Author's Note: I want to apologize that it has taken me so long to update. I will try to update more often. Hope you enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 7:
Getting to the music pier with Kakashi was like walking a giant two-year-old. He jerked to halt for the fifth time, nearly pulling her arm from its socket.
"What is it this time?" a seagull he had to examine? A trash can he had to peer into, sniff, circle? a woman she had to peel off his arm?
She followed the direction of his intent gaze. A police cruiser was coming toward them on the boardwalk. She lifted her hand in greeting to one of the officers who'd come to her apartment earlier that afternoon.
Kakashi arm tensed beneath her hand. He did not move but she knew instantly that he was upset.
Cruiser slow down as the officer poke his head out the window. " You'll get a great crowd at your ball tonight, man wish I wasn't on duty."
"I'm sorry you can't be there, too. See you," She urge Kakashi the last steps to the Music Pier. "What;s wrong?"
He shook his head and took a last look at the police car.
"Nothing is wrong, but I do not understand what Konoha's most famous treasure is doing here- beyond the ice fields."
He was really good. Just the right touch of confusion. A soupcon of distress. The treasure idea was cute. "Well, why can't a treasure be here?" She asked. She could also tell he wasn't budging until he'd said what he had to say.
"Tis said in legend that the First Hokage buried eight treasures, with a challenge that any man who found them might know great wisdom. To my knowledge, no ninja has yet located the treasures, and yet located the treasure, and yet there is one of the." He turned around another time to stare after the police cruiser.
Miranda smiled. Any moment now, someone was going to jump out and yell, "Gotcha!" She just knew it. Were her friends hiding in the Music Pier restroom? Or across the way, tucked beneath the boardwalk?
This was a practical joke of the highest caliber. And her friends would really be disappointed if she didn't at least appear to believe this guy was from Konoha.
"Yes, yes the treasures of the Music Pier will take you wherever your heart desires, as long as you are pure of heart. Now move it. I'll melt if we don't get out of this rain."
"MELT?"
His voice dropped, and he examined her in a way that her feel hot but at the same time naked and exposed.
"Come on." She grabbed his arm and hauled him into the Music Pier. She took his cloak and tossed it behind the blue-and-gold stage curtain.
An hour later, Miranda rocked back and forth on her heels and she surveyed her ball. It was more than a successful; it was a megahit. Despite the downpour outside, the ballroom was wall-to-wall people.
He's great isn't he?" Miranda asked Neil. I thought he'd be completely overwhelmed by women. But he's just taken it all in stride. He's so charming. No matter how many of them want his autograph of want a photograph, he obliges."
Neil nodded. "Yeah, I guess they have photo shoots in Konoha all the time. But if takes another step back, he'll be cornered. And he keeps touching and turning the programs like he's never seen paper before."
Neil crossed his arms and leaned on the edge of the stage. His costume consisted of the clothes he'd worn that day to work-black jeans and a tee shirt. There was no getting Neil into Ninja garb-or out on the dance floor.
Her gaze went back to Kakashi again. She swayed and hummed to the music. Neil shock his head. "Somehow he doesn't look like the dancing type." He took her glass of punch and sniffed it. "How many cups of this have you had?"
"It's great, isn't it? Who made it? There's this spicy hint of-"
"It's spiked. Or it was," he said. "I took care of it, but some wicked warrior added little extra ingredient."
"Oops. I hope we don't get arrested." A giggle bubbled in her throat. " Imagine R. Walter storming in here and arresting us for spiked mead or whatever we're pretending it is."
"Yeah, well, Ocean City is dry- and R. Walter will never believe you didn't know the punch was spiked. Now, how many cups have you had? You're grinning like a fool."
"I only had maybe four...maybe eight cups."
"You'll feel great in the morning?" He shook is head and stalked off with her cup.
Kakashi did not enjoy the uncomfortable pang of jealousy that he felt whenever the snake man-Neil-?"May I have you autograph?" a tiny woman with hair a strange color that slight reminded him of Sakura.
With a slight look of annoyance, he wrote his name.
The snake man came to his side. "Miranda told me to see if I could help fend off some of these fans."
"Help me?" Kakashi frowned. "Everyone is very polite. I enjoy their conversation. They see to my comfort."
" Really? How many cups of punch have they brought you?"
"Punch?" In truth, he understood only one in every five words they said. But he was learning their language. Carmel Corn, turmeric, quicke. Each woman added to his vocabulary. "What is your status here, Neil? What is the meaning of the snake in this place?" What harm could come from asking?
