This is the last chapter. Are you ready? Are you readAY?! Okay.

Dedicated to Glod, who forgoes doing essays for reading my work. You're my favorite.

Chapter Thirteen: Bedroom Eyes

Been traveling all too long this bear-cat trail
But the love in me's grown stronger than this steel rail
That I ride back to your bedroom eyes

Been gone so long baby I wrote you this love song
My heart the engineer now she's running strong
Taking me back to your bedroom eyes

Bedroom eyes, bedroom eyes
Brighter than this starlit summer sky

My cheek against this blackened boxcar dear
It's dirty and it's cold but the coast is clear
I'm coming home back to your bedroom eyes

Bedroom eyes, bedroom eyes
Brighter than this starlit summer sky

Mugen left her there, sitting on the floor and staring into space, and walked away. He walked away because a good man would. He walked because he didn't want to cause her more pain. Mostly, he walked away because he was a coward.

The road out of town was long and winding, forming a circle around the village, and his mind on other matters, Mugen walked it idly and in no great hurry. He could remember other times in his life when he'd taken the easy way out, the coward's way. Every man he'd ever killed when words would have sufficed? Every woman he'd gotten drunk so he could take advantage? Every hungry child he ignored in favor of his own hunger? What was a coward, but a boy who refused to see?

During his time in prison, Mugen had thought of many things. He'd lived twenty-two long years on this land, and he yet to feel like a real person; a real man. A man wouldn't leave the girl he'd long ago crushed on to cry in her home, over something that was the man's fault. A man would take care of the situation, and the girl. He'd be a man and he'd make everything right. Years of watching his mother search for the right man, and he knew that much. A man was supposed to complete things, complete a home. Without him, life becomes nothing less than a search. Fuu had been another shining example of that.

Her childhood spent without a father, a man, and the first thing she could do when she caught a glimpse of adulthood? Search for that man. Mugen smiled as he remembered the distant gleam in her eyes every time she'd spoken of the sunflower samurai. It'd reminded him of his mother, and the light she'd get when she spoke of his father. Just once, Mugen wanted to see that light in a woman's eyes, and know that it was meant for him.

It wasn't likely to happen, he told himself. I'm just a scrapper, struggling to survive, taking out those who oppose me. The lies we tell ourselves to keep us going. Idly thumbing the top of his sword, the one Fuu had given him; Mugen stepped off the path and looked into the town center. Just there, in the corner with several other children, Kiyoko was staring down an older child, a boy. Instinctively sensing the rising tension between the children, Mugen stepped away from his path, and took notice.

The older boy, with long black hair and sun-darkened skin looked down on fair Kiki and sneered. "My mother says we're not to play with you."

Mugen watched as Kiki drew up her lips in a pout, so like her mother's. "Why?"

"Because you don't have a father. Mother says that since there is no man in your house that we have to watch your mother. She's untrustworthy."

Mugen's fists tightened at the implication, and he was ready to step in and tell the boy off, when Kiki said something that utterly surprised him, and froze him in his steps.

"I do too have a father!" Kiki yelled, drawing a few glances from passersby, but still going quite ignored by most. Mugen, apparently the only one watching, stepped closer, but stayed in the shadows. Kiyoko seemed like she could take care of herself, but just in case...

The boy faltered, taking a step back as Kiki repeated herself and stamped her foot at him. The kids behind him laughed at the sight of the small girl forcing the bully back, but quieted down when he glared. "Yeah? Who?"

Kiki looked down for a minute, trying to think of what a father was, but failing to understand. Finally, she looked back up and smiled smugly. "My uncle Mugen and Jin. They're my father."

The children laughed cruelly; and realizing that she'd said something wrong, Kiki stopped smiling. The leader of the gang of mean children stepped closer, pushing Kiki back and to the ground. "You can't have two fathers! That means you have none!"

Again, the children laughed, and as Kiki found herself about to burst into tears, a pair of long and inked arms stretched down and picked her up. Recognizing the hard strength that held her, Kiki threw herself into Mugen's arms and pouting, pointed a finger at the boy. "He says I don't have a father."

There comes a point in a boy's life when he realizes that to be a man, he must put away his childish ideas and toys, and learn to take the steps to take responsibility for his actions. He learns that as a man, you have to know when it's time to take action, and when it's time to take a step back. Learn when to speak, and when to keep quiet. Most of all, the man learns that no one is perfect, but damn if we don't try.

