One in the Same

Chapter Twenty

   Cat melted as she sniffed the roses. "Are you gonna tell me where we are going?" She asked as she followed behind Botan.
   "You will see," he replied. "If someone was just to say, then there would be no surprises."
   "And what if I said I hated surprises?"
   "I know you better than that, Cata."
   Cat stuck her tongue out at him but looked around. There was something familiar about this section of the jungle, but she couldn't lay her finger one what, exactly. Maybe she had dreamed of it? Maybe they had run through on patrol one night? She blinked as she looked up at the sky. It was fading into a motley of color. Showing the sun was setting. Soon it would be down. They had been walking all day. She looked back at Botan. "Are we?"
   He stopped and again she almost ran into him. He turned and sat the basket down. "One year ago. I found you here." He said as he turned and faced her, stroking her cheek with the back of his fingers. She blinked up at him as tears filled her eyes. Gently he pulled her into his arms. "One year ago, I discovered what...love...is." He leaned down and kissed her and she grabbed him by the face and held him there. Their tongues danced. Their teeth bit. His mouth moved to her neck. She bit at his collar bone. In seconds they were on the ground, clothes gone, the food forgotten. They made love in that spot. More fiercely than they ever had. Cat rolled on top of him. Botan stroked her moon kissed shoulders. Their fingers interlocked. The world stopped turning. Cat slipped into the blissful spot between time and space. Nothing else existed but the two of them in this place. The place she wanted to live with forever. Sweat beaded from Botan's brow. His heart picked up and beated out a rhythm that she kept pace with. He smiled and moaned, she screamed and howled like some wild creature. He leaned up and held her to his chest. His hands grabbing fist fulls of her hair. Her nails sliding down his back, causing little red rubies to appear. Her fangs tracked for just a moment as she watched them in the moonlight trickle down his back. Then his mouth was over hers. Her hands were in his hair, pulling, grabbing, moving. She bit and sucked at his tongue. He responded on her lip. Stars twinkled in her eyes as she felt him exploded within her. His snarl and growl filled her ears and she couldn't help but smile as she screamed out from pleasure. They sat there holding each other as if for dear life.
   Slowly, Cat lifted herself off of Botan's lap and smiled again a little wider as she felt both of their love trickle down her inner thigh has the blood had on Botan's back. She positioned herself on his chest, tracing one of the scars over his heart. He wrapped his arm around her as he panted.
   "Kawa had his first shift last night," he panted.
   Cat looked up and smiled. "Did he? He'll make a fine wolf."
   Botan nodded and closed his eyes.
   Cat looked down at her fingers as they traced over the scars. She bit her lip then looked up at him. "Ya know. There once a little story I heard once." He raised his eye brows then lowered them once again, showing that he was listening. "Of an elixir of sorts. That a woman could drink." She looked up at his eye then back at her fingers. "Mixed with the seed of her lover." His eyes then her fingers.
   "Is that so? Why would she want to do that?"
   "To help with fertility." Up to his eyes.
   Botan's eyebrows pulled together then he opened his eyes and blinked several times and looked down at her. "What is that word?"
   She smiled shyly then sent him an image of her with child. His eyes widened and he sat up a little looking down at her. "Nani o itte iru?"
   "Perhaps...we could ask Saito to..." she sent another image of Ichika and her husband. Then Saito and Yui. "Then...Perhaps I could take that elixir and we could." She bit her lip again. "If you would like that."
   Tears filled Botan's eyes and he nodded. "Hai. Yes. Cata." He leaned down and kissed her deeply. That would make me the happiest man.

   As the days and months continued on, however, Saito grew weaker and weaker. He was no longer able to hold conversations and slept most of the day. Yui spent all of her days by his side, even if something he said hurt her deeply, or he confessed some great secret that he had never spoken of before. Shin slowly lost his stubborn and headstrong attitude. Cat was starting to see more of Saito in his actions. Instead of charging on, he assisted the situation. Again he presented Botan with general. Again Botan declined. He went so far as to try to speak with Cat on the matter. She simply laughed back at him.
   "Kare wa sore o nozonde imasen." She told him on day when they had gone to visit. "Hoka ni mo takusan arimasu. Hoka no dareka o sentaku shite kudasai."
   As the seasons changed, Mae and Kawa grew older. They both still brought her and Botan flowers every time they came to the village. Kawa was facing manhood, Mae would be starting school. There was an ache in Cat for the little children they had once been. The games they had played at her feet. She even wished Kawa would splash her with water again instead of showing her his skill with the other Ningen no ōkami.
   Hina had gotten married and was expecting. As were many of the other hens that gathered around the fountain. It came as no surprise to Cat but there was a  there as she watched them go about there lives. She laid a hand over her own stomach as she watched them. She couldn't help the feeling like she was missing something. Something that should be there. Cat couldn't shake the feeling that everything was disappearing from the life she had grown to love.