"Just stretch out, it's not that big of a deal," Raido laughed, setting down his beer, "Why are you so nervous?"

The question only made Kana scrunch up more on the loveseat to keep her little piggies away from him. "The last time I let one of you touch my feet, you let Gen tickle me until I cried."

His response was only to roll his eyes and reach across the length of the loveseat towards her; she could only squirm as his hands caught her ankles in a vice grip and pulled them into his lap. "Relax," he assured her, "I promise I'm not going to tickle you. Let me do this for you." Raido's hold on her softened when she finally allowed her legs to relax.

At first, nothing seemed to be happening; the pads of his thumb rubbed gentle circles around her ankle bone, the rest of his hand was motionless. The way he stared at her feet was as if he was memorizing the patterns of the veins that peeked through her translucent skin. Kana had to fight the urge to pull away in embarrassment just before he lifted his left hand and lazily traced unrecognizable patterns into her skin with the very tip of his index finger.

Goosebumps appeared along her legs and arms from the sensation, though it didn't tickle enough for her to flinch and pull away. Raido's fingertips lightly trailed up her foot along the bones until he reached the tops of her toes, then moved back to her ankle. The way he touched her skin was as if she were made of glass, and too much pressure would cause her to break - Kana marveled at how he could transition from being the strong, powerful swordsman tasked with protecting their Hokage, to treating her as if she were the most fragile being in the world.

As if reading her mind, Raido moved his hand to the bottom of her foot and began kneading the outer edge of the skin with his thumbs. It was a firm, but gentle, touch that caused her to realize just how much her feet had been aching. Kana sighed and allowed herself to completely relax in his lap, enjoying the feeling of warm and calloused hands rub away at the ache.

His thumb rubbed into the arch of her foot and she flinched as he hit something tender. Instead of letting go, Raido firmly held her foot in place with his right hand and used the middle knuckle of his left thumb to dig into the same spot.

Kana made a pathetic whimpering noise and sat up from the arm of the couch. Leaning forward, her hands tried to peel his long fingers away but it only brought the opposite effect. "That hurts…" she mumbled, her hands resting over his as she rested her chin on her bent knees, "I thought this was supposed to feel good."

"You have a muscle knot the size of a ping pong ball, Kana, it needs to be worked out or else you could hurt yourself." To emphasize his point Raido kneaded the flat part of his thumb into the same spot, seeming to ignore her squirms, curses and groans of discomfort.

thankfully, the pain eventually melted away as the bump smoothed out beneath his hands as they worked skillfully into the muscle. Before she knew what she was doing, Kana leaned to the side so that her body rested against the back of the loveseat and set her head down on the man's broad shoulder. Her hands left her feet, one falling to the side to the seat cushion and the other winding around his bicep to hold it to her chest.

She wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep, but when Kana woke up there was a large fluffy blanket draped over her shoulders. Warm puffs of air caused her loose hair to tickle her nose, and it wasn't until she tried to brush it out of her face that she realized she was bound.

Years of training kicked in instantaneously as adrenaline began to course through her body, but a familiar voice cut through her panicked thoughts like a hot knife through butter.

"It's just me, Kana."

She had to rub her blurry eyes to see him clearly, but when Kana tilted her head up she could see Raido was gazing down at her affectionately, if not with a touch of worry. The heart that was pounding against her ribcage as if it was trying to break through the bone began to slow, and she closed her eyes to let the anxiety wash over her. One of the arms he had wrapped around her torso rubbed at her skin reassuringly and he leaned down to kiss Kana's cheek.

'That's right… I dropped by his new apartment with dinner and…' She remembered his hands massaging her foot, lightly tracing the veins in her skin, and blushed.

"Did you sleep well?" Raido asked lightheartedly, knowing she wouldn't want to dwell on her minor panic.

Kana hummed her approval and relaxed back against his chest, taking in that familiar scent of wood and musk as she listened to his heart beat. The gentle rocking provided by his breathing combined with the warmth of their shared body heat being trapped by the warm blanket cause the woman's eyes to flutter shut.

