Things Look Better with One Eye Closed

"Don't die, Yoko," Ktiai said. "Please don't die. I don't know what I'd do if you did. Too many people have died already." She wrapped her arms around him again, as though her embrace could stop his life from slipping away. If he did die by Hel's hand, then she would try to evade the end of the world as long as she could to try to give the kids as much life as possible. If he died ending the war, then Birch or Arakil could help her raise them, but life would be a lot more lonely without him.

"I won't, I won't," he said calmly, returning Kitais embrace and hoping to calm her down. He really didn't want to die either, but it was just so hard to see any other option. The worst senario would be him getting replaced. If it weren't for all the deals he had made with Hel, no doubt the goddess would've already made a direct move on the Rebellion. "Kitai. I promise you now, that I will always be here," he added gently. Even if you can't see me.

"I just want this to all be over soon," Kitai said. One of her greatest fears was of Yoko dying in some way during the war. But her second greatest fear was if Hel decided to go after her and the kids to hurt Yoko. After all, when the small group of Rebellion retreated to the lake, Lyre had been sent to try to rip to unborn Aodan out of Quill's stomach. And Kitai knew that she would be defenseless if something like that happened.

Yoko was torn. He had two options before him, two different paths. One, was where he selfishly tried to stick this out - hoping that things would turn out okay - and every day place Kitai, their children, and the entire country. No. The entire world in harms way. With the other path, he could kill himself. He could find a guillotine, or just piss of Akaelin. Hel would die, everyone would be safe, and Kitai would be free to raise their children in peace. He was sure that she would get plenty of help from Birch, Quill, Akaelin, Nathifa, maybe even Arakil. He wasn't needed. He wasn't nessicary.

"It'll be over soon."

"Please don't kill yourself Yoko," Kitai pleaded. "I know you could be thinking that, but I couldn't live with myself if you did. I know you don't consider yourself my mate, but I still love you, even if you were the one that was trying to destroy the world I would still love you."

Confusion.

Mass confusion.

"I'm not your mate because I couldn't give you what you deserve, Kitai," Yoko said. "I can't protect you."

Though he was trying so hard.

"I can't make you happy."

Despite the fact that she always grinned when she saw him.

"I'm not entirely sane."

Though his words came out perfectly clear.

"And... you've seen that helpless, childlike side of me. The one that can't even think straight enough to tie his own shoes."

But now he could. Yoko let out a small breath, trying to bring his usual smile back. There was no doubt that Yoko loved Kitai in the same way that she loved him. The werewolf was probably just being hormonal though. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," he said reassuringly. "Do you need to go lay down?"

"Yoko, you're the only person that always makes me happy," Kitai said. "I get into fights with Quill, Birch can be a jerk, and even Jetta isn't perfect. But I'm always happy to see you."

It was like there was a force that bound her to him now, tying her to him for as long as they remembered each other. A glowing shield that was there sanctuary, keeping out the shadows of their souls while they were together. A desire to always e with him washed through her.

"I'll lay down with you," she said in an uncharacteristic moment.

((For whatever reason, I can picture Kitai being more hormonal than Quill. Just because you'd think that Quill would be the worse one. XD))

Yoko raised an eyebrow at Kitais uncharacteristic comment. The way he saw it, there were two options.

One, she was still being hormonal.

Or two...

"Quill?" he dared to ask, wondering if Kitais twin had forced her out of her body. He knew that they could switch souls, and Quill seemed devious enough to butt in on a conversation.

"No, I'm Kitai," she said. "And I do love you, and I don't know when I'll see you again. I want this." Kitai lifted up onto her toes a bit so she could plant a kiss on Yoko's neck. "I'm already pregnant, nothing more can happen."

Yoko gave a light shudder at Kitais actions, looking down at the werewolf through slightly hooded lids. This was so unfair. He rested his hands on the tree behind her, mentally scolding himself for taking advantage of the werewolf. Especially now.

But resisting temptation had never been one of Yokos strong points. And Kitai, with her fairly narrow waist, finely sculpted legs and delicate neck was quite tempting indeed. He bent down and firmly kissed the spot on the werewolfs jaw that she so favored, all control breaking.

Selfish was he.

