I'll apologize right now for the un-betaed quality of this chapter. It is probably loaded with typos for which I am very sorry. I've been having terrible migraines lately and reading too much gets to be a literal pain.

A Dragon's Heart – Chapter 18

Tsubasa didn't know what to think now. Things were not going as he expected. His niece Mikan, whom he loved like a sister, was not usually this willful. That is not to say she did not have her stubborn moments, she had thousands of them. Mikan was certainly not the type to blindly follow others, but most times after a few complaints and a temper tantrum or two, she would usually do what she was told to do. What was I thinking? That she would just meekly return home? I should have seen something like this coming. He chastised himself. They all should have seen this coming. She had been a little too cooperative lately.

Ever since she was small Mikan had wanted to go to Japan to see her mother's ancestral home. At times it was all she would ever talk about. The family had tried to humor her at first because they had thought she would grow out of it. As she grew, and her ability to swim across oceans safely grew, they quickly realized that her interest had not waned and they had to intervene and forbid her to go anywhere near Japan.

Japan was no place for a girl like Mikan.

They had already heard the tales of dragons, both sea and air, mysteriously disappearing. Misaki herself was an indirect progeny of what had been happening here. Her father was a doppelganger who had by chance happened across a dying sea dragon who had narrowly escaped from Japan. The sea dragon had told him a tale about trying to escape the air dragons that were taking over everything the country, only to run into a massive group of dragon hunters that had been waiting for them as if they had been told exactly where to find them. Already dying, the sea dragon allowed the doppelganger to take his form, his magic, and the rest of his life in exchange for a proper prayer to the gods of air and sea upon his death so they would guide his soul to the forever plains.

Misaki had once told him that her father had never intended to spend the rest of his life as a sea dragon, but once he accepted the form, the strong dragon magic completely overrode his doppelganger nature. Now the only trace there was of his former self was in his daughter's weak ability to copy. The problem was it was so weak the only thing she could copy was herself.

Tsubasa often wondered if her unconventional family tree was the reason she seemed to walk around with a chip on her shoulder. She should know by now that pedigree was not important to him.

The sea dragon shook his head. He was supposed to be thinking about Mikan, but somehow his thoughts strayed to Misaki. Somehow, she always had that effect on him. When will she say yes? He wondered for about the thousandth time about his courtship to her. Stop thinking about her! He reminded himself, Mikan, Mikan, Mikan!

Yes Mikan. What to do about Mikan?

Mikan, who should be nowhere near, yet was currently sitting on a beach in Japan.

With an air dragon next to her.

Gods, but did she have the most amazing tendency to get herself in the worst positions. She could very well be sitting next to the reason she was an orphan. As soon as he thought it, he rejected it. No. Mikan wasn't that stupid or reckless.

Tsubasa could barely remember his brother Izumi. He was three the last time he saw his brother and all he had was hazy images of a smiling face that had taken him to an amusement park. What he could clearly remember was the day his mate Yuka had showed up unexpectedly on their doorstep. She was heavily pregnant and bleeding badly. The fear and dread in his older siblings and his parents was so strong he, even at the age of four could taste it in the air. He remembered being too scared to go to sleep that night because of the tense atmosphere that was strangling them all. Eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep, and by the time he woke up the next morning, he had a brand new, orphaned, niece.

They had never truly found out what happened to Izumi. Yuka had never been able to tell them because she was already in labor when she had appeared. They were all certain he was dead though. No one could contact him telepathically, and no male in their family would ever leave his pregnant mate unprotected, much less allow her to risk both her and her child by swimming across a turbulent ocean. Izumi would have protected her to his last breath.

There are not many things in this world that could kill a healthy dragon. He thought to himself, while discretely looking at Mikan's companion. He was certainly a complication that Tsubasa had not anticipated.

He had seen the way the little torch bug was looking at Mikan. Hell, the whole beach had probably seen it. The guy had tried to hide it of course, but it became blatantly obvious when Sumire had shown up.

If he had just been interested in a quick tumble on the exotic side with a sea dragon, he would have taken Sumire up on her offer and Tsubasa would have been okay with that. Sumire was a big girl and knew what she was doing and how to handle herself. After a few days they most likely would have lost interest in each other, and would have moved on with their lives.

