The soft but firm voice belonged to a very well-known figure and as Aya strode into the garden, trailed by a few hesitant servants, Sohryu was momentarily distracted. His wife took in the destroyed banquet with a practiced ease that had Sohryu marvel at how she did it. This had been a planned event, a reception of all twelve high-ranking shikigami, and now it was a nightmare!

"What happened?" Aya asked.

He turned and brought the soggy cub he was holding into plain view. "He happened."

Aya's features softened. "Oh no..."

Sohryu was about to reply when he felt a new aura join them and he glanced over his shoulder, discovering Touda. His best friend and bodyguard was tugging Keijin behind himself and the boy looked downright scared.

Byakko mewled softly as the new aura touched the future wind god's senses. Even at such a young age he knew exactly who was who aura-wise, and part of Sohryu chided himself for scaring the cub with his flaring aura. Add Touda to that, Byakko had to be terrified.

"Sohryu." Aya's voice cut into his thoughts. "You're terrifying the kid."

"He destroyed the banquet!" the dragon growled.

Byakko mewled in even more distress and Sohryu felt him tremble.

"Sohryu..."

Now the tone of voice was changing and there was a fine note of steel in his wife's voice. He knew that tone only too well. It was the no-nonsense tone, the one that warned him not to go into that direction or else.

Aya reached out and took the frightened baby tiger from his hold, into her arms, not minding the mess the caramel covered child made of her dress.

"Aya..." Sohryu started, but her expression silenced him.

"I will take him somewhere less hostile," she announced coolly. "He needs a bath."

And with that she was gone, striding past the startled servants, and leaving her husband to deal with the fall-out.

Sohryu sighed softly, aware he would get an earful later, then turned to Touda who was still keeping a hold of his son Keijin.

"What?" he just asked.

Touda smirked a little. "I thought you wanted to have a word with the baby-sitter."

Keijin bit his lower lip, looking even more guilty than he already had.

Sohryu frowned. "Keijin...?"

His son cringed. "It wasn't my fault, dad, really..."

He tilted his head. "Oh really? Care to explain?"

Keijin cringed even further.

"Well, he wanted to see my real form, and I showed him, and then we were practicing his, and I was only helping him... And when I turned around for just a second..."

Sohryu listened as his son revealed the whole story and he had to put some effort into suppressing the chuckles.

After all, he had a reputation to lose.

Aya had cleaned her little charge of all the assorted desserts and sauces, though the caramel had proven to be extra sticky, clinging to the soft fur and making it hard to remove it without using scissors. In the end she had won against the stubborn, glue-like substance and now cuddled an exhausted and still slightly frightened tiger to her chest, who hadn't liked the entire procedure one single bit. She had changed into fresh robes, though nothing ceremonial, and the headwoman had taken the soiled and most likely ruined clothes away, leaving her with the little tiger.

Byakko's parents were probably somewhere in the palace and she wondered if her husband had told them about the incident. Knowing Sohryu, he was trying to calm down and then inform the Protector of the West that his son was currently undergoing bathing.

"See?" Aya said softly as she toweled the striped little cat. "All okay. You're clean and nothing's left of the sticky stuff."

Byakko gazed at her with wide, red eyes.

He was such a cute fur ball, Aya thought. And he looked even cuter now, all hair standing up on end from the vigorous toweling she had given him. Cocooned in the soft blanket, he started to relax, Aya's gentle aura doing the trick. She wrapped him in it, telling his terrified senses he was safe and no one would hurt him.

Byakko yawned and his eyes slid shut.

She smiled. "Sleep," Aya whispered and stroked over his head.

The cub curled up tighter in her hold and soon dropped off. Aya continued her gentle caress, feeling muscles relax, the whole body become limp, and her face took on the soft expressions of mothers everywhere. When she finally looked up she met the blue-gray eyes of her husband. She had felt him coming, but her attention had been on her little charge. Sohryu smiled a little and sat down across from her. His aura was gentle, softly lapping waves that did no harm.

"He okay?" he asked, voice low.

"Exhausted, but I got all the caramel sauce out of him. He should be okay once the excitement has been slept off."

He nodded, eyes on the culprit, who was almost hidden in the blanket.

"The servants are mostly done cleaning up and Touda's gone to get his parents."

Aya nodded, still waiting since she sensed that there was more to come.

"I had a talk with our own son. Keijin confessed to animating Byakko to become his tiger self and then have him play. Apparently he was chasing something and Keijin thought it would keep him occupied."

"So our son was the instigator?"

A nod and a shrug. "He was supposed to watch Byakko and he didn't. Byakko somehow got from the playground to the garden."

"Chasing something," Aya repeated. "He's a baby, Sohryu, and a cat. He would chase just about everything. Keijin was chasing birds the moment he could somehow coordinate his wings."

Sohryu chuckled. "Yes. At the age of five."

Aya smiled more. "Byakko's five. At this age they easily get distracted and don't know where danger lies. He probably chased a bird or an insect and when it was close to the table, he pounced."

She stroked over the tiger's head.

