Page 26 of Behind the Mask

Kasumi nodded and stood to sketch a deep bow."It was an honor, Lord Minoru.May you lead a happy life.I will see you shortly, of that I have no doubt."

He embraced his father one last time, then waited as they all left, all but vibrating in place.

When the door closed with a resounding click, he turned slowly to face the bastard who was shortly going to be very dead.

"Would you take off the mask?"Isaac asked.

Kasumi removed the mask and carefully set it down on the table—then threw himself forward, catching Isaac on the jaw, dodging the arms that tried to catch him to drop and sweep Isaac's feet out from underneath him.

Then he punched the bastard again before he was himself caught and tossed aside.He gained his feet just in time to be shoved up against the nearest wall.

"Bastard," he hissed.

Isaac grinned—then kissed him.

Kasumi bit his lip hard, eliciting a satisfying grunt of pain—then he yanked his arms free and wrapped them around Isaac's neck, dragging him as close as he could possibly get.The scent of the sea still clung to him, mingling with some sharp, not-quite-sweet cologne.His hair had grown out in the four months since he'd vanished, long enough Kasumi could sink his fingers into it and lightly tug.

"I'm going to kill you," he said when Isaac finally let him go.

Isaac laughed."I've missed you and your death threats, Kasumi."

"If you think for two seconds that I'm going to call you master, you conniving, vanishing—"

Isaac kissed him again, and Kasumi wished he could muster the will to put up a fight but after four damned months of feeling perfectly wretched because—He broke the kiss."You vanished!Not even a goodbye, you just vanished!Let me go at once!"

"Sorry," Isaac replied."I didn't want to say anything until I was certain, then I realized if I didn't take you by surprise you'd kill me."

Kasumi glared at him."Isaac?"

"You don't like my name?"

He just kept glaring.

Isaac grinned and lazily traced Kasumi's lips with his finger."It was the name I had before I turned into a criminal.Probably the only one not associated with some sort of crime.Would you prefer I go back to Luther?"

"Shut up," Kasumi replied."Just shut up or I really will be forced to kill you.I can't believe—" He thumped Isaac's chest hard."You could have saidsomething."

"Um—I was slightly panicky.This whole reformed thing is new to me.And…"

Kasumi glared."And what?"he snapped.

"I was afraid if I said something, you'd turn me down," Isaac confessed."This way, I stood a chance of getting more time to change your mind."He cupped Kasumi's face in his hands."May I safely assume that perhaps you won't regard me strictly as your Master?"

"If you honestly think I'm going to call you Master," Kasumi replied, "you're even crazier than I already thought.So is this your new mask?Lord and Master?"

Isaac grinned."Well, I was rather hoping to live mostly mask free from now on.Can't be completely honest, of course, else I'd wind up with a noose around my neck."

Kasumi rolled his eyes and yanked him close."You're an idiot."

"You're the only one who thinks that, you know," Isaac said."Guess you see something no one else does."The words were spoken lightly, but the blue-gray eyes held an intensity that made it hard to breathe.

"Fair is fair," Kasumi replied."No one else has ever called mefeisty."

"No one else had better," Isaac said."I reformed for you.I also paid a damn fortune to spend the rest of my life enduring death threats and nasty right hooks.That feistiness is mine and no one else's."

Kasumi rolled his eyes, fighting a smile."Shut up," he said, and kissed his reformed pirate soundly.

Fin

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