Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

"I’m not doing it.” Sakura huffed, staring at herself in the mirror in the room they had rented for the night. She stuck her tongue out and glared at the disgruntled reflection staring back at her.

The dress was very obviously all Ren; black with white and pink cherry blossoms branching out across the silk. It was long, and uncomfortably constricting, and she hated it despite it being gorgeous. She’d prefer it on Ivy, not herself.

“We never do anything fun.” Ivy pouted, taking the woman’s hands in her own and gazing up at her with pleading eyes. “Ren said the lights in Wei Wen are really pretty and I want to see them.”

She pulled her hand free of the girls and smoothed her amethyst waves with a gentle smile. “And we will,” Sakura agreed, her hands then finding their way to the clasp at her neck. “Right after I take this off.”

That was not the answer the girl wanted to hear and she threw herself at the fox, constricting her arms around the woman, refusing to let go. “Please Sakura! We never get to do anything like this! And you look so pretty. Please! It’s only one night!”

The demon looked away, her resolve weakening. “I hate it. These dresses are too tight. You can barely move in them.”

Ivy didn’t like playing dirty, but she wanted what she wanted, and she was willing to do what she had to in order to get it. “I hate it every time you kill Zero and try to fight him.”

Her eyes snapped back at Ivy, the girl’s lip in a full pout and eyes narrowed, challenging the demon to argue. “You’re gonna hold that against me?”

The girl would not back down, and she nodded furiously. “Yes. I will. Forever. Unless you go out tonight in that dress. It was so nice of Ren to buy it for you, so you should wear it. It’s a gift.”

“It’s bullshit is what it is!” Sakura snapped back. “I know what he’s trying to do, and I know that you’re helping him.”

The girl glanced away, knowing she’d been caught. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” If this was going to work, she’d have to heavily play the guilt card. Ivy sighed, her voice becoming quiet and pitiful. “I just want to be able to wear a really pretty dress for once. One that doesn’t have rips or stains in it. And I want you to wear one with me because you never do. All we ever do is travel and sit in libraries. I want to do something different for once.”

The woman knew exactly what the girl was doing but she was weak against it. She couldn’t dispute that it wasn’t true, because it was. The girl also didn’t ask for much, so it was difficult to tell her no when she did. “Fine!” the vixen groaned. “But I wear my boots.” She tried to kick off the black flats on her feet that Ivy had been able to easily convince Ren to buy for the both of them.

Ivy wriggled her body in protest. “Sakura!”

“Can I take my glaive?”

“No!”

“Let me at least have my daggers!”

“Please!”

Sakura sighed, the will to fight finally defeated. “Alright, fine, I’ll do it your way. But only for tonight. I burn this dress tomorrow.”

“Thank you!” Ivy squealed, hugging her tight, knowing that this was the best that she was going to get.

Then again, this is all she had tried and she’d gotten her way without that much fuss. Maybe, just maybe, if she asked for a little bit more, she would receive it.

The girl looked up at the fox, hope brightening her face. “Can I do your hair?” In all the years they had been together, Ivy could count on one hand how many times the woman allowed her to play with her long, cherry tresses. Beyond a simple braid now and then, it was rarely allowed and always accompanied by plenty of complaining. But tonight was already looking to be a night of miracles, and she was willing to take that risk.

Sakura’s charity had been fully exhausted. “Don’t push it.”

The girl pouted. “You never let me do anything fun with your hair.”

The woman had no intention to continue going back and forth. She took hold of Ivy’s shoulders and pushed her back gently with a loving smile. “You look so beautiful. You always do.”

The girl looked away. “I don’t…”

The demon covered her mouth. “Shut up. You are. Accept it.”

She still couldn’t look at the fox. “Thank you,” she muttered against her hand.

“That’s better. Do you like your dress?”

Ivy nodded. “I do.” She peered enviously at the woman’s chest and gave the large mounds a few pokes with her finger. “But I wish I had big breasts like you. They would make it look better.”

Sakura couldn’t stop her sudden burst of laughter. “I used to want big breasts, too. The girls in the village all said that boys like girls with large chests. It’s all I wanted. Then I got them, and it wasn’t nearly as great as I’d thought it’d be.”

“Do boys really like girls with big chests?” Ivy asked, worried. They weren’t exactly small, but they also couldn’t come close to competing with what Sakura had.

“Who cares,” the woman scoffed. “They don’t have to live with them. It’s fun when you can look at or touch them. Not so much when you have to lug them around everywhere with you. You’re lucky, yours are a good size, not too big and not too small. Besides, if a man has half a brain in his head, then he’ll be happy with whatever he can get.”

Ivy nodded, taking Sakura on her word, before a sly smile crept across her lips. “Did you want them so Ren would like you?”

The fox narrowed her eyes at the girl, somewhat amused by her abnormal boldness. “I don’t know. Do you want them so Zero likes you?” she shot back.

The girl opened her mouth to respond as there was a pounding at the door.

“Stop talking about your tits!” Ren yelled. “We can talk more about them out here. Let’s go! We’re wasting the night.”

