Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

Sakura’s feet hurt. They’d been walking around for hours and had barely talked to anyone and the couple of people they had spoken to were a complete waste of time.

Ren had spent the day insisting that he knew the way only for them to end up walking in circles before finally going in the correct direction. Of course, he was obnoxious the entire way. Babbling about wanting to eat again, or pulling her over to some shop to go look inside, or just completely wandering off like a toddler.

She just didn’t get it. He had been so helpful over the last week. Every trip had been planned with the quickest route. The leads were solid despite, unfortunately, gaining no information. Ren had seemed serious and now…

Now…

Sakura glared at the man strolling in front of her, everything suddenly clicking. She snatched the back of his shirt and pulled, forcing him to stop and turn around. “You’ve been taking me on a wild goose chase this whole time!” she accused.

Ren looked at her like she had grown two more heads. “What? No! That’s absolutely ridiculous!” He quickly got bored and dropped the act. “Yeah. I did. Of course I did. I just can’t believe it took you this long to figure it out.”

“Why would you do that?!” She was furious. “You’ve wasted most of the day!”

The man turned back around and continued walking, forcing the demon to keep up with him. “Yes, I have and it’s because you need to relax and give Little One a break from all... this.” He outlined her body with his hands. “I may find you absolutely intoxicating but you are being completely insane, and not in your normal fun way.”

Sakura couldn’t deny that she was being insane when she felt that way more and more each day. “You don’t understand…” she started.

He cut her off, “I understand that she has a cloak made by Maggie that you force her to hide under. I understand that Zero is with her, and I think we both know that he’ll watch her much more closely than you or I would. I understand that when we get to the library, they’ll both be there, ready to bash their skulls against the wall from all the fun they had reading exhilarating resource books all day.”

The woman bit the inside of her cheek, trying to come up with any rebuttal but falling short. She knew that he was right, but that didn’t mean that she liked it. Or that she’d admit it.

Ren smirked at the pouty fox. “As an apology for dragging you around all day, you can have this.” He pulled a flat box from his pocket and handed it to her.

“I don’t need anything.” But her tone and eyes betrayed her curiosity.

“Of course you don’t.” He pulled the lid off, exposing a shiny, silver dagger with emerald and sapphire handle. “But you do need a new dagger to replace the old one that you mysteriously misplaced.”

Sakura glanced at the angel’s belt, spotting the ‘misplaced’ dagger and rolled her eyes. “When did you get this?”

“When you had wandered off,” he said, glossing over the fact that it was he who had disappeared.

It was a beautiful piece, and she itched to run her finger along it. “I don’t need it.” She pushed it back into his hands.

Ren pulled it from the box, and wrapped his other arm around Sakura’s shoulders, leaning into her ear. “If you don’t want to holster it,” he whispered. “I’ll be more than happy to do it for you. But fair warning. I will touch everything on the way there.”

The fox sighed, agitated, knowing full well he would. She took possession of the dagger and slipped it into its new home without another word.

The man grinned and ducked ahead of her. “Let’s go see what crazy antics those two little bundles of joy have gotten themselves into.”

Sakura watched Ren walk off for a few seconds, her finger tracing the emerald and sapphire handle, before hurrying and falling into step beside him.

He was right. Ivy and Zero were at the library sitting at a large table with multiple towers of books around them. He was, however, wrong that they would be ready to bash their skulls against the wall. No, the angel wasn’t quite as clever as he fancied himself to be. The two radiated with guilt and seemed extremely nervous, Ivy more so than Zero, but the devil still seemed not so nonchalant.

The man immediately picked up on the uncomfortable aura as he sat down alone, Sakura having had gone off to grab the books of her choosing. “What’s wrong with you two?” Never one to beat around the bush.

A nervous squeak escaped from Ivy, and she quickly pushed her face further into her book, the hood of her cloak seemingly a little extra tight. Zero just ignored Ren.

Typical.

The angel narrowed his eyes suspiciously, leaned away from the table, slinging his arms across the back of his chair. He waggled his index fingers at them. “There’s something going on here. What happened?” Silence. “I’d start talking before Sakura shows up.”

A stack of books smacked down next to the angel. “I’m already here. What do you mean there’s something…” The fox sniffed, and then sniffed again deeply. She stalked over to Ivy and grabbed the girl's arm, shoving it under her nose. “You took of your cloak!” she hissed.

“It was my fault,” Zero rushed to the girl’s defense. “I asked her to take it off. I won’t ask again.”

The woman’s eyes blazed at the devil. “I’m sure you won’t. I can’t even blame you. You don’t know any better. But you!” she pulled Ivy to her feet. “You do know better. Come on, we’re going.”

“Ah, come on!” Ren called after the pair. “They’re not dead, and I’m sure they had a good time.” He watched them disappear out the door then turned to the boy. “So… did you have a good time?”

Zero sighed, a sound that surprised the man. “It was at first.”

He leaned forward, brows drawn together. “Did she turn you down, boy?”

The devil looked at him confused. “Turned down?”

“Like what Sakura does to me everyday.”

“Oh. No. She didn’t punch or try to stab me,” Zero said earnestly.

The man sighed. That reminder cut deeper than any dagger ever could. “So what happened?”

The devil was hesitant.

“You might as well tell me. You know Sakura’s gonna force the truth from Ivy.”

“I asked Ivy to take off her cloak.” The boy looked at the table, unable to meet the man’s inquisitive gaze.

“Okay.” Ren waited. “Go on.”

“And she did.” Silence.

The angel rubbed his face and groaned, “Okay. Great. You’re doing great. But maybe lets finish this story with more words and less drawn out pauses.”

“We walked around and everything was okay. Then she went over to a fountain and people started to surround her.”

“People surrounded her?” That didn’t sound right. “Why?”

