Disclaimer: Only Kumo is mine. Shino belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Kumo cried herself to sleep, and when she awoke, Shino was missing. He's always here when I wake up. She looked around, and noticed a lump on the floor of her hospital room, covered in a blanket. She could just see a little bit of brown hair poking out of the blanket. As if he could feel her watching him, his eyes opened. Kumo still found his differently-colored eyes fascinating. Without realizing what she was doing, she shifted her eyes to match his again.

"Do I really have to stay here still?" Kumo asked.

"It would be advisable. You could have another episode."

"They're part of me. If I stayed in the hospital because I could have another one, I would never leave."

Shino opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and slipped his shades back on as the door of the room opened and the pink haired girl walked in. "Hinata had an idea about your episodes when she was studying your chakra network when you were brought in. She thinks that the instability may be because of your large chakra reservoir overwhelms the network, and it never gets a chance to heal completely before it gets overwhelmed again. She thinks that if you have your chakra drained repeatedly to keep it low for a while, that your passageways can heal completely, and will be able to handle your flow without being overwhelmed."

"Being drained isn't comfortable, but an episode is even less so, and I would like not to have to worry about burning whoever's around me to a crisp. I guess it would be worth a try. How long would it take my passageways to heal, though?"

"Hinata thinks probably a couple of weeks."

Shino's calm voice entered the conversation. "I have a large number of kikaichu, but Kumo has a large reservoir that replenishes itself quickly. Even my kikaichu would not be able to drain that much chakra so often for weeks. We will have to involve others from my clan if we are to implement this plan."

"Would others of your clan be willing?"

"More than willing. If one's kikaichu are fed by another's chakra adequately, they do not feed on the host's chakra. I cannot think of an Aburame that would be opposed to someone volunteering to feed their kikaichu for them."

"Will you ask them now, I have to do an examination of Kumo."

"Of course." Shino departed.

"Let's start with the side you tore up."

Sakura hissed in sympathy when the extent of the scarring on the girl became apparent. Kumo just shrugged when the medic tried to offer her sympathy. "It doesn't do to dwell on the past."

"It makes me angry that someone could have done this to you."

"They think I'm dead now. My father freed me. Having someone love and acknowledge me was worth the pain I endured. Physical pain heals just with time, but loneliness doesn't. That's why I couldn't stop my episode. I couldn't kill Shino. He's the only one left who acknowledges me. He rescued me from being a spider. From living to be hated."

Sakura blinked. She had never heard anyone say anything so profound about Shino. Most people seemed to think him strange, and his bugs rather creepy. "Hey. Perhaps you can get him to take off his shades. No one has been able to make him remove them, and there are a lot of crazy ideas about what he's hiding behind them."

"He's never taken them off for anyone else?" She asked, a little surprised.

"Anyone else?" Sakura repeated. "You've seen him without the glasses?" No one, not even his teammates has seen him without his glasses! He must really like her. Shino seems to be so robotic, but maybe he actually has hormones like everyone else.

"Yes. He seems a little self-conscious about his eyes."

"So he does have eyes! Kiba was betting that he didn't."

"Of course he has eyes."

"So why is he self-conscious about them?"

"If he wanted you to know what his eyes looked like, he would have shown them."

"Just a hint?"

"You already had a hint. He does in fact have eyes. Two of them, in fact."

Sakura rolled her eyes, but their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Kumo, are you decent?" Shino asked.

Kumo shrugged on the hospital gown again and called "You can come in."

Shino entered. "My clan has agreed that you may stay at the compound for the next few weeks and someone will always be on hand to drain you. If Sakura is done with your examination, we can get you settled in."

Sakura nodded to Shino who was looking at her expectantly. "She's free to go."