Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

Sakura made a stalk on a rabbit in the trees, her feet slipping cautiously along the pine needles and dirt. She watched it rear up on its hind legs, lick its paws, and clean its face and ears. A twinge of gloom and guilt nagged at her. She loved bunnies. She loved their big floppy ears, their little twitchy noses, their adorable cotton ball tails. They were so soft and docile and so very cute when they ran and hopped wildly in the air, twisting their little bodies around playfully. She loved them so much.

But she also loved the way they tasted.

She said a silent prayer for the sweet, gray rabbit as she expertly drew a dagger from her thigh, positioning it just so and…

Snap

Barely a millisecond the rabbit froze before vanishing into the brush. The fox gnashed her teeth and replaced the dagger, turning dangerously towards the sound.

Ren stood there, holding the offending foot above the branch he had just destroyed. He smiled nervously. “Oh... sorry,” he offered sheepishly.

She closed her eyes and tried to breathe herself back to calm. “Maybe we’ll just eat you,” the demon growled, looking back at the spot the rabbit had been.

The angel stuffed his hands into his pants pockets and made his way closer to the woman. “I wish you would,” he muttered to himself.

Sakura’s head snapped back towards him, having heard him perfectly well. “What?”

“Huh?” he chuckled, acting coy. “I see you missed a rabbit there. That’s unfortunate.”

“Why are you here?” She shook her head, frustrated at losing a meal and the man’s incompetence. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I don’t care. If you’re gonna follow me around then you need to help and stop…”

The entire forest lit up impossibly bright just as a deafening crack of thunder exploded around them. Sakura crouched over, covering her folded down ears, cursing at the pounding in her brain as cold began to pelt against her.

Cold?

The woman jerked up, her eyes wide. Ren had only been a few feet away but he was now just barely visible through the snow squall that now assaulted them.

“Ren!” Her voice instantly stolen away by the roar of the storm. The two stepped to each other and she grabbed his arm, pulling him down. “Ivy and Zero!” she screamed in his ear. “We have to find them!”

He shook his head, conflicted by the harsh reality of the situation. His first instinct was to find the pair as well, but he didn’t even know where they could be at this point. It would be a fool’s errand to go after them. They would only freeze to death in the boundless white abyss.

“We have to go!” the man yelled at the woman. Her eyes went aghast and she started to pull away but he grabbed her before she could bolt. “You will die!” Ren screamed in the vixen’s face and crushed her body against his. “Coat,” he said into his bracelet. A long, black coat fell from a bead and he encased it around the struggling woman before throwing her over his shoulder, trying to make it to the road as quickly as he could with the demon fighting him every step of the way.

The snow was piling rapidly, but Ren was able to make it back to the road and hurry down it in search for a cave. By the time it reached halfway up his calf, an opening appeared in the mountain and he rushed into it. It had been exhausting having to plow his legs through the heavy snow while the enraged woman persistently pummeled him the entire way, her fists beating at his back as her knees smashed into his ribs. There was little doubt she had even bit him at some point.

“Let me go!” Sakura screamed. The storm had muffled her frenzied cries, but now that they were protected from the rushing wind, her ranting was on full display. “We have to find them! They’re going to die out there!”

Ren stalked to the back of the cave and dropped her, his patience wearing thin. He shoved her against the cave’s wall, his hands pushing against her hips as he leaned down, his face inches from hers, bright blue eyes becoming cloudy. “You will die!” the man snapped, worry morphing into anger. “You! You will fly out of here like a fucking idiot with no idea of what you’re doing or where you are and you will freeze to death out there! Just quit your belligerent shit for one minute and think!”

She had been looking away from him but when their eyes met, hers were blazing and fierce and out of control. Ren had no time to block the fist that dug violently into his gut, knocking every ounce of wind out of him. His grip went slack as he hunched over in pain. Sakura spun along his side in an attempt to escape, but the man snatched her wrist and pulled, locking her arm behind her back. He wrapped his other arm around her opposite elbow and rib cage as he fell over, starting to black out from shock and lack of oxygen. His legs circled around her thighs, constricting her as he desperately gasped for air, vision slowly clearing. As his breath returned, small whispers slipped into the vixen’s ear.

