What The Cat Dragged In

What The Cat Dragged In

DISC: I do not own Fruits Basket or its characters. I do not own
Azumanga Daioh or its characters. I don\'t own anything. I just
borrow these things to make me feel better about my own ownin\'-
nuthin\' life.


When she exited the restaurant, she looked right and left, but did not see the doctor. She had been expecting him to be waiting for her outside. `Maybe he… changed his mind?\' She spun 360, looking for him, but he was nowhere.

She lifted the dessert, looked at it, and lowered it with a sigh. Then she began the trek toward home. She made the first turn on the way home, then sighed. He was \"too good to be true, I guess.\"

A voice from behind her said, \"What\'s too good to be true?\" She jumped and the coffee flew from her hand to land in a splat on the sidewalk. Landing to face the direction the voice came from, she was greeted by a grinning dragon, leaning against the wall of an alley.

\"Hatori! You frightened me!\" Her words and tone conveyed her distress, her free hand grasping at her heart, but her face was a glowing, radiant smile.

Taking her now free hand, his face twisted apologetically. \"I made you drop the coffee. Sorry.\"

\"Oh,\" she exclaimed as she looked to see the mess on the sidewalk, \"I\'m so sorry!\"

\"Ah!\" He held up a hand as she bowed apologetically. \"It was my fault for startling you. I just wanted to make sure you weren\'t further embarrassed with your coworkers. If they saw me waiting for you…\"

She nodded. \"Yes. You\'re right. I\'m sure it would be difficult if someone saw a man of your position leaving with a waitress. And if one of them had seen you waiting then… then they\'d never have sent me home with comfort tiramisu.\"

He was taken aback. `She did that for me?\' \"You… were trying to cover for me?\"

Her expression was perplexed. \"Well, yes. You\'ve been so kind to me, I couldn\'t have anyone thinking anything inappropriate of you.\" Warm. She made his heart feel warm, this girl. She was… truly remarkable. Pulling her along, he started walking. As they passed the ruined coffee, he picked up the empty cup and tossed it in a nearby garbage bin. He looked up at the stars. The summer triangle was overhead. `Summer,\' he thought. `How lovely.\'

\"Azuma, what is your favorite season?\"

\"Hm.\" She pondered the question seriously. \"Well, Spring is nice because all the flowers return. And I like autumn, too: the smells of the falling leaves and the sound they make on the pavement.

\"I know most people don\'t like winter, but I think it\'s my second favorite. The snow makes everything look clean – like a fresh start. And the cold gives everything a chance to rest.

\"But… I have to say my favorite season is summer. Everything\'s in full bloom, and even though it\'s sometimes hot, it all just seems more… I don\'t know. Complete, maybe.\"

They\'d arrived at her apartment. She went forward to unlock the door, and was startled when he spun her and pressed her against the door with both hands on her shoulders.

Again, emerald lasers burned her retinas. \"Azuma, I want…\" His face was close to hers. So close she could feel his breath, smell the mint he\'d obviously been chewing while waiting for her. Vaguely, she was glad she\'d also had a mint after her dinner, because he could probably feel her breath, too.

\"I need you to know that if you invite me in, I won\'t say no. If you invite me in, though, I fully intend to have you, if you\'ll let me. But… there are some things you\'ll need to know about me if this is to be more than just one night.\" He released one shoulder and stroked her cheek.

\"If you tell me to leave now, I will. .\" She gulped and licked her lips, and his finger retraced the path her tongue had just taken. \"And if you tell me it\'s only the one night, I… will have to accept that.

\"But know that if you invite me in, if you do, my desire is to try to make this for more than one night. My desire is to make this last as long as possible.\" `My desire is to have you for as long as you\'ll have me. And if I lose you like I did Kana, at least I\'ll have loved. Even if it can\'t last.\'

He leaned in so close that his lips were mere centimeters from hers, and she remembered her dream and thought, `He\'s – he\'s going to kiss me!\'

Instead he pulled back and bowed his head. \"The choice is yours.\"

She saw him waiting for her judgment, and if her heart hadn\'t already melted for this magnificent man, it would have done so as she saw the look of desperation and hope warring on his face. She leaned in and kissed his cheek.

