TheDarkestShinobi: This is first person from Smoker. I figured that there had to be some reason he seemed so miserable in the episodes I seen him in.

Story Start

"…just do me a favor, okay?"

Somehow I heard her voice over the loud cheering and talking of the crowd around us. I turned to her, she was looking down, her curly brown hair was covering her face. She had her hands bunched around the yellow fabric of her clothes. I knew her well enough to know that this was unusual behavior from her. She was always smiling and happy, and more likely to smirk and push you playfully than to talk to you about something; she was loud and brash, never soft spoken. Something was wrong.

"Sure, anything."

"Don't, just don't…" she paused letting the rest of the sentence die on her lips and looked up at me. I stepped closer to her; what's wrong? What could possibly be bothering her so much, today, out of all days? She sighed and looked away from me pretending to be caught up by some kid shouting 'congratulations'.

"Just don't get hurt." She seemed to say it to the wind. She started to lower her gaze to the floor and it was my turn to look away, pretending I didn't know what she meant by her seemingly random words.

"What do you mean?"

She shifted nervously, I seen her hands release her clothes and smooth them out as she looked towards me again.

"I know it's your dream and… just-just be careful okay?"

I shifted slightly and she stepped closer to me, we were so close now, closer than we had ever been before. She grabbed my forearm gently and I could barely feel it under the cloth of my yellow gown. For some reason, all I could focus on was the feeling of her hand on me.

"In the Marines, don't get hurt."

She grabbed my other forearm with her other hand as she said it. She wasn't my girlfriend, or even a good friend. She was the familiar stranger, a friend of a friend, just someone I knew, yet I now felt closer to her than any of my friends. They had never spoken to me about this; never acknowledged what could happen after this.

I was about to smile and tell her no one could ever touch me like I told my parents years ago but I stopped at the look in her eyes. It was always the overconfident ones that got hurt; it was the ones who said it wouldn't happen to them. I sighed, looking away, the grass was really green now, and the morning dew still shined on it. She released my arms and I raised my head slightly so that we were looking right at each other. I never realized how brown her eyes were before.

"I'll be careful." I finally said.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

I could feel the small smile making its way onto my face and a small one graced her lips. She said 'okay' as she tilted her head slightly but I could tell she was about to cry, her eyes started to shine and I pulled her to me tightly. I couldn't stand to see girls cry. I wondered for a brief second if I had breached some kind of invisible boundary but her arms wrapped around me and squeezed tightly. I rubbed her back and looked over her shoulders to see many others hugging. I wonder how many of them are crying. None of them could be like the one in my arms. She pulled back and smiled, there were no tears on her face or in her eyes.

"I'll see you here again in a few years right?"

"Yeah," I answered with a small laugh even though it sounded more like a command than a question or request.

"Good."

As I watched her walk away I made a vow to make sure I survived to come back and see her. I don't know why, I barely knew her, but she made me want to come back. I know it. I'll come back to her, she'll wait for me.

I never saw her again.

Story End