Kitai leaned into Yoko's kiss and surrendered all control of herself to her body, letting her mind shut down almost completely. She noticed things like the feel of the muscles on Yoko's back, his taste as her tongue touched his skin, but didn't give what she was doing any more thought.

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"Let me go monster!" Arakil struggled under Quill's pin. She had led him a good ways away from Kitai and Yoko and had easily evaded all of her brother's attacks and pinned him to the ground.

"Be reasonable, I'm not going to eat you," Quill said. "You're part of Kitai's guard and she would be very sad if you were dead. I have a mate and a child now; I'm not quite the same person who left Chalca all those years ago."

CENSOR

It's for you're own good Yoko

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Akaelin lifted his head as a wind kicked up, bringing to him a familiar scent. He looked over at Arlyn, who seemed to have recognized the smell as well. The older wolf shook his gray flecked muzzle, and Akaelin gave a characteristic pout. If Yoko was near, and with Kitai, he was probably distracted. It would be the perfect time to move in and kill the wormy little bastard.

Arlyn didn't say anything, but still held Akaelin with that eerie, unflinching lime green gaze of his. The younger wolf easily got the message, but that didn't mean that he was going to listen.

"If I let you up, are you going to try to kill me?" Quill asked, shifting her weight backward on her brother. "I'm not going to sit here all day."

"Yes," Arakil answered

"Well, at least you're honest." Quill got up off of Arakil and turned her back. When he swung his sword at her she pulled up a single one of her needles to block it, slicing the sword in half. Finding the cache of voxine was one of the best things that had happened to her under Set. "If you want that fixed you better go see Kitai about it later, because i'm not sure you want to disturb her right now. There's a reason I led you away from those two."

Oh god. Dear fuckin' god...

Akaelin dry heaved, resisting the urge to vomit. He had thought that when he went looking for Yoko, he would find him sitting with Kitai, trying to think up names for their children.

What a surprise he got. It was almost as traumatizing when he had walked in on his mother having sex with a stranger. And he had been a child back then. Thankfully, Kitai and Yoko had seemed to absorbed in what they were doing that they didn't seem to notice him. Akaelin was no stranger to sex, but seeing his brother naked had been one of the last things he had ever wanted to see. At least the fox had gained some weight and looked healthy now, instead of sickly skinny. He shuddered and trudged back to where Arlyn lay, a sly 'I told you so' expression on his face.

Kitai thought that she might have heard something, but was too absorbed to notice anything outside the sphere of anything Yoko-related.

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Quill laughed as she walked back into the inn, followed by Arakil. He wasn't stupid enough to try fighting her with nothing but his bare hands. "I take it they weren't discussing baby names?" She asked Akaelin with a snicker.

"Kitai is-?" Arakil asked.

"Yup. She doesn't get to see him too often, so not even a heart-touching family reunion should interfere with them."

'Nope,' Akaelin mumbled as Quill passed him on her way into the Inn. Arlyn threw his head back in laughter. 'Akaelin, things tend to happen when you leave a man alone with a hormonal woman. You should know that by now,' the older wolf chuckled, crossing his paws in a comfortable laying position.

Syn was slightly confused, but Vane had put two and two together. "When are you going to learn to listen to the old man?" he snickered, then immediately regretted it.

'Old man, am I?' Arlyn asked curiously, rising to his paws. Vane squeaked and held his hands up in surrender. 'Bet I could still kick your ass,' the wolf added slyly as Vane took off, Arlyn in hot pursuit.

Kitai wanted to stay with Yoko here like this forever, but she could see that the sky was starting to get close to sunset. She remembered the last time that the bird-ladies had come at nightfall and didn't want that to happen again. Hoping that Yoko wouldn't notice how late it was getting, Kitai wrapped her legs around him as though she could physically stop him from going

((lol, shortpost))

It took awhile for Yoko to notice the slight change in Kitais behavior. She seemed a bit tense, almost desprete and reluctantly, he paused, trying to figure out what was wrong. It was then that he noticed the setting sun, and figured that she must be remembering the bird ladies. "I'm not leaving yet," he said, nibbling the base of her neck.

((Kitai = fun to nom on xD))

Kitai lifed her hips up against Yoko's when he stopped, not wanting it to end quite yet. "Good," she panted when he announced that he wasn't going to be leaving quite yet. "I'm not done with you yet." She wiggled her tail out from under her body to brush it down his spine.