But he clearly did not want Sumire. If his bland look wasn't enough proof of that, the change in his face as his gaze moved from Sumire to Mikan was. His eyes heated up and the grim harsh lines of his face softened when they moved to the younger woman. Tsubasa had felt a cold certainty settle in his gut when he saw that face. It was one he was quite familiar with. He had a similar one that showed up when he was talking to particular sea dragon, doppelganger half-breed. Not only was it obvious that Natsume was interested in Mikan, it was also apparent the interest was mutual. If Tsubasa's gut was right –and he was fairly sure it was- they would not be able to take Mikan without some kind of fight.

His eyes wandered involuntarily to Misaki. If he was in a similar situation, he doubted he would let Misaki leave quietly.

Damn.

Well might as well be polite.

Everyone had begun settling themselves among the laid out blankets and were getting ready to eat lunch. He could tell just by looking at them they were a dragon clique. There was always something about dragons even in human form that was just different from normal humans. They just did not feel human.

Taking a deep breath, he stretched out his hand to the young man next to his niece. He could tell by the way the others subtly deferred to Mikan's companion that he was the alpha male among them. Although Sumire's interest in him would have been enough proof of that. She had a strong animal instinct that allowed her to unerringly pick out the dominant male in a room of thousands.

"I'm sorry, we did not get a chance to properly introduce ourselves. This is Sumire Shouda, and this is Misaki Harada," he said with a subtle possessive glare at the men present when he mentioned Misaki, "and I am Tsubasa Yukihira." As soon as he mentioned his name he saw Mikan wince and he knew he had made a mistake.

Her companion, Natsume, he remembered, along with all of the others froze. Natsume gave Tsubasa a surprised look, and then gave Mikan a dark one. "Yukihira? You said your name was Sakura."

Tsubasa tensed and he felt everyone else on the beach tense as well. How was he supposed to know she had used an alias?

Mikan coughed awkwardly. "Er… yeah… ahem… well… at the time I didn't know you so I thought it might be better if I didn't mention my real name."

"You're a Yukihira thief?" he accused her. Tsubasa winced again. Apparently their reputation had preceded them.

Mikan bristled at the insult. "No, I'm a nursing student. I just happen to come from a family with a few thieves and a few smugglers in it." She replied testily.

The man gave her a look and did not appear convinced. "Yukihiras are not ordinary thieves and smugglers."

No we are not, Tsubasa agreed with a strange pride. Yukihiras were the best. Tsubasa himself was already doing high security jobs before he even graduated high school. His shadow ability gave him quite the edge. But Mikan was telling the truth, she was not much of a thief. "Mikan is telling the truth." He broke in with a candid open look. "Occasionally she has helped with some of our… erm… shipping shall we say? But she is not a thief."

Natsume did not look away from Mikan "So you are a smuggler." He said brusquely.

Tsubasa could tell Mikan was getting angry. "No, I'm a nursing student! And I would watch where I swing that high and mighty attitude if I were you Mr. Assassin." she said scathingly. Tsubasa saw the guy grimace, but stay silent.

Into the awkward moment a young woman who Tsubasa guessed was Natsume's sister given her coloring, cleared her throat. "Ahem, well… I'm Hyuuga Aoi and this is my brother Natsume." The young woman continued to introduce everyone and Tsubasa was able to pick up more about them than what she was saying. She did not call the blond man beside her, her mate, but their involvement with each other was apparent to anyone with a working set of eyes and a decent sense of smell. The way they looked at each other and the fact that their smell was all over one another gave them away. She continued to introduce a few weaker dragons that Tsubasa nodded to politely, noting which ones were mated and which males were single. There was young one male dragon, that was casting strange dark looks at Sumire, but the male sea dragon chose to put that issue on the back burner. As long as the kid didn't cause any problems he would leave it alone.

He was introduced to a pair of siblings with stony expressions and their respective mates. He had noticed the Imai pair earlier when they had sat down. He had noticed them because they had been busy snatching food from everyone else's lunch. Actually, they were not half bad. With a little training, they would make pretty good thieves with their natural talent for stealing. At least that is what he thought until the others sat down and noticed that most of their lunch was gone. No one was fooled as to who had stolen their food. They all knew and were shooting them dirty looks which the siblings ignored stoically.

