The Adventure Begins

Kieko narrowed her eyes, inhaling deeply to prepare a sigh, but the breath stopped in her lungs as her eyes shot open wide.

"Ki... it's not a threat... I... Oh god," the dragoness stopped short and tore off in the direction of the presence at a breakneck speed.

"It can't be him, can it? Oh please let it be," she thought as she ran, but she stopped seconds before she would have seen him, wondering if he would even remember her now. It had been so long...

Damon continued to walk at his sedate pace. He inhaled to sigh and as he did Damon caught a rather familiar sent.

"It's her." He took off at a run, coming into Kieko's line of vision just as she paused.

"K-Kieko?" Damon managed to stutter as he caught sight of Kieko.

Kiyo ran after the dragon and tackled her before Damon had spoken her name.

"Kie, what the hell?! How do you know it's not a threat?" she asked. She looked up and growled softly as he came into view. However, as soon as he said Kieko's name, her brow furrowed and she let the dragon up.

"Kie, what the fuck is going on?"

"Damon," Kieko breathed, looking up from where she now lay as if the wolf hadn't even tackled her.

She didn't even move to stand, just smiled a bit. "Is it really you? I'm not hallucinating again am I? Kiyo? You see him too right," she asked, not even turning to look at her friend for fear he would disappear if she took her eyes off of him.

Damon also continued to stare. He had started to move to see if Keiko was all right but after hearing her speak he knew she was fine and had stopped. A smile now spread across his face a she asked her friend if he was real.

"Of course I'm real. I've been looking for you for sometime." He murmured softly not seeming to notice Kiyo.

Kiyo stared at the guy before them before hoisting the dragon to her feet.

"Yes, I can see him, Kie. Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" she asked.

Kieko shook her head, snapping a bit out of her daze when she was hoisted to her feet. Still staring at Damon she began to explain things.

"You remember that time we weren't together? Well I ended up in some trouble in his world and he took me in. Long story short we ended up engaged but... before... well he had to go. We always said we'd meet up again and finish what we started... but then I met up with you again and I know you remember my hallucinations. It was always him I saw... always... but I thought... well you and I were plane hopping so much at that point I figured if he was still alive we'd run into him at some point. We never did so I thought... I thought you were dead," she murmured, talking over her shoulder until the last sentence which she directed straight at Damon.

Her gold eyes narrowed a bit, still not conviced she wasn't hallucinating yet again. Some of them had been rather elaborate after all.

Damon only smiled and waited patiently as Kieko explained. As she directed her attention to him he shook his head.

"I'd never leave you for long. Death would never stop me from being with you." Damon took a step towards Keiko, reaching out a hand as he did. "I've been looking for you for a while... and all most caught up to you a few times. That's me though, all ways one step behind."

Kiyo watched him move forward and took a nervous step back.

"Kie...You can love him, but I don't like people..."

She turned to Damon once more.

"Don't hurt her. So help me you get close to hurting her and I'll...well, I don't know what I'll do, but you won't like it!" she told him, oblivious to the talk that had gone on before.

Kieko laughed, turning to her friend.

"When have you ever liked people?"

She turned back to Damon and stepped closer, placing her hand tentativly in his, fearful the touch would shatter the illusion and he would be gone. The second their hands made contact and he didn't vanish, she threw herself into his arms.

"You're not a step behind anymore," she mumbled, burying her face against his chest.

Damon hugged her close to him. "I told you." he murmured softly. After a moment he looked up at Kiyo. "I swear I would never hurt her. She means everything to me... The only reason I left was because I had no other choice. I had to leave Keiko behind, for her safety." He turned to Keiko again "If I had taken you with me they would have tried to use your presence to get to me... There is no excuse for how long it has taken me to find you... but... I'm sorry. Please forgive me?" He pleaded.

Kiyo studied them for a moment and deemed him safe. Suddenly, her eyes grew wide.

"Damn it! My pizza is getting cold!" she groaned, turning to run back to the house.

Kieko nodded, keeping her face pressed to his chest for a moment more. At Kiyo's outburst, however she couldn't help but laugh... until it clicked that her pizza was getting cold as well.

Frowning, she pulled away from Damon just slightly and studied him for a moment.

"My pizza is too, come with me?" Her eyes were hopeful as she chewed at her bottom lip, her fangs causing blood to well up across it.

Damon gently wiped the blood from her lower lip.

"Of course. Lead the way." He said smiling, still holding her hand but releasing her from the hug.

Kiyo fell to her knees next to her pizza box and opened it up. She then smiled.

"Good, it's still warm," she told herself. She flopped sideways into the chair again. She leaned her head back on the arm and proceeded to kicking her feet on the other side of the chair. She balanced the box on her lap and stuffed the two liter in it's original spot.

Kieko nodded, gently pulling him along towards the house and into the kitchen where she flopped back into her previous chair and picked up another slice of pizza.

"So... hey Ki? We ever going to figure out what your whole pull to this hell was?" She propped her feet up on the island and kept her hand firmly around Damons, still assuring herself he wasn't going anywhere now.

Damon leaned against the island next to Keiko, also keeping his grip on her hand. He looked around slowly, silently taking in his surroundings as Kiyo and Keiko talked.

Kiyo growled softly.

"Well, sometimes these things take awhile. Remember how my stomach comes first? I can't explore with my belly rumbling louder than you when you find a new treasure horde, you damn lizard," she teased, throwing a piece of her crust at the dragon.

Kieko laughed, easily catching the crust and popping it into her mouth.

"You know, at least I don't smell bad every time I try to get clean," she teased back. "And don't act like you aren't fond of treasure yourself! Little miss shiney! I mean half my hordes are so big because of you!"

She finally started to relax her grip on Damons hand. It was about this point in her hallucinations he usually vanished anyway, but he was still there which could be either a good sign or a very bad one.

Damon smiled as they bantered back and forth. It all most seemed as if he had all ways belonged here. 'Or... As if I'm not even here...' he twitched just a little at the thought. 'No... you seen how she reacted. Time. That's all it will take. We all have to get used to the idea of me being here.' and as that last thought floated through him mind Damon relaxed once again.

Kiyo laughed.

"Oh, touchee! I can't help that I like the shiney things! If I were you, I would stop complaining. Otherwise I may just start my own horde away from you and keep all the shineys to myself!"

She then froze, looking at Damon. She looked at her pizza and back at him again.

"Here, eat or something. It freaks me out that you're just sitting there," she said, throwing a piece of pizza at him.

Kieko laughed, managing to catch the pizza at the last second before it smacked into Damon's face.

"Here, Love, you'll have to excuse the Mutts poor manners," she teased, handing the slice to him.

Damon smiled at them both. "It's no big deal... and I'm not hungry, I all ready ate."

Kiyo stuck her tongue out at Kieko before rolling her eyes. She sat her pizza box on the floor and snapped her fingers. Immediately a book appeared in her hand and she opened it.

She stared at the pages, her brows furrowing. She began to mumble to herself before majicking a pen into her hand as well. She made a few notes before sticking the cap in her mouth. The map in front of her seemed ancient in the newly bound book. However, it was far from. She had made it earlier in the day, despite having told the dragon she didn't go scouting. She was now trying to figure out what could have possibly drawn her and where to start looking.

The dragon watched her dearest friend for a moment before placing her pizza on the counter and taking Damon's hand.

"She'll be at this a while, come on, I'll show you my library! She got me new books today!"

Kieko grinned, picking up the bag she had discarded earlier, and pulled Damon gently towards the library.