Short summary: Yamuraiha finds out about her one-night stand with Sharrkan and she is not happy.
Halves of a Whole (4)
Don't Leave Me This Way
Yamuraiha stirred and blinked open heavy eyes. She moaned between gritted teeth. Tired muscles screamed in protest as she fought to sit up. Gravity did not want to agree with her this morning. Her head felt like she kept a rock caged in her skull, a rock that pounded at the temples and threatened her to set it free. She gave up and let her head fall back into the pillows.
Someone stirred beside her. Wait, someone?
Her eyes flew wide. Then she hissed, "Oh shit!"
The man she loathed with every fiber of her being, hated with the passion of a thousand splendid suns, somehow ended up in her bed asleep. And buck-ass naked. He rolled over, his tousled white hair falling over closed eyes and a smirk spread across his face as he crooned, "Mmm baby, let's do it one more time. You and me..."
Her hand whipped out to slap Sharrkan in the face.
"Oww! What the...?"
"Get out, get out, get out! Off of my bed now!"
At her panicked screams, he stumbled out in a daze. "Jeez woman, what got your panties up in a bunch?"
She stiffened. Her underwear was literally across the room, where he had tossed it last night. "Did you really have to ask it like that?" She fixed him with a scowl that could cook rare steak. "I'll tell you what's wrong, in case it isn't obvious: you slept with me!"
He had dragged the blanket along with him. She chucked a pillow at his bare chest. "For God's sake, put some clothes on."
He whirled around to forage for his tunic amid the messy bedroom, giving her a generous view of his buttocks. Yamuraiha's face flushed red. Her eyes screwed shut and she turned away in embarrassment. She didn't open them until she heard the bathroom door close.
Sharrkan changed into his clothes as fast as he could, relieved to elude her wrath even if only for a short time. He tried hard not to think about it, but memories of last night flooded back into his mind anyway, filling him with warmth and tingling pleasure.
Now he remembered. Every dirty little detail. He blushed at the thoughts and fought back a gleeful grin. They drank, they talked, and they spent the night in her bed. He guessed they spent it well and good, because every muscle in his abdomen ached every time he moved. The same kind of ache he got from day-long sword practice. Did he really go down on her that hard and for that long?
Yamuraiha sat in bed alone, and feeling sore all over. It made her ashamed to think for even a second that it felt good. Tears pooled in her eyes and ran down her face. Despite her efforts to control herself she devolved into a blubbering, emotional wreck. She buried her face into the blankets and sobbed.
Sharrkan cracked open the bathroom door and peeked through, careful not to stick his head out too far. He didn't want to get hit again. If he hoped to come out finding her in a better mood, he was sorely mistaken.
"Yamuraiha? Hey, you okay?"
He picked up her tunic from the floor and offered it to her. He nudged her shoulder. She grabbed it from him but didn't change into it. Instead she used it as more fabric to hide behind. She said nothing for what seemed like forever. Sharrkan tensed and waited.
Finally her reply came out muffled: "I swear, if I find out you knocked me up, I'll kill you."
"You might not want that in the long run. Sinbad and Sindria need both of us. Besides, I can be there for you."
Yamuraiha hunched her bare shoulders. "I take care of myself, thank you very much. I've been doing that for as long as I can remember." Tears sprang to her eyes again. "I have no one and I've always been alone."
"It doesn't have to be that way forever."
"What do you mean?"
"What I said earlier."
"About you being there for me? Yeah right." Her voice rose with each second. "You'll do what every guy does in this messed up situation. You're just going to run away. You'll leave me to wallow in my own heartbreak and tears. You'll go back to swinging around that stupid sword of yours like you don't give a-"
"Yamuraiha, stop. I do give a damn, okay? And I won't run away."
What had been shouts before was now a shaky whisper. "You...you won't?"
"I'm done doing that." He tasted bitterness in his mouth when he remembered his parents and his older brother Armakan, all fed up with his failures and wanted nothing to do with the rest of his life. He met her eyes, eyes filