What is up? I just got my new computer, so it's time for a marathon of updating!
Fortress
Temari gave others the impression that she was secure, safe, and grounded. No inhibitions, no hesitations. That she knew where she was going, what she was talking about, and what she would do. Always.
It was all a facade.
Ninja find an opponent's insecurities and exploit them, and thus, shinobi learn to kill their own hearts and destroy their own emotions and insecurities, or they create a shell of bravado around them, shielding their innermost thoughts from the world. But when you get to know somebody well, you learn to look past the facade. That's why Temari had always scorned friendship, and feared love.
If love meant what she thought it did, it meant that you had to give all of yourself to the one you loved, to show them all of you. And that scared her. It scared her to think that there might someday be someone who she opened herself to, showing all of her weakness, weakness she hid for fear of ridicule.
That was before she met him.
She'd always feared that the person whom she trusted, and showed herself to, would take advantage of this new, weaker Temari. But he didn't.
In fact, her made her feel safe, like a coat in winter, like a wall between you and the wind, and like a fortress in a storm. She didn't know why. Maybe it was in all the little things he did. The way his body tensed when another man came near her. The way he held her hand, whenever they walked on the streets. The way he was always there. The way his hand always seemed to find the small of her back, guiding her and supporting her, so strong she felt that she could simply lay back and let him carry her. The way he stepped in front of her when she was hit on by drunk guys (which happened quite often). The way he smiled at her, so sure of himself. And the way he kissed her, letting her know that nothing would ever harm her, so long as she stayed in his arms.
She'd always felt naked in the storm, before, protected only by coverings of tissue paper, the webs of lies she'd spun about her, until they became a part of her. But now that he was here, she felt surrounded by a stone wall, a mighty fortress against her enemies.
And she would never leave that fortress.
