Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed this story! It warms a writer's heart to get such feedback. It makes writing fun. Hope you continue to enjoy and review!

Now for the story!

Chapter 40

The full moon shined down on Kaze as he walked down the road that he and his friends had been traveling on the day before. Sai's unconscious form was heavy in his arms. On any other night, she wouldn't have been, but tonight was the night that his humanity took over his body. Because of this, he was having an extremely hard time of finding his friends. They had taken off when Kaze had told them to run, but they hadn't said where they were going. Now that Kaze had been searching for a few hours, he was getting tired and considering just finding a place to stop for the night and looking for his friends tomorrow when he had his demon senses back.

After another half hour of walking, Sai began to stir in Kaze's arms. He was carrying her bridal style, so she was able to toss and roll around in his arms, making holding onto her a bit difficult. She began to groan softly as her eyes flickered open.

"Well hey there my sleepyheaded demoness." Kaze said softly, "How do you feel?"

"Like roses. How do you think I feel?" Sai said sarcastically.

"Obviously pretty bad." Kaze said chuckling. Sai immediately regretted the tone in her voice. Kaze was just trying to help her and be a kind, caring husband.

"Sorry Kaze." She said softly, snuggling her head up against his chest.

"It's fine." He assured her, "You've been through a lot."

"How long have I been out?" Sai asked, noticing the darkness and Kaze's lack of demonic scent.

"A few hours. I turned human pretty soon after you fainted, so I've been walking most of the time in the direction that I last had everyone's scent." He explained.

"So you've carried me and all my gear for hours as a human?" Sai asked incredulously. Kaze smiled sheepishly and nodded, "Damn. Have I ever told you that you're the best husband ever?" Kaze laughed.

"You could stand to say it a bit more often." He joked. Sai laughed and hit him playfully. Kaze sighed, "C'mon. Let's stop for the night. I don't think that we're going to find them tonight. I'm exhausted and you're in no condition to walk." Sai nodded. As much as she wanted to keep going, she knew that Kaze was right. She could feel his arms weakening and smell his need for rest. He was also right that she was too weak to walk, let alone run.

Kaze found a place to camp after a few minutes of searching and sat Sai up against a tree. He got a fire going nearby and then went to join her. Sai leaned her head on his shoulder and snuggled up closer to him, while he put his arm around her to pull her into him.

"So what happened?" Sai asked after a few moments, "I mean, I remember some of the battle, but it ends after that sorceress hit me with that explosion."

"Yeah I guess you wouldn't remember the battle. You were in your demon form." Kaze said. Sai nodded. That was what she had figured.

"Did... Did I...?" Sai asked hesitantly.

"No." Kaze told her, cutting her off, "Everyone is okay and you didn't try to kill anybody. You were pretty pissed that I told our food to run away, though." Sai smiled weakly. That sounded like something she would do.

"No, you battled and finished off Haruka by ripping her heart out and then walked up to me on the hill. Your battle was pretty impressive. I had no idea you could be so good with your swords when your mind was gone." Kaze said.

"Hmm..." Sai mumbled, "I guess it's just instinct now. That's kinda nice to know. I do remember one more thing, though, from before I fainted."

"What's that?" Kaze asked curiously.

"You kissing me." Sai said simply. Kaze raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh really? Is it a good memory?" He asked. Sai smiled.

"Yeah. Yeah it is." She told him, snuggling up closer to him.

"Good. I'm glad." He said contentedly.

"You know, you should be glad that you aren't a half-demon right now." Sai said mischievously. Kaze furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Why's that?" He asked. Sai chuckled.

"Because your sense of smell would be going crazy over me." She said, kissing his neck. Kaze groaned disappointedly.

"Damn." He cursed lightheartedly, "When's the sun come up again?" Sai laughed.

"It's alright. I can restrain myself a bit better than you." Sai jabbed, "Get some sleep. We'll save this for another time." Kaze pouted and put on a pretty good puppy dog face considering his actual canine features were gone. It made Sai laugh and led to Kaze giving up. Instead, he resorted to rubbing her ears softly making Sai growl contentedly. The man knew how to work her ears and she was fast asleep in no time. Kaze was quick to join her.

Nami awoke long before the sun had fully brightened the sky. She needed to find her brother and her sister-in-law. The others woke up from them sound of her activity and quickly joined her in getting ready to begin the search. Their ingenious plan was to use Kirara's nose to find the two. All of them were extremely worried. No one wanted to leave Kaze with the demon crazed Sai, but he was right in the fact that they had to get away. The main problem was that his demon blood had gone dormant along with the sun and was probably only just now coming back.

It wasn't long before they were all ready to search. Nami and Umi got on Kirara, who took the lead in the search, while Akage followed on foot. Kirara seemed to pick up the scent quickly and set of at a fast pace to find them. Akage was soon sorry that he had insisted that they run so far from Sai and Kaze. The pace was difficult even for his half-demon legs, but he was determined to keep it up. After all, his best friend and his wife were somewhere out there vulnerable to attack from anything.

