There was something in the way his mouth moved, the way it twisted into a half smirk, half snarl, as though he knew something that everyone else was going to wish they'd figured out, like he'd looked into your eyes and knew your every secret.

So maybe, just maybe, her heart sped up when he leaned over to snatch the last bit of rice from her plate, as his body got so close to her's she had no choice but to lean back or be plush again him, and for a moment, before she looks at him with repulsion and he in return graces her with one of those endearingly vulgar, yet childlike, grins, she feels his chest fall and rise against her shoulder, and has to turn away before her face heats up.

"Hey, sweetheart." Some drunk guy a table over leers in her direction.

Jin pauses in his meal to calmly watch the exchange, it almost seems like he's the chaperone to the circus, but really he probably just wants time in advance to remove himself from the tea house.

Fuu scowls as Mugen finishes the rest of her meal and looks up to give the guy a piercing stare.

"What?" But instead of threatening, her voice comes out in more of a pout.

"I'll buy ya whatever ya like if you come on over and get to know me better."

Was this guy for real?

"Hell yeah she will!" Mugen supplied, pushing her out of her seat and almost making her lose her balance before she caught herself on the table in front of her.

"Mugen," She growled, "you little piece of -" But she stopped short when she realized he'd followed her. "What the hell do you think your doing?"

He seemed annoyed. "Gett'in free food, whats it look like bitch?"

She opened her mouth, and instead of shouting the obscenities she wanted too, she exhaled and closed it again. What was the point anyway, he'd just ignore her.

The man had moved over, barely, and she found herself sitting on the edge of the seat, half her behind being held up by her left leg.

"Don't be shy!" He bolstered, grabbing her by the waist and dragging her to his side. "So whats your name, beautiful?"

Wasn't this when her bodyguard's were supposed to be protecting her?

She turned her head to send a pleading look in Jin's direction, but the ronin was already gone.

That son of a bitch…

"Its Fuu." You pig, she almost spat, but then the smell of the food came and so did the growling of her stomach.

"Better feed that." The man grinned, tightening his hold so that his fingertips grazed the side of her belly.

She ignored him and reached for a plate.

"So what brings you to town Fuu?" He asked, his other hand resting on the table to keep his head up, god he had to be forty something, the pervert.

"Just passing through." She mumbled through a mouthful of dumplings. Maybe the lack of manners would be a turn off.

He smiled. "All alone?"

Wait… she'd tried that whole 'be disgusting' thing hadn't she? Then she'd ended up with the creepy nut job.

"Nope, with two men." Then she'd just try telling the truth and, making it sound vulgar.

His lips widened. "Really? Sounds like quite the adventure your having?"

"Uh huh." She swallowed faster. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could kick both her companions asses for being so utterly useless.

Mugen had already two plates and was moving on to a third.

"Is he one of them?" He asked curiously, and she could hear the irritation in his voice.

"Nope, never met him before in my life."

Mugen snorted. "Liar."

"He just sat down at our table so he wouldn't have to foot the bill." She glared at him.

He rolled his eyes, but even he had too much in his mouth to return fire.

"So the other, then, he's someone you know?"

"Yep." She offered. Where was this going? Probably where it always did, somehow this guy probably had some story of wrong doing and revenge floating around in his head. Ugh, they never chan-

"So is he bedding you?"

Mugen choked on his dumpling and for a moment she thought he was going to reach across the table and kill the guy. She was surprised though when all he did was clear room so that he could laugh.

Her eye twitched.

"Every night." She ground out, shooting daggers across the table.

I hope you choke on your tongue, she thought.

"Yeah right," it came out in a wheeze, he was laughing so hard, "who'd ever want to bed that?"

"Plenty of people!" She demanded, but when the intoxicated lowlifes hand started to creep up the end of her kimono, she regretted saying it.

"She's gorgeous." He expressed to the criminal, now staring curiously between the two. Had he really just noticed that this guy was practically feeling her up? Was he really so preoccupied with getting all he could eat that he wasn't even paying attention to how much closer the guy had gotten to her? "I'd love to get to know you her better."

Meanwhile, Fuu herself, was getting so worked up by Mugen's disinterest that she failed to notice just how close the guy was getting either, that is until she felt his breath in her ear.

"Ever given someone head before sweetheart?" He whispered.

Her face turned scarlet, partly because she knew that had to be something bad, but mostly because she honestly didn't know what it meant.

I mean, how could you hang out with someone like Mugen, who's nothing but crude, yet never hear a word spoken about any kind of sexual innuendo?

Oh, thats right, because she had the figure of a wooden plank.

