Chapter 6: Alone at last.

"I'm a neurotic nut, but you're crazy!"

"Just go in."

"I can't do that, what if she's…y'know, naked or something?"

"Yes, a woman who was so terrified of the idea of coming home with you last night that she was trembling would obviously be comfortable enough to sleep in the nude."

Killer Bee had to admit that Hachibi did have a point. He had already knocked twice but Ginkiri had yet to give any sort of response so he had two options. He could bang on the door rather than simply knock or he could go in there and wake her up. He was a little worried about the impression banging on her door would give so that left him with only one option.

"If she's naked I'm going to find a way to blame you."

"I will gladly take the blame in exchange for a quick look like that."

Bee's hand faltered as he reached to open the door to Ginkiri's room. "…That is disturbing and wrong. What the hell has gotten into you lately?"

Hachibi remained silent, further unsettling Bee. Since this whole marriage thing had started up their usual roles had been reversed, at least somewhat. He found himself being far more serious than he usually was and Hachibi was the one making light of the situation…but Bee drew the line at perverted comments.

"…never mind I don't want to know."

"You really don't."

Bee shuttered, the sooner things fell back into some semblance of normalcy the better. Pushing aside Hachibi's disturbing interests in his new wife, Bee opened the door.

"Well at least I know she wasn't just ignoring me," he mused.

There, directly in the middle of the bed, completely covered up, was a small, breathing lump. He thought about simply tapping her but curiosity took hold of him. The lump, also known as Ginkiri, was rather oddly shaped making him wonder about her position. Bee arched a brow, stepping closer to the bed then kneeled down.

He gave a small prayer, hoping she was decent and then lifted the comforter enough to peek under.

Bee chuckled. Ginkiri was curled up in a little ball with her arms and legs tucked up under her and her butt up in the air. Her face was completely pressed into the mattress and he couldn't help but wonder how she managed to breath.

"Ginkiri," Bee whispered.

"Whispering probably isn't the best way to wake her up."

"Ginkiri," he tried again, this time a little louder and with a little aggravation.

His only response from the woman was a small, muffled groan.

Bee frowned.

"Ginkiri."

Still nothing.

With a sigh Bee pulled the comforter up and off of her completely. Ginkiri tucked her arms and legs closer to her body not gave no signs of waking.

"Damn this woman can sleep," Bee thought as he reached across the bed to give her shoulder a small nudge.

Ginkiri groaned again but this time her head turned towards him and her eyes fluttered open groggily. Her face was scrubbed clean of the makeup she had been wearing the previous day and for the first time Bee was given a good look at what his wife looked like.

Sort of…

At the moment she kind of looked like hell warmed over. There was dried drool on her chin and red imprints on her face from the little crinkles in the sheets…and her left eyebrow was sticking up at a funny angle…

"Well…I guess even at her worst she's not half bad," Bee thought.

"Uh, I wasn't sure how much time you would need to get ready," said Bee when she continued to just stare at him. "We're supposed to meet your father in about two hours."

"Kay," she croaked. The night before the wedding she had gotten only a few hours of sleep and then she hadn't been able to sleep much last night so needless to say she was drained.

Her eyes were still drooped and aside from turning her head she really didn't move much more. She didn't seem anything like the dainty, well-mannered women he had married yesterday.

"Must not be a morning person."

Bee nodded in agreement and stood, he had done his part and woken her up so he was free to go now right?

He walked out of the room and closed the door, then waited for any sound to show that she was getting up. Complete silence continued to drag on, prompting him to crack the door open again and look inside.

Ginkiri was still in the same position and her eyes were closed.

"Do you think she has some sort of sleep disorder?"

"I suppose it's possible."

Last night she had fallen asleep sitting up and then again propped up against A. Bee was willing to admit that sleeping was one of his favorite activities too but not to that extreme.

His jaw jutted out to one side as he came to a conclusion, he was going to have to force her to wake up. Bee opened the door again, far less gently or quietly this time, and strode over to the bed with heavy footsteps. Quickly and easily one arm hooked under her stomach and Bee hoisted her up from the bed.

The bed was moving…or she was moving, Ginkiri couldn't be sure. Only a few seconds earlier she had been warm and comfortable and now…was that the floor?

Upon seeing the wood floor of her room Ginkiri went into panic mode. She had fallen out of bed enough times to know that seeing your floor when first waking was never a good sign. Ginkiri braced herself for impact but it never came, instead her world tipped and she was forced into a standing position.