The road on which they were traveling seemed empty. It was as if nothing was brave enough to venture out. Akage guessed that it was because everything had been sent into hiding by the sorceress Haruka. Now that she was gone, though, Akage guessed that it wouldn't be long before the demons and bandits returned to their hunt for food and resources. They needed to work fast. That's when, even with Akage's weak nose, he caught the scent of his friends.

"Guys! I got it too!" He called out to the girls on the cat demon, "They're close."

Sai awoke as a distinctly familiar scent filled her lungs, but she was too tired to identify it. She realized quickly that she was not in position in which she had gone to sleep. Instead, she and Kaze were cuddled in each other's embrace. Sai was okay with that. It was a comfortable position and Kaze was warm and had a pleasant scent, her favorite truth be told. As she drifted back to sleep, the faint sound of footsteps and talking hit her ears, but she decided to ignore it. And ignore it she did until she was awoken rather rudely.

"AWWWWWW! They're SO cute!" Umi squealed.

"I know right!" Nami agreed, "Sai's lucky our brother had us for sisters." Sai and Kaze both groaned as they forced their eyes open to identify the annoying sounds.

"You guys suck, you know that?" Kaze said drearily.

"Seriously." Sai agreed, rolling away from Kaze and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"You know you love us." Umi said confidently as she jumped down from that cat demon. She was quickly joined by her sister.

"Thanks Kirara! Good work!" Nami said, petting the purring cat demon before she changed into her tiny form. Sai and Kaze groaned again as they stood up and stretched.

"Nope. Pretty sure you still suck." Kaze reaffirmed. Sai nodded her agreement.

"Whatever." Nami said dismissively, "Akage, what do you think about all of this? You've been pretty quiet."

"Trying too hard not to laugh and think of a way to do that with you at the same time." He answered. Nami smiled broadly and laughed.

"Aww. Thanks babe. You're the best." She said, taking him into a tight hug. Akage winked at Kaze making him roll his eyes at the antics of his friend.

"Yeah, yeah, cut it out you two." Sai insisted, "If you insisted on waking us up this early, let's at least start moving."

"You sure you're ready to move out yet Sai?" Kaze asked, concerned for the wellbeing of his mate, "You didn't look so good last night." It made Sai smile that her husband was worried about her, but she felt confident that she could travel.

"Yeah I'm sure Kaze. It might be a good idea, though, if we went a bit slower than normal." Sai admitted. Kaze nodded his understanding and was about to say something else before he was interrupted by Umi clearing her throat.

"Aren't you guys forgetting about breakfast?" She pointed out, "I'm guessing that guys didn't eat dinner and neither did we. We're gonna need food if we want to travel." Sai and Kaze scratched their heads, embarrassed at their oversight.

"I guess you're right." Sai admitted.

After eating what food Akage and the twins managed to kill or forage from the surrounding forest, the group set out on its journey once again, though, a at a slightly more relaxed pace. However, even at such a slow pace for her, Sai quickly found it to be uncomfortable. Her battle inside herself the day before with her demon blood had taken a massive toll on her energy. Despite this, she didn't admit it to any of the others, though Kaze was well aware of it through their connection via the mate mark. He didn't want to say anything as it would hurt her pride, but it hurt him just as much to see her uncomfortable. Because of this, he resolved to make sure that they stopped before she ran herself into the ground.

This moment came just after midday. This was fortunate for Kaze. He could pass off his insistence to stop as a desire for food instead of insisting that they stop because of Sai. He knew that it already took enough resolve for her to ask for a slower pace in their travel.

"Hey guys." Kaze called out, "Let's break for lunch. I'm getting kind of hungry."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Akage agreed. Sai simply nodded, not wanting to give away her current physical state by revealing her labored breathing through speech. Nami and Umi also quickly agreed. They found a small hillside and Akage, Nami, and Umi set out to find more food. Once they were out of earshot, Sai turned to Kaze and smiled weakly.

"Thanks." She said, finally acknowledging how tired she really was. Kaze faked a look a innocence.

"What do you mean? I just wanted some lunch." He told her. Sai chuckled.

"I'm not stupid Kaze. I can tell through my mark that you're not even hungry and I know that you can tell I'm exhausted, but too proud to admit it." Sai admitted. Kaze smiled.

"You caught me." He joked, "And don't worry about it. It's the absolute least I could do."

"Think the others could tell?" Sai asked, worried.

"Don't know." Kaze shrugged, "Probably. They are your best friends. Plus Akage is a half demon and could probably sense your tiredness, though, not as well as I could." Sai nodded and sighed.

"Damn. I hate being the one that always slows us down." Sai said. Kaze's face quickly became serious.

