Kankuro + Noro

Noro was slightly drunk and very high. Her band was playing in fifteen minutes, so she was occupying her time by giving a blow job to the hot bass player from the last band. She couldn't remember this guy's name, not even the name of his band. Ten minutes later, the guy came all over her face. She leaned back and swallowed the bit that was left in her mouth, and wiped her chin off with the back of her hand as best she could. She saw her drummer/roomate peer around the corner at her and he made a gesture indicating they had to take the stage. "I gotta go," Noro said to the guy.

"Noro, wait, where are you going?" Noro tried to walk straight, but she wasn't used to being this high, so she wobbled slightly. She wobbled as quick as she could, following her drummer, the guy she just blew was calling after her. What was his name? Did it start with a C? Noro heard the din of the crowd get a little louder as she followed her band mates onstage and she grabbed her guitar from a stage hand.

"Noro, are you okay?" The lead guitar and singer, Senji, asked her. He took one good look at her and saw that she was high as a kite. He wiped something off her face with his sleeve. "Plug in, Noro." Senji said. Noro nodded her head and it instantly cleared. All that mattered now was to show everyone how much all the other bands sucked in comparison to theirs.

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Noro's roommate/drummer walked home with her she passed out when she got onto her bed. Two days later the effects of her partying wore off and she started to feel normal again. She swore to never get that high ever. She had a shift that morning at the hospital, so she woke up at six thirty, took a shower and assessed how much her head hurt. It was the pits. She took some pain killers, wrapped up her long wet hair in a bun, and went to work. Noro was a doctor, but she didn't have much experience. She was more of the research type, but Sunagakure was short of doctors and research budgets were too tight. Noro hoped to be back in the lab in a few years, but for now she was stuck in the hospital.

"You look like hell," One of Noro's favourite nurses told her as she clocked in for her shift.

"Thanks." Noro replied scathingly.

"You've got a guy in the ER you need to see right away." The nurse said. "He's high profile, he's the brother of the Kazekage. He's hurt kind of bad, I think it would be good if you went to see him."

"Alright I'll go now." She walked down the hall with her buddy and he looked at her, worried.

"I think you need to rest when you get home, Noro. Were you partying all weekend?"

"No, just Friday night I played at the battle of the bands."

"And?"

"And I got a little carried away. Whatever, I'm fine now." He held open the door to the Er for her and she walked inside. The only patient in the ER was sitting up on his bed naked from the waist up. He had bandages on his back that were already bloodied. Noro walked around to introduce herself to him, but could barely manage the words as she recognized the bass player guy with the "c" name.

"Good morning, I'm Doctor Morimoto. How are you feeling?" She asked. The guy looked at her and the shock on his face melted into a wide smile.

"'Morning, Noro. Look at you, you're a full on doctor!" He smiled wider and looked her up and down, clearly impressed. "You clean up good."

"So we're not going to pretend that we don't know each other." Noro said. She dismissed her nurse friend and the two of them were left alone.

"Of course we know each other. I had no idea you could play, I thought you were one of my groupies. I didn't see you after your set, though, I wanted to tell you that you were great."

"Yeah, I know I was." The guy laughed but then it faded into a coughing fit. Noro saw him cough up blood into his fist.

"What happened to you? Lie down." He did as she told him to and she started feeling his chest to see what was wrong.

"I lost a fight, that's all."

"Were you crushed?"

"Yeah. I think so." Noro ran her fingers down his ribcage firmly and she saw his face screw up in pain.

"You've got three broken ribs and the rest are bruised." She at looked his face and smiled as she remembered how good-looking he was. She saw some dried blood around his nostrils. "Does your throat feel funny?"

"Yeah, like something's trickling down it."

"Good. I think the blood you coughed up was just a nose bleed going down your throat." Noro grabbed his chart at the end of the bed and signed off on it. She looked on the sheet for his name. "You're going to be fine, Kankuro. You'll need to take it easy so your ribs heal properly. I'll send someone in to redress your wounds."

"Thanks, Noro." Kankuro said.

"Don't mention it. See you around."