"Awake now?" Bee laughed.

"I'm sorry," Ginkiri apologized again after shuffling out of her room and into the small living area where Bee awaited her. She had already apologized profusely but still felt the need to do so again. The fact that her brand new husbands had been forced to physically pull her out of bed to wake her up had been mortifying. If it had been Yana or her father she knew she would have gotten the lecture of a lifetime but luckily Bee didn't seem mad.

"Already told you, don't worry about it," Bee smiled. He had never heard someone apologize so much for something so small, you'd think she had accidently killed his nonexistent dog. "You going to wear that?"

Bee motioned to the light blue yukata she was wearing.

"Is something wrong with it?" Ginkiri frowned, looking down to see if there was something she was missing.

"No…Just wondering if you would be more comfortable in something…ah…more casual."

Ginkiri's head tilted to one side, in her opinion what she was wearing was casual. The obi wasn't even a tied obi; it was just a clip on of sorts. Anything more casual than this would constitute as pajamas.

"Never mind," Bee shook his head. If she was confortable then he didn't care. "You ready?

"Yes," Ginkiri smiled.

"Okay, then lead the way," said Bee as he opened the front door.

"But…I don't know where we're going."

"The Raikage's office."

"…I still don't…"

"I need to make sure you can get around on your own. Don't worry, if you start going the wrong way I'll point you in the right direction."

Ginkiri frowned; she didn't understand why he didn't just lead then. It seemed a little pointless but she did as she was told and led the way out the door. She knew that the block of apartments where Bee lived branched out from the Raikage tower and if she remembered correctly they had passed through the lower levels of the tower on their way home last night so at least she had a general direction to work with.

"Left, right?" she asked, turning to look up at Bee.

"Well which one?" Bee chuckled.

"No I mean…It's to the left correct?"

"Yes it's to the left."

"So who else lives here?" Ginkiri asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.

"Mostly people that A wants to keep close."

"Ah."

"Fifteen-thousand ryo froooom…the Abu…Abukara clan," said Ginkiri, re-reading the front of a small white envelope. "Or I think that's what it says."

They had seen her father and sisters off that morning and to Bee's surprise it had been a rather stiff farewell. He had expected heartfelt words and maybe a few tears but there had been nothing of the sort. Her father had stated that he would return in two weeks and her sister, Momoka, had drilled her on proper protocol for sending out thank you cards. After that they had a quick lunch with A and then made their way over to the hall where the reception was held so they could do what they were currently doing.

Killer Bee shrugged after taking a look at the envelope. "If it's not and they don't get their thank you card then it's their own damn fault for not writing more legibly," Bee muttered.

With a guestless of more than five hundred painfully polite people Bee and Ginkiri had a lot of thank you cards to send out. The task of writing down each of the names and their corresponding gift had seemed like a daunting task but they had worked out a system. Ginkiri would do all of the opening and Bee would do all the writing. Originally he had been the one supposed to be doing the opening but it was soon discovered that Ginkiri's handwriting was atrocious so they switched places.

Ideally this wasn't how he would have wanted to spend the day but at least they were alone and amidst everything they were doing they were also getting to know each other.

"My favorite color is red," said Bee. "Was that the last one?"

"One more and my favorite colors are green and blue," replied Ginkiri as she carefully opened the last envelope. "Twenty-thousand ryo from the…oh, from Raikage-sama."

Bee decided to forgo writing down anything down for A, if he wanted to thank him he could simply do it in person. "But if you had to pick one out of the two which would it be?" Bee asked.

"Why would you ever need to choose between two favorite colors?" Ginkiri giggled.

"I dunno, humor me."

"Hm, bl-er-green…I think."

Bee smiled a little at her. If he didn't think about the fact that she was his wife now it was actually very easy to talk to her. It also seemed like they were on the same page as far at this little relationship went, she had practically protested against going home with him the night before. She hadn't been given much choice in the matter though, at some point during the ceremony or the reception the remainder of her clothes and other essentials had been moved to his apartment. So unless she wanted to sleep in the nude or in a stuffy kimono she had to go with Bee.

"So do you just wanna move over there to go through the other stuff?" asked Bee, motioning over to small mountain of gifts. It was more traditional to give money but it appeared that several dozen people decided to forgo tradition.

