The front door of the Saeba apartment slammed shut with a vengeance and in the bathroom, completing his morning ritual of taking a dump, Saeba Ryo cringed.

Kaori was obviously on a warpath this morning, although he had no idea what about. Well, he was certain to learn of the exact fact, as soon as he emerged. He sighed. Oh, well, it’s been a rather quiet couple of months. She was due a good mad.

He heard her mumble, yet his ears, despite years of training and conditioning, couldn’t detect just what she was mumbling about. He sighed again. No use in postponing the inevitable. He washed his hands and carefully poked his head out.

She wasn’t lying in wait and there wasn’t a mallet or trap in sight, so he was confident, he wasn’t the brunt of her ire this morning. He hasn’t given her a reason to exact her punishments in longer than just a while.

Yet she was still mumbling somewhere on the lower floor, so he decided the good boyfriend (he still couldn’t exactly grasp the entire meaning of the word, not just in a dictionary sense, but what it meant for him, for them) thing to do would be to go down and politely ask what had put the bug up her ass. Not in those terms, of course. She just might use a mallet, then.

She was now mumbling in the kitchen, and soon the mumbling was joined by vigorous banging of pots and pans on the stove. Oh, she was pissed, all right. She always used every single kitchen utensil when she was pissed.

He softly padded into the kitchen and opened his mouth for a gentle ’good boyfriend’ greeting, complete with a slight pout for her leaving their bed too soon in the morning, but her lifted hand (she didn’t even turn around!) stopped him.

“Now is not a good time, Ryo. You better leave me alone or you might say something to piss me off even more. And trust me, you won’t like that.”

A trickle of sweat ran down his temple at the thought of a pissed-off Kaori, eyes burning with holy fire, a mallet lifted high above her head, but he shook his head to banish the image. They’ve decided early on in their relationship (yet another word he wasn’t yet able to fully grasp in the context of him and Kaori) to try to communicate, to talk things through—both his brooding silences and her epic sulks, and never to go to bed mad. Well, it wasn’t bedtime in a traditional sense, but he refused to go back on his word.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he softly asked, walking to her.

Her shoulders slumped as if she was half-expecting him to bolt and half-expecting him to fight. But he’s learned even earlier on, still in their roomies-partners stage, that gentleness and soft voice worked miracles on his Kaori.

“Why do I have to be so tall?” she whimpered, slamming her palms onto the counter. “Every single woman I meet on the street, every single one of our female clients, is small and dainty, while I’m a giant!”

So that was the problem. The usual one, really. Something must’ve happened at the station today or on the way home, that’s woken the dormant ‘demon’ of her low self-esteem when it came to her height. Did someone mistake her for a man again? He had no idea how that could possibly happen—he never got it really, the girl had a phenomenal rack.

And he also had no idea where this problem with her height stemmed from. There was no problem about it, where he was concerned. He was even taller, a freak in Japanese terms and culture, and she fit him perfectly. She could kiss him without having to lift herself on her toes and crane her neck, and he could return the kiss without developing a crick in his back. They could walk down the street with their arms around each other (not that they practiced that move often, they were still City Hunter after all and there were all kinds of vindictive crazies out there) without having to contort their bodies, they could take a shower together without one of them drowning, while the other remained dry, and they could make love in all sorts of positions without one of them ending up in a hospital.

He could hoist her up into his arms, slam her against the wall, feeling her legs easily clasp around his waist, her ankles locking behind his back. And her height and strength meant he could let go of his control without fear of hurting her. She gave as good as she got.

He could feel a stupid grin blossom on his face and he quickly schooled his features back into a concerned ’good boyfriend’ face, wiping the stimulating mental image that always brought his ’pervert getting some’ face to the fore. True, he was getting some, well, a lot, and on a regular basis, but it wouldn’t do for her to turn and see that particular face. She’d know immediately what he’s been thinking about while he should’ve been listening.

Stop with the stupid mental tangents, Saeba. Concentrate! Listen to the woman. Don’t be an ass.

“It’s the bane of my existence,” Kaori snarled and whirled around, her eyes on fire, obviously done with her tirade. Then those eyes narrowed menacingly. “You weren’t even listening, were you?”

Of course, he wasn’t. But since it was one of their rules, he didn’t pretend otherwise. “Sorry, hon,” he said sheepishly, quickly continuing before she could erupt. “But it had something to do with your height. Which, even when I do listen to you go on about it, I don’t understand what the problem is.”

“You don’t understand what the problem is?” she snarled. “I’ll tell you what the problem is.”

“There is no problem,” he interrupted before she went down the violent route. “You fit perfectly.”

“Fit perfectly?” she yelled, obviously at the end of her patience. “Fit where?”

“Right here.” In a lightning fast move, one had to be fast when dealing with Kaori in such a state of mind, he grabbed her wrist with one hand, cupped the other around her nape, and pulled her toward him. He tucked her head underneath his chin, locked his arms around her, and closed his eyes. “See, a perfect fit.”

She stood still and taut for a few heartbeats, before she melted into his embrace, circling his waist with her arms. “That’s not what this is about.”

“Of course, it is,” he admonished. “Who cares what other people think or what other people say. You’re the only person that counts.”

She lifted her head to look at him. “What about you? What do you think?”

He hated that vulnerable look in her eyes. He’d rather take a thousand bullets than see that look. The look he’d helped put there by belittling and teasing her all those years.

“Baby,” he whispered, looking straight into her eyes, using their special form of communication. They never needed words, but sometimes they were necessary. This was one of those times. “I think your self-esteem is shot to hell and I know I’m mostly to blame. I could apologize from dawn till dusk every single day for the rest of my life, and never really atone or make amends for all the hurtful things I said to you. So listen carefully. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. You take my breath away. You’re pure light on the inside, you have to be to put up with me and my moronic ways, and you’re gorgeous on the outside, hot and sexy as hell. And I’m very blessed to call you mine.”

She blushed prettily, even her maidenly blushes got to him, and quickly hid her head under his chin again.

He closed his eyes, content to be able to just hold her. “You fit. You fit into my life as I fit into yours. You fit me as I fit you. And that’s all that matters. Only this, right here, right now. A perfect fit.”

The End