"Well girl's aren't that simple either…" Kazuma got up to leave.

"Well most of you seem to have ulterior motives and are a little hard headed if you ask me…"

Kazuma gave her a sideways glance. "Is that all I'm good for? I'm sure theres some other things I could offer to make up for that…" He smirked and put his hands in his pockets and walked off.

"Kazuma!" She said turning red before following after just long enough to see the door to his room close behind him.

She sighed. Was she too defensive again? Maybe? She left to go to her own room. What did she expect anyway? She was in her own house...in her father's domain...Kazuma wouldn't try anything anyway.

She decided to get changed into her pyjamas. She was taking off her shirt when she heard a voice a the door.

"That's it? After all that fight to get me to stay here again?"

"What are you doing!" She asked. Pulling her shirt back down.

"Well it's not like i haven't seen most of it before...how was I supposed to know you were getting changed?"

"It's still my room. You can still knock? That hasn't changed..."

"Well I didn't think you'd be retiring so early."

"You ran off first!"

"Well considering the Ayano I know normally gives me an earful after those kinds of comments, I was just shielding myself from it." Kazuma looked to his door. "On the other hand I did need to ask if-"

"If you need my sheets again, I'll give them to you. I don't mind." Ayano sighed. She didn't want him to keep thinking of her as rejecting his advances...but she thought that had been clear after last night.

"That wasn't what I was going to ask. There are sheets there tonight...surprisingly. However, I was actually thinking about what you said."

"About the Blood over Fire?" She asked calmly.

"Well that, but also about what you said to me. About not worrying or fighting, but just enjoying life." He said, as he leaned himself against the door frame, staring at the other side of it. "You're right. It seems too often theres always something bugging us. Underneath it all. I find it's at night when I think to myself about these things. All the hell of life, and all thats happened, theres only been few times where I can say I lost all view of those things and when I felt really content and at ease enough to forget about them."

She looked at his concern in his gaze. As if he was staring past the wall. She breathed out. "I get it. You're alone and you can't help but null things over and wonder if things could have gone different, or if things could get better...worry about all the stuff you don't have the time to think about but sits in the back of your mind. I really want it to be easier for us all to stop worrying...I guess thats why I said it; I don't want anyone else to have to suffer that much that it weighs on everyones mind at night."

He nodded. "Which is why I wanted to ask if you didn't want to be alone tonight."

Her eyes widened and she suddenly looked a little cross. "Oh is that it? Is that all you're thinking about? Are you serious?"

Kazuma diverted his eyes again, shaking his head. "Not that. Not just that. Look, the point is, the few times I ever felt oblivious to the pain was when I was only on two occasions. The first was when I was with Tsui Ling. Her company...at the time, it just made me forget about all I had tried to leave behind here. I could forget it all and just live around her."

Ayano felt childish for assuming he'd only meant...well...that. She also realized she was right; Kazuma was still concerned with Tsui Ling...or at least not completely healed.

"Then...then it happened again with you. Actually in a few brief moments...the one time after our fight when you told me to stop seeing you as such a passive being...when I held your hair, and then again, after...that time that I kissed you after you got mad at me, when I was just trying to thank you for being so perceptive...yesterday morning after everything had happened, just in a kind of peace together. I guess it's the moments in between. The seconds when you aren't thinking about things but just enjoying someone else's company. I mean I hate to get too deep or too soft here, but, on the other hand, I'm starting to think building up more walls isn't going to help anyone is it?"

She swallowed. No, walls were what got them to the point where she was running away yelling at him in denial of her feelings and he was just shamelessly flirting to the point where neither she nor he couldn't tell if he was serious about it. He was right though. It was the moments in between, when you were with someone else who could just erase any other thoughts. "I'm sorry I said that. I guess I just thought-"

"It's fine. I already told you I was selfish. If you didn't make that assumption I might be a bit concerned." Kazuma's eyes raised to hers again. "But, all the same, if you don't want to be alone tonight, I don't think I would object some company myself."

"Even if nothing happens?" Ayano said, in a slightly quieter voice, a light blush filling her cheeks.

"I'm not asking you anything more than company."