Yoko was surprised at how good that simple action could feel. Then again, he had recently learned that Kitai was rather full of surprises.

CENSOR

Because you're worth it

The sun was setting, and Akaelin prepared to settle down for the night. He was far from tired, but there really wasn't much else to do at the moment until they were ready to head back to Kanten. The image of Yoko and Kitai resurfaced in his mind, and the wolf shuddered, really wishing he hadn't been so intent on killing the fox.

Birch looked up from the far as a two men and a woman entered the inn. He got up from his bar stool and walked over to the man in front with a grin on his face. "It's good to see you, Icespitter," Birch said.

"Glad to see you haven't died quite yet Birchwind," the man replied in a gravelly voice. "I heard all about the wars that were going on in your continent. Found a mate yet?"

"As a matter of fact, he has." The group of guard members jumped to attention as Quill flowed over to Birch's side and slipped an arm around his waist. She gave a nod to the woman. "It's been a while Cricket." The woman used to play with Kitai and Quill when she was young and in the guard's training. "You too, Greentail."

Arlyn came into the Inn, dragging a limp Vane in cheetah form through the door. The wolf laid him down on the floor and rolled him over, revealing the fact that he wasn't dead, only momentarily stunned. His tail wagged slightly, obviously pleased with himself. He trotted back to the Inn to where Akaelin and a few others were camped.

((I can be on for a little bit now, but then will be on later))

The man that Quill refered to as Greentail snapped and took a step toward her. "How dare you speak so casually to us after what you did to your family - to your parents!" The woman referred to as Cricket placed a hand on his shoulder to gently warn him back as he turned his attention to Birch. "And you just take her as your mate! What kind of sick kicks do you get out of her, huh?! And Wolfslayer is just sitting back there doing nothing! He took his name from his desire to kill her and now he's just going to let her go?! Wolfslayer, Kitai would be ashamed of you!" Greentail stormed out of the inn. Cricket and Icespitter turned toward Arakil also, but with more curiosity in their eyes than anger.

"She's beyond our ability to kill," Arakil admitted, holding up the two halves of his sword. "She did this with a mere needle and didn't use anywhere near her full strength when she fought me. So far she has expressed no desire to kill us and claims to have changed in the eight years that she has been away. And someone tell Greentail that Kitai hugged me, and I'm sure she'd be glad to do the same for him."

"She's alive?" Cricket asked

"As a werewolf, but yes," Arakil responded. "Quill interrupted before I could ask how it happened."

Arlyn sighed as he heard the yelling in the Inn from his position just outside the town. Everyone attacking Quill wherever she went was getting kind of old. 'Have you given any thought to the upcoming war, Akaelin?' he asked as he laid back down, a bit tired from his little adventure with Vane. Akaelin rolled over onto his back, paws up towards the slowly darkening sky. 'A bit...I'm just not sure how to go about the whole army thing.'

'Consider King Ramses.'

The younger wolf rolled back over onto his stomach to listen to what Arlyn had to say.

'He fought a great battle against the Hittites, but won by sheer luck. His army had been so scattered, that if it weren't for such luck, he would've failed. However, it was this scattering that saved him in the end. Luckily, a division of his army that had been fifteen miles away was able to reach the battle site on time, and attack the Hittites from behind.'

'Sooo... are you saying that we should scatter? Or that we shouldn't?' Akaelin guessed.

'Well... Consider Lavalette. 81 years old. He was 81 years old when he led the seige of malta against the turks, fending off wave after wave of attacks using only carefully arranged pikemen and archers,' Arlyn said, seemingly ignoring his nephews question.

Quill just smirked and went back to her seat at the bar. "I promise you though, if you try to kill me in my sleep or such you will be very surprised," she said, not doubting in the least that one of them would try it. "And don't go looking for Kitai."

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Nathifa popped in from the pantheon's realm to just outside of the inn where she had sensed the highest concentration of Rebellion members. She saw a face that bore a high resemblence to Kitai and Quill, but didn't really think much of it - she was too busy looking for Akaelin. The meeting she had called to try to garner help had gone nowhere. The other gods said that they couldn't interfere in the mortal world at the moment, but would deal with any other gods still inside their own realm that the triumverate might try to summon help from.