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Unexpected	By : aenissesthai Category: +. to F > Fushigi Yuugi Views: 3216 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Fushigi Yuugi, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
All rights to Fushigi Yuugi belong to Yuu Watase, Shogakukan Shojo Comics, TV Tokyo, Studio Pierrot, and Pioneer Video. I make no profit from this story.

This chapter is rated R for language and sexual situations.

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Chapter 3. Afterburn

It took me a long time to wake up the next morning, prob'ly because Yu-chan was right next to me, helpin' herself to breakfast without making me get up. Funny that I'd only had her a few days, but already I could feed her in my sleep, switching her to the other side when she fussed after emptying the first one. Greedy little shit.

Another thing that kept me only half-conscious was the fact that my body felt so good—better than it ever had in my life, to tell the truth. My muscles were loose and relaxed, and it seemed that even my bones were hummin' some kinda happy, contented song. I felt like I had been given one of those kiss-yer-ass Imperial concubine massages; like someone had gone to a lotta trouble to make sure that every inch of me was pampered.

Reality hit in the form of a blast of cold, damp wind, makin' my eyes fly open in surprise. I instinctively curled around the baby to protect her, but the wind was cut off right then with the slamming of the barn door. I looked back over my shoulder—an' there stood Tama, soakin' wet in only a pair of trousers but with a big shit-eatin' grin on his face.

For a moment, my brain disconnected as I dimly recalled last night's earth-shatterin' events. I mean, he was standin' there lookin' the same as usual, so could it be that it was all just some crazy hentai dream of mine? That thought went out to the 'stupid' basket right away, 'cause a dream wouldn't explain why my groin was doin' fireworks just at the sight of him, an' why I reeked of sex. Not to mention the look in his eyes when he caught my glance, his expression changin' from self-satisfaction to somethin' both hot an' tender.

I felt my face go warm with a furious blush, an' I think we were just stuck there, starin' at each other—when Yu-chan suddenly let out a squawk, like she was saying, "Hey, remember me?" That broke the spell, an' we started laughin'…until I finally caught sight of the bedraggled forms clutched in Tama's hands. I saw long, drippin' tail feathers an' bright white rings around droopin' greenish necks—

"Shit, Tama! How'd ya manage to catch a coupla pheasants?" I was so pleased, I didn't bother to keep the admiration outta my voice.

Now Tama was as red as me. "It was just luck," he said modestly. "They turned up in my snares this morning. I guess the floods forced them to look for food outside their usual haunts."

"All the same, ya did a great job settin' the snares. Want any help cleanin' 'em?"

"Won't that make you sick?"

"Nah, baby's on the outside now," I pointed to where she was wavin' her hands in the air an' watchin' the shadows on the roof, "so food stays on the inside. No more puking, thank the gods. Here, hand me a knife."

So I got dressed real quick, an' we plucked and cleaned the birds in almost no time. Tama set one to smoke over our outside fire and put the other in a pot with water, some wild onions an' carrots, an' a chunk of salt off the cows' salt lick. Hey, beggars can't be choosers, an' at least he washed off the surface before tossin' it in the pot.

In between helpin' him, I played with Yu-chan, takin' out one of my earrings an' twistin' it in the air so that she could watch it sparkle in the firelight. I also saved a coupla pheasant feathers so that she could have a ball watchin' those once they dried out. She'd been fed and changed, so she was pretty happy as far as I could tell, kickin' her legs an' suckin' on her hands whenever one happened to pass close to her mouth. Her blue eyes never stopped movin,' focusing on my face for a while before turnin' to look up at the rafters, then back at the earring. I never thought that a one-week old baby could be so interesting, but hey, life was fulla surprises lately.

The soup was startin' to smell good, but somethin' else seemed a little…off. Tama had cleaned the stalls, so that wasn't it. I checked the baby's bottom: nope, all clear there. I inhaled again—an' went red when I realized the problem.

"Here, Tama." I handed him Yu-chan, who was sleepily suckin' on her fist, an' grabbed the bar of thick yellow saddle soap. I walked over to the door, staring out into the steady downpour.

