Bumbles bounded about the flat, jumping for joy at the sight of Rio. Hank's heart leapt even higher. He held her as tight as his arms would allow, peppering her with questions.

"What happened? Where were you? Everybody's worried!"

All Rio did was laugh and cry, her face buried in his chest. She shook so hard that he feared she'd collapse if he let her go. He steered her towards the love seat and plopped her gently upon it before taking the carry-on bag from her shoulder and placing it in Leanne's big chair. He then sat quietly beside her as she sat ramrod straight, her hands clenched in fists between her knees. Her sobbing and shaking sudsided somewhat when he placed her head on his shoulder. There, she silently wept.

"Please don't cry," he said, crying a little himself. "Everything is okay."

Rio disagreed. "I couldn't get on the plane."

"You mean they wouldn't let you?"

"No. I couldn't do it." A final sob rattled her ribcage as she quickly changed the subject. "Look at what I'm wearing."

Along with the gray pleated skirt and business jacket, Rio wore a white peasant blouse sporting a tatted collar. A blue ribbon beneath the collar was tied at her neck in a bow.

"You look lovely," he said in all honesty.

"It's what I wore when we first met. When you saw me the very first time."

Hank didn't know what to say, so he hugged Rio while petting her hair. She soaked up every drop, snuggling into his side. Slowly, and with care, he took off her fogged-up glasses and kissed every tear from her face.

She finally found her normal voice. "Do you remember the way you looked at me when we met?"

Hank remembered clearly. Her beauty had stunned him.

"I remember you wanted to throttle me," he said as he kissed away more of her tears.

"Hai. At first you did not impress."

Hank scooped Rio up from the love seat and made her bend back very far, like the way she had done when she hung from his belt loops when they first kissed at Milton's. There, she dared Death to take her. Now she clung to Hank for her life, fearing so much as the thought of Death.

"Do I impress you now?" he asked, his mouth close to hers.

She swooned. "Hank-sama," she said through wet parted lips. "Oh my God."

He buried his tongue down her throat as she sucked it and swirled hers around it. Afterwards, she showed strength by breaking free of his grasp. She paced the room as a nervous wreck, her hands fluttering like they were lost. She found the studded leather belt she had given him laying on her dining table, atop Leanne's laptop and the photo of the two of them on vacation that Hank had planned to take to the airport.

Rio held the belt to her nose, letting its scent remind her of a lost life. "I was going to run away," she confessed while playing with the belt. "I wanted a new place to hide. Then I realized this is where I hide. My refuge when there's trouble."

Slowly, and with expertise, she bound her wrists with the belt. "I might cry tonight for no reason," she said, approaching Hank with care. "The world will scream and I will scream with it. I'll be sad and most likely terrified, but I will stay with you."

Having incapacitated herself with the belt, she instructed him on how to secure the buckle so she couldn't break free. "Joy comes if I stay with you," she said, her wrists now tightly bound. "Will you deliver joy?"

"I will," Hank promised, terrified a bit himself. Rio may have bought a ticket for the jet that burned in Aika's glade, but it had come within an inch of crushing both him and Bumbles. The memory of the stench and fire were still plaguing him.

Hank spent many minutes kissing off what little remained of Rio's sierra red lipstick. He caressed her hair and spoke words of comfort before leading her by her bindings into her bedroom. From there she led him further, taking him to her bath. She had him place the sōpurando air mattress on the floor. He placed a bath towel on the mattress and she lay upon it. Holding her wrists above her head, she gave her final command before offering complete submission, by instructing him on how to hook her bindings to the pipes of the telescoping shower head.

In peace, she closed her eyes while he removed her shoes and massaged her feet. She writhed under his domination, like the way he had writhed for Anna when she massaged his feet on Fuji's chabudai.

Rio begged for forgiveness. "I've ignored you and I'm sorry."

Hank laughed while kissing her toes. "You have never ignored me. You drive me crazy with the way you don't ignore me."

"I've ignored your feelings and I'm sorry. Can't you see our problems?"

"I can see your problem. You're tense as a rope."

Ecstasy mixed with giggles as Hank playfully nipped Rio's toes. He worked his way up her legs, kissing all her skin. He explored the schoolgirl panties hidden beneath her skirt, tracing the outline they made on her body with his thumb and two fingers.

"Can you please understand?" she blurted during a moment when words would come.

"A lot has happened," he said between nips and kisses near her panties. "It's hard understanding anything."

He stood over her facing backwards and hoisted her legs in the air. Holding her ankles in one hand, he tugged off her skirt with the other. He then left her lower body and attacked her upper, pawing her jet black hair out of his way so he could bite her neck.

Rio groaned, strapped helpless to chrome pipes. She rolled back and forth as much as possible, spitting out her hair when it got in her mouth. Once Hank had finished chewing on her neck, he laid her out more comfortably by unbuttoning her business jacket and blouse. While astride her on his knees, he admired the soft fabric of her flesh tone bra. A honey blush grew on the top half of her breasts, and he bent low to force her to lock eyes with him.

His beautiful, toasty warm, almond butter eyes drove the heat of her blush to her loins. "You know I don't like clothes," he said, holding his borrowed robe shut. "I'm going to get naked."

She fed him hot air by heaving her breath. "No more words, Hank-sama. Douzo. No more words."

He stopped stripping off the robe whenever she closed her eyes or turned her head away, forcing her to watch his every move until finally, slowly, achingly, he knelt over her in the nude. His hardness traced lines on the cups of her bra until she could stand no more.

