Apologies for the delay in writing this story. Life has been traumatic of late (more details in my profile), but I promise that I will be finishing this and all other stories that I'm writing. Thank you for your patience!

Rain

By kmf

Chapter Three

Chidori lay on her back on the bed, her eyes staring upwards at the ceiling and her arms sprawled wide across the duvet cover. She had been staring at the ceiling ever since she had escaped Souske's unwelcome interrogation, blinking only when her eyes became painfully dry, focusing on a small hairline crack that ran the length of the room.

She had heard him pace around her apartment, his footsteps halting outside her door. She knew him well. He would check and then recheck for any threats to her safety, but he would not enter her room unless she called for him or he heard sounds which indicated that she was in danger.

There were no sounds apart from that of rain hitting her window with rhythmic hatefulness. The only dangers to Chidori at the moment were her ever present memories which became painfully focused and clear on days such as these.

Souske moved away from her door and she closed her eyes briefly. He must have been satisfied that she had fallen asleep. How she wished that this was true. To sleep away a day such as this would be wonderful. She opened her eyes, focusing again on the crack. On days such as these her body wouldn't grant her the release of sleep no matter how tired she felt. It was almost as if the weather triggered in her the feeling of having drunk too many cups of strong coffee; her mind would spin unfocused on anything and then lock on to her panicked thoughts of being alone

She bit her lip as the fear created a physical reaction, a spike of adrenalin in her chest, and she rolled onto her side. Pulling her legs ups she hunched into a fetal position, rocking slightly as she tried to will herself into calmness.

Souske's voice floated across the room to her, muted by the door, his words unintelligible. His tone was stern and she knew instinctively that he was questioning someone about her. An odd anger welled up inside her chest. What gave him the right to be concerned? He didn't care for her; she was a mission nothing more. Chidori clenched her fists, her nails cutting into her palms with her rage, before she tried to breathe away her anger. Her mood swings were unsettling, exhausting and unwelcome. She wished she could just sleep. She wished she could just forget.

And how she wished the rain would end

Frowning, she listened to a clicking noise; Souske was now on his computer. Most likely he was sending messages to his soldier buddies. With them he kept in constant communication, telling them his whereabouts, his agenda, a wealth of information he failed to share with her.

Chidori rolled onto her front and grabbed one of her pillows, dragging it towards her before burying her face in it and screaming loudly, her rage momentarily overwhelming her.

Instantly her door flew open and Souske was there, his gun out held with both hands, arms straight, systematically pointing it swiftly towards each corner of her room, his eyes darting from her to the window, around the room then back to her again. Frowning, he lowered his weapon, expertly clicking the safety on before taking a step towards her.

"Chidori?"

She glanced at him, then at the door which had twisted slightly with the blow it had received, its shiny white paint visibly cracked. Souske followed her glance and winced at the damage he had done, before holstering his gun and turning back to her. His jaw tightened as if he expected a verbal and physical confrontation over the damage he had caused to her home.

Chidori, her rage evaporating with her scream, didn't have the energy for it. Instead, she again lowered her head to her pillow and murmured,

"Get out, Souske," her eyes closing as once again she wished the day would end.

xxx

Souske blinked hard as he watched Chidori almost melt into the pillow she held and order him to leave the room. A whispered order when normally she would, given the damage he had caused to her door, fly at him with a raised voice, or even raised fists, berating him for his stupidity.

This meek, sad creature was not the Chidori he knew and admired. The Chidori he knew would not pass up the opportunity to let him know how idiotic he was, pushing him determinedly towards a pattern of acceptable behavior. She cared enough for him that when he made mistakes she would forcefully correct them.

Souske frowned. He wanted the real Chidori back and by God he was going to have her back now.

Striding forward he pulled the pillow out of her grasp, ignoring the 'oomph' sound she made as her face hit her mattress. She raised her head, glaring at him. Satisfied he had her attention he turned to the curtain covering the window and pulled back the fabric allowing the baleful misty light to enter her room.

"…don't," Chidori sat up on her bed, her arm outstretched towards him, or the window, or the curtain; of which he was unsure.

"What is it, Chidori?" Souske demanded, his arms crossed. "Tell me what is wrong."

She got to her feet, her face pale and lowered, her hair falling forward to hide it from his view. She moved towards the door, but Souske was not finished with her yet. He intercepted her, his hand grabbing her arm, spinning her around to face the window again. He watched with detachment as her hair fanned out with the speed of her movement before setting once again around her shoulders.

Chidori stared at his hand on her arm, her face darkening, her eyes beginning to sparkle with the feisty anger he knew and missed. And then her eyes darted towards the wet window pane and the sparkle died.

