Chapter 47 - Black Iris

Yakata slept in the next day, despite his excitement. He couldn't help it. Everything ached, everything burned, but it had been a sleep of profound and wonderful satisfaction.

Ino almost had to gasp when he came down in the early afternoon for lunch. "Yakata-kun, what happened to your face?"

He had bandages plastered to it, placed there the night before. He'd had to sleep on his back, because his cheeks were too sore to press against the pillows.

"I, I think I'm a little burnt from, from training last night," he said. His smile was necessarily small. "I tried to treat it a bit myself…"

"Oh you poor dear, just look at you." She went up to him with both hands raised. "I hate burns, they're so difficult to heal properly… Here, give me your arms at least. I won't be able to do a thing to your face, but…"

"It, it's okay, Ino-san, it, it doesn't hurt that much." But he gave her his arms anyways. She unwrapped the bandages and found the skin was red and peeling, and sticky from the ointment he'd applied. He was learning.

"Well, either way…" Her hands glowed that pale blue-green, and she kept her eyes on them, watching, feeling the flesh beneath the dead skin slowly heal itself. "What do you want me to make you for lunch, before we leave?"

"Be-before we leave?"

"Mhm. I'll be dropping you off before I get groceries today."

"Dropping… dropping me off where?"

She looked up from her work. "Well, the flower shop, of course. Sasuke told me last night all about what you did."

His smile hurt, it was so big. "You, you mean he really meant it?"

Back to his arms, with a careful smile. "Well of course he did, he's not a man to break his promises… Especially not to you, Yakata-kun."

A laugh. "Well, um, uh, I'll, I'll have anything for lunch! Anything's fine!"

"That sounds fine." She took her hands off of him. "Scrub your arms with lots of soap and water, now. I'll get fresh bandages for you."

He ate his lunch with a stinging mouth and stiff arms, and he wore rubber gloves when he helped her clean up afterwards.

She kept him very close to her, on their way over. She carried a brown leather handbag under her shoulder, and walked with a quick pace.

There was a strange parade of emotions that rolled across his eyes as they began to approach the shop. Wide, shining excitement was there, but it was just as quickly replaced by a dull almost-fear.

"Um. Um. Um, Ino-san?"

"Yes?" She leaned in closely, almost unable to hear him over the sound of the nearby transport station.

"I, I um. I promised Sasuke-san that I, I wouldn't, um. That, that I wouldn't t-talk to Nadeshiko. If she was there. But, but if she is there, what, what should I, um. Do…?"

(His hunched shoulders and his face reminded Ino, heartbreakingly, of a much-younger Inou. Takeru and Hajime had never been so open with their emotions.)

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him. A little broken promise here and there is fine."

There, his eyes widened slightly, hopefully. "Y-you really mean it?"

"Trust me, Yakata-kun. I'm speaking from experience." Ino winked at him, smiling.

(Oh, but Ino's lies and broken promises were so much greater than associating with her stain of a daughter.)

(Then again, the things that Sasuke held dear were so very different from hers.)

They approached the entrance. "Now, I'm planning on picking you up in a few hours, but if Nadeshiko offers to bring you home… well, I'd be inclined to go with her. It'd be nice."

Yakata's mouth was tightly pinched.

"…or I'll just pick you up as scheduled. Don't worry so much about what we need to do, okay?" She patted him on the back and scooted him toward the shop. "Daddy, dearest, we have a surprise guest!"

Inoichi looked so very, genuinely surprised. "Yakata-kun!"

"H-hi there, Inoichi-san." Yakata wiggled his fingers in a hesitant hello.

"Well what brings you back? And what happened to your face?" He chuckled. "You look like a roast ham."

"Yakata-kun can tell you everything later. I've got shopping to do!" She ducked out with an petal-like wave of the hand. "I'll be back eventually! Ta!"

Somehow, Yakata didn't feel so terribly alone with Ino gone. He smiled, slightly.

"So, really. The bandages?"

"I, I got a little hurt practicing a new technique with, with, um, Sasuke-san." He scratched the corner of his mouth with a finger. "It, um. It's actually the reason I'm, I'm even here, so…"

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Sasuke-san said, um. Well I, I kinda made a deal with him, actually… But, but he said when I learned the technique that I could come back and, and work at the shop again…" Yakata shuffled his feet. "Kinda… kinda silly, right?"