Tama followed me, frowning. "What are you doing?"

"Goin' out to clean up."

"But it's cold out there. You'll get sick!"

Man, he sounded like a nervous fussbritches. I raised my eyebrows at his authoritative tone. "Listen, Tama, if I don't do somethin' about the way I smell, you all are gonna end up gettin' sick."

He came even closer, putting his face next to my neck. "You smell of sex," he said, and flashed this secret, seductive grin.

I swear, if he wasn't holdin' the baby, I woulda jumped him right there an' then! But even a bandit has his personal standards.

"Yeah, but take the smell of sex plus a few more hours in a warm barn, an' pretty soon the cows are gonna be kickin' my ass out. Don't worry 'bout me, Tama; just watch Yu-chan an' get a dry cloth ready, 'kay?"

Then I don't know what demon took hold of me, but right in front of him, I peeled off my shirt an' kicked off my trousers, then turned an' walked casually naked out into the downpour, aware of his shocked and longing stare.

Once out there, though, I forgot everything but the pleasure of gettin' clean. I'd walked out to a slight rise only about a hundred paces away from the barn, where the grass had stayed thick and green in spite of the punishing floods. The rain was fallin' hard an' steady but there was no wind, so it didn't feel like needles on my bare skin. It was chilly but not freezin' cold; the warm late summer air was prob'ly what caused the early monsoon, anyway.

I rinsed the saddle soap outta my hair by runnin' my fingers through the wet strands over an' over. Yeah, now I smelled like horse tack, but I'd rather smell like a clean horse than a filthy human any day. I tried to clean my back, but it was too hard to reach. The soap slipped from my grasp, an' I cursed briefly…until a pair of warm arms encircled my waist, holding out the fallen soap.

"Tama!" I gasped, feelin' his warm skin an' hard body pressed against mine. The fire flared up in me once more…but as always, there was the eternal question. "The baby?"

"In the manger, sleeping…like a baby."

I could hear the smile in his voice an' tried to turn to face him, but he held me where I was. I reached for the soap, but he pulled it back.

"No," he murmured into my neck. "I'm the one who made the mess; I'll be the one to clean it up."

I felt him trace my spine with the bar of soap, followed by the press of his fingers. He massaged my neck muscles, makin' me weak with pleasure, then reached all the way around me, pullin' me into him. His hands kept movin' all over my body, runnin' that soap bar everywhere—above, below, before, between—makin' me gasp an' writhe against him. The soap soon fell forgotten to the ground, an' then his hands took over, slidin' across my slippery skin, leavin' trails of fire wherever he touched. My head fell back against his shoulder, an' I could feel him hot an' hard between my thighs…an' I can't describe how wild all this felt! The cold rain, his hot fingers, his eager body—all these together sent bursts of sensation streamin' though me, pullin' me up as tight an' tense as a drawn bow.

Right at that moment, his fingers found my center…an' he began to play me, strokin' light an' hard, both insistent an' yielding, takin' me higher an' higher with every single touch. I pushed my shoulders against him as my back arched in ecstasy, and all I could think was how could he know me, know me as no one else has ever known me? I tried to hold on but it was too late—the lightning arced from his fingers throughout my entire body, an' I cried out as I came hard, clampin' my thighs helplessly around his hand. The waves kept comin' one after the other, flinging my body against him over and over again until I almost couldn't breathe anymore. Finally the sensations receded, an' my knees gave out. I would've collapsed on the ground if it wasn't for his arm strong around me, holding me tight against his body.

My head was bowed, an' I dreamily watched the water stream off my hair, feelin' him rain soft kisses on my neck. Outta the corner of my eye, I saw him flex his free hand a few times, an' the realization hit, snappin' me wide awake.

"Ah, shit, Tama, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to crush your hand; I couldn't help—"

He spun me around an' silenced me with a deep kiss that made my knees go weak all over again. Then he gripped my face, starin' into my eyes with an intense, burning gaze.

"Don't ever apologize to me for losing control." His voice was this sensual growl that made me shiver more than the cold rain. "I love making you come! I love watching you flare up, all passion and fire. You can't imagine what it does to me, to see you like that!"

