Chapter 5: Turning up the Heat

Author's Notes: thank you so much to all my reviewers! I just wanted to answer Aphrodite96's question about Esuma's hair, because I'm sure she's not the only one wondering: it IS white, and I'll be the first to admit it's an unusual color. Let's just say I have my reasons. :D

1

Storm Shadow woke up the following morning utterly horrified. The nightmare about his childhood had not come back, but oh, did he wish it had… anything would have been better than the dreams that had visited him through the rest of the night.

He got out of bed shakily and went to put the coffee on. The smell reminded him of the coffee shop yesterday and, by association, of one of the disturbing dreams, where Esuma had fallen asleep in his arms for entirely different reasons that she had in reality. He gulped.

"She's SIXTEEN." He muttered to himself.

She had been older in the dreams, or at least he thought she had been. Still young, but adult at least, yet still wearing that cheerleading uniform that seemed to have been designed for her. When she was wearing anything at all, that was.

Storm Shadow's fist clenched on the handle of his cup at the thought, breaking it, causing the cup to fall back on the counter where it split in two parts.

"SIXTEEN." He growled.

He got a new mug and poured half a cup of coffee into it, then filled the rest with chocolate milk, making his weekend version of a mocha latte. He drained it and looked at the empty cup dejectedly, sorely tempted to make another one and at the same time, knowing he wouldn't taste a second helping anymore than he had the first one.

In a blatant attempt at lowering the amount of disgust he felt at himself, he cast his mind back to the many bits of dreams that were relatively innocent. All this achieved, however, was to make him realize those were the most pleasant parts of the dream, even without taking any guilt into account.

He sank in a chair with a sigh. Lusting after a sixteen year old was bad enough, but at the limit, he could blame his hormones and write it off. Being in love was an entirely different problem.

He'd just have to deal with it in the same way he would have simple desire: he'd just have to refrain from acting on it in any way until his heart got the message and forgot the whole silly idea. Maybe he should try to hook Esuma up with someone else. His stomach lurched at the thought and at that precise moment, a dragonfly flew in from the oven fan, did a loop in the air and landed on the table, facing him.

Storm Shadow stared at it, dumbfounded. The dragonfly stared back.

"Is there something in the air that acts like catnip for dragonflies around here?" He asked out loud.

The dragonfly shook its tiny head. Storm Shadow jerked back and fell off his chair, only for the dragonfly to move to his right knee, still staring him down.

Storm Shadow gulped.

"You did NOT just answer my question."

The dragonfly nodded.

Storm Shadow turned white, but he had trained all his life to survive and did not completely lose his wits.

"R… Racno? I presume?"

Racno nodded again. Storm Shadow staggered up, causing Racno to simply fly back to the table, held up a finger to tell the insect to wait a second and went to the refrigerator, taking out a bottle of soy sauce of which he poured a small amount in a saucer before putting it away. He brought the saucer to the table and went to fetch a pad of paper, which he put next to the saucer. He then went to a cupboard and extracted a toothpick, which he put in the soy sauce.

"Allright then." He finally said to the dragonfly, sitting back down on the chair. "If I'm not imagining that your head movements are answers to what I'm saying, prove you really are intelligent and guess what I brought those things for."

Undetected by Storm Shadow, Racno rolled his tiny eyes. He then grabbed the toothpick, dipped it a few times in the soy sauce and wrote "happy?" on the paper, using the soy sauce as a rudimentary ink.

"No." Storm Shadow said flatly. "You're magical, aren't you?"

Racno nodded.

"Does E… Miss Yr know?"

Racno wrote his answer.

No, and she must not find out.

"Are you her protector? Are you afraid I'll hurt her?"

No and maybe. I need to ask you some questions.

"Right." Storm Shadow said. Ninja or not, he was not about to argue with a magical being, even one in the form of an insect.

Are you here on orders from someone?

"No."

You're hiding.

Storm Shadow stiffened.

"How much do you know?" He asked in a growl.

I know you are a great warrior, and I see a taint on your aura – you've done horrible things.

"For the greater good." Storm Shadow protested.

