Chapter 6: Love and Hate
A/N: As usual, a million thanks to everyone who reviewed. Your feedback is precious!
A/N 2: I'm sorry, I know I'm slow. Thank you for your patience!
A/N 3: PLEASE REVIEW! Feedback is very, very important to me on this story. I absolutely need to know what you think, whether it's good or bad! It might even motivate me to write faster!
1
"Ugh." Marie sighed, putting down her lunch tray next to Esuma's on the picnic table. "I've never seen such a bad start to homecoming week. And here we have this beautiful weather, sunny and it warmed up a lot since this morning… it should have been a great day."
"Did you see the board?" Lily added gloomily. "Our practice is officially cancelled for this afternoon."
"Yeah," Marie said. "I hope he's back tomorrow. Maybe he'll reschedule our practice?"
"You think so?" Lily asked. "That'd be great! It would make sense, too… everyone needs cheering up after today, so bring in the cheerleaders!"
Mary giggled as Lily raised her fist into the air in a battle pose, and Esuma smiled.
"I wonder if he's in trouble for missing," Lily mused. "It's really bad timing, you know?"
"Matthew says the whole basketball team is really down in the dumps. They were hoping not to lose, but if he's sick…"
Esuma trailed off and shook her head, refusing to think of the possibility that Mr. Nakamura was seriously ill and would be missing even more time.
"I'm sure he'll be fine." Marie said encouragingly. "About Matthew… are you still going to the dance with him?"
Esuma nodded without looking up, her eyes fixed on her untouched lunch. She usually loved ham sandwiches, the contrast between the slight bitterness of the yeast in the bread and the sweetness and saltiness of the meat particularly pleasant to what her friends and family referred to as her delicate palate and which was actually acknowledge by her doctor as an overdeveloped sense of taste. Today, however, she did not have the slightest desire for food of any kind.
"We were always just going as friends," she said. "He knows that."
Her mind was rather far from the dance: she had just caught a glance of Steve Heatly, and it had reminded her of the previous day's incident. Mr. Nakamura had defended them, he couldn't be the bad person her father feared he was. Therefore, he couldn't possibly be off because he'd been found and injured by the undercover agent that was supposed to have arrived this morning. Her father's soldiers were the best in the World, they would absolutely not attack an innocent man, and that's what Mr. Nakamura was. It was just a shame that whoever had been sent to check on her gym teacher would waste another day before confirming they had the wrong man.
"Hey, Esuma? That's not Falpis, is it?" Lily suddenly asked.
Esuma looked up and followed Lily's gaze to the ferret that was casually crossing the street towards them. Her eyes widened when she spotted her pet's bright blue and white collar.
"It is!" She gasped, getting up. "How…?"
Her question was interrupted by a screech of tires as a car turned the nearest corner, going well over the speed limit, heading straight for the ferret, who froze.
"FALPIS!" The three girls cried in unison, running uselessly towards the street: they were too far, they would never make it in time.
2
Snake Eyes had spent the morning keeping an eye on Esuma and was still doing just that, perched on a tree near the picnic table she had settled in with her friends, just in case the missing gym teacher suddenly turned up. As of yet, there was no sign of Nakamura, but the time had not been spent quite in vain as it had renewed Snake Eyes's resolution to protect his General's daughter: the girl was the picture of an ideal child. She was not only incredibly beautiful, but also extremely smart, selfless, friendly, funny… it was obvious that the whole school would be in mourning for a very long time if anything happened to her, and rightly so.
Between the fact Esuma was yet unharmed and her apparent crush on the man, Snake Eyes figured Storm Shadow was following his usual policy to not harm women directly, and all he could think was that his brother might be aiming to push the girl to commit suicide instead. The level of emotional pain he'd inflict on her to achieve this made the under cover ninja wince. He couldn't let that happen. If Hawk's suspicions were right, 'Nakamura' was going down the second Snake Eyes laid eyes on him.
The girls' conversation suddenly turned to a ferret that was crossing the road towards them. Just as the animal was identified as Esuma's pet, a speeding car turned the corner, heading straight for what would clearly be a very flat animal in a few seconds. The girls screamed and bolted for the road although it was obvious they wouldn't arrive in time: only a ninja could possibly go fast enough to save the ferret.
Snake Eyes jumped from the tree towards the street and ran for it, half expecting the speeding car to be driven by Storm Shadow. For a teenage girl, losing a pet would certainly be emotionally distressing.
