A.N.: This chapter is dedicated to Allen Pitt for being the first to review to my last chapter. I'm sorry I didn't do the individual review responses, but I wanted to get this out and this is the only time I have. And I know it's been a really long time, and for that…I'm SO sorry.

Forgotten Birthdays

A Little Thing I Like To Call Love

Hi-yah! Or, that's what I would say if I would talk. I was practicing my martial arts. Dek really is a great person, he's taught me so much. Before I came to him, I was a skinny little kid. Now, I'm ripped. And I've learned more than I would ever admit. He's not only been my mentor, he's been my friend.

It's been a year. A whole year where I've trained by body and mind. A whole year since I've seen the people who betrayed me. Dek has been awesome. He understands my vow of silence and actually learned sign language so we can communicate easier.

I live in the backroom of the little store Dek owns. Sometimes, when it gets really busy I go out and help him with the costumers. They don't usually care for a mute kid selling them their potion ingredients though.

My life is good right now. I'm having fun. It's been the most fun I've ever had and I appreciate everything Dek has done for me. I have only one thing missing…my powers. Dek and I still haven't figured out a way to get them back. Dek asked one time when he were eating our dinner why I needed my powers when I was already blocked from them and had no inclination to go to them again. And I didn't have an answer to him. Do I want to hurt them in an act of revenge? Do I want to make them suffer for what they did to me? Do I want to be a part of the family? I don't know. And that scares me in a way. I feel as if I'm a ticking time bomb and the clock is about to run out.

I think about them sometimes. And wonder if they miss me. I wonder if they even care that I'm not in their lives anymore. I wonder if they regret everything they did to me.

But Dek is here for me now. And he's not getting any younger. In all actuality, he seems to be getting a lot older a lot faster. He's moving slower and grimaces in pain when he bends down to get something. I confronted him about it one time and he just said that his time was soon and there was nothing I could do to stop time from continuing.

But anyway, back to the present ass kicking I was doing. Well, I wasn't literally kicking ass, I was kicking dummies set up around the practice room. Dek and I spent a month getting this practice room set up. Between cleaning it out and putting the equipment in, my muscles almost doubled in size.

I was practicing some of my latest moves when I was slammed head first into the pads making up the floor. I grunted as my lungs lost air. Before I knew it, my hands were manacled behind my back and there was someone straddling my ass and there was a wicked looking athame next to my neck. I tried to twist to get the person off, but they just tightened the athame to my neck until I could feel it puncturing the skin. I heard a woman's voice say, "Try it and you won't have a body for that pretty little head."

She shifted so she was sitting on my back with my forearms under her body, probably so she could have her other arm. But this position, it didn't hurt, it just felt good…too good. I was enjoying the way she was sitting on me on a purely primitive level.

I thought about what I could do for a minute to get out of the position. So, I slowly turned my arms so my palms were facing up. I had to move slowly otherwise she would get suspicious. Once I had my palms in the right position, I reached up and squeezed the bottom of her ass. She jumped and moved off of me for a split second in which I flipped her around so I was laying on her. I grabbed her hands and manacled them in one of my own above her head.

"Get off of me!" She squirmed to get out of my hold. To my chagrin, she kept putting our lower bodies together. I lowered myself so my body fit squarely against hers. She gasped and stopped moving.

I frowned at her and took this time to study her. She couldn't be more than twenty. But she was definitely older than me. She was very pretty with bronzed skin and brown eyes that were shooting daggers at me. Her lips looked kissable and I almost let myself get lower to feel them against mine.

"Why aren't you saying anything? I would think you would be boasting right about now." I held a hand to my throat and patted it. Most people understood that as the universal sign of having no voice. "Oh, so you can't talk, huh?" Her eyes softened so instead of shooting daggers at me, she was looking at me with fire burning in her eyes. Fire at what, I don't know.

"Okay, then I guess you can't give me any answers that I was looking for. Sorry for bothering you, I think I'll just go now."

