In which Asui decides love is the coolest thing ever, and Kira gets a cool new key.

Asui~

"God, it's hideous," Inazu groaned, leaning towards the dog. I smirked. Just like you. But I was smarter than that. He was already Grumpy McGrump Pants. I didn't wanna get a punch. Although it would match the slowly-forming bruise on my left cheek from Dia-chan. But it's fine. It's all good.

"You aren't wrong," Diana said, leaning over and squinting hard at the "dog". I picked it up, lifting it to eye level. Kira groaned. We ignored her, Ina and Diana moving closer to me to peer at the dog. Kira groaned again. I rolled my eyes, pushing my glasses up on my nose. "I suppose the only thing left to do is to carry, uh..."

"Princess," Diana interjected. I nodded.

"Yeah. I guess the only thing to do is carry Princess back home and hand 'im over."

"Her," Inazu interjected awkwardly. "Definitely her."

Diana cleared her throat, "Yes. We have to take Princess back where she belongs, thankfully healthy and alive, then we can head home. No fuss, no ordeal." Diana nodded, straightening up and crossing her arms. "Let's go." With that, she was off and tramping through the bushes, clearing a way that hadn't been there before. Kira whined Diana's name, following her and begging her to get some food at the mansion. I shrugged, pushing the dog closer to Inazu.

"No way man," Ina grunted, glaring at me as he walked after the girls. I pouted, chasing after him.

"Ina, c'mon! This isn't cool at all! Don't leave me with this smelly thing. He's gross!" I whined, pushing the dog at Ina harder. Inazu scoffed, moving faster.

"The dog's a she, Asui. That's why her name is Princess." Ina shook his head, moving even faster. I strained my legs to keep up, holding Princess out as far from me as I could. This was the worst. Branches broke hard under our feet, getting quicker as we did. Soon they burst without stopping as we devolved into sprinting.

"TAKE THE DOG!" I screeched, holding it out in front of me.

"I DON'T WANT THE DOG!" Inazu screamed back over his shoulder.

"TAKE IT!"

"IN YOUR DREAMS!"

We sped past everything at the speed of light, trying to go even faster. Inazu pulled further and further from me as he continued to pour on the speed, confident he could outrun me then outwit me. But I wouldn't give up. Holding this dog sucked. Inazu needed some excitement in his life, he was so boring. Inazu and I probably blurred to the human eye as we dashed, screaming insults at each other. I ground my teeth together every moment I wasn't shouting. Inazu was faster than me, mainly because of his stupid long legs. I grunted, pouring on a burst of speed and leaping high into the air. Inazu looked back at the stop of sound from me. Almost in slow motion, he looked up, spotting me coming down from the sky.

I held my arms, and consequently the dog, out in front of my body like a majestic swan diver. Inazu put on some speed, panting and huffing as he looked back and up at me. I grinned; we played this little game a lot. He may have been faster than me, and smarter than me, and all around kinda better than me, but he wasn't crazier than me.

"Ice Dragon's Wings!" I pulled my arms out flat from my shoulders, ice crystallizing and extending from the length of my arms to coat the area from there to the middle of my back on both sides. I bared my teeth in a broad grin. Then, as I skyrocketed down to tackle my best friend, I opened my mouth and screamed as loud as I could. Inazu faltered, slapping his hands over his ears and slowing down just enough.

"Target acquired! ELIMINATION!" I roared, letting my magic evaporate. Within seconds, I was on Inazu, my head hitting him square in the spine. We tumbled together to the ground with a string of expletives from Inazu, rolling along the forest floor.

"ASUIIIIIII!" he hollered as we rolled. I grinned.

I'm so the best.

But we were in motion, basically on a ferris-go-round or whatever, those spinny things with the horses and stuff. My brain clouded and I threw up the berries I'd eaten earlier.

Inazu and I rolled to a stop shortly after.

"Asui. You suck. So hard. I literally hate you," Inazu seethed, trying to untangle himself from me. I blurrily recognized my surroundings. We were in some sort of clearing. I tilted my head backwards, hair rubbing up in the grass under my head. There was some sort of giant house, upside down. Wait, no, I was the one upside down. So there was some giant house right side up. Inazu managed to untangle us, leaving me laying there. He picked up Princess, slowly weaving his way forward before he flopped to the ground. I smiled. I'd made him dizzy, and gotten him to take the stupid dog.