The girl, Hotaru spoke up when she was introduced. "What type of animatronics are you using on that bear?" she asked.

Anima-what-ics? Tsubasa was a little taken aback by the question until Mikan spoke up. "Hotaru is quite the inventor. She made this awesome phone that you are not going to believe." She said proudly, like she had something to do with the other woman's inventing prowess. Then she turned to Imai, "Mr. Bear is not a machine, he is actually a stuffed animal that is possessed by an ifrit."

The air dragons all gave her varying strange and somewhat alarmed expressions which caused the sea dragons to chuckle. Ifrits were fire type members of the djinn or genie race. Although they were technically not evil, they were not particularly friendly either. They hated humans, hated being captured, and they hated granting wishes or being in servitude. They were the original creators of 'the loophole' and were the source of the curse 'be careful of what you wish for.' Their alarm was understandable.

Tsubasa took up the explanation. "He was a gift from Mikan's first love." He told them, and had the pleasure of watching Natsume's head whip around to glare hatefully at the bear that was still being chased around by the children. His pleasure was short lived when he noticed that Mikan was glaring rather viciously at him.

"He was not my first love! At best you could call him my first crush."

Next to him Sumire scoffed. "Please, who are you trying to kid? Kaname Sono is gorgeous. Every girl wants a guy like him, including me."

Tsubasa gave his older niece a strange look. Yeah it was true that both she and Mikan did moon after Kaname when they were pre and early teens but it was a bit unlike her to mention something like that. Was she trying to needle Natsume for turning her down? Or was she trying to test his interest in Mikan? Judging by the now murderous look the alpha male was giving the stuffed animal, he figured a bit of both.

Tsubasa broke into the conversation again. "Mr. Bear is sort of Mikan's guardian and friend. I wasn't exaggerating before when I said she draws trouble like a magnet. My friend Kaname is a quite a gifted mage." That caused Natsume's glare to move from the bear to him. "When we were kids, Kaname captured an ifrit and trapped its soul in that bear. Mr. Bear is Mikan's guardian and protector for the rest of her life plus one day. He is to protect her with his life if need be, and is forbidden to do anything that would either directly or indirectly lead to her death. If he breaks his end of the contract, he would be banished from this plain of existence."

"Personally, I think he kind of likes Mikan." Misaki speculated with a winsome smile. "He was really upset with her for leaving him alone."

Tsubasa watched Mikan squirm uncomfortably. He knew his niece and the bear had developed an odd sort of friendship. Natsume had gone back to glaring at the bear. He wondered what the dragon would say if he knew his jealousy was showing.

"I have a question." Misaki said, changing the subject. "What is with the water around here? It acted kind of strange."

Well that caused a rather strange reaction from both Mikan and Natsume. The pair's eyes both dropped to the ground and they refused to look at anyone. Both were blushing and fidgeting and the awkwardness between them was tangible. Interesting. I wonder what happened to them.

Tsubasa had noticed the odd feel to the water too. It was strange how ecstatic it was when he showed up but he had been too busy to pay much attention to it. There was one thing he had noticed in his rush. He noticed the water seemed to hold a sense of anticipation. Like it was waiting for or expecting something to happen.

I wonder if that has anything to do with what I just saw between them now.

He would have to spend some time in the water later anyway so he would find out sooner or later.

I wonder if Misaki would like to go for a moonlit swim.


The afternoon progressed rather nicely. Mikan gave up her lunch to her family and Natsume quietly and without comment shared his with her. After lunch, some of the children gave up chasing Mr. Bear and begged the sea dragons to come swim again. All was happy and playful with one rather glaring exception.

Kokoro Yome was in a foul mood.

He was not usually an irritable person, and he really had no right or reason to be, but ever since that woman walked out of the water he has been ill-tempered.

Sumire Shouda.

The name didn't ring any bells. Not surprising, since the one time they had met they didn't bother to exchange names.

