Warning: Fear not, this fic has no spoilers and is rated T for suspense and mature themes. However, it is a character drama, thus younger readers and the action-oriented will likely find it a bit boring.
Author's Note: This fanfic is set sometime between the Invasion of Konoha and Sasuke Retrieval story arcs.
Disclaimer: Obviously I am not Kishimoto-san, and alas, I do not have permission to write this. I would be grateful if you didn't press charges. Thank you.
Distracting and a Great Bother
(part two)
The apology did nothing. In fact, it seemed to make things worse. I felt my hands begin to tremble as we faced each other down once more. The evening breeze brushed across us, chilling my flushed and damp skin. I was too terrified to blink. Pretending to not be afraid won't save me this time.
"Please, Ai-kun. Let me help you."
He set the gourd down in the shallow water in front of him, only his arm and shoulder moving.
"My offer still holds..." My voice dwindled to barely more than a whisper. Standing there without fleeing, facing that glare like burning ice, was one of the most difficult things I had ever forced myself to endure. I almost forgot to breathe. With slowly dawning clarity, I knew. The beast is testing me. I had crossed some sort of line, and now Ai-kun was waiting.
My taut body gave a small tremble with each desperate heartbeat while my mind searched frantically for an answer. I'll...I'll prove my sincerity. I took a single step back, turned slightly, and gestured with my arm to indicate the way. "My house is a short distance beyond those trees. Can you walk that far?" It was a miracle that my voice didn't crack.
Only his eyes moved, flicking from me, to the trees, and returning to me again.
As a small sign of trust, I forced myself to break our stare, but I couldn't bear to do more than let my gaze leave his face to drift down his torso. I can't make myself vulnerable by turning away, not when he's so enraged. I might get a thrill from baiting him, but even I know when it's too much! I compromised by focusing on his hands where they rested upon the gourd.
When he realized my line of sight, his grip tightened. His pale skin seemed to glow within the sunset's increasingly bloody light. I slowly lifted my gaze to meet his eyes once more. My breath caught in my throat as I realized what I was seeing in his tense form. I could not tell the cause--be it exhaustion, stress, or fury. In fact I could barely see it, but it was there...the faintest, almost invisible sign of vulnerability. He's trembling.
His eyes narrowed, and the sight made my blood run cold.
He knows I've seen it--a sign of weakness.
In one quick motion, he lifted his hands from the gourd and touched them together to form a strange shape. In the instant that his lips parted, I knew I was about to fail. I had apologized for my terrified leap away and then confirmed my good intentions...but if he could not accept either, then he truly was still a child. Fine.
He took a breath.
"Hurry up, Ai-kun! I can't wait all night!"
He actually jolted.
I smartly turned to walk a few steps towards shore, then paused to look back over my shoulder. His face seemed strangely blank. "Come on, I don't bite. I promise."
His hands fell apart and settled on top of his gourd. He seemed a bit taken aback--I chose to accept it as an encouraging sign. Surprise was much better than anger!
I waved one hand at the gourd. "You're obviously weak, so I don't think you can make it to my house while carrying that heavy thing." Oh, he definitely twitched at that! "You can leave it on the riverbank, it will be perfectly safe up out of the water."
The hint of surprise vanished from his face to be replaced with blatant petulance.
I raised one eyebrow. "All right, then. I'll carry it for you." Without waiting for his response, I marched straight to him, my feet splashing in the water. I stopped close enough to touch him and held out both of my hands. This close, I could feel his body heat piercing through the evening air. For one breathless moment under the insulted flame of that glare, I expected him to finally strike. But at last, very reluctantly, he lifted the gourd from the water.
I grasped the gourd's belt, feeling a guilty thrill as my fingertips brushed his hands. I quashed it flat. I am not baiting him again; I am only helping a child in need! Ai-kun's white rage had faded into something less intimidating, but I could not let myself be distracted from the precariousness of my situation--however horribly erotic I might find the warm touch of his skin against mine. Yes, you're only helping. Of course that's all! Anyone would have noticed his smooth skin and body heat. And apparently terror intensified my inner sarcasm.
His eyes sharpened.
I willed away the blush I could feel burning across my face. If he sees it, he'll likely think it's from the sunset. Yes, the sunset! The obvious reason for any aroused woman's face to be red! I mentally cursed. I knew I was losing my nerve. Gathering the remnants, I stared back in what I hoped was a perfect imitation of my mother's best no-nonsense glare. "Do you want my help or not?"
Finally, hesitantly, his hands fell away and left all the gourd's weight to me. I gasped and staggered around, quickly shifting my grip to clutch the thing in a bear hug to my chest. The lower half was still wet from the river and quickly soaked my clothes. I caught my balance once I regained the sandbar, grateful that I had not slipped in my wet geta a second time.
I glanced at Ai-kun over my shoulder. "And you carry this monstrosity one-handed?!" Was that a smirk? But that did help explain all the muscle I remembered feeling when--stop it! "Let's go, shall we?" This time, my voice did crack.