Then her key worked in the lock. As the door opened, she turned back to him, and said, \"I do hope you\'ll come in and share this dessert with me.\" She was blushing very prettily, but she held her head high, resolute in her decision. He smiled gratefully at her and entered her abode.

As soon as she\'d closed and locked the door behind them, he pushed her to the wall and kissed her deeply. If his hands hadn\'t been on her hips, she would have fallen. Her legs no longer seemed capable of supporting her. Breaking for air, he moaned her name as she gasped, her chest heaving.

Recovering, they both stood, and she lifted the dessert. \"Um. So, are you hungry?\"

His smirking reply: \"Not for food.\" She blushed and he chuckled. Then he got a serious look on his face. \"But I need to know if you-\"

She placed a finger over his lips, shushing him. \"Sohma Hatori, I don\'t want anything meaningless. Otherwise, would it really be worth our time?\" Beneath her finger, his mouth turned upwards. She leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on his lips.

\"Then, we should have a talk.\" They removed their shoes, and he guided her to the kitchen where they sat the cake on the counter. She took off her apron and hung it from a hook.

\"Azuma, do you have any salt? Preferably a new jar of it?\"

Puzzled, she said, \"Ye-es.\" He held out his hand and she opened a cupboard and pulled out the salt, handed it to him. He hefted it in his hand then sat down.

He waited until she\'d sat down near him.

\"I have not lived a happy life. For most of it, I\'ve been – as cold as winter. But I was in love once. Engaged to be married. Her name was Kana. She was my spring. She melted through my defenses.\"

He paused, considering how to continue, and was surprised that she didn\'t interject anything. Most people were incapable of dealing with silences in tense situations. He smiled internally. She was truly special.

\"But our happiness was not to last. To truly understand, you must realize that the Sohma family is… unique. And… what I\'m about to tell you is forbidden to talk about. I\'ve never volunteered this information to anyone before. But I\'m tired. And you…\" `You\'re stuck in my head, and I don\'t want you to leave.\'

\"My family head may punish me for this. We may not be allowed to continue seeing each other.\" He paused. \"Or worse.\" He tested the weight of the salt jar in his hand.

\"Can we… Could we continue this conversation in your bathroom?\"

\"Uh. Sure. Why?\"

\"It will help me to explain.\" He could see that she didn\'t understand yet. But she led him to the bathroom anyway. He had her sit on the closed toilet while he sat on the lip of the bathtub. He put the stopper in the tub, and began to fill it. He opened the salt and sprinkled it in.

\"A long, long time ago, God invited all the animals to a banquet, and he told them not to be late. You know the story. It is not just a story, though. That story holds greater secrets of this world, and hides the truth of them. What is real and what is story is unclear. However, sometime between the real events of that story and now, something happened. There is no easy way to say this, but our family lives under a curse.\"

\"A curse?\"

\"Yes. 14 members of the family are affected. For 13 of us, whenever we are under a great deal of stress, or hugged by someone of the opposite sex…\" He stirred the water, tested its temperature. \"We turn into the animals of the zodiac. I am cursed with the dragon.\" Her mind was trying its best to wrap around what he\'d just told her. But she knew he was telling the truth. Doubting him never crossed her mind.

Then he quickly pulled Sakaki to him in a tight embrace. For a moment, he felt the warmth of her, her soft full breasts pressed against his chest, her arms wrapping around him. Then there was a loud POOF, and smoke, and he was gone from her arms. His clothes dropped to the floor, and he himself landed on the rim of the tub, where he had been sitting.

He squeaked, and just as she was about to pick him up and place him in the tub, Maya padded quickly across the floor toward him.

