It had rained early in the morning; there was still a sharp scent of damp earth in the air over Prontera as Kitsumi hurried along the streets. The merchants and blacksmiths vending along the streets had not been daunted by the rainfall and were out in full force despite the miserable weather. The sun shone brightly off of the puddles, casting small rainbows in back alleyways. She was in too much of a hurry to really notice.. but as always, the beauty of the day caught her breath for just a moment before she hurried on.

Kitsumi Kumiko was a dancer, and a very new dancer at that. She was headed to meet up with her companion Akechi to do some hunting in the orc dungeon. She wasn`t so sure this was a good idea. How in the world was she going to fight in this.. costume. Every corner presented her with leering eyes and catcalls that weren`t exactly...pleasant as they were unsettling. Her cheeks were flaming by the time she came to the west gate to meet up with her friend.

Kit blinked slowly, there was a strange man talking to Akechi. Something about him was different. Oh~ he was so pretty. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she shaded them with one hand. The man glowed! He had an aura that glimmered so brightly one could litterally see his strength. Kitsumi resisted a profound urge to reach out and try to `pop` one of the swirling lights as they reminded her of soap bubbles.

However, Akechi had caught sight of his blushing blonde haired friend and motioned for her to come over. "Kit I want you to meet my friend Niroku. Niro this is Kitsumi, she just earned the title of Dancer. Doesn`t she look cute?"

Kitsumi couldn`t have been more embarassed as she slid over to the two men. Her pale cheeks were somewhere between crimson and tomato in hue. She stuttered out a soft greeting and shivered a little. "Ahao..."

Niroku waited til Kit would raise her head to glance at him instead of the swirling lights, or her feet.. whichever she was finding more interesting at the moment. His voice came out lightly, melodically of course. He was a bard after all. "Nice to meet you miss Kitsumi Kumiko."

Something in his voice made the tension leak out of her muscles and the young woman visibly relaxed. She smiled and sat down with them at last. There was idle conversation until Niroku grinned broadly an impish glint in his wide eyes.

"So.. Akechi when did you meet your new girlfriend?"

Akechi and Kitsumi both went a little vacant in expression for a moment before they burst out laughing. Kit`s laughter ringing out silver bright against the deeper, mellow sounds of his.

"Niro, sorry to dissapoint you but Kitsumi and I are just friends," Akechi grinned as Kit blushed yet again and cast her gaze somewhere, everywhere but both men`s faces. She was so easily flustered.

"Oh.. my mistake." Niro`s eyes caught her pale green ones and held them...he smiled broadly at her. Kitsumi`s cheeks sort of drained their color and she quickly made an excuse and ran off into the throng.

"Did I say something wrong?" Akechi just blinked and watched her brightly coloured back move into the distant streets.

"I don`t know.. is she always so shy?" Niro tilted his head to the side.

"Yeah.. she sort of had a rough time growing up. She`s from Amatsu and like... I don`t know the whole story man but she can`t go back there. They won`t even let her past the gates." Niro did not reply to Akechi`s revelation, he just quietly watched down the streets that Kitsumi had ran down.

It was some days before Kitsumi`s face was to be seen out in the open again. She had a very disturbing tendancy to disappear for days; oddly enough, it wasn`t upon that day that she met up with `him` again. It was simply later that evening while she was resting.

Kit had a small lodging near the Sanctuary. One might be surprized to hear that a common dancer was taking up residence in the house of the holy...but given her pecular background they thought it best to keep tabs on the strange young woman. At a very tender age, Kitsumi Kumiko then better known as Kumi-chan, had nearly killed a young boy within the town of Amatsu--though she claimed to have been healing him.

The townsfolk swear she was drowning the boy; Kitsumi and the young man both claimed she was cleansing a fox spirit from him. However, Kit couldn`t be doing that as she was not able to make `holy water` which would have been needed to do so. They`d cast the fey creature out of their city, and Kitsumi had ended up staying with the Church in Prontera. It was there that Niroku came across her that same evening.

"Hello.." came a very soft, strangely familiar voice from behind her.

