Shira's Cryin'
Chapter 14
The following morning was one that anyone would instantly start off the day with a great start because of. The night before had rained much to the extent that the two addicted-to-each-other sabers had to move to the far back side of the cave just to stay dry and out of the flood's reach that was seeping into the cave.
Throughout the night, Diego couldn't hope for a better one. Just the sense of her fear and worrisome thoughts about the thunder and Soto, for all he knew, caused him to comfort her more than he had to. He knew that she needed it, and she knew that he'd give it.
The sound of her occasional crying would get Diego to stroke her shoulders and front legs to ease her weariness down.
'If all nights could just be like this.'
He couldn't help but purr at the sight before him that night as she used nearly every part of his warm pelt to get the best sleep of her life.
'So far...'
That next morning, Diego woke up to the feeling of her gentle breathing matching his own. He was so attached to what he laid his eyes upon that morning as he began playing with her soft lips with his paws, slowly running them down her neck lines and didn't hesitate to use his tongue to help her sleep seem that much better.
As he was doing this, he could hear her purring in her sleep as her lips began to tug away a smile. The more he got into it, the louder her breathing became and the longer her purring went on.
'I just can't get enough of her. Will I ever be able to?'
He kept on bringing her closer into him as her head rested into his chest. Holding her in his embrace gave him a protective instinct. As he peered his eyes out of the cave, all he was thinking about was the conversation that the two of them had the night before.
"You don't know how far Soto will go just to get what he wants."
Those words really stood out to Diego. It seemed to get him more nervous as time went on.
'Will he really find us? Are we actually safe here?' He thought as he looks back down at Shira.
'Is she safe here?'
One thing was sure for Diego.
"We have to escape." He spoke softly, still stroking Shira's arms. He did his best, when he was slipping away from her embrace, to not wake her.
'She'sbeen through so much. Will the suffering ever stop?'
He got up, about to leave, but not before giving her a lick on the cheek, causing her to smile even more in her sleep.
"Diego..." He heard her say as he turned around to look at her, thinking that she was talking to him, but was instead talking in her sleep.
The golden saber couldn't help but bring a smile to his face.
'She loves me. I don't need to be worrying over that debate any longer.'
He steps out side of the cave, wanting to get a head start on this whole dilemma.
'How will we get off? What will we use? Which way are we going?' The basic and obvious questions came into his mind. It seemed all so sudden to him. It just got him thinking about how life was still moving too fast for him. Being at this state, Diego felt the urge of being up against her once again and immediately went back into the cave, only to see her wide awake, gleaming her eyes into his. Those of which Diego could just not get enough of.
"Someone's up rather earlier than usual." She said playfully.
"What? Do I always sleep in late?" He playfully said back.
"Actually, you should have seen yourself a few days ago." She said back, having a bigger smile appear on her face.
"And what do you mean by that?"
"Oh, nothing. It was just the moment I gave you that nickname."
Diego always loved this side of her. Every morning tended to be like this.
"What nickname, Kitty?" He asked, bringing a wider smile to his face, for he already knew the answer.
"Kitty? Is that suppose to be me?" She asked, getting more playful in each and every word of hers.
Diego started to walk up to her, wanting to jump back into her warmth just to return his own. He stopped and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, pretending to think about the question.
"I'm not sure what's not to get about it. It has your name written all over it."
"How so?" She asked, leaning herself towards him, as if her eagerness wasn't already noticeable.
"Oh, come on. We both know the answer to that!"
"Apparently..." She answers, still not getting the whole idea to where Diego was going with all of this.
Diego got up to her, who was still laying down where she woke up from, and ran his lips up against her ears, feeling the metal clanking of her earrings.
"You're my special little kitten, Shira." He whispers into her ear, soon followed by a long wet lick up and across her neck.
Shira couldn't help but let out an even lengthier purr to his actions.
'So... Addicting...'
It was there that Diego knew just how incredibly soft his words sounded. He knew that Shira had every willing right to call him that. And he loved that. He would like nothing more than for her to call him that over and over again. Just to wake up to not only her love, affection and warmth, but to the sound of hearing her call him that everyday.
"You're just such a Softie." She shook her head, realizing and knowing how lucky she was to have someone like that.