\"Maya, NO!\" She screamed. The cat ignored her and gently batted the seahorse so that he slid off the lip and into the tub. Then the cat sat down on the edge of the tub and licked his paw. He nodded at Hatori in the tub, looked up smilingly to Sakaki, then padded out of the bathroom.

In the tub, Hatori thought to himself, `I really need to get Kyo over here to meet Maya. That is no ordinary cat.\'

Sakaki kneeled by the tub and put her hand in the water. \"I don\'t know if you can hear me, Hatori, but… I\'m not going anywhere. And I promise I won\'t tell your secret to anyone.\" Hatori swam over to her hand and butted up against it.

Another poof occurred, and he was naked, lying in the tub, with her hand on his chest. It was smooth and hot, just like she had imagined. Cheeks burning, keeping her eyes on his face, she asked, \"I\'ll never be able to hug you?\" He shook his head no, waiting for rejection. Waiting to have to erase her memory.

\"Then I\'ll have to kiss you twice as often,\" she said, and leaned in to claim his lips. `I won\'t go back. I already decided. My heart is already his.\' He sat up to kiss her more fully.

\"There\'s more, I\'m afraid,\" he said sadly. She stroked his arm, waiting for him to continue. \"Our family head, Akito, is the 14th cursed person. Akito bears the brunt of the curse, as the God of the old story. Akito… well, we jyuunishi must follow Akito\'s orders, we really cannot disobey. And Akito is… very jealous of us.\" (AN: I\'m using the real definition of jealous here. Most people mistake jealousy for envy. Envy is when you want what someone else has. Jealousy is when you have something, but are worried someone else will get it, take it away from you. Akito is jealous of the jyuunishi, not envious. Well, perhaps she\'s both, but that\'s not what Hatori is talking about. Now back to the story.)

Sighing, a look of desolation colored his face. His arms crossed over his bare chest as if he was cold, but he made no move to get out of the tub. Sakaki reached behind her and pulled a clean, folded towel off a shelf and wrapped it around him as he spoke.

\"Kana and I went to Akito and requested permission to be married. Akito was not pleased – I suppose our family leader felt betrayed at not being told of our relationship before it got far enough for marriage to enter the equation. Enraged, Akito smashed a vase on the table and a shard hit me.\" Hatori pulled back his shaggy hair to reveal his damaged eye. \"I… don\'t see very well out of this eye now.

\"There was a lot of blood, and Kana blamed herself for not protecting me. She… wouldn\'t eat. She didn\'t sleep. She started to break down.\" The pain he felt radiated off him, and Sakaki found herself weeping silently for him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, but understood that would cause him more pain rather than help ease it.

\"Soon, it became clear. As long as she loved me, as long as she remembered her love for me, she would continue to deteriorate. There was only one thing I could do.\"

He looked up at the brunette before him with eyes that feared for her.

\"In every generation of the jyuunishi, there is one who has an additional curse. Akito calls it a `gift\', but for those who hold it, we understand it is a curse.\" Bitterness flashed across his face as he remembered Yuki, Momiji, all of those who had suffered because of his supposed gift. Never once did he put himself in that group, though. His suffering was mere penance.

\"In order to protect our family – if anyone were to find out about the curse, it could cause problems – one of us always holds the ability to erase people\'s memories.

\"To save her, I had to make her forget – forget we had ever been in love. She remembered working with me, knowing me, but she would never know, never again feel the love we had shared.\"

Sakaki\'s hands were clasped at her heart. Tears streamed down her cheeks. `Oh, Hatori! How alone you must have been.\'

\"If I tell Akito that I\'ve fallen in love again, I don\'t know what will happen. Perhaps you\'ll be given the chance to keep our secret. But I may be ordered to erase your memory.

\"You wouldn\'t feel any pain. You would simply go on living as if we had never met. I imagine that, like Kana, you would meet someone else, fall in love, and get married as regular people do.\"

She remained still. Her eyes open, tears freely flowing, mouth in a pained grimace, hands clutched at her heart as if that could relieve the pain. Her mind latched on to the three words he\'d said that made her heart feel light and heavy at the same time. `Fallen in love?\' Everything else she could deal with, could comprehend.