I shook my head and finally lowered myself so my upper body met hers. And I was still shirtless from my training session. And she felt so good, all soft and curvy. I looked into her eyes to see what she was feeling and was pleased to see that she was as shocked and pleased that I was. So, I kissed her. I softly kissed her once, twice, before I felt her open her mouth to mine. I groaned low in my throat, which I can only describe as being animalistic and kissed her with a fierceness I didn't know I had. She moaned and started kissing me back just as fiercely. I took one of my hands, the one that didn't have her hands, and caressed the length of her body. Then I slowly let her hands go from mine. It was more unconscious than anything. I wanted my other hand to use on her body as well. Her hands automatically went to my back and she pulled me down closer to her.

We didn't stop until we both ran out of breath. I pulled my mouth away from hers and lay my forehead on hers while we both recuperated. Through the panting, she asked, "What's your name?"

I lifted my hand from the inside of her shirt and drew the letters on her stomach, C-H-R-I-S. Then I poked her.

"Bianca. You know, it would have been nice to know that before we did this." She laughed softly and rubbed her palms over my sweaty chest. She groaned and said, "Oh, I won't be able to kill you now. I'm going to get vanquished once they find out you're still alive."

I frowned at her and had a thought come to mind. I kissed her one last time before I jumped off her and held my hands out in a stay here kind of sign. I threw my abandoned shirt over my head and went into the store to get Dek. I signed to him and quickly told him what happened, without of course, going into the details between what happened between us.

Dek shut down the shop and followed me back into the training room where Bianca was still standing with her athame and another one of my shirts in her hand. "Oh, sorry. Here, Chris, I found this on the floor." She tried to hand it to me, but I pushed it back into her hands. She smiled widely and hugged it to her chest. "Um, hi, I'm Bianca." And she held her hand out to Dek who took it welcomingly.

"My name is Hideki Zu, you may call me Dek. Now, from what Chris tells me, you were sent here to kill him…"

She nodded slowly and looked at me with a scared expression, "I'm a Phoenix. We're sort of like bounty hunters, but we're witches. My mother was killed because she couldn't complete a mission, so I had to take over for her. And then I got a job to come here and kill Chris. But I can't do it now. I think I love him."

I opened my arms and she moved into them and hugged me hard. I turned to Dek and signed behind her back. He sighed and said, "Well, Chris suggests that you stay here with us. We can up the security on the shop and whoever hired you won't be able to find you."

Bianca looked up at me surprised. I kissed her softly and she said, "Thank you."

Dek nodded and moved closer to the shop, "Chris, why don't you take a shower and then drive Bianca to her home to get her things? And when you both come back, I'm sure Bianca will want to know more about you Chris."

I nodded and took Bianca's hand and headed for the house part of the building. I opened the door and Bianca gasped, "Well, I guess it's only been two guys living here, huh?"

I threw her a questioning look and she said, "It's just, the décor is clearly guy. I mean, nothing matches and nothing is clean."

I smiled and led her into my bedroom. In our house, we really only have two bedrooms. Dek has the master bedroom and I keep the smaller one. I actually like the smaller one better because it has a better view of China Town. It's also a lot farther away from the rest of the house, so Dek can't hear what I'm doing when I'm in here. "I like this room. Is it yours?"

I nodded and guided her into the comfortable chair in the corner of the room. I got the pad of paper that's always in my room and wrote down a note to her.

"I'm going to take a shower before we drive to your house. And I already talked to Dek, you're getting this room. I'm going to take the couch in the living room," She read aloud. She looked at my with a horrorstruck expression on her face, "Oh my God, no! I'll stay on the couch if it comes to that. I don't want to kick you out of your own room, Chris." She paused and licked her lip nervously, "Why don't we just stay here together?"

I thought about it. Actually, I thought about it for a second, but I pretended to think longer to tease her. I took her in my arms and kissed her before throwing her on our bed. She shrieked and then laughed as I pounced on her. I kissed her with everything in me before I had to get off her, otherwise I would have lost control and we never would have left. Right before I got off her, I mouthed to her, I think I love you too.

Bianca started crying and said, "Oh, Chris. You're absolutely amazing. Now, go take a shower stinky man."

I grinned and left her in the bed. I took the fastest shower I've ever taken. But I forgot to bring clothes in with me, so I had to wrap a towel around my waist and go back to my bedroom like that. Bianca just looked at me. For a long time. It was longer than either of us expected by the time we got to her house.

A.N.: I know, I'm an awful person. But I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this story, so I needed a filler chapter to occupy the story until I figured that out. Anyway, I hoped you guys liked it even though it took me so long to update.