Much later in the day, Noro was in her office, researching idly when she heard someone knock on her door. She looked up and Kankuro was grinning in her door way.

"When do you get off?" He asked Noro. She looked at the clock. It was four, she was off at three.

"It seems like I'm never off." Noro closed the book she had in front of her and rubbed her eyes. "You feeling okay?" She asked him.

"Yeah, I'm great." She sat in her chair staring at him as he smiled back at her. "My sister and I are cooking tonight at our house. Do you like Italian? I'd really like for you to come. If you'd like to, I mean. Or we could go out for dinner, if you rather." Kankuro said. Noro took off her white lab coat and grabbed her bag.

"You had me at 'Italian.'" Noro said. She walked out with Kankuro, and he put his arm around her, as he told her all about his cooking prowess.

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It had been a whole year since Noro met Kankuro, and they had been together ever since their second meeting in the hospital. They were both party animals and rock stars at heart, but liked to live a normal life, too. They were a perfect fit for each other. Noro was sure she was in love. Although Noro had lots to do at the hospital, and Kankuro was always away, it's just like they say; absence makes the heart grow fonder. After not seeing each other for a week or two, they would keep either Kankuro's siblings or Noro's roommate up all night. Noro was a screamer and Kankuro wasn't much better. They worked hard during the week, played shows on the weekends, and had sex whenever they had the time. Lately Noro felt really strange. Her appetite was strange; she would either starve herself or overeat. She felt a weak nausea in the mornings until about noon when she felt dead tired. On her day off, she bought a couple at-home pregnancy tests and she urinated on all of them, each time hoping the next would give her the answer she wanted to see. After several attempts to disprove the truth, she left her apartment bewildered. This didn't make any sense. She took oral contraceptives every morning; it was completely impossible for her to get pregnant. She walked to Kankuro's house and walked inside with her own key.

"Hey!" Temari greeted her cheerfully. She had on a knowing smile, which bothered Noro. The two of them never got along very well, so this act of Temari's was suspicious indeed.

"Hello, Temari."

"Kankuro's in his workshop," She said with a grin. She came up to Noro and gave her a hug. Noro awkwardly patted Temari's back and waited for her to explain why she was squeezing her with her body. "I'm sorry, you know, I've never been very nice to you. I just thought, because my brother's such a pervert, that you were-you know."

"No, I don't know."

"Okay, I thought you were a slut."

"Excuse me?"

"But I'm sorry! I've gotten to know you so much better in the past few weeks from Kankuro. You're an amazing woman and I'm so glad that you're with my brother." Noro could not think of how to address this. She wanted to slap her, but she knew Temari was actually a shinobi and no matter how mad Noro was, she couldn't beat Temari under any circumstance. Noro just turned and walked downstairs even more confused than she was before she got there. She knocked loudly on Kankuro's door.

"Kankuro, It's me!" She yelled. He had loud music on, and there must have been a saw or a drill he was using. Then the buzzing stopped and the bass stopped strumming and Kankuro swung open the door.

"Hey beautiful, I was just going to come and get you. I thought you would still be sleeping off last night." He let her into his room and Noro plopped down on his familiar bed.

"Last night wasn't so bad."

"You got so tanked you tried to convince me you were a guy."

"Right, now I remember. That's why my ass kind of hurts."

"I want to take you out tonight."

"Kuro, I came over because I have something I need to tell you."

"Oh, well, can it wait until tonight?"

"I'd rather tell you now." Kankuro came and laid down on the bed, putting his head in her lap. She played with his hair gently.

"I love you, Noro." He mumbled.

"Kankuro, we're pregnant." Noro said. Kankuro sat up quickly.

"Are you serious?" He asked, grinning from ear to ear. Noro looked curiously at him, and cocked her head to the side. This was so not the reaction she had anticipated.

"Yes, I'm pregnant. I don't know how it happened, though." Noro frowned and Kankuro kissed her forehead.

"It usually happens when people have sex, baby, that's the whole point."

"Dumbass, I meant that I'm on the pill; I shouldn't get pregnant."

"Huh, well, that is weird. Are you-I mean, you're gonna keep it, right?"