"I know. It's great, isn't it?"
"No doubt..." She said, going into deep thought.
"Something wrong?" Diego asks, laying down into her and letting her get wrapped in his warmth.
Shira looked up into his eyes, seeming as though she had a lot on her mind.
"You can tell me anything you want." He says, running his paw across her lips. "I want you to know that."
She sighed before saying, "I'm not sure what we're suppose to do. I'm always feeling like no matter what we try to fix, no matter what we try to accomplish, we'll just keep failing."
"Shira, we'll get through all of this. Things will get better. Surely, they'll get better." He assured her, running his paw along her cheek.
"I don't want things to get better. Everything's perfect because of you." She said, snuggling closer into his pelt while adding, "I just want all the bad things to go away. I'm sick of worrying about everything. About you..."
"Shira, what you said last night, about our whole 'escape' plan. I don't think there's really anything we can do."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not saying that it's a stupid idea. By all means, I'd love to get the hell away from everything: Soto, my father, my past, all of those memories before now. Before you came into my life. It's just that by the circumstances, how on earth would we get off this island, if that is your plan?"
Shira looked into his eyes for a couple of seconds, trying to think of an answer to his question, but couldn't find one and instead looked down at his chest area and began to draw circles in it with her claws.
"I'm not really sure what I was thinking last night. Most of it was just tired talking. But it was a stupid idea, I'll give you that." She answered, resting her head in his pelt.
"It was not a stupid idea and it still isn't."
Shira didn't lift her head up, but instead, looked him in the eyes as if she was still waiting for him to say something.
Diego stretched out a bit, still making sure that she was comfortable. He yawned while saying, "You know, I'm still a little tired. You think that we could go down to the shorelines for a little while? Just to... talk to each other some more." He couldn't help but let a blush appear on his face.
'God, I'm still not use to this!'
Shira laughed while saying, "What's wrong with talking in here?"
Diego had to completely refocus himself before responding back.
"Nothing. Nothing's wrong with it. Anywhere is good as along as you're there."
Shira couldn't help but blush because of his words.
"It's just that... The ocean. There's something about it..."
'About her...'
Diego felt Shira place her two paws on both of sides of his face, pulling his lips to hers, while he began stroking her neck sides again, as if it wasn't the first time already.
Once she pulled away, never wanting to forget the taste of his tongue in her mouth, she let him continue to lick around her neck.
As he was busy doing this, he could feel her warm breath reach up to his ear.
"You have my permission,'Diego." She whispers.
Diego's heard her say things in that tone of voice a few times. All of which Diego could remember good things happening.
'Very good things...' He thought as he returned a smile to her.
'Still... The way she said it this time... It just sounded so... Seductive...'
The thought of it was both addicting and uncomfortable.
'I'm not ready for this... No way in hell...'
"You can do whatever you want to me, Diego. Whenever you want. You have my complete trust as I have yours."
Diego started purring as he could picture the entire thing. He started fading his eyes out of reality, completely forgetting about who he was talking to as she spoke up again.
"But Diego..."
His eyes regained focus onto her.
"If it's all too fast for you, I mean, there's no shame in it. I can understand... I mean..."
"Shira..."
"I can wait as long as it takes, you know you don't-"
Her words were cut off as his lips connected with hers again.
"Shira, we've got our whole lives ahead of us. There's no pressure in any of this."
"Ya, I know. It's just that... the thought of having cubs crosses my mind every now and then."
'So we're this far already? Damn...'
"The only problem is... It might kill the romance in us."
Diego wanted to stab himself for saying that word.
'Who the hell do I think I am?!' He could also tell that Shira got shocked a bit as well. The same mind of expression she made that first night where she woke up unexpectedly to his warmth up beside her. All the less, he wished that he didn't say it in the first place.
"Aww, Softie's afraid that his precious little romance will die." She mockingly said to him in response as she leaned up to him and licked right under his neck, causing him to twitch and purr at the sudden unexpected feeling.
He was about to return the favor before she added, "I can see what you're getting at. I'd like things to just stay the way they are."
Diego pulled her in closer to him, wanting her to know that he was there for her.
'I won't let anything hurt her.'
