This is my first Samurai Sentai Shinkenger fanfic, and it's also the first time I write a story in english. As a perfectionist, I revised it throughly multiple times and got CrystalProductions27 to beta-read it for me. But even so, since english is not my mother language, it might have some odd phrasing and I'm deeply sorry for that!

Thank you so much Stace for all your help and your amazingly inspiring videos. (L)

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing. :3

Written under the influence of Time enough for tears - The Corrs. ^^

1.


Shiraishi Mako opened her eyes in the morning, facing the ceiling of her room. It felt so familiar she just stood there for a moment with a faint smile on her face. I'm back home, she couldn't help but think. The Shiba mansion, even after a whole year living with her parents in Hawaii, still felt like her true home. Well, that was not totally unexpected, of course. After all, this is the room where she lived during the most important year of her life - a year when she fulfilled her destiny, becoming ShinkenPink and helping to defeat Chimatsuri Doukoku.

After the war ended, she couldn't help but feel a little empty inside. Sitting on the plane that took her further and further away from her homeland, she felt a massive loneliness, a horrible feeling of detachment, of losing her own identity, or a part of herself. But of course, afterwards, the feeling faded and disappeared, as she got used to her new life in Hawaii, her new home, her parents and neighbors, the local culture and even the strange hot weather. She adapted herself after a whole year, or so she thought. She made friends and got a tan, learned english and took care of her mother. It felt like they had never been apart. It felt only natural, didn't it? She almost felt at home.

Well, almost.

But she could only understand that now, when looking at the ceiling in her own room at the Shiba mansion, feeling that her spirit was somehow lifted by nothing but that very sight. "I'm home", she muttered then, feeling a gentle warmth fill her chest.

As she stood up and got dressed, she remembered the events of the past couple of days - being summoned by Jii-san to fight the Gedoushuu once more, being expected at the airport by those two strangers wearing Kuroko clothes, seeing everyone again, and feeling... like they never even parted. This is where I belong, she felt more than thought, while looking at Kotoha-chan, Chiaki and Ryunosuke... until she understood what had happened to Takeru, of course.

The rest of the day was a long and somewhat a blurry fight, as they learned who the Gosei angels were, and got attacked by no one but Takeru himself, with his ShinkenRed clothes that had partially turned black. He had a weird unfamiliar cruelty shining inside his eyes when he murmured with a deeper voice, "Ippitsu Soujou". If GoseiKnight and Genta didn't interfere... Mako shook her head, putting her hair up and then opening the sliding door. Everything worked out fine in the end. They combined their power with the Goiseiger's, and Shiba Kaoru gave to GoseiRed the key to rescue Takeru from Chimatsuri Buredoran's influence.

She sighed, looking through the veranda doors to the familiar training space outside. It was too soon now, with that grayish color that proceeds the sunrise filling the air around her. For a second, everything she felt and breathed was the environment around her, the faint light that had just started to cross the sky and the peace and quiet that told her no one had woken up yet.

"It's good to be home", she said through a deep breath, smiling softly. And then, she more felt than heard that someone was there with her. She was not alone. "Good morning", she said mildly, turning her head to face him. "Takeru."

"Haa. Good Morning", he answered silently, taking a step closer towards her.

"How are your injuries?" He had got pretty hurt during yesterday's battle. They all did, but Takeru suffered the most, as usual. She smiled softly at that thought: he was always so quick to risk his life for everyone else's.

"Better. Thank you."

"Mmm", she replied quietly, looking in his eyes. That too was so familiar - the way his serious face seemed always to hide a terrible burden. His obvious sadness plunged into her heart, and she suddenly knew - just like that - that he was probably the loneliest person she ever met.

In the past she sometimes felt like she could somehow grasp that sadness of his. She felt like she was close to him enough to understand his feelings, and when he revealed himself to be a Kagemusha, not the real head of the Shiba clan, she couldn't help but feel like she had failed. Failed in understanding his true problems, and failed in helping him through them.

"Why are you up so soon?" Takeru's voice stopped her train of thought. He sounded calm, almost meditative, and she suddenly realized that she had just been staring at him all that time.

"Ah. Probably it's just the time zone. Yesterday I went to sleep too early, I think", her answer sounded just a little louder than a whisper. "What about you?"

"I don't know", he said, looking away from her. There was something in his expression, like a sudden darkness as his eyes passed through the vanishing stars. "I just woke up and couldn't sleep again."

"Are you thinking about yesterday?" she asked softly, following an abrupt perception. "About fighting us?"

A moment passed before he slowly nodded his head. "Yes", he confessed simply.

"It wasn't you, Takeru", she replied, offering him a tender smile. "We all know that. Nobody blames you, I promise. We're just happy Alata got to bring you back."

He lowered his eyes a bit, and finally nodded.

"Take-" she started, raising her hand to touch his shoulder. But before her arm could go all the way, his voice silenced hers:

"But yet, I remember everything that I did."

Her hand froze in the space between them as her eyes widened. He finally raised his head and the look on his face - her heart sank as she could almost touch the sadness that was dancing in his eyes.

"Takeru..." she whispered, taking a step closer to him and, as if some sort of internal resistance had broken off, she embraced him, holding him completely in her arms. "Stop doing that", she murmured softly, touching his right shoulder with her cheek. "Stop torturing yourself."

He didn't move inside her embrace, looking at the top of her head with somewhat surprised eyes.

