Author's note: This is my first Katanagatari story, and I wrote it mainly because there isn't enough fanfiction about this anime, and I always hoped something more interesting would happen between Togame and Shichika. Anyways, while I really dislike OOC-ness, I think there might be some in my story and for that I aplogize, but it was necessary if we were ever going to have some romance in the story. I hope you enjoy! Cheerio! ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own Katanagatari or the characters.

How to learn to distinguish between people

Togame sighed as she looked at her companion. She had taken a great step in achieving her objectives. She had convinced Yasuri Shichika, the seventh head of Kyotouryuu, to help her search for Shikizaki Kiki's deviant swords, and they were staying at an inn for the night, while the following day they were going to travel to Inaba to look for Zantou Namakura.

But however well she had planned things, and however well everything had gone so far – they already had one sword - Shichika had turned out to be very different than she expected. To begin with, she had expected to work with Shichika's father, so it was no wonder she found herself in a strange situation at the present moment.

Shichika couldn't even distinguish between her and other people, which was a very serious problem and had to be corrected immediately. It was still probably better to work with him rather than his father, the man who had killed her father, but that was a secret she had to guard with all costs, so that Shichika never found out about it.

"So, Shichika, our priority is to make you able to differentiate between me and all the other people out there. We start training this very instant, so go ahead and familiarize yourself with me: my looks, my scent, my feel, whatever is necessary so that I don't end up dead because you thought I was an enemy."

Shichika came closer to Togame and wrapped her long, white hair around him, touching it, feeling its texture, weight, learning its smell.

Togame was surprised at the powerful and unsettling sensations that went all through her body at the feel of his hand on her hair. She discovered she was very sensitive to people touching her hair… or was it only because it was Shichika that she was so shaken?

"Hey, so how long do we have to do this?" Shichika asked, while continuing to touch her hair in a completely carefree manner.

"As long as it takes for you to remember everything about me, so that you don't confuse me with someone else. Remember, one of the four directives I gave you was that you have to protect me, and you can't do that if you can't even tell who I am among a crowd."

As Shichika came even closer to her and sniffed her neck, Togame felt her cheeks burn and she felt the need to say something so as to feel the silence that filled the little room they were sharing.

"You're not allowed to bite, you'll injure me if you do so."

"How about licking?"

Togame felt her face get a few shades redder than before at his sudden question, but regardless of her uneasiness, she had to let him do whatever was necessary, for the sake of her mission.

"Licking is allowed."

Shichika wasted no time in doing so, and Togame felt faint as he licked her neck and then went up and licked her earlobe too.

"Well?" she asked hesitantly. Togame was hoping he'd be over with the licking as soon as possible because she wasn't sure how long of this she could endure. Her head was spinning and her whole body seemed to come to life under Shichika's hands, which were now positioned firmly on her shoulders, and his tongue, which was coming down from her earlobe back to her neck and even lower, towards the line of her clothing.

"Your skin is incredibly soft and sweet and I'm sure I won't be able to forget it. Is it OK if I take off your clothes?"

Shocked beyond words, first due to the unexpected compliment and his strange choice of words, and secondly due to his bold request, Togame was sure steam was coming out her ears at such a question. Did this guy really know nothing about what was proper and what not? Not differentiating between people was one thing, but he couldn't even differentiate between genders?!

"If… if you really think that would help…" she stammered and her words trailed off as Shichika proceeded in removing her clothing with amazing speed.

"W..wait", she tried to stop him when she saw he was removing more and more of her clothes, but to no avail, and before one minute had passed she was completely naked and Shichika was staring at her with a look that was quite different than his usual blank stare.

Togame sighed and came to terms with the fact that Shichika was going to take his time in familiarizing himself with her. At least she knew he was oblivious of the ways of the world, so she had no reason to feel embarrassed. Though that was easier said than done, when Shichika started touching and smelling the places where his eyes had previously rested.