\"I wanted to make you aware of everything before… before it went too far, before there was no turning back. If you ask me to leave now, I will. I can leave your memories intact, or erase them if you prefer.\" Unknowingly, his tone was a touch bitter when he said \"erase\", and she knew in her soul that every memory he had ever touched was a wound to his heart, his soul. \"But either way, if you ask me to leave now, I will not say a word to Akito. And I will completely understand.\"

She was shaking her head. \"No. No, Hatori. It has already gone too far.\" Hands came down to result in fists by her sides. \"It\'s… How can you possibly be in love with me? You barely know me. How can I possibly be in love with you?\" Her nimble fingers were removing her bow tie, then unbuttoning her blouse. \"It shouldn\'t be possible. Should it?\" Her blouse now hung open.

His eyes fell upon her pale peach lace clad breasts, fuller even than he had imagined. Forcing his gaze up to hers, he saw her cheeks were wet with tears, eyes filled with emotion. \"Azuma, I-\"

Her lips crashed into his. Her hands tangled in his hair. As they broke, she sobbed on his shoulder, \"Hatori, Hatori, Hatori.\" Her mouth kissed his cheek, his neck, his ear, and then she whispered, \"I don\'t WANT to turn back.\"

She pulled back and stood up. She gave a firm nod, then extended a hand toward him. He took hold and stood up, standing before her in all his glory, his clothes still in a pile next to the tub.

Snagging the towel that lay around his shoulders, delicate hands began to pat him dry. First one arm, then the other. He turned at her gesture and she dried his back. Starting at his shoulders, she worked down to his waist. Patted down his tight ass and began to blush. Running the towel down each leg, she knew. This was something… something intimate. Something good girls only did for their intended. But it felt right. She wanted him to know love. Know unconditional love.

When she finished with his back, she pulled on his hand to turn him back around to face her. As she patted down his chest, his waist, he felt his member begin to twitch. He moaned, and she looked up at him in surprise. His apologetic grimace confused her until her hand with the towel in it brushed his almost fully hardened rod and he moaned again. Her gaze shifted and she gasped. Her blush deepened and he could see her face settle in determination. She toweled dry his left leg, and then the right.

He bent to pull the plug on the drain but she stopped him. \"No. Leave it. I… uh… I\'ve never… I never even kissed anyone before you, Hatori.\" He gaped at her, and her blush spread further. \"I… might make a mistake or something. And… if I do… I\'d like to know the tub… so if you change…\" She lifted her head to look him straight in the eye. \"I want to make sure I never allow you to be hurt again – if I can help it.\" He stepped out of the tub and wrapped his hands around her waist, his lips on hers.

She broke off the kiss, and took his hand, leading him toward her bedroom.

A double-sized futon on a black laquered frame was the main feature in the room. An inexpensive chest of drawers that had been painted pink with black handles and trim. Was topped with several adorable stuffed animals, and a couple he couldn\'t readily identify that appeared to be hand-made. The nightstand had a plain lamp, but the nightshade once again depicted the animals from the zodiac. On the bed was a pale pink comforter, two pink pillows, and one large stuffed cat.

Looking up from the cat, he saw a sculpture of a metallic dragon on the wall. The dragon at first glance appeared black, but with hints of copper, silver, and gold gleaming off its scales. The eyes were glittering green emeralds. But what was most stunning was that somehow it appeared as if the beast was smiling benevolently. It was so well made, you almost expected it to fly off the wall, and the coils spoke of violent danger that could be unfurled at anyone, if needed. Yet it smiled in a way that made you feel that this particular dragon favored you, and that its power would protect and save you.