Well, actually I could, feelin' him hard an' eager against my body. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind, an' I lowered my glance so that he couldn't see the mischief in my eyes.

"Well, all the same," I said casually, "I didn't mean to hurt ya. Let me make it up to ya." I picked up his hand, massaging it. "But I seem to remember hurtin' ya yesterday as well, an' I think you said I owed ya for that. So…"

I dropped his hand an' dropped to my knees at the same time, locking my arms around his waist an' takin' him into my mouth. I felt him freeze up in shock…an' if I wasn't so occupied, I coulda laughed at how he didn't know what to do. He pushed against my shoulders for a moment, but I only clung harder to him, so then he tried to talk me outta it. He was usin' these broken, incoherent phrases, tellin' me that I didn't hafta do what I was doin' an' that I didn't owe him anythin'—an' with every passin' second he grew more incoherent, which was fine with me. Finally he gave in to it, movin' with me instead tryin' to pull away, so now I could free up my hands to do even more things to his body.

And I learned so much in those few minutes as I drove him to ecstasy. I learned that you could look like the submissive one down on your knees, but in reality you held all the power. I learned that it was a real rush to know that you could make him gasp or moan or cry out, an' that his body was helpless in your embrace. I learned that makin' love in this way wasn't a question of technique but of your awareness of your lover: how well you could read every muscle twitch, spasm, or indrawn breath. And when you succeed, an' everything on his body tightens up preparatory to lettin' go—I learned that triumph is a pale word to describe the fierce, overwhelming exhilaration that rushes through your entire body.

That was the best moment: the moment when Tama finally let go. He shook his head so that the water flew from his hair in a spray of diamonds, then lifted his arms to the heavens and shouted in joy. And I thought that I'd never seen him look so wild and free, like a spirit made of rain and dreams.

After he'd given me all of himself, he sank down to join me, an' we clung to one another. I kissed the cool skin of his shoulder, savoring the salt an' bittersweet taste of him against my lips…an' my mind kept replayin' that earlier moment. I realized that he'd prob'ly never been so free in his life, bein' that he was forced to become the man of the family when he was still a little kid. An' somethin' sharp and tender pierced my breast, so that tears leaked slowly from my eyes. I felt him tremble against me, an' I realized that he was cryin' too. We just held each other a little tighter, somehow knowin' without words that what we were feelin' were emotions so intense, we could only express them in tears.

Finally the rain penetrated the warm glow around us, washin' away our tears. I started feelin' a little chilled.

"Hey, Tama," I said in a soft, joking voice. "Now we gotta get cleaned up again."

He pulled back an' grinned at me. "Are you saying that you want to start all over?"

"Baka!" I cuffed him affectionately. "We gotta check on the baby. Just hand me the soap, will ya?"

We cleaned up as fast as we could an' ran back to the barn, grabbin' up the cloths that Tama had left by the door. We dried off, shiverin,' then toweled each other's hair, laughin' like a coupla kids. Thank Suzaku, Yu-chan was still sleepin' peacefully, an' the soup was just startin' to simmer over the fire—damn, it felt like we'd been out there for hours, but I guess we weren't gone that long. Tama pushed me down on our bed of hay an' cloaks, an' pulled another cloak over us. We wrapped our arms around each other, rubbin' each other's skin to try to warm up.

Then I learned something else I'd never known before: that one of the best times you can share with your lover is after the sex, when both your bodies are replete and satisfied, but ya keep holding and caressing each other anyway. It seemed that everywhere he touched me, tension just melted away and my muscles relaxed into him, and from the way he sank against me, I'm guessin' he felt the same. I discovered that I could make him shiver by nibbling on his earlobes and lightly stroking the small of his back, and he found out that my pleasure points were the nape of my neck and the insides of my wrists.

I looked for something to say this time, some way to let him know how special he was to me, so I opened my mouth and this was what came out.

"I never felt this way before, Tama."

Oh, real original, Tasuki. Ya dumbshit.