She was resting behind the church, staring quietly at the graves. Kitsumi turned her head slightly and frowned as she was caught by a light that dazzled her. Niroku`s aura was rather bright in the shadowed eaves.

"Hello again, erm.. what are you doing out here?" She`d never been the most tactful of people. Though her smile softened the words.

"Just wandering around the city.." He smiled and pulled a mask over his face.

It was a Kitsune mask and Kitsumi blinked slowly. The faintest smile tugged at the edges of her lips. She pulled the mask gently from his hands and then held it before her own face; peering out from the slanted eyes... somehow it was disturbing, the way the mask suited the young woman. She laughed again, that soft-silver laughter.

"I have a favor to ask of you, Niroku." Her head tilted to one side, those wild eyes settled upon him. The red ochre that rimmed the eye slits seeming playful with the green glint that was in their shadow. It sort of stole the breath out of you...

"What would that be miss Kitsumi?" Niro tilted his head to the side, a bemused smile slipping over his youthful features. He didn`t seem to hide that he was quite taken with her playfulness.

"Play for me? Give me my first dance?" Her head tilted in the opposite direction and she smiled as she dropped the mask.

Her features were open and expressed something, something strange. Her heart was fluttering just a little too rapidly.
"Sure! I`d be delighted to Kitsumi.. we need to get you some training first though. I know you`re new to the dance, to the song.. but I know quite a few.. in fact I can help you out a lot." Niroku laughed, "I know more about dancing than I do being a bard in some ways."

From there on the two were inseprable. Every day for hours they would either practice her dances or hunt together to sharpen her other, more deadly skills. Rapidly they were becoming more than just friends, more than teacher and pupil and EVERYONE but they noticed.

"So when are you two getting married?" Kohana`s voice was playful but her expression was quite serious as she and the other girls from Obliviate Callous sat with Kitsumi. They, as usual, were at the west gate of Prontera.

"I don`t know what you`re talking about!!!!!!" Kit cried, shaking her head and blushing furiously. This only made the other women laugh and grin wider. They`d seen the notes passing between the young duo and it wasn`t just a music score that they were reffering to.

"Oh come off it Kit, we know what`s going on! " Kawaii`s lips as well were curled into a gentle smirk. She and Kit got along quite well but she wasn`t above the good natured ribbing that everyone else gave the little dancer when Niroku wasn`t around. Or when he was around for that matter, now that she thought of it.

Everyone but Kitsumi and Niroku seemed to see what was going on. Yet, slowly even Kitsumi`s feverant denails faded and Niroku began to grow just a little braver around her. Slowly but surely they were moving closer to each other in their unsung song, the notes that wrapped tighter around them.

It was another rain-kissed morning in west Prontera today. Kitsumi was worn out to the bone. She`d been assigned to Morroc the past few days to work on the Minorous infestation below the thieve`s guild. However, she wasn`t making much progress. Her head was resting against Niro`s shoulder as the evening light bathed the streets gold. She yawned slowly and stretched her arms out above her head. Niro`s hands quickly took the opportunity to drag her closer so that they were cuddling. Their friends were all sitting around but taking no notice of the two who denied that they were anything but friends.

Niro whispered something softly into her ear that she didn`t quite hear.. so she tilted her head to the side and quirked a brow. Her silent cue that he needed to repeate it. Everyone around them were talking about the upcoming War of Emperium later that evening.. not a single eye was upon them. Not that she would have given notice to anything other than the warm sun, and his warm half embrace. He lowered his head so that he seemed to be nuzzling her hair.

"Kitsumi, will you marry me?" His voice was so soft, tenative.

"Yes I will, Niro-kun.." Came her whispered reply as she turned her head as if to kiss his cheek, which she did after speaking. Both were utterly oblivious.. though if they`d looked they might have noticed the satisfied smiles on their guildmates.. not that they could have known. But then again, why wouldn`t they? It was quite obvious what was going to happen right from the start. No one needed to ask WHY they were going to be together.. it had simply been a matter of `when.`