Erika walked along the dungeons running a hand through her hair every once in a while. It was just the other day she remembered her conversation with Tristan. How in the hell am I going to be able to help him, she asked her self. She knew it would be difficult especially since how....fragile the boy was, so to say. Sighing she turned a corner as she continued on her walk, her thoughts wandering.

Asura felt relieved to be back, for a lack of a better word, it had been hell, trying to set affairs in order back home. It was just refreshing to be back and be the stupid b*stard he had always been.

And how characteristic of him, just to lurk around like that in the dungeons upon the first of his return? He looked up and smiled vaguely when he saw who it was. "Well...it's been a long time."

Why in the world did I tell him yes....Erika thought with a shake of her head. She knew now maybe next time she should drink alone unless she wanted to agree to something much more awful.

All of a sudden she heard a voice that happened to be up in front of her. Stopping in her tracks she looked up her eyes landing on Asura. She stood in place her mouth opening slightly, the surprise of seeing him defiantly showed. "When did you get back?" Was the first thing that slipped from her mouth as her gaze stayed fixed on him.

"A day or more ago. Give or take." Asura smirked. "Life has been extremely hectic these days. Mais c'est la vie." He gave her a long glance, "...Did someone steal you while I was gone?"

Erika nodded and started to walk to him as he explained how life was hectic. Though when she heard his last question she stopped in front of him and gave him a small glare. "Steal me from you? No, don't worry no one did...." She replied about to add that no one could but stopped herself.

"No need to get all worked up, I was just checking." Asura shook his head, "You're fiesty as always, chere." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Only because no one was looking.

After he kissed Erika on the cheek she couldn't help but smirk at what he said about her being fiesty. "What did you expect?" She asked.

"Maybe you mellowed some? I know I have." Asura smirked, "I don't jinx every other person down the hallway, for one."

"You? Mellowing out?" Erika questioned the smirk still on her face. She looked at him saying, "That does surpsrise me." Her mellowing out? Well she had been ever since she came to Hogwarts, though she had her moments sometimes.

"Shut up. It's part of growing up." Asura snapped, though good-naturedly, "Zaurus has too...even more than me, I think he's a pacifist now. WHich is just scary."

Erika's smirk died away as she heard him snap though she didn't hide the soft laugh that slipped from her lips. "It shouldn't be that scary....remember it's part of growing up," she told him repeating what he had just told her.

"I think you're missing the point. Zaurus turning pacifist and me mellowingly ouy are definitely two very different things."

"I know they are Asura," Erika told him with a pointed look. "Changing can be good you know, not entirely bad or scary."

"In his case it's bad." Asura said matter of factly, "There has been talking of disowning him. Which worries me a little."

Erika frowned slightly at the part of disowning Zaurus. After a moment she sighed saying, "Understandable. Does all your family want to disown him?"

"I don't, neither does Avi, or my Mother, but my old man rules the roost with a death grip, you know how that is." He looked at her, "...Never mind, you've never met him, have you?"

Erika shook her head. Of course it would be the father the only one wanting to. "No I haven't. I've only met Zaurus." She'd never met his sister or parents and didn't think she would anytime soon.

"Well...combine the both of us together, multiply that by about 50 times worth of violence, and there you'd have it." He was half kdding.

Erika raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you aren't exaggerating maybe a little?" She questioned him not sure if to believe that exactly.

"Maybe I am...but not by that much." Asura shrugged.

Erika gave a small nod as she glanced at him. "So other than this whole disowning issue anything else big happen?" She asked with a hint of curiousity in her voice.

"We have acquired a chimaera." Asura stared upwards, "Other than it trying to burn down the house half of the time, no, not really."

"A chimaera?" Erika questioned surprised that they had even thought about getting one. "Why in the world do you have one? They are dangerous."

"Precisely the reason we do. One gets tired of taming phoenixes and stuff." Asura rolled his good eye, "It took my old man a year to get the damn liscence, we like a challenge."

"Well excuse me," Erika told him softly as she shook her head. They were in for a hell of a ride if they were going to try and train a chimarea, especially from what she had heard about them through the years.

"Well...we know. We researched them before we got one, they say it's docile, it only burned down the barn about three times. Things could be worse."

"Burn down the house three times?" She repeated then sighed, he did have a point about things could be worse. She didn't know why it was bothering her that they were training one....maybe because he could be handling it and thing was capable of hurting him.

After a moment she said, "Well hopefully you guys will get a handle on the animal. Are you guys just going to train it and give it up?"

"I wish we weren't, but yes." Asura said, "Keeping it would be a very big hassle. And it wasn't the house, it was the barn."

Erika nodded in understandment about them not keeping it after it was trained. As she heard his last comment she ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "Oh I guess I didn't hear barn," she said with a light shrug.

"If it was the house...my old man wouldn't be harping on about disowning, we'd be already displaced."

Erika raised an eyebrow. "He was the one who got the damned lisence. Who's training the chimaera?" She asked wondering if his father actually was. The way he said they would already be displaced seems Asura and them were training it while it burned down the barn.

"Well, Zaurus, mostly. I think the old man is going senile...but not senile enough to keep his mouth shut." Asura showed her a fresh burn on his arm, "I help out some."

Erika felt relieved when she heard Zaurus did, though the burn he showed her made her tense. She took his arm in her hands gently and examined the burn. "Did this happen just before you left?" She asked.

"A week or so ago." Asura withdrew his arm, "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt anymore."

As Asura withdrew his arm she stuck her hands in her pockets and looked up her eyes searching his for a moment then quickly looked away. "Well at least it dosen't bother you anymore," she told him then asked. "How'd it happen?" She didn't know anything else to say except that.

"Well...we were trying to um, teach him how to eat cleanly...it didn't really work out very well." Asura smirked. "...Anything new with you?"

Erika couldn't help but smirk slightly at how he came to get the burn. When he asked if there was anything new with her she nodded slowly. "Well yes...." she said trailing off thinking for a moment. "Do you know a boy by the name of Tristan?" She finally asked glancing at him.

"Nope, can't say I have." Asura thought for a minute. "But then again, I haven't been around." Why?"

Erika nodded and shrugged. "Well I sort of made a promise to him," she began then paused for a moment thinking on how to go on. "I have to show him how defend himself. Though I'm wondering how in the hell I should go on with it since he's very....fragile, so to say."

As she heard herself say this she ran a hand through her hair because she knew what she just said made her sound soft. Though she knew she'd have to stick with it, even though she'd made the promise while drinking.

"Okay..." Asura processed this, "So treat him like our devil...except he kind of lost a finger over whatever training he went through. Don't do that." He thought for a minute. "No pity whatsoever, if you pity him at all, you fail as an enemy."