He seemed to take it serious, though, lookin' at me with an expression both hopeful and doubting. "Look, I know that you have way more experience than I do—and it's all right. You don't have to say things just to please me."

"Fuck, that ain't what I'm doin'!"

Okay, settle down, Tasuki. Bitin' his head off ain't the way to show him you care—not unless yer a praying mantis, that is. Maybe if ya explain it clearer, he'll understand.

I took a deep breath an' started over. "Listen, maybe I've had sex a few more times than you have, but it's never been with anyone I cared about. I'd only been with whores, Tama, an' that ain't nothin' like what we've shared here. It's like…like there's this deadness behind their eyes, so that all ya see if ya bother to look is yer own reflection; no feelin' for anythin' except the money in yer pocket an' the sake in yer cup. An' if yer not a total dumbshit, ya realize that it's men like you who put that deadness there, an' if that ain't a big turnoff, then yer just as dead inside as they are. So ya push the thought outta yer mind an' keep yer eyes away from theirs, an' it all turns into this big act, where ya both laugh like yer havin' a good time but it's really just business: they want yer money, an' you just wanna get off. There's no joy or wonder in it: only two animals coupling who don't even see each other."

I guess I musta shivered or something, 'cause Tama pulled me close, turning my body so that he curled around my back.

"I see you, Tasuki," he whispered. "I've seen you all along." Suddenly he grew still.

I figured that he'd said more than he meant to, but for some reason, I felt like talking instead of running away from the truth. So I guessed it was my turn to confess.

"I see ya, too, Tama," I said softly. "I see ya…an' feel ya…but I can hardly believe it! I mean, how'd we get here, to this place where we're…together? Last night, when it all started—why'd ya look at me that way?"

There was a long pause, and all of a sudden, the air seemed heavy, as if it was pressin' down on us, robbing us of the power to speak or even breathe. It was like there was something bad in the room with us, something that wanted to hurt us. My hand automatically went to my back as if I still had the tessen with me, but instead of cold, hard metal, my hand bumped into warm flesh.

Just like that, the spell or whatnot was broken, an' I heard Tama draw in a deep breath as he curled his fingers around mine.

"Tasuki."

"Uh-huh?" I hoped my voice wasn’t as shaky as I felt.

"Do you remember the night we met?"

"Ya mean in the bar, right when all this started?"

"No." There was somethin' grim in the way he said that one word. "I meant the first time…in the gardens of the Kutou emperor."

Damn, if that wasn’t openin' a whole can of worms! I frowned, wonderin' why Tama would rather talk about that instead of answerin' my question, but somethin' made me go along with him.

I swallowed hard. "Sure I remember; it's not a night I'm likely to forget. But I didn't think you remembered any of it, Tama, what with the kodoku an' all."

I tried to figure out why my heart was knockin' against my ribs and why I was hopin' that he would say, 'Right, I don’t remember,' an' just leave it at that.

"I don’t remember most of it…"

My heart lifted…

"…but I remember parts of it. I remember you."

Shit! No luck after all. I wanted to say something, anything—even make some dumb joke to break the tension—but I seemed to be back under that spell that held me mute an' helpless. All I could do was tighten my fingers around his, an' wait for whatever it was he wanted to say.

His voice went on, steady but soft with a kind of wondering grief. "I can’t remember how I got there or what my motives were; I just remember standing there, facing you down. You looked like some kind of avenging spirit, ready to strike me down for my sins…and all I knew was that I had to kill you before you killed me. The thing was, I had no moral compass; I just wanted to kill and destroy, and it didn’t matter how I did it."

I felt him shudder behind me, an' I tightened my grip on his fingers. I wanted to say, ‘Just forget it! It’s all over; just forget about it!’ but somethin' deep inside me told me that I hadda let him talk.

"I remember you sheathing the tessen and putting up your fists, challenging me to fight hand-to-hand—and I didn’t even pause. I just saw my opening and took it, hitting you with those damn nanchakus over and over and OVER—!" His voice broke on a sob.

That was it. I twisted in his embrace and took him in my arms, holding him tight against me as he cried. I smoothed his hair, waiting until he stopped shuddering and sobbing. Finally he got quiet, an' I figured he was ready to hear me.