He had still been such a kid when he met her. He had only just turned sixteen three days before and the king chose celebrate it by sending him along on a mission in Monte Carlo with Persona of all people. The mission had been a rather cruel initiation for him into the clan business. It didn't matter that he did not want to be a part of the business to begin with.

The mind reader's teeth and fists clenched tightly as memories that he had thought long suppressed rose to the surface.

Natsume had tried so hard to hide his mind reading ability and to protect him from the king but he was only a year older than Koko. They were just fooling themselves thinking they would have ever gotten away with it. Eventually the king found out and as punishment, he sent Natsume on a mission that he was far too young and too inexperienced for. Subaru had been away at medical school at the time so it took over a week for Natsume to fully recover from his injuries. In the interim, the king took advantage of Natsume's weak state and Koko's guilt by pushing him into being a translator and intelligence gatherer on the Monte Carlo mission.

Koko had never figured on what it would be like to read someone's mind as they were died from Persona's rot ability. Even now, sitting on a beach, mid-afternoon in early summer, he grew cold at the memory.

So at the grand old age of sixteen, he snuck into a party for some rich loser playboy and his three hundred closest friends and proceeded to get stinking drunk. The liquid painkiller was not enough to hold back all of the fresh gruesome memories for long, so he snagged himself a random bottle and began to stagger off to his hotel room where he could drink himself into oblivion.

That was when he ran into her. He could tell she was something more than human the moment he saw her.

Koko doubted anyone but he had seen her sneaking over the garden wall and into the same party; she was so quick and stealthy. She was obviously up to something and he might have even tried to read her mind to figure out what she was up to, but at the time his mind reading skills were a little unreliable. In retrospect, now that he knew she was from a family of thieves and smugglers, chances are she was probably on a job herself and was using the party as either her alibi or her escape route.

His memory was a little fuzzy on what he had initially said to her but given how drunk he was, it was not surprising. All he could clearly remember was that one minute he was boldly striding up to her to say whatever it was he'd said, and the next they were up in his hotel room all over each other.

The alcohol had burned out of his dragon system far too quickly, but her body was able to chase the horrors away for the night. By morning she was gone, and he had never even got her name.

Sumire Shouda. The first woman he had ever had sex with. He really shouldn't be annoyed with seeing her again, but he was.

He was a healthy eighteen year old silver dragon. Since that night there had been several women in his bed so what was he so uptight for? He should be able to just walk up to her and say 'Hey remember me?' and they could laugh it off, but he just couldn't.

Okay, honestly, it did piss him off a bit when she looked right through him without a hint of recognition and went straight for Natsume. He was almost flat on his butt drunk that night and he still remembered her! At the very least she should be able to remember him!

Koko sat in sullen silence as he watched her transform into a rather stunning emerald colored sea dragon in order to play with the children in the water. The sight evoked a rather vivid memory of a dragon stain that exact color running along her spine like a deep green tattoo. He also remembered trailing light kisses down that stain just moments after they had both reached their respective climaxes.

Darn it, he was supposed to be annoyed, but that memory was making him aroused, which actually, annoyed him more.

After a while she emerged to sun herself on the beach and he sat back and waited for her to acknowledge him.

After about twenty minutes not only did she not acknowledge his existence, she tried to send a flirtatious smile at both Natsume and Luka which earned her warning glares from Mikan and Aoi. Stupid annoying woman, what was she playing at? Anyone could see they were unavailable. He finally got fed up with being ignored and looked into her mind only to find that not only did she remember him, but she was intentionally ignoring him!

That did it.

He casually got up and strolled over to her with his habitual smile plastered on his face. If anyone looked closely though, they would be able to see the rather hard strained edge to his smile.

"You are making a fool of yourself." He said bluntly, by way of introduction.

Sumire turned to give him a fake, hard edged smile back. "Excuse me? Who are you that you think you can talk to me like that?"

His smile dropped off of his face altogether and he gave her a hard look. "Cut the crap. You and I both know we are quite well acquainted with each other."

Still being open to her mind, he saw her smile falter a bit and felt the surprise in her mind. 'Dammit I was hoping it wasn't him. Maybe he'll go away if I act like I don't recognize him?' He heard her think. She tossed around the idea to pretending not to know him for a second or two before he interrupted her thoughts.