"Rai?"

"Hm?"

"I like this," she murmured.

A hand dragged its way up her body to hook a calloused finger beneath her chin and tilt Kana's sleepy face up. Their lips pressed together in a slow, tender kiss; she smiled tiredly at how good Raido tasted. There was still the faint tang of beer, but it didn't bother her. If it meant being able to be close to him like this, feeling him breathe against her cheek through his nose and listening to the small sounds of their lips moving together, he could taste like death and she wouldn't mind. Kana took the hand under her chin in her own and laced their fingers together, holding his hand in her lap with a sigh.

The kiss lasted for only a few moments before he broke the seal to kiss her forehead, "I'm sorry I didn't do this right," he said in a low voice. The arm around her waist tightened and he slumped into the sofa cushions so that Kana was practically laying on top of him, "I wish I had taken the time to properly romance you."

Kana nuzzled his neck as her eyes slid shut again, "Our lives aren't romantic, Rai. We're not characters in a novel… No dramatic crescendo for us."

"I'm aware of that," he yawned as sleep began to claim him as well, "But I still wanted to take things slow… Everything about our lives is so… Fast pa-ced…"His words were cut off by another yawn.

"You're so tired," she giggled sleepily, "Just go to bed."

Raido's chest rumbled with his own throaty laugh, "Only if you carry me."

The woman rolled her eyes but pushed herself up so they could make their way to the bedroom. The apartment was still bare, as Raido had no time or interest for shopping, but Kana was glad that he had at least purchased a bed for himself.

When the tokujo was properly snuggled under the dark blue covers, Raido placed a kiss on the back of the hand she held his in, "I'm serious about us, Kana. I don't want to rush this."

Kana hummed with a shrug, too exhausted to respond in any other way. She didn't know why he was so insistent on starting over, in a way, but she knew that it was a conversation that would need to wait until later. Her mission started in 8 hours and they were both too out of it to have a proper conversation.

"Are you going back to the barracks tonight?" he asked, failing to hide the keenness in his expression.

The thought of sleeping anywhere but in her own bed made her skin crawl. Kana had traps placed all over her apartment when she lived in one, and the only people she had actually slept in the same bed with that weren't Neji or Guy – people she considered to be her family members – were Kakashi and Lee. Sleeping in the barracks was something she always genuinely appreciated, even if it meant there was a total lack of privacy; being with her brothers and sisters in arms made her feel safe.

Still, she couldn't help but recall Genma's words from the day they had a sort of define-the-relationship disaster. "I saw the way your hands lingered, and I saw how he let you."

Kana was completely aware of how much trust the man next to her had placed in her. Raido was known for being a private person that didn't let a whole lot of people in – he didn't intentionally push people away, like she used to, but he was the type that simply kept people at arm's length.

On a whim, she pulled the covers down to his hips and dipped her hand beneath the hem of his t-shirt. As Kana's palm flattened over his belly and slid upwards over his ribcage, she remembered the first time he let her touch him like this.

Her hands were firmly planted on Raido's forearms, which was one of places she knew were "Safe" to touch, as he hovered over her body and rocked into her. The pair had an unspoken rule between them that Kana wouldn't touch his scars, and he wouldn't do anything that would render her immobile - that didn't leave much room for her, though, considering how much of the right side of his body the scarring covered, so she settled with bracing herself on the lower part of Raido's arms, feeling the muscles cord with his movements.

His dark eyes rolled back slightly when Kana hooked her heels behind his thighs to pull him closer, gasping out a moan when his hips were completely flattened against hers. It hurt to have Raido all of the way in like this, but the pain was mitigated by the sharp sensation of pleasure as he struck the sensitive bundle of nerves.

"Fuck, Kana," he groaned, slowing his pace to roll their hips together, "I'm not gonna last much longer like this." Raido groaned again when she intentionally tightened around him and bucked her hips upwards into his.

