F i r s t
She was crying when he stumbled upon her; stumbled upon her due to deriving from his usual path. Tenten sat perched on a log, head buried in her arms with soft tremors wracking her frame. And the thought struck him that she shouldn't be out this late, least of all alone in the thick of the forest, when she was still only a Genin.
He of course, being a Jonin was another matter entirely, not to mention that he's spent many evenings wondering through these tress when he was quite certain that she had not.
He heard a sniff coming from her direction and sighed.
Barely bothering to mask his presence, he strode into the clearing where she sat. As he approached, he paused to duck, barely flinching as kunai and various other weapons were lodged into the tree behind him.
Without saying a word, he seated himself beside her, careful to avoid touching her and not speaking a word.
Slowly, slowly, her tears subsided until their only remnants were her ragged breathing and trembling sighs.
Slowly, slowly Gai turned his gaze to her face, his face blank, eyes glinting with curiosity.
"It's stupid."
He cocked his head at her words, "Nothing is stupid if it has upset you to this extent."
She sniffed again.
"Tenten." His voice, somewhat firm, seemed to prompt her to answer.
"Its just some boy…" She shook her head, "I just thought…. It was, you know… different."
She wiped furiously at her eyes, turning her head.
"You do not have to be ashamed of crying."
Tenten scowled, some of her usual fire sparking in her eyes, "I was not crying." She insisted.
Gai said nothing.
After a few moments of silence, broken only by the sounds of occasional sniffing, Tenten continued.
"He said he really liked me and…" Her hands balled into fists, "I believed him."
Gai looked at the girl before him with an even stare, still saying nothing. Before him he suddenly realized that this girl he had trained for over a year, was just that, a girl, not yet a woman. Young, insecure and even though it was usually masked by her fierce tongue and formidable fighting abilities, vulnerable.
He let out a breath.
"What happened?" He prompted softly.
Tenten bit her lip, considering how best to answer his question, "He… he kissed me."
Gai raised his brows in surprise, "Kissed?"
"Kissed me, yes." Her tone was hard and she was no longer looking at her sensei.
Gai said nothing.
"He…. He was my first kiss…you know that?" She now appeared to be talking more to herself that to Gai; her eyes focused somewhere only she could see. "It was…magical. You know…just like they say it is in the movies…"
Tears sprung to her eyes, "When we said goodbye, I left his place and," She was biting her lip again, her hands idly playing with a kunai. Gai knew better than to question where it had appeared from and he simply reached over, tugging the knife from her hands.
She barely seemed to notice it's absence, just turned her eyes back on Gai, "I forgot my jacket and it wasn't that late so I went back to fetch it…"
Seeing where this was going, Gai gave a slight grimace.
"…Anyway…." She gave a hollow chuckle, "…seems I wasn't the only girl he kissed tonight…"
She was silent, her eyes trained on her lap, her hands balled into tight fists.
Without speaking, Gai put a single arm around her shoulders, drawing her nearer.
At Gai's touch, the damn holding back Tenten's grief seemed to simply burst and she collapsed against his chest, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Another arm came to rest across her shoulder.
Gai stared down at the brunet head of his student, feeling her hands clutching at his vest.
He said nothing, offering no shallow words of comfort.
He simply tightened his grip.
Because Gai knew that every girl had her first kiss. So the same went for her first heartbreak.
And whether Tenten was a trained ninja or not, her heart would never truly harden.
And for that Gai was glad.
But for now he would just hold her.
And it was enough.
A very old piece of writing I found. What possessed me to post it? No clue.
Note: This is not a pairing fic. Squint as take it as such if you wish, but that was not the intention.