Ryu's eyebrows twitch and his lips part slightly, though nothing comes out. Mizuki glares into abysmal eyes before angrily turning her back to him from the flower bed.
Crossing the misshapen border of violets, he kneels into aromatic petals; his left hand reaches for her right shoulder and before it connects, Mizuki leans away. Slinking to crawl a body's length away, she sits with her back to him from the other side of the purple patch.
Taking in the scent of another, freshly plucked violet, Tsukiyomi's emotionless voice breaks the silence. Carrying Ryu's words, "What do you want me to say?"
Mizuki crushes its stem in her grip while clutching the fabric crossing over her generous cleavage. Lowering her head, "That you're here to finish me off."
Snickering wickedly, "I'll finish you off a hundred ways 'til dawn," growing deathly serious, "If you swear to never question me in front of our servants again."
Twisting to prop herself up and get a good look, he finds Ryu smirking playfully. Following his tongue as it runs over the crest of his top teeth, the slick muscle halts on his right fang when she quietly ponders, "That means. . ."
Lowering his eyebrows when she drags her legs to face him without getting up, the humanoid bear hugs herself. In a clearer voice, "You're not here to kill me for questioning you?"
Ryu witnesses tears streaming in the race to drip down her jaw as she struggles to glance up at him, "After you called me empress in front of them. . .saying you had no reason to question my decisions."
Cautiously approaching his woman, he kneels beside her to touch her shoulder. In a whisper, "Kuma," Ryu's breath caresses her cheek, "I would sooner destroy every flower in this world, than cause the rarest of them all. . ."
Cupping her cheek, drawing her into his enchanting charm, "To wilt."
Lowering his eyelids halfway, Ryu watches Mizuki tighten the hold she has on herself. Scrutinizing her agony through observative hellfire eyes as she shakes her head away, crying harder, he tilts his head ever so slightly.
Muttering melancholic, "I don't deserve you. . ."
Her face scrunches up as if learning a dirty secret before she shakes her head no, "I don't deserve to live."
Taken aback, Ryu swoops around to the front of her on his knees, "No one deserves to live."
Running his knuckles up her streams of tears to dry them, Mizuki looks from his chest to his face. Searching pearlescent skin dusted in ridged scales before landing on white pupils with fire irises that were once sky blue, her face fills with even more misery.
Weakly unhugging herself, "I don't deserve," a shaky right hand cups Ryu's host's cheek, "To have ever met a god."
Ryu snatches Mizuki's wrist with a sharp SNIFF before tugging her long, bell sleeve down to the crook of her inner elbow. Upper lip twitching to reveal his full right fang, fury floods ivory features; staining the silk draped around red-streaked, peachy skin is the bear's own, dried blood.
A concerned annoyance fills Tsukiyomi's once empty voice with Ryu's emotion, "Again?"
Yanking her arm from his grasp to give him a cold cheek and hunched shoulder, hiding the once wounded arm, his very tone scowls her, "You know you heal too fast for that to do any real damage."
Questioning the air with his palms up, "Why even try that way?"
Tucking his chin to slide his head back with a disgusted hiss, "That's the fragile human's way out."
Mizuki snarls, "Because I don't deserve to breathe!" her voice hitches in her throat on a gurgle of snot.
Cupping the base of her slender neck while resting her palm flat over breastbone, Mizuki focuses on breathing calmly through every cry's attempt to gasp into a wail.
"After what I did. . .to him," sniffling before a triage of small coughs ensue, "I don't. . .deserve. . .to breathe."
Trembling as she releases her throat, Mizuki quickly fills anxious hands with the hem of her dress as it lays across the middle of her thighs. Ryu cocks his head to the side incredulously skeptical, "To the moon god?"
Looking up at the sky like this conversation with the woman is all a waste of time, "I can assure you," he returns his sight to the top of her ashamed head, "You're already forgiven in his eyes."
Throwing his hands up dismissively, "I am the one that turned you against him."
Rolling his eyes up and off to the side, "As if that's all it took to–."
"To Sane!" sucking up snot and wiping tears away with the backs of her hands, Mizuki shifts swiftly in the violets to keep her messy face from his glance.