He dove for the ferret and rolled out of the speeding car's way, narrowly avoiding the front wheel. A glance revealed the driver not to be Storm Shadow but a young Caucasian man, who kept rolling away. Snake Eyes got up, the trembling but unharmed pet in his arms.
Esuma ran to him and took the ferret, cradling him into a hug.
"Thank you SO much!" she said, addressing Snake Eyes.
Her eyes were still filled with tears from the fright she'd had, making the rare purple irises shimmer in a way that made Snake Eyes picture himself, rather than Hawk, chasing the boys away from her. He clenched his teeth and dismissed the vision as the result of his being bored out of his mind by his cover job.
"Falpis, you silly thing… what are you doing out?" Esuma scolded gently at the small animal. "Thank you Mr. Smith, thank you so much! Silly ferret…"
/* You're welcome. */
"That means you're welcome, doesn't it?" she asked, still cradling and petting Falpis, who was visibly relaxing.
Snake Eyes felt a pang of jealousy and dismissed it as his missing the last pet he'd had.
"I learned ASL a bit in junior high," Esuma continued, "one of my friends was deaf and mute. She transferred away, though, and we only email and message now, so I haven't practiced in a while. But that's not fair – you can't just say I'm welcome and forget about it, you saved his life! I keep finding myself in debt towards adults, lately," she finished, smiling to show she didn't mean it as a bad thing.
Snake Eyes smiled back.
/* You can repay me by encouraging people not to litter. */
She laughed at that, which earned her curious looks by her friends.
"He said I can repay him for jumping in front of that car to save my ferret by encouraging people not to litter." Esuma translated, still giggling at how unfair a trade that would be.
/* I knew I could make it. I didn't actually take a risk. Really, it's fine. */
Esuma's laugh turned into a smile that would have warmed anyone's heart. Snake Eyes's teeth clenched as he imagined Storm Shadow earning that same smile while planning to turn it into tears of despair. How anyone could even dream of hurting a child as sweet as Esuma was completely beyond him, and he wasn't about to let it happen.
3
Storm Shadow, for his part, spent most of the day thinking even less of himself than his sword brother thought of him. Racno had provided a distraction for part of the morning by raising many questions on Esuma, but thinking so much about her had eventually devolved, much to his disgust, from intellectual curiosity to day dreaming.
He'd spent the rest of the day trying every meditation technique he knew to clear his mind, to no avail. The best he achieved was a renewed resolution that he would keep his feelings so well buried that none would even suspect their existence.
Since staying home to meditate wasn't achieving anything, he resolved to go to work the next day.
4
Like the other teachers, Asanuma Nakamura was required to show up at school at least twenty minutes before the bell and Storm Shadow, being an early riser, was typically among the first ones there.
The morning following his day off was no different. He let himself in the school and headed for the main office to ask that a notice be posted to re-schedule the basketball practice through lunch and the cheerleading practice for after school, to be run at the same time as the Volleyball practice since both groups had things they could practice without direct, focused supervision.
He never made it to the office. He felt the presence just in time to dive to the side and dodge the tip of a broom handle that had been headed straight at the base of his neck and would have knocked him out instantly. He turned to face his opponent and opened his mouth to try and talk to him, but Snake Eyes was on top of him in a second, attacking him with a level of viciousness he'd never seen him display before.
"Wait!"
Storm Shadow jumped backwards to avoid a swipe at his legs.
"Hold on!"
Snake Eyes tried to stab him in the gut with the handle of his broom, but Storm Shadow twisted and dodged. Snake Eyes frowned, annoyed: it was just his luck that Storm Shadow had finally learned to devote some energy to dodging when fighting.
"Look, I'm NOT here for Hawk!" Storm Shadow finished, grabbing the broom handle.
Snake Eyes let go of the broom handle and directed a punch towards Storm Shadow's face. The other ninja dodged again and scowled.
"Fine, 'brother'." He growled. "If that's how you want it…!"
He started attacking too, using the very broom handle Snake Eyes had been trying to stab him with. Snake Eyes dodged the first blow, blocked the second, and they found themselves briefly wrestling over the weapon before Snake Eyes sneaked in a kick to Storm Shadow's arm, weakening his grip, and regained possession of his broom handle.
Storm Shadow switched to attacking with his feet and hands while trying to dodge the broom. He got whacked a few times before suddenly, everything slowed down: the broom handle seemed to suddenly be trying to fight its way through a dense wall, Snake Eyes was moving just as slowly, and so was he.
