I May Have Deserved That (P)

As his confession left his lips, Salzem watched as Kira's general state of confidence and calm began to bleed out of her face, her body language... just her. She looked just as frightened as he felt, more scared than any life threatening situation he had seen her in, more scared than Salzem himself had been with an angry kazekage standing over him, ready to kill him. She looked as if the moon was slowly encroaching in their little world, the water boiling and the land burning as it all came to an end around her... Salzem's jaw was clamped so tight in brutal anticipation that he thought he might gnaw through his jaws as he watched Kira's face burn from pale to red and suddenly, he felt like the biggest jerk in the world. What the hell was he thinking that she even like him that way!? Was he even dumber than HE thought? Was he so stupid that he couldn't see the obvious right in front of him and was he so weak that he couldn't just leave her alone with his feelings...? And now that he told her... she could never unknow it... It was right there in her face as she clasped a hand over her mouth as if she were watching a blood-bath...

Salzem really, truely, physically felt something break and bleed inside as Kira's face hardened into a stern, crow-like expression, stating that they were on a mission and that it wasn't the time. He wasn't a stranger to this feeling of heart-break... not completely... The familiar dull-stabbing ache pulsed through his chest with each heartbeat...

"Heh... Yeah, you're right." The lycan agreed, his laugh forced. "Sorry for bothering you with it..." Salzem felt heavier with each step, his vision growing narrower with each passing moment. He seemed to follow Kira by sound and motion alone, his eyes taking acute interest in his boots for some reason.... The Uzumaki (who surely wanted nothing to do with him now) scooped up the body of a bandit and slung it over her shoulder, the lycan not saying a word as they made their way back to Sunagakure. To anyone who didn't know what was going on, it looked as if his village had been wiped clean from the map, that he'd just found all of his friends lined up on crosses, dead and forgotten. Salzem looked as if another chunk of his life had been stolen from him and the only piece he had left was the one that kept his heart beating.

For Salzem's sake, there was no one by the gates at the time to probe them for answers... In fact, the general area was vacant for some reason... probably the guards shifting positions or something, leaving Kira and Salzem alone. He waited quietly, either for Kira to go off on him or just leave him there coldly fore that's what he got from her reaction... She didn't want him there any longer...

The trip back to Sunagakure was a dreadful one as there was dead silence among the two individuals. For Kira, this was a good thing as this allowed her time to think of what just happened. The Uzumaki didn’t spite Sal for saying what he did because she had felt the same, but she had hoped to find her family before she could open her heart to someone else again. There was nothing but shattered pieces within her that she kept secret with her constant flirting and overflowing personality. Something she never wanted revealed in case someone tried to use her pain to exploit her. But now she felt like she had a choice to make. Did he open herself up to someone who she trusted with the chance that she could be hurt again, or did she reject and push him away in order to keep her emotional defences strong. This is the decision that she found herself facing as they approached the Suna’s Gates.

The front gates almost looked deserted as they passed through. As they made there was into the inner portion, a guard approached them to gather their information. Surely enough, it was the same guard she had checked out with. “Could you please get one of the guards to take this hostage to the intel unit.” She asked the male who simply shook his head and took the tied up man from her. Politeness was rare from the girl but she was to mentally exhausted to be witty.

Her back was turned to Sal at this point in time as she searched for the right words to say. Afraid that he might walk away after taking a full minute, The heterochromatic eye girl said his name. “Sal..” She said simply before approaching their most famous bench. She took a seat on the right side hoping to Sal might sit next to her before she continued to speak. Once he sat down, she would continue with stuttered words that she struggled to find. “I... I’m scared.” Was the first few words that she could come up with to express how she was feeling. “The last people that I loved was my family.. and the last person to tell me that they loved me was my mother before we got separated.” She started off, her hands clasped together on her lap as her gaze fell upon them. “That’s why I reacted the way that I did. Loving someone means that I’m opening myself to feeling the pain of losing someone again...” She took a quick beat to recompose herself. She was holding back the tears pretty well as none a single drop had left her eyes yet.

“But...”

