Saya and Haji sat in the backyard beneath an enormous banyan tree, a lovely improvised duet issuing forth from their respective instruments.

It figured that they would have good musical chemistry.

Haji played in a quick, somewhat low, florid motif while Saya added a soaring, simple counter melody. The drone of the cicadas, coincidentally humming on the tonic of the key in which they played, seemed to give the song an East Indian feel.

They didn't know that Kai and Mao were actually enjoying the music from the kitchen, as they prepared dinner.

The improvisational symphony seemed to end of it's own accord, as all good jam sessions do.

The last note resonated throughout the yard.

Saya turned to him and smiled. "How long was that?"

He turned around and leaned to look past the tree, at the clock in the kitchen window.

"At least a half hour. Would you like to take a break?"

"Yeah, my arm's actually a little tired," she said as they both set down their instruments.

There was a brief silence before Haji spoke.

"I have been thinking, I know that Yuki has not yet recovered her lost memories, nor has she been told everything, but I do get the impression that our relationship has been explained to her. Because of that, I was hoping that perhaps we could see each other more often, not just at lessons."

Saya smiled. "I'd like that."

There was another brief silence.

"Perhaps I could take you to a movie."

Saya giggled.

Haji furrowed his brows slightly, while giving a just barely noticeable smile. "You find that suggestion amusing?"

The giggling gradually tapered off. "I don't know why, but the idea of us doing the same stuff that normal couples do – it's kind of funny for some reason. Nice – but funny."

"I was under the impression that you like to feel normal," he stated bluntly.

She was silent for a moment. If anyone else had said that to her, she would have been offended.

"These past few months of not being able to see you very often have made me kind of realize something. I like to feel normal, but the truth is - for me – normal is being with you."

He smiled broadly.

"What are you smiling at?" she asked cheerfully, still not used to seeing that expression on his face. Slight grins and smirks were common enough, but it was still fairly uncommon for him to outright smile.

"I am smiling because I am glad that you feel the same way I do," he paused. "Every now and then, someone asks me where my home is. My answer always depends on the situation, but inwardly, I always think the same thing. My true home is with you – wherever you are."

She smiled back at him.

"That is not to say," Haji continued, "that I do not desire to have a literal home with you," he lowered his gaze slightly "- as I hope we will soon."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about making you wait so long." She sighed and turned away. "You're so wonderful, I don't deserve you. Why are you willing to put up with so much just to be with me?" she whispered.

For the first time in many years, Haji spoke without thinking. He always spoke to Saya from his heart, but his mind always acted both as editor and interpreter, but in that moment, for whatever reason, the words just flew out.

"Vous etes ma raison d'être," he placed his hand on her cheek. "Et je vous aime."

It wasn't the first time he had told her that he loved her and she was his reason for being.

She took notice of the fact that he still addressed her formally when speaking French, even though she had asked him not to many times during their years at the zoo. She recalled one particular argument.

"Am I still a 'vous' to you? We have known each other for almost ten years, and Joel adopted you so now I am practically your stepsister, but still it's 'vous, vous, vous!' Why can't you address me like a friend?"

Saya didn't know that his reasons for addressing her formally were not just out of prudishness. Somehow, in his mind, addressing her familiarly would be a step in the direction of becoming part of the unethical reproductive experiment that he had been 'purchased' for. He had to admit, lately (not coincidentally around the time he hit puberty) he had started to see some good in the notion of becoming Saya's "friend at night," but on top of his fundamental stubbornness and reluctance to participate in a venture that was so morally questionable, he respected himself, and more importantly, Saya, far too much to do such a thing.

"As long as I am a gentlemen, then 'vous ette une vous."

She giggled lightheartedly. "When did you become a gentlemen? I thought you were a Gypsy!"

His mouth dropped open for a moment, before closing in a shocked frown as he stood and began to walk away, his steps soft and calm, but his air thoroughly offended. Somehow Haji managed to be indignant and dignified at the same time, as he silently stood with his back to her.

Saya was confused, and wondered if he was taking offense because she had jokingly implied that he wasn't a gentleman. Having grown up within the sheltered walls of the zoo, Saya had little idea of the stigma that came with the term "Gypsy" and the discrimination that came with the label in France at that time. She hadn't meant to offend him, she had only meant to convince him that he wasn't obligated to utilize such formality when speaking to her.

But somehow, after only a minute of indignant silence, he seemed to understand that.

He closed his eyes as he sighed deeply. "Saya, you shouldn't use a word unless you know exactly what it means. None of the people I grew up with ever referred to themselves as 'Gypsies,' it was only used by others in the context of implying that we were inferior," he calmly explained.

She gasped at her own ignorance. It was one of the first times in her life that she had been truly furious with herself.

Tears of shame began welling in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she began to weep. "I didn't know, I didn't mean to -"

"Come here," he sighed.

Saya didn't know that she had triggered a memory of the rainy afternoon when he had told her that he was not at the zoo by choice, and she had hugged him and offered to make everything all right. She didn't know what a powerful memory that was for him, that in a way, he had been in love with her ever since.

She also didn't know that he was just at that moment realizing it.

Regardless of the fact that it was an imprudent gesture between non-relatives (and for reasons he couldn't quite put his finger on, he was fairly sure he would never be able to think of Saya as his sister), he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. She cried against him for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry," she repeated, "I really don't think of you as inferior, that's why I want you to address me the same way I address you."

She felt his lip tighten slightly against her temple.

"Haji, do you think that maybe someday, I can be a 'tu' to you?"

"You really have no intention of dropping this do you?" he said, his voice as close to a groan as possible, considering it was Haji speaking.