Mugen touched Kiki's chin, pulling her face back to his. Her large brown eyes sparkled at him, lit by the inner joy she held at seeing him, her current favorite person, and something in that moment made the fates take notice. The air was still, and the wind was slow moving, if at all. The adults that milled watched carefully as the dangerous man held the small child, and had a small but thoughtful grin on his face.

Mugen turned to the bully, and reached down to ruffle his hair irritatingly. "Of course she has a father. I'm her father."

The boy, unaware that even now, the adults were whispering, wondering, and gossiping about this new "revelation", glared at Mugen. "Yeah? Well, where ya been?"

Mugen quirked an eyebrow, before turning the boy around and kicking him lightly in the ass. "Go home, you nosy little shit."

The children ran away after the bully, laughing at the footprint on his rear, and Mugen watched as they went. Kiki still had her arms around his neck, and when he looked down at her, her eyes were solemn. He held her tighter, and turned to start walking home.

That's what it was, you see. He'd been here less than a month, but for all intensive purposes, he was home. He looked forward to waking up to Kiki and Fuu, and to spending all the day with them. He liked practicing his sword moves in the yard and dusk, and looking over his food to see them at the same table. At night, when he couldn't sleep, he even looked forward to walking through the house and hearing the small snores that emitted from Kiki's room, and the louder ones from Fuu's. In this place, Mugen had found something he'd never known he was searching for. He'd found contentment.

"Are you really my father?"

Mugen was silent for a few moments. A lie told couldn't be taken back easily. It spreads like a disease, corrupting all that it touches. Sometimes, the lie or disease isn't bad. Sometimes, it makes things clear and in the time that they have, they can make things right.

"I think I am," he said softly.

Kiki nodded slowly. "Okay."

Then, satisfied with the exchange, she set her head on his shoulder and proceeded to enjoy the walk home by falling asleep. Mugen set his eye on the house in the distance, and didn't look away one time.

She heard him coming up the front stairs, and could hear him murmur softly to Kiyoko as he laid her on her bed, but Fuu couldn't move. She could move from her chair at the kitchen table, not if the entire room was on fire. It'd taken all she had to make him leave. Everything, every memory, every grimace, every rage, fueled into saying the words that she'd needed to say. Truth be told, Fuu was not an angry person, but rather was provoked by the situations she found herself in. When not surrounded by rude, obnoxious, and violent samurais, she was actually quite gentle.

She didn't turn when she felt his presence at the doorframe, and she didn't speak. Maybe, a small part of her was afraid of what she'd say. Maybe, a small part of her was more afraid of what she'd do.

Fuu sat in that chair, trembling, and did nothing.

Mugen watched as she did nothing, and fought the urge to run, to be the old coward he'd once been. Did his body not understand that it was time to stop running? To stop fighting? It was time to be a man, and to just stop.

Kneeling behind her chair, inhaling that sweet scent that had always beguiled him, Mugen fought from gripping her arms and turning her to him, and instead ran his long scarred fingers down her arms, to hold her hands. Pressing his face into her back, he tried to find the words, to explain what he wanted to do, what he didn't, and why he couldn't go. In the end, it was simple.

"I want to stay."

Silence and a small sigh. "I see." She was proud that she managed to make the words cool and calm, and not belie the turmoil inside her.

Mugen cocked his head, leaning forward to press his face into her shoulder, his voice muffled as he spoke again. "Would you stay with me?"

She turned her head a small bit, just enough to see him out of the corner of her eye. "And if I did?"

He smiled, the taste of victory on the edge of tongue. "I'd replace the bad memories with the good."

"And if you can't?"

"Then I'll tell you some of my own bad memories, and you'll replace mine."

Fuu nodded slowly, the conversation seeming so inane, yet the unspoken words of it making her so tense that she could feel every hair on her body, and every breath he breathed against her skin. "Will you protect me?"

His answer was immediate. "Yes."

"Even from myself."

"Only if you promise to protect me from Jin."

She laughed for the first time in two days, and it surprised even her. She stopped almost immediately, her hand flying to her mouth, and she didn't resist when he turned her to face him. "I want..." he started, but shook his head as the words eluded him.

Fuu laid her hand against his cheek, and cocked her head as she studied him. "You've changed."

"Hmmm?"

"From the boy who left me standing at the crossroads three years ago. You've changed."

He nodded, pressing his cheek into her hand, his eyes distant. "I wanted to change."

He could remember those days very clearly. Instead of staying for a vigorous fight with one of the most renowned samurais in Japan, he'd left Jin to it and had gone for Fuu. Rescued her, and forced her to leave him behind, knowing it might mean his death. He'd been willing to give his life for her. Even then.