"Well I certainly think it's something. That's very impressive." Inoichi leaned amicably against the till and smiled a smile that wrinkled his eyes. "I'm glad to see you back, boy. I missed you."

"I, I missed you too, Inoichi-san. I'm, um. I'm glad to be back." He looked up, shyly, with a little smile. "So, um. Is, is, is there, is there anything I, I can, um. Do for you today…?"

"Well Nadeshiko's in the back doing the usual, but I don't know if she, ah… wants to be disturbed, right now."

"Ah…"

"Though…" Inoichi looked at Yakata over the top of his glasses, "I get the feeling she'd be very glad to see you anyways."

Yakata nodded, gulping air. "O-okay."

He could see her there in the back room, hair almost brushing the floor behind her from where she sat. He approached cautiously, slowly, his hands pulled to his chest, thumbs touching thumbs.

"Um, Nadeshiko-san…?"

"Hello, Yakata-kun. I didn't expect to see you back." She didn't turn to look at him, instead binding together a pair of lilac blossoms with tape.

"I, I, I, um. Well I didn't, either, really…"

No reply.

"Would you, um. Would you like me to help you with arrangements today, Nadeshiko-san…?"

No reply.

Yakata's chest began to ache. "Oh, um, I, I'm sorry, I'll, I'll just, I'll just go help Inoichi-san then…"

But as he was leaving, he saw her head move out of the corner of his eye, and she spoke.

"Did you really make a deal like that with my father, to come back here?"

Her face carried that same, unbearably empty pain in it, the same he had seen on that day with Yatsu.

And Yakata nodded, trying to look at her and not his feet. "It, it seemed only fair, 'cos, 'cos he was so concerned with me, um. Not, not wasting time. So I… proved I could still do well. An' come back… here."

She blinked, once, twice. "I recognize those burns. The Uchiha fireball technique, isn't it."

"Y-yeah… You learned it too?"

When she lowered her eyes, it looked like they were closed. "Once. A long time ago."

"Ah…"

There was a long pause.

"I'll, I'll just, uh. I'll just go then…"

She spoke again before he could leave. "You didn't have to… push yourself so far, for this. It's not really worth it."

"…I, I really wanted to… to come back, though," Yakata said. "I, I couldn't stand being away. …stupid, I know…"

She looked up. "I don't… think it's stupid."

And she smiled.

(And his heart felt just that much lighter.)

"I'm glad you were able to come back. I'm just sad you're so hurt."

"Aw, it's… it's not so bad, and it'll, it'll heal anyways…" Yakata said. He looked down, sideways, his feet shifting weight. "But… thanks."

She pulled out the stool beside her. "I could use a little help," she said. "Some lily-of-the-valley, if you can? I'm going for a vertical look with this arrangement."

"Oh, sure, right away!"

He settled back into his role as if it had been made for him, and his face no longer even seemed to burn, so much as it seemed to glow with the happiness and relief he was feeling.

Though there was so much tension still left in his stomach, and none of it was settled by the fact that Nadeshiko was staying so very, very quiet. Her only speech was to request a flower, a ribbon, a tool. Nothing more, nothing less.

He managed to ask her, an hour, two hours later—he couldn't tell—after salvaging the courage he thought he'd had, "Where have you, um. Where have you been, by the way…? Because you, I haven't seen you in the… house…"

She took her time in finishing a section of the bouquet before answering. "I've been staying at my grandfather's house. I figured it would make things easier."

"M-make what easier?"

She didn't answer that.

He felt shameful for shattering what had been an otherwise peaceful silence.

More time passed, pleasantly, painfully. Yakata gathered bravery like shells on the beach, bit by tiny bit, though his back ached from stooping over so much.

He spent a small amount in asking, once the orders had all been filled.

("I always seem to get done so much faster with you around," she had said, and the compliment fell heavily into his stomach.)

She was almost ready to begin on another project, but, "Um, Nadeshiko-san, would you, um. Walk home with me? 'Cos we're, we're almost all done here, see, and…"

"Wasn't my mother going to come and pick you up?"

He sucked in another breath. "I-I'd like to go back with you, though. If, if, if that… if that's okay, I mean…"

He couldn't explain why she looked so very sad when she said, "All right, just help me clean up, then."

So he did. He had to. And he told Inoichi to pass the message on to Ino about where they were going.