Sakura screamed and cursed and thrashed like the trapped madwoman she was. Her brain told her there was no use, but her body refused to give in. It fought with everything it could but remained ensnared against Ren, no chance of being freed.

Slowly, her limbs tired and her thoughts were able to be heard above the resounding roar in her mind again. She lay against the man, listening to his familiar words, motionless, the gravity of the situation settling. “They’re going to die out there.” It was the worst feeling, one of being lost and hopeless, and no matter how hard she fought against it, it always found its way back.

The man sighed, erring on the side of caution and not loosening his grip. “No they’re not. Zero won’t let that happen.”

“What if Zero dies?”

“Trust me. He won’t.” Ren sat up still wrapped around the woman, bringing her to sitting with him. They stared out of the mouth of the cave, seeing nothing but a wall of white.

“Can I have my arm back?” the demon asked. The arm wedged between her back and his chest was going numb and she wanted to reclaim it before it lost all blood flow.

“Are you going to punch me again?” The angel was still trying to recover from the stomach busting blow and wasn’t looking forward to another one.

There was an uncomfortable silence as options were weighed. “No,” Sakura groaned, not sounding all that convincing. “I’ll be good.”

Ren released her and she got to her feet, unwrapping the coat that was tightly wound around her and handing it back. Pulling the ribbon from her boot, she turned it into a midnight blue cloak that she wrapped around herself. The fox sat back down next to the angel, hugging her knees to her chest, watching the storm bleakly.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

The man smirked. “I can think of a couple of things.”

There was no response. Sakura felt too drained to even manage considering a rebuttal.

“Sorry,” he sighed, knowing it was a stupid thing to say. “Wrong place, wrong time.” Joking aside, he felt as anxious as Sakura looked. Being passive was neither of their fortes and the lack of reasonable options left them feeling vulnerable. The man looked around the cave. There was a charred fire pit but the previous visitors had neglected to restock the wood they had used up. “Does your ribbon turn into a tent?” he asked.

The woman snorted bitterly. “No. I almost drowned trying to pull a golden crawdad out of the bottom of the river just so Maggie could keep the damn thing for a pet. I figured one was enough and that it would be better for Ivy to hold on to it.”

It was going to be a long, cold night.

Ren rolled his shoulders back, a sharp stabbing in the back of the left one. “You bit me, didn’t you,” he accused bitterly. It had been foolish of him not to anticipate the bite. It always had been the woman’s last line of defense, after all.

“I did,” the demon readily admitted with no shame.

The angel shrugged off the coat and pulled his shirt over his head. Pulling the shoulder forward, he peeked at the gnarly wound, blood pouring from the deep fang punctures down his back. “Damn it, Sakura!” he griped. “Just take the whole chunk next time, why don’t ya?!”

The fox stood up and rolled her eyes, acting totally put out. “Quit complaining. You are such a baby.” She walked to the mouth of the cave and scooped up a pile of snow. Returning to the angel, she crouched down in front of him and slapped it on the mark. “Is that better, precious?” the demon mocked.

“It is.” He smirked at her. “I’m delicate so be more gentle next time.”

Sakura looked down, avoiding his deep ocean gaze. She realized that his chest had broadened since he had left for The Guard. He was twenty-three now, what remains of baby fat he had back then had been overtaken by muscle. His shoulders and arms were larger as well, those muscles lean and well defined. Ren had always been taller than her, but it was the first time she realized just how much larger and toned he was compared to her softer and more curvy form.

Ren tilted his head to the side, relishing in the sight of the woman staring at him. “You like what you see?” He couldn’t let a golden opportunity go to waste.

“You’re no longer a child,” she absentmindedly voiced her thoughts.

That was an acceptable enough answer.

The man would pursue it.

He looked her up and down. “Yeah, well...” His eyes lingering on her chest much longer than necessary. She hadn’t had those when he left. “Neither are you.”

Sakura ran her finger along the carving of a cherry blossom in his skin on his right shoulder. “It’s still there.”

“I’ve had to dig into it a few times,” he said, examining her expressions. So far, so good. “But it’s held up pretty well.”

