Final chapter, I think.

Thanks for following along! I most likely won't be writing much soon, since I'll be going back to school. *sigh* That college life...

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Because I was eating them out of business, I was required to do more than sleep and eat while I imposed.

I was still pretty useless; if I wasn't fighting or on some sort of mission, I was either womanizing, eating, sleeping, or working out.

Well, okay. I liked to think I was a stud, but really, the womanizing stopped after Hinata. Working out stopped after I lost her. So, I was just down to eating and sleeping for now.

I just ran errands for Tamaki. I would help her around the store when customers came in, and I would also go out of town to pick special herbs and buy medicines. She liked having me around; besides having someone to talk to, it was much easier for me to pick herbs. She just showed me what she wanted, I would get a good whiff of it, and then an hour or so later, I had a whole basket-full for her.

Whenever I went out to get her something specific, I made it my mission to bring her back something unexpected. I would place it on top of the herbs in the basket; sometimes, it was a nice, polished river rock. Other times, it was a rare flower I stumbled across. Once, I brought her a small bundle of wild mushrooms, which prune-lady used in some amazing stew. The little gifts made her smile. And that cheered me up.

Akamaru was recovering well; a little too slowly for my taste, but recovering nonetheless. In all honesty, I think he was purposely delaying his full-recovery; Tamaki had these treats with medicine baked in that he really liked, and he just couldn't get enough of them. Go figure.

Tamaki didn't want him moving around much either; one week passed by, then two. My mom stopped by a few times to check up on me, but in all honesty, I was perfectly comfortable. In the mornings, I would help open up the shop and make fresh medicine. During the day, I either helped Tamaki with customers or I went out to get supplies. After we closed for the day, Tamaki and I would help prune-lady make dinner, we'd eat, and the two of us would go out.

I took her snacking some nights; she really liked that. "I'm a picky eater." She admitted. At first, she didn't try a lot of things. So it was just me getting fatter. But, I managed to push her out of the comfort zone, either by forcing her, or daring her. Usually, the latter worked. She bit me on one occasion with the first option.

She didn't like persimmons. That was okay; I didn't either. She liked squid though; that, I didn't like. Surprisingly, she liked red bean soup. My mom made it all the time, but it was strange considering she wasn't big on sweets.

I took her star-gazing one night, when the weather was good and it wasn't too cold.

That's the first time I really got to touch her. Like, really feel her against me.

It was on this big hill that I would go to play ball with all the neighborhood kids when I was young. It smelled like fresh grass and earth.

I laid my coat on the grass so she would be more comfortable. She blushed when I did that; she probably didn't think I noticed, since it was dark. But, I did. I picked up on the little things.

At first, we were an arms-width apart. Then, I rolled over on my side to face her, so that we were only a few inches apart. When she didn't complain, I reached out for her hand. She gave it to me.

When an evening breeze chilled her, she grabbed the front of my shirt and whined a little, so I snuggled in even closer until her frame was pressed against mine. I was warm; Inuzuka's ran a little hotter than everyone else.

It ended up with her watching the stars; I watched her instead.

When prune-lady was already asleep, Tamaki was more open and more adventurous. We went skinny-dipping in the pond behind her neighbor's house; of course, she didn't let me take any peeks at her. But, when she pulled her clothes back on afterwards and they clung to her wet skin, the shape of her body was more than clear to me.

She made me sugar cookies, too. Akamaru ate the icing and got a stomachache afterwards; Tamaki smacked him with the spoon, and I repeatedly told him how stupid he was. We were guests here; the longer we stayed, the longer we troubled them. We should've left a long time ago…

"He'll be at 100% tomorrow." She whispered to me.

We were drinking sake at her dinner table. We were quiet so we wouldn't wake up her grandmother.

I poured her another cup. "Then, we'll leave tomorrow."

"You're leaving?"

I wanted to say no. "We can't stay forever."

It didn't take us long to stop drinking out the cups and start passing the bottle back and forth.

She glared at me from the other side of the table. "I should give up on you."

Don't. Please don't. "Maybe," I laughed. "But, aren't I so damn entertaining?"

