Chapter 6: Night-Blooming Cereus By The Water's Edge In The Moonlight
AU: thank you so much dear readers for giving me the list of what you wanted to see more of and what you wanted to eventually happen last update! It helps me out a lot because I want to please my readers! Now without further ado I give you…. Chapter 5!
Please Read and Review, Constructive Criticism welcomed!
A Night-blooming Cereus in full bloom,
Is more beautiful than the moon itself.
Crescent-Moon0Sesshomaru
Recap:
"Well then…. I guess there is only one thing left to do…" Juliet sighed in anger and frustration as her gaze locked with Lori and her daughter's.
Chapter 6
Juliet's cerulean blue gems scan around the room seeing various onyx, dark brown, hazel-green, aquamarine blue and red gazes on her, waiting for her judgement call.
"You can stay until my husband gets back from his trip. Then he makes the real judgement call." Juliet finally answered and Jeri smiled gleefully while Lori released a breath she didn't know she was holding in relief.
"Aww! You sighed in relief, that means you do like it here!" Jeri teased Lori earning a glare from the blonde but she made no attempt to correct her for fear that Juliet would change her mind.
Shit! I know I don't like it here but it's better than being….. At THAT PLACE…. Again. Contemplated the blue eyed teen with Jeri still teasing her or rather trying to.
If Juliet wasn't here right now I would punch you Jeri… I guess this means I'll have to watch it around Juliet, unless I want to go back to that horrible place, seeing as I'm usually left to my own devices here I should be able to ignore the hyper plum haired teen.
Lori's hear tilted towards the ceiling in a silent prayer. Dear Lord, please give me patience and not strength, because if I get strength I'm going to beat someone…
"Get going to school or else you'll be late!" Juliet exclaimed looking at the time and Jeri's head snapped towards the clock on the wall as her eyes bulged out of her head. "We only have 5 minutes! Oh crap, we'll never make it in time!"
Lori looked as desensitized as ever and didn't feel worried at all. "Jeri are you forgetting our first class is with a teacher that doesn't even take attendance?" The blonde mentioned momentarily stopping the girl from flipping out.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. WE ARE SAVED!" Exclaimed Jeri who was currently thanking the Heavens. Juliet, Shisui, Kagami and Hashirama laughed at her behavior.
"See ya guys later!" Jeri shouted over her shoulder waving bye as she exited the house. Lori stopped to look at everyone by the door. "Don't wreck the place or cause Juliet any problems." She said monotonously as she exited the house as well, following Jeri's lead.
They had made it to school right as Homeroom Class was about to end and decided upon just waiting outside the classroom as there were only five minutes left of class. Jeri sighed of boredom. "At least we get to go to Vo Tech now." Lori stayed quiet and just ignored the girl.
After school was all said and done Lori and Jeri were walking home like usual since they miss the bus every. Single. Fucking. Time.
"Man! This bites!" Jeri said exhausted from a long day of school. Lori made no attempt to agree with the girl or show any signs of even noticing her existence but inwardly agreed with Jeri.
"Jeri! Lori!" Called a man's voice that was childish. As both girls looked up Jeri's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets and Lori's eyes dialated a fraction before returning to normal. Two ninja landed right in front of the school girls, it Hashirama and Tobirama.
Immediately Hashirama was hit on the back of the head with a backpack by Jeri. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Jumping from roof to roof in the city?! You're going to get shot at or worse cause everyone to have a panic attack!" She shouted at the dark haired brunette who rubbed the back of his head as a lump rose. "Itai! That hurts…" Hashirama whined like a little child much to his younger brother, Tobirama's dismay as he sighed in disappointment.
One word went through both Tobirama's and Lori's mind: Idiot…
Lectures from Jeri to Hashirama who took it like a man began to ensue as Tobirama and Lori just stared at each other boredly. "Want to leave them?" Tobirama asked sighing, his fingers reaching to pinch the bridge of his nose in an attempt to soothe his gave a brief nod in answer before Tobirama allowed the blonde to climb onto his back, her arms tightly draped around his shoulders as he took off to the trees at a slow pace for the girl on his back. He knew she wasn't used to jumping from tree to tree.