He froze when he saw that. Other than the stuffed animals, it was the only decoration in the room. When he stopped, still holding her hand, she turned to see if everything was okay. She noticed him staring at the sculpture, and said, \"Oh!\" She knew it didn\'t really fit with her décor. But, \"About 3 months ago – just before I moved out of my parents\' house, I had this dream. And then I saw this dragon at an antique shop and… I… had to have it.\"

His smile changed as he looked at her, became more dangerous. He walked toward her, and she backed up a step. \"What was this dream?\" His eyes flashed at her, and hers grew wide.

She turned to look at the wall hanging, then turned back to him. \"You,\" she breathed. The sides of her mouth turned up just slightly, and her expression was one of awe as she for the first time, fully took in the man in front of her. He took another step toward her, and she blushed and looked down. Then she turned to look at the dragon on her wall.

Closing in behind her, he whispered into her ear as his hands slid her blouse off her shoulders, \"Tell me about your dream, Azuma.\" His mouth slid to her shoulder, and began laving kisses there.

Still entranced by something, still staring at the dragon, her sonorous voice sang through the room. \"A cat – an orange cat bit me in the dream.\" The dragon\'s hands stroked her stomach, as he continued to suck on her neck. She moaned and leaned into him.

\"As he ran off, a beautiful black dragon with emerald eyes came. He kissed my injured hand and it healed instantly. Then he spoke.\" Hatori\'s hands were at her waist, and he deftly unbuttoned, unzipped, then slipped his hands inside the waistband, drawing soft circles around her waist.

\"He said, `Will you be ready for me, my lovely Azuma? When I come to claim you, will you accept me? Or will you run?\' I looked into his eyes,\" Hatori spun her so that she was facing him, looking into his own eyes, \"and said, `Why would you want to claim ME?\' The dragon chuckled and said, `So that I can cherish you for always, my Azuma.\' He bowed to me and then he flew away.\"

Without breaking eye contact, the dragon\'s hands reached further, forcing her pants down several inches as he cupped her ass and pulled her hips to his. His erection pressed against her abdomen.

\"I watched him leave and I didn\'t know why, but I felt like my heart had been torn from my chest. And then, I faintly heard a voice saying, `Watch for me.\' I saw the statue two days later.\" He leaned in and her mouth met his. He kept just enough space between their chest so that he wouldn\'t transform. When she tried to wrap her arms around him, he pulled back.

Smiling sadly at her, he said, \"Our chests can\'t touch.\" She nodded at him. He knelt before her and began sliding her pants over her hips, his hands sliding over her soft skin, forcing the pants down before them. Fingers tracing her thighs caused goose flesh to break out. As the pants puddled at her ankles, she sat down on the bed and lifted her feet free so he could toss them out of the way. She began to set her feet down and he grabbed the left one, slowly rolling her sock off, stroking the top of her foot gently before setting it down. Then he repeated the process on the other one.

Kneeling upright in front of her, his head was level with peach lace. But he leaned up past that and in a voice that sent a thrill to her soul, said, \"I\'m ready to claim you, Azuma.\" She slid back on the bed to make more room for him. He crawled up over her as she lay back. \"My beautiful Azuma.\" The sound was like the rumble of distant thunder. \"If you don\'t stop me now, I might not give you another chance.\"

She smiled softly at him. \"Hatori.\" She blushed but maintained eye contact. \"I\'m yours to claim.\" For a moment, she heard the beating of wings, and then a sound that was half-way between a growl and a purr came from him. He leaned over her and with one hand, snapped open the front clasp of her bra. She gasped as his tongue licked down to her nipple, then lapped there gently. His hand lightly brushed against the other, then kneaded her breast with soft strokes and squeezes.

When he took her breast into his mouth and suckled, he was rewarded with a moan. When he moved to switch breasts, she arched her back up toward his receding mouth and the dragon smiled. He latched onto the other breast, then kissed his way down to her navel.

Her smooth flat abdomen was toned and taut. Firm to his kisses. She writhed under him. Settling himself between her legs, his long lean fingers threaded through her matching peach panties, then tugging them down. She lifted her hips to help, then lifted and bent her legs to allow easy removal. He tossed them to the floor.