He left her skin tingling wherever he touched her: up and down her arms, on her ribcage, on her stomach and then up and down her legs.

Togame noticed he had instinctively avoided the more sensitive areas, but just as she thought about that, Shichika's hands cupped her breasts and she let out an involuntary gasp and closed her eyes.

If she had kept her eyes open, Togame would have noticed with how much interest Shichika took in her reaction, and maybe she would have noticed that his actions had not affected only her, but him as well.

As it was, she could only lean into his touch, too weak to keep her back straight anymore, her hands dangling useless along her body. However, Shichika's hands couldn't be more alert as they massaged her breasts in circular motions and his fingers teased until Togame was sure she'd go crazy.

What finally kicked her into reacting was feeling his lips on her nipples. Togame instantly arched her back and threw her head back, feeling an almost unstoppable urge to scream out loud, just to let out some of the pressure building up inside her. Still, she bit her lips to the point where a little blood trickled down, and screamed silently inside.

Shichika's hands were now holding her back firmly, so that she couldn't escape his embrace. He moved from one breast to another as though he couldn't quite make up his mind which one he liked best.

Despite Togame's best efforts, she couldn't stop a few weak moans from coming out, and that seemed to distract Shichika, because he raised his head from her chest and looked at her flushed face with great interest.

Then, taking her by surprise once again, he licked the blood from her lower lip and then he licked her upper lip as well.

He silently probed to see if he could gain entrance between her lips. Togame put up some feeble resistance but by this point she was too lost in passion to offer a real challenge for Shichika's exploration.

Their first kiss was of such intensity that Togame felt like they were no longer two separate entities, but one single being.

After what seemed like an eternity, Shichika broke the kiss and she gasped for air, desperate to clear her head and regain some sanity. She decided she should talk before he got back to touching, kissing or licking her, each action having proved disastrous for her reasoning capacity.

"Shichika, are you sure all this is really necessary? You should be sufficiently familiarized with me by now."

"You think so? It's true that now I could tell you apart from other people even in complete darkness, just by the smell or feel of you, but since I'm new at this, I shouldn't take any chances."

Taken aback by the fact that at the moment he seemed to be more lucid than her, the strategist, Togame tried to reply in a way that would end his training session at least for now, so she could escape and think some other way of getting him to distinguish between her and other people.

"I agree that in our mission there's no room for mistakes or failure, so we should take all the precautions necessary, but if by now you can identify me even in the darkness, I deem that more than sufficient for our purposes, at least for tonight."

However, Shichika clearly did not agree as he gave her a small push so that she was now lying on the floor.

"You might be right but I really don't feel like stopping now. I feel that I should continue, and that it'd be best if I completely mixed your scent with mine, that way it would be much easier for me to tell you apart from others."

Having said that he took off his newly acquired clothes so that he was now also completely naked, and he fully covered Togame's body with his own, and just as she was about to protest, he sealed her lips with another scorching kiss.

Although Togame had a "respectable" age, all her life so far had been dedicated to her goals to avenge her father, so she hadn't had time for romance. Although she probably had more theoretically knowledge about it than Shichika purely because she had lived among people all this time and not isolated, it was clear that Shichika's instincts were much better than hers.

Although those instincts had been asleep while he lived alone on the island with only his family for company, it was clear that now he was waking up to new aspects of life and not only that, but he was waking her up as well, arousing her instincts along the way.

All coherent thoughts flew when she finally admitted to herself that although she had asked him to fall for her, she was actually falling for him, having witnessed his strength, his straightforward personality and his integrity.

So she stopped fighting her feelings and instead raised her inert arms to hug his back, feeling his muscles moving as he embraced her tightly.

She caressed his long hair and enjoyed its silky texture. She reveled in the sensations that his tongue was creating inside her mouth and she no longer remained passive, but responded just as passionately, as she drew his head closer to hers, deepening the kiss.