"You are not slowing us down." Kaze insisted, "You are the one that always fights the battles and takes on the full force of the enemy. The rest of us just do back up while you steal the show. Without you, we wouldn't even be this far. Taking a break to rest is not slowing us down when we have you to carry us forward." Sai smiled and hugged her mate.

"You always know just what to say don't you?" She said, emotion clear in her voice.

"Ha. I wish. I'm pretty sure I'm running out of romantic comments." He joked. Sai laughed.

"Well I hope you have enough left in you to last us till we take out the empire." Sai told him.

"I might be able to manage that." Kaze said light heartedly, "Now c'mon. They're almost back with food."

"Good." Sai breathed, breaking away from Kaze, "You may not be hungry, but I'm starving."

Kaze dragged out lunch for as long as possible. After about an hour, he finally felt that Sai was ready to travel again. They set out at a slightly slower pace than the one that they had used earlier that day. Sai was thankful for that, but it didn't make her feel any better. At least it was faster than walking.

"Sai!" Nami called out, "You smell a village nearby?"

"Yeah. I could really use a bath." Umi said hopefully. Sai sniffed the air and nodded.

"We should get there before nightfall." She told them.

"Thank all that is holy!" Nami cheered, "Sleeping in the woods is not my thing."

"We definitely have never been able to tell." Kaze said sarcastically, "I mean, you hide it so well." Nami shot him a look that Kaze immediately shrugged off.

"It's a good thing that you guys are siblings." Akage commented, "Otherwise I'm pretty sure that you would have killed each other."

"Whatever Akage." Kaze said, annoyed, "Hey didn't Nami want to have a "talk" with you over a certain comment that you made?"

"What?" Akage panicked as Nami remembered the incident and became angry again.

"Oh yeah. I said we needed to have a talk and you FORGOT?!" Nami yelled furiously at the now terrified half-demon.

"Um... Well..." Akage stammered, "A lot was going on, you know. I mean Sai was in danger and all."

"Don't try and make excuses Akage." Kaze insisted, "It'll only make it worse." Akage shot him a look that promised revenge. Sai leaned in to the Kaze's ear.

"What's going on?" She whispered.

"Akage may have said that your argument with Haruka was "hot" and "a turn on" and that angered my dear sister." He whispered back. Sai blushed at Akage's comments, but nodded and kept silent, while Akage was screamed at by his girlfriend.

"So," Nami ranted, "Sai is right over there. Why don't you go jump her bones? I'm certainly not stopping you."

"Nami you misunderstand. I-" Akage tried to say.

"What's to misunderstand, huh? HUH? I heard you perfectly clear!" Nami screamed.

"Nami, I'm sorry! I swear I didn't mean anything by it!" Akage insisted.

"I don't want to hear it! Now I know where your real loyalties lie!" Nami said, turning away from him. Umi, sympathetic to Akage's plight, leaned in to whisper to her sister.

"Hey sis, you can't be too hard on him." She said. Nami turned angrily on her sister.

"Why the hell not?" She demanded.

"Well, if you'll remember, you've flirted with the guys at every single village we've been to since Akage has been with us." Umi pointed out. Nami's retort died in her throat. Her sister was right. Suddenly, she was the one feeling guilty. As opposed to Akage's one comment, she had repeatedly abandoned him to talk to other men. Akage, however, hadn't heard what Umi had said and was busy panicking about what Nami would do next. Kaze smirked.

"I think you'll end up thanking me for this later." He whispered.

"What? Why would I do that?" Akage demanded.

"Watch..." Kaze said, pointing to his sister. Nami was on the verge of tears.

"Nami! What's wrong?" Akage asked, worried about what else he might have done wrong, "Nami..." However, before he could say anymore, Nami jumped from Kirara's back and wrapped her arms around Akage, sending them tumbling to the ground. Nami was sobbing into Akage's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Akage! I've been such a flirt! I didn't even consider your feelings!" Nami screamed hysterically.

"Ummm... It's... alright?" Akage said, unsure of what was going on at the moment.

"No it's not!" Nami insisted, "It's no wonder you said such a thing. You were trying to send a message to me about how hurt you were by my actions. Well I got it and I'm sorry for everything! I love you and I never want to hurt you again!"

"Um... I... I love you too..." Akage said hesitantly.

"Can you ever forgive me Akage?" Nami begged.

"Uhhh... Sure..." He said wrapping his arms around her. Nami continued her hysterics for another few minutes before Sai broke them up.
"Come now you two." She said, dragging them to their feet, "Let's get going." Nami agreed hesitantly, while Akage was much quicker to agree. Before long, they were on their way on the road yet again.

Not gonna lie. This was a fluff chapter. Can't have crazy action happening every chapter now can I? Hope you guys enjoyed it nonetheless. Anyway, please review the story and check out my other story, Crossed Swords and Crossed Lovers. Writing both at the same time is a bit difficult, but I think they're both pretty good.