Green Tea: Welcome to the fourth chapter of How To Smile! I don't really have much to say about this one. It was inspired by some lyrics by Elvis, as you can see from the title. Unfortunately, I can't post lyrics, so oh well. TT

Enjoy!

How to Smile

Chapter 4: Earth Angel

Spring bloomed to summer, and eventually summer relented to fall, the season of dried leaves, brisk breezes and crisp air.

Shino passed the year smoothly, like he would for any other year. Like always, nothing exciting happened. Nothing bad, nor anything good. Despite the discovery of Ayame, his life remained the same, more or less.

Ayame. He didn't see her often. Perhaps he'd take a walk with her, or talk with her maybe once a month, or at most once every two weeks. But he found that he didn't quite mind these little excursions and trips. He found it interesting to see how they could both exist in one reality, yet view the world in such a different way.

It was on such an excursion that he discovered something quite amazing and a little shocking about her... and himself.

"Shino-kun! You have today off, so please come with me to see something really cool!" Ayame begged, pouting childishly.

"What is it?" Shino asked.

"It's really, really, really cool! You have to see it!"

"What is it?"

Ayame huffed.
"I can't tell you! Pleaseeee? It's almost noon, so we have to go before it's gone!"

"Why don't you ask Hinata?"

"Because she's with her father, and she can't comeeee... Pleaseeee, Shino-kuuun?" She whined, looking extremely helpless.

Shino sighed and gave up.
"Ok."

The girl's eyes lit up happily. She beckoned for him to follow and sprinted off towards the forest.

"This is it!" Ayame proclaimed, stretching her skinny, pale arms out in front of her.

The two of them stood in a small, circular, forest clearing, surrounded by trees and carpeted by dried leaves of red and yellows. In the center stood a large, majestic willow tree.

Ayame ran over to willow tree, and pointed at a large patch light reflected onto it's worn, ancient bark.
"Look!"

Shino blinked.

Ayame rolled her eyes, like a teenager would when dealing with younger siblings.
"It's green!"

The patch of light was dyed a pretty, light green color because of the green leaves that filtered the light from above.

Shino blinked again.

"Argh! You're blind, aren't you? Come over here."

Ayame pulled the boy over to the willow tree, positioning him so that he stood right in the center of the patch of light.
"Do you see?"

Shino shook his head.

The girl rolled her eyes again.
"Ok, get out of the way, and lemme show you."

Ayame stood in front of the oak tree and stretched out her arms.
"Do you see?"

Ah, he saw it now.

The green leaves filtered the light in such a way, that it shined onto the tree and created a patch of light. At least, what seemed like just an ordinary patch of light...

But when one stood in front of the tree, in the middle, the light resembled large, leaf-green wings that protruded from one's back.

"Lookie! I'm an earth fairy!" Ayame giggled.

Shino took refuge from the sunlight under a shady oak nearby.

"I found this spot, about two years ago... when I was out here exploring... I was just taking a short lunch break when I noticed this."

Shino nodded.
"You're rather observative."

The red-haired girl grinned cheekily.
"I am, aren't I? It's my favorite thing about myself!"

The Aburame nodded again.

Ayame continued, unaware that she was slowly loosing his attention.
"Anyways, this little thing happens twice a year. Once on March eleventh, and once on September tenth, from twelve o'clock to two o'clock in the afternoon... I wonder what day it would shine on if it was a leap year..."

The red-haired girl pondered this for a while and gave up, shaking her head.
"I'm no good at arithmatics... Anyways, Mama and Papa are on their anniversary date today, so I get to roam the woods today!"

Shino pushed up his glasses, not used to being subject to so much sunlight.

"Did Hinata come here before?" He asked.

"Yep! I brought her here last year! She was helping me pick wild strawberries."

The two basked for a moment in the peaceful, comtemplative silence. Ayame picked up a dried acorn and toyed with the fragile cap.
"Anyways, Shino-kun, what are your parents like? I never met them before. At least, I don't think."

Shino didn't exactly know what to say.
"They're much like Hinata's parents."

She dropped the acorn and picked up another.
"You mean her dad?"

"Mn."

"Well, they can't be JUST like Hinata's dad, tell me more!"

"They're not like your parents... at all."

She just stared at him.
"What do you mean?"

Shino racked his brain for a way to explain it.
"They're not... very... sociable... to anyone... not even each other."

Ayame laughed.
"I'm sure they love each other anyways!"

The boy shook his head.
"Aburames don't generally marry for emotion, or love, or whatever you call it. It's basically arranged. There's no choice, but not that anyone minds, really."

The acorns fell to the ground suddenly.
"Marriage without love!"

The Aburame turned and looked at Ayame, stunned.

A mask of grief and pain fixed itself over her face, contrasting horribly with her normal, happy expression.

"That's... that's... Terrible!" With that, the girl began to weep.

Shino was stunned. Why would she cry for someone she didn't even know?

"I... I can't... imagine... ever doing something like that. It must be so horrible... So horrible... So scary... So... lonely..."

For some reason, seeing her like this... made him uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.
She had to smile, she should always have a smile on her face. Otherwise, it felt like the world would end...

He adverted his gaze onto a spot above her shoulder.
"Don't cry. It's not that bad... Many people can marry without love. They do it all the time. It's not that uncommon."

To his slight relief, the girl stopped crying, but still looked very troubled.

"But... then... they must be... so unhappy..."
She chewed on the side of her lip.

"Not everyone will end up being happy in this world." Shino replied bluntly.

This seemed to stun her for a moment, and she stood there in thought, light green wings still "protruding" from her back.

At last, she spoke.
"Mama told me about that once... that there are people out there, who don't know how to smile... that have forgotten to smile... that never learned how to smile..."

Ayame turned and looked back at the large willow tree, eyes glazed over in thought.
"Do you know why Mama and Papa have the exact same smile?"

The boy said no, and asked why.

"It's because Mama was the one that taught Papa how to smile."
With this, Ayame's face recovered back into it's normal, peaceful expression.

Shino felt the clench in his chest relax, allowing him to breathe freely.

"Papa told me once, that a long time ago, he didn't smile. But everything changed for the better after he met Mama... I bet it's like being... being freed, like that. It must be a wonderful thing. A great thing."

Ayame turned around and looked up at the sky, her hands cupped gently, as though she were trying to grasp the sunshine.
"I may not be a ninja, or a genius in anything, but that doesn't mean that I can't do great things. There are people that disagree with me... But I believe that the greatest thing that a person can do..."

She turned her head to face Shino.
"Is to teach someone how to smile."

Ayame smiled peacefully, calmly, like she was reliving a innocent memory from her past. "That's my goal in life."

For a second, even through his tinted glasses, Shino didn't see just a plain, red-haired girl, trying to play make-believe with a patch of sunlight.

He saw an angel.

An angel with light green wings, beckoning him.
An angel with the kindest smile in existance.
An Earth Angel.

"Shino-kun?"
Her voice jerked him out of his thoughts, back to reality.
"I want to go find some wild berries... Want to come? You don't have anything else to do, right?"

"Mn."

As he followed her through the forest, he remembered something. He didn't know how to smile either.

Green Tea: Love it? Hate it? Please tell me in a review!