By contrast, Esuma moved at normal speed and therefore had no difficulty grabbing the broom handle and squeezing herself right between Snake Eyes and himself. She was crying and begging them to stop, apparently completely unaware that she had effectively paralyzed them.
Despite her relative speed, Storm Shadow noticed, much to his disgust, that she was wearing a very pretty white jean skirt with lavender embroidery, matched with a fitted pink and lavender top. He swallowed, tore his eyes away and stepped back, still moving in slow motion. Snake Eyes lowered his weapon and stepped back as well.
"Esuma…" Storm Shadow started.
She turned towards him, her face contorted into pure misery. Storm Shadow's eyes widened and he gulped. Hawk must have warned her about who he might be, and by attacking him, Snake Eyes had confirmed her father was right. She probably thought he was here to hurt her or her dad, and the betrayal from a teacher she trusted hurt her deeply.
"Esuma, I… I don't…"
"Tell me it's not true." She pleaded. "Please, just tell me you're not after me or dad."
"I'm not. I…"
"I knew it." She cut in with a sigh of relief, suddenly smiling through her tears. "I don't know who you used to be, but I do know you're a good person now."
Storm Shadow's eyes trailed down, away from hers. As near as he could tell, he hadn't actually changed at all since his previous battle with Snake Eyes, but he had never believed himself to be bad anyway, so he wasn't at all sure what to make of Esuma's judgment.
Snake Eyes, no longer in slow motion, tapped Esuma's shoulder to get her attention.
/* Esuma, he's the one who destroyed the Eiffel Tower. He was trying to wipe out all of Paris, including the people. He also tried to destroy three more major cities, including Washington. He's killed more people than I can count and now, his employer is in custody and he's probably intent on breaking him out. Even if we assume he wasn't planning to actually hurt you, his plan probably involved using you to blackmail General Hawk. He must be stopped. */
Esuma looked horrified all over again and turned back to face Storm Shadow, who sighed and met her eyes.
"I had no such plan. The rest is true but taken out of context. My employer and I believe the World needs order – I've killed a lot less people than poverty, crime and war kill every day."
Esuma's eyes filled with tears and she shook her head in disbelief. Storm Shadow swallowed and broke eye contact again, trying hard not to cry as well. He had had no intention of letting his feelings be known, but he had not imagined he'd lose whatever little affection Esuma had for her teacher and coach. It was clear she did not see things his way, and he knew from experience that she'd condemn him, just like Snake Eyes, just like everyone. Even worse than the pain of losing what meager relationship he'd had with Esuma, however, was the knowledge she was hurt.
"Esuma, I'm sorry I deceived you. Please, don't cry. I never meant to hurt you." He said earnestly.
She shook her head again.
"Oh Mr. Nakamura… what happened to you to make you believe something like that?" She asked in a choked voice. "Your life must have been horrible…"
She turned to Snake Eyes, who staggered back a step under the glare she gave him.
"You were told to find out whether Mr. Nakamura was a threat to me or your General? Well, there you have it, he isn't. NOW LEAVE HIM ALONE! He's trying to start a new life, and you'd just drag him right back down into his old one? You're worse than Javert!"
/* Unlike Jean Valjean, he's not a persecuted reformed small-time thief, Esuma. He's the worst kind of ninja: a cold-blooded murderer. And, I see no reason to believe he's changed. */
"What does it matter if he's a ninja? Besides, you were fighting just as well as he was, so if he's a ninja, so are you! And if he hasn't changed, then he was never a bad person in the first place!" Esuma growled. "He's done nothing but good since he got here!"
Snake Eyes hesitated. If he had been wrong about Storm Shadow's intentions towards Esuma, could he be wrong about his 'last' words being a lie, as well? Was Esuma right? Was Storm Shadow simply a very, very misguided victim of circumstances? In all fairness, he had looked very sorry to have made Esuma cry.
Snake Eyes frowned at himself – that was a grossly unfair understatement. Storm Shadow had looked devastated, horrified. It was painfully obvious he did not want Esuma to be hurt and that his presence here had nothing to do with whose daughter she was. Tommy was just hiding, and had simply stumbled right into the worst possible hiding place for him.
Esuma thought he had never been a bad person in the first place… again, Snake Eyes found himself wondering whether she really was wrong. When you examined the facts with a cool head, what did you see? A mistreated boy and two uncles who took every opportunity to express their hatred towards him. Was it any wonder the boy had not grown up to be a model citizen? And, following his running away from a clan that wanted to kill him, what had the rest of his life been like? Snake Eyes had been living in the street for maybe a week when he'd found the Arashikage, he knew how difficult it was, he knew how people would sooner look the other way than help. How long had Tommy been living that merciless life? Had it all been for nothing? Had the clan judged him too quickly?