"Nope," she said frankly.

"Very well then. I promise, that someday, though I will not say when, but sometime before we die, I will call you 'tu.'"

She didn't know that it was then that he resolved to marry her someday, and that address would be saved for a time after that event.

She rose to her toes and kissed him on the cheek, the pride from this small yet considerable victory over taking the shame she had felt only a minute earlier.

…

Saya reflected on that afternoon, long ago.

…

Even when I said such a terrible thing, he still instantly understood that I didn't mean it.

He always understands.

Even when I was a snobby brat, even when I was frosty and distant, even when I made him promise to kill me, even when I cut off his arm…

He always had faith in me.

He has always seen the good in me, more than I saw in myself, and brought the best out of me because of it.

I guess that's why I've always had faith in him, that he'll always be there.

In 1963, near Tokyo, he disappeared after a particularly nasty battle.

I thought he might be dead, but I had no choice but to keep fighting.

I didn't like the person I became for those few weeks.

I was way beyond grouchy. I was downright mean, I lashed out at people for no reason other than to take my mind off my own pain for a moment.

Eventually, he healed just enough to crawl out of the wreckage and when he finally found me, I felt as if I hadn't tasted oxygen in weeks, since the last time I saw him.

I could deal with him being gone for a million years, as long as I knew we would come back.

The only reason that I didn't loose my mind after the incident at the MET was because I knew he'd come back, but somehow, it wasn't because I knew he would heal like he did before. It was because I knew he wouldn't leave me forever, he wouldn't do that to me.

He knows that I need him.

I need him.

She stared blankly for over a minute as she ruminated on these things, but when tears began to well in her eyes, he moved to hug her as he always did when she cried.

But with quickness just shy of inhuman, she threw her arms around him and captured his lips with hers.

Startled but no doubt pleased by the almost aggressive display of affection, Haji returned the kiss with considerable zeal, using his chiropteran hand to pull her so close that she was virtually sitting in his lap, his human hand cradling the back of her neck.

If either of them were capable of logical thought at that moment, they would have been extremely thankful for the enormous banyan tree that stood between them and the kitchen windows.

Kai gave the frying pan a calculated jerk to flip the vegetables.

Mao was washing some dishes.

The family cat, Tabi (named in a bilingual pun deriving from her sock-like white feet and the gray stripes covering the rest of her body) suddenly scurried away. She always did that when Saya or Yuki entered ther room.

"I finished my homework, let me take over with the dishes, it's my turn," said Yuki.

Mao stepped aside. "Cool, it's just about time for me to pick George up from practice."

"Hmm. There's no music coming from outside, they must be sucking face," Mao whispered to Yuki, not knowing that her joking assertion was actually correct.

Kai grimaced, wishing he hadn't overheard it.

A high pitched, but pleasant tone rang throughout the house.

"I'll get it," said Mao, noticing that everyone else was busy.

Yuki turned off the tap so as to better hear who was at the door.

Her eyes widened as she caught the words "is Yuki here?" in a somewhat familiar voice.

Mao apparently found the appearance of their guest interesting enough to delay her departure, and reentered the kitchen followed by Freddie Gardener.

He gave a slight yet polite bow. "Kohai, you left your yugake at practice," the young man said as he produced Yuki's archery glove.

"Oh! I was wondering where that was. Thank you!"

Mao raised an eyebrow. "You came all the way here to bring her glove? It's not like she needs it when she's not at practice."

Freddie scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "I just – um…" he sputtered as he blushed slightly.

As naïve as she was, Yuki seemed to catch Mao's implication that he might have an ulterior motive in coming to see her.

Yuki blushed too.

Despite the certain degree of privacy given by the lattice-like entanglement of tree trunks, things between Saya and Haji quickly progressed to a point that was inappropriate for outdoor displays of affection.

She pried her lips away from his. "We should-" was all she managed to get out before he recaptured her lips. She pulled away again. "- sto - " Haji seemed to devour the missing phoneme as he delivered one last, untimely, almost excessively deep kiss.

He finally released her lips. "You are right." He sat for a moment, catching his breath, before he looked away bashfully and scrambled to put his cello in position between his legs.

Saya gave a devilish smile. "I thought you weren't going to hide anything from me anymore," she giggled as she picked up her bow and slowly dragged a block of rosin across the hairs.

Haji suddenly seized her by the waist and put his lips less than an inch from her ear. "When I finally make you my wife, I fully intend to make up for lost time," he whispered.

Saya shivered, only partially due to his breath on her ear.

As if to drive his point home, he pinched her earlobe between his lips, running his tongue along its edge, causing Saya to shudder violently. She immediately lost her grip on the rosin, and the small brick flew down, bouncing off the strings of her cello, making a surprisingly loud noise resonate throughout the yard.

The sudden dissident chord seemed to startle the cicadas, causing the droning to stop, and an strange silence to blanket the yard.

Haji leaned in for yet another kiss, and Saya leaned to meet him, but before their lips could touch, both their ears caught an odd rustling from over the neighbor's fence.

"It was probably just a bird," Saya said with a shrug.

But then they both caught a much stranger noise, a just barely audible burst of static, obviously from some sort of communication device, and then a much more alarming sound – the familiar sound of a blades being unsheathed.

They were surrounded.

"HAJI! SWORD!"

Did anybody catch the breif blood the last vampire crossover? What can I say, I refuse to accept that they are in different universes, so I have to make up ways to excuse the cannocal differences (such as the lack of Haji and Saya acting like a total bitch), lol.

Oh, and my French is rusty at best, so yeah...