Catijan language key: No new words this chapter!

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I spent most of the night working the knots out of his muscles, helping his body relax while I realigned  his bones. Whoever was healing him before was doing an absolutely half assed job. When his body was finally the way it was supposed to be and his muscles were completely knot free I lay down next to him and let sleep claim me again.

I woke the next morning to the feel of warm strong hands gently massaging my shoulders and my neck.

"Darius what are you doing?" I mumbled sleepily enjoying the feel of his hands on my body. This is bad. This is very bad; he is almost as good as me at this. I haven't had a massage like this...ever.

"Returning the favor." He said kissing my neck.

"You don't have to, I'm a healer. I do the body healing and oh my God." I groaned as he worked out the tension in my lower back. He chuckled as he worked his way back up my back.

"Healers need healing too and you did a miracle on my body I don't think I can ever repay you for that. I feel like I've never seen a day of battle, what the hell did you do?" He asked as I gave a breathless laugh.

"I put your bones and muscles back the way they should be. Whoever was healing you before should be fired." I mumbled as he laughed.

"That would be Meilyn, Byron's dejaina. She's one of the greatest Mercatijan healers." He said as I smirked.

"Well, she's not allowed to heal you anymore." I said as I turned over to look at him.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." I smiled. He really does look a lot better than he did last night. The tension in his face was gone and his eyes were so light.

"I'm glad you didn't run away from everything that happened last night. I half expected you to be gone this morning." He sighed kissing my forehead.

"Darius, I told you I'm not going anywhere. While I don't like that we already have some sort of serious connection, I'm not going to run away. " I said sliding my hand to his cheek.

"I'm sorry, I should stop doubting you, I just know this is a lot to handle. It's not going to be easy being my dejaina." He smiled sheepishly.

"I'm pretty strong, I can handle it, plus I don't think you're going to have an easy job being my dejaino with Sol chasing me and all." I chuckled patting his cheek.

"But I'm going to need you to promise not to cloak your wounds from me ever again." I said as his eyes widened.

"I'm not sure I can promise you that, litani, I can't add to your burden and make you heal me every time I'm hurt." He said shaking his head and red hot anger rose through me. I glared at him pinching his cheek as I sat up to look him in the face.

"You will never cloak your wounds from me, Darius Rekeseau. It physically pains me to know you're in pain and I can't heal you. Do it to any other healer if you want but you will never do it to me or I will leave you. Tuelen coupendi?" I threatened as he winced from my words.

"Ja, litani, I understand. I promise I'll never to do that to you again." He said. I smiled releasing his cheek.

"Good, then this courtship can continue." I said kissing his cheek as he let out a choked laugh.

"You are fierce, dejaina. I will endeavour to never get on your bad side." He chuckled, a blush creeping over his cheeks.

"Have, have you always been able to speak Catijan?" He asked and I smiled.

"Well I didn't learn it overnight." I said and he blushed even harder.

"You understood what I said to you the other night, didn't you?" He asked and I nodded.

"How...how much did you hear?" He asked and I smiled leaning into his ear.

"Everything." I whispered and he choked out a laugh his cheeks hot with a blush.

"I-I'm sorry, litani. Most Mercatijans can't speak the old language fluently anymore. I didn't think you could understand what I was saying. " He began to ramble, I smiled amused that the Asarak Rotelinjo is blushing for saying some very intimate things to his dejaina. I placed a hand to his cheek to stop his ramblings.

"You don't need to apologise for the things you said. I didn't mind it, it's...it's nice to know you think of me like that." I blushed and he smiled sliding his hand over mine.

"You're my dejaina, of course I think of you like that. You're beautiful, Jazmine." He said his lips inches from mine and my heart pounded in my chest at the heavy lidded look in his eyes. He thinks I'm beautiful?

"Darius..." I gasped for lack of anything else to say.

"May I kiss you?" He whispered sliding his hand over my cheek and I nearly melted. He actually asked me if he can kiss me? He could just steal it if he wanted to, he could force me to do anything if he truly wanted. But he isn't and that means so much to me.

"Yes." I breathed and the moment was shattered by a loud crash and boom. The tigers were hissing and growling angrily from downstairs.

My eyes grew wide, my nails digging into Darius' arms in panic, immediately thinking Sol followed us last night. He sighed, cursing under his breath, shaking his head.

"It's alright, sesti. It's just my brother. He probably came to check on you." He sighed kissing my forehead.

"Darius! Come get your damn cats!" I heard his deep voice boom throughout the house.

"Come on; let's go before Kai and Tai maul him. They don't really like Bryon." He said sliding off me and pulling me off the bed with him.

"But Kai and Tai are harmless." I said as he thread his fingers through mine as we made our way downstairs.

"Yeah, sort of." He chuckled. We walked into the kitchen and I held back my laughter.

This giant of a man was perched on our kitchen counter with a spatula in his hand trying to shoo away the tigers. This is an ancient kue who fights deadly de'mujos, cornered by two playful tigers.

