The next day Kai went back out on the road with Nami. She couldn't decide if she was offended or not that he didn't seem to notice her necklace but kept herself from toying with it while he was around. She was proud of it but at the same time she didn't want to draw attention to it. For now it was a secret between herself and Genrou and she wanted to keep it a little if she could.

While he and Goh laughed at some joke she had missed, Kai sat back on her rock and thought as she watched the road. She'd promised herself that she was going to give herself a little time before she came out and told Genrou that she was a girl, hoping that he'd eventually like her so much that he wouldn't care, but it felt more urgent now.

A part of her was worried that he'd her that he wasn't interested, but an even bigger part was worried that he would tell her to leave the fortress. Now that she'd come to think of it as home, Kai couldn't bear the thought of leaving it and her friends. If there was one thing that was stopping her from telling Genrou, it was this.

The sound of horse's hooves pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked over to see a well-dressed man riding up over the hill. Nami looked at her and she slid off the rock reluctantly. She didn't feel much like working at the moment.

"Hey there," she called, stepping in front of the horse with a smile. "Where are you headed?"

The rest of the day passed quickly. For whatever reason, there were a lot of travelers on the road that needed to be checked out, assessed a toll, and sent on their way with their money bags either a little or a lot lighter. She barely had time to think about her dilemma at all until they were walking back up to the fortress. Her mind went around and around until they walked through the gates and Kai made up her mind. She was going to tell him. If he told her to leave, she would fight to stay but she couldn't stand the thought of lying to him another day.

"Hi, Aniki!" Yuta ran up to Kai, grinning brightly. He was a nice kid but the amount of energy he had was exhausting sometimes. "Ready to make dinner?"

"I think you can handle it," Kai said. "Your time has finally come."

"What? Why?" Yuta stood in front of her so she couldn't follow Nami and the others. He was taller than Kai even though he was younger and she sighed.

"I don't feel much like eating tonight," she said. It wasn't a lie. In spite of her new resolve her stomach was in knots and she didn't know if she'd be able to eat anything. Yuta looked like his world was falling apart and she rubbed her temples. "Look, you'll be fine. I cooked my share of terrible meals and I'm still here. If anyone complains too much, tell them it's my fault."

"But-"

"Hey, Kai!"

"Yeah?" Kai turned toward the voice behind her, eager to turn her back on the crestfallen look Yuta was still giving her. When she saw it was Genrou her stomach flipped over uncomfortably. Her resolve to tell him everything was crumbling. She still meant to tell him but she hadn't thought it would be so soon. "Oh! Hey, Genrou."

"Ya wanna have some sake with me?"

"Um," Kai said, looking back at Yuta. He was watching her and the leader with interest and she turned to Genrou. "Sure, sounds good. I'm letting this one cook dinner on his own tonight."

"What, you're tryin' to kill us?" Genrou grinned and nodded toward the fortress. "C'mon, I've got some really good stuff I've been saving." With a wave and a thumbs-up to Yuta, she followed him up the stairs and down the hall. "Poor kid. You're really kickin' him outta the nest early."

"It's good for him. Besides, he might turn out to be a better cook than me." Her heart was pounding in her ears in spite of her light tone. She thought that sake might be a good idea to help her say what had to be said, and the fact that he was giving her some out of his own private store made her happy.

When they reached his room, Kai half-expected to see Kouji waiting for them so they could have a little drinking party before dinner. The hall was empty, however, and the nervousness returned. Can I really do this? Maybe I should tell him later and just enjoy this a little longer. Genrou pushed open the door and held it for her, and Kai smiled at him.

"Thanks," she said. Genrou motioned to the low table that was now near the window and she went to it while he got out the sake and two cups, then joined her and dropped to the floor where he sat cross-legged.

"You gonna sit down or stare out the window?"

"S-sorry," Kai said, taking her place at the table. Genrou pushed a cup toward her, then poured sake into it. "Thanks."