"Listen, Tama, it’s done. It’s over an' done with, an' I got past it a long time ago."

I hesitated, remembering my resentment towards him, a resentment I still held until a couple of weeks ago. I shrugged internally. There were times when it was best to tell the truth—but this wasn’t one of 'em. Fuck it, I was gonna tell him what he needed to hear.

"Anyway," I continued, my voice carefully light, "it's not like you coulda done me any real damage; you ain’t got what it takes. It's not that easy to kill me."

He finally laughed, though it sounded more like a sob. His words were muffled against my chest. "That’s what you kept saying that night. No matter what I did to you, you kept getting up again and defying me—"

"Look, can’t we just forget about this?" I was real uncomfortable with the whole situation, so I did the usual an' started gettin' pissed off. "It's over already! I don’t know how many times I gotta keep tellin' ya that!"

He pulled back an' met my eyes. "No, I'm sorry, but I'm going somewhere with this, Tasuki. I promise I won’t break down again."

He flushed a little at that, an' somethin' in me melted at the sight of his red eyes and embarrassment. Damned if he wasn't makin' me feel all girly again!

"Look," I said. "Seein' as ya hadda put up with about five hundred cryin' jags from me, I think that I owe ya at least one or two, huh? Don’t worry about it."

He stared at me for a second. "It's different…" he said, real soft and quiet, like he was talkin' to himself instead of me.

"What's so different about it?"

"No…I meant this feeling. It's different, not having to be the strong one all the time."

We both fell silent at that. I knew what—or who—he was talkin' about, an' I really didn't want to go there. I didn't want Real Life stickin' its nose into our little fantasy world…so I did a typical guy thing. I changed the subject to somethin' only a little less dangerous.

"So anyway, ya said that there was a point to relivin' the warm memories of our first meeting?"

He flashed a brief smile at my smartass remark but grew serious again right away. "Yes. I'm…I'm trying to answer your question, Tasuki, but it’s kind of…a long answer."

Relief swept through me at the turn in the conversation. Good, we were finally done with the painful shit! Feelin' cheerful again, I waved an expansive hand around the little barn. "Take your time. It’s not like I got people lined up to see me."

Tama sat up an' turned toward the door, draping his arms around his knees. "Well…the next part has to do with the night of the baby’s birth."

Shit. So much for cheerful. I was gonna give him about two minutes before I kicked his ass—or maybe kissed him—into a better frame of mind.

Tama was too lost in his memories to notice my darkening mood. He stared out into the rain, his eyes cloudy and distant. "I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life," he finally said.

That shocked me. "You gotta be shittin' me! You were the only one who knew what was goin' on, Tama; I was too busy screamin' an' yellin' to be any help."

He turned his face to mine, shocking me even more. He was so pale, his skin alabaster white against his dark hair and eyes, makin' him look as haunted as a hundred-year ghost. "That's the thing, don't you see? That's what scared me. To watch you scream like that…to hear you begging for death…I knew that what you were going through had to be torment beyond my darkest nightmares."

I flushed, embarrassed. "Nah, you know me, Tama; always gotta be the emperor of drama."

"No, that’s not true." He set his jaw. "You forget, I saw the way you were in Kutou. I broke nearly every bone in your body, and you never screamed or begged for mercy. You kept fighting and snarling…so when I saw you like that, just a few nights ago, I knew that you had been pushed beyond any man's endurance. I knew that the pain had to be tearing you apart—and I was so angry!"

He was breathin' hard now, an' I was almost afraid to touch him. That oni sign was glowin' an' his eyes were all wild—an' I couldn’t help glancing at the manger, calculating how fast I could grab the baby and get the hell outta the barn before he blew it up.

"I swore to myself…" his voice grew cold with deadly intent, "…I swore that if you died, I was going to hunt down that sorceress and tear her limb from limb—but not before I made her experience every last moment of the agony she inflicted on you!"

