TOS ficlet, one-shot

Kratos/Anna some mature hintings at the begining and end you have been warned!

Defininghome

She smiled in his arms, spoke of home; it was a rare thing for her to do. She did not dwell upon a beloved relative or some childhood memory; she had none of the first and scarce few of the second. Her home, or so she claimed was him.

"I spent my whole life looking for a place when I didn't need one." Anna sighed, snuggling into his embrace. "I was looking for a person."

"A person can't be a home my love." He gently kissed her on the forehead and she grinned like a little girl, almost glowed with pleasure. "They have no windows, no walls, and can not offer any form of shelter…"

She cut him off by pressing her lips against his and he remained quiet for quite some time after.

X

"Where is your home Kratos?" Anna asked, playfully grooming his wings.

He lay on his back, arms pillowing his head, eyes closed to mere slits as she seemed to stroke every feather with her hands. He considered his answer for a moment, stared into the silver tinted dark, the marble walls. He could see the stars, could see the heavens though a screen of glass kept him apart from them they were so close it seemed as if he could reach out and touch them…

"Are you taking a nap?" She pulled on a feather and he yelped, his wings folded against him and he turned to glare up at her.

"That, was uncalled for!" He flared, favoring her with his most vicious glare.

"Well you falling asleep when I ask a question is just as bad… no worse even!"

"I wasn't falling asleep Anna, I just got… distracted."

Anna gave him a long flat glare and he sighed, his wings unfolded cautiously and the tips brushed against the ground. She knew that pose; it was a mute plea for her to go back to what she was doing. Anger made her daring, she lay down on his back, pinned down the wings with her bulk and was startled to feel warm tingling jolts seem to shoot from the wings and lightly zap her. It wasn't painful, strangely pleasant, she shifted a bit to get more comfortable and Kratos muttered a few more colorful choice words from his extensive vocabulary.

He did not however move to dislodge her.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Home Kratos, you have this…" She waved a hand to encompass his home in Derris Kharlan, this gaudy crystal sheathed mess of rooms that he so despised. "But you never call it a home."

"It isn't home." Kratos sighed, "I was born a poor man I didn't really have a home and I never really liked any place to settle down so you might say I don't have one as of yet."

"Then what's this?" She shifted so she lay on her back; he growled something that sounded a mite threatening and then glared up at her.

"A rental. You have ten seconds to move."

"But I'm comfortable!" She pouted.

"Really?" One primary wing twitched. "Let's change that shall we?"

"What are you…?" She burst out into laughed as he brushed the silk soft edge of his wing against every inch of bare skin he could get it on. She rolled off of him laughing and he gasped out in pain as she accidentally rolled over his wing. Snarling he pulled away from her, scooted to the other side of the bed and she laughed at his offended expression. "You started it!" She gasped around her laughter.

"That I did…" He looked so mournful, stroking his abused wing with a tender hand it made her laugh all the more.

"Are you all right?'

"Please, do say that when you are laughing, it'd sound more sincere." Kratos growled, folding his wings against him and turning to look outside.

"You look like a turtle hiding under your shell."

He gave her a flat look. "I do not!"

"I'm sorry sweetie but you do."

"When did I turn into a sweetie?" He mock growled. "Last I looked Angels of Death were vile, evil, foul tempered entities of evil."

"So says the king of the land of feathered idiots, Lord Yggdrasil."

"Anna!" Kratos laughed at that one. "Are you implying that Mithos might actually be an idiot? It's scold you for it but you might actually be right."

"Might?" Anna snorted, reached for a pillow and whacked him on the back of the head. "You take that back, I'm always right!"

"How about the time you said that Tabasco sauce wasn't spicy?"

"Shut up, how was I supposed to know…"

Kratos caught the thrown pillow, made a show of fluffing it, than curled up on top of it.

"The red coloring of the sauce and the smell wasn't a clue?"

Anna did not answer that one, instead changed topics. "That's my pillow!"

"Which you surrendered by throwing it at me."

"It's mine." Her eyes glittered playfully; he knew that look and his feathers bristled in response to it. "Now you look like a porcupine."

He didn't answer that, decided not to, just curled on the pillow and made himself comfortable.

"Or maybe you're a cat?"

"Cat, porcupine, turtle, make up your mind Anna." Kratos growled

"Give me my pillow, Seraph."

"Not a chance inferior…"

"Oh that's it!" She got onto her knees and shoved; he was perched on the edge of the bed and almost went over. Flaring his wings Kratos lazily hovered a scant inch from the ground. He held the pillow in his arms, a grin plastered across his face.

"Give it!"

"Why?"

"Oh… you…."

He shrugged whilst flying, slowly fluttered over the bed and landed on the other side of the room. He folded his wings to his body, looking like he wore some exotic cape that had eight feather embedded segments.

"Spoils of the war mi'lady." He bowed and she bent down and snatched the pillow from the floor and pelted him with it, he again bowed, snatched up the second pillow and grinned at her. "Twice the b-"

"Keep it clean beloved."

"-spoils." He smoothly changed what he was going to say, still grinning at her all the while.

"Give it."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Make me."

And that she did