Occasionally

Although this one is more of a one shot, I decided to put it here anyway. I hope you guys like it. :)

Title: Deserted
Genre: More fluff :D
Word count: 1362
Summary: "I hate you, you're deserting me."
Notes: Written in response to a one shot challenge on the seedfictest community on Livejournal. I hope you'll enjoy it and don't hesitate to leave a review and let me know what you think!

"You're still leaving?"

"Yup."

"You can't be serious."

"On the contrary, I'm very serious."

"..."

Shiho zipped her duffle bag closed and looked up just in time to see Yzak glaring rather furiously at her. It was the kind of glare that would have scared the life out of her back when she was fresh out of the academy but as years passed she had more or less gotten used to Yzak glaring at someone at least once a day. It was a part of what Yzak was, his day wouldn't be complete without at least attempting to make someone bow down to him in fear of his anger.

His constant glaring at her, however, was not effective today.

"It's not working, so stop pretending to be mad at me," she said casually and stood up to face him.

Upon hearing her words Yzak's face turned completely red.

"Who says I'm pretending?" he hissed with clenched fists and looking like steam would come out from his ears any moment. "And that's not the point, the point is that you're leaving!"

He pointed accusingly at Shiho with a shaking finger. In return Shiho just raised an eyebrow slightly and looked at him strangely.

"You're overreacting," she told him.

"I am not!" Yzak snapped. "You're going to just leave me here to take of everything, how am I not overreacting!"

"I don't know, maybe you could say it's okay and try like any other normal person would?" Shiho retorted sarcastically, her patience with Yzak starting to run out. "Just for once you could try adapting to me and my wishes!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!"

Shiho rolled her eyes.

"God knows you're not the easiest person to live with, Yzak! You're too high strung for your own good and I'm surprised your head hasn't blown off yet with the way you keep getting so angry over everything!"

"Where do you come off telling me that I'm not easy!" Yzak yelled back. "I'm not the one who's going away, you are!"

"And how many times have you gone away and left me all by myself?" Shiho asked hotly, crossing her arms. "Did you see me throwing a big tantrum like you are?"

Yzak stared at her blankly, suddenly at a complete loss for words. The irritation in Shiho's face slowly disappeared and instead her lips curved up in a smug smile. However, this in turn only infuriated Yzak more and the thought of her outsmarting him in the verbal battle was not exactly appealing.

"That was... different!" he hissed, reaching out and grabbing her arms almost aggressively. "It's not even comparable to this!"

"Oh, really? What the big difference then?"

"It's..." Yzak started, expecting the words to roll of his tongue but when none came he stood there completely frozen.

Frantically searching his mind for a reasonable rebuttal, the smugness that Shiho displayed was starting to become more and more aggravating. His hold on her arms tightened and when her smile did not disappear he was fully convinced that she was just standing there and enjoying him trying to dig himself out of this hole.

The smile on her lips was becoming very irritating.

For a moment, all that he could think about was that he had to get that smile off her lips.

Leaning forwards, he captured her mouth in a kiss. He felt her shudder as her lips opened up for him and did not miss the rush of warmth he felt somewhere between his heart and stomach. His right hand moved from her arm to the small of her back, pressing her closer to him as he deepened the kiss.

Forever always felt like a wonderful thing when he was with her.

But unfortunately they did not have forever, as proved by the sound of a loud car honk interrupted their moment. Yzak groaned in frustration as they pulled away from each other and looking at Shiho he saw that she was looking less than happy as well.

The honking had come from a cab was outside with a driver waiting to take her to the shuttle port. From there she would go to September Three and take part of that damn conference that would keep her away from him an entire week. Without a word she grabbed her duffle bag and headed towards the front door and he followed her outside silently.

As the cab driver put her bag in the car trunk, Yzak seized his chance and suddenly pulled Shiho into an embrace. His arms closed around her, preventing her from getting away. Not that he needed to, she relaxed into his arms and soon he felt her head rest comfortably against his shoulder. The way they stood, as close as they could get, was the way Yzak could stand forever and not mind. He felt right when he held her in his arms.

"I hate you, you're deserting me," he whispered in her hair.

Despite the harshness of his words, the tone of his voice was completely different and said so much more. Shiho knew this and smiled to herself.

"You'll be fine. Don't forget to talk a lot, she loves hearing your voice."

He mumbled a yes and with that she drew away from his embrace. But there was a smile on her lips and she touched his face affectionately before turning around and entering the cab. His hands automatically helped her close the car door and in the front seat the driver started the car, happy to finally be on his way. Yzak's eyes met Shiho's.

One shared look between the two of them was enough as a goodbye and said more than any words could.

The cab drove away and Yzak followed it with his eyes until the cab turned around a corner and disappeared out of sight. Only then did Yzak turn around and walk back into the house. He walked on with heavy footsteps and felt like just managing to get through the hallway was a great, unrivalled achievement. But somehow, as he reached the stairs the sense of heaviness started to fade away. By the time he was up on the second floor and his hand one of the doors he actually felt a bit of lightness in his heart.

Carefully pushing the door open so that it would not creak, Yzak quietly snuck into the dark room that nine months ago had been empty. But there, in the far right corner of the bright, small room, he found his light in the dark.

A pair of large, blue eyes peered up at him.

"You're awake already, Yelena?"

Reaching out, Yzak turned on the nearest lamp, spreading soft light over the room. Then he bent down and carefully picked up his daughter from the crib. She wasn't that heavy, but she was seemed so tiny, soft and frail in his arms that sometimes Yzak would become deathly afraid that he would accidentally hurt her whenever he was around. But Shiho was gone for a week now and it was up to him to take care of Yelena on his own, no matter how scary that thought was.

Still carrying her, he walked over to the other side of the room and stood before the bookshelf there. He scanned the titles, intending to find something to read to her.

"Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White... boring, boring, boring," Yzak murmured and then looked at Yelena. "We don't want to read about that girly stuff, do we? How about we pick something from daddy's bookshelf? I haven't started on Uses of fusion deuterium reactors yet, how about that one?"

Yzak swore that he saw his nine month old, baby daughter raising her eyebrow a little and give him a strange look.

"Sometimes I swear you take after your mother too much," he sighed and resumed his attempt to find a children's book.