"Yeah. You're gonna be with me, right?"

"Obviously, I'd never leave you. I love you."

"Love you too." Noro smiled at Kankuro. He lifted her dress up to stare at her stomach. He gently poked it around, but it just tickled and Noro squirmed. "Oh my gosh, so when I just came in, your sister was talking to me. She, like, hugged me. Like wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. I had no idea what to do. She's all like, making amends or something. It's as if she suddenly has a reason to like me. Do you know what's up with her?" Kankuro looked uncomfortable. He shook his head slowly.

"No, I have no idea what's up with her. Maybe we should avoid her for now." Kankuro suggested.

"Will you walk me to the hospital?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I think I have a hunch on what might have happened."

"Sure thing." The two of them slunk out of the house, careful to avoid Temari. When they got to the hospital, Kankuro took a nap on the couch in Noro's office as she pulled out her file. She wrote down every ingredient in her birth control pills and hit the books. Three weeks ago, Noro had been bitten by a snake while she was camping with Kankuro. She had to take anti-venom for it.

"What are you doing, Noro?" Kankuro woke up from his cat-nap, bleary eyed, about an hour after they got to the hospital.

"I cross-referenced all ingredients in my pills to see if any of them could be cancelled out by that anti-venom I had to take."

"There's no way that could happen."

"It must have. Look at this, the anti-venom had trace amounts of a compound that breaks down the key medicinal ingredient in my contraceptives. I should publish that..."

"You can publish later, let's go already."

"Where're we going?"

"Let's go hang out on my roof like we used to!" Kankuro brought Noro up to his roof and they picnicked together as they watched the sunset. "What do you want to name it?" Kankuro asked.

"Fuck that. I don't want to think about it yet. I'm worried about work." Noro said. Kankuro shrugged.

"People go on mat-leave all the time. It'll be fine." Kankuro looked at Noro seriously and she was a little freaked out. "You understand that now you have to move in with me." Noro laughed.

"Alright Alright fine. How long did that take?"

"I wanted you to move in eight months ago."

"Well, you finally got your wish." Kankuro pumped his fist up in the air in victory.

"You know Temari and Gaara will be too happy to help us."

"Yeah, of course. I'm sure Gaara is going to be great with kids." Kankuro bit his lip and stared at Noro. "What is it?" She asked him.

"Will you marry me?" He asked quietly. Noro frowned.

"No, if we're gonna get married it'll be because we want to, not because you feel guilty about this," Noro put her hand on her tummy. He took a small box out of his pocket.

"I've wanted to ask you for a while, that's why Temari was all weird, because she thinks you're gonna be her sister." Kankuro opened up the box and Noro instinctively reached for the ring. It was beautiful, and Kankuro slid it on her finger. "It was my mum's." He said. Noro smirked with satisfaction that she was the one to inherit the family heirloom. Not that bitch Temari.

"It's beautiful," Noro said apologetically, "But I don't think I can marry you." She took it off, but Kankuro took it and put it on her right hand. "Why?"

"I can survive your rejection as long as you promise that one day you will marry me."

"Look, Kankuro. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. But I don't want to marry you right now, when I'm pregnant and still kind of young. Let's get married when we're older."

"Well, I think that's bull shit, but whatever makes you happy." Kankuro pouted.

"It's too soon!" Noro said.

"We've been together an entire year!"

"I love you."

"I know." He said. He laid down and sighed. Noro laid down next to him and he cuddled up to her.

"Let's stay here tonight, I don't want to tell anyone until tomorrow."

"Sure." He held Noro closer and she tucked her head under his. "I love you Noro. You know I'd do anything for you. This whole waiting thing is like a fucking slap in the face. I'm going to try to understand you, but you need to know how hard this is for me. I want so badly to be with you."

"You are with me. You don't need a wedding ring for our relationship to be tangible.

"But it looks like-"

"Who gives a fuck what it looks like. They don't know what we've been through. They don't know anything about me and you." Kankuro kissed Noro hard on the lips and started crying. "You're the best, Kuro." Noro said.

"Whatever." Noro giggled.

"I luff you!" She said.

"I luff you too."