"Don't even bother pretending you don't know me. Or I'll be forced to do something to jog your memory." He warned her in a harsh tone. Her smile had pretty much fallen completely off her face and from her mind he could see flashes of images from their night together.

He quickly realized with a shudder that she remembered their night far better than he did. One of the images was quite shocking for him because he did not even remember doing anything like that with or to her. But she clearly liked it. I must have somehow used my alice when we were in bed because there is no way I would have known how to do that.

"I see I don't need to jog your memory do I?" he asked and his voice was fighting him to drop to a much huskier tone without his permission. Control, I need to stay in control. The last thing he wanted was for her to know she had an effect on him. Once she realized that, he would lose whatever game it was they were playing. He might not know what game he was playing, the rules of the game, or even how to win, but he was definitely not going to lose to her.

Pink tinted her cheeks and he could clearly hear her talking in her head 'Hmph, what could he know? He was almost flat on his ass drunk that night.'

"I wasn't that drunk." He said, answering her silent thought causing her to gape at him.

'What? Is he some kind of mind reader or something?' she wondered inside her head.

"What? Is he some kind of mind reader or something?" He said in near perfect synch with the question in her head. He smiled maliciously at her and gave her a few seconds to figure it out. He heard her mind stutter and trip over what he was implying until she finally tested him by thinking a handful of rather unflattering thoughts about him.

"Now that is just rude." He chided her. "A real lady would not know words like that."

She in turn, used an even more colorful and vulgar vocabulary to describe him which caused him to raise his eyebrow at her. "Get out of my head!" Finally she made an ugly noise in the back of her throat at him and turned away from him to look out onto the water. "What do you want anyway?" she bit out between clenched teeth.

The angle she was facing and her minimal clothing allowed him perfect view of her dragon stain. With a mental groan, he resisted the strong urge to reach out and stroke it.

"Aren't you the bold one walking about with your dragon stain exposed for the entire world to see?" he said, with a bit more aggression than he intended. The more he looked at the strip of green running down her spine the harder it was to keep his hands to himself.

She gave him a snide look. "You are one to talk. You're just walking around in a pair of shorts and doing nothing to hide yours." She said, and he had the pleasure of watching her eyes drop from his to roam across his chest and shoulders. 'He's certainly grown.' He heard her mumble silently to herself.

He was tempted to offer to show her just how much he had filled out over the past two years, but he figured that she would not appreciate the reminder that he could hear every thought she had including the stray ones.

"The difference is that I knew I was on clan lands with clan members. What would you have done if you had surfaced on a public beach like that?"

"Most people just think it's an odd or unfinished snake tattoo."

"Yeah until they touch it and realize it doesn't feel like human skin." He really hated that he knew from very personal experience that it was smooth and leathery like dragon hide. He hated it more that it turned him on.

"Who I let touch it is none of your concern." Ouch, she had him there. They were technically nothing to each other. A one-night-stand that you never even got the name of doesn't exactly rate high on the list of close personal acquaintances. It certainly did not entitle him to tell her how to live her life. However there was something he was entitled to do.

"It is my concern if you were hoping it would be Natsume or Luka." Luka honestly did not matter as much as Natsume did. Koko considered Luka a close friend, but he knew if Sumire ever made a play for him Aoi would be a better deterrent than Koko could ever be.

She gave him a pithy look "That would be between them and myself. Now back off, I don't need a chaperone."

"Who said I was trying to protect you?" he asked scathingly and he saw her nostrils flare in irritation. The hard smile was back on his face. "All of the dragons you see here are completely loyal to Natsume. Most of us owe him more than we will ever be able to pay back so if he has finally found something that he wants and makes him happy I'm not about to let you ruin it."

Almost as soon as he said it, he regretted it. He was still partially open to her mind and he could feel the sting his words delivered. With it came an avalanche of feelings.