I grabbed a spoon from the counter and balanced it on my nose. She clapped at my performance. "Sure, sure. Whatever you say."

I woke up at five in the morning, on the floor of the kitchen.

Tamaki was asleep on the table, the bottle of empty sake still in her hand.

Shit, we reeked.

I threw her ungracefully over my shoulder, and slowly tredded up the stairs. She was a tiny thing, but she wouldn't untangle her arms from around my neck as I tried to put her in her bed.

"Friggen let go-" I mumbled as I tried yanking her off. Why wasn't she a kunoichi again? With strength like this… Christ… I pried her fingers loose, and she relaxed back into the pillows.

I stumbled back to my room, well, my room just for this one last night.

I woke up later than I expected.

Tamaki was already awake; I could hear her talking to customers downstairs. Akamaru jumped on the bed.

I was going to miss this place and the feeling of being welcomed.

Akamaru was going to miss Tamaki's food.

I changed into clean clothes: my clothes. Tamaki had washed them for me, so now they were clean and fresh and smelled like vanilla, too. I folded the clothes I had been borrowing and put them on the bed.

Her grandmother had breakfast set out for me; I gratefully, but sadly dug in. This, I would definitely miss. Instant food would never match this.

Tamaki had two boxes of food for me; one filled with treats, the other with whatever she had made when I was still asleep. It looked good. I just wondered if this would last us until the end of today. Maybe, she would let me work at the store when I wasn't on missions. It was a way to make some extra money and to see her…

I walked out into the store, and Tamaki was waving to yet another happy customer.

"Thanks."

She turned towards me. "You're welcome."

"Am I allowed to come back?"

She laughed and looked at prune-lady. "Is he?"

She smiled, "Don't ask me."

Tamaki winked. "Sure, you'll just have to start eating less."

I held up the lunch boxes. "You didn't have to do this."

"It's nothing, really. What would you do without me?" I flushed, and she just kept laughing.

I hadn't noticed her until she cleared her voice shyly.

Hinata.

Tamaki tensed up and glanced over at me. Even Akamaru was unnaturally still. But, the interesting thing was, I didn't feel anything. I didn't have the urge to turn tail and haul-ass out of there. There wasn't any pain, either. I didn't feel anything in particular.

"Hi, Kiba."

"Hi."

"Hi, how can I help you?" Tamaki asked. Hinata just came to pick up some fish food and a tank cleaner for Hanabi's new pet fish. I didn't understand the point of pet fish. You couldn't talk to them; you couldn't play around with them. They just swam around in that little, confined space. All they were good for was a hot meal.

When she left, she smiled at me slightly. "Bye. I'll see you around."

"Bye, Hinata."

When she had gone, Tamaki touched my shoulder gently. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I wasn't lying.

"You sure?"

I looked at her, grinning. "Trust me."

Oh, perhaps I should ask before I left.

"Prune-lady?"

She turned from the counter, and Tamaki punched me on the arm. "I told you not to call her that!"

I winced at the sore spot, but I kept going. "I want your permission for something."

Her grandmother looked at me. "Tamaki said you could visit whenever; there's no need to ask me."

I shook my head. "Oh, no. Not that."

I reached down and grabbed Tamaki's hand. "I want your permission to date your granddaughter." I added gently. Her face turned a beautiful shade of red.

Tamaki sounded like she was choking. Prune-lady just glanced back and forth at the two of us and shrugged. "Sure. As long as that's what she wants." She shuffled into the kitchen.

"Say yes." I pressured her.

Still turning several shades darker, she shook her head and tried to pull herself from my grasp. I clung to her still. "You're not ready."

Bullshit. "I'm ready." I assured her. "I told you I would ask you when you were my number one."

"Go away." She whispered.

"C'mere." I pressed my lips against her hair, to inhale that familiar scent.

She was shaking in my arms. "Say you'll have me." I begged.

"No."

I kissed her.

"No," She still said, struggling to pull her face away.

My lips met hers again. This time, she let me. "Yes?" I asked one last time.

"Okay. Yes."

One point for Kiba.

I kissed her hard.

When we finally broke away, she added slyly, "Don't think this means you can stay for dinner every night."

Damn. One point for Tamaki.