/*Brother, */ he asked, /* you were seen running away from the Hard Master when he was killed. If it wasn't you, you must have seen who it was. Tell me. */
Esuma's eyes widened and she held back a gasp. She stepped back so as not to distract the two men: her father's soldier looked willing to talk to Mr. Nakamura, the last thing she wanted was to interrupt them.
"I did, but I can't remember," Storm Shadow answered. "All I see in my mind's eye is the specter of Death; all I know is that I was running from him before I realized the rest of you ALSO wanted to kill me."
/* The killer hypnotized you. */ Snake Eyes guessed.
He sighed and leaned his forehead into his palm, feeling the beginning of a headache. It did seem more probable that a great ninja like the Hard Master had not been murdered by a small boy, but being innocent of that one crime did not excuse all the other atrocities Storm Shadow had committed since. A cruelly miserable childhood and a complete lack of any help at any point in his life, paired with having been manipulated by McCullen, on the other hand, did make it harder to condemn his sword brother.
/* Do you swear to me, on your honor and your father's soul, that you will not do anything that could possibly lead to anybody being hurt, or any property being destroyed, for the next few days? */
"I swear it, on my honor and on my father's and mother's spirits."
/* Fine. You have a few days to convince me you deserve a second chance. */
Snake Eyes turned and left, not waiting for an answer.
5
Esuma was highly distracted for the rest of the day, still reeling from the shock of the morning. She had shuddered violently a few times while thinking of what may have happened if she hadn't arrived early this morning: Mr. Nakamura had been losing that fight… she kept picturing him falling backwards, the light leaving his eyes, several slashes across his mysteriously bare chest and a painful looking hole in the middle of it all.
The thought was intolerable. Mr. Smith was a good person, she knew it from the way he acted and from the fact her father had sent him to protect her. And yet, he had been trying to hurt Mr. Nakamura. Then again, it was only because Mr. Nakamura really was the person her father had feared he might be. But that person was not bad, she just knew it.
Making the whole situation worse was the fact that for some reason, part of her insisted it was connected to her parents. Her usual dream had been running through her head all day, to the point that she had not been able to pay any attention to her classes or to her friends. When she had confided in Marie and Lily that she couldn't stop thinking of her dream, they had both suggested she reconsider hypnosis.
She hung back after her cheerleader practice... she was pretty sure ninjas knew how to hypnotize people, and she'd much rather Mr. Nakamura did it than some stranger who may just as easily be a quack. Racno flew straight to the gym teacher once the other kids were gone, before she had even taken a step in his direction.
Storm Shadow blinked at the dragonfly, extremely surprised it would leave Esuma's side at this time of day just to bug him some more. He followed it with his eyes instinctively and ended up turning around to see that Racno had not really left his mistress: Esuma was but a few steps behind him, looking as surprised as he was at Racno's actions.
He turned fully towards her and their eyes locked. Racno flew back to Esuma, mostly unnoticed except by Falpis, who rolled its eyes at him. Racno lifted his legs in response in a close approximation of a dismissive shrug. Storm Shadow noticed both gestures; Esuma, neither.
She cleared her throat.
"Mr. Nakamura, I'm sorry to bother you, I know it's been a long day…"
He held back a snort and cocked his head, inviting her to continue.
"Can you do hypnosis?" she asked.
"Err… what? I mean, yes, I can, but why…?"
"Could you hypnotize me? There's a dream I keep having, I think it's a blocked memory, but it doesn't actually make sense. It's always around the same time as those headaches, and… well, I'm hoping that if I remember what happened for real, the dream will go away and maybe the headaches, too. I know, it's silly…" she finished, her eyes leaving his as she flushed in embarrassment.
"You still trust me to do that?" he asked, astonished.
She nodded.
"I'd trust you with my life."
Storm Shadow's eyes widened further and his heart started hammering in his chest.
"Snake Eyes would say you are doing just that right now," he remarked.
She cocked her head. "That's Mr. Smith's name? Snake Eyes?"
He nodded.
"He'd also wonder how you can possibly trust me at all after finding out who I was. I swear I didn't know who you were when I came here, and I would never exploit it now that I do."