They left for home.

Together.

Silently.

With only the sounds of the rumbling transports for company.

Yakata was almost regretting what he had done. She had nothing more to do but surely she liked being at the shop just as much as he did, so who was he to take her from there?

But he wanted to walk home with her.

His courage weighed heavily in his guts.

And suddenly they were at the gates of the Uchiha house. "I'll be heading back, now," she said, quietly.

"A-aren't you coming in?" Yakata said.

"I'll probably continue staying at my grandfather's for a while longer; all my things are still there."

Twist. "O-oh, I… I see…"

"Goodbye, Yakata-kun. It was very nice to see you again."

She turned to leave.

He kept his courage from rising in his throat and instead pushed it into his arm, and he grabbed the string of her purse. "Na-Nadeshiko-san, wait…!"

She turned around. "What is it," she said.

"I'm." He gulped. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry for, for asking this, but…"

("Why don't you ask her about it sometime?")

"…Nadeshiko-san, why does, why does… your father hate you so much…?"

She didn't say anything.

"I, I, I, I'm only asking because I saw… I saw how badly he, he hurt you the other day, and, and, and I just want to know what happened…"

She didn't say anything.

Yakata's shoulders rose to his ears and he closed his eyes, tightly.

"…I'm sorry, I'm, I'm sorry, if you… if you don't want to talk about it that's… that's okay, I'm, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked…"

She put a hand on his shoulder. "It's… okay, Yakata-kun. I… heard you, that night. Behind my door. And I heard the things you and Takeru were saying."

He looked up at her.

She wore that same smile that her mother, that her brother had worn.

But hers was far, far sadder.

"I'm very sorry for worrying you. It's not fair."

He swallowed. "I just… want to know what's going on…" he said, quietly, shamefully.

And Nadeshiko looked down, and sideways. "…I did something, a long time ago. Something unforgivable."

His stomach twisted like someone's hand was around it.

"Wha-wha-what did… what did you do…?" Yakata's voice was almost a whisper.

There was another pause, a very long one.

"…Yakata-kun, I want you to help me with something very important tomorrow. Can you do that?"

Twist.

Tomorrow was a Saturday.

("She's always gone on Saturdays. I figured she'd tell you.")

"Well, well of course, I'll, of course I'll help you. What do, what do you need me to do?"

"Just come to the flower shop, as usual. You can have my mother take you. I'll explain everything then. I promise."

Hers was a smile that preluded tears.

(Though if they were her tears or Yakata's had yet to be seen.)

"O-okay, Nadeshiko-san. I'll do that."

"Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow."

She turned to leave and.

("She didn't do anything to you, did she?")

"Nadeshiko-san!"

Yakata didn't know why he was yelling, nor so desperately.

She just barely turned around. "Yes?"

"You… you wouldn't hurt..." Me, me, me, she would never hurt—"a-anyone, would you? Takeru, he, he told me—Nadeshiko-san, you wouldn't hurt anyone, would you?"

His heart beat, loudly, loudly, loudly in his ears, for every second that she didn't answer.

"…I don't… ever want to hurt you, Yakata-kun. You or anyone else."

It was an answer that filled him with a hollow, spiked parody of satisfaction, and it did not leave him comfortable.

His mind floated above his head for the rest of the evening.

When Ino came home, when he helped her cook, when he ate his meal, when he settled down for training with Sasuke.

(Sasuke, who, with a smug cheerfulness, asked him how his time at the flower shop had been, and all Yakata could say was, "It, it was all right, I, I guess…")

And he did not sleep easily, at all.

All he could think of was Nadeshiko.

"…I don't… ever want to hurt you, Yakata-kun."

Takeru.

"She could hurt you, and something tells me you'd hardly deserve it if she did."

Nadeshiko.

"You or… anyone else."

Takeru.

"I didn't say that she was going to hurt you."

She would, she would never.

"I just said that she could."

(She could, she could, that was what was going on, she could.)

But she didn't want to.

(But how.)

Yatsu. A gentle, quiet, strangling.

Those eyes on that day.

"I don't let people near me for a reason."

That was the reason, that was, wasn't it?

"She can't hurt you if you're not near her, after all."

Yakata closed his eyes tightly and he hugged his pillow.

She wouldn't.

She would explain everything.

She promised.