"I just don't think it's a good idea right now."

Fu crossed his arms and looked up at the stubborn boy in front of him. "Kid, I wasn't asking."

"But Rose is in a delicate place right now. I just don't think that it would be right to leave her, especially since Nicholas and Kyle can't take her today. What if something happened?"

"It's been weeks since that one little episode," Fu reminded him. "Physically, she's healing wonderfully. There's nothing you need to worry about. You can come to Magic Town with me for a little while and it'll be fine."

Jake stared at him, unyielding in his conviction that it was absolutely the wrong idea to go to Magic Town.

Fu sighed. "Look, they want to see you. Aside from a few little rescues, no one has seen you since the funeral. They want to offer their condolences about Gramps –"

"Which I don't want to hear."

"And be reassured that they're protected. Gramps used to do this all the time. People need reassurance that you are here for them and are willing to listen. So come on, let's go. I'm not giving you a choice."

Jake rolled his eyes but gave in. "Just let me go tell Rose where we're going and make sure she's magi-puttied in."

"Five minutes," Fu said sternly. "I'm counting."

Jake opened his bedroom door, where Rose was half asleep on his bed. She was curled, like a cat, fully enjoying the ability to lay on her side after so long of being kept on her back.

"Hi," she breathed, peeking up at him from under her bangs.

"Hi," Jake responded, kneeling down by his bed so that they were eye level.

"What's up?" Rose asked.

"Fu wants me to go out for a bit. I'll be back as soon as he lets me."

"Your dog is holding you captive?" Rose giggled.

"Well, I've got the only one that talks back." He pressed his forehead against hers. "I want to talk to you about something when I get back though. It's kind of … important."

Rose lifted her head up, eyes full of concern. "What is it?"

"It's not worth it now. It'll be fine to wait until I come back."

He could see it in her eyes that she didn't want to wait; she wasn't patient enough for that. Still, he wasn't going to tell her. He could let her stew for a while; build the tension up a bit. She'd probably hit him when he did tell her, but he didn't think that it would be a bad hit. It would probably be more of a 'why on Earth did you keep me up in arms all day over that, jerk?' kind of a hit … At least that's how it played out in his head.

"Jake."

"Rose," he mimicked.

Then he slid his hand up under her chin, tilting her face up so that he could kiss her. He pressed their lips together – how natural it had become again over these past few weeks – and she clawed at the front of his shirt, bringing him over her, flipping onto her back. All Jake wanted to do was hook himself over her and not let go.

But he had to. Fu was waiting. The last thing he wanted was for the now semi-mobile dog to totter down the hallway and burst in on them.

"I gotta go."

She melted away from him, back into the mattress.

"Hurry back," she urged him, slowly releasing the front of his shirt.

"Well, now that you've tempted me to," Jake joked, kissing her cheek.

"And if you don't come back soon and talk to me, I'm going to go insane and kick your butt when you get back."

Jake cracked a smile. "No going crazy, promise?"

Rose hooked her pinkie finger around his. "I can make that promise."

"I've missed this side of you," Jake admitted as he squeezed her hand.

"Me too," Rose revealed.

She was about to pull him back down to her when Fu shouted, "JAKE! I'm not getting any younger over here."

Jake bounced to his feet and rolled his eyes. "The weird thing is," he told Rose, "is that Fu's going to outlive the both of us."

Rose tried to smile but after he bounced out the door, her smile faltered. She thought of that long ago conversation with Fu, the one where they had discussed a dragon's life span. Jake could be alive for hundreds of years more. She had no idea how much longer she would live, as she had also told Fu. Her body could collapse under the enhancements any day now, or they could keep her going longer than Jake, even.

She pushed it out of her mind. They would cross that bridge later, she supposed.

Then her attention returned to what Jake could possibly have to talk to her about later. Butterflies erupted in her stomach. Surely it had to be something good, right? He wouldn't leave her to agonize over something bad. He just couldn't.

(-.-)

Fu had, practically, abandoned him. The dog had quickly gotten caught up in a rowdy game of poker, and he was now peeking conspiratorially over the top of his cards, eying the pot.

"I'm going for a quick walk," Jake told him. "And then I'm going home."

"Socialize a bit," Fu reminded him. "That was the point of coming here."

Jake sighed and left the room where the poker game was being held. Though it was slightly dark, and definitely smoky, it was bright and clear outside of the room. He stepped out onto the bustling streets, nodding and smiling at those who smiled at him. As he wandered, he heard several calls of "Sorry to hear about Lao Shi" and several people came up and touched his arm before blending away, as though they were scared to speak to him. He'd seen this phenomenon before, but they were always touching Gramps and looking over him.