"I still trust you because I know I wouldn't fall in love with an evil person," she said in one breath, looking at her own feet and blushing bright red. "I… I know I'm too young. I'm not going to pester you or anything, but I really do trust you… with my life, and with this secret."
Storm Shadow had to remind himself to breathe, and if his balance had not been perfect, he would undoubtedly have fallen from the shock. Once his brains started working again, he cursed internally to himself. This was NOT going to make things any easier. Not knowing how to react to her confession, he chose to go back to the main reason she was here.
"Memories are usually blocked for a reason," he said. "Are you sure you want to force this one to the surface? Do you have any idea what it is about?"
Esuma sighed in relief. The fact that he still wanted to help her was as far from a rejection as she could possibly hope considering her age: it meant he still wanted to be friends, and for now, that was more than good enough. She squashed the unreasonable disappointment that she still felt and turned her thoughts back to the request she had made of him.
"It's when my parents died," she said in answer to his last question. "I saw it happened."
His eyes widened again.
"And you want to see it again?" he asked. "Are you sure?"
"I see a version of it where they are killed by some kind of magical monster all the time. I'd rather know the truth… I think the dream keeps coming back because I want to solve its mystery."
Storm Shadow did not hesitate long. He knew well enough that a painful truth is better than a painful lie.
"Very well. When did you want to do this?"
"Please don't feel like you have to, but can we do it now?"
Storm Shadow looked around: they appeared to be completely alone. He suspected Snake Eyes was actually lurking nearby, but if he'd wanted to stop the hypnosis session, he'd already be out of hiding. He nodded at Esuma and walked to the bleachers, motioning her to follow.
He sat her down next to him on the second level, forced his eyes to focus on her face and to stay away from her legs, and took her hands in his.
"The technique I will use is not the one traditionally used by psychiatrists and hypno-therapists," he started. "It is far more efficient in recovering memories, but it was developed as a tool to extract information from enemies."
Snake Eyes, hidden in the shadows, relaxed slightly. He had been worried he'd have to interrupt a session Esuma obviously felt she needed, but Storm Shadow was being completely honest about the process, making an intervention unnecessary.
"When we start replaying the moment that you have blocked from your memory," Storm Shadow continued, "I will live it right along with you, as if we were both in your body at the time. Do you understand?"
Sitting next to him and facing him, she nodded, her expression determined.
"There will also be no filters on the memory. We will relive this event exactly, along with any pain you may have felt, both emotional and physical. Do you understand?"
She nodded again without hesitation.
"Then look into my eyes."
She did so, and he stared into hers, nearly getting lost in them. He set his mind to the task, casting part of his spirit away from his own body and into Esuma's eyes, and started the required chant.
6
She screams their names, unable to move, unable to help. Even her voice barely comes out of her throat.
Her mother and her father are about a stone throw away, right next to the monster that came to kill them, white except for an ugly streak of dirty orange going from his heart to his head. She knows the monster is but a henchman, an envoy of the true evil that has decreed their deaths, but it doesn't make it any less dangerous.
She has to do something, she has to save her parents, but she can't do anything. She feels like she has reverted to a helpless child, as though half of her twenty years had never happened.
The monster raises its arms and suddenly, fire erupts everywhere around her parents, blocking them from her view entirely. She hears their screams and the monster's laughter, but again, her own screams seem to die somewhere between her throat and her lips.
The monster's laugh turns to a howl of rage when her parents' screams change to their singing a spell. It's not one she's familiar with, but the words speak of transformation and escape, and she can guess her parents are using their last breath to ensure her safety. A purple ball of light shoots out of the wall of fire, coming straight for her; the monster jumps over the fire, running towards the ball and herself; her parents' voices die as soon as the spell is over as their life is consumed by the fire.
She screams and bounces to her feet, free from the paralyzing spell her parents cast earlier to prevent her from intervening, but before she can take even one step towards them, the purple ball of light engulfs her, and everything stops.
The spell has isolated her from the normal flow of time: the monster's claws are but inches from her, but the beast does not move. Behind it, the flames have stopped as well, and even their heat no longer reaches her. She extends a hand towards the monster's outstretched claws, not really knowing why, just reaching towards something unusual out of instinctive curiosity. Her hand never reaches: before her very eyes, it starts shrinking, and she feels the rest of her body following suit to adopt the disguise chosen by her parents. At the same time, the monster becomes invisible as the purple light engulfs everything. She feels herself propelled forwards in time.