Souske's eyes narrowed. He continued with his attack.

"What is R.A.I.N, Chidori?" he asked in his best interrogators' voice, emotionless and quiet. He noted the way her breath hitched, how her fists clenched then unclenched, how her teeth caught her bottom lip.

Souske had no interrogators' chair, no bright light to dazzle and confuse, but he did have a bed and shoving Chidori towards it, he intended to use it. She moved back unsteadily until the backs of her knees caught its edge and she sat down heavily.

"What the hell?" she looked up at Souske who stood in front of her.

"You will tell me the facts, Chidori", he demanded, "What is R.A.I.N? Why does this organization affect you? Are they blackmailing you? Are you working for them?"

He said anything that came to mind, anything that would spark the emotion back into her eyes.

Chidori blinked and shook her head in confusion.

"What on earth are you talking about, Souske?"

Souske leaned forward, placing a hand on either side of her as he bent down, his face mere inches from hers. It was a classic interrogators' move, designed to intimidate the suspect; not many people tolerated their personal space being broached. Except, this time it was him that felt rather odd and unsteady as his fingers gripped the still warm sheets and Chidori's scent tickled his nose.

"Tell me!" he grated out, trying to get his mind back on his mission.

It seemed that it was beginning to work. Chidori glared up at him, pushing her face closer to his.

"Tell you?" she scoffed, "Why should I tell you anything!"

Souske fought his instinct to retreat a few paces and held his ground.

"Because I am here to protect you! Because you are my -"

"Your mission," she interrupted him, all but snarling.

He blinked, encouraged by her anger, but confused by her statement.

"My friend," he continued.

She shoved him then, hard in his solar plexus with the heel of her palm and as he fell to his knees momentarily winded he felt an odd pride that she had used a self defense move on him that he had shown her. Her knee lifting to catch his chin ended that thought; instead he kicked into soldier mode, ignoring the pain as he grabbed hold of her waist as she moved to get past him. Twisting, he tackled her to the floor, his upper body lying over her hips and legs pinning her down as she squirmed and shrieked at him in rage, her hands slapping at his head and shoulders in an effort to get away.

"Friend? Friend!" she hissed. "Friends don't just disappear without a word. Friends don't promise to be there to protect someone and then abandon them to be stalked! Friends don't allow their friends to be atta-"

Abruptly she broke off, shuddering a little. Her hands stopped beating against him, and he raised a slightly battered head to see that they had traveled to her eyes and she was wiping back tears that were overflowing and trailing down her cheeks.

Souske blinked again. His mission appeared to have worked a little too well. He had wanted her to display emotion again, but not this kind of emotion. Anger he was comfortable with, he had navigated it with Chidori many times. Sadness was an altogether different thing. It left him feeling uneasy and unsure and a soldier being uncertain in a combat situation was certain to get into trouble.

Lifting up on his elbows, he frowned down at her as she continued to weep. Souske's mission parameters went foggy as she sniffed, and when she started to sob and wipe at her mouth they disappeared. Reaching out, he pulled her to his chest, holding her tight as she continued to cry, her fingers grasping his white shirt, crumbling the material. He lifted one hand, hesitated, and then tentatively allowed his fingertips to touch her hair. When Chidori showed no signs of objecting, he began to run his fingers through her hair in what he hoped was a calming gesture. In his experience, just such an action would calm a jittery horse; he just hoped it worked on humans as well as it did on equines.

As he stroked her hair, Souske revised what he had learned through the failed interrogation. Chidori said she had been abandoned and left to be stalked. He winced. Technically, he hadn't abandoned her. Technically, his mission had been declared over and he had been reassigned. He hadn't liked his orders, in fact his gut still knotted at the memory of the moment when he had read them. He frowned, looking at the still crying Chidori. It seemed that her gut too knotted at the memory of his departure.

But not just that. It could not be that she was this upset at him leaving. Something else had happened whilst he was not there to protect her.

"Chidori…" he began, his voice strangely quiet to his ears, "Tell me what happened to you when I was gone."

She pushed away from him slightly, her eyes red and slightly puffy from her tears. Her hand lifted to her mouth once more, and wiped it as if something was on her mouth that she did not care for.

Souske froze at the gesture.

Stalked.

She had been stalked and something had happened. Something that made her physically ill at times. And he hadn't been there to prevent it.

Souske wasn't stupid. He had been in wars, he had seen the ways that women had been tortured for information, for revenge or just for fun. He lifted a hand to her face, and was shocked to see that his fingers trembled. Lifting her chin, he forced her to look directly at him.

"Chidori.." he swallowed before asking, "Did someone hurt you?"