Koko learned instantly that Sumire loved her cousin. She really did. But even though she loved Mikan and was older than her, Sumire had always felt like she was always in Mikan's shadow. Everyone was always fussing over Mikan. Poor Mikan because her parents were killed, poor Mikan because she was a magic nullifier, poor Mikan, poor Mikan, poor Mikan. Sumire did love Mikan, but she was also sick of all the attention her cousin got. She knew it was childish and wrong, but she couldn't stop feeling like she was always competing against and losing to Mikan.

Koko watched while Sumire shook off her gloomy thoughts and gave him a hard look. "If you think I'm going to let Mikan be forced into entertaining your boss, you are grossly mistaken. I'll step in and ruin anything that forces her to do anything she does not want."

Crap. He may be a mind-reader, but he can still misjudge people. He had her pegged as being a selfish brat, and a man-eater, but she also had a sensitive caring side to her. As jealous as she was of Mikan, she was still willing to protect her.

Koko had a feeling that whatever game it was they were playing with each other, he just lost some serious points.

He was acting weird.

Mikan could not quite put her finger on it, but Natsume was definitely acting different.

He appeared to be the same, shooting insults at Tsubasa, glaring at people, especially Mr. Bear, but there was still something strange about him.

At weird times she would find him looking at her with an odd look on his face. At other times she would pick up this feeling from him that she would almost describe as giddy if it were from anyone else.

She had been quite embarrassed by her behavior in the water earlier and felt she needed to apologize or say something, but she just couldn't find a way to say anything. She might have just gone ahead and blurted it out, but he had been acting kind of sweet towards her this afternoon. He was almost playful even though they were free of the water's influence. Honestly, she did not want to ruin it by saying anything.

She ended up ruining the atmosphere by saying something anyway.

The afternoon was moving along and dinner was still a few hours away but a thought occurred to her. "Natsume, are we supposed to be having dinner with your grandfather today?" she asked. She seemed to recall mentioning something like that to his uncle Serio.

Her words were like a bombshell. All activity stopped on the beach and several people looked to Natsume in alarm. Natsume himself looked frozen stiff and she had the impression from him that he had forgotten about it as well.

"Shit." She heard him hiss under his breath. He looked hard at her. She could feel a riot of different things inside of him. It was like a war was being fought inside of him and she had no idea what was fighting what.

Tentatively, she moved closer to him. "Natsume?" she asked, unsure what was happening to him. Somehow she was sure she needed to help him.

His unusual garnet colored eyes looked at her, and the battle within him reached a quick conclusion. "No." she heard him mutter before he snatched her hand along with her and his bag and took off at top speed.

"Natsume! Wait! I can't run as fast as you!" she cried, stumbling and tripping behind him. He stopped long enough to pick her up and start running at an alarming speed.

"Natsume what are you doing?" she squeaked. The scenery was rushing past at a dizzying pace.

"We are getting out of here. There is something I want to show you." He said, but she could tell there was more to it than that.

Just where the heck was he dragging her off to anyway?

tbc

~*~

I admit I kept changing my mind about this chapter and whose perspective I wanted it from. I knew sooner or later I was going to have a POV from Tsubasa and Koko, but I wasn't sure if I wanted it to happen so quickly after the appearance of the sea dragons. I guess this was really the only spot to put it because this chapter marks the end of the casual happy fun.

So to recap, the Yukihira's are world class thieves and smugglers compared to the Kuonji assassins. Tsubasa will probably be in for a shock if he tries to convince Misaki to go on that moonlit swim with him because the water will be a bit more frisky in the moonlight. Sumire and Koko had a wild hot one night stand, and Natsume has just openly opposed his grandfather by stealing Mikan away.

Some of you might be worried that Koko is a bit out of character. To be honest, I'm not sure we ever really see Koko's true character. That smile he keeps on can hide a heck of a lot. I also keep wondering about his real name. I really don't like calling him 'mind reader' it feels weird. In his mini-bio (I think it is in volume 4 of the manga) Higuchi Tachibana says he does have a real name, she is just waiting for the right time to use it.

Anyway, I could not just have Koko chasing Sumire around because I don't think it would work. Sumire comes across as the type of girl who is attracted to strong alpha male types and if he chased her he would look weak. I needed him to have the strength of personality to go up against Sumire and not back down. I hope I managed to portray that. I really need a strong Koko.