"This came from a guy who stole it from the guy who makes it two towns over. When we went to return it he gave us some of it as a reward. This' the last of it. I've been savin' it for a special occasion," he said, looking at the bottle fondly. Kai's heart leapt into her throat. I'm a special occasion now? "So, I sorta asked ya here because I wanted to talk to ya some more without the other guys listenin' in."

"I figured that was the case," Kai said. She took a sip of the sake. It was like liquid fire but the taste was phenomenal. She had a feeling that if she didn't take her time with it she was going to be twice as drunk as she had been at the teahouse in half the time. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I, uh, I don't really know how to say this," Genrou said, avoiding Kai's eyes. "I really don't go for guys, y'know? I mean I never have before. I've always kinda, y'know, I mean, I like girls." He was stumbling over his words and decided that the better part of valor was to down his sake in one gulp, as if it would clear his head somehow.

"That's cool," Kai said, fidgeting with her cup. "I guess I've never had any experience myself. But I like guys," she said honestly, even though she knew he would take it to mean she was gay. She was confused now. He said he liked girls but had invited her back to his room thinking that she was a boy. Had kissed her thinking she was a boy. "Is-is that a problem?"

"Only if you think it is." Genrou poured himself another drink. "Were they okay with that kind of stuff where you're from?"

"I don't know," Kai replied honestly. She took a long drink of her sake, tipping the cup to get every last drop. "I haven't been back there in a long time."

"So how'd ya end up here?"

"It's a long story." Kai expected it to end there but when Genrou looked at her as if to tell her to go on, she reached for the sake. "I told you my family died, didn't I?" Kai said, focusing on her cup as Genrou refilled it. "My father was a merchant in Kushin, a town on the border between Konan and Kutou. He sold jewelry that my mother made. We were fairly well off, which was why my brother and I got to go to school. I was eight when the war started."

"Just a kid," Genrou said, though he had only been a teenager when he had fought alongside his friends. Kai nodded.

"Our town was one of the first raided by the Kutou army. My brother was fifteen, so he went with my father and fought." She closed her eyes. "We were a merchant family, they didn't know anything about war or fighting, so Mother and I expected bad news when someone came pounding on our door.

"Mother realized something was wrong. No one who would come to announce my father and brother's deaths would pound on the door like that. We had a small cellar where we stored materials and food, and my mother pushed me down there with a box of her jewelry and told me to stay quiet. Then she went to the door just in time for them to break it down." Kai's eyes remained closed and she fought desperately to keep tears out of her voice. Talking about these things in roundabout, matter-of-fact terms was one thing, but she hadn't told the whole story to anyone before and it opened up a wound that she had long thought healed.

"Ya don't hafta-"

"I didn't see what happened," Kai said, needing to finish. "All I heard was soldiers shouting at Mother, furniture breaking, and then Mother screaming. I could smell something burning and I kept hoping I wasn't going to be trapped in there by a fire. I was so scared. But I waited until things were quiet and then crawled out of my hiding place.

"The city was as good as dead. Houses and buildings were burning, and there were bodies everywhere. The people who had survived were standing outside, staring. We couldn't believe our peaceful town was gone, just like that. I walked, still holding the box Mother had shoved at me, until I found my father and knew my brother was gone too. And once I knew, I just kept walking. I used the jewelry to pay for a ride to Souun, far away from my home, and then sold the rest little by little until it was gone. That's when I learned how to steal."

"Guess ya got started early," Genrou said, more to keep the silence away than anything else. "That's why you're so good at it."

"I got a lot of practice," Kai said with a smile. "Lucky for me I could always pull the 'crying kid' defense when I was caught until I got better at it." She looked up at Genrou. "Good thing I did, or I wouldn't have ended up here. But now I guess you know why I was so interested in reading about Suzaku no Miko and the Shichiseishi. If it weren't for them, a lot more people would've died like my family. Our country is peaceful thanks to them and I've always wished I could thank them somehow."

"Yeah, I guess you'd wanna," Genrou said quietly. "I'm sorry the war didn't end sooner. Maybe your folks wouldn'ta gotten killed."

