48 Rare Collection

Homura Ryuu took time in the shower. He had been a bit upset that Ara ended up not having plans at all, and he nearly let his ki out.

Normally at the Homura House, he could at least release some of his energy when he got frustrated, and it wouldn't matter. But doing that would cause the atmosphere to be suppressed, making ordinary people feel a lack of breathing air and get sick.

Ara would be scared. It wasn't time yet to tell her about himself so he needed more effort in controlling his power.

He closed his eyes and let the hot water rain on him as he calmed the fire dragon linked to his soul.

When he emerged from his bath, forty minutes had already passed. He felt a bit guilty making Ara wait too long, but at least he was able to calm down enough to decide that no matter what happened, he would just watch over her and protect her. After all, to him, Okada Koharu was as insignificant as a mosquito. If she tried to bite, she could simply be swatted away.

The most important thing right now was for Homura Ryuu to make sure he'd please his future wife. Because if his fated one disliked him, no matter how much he tried, they would never be able to produce a child.

Kazehaya had already warned him that for the moment, it's best to be on good behavior and act like what normal humans would. Homura Ryuu had taken this duty seriously and had even read about it. It's a difficult task, but he would put all his effort into it.

With this, the Koutaishidenka stepped out of his room, feeling fresh, and ready to court his woman. But he stopped on his tracks upon seeing her.

She was now sitting on the couch in the living room, with a dreamlike expression on her face. In her hand was a glass of what appeared to be red wine.

Suspicious, Homura Ryuu glanced at the shelves and saw an empty space on the shelf where he put the rarest pieces in his collection.

HUH?

He hurriedly crossed the room and stood in front of her.

The legal age in Japan to drink alcoholic beverages was twenty. Ara's only eighteen.

"Who said you can drink?" He asked with a frown, and then stopped upon remembering what he said to her earlier.

"After your tea, you can have whatever drinks you want…"

His ice-blue eyes turned bleak. It was him.

Helplessly, he turned towards the bottle of wine she was drinking. Kou was aghast seeing the almost half-empty bottle of Cheval Blanc 1947 St-Emilion on the table.

This woman's daft!

Out of all the bottles of red wine she had to take, it had to be the second most expensive one he had in his collection. Only a hundred and ten thousand bottles were produced of it, and it cost him more than a hundred thirty thousand grand in US dollars at the auction.

But it wasn't the money he was upset about. It was the fact that there were no more of that bottle sold anywhere.

His collector heart bled at the sight.

"I did. Why do I have to ask anyone if I can drink?" she slurred and Ryuu couldn't do anything but comb his hair with his fingers in resignation. If his flame dragon could come out and speak, it would have started complaining now.

A part of him was amused though. Ara seemed to have changed since he first saw her. When he went to her school to do a demonstration on kyudo, she was a shy, blushing girl who couldn't even meet his eyes.

But Ara not only didn't cower when he looked at her, she even had the guts to stare back at him now – and not many could do that even men. She got spunk, and he found it pleasing.

"Erhm... It's because you're drinking my wine?" he pointed out but Ara only replied with a blink.

It was obvious that she was totally inebriated.

"Then come have a drink too," she invited cutely as she tried to pour him a drink, and Kou, seeing as she had no plans on stopping anyway, resigned to fate, and sat next to her on the sofa, accepting the glass of wine as he did.

He wondered what made her decide to drink so suddenly. Was she still upset about her conversation with her brother, he wondered. Or was she really worried about what to do with that fake best friend of hers?

She had boldly announced she would think about her evil schemes, and surprisingly, he believed she would do it. Well…somehow.

"So, how are your evil machinations going?" he asked conversationally, making Ara huff. She was beet red like a baboon's bottom.

"Ha! What evil machinations? I can't even think of any. How do I become bad anyway? I need to practice," she answered, her tone of voice indicating how hard it was to be "Evil".

She looked totally troubled about failing to be bad that Kou couldn't help the twitching of his lips as he fought not to smile. "Uhuh…"

"I learned something funny though," she continued, and Kou remained silent, letting her speak. "Do you know? Life is full of irony. It's true that one can't really have everything he wants."

"Oh? What made you say so?"

Ara let out a cynical laugh. "Because in a world where everyone loved me, my only brother hated me enough to kill me. But in this world where I'm hated by everyone, only my brother stood by my side," she said as she clutched at her heart, and pain unexpectedly showed on her face as if she was telling a story from experience.

Kou stared at the girl's beautiful but sorrowful face. He had no idea what made her say that. Still, he would like to correct her.

"That's not true," he countered, and before she could protest he had leaned over to give her a feathery kiss on the lips.

It was so fast; it was over before she even realized what happened. She could only look at his handsome face so close to hers as Kou held her hand. "I'm here too, aren't I?"