"Excuse me," she moved away from him but the hand hidden beneath the table still held her close.

She'd meant to sound offended, at least by the tone of her voice he could tell she wasn't interested, but by the impatience littering his now frowning mouth he didn't seem to notice.

"You know, those men your screwing could teach you a thing or two. You don't even know the correct term for-"

A cup slammed against the table, drawling both of there attention.

"Whelp, I think I'm about done." Mugen grinned that all-knowing grin.

Now she was embarrassed, enraged, and the food in her gut wasn't setting right. Maybe it was the nerves making it tumble around frantically.

"I'm not interested!" She spat at the guy and tried to disentangle herself from his grasp, knowing the asshole, he'd get up an abandon her here. Crap, it wasn't working and she was starting to think he wasn't as drunk as he'd seemed at first.

"Okay, you've had your fun, now your starting to waste my time." She was surprised he was still standing there, looming over the table, both hands lazily draped behind his head.

"Thought you didn't know him," He jerked his head towards the mop of hair that was now yawning. Something about other men always seemed to make men angrier.

"Oops?" She offered weakly.

Yep, there was the angry.

"I paid for your dinner." He growled. "At the very least you could offer me a feel."

Halfway through his speech he was already going for one, and she yelped involuntarily at the hand forcing its way between her thighs, of course, her try at fleeing was futile, but she'd never admit that it was in fact Mugen that got her off the bench.

She hadn't even noticed him move, but with little effort he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up, probably not intentionally against him, but up nonetheless.

"Thanks for the meal." He said casually. "We'll be going now."

Maybe it was her imagination that his heart rate seemed erratic.

"You little bitch, you owe me!" He went to snatch for her arm but Mugen's encircled her waist almost possessively.

"Thats not a good idea." His other hand rested on the hilt of his sword. "Really don't want to do that."

The guy gulped and nodded. For the most part he was turning out to have a lot more sense then expected.

Then, he started searching through his pockets.

"Here," he grinned, "this enough then?"

Mugen raised an eye at the money in the outstretched hand.

"Nope." He replied.

"I can give you more." The guy offered, digging out another and holding it out to him.

Mugen shook his head. "All of it." He told him. "You give me all, and I'll give her to you for an hour."

"What?" The man was outraged.

He felt Fuu's back stiffen against his chest as he grinned.

She watched as the scum bag looked between her and his cash, as though contemplating her worth.

"Okay, half now, half after I'm done." He suggested.

"Fuck no, all of it up front or no deal."

Her heart beat sped up, even as her brain refused to believe Mugen would do such a thing. They had their difference's sure, but to sell her off for a wad of cash? Okay, a very large wad, mind you.

Still pained, the guy looked up and sighed. "Okay fine, deal."

"Okay, on the count of three."

He seriously was, the jackass!

Mugen grabbed her wrist and ushered her towards the guy in front of them, outstretching his other hand, and when the guy had clasped his own around her other wrist he dropped the money into Mugen's palm.

"I promise to bring her back in one piece." The stranger grinned.

And Mugen, in turn, smiled right back. "That won't be necessary." She only had a second to gape in outrage before she was being jerked towards the exit. "You probably couldn't even keep it up anyway." Mugen threw back, hand still firmly holding onto her wrist as he casually left the tea house. "And that, would be waste of even this piece of ass."

She could tell, he was actually enjoying this; the dumbfounded look of rage on the guys face, the way he glared daggers into Mugen's skull. He was the only person she'd ever met that took genuine pleasure in making people hate his guts.

"I knew it." She muttered as the tea house disappeared from view, and he glanced down in search of explanation for the sour look on her face.

"Knew what?" He questioned curiously.

"Another guy I can add to the list that wants you dead."

"Hey now, thanks to me at least you can say one guy wants to fuck you."

"More like rape me."

"The only difference between rape and sex is yes and no."

Somehow, that actually managed to sound wise, even though, deep down, she knew he was too shallow for it to have been.

"Is that what you tell yourself?" She muttered.

"No, I pay so I don't have to ask in the first place."

She smacked him weakly in the side, suddenly tired. "You're such a jerk."

"This jerk just saved your ass and got us dinner for the next two weeks." He admitted proudly.

"And almost got me sexually assaulted in the process." She responded.

It was then, when his hand involuntarily tightened, that she noticed that he still had her wrist in his grip.

"He'd have kept hitting on you anyway, at least this way we got something out of it."

"We?" She snorted.

"Your not hungry; well are you?" He stopped and turned to face her.

"No, now I want to throw up!" She retorted.

"Oh goddamn, he didn't even hardly touch you!" He rolled his eyes.