Zero shook his head. “I don’t know. They were grabbing at her and saying they love her and she’s beautiful and things like that. It was eight or nine men, maybe a couple more.”

The gears in Ren’s mind started slowly turning. “Was it just men?”

“Yeah. I knocked some of them out to get to Ivy.” The boy thought about it. “Their eyes were weird. All of them. Empty, like they weren’t really there.”

The angel stood. “Will you clear the books?” he asked. “There’s something I want to check and then we’ll head back.”

Ivy stood silently in the room, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. Sakura was mad, fuming, and pacing the room. She didn’t blame her. She certainly didn’t feel very highly of herself at that moment.

The vixen stopped and looked at the girl. “Go take a bath,” she said, trying her best to speak in a calm manner. “Scrub their stench off of you.”

The girl nodded, and quickly entered the bathroom, closing the door carefully behind her. When the water started, Sakura pushed all the oxygen from her lungs, trying to compose herself and not allow her anxiety to get the best of her. She sat on the bed staring down at her lap, fingers picking at each other. Her mind was blank, too fatigued and unnerved to form a single thought. She didn’t move until the sound of water being cut off brought her out of her trance. The woman stood and went to the door, knocking gently. “Can I come in?”

“Yes.”

Sakura entered and looked at the girl in the tub. She couldn’t stop the smile as she looked at the bubbles that invaded the tub in its entirety. “Would you like me to wash your hair?” she asked.

“Please,” Ivy’s voice was hopeful.

The demon grabbed the soap, hair oil, and comb and sat on the edge of the tub. She lathered the soap into her hands before massaging it through Ivy’s long, dark purple hair. A tap to the girl’s head had her disappearing under the bubbles before popping back up. Sakura poured the oil onto her hand, rubbed it until it was warm, and then ran her fingers through the wet tresses.

“Do you remember when you were thirteen and we ended up in that port city, Keton?” Sakura asked but didn’t wait for an answer. “It was really hot and humid that day, and you wouldn’t stop complaining and whining. I was getting so mad. I was ready to toss you into the ocean,” she laughed a little and began to run the comb through Ivy’s hair. “I probably would have had that man not grabbed you and started spewing all that soul mate bullshit.”

The girl blew at the bubbles, pushing them in the air and watching as they floated to the floor. “You hit him so hard that his head cracked on the deck, and there was blood everywhere. It was awful.”

“Yeah, but that didn’t deter the other guys from going after you. I had to piggyback you out of that city by jumping from roof to roof.”

The girl covered her face and giggled, “And that one house’s roof was made of driftwood and straw and we feel through it! That old man was so mad!”

Sakura chuckled at the memory before her smile slowly faded. “Then there was Munoz, and Maddel, Bastley, and Raustelburg. Same thing in each city. That’s why you wear that cloak into every town. So you can walk around safely and not be attacked.”

Ivy sunk a little deeper into the tub. “I know. I’m sorry. I just wanted to be normal for once.”

The demon sighed, hating to see the girl depressed. “Did you have fun today? With Zero? Before that happened, of course.”

The girl’s smile floated above the water. “I did,” she whispered.

“You like him, don’t you?” The woman didn’t really even need to ask. It had been obvious from the beginning and every day since.

Her head bobbed up and down with the bubbles. “I do.”

Sakura played her fingers on the girl’s scalp like a piano, thinking about Ivy’s retelling of events. “Maybe,” she tested the thought out loud. “We can try something else. Something that’s not so restrictive and suffocating. You know, we only ever tried the cloak since that’s what Maggie said to do, and I never thought to test anything else out since it worked so well.”

Ivy looked at her with a reserved hope. “So I won’t have to wear the cloak anymore?”

“I don’t know, but I know how much you hate it. Honestly, it makes me kind of miserable to watch you drag that huge thing around. Maybe it could just be something lighter that was more comfortable to wear?”

“Really?!” Her face brightened as there was a rapid banging at the front door.

“Heeey! Let me in!”

Sakura groaned, “Of course.” She slid off from the side of the tub and exited the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She considered ignoring the constant pounding, but knew that Ren would stand out there all night, drumming his hands against the door and serenading her until morning. She tried to open the door only enough to tell him to leave, but the man quickly pushed it open and marched in. The fox looked at the lone angel and then scanned the hallway, finding it empty. “Where’s Zero?”

“I sent him to bed early for being naughty. Don’t worry about him. Worry about me. I’m here on important business.”

She suspected that the man had hidden the devil away to spare him from the demon’s possible wrath, not because of any perceived wrongdoing. She was sure he was extremely proud of Zero and Ivy’s little rendezvous. “Sure you are.”

“I know why Ivy was able to do that to those men!” he declared, confidence dripping from his very existence.

The woman closed the door and leaned against it, crossing her arms over her chest. “And why is that, Ren?” She wasn’t so convinced.

“Because she’s a succubus!” He was so very proud of himself.

“No,” Sakura stated dryly. “She’s not.”

“She’s not?”

“No. I considered the possibility as well, but succubi can only seduce men in their dreams, not when they’re fully awake and walking around on the street. I even tracked one down for her to confirm that Ivy wasn’t a succubus.”

“Oh… Well… I give up then.” He flopped onto the bed, grabbing the pillow and snuggling with it. “Your beds much more comfortable than mine. Can I sleep with you tonight?”

“You can sleep outside where you belong. Get out!” the fox snapped.

“Fine then.” The man rolled to his feet, shocking Sakura from his lack of push back. “But tomorrow’s a big day so get plenty of rest. You’ll need it.”

The demon stepped aside as he opened the door, watching him like a snake in the grass. “Why?”

Ren grinned, stepping out into the hallway. “Because Ivy’s going without her cloak tomorrow.” And the door clicked closed behind him.