Hey! You guys might know me from my other Soujiro X Misao fic, Two Silent Feet, and well, I decided that we need more Soujiro and Misao fics! MORE I SAY MORE! So I came up with this little fic to add to the small little fandom. It's going to be short, and much less angsty than TSF. It's just a little fic that will hopefully boost me up and make me want to produce more fics for them. (cause really, I have TONS of ideas.) I have no idea where it's going so it might be a little random... Cause you know, you read the summary? Yeah, that's all I got planned out for the fic. XD Anyways, enjoy

Chapter One

First Meeting

Neither of them even remembers the first time they met. He was young, even before his smile, covered in filth and bruises. She was even younger, full of life and energy, and even before she was in love, or what she believed was love.

Misao laughed, running along the streets with no care in the world. Her family was far behind her, only chuckling amusingly at her energy as she wove through the legs of the crowd. They didn't mind her wondering off as she did it so many times that they almost knew the exact moment she would be back.

Her laughter was distinguishable through the crowd, and they all just shook their heads and went back to work, serving costumers or training to hone their skills as ninjas. She stopped at anything she found interesting, and everyone in the streets greeted the young girl cheerfully.

Misao smiled at each of them and returned their greeting. The entire city was her playground, but she wanted to go to that one place that she called her own. It was the big forest where trees towered over the little girl's form. She weaved through with no care at all, believing that she could take care of herself because Hannya and Aoshi had taught her all she knew, and in her eyes, they were the greatest.

It was the time of year where the flowers were in full bloom, dancing merrily at Misao as they basked in the bright sun. She moved towards the bottom of a cliff, full of loose boulders and rocks for her to climb on with glee.

This time was different though because she wasn't alone. She heard the tears wedging out of the rocks, and he was a sight to behold to Misao, all curled up and filled with bruises. The tears he shed were loud and beckoning for her and the smile fell from her face.

"Are you ok?" she asked, and he flinched visibly, backing up before he even looked at her.

"I-I'm sorry!" he shouted, speaking to her and not at the same time. "I-I didn't mean to…" He tried to sniffle back his tears and looked at her for the first time. She was so much smaller and younger too, but he was much, much more fragile and frightened.

"Whoa!" she shouted. "H-hold on!" Misao felt like a mother looking down at a frightened child, and so she did the only thing she knew. She wrapped her arms around him, her kneeling form appearing bigger and stronger than his shriveled up and crying body. "S'ok, dun cry."

He was frozen for a second, feeling what he never felt before: comfort, warmth, affection, and love—from a stranger whose name he didn't even know. The tears which stopped before came rushing back as he clung to her, drunk on the feeling of having someone close to him and caring for him.

Misao felt so mature, loving and comforting someone, when she was the one usually being comforted. Was this how Aoshi felt, she wondered, when he held her close as she did for this boy? Was he usually filled with warmth as she was now?

"What are y-you…?" this boy's timid voice came up, muffled from being buried against her. His arms, which wound itself around her, refused to let go, and she was content to allow it.

She smiled down at him when she saw his confused look. "A hug! It's a hug!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Whenever I get sad and cry, I get hugs—lots of hugs!—and it makes me feel better!" She said it in a way that showed she was proud for the knowledge, and he smiled timidly up at her.

"Oh, so that's what a hug is…" He let go of her slowly, the tears no longer falling and wiped them away. "That was the first time…"

"Then I'll give you more!" Misao exclaimed, interrupting him as she pulled him back to her in an innocent hug. "As much as you want! Promise!" Not understanding why, he burst out into laughter even as he found that there was nothing funny. He couldn't wipe the smile from his face, and there were more tears, but this time it was not from sadness or pain. It was an emotion he was feeling for the first time: happiness.

"Oh, see! You're smiling now!" Misao pulled back and grinned at him with an innocence and trust only a child could give out. "You look better when you smile!" His smile only grew wider and he nodded.

"I'll smile more then," he answered, much like Misao, only softer but not any less happy. "Promise!"

"I'm Misao," she exclaimed proudly to him, "and I'm going to be a great ninja someday!" She said it with such assurance and strength that this boy had no choice but to agree. The smile, a real smile, did not leave his face as he introduced himself.

"My name is Soujiro," he said, "and will you be my first friend?" She faltered for a second, only because this boy seemed so lonely, and attacked him with another hug.

"Of course!" she beamed. "We'll meet again tomorrow, 'kay?" He agreed excitedly with a wide smile.

It seemed as if Soujiro's life was finally looking up.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"Damn brat, where the hell are you?" a man's angry voice shouted into the night air. Soujiro timidly stepped forward with his eyes gazing up at the large man with drool and alcohol running down his chin. He flinched and looked away, unable to see the man who had abused him so much through the years. There was hate filling his beady eyes, and his loud and selfish voice commanded obedience.

"Y-yes?" he asked, flinching when the man slammed his foot into the ground, loudly demanding for Soujiro to look up at him. The beaten down child followed the command almost immediately, though his eyes wavered with tears.

"What are you crying for you ungrateful punk? Huh?" he shouted as he threw his sake cup at the boy's head. "All I ask for you to do is to bring a hundred bags of rice to the warehouse, and what do I get? Huh?" he asked, glaring down at the boy with unfair cruelty. "You ran away all day!"

The rest of the family came up at this point, looking down at Soujiro as if they were better than him. "Where would you have to go?" the woman piped up as she slammed her foot down onto his head. "This is the only place you can go." She kicked him away from her as if he was just mindless dirt on her shoe, sneering at him and the tears he shed.

"No one would take in a dirty useless brat like you! All you do is cry and scream, and you never pull your own weight around here!" one of the men belittled holding out his sheathed sword with a grin. Soujiro knew exactly what would come next, and he back away, but he couldn't run because he knew that they would catch him.

"That's not true!" he screamed. "I do everything around here!" Everyone in the family scoffed, and the three men moved forward, beating every living inch of him into the dirt.

"What did you say you little spoiled brat?" They pounded into him, taking pleasure as each hit connected no matter how much Soujiro squirmed and screamed in pain. "You can't even do the little simple task I asked you to do earlier!"

"What makes you think that someone would want you? You're just a dirty little freak!" He was curled up into a ball at this point, screaming and crying for a way to stop.

"That's not true," he would whisper over and over again. "That's not true…"

"Then I'll give you more! As much as you want! Promise!"

He remembered it through the haze, Misao's voice and hugs that were so warm and full of life. His tears and screams stopped, and he was now numb to the beating for the only thing he could do was remember.

"Of course! We'll meet again tomorrow, 'kay?"

He was shivering, his entire body was shivering as they continued, getting sick pleasure from beating a young boy who was weaker than they are. They laughed while they continued to taunt him, telling him that he was useless and that no one cared.

"Oh, see! You're smiling now! You look better when you smile!"

The warmth spread through his body from his memories from the short little amounts of happiness that Misao has given him. A smile, a real smile had spread across his face, no longer even remembering that he was being beaten.

They all stopped, looking at his face with confusion and disgust. "Look at this little brat, it seems like he's actually enjoying this." Soujiro ignored them and just tried to remember that moment over and over again, and before he even knew it, they were gone.

The next morning though, they locked him into the warehouse to make sure he wouldn't run away again.

To Be Continued...