Bee hoped that most of the bulk was due to boxing, because if not he wasn't sure how he was going to fit everything into his apartment. Ginkiri hoped that somewhere in the large mass there would be flatware and dinnerware…and perhaps some glasses…and towels… maybe some pots and pans…

Actually there were a number of things she hoped to find because Bee's apartment appeared to be lacking in many things. The living area was okay, sort of sparse but still okay, as was the dining room. Those two could be easily fixed with a few paintings but the rest of his apartment needed more work.

After she had woken up that morning Bee had informed her that there was cereal in the kitchen if she was hungry, which she had been but upon seeing the kitchen she had quickly changed her mind. Bee had a total of two spoons, a fork, three bowls, two plates, and four big plastic cups, all of which looked questionable and didn't match. She hadn't even bothered to look to see if he had any pots and pans because she suspected the situation would be the same.

"…Or I could just bring them over here," offered Bee, once again giving what she was wearing a questionable look.

Ginkiri laughed slightly and shook her head. "Do people not wear kimono's or yukata's here in Kumo?"

"They do, but they're usually worn for special occasions not every day wear."

A slow, sly smile tugged at Ginkiri's lips. "If they bother you that much you could buy me a new wardrobe," she offered.

"They don't bother me," Bee chuckled. "If you're comfortable in them then by all means keep wearing them if not you can buy you a new wardrobe."

"Then stop commenting on them."

"This one is whack, I think I'll do us both a favor and send it back."

Ginkiri blinked owlishly at Bee. Somewhere in the middle of opening their gifts Bee had started rapping. At first she thought the rhymes where unintentional but soon he started adding rhythm confirming that he was indeed doing it on purpose. She really wasn't sure what to make of it and she didn't want to come off as rude by asking about it.

"I…I sort of like them," she said uncertainly, looking at the contents of the package they had just opened. There were two dolls, a man and a woman, both beautifully painted.

"Look at the card; they help with fertility- I don't need these two around to question my ability," rapped Bee, holding up the small card that had been in the box.

Ginkiri took the card and read over it slowly. They were fertility dolls.

"Perhaps you're right," Ginkiri said quickly. She could feel her face heating up; she knew that she must be a lovely shade of red.

Most of their gifts had been useful, though a few suggestive ones had been thrown in. Ginkiri decided not to think about those, if they came across something of that nature it was thrown into the "do not want" pile and was promptly forgotten.

"We should get married again," said Bee in an offhand manor as he sifted through all the paper left over so see if there was anything else.

"Why?" Ginkiri giggled, pushing the dolls to the side.

"Even with all my birthdays combined I don't think I've ever gotten so many gifts and so much money," Bee snorted.

"Would you really want to sit through all those speeches again?"

Bee grinned. "Might be worth it and who knows maybe I'll just take a hint from you and sleep through them."

"I was tired," Ginkiri frowned.

"Ah, well Hachibi and I were considering the possibility that you might have a sleep disorder."

Ginkiri's eyebrows shot up. Hachibi, the eight-tails, her father had explained to some degree that Bee was its vessel but she didn't know he could talk to it, or even that it was intelligent enough to talk. Her curiosity peaked past the need for courtesy as countless questions bombarded her all at once. It was inevitable for a few to break through.

"Hachibi, so you can talk to…uh…"

He, She, It- She didn't know which to use and she didn't want to offend him.

"Him," Bee nodded with a slight frown. He mentally kicked himself for bringing Hachibi up, for someone not really used to jinchuriki it would no doubt creep her out to know that he communicated with his tailed beast… Actually even people who were accustomed to jinchuriki tended to get creeped out.

Ginkiri stuttered and tripped over the many different questions that tried getting out but was finally able to settle on one. "Can he…well…is he aware of things? I mean…like outside things?"

"As in seeing and hearing what I see and hear?" Bee clarified for her.

Ginkiri nodded.

"Yes."

Ginkiri's brain nearly exploded with questions of protocol. She had never acknowledged this Hachibi, was she supposed to? Would it be rude if she didn't, would it be rude if she did? When greeting Killer Bee was she expected to greet Hachibi as well? She would have to use Bee as a mediator, which could be considered rude in some instances. Then again it might be the equivalent of using a translator in which case it wasn't rude, so long as you didn't acknowledge the translator and directed each statement and inquiry towards the person you were communicating with.

"You okay?" Bee asked. Ginkiri's mentally frazzled state was showing in her features and it had him concerned.

"I don't know what to do," she said quickly.

"Huh?... If the it weirds you out we could just change the sub…"

"No," Ginkiri cut him off, her voice dropping into a hushed whisper, as if Hachibi wouldn't be able to hear it. "I don't know what to do. Have I offended him? Was I supposed to greet him? How am I supposed to communicate with him? Should I include him in conversation?"