While his fingers began threading through her curls, gently teasing their way toward her nub, she moaned his name, \"Hatori!\" He kissed the pressure point at her hip and the sound came again, \"HAtoriii.\"

Fingers working at her nub, he kissed back up to her breast, rolling to one side of her, he continued up to her neck, her ear. The ministrations of his hands thrust her though a white blanket of light, tinted with green sparkles that made her think of his eyes as she crested. \"Hatori!\" she cried.

\"Yes, love?\" he whispered in her ear. He worked a finger down and inside of her and she moaned loudly. His thumb continued to pulse against her jewel.

\"Ha-\" inhale, \"TO-\" the \"ri\" was inhaled, \"Ya- you. You.\" She moaned and her hands were struggling between wanting to clamp on the mattress and reach for him. \"AH!\" He felt her walls clamp down on his finger and he began to work a second finger inside her, spreading them and stretching her a bit. \"Want,\" pant, \"You!\" She moaned. \"For, OH! You!\" Her head whipped to the side, and he felt wetness reach his mouth, tasted the salt of her tears.

Immediately his hands stilled and he looked at her intensely. \"Azuma?\" Had he hurt her, had she changed her mind? He felt tears begin to build in his own eyes, forced them back. She gasped, trying to gather her breath. \"Want,\" gasp, \"please,\" gasp, \"YOU, too!\" His hand was still between her thighs, his fingers still inside of her. It took concentration to not twitch her hips to get his hand to move again. But the talking reduced her concentration and she moved against his hand and moaned loudly.

His chest began to shake, as a deep chuckle worked it\'s way up. He kissed her deeply and began to work his fingers in and out of her again, now with three fingers, stretching her further. Then he whispered in her ear, \"There\'s plenty of time for me. I want to make you soar. Then we\'ll fly together.\"

With her back arching so high that her hips no longer touched the bed, she clamped down on his hand, and he felt her juices flood past his hand. She heard wings again as she screamed his name. Then his voice whispered in her ear, \"I love hearing you moan my name, my Azuma.\"

As she came down from her crest, she turned her head and looked into his eyes. \"Are you my dragon, Hatori?\" Her eyes were heavy lidded, but he still felt like he could drown there.

\"For as long as you want me, Azuma.\" He whispered in her ear.

She smiled seductively. \"I want to fly,\" she breathed, and he felt his heart skip in his chest.

He kissed her again, as he positioned himself so his knees were between her thighs. Then, he broke off his kiss, placed his head at her entrance and said, \"It might hurt at first, love, but I won\'t move until you tell me to.\"

\"Claim me.\"

He eased in slowly til he felt her barrier. She moaned deeply and thrust her hips toward him. He groaned as he held still for a second, then he kissed her with a deep thrust that tore through her innocence. She cried out into his mouth. He pulled back and whispered, \"it will be better soon.\"

Holding still was harder than he\'d thought it would be. `My god,\' he thought. She fit around him like she was made just for him. He just wanted to pump into her, his cock was screaming for it. But as he looked at the beautiful face beneath him, the almond shaped eyes that looked up at him, filled with trust, it became easy. He stared at her, trying to memorize every detail of her face. `God, she\'s so beautiful.\'

He was brought back to desire as her eyes closed, her head rolled back, her hips thrust further toward him, so that he was buried deeper within her, and a rumbling moan purred through her lips. \"Oh, god, Azuma!\" he moaned and began a rhythm that she eagerly met.

He buried his head in her chest, laving both breasts with kisses, worshipping the goddess before him, who had come to save him. The goddess that the spirit of the dragon itself had chosen and prepared for him. He moaned her name.

`The most beautiful sound,\' she thought. `His voice.\' Then thought left her as he brought her into the white light again. Again, she saw the green sparkles and knew – knew with absolute certainty that there was nothing more right that she had ever done in her life.

He felt her walls clamping upon him, but the dragon wasn\'t ready to release her yet. He reached down with one hand and lifted her leg, knee over his shoulder. When he reached for the other, she preempted him and lifted it for him, placing it gently on his other shoulder.