Togame could feel his hardness pressed against her stomach, throbbing, and she could feel herself getting nervous by the second. She wanted to abandon herself to the sensations, to the pleasure of being so intimate with Shichika, but she wasn't the type of person who would do something recklessly, especially when she had no previous experience in the field.

She could feel that Shichika sensed her hesitation, because he stopped his kisses and he looked steadily into her eyes. Togame wasn't sure what her eyes looked like at the moment – they were probably too bright and expressed too much of her passion and fear – but she noticed that Shichika's eyes were burning with intense passion, his expression more focused than even when he had been fighting Maniwa Koumori.

"Togame, you told me I could love you as much as I wanted, and I already told you that I've fallen for you, but I'm not sure you know how serious I am when I say that."

"Huh?" was all she managed to answer. It was obvious he was quite serious, but wasn't that just his pureness talking? She was the only woman he knew aside from his sister, so no matter how much it hurt, she had to consider that he was only passionate about her in lack of other options. Togame, on the other hand, had known a lot of men and yet she knew she was falling for Shichika and no one else.

"Back on the island, I found out from that ninja guy who you really are… a princess… the princess whose father and entire family was killed by my father."

No other words could have snapped Togame out of her reverie faster than that one sentence Shichika had just said.

Impossible that he should already know her secret, and yet he clearly knew all about it. She couldn't go on working with him now that he knew, and she could definitely NOT be doing what she was doing with him at the moment, so she pushed him away, got up, and would have run out the door oblivious of her nakedness, of her mission, of anything, if Shichika hadn't caught her hand and stopped her.

"Finding out that you threw away your pride and asked for my help despite the fact that due to my father you lost everything, made me respect you, admire you, love you…"

Togame wasn't even aware that she was crying until she felt Shichika's fingers wiping the tears from her face.

"I just wanted you to know that that's why I accepted to help you and also why I truly fell in love with you."

She still couldn't find any words to say to him so she just let him speak his mind.

"I decided to be not only your sword, but your partner, so that not only will I belong to you, but belong with you, just as you belong with me. Also, I decided that since I've fallen for you like you asked, I'll do the same. I'll have you fall for me."

At those last words, Togame smiled and she took Shichika's face between her hands.

"Stupid, I already have. And I don't mean that time when I tried to attack you and fell on my face. I mean I've fallen in love with you. However, that "I'll have you fall for me" line sounded really good, it would be a good catch phrase to use on your enemies before the final hit. After all, I'm the only one that knows about this passionate and fascinating side of your personality and we'll have to spice up my report for my readers".

"Togame, I don't know if all outsiders talk this much, but for now, shut up".

Shichika pushed Togame on the floor once more and just before he covered her mouth with another kiss, which by now they both knew was an excellent way of shutting her up, she managed to reply saucily:

"I hope you're not ordering me around, Shichika, especially since you've done a lot of talking yourself tonight. But fine, just for now, I'll comply".

The rest of the night was filled with very few words but plenty of kisses, touches and the like. The following morning the couple set out on their journey and during the following months they managed to collect all of Shikizaki Kiki's deviant swords, despite the difficulties and obstacles met on the way: the fight with Sabi Hakuhei and the Maniwa corps, Nanami's interference and consequent death, Princess Hitei's interference and defeat when Emonzaemon failed to kill Togame, and many others.

After collecting the swords, Togame decided they were too poisonous and dangerous to be in anyone's possession, so she travelled with Shichika back to the island where he had lived with his sister and they buried them in a hidden place where the swords would never be found again. It was there that Togame also buried her thought for revenge and she reconciled with her past, deciding to live only in the present and for the future.

After that, Togame and Shichika went on a long trip around all of Japan, drawing a complete and very detailed map of it and living happily ever after (well, with occasional trouble from Princess Hitei and Emonzaemon, who never gave up their enmity).

The end.

Author's note: Any comments, reviews, opinions, constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks in advance!