Okay, I guess I shoulda been flattered that Tama had been so protective of me, but the truth was that right then, I was scared shitless. I believed every word he said, an' it didn't give me the warm fuzzies, if ya know what I mean. He was every bit as terrifying as he had been that time on the slave ship, an' all I could think was that I hadda stop him before somebody—includin' him—got hurt.

"But Tama, I didn't die." I used this real soft, reasonable voice, like I was talkin' to a child…or a madman. "Everything turned out okay—better than okay—an' I'm still here with ya, see?"

He turned his eyes to me—an' just like that, he was back to bein' Tama, just like that other time. That red light faded from his forehead, and he looked at me, his eyes shining with something so warm and real that I felt myself get choked up, and hadda blink hard a coupla times to stay in control.

"Yeah, you're here with me," he repeated, "and everything seems like a miracle…"

"Especially Yugetsu," I interrupted, embarrassed for no reason I could put a finger on.

"Not only her." He swallowed hard, but kept on talking. "Listen, I know that in the beginning, you didn't want the baby—"

"Hey," I bristled a little, "I might not've liked being turned into a pregnant woman, but I never set out to hurt the baby." I paused, suddenly remembering how I'd begged Chichiri to get rid of "it" for me, and how pissed I was when he and Nuriko refused. "I mean, once I realized that it was a real baby and not just some freaky stomach-growing spell."

"I know that. But I also know…. Once in a while, in my village, a woman would go through a bad time in childbirth, and sometimes afterwards, if she survived…well, sometimes, she would be kind of…angry at the baby, and wouldn't want to have anything to do with it, not feeding it or anything."

I started to tense up again, but he gripped my arm. "Let me finish, Tasuki. You hadn't asked for this baby in any way, and you went through hell to give birth to her—and I know how you can hold a grudge against someone who's hurt you—so I was a little worried that…. But that's not what happened. You never held back with Yugetsu; you gave her everything you had, just as if you'd planned for her to be a part of your life all along. And I…"

His eyes dropped away from mine, and his voice got real soft, so that I had to strain to hear him. "I wanted to be part of that, too. I saw how you held her and loved her, and I realized that your fire could warm someone instead of burn them, so…I wanted some of that for myself." He gave a short, self-conscious laugh. "It sounds selfish, I know, but after all this time and all that we've been through together, I just…. So I guess that's what you saw in my face last night. Although never in my wildest dreams did I think that you would ever—that you would give me…everything."

There're times when you can find the right thing to say—and then there're times when words, no matter how fine, would cheapen the moment, if you know what I mean.

So I didn't say anything. I just lifted his chin with one hand and looked deep into his eyes. Understand me, Tama. If I gave you anything, it was only because you deserved it a hundred times over. I took his hand and placed it on my chest, so that he could feel my heart beating strong against him. Everything I have is for Yu-chan…and you.

Then I leaned in and took his lips as gently as I could. It wasn't about sex this time, or about playing with sensations of desire. It was something deeper than passion, something darker and stronger than need. It beat in my chest as silent and real as my heart, and I parted my lips, wanting to breathe him in, feel him, make him part of me….

The kiss lasted for a heartbeat, a century, or maybe eternity—I don't know. Time didn't seem to mean anything anymore. When we finally drew apart, I saw my fear reflected in his eyes. Because we'd done it now, hadn't we? We'd turned some kind of corner, and now what we had wasn't fireworks and fantasy, but something real.

Something that we were gonna hafta deal with in our real lives.

But the thing is that no matter how much you wanna sit in a corner and just think things out, Life tends to get in your face and make you deal with the moment. Maybe Yugetsu woke and cried, or maybe the soup bubbled over; I can't remember which. All I know is that the day went on with all the things we had to do: feeding Yu-chan, ourselves, and the animals, warming up water to clean the baby and her bottom cloths, mucking out the stalls again and changing the hay.

Tama and I talked, sure; some brief jokes and such, but it was like we were just going through the motions, waiting for…we didn't know what. It was like we were both mulling things over, and only interrupted our thoughts to keep from being weirdly silent. At one point, I looked up from placing a sleepy Yu-chan in her manger, and I realized that night had fallen. Tama had lit the lamps and the fire without me even noticing.

