Just smile
The young woman sighed deeply as she stood staring out of the window. She leant her head against the cool glass, and hugged her body tightly. She wasn't sure why she suddenly felt so... so down. It had just come over her all of a sudden. She had no reason to feel down at all. In fact she should have been the happiest woman on Earth.
She sighed again, and allowed her hand to drop down to her stomach. Her eyes turned down as she slowly drew circles with her hand. She once again turned to stare out of the window.
It was late and the sky was dotted with small bright lights in the cloudless sky. She began to imagine lines between the stars and images began to flash through her mind. She suddenly saw his face. He was smiling. It was a smile that no person had ever seen before until recently. It was a smile of pure joy and happiness. She sighed again, wondering why she couldn't smile like that. In truth, she was scared. Time was going by so quickly. How could she possibly know that what she was doing was right? She felt a tear prickle in the corner of her eye and she hadn't the resolve to blink it away. I trickled slowly down her face, the light of the stars just glinting off it as it dropped from beneath her chin onto her dress.
She looked up to the heavens and asked a silent question to the mother she always knew was there, watching her from above. As if in answer the trees below swayed slowly in a sudden but soft breeze. Her brow creased into a frown as if unhappy with the answer given, but in her heart she knew that it was right. It was normal to be scared. She was taking a big step, but she wouldn't be alone. He would be there, just like her always was. In the beginning he had been the one to be scared but now he was only excited. He wanted to experience as much as he could in order to make up for what he had missed. Life was so much more to him now and he couldn't wait to live it. But... but she was now the one who was unsure. She didn't know if she was ready.
She heard the creak of a door, and felt the strong arms of her new husband encircle her. She turned in his grasp and put her arms around his neck. He looked down into her eyes and took in the lone streak of the tear on her cheek, the look of masked fear in her eyes and the slight quiver of her lip. He reached up and tenderly brushed away the wetness of the tear before leaning in to gently press his lips on hers. It was the briefest of touches before he pulled away and looked once more into her eyes. He knew what she was thinking, the same thoughts had entered his mind many times before, but he had brushed them away; His new energy for life overpowering any doubts he may have had. He frowned and cocked his head to one side, eliciting the smallest of smiles from his new wife. He had looked like a confused puppy and on the former stalwart Blader it had looked quite amusing. At this he grinned another of those wonderful grins that filled his wife with such warmth that she couldn't help but smile back, to which his grin broadened even more.
"It'll be fine you know. We may not know now what we have to do, but you taught me that not everything is clear-cut and straightforward. Life is a learning process and we've just moved onto the next lesson."
At this he moved his hand down onto Jiraya's stomach and held her gaze confidently.
"We can do this."
Jiraya stared straight back at Kai and moved her hand down to be on top of his; her doubts were gone. That smile told her everything she had needed to know, just like it had when Kai had first realised that he loved Jiraya. That smile told her that they may not be ready now but they would be. No matter what happened next or at any other time, they would get through it together.
Jiraya smiled at Kai, not just a half hearted smile, not just an amused smile, but a real smile, and she realised she was ready, and so was he. This was the next lesson and Jiraya felt that she was ready for the test...