A/N: Oh, dear...it has been quite a long time, hasn't it? I apologize. Things have been hectic. I know that sounds like a poor excuse (and it is) but it's all I've got. Anyway, I had a series of very strange dreams as of late that inspired me to start writing again... so in short this might seem kind of strange, but I plan to fill in the blanks eventually. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and whatnot since last time. :)

Oh, and to the rabbit that reviewed (or Sailor Moon, possibly...hmm...)- I never explicitly stated whether or not their sex was protected... It has been implied but not detailed. Who knows, maybe Misaki just really likes it in the butt. XD *ahem* Sorry. :P

Anyway, I hope I haven't completely lost my touch. -_- Writing with almost a week behind me of little-no sleep might not have been the best way to do it, but... Enjoy!

The sound of rushing water was the first determinable sign of Misaki's own consciousness returning. It was steady and hypnotic, the water flow, and its constant, even droning was enough that the girl did not immediately reach out to her other senses for aid. This however, left her far more uneasy once she did realize that her legs, arms, and neck were altogether stark and bare, and the material covering her core was not at all alike to that of her usual attire.

Sufficiently startled, Misaki's eyes shot open as her body's instincts took hold and forced her into a sitting position. Her vision was obscured by amoeba-like shadows for a few moments longer than what was typical. The effects of her blood loss were suddenly becoming far more apparent, and she inwardly cursed her careless reaction. A light tickling sensation slid down her chest as the material that had blanketed her seconds prior began to shift. Anxious hands fumbled in her tensed lap as she clutched for the cloth and lifted it to conceal her naked breasts. Much to her chagrin, it was not merely her chest that risked full exposure.

'...It's a towel?'

Sure enough, the fabric clamped between her fingers was a simple and large, black towel.

'Collect yourself, Misaki,' she mentally scolded to quell the sense of growing panic.

Slowly she ran the fingertips of her free hand over a patch of the ground beneath her to investigate. It was surprisingly warm and even, despite the rock-like texture. The walls around her, though initially hazy through her tired eyes, were wooden and appeared to be well kept as far as maintenance went. The roof was composed of the same material as well and tilted to a definite angle on four sides to form a high pyramid shape with small, slitted vents carved throughout. It was only then that Misaki understood that the dreamy fog she had assumed was merely yet another side effect of her physical ailing was actually steam. The moist air clung heavily to her lungs with each inhalation and she wondered how such an obvious thing had slipped past her.

To her left was an extravagant bath tub; large enough to be a moderately sized, private swimming pool. Unobtrusive, rectangular chunks were removed from the porcelain sides just above the waterline in four separate sections. It was from here that the water poured freely. Grey-white sculptures of naked men and women with immaculately etched, expressive faces and blank, staring eyes stood at the head of the tub.

While caught in a mild daze, the girl managed to catch a glimpse of her reflection. It seemed that the apparent leaded weight of her head was the result of her hair having been secured up into a snow white towel.

'Where... am I? How in the world did I get here?'

Her head throbbed as Misaki raised a slightly shaky hand to her right temple. She rotated the pads of her index and middle fingers in a circular motion to attempt to soothe the ache. Perhaps she could succeed in clearing her mind just enough to recall the events leading her here.

Despite some difficulty in doing so, she did remember last conversing with Killua. She could see herself leaving her "prison" after writing a note on the wall with the blood from her ar-...

The amber in Misaki's eyes seemed to overtake her pinhole pupils as she realized that her injured arm had not only stopped bleeding and swelling with pain, but was also stitched closed with the help of a few needles tipped with (ghastly familiar) decorative knobs. In a mild panic, she began picking almost frantically at them only to be interrupted by...

"So you're awake," a deadly calm, unmistakable voice called out.

Illumi.

Her face was drawn toward the monotonous voice, and she inherently clutched the towel tighter to her chest while forcing her features into the best scowl she could muster under the circumstances. He stood, expressionless and fully clothed, with his usual nonchalant arrogance ever present.

He was the missing piece to the puzzle; of that, she was certain.

'We were fighting...' she recalled with extreme difficulty, the scene refusing to openly play out for her. 'I left a note for Killua and then I remember Illumi... and we were fighting... and then...'

"You brought me here?" Misaki guessed, disgusted at the weak, raspy voice that managed to convey far less distaste for him than she had intended.

"Yes, I brought you here."

"Do you often undress people before you kill them?" she managed bitterly.

"Of course not."

"Well aren't I the lucky one."

"Kill you?" His tone managed to express enough surprise that the girl was admittedly taken aback by it.