"You are probably the best person I know", she said then, raising her eyes to his. Her expression showed her mixed feelings of compassion, sadness and affection. "We love you, Takeru. Not as our lord, but as... you. You're not alone anymore. And as I live, you will never be alone again. So please... stop torturing yourself, because you're hurting someone I care deeply for."

Takeru simply stood there for a moment, like her arms had paralyzed him. But then, slowly, he nodded again.

"I'm sorry", he whispered. The rising sun reflected in his eyes as his tongue slowly touched his upper lip. Mako's heart jumped abruptly at that sight, and she became very conscious of how close their faces were. "I'm sorry to make you feel this way", he said silently. Under her hold, his chest was moving slowly with his breath, and the warmth of his body touched her through his clothes.

Mako took a sudden step back, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Her heart was pounding inside her chest, and her face felt extremely warm. For some reason, she was unexpectedly thinking about the color and shape of his eyes, his height and the size of his shoulders, and how his cheek mole complimented his face.

Well, of course she always perceived how handsome he was, the same way she always noticed that Ryunosuke's smile was beautiful, and that Kotoha was probably the cutest girl she had ever seen. Of course, I have eyes, she thought somewhat ironically to herself. But...

But now, it was like she was... really, really seeing him. Not as a fighting lord, not as a comrade, and not like the tortured, lonely soul she sometimes glimpsed, but... as a man.

As for Takeru, he stood there, probably surprised by Mako's actions, maybe wondering what he had done wrong for her to pull away like that. "Mako..." he said her name, seeming rather confused.

"I'm sorry", she replied, noticing how odd her actions actually were. "I'm sorry, I..."

"Good morning, Tono! Mako-chan!" Ryunosuke's cheerful voice filled up the space between them as they both looked up.

"Good morning", said Mako, taking another step back.

"Good morning", said Takeru, after a hesitating moment.

"It's so good to be back, don't you think? I was thinking about practicing together today, for old time's sake." Ryunosuke's enthusiasm was obvious, since he was even wearing his blue hakama.

"Ahum" answered Mako, getting a grip on herself and trying to sound natural. "Today when I woke up, my first thought was that it was good to be back home. I missed you guys more than I even though possible."

"Oooh!", exclaimed Ryu-san, not being able to contain himself and holding Mako excitedly. She felt his arm around her shoulders and smiled honestly, not able to help but notice that the feeling of proximity to Ryunosuke was really different from what she felt holding Takeru in her arms. "But it's true, isn't it? Even though I love kabuki, I missed being a samurai and fighting by Tono-tachi's side... But more than anything, I missed living here, seeing you guys every day, practicing our Mojikara writings and having sword training together."

"So", replied Mako, stepping softly away from Ryunosuke's grasp and giving both of them a cheerful smile. "I'm going to change into my hakama. Be right back."

She tried to be honest to herself while taking off her clothes inside her room. This morning was not the first time she felt different near Takeru. When that Ayakashi had attacked an island causing the villagers to become paranoid and blood-thirsty and Fuwa Juuzou injured ShinkenRed rendering him unconscious, Mako took him to safety and tended to his wounds. Inside an abandoned cottage, she took his shirt off, cleaned his injure up thoroughly so it wouldn't get infected and put a ligature around his chest and shoulder. And as she treated him, her fingers touched his surprisingly smooth skin. At that moment, Mako experienced mixed feelings, because even though she worried about both his wound and patent sadness and admired his strength and bravery as her lord and comrade, her heart raced uncontrollably under her breast. Just the sight of him, vulnerable in her arms, his eyes softly closed and his relaxed lips... not to mention the sight of his bare chest. Well, she tried to focus on the bandaging.

And afterwards, when he finally awoke, he still bore that absolute perplex sadness in his eyes that made her seem to forget her own feelings. So what he was an attractive man and made her heart pound? She was just too worried about what he was going through to care.

But now... well, it all seemed quite obvious.

She always loved Takeru, but that's beside the point. She also loved Kotoha, Ryunosuke, Chiaki and Genta, didn't she? That was a family love, almost a motherly love, because she felt this urge to protect all of them, feed them and see their happiness. And she never had questions about feeling that way towards Takeru. No, no. She really loved him. As her lord, her comrade, her friend... and as a family member. But... that was not the reason why her heart raced and her cheeks seemed to be on fire every time she experienced any sort of intimacy with him.

And the mere fact that he was a handsome, rather mysterious, attractive man didn't quite explain it either. She met lots of handsome guys at Hawaii, even though at the time she always felt like something was off about them. Of course, she used to think to herself then. Probably it's some kind of cultural shock, I'm probably "too japanese" to fall for a hawaiian guy. But didn't she catch herself comparing them to Shiba Takeru, almost unconsciously? She suddenly remembered, almost surprisingly, that he looked really good in a tuxedo, and were even better looking in the montsuki hakama he wore when they pretended to get wedded to attract a Gedoushuu that was kidnapping brides. And she remembered looking at a quite handsome hawaiian guy and thinking to herself, he would probably not look that good in a montsuki hakama.

Mako sighed, finishing to wrap her own blue training hakama, and noticing that they should probably eat their breakfast before jumping into sword practice like that. And that she probably would have pointed that out back then when Ryunosuke had proposed it, if she were not feeling so... well, nevermind. She looked at herself in the mirror, feeling both puzzled and happy with what she saw. Puzzled because it had been a long time since she last dressed up that way... and happy, because wearing that hakama was like waking up under that familiar ceiling, since both feelings hit her like a warm spring breeze. Home at last, she thought one more time, having an unexpected intuition that she would never leave again.