"Why?" Fuu asked, still holding his cheek, and though she didn't know it, his heart, in her hand.

"I was tired of being a coward," he admitted.

"You were never a coward."

He shook his head. "I could fight. I was a fighter. I was afraid though."

"Of what?"

"Of you. It's why I always let Jin take care of you. I was afraid of what you made me feel. I watched though, and I hated him for the closeness you two shared."

She stayed silent, not speaking from the confession of and what it meant to her. As a girl, she had loved Jin. Loved him in a girl's way, of innocent feelings. Now, with Mugen, Fuu knew it wasn't a girl that wanted him to stay, but it was the girl in her, the brutalized and scarred girl, that was afraid of letting him stay.

Mugen grasped her hand in his, so tightly that she thought she might have bruises when he released. He stared at her, his eyes more serious than she'd ever seen.

"Can I stay?"

Fuu watched his eyes, and felt the small vibration in his hand. More than that, she felt the heat of him, the presence that calmed the girl inside her. Damn the consequences.

"Yes."

Fin

Retrospective

"You're my joy and you're my pain."

It's a line from a song called "Don't Explain" which I listened to while I wrote this chapter. In my mind, this chapter, and the story itself, was supposed to have a slow, but steady rhythm to it. Very blues-y versus the fast-paced hip hop beat that the actual series had. (The version of "Don't Explain" I listened to was sung by Damien Rice, who I recommend to everyone. He's the only person I listen to when I'm writing mellow stories or am feeling mellow...just FYI)

I enjoyed writing this story. Very much so. I took my time with it, and I think I did a great job of getting on paper what I actually wanted and envisioned. While I included Jin, the story was really about Mugen and Fuu.

It was also about change. The change from child to adult, the change those three years can brought, the change that a child can bring. I've read a lot of stories where, no matter how many years later it is that the trio reunites, they're always the same. Almost exactly, but I never could see that happening. After the journey the three of them took, and the climactic ending, there was really no way they could go and be the same.

In the finale, the very last scene, as they say goodbye, if you look at Fuu you can see her change already. This journey has taken something from her, in my opinion, part of her innocence. She's confronted the "demons" of her past, and she's grown up because of it. She was afraid to let Jin and Mugen go much the same way a child is afraid to put away the safety blanket. She forced herself past it, and was better for it. Older, wiser, and just a little bit tainted by the entire experience.

With Jin and Mugen, you have to imagine their changes, all of them except for one. They didn't lose anything in the journey; on the contrary, they gained something. The series is based in an era where the samurai no longer have anything to fight for, and Fuu gave them something. She gave them the cause they both needed, however much they griped and bitched about it. When the trio separated, the two men found themselves with their own journeys. They needed to find something to fight for, for themselves. They needed a cause.

The problem in my story is that three years later they still have not found something to fight for. They fell into the old pattern of fighting for Fuu, but Fuu no longer needed them to fight for her. She had no problem that they could solve. Jin, I believe, realizes this and it's why he left. If this story had gone on longer, I'd have brought him back with Shino, but he'd have faded to the background and would have no longer been important. I never could write Jin that well anyways.

Mugen, however, needs something to fight for. He always did. There's something in Mugen that always reminded me of a broken child, one who missed some integral part of childhood and is forever damaged because of it. Maybe he was an orphan or was abused, but whatever it was, it shows in his character. In my story, I made up my own story for his childhood, and to me it seems likely. You don't get that apathetic about life in general if you've not had a reason to become numb. Mugen, before he met Fuu, was numb. It's like seeing with colors, you can, but where's the fun?

There's what he decides to fight for in the end. He fights to find color, and feeling. After three years apart, he'd finally matured enough to realize that Fuu gives him those things. What was once a childish crush has blown into full-on love, for both of them.

le sigh I hope I've explained some things for everyone.

I can tell you, that I'm planning a couple of one-shots, mostly prequel, and one sequel. One to focus on Mugen's incarceration, one on Fuu during pregnancy, and the last one to wrap up the Jin thing. So...you've got something to look forward to.

For music references, last chapter was mainly written to the song "Then Go" sung by Damien Rice with help of Lisa Hannigan. For this chapter, like I said mainly "Don't Explain" by Damien, but also the very good song "Insane" by Damien. All three compliment this chapter if anyone is interested in DLing them and listening to it while you read.

I thank all my reviewers and the 60 alerts that I got on this story. You've all been very good to me, and very patient. I hope we all enjoyed this.