"I win," I croaked. "I'm also hungry," I whined as my stomach growled. Inazu shot me an acidic look over his shoulder.

"You just vomited all over me, the forest, and this poor dog. Get up and help me get her inside. Stupid dragon." Inazu continued to stagger towards the house, and I got to my hands and knees, crawling after him. Embarrassing? Yes. More embarrassing than waddling around like Inazu? Nope. I had made the better choice, for once. God, I was smart.

"You're gonna have to get up once we get in the house, got it?" Ina said without looking down at me. I bobbed my head up and down.

"Woof, woof!"

Ina's eyebrow twitched and he shook his head. I smirked, crawling closer and bumping up against his leg. His eyebrow twitched harder.

"Do it one more time and see what happens, Asui," Ina growled, glaring down at me out of the corner of his eye. I smiled widely up at my friend. Was it worth it?

"Bark!"

"Ohhh no, my nausea seems to be getting even worse," I fake-groaned, grinning up at Ina. "Ooooh...Bark!" Ina stopped. He looked up to the sky, shaking his head.

Inazu ground his teeth together, glaring up at the sky and grunting, "Forgive me."

And a hard kick sent me flying and tumbling forward into the gigantic garden in Berry's backyard. A big old plant cushioned my hit. The spot below where my ribcage fused was throbbing, my heart pulsing against its bone prison as I lay in the flower. It smelled really good. What a nice flower. Pretty flower. Sweet flower. Was this love? Is that what Icilia spoke of?

"Asui, come here." I slowly tore my gaze from the blooming landscape. Everything was so...green. I'd never seen so much green. Well, I seemed to remember seeing even more green, and pretty colors, and more scents like that in the air, but the memory was distant. In fact, being here with Icilia and all the ice and cold all the time, I'd almost forgotten all about it. "Asui." I shook my head, focusing in on my father. He was curled in the very corner of our cave, tail flopped over his snout, looking like he was still sleeping. But that rumble belonged only to him. So loud and demanding it shook the ground, but so gentle that our icicles didn't even waver. I got up, turning my back on the outdoors and stretching as I walked over to him. I sat down to his left.

"What's up, Dad?"

"Some day, son, you will find someone you love very much. You must keep that person close to you." The dragon opened one eye to look at me above his tail. I smiled.

"Love...What's that?"

"Love is love, Asui," Icilia hummed. I frowned.

"Thanks, Dad," I deadpanned. Icilia's eye sharpened and I yelped, ducking my head and looking into my lap repentantly. "Sorry~"

"Now, if you'll let me finish. Love is when you value someone else. But it's also more than that. You must be willing to leave everything for them, should they ask you to. No, not must...You will. It will not seem like a chore, because they are your love. When you love someone, reason will occasionally fail you. Everything will seem to fail you. Nothing will seem to be good enough for your love."

"Waiiit," I whined, sitting up suspiciously. "Is this about girls again?"

"No, Asui," Icilia laughed. Then he grew serious. "But someday, I do expect you find and love a girl." He raised his head, shoving his nose into my stomach and toppling me over. His head hovered above mine and he poked me lightly in the stomach with his claw. "And I want lots of grandbabies. Lots and lots of grandbabies, Asui."

"Aw, Dad!" I protested, batting his claw away. "I don't wanna talk about girls!"

"That'll change someday," Icilia snorted, pulling away and lying himself back down.

"Nuh-uh! Girls are gross!" I put my hands on my hips, sitting back up rebelliously. Icilia shook his head.

"And how would you know that, Asui?"

"Uh...Uh...Uh...Not because I go into the village when your asleep. Because that would be bad. And wrong. And it would make you mad at me." I mentally high-fived myself. Nice recovery!

"Asui..." Icilia sighed deeply. I gulped. "You know, love is the only thing in the world where, the more you give of it, the more you receive of it. The best thing would be to love everyone until you find one special person who you not only love, but like."

"That's the part about girls," I grunted.

"It's not just about girls, Asui. You can like boys, as well. You can like animals. You can even like plants. In fact, you're probably more likely to get a plant to like you back than a girl."

"Dad!" I shouted. Icilia laughed, rumbling the cave and thumping his tail.