Lori only felt the air whip around her as Tobirama gave her a piggy back ride through the trees, her long pale golden hair trailing behind them. She would never get used to the feeling of not being on the ground. EVER. She tightened her arms around Tobirama's neck slightly and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes telling herself that she was in a car, on a motorcycle, anything to keep from thinking she was off the ground.
Tobirama noticed her actions as he slowed down more to a snail's pace for him and his maroon eyes glanced over to his left shoulder to see Lori's eyes closed. Her face was so pale in the sunlight, it was already extremely pale, sickly even, but in the sun it stood out that much more. It was like her skin was literally the color of snow or even his hair. Tobirama finally noticed the light purple eyeshadow that decorated her eyelids, with black pencil eyeliner that closely lined her eyelashes on the top and bottom, with vanilla colored eyeshadow accenting the purple as it was placed near her brow bone. A light coating of black mascara on her eyelashes giving off a natural looking effect.
Her lips were a shade of red that went well with her skin color.
How could he had not noticed she wore makeup before? Was it because he was never this close to her to see?
"How was school?" Tobirama asks Lori who opens her eyes to look at him ignoring the rushing of the trees and ground below. "Boring as ever. We have Vo Tech homework though." Lori sounded with slight emotion in her voice. Tobirama nodded letting her know he heard her.
"What is 'Vo Tech'?" Tobirama really was quite perplexed at this 'Vo Tech'. It was a weird name for a class.
"College classes. We are only in High School, but we are able to take them." Lori explains with her back tensing slightly, Tobirama notices and in turn holds his hands behind her knees slightly tighter to let her know she won't be falling with him around. He could feel Lori's breathing change, it wasn't normal like before, but slower, more tense when she started to talk to him.
"You're afraid of heights, aren't you?" Lori turned her head away from Tobirama feeling a slight blush on her cheeks.
Damn you Snowflake! Albino! Lori mentally shouted at Tobirama who thankfully couldn't read minds otherwise he may have let her fall to her death.
"I'll take that as a yes." Tobirama smirked. "You know, I won't drop you."
Say's the fucking albino who is basically a trained assassin, with no emotions. Fuck you very much. Lori didn't say anything but held her face against the back of Tobirama's black jumpsuit, hiding her ever growing blush from the snow haired ninja.
Finally, they made it home with Tobirama not bothering to put Lori down and just walked to the door, opened it with one hand and walked in like a boss with Lori still burying her face in the back of his shirt. A long-sleeved, black shirt with a turtleneck. When he wasn't in battle he usually wore the standard black jumpsuit that jonin wore. Same with his brother.
Izuna noticed Tobirama walking in with Lori, her arms practically choking Tobirama's neck, and her face buried in his back. "You can put her down now Senju." Izuna growled. He never liked Tobirama, not once. And he especially didn't like him walking around with an 'Uchiha' woman on his back. She was obviously afraid at one point of being dropped.
"Shut up Uchiha-scum. She's afraid of heights." Tobirama replied cooly still holding Lori on his back.
This only served to make Izuna slightly more irritated with the Senju. "And you didn't put her down and walk? Did you? That must be why her arms are practically choking your neck right now!" Izuna shouted pointing an accusing finger at Tobirama who in turn grew angry as well.
"No I didn't, but I did slow down and let her know she wouldn't be falling to her death. So don't lecture me Uchiha!"
The two men started literally butting heads until an irritated voice of a certain blonde spoke up. "Are you going to let me down anytime soon?" Both men looked up towards Lori who was still on the Second's back.
Tobirama knelt down and allowed the smaller female to get off his back, standing up and fake coughing into his fist. "As you can see-" Tobirama began to Izuna before being interrupted by Lori.
"LAND!" Lori let her emotions through in one short burst where she expressed nothing but joy and proceeded to hug the ground but not kiss it. After 2.3 seconds of joy she returned to being her normal self. Looking up at Tobirama she asked for his name.
Tobirama looked at her. "Tobirama." Lori then looked to each of the ninja in turn who answered with their own names.
"I'll walk home next time." Lori said in a tone leaving no room for arguments as she went to her and Jeri's room throwing her book bag in a corner and getting what she needed out before walking back into the living room with her Vo Tech homework.
Hashirama and Jeri were in the living room having just arrived. Lori sat in a corner of the living room as far away from everyone as possible and started on her homework answering question after question with such speed Jeri walked over astounded.
