Souske closed his eyes and flinched as Chidori raised her shoe and prepared to beat him with it. When the expected blow did not come he opened one eye to see what had happened. Chidori stood there; slipper raised but she was perfectly still.
"It's… it's like nothing's changed…"
Chidori slummed up against Souske's chest the shoe slipping from her fingers and making a quiet thud. Souske froze up from this unexpected action.
"How could you just leave like that…stupid…I can't forgive you for that, Idiot" Chidori softly spoke hitting his chest with her fist with no real conviction, and then took hold of his shirt. " I was freighted… I was so scarred when I couldn't find you!"
" I'm sorry" was all Souske was able to say, looking straight in front of him, his solider mode taking over.
"I'm sorry isn't going to cut it this time…I was almost killed and you weren't there!" Chidori cried out.
Souske looked down at the girl pressed against him when he felt the first bit of wetness seep through his shirt and onto his skin. What he saw shocked him so much it pushed aside his professional rational.
'She's crying!?'
He had never seen Chidori cry. He had seen her upset before, and he knew he had made her cry on the Tuatha De Danaan, but he had never seen it himself. Souske felt as if he had been punched in the stomach.
'What could have happened to her to make her so vulnerable?'
Kaname Chidori was one of the strongest minded people he had ever met. He had received a very brief report about the night that she was attacked but it had been very vague.
'It would be' Souske thought bitterly 'that bastard Wraith had been knocked out before he could even identify the threat'
Chidori's voice pulled him out of his own thoughts.
"I won't be able to forgive you next time" she whispered, still crying against his chest"
"Chidori…" Souske breathed out lowering his head to rest against hers. 'Next time…that means she was forgiving him, could he forgive himself for abandoning her? What could I possible say to assure her that I will not make the same mistake twice"
"Kaname" Souske spoke her first name trying to make her understand that this was him speaking, not just the solider in him. "I'm truly sorry" as he spoke he did the one thing he could think of that would comfort them both. He wrapped his arms around her. When she tensed for a moment he had done something to anger her again, but when she relaxed, he tightened his hold on the girl.
Having her in his arms finally erased a small voice in the back of his mind that he had had since Hong Kong, a voice that told him that this wasn't real, that Kaname Chidori really was dead, and that the girl in front of him was just a trick of his imagination because he didn't want to deal with such a horrible possibility. He sighed knowing that wasn't the case now.
" You don't need to be frightened anymore, I'll be here to protect you from now on."
"What if you're ordered away again"
"It's not a problem"