No. For yourself, with the belief it also happened to benefit the greater good. There is a subtle difference there.

"You're not asking a whole lot of questions."

Would you harm Esuma?

Storm Shadow's eyes widened.

"No."

Not even for your greater good?

"NO!"

Ah. You love her.

Storm Shadow gulped and nodded.

"I don't intend for anyone to ever even know. You need not worry, I will not pursue her. But if you're not her protector, then what are you to her?"

Racno dropped the toothpick without answering and flew off, up through the oven vent.

"WAIT!" Storm Shadow cried out. "Who is SHE? Why are you her companion? That red and yellow budgie… it's magical too, isn't it?"

No answer came. Storm Shadow stared at the vent for a while, then picked up the phone and called in sick. He could imagine the director would flip out when he found out his gym teacher and coach was missing the first day of homecoming week, but there was no helping it: he needed time to meditate.

2

Esuma contemplated the two outfits she had laid out on her bed, wondering to herself what was wrong with her. She hadn't actually agreed to wear her cheerleading uniform and therefore match Lily and Marie, but she knew they expected her to, so why was she even hesitating?

A small part of her knew the answer but was being quite intently ignored by the rest of her.

It WAS chilly today, so technically, the short white and pink pleated skirt and sleeveless, bare midriff pink and lavender top weren't exactly the ideal choice of wardrobe. On the other hand, she could easily wear nylons and a jacket, and it was always warm inside the school itself anyway.

Besides, the white jean skirt with the lavender and pink embroidery was just as short and although not sleeveless, the pink short sleeved crop-top twinset she was contemplating was such a light fabric that it may as well be.

The only advantage to it, really, was… she shook her head, refusing to allow herself to think it. Besides, for all she knew, he liked her uniform. She turned red as the thought sneaked past her defenses.

"Uniform." She said firmly. "I'm wearing my uniform. I can wear something else tomorrow, this way I can warn Marie and Lily and I can even loan them something."

Now that this resolution was made, she dressed quickly. She avoided strictly wearing her uniform by not doing up her thick white hair, letting it fall instead to brush her wing bones, and by wearing purple ballet-style slippers rather than the white sneakers she wore when cheerleading.

Although it was not in her habits to admire herself, she caught a glance in the mirror and smiled in spite of herself, only to hastily turn her eyes away, muttering that it didn't matter what she looked like because she was absolutely NOT trying to catch anyone's attention.

She was still working on convincing herself of that when she met up with Marie and Lily in the school's student lounge area before class.

"Ooh, you got it bad." Lily commented right away in lieu of a greeting. "Who is it?"

Esuma's eyes widened and she felt her cheeks burn.

"W… what?" She sputtered. "What makes you think…?"

"Points for keeping your mouth straight, but you have a very goofy grin in your eyes." Marie giggled.

"You were a bit flushed even before you turned beet red, too." Lily added.

"And then there's the skip in your steps." Marie concluded, grinning. "And here we were worried you'd still feel bad today."

Esuma swallowed and peaked around, making sure they were out of earshot. She briefly considered lying but dismissed the thought immediately. Lily and Mary were her dearest friends; if anyone could talk some sense into her, it was them.

"Oh alright." She whispered. "But keep it down! And you can't tell ANYONE. Not my parents, not your parents, nobody we know, nobody we don't know, and definitely not him."

Marie and Lily's eyebrows shot up and they nodded eagerly, edging towards her to catch her whispers.

"I know it's silly. I know he won't feel the same. Okay?"

They nodded, knowing Esuma would not continue until they agreed with the nonsensical statement. They were pretty sure that there wasn't a man or boy on the planet that could resist Esuma, but their friend had a tendency to be oblivious to her own charms.

"Mr. Nakamura." Esuma breathed, turning beet red. "I know, I know, it's stupid."

Lily and Mary shook their heads.

"Love is never stupid, Esuma." Mary said sympathetically, hugging her.

Lily joined in the hug.

"Just be patient." She advised. "He can't now, but once you're 18, I'm sure he'll love you back."

