A Dragon's Heart – Chapter 8
The sea dragon finished stuffing her things back into her bag and tried to stand when Natsume caught sight of a tiny wince. She tried to hide it from them, but since he pretty much hadn't taken his eyes off her to do more than blink, he saw it easily. Actually, if he thought hard enough on it, it was almost as if he felt her wince. Without bothering to explain himself, he quickly closed the distance between them and dropped to his knees in front of her.
"Natsume! What are you doing?" his sister squawked indignantly as he reached out and took hold of the strange woman's left leg.
As soon as their skin and energies made contact, that same sharp spike of lust hit him. At least this time he was slightly prepared for it, so he didn't react in any embarrassing way in front of the others. The best part was when he heard the sea dragon's ragged intake of breath. He looked up just in time to see those incredible eyes of hers cloud in a mixture of confusion, disorientation, and a hint of responding lust. Oh, it was so tempting not to take advantage of the moment and run his hands up and down the length of her leg just see what she would do.
"Sit." He ordered, and the dazed woman fell back onto her butt without question.
"What did you just do?" she whispered harshly to him while tightening the blanket around her. Oh yes, his touch definitely had an effect on her. He could feel tremors in her energy that seemed to radiate out from where his hands were. At that moment his face was fighting him to break out into a smug grin, but he managed to control it down to a quirk of his brow and a twitch of his lips. Once he had his expression under control, he spoke up.
"You were badly injured yesterday. We almost had to give you stitches." He explained while tearing his eyes away from hers "And you still have not told us your name." He reminded her, while moving to examine her legs. Damn, they were fantastic long legs and he could picture himself doing all kinds of wicked things to them. Most of the bruises were gone, leaving only a slight discoloration where the worst ones were. The gashes caused by the hunter's claws were now long shallow cuts. They still looked painful, but Imai should be able to heal them easily now.
The sea dragon tried to get her breathing under control, "I'm… um… M-M-Mikan Sakura." She stuttered then cleared her throat. "The Sea is ours to call. It will heal us when we need it." She explained.
"Can you walk?" he asked, secretly hoping he would be forced to carry her. The feeling of touching her combined with the knowledge that she was affected by his touch was torturous pleasure. To hell with it, he would carry her. Just as she began nodding that yes, she could walk on her own, he scooped her up and took off towards his area of the estate at top dragon speed. The sea dragon let out a startled yelp and tried to wriggle free of his strong grip.
"Stop squirming or I'll drop you." He growled. He was too focused on the footing ahead of him to see the dirty look his passenger gave him, but he knew it was there. He could feel it in her. As the scenery blurred past them he picked up a few other impressions from her. He could tell that her leg was hurting her more than she let on, but there were other things. There was fear of being dropped while moving at the speed they were, caution mixed with nervousness about going with total strangers, even if they were dragons. There was also a hefty dose of irritation and lust directed at him. He rather liked knowing that she was attracted to him, and he would deal with the irritation later. Besides, it wasn't like she was the only one irritated. Thanks to her, he had managed to make himself look like a total idiot and loose his cool more than once.
As they got closer to the estate he wondered how he could be so in tune with a virtual stranger. Their connection was not as clear as the one he had with Aoi and Luka but he definitely couldn't question that it was there. Her feelings somehow rippled across his awareness and gave him insight into her that he should not have.
"Okay, you can put me down now." She hissed at him as they approached the first houses on the estate. Instead of letting her go, he pulled her closer to his chest in an effort to conceal her face.
"It's probably better if no one sees you." he warned her quietly.
"What? Why?" she asked, suddenly holding still and again Natsume could feel the changes in her emotions. He could sense her becoming more cautious and alert about her surroundings. Her fear and nervousness hitched up a few notches.
"Most of our clan is very traditional and don't think highly of outsiders." He told her quietly. It was true that although dragons hid themselves among society, they were at the absolute top of the mystical creature food chain. There was nothing on the planet that was superior to them. That power bred millennia's worth of arrogance towards lesser creatures. Most pure blood dragons were bigoted snobs that didn't respect anything less than other pure blood dragons with higher standing than themselves.
"Ah." She replied and chose to stay relatively quiet after that although Natsume did catch sight of her hands moving out of the corner of his eye.
In almost no time they arrived at Dr. Imai's clinic where the doctor and his mate waiting for him. Before he had a chance to do more than carry her back to the treatment room, the others arrived. All of a sudden the treatment and waiting room were packed with people and Natsume had fight hard to resist the urge to do something violent. He didn't like crowds and he didn't like anyone coming close to the sea dragon.
"Well, you are certainly looking better." Sakurano said, then he bowed politely, "Hello, I'm Sakurano Shuichi and this is Dr. Imai Subaru. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Mikan. Mikan Sakura. Um, why am I here? I thought you were going to bring me to a phone?"
