Ryumiko fidgeted on the kitchen stool, the tension between the two dragon spirits making her unbelievably restless... or irritated to no end. Both the white dragon and red dragon had been throwing well-worded insults at each other since they'd entered Rin's home, and had still been going for nearly half an hour.

"I did say I am sorry for the intrusion, afterall it was my intention to stay hidden. Miss Ryumiko was in danger though and seeing as her guardian was incapacitated at the time, I felt it neccessary to intervene before the honour of the dragon race was sullied," Retsu said flatly, raising a challenging eyebrow at Haku.

"It is true that I may have been incapacitated, however a certain other lesser dragon acquaintance of mine was supposed to tell me why it was so... It seems his abnormally large mouth had other plans tonight," Haku said grimly, not even slightly budging from his emotionless expression.

Ryumiko could've sworn she saw Retsu's eye twitch.

"If you'll be so kind as to let me have a chance to do so, I would be glad to. Unfortunately, my younger sister also wishes to assist me in explaining something quite complex. Something that someone outside of the Dragon Clan would not understand so easily."

Haku growled faintly, "Just because I have spent the last few years under the rule of a witch, does not mean I am completely unable to understand concepts of our heritage."

Retsu sighed, "Well I lied. The dragon leaders were supposed to be the only ones who know about what my sister and I are to tell you."

"And why do you and your sister know?"Ryumiko asked, hoping to alleviate the tension in the atmosphere around them.

Retsu turned to the blue-eyed girl with a dazzling gaze, "Because my sister and I are a different kind of dragon. While most dragons belong to a certain part of the world's landscape, like the Kohaku River here, we are tied to something a little different, though our power still hardly rivals the dragon leaders' power."

"What are you 'tied' to?" Ryumiko asked, her curiosity peaked. She hadn't listened to something so creative in days, and had been deprived of Chihiro's fairytales for years, though fairytales they were not. It felt nice to indulge her creative interest after so long.

Retsu noticed the rapt attention the human girl was gazing at him with, and he cleared his throat awkwardly, not really having been the centre of anyone's attention for reasons other than official business. He was tempted to answer her question, but he wanted to see how long her could keep that curiousity aimed at him.

"I think you should try and guess. It won't be too hard to guess when-" And she most likely will, Retsu noted to himself, "-you see either my sister or myself in combat."

Ryumiko, now disappointed that her curiosity was left hanging and very much unsatisfied, she groaned, "Not fair! If either of you get to fight, Haku'll have me trapped in here while all the fighting is out there!" she wailed, indicating with a waving arm to the world beyond the walls of Rin's home.

Retsu smiled at the childish pout she wore, interested as to how the girl could show so many different expressions in such a short amount of time.

"Wait, why would I be able to guess your power if your sister fights?" she asked.

"Because my sister is almost my complete opposite," Retsu said, a small smile on his features.

Ryumiko shuffled slightly, moving herself into a more comfortable position in which to imagine what Retsu's sister looked like. Haku, already having met Yukaoi, had to agree with Retsu's comment about the siblings being polar opposites. Where Yukaoi had an elegant and modest air about her, Retsu seemed wilder and less concerned with his surroundings. Another important opposite Haku noticed, was that he almost enjoyed Yukaoi's presence, her nature very easy and friendly... Retsu on the other hand, made Haku want to throw him out of Rin's house with as much force as he could muster.

However, seeing as Ryumiko had taken a liking to the red dragon, and vice versa, he wouldn't be able to do such a thing without having a certain blue-eyed human girl pester hima bout it for weeks.

"And when will Yukaoi get here? I'd much rather be speaking to her again than her simple-minded brother," Haku asked impatiently.

Ryumiko gaped at Haku before speaking. "Eh? 'Again'? Since when did you meet Retsu's sister? How come you never told me?"

Retsu turned to the confused human, "It is probably because Yukaoi told him not to disclose the knowledge of their meeting to you."

"Why would she do that?"

"Because we can't have you gallavanting about the Spirit World looking for the Dragon Clan," a soft melodic feminine voice answered.

All three turned their heads to see Yukaoi, dressed in a simple, long-sleeved, floor-length dark dress, and her hair loose down her back and lightly brushing against the floor. Her white painted lips were pulled into a friendly smile as her glistening silver eyes seemed to say hello to each person in the room.

Ryumiko immediately leapt to her feet, eyes wide at the sight of the tall woman. The human girl had a moment to herself as she had completely imagined a princess to look as ethereal and as lovely as Yukaoi did. And then her imagination went wild, now all of the princesses in all the stories she'd read or had been told, replaced by the image of Retsu's sister. Cinderella, Rapunzel, all of them with Yukaoi's face.

Now completely taken over by her own fantasies, Ryumiko bowed low to the dragon lady, a figure of royalty in her mind's eye.

"Pleased to meet you Miss Yukaoi! My name is Ryumiko," she said quickly.

Haku looked a little stunned for a second, before he realised what she must have been thinking. This hyper-active imagination was the main cause of Ryumiko's obsession with fairytales and stories, in particular Chihiro's 'fairytale'.

"Ryumiko, Yukaoi is just another dragon," he said dryly.

Ryumiko glared at the green-haired boy, her vision of a lovely princess shattered before her very eyes. Instead of getting a chance to talk back to Haku, she heard a small giggle coming from Yukaoi's direction.

"Please don't bow so low! If anything, I should be the one bowing to you. I am also honoured to finally make your acquaintance. I hope my brother has not given you too much trouble," she said.

Haku huffed, "Actually, he-"

"-is no trouble at all!" Ryumiko interrupted Haku, crushing his foot with her heel to silence him. Retsu saw this and smirked at Haku, while Yukaoi took no notice of the action.

"Thank goodness! Now I guess you two have waited long enough for a fair explanation," Yukaoi said, finding a spare chair to sit on.

Finding a comfortable looking stool, she picked it up and sat inbetween Haku and Retsu, "Now, where to begin?"

Ahhh! Cliffhangerrrrr! I'm so sorry guys! I want to keep the suspense though!

Author's conscious: No, you're just stalling for more chapters while you think up a way to explain everything that's tangled up in your head!

Author: *sigh* It's true. I'm stalling!

Anyways! For those who inquired, which is most of you, Chihiro unfortunately has some stuff to work out before she comes to the Spirit World! She will get there though don't you worry, but I have more content to write before she can get to the Spirit World... otherwise my whole story falls apart :S

Many thank-yous to:

Mysticbreeze327 (haha! Thank you for reviewing :D)

Animala (Thank you for reviewing!)

Laugh. While. Crying (Thank you for reviewing yet again! And I can't wait for Chihiro and Kohaku to finally see each other again too... but my stoopid brain is making me wait!)

Ink Woven (Haha ooooh yes! As much as it kills me to wait, I am so excited to write those scenes XD)

Hitomi246123 (I'm glad you like my story! Hehe, I've always imagined what it'd be like flying a dragon, and then the idea turned into, 'I wonder what Kohaku would do if he could be controlled as a dragon...' hehehe)

'Kattis' (I'm glad the story works well with the original, I thought it might have been getting a little AU-ish... Thank you for your review!)

I loved getting reviews from you! Why? Because it's pretty damn obvious how much I love them. I have my phone send me Fanfiction related e-mails so I can see if there's a review. If there is a review, I drop what I'm doing just to check... twice I've had my phone confiscated because I got excited about a review and looked at it during class... once my phone battery died while I was in the middle of reading a review and I let out a loud 'WHAT? NO?'... which also got my phone confiscated seeing as I was screaming at my phone... during class.

Anyways! REVIEW ALREADY! I LOVE THEM!

PLEASE?