"Stop doing that!" She shouted as his orbs turned skyward. "You wouldn't understand. The only guys who ever touch me either want something from me or are just trying to get to one of you!"

"Oh give me a break, here's news for you dumbass, any guy who touches you is just trying to get something from you! You're a fucking nag, all you do is bitch! The most a guy can hope for is getting your clothes off! And you know what, even then he's not getting much!"

Even though she knew he deserved it, she gasped when she realized she'd slapped him. Hard. Hard enough to see the skin was red.

She backed away, and in his surprise he dropped his hold on her wrist.

"I -I'm so sorry." She whispered, hand in front of her open mouth. "I didn't mean, I -"

"Its fine." He cut her off before she could continue to ramble on. "I probably had that one coming. Lets just go." But she was still retreating, and he reached out just in time to catch her before she could take off running. "Lets just go back to the inn." He reasoned with her, exhaustion starting to ware him down, "You're obviously freaked out or over emotional or bat shit crazy." He mumbled the last part under his breath.

He'd managed to wrap both arms around her shoulders, each hand in one of his, and thankfully she was at least walking. All he needed was for her to run off into the night and to have to chase her down before she got herself in trouble again. He'd had enough for the night, in fact, he'd been pretty fond of himself before they'd started to argue. Normally it would have amused him, but from the look of things, he'd actually hit a nerve, and fighting wasn't fun when no one was fighting back.

He wondered silently what part of what he said had gotten under her skin so much. Was it telling her that guys only wanted one thing? Or was it that she only had one good thing to offer? Either way he sighed and adjusted his hands so that they were resting against her hips, pushing her forward.

Even through the dark he could tell it was making her uncomfortable. He grinned, slap completely forgotten, and slipped one hand in to rest against her thigh, only the fabric of her kimono between them.

She froze.

"What -what are you doing?" She whispered nervously.

"I'm just curious is all." His mouth was right next to her ear, and he let his lips brush playfully down her neck all the way to her collarbone. "How exactly is one supposed to touch you without wanting something?"

For a moment she didn't answer, and then, quietly. "What?"

"When someone touches you," He elaborated, pushing his hand into the fold and then up to run across her stomach. Her breath hitched, "like this. Its because they want you." His voice was muffled against the curve of her neck. Did she even catch what the pirate had just said? "There's no selfless thing about it. I guess, part of its based on you wanting them back. Well, sometimes anyway. Part of what turns a guy on is knowing he's turning you on." His fingers grazed over the binding covering her chest, and he felt her grip his forearm as though trying to keep from falling into nothing. "So? Am I turning you on?" He questioned lightly, and immediately had to catch her from tripping over her own feet and smashing her face into the dirt.

"I'm fine." She reassured him, he figured to make him let go of the grip he'd had on her waist, and though he loosened it, he by no means let go.

"You didn't answer the question."

"What?" She played dumb.

"Am I turning you on?" He repeated.

"Um," her blush deepened, "I -um, don't know?"

"Here," he blatantly pointed between her legs, and she quickly tried uselessly to swipe his hand away, "you feel something down there? All hot and bothered and restless? Like you need to ease the tension somehow?"

She seemed too mortified to answer.

"No." She finally said.

"Oh," he seemed to think about it a little, "fuck, maybe I should try harder then."

"No! I mean yes, I did, okay? I, felt… something." She trailed off awkwardly.

His grin broadened then, into a predatory gleam. "I could ease that tension for you too."

"I'm not sleeping with you." She commanded firmly, and if she thought his cocky smirk couldn't get wider before, she'd been wrong.

"Fuu, you don't have to have sex with me to make that go away."

He could see it in her face, she wanted to ask, it was held there on the tip of her tongue…

"Oh."

He groaned and finally released her. If she wanted to stay little miss virgin mary, far fucking be it for him to stop her.

"Stupid bitch." He muttered as he crossed his arms in irritation and looked away.

Just to point out, I'm willing to admit this may be way out of character, I don't know. I haven't watched Samurai in quite some time and this is mostly inspired by fanfiction's... I take no credit for killing character personalities, but you should tell me so I can have a word with them.

Seriously, if you think this could be tweaked, do tell. Its eight am, I've been (I put "I'm beening" here before, just so you know) writing all night, and lack of (and on instead of 'of') sleep tends to correspond with lack of rational judgement for me (like going ahead and posting this even though I'm obviously not completely sure about it). Anyway, I'm going to bed, I just miss reading Champloo fanfic and maybe, writing this in the tired state I did, I'll be able to read this tomorrow and not remember writing half of it.

Wouldn't be the first time... ;)