Having nothing but fear overwhelm him, his more maniacal side of him was beginning to take over. With everything bad that the world has given him, the last thing he ever wanted was for it to take away his only reason.
"My special little kitten." He whispered just softly enough for her to hear. He knew how soft his words were and he knew that she loved him because of it.
Diego couldn't help himself. Just the thought of someone hurting her brought this overly frustrated anger into his system. The anger which flowed through each of his veins was then replaced by a feeling of sadness and confusion. What could he do should the time lead up to it?
Tears could be felt on his eyes, reaching down and spreading further more down the line. They seemed so lost to Diego. Like they didn't know where they were going.
He suddenly felt her face rest up under his neck as she began nuzzling him.
"It's okay, Diego... Everything is going to be okay..." She quietly whispered to him as she could feel the anxiety flow through him.
Diego couldn't help but find those words to feel so familiar.
'I said those same words to Shulk the day he died... They were lies... Is this a lie too?'
He wanted to do anything that would take his mind off of all these overwhelming thoughts.
'The beach...' He remembered mentioning it earlier.
"So..." He didn't know how to start, "wanna go down to the beach?"
"Tired of this place already?" she laughed while saying.
"Not really, but I'd like to get up and stretch my legs out."
"You feel alright?"
"A little better." He tells her as he lets her help him get up and off the ground as they head down to the shorelines.
'That vast emptiness of water where so much undiscovered places rest, waiting to be found.' Diego let his mind wander as both sabers sat near the edge of the shore and stared off into the ocean. The only sound that was ever heard to Diego whenever he went down here was the rise and fall of the shoreline's waves pushing up onto the island.
'Some kind of dream. Some kind of misery we feel.' He continued to think as he looked to his side, seeing Shira sitting next to him with her eyes closed, feeling nothing but the ocean's wind as if it were talking straight to her.
'She would absolutely love getting out into sea. Going someplace that no one has ever gone to before. Should I ask her?'
Just as he was about to bring up the topic, the waves came up closer than usual, causing Shira to mentally freak out as she ran back onto the more dried areas above the sand.
Seeing Diego still on the wet shorelines looking up at her, she couldn't believe that he wasn't getting out.
"Diego?" She slowly walked back down, still recovering from that instant feeling of near freezing temperature.
"Is it more than just thunder I should be concerned about?"
He said playfully yet at the same time, out of consideration.
"I, uh-" she still didn't see how this didn't bother him.
"It's just water..." He says as he gets up, letting the water drip from his undersides.
"It's freezing cold is what it is!" She says with a smile appearing so noticeably, "And I'm... afraid of..." Her smile was beginning to fade away.
Diego came up the short slope above the ocean and came up to her, wanting her to know that she was safe.
"Shira, that... fear of thunder you talked about last night... does it... have anything to do with this? I mean, I know that it's normal for sabers to have a fear of water, but..."
'Ya, normal...'
Shira tightened her lips for a second, like she was seemingly hesitating.
"Yes. There is a connection."
"About your past?"
She nodded.
'Shira, you can tell me anything you want...'
She saw no point to hiding it. How could she?
"I was so young when it happened... That catastrophe... It didn't have to happen, but it did." She began as she sat down facing the ocean in the afternoon sun, followed by Diego joining her. He placed his paw over hers, telling her that he was here for her.
She took a deep breath and continued, "I just woke up... Thinking that it was just a dream. But as soon as that thought came across me, I knew that it was... real. The last thing I remember was falling asleep in my cave with my parents. The next thing I know, I'm under water. I didn't know how to swim, I didn't see my parents anywhere. After tossing and turning for those quickest and scariest moments of my life, my mother pulled me up onto dry land. Our entire cave was under water. Thunder was heard in the sky as I tried looking for my father, hoping he was okay, but..."
She stopped, not wanting to finish the rest. She hurried her sadness in Diego's chest as he wrapped his arms around her, stroking her back side.
"He wasn't- he wasn't there. He was gone. My mother has blamed me for that flood ever since, saying that I was cursed and I've been forced to believe it ever since."
The second she finished, she began crying miserably. Diego did everything he could to make her feel better.
'That's all that matters.' He thought as he began to see droplets of rain hit the now calming ocean.
'One way or another, we have to leave this place...'