Sohryu gazed at his wife, then a smile touched his lips. "You can't keep him, you know."

Aya shot him a mock glare. "I'm not."

"He has parents who love him."

"Sohryu, I know that. He's just an exhausted child at the moment who needs to know he's safe and won't be hurt."

Sohryu rose and leaned over, brushing his lips carefully over Aya's in a loving kiss. "And a mother is the best protection a baby can have," he whispered. "Especially from temperamental dragons."

She chuckled. "Yes. Now, my lord, go and fetch his parents so he wakes up to his own mother's touch."

"Yes, my lady."

Sohryu bowed a little and Aya flung the towel she had used to dry off Byakko at him. Sohryu grinned, for a moment the young man she had met to many years ago, a man who didn't have to represent, who didn't have to carry the weight of GensouKai and its fate on his shoulders.

The sleeping tiger was reunited with his parents no ten minutes later and Aya smiled gently as the wind god's wife took her son into her arms, giving her a thankful look.

Touda was leaning against one of the many wall pillars and smirked as Sohryu strode toward him.

"So, how's the little toffee?"

Sohryu raised an eyebrow. "Toffee?"

"The fur ball."

"Oh, Byakko's fine. Sleeping. His parents are taking him home and we'll continue this another time. Takes a load off the kitchen's shoulders, too."

Touda grinned more. "So Byakko junior effectively saved you from having a stiff reception."

Sohryu scowled. "I was looking forward to it."

"Riiiight." Touda pushed himself off the pillar and they walked along together.

"You are the one who hates receptions, Touda. Not me."

"Riiiight."

"So I keep wondering if you had anything to do with it."

Touda's scowl had the dragon chuckle, and the fire serpent threw him an evil look.

"What did you do with Keijin?" Sohryu asked conversationally.

"He's in his room."

"And you left him there alone?"

"He won't leave."

"You think so?"

Touda smirked. "I told him where he'll find himself if he tries to set so much as a foot outside his room."

Sohryu gave him a 'do tell' look.

"You know how Genbu complains about having not too many capable assistants to help him with his records, and how Rikugo always needs someone to keep an eye on his sensei?"

"Evil, Touda, evil!" Sohryu laughed.

"Just befitting of a young man of Keijin's standing as the son of the Protector of the East. He needs a broad scale education."

The dragon chuckled, knowing fully well what Genbu's record rooms looked like. The only other person who knew Genbu's so-called 'system' of filing things was Rikugo and the astrologer usually had his hands full with his own stuff, so Genbu went through assistants like underwear. They normally had a fit after a few days of crawling around the gigantic basement cavern that was floor to ceiling filled with ancient texts.

Byakko groaned and buried his face in his hands, embarrassment flushing his cheeks.

"You had to remember this, right?"

Touda grinned. "Yep."

"It was the most terrible moment of my life! I effectively ruined a big party of the representative of the Emperor..." He sighed. "Mom and Dad never blamed me, but it was a while until I was taken along again. I had a baby-sitter the next time."

Touda chuckled. "As Sohryu said - you were the life of the party... Toffee."

Byakko gave him a half-hearted glare. "Don't call me that!"

"It was fitting," the older shikigami teased. "You looked like caramel on legs, Byakko. You were cute... in a dessert kind of way."

The white tiger gave a soft growl. "I was itchy, sticky and scared out of my fur! I wasn't cute!"

"Aya thought so," Sohryu said "She cuddled you till you fell asleep."

The red color on the cheeks intensified and Byakko groaned again, blinking in both embarrassment and confusion at the broad grin the dragon sent his way before he strolled off chuckling.

"See," his lover barely hid his own continuing amusement, "even back then you were as sweet as a..."

"Touda"!" came a low warning.

"Yes?" Innocent, golden eyes met flustered red ones.

"Stop it, okay? It was bad then, it's still bad now!"

Touda wrapped his arms around the slender shikigami, pulling him in close. He brushed an affectionate kiss over his lover's lips.

"Sorry," he whispered. "I had forgotten about it, like so many things of my past, and it just came back now that I saw the bowl and the caramel dessert."

Red eyes took on a more compassionate expression. "Oh."

Byakko understood. He understood that Touda had pushed away most of his past, the past before he had lost it so completely and killed people, and that there were barriers between even the more happier memories and him. Things came back now and then.

Things like a young tiger cub and a bowl of caramel dessert.

"I'm not making fun of you," Touda went on and kissed him again.

"I know." Byakko settled in comfortably into the embrace and held Touda in the same tight hold. "You know, I kinda remember you being there, but not really. I felt the aura of Sohryu and then you came and the two of you together really scared the hell out of me."

"That changed," came the dry remark.

Byakko grinned cheekily. "Yep."

"A lot."

"Yep."

A long hot kiss later...

"And do you remember the incident when you were sinking your baby teeth into our mighty Azure Dragon?"

Red eyes narrowed... and widened in renewed horror.

Byakko groaned and buried his face into Touda's robes, feeling his lover shake with laughter.

Somehow it was a damn good feeling, though.