He found himself in a dark alley with a little apartment at the end. He stepped in without knocking, as anyone else would. The Oracle Twins would have known he was coming.

"Jake Long," they trilled without turning around.

"How much did you know of what was going to happen to him?"

"All of it," they admitted and, if you could have read emotion on their faces, Jake would have seen shame.

"It was for the best," one twin comforted.

"What was the alternative?" Jake demanded.

They exchanged glances.

"Come on!" He scoffed. "How could it hurt to tell me now?"

"If your grandfather would have lived, you would have killed Rose. You would have turned back to drugs. You would have ended up murdering your dealer after you ran out of money and stealing the drugs. You would have overdosed and Haley would have been the one to find you bloody and dead."

He closed his eyes against the twins' words.

"It would have caused more harm than good to let your grandfather live. The loss of life in comparison, without you to lead and with the Huntsclan falling to disorganized bits after her death … We're sorry."

Jake drew in a breath and nodded. "I understand, I guess. I think. I need some time to think. Bye, guys."

"Goodbye," They cried. "We'll be dropping in to see you tomorrow afternoon."

"Thanks for the heads up," Jake muttered to himself as he left their new home, returning to the street, bumping into someone as he went.

"Oh, terribly sorry," the young woman apologized, looking up at him. "Oh! You're the American Dragon."

"Jake," he corrected. "Please."

"I'm Danika Hunnicutt," she introduced herself. "I was at your grandfather's funeral. I was so sorry to hear of his passing."

"Thank you," Jake responded, feeling awkward as he always did when people said things like that.

"And what the Huntsgirl did," Danika gasped. "I couldn't believe it."

"Right," Jake said awkwardly. "Look, Danika, I don't want to be rude but I was actually leaving."

"Let's walk together then," she suggested brightly. "I have to go into the city."

Grudgingly, Jake followed her out of Magic Town. At least this would count toward Fu's 'socializing' command and the old dog couldn't pick on him for not talking to anyone.

"So, the Huntsmistress or Huntsgirl, whatever," Danika began. "Were you really dating her?"

"Yes."

"Wow. What did you do after, you know, all of that? Did you break up with her or did you just cut her out of your life kind of thing? I had to cut a boyfriend out once. He decided to get controlling." She flipped her hair.

"We actually haven't broken up yet," Jake admitted, wondering why in the hell Danika cared about Rose. "She's living with me right now."

"That's got to be awkward," Danika declared. "Didn't she, like, murder your grandfather?"

"No," Jake replied shortly. "Rose had nothing to do with his killing."

"That's not what I heard," Danika sniffed. "Though I guess you would know best."

Jake didn't reply.

"I might be getting annoying," Danika said after a moment of silence, "but I really do have a question that's digging at me and I really need to know."

"I'm a civil servant," Jake joked dryly.

"I never got a good look at the Huntsmistress … er, Rose. And, I've heard that she's really beautiful. Is she?"

"Yeah," Jake breathed, seeing Rose in his mind's eye. "She's more than something."

"Is that it, then?"

"That it what?" Jake questioned.

"Why you're still with her after all she did? Honestly, my crew and I have been wondering why the American Dragon would start something with the Huntsgirl to begin with. We're all confused by it and when I saw you, I thought I might take the chance and ask. You're good looking, you could have whatever girl you wanted, I'd think. Why her? She's your enemy."

"Rose isn't a threat," Jake said quickly.

"She was."

"She isn't anymore. We're rehabilitating her and it's going wonderfully. She's not who she was and it's not going to happen again. The magical community can rest assured at that."

"Jake," Danika began but her interrupted her.

"This is me," he paused in front of the shop.

"There's one last thing," Danika swore.

"What?"

And then she was kissing him.

(-.-)

Rose slipped from the bed, drawing in a deep breath as she did so. Surely Jake would be home soon. She felt as though she'd been left hanging for hours. Well, it had been two hours but, you know, she wasn't counting or anything.

She crossed over to the window, sliding it open and letting the breath of spring air into the room. It sang past the magi-putty bars that had to be placed on the window (but only after she'd begged Jake and Fu for the ability to open the thing in the first place). She leaned forward as far as the bars would let her go and surveyed the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of him and confirm that, yes, he was back.

