Chapter Seventeen

Three days later, they walked into Kirigakure; tired and dirty, but victorious.

The journey back had been difficult. With the river still high, traveling by boat was limited. Karin was ill-prepared for long days walking, and her condition had Suigetsu on edge.

They reported in; officially finishing their mission, and made their way to the hospital. Karin had protested weakly, but Suigetsu had insisted that the medics at least check her for a relapse. He hovered over the medic as he ran tests on Karin, never letting her out of his sight. Suigetsu's trust in his village and its officials was at an all time low, and he wasn't going to allow them to endanger Karin again.

Fortunately, Karin's injuries had healed prior to Sakura's departure; she was suffering from stress and exhaustion, but little more. He escorted her home and, despite her protests, ensured she followed the medic's instructions for bed rest. Leaving her sleeping upstairs, he wrote up their mission report. This took him the better part of the evening.

Karin crept downstairs around midnight, in need of sustenance not involving dry rations or soup, only to find Suigetsu slouched over the table, surrounded by screwed up balls of paper. She circled the table, marveling at the peaceful expression on his face. She was sorely tempted to leave him there, but a tiny voice in her head said she'd regret doing that in the morning.

"Suigetsu?" She called, tentatively reaching for his shoulder. Just as her fingers made contact, he shot upright and looked around.

"What's happening?"

His sudden outburst had caused Karin to jump backwards and, feeling embarrassed that she'd been scared; she whacked him over the head. Which, in turn, caused his face to splatter all over the table, waking him fully, but not leaving him in a pleasant mood. Realising what she'd just done, Karin stepped forward to apologize.

"Suigetsu, I…"

"What did you do that for?" He snapped, rubbing his face and then his neck, which was stiff.

"I didn't mean…"

"Yeah? Well that's not what it felt like!" He growled, "What are you doing down here, anyway?"

Karin straightened, ready to give him a tongue lashing, but her nerve fled, and so did she. She raced out of the room and back upstairs, ignoring Suigetsu's hoarse cries after her.

Less than five minutes later, there came a quiet knock on the door.

"Karin?"

Though she wanted to tell him to go away, she also wanted to ignore him completely; so Karin did not answer.

The door opened, and she could hear his quiet foot steps across the floor.

"Are you alright?"

She shrugged her shoulders from beneath the blanket, not facing him and still unwilling to talk to him.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you." He murmured, resting his hand on her shoulder.

Her eyes snapped open and she threw off the blankets as she sat up, with Suigetsu falling backwards onto the floor.

"You're sorry! You're sorry and you want me to accept your apology?"

"What the hell's wrong with that? You crazy bitch!"

"You can say you're sorry, but I have my head bitten off before I can say a word!" She swung the pillow at his head and he fell backwards to dodge it. "Why should I accept your fucking apology?"

"Because I've said I'm sorry and I mean it!" Suigetsu roared. "If you'd stop being a fucking psycho bitch…"

Karin shrieked, hurling the pillow at him and scrambling out of the bed, in search of something else to throw.

"And just listen to what I'm saying…"

She was throwing whatever she could find, but Suigetsu lived in a sparse apartment; he didn't have many personal effects. Running out of projectiles, she threw herself at him, still screaming obscenities.

Had it been anyone other than Suigetsu, there would have been blood running down his face from her nails, bruises growing on his skin from her fists and, quite probably, broken bones. Then again, if it had been anyone other than Suigetsu, she probably wouldn't have attacked him like this in the first place.

Suigetsu's defensive abilities were preventing him from taking any damage, but it wasn't helping him calm her down, and with her dissolving his face every five seconds, he was having difficulty verbalising anything. He was surprised she had the energy to continue attacking him like this, and she showed no signs of tiring, still yelling at him for every little thing that she perceived as wrong since they'd met almost two months ago.

He couldn't hold onto her, his body was disappearing from the contact. She was straddling him now, on the floor, ramming her hands down on which ever part of him reformed first. He knew he'd have to take this one step further.

With one last splash, he disappeared from beneath her. Reforming above her crouched body, he wrapped his arms around her middle and hauled her up. She kicked back at his legs, shrieking loudly as her hands scrabbled at his arms. This time, though, he did not disperse.

Her fingers found no purchase on his skin, and her heels were rebounding like she was kicking rubber. Ripples from each contact moved across his body but all of his surfaces remained intact. Still, she was struggling, which was shifting his centre of balance. He staggered backwards, then sideways and unceremoniously dumped her on the bed.

He followed her down, trapping her as she tried to sidle away.

She wriggled and writhed under him, but his weight was keeping her pinned. She struggled to lift him off but she was lying on one of her arms and the other was being held by Suigetsu.

She turned her head slightly; his face right next to hers.

"You're such a bitch." He rasped, still trying to catch his breath.

"And you're…"

Whatever she had been about to say evaporated from her mind as he pressed his lips to hers. It went downhill from there.

Author's Note: Look at that! Another short chapter. I really must stop doing that.