"Slow down, slow down," Bee chuckled. He was having trouble keeping up with her questions, most of which he wasn't even sure how to answer. It wasn't common to address a jinchuriki's tailed beast, not because there was anything specifically against it, people just didn't do it. People viewed them as monsters and in many cases that viewpoint was justified because of the damage inflicted by them. For someone coming from Iron though, it was a completely neutral standpoint. They had never had never been in possession of a jinchiriki, nor had they ever been attacked by a tailed beast.

Neutrality, Bee decided, was a very awesome thing.

He didn't like the idea of her talking to Hachibi through him though, that had the potential to get very annoying very quickly.

"Don't worry about it," he smiled. "When referring to him he's Hachibi-sama but you don't have to address him directly."

"That doesn't seem very fair."

"You don't get a say in the matter."

"…Okay," Ginkiri nodded.

"Hey, now that we're done here do you want to go get something for dinner?" asked Bee.

"Shouldn't we pick up first and move everything we wanted to keep?"

The idea of food still seemed nauseating to Ginkiri. During their lunch A kept adding more food to her plate and, too polite to decline, she had eaten everything.

"We can come back and take care of it," said Bee, sounding a little hopeful.

Ginkiri held back a groan and nodded. "O-okay."

Kumo was an exceptionally disorientating place; at least it was to Ginkiri. In some areas it felt like you were several hundred feet underground whereas in other areas the fact that you were several hundred feet in the air was painfully apparent. On their way to find a suitable place for dinner they had gone through many halls where there were no traces of natural lighting, then they would turn a corner and then everything would open up. When they went through areas like that Ginkiri would hug the walls in an attempt to stay away from the massive windows that overlooked Kumo, only moving away slightly when they would pass a shop, restaurant, or any other sorts of breaks. She usually didn't have an issue with heights but then again she had never been quite so high up.

"Afraid you're going to fall over?" Bee teased as they walked. "The glass is pretty thick so I don't think you need to worry."

Ginkiri glanced at Bee and then ventured a look towards the windows and cringed. "I still think I'll be safer over here."

"But you're missing such a pretty view."

"That's okay."

"I guess you'll get used to it eventually," Bee chuckled.

"Um, if you need to get from one area to another are the passageways the only way to do that?" asked Ginkiri. Kumo was more or less built in a large circle with a few towers in the middle, and it seemed like a lot of work to have to go completely around to get from one side to the other.

"Yes and no," said Bee, skirting closer to the window. "Here, look."

Ginkiri shook her head and pressed further against the wall.

"It'll be easier of you can actually see what I'm talking about."

"No…really…that's okay."

Bee glanced down the hall and back, there were only a few people around so he didn't have to worry about causing a scene. "Unless you purposely jump out the window you'll be fine," he laughed while walking over to Ginkiri to grip her wrist.

Ginkiri sputtered and protested as she dug her heels into the floor but it was no use. Even with the added friction she found herself easily pulled along.

"Right, well," Bee began, holding onto Ginkiri to keep her from moving away. "You see those…you have to open your eyes."

Ginkiri with eyes tightly closed, shook her head.

Bee smirked; if she was going to act like a child then he was going to treat her like one. He switched the hand holding her wrist and placed it on top of her head and then, careful not to hurt her, he used his index and ring finger to lift her eyebrows, thus forcing her eyes open a little bit.

"Okay, as I was saying…"

"Darui is still watching them," said C, standing before A. "When I left it appeared that he was trying to torture her."

"Torture her?" A repeated. He had sent his two little henchmen to keep an eye on Ginkiri and Bee. He knew that Bee would never hurt her and she didn't really have the ability to hurt him but he still wanted to make sure that everything was going smoothly.

"By forcing her to look out a window," C explained. "It appears she's afraid of heights."

"That doesn't sound like torture," A snorted.

"By forcibly opening her eyes…like this."

C lifted his right arm, bringing his hand over the top of his head, illustrating that Killer Bee had been doing.

A laughed, it still didn't sound like torture but he did decide that sitting Bee down and explaining sensitivity would be in everyone's best interest.

AN: If you think Ginkiri seems a little callous towards her family leaving, rest assured that all of that will be covered in the next chapter. It WAS going to be in this one but this ended up being longer than I had planned and this worked out as a better stopping point.

Thank you again for your reviews ^_^