"How come you don't write like that in any of our other classes?" Lori looked up at Jeri before returning to her work writing down five more answers before answering Jeri.
"Because I don't get those classes. I do however get Medical Terminology, Anatomy and Physiology."
This intrigued Hashirama who was over beside Lori in a heartbeat eagerly looking between her and the sheet of homework.
"Medical Terminology you say?" Lori nodded still focused on her homework and within five minutes she was done with one packet full of medical terms and one of definitions and one take home test regarding the anatomy and physiology of the human body and it's cavities.
Hashirama quickly took all the homework and went over it scanning the pages for any errors in spelling, which was essential in the medical field, or any wrong answers or definitions but found none. Overall he was impressed. He started to burst out laughing joyously causing a few people in the room to tense but then relax.
"This is amazing! Lori, I didn't know you this much about the human body nor about the medical field!" He praised getting a blank look from Lori. Jeri was in awe as she looked over the papers herself.
"How do you remember all of this?!" Jeri asked astounded. Lori looked at her and blinked.
"It's child's play. All it is is different names for different planes, regions, and parts of the body. The definitions are easy if you remember the medical terms, like the suffixes, prefixes and combining terms or roots as they literally spell out the definition and meaning of the medical terms for you."
"What's diagnosis?" Hashirama questioned already knowing the answer. Lori answered without missing a beat.
"Complete knowledge." After several more questions regarding identifying regions of the body and certain parts as well as several medical terms later, Hashirama was thoroughly impressed.
"I've never seen you study for Vo Tech…" Jeri commented to Lori. Lori just shrugged.
"That's because I don't." At that Hashirama's lights blew and he blacked out falling over and laying on the ground as he was sitting before hand.
"WHAT?!" Jeri shouts before falling towards Lori who quickly rolled out of the way letting her hit the carpet.
Lori took a look at the First and Jeri and sighed. "I will never understand people." Getting up and walking into the kitchen she grabbed two bottles of cold water and placed them beside the two unconscious people before gathering up her papers and taking them to her and Jeri's room and putting them in their rightful place.
It was 6:00 by the time the two woke up and it was already getting dark out because of the time change that accompanies winter. Unbeknownst to everyone, Lori was outside right now and sitting beside the water's edge basking in the blue glow of the moonlight as it was a full moon. After about thirty minutes everyone realized Lori was not in the house and rushed outside to find her, stopping when they saw her by the water's edge.
Listen to "Something Better ft. Lady Antebellum
The moon was radiant against her skin, causing an unnatural glow to her extremely pale skin. It was as if her skin was now the moon, shining ever so brightly. Her piercing blue eyes gazed up at the moon, the light reflecting in her eyes making her eyes give off a nice blue glow and her pale blonde hair shone a bluish color.
Everyone was shocked at seeing Lori this way, not only did she look like a goddess in the pale blue moonlight to a select few, but she had a smile adorning her ruby lips. Not a smirk or a twitch of the lips but a real smile of peace and joy. Her slightly glowing pale blue eyes soft and sweet.
wiki/File:Night-blooming_
Jeri smiled softly snapping out of her trance as she walks over to her 'little sister' and sits near the water's edge as well.
Soon, one by one each of the men snapped out of their trances as well and sat nearest the two girls. Tobirama, Izuna, Madara and Hashirama sat closer to Lori while Itachi, Shisui, Butsuma, Tajima and Kagami sat closer to Jeri. Everyone stared up at the glowing fullmoon.
"It really is beautiful… Isn't it?" Jeri commented to no one in particular. Shisui nodded in answer. "Yeah."
Hashirama nodded eagerly. "Yes, it casts a radiant glow such a beautiful gem in the night's sky!" At this he caught Lori's attention, staring at the man for a few moments before tilting her head down in a smile with her eyes closed.
"Why are you all out here?" Lori asked curiosity lacing her usually monotone voice. Madara looked at her. "You were not in the house." Lori felt something deep in her chest once those words were said. That unfamiliar warm feeling bubbled up in her chest as she felt her heart start to beat.
...What is this? This feeling in my chest...? Why would they look for me? Are those simple words what makes this feeling appear? Does this mean they…. Care?