"I'm only kidding, son. But the most important part of love is this: it isn't all you." I tilted my head. "Even if you love someone very much, sometimes it will happen that they cannot or will not love you back, or as much as you love them. If they do not- or cannot- love you, then it is best to spread your love somewhere else. The best thing would be to find someone you love, love them, and have them love you too. When they love you too, you need to protect them. Whether it be a boy, a girl, an animal, or anything. You have a responsibility to protect things you love. Bad things happen when you cannot."

"Like what?" I asked quietly.

"I cannot tell you today. I'm too tired." Icilia's body rose with the depth of his breath, the temperature in the cave plummeting when he sighed. The mighty dragon closed his eye once more. "It's almost time for us to sleep, Asui."

"Aw, man," I whined, stomping my feet. Icilia's chuckle built to an echoing laugh, and my relaxed giggle added a fifth of joy to the base of Icilia's happiness, our enjoyment ricocheting off the walls of our small summer cave. "Dad...Is love just between people?" I asked. I lifted my father's tail, curling up with him, between his front foot and his neck. Icilia moved his head off to one side to give me more room, his tail wrapping back around us. The tip of his tail tickled my belly.

I laughed, tears coming to my eyes, as he explained, "No, Asui. Everything loves. From the plants to the bugs to the great dragons. Dragons love, too."

"Woah," I said, eyes wide as I craned my neck to look at him. His tail flopped back down, eyes closed again. He was so tired when it started to get hot outside. I smiled. "But people do love, right?"

"Yes, Asui. People love. Sometimes, the deepest of all. But I'm sure you've seen that in your secret little treks to the village." I froze. He knew? "Of course I know. But you need people, too. Your life is too short to spend with just me, Asui." My dad sighed, settling back down. His heart thumped in a loud, consistent rhythm. I settled into his cold, hard body.

"I love you, Dad."

The thump changed rhythm just a little before it slowed back down. "I love you too, son."

"So I have to protect you, right?"

"Yes, and I you, little dragon." I smiled, a yawn stretching my mouth wide. "But for right now, the way I protect you is making you sleep."

I hadn't had much chance to love after Icilia left. Inazu and I found each other, and I loved him the best way I could, but he was almost it. We talked about our families sometimes, when we travelled late at night, although I normally talked more than Inazu did. Family always made him uncomfortable.

Now, though, I had lots of people to love. I had Diana and Kira close to me, and I loved them. I had the guild waiting for me, and I loved them. Somewhere out there in the wide, wide world, Icilia was waiting for me, and I loved him more than all of them. I was gonna find him one day. I smiled, putting my hand in front of me and clenching my hand into a fist. My ring glinted in the sunlight.

Spirit renewed, I sat up. Inazu had just stumbled into the garden, and he was glaring at me. Like, really hard. His eyes were so intense.

"I love how intense your eyes are," I hummed, sliding off the flower and into a crisscross position on the grass. Inazu made a face.

"Okay, that's weird."

"What?" I scrambled to my feet. "It's not weird! It's why we're friends! Your eyes are why I love you!" I whined, probably dramatically.

"No, we're friends because I punched you in the face 3 years ago and you decided to tag along after me," Inazu deadpanned. He put his free hand out to me, Princess still tucked like luggage under his other arm. "Get up, you scrubby dork." I grabbed Inazu's hand and he pulled at the same time I did, the oppositional force pulling him forward and me off the ground.

"Thanks, Ina." Then, just for funsies, I grabbed onto his arm, widening my eyes and pressing myself against his arm. "Or should I say Inaaazuuu-samaaa," I whined, making my voice as high-pitched as I could.

"NO PDA IN MY GARDEN!" came a screech from behind me. I whirled around to a spear in my face.

"Woah, woah, woah!"

"No, no it's not like that," Inazu sputtered. The person with the spear glared at Inazu, averting the spear to his face. Inazu went cross-eyed looking at the pointy weapon.

"I was just imitating Kira-chan," I said, waving my hands. On closer inspection, our fight person was a girl. She was dressed in black and white, like a maid or something. Oh, she probably worked here. "Hey, miss, we didn't mean to offend you or anything..." I trailed off when she pointed it back at my face.

"Do not address me. You are intruders on my master's domain, and on my garden. Explain yourselves." Her eyes were hard as she looked between us. Inazu and I looked at each other.

"That will be quite enough, Charene," came an authoritative voice. Inazu and I both looked up to the door she'd apparently come out of, where the tiny guy from before- the master of the manor- stood. He clapped his hands twice, and the girl nodded, whirling her spear to the back of her arm, the point towards the ground instead of our faces. "They are our guests."