For a long time, the Universe is nothing but purple light. When it finally fades, it leaves nothing but cold and darkness in its place. She cries, terrified, until a pair of big hands picks her up and she finds herself nestled into a warm embrace.
7
Storm Shadow broke the trance, his breathing heavy. He glanced at Racno, who ignored him to brush softly against Esuma's cheek. Falpis nuzzled her side, paying the ninja no mind either.
Esuma's eyes took a while to refocus. When they finally did, she was seized by a violent shiver and she hugged herself with a whimper.
"Esuma? It's alright. Memories cannot harm you… all this is just as much in the past as it was before you remembered it."
"I remembered all along…" Esuma muttered. "There were parts I didn't understand, but all this… it's the dream I've been having, it's the same! I don't understand… they cast a spell! My parents were doing magic, and they were killed by a monster? How is that even possible? Magic's not real! Is it?"
She looked at him pleadingly, as though a word from him would be enough for her World to make sense again.
"Magic is real, but not nearly as common as it used to be," he whispered softly. "I'm sorry. I'm sure this is a lot to swallow."
She laughed nervously.
"I was twenty when they turned me back into a baby… that makes me thirty-six, right? I should be able to handle it like a big girl." She said, her voice shaking on every syllable.
"It doesn't matter how long you've lived; a shock is a shock. I've yet to meet anyone who isn't badly shaken upon discovering magic really does exist, and you've just found out it's at the center of your life."
She started crying then.
"I'm… I'm sorry!" She hiccupped, fruitlessly trying to dry her eyes with her wrists. "I… I just… the monster… monsters aren't real! And this one… he was just… he was just a pawn!"
Storm Shadow swallowed, at a loss over what to do. He wanted to hold her close and kiss the tears away, but he couldn't; he couldn't allow himself these feelings and he most certainly could not act on them, especially now that he knew she returned them.
But he couldn't stand to see her cry like this, confused and frightened, and suddenly feeling as though she was alone in a time where she did not truly belong, feeling as though her whole childhood was but an illusion, the disguise of a runaway woman who had been twenty years old already when the deception had started, when she'd been given the appearance of a baby again.
Twenty, or thirty-six… how could one stay calm when something as basic as one's age turned out to be a lie?
His eyes widened. Her age was a lie… Esuma was not sixteen! Even accepting that she could hardly have matured much repeating her early childhood, she had also lived through her late childhood twice, and that had to count for something, so she was, in equivalence, over twenty. Even without counting any added maturity for her second life at all, which he felt was not reasonable anyway, she was still twenty...it certainly explained her maturity level. Young adult or not, however, she was desperately in need of comfort, she was desperately in need of knowing it was going to work out, that she was not alone in this.
He pulled her close, titled her head back and kissed her soaked cheeks, edging upwards towards her eyes, taking the salty tears away, hoping against hope that removing the evidence of her distress would make her better.
Esuma's eyes popped open wide and her shaking subsided instantly. His eyes met hers and he cupped her chin with his palms, slowly moving towards her lips to give her all the time she could need to stop him, protest, or give any sign that she did not want this.
She closed her eyes and moved into the kiss. Their lips met and all the horror she had just experienced suddenly seemed like a fair price to pay for the bliss she felt now. His lips tasted like dark chocolate, bitter and sweet all at once, alluring and intoxicating. She let herself fall against him when their lips parted, finding refuge, peace and happiness in the strong arms that gently held her just tightly enough.
"When we're alone," she asked softly, "can I call you Asanuma?"
"Absolutely not!" he said sternly.
She pulled away just enough to look up at him in surprise. He chuckled.
"It'd be like you're talking to someone else," he explained. "My name is Tommy."
8
Snake Eyes had had to use all his willpower not to jump on Storm Shadow and violently drag him away from Esuma when the two kissed.
She'd said something about being turned back into a baby when she was twenty, and he knew the hypnotic trance Storm Shadow had used would only reveal the truth, so for now, he had to assume that this was indeed the case and that Esuma could be argued to be an adult.
Beyond the legal technicalities of their relationship, however, he simply knew better than to try and take something away from a teenager and expect them to give up on it. If he was to interfere, to get between Tommy and Esuma, her feelings for him would only grow stronger. It was better to content himself with keeping an eye on things and making sure they didn't go beyond a few kisses and hugs.
At least, Storm Shadow seemed to genuinely care for her in return. It seemed everybody around him was finding love, lately… a fact that did not excuse the irritating feeling of jealousy he was suddenly feeling. He hardened himself against it and set it his mind to concentrate on his duties.