Mouthing an 'oh', Ryu listens intently.
"I did what I thought you wanted me to," furrowing her brow, reflecting on her reasoning in that moment, "To impress you!"
Whining into a low, pained growl, "And you didn't even care if he lived or died."
Biting mauve lips with a steadying breath to retain her sob, "As long as he was kept out of your way."
Pounding her thighs using the sides of her fists with a loud THWACK, "I killed my best friend!"
Hunching over, digging her claws into the earth at her knees, "I didn't mean to," her thighs rapidly heal, "Kill. . .my only friend. . ."
Shutting her eyes tight in flustered repugnance by her own actions, "For what. . .?"
Sighing with pity for his lover's remorse over an action that cannot be undone, the dragon tenderly makes known, "I was impressed. No other woman would fit so well beside me as we raise the children of a New Era."
Petting the top of her head until she tucks her chin, pulling her head back, he starts with, "He was a 'friend'. . ."
Pausing to withhold a snarky comment, Ryu's face deadpans, "Until he betrayed you and his little orgy pals."
Shrugging with just cause through his logic, "The horse got what he deserved and his death made you that much more terrifying in the eyes of your future servants," Ryu grins with a confident nod.
Proud of his woman's decision to act with such ruthlessness, the dragon's grin fades when he watches Mizuki crumble before his very eyes.
Uttering, "With that logic," hopelessly convinced, "I deserve much, much worse for the ways I first betrayed Sane and Tsuki. . ."
Sniffling, struggling to get out the words, "By choosing You."
Cocking his head to the side, "By choosing me you made the right decision. Woman, that is something to be proud of. Only with me could you reach the heights we will climb together, but you're trying to bail on your own plan because you feel bad over a pair that was a lost cause long before you were born?"
Staring at the sultry, curvy Mizuki as she doubles over to bury her face into folded arms as she now lays in the grass, face down, crying. The bear yokai's outward display sinks into Ryu's mind how devastated she is. A broken woman that built herself back up into a confident diva, with sights set on going from nobody, to somebody, is shattering from the inside out over guilt.
Wondering why she would go so far as to kill Sanemaru just to impress him only to feel so terrible after, he's perplexed on how this has turned away from a celebration of her fierce decision-making and the image she will create for herself as his empress.
The sound of rustling flowers draws Ryu from a web of logical speculations; glancing at Mizuki to discover her dress hanging off her shoulders while she crawls the very short distance to his feet on all fours. Breathing in slow and deep, watching the way her hips sway under clinging silk and her breasts bounce free from her dress, his dick surges with life.
Examining every move she makes until she walks upright on her knees; hard pink nipples grab his attention, though the hello is short lived when she stops at his feet. Pressing her warm bosom to his clothed thighs, she looks up hopefully into Ryu's hellfire eyes past a raging erection she just barely avoids brushing her cheek against.
Quietly whimpering out her request, "Bring him back," her hot breath reaches the rigid flesh tightening his pants. Grabbing for his hands with claws covered in dirt, she begs him by caressing his body with hers while holding his hands.
Clenching his jaw and swallowing sternly, he firmly grasps her hands to lift her to her feet with his power, making her land as gracefully as a feather. Staring her straight in the eyes, his eyebrows sternly lower, "No."
Throwing his hands away, "If you love me like you tell yourself you do," she taps his sternum with a hard BOP, narrowing her eyes.
"And want me to mother the realms with you," crossing her arms under her breasts, "Then bring him back."
Watching his highness remain still and quiet, she grows impatient. Demanding, "Now," from her emperor, she points at the ground.
Going cold and empty with his statuesque motionless, "Aimi," Ryu's hands rest at his sides, "He is beyond my reach."
"Then," searching his eyes, more desperate and hopeful than before, "Tsukiyomi."
Batting her eyelashes persuasively, she cups his sleeved forearms while pressing her breasts seductively into his chest, "I must speak with him."
Biting her bottom lip while searching his eyes for the words she wants to hear, she suddenly pulls one of his hands to her breasts and the other to cup the cool silk shielding the hot flesh of her pussy.
