/fadebackin...

Their first time had been somewhat rushed, somewhat uncomfortable. This time...

Looking up at the stars, Yul took a deep breath. "Mmm, Mumei..." This time, it was much more of a purr than a growl. Grinning and still flushed, Yul turned his head to look at the woman that after spending just a few days with, he was having trouble imagining life without. "Wow. I can't believe we waited two whole days to try doing that again. Only, you know," he waved an arm around, somewhat bonelessly, before draping it over her. "-without all the added complications this time." Blood and dinosaurs were complications, right?

"Well, those rooms at the Wisteria are not really made for privacy," she chuckles, curling against him. "I'm really liking the 'without added complications' version of this." She kisses his shoulder and gives a light shove at his arm. "So...let's avoid new ones like...getting chased out of the orchard naked by some kind of farm patrol. Mainly by avoiding the naked part. I'm not sure Otori riding would be comfortable that way."

She gives him a sidelong grin, "Unless that's also a challenge you think you need to face down despite advice?"

Yul grinned. "Are you daring me to run naked somewhere? Just you watch, I'll run naked somewhere." He shifted, as though rising, but then, still grinning, leaned back in for a kiss instead, gentle and tender.

He sighed, smiling ruefully. "Well... maybe starting by not taking that challenge is the path towards not taking others. It's probably good for me." His lips quirked. "Even if it means you covering up." His eyes flickered briefly over her figure.

Casting about with both hands, he found... her pants first. He offered them to her with a smile before grabbing his own.

She shivers with a chuckle throughout the kiss, fingers toying with his hair, more loose than not now. "Oh, I'll be a lot clearer with that kind of dare. I've seen that on long haul a time or two. There was always a lot of drinking involved." That kind of thing just got people assigned to nasty cleaning chores. Not like the absolute dumbasses who decided to play naked airlock chicken. She was pretty sure they'd been grounded forever when dumped at the next station.

Taking the pants, she lifts something near her foot, held between somewhat disturbingly mobile toes. "Pretty sure this is yours." The white tank top is pretty distinct in the moonlight.

After a few minutes of finding and pulling on a relatively simple set of clothes, she sighs. "But...speaking of dangerous dares and learning which challenges are worth walking away from... Well, this world is even more dangerous than just, giant lizards and poison mushrooms."

Yul grinned. "Thank you." He said. He grabbed her ankle with one hand to steady it, snatching his tank top with the other. Before too long, he too was dressed, and resecuring most of his loose hairs back into his ponytail.

Afterwards, Yul sat on the blanket, knees pulled up towards his chest. He looked at her curiously, tilting his head. "Oh? What do you mean?" He let his hand rest on her back, between her shoulder blades. The bond between them pretty much required a physical touch, at least at the moment, he thought.

She leans into that touch, then scoots to sit beside him, facing the opposite direction, her own knees pulled up and leaning in a bit against his knees. "The kami bear warnings about the things they are doing up at the Mori shrine. They might be tearing open a portal to return this world to the hold of another realm." She pauses entwining her fingers with his. "This would not be good for anyone on the planet."

Yul smiled, leaning slightly back against her, savoring each moment of closeness. The smile, though, faded as she spoke.

"Wait, what? Does that mean... move it out of Ningen-do? Is that possible? Just how bad would that be?" Yul's forehead creased; this was a danger he didn't understand. After a moment, he managed a smile again, giving her fingers, entwined with his a little squeeze; it wasn't clear even to him which of them it was meant to comfort. Probably both. "Is there something that can be done?"

"I don't think it means that, no. More like...what was this place like before it was pacified? They've been...somehow feeding some spirit the kami called the yellow king for who knows how long." She swallows. "I want to pick you up and run again...but if I can do something to stop this?" A deep breath. "Maybe I'm the one who needs to let go of the challenge this time? We've been talking to the governor's daughter. They should be the ones dealing with it. Maybe just...stopping the rituals will be enough? It will all fade away with no new energy?"

"But we don't know that. It's just as likely that the spirit will be furious and enact some other kind of horrible revenge that is just as dangerous." Her grip grows almost painfully tight in her frustration. "I need better answers...while fearing to do the research that might give them to me at the temple because who knows how many members of this sect are working there?"

"Mumei..." Leaning forward, Yul brought her hand, still entwined with his, to his lips. He kissed it, just above her wrist, lips lingering a few moments before he returned their hands to where they rested, on their knees. "I think you're right. If something can be done, well, we have to try, right?" That we felt very natural on his lips.

His thumb rubbed gently against the side of her hand. "Is there anything I can do to help?" He grimaced briefly. "I can't help with research, but maybe I can help protect you while you do, or something?" This time, she would feel his hand tighten a little in distress.

"I'm probably being paranoid, honestly. Nobody is going to try and do anything in the library. But...I might avoid lonely rooftops." She smiles a bit, and leaves what might be done a bit vague pending the outcome of several other meetings.