"It's clear you won't properly fight me, so I assumed..."

He allowed her a moment of silence to finish the thought. When she did not, he pressed, "What did you assume?"
Even in her weakened state, Misaki forced as much loathing as possible forth into her eyes.

"I don't owe you an explanation." When he did not immediately respond, she added, "If you come near me, I'll deliver you to hell if it takes my dying breath to do it."

The two held their locked stares for several moments in silence, broken up only by the soft hissing of running water. Finally Misaki was, much to her dismay, unable to suppress a wheezy cough.

"What will you do in that state?"

She wasted no time in raising her bitter gaze back to meet Illumi's unfazed one.

"Don't underestimate me," she responded as best as possible between small, choking spurts of air.

He lifted a curved finger to his lips in a mock pensive pose. "Underestimate you? Really, I'd say I've overestimated you." Cocking his head ever so slightly to the left, he injected a subtle shot of artificial distress into his words."I hired you because I trusted that you were capable of killing your target, but it turns out that you couldn't do it because you're really the type of person that lets her emotions get in the way. I overestimated you, indeed."

"You'd do best not to pretend to know anything about me."

"I don't need to pretend. I know all I need to know about you."

The girl could feel her muscles twitch and tense slightly at the statement.

"Does it make you feel powerful to tower over me and play mind games while I'm sitting naked on the floor? Do I look pathetic and weak enough to please you? Will this scene work for you later?" Misaki asked, finally unrestrained in forcing the sarcasm from her tone into the smirk on her lips.

She could feel herself losing her composure, and decided that she disliked that greatly.

"That's of course not the reason you're undressed."

"Enlighten me, then."

"It's standard to be naked while taking a bath, is it not?"

The girl nearly began hacking again. Her expression seemed to scrunch inward in response.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You don't bathe in your clothes, do you?"

She inspected his face thoroughly for any sign of what he was thinking. Unfortunately, he was completely unshaken and upheld his impassive visage as precisely as a carefully crafted wax figure. She could hardly fathom what was occurring now, though even her sneaking suspicion was too dreadful to properly entertain.

"I'm not taking a bath," she said slowly, feeling foolish at her confusion as the words rolled off her tongue.

"Not yet."

"...If you think that you're going to get me to play out a last scene for you before you come to kill me-..."

"You really need to get over that. I'm not here to kill you. I told you that. I'm here to help you, if anything."

"Help me? What game are you playing now? You don't really expect me to believe that nonsense, do you? Did you really think I would buy that noble, selfless Illumi simply wants to help me?" After a beat of silence, she added, "Help me what exactly?"

As though her taunting and earlier warnings had never made it past her lips, he casually walked towards her, one agonizingly slow, controlled step at a time. Mentally, she braced herself to the best of her current ability for a possible onslaught.

"As I said before, I seem to have overestimated you. I thought your skill came from your ability to censor your emotions... at least in regards to your work... but it turns out you still have that mortal coil holding you back."

Misaki opened her mouth to speak, but Illumi continued without missing a beat as though she had not motioned at all.

"At first I thought that your submission to your own emotions was simply weakness. Maybe you had not matured from that girl I met that night; frightened, broken, inexperienced... Then it occurred to me that I may have been evaluating your situation wrongly up to now."

He paused just before coming within an arm's reach of the girl, looking her dead in the eyes.

"Maybe losing yourself to your emotions has the potential to be your greatest strength. Maybe you're just experienced enough to be a powerful threat."

Misaki immediately dismissed the strange "compliments", if even they could be considered such. At least, she wanted to disregard his words entirely, but somehow found that his recognition was... it felt...

'Stop it!' she hissed at herself inwardly. 'You know better now.'

Walking past her casually as though she were no longer there, Illumi stepped into the tub fully clothed. He drew forth a few paces before turning to face the girl again. Her eyes followed him like a hawk, unwilling to leave even a single movement of his undocumented. She supposed his words were simply a ruse to lure her defences down, and she was too learned now to-...

"I understand you," he continued, and the amber eyed girl fought every fibre of her being that had (unbeknownst to her until this very moment) always craved to hear someone speak those exact words to her...

It was strong enough that Misaki had to automatically mumble an ungraceful sounding, "That's a lie," simply to reassure herself that this was the case.

"I can acknowledge that you're not inexperienced anymore," Illumi went on, his tone unmoved and refusing to outwardly recognize the girl's faltering. "I can tell that you're still feeling afraid and broken. That's where I come in."