"I know you may not be very friendly...that some things in your past may have made you the way you are now." Jeri voiced softly, turning her gaze from the moon to Lori who gazed back with… Curiosity and slight surprise in her eyes. "But I want you to know, that if there's ever anything you need to talk about, if you're scared, lonely, or sad… I'll be here. I want you to know that we care about you, I care." Jeri's voice was soft and filled with hope and Lori could see no lies in her eyes nor her voice. Jeri's voice was sincere. A pure smile of sisterly love graced her lips.
The glowing blonde stared at Jeri in disbelief before looking to the water of the pond. "Vielen Dank." Lori said in German with her thick German accent even though no one would be able to understand her. Maybe that was what she wanted.
She got several stares from the ninja and Jeri for that, everyone raised one eyebrow. "What did you say?" Kagami asked.
"I spoke in my native tongue, German. It's a different language than English."
Jeri nodded. "Yeah in our world, we have several languages, such as English, Chinese, Japanese, German, British, etc." All the ninja were quite surprised by this little fact.
"So what did you say exactly?" Butsuma asked Lori raising an eyebrow. Lori smirked in return.
"If you knew German, then you would know." Butsuma's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as Tajima smirked.
Sitting in a meditative position holding the Ram Sign with her eyes closed Lori focused on finding her 'Chakra'.
"She's going to practice gathering her chakra." Shisui pointed out as Jeri done the same as Lori but sat in front of her. They both stayed like that until it was 9:00 with no luck from either one. "You two need to get ready for bed. You have school tomorrow." Tajima reminded as he was made aware of the school schedule by Juliet who had made dinner.
"Thank you Tajima!" Jeri's voice rang as he dipped his head in welcome before walking into the house with both girl following closely behind him.
"We want to go to school with you." Hashirama says seriously looking into Jeri's disbelieving hazel eyes.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Lori responds looking at the Senju like he was an idiot. "You mean you really want to go to Hell?" Hashirama looked at Lori with a quizzical look.
"Hell?" Itama asked curiously. Lori forgot he was there he was just so quiet.
"Uh… yeah, School is basically Hell."
"Lori's right, school is Hell. You really don't want to go to school with us…" Jeri agreed not wanting Hashirama and the others to go to the same school for fear that people would recognize them.
We'd be the laughing stock of the whole school! Jeri thought worried while Lori didn't exactly know about the Ninja being from Naruto so she was lost.
"Please! I promise we will do whatever you say while at school, we will never leave your side, plllleeeassseee?" Hashirama begged Jeri who looked away.
"No." She answers sternly.
Hashirama then turned to Lori begging her to go to school. Lori however was very uncomfortable with being the source of someone's begging and sweat dropped looking to Jeri with a What the Fuck face. Jeri shook her head rapidly behind Hashirama.
Lori took in a deep breath. "Fine." Lori answered taking Jeri's shock as a chance to walk out of the house before she faced the older girl's wrath.
Jeri stood there in shock. That bitch. She sighed before looking to the ninja. Okay, fine. But if we don't want to draw a lot of attention they're going to have to use the Transformation Jutsu.
"Is there any way you guys can, make yourselves look like teens for those of you who aren't teens?"
Shisui nodded. "The Transformation Jutsu."
"Do it."
Within five minutes there were puffs of white smoke covering the living room. When it cleared it revealed a teenage looking Hashirama, Izuna, Tobirama, Madara, and Kagami. "Good. Now let's go."
They managed to get there like normal people right when the bell rang for the students to get into their classes. Lori was already sitting in the back, wireless headphones in her ears connected to her phone via Bluetooth. She noticed all the ninja save Tajima and Butsuma, who were back home with Itama, walk over with Jeri in front as they all took a seat around Lori and Jeri, even going so far as to grab other chairs from different tables as these were joined desks.
The song "World So Cold - 12 Stones" started to play in Lori's ears as she let her eyes drift closed and let her mind wander to the night before...
"I know you may not be very friendly...that some things in your past may have made you the way you are now." Jeri voiced softly, turning her gaze from the moon to Lori who gazed back with… Curiosity and slight surprise in her eyes. "But I want you to know, that if there's ever anything you need to talk about, if you're scared, lonely, or sad… I'll be here. I want you to know that we care about you, I care." Jeri's voice was soft and filled with hope and Lori could see no lies in her eyes nor her voice. Jeri's voice was sincere. A pure smile of sisterly love graced her lips.