He devoured her as her tongue hung out. She panted like a dog, moistening her lips with saliva to make them red again. He took precious time removing every strand of hair from her face, placing them beside her on the mattress. His manhood pressed against her belly while he labored, with its tip finding its way under her bra.

His smile melted glaciers. Thoughts of affection consumed her. She swallowed hard as the world fuzzed away.

Make this last forever.

His voice rumbled on her chest, so very near her heart. "I'm not going to take you this way. There will be a better time." She kept her eyes closed, but her smile faded. "A time when you're more like yourself," he explained. "When you can make love as well as take love, and not while you're helpless and hurting."

With her arms still trapped inside her clothes, he straightened out her unbuttoned blouse and rolled up her business jacket into a makeshift pillow. After loosening her bindings to make her more comfortable, he exposed her breasts by pulling down her bra and tucking the cups underneath them. He then stroked her body, using every inch of his meat.

"Honey Cup!" he exclaimed. "You have bruises!"

Hank found scratches too, on Rio's back from her kidneys to her shoulders. Makeup covered the rings on her neck from where Arius had strangled her. As Hank examined her body, caressing her and loving her, he found marks from their struggle everywhere.

"What happened?" he asked.

Silently, with her eyes closed, Rio wept. She struggled to not bawl. Hank cared not one whit that she didn't want to answer his question. She needed his love and it was all that mattered. He pleasured her until she fell asleep, then snuggled and slept on top of her.

At some time during the night, Rio wriggled feebly, fagged from the throes of ecstasy Hank had so often delivered. She wished to admire his naked body in its entirety, still laying upon her as they both lay on the sōpurando air mattress. But with her wrists strapped to the pipes, all she could see by raising her head was his shaggy mane and a bit of his butt.

He moaned while half asleep, feeling her move underneath him. He forced her to lay still by wrapping her tighter in his arms and squeezing until she relaxed. He then kissed the hot blush between her breasts and swirled one of her nipples with his tongue.

Rio swooned as ecstasy again engulfed her. The closer she drew herself to him, the calmer her Reality became.

No, not Reality, she thought, bringing more peace to her weary soul than it had ever known. The entire Universe.

He cuddled her like a pillow. Though neither could see the other's face, they shared a smile together.

"Will you take me now?" she asked politely, his head nestled near hers.

"I am," he said after a long moment, his eyes closed and again half asleep. "I'm so deep into you."

Oh God. I am into you.

Hank awoke the next morning as one of his most pleasant dreams about Rio turned into the worst of his PEP Test nightmares. The horror it evoked became crystal clear. The people in the nightmare who frolicked in Aika's glade before burning and exploding like car bombs as a great darkness descended looked for all the world like a premonition of last night's plane crash and fire.

Now awake more fully, Hank had no time for dream analysis. Rio was choking the life from him using the leather belt. She pinned him with precision by kneeling on his elbows, the belt folded double in her hands as she crushed his trachea with all her might. He bucked and she flew over his head, bouncing off the wall and the shower pipes. After a life-saving breath, she was on him again in an instant, attacking from behind. Grayness turned to black as Hank's brain starved for air.

He reached up and grabbed her temples, digging in her mind until he found her little girl heart. It spoke from a place of great sorrow.

I love you and I'm sorry.

Please let me go.

Rio knew enough about Dreamwatching to understand what Hank was doing, and what had happened to her. "They got to me!" she cried, loud and long and strong. "There's black in me!"

Help me!

Rio's little girl heart fought the black with all the strength it could muster, but demons and monsters and grizzly bears bit her and clawed her and sawed her. Pieces of her flew like bumblebees. The stench was overwhelming, like vomit and burning jet fuel. And everyone everywhere everything, screaming and screaming and screaming.

Help me!

Inside Rio's mind, Hank strode through the chaos like vapor. He reached the little girl heart, shredded and beaten to bits, and gathered up all its pieces. Then wholly and protectively, he wrapped his heart around Rio until no part of her could be seen. Turning to face the tormentors, they exploded like festival fireworks. Nothing remained but the glory.

Hank sputtered and coughed once Rio released his neck from the leather belt. She lay in a crumpled heap, sobbing far worse than she had done at any time the night before. Dry heaves churned her guts, until she gained enough strength to drag herself to the toilet and puke. Grabbing the bowl with both hands while sitting on the floor, she spewed oily black vomit so forcefully that some of it got in her eyes.

Hank crawled over and held her hair out of the toilet. "It's going to be all right," he said, gasping to catch his breath. "It's over."

Rio spat and stank. "No, it's not! Now it's inside you!"

"I'm going to be all right."

She attacked him again, this time with mercy instead of hate. "Give it back!" she cried, trying to place her hands on his temples. "Give it to me and then kill me!"

Rio was so broken that she was no match for Hank. He overpowered her easily and, as they hugged on the bathroom floor, all she was able to do was hang her mouth open and cry.

He gently placed her hands on his temples, then placed his upon hers. "Look," he said. "I'm okay."

What had been towering monsters to Rio, ten meters tall and even taller, were tiny black dots in Hank's mind. His depth was so great and his compassion so keen that it took effort to even find them. They now begged for his mercy, but he simply ignored them.

Rio's heart beat fast with fear and admiration. She thought it might burst from her chest. "I don't understand!" she cried. "How?"

He shrugged while holding her tight. "I don't know. I just can."

"My sweet!" she exclaimed, the fire in her never ending. "I love you!"