"Byron they don't bite." Darius laughed as he let Kai and Tai outside much to their protest.

"They don't bite, my ass." He mumbled as he turned to me and grabbed me in a big hug lifting me off the ground. I squealed as he twirled me around.

"Jazmine Le Matise, who would've thought you young whipper snapper would be my big brother's dejaina." He laughed and I can't help joining in his infectious laughter.

"Put her down, B, you're going to scare the poor thing!" I heard a woman sigh from the front door.

"Oh sorry, Jazmine; I get carried away." He blushed setting me down.

"It's alright; it's nice to meet you too." I laughed.

"He's a big teddy bear as you can tell. I'm Meilyn Rekeseau. This big lug's dejaina." The woman next to him laughed. She was my height, with thick curly caramel hair that fell over her shoulders. Her skin was honey brown that made her sea green eyes pop out on her face.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Jazmine Le Matise, um Darius' dejaina." I smiled as she laughed again.

"Oh yes, we know all about you, right Darius?" She said as Darius blushed putting an arm around my waist.

"Meilyn, I didn't know you were coming."

"Well Byron said he was going to check on Jazmine and I thought why not tag along and meet the one who stole your heart. Plus, I thought you might need some healing." She said.

So, this is the one who did such a poor job healing my dejaino. She's so nice it's hard to be mad at her. She just won't be touching him ever again.

"I've been healed, Jazmine's an Earth master and a healer too." He smiled as she eyed me surprised.

"Oh really? So we're sisters in more ways than one." She beamed.

"Yeah Jaz, do you mind if I call you Jaz? Byron asked as I shook my head.

"Ok, well are you alright? You looked pretty frightened last night. We couldn't believe you were already in his mind." He said.

"I'm fine now that I know why I was there. I hope I didn't ruin anything for you." I said as he laughed shaking his head.

"No, I'm pretty embarrassed I asked Darius to come. I wasn't sure how powerful they were going to be." He chuckled.

"Yeah you know I'm trying to court my dejaina here." Darius said as I blushed.

"Uh huh," Meilyn smiled, "so how's it going?" She said slipping her arm through mine as she led me outside to the patio. I looked back at Darius, he just smiled. Well I guess I'm meeting part of his family today.

"Um it's going pretty well I guess." I shrugged as we sat outside on the patio.

"I still can't believe Darius finally found his dejaina. You don't know how happy we all are and how much you already mean to him." She said squeezing my hand.

"You thought he was going to become a de'mujo didn't you?" I asked as she sighed nodding her head.

"Yes, we've all been bonded and have had children and grandchildren for a few centuries now and he was still wandering looking for his dejaina. Then when your family came to the compound and you met Darius, we couldn't believe it when he told us that you, this five year old child was his dejaina. We thought he lost his damn mind" She laughed shaking her head.

"We humoured him when started building you those houses, we figured it kept his mind busy. Then when he finally figured out where you were and he came here to court you, we really thought he had lost it. But it was so cute, The Asarak Rotelinjo, nervous to meet his dejaina," She laughed again, "Oh I'm so glad you're really his dejaina." She smiled squeezing my hand. I smiled back, it must've been amusing to see him nervous. I can only imagine- wait did she say houses?

"Um, what do you mean houses?" I frowned.

"Oh he probably hasn't told you yet. I mean I just figured since you two are staying here...." She said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Never mind dear, he'll tell you in time," she smiled, "anyway, so you understand our excitement about this. We've been so worried about him for centuries. At one point Lana and Jack were inviting all eligible Mercatijan women to the Rekeseau compound to see if they were Darius' dejaina. The poor man would hide whenever we would get visitors. The only reason he attended the meeting with your family was because Gaia told our mother she had to get him there. So, she told him that Luna and Artemis were coming to talk about a de'mujo threat. You can only imagine how mad he was when that wasn't the case, but then he wouldn't have met you. So you are truly a blessing to the Rekeseau family." She smiled hugging me.

It's different hearing about Darius from his sister-in-law. I had no idea how afraid they were for him. She really put it into perspective how long he'd been without a dejaina and how terrifying it must've been for their family. I had no idea he would be nervous to meet me and that I meant so much to him already. I didn't know he knew I existed after our brief meeting.

"So what are you ladies talking about, hmm?" Darius asked sitting next to me handing me a cup of coffee as Byron sat down next to Meilyn wrapping his arm around her.

"Thank you." I smiled as he kissed my head, wrapping his arm around my waist and resting his hand on my thigh.

"We were just talking about you silly dejainos of course." Meilyn laughed as Byron nipped her ear.

"Of course you were." Darius chuckled as I looked up at him.

"Yeah I'm learning a lot about you; maybe you should go away so I can hear more of your dirty little secrets." I said as he smiled leaning down to my ear.

"You don't have to ask Meilyn about those, I can always show you some." He whispered nipping my ear as I blushed.

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A/N: Damn it Byron! Ruining that perfect moment!!! When are they going to kiss?! Arrrgh!!! 

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