I'm part owner of Miranda's shop. When my father died he left me a little money, and I used it to invest in Miranda's buisness. She wasn't doing so well after her husband-lifemate to you-died. She needed a partner and I need a job. And the tattoo means I was drunk one night and not thinking clearly-typical college state, I'm afraid. Other than that, don't read too much into it."
Kakashi took a deep breath, but kept himself from asking for a better explanation. Involuntarily, he looked about the room for Miranda. So she had lost a lifemate. It explained the contrast of wealth and poverty in her home.
These festivities did little but delay his mission. He kicked a boot at the polished floor. Snow lay over everything-or had until the loud one had opened the door. Sparkles radiated from glowing colored glass in the ceiling. His head ached. When he lifted his hand to his brow it trembled.
"You'd be perfect!" Liz Williams the photograph hired for the ball, yelled over the loud hum of conversation. " Come on.
" Where?" Miranda asked as Liz hauled her through the crowd.
"Over there!" She pointed vaguely towards the ceiling. " I need an ordinary woman to kiss that hunk in the corner. What a shot that will be- front-cover material."
"Whoa." Miranda skidded to a halt. "No way. I'm not kissing anyone."
Liz leaned down from her nearly six-foot height. "What's the matter with you? Think of the PR for Virtual Heaven. Not to mention an opportunity to lock lips with-"
Liz's words were lost as she hustled Miranda at a quick trot through a wall of people. "There he is!" Liz cried as she halted in front of a mob of women waving programs for Kakashi to sign. Miniexplosions of camera flashes reflected on the wall of windows behind him. So Liz was not the only women intent on a photo op.
"We'll need to stand on a chair to see over this crowd," she said to Liz.
"Watch this..." Liz's iron grip on Miranda's arm tightened as Liz used her elbows to hurl Miranda through the mass of women and into Kakashi's chest.
Kakashi grunted and closed his arms about her.
"Liz, I don't think-" Miranda began.
"Quick. Kiss each other . I don't have all night.
"Oh, sure I guess-"
His mouth closed on hers before she had a chance to react. All coherent thoughts washed away like a sand castle at high tide. His lips were firm and warm.
The room spun a bit, but his hands were there to catch her. He wrapped his arms around her, drew her against the hard length of his body. She felt a moan rise in her throat and had enough sense to clamp down on it.
He really knew how to kiss.
She thought of power and heat. Then she thought of nothing. Her mind zapped white for a brief instant; then her body zapped red hot.
His kiss was a long, lazy perusal of her lips. He tasted of caramel-covered popcorn. She lost all sanity. Giving no thought to who watched, she raised her hands and gripped his head. She drew him closer and bit his lower lip. With a jerk of his head, he responded; his hips moved against hers, and his arms tightened.
His mouth no longer explored; it pressed hard, crushed, possessed.
Miranda moaned softly, dug her fingers into his arms. Her arms slipped about his neck. She felt naked against him, every bone, every muscle defined.
A white-hot blade skewered his vitals . It twisted and dug so deep he gasped. The woman in his arms led him places he had only imagined. He followed. The path led to short breath, a rapid heartbeat, sweat on his brow.
Now. End it now. Now...
He spread his hands over her delicate bones of her back and held her closer
End it. End it.
The words ran over and over in his mind.
He ended it. He put her away from him, safely at arm's length. His mouth ached. His loins throbbed.
She stared up at him, her lips half-open. Then she snapped them closed. "You're about as comfortable to kiss as as a stone wall."
So she was going to pretend she'd felt nothing? He unlaced his tunic and opened it.
An audible moan rose from the women surrounding him.
"Geez, keep your shirt on. These women are rabid," Miranda said. Her hands drew the edges of tunic together.
"You will protect me, I think," he said, and flicked her hands away. He drew out various colored lumps wrapped in smooth paper. "You flattened my sweets."
She burst into laughter. "You have saltwater taffy in your shirt?" her smile reminded him too much of the heat of her kiss.
"Yes," he said. "The women offered it. It would be unkind not to accept it." He felt as if he had some of the sticky goodness stuck in his throat.
"We crushed it, didn't we?"
In truth, the sweets were soft and warm from his body and hers. "You were overly fierce in your attentions."
"Me?" She smacked his arm. "You're the one who crushed me."
"I did nothing. You kissed me-"
"Now, children! Enough bickering!" Liz angled her camera between them. "Maybe you could open your shirt just a wee bit more..." Deftly, the loud women spread the shirt open, revealing his chest. "Boy, you must work out twenty-four-seven!"
Miranda was glaring in the strange woman's direction while the crowd of women flocked around her.
But before she could say anything a sudden hush fell over the crowd. Only the pulsing beat of the music continued. Miranda looked towards the door, in the direction of everyone's gaze.