"Mr. Berry, thank you, sir. We came to return Princess. We found her," Inazu said, stepping forward. I nodded, trotting after him. Berry nodded once briskly.

"Yes. Charene, take my darling Princess inside and feed and bathe her. I'm sure she needs a little pampering. I will be there as soon as I am finished dealing with our mage friends." The maid nodded and bowed to Berry, walking over to Inazu.

"Thanks," he said, handing the stupid dog over. The maid shook her head.

"No, thank you for bringing Princess back home, sir." She bowed to Inazu as well before retreating into some bushes. I made a face, pouting with my arms crossed as I followed Inazu and Berry inside. I found her, but did I get bowed to? No. This was crap if you asked me.

"We've been waiting for you two to arrive, so you could receive your reward and head back home," Mr. Berry intoned, leading us through winding hallways of the large house.

"Wait, Kira and Dia are here?" I asked. Berry lead us into an open room, where Kira and Diana sat on a couch across from a giant chair.

"Inazu! Asui! You made it, thank goodness! We were beginning to think you got lost or something," Kira said with a smile. She waved us over. "C'mon, sit down. We're getting my key- I mean, our reward!" Inazu and I walked over to our teammates, Inazu shoving me to the end of the couch so he could sit by Kira. I puffed out my cheeks in annoyance, but sat on the end. How rude.

I relaxed back in the couch, putting my arms behind my head. Mr. Berry cleared his throat, then began.

"I will first say thank you all for finding my precious Princess. She is the light of my life, and I cannot offer my thanks enough to you for finding her in such a timely fashion."

"It was no problem, Mr. Berry. We were glad to do it," Diana spoke up. Berry nodded.

"Yes, well, as it is, your reward should be here momentarily. 600,000 jewel, plus a silver Celestial key. By chance, is one of you a Celestial wizard?" he asked curiously.

Kira raised her hand, though I could smell a little bit of sad. "I am, sir. Although, I only have one key right now," she laughed awkwardly. Berry nodded, smiling a little.

"My daughter is a Celestial wizard. I suppose she's off touring the world right now. She did always like to travel, even without her papa." Berry looked at a photo next to me. "That's her, right there." We all looked at the picture. The girl in the photo had big, dark eyes that dominated her face, a smile with crooked teeth as bright as the moon. A small snake-like creature was wrapped around her waist, and at one glance it looked like a pet, and in the next I noticed the silver key in her left hand.

"She must look a lot like her mom," I said, raising an eyebrow. Inazu punched me in the kidney, hissing shut up in my ear. I ground my teeth together. What the hell, man?!

"Your daughter must be a lovely woman," Diana said. I sunk back into the couch, sighing. She was good at this, just like Ina. I knew I wasn't. I normally kept quiet when it came to talking. My real talent lay in fighting. I was a powerhouse, not a talky person.

"Yes, she is," Berry sighed.

"Here it is, sir." A dude in black and white walked in, holding a bag that I assumed was full of our reward. I grinned. Ina and I could actually eat! Berry nodded.

"Yes. And the key?" Berry asked, waving the dude towards us. Diana stood immediately, crossing the room to meet the dude.

"Thank you," she said with a smile, taking the bag of money. The dude bowed, heading back to his master.

"The key should be along shortly, sir. We put Liana on that task..." the dude trailed off, looking over his shoulder. "She should be here by now." He turned to look at us, bowing. "I apologize for my coworker's tardiness. She's new, and easily distracted."

"That's fine," Diana affirmed. Kira slouched down into the couch, pouting. Diana elbowed her in the side, to which Kira yelped and pouted some more, but sat up.

"I'm here! I'm here, I got the key, e'rythin's all right!" came a shrill voice. A girl tumbled into the room, tripping dramatically over the carpet and landing face first on the floor. Berry frowned and the other dude smacked his palm to his face.

The girl groaned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Oh, man...I mean, um," Her eyes grew wide as she stared at us, and she quickly scrambled to her feet. "S-Sorry, I'm so sorry. I have your reward right here," she dug in her pockets, sighing with relief when she produced a shiny silver key. "Here we go!" Kira leapt off the couch, grabbing for the key. She swept it right up with a grin.

"Awesome! A new key, a new contract, a new buddy!" Kira chimed. She hugged the girl. "Thank you so much!"