"Did you fight in the war, Genrou?"

"You could say that." Whatever reason he'd had for not telling her to begin with had disappeared in her story of the loss of her family and he sat up straight. "The reason I told ya not to buy that book is 'cause ya don't need it," he said. "Anything ya wanna know about Suzaku, I can tell ya." He was unwinding the cloth from his forearm as he spoke, then pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. The redness Kai had seen on his arm when she was injured was back, and she could see now that it wasn't blood but a glowing red character that read 'wing.' "I'm Tasuki, one of the Shichiseishi."

"You-you are?" Kai stared at the symbol on his arm in fascination. "That's amazing! I never thought I could meet one of the Shichiseishi."

"It ain't all great," he said, looking away from her. "There's only two of us left. The others died before we even summoned Suzaku. They've been reincarnated now but it's not the same. We can't hang out with 'em. We can't even see 'em most of the time."

"What about Suzaku no Miko? She went back to her world, right?" Genrou nodded reflexively and Kai reached out to him. "Can I-can I touch it?"

"Huh?" Genrou looked surprised by this request and held out his arm. "Sure." Kai touched his arm and a shock went up it, but not an unpleasant one. She gently ran her fingers over the character and he watched her face as she smiled.

"It's warm," Kai said. "Is it always like this?"

"Nah. Just when I'm fightin' or when-" His voice dropped away as something occurred to him and his first instinct was to pull away from her but he couldn't make himself do anything that might endanger her smile. Kai looked up at him curiously and he cleared his throat. "-when I get worked up about somethin.'"

"Oh." She let go of him and he was sorry to lose her touch. "So what's making it like that right now?" He should have known she'd ask about it, she was as perceptive as Chichiri had been. Out of all the bandits, only Kouji had ever even brought it up. It didn't bother him to have her talk about it, though. In fact, he wanted to tell her more, tell her stories about when he'd been a part of something that changed the world. Instead, he met her green eyes with his gold ones and smiled.

"You," he said, deciding that the time was past for avoiding it. Even if it meant he had taken a leaf out of Nuriko's book and turned gay, he couldn't stand the thought of her not knowing how he felt. "It's 'cause you're here."

"Me?" Kai looked at him, her face turning red. He relaxed a little when he saw it because he knew it meant she wasn't going to push him away if he touched her, wanting her warmth against his palm again. "What do you mean?"

"Do I gotta spell it out for ya?" Genrou put his hand over hers. "I told ya I'm really not into guys, but you're different. I can't stop thinkin' about ya. I won't be upset if ya don't feel the same way. I've-" He took a deep breath. "-I've dealt with that before."

There was a silence between them that he didn't know how to take, then to his relief Kai replied by lacing her fingers through his. The small gesture made his chest fill with emotion and she smiled at him gently.

"I do. Feel the same, I mean." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Genrou wondered what she could be about to say. She'd already said the only thing that mattered and he leaned forward quickly to kiss her before she could continue. Kai's hand tightened around his and he pulled away from her reluctantly, then leaned his forehead against hers.

"Whatever it is, ya don't gotta say it," he said.

"Yeah, I do." Kai took another breath, then met his gaze. "You aren't gay."

"What do ya mean?"

"I-" Kai stopped, unable to go on, and he looked at her encouragingly. "I'm not a boy." The words didn't make sense when she said them and he frowned.

"What're ya talkin' about?"

"You said your friend dressed like a woman, right? Like that, but with men's clothes." She looked embarrassed by this and Genrou stared at her blankly. "I saw you at the teahouse," she said in a rush. "And I wanted to be near you, so I cut my hair and came up here. All this time I've been dressed like a boy because I thought you guys wouldn't accept me as a girl."

"You're the girl from the teahouse?" Genrou wracked his brain for the name of the quiet, shy girl who had poured his sake and his eyes widened. "There's no way! She couldn't even look me in the eye. You can't be her."

"I am," she said. "My name is Kaiyo Shika."