She thought she would be waiting there a long time but Jake was already walking down the sidewalk. A grin briefly lit her face as she recognized his trademark black and green hair but that feeling quickly faded as she saw that he wasn't alone, that he was with someone. And that someone was a very pretty girl; gorgeous, in Rose's opinion. This other girl had thick black hair, cut stylishly around her shoulders to show off her pretty cheekbones. She was short and feminine; curvy and sweet.

She was everything that Rose wasn't. Rose was tall and had far too much muscle to have the soft, feminine that this lovely creature had. She had a bright smile, showcased by red-lipstick lips. Rose couldn't even remember the last time she was near a tube of lipstick.

As they paused near the shop, Rose saw their lips connect in a kiss and the news smacked her in the gut. Jake didn't have good news to tell her; he didn't have any plans of telling her what she so wanted to hear: I really want to make us work again. I miss us. I want to try and go back to the way we were when we were really in love. I know we've been kind of footing around it but neither of us have said it so I am. I'm still in love with you Rose, and I want to stay that way forever, just like we thought we would be.

No, instead she was going to get this speech: I'm so sorry, Rose. We tried, neither of us can say that we didn't but it's not working. It's too hard for me to do this. You'll stay here until Nicholas and Kyle find something to do with you but we can't … We can't be an 'us' anymore, even the tiny semblance of it that we were holding onto. Look, this is probably the last thing you want to hear after that but I think that, after everything, we both deserve complete honesty from each other. There's someone else. She's magic and she's … Let's not get into it. I'm sorry but it has to be this way.

Rose shut the window as inconspicuously as she possibly could, not able to watch the new couple hold one another. Choking back the sobs that threatened to come over her, Rose returned to the bed. She lay on her side and faced the wall, closing her eyes and pretending to sleep. She couldn't open her eyes and deal with that. She just couldn't.

She forced the feelings away. She lay there and meditated on trying to harden her heart so that it wouldn't hurt when she got the news.

She heard him enter the shop, far below her. She heard the heavy tread of his footsteps as he came up into the apartment part of the building. She listened as he made his way to his bedroom door, taking away the magi-putty so that she once again had her freedom, should she choose to use it. He stepped inside and said her name.

"Rose?"

(-.-)

Danika was tiny as she jumped at him, pressing on his shoulders to bring him down to her level. Thought was blinded from him as she kissed him. She didn't feel like Rose – his tall, graceful Rose, who didn't have waxy lips and demanding teeth. She was too short to be the one he loved; the one he was meant for.

He straightened up, pushing her away.

"Danika, I'm –"

"It's not real, whatever you think you have with her. All of my girlfriends agree. We think it's crap that you're wasting your time with her – your enemy and a human at that – when you could have someone like well, me. I'm magic, Jake, we're the same in ways that you and she never will be. I understand you, as the American Dragon –"

"Stop, stop," Jake held up a hand, silencing her. Rage was thundering in his veins. "I don't know what in the hell you're thinking but I'm telling you that it has to stop right now, got it? You have no idea what I'm like and you don't understand me. We met this afternoon. If this has something to do with me being the American Dragon, get that fantasy out of your head. I'm not a celebrity; I'm not someone for you to gush over. Rose is my girlfriend and I love her. You're wasting your time here. She's not a threat; she's not an enemy. And she's so much more than what you see her as. Now, why don't you run along and pass that on to your girlfriends, huh?"

He turned on his heel, storming in the door of the shop. He stepped into the familiar room and took a deep breath. He couldn't let her piss him off, it just wasn't worth it. He steadied himself and then walked up the stairs. It just wasn't worth thinking about, and he had more important things on his mind.

Like his talk with Rose.

He felt a flutter of nervousness within him. He was going to ask her to be his girlfriend again. It might be a dork move, cheesy and idiotic, but he was going to do it. Though there were couple-like features to their relationship again, it wasn't like it once was and he wanted to make it better than it had been. He wanted he and Rose to become a solid them, we, us.

He hoped that's what she wanted to.

He couldn't imagine her not wanting it.

He burst into his bedroom, quickly doing away with the magi-putty.

"Rose?" He called, seeing her curled on his bed, her back to him.

She didn't stir and he took another step toward the bed. He leaned over and saw that her eyes were closed and that her breathing was deep and even.

Nice timing for a nap, he grumbled but then shrugged. If he had his way, there was no limit on the time they had ahead of them. He lay down on the bed and tugged her toward him. She felt a little stiff as he brought her into his arms but he snuggled his face against her shoulder blade and hugged her anyway.