"This is our doctor. I wanted him to look at your injuries." Natsume growled, causing her to give him a strange look. He realized after a moment that he was scaring her again. Damn it! Why couldn't he get his mouth to work properly when he was around her? With effort he managed to force his face into a bland expression as he grudgingly placed her on the treatment bed. Mikan looked at the swarm of faces around her and gave them a wobbly smile before awkwardly showing Imai her injured leg.
Natsume could sense her discomfort and was on the verge of yelling at everyone to get out when Luka shuffled closer to him. "Excuse me?" he called tentatively which caused the red and sea dragon to look at him. "Hello, I'm Natsume's brother Nogi Luka." The blond said introducing himself to Mikan with a small bow, he then turned to Natsume "Natsume, perhaps the rest of us could get a late lunch ready while you and Aoi show our guest to a phone and somewhere she can get cleaned up? If that is okay with our guest, of course." He finished with the subtle question towards the sea dragon.
Mikan was still looking a little dazed at all of the people around her and gave a small nod. In less than a minute, the place was cleared of people and Natsume found himself sighing in relief until he saw Imai take Mikan's leg. Logically, he knew that the doctor was inspecting her injuries, but to his eyes it just looked like a man was groping her leg and it really bothered him to watch. Instead, he tried to pretend that he could not see another man touching her by forcing himself to focus on her face. She however, was busy looking around the room with that stupid dazed look still on her face.
"This place seems familiar. Was I here before?"
"You don't remember?" Dr. Imai asked.
"I remember the boat, and the two dragons in the air, but after that it gets a little fuzzy. What happened?"
Aoi was quick to outline to her what happened "So then Natsume sent the bronze hunter crashing into the water, and it looks like it used its poisoned claws on you while he was sinking into the water." She finished.
If the other woman was going to comment, she didn't get a chance to because the doctor made an irritated grunting sound. "Is there something wrong?" Mikan asked.
Imai gave her leg an irritated look. "Tell me; are all sea dragons resistant to magical powers?"
"Err… not… really… why?" she asked, and Natsume didn't miss her cautious tone or the feelings of wariness from her.
"My healing ability does not appear to work on you."
"Oh! Really? Err… how about now?" she asked.
Dr. Imai gave her an irritated look as if his patient was being incredibly stupid but Natsume watched him use his healing ability on her anyway. Sure enough, the long shallow cuts disappeared along with any remaining bruising leaving a very long smooth leg.
Mikan tried to pull her leg back, but the young doctor held on to it. "What did you do?" he asked, still sounding annoyed.
Natsume felt the sea dragon's alarm and wariness hitch up another notch and he wondered what it was she was hiding. "Umm… sometimes my own magic can clash with others so they do not work right."
"So it is not a sea dragon ability?"
"No. It can't even be called an ability really. You know, in the future, if you want to help heal a sea dragon, all you have to do is keep them in the water. The water will help heal us." She told them sweetly causing Sakurano to give everyone a smug look. After all he had suggested the very same thing.
"So you just wanted us to leave you alone in the state you were in where humans and dragon hunters could find you?" Natsume interrupted, he was well aware that she was deliberately changing the topic and wondered what she was hiding. He would let her keep her secrets for now but he would get them sooner or later.
"No. I appreciate you hiding me. I must have been pretty out of it, and if any hunters showed up after the first one, I would have been an easy catch. What I meant to say is that if I had of been kept out of the water for much longer, I would have gotten a lot worse."
"Worse? How so?" Dr. Imai asked.
"We need to be immersed in water at least once every twenty-four hours or we die."
"What?" Aoi half screamed in the room, which echoed with the thoughts that were ricocheting around in Natsume's head.
I almost killed her. I almost picked her up and dragged her back to the clinic. Why did I take her to the water? How long had she been out? I didn't want to take her to the water. God, if I hadn't taken her to the water. I almost killed her.
His sister gave him another whack on the arm. "Natsume! How could you take her out of the water?" she yelled.
"What? Like I knew she could die?" instead of his sister answering, Mikan started to laugh, causing the siblings to look at her.
All of Natsume's negative thoughts came to a screeching halt. Damn, she was beautiful when she laughed. It was amazing how her face just lit up when she smiled. He used to think that was just a figure of speech, but for her it was true. It made him forget what he was arguing about.
Imai cleared his throat, breaking the scene. "I was hoping to ask you a few other questions about sea dragons if you have the time. I don't like treating patients when I cannot tell if their symptoms are perfectly normal for their species."
She gave the young doctor a startled look. "Oh! Well I will try my best to answer them, but most sea dragons are quite secretive, so there may be things I wouldn't be allowed to discuss."