Sex between them was always feverish and laced with the anxiety caused by more difficult missions, full of heavy petting and sweat as they frantically searched for their release. It was something they both had been content with, but there were times where Raido insisted on taking things slowly, to savor the feeling of being with someone. It was almost infuriating at first, feeling the man slow from his normally aggressive pace to one that was more of a gentle rocking, but when Kana tore her eyes away from where their hips connected to meet his gaze, his expression wiped her irritation away.

Raido was looking down at her through half-lidded eyes that were sad and needy and passionate all at the same time, each emotion warring behind those dark irises to fight for dominance. He released her hips to lean down and brace himself on the forearms he placed on either side of Kana's head, resting their sweaty foreheads together but keeping their gazes locked as he sank deeper into her body.

His shallow breathing hitched when Kana's hands snaked under the navy jersey he still wore, smoothing over his hips and fingers splaying along his flank as they rested just below his rib cage; she felt around with her right hand until her thumb found his floating rib. Raido released a small grunt of surprise when the pad of her thumb pressed into the small bundle of nerves on the very tip of his rib, massaging the small area in measured, gentle circles, and pressed their hips flush again in response with an encouraging moan.

The very edges of her lips twitched upwards in a satisfied smile as she watched how responsive the man was to her touch, just like he always was. Kana had discovered the spot by accident a couple of months back and apologized, thinking she had tickled him, until she saw that his pants had almost immediately developed a bulge. She didn't touch it very often, but Kana was experimenting.

Raido's expression changed as her other hand traveled upwards, past the bottom ribs and ghosting over the very edges of the wealed flesh; nervousness was thrown into the already chaotic pool of emotions he wore on his face, and his hips slowed to a crawl that was only providing just enough of that delicious friction to keep them both going.

"Kana…" he warned through clenched teeth.

She added more pressure to the thumb that still circled the tip of his floating rib, curling her hand to pinch at the hypersensitive bundle of nerves there, "Please trust me, Rairai."

When her hand flattened over his chest, Raido released a choked whimper and screwed his eyes shut against the contact; she kept her hand still and tilted her face upwards to seal their lips in a tender kiss. His mouth was still at first, only parting far enough for his shallow breaths to escape, but Kana kept working her lips against his until he tentatively kissed her back.

The thundering heartbeat beneath her palm told her that she was treading on thin ice, but Raido wasn't making any move to stop her so Kana smoothed her hand up to the curve of his shoulder and explored the new part of his body, feeling every rise and fall of the marred skin's puckered ridges. The flesh was surprisingly soft beneath the pads of her curious fingers, she noted, and Kana felt an overwhelming need for more wash over her without warning.

She realized that the hand she held on his rib had stopped moving as she focused all of her attention on this new sensation and removed it from under his shirt, which had been pulled up to reveal his stomach by this point, to cup Raido's flushed cheek.

"Look at me," she commanded softly, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Kana could feel his anxiety building as he hesitated, so she placed a chaste kiss on his right cheek; she kissed the tip of his nose when his dark eyes fluttered open. "Take your shirt off."

Alarm flashed across his face, and his hips stopped moving entirely, "Wh-what?"

Kana slid her hand from his shoulder down to rest on his hip, suddenly wondering if she was crossing a line – no, she knew she was crossing a line. She only wondered if she was about to cause irreparable damage to their friendship by doing so. "I want to see your body, Raido."

When he pulled away, her chest constricted as panic slammed into her body. 'Shit, shit, I fucked up,' she screamed internally, 'What have I done? Rai, I'm sorry-'

Her frantic thoughts were soon brought to a screeching halt when she realized Raido was only sitting back on his heels and not separating himself from her. Kana's heart began to race as he took a deep breath and swiftly pulled the jersey over his head, tossing it somewhere she didn't give a flying fuck about because for the first time in the year they've been having sex, and the year and a half they had been friends, Raido was completely naked.

"Oh, Rai…" was all she managed to say; Kana was literally speechless as she drank him in.