The horror blazed bright red across the girl’s face, and she concealed it with her hands, mumbling about crawling into holes and wanting to die. The woman, on the other hand, wasn’t so shy about her anatomy as she stomped across the room and flung the door open, her leg swinging out and kicking the man standing before it hard in the shin.

“Mind your own damn business!” Sakura barked as Ren laughed through the pain.

“So did you?” he asked.

“Did I what?”

The angel smirked. “Did you want big boobs so I’d like you? Is that why you were always staring and grabbing at them when you thought I wasn’t looking?” His eyes drifted away from her glare and down to the tight silk just barely managing to contain the offending pair in question “You were actually willing those into existence. That’s impressive. The mind is a powerful thing indeed.”

The rage flared once more as the demon kicked him again and stormed past. “You’re a fucking idiot!”

“That didn’t stop you from going above and beyond just for me,” he called, following after her. “Come on! Don’t be like that! You didn’t have to go that far to impress me. Where are you going? Come back!”

Zero watched them disappear around the corner while Ren’s begging faded into the distance, the boy having no interest in getting involved in the mess the man had created, before going into the room to find Ivy still covering her humiliated face. “Do you want to go?” he asked.

Ivy nodded without a word, making no other movements.

He waited for the girl’s normal cheerfulness to guide them along, but it never came. “Do you want to go now?”

Another hidden nod.

He waited some more, unsure of how to proceed. “Are we going to go?”

She took several deep breaths before nodding one last time and removing her hands from her warm face, one of them going into Zero’s as she burned holes into the floor with her eyes.

“Did you hear all that?” she finally managed to ask.

Zero heard a lot of things while waiting in the hall from all the surrounding rooms due to the thin walls of the inn, none of which he found particularly interesting. “I did.”

The girl sighed, her grand illusions of a fantastic night ruined, while Zero decided that silence was the best answer as he led her from the inn in search of the other pair.

Ivy’s embarrassment was instantly forgotten as they walked out into the night. Thousands of paper lanterns lined the buildings and streets, all glowing magnificently with tiny flames within, floating serenely in the air in a prismatic parade.

“Everything’s lit up!” she exclaimed staring up at Zero, her ecstatic smile returned to its proper place.

“It is,” he agreed, watching the effortless change in her expression, and followed as the jubilant girl rushed ahead, pulling him along.

They found Ren and Sakura further ahead, the angel having calmed down the demon with meat kebabs that she ate with vigor and a sour expression, still upset over the dress she didn’t want.

“Is it always like this?” Ivy asked, trying to take in everything all at once.

“It’s like this every time I’ve been here,” the angel told her, handing over his half eaten kebab to the fox. “But the gardens are what you really want to see.”

They followed the lanterns, the streets now much less crowded and easier to navigate this late at night, until they reached a magnificent paifang with multiple archways, brightly colored glazed tiles, and statues of golden dragons reaching from the upturned roof lines. Entering the gardens, every flower, tree, shrub and body of water radiated with an ethereal glow of colors. Florescent hues from the earth fought away the darkness of the night all around it.

“What is it?” The demon gasped, running her hand down the gleaming trunk of a plum tree and then looking at her unchanged skin.

“Apparently, there was a war fought here around 7,000 years ago,” Ren explained. “And the ground absorbed the spirits of the fallen soldiers. After the war ended, the plants grew on their own and it’s the spiritual energy that makes everything glow. But it’s only visible at night. That’s why Wei Wen has been able to grow to be the largest city in Fonentine, these gardens have blessed it. These are sacred grounds and nothing is allowed to be built past the paifangs at every side. Or so they say. Maybe the waters just bad?” He nudged the devil. “Keep out of it, boy. Don’t need you drowning.”

“Well, that’s a horrible story.” The girl frowned. “But it sure is pretty.”

“It sure is,” the man agreed cheerfully. “These gardens are massive, so you two don’t get lost. We’ll see you back at the inn later. If we’re not there by morning, don’t come looking for us, we’ll come looking for you. Okay? Bye!” His arm seamlessly snaked around the woman’s waist and he began pulling her away.

The demon pushed back with a dangerous glare. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The angel was well aware it wouldn’t be easy dragging the woman away, and he leaned down, grinning at her while speaking quietly. “Look at Ivy in her new fancy dress. Doesn’t she look beautiful? Why not let her show it off without us supervising. You know she wants to. Besides, she’s with Zero. What’s the worse that’ll happen? I end up getting stabbed?”

Sakura averted her eyes with a bitter sneer. “Ivy wouldn’t let me bring my daggers.”

His grin grew, pleased with the way things were working out in his favor. “Lucky me. Let them go.”

The vixen sighed as she looked at the girl and boy, removing Ren’s hand from her hip like the filthiest of rags. “Watch her,” she told the devil. “And behave yourselves. I’ll see you later.” She stalked off with the man quickly catching up and draping his arm around her shoulders.

Zero looked down at Ivy. “Do you want to walk around?”

The color returned to Ivy’s face as she quickly glanced away, her voice a meek peep. “I do.”