CHAPTER 3: AWKWARD MOMENTS

Tatsuki and Takeshi had already reached the 'dorms' as some of the adult shinobi called it. Basically it was just like a regular dormitory; except, like the rest of the village, they were out in the middle of nowhere.

Takeshi and Tatsuki had their rooms close to each other, just a few doors down. Takeshi and Nagasaki shared their room, but since Nagasaki was in the infirmary, Takashi had his room all to himself.

"Good night Tatsuki," Takeshi said waving his hand as he was about to enter his room.

"Um, Takeshi?" Tatsuki called shyly.

"Yah?"

"Do you think that we can talk for a while?" she asked.

Lights out isn't for another hour or two, thought Takeshi, "Sure, why not."

Tatsuki walked in his room and stared at the messy room "It's not always like this, we clean up every once in a while,"Takashi said. He went to his closet and began to take his armor off and place it in the special areas for each individual one.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked while taking his helmet off. Tatsuki took hers off too, relieved that her face could get some fresh air.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about this whole 'first kill' thing."

"What about it, are you still sick?" he asked with more concern than expected.

"No, no, it's nothing like that. My stomach feels just fine, it's my heart that feels bad," Tatsuki said sadly.

"What do you mean? Emotionally or physically?" he asked looking at her funny.

"Emotionally, it's just I've had all these thoughts rushing through my head all day. But just the fact that I killed someone keeps bothering me. I feel like I'm a monster!" she looked him with tears again like she had when she first killed the guard. She held her face in her hands and starting crying.

Takeshi sat down next to her on his bed and she leaned her head against him burying her face in his chest, soaking his white under shirt with her tears. He put his arms around her and slowly rocked from side to side.

"There now, it's okay. Let it out, just let it all out. There's no shame in crying." Takeshi tried to comfort her.

She looked up at his face and say that he had tears in his eyes too. "No, it's not okay," she said between sobs, "I killed that man, and he might have had family, a wife and children. I took those children's daddy away!"

"Tatsuki, don't forget, I killed a man too. I know how you feel. Actually," he laughed, "that was my tenth kill."

"I don't feel bad about what I did, I know he would have killed me too, it's just I realized something," her sobbing had stop, although she still had tears streaming down her face, she was still leaning against him affectionately. "I realized that at any of our missions we could die. Nagasaki, Kohaku –Sephou, me," she paused and then looked up at him, "I could've lost you."

This came as a shock to Takeshi, "Is that what this is about?" well that makes this a little awkward, Takeshi thought.

Tatsuki nodded her head, looking deeply into his eyes, "I don't want to lose you," she leaned in closer to Takeshi's face, "I can't live without you." Their lips met and they stayed like that, with their eyes closed for a while. Then they pulled back and looked at each other. They leaned again, this time kissing with their tongue. Tatsuki loved this and was disappointed when they stopped.

"I think we should do this more often," Tatsuki stated.

"Let's not make it a public habit though, people might think we're doing 'other things' when we're alone," he smiled at her as she giggled at that.

"Let them think what they want," she said as she leaned in again. Takeshi accepted her mouth with his as she put her right on his chest and her left hand on his cheek (face cheek you perves! Yah I know what you were thinking!). He responded by putting his hands on her waist and moving them to her hips. She leaned forward more and he leaned back to co-respond with her movements. Her other hand went down to his chest and she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back so that he was on top of her.

"So that's the way you like it, huh?" Takeshi had never been this close to anyone before; usually when girls would hit on him he would just say to them 'I don't have time incest', or if they were polite about it they would get, 'I think you should look for someone else, I can't make you happy. I'm sorry'. But he accepted Tatsuki.

"Mmm-hmm" she kissed him on the lips and looked in his black eyes that matched his hair. He put his face on her neck and started to nibble at it. She put one hand behind his head and the other on the back of his neck. Takeshi moved his hands from her hips and wrapped them around her back. Tatsuki closed her eyes and silently let out a gasp and then a sigh.

After about two minutes, Takeshi thought, all right that's enough for tonight; he got up off of her, clearly to her disapproval.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm hungry, aren't you?"

Tatsuki was a little hungry and she felt that he didn't want to go too far and respected that. "I am actually, but do you think the kitchen is still open?"

"Let's go find out," he stood her up and walked with her out the door. "Umm, Takeshi, you might want to go change"

He looked down at say that he was still in his breeches and his white T-shirt. "Holy crap!" he ran inside and began to change.

"I'm gonna go change in my room too okay?" Tatsuki was still in her armor.

"All right, I'll wait for you outside your room," Takeshi said from inside the room.

"Okay," Tatsuki started to walk back to her room and say that her room mate, Keiko, was in there.

"Hi Keiko," Tatsuki greeted, beginning to take her armor off.

"Hey, I saw you come in earlier, what took you so long to get here?" Keiko asked getting suspicious.

"Oh, well…" Tatsuki couldn't think of an excuse fast enough.

"And what are those on your neck!" she gasped and then she grinned an evil grin and said, "You were with Takeshi, weren't you?" when Tatsuki did nothing but put her hand over Takeshi's passion marks that she had forgotten about, Keiko squealed in her shrill voice and said, "All right, tell me everything."

"I can't he's waiting for me outside." Tatsuki was thankful he was.

"Okay, but you better not forget to tell me," she warned

Tatsuki changed into her pajamas pants and a long shirt, lights out was in one hour but still.

"I'll be back in a bit Keiko," Tatsuki said as she was leaving.

"You'd better, because if you're not I'll 'remove' something of Takeshi's personally," this was no joke.

"Sorry that took so long," she said to Takeshi as she met him outside.

"It wasn't a long wait," Takeshi assured her.

"I think the Kitchens about to close in half an hour so we can't linger because I'm really hungry," Takeshi said and his stomach protested to the fact that it still wasn't being feed with a loud rumble that turned a few heads.

"Me too," they walked together, and as they walked Takeshi slid his hand into hers and interlaced their fingers. Tatsuki blushed and looked at him. He looked calm as ever while inside, hidden from her, he was a nervous wreck.

(a few minutes later at the cafeteria)

They had gotten one big platter of food instead of two separate dishes, and Tatsuki had taken to feeding him with a fork. She wasn't really all that hungry but still ate some.

"This is really good," Takeshi said through a mouthful of food.

"Takeshi?" Tatsuki said playfully.

Takeshi swallowed and turned his head to her. The moment his head turned she pressed her mouth against his and started to lick some of the food off his teeth. He jabbed at a hand that reached for a piece of meat, and then went back to enjoying Tatsuki's tongue in his mouth.