"And if he doesn't, we'll beat him up." Mary added. "I know he can kick us into next week, but maybe we'll at least manage to bleed on his nice white clothes."

Esuma chuckled, feeling a lot better about her feelings now that she had some support.

3

Snake Eyes finally spotted Esuma as she left the student's lounge with a couple of other girls, and almost walked into the wall. He had seen her before, but it had been a while, longer than he had realized up to now. Thinking of it, he figured she might have been five or six at the time.

She had been a very cute child, despite the striking white hair and purple eyes. The teenager he saw heading down the hallway, however, was downright breathtaking. How Hawk did not spend all his time beating boys away was beyond him. He frowned as he suddenly wondered whether Storm Shadow really was here, after her. And if he was, what exactly would he do now that he had seen her? Would he respect his own twisted code of honor? Considering that he was already breaking it if he really was after her at all, that seemed doubtful. Snake Eyes' knuckles turned white on his broom at the thought.

"HEY! Watch were you're going, idiot!"

Snake Eyes stopped and looked up just in time to see the students he was about to hit with his broom. He pulled back.

/* Sorry. */ He signed. /* I wasn't looking. I'm new. */

"What's the matter? You can't see and you can't talk, either?" One the boys sneered.

Snake Eyes sighed and shook his head before heading away. He twisted to duck the kick aimed at him and turned around, going through possible strategies to find one that didn't harm the kids and didn't reveal him as a ninja.

"You almost hit me with your BROOM, you stupid bonehead! Apologize!"

Snake Eyes rolled his eyes.

/* I DID. I. Am. Sorry. */

"Do I look like I speak sign language?" The boy asked. His friends snickered.

Snake Eyes had time to idly wonder if staff being harassed by students was tolerated at this school before he found himself dodging a punch. He barely resisted the urge to slam the boy into the wall and stepped back instead. He had to keep his cover, and he certainly couldn't go and get himself fired for teaching a bully a lesson in ninja spotting.

He was pondering whether he'd get away with accidentally tripping the kid, following an attempted kick to his groin, when the boy's arms were suddenly grabbed by behind and the bully found himself held tightly by none other than the girl Snake Eyes was here to protect. The irony would have stung a bit if he hadn't been busy telling himself he did NOT think she was beautiful when she was angry.

"Steve Heatly, you big bully!" She growled. "Stop it! I can't believe you haven't learned anything from yesterday!"

"Awh, don't be like that, Esuma." Heatly purred. "I'll leave him alone if you want. How about a date to thank me for not putting in a complaint against him, hmm?"

Snake Eyes felt his blood boil and wondered again how Hawk found time to lead the Joes between sessions of chasing the boys away from his poor daughter. Esuma narrowed her eyes and let go of the kid but spun him around so he'd face her.

"Unless you count detention, me for hitting you and you because I'll explain WHY I hit you, we're never going on a date, Steve."

"And don't be stupid, we all saw what happened. You weren't looking where you were going either and he didn't hit you, and you tried to hit him." Marie piped in.

"With no success whatsoever." Lily intervened. "And check out his shoulders. You're an idiot, Steve: that guy could probably put you through the wall if he wanted to."

Snake Eyes stooped a bit more, but not enough: Steve looked his way and paled a bit before mumbling something about cleaners being in the way and walking away.

/* Thank you. */

"You're welcome." Esuma said, smiling. "Sorry about Steve."

"OH NO!" Marie suddenly cried out.

Esuma, Lily and Snake Eyes turned to her, alarmed. She was looking at the bulletin board and appeared to be devastated.

"Sorry." She sighed. "It's okay. It's just… Mr. Nakamura's off sick."

Esuma's eyes widened and her smile vanished. Snake Eyes noticed and felt a shudder go through him: if Nakamura was indeed Storm Shadow, he had already at the very least partially succeeded in seducing the poor girl. Unnoticed by the girls, his eyes narrowed and suddenly, he had no more doubt that the Soft Master had been right to assume Storm Shadow's claim that he had not killed the Hard Master had simply been a lie. The idea he'd have to kill his brother again was suddenly a bit more bearable.