Soft dark eyes.
It takes Rin several seconds to register that she is staring at a face and not a mask. And instead of analysing the obvious, that is, his explicit handsomeness, she is too preoccupied with deciphering his familiarity.
Do I know you?
Under her scrutiny, she surveys the heavy scarring that is palpable across his right side. It strangely lends a severe and dangerous look that oddly contrasts with the softness of his unscarred left side.
But then…
Those delicious soft looking lips that encompasses an infinite amount of alluring secrecy, she can practically taste him from just staring at them.
Petrified at the sudden thought that Tobi may be capable of reading her mind, she turns away in diffidence.
"You haven't properly answered my question, Rin."
His words crawl across her skin and leaves a prickly sensation behind.
She inhales deeply.
"You seem to make sense of it, so I don't need to repeat myself," she answers waveringly.
She averts her gaze to somewhere in front.
"I see," he replies fondly.
The corners of his mouth curves into a sultry smile.
She knows who he is thinking of.
"You seem to have concluded the answer and I am not denying it. Are you going to leave me be?" She asks coldly.
The scowl on her face catches Tobi's attention, so he uses the opportunity to satirically provoke her.
"Why? Do you really want me to?"
She forces her gaze on him and studies the uneven chakra that exudes from his eyes. The left is a transplant, and it is watching her with a cold, detached expression. But Tobi's original right eye speaks a convoluted mix of emotions. She cannot fathom them, but it is studying her with increasing potency.
"I do," she falters.
And he reads through her contradictory statement, because he lifts her chin so that their eyes deepen in gaze.
"What's wrong?" he asks softly, "Are you jealous?"
She swallows nervously.
Don't do this to me.
"Is-" she starts, but the rest of her sentence dissipates somewhere between her mind and her mouth.
She lowers her eyelids and awaits a clever response from him. But he never speaks.
When she turns to him, his dark gaze continues to linger ever so serenely. Then, as if her mind is in unseen world, she notices a flicker of livid rage fixed against his intrusive stare. When she blinks, the rancorous emotion is gone, perhaps a figment of her imagination.
For the first time since revealing his identity, she sees the true, vulnerable side that is struggling somewhere behind his watch.
Her features soften. She has the real Tobi before her - for now.
"Is that what you want?" She asks quietly.
Tobi's searching gaze remains on her for several seconds before he lets go.
The sudden surge in vulnerability is shadowed by a veil of forced composure, as if he is restraining himself from touching her. But his clenched fists are perhaps the only visible indicator of his agitation.
Rin's expression eases at this change in demeanour. She is not the only one who is afraid.
Hesitantly she reaches for his hand, unsure if she is going to make things worse by touching him. But he seems not to notice.
She lets him ruminate before taking his left gloved hand and sliding the material off. And as she attempts to repeat the action on his other side, his resistance is evident. For several seconds, he considers her, but then he turns away and allows her to continue.
"This is…why do you have the First Hokage's cells?" she asks suspiciously.
He glances warily at her.
She knows the Senju cells all too well. Her master has been working on them for as long as she can remember.
Curiosity inundates but she does not question Tobi's bizarre nature.
"It's okay," she says lightly, and she brings his left hand to her cheek.
The inviting warmth is instantaneous.
"Rin…"
Tobi's sentence trails into the coolness of the night. And then, he leans in. The exhilarating closeness of his entirety automatically pulls her forward until their lips brush ever so gently.
At first, their kiss is soft and tender. It temporarily carries them in a delicate moment of sentimentality, until a layer of feverish intensity overtakes and they are holding on with force and desperation.
But she feels the restraint because he is holding himself steady with severe unease.
So she gravitate towards him and avidly kisses him with unchanging force. In response, he presses her forwards until she is pinned to the ground.
Still he does not touch her, yet his body hovers hesitantly.
Desire is a perilous risk, particularly when she is gambling it away on an enemy she knows nothing about.
And as if switched to autopilot, her body arches in and presses itself against his upper torso.
Desire may occupy her heart, but her mind is incredibly wary of Tobi's sudden openness to intimacy. Though her composure remains exceptionally passive, Tobi is always attuned to his surroundings, or perhaps her.
He withdraws at the speculative expression on her face. But Rin does not let him analyse its meaning. She leans up to kiss him again, afraid he may break this moment in the midst of their hesitation.
Timidly, she slides her tongue into his mouth and lightly tastes the sweetness of his mysterious interior. As she halts in demure, he takes control and synchronises his movement with hers.
Momentarily lost in the enrapturing pleasure, she does not realise that Tobi is resting his hand on her abdomen.
His touch clouds her mind and saturates her body with insatiable fervor. Without a trace of hesitation, he surreptitiously runs his hand beneath her blouse and traces the outline of her breast. The action is startling, yet welcoming. And the unaccustomed feelings of excitement rises with the lingering warmth of his touch.
But her soft sigh is what abruptly ends the intimacy, as if the sound has shaken Tobi from a deep reverie.
He breaks from her with a blank, vacant-like expression.
And for several long seconds, Rin surveys him with increasing uncertainty.
She is acutely aware of the impending disappointment that is welling inside, but she forces herself to dismiss the painful circumstance of his actions.
When she catches his gaze, his eyes are bizarrely motionless, as if he is remaining indifferent whilst fighting back some other more austere emotions
"Tobi?" she says.
The glazed expression shatters and Tobi interlinks his gaze with hers.
"I need to take you back to the inn or you'll catch a cold," he answers.
She disregards his statement in a fit of short angry breaths. The hostility is flagrant across her face, and if there is one thing she hates more than his evasive behaviour, it is the impassivity towards their intimacy.
"Tobi, why are you doing this?" she says quietly.
"There is no way you're allowed to get sick," he says softly.
No! Don't you lie to me!
He does not give her time to speak. He grips her hand and then her entire world distorts.