I carefully began to walk up the sandbar, keeping my death-grip on the gourd. It was heavy, but now that I had it firmly in my grasp, I could manage. I heard him step out of the water behind me. My geta cheerfully crunched on the sand while I inwardly forbid myself to turn around and watch the water droplets trickle down his skin. At least I'm carrying this gourd instead of him. Definitely the safer option. Who knows what might happen if he were the one clamped to my breast?! I licked my lips and kept my pace slow, listening for his footsteps in the sand behind me. Even drenched, his zori sandals would make some sort of noise.
I paused when I realized I could not hear him. The carefree singing of toads and night insects surrounded me where I stood on the sandbar. I couldn't hear the smallest sign of his presence. Wait--he's a shinobi. Silent killers, remember? "Ai-kun?" I turned to check on him and froze.
He was standing close enough for me to count his eyelashes; the air sparkling around him. With a gust of wind the glitter suddenly shifted to encompass us both.
I watched Ai-kun with disbelief. His frame was completely still, only his damp clothes moved in the swirl. The shimmering ribbons of air danced, swooping and curling around us. Ai-kun's eyes bored into mine. I felt my own widen when the wind brushed against my face.
This glitter...it's sand! Sand moving in the air! And no naturally occurring whirlwind or breeze could make sand behave in such a manner. Which meant the myriad of particles and countless bits of rock were all being directed...by Ai-kun.
A single filament gently brushed my cheek in a caress as it flitted past. That soft touch was deliberate, evidence of his complete control of the swirling miasma in which I stood.
I felt a curl of lust amidst the renewed terror in my heart. I hugged his gourd even tighter against me. "Ai-kun, you should save your energy for the walk."
He turned his head very slightly, eyes still locked on mine.
The weight in my arms brought on a sudden epiphany. "Is that what's inside this heavy gourd? Sand?"
The swirl suddenly expanded away from us with a muted whoosh, then languidly moved in once more to twine and tease my moist skin.
"So you can use sand...even as a weapon." I processed that for a moment, thinking carefully. Somehow, he could manipulate sand without any visible effort, bend it to his will, and even have it defy gravity. I had his personal sand reservoir hugged to my breast, and this had all started when I found him lying on a sandbar. Which meant...he could have killed me whenever he chose.
The curl of lust inside me roared into a full-fledged beast of my own. The strength of it made me gasp.
His stance shifted--he had noticed my reaction.
A single bead of sweat trickled down my spine. I tried to shove the creature of desire that raged within me back into a safe corner of my mind, but it refused to obey. I swallowed and realized that a few grains of sand were stuck to my lips. I pressed them together and felt the harsh scrape of the sand between. The beast within me shivered and almost purred.
And before me Ai-kun stood, motionless while he held us both within his visual symphony of deadly power.
I willed my lips apart. "Point noted, Ai-kun."
The swirl around us dropped to the ground with a seductive hiss.
'Distracting and a great bother' doesn't begin to describe him.
I turned and resumed walking, my feet finding their own way back to the shore and along the path through the trees while my conscious mind wobbled about and tried to regain control. The only saving grace about your newfound lust is that you're attracted--however twisted it may be--to his lethal nature, and not to his being a child. You'd be in a real mess if he were ten years older. I almost tripped at the idea. My artistic nature immediately pounced, sculpting a taller, firmer, and incredibly luscious Ai-kun.
I felt my skin flush bright red. Think of something else, Minami--anything else! Distraction can be good! "Um...I really am an artist, you know. I paint wall scrolls and folding screens and the odd mural. You can find my work in several shops in the surrounding villages. When I can paint for myself, I like portraying animals in motion, particularly predators. Showing their power and action while not confusing the viewer is rather difficult to manage." I knew I was babbling, but I didn't dare stop. I took a desperate breath and continued, "But anyway, I even have a few regular customers! Of my most loyal is a scruffy older man badly in need of a haircut. I'm not sure I want to know what he does with them, but he has a fondness for my female nudes--"
I made a strangled noise and tried to cover it by coughing. "But he is helping pay off my house, so..." I gave a weak laugh and mentally throttled myself. "Speaking of my house, here we are."
I glanced over my shoulder to smile at Ai-kun. He wasn't there. "Ai-kun?" I peered back down the path and looked for him in the surrounding trees to no avail. I knew he had been following me only a moment before; I had felt his presence burning into my back every second of our short walk.
"Ai-kun!" I turned to face my house and blinked. He was...standing...on the underside of my back porch's roof. Arms crossed, completely unmoving among my hanging potted plants, he watched me approach.
With the advent of evening my porch light had automatically turned on, and now it shone around him, casting him into a nigh impregnable silhouette. I paused, not stepping up onto the porch. Here, with me still on the ground and him somehow standing upside-down on the roof, we were eye-to-eye.
I searched the blackness of his form and could discern the barest hint of his stoic and beautiful features. I knew my own face was easily visible, lit by what remained of the fading sunset and the porch light that framed A-kun. We watched each other in silence.
You are certainly a disturbing person, Ai-kun. But apparently, I rather like it that way. Yes...this could be very...interesting.
I gave him a genuine smile. "Won't you come inside?"
(completed 1-16-07, last tweaked 3-28-07)