"Shika, that's right!" He dropped his fist into his palm. "You're really that girl?" Kai nodded and he smiled at her. "Sorry I wasn't nicer to ya. Ya acted like ya were scared of me and I didn't want to make ya nervous."

"I wasn't scared of you," Kai said, blushing. "I just didn't think I could hide how I felt. You were so cool and strong and I was just a serving girl, not even a courtesan. Then you stopped coming for a while and I was afraid I'd never see you again. So here I am."

"I'm glad you're here," Genrou said, taking her hand. "I guess I always have been."

"So...it's okay with you that I'm not a boy?"

"It doesn't really matter now, does it?" Genrou laughed. "I was all set to like ya thinkin' ya were a guy, wasn't I?" Kai opened her mouth and he shook his head. "What I mean is it don't matter if you're a girl or a guy. I like ya. Simple as that."

"Is it really?" Kai found this hard to believe but Genrou leaned close to her and used his free hand to tilt her face toward his.

"Yeah. It is." He kissed her again before she could say anything and this time Kai put her arms around him and held him tightly. There was no comparison between this kiss and the one on the road. It seemed to go on forever and Kai never wanted it to end. She wanted for him to hold her, to feel his hands on her face and the warmth of his lips on hers until the sun disappeared from the sky but it ended sooner than she'd hoped when someone knocked on the door. Genrou looked over at it, then scooted back to his side of the table just in time for Kouji to stick his head in the door.

"Hey, have you seen-" He saw Kai and his face brightened. "There you are. I saw the kid goin' into the kitchen by himself and thought maybe you were meeting him in there."

"He's cooking on his own tonight," Kai said, hoping her face wasn't too red. "I thought it would be good for him and a nice break for me." She didn't know how she could possibly act normal after what had happened between her and Genrou but she'd gotten so good at hiding her feelings in her time with the bandits that he didn't seem to suspect anything.

"It'll be an even longer break if we all get food poisoning." He saw the cups and sake on the table and came in. "We're having a drinking party?"

"Yeah," Genrou said cheerfully. "Wanna have a couple with us?" Secretly Genrou hoped that Kouji would tell him he had too much to do, but his friend came over and took a seat at the table between them. He saved his sigh until his back was turned while he got a third cup, putting a smile back on when he sat down. "This is the stuff we got from that sake brewer."

"Really? I thought all that was gone."

000

Dinner went about as well as Kai expected. The meal Yuta came up with was even worse than her first few efforts and as the bandits went their separate ways afterward muttering mutinously she went back to her room with a sigh. Her hopes of sleeping in had been dashed for the time being and she contented herself with knowing that as soon as she got back to her room she would be spending her time replaying everything that had happened between her and Genrou.

It already seemed like a dream. The spell that had been woven around them had been broken when Kouji came in and she felt like she could have imagined it all. They'd gone straight from Genrou's room to dinner and it felt like just another day after that. He'd disappeared after dinner while she was preoccupied with promising Yuta that she would be making breakfast the next day and she didn't know if she would have been able to talk to him anyhow for fear that he'd tell her he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Not one of your better ideas, brat." Kai looked over as if she'd been startled to see Nami walking beside her. She hadn't heard him come up at all. For a man as huge as he was, Nami could be surprisingly stealthy when he wanted to be.

"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either," Kai said, knowing exactly what he meant. "Would it make things better if I said I was just seeing how bad he was so I know how much I need to teach him?"

"Would it make things better if I told you I'm gonna kill you in your sleep for this?"

"How about we go to the kitchen and see if I can find us some extra dried meat or something?" The last thing Kai wanted to deal with was a hungry Nami and she was fully prepared to dig through their food stores for something that could be eaten raw or prepared quickly, but he shook his head.

"Nah, I managed to choke down more of it than most of the other guys. What's up with you, though? You've been actin' weird all day," Nami said, looking at Kai closely. She forced a laugh in reply, hoping it didn't sound too fake.