The scar wasn't something she could possibly put into words – it looked as if he had taken some sort of fire jutsu to the chest, just over his heart, and the flames extended halfway down his ribs and to his elbow. The skin was only a little discolored at the epicenter, his natural tan tinged by a shade of maroon, but it faded unevenly as the puckered, weal-like skin continued outwards.

Her eyes looked over him greedily, trying to memorize every freckle and unnatural ridge she could find.

It was beautiful.

Despite Raido having become flaccid as the silence wore on, she felt disappointed to feel him slide out of her body as he finally pulled away. The entire time he had only stared straight ahead at the wall and, as he pulled the duvet back to crawl between the sheets, he kept his eyes on anything that wasn't Kana. It occurred to her that he took her long silence as a negative reaction.

"Can… Can you please go now?" he asked in a small, almost broken voice that made Kana's gut twist sickeningly.

She didn't know what to do – she had already been well aware of how she had been pushing Raido by touching his chest under the shirt, and asking him to remove the layer of clothing he always kept on was crossing a very firm line that had been drawn when they first got together like this. Watching the strong, proud man curl into himself like this killed Kana, especially when it was her fault he felt like this, but she wasn't sure if it was her place to try to fix things.

A trembling hand reached out to touch his right shoulder tentatively, fingertips only ghosting across his warm flesh; her throat tightened when Raido almost violently flinched away from her touch.

"Rai… I'm… I'm sorry," she half-whispered, "I didn't mean to… I mean…" 'Fuck, Kana, use your goddamn brain and let him know what you're thinking. He's one of your best friends, you can't lose him!'

"Just go, Kana." The hurt and shame in his voice made her heart drop straight into her stomach. "Please."

Kana squeezed her eyes shut and pressed the heels of her palms into them until little red and yellow clouds formed as she desperately tried to put her thoughts into words. "I-I know what you're thinking… Rai, I don't hate them," she said softly, surprised at how much her voice wavered, while reaching out for him again, "Please, don't hide yourself from me."

A breath she wasn't aware she was holding was released in a long whoosh when Raido didn't wince under her touch this time, even if he still visibly tensed. Using the hand she had on his shoulder, Kana pulled him towards her so that he was lying on his back and rolled over his body to straddle his hips. Seeing Raido beneath her like this, eyes brimming with unshed tears and looking as if he was attempting to flatten into the bed and disappear…Knowing that she was at fault, that she had inflicted this upon him, made her feel like a monster.

Looking down at his marred chest, she wanted nothing more than to touch and kiss away every ounce of self hatred and insecurities he held. But she was scared. Kana was afraid to touch him. She was afraid to make things even worse.

Even so, she knew that the longer she just sat there staring the worse things would get for Raido. And if she left now, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to save what they had – whatever that was.

"I-I don't know what to do," she admitted weakly, "I want to touch you, and hold you and kiss you and feel close to you and tell you how perfect you are… But I don't know what you want. I don't know if I should leave or stay or come back later or-"

Her words came to an abrupt halt when Raido took her wrists in his large hands and placed them directly over his chest, one on each side, with an intensely raw expression that did nothing to uncoil the cold wire that was wrapped around Kana's chest. He was obviously uneasy so, instead of doing exactly what she wanted, the kunoichi lowered herself over his body, sliding her hands up his chest and around his neck to entangle them into Raido's spiky brown hair.

"Kiss me, Kana," he breathed, lips brushing against hers, "I want to taste you. I want to feel your hands on me." The hands he had been fisting the sheets with snaked into her hair, "And I don't want you to stop."

It was the first time they had made love, she realized.

A hand shaking her shoulder snapped Kana out of her musings; she must have looked really out of it because when she looked down at the man, the concern in his gaze was only slightly attenuated by tenderness.

"Are you okay?" Judging by his tone, this wasn't the first time he had asked the question.

Kana smiled and lowered herself to place her lips on his chest, sealing the discolored scarring in a long, tender kiss before leaning up for a chaste kiss on Raido's mouth. When her eyes opened, he looked confused but more tired than anything else.

The grin she wore only widened against his lips, "I think I'll stay the night."