Bowing her head to Ryu's gaze, almost too embarrassed to witness his reaction as she submits all that she is for this one request, "I'll do whatever it takes."
Raising an eyebrow, he watches the top of Mizuki's head once she returns to her knees at his feet with a pitched tent in her face, "You would betray me to bargain with the banished one you raped and betrayed, all to bring back a sex demon that abandoned you over a human that made false promises the entire time he fucked you?"
Raising her head enraged, "I got what I deserved from him, and he didn't deserve to die over it!"
Violet eyes flicker red as pouty lips twitch into a vicious snarl, "And You betrayed me by having that ningen on your throne in front of your people while I stood at the foot of it with a bowed head beside them," balling her fists tight enough for claws to pierce her palms.
Growling displeased, "Then you dragged her to your room in front of servants and soldiers that'll gossip about how stupid I am with your bitchy fuckin' harem whores."
Visibly amused, "Nothing they think will matter once you're empress," his toothy smirk catches her attention, "Capable of humiliating them back into their rightful place or shredding them to pieces."
Proudly reminding her, "You wouldn't even have to get your talented hands dirty. You'll have legions of soldiers to order–."
Punching his scale-covered shoulder hard enough to take a backward step, her blood stains his shirt as quickly as he hand heals. Ryu's reacting glare lightens up when Mizuki suddenly drags him to the ground with her.
Climbing on top of him, straddling his hips, she screams in his face, "I've done everything you've asked for, and more!"
Pointing in his face as her eyes flicker red, "And still you want that human bitch in your bed? At your side? Instead of me?"
Forlorn while glancing away, "After you convinced me I have no right to be upset about your slimy little harem," then back with wounded confusion, "I'm still not enough for you?"
Grabbing his wrap-tie shirt to pull him closer by it, "How do you still want MORE?!"
Pressing her nose against his, eyes wide open, "The moment you took interest in Tsukiyomi's foolish, stinking pet as more than a game, you shit on every yokai you've ever touched."
Unamused, "Quite the exaggeration when my sexual conquests have never been a secret," his lips proudly stretch into a cocky grin, "I stuffed a variety of lips long before his pet joined our equation."
Shaking him by his robes like he owes her money, "At least mortal whores pay a price that brings sight to your power and business to your door!"
Dropping him to lay flat on the ground, Mizuki stares daggers at him, "That broken cunt gets everything handed to her! She's a pretty piece of delusional trauma that can't do anything right."
POUNDING his scaled chest with the side of her tightly clenched fit, "She's a puny, parasitic nobody that isn't worthy enough to wash your fucking feet!"
Grinding into his hips as the underside of his cock lays trapped between her folds with their clothes as the only barrier, "She isn't even worthy enough to lay eyes on His Highness."
Growling through gritted teeth, "OR be in your presence for that matter."
Ryu laughs while sitting up; adjusting to fold his legs under her so she sits in his lap with her legs around his waist, she releases his clothes from her tight grip. Slacked fabric remains open and Tsukiyomi's scale-dusted chest is the starting point of a violet eyed scan.
Wandering down to flawless, iridescent abs, Mizuki snaps out of her daze to lock eyes back onto his abysmal, fiery gaze when Ryu caresses her sides, "I enjoy the way you speak of others."
Eyeing the heaving chest of her outward emotion, "As though you are exempt from similar assumptions," he taps the tip of her nose.
Running his fingers down her chest, and between her breasts, his eyes spark when her back arches under his touch. Planting her feet into the grass outside his thighs, his gaze travels past her navel, "Having left rumors unregarded, you've grown."
With her legs spread, she presents creamy flesh with the teasing sight of her dress' curtained hem blocking his view of her aromatic, halved peach. Sliding his hands up her sides to cup her ribs right under her breasts, she gasps in anticipation of his swift hands.
Reminiscing on the last time she rode him, Ryu restrains from pinning her to the ground and giving her all she's got until the next time she feels down on herself, "A great practice to keep indefinitely."
Grabbing his hands to place them on top of her breasts, his eyelids lower curiously in wait as he refrains from groping. Watching Mizuki's face twist from pleasure to despair, "It's so stupid and unfair that a kind like hers can take such short little lives for granted when I've wished to die thousands of times."