She turned to the boy suddenly, a smile on her face as she reached over for the boy’s hand. “I.. I love you too Salzem.” Her heart fluttered at saying the words, a feeling that she thought she would never feel. She didn’t know how the boy would react after the dramatic stunt she pulled, but she only hoped that he would feel relieved. Suddenly, the Uzumaki was back to her old self as she went on. “But I hope you know what you’re getting into!” She joked before letting out a laugh as she knew that she could be quite the handful. Kira would get up from the bench and pull the boy upwards so that he was standing with her. She’d grab both of his hands and look at his ruby eyes before getting on her tippy toes and kissing the boy; a moment that was long overdue for the two lovers. She’d smile up at the boy one more time, wiping away a single tear that had gone down from her right eye due to all the emotions. “I gotta go file the paperwork for this mission, but come by might apartment later and we’ll go grab some dinner, k?” She said before running off. She was nothing but scared of the decision she made, but she knew she’d regretted for the rest of her life if she didn’t take that chance and lose Sal forever.

Exit
twc:6179
Claiming mission rewards: Ap,ryo and all that jazz
Claiming: 1k towards med spec (learned from sal)
4k towards Yin Healing Wound Destruction
1179k towards Chakra Barrier Seal

When Kira spoke his name for the first time since the middle of their mission, he looked up, his sanguine eyes meeting her blue and green as she sat over on their favorite bench, gesturing for him to do the same. Almost mechanically, he complied, drifting on over to the opposite side of the uzumaki and setting himself down almost cautiously, like he expected a paper-bomb under his seat... She was going to tell him that she didn't feel the same way... he could hear it in her voice... It was that hesitant "I don't want to hurt you" voice that people used to ward away people they didn't LIKE. He waited for the "We should just be friends" the "Its not you, its me"'s, he waited for the denial that would stab into his heart and rip open his-

Kira stated she was afraid and immediately, the lycan's attention was on her, his head raising and his eyes locking on her as she struggled to find the words that would explain this confession. She explained that the first people she loved were her birth-family and they were the last ones to say they loved her before him... Salzem nodded in almost a melancholy way, recalling the story Kira told about her family... She had lost them after some huge hurricane separated her from them and now she was searching tirelessly for any trace of her own flesh-and-blood... He could sympathize locking up her heart the way she did fore he had done the same and not for all-to-different a reason... The only people he loved up until now... really, truly loved... were his students and his family... and all but one person between both of them were dead... His heart was tempered iron, hot, hard, angry and jagged... Until Kira had picked up a hammer and forged him into something new, someone... he wanted to be... She explained how this was why she reacted the way she did, that she was afraid of letting anyone in because then she would have something to lose... He nodded again in understanding, taking a deep breath as he came to grips that maybe... maybe it wasn't the time... She needed to find her family first... Maybe they were still alive an-

Salzem froze as she continued with a "but", everything hinging on that word... Suddenly, he found Kira's fingers wrapping around his hand, a gentle smile inching across her lips as she said the words that stoked a flame in his heart that would never burn it down: "I love you too, Salzem." He felt a dull *pang* in his chest and a sudden warmth flow throughout his entire torso, picking up in intensity in his cheeks to a substantial burning sensation... He soon found out he was blushing and blushed a tiny bit more. Salzem managed to smile through his shock at Kira's joke, his eyes glowing with a warmth unseen by few in a long time.

"It'd be worth it..." He countered, softly tightening his grip on the hand she'd laid on his. The lycan smiled in confusion as the Uzumaki rose from her place on the bench gently tugging on his hand to rise as well. Slowly, he obliged, suddenly met with the second of Kira's hands taking his, his blush intensifying as she drifted closer and closer... Until their lips finally met, Salzem's eyes shooting wide, then slowly drifting closed as he melted into the kiss. It was such a good feeling... the perfect feeling... Their lips pressed ever so softly in such a way that made the lycan crave more... This moment, he never wanted it to end... ever... but alas, it had too... When Kira pulled away Salzem matched her grin with his own, a gentle, nervous smile, but one that expressed a soft love one might never thought him capable of and one he'd housed just for her... for that moment... She said she had to go do some paperwork later, but asked he'd come by her apartment later and they'd grab dinner... Any excuse to spend time with her...

"Will it be formal or casual?" He called as Kira ran off down the streets. "Well... I guess it'll be formal..."

(EXit)

WC: 6310
Claiming 5000 Ryo

edited.

Approved