"Me, weird? I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night," she said with a shrug. As much as she had wanted to tell Nami about 'making up' with Genrou, she wanted even more to tell him that she'd finally told the leader the truth about herself. She wanted him to know that Genrou had told her he felt the same as she did and that she wouldn't have to leave Mt. Leikaku.

It hit her then that he'd never said she wouldn't have to leave. They'd been interrupted by Kouji before they could even get that far and a cold knot of fear settled in the bottom of Kai's stomach. The smile was gone from her face instantly and Nami frowned.

"What's the matter now?"

"N-nothing," Kai said. "I think I need to get to the bathroom."

"You'll probably hafta stand in line for it after that meal." He watched Kai hurry down the hall, then shook his head. "Bathroom's the other way, brat!" Kai didn't turn around and he shook his head. Let the kid make her own mistakes.

Once she'd lost Nami, Kai circled back and went to her room. The halls were empty and she wondered how much of that was due to the others giving up and going to bed early. She felt guilty about it, but that particular emotion was shoved out of the way again by her worry that she was going to have to leave.

It wasn't impossible. There was always the danger that Genrou wouldn't want her up on the mountain where it was dangerous or living in a fortress full of rough, loud men. She knew if he told her to go it would be because he wanted to protect her and Kai began working up the strength to argue with him over it. If he was going to throw her out, she wasn't going without a fight. The door to her room looked inviting and she pushed it open, eager to take off her armor and crawl into bed. Her plans changed the instant she walked inside, when she found Genrou waiting for her.

"Finally," he said, pushing himself off the wall. "I thought ya'd never get here."

"What are you doing here?" Kai closed the door in a hurry and locked it automatically. "You shouldn't be in here."

"Why not?" He walked slowly over to her and Kai's eyes darted to the door. "We didn't get to finish talkin' earlier, so I came in here so we wouldn't be interrupted again." Genrou grinned. "Guess I'm gonna have to tell Kouji to knock all the time now."

"You're going to tell him...about me?"

"Maybe not right away. I mean I'll tell him about you and me eventually but I'm gonna leave tellin' him you're a girl up to you," Genrou said. "I wouldn't wait too long, though. He's gonna get real suspicious real quick."

"Probably," Kai said, nodding. "You've known him a long time."

"Yup. Almost fifteen years. Half my life, now I think about it." He grinned. "Kouji's like the brother I never had. If ya wanted to tell him about you, I know he'd keep it a secret 'til you're ready to tell the other guys." His words made the knot in Kai's stomach loosen.

"Until I'm ready? So you're not going to tell me to leave?" She held her breath, waiting for his answer with her fingers unconsciously clenched into fists.

"Why would I do that?" Genrou put an arm around her waist and pulled her to him as if they were going to start dancing. "I'd rather have ya here where I can see ya whenever I want. And it's safer for ya here. I don't want anything to happen to ya." His face was close to hers and Kai smiled with relief. "Is that why ya didn't tell me?"

"Yes and no. I mean that was part of it but mostly I didn't want you to say you didn't like me because I was a girl."

"Well now ya know better." He gave her a kiss that left her breathless, then released her. "Better get to bed. We both gotta work in the morning. I think the rest of the guys are gonna revolt if ya don't make breakfast for us."

"I suppose so," Kai said. Genrou went to the door and was about to push it open when Kai found her voice. "Thank you."

"Huh?" Genrou turned back to her with a frown. "What're ya thankin' me for?"

"For everything." She crossed the room quickly and kissed him on the cheek. Before he could reply, she smiled and unlocked the door. "Good night."

"See ya in the morning," Genrou said. He opened the door and looked around to make sure no one was watching him, then hurried down the hall toward his room alone. Kai locked her door again, then sank onto the bed, still wearing her armor. She fell backward with her arms outstretchwed and sighed contentedly. It was all right. She didn't have to lie to the man she loved anymore, she'd found out that he was one of the Shichiseishi that she'd idolized for so long, and she wasn't going to have to leave her home.

Home, she thought, closing her eyes and tugging at her necklace. I'm home.