Holding her hands to her large titties, forcing his hand to fondle over her pillowy chest, "And no matter how wonderful things feel in a moment. . ."
Mizuki's hands slide down his forearms as she whispers to keep her fluctuating emotions hidden, "When it's done and I'm alone in silence with my own thoughts. . ."
Ryu places his right hand on top of hers as it rests on his left forearm, "I can't escape my years of living torture."
Gripping his forearm, "If I was weak like them," her left hand firmly grasps his right hand while it holds her right one on top of his forearm, "I wouldn't've been forced to stick around so long thinking things could actually change."
Biting her bottom lip, snatching her hands from his comforting connection, "Believing I could feel better because none of it could possibly hurt forever. . ."
Hugging herself tight, "But the longer I live, the more time I have to make more dumb ass mistakes that just makes me want to die all over again." The curvy woman's melons get unintentionally lifted by her arms, making Ryu salivate behind closed lips.
Briefly imagining kissing and nibbling over her peachy skin streaked with cool blue veins, while tormenting the rigid nipples begging for his attention, he suddenly shuts his eyes.
Opening them coolly, on Tsukiyomi's emotionless voice, Ryu apathetically delivers, "All I'm hearing is you would rather stop living than be forced to face yourself, or the world, for things done unto you that shaped you into this."
Placing his hands on her knees to lean in closer to her face, "But you have the power to shape yourself into whatever you desire, having learned not to repeat past mistakes that offend you."
Capturing the expression of how she's insulted by his truthful perception, Ryu speaks before she has the chance to scream at him again, "Once we claim the realms as ours, no one in the New Era will care about a past that does nothing to help the future succeed."
Narrowing brightening eyes at her, "Things are the way they are now between us because you denied me over your absurd attraction," he rips his shirt all the way off. Flipping back his now blue-streaked black hair, Ryu reveals Tsukiyomi's gorgeously shredded upper body (whose patches of iridescent scales aren't enough to dull such ethereal beauty).
"To something that could never love you in the ways that you so desperately needed. I had given up long ago before I tried you in the hallway as a 'fuck it' since you're cute when you get mad."
Leading her hands to his hard, hot chest, "And you have yet to learn what the love you're searching for is after caving under your own desires."
In a nearly mocking kind of sympathy as his eyebrows rise, "There has surely been no other time where a choice made as late as yours could still work out so well in your favor."
Tilting his head left, then right, as she remains silent, he watches her examine his face for clear answers.
"The age-old dilemma," pressing his forehead to hers, "To choose a stranger over a friend."
Lowering his eyelids halfway, concealing the judgment that she picks up in his tone, "Now that you and I are everything but strangers, you seek the aid of someone you hurt knowing if he helps you, that he will never speak of your past sins for he would seek absolution from his."
Chuckling sinisterly, "How easy it would be for you to breathe then, living in a time when you could pretend none of your past really happened."
Tilting his chin up and away from her, "For you can do no wrong and everyone else," he hisses, "Is the reason you're so fucked up."
Scrutinizing her silence, Mizuki's face flurries through emotion as sharp words tear into her heart like a thousand, dull and rusty knives.
"The saddest part, Mizuki," grabbing her chin to ensure she cannot glance from his intensely glowing stare, "In trying to control something you wanted but didn't understand," he sucks and licks over his front teeth.
"You paid the greatest price of all."
Eyeing her lips sensually as ivory lids fall halfway, "Regretful memories," inferno eyes capture glossy, violet ones, "Filled with 'what ifs' and burned bridges."
Rather than shoving him and running away to brood, an unusually numb tone fills the once passionate bear demon's voice. Closing her eyes, "Even you make it sound like I'm a waste of life. . ."
A single tear rolls from her inner eye down her cheek.
Hissing into a low, menacing growl, "Do not twist my words, kuma," Ryu runs his nose up her cheek, drying the liquid emotion with his skin while inhaling its scent.
Leaning his forehead against hers until her eyes open to him, "You waste the present with every moment you remain shackled to a past you cannot get back to."