He experimented with angles, slowly bending her abdomen up until he reached a magic angle. She felt him pound against her belly button from the inside, and involuntarily, her hands fisted in the sheets, beginning to pull them off the bed. She flung her head back and shrieked, \"Ha-ri!\" Her muscles clamped onto him again and he knew he\'d found the spot.

Continuing to utilize the angle he\'d found, he allowed his thrusts to pick up speed. She shrieked, then found her voice was gone – her breath was gone. Up til now, she would burst into the light, then immediately come back to the world. This time, she saw the light come, and it was green and all enveloping. It swallowed her and there was no room for anything else.

He could feel her crest, could feel it continue, her muscles straining, pulsing. It continued and continued, and the dragon in him roared his pleasure. He allowed himself to move toward release, and the dragon soared.

She heard a pleased voice rumbling, \"Mine. You didn\'t run. Mine forever.\" She burst through the green light to see tears streaming down her lover\'s face.

\"Azuma!\" he cried as he came deep inside her. He held himself steady above her – steady except for the aftershocks that trembled through him.

Withdrawing, he rolled to one side of her and lay back exhausted. She rolled onto her side to face him, to look at her dragon next to her. Then she looked up at the sculpture again and back to Hatori. Lightly, she placed her forefinger on his brow, traced down his cheek, neck, chest, then she placed her hand flat on his firm stomach and sighed contentedly.

Hearing her happy sigh, he rolled his head to look upon her. The rest of his body followed suit. He took her hand in his. \"Mine?\" he breathed.

She nodded. \"Yes. And you?\"

He squeezed her fingers. \"I\'m yours.\"

\"My very own dragon.\" She smiled and her eyes drifted closed.

He smiled back at her. The dragon had chosen her, brought her to him. Not even Akito would separate them now.

With that thought, the couple fell into a well-deserved sleep.

XXX END XXX


Thanks to everyone who has reviewed.

However, I would like to make this comment about the feedback: there is one thing that can really make authors not want to post any more stories, and that is when reviewers list \"nitpicks\" that were already covered by authors notes in the story.

Like \"Yamamaya\". I believe I clearly wrote an author\'s note saying that Yamamaya means something like wild cat. It does mean something like wild cat. Not exactly wild cat, but something like it. Yes, that is what she named the cat. It is, however, also a word to describe the iriomote yamaneko. A common term. Like in Michigan, where I live, we have the bobcat, also called a lynx. However, the Lynx is actually lynx canadensis, and the bobcat is actually lynx rufus. But here, we call \'em by both names. Pointing this out in a feedback would be like you didn\'t have anything better to say.

Also, I clearly wrote that I chose the name Azuma for Miss Sakaki because the author did not have a first name for her and I did it as a tribute to the author of AD. If you have a problem with an author\'s decision to do something like that, state it, keep it simple and then let it go. Authors make conscious choices sometimes that you might not like.

Another thing you might want to make sure of is that you have your facts straight. Sometimes, there are spoilers. Before you tell an author that they are \"unmistakably\" incorrect about something, you should check the latest spoilers on a series. You may find that what you thought was incontrovertible was in fact, not.

Lastly, not everyone has enough money to go to Japan. Not every single thing about Japanese culture is easily accessible to those of us who can only afford to go there in our own imagination. While I do appreciate being made aware of cultural things that I didn\'t know about, sometimes it can be written in a manner that is helpful, and sometimes, it can be written in a manner that\'s just mean-spirited.

And in case the person who wrote the feedback I\'m referring to is upset by my comments above, please note: i did just get out of surgery yesterday, and I\'m cranky. So while I might be taking your feedback more harshly than you intended, if you\'re upset by what I\'ve now written here, you\'ll know how I feel. Feedback is great, but unless you\'re intending to flame, you want to be careful how you write your critiques. Otherwise, you\'ll end up discouraging rather than encouraging the authors.