TheDarkestShinobi: To AyAnE the answer is yes, I do take requests, in fact this story was one.
I hate to say this but I'm asking for reviews. I know how I feel about this story and I want to know how you feel. Too dark? Not dark enough? Not enough action? Give me something to work on please.
On that note I'd like to thank Dragemenian Jew for her continued support, re-reading her reviews do get me through some dry periods.
Start
She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, not because she was cold, she had spent many a day walking around in less in much cooler weather. She was trying to make herself smaller. She looked down at the sidewalk as her feet continued to move her forward. Where would she go now? She couldn't go back home, if they were willing to come so far for her there would be loads just waiting for her to go back.
She didn't know any other life besides living on the run and living with the master and his family. Her arms tightened so that she felt pain from them. She was so stupid; they were the only people who had been nice to her! She put them in so much danger! She shook her head. Her mistake was letting her guard down in front of them, had been being nice and sincere with them and that was her flaw. When she spoke to Ryu about leaving he had warned her that she would lose everything.
Why did she think that would change?
She blinked, and then blinked again in panic, she couldn't see anything. She moved her hands in front of her and was able to grasp a surface. Her breath suddenly hitched and she started to gasp, only her lungs weren't working properly, the breaths were too small. She could hear herself heaving, but she didn't feel it, in fact she couldn't feel was she was holding on to either. She would have panicked but she instead cursed her carelessness, Yuki had been a poison master, she should have known to check for poison.
She heard a whoosh of air and the sound of something falling; only after she lost consciousness did she realize it was herself.
.
He found her again, on the floor again, only this time she didn't stir, didn't attack him. This time she was limp the entire time, so nonresponsive that he kept checking to make sure she was breathing. When he opened his door Gen Fu turned to him with surprise about to say he should be at school but he stopped at the frightened look in his eyes and the girl in his arms.
They set her up in her bed, and checked for any sickness they knew but there were no signs of anything. She wouldn't wake up though, and after a week Mei pulled Elliot aside and told him that she might never wake up.
"Can we take her to the hospital?" he had asked in a whimper and his mother shook her head.
"She doesn't exist." I'd do more harm than good bringing her into the public, too many questions would be asked, too many eyes on her. "I'm sorry."
He sat by her bed, his school called home. His mother told him to go back. He didn't move.
His thoughts were whirlwinds, images of her smiling and sad, angry and poised and more, he would hear her words and remember what he did for her, what he did to gain her acceptance. He remembered how it took her days to get the effort from him that Gen Fu tried for years to get from him. She had never lost a fight right? She shouldn't lose this one to some unknown poison. He rested his head on her stomach as his breath shuddered and he could feel tears threaten him.
He loved her.
It had taken this to realize it but it made sense. She came and turned his world upside down, she had shown him how immature he was and how silly some of his ideas were but at the same time she didn't make fun of him. She wasn't afraid to hit him like Gen Fu was, or scold him like Mei did. Gen and Mei had always been shy about it, especially about doing something wrong to him because of his original parents, his first family and what happened to them. She had made him stronger, made him want to be stronger. She had the discipline he wanted and the attitude he never knew he needed.
What did she feel for him?
It probably was nothing, or something like pity. She was so much stronger than he was so she probably didn't see him as anything worth loving, so why stay? He shook his head, she didn't stay, she left, twice, and he brought her back, twice.
"Please…" he whispered into her stomach as his hand clenched into a fist around the blankets,
"please stop leaving me."
.
"He's in love with her." He said to his daughter as she leaned against the wall of her room. Mei ran a hand through her hair and sighed.
"I was hoping they would fall in love, he's shown an interest in her that I hadn't seen for anything else but now…"
"now…" he prompted.
"Now she's going to die! She's been in that coma for days; we both know it had something to do with that attack! The attack that almost took my baby girl!"
"Would have, Kasumi took the poison from Mei Lin," She looked to her father with questioning eyes.
"She told me about a weird feeling that left when Kasumi touched her, and then she ends up unconscious on the street the next day."
"I thought it was something like that," she wrapped her arms around herself "The hospital wouldn't be able to help."
"No, nothing will." He turned away from her and sighed.
"Why is she still here then?" The daughter whispered, looking to her father as she had her whole life.
"Hope." He answered softly "because we have hope."
.
"Elliot," Gen Fu opened the door slowly, Elliot looked up at him, like a small lost child and it made him regret what he was about to do, but he knew it had to be done, better to do it now then let it build and do it later.
"I love her." He suddenly said, "I love her and she's going to die." His voice broke but he didn't cry, he couldn't cry, not anymore.
"I know." He paused talking a few steps into the room. "She was a ninja once…" he began, trying to find the right words, he remembered Ayane and Hayate, remembered the dragon, Ryu, he remembered Genra and Tengu. He remembered empty eyes and poisoned smiles. "They are taught to close themselves off from everything and everyone. That is why they can do what they do," he closed his eyes. It was how she was able to take a life so quickly and efficiently, why she didn't lose fights, it was how she could become a killer. "That was why she was so cold to us when she first came."
Elliot looked back to Kasumi, his hand grabbing hers. "She was changing." He mumbled and his master nodded.
"Feelings like this will surprise her, possibly scare her, she's not used to them, her own family hunts her. She most likely would reject feelings like that and if she accepted them she would not know how to reciprocate."
"Doesn't matter does it?" Elliot spoke, suddenly cold, "she's dying. Is that what you came to tell me, to give up?"
"I'm just telling you to be careful."