Straightening his spine to look at her down his nose, "If it made sense to let the traitorous steed die for his infractions in that instant, then own it and move on."
"I can't. . .live with myself," sobbing through a gasping breath, "I've done so much!"
Wiping her eyes then her nose as she noisily inhales through snot, "Seen so much. . .been through so much."
Pounding the sides of her head with her inner wrists, "I can't take anymore, Ryu!"
Seizing her arms against her sides, he shakes her into a calming daze. Stunned out of her self-pity parade, Mizuki rests exhausted eyes on the infected shell of the only god she ever loved.
Filling her ears with draconian wisdom on Tsukiyomi's soothingly calm voice, she treasures every syllable Ryu has to offer, "If the particles that make up time and space deemed your life more valuable than his," mumbling slyly under his breath, "Since his creator did not save him," scratching under his chin, "Then take his death as destiny."
Soothing her shoulders with careful caresses, "Some days simply breathing," he presses his cheek to hers, "Is a sign the world is ripe enough to be feasted upon."
Dropping violet eyes to the scales protruding down chest, "Please," her lips quiver, "Just. . ."
Shaking her head no, staring down at nothing in particular as tears leap from every corner, "Kill me."
Shoving her from his lap and into the flowerbed, fed up with her foolishness, "Enough."
Ryu rises to his feet.
Reaching for his hand, she manages to grab his sleeve when he turns his back to her, "No!"
Bending over to get in her face, primordial fires burn bright enough to blind her into shutting her eyes, "You think the tiny shit you're letting eat you away is worth dying over?"
Roaring frustrated at the sky before calming his blazing eyes down, Ryu finds Mizuki's dull, purple eyes again, "Use this time trying to forgive yourself until you get past it. Or, fuck around having fun until you forget it even happened. Do something!"
Pointing off into nothingness, "That horny hunk knew his end was near the moment he stepped hoof back onto MY mountain."
Audibly disgusted with herself, "I can't forgive myself. How could I possibly forget?!"
Knuckling her scalp while pulling her hair at the roots without ripping it out, "I watched him die because I was so angry at him."
Sniffling harshly to reel snot back into her nose, "Y'know," hands dropping dumbly into her lap as a daunting realization fills her features, "I told him I would. . ."
Finding it difficult to show her face to Tsukiyomi for so many reasons, "Kill him," she coughs through the fresh run of a new stream of tears, "If he chose her over me."
Conflicted by a brazenly proud moment now doused by angst, "But, I didn't think he'd choose her," she nearly trails off.
Releasing her hair to pound the top sides of her head with closed fists and shut eyes, "I didn't think I had it in me to go through with it!"
Sliding his hands under her fists to cup them, he prevents another chance for her to inflict self harm, "Your actions were fed by pain."
Adopting a laissez-faire attitude while lifting his graceful touch from her, "That's not who you are," Ryu casually throws his hands up, "And surely he's fucking to his heart's content wherever he is."
Smirking wickedly, "Gain comfort knowing he won't live to see the master he swore himself to break from the inside as I consume all of the good his consort has to offer."
Missing everything Ryu says, utterly convinced by the voice screaming in her head and the guilt anchoring her heart into her stomach, "I'll never have a happy life."
Groaning like he has someplace better to be, "You only feel like that right now. You'll be laughing about this by next autumn," shrugging non-committedly, "Or the spring after that."
Standing tall while proudly pointing at himself, "I've been known for the genocide of many species and," pointing back at the mountain with a clawed thumb, "Let me tell you: there's no such thing as a 'happy' life unless you control everything or live as a blind fool."
Taking her hands in his, ivory claws interlock with Mizuki's lifeless hands, "With You."
Kissing her nose, "By my side and his human prostrated at our feet, we can pave the way for a blissful existence."
Witnessing the wheels spinning in her head as she stares blankly, processing his words, Ryu guides her hands down the front of his bare, rippled muscles.
"Remember everything you did to make this yours?"
Swaying his hips sexually, Ryu holds her hands against a cock that throbs to life; bunching his eyebrows, discovering his usual antics have done nothing to snap her out of melancholy, Ryu reiterates his harshfully honest perspective.