I noticed now, though. I noticed him, and suddenly the fire was inside me as well. We moved towards each other and melded our bodies together, and we realized that this was what we'd been waiting for—this chance to share everything that we had.

We made love in every way that we could think of, Tama having just as many ideas as me. Not that everything worked out perfect every time. I got a piece of advice for men everywhere—unless your woman's an Imperial acrobat, she ain't gonna like having her knees shoved back behind her ears. But Tama just picked himself up from where I'd kicked him halfway across the barn, laughed, and said, "Guess that looked better on paper than in real life," and got back to business.

I found out that my favourite position was on top—not because of any dominance shit, but because this was the way I could see his face the whole time. I loved to watch the pleasure wash across his features as I tightened and relaxed while moving up and down on him. But what I loved most was that moment just before he climaxed. His eyes opened wide, innocent with astonished joy—and right then, I knew that I held everything that was pure and real and Tamahome in my hand…

…in my heart.

Afterwards, Tama pulled me into him so that my back curved against his chest. He tucked his face into the spot where my neck met my shoulder, and the feel of his slightly rough chin against my skin made me shiver, but in a good way.

Tama pulled back, running a hand over his face. "Um, I forgot to shave again."

"Nah, don't; I like it that way."

He laughed and gently pushed me onto my stomach, tracing his fingers along my back. "You're incredible."

I tilted my face to look at him over my shoulder. "Look who's talking. Speaking of which—how the hell did a virgin like you ever get those kinda ideas about lovemaking?"

He laughed. "I had this martial arts sifu back when I was ten. He was a sort of pervert—no, I take that back. He was a total pervert, but the best fighter and the best teacher. And no wonder, because he'd been a warrior himself, a Bya—well, never mind that part. Anyway, he tried to teach me that learning to make love to women was equally as important as learning fighting techniques. I was only ten, though, so I argued that money was the only thing that was important. I went on believing that until—"

"Last night," I said, and got a light smack on the ass for my smart mouth.

"Shut up. As I was saying, I believed that until I reached puberty—"

"Last night," I interrupted again, and got smacked again.

"Do you want to hear this story or not?"

"All right, all right; go on." I rested my chin on my hands, smirking.

"Anyway, when he left, he gave a few of his scrolls to me. Picture scrolls. And the older I got, the more interesting the pictures became—"

"I get it now. Though I'll advise ya to ink out those pictures with any weird contortions in 'em."

"Don't worry, I learned my lesson," he replied ruefully, rubbing his own ass where he'd landed hard on the ground.

About that time, Yu-chan musta figured that we'd had enough of a break, because she woke up complaining again. We went through our usual routine of feeding and changing her, and then I laid her between us. Tama caught hold of my hair—silken fire, he called it—and dangled a strand of it to tickle Yu-chan's face, laughing when she wrinkled her nose at him.

I smiled at them both. "She don't look much like me, Tama. If anything, she looks more like you, with her dark hair and all."

He yawned, releasing my hair and cuddling the baby against his chest. "I wish I could take credit for this little beauty," he murmured sleepily. "She's a real heartbreaker."

I held my breath, waiting for him to continue, but his breathing just grew slower and deeper, and I realized that the two of them were asleep.

As he slept with my baby on his chest, I thought over his words. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I'd always planned on finding that sorceress and making her change me back to normal. I never really considered what would happen if we never found her again.

But now, I faced that possibility. What would I do if I was stuck in this female form for the rest of my life? This sure as hell wasn't the way I'd imagined my life would turn out.

But if Tama was there with me…and if we ended up making a little brother or sister for Yu-chan…maybe life wouldn't be so bad after all.

Ya see, that's the trouble with being a woman. It only takes you a moment to dream the impossible—and half as long to convince yourself that it might be possible after all.

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To be continued…

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Author note: Thank you for your patience in awaiting Chapter 3, and for reading "Unexpected" up to this point. I plan to have the fourth and final chapter posted within a month.

My special gratitude to the reviewers; your input means a great deal to me.

-Aenisses- 29-January-2006
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Unexpected