Lori began to think to herself as that memory flashed behind her eyelids repeatedly. I don't get it. Why is she so nice to me? Is it because of pity? I don't need pity!
It wasn't until she was feeling a poking sensation on her shoulder did she open one pale blue eye to see it was Madara. "Do you have anyway to ignore these idiots?" He pointed towards Hashirama who was all around the room all happy go lucky. Lori paled before giving Madara her headphones and phone to listen to music of his choice after showing him how to use it.
Jeri saw what Madara had pointed at and screamed before grabbing Hashirama and dragging him back to the table by his ear. "Oww…" Hashirama grumbled rubbing his abused ear.
"Oh, hello~" Sang a sickly sweet voice. Lori rolled her eyes muttering something along the lines of "Not this shit again" under her breath before a certain girl with curled caramel hair and slightly tan skin wearing a very low cut teal top that showed a lot of cleavage, designer skinny jeans and black bobs. To top it all off, she was wearing icy blue eyeshadow the color of Lori's eyes, and instead of her normal topaz eyes, she had icy blue contacts in the color of a wolf's, like Lori's normal eye color.
She draped her arms around Lori's shoulders, bringing her lips close to Lori's ear to whisper a threat in her ears.
The guys could see Lori's fighting clock about to ring as her left eye twitched profusely. "Aww, Jeri-sweetie! It's nice to see you again, could you please tell this sweet, girl to get out of my seat?"
Lori gave a heavy sigh as she slowly started to stand up from her chair, it squeaked as it's legs dragged along the floor. Jeri frowned almost growling at being called that ridiculous pet name. "Thank you sweetie-" Suddenly Lori's usual icy calm persona slipped into that of a raging snowstorm as she looks carelessly at the girl who was obviously trying to steal her style. Lori's pale blue eyes were no longer emotionless, they were now glowing with warning and a calm rage.
The girl before the ninja, Jeri and Lori was frozen in place as a cold chill ran down her spine from the look in the blonde's eyes.
"Did I not warn you of the consequences should you threaten me again? Not only that but you threaten Jeri as well… If you want to fight, then by all means throw the first punch, because it will be your last."
Before the primadonna could get a word in edgewise Lori continued. "And stop with the ridiculous pet names, Primadonna-sweetie while you're at it."
Lori's voice was that of ice cold and burning if you touch it, but her voice held an unfamiliar emotion edged to it that she wasn't used to feeling for other people, it was anger. Why the Hell am I angry at this girl calling Jeri a pet name?
Lori's cold stare chilled the girl in front of her to the bone as the girl's head bowed slightly in defeat before walking back to the front of the class without a fuss.
Lori sat back down in her seat closing her eyes not quite understanding what she was feeling or why and was growing frustrated with herself. Jeri reached over meaning to pet the top of Lori's head in a soothing motion. Lori's eyes snapped open as she grabbed Jeri's wrist tightly in one hand before putting two and two together and seeing that Lori was just going to pet her head. Lori released Jeri's wrist tilting her head forward slightly, allowing Jeri to do as she wished which made the burgundy haired girl smile in glee at Lori beginning to trust her.
Feeling Jeri's hand rubbing her scalp through her hair was quite relaxing and it felt good, she could feel the circulation of the blood flow throughout her scalp. She let her eyes close for a brief moment before falling asleep she heard two words from Jeri….
"Thank you…"
AU: Izuna and Tobirama only fought because they HATE EACH OTHER'S GUTS! I mean they will find anything to fight each other about, after all they did try to kill each other with Tobirama finally killing Izuna in the anime.
So we can see that Lori is beginning to trust Jeri some. At least enough to let her pet her head and lull her to sleep. What do you guys thing Lori looking so beautiful during the night time more specifically in the moonlight was about? Will Lori ever fully open up and what do you think is going to happen next? Who will be with who? And yes, Lori does have a bad habit.
Please Read and Review! Constructive Criticism welcome!
Questions:
Q1: What did you guys like most in this chapter?
Q2: What were some of the cutest parts?
Q3: Fanservice!
Q4: In case you are wondering, a Night-blooming Cereus looks like this:
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