The vixen nodded, observing and tracing the raised and rough petals of the scar.

The man brushed his own fingers across the black feather that ran from her shoulder across her collar bone. “This has held up as well.”

She gave a small shrug. “Can’t really get rid of it.” Emerald eyes peered up, meeting sapphire ones.

“You could cover it,” he suggested, his voice low. The angel’s hand snuck to the demon’s waist, fingertips gently digging into her back, willing her closer.

“Fabric makes it itchy,” she breathed, allowing him to guide her.

“I’m sure it does.” He leaned closer to the woman, slowly closing the distance, his confidence growing with the shrinking of space between them.

The snow had melted, its remains dripping away, leaving Sakura’s skin against Rens. “You’re out of snow.” A whisper from luscious and tempting lips.

That wasn’t a response he had been expecting and it caught him off guard. The man hesitated, confused, their noses nearly touching. “What?”

“You’re out of snow,” the woman said louder, matter-of-factually. Without a moment’s notice, she popped back up, slapping the injury harshly as his hand fell like lead from her waist. Spinning on her heels, she strutted away, her bushy, cherry tail swishing behind her, ridiculing the dumbstruck angel.

The man sat there horrified, even more breathless than after the punch to his gut. It had just been right there, the thing he desired more than anything, and he had let it slip away. “Fuck the snow!” he yelled, his normally well-maintained sense of self-control prancing away with the woman. “Get your ass back here! We were having a moment!”

“No, we weren’t,” Sakura sang sweetly, going back to the mouth of the cave.

He balled his fists in his thick, black curls and fell onto his back, writhing in emotional trauma. “Fuck! Fuck!” His desperate screams echoed around the cave, reminding him of his failure. “Why do you do this to me?! You’re a fucking monster! Fuck!”

Night had already set in as Sakura stood just before the deep snow, listening to the angel cuss and tantrum behind her. She closed her eyes, allowing the freezing air to cool her face before she dared venture back in. If she returned now, there was no way that Ren wouldn’t be able to read her and judging by the way he was losing his mind, she doubted he’d be so apt to stop this time around. Or that she would. So she allowed her lungs to burn with the cold of the outside, knowing that she didn’t deserve such sweet things.

When the man had managed to reclaim some of his pride, he came to stand next to the demon. He had already pulled his shirt and coat back on, refusing to let her put more snow on the bite and pull another bait and switch. This setback was bound to haunt him for the foreseeable future, and he wasn’t going to rub more salt in that wound tonight. “It stopped snowing,” he remarked, stating the obvious.

She nodded, her mind lost past the darkness.

“They’re alright,” he insisted tenderly. “You’ll see. We’ll find them in the morning.”

“I’m scared.” The words barely there.

They were words that referred to so many things, and it pained Ren to accept that there was nothing that he could say or do that would take away the anguish that Sakura carried with her like the feather on her shoulder. It was hers and hers alone, and until she chose to give it over, there was little anyone could do to help.

She was a stubborn woman. But for as stubborn as she was, he was patient.

Ren took her hand and led her back into the cave. Sitting against the wall, he opened his arms to her as she looked at him, skeptical of his intentions. “Come on,” the man insisted. “After breaking my poor little heart I can’t trust you not to hurt me again. It’s cold and two bodies are warmer than one, so suck it up and come here.”

The woman hesitated but ultimately went to him, allowing his arms to wrap around her and share her warmth. The angel slid his bracelet from his wrist, ebony wings circling them, and slipped it over her hand.

“Hold this for me,” he whispered in her ear as his wings enclosed around them, protecting them from the cold.

Sakura had always loved the angel’s wings. They were massive, looming well over the man from the time they were children, and so black that they weren’t just black. Blues and greens and purples shone against ebony. Light mingling with darkness. The flurry of color was mesmerizing, and a true shame that such beauty had to be concealed.

“They’re so beautiful,” she mumbled, resting her head against Ren’s chest, her eyes becoming heavy. “I love them.”

“You’re so beautiful,” the voice was distant, floating away. The soft feel of lips on her forehead. “I love you.”