"I see. The first thing I want to ask is about your body temperature at night. Is it normal for it to drop so drastically?"
"Yes, it is an adaptive thing I think. We can survive even in arctic waters." She explained.
Natsume was listening avidly to learn all he could about his new obsession but Shuichi chose that point to try and push him out of the room. The red snarled low and dangerously at him and was about to teach the blue to know his place when his sister joined in and they ganged up on him.
"She is obviously fine Natsume." His sister quietly reassured.
"Once Subaru is done, she can clean up here and use the phone." Shuichi chimed in calmly.
"You should use the time to go clean up yourself and get changed. You look terrible. No wonder she is scared of you."
After a bit more reassuring that they wouldn't let their guest go anywhere without telling him first and strong assurances that they would call him instantly if their grandfather or Persona showed up, he reluctantly left for what was the quickest wash and change of his life. He returned before she was even out of the shower.
"You really like her don't you big brother?" Aoi asked him while he paced like a caged animal around the waiting room. Natsume shot her a surprised look, but chose not to answer. He didn't even care that his silence was probably taken as an assent.
The truth was even Natsume didn't understand what he felt for her. He honestly didn't even know her. How could a person truthfully say they liked someone when they didn't even know them? Oh but he desired her though. He wanted her with every cell in his body. Just being near her plunged him into a madness that made him forget his carefully cultivated control. Even now his mind couldn't help reminding him that she was down the hall, naked, under the shower head… no… wait… the water has stopped… that would mean she was probably toweling her wet, naked body off. His mind helpfully pointed out to him making him pace faster. He silently yelled at himself for the next twenty minutes or so until she reappeared and shot his regained self control to hell.
She was wearing a short sundress, with sandals and her hair was hanging loosely except for the bits around her face that were pulled back into a clip. Ugh, this would have been easier on him if she was a bit uglier. If she were ugly, he might have been able to not think about sliding his hands up under her sundress or just ripping it clean off her. He watched her with his heart thudding heavily in his chest while Shuichi directed her towards the phone and she called someone who was apparently in California. From where Natsume was standing he heard the tinny sound of the recorded message on the answering machine and he noticed that the sea dragon, Mikan, looked a little bit relieved that she was talking to a machine instead of a person.
"Hi, it's Mikan," she began to speak in English, "I just wanted to let you know I'm alright. Unfortunately, I wrecked another cell phone so I…" Mikan was cut off from what she was going to say by a female voice screaming through the other end.
"Mikan! Just where the hell are you! Tsubasa is pissed!" the voice screamed loud enough for Mikan wince and have to pull the receiver away from her ear. With her arm fully extended away from her head it was perfectly audible for everyone else in the room.
"Permy? What are you doing there? You're supposed to be in Scotland with Gran and Gramps!" Mikan exclaimed, with obvious surprise. In fact, she looked like she was going to be sick.
"Permy indeed! When I get my hands on you I'll perm your idiot scaly hide! Now where the hell are you?" The strange woman's voice yelled causing Mikan to show a bit of temper.
"I'm in Japan." She bit out harshly.
"In Japan? What do you think…" Whatever the Permy woman on the other end had to say about that was lost to Natsume and the others because she had toned down her screaming enough that they could not hear the other side of the conversation. Natsume found the bit of conversation he did hear rather interesting though. It appeared that wherever Mikan was supposed to be, Japan wasn't it.
"I can take care of myself! Now I just called to leave Tsubasa a message of where I am and I will try and get a replacement cell phone as soon as possible." She said abruptly, and then hung up. She gave the others an awkward grin. "My cousin Sumire." She explained cautiously. "I know she means well, but she has a bad habit of treating me like a baby. Sorry you had to hear that."
Aoi smiled at her "That's all right, now why don't we go have some lunch?" Aoi said gesturing towards the door. Mikan was barely able to nod in agreement before Aoi had her herded out the door leaving Natsume standing there looking stupid again.
AN: Wow I didn't think I was going to be able to get this out this soon.
So, a few points: It was pointed out to me that I was not very clear on stating Mikan's color. I guess when I said that she looked like gold and jewels; it made it sound like she was mostly gold. Sorry no. She is primarily bright blue-green with ribbons of gold mixed in. I hope that clears that up.
Anyway some of you may be a bit puzzled by the relationships. Rest assured there is a method to my madness. It may seem like random chaos, but it should all make sense in the end. Now for those of you who were paying real close attention, you didn't read a typo. Luka is indeed Natsume's brother. So how can he have a relationship with Aoi? I think there should be more than enough clues. And no, it is not incest or adoption.
So for those of you who celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, or whatever else I have forgotten, Happy Holidays everyone!