Someone to Protect: Toga x Izayoi

Chapter 7: Awakening - Part 1

Picture credits: AngelicFoXus on Deviant Art

Chapter 7 - Awakening 

Toga was nearly back to the priestess's house when he smelled musk in the air.

"Impossible. They are both only human!"

As he neared the dwelling, he could hear sounds--more reserved this time--that confirmed his suspicions.

With a heavy sigh he headed toward the small house he had built for himself nearby.

"This is a horrible idea," he murmured, looking from Izayoi to his house.

An excited squeal from Kana's house made him shake his head and enter his house.

***

When Izayoi woke up she was on a strange pallet near a fire in an unfamiliar dwelling.

She wasn't scared, though. Her last memory was of Toga, and she knew she was safe with him, regardless of where she was.

She snuggled more deeply into his kimono and sighed happily. It smelled like him, and if she closed her eyes again, she could almost pretend his arms were wrapped around her.

But she shouldn't be pretending.

She opened her eyes again and glanced around the dwelling. There, on the other side of the fire she could just make out the outline of a sleeping figure.

As her eyes adjusted to the low firelight, she was able discern that the figure on the other side was Toga, still wearing only his hakama.

Her heart thundered, and even though she knew she shouldn't, the temptation to look was too strong for her to fight.

In the earlier panic she had not been able to truly look at him.

Now, in the calm of the night, her eyes devoured his sleeping form.

The firelight danced over his sun-kissed skin, making some of the angles and planes of his body stand out in sharp contrast and shrouding others in even greater mystery.

She had always known he was stronger than most men (if not all), but seeing the raw power of his lean, muscular form robbed her of breath.

Izayoi noticed a few scars marring his skin and wondered what could possibly scar a yokai, especially one as powerful as her beloved.

Wait. Her beloved? He wasn't hers.

And yet, as her hungry eyes drifted over his beloved face and his incredibly appealing form, she found herself remembering his earlier words.

"Haven't you ever wanted to touch your yokai's body?"

For the second time that day she felt an unfamiliar stirring in her stomach, a warm, liquid ache that felt indecently good.

Her heart sped up as she looked at him, her skin heating as she gazed at him, thinking about what she would indeed like to touch. And would he react? Would he make a sound like that monk had --

Nearby sounds startled her out of her sinful fantasies, and Izayoi's eyes went from Toga's face to the door, certain she had been caught gazing lustfully at her protector.

Wait, was that Kana's voice? Giggling?

A man's soft murmur made it to her ears next, and Izayoi blushed, realizing what she was hearing.

A small spark of jealousy flitted through her, but she denounced it and reminded herself that Toga wasn't hers. He would never be hers, and it was time to stop these foolish thoughts.