"It helps a little knowing there's someone other than a kind of motley bunch of shugenja in the ring, so to speak." Adjusting her deathgrip on his hand, she brings his to her cheek, kissing his palm, murmuring, "OK, after that, the next one's not so bad since it sounds like it's taken care of. But don't head out toward the shrine of the old ship, hmm?"

Sighing, a mix of relief and satisfaction, Yul cupped his hand against her cheek, smiling as she kissed his palm. "Well, if you do want to go up on a rooftop, hey, you know I'm good for it." Yul flashed a grin at her. Wow, so much had happened since then.

With his hand against her cheek, it wouldn't be possible for Mumei to miss the way Yul suddenly tensed. The strange look that flickered across his handsome features wouldn't be missed either. Yul cleared his throat. "Ah... that one I may know something about. Although I'm kinda in a bind here. I gave my word on... something. Can you tell me what you know about it?" Yul's jaw tensed, as he found himself suddenly between love and honor. Perhaps.

She looks up in surprise as he tenses, eyes finding his and narrowing in confusion. "There's something unnatural there and dangerous, I'm told by someone who was there. The word 'zombies' may have been thrown around."

"Told by someone who was there." Yul echoed, sighing with... not quite relief, but something like it. "Good enough."

He met her gaze, his expression serious. "I was there, too. And zombies... yeah, pretty close. Some sort of mushroom-person zombies. There was a big one, too, being ordered around by... someone." Yul grimaced.

He shifted a little, his legs moving against hers. "Unfortunately, I guess the Phoenix found out I was there. I've got to tell them what I know." His lips pressed together.

Without a bit of subtlety, she climbs into his lap, fully expecting his knees to move to make room as she wraps her arms around his ribs, chin on his shoulder. "Best miai, worst miai, I swear. I don't know why I'm not more upset that I had no idea you were out trying not to get eaten by mushroom zombies."

"Oh. Hey." Yul murmured, suddenly smiling again as Mumei climbed into his lap, his knees instantly shifting for her. His arms encircled her, squeezing her against him, even as he rubbed his cheek against hers. "It wasn't that bad, really. You saw a lot worse later that day." He turned his head, kissing her cheek. "And a lot better."

Yul sighed pleasantly, inhaling the scent of her hair as it brushed his nose. "Yeah, I gotta say, it's not at all what I expected. Good or bad." He gave her a little squeeze. "Hey. Come find me before you go anywhere tomorrow, huh? With all this crazy stuff that's going on... I think I'd just feel better, you know?"

"That was the same day?!" She sits back, eyes on his. "Bishamon's smile, that's...a lot...OK. I'm ok, you're fine...we'll figure out how to not end up lost in some weird realm..." There's a long, calming breath, and she leans in to kiss him, hands cupped around his face, lips tugging at his, greedy for the reassurance of touch telling her that these things are true, even if that last one is completely up in the air.

Breaking away, hands smoothing back his hair and dropping to his shoulders, she nods. "Yeah. Come have tea in the common room for a few minutes or something?"

Yul's sheepish smile was stopped by Mumei's lips, his arms tightening around her, drinking in all the sensations of her. "Yeah. Tea, and a few minutes at least." Yul murmured as they parted. His hands settled pleasantly on her back. "And... maybe we can catch each other before bed, too?" His lips curled up. "Make sure we have pleasant dreams."

He tilted his head back, looking up. "Help me find it again? I was never good at this stuff." Yul squinted as he tried to find his home planet once more.

"mmm, morning and night? So greedy," she teases with a smile full of promises. "But I think I like that kind of greed. For the sake of pleasant dreams, of course."

Leaning back against his hands, she looks to the sky with him, taking a moment to orient herself. "Up there, near the one that has a bit of a red cast." Her hand lifts to point into the hazy, star-studded sky."

"I'll show you greedy..." Yul couldn't help himself as Mumei looked up, trailing kisses along her jaw, down to her neck, arms tightening around her...

But, of course, he did ask her the question. Yul looked up as well, following her directions. "Wow." He said again, grinning. "That really is amazing. There's so much I wanna do with you there. I guess meeting my parents comes first..."

He paused, pursing his lips. "I know you've mentioned your mother before." A slight shift of his head, and his cheek brushed warmly against hers; for all he knew, this was a difficult subject.

Looking to the stars they'd travel among, in one another's arms, is a memory Mumei can tell she's going to hold on to. Like every moment, it's fleeting.

She turns a bit to brush her lips against Yul's cheek. "Ahh, but not my father, yeah?" Settling ageinst him comfortably, she slips her arms beneath his to hold close, as she continues speaking beside his ear where she can just look out at the dark fields. "Well, mom never talked about him, so who am I to break that tradition?" she says, a bit flippantly.

Tone shifting with a sigh he can feel against his own chest, within encircling arms, she continues, "She chose, I think, freedom from loving someone and forever leaving them someplace else as she pulled ships through space. I'm sure they made her cough up a name for the records that no doubt came to the miai with me. Whoever it is...may well not have known I exist." Hugging tighter, she adds, "Right now, I pity her for not having this, even if there's an ocean of space between...knowing this is worth it."