"You're throwing away all your hard work over some fair-weather, self-serving, Fucky-Sucky-Boy."
Mizuki pushes his chest hard enough for an echoing DOOMPH to resonate.
Glancing at Ryu, stunned by her own instantaneous reaction, she takes a frustratingly deep breath. Closing her eyes and groaning into an agitated growl, "Even if I find a way to be happy for a while. . ."
Mizuki shrugs into a hunch and purple-chestnut hair falls to hide her face, "I don't know how to hold onto it. I've never been able to stay happy."
Sighing softly, Ryu contemplates speaking only to shut his lips instead; seeing tear glossed, violet eyes glance up at him, the very essence of her soul's deepest wish to die shines clear as day.
Grasping onto his body, burying her face in the crook of his neck, "You're right. All I do is hurt the people I–," Mizuki mumbles into silence against the pearlescent skin adjacent to protruding, iridescent patches of scales.
Wrapping her arms tightly around him, conforming every bit of her body to his, "I don't know Who or What I am anymore."
Cupping the base of her head in one hand while palming the small of her back with the other, the fierce dragon's soothing tone hugs her eardrums, "You're too hard on yourself, Mizuki."
Nudging his cheek into the side of her head as she cries silently into him, "Friends die all the time. Find comfort knowing you were with him, delivering a kinder end than any other yokai. He was a trick pony for a banished god, after all."
Mizuki cries harder at Ryu's callously harsh attempt to shoo away her grief.
Clenching his jaw and flaring his nostrils before rocking her gently, "If it's any consolation, I've killed many friends. My father, too."
Sniffling to lift her head and scan his face, Ryu glances off to the side then back at her, "In a sense."
Tilting her head, listening carefully to see where he's headed, "So," Ryu tenderly directs her chin up.
Gaining the best view of her beautiful face, "If I'm still allowed to exist, why would someone as rare and special as you choose to cut your time short?"
Leading his fingertips along her jaw, reaching her earlobe, Ryu strokes Mizuki's cheek with his thumb, "Keep going and don't repeat the things you think were mistakes. That's the only way I know to avoid repetitive life lessons that sting."
Nodding slightly, "Even the horse found peace and redemption by," Ryu makes a yuck face and gags quietly, "Making changes to be a 'better' person."
Breaking away from him to turn her back to the Lord of the Mountain, "I don't have the strength to pretend like that the rest of my life. You know as well as I. . ."
Folding her arms over her stomach, unintentionally lifting her breasts while thin fabric hangs on to nipples rigid from the breeze, "I've been the best I know how to be."
Tucking a fray lock of hair behind her ear as she faces the wind to look at Ryu from over her shoulder, "And in so many ways. . .I've learned I'll never be good enough."
Turning her body to face him, clutching herself while avoiding his soul-searching stare, "Not for Sane. Not for Tsuki. Not for You."
Wiping away a new tear with her knuckle, "Can't you spare me the pointless suffering by killing me? It should be as easy to end me as it was your friends and father."
Disinterested in her request, Ryu rolls his eyes away from her, "It's pointless to regret something you can't change. Especially when you were sure it was right at the moment."
Massaging his temples with the pads of his forefingers, "Each day tries to kill us, until there's nothing left."
Shaking his hands out, "And some day after that, no one will know we even existed."
Shoving Ryu into a backward step, he grabs her wrists to prevent any further disrespect. Breaking free from his grasp, she claws at his chest; before making contact, the entire front surface of his body is covered in protective, iridescent scales.
Clawing away at dragon-flesh until her nails are broken, fingertips raw and bloody, Mizuki bellows out her roaring rage in his face.
Angry at herself and the world, she collapses into his embrace; safe within the dragon's host's powerful arms, they kneel until he scoops her bridal style into his lap. Soothing his weeping bear, Ryu clears his throat inside the mindscape where he keeps Tsukiyomi's consciousness imprisoned.
Within the confines of a mental dungeon, Ryu asks the banished, possessed moon god, "Think you can talk some sense into her?"
Squeezing his sobbing woman as she divulges all of her dismay into breathy tears, the dragon confesses only to Tsukiyomi, "Saving lives isn't my specialty."