"You've done enough," she retorted, though her resolve was showing through far less than it had been earlier.

'I know better than that now,' she feebly reminded herself once more. "I... know better... than... to be..."

The change in Misaki was subtle; enough so that the average person perhaps could not have noticed it outright. Fortunately for him, Illumi was skilled enough to immediately sense the shift in the girl's resolve. As he'd suspected, she was indeed weakening again. Her physical trauma was on his side, as it helped to tire her spirit just enough that his words could still reach her. That was all he needed.

"I know why you're afraid."

He paused for a moment simply to test whether or not she would challenge him. Her eyes remained fairly fierce, though she did not utter a verbal rebuttal of any sort.

The assassin went on, "The reason you're afraid is because you let your emotions control you. You've been fighting your emotions for a long time it seems, and now that you're struggling to hold them back, they're holding you back. It sounds like your situation is quite hopeless."

He beamed secretly from behind his stationary expression as he sensed the girl's muscles flinch at his declaration.

"But it's not hopeless," he offered, and to his pleasure her brows relaxed to some degree. "I've come to understand that your emotions have the possibility of greatly improving your skill set... if you harness them properly."

"Harness them properly?" Misaki repeated.

Her confusion was just that; simple, unloaded confusion. She was soaking it in, bit by bit. She was damaged just enough, he was certain, that it wouldn't be too long now before...

"You're unfocused."

"Unfocused..." she mimicked in a slightly cold whisper.

"You need to learn to embrace yourself the right way. I can help you with this."

"You-..."

"You're still broken, Misaki... but I can fix you."

The soft glaze over her eyes told the story he had already mentally written. She was considering his offer for long enough that it was convincing her, he knew, and as each second ticked by he grew closer to affirmation that she was allowing herself to be seduced by his words. She was opening herself for him to seduce her once more...

...And this time, once more was all that was needed.

"You can trust in your emotions... in yourself... in me... You can have reprieve from all your fears and the guilt to express your true desires. You can feel safe."

Misaki's eyelids met one another.

"All you need to do is trust in me."

Illumi reached out with an upturned palm and softly traced her jaw with the tip of his ring finger. She did not pull away or tense at his touch. As though she were in a trace, the girl willingly allowed him to raise her chin.

The game was already decided and once again she had lost.

"Come," he beckoned, and to his silent delight Misaki leaned in slightly toward his retreating hand.

When the girl did not continue to follow, he snaked an arm around her back to encourage her.

Leaning in to place his lips aside to her ear, he murmured, "Let me bathe you."

The towel falling helpless into her lap from her loosening grasp was a clear enough sign of her compliance.

Misaki was no longer attached to her body. Rather to say, Misaki could feel everything that was happening; the warm water embracing her, the weight of the towel upon her head disappearing and her hair tickling both shoulders as it released, the euphoric circular motions of Illumi's fingers working against her scalp... but her mind was somewhere else completely. There were no concerns of repercussions in this new place; only warmth and inconceivable pleasure.

'How-...? This-...!'

By the time she felt his cleansing massage travelling further down her body, the girl was practically swooning. Her senses were mewling at every touch, no matter how slight, through the foamy lather that served as both a barrier and a bonding agent between them. Her thighs clenched naturally as the intensity grew. Her fingers twitched clumsily.

Whether or not she was making the right choice didn't occur to her- couldn't occur to her- now. There was Illumi at her side and there was a powerful, rippling sensation rolling through her and nothing else. Nothing else could exist. Nothing else was allowed to exist.

"Trust yourself to me, Misaki."

Misaki was slipping...

...But so were her fears and insecurities. Everything that had once held such horrifying precedent or the weight of responsibility was disappearing. It did not exist. It could not exist. Not in the world where there was Illumi and there was warmth and pleasure and nothing else.

As the rippling effect maximized in potency, a small sound escaped the girl. A distinct and strange, piercing sort of pressure, one at a time, began to work its way from her neck down to her arms and legs. Once no new spot was claimed by the odd sensation, she felt Illumi everywhere all at once, enveloping her.

This however, was an entirely separate feeling that was incomparable to any of the times in which they'd engaged sexually. Rather, it were as though she was engulfed absolutely by Illumi's presence; as if he were wearing her fully from inside her skin and she was wearing him outside of it. His hands continued to steadily wash her, unfazed completely.

'It's warm...'

Too far removed from herself to really understand or care, Misaki was content simply to bathe here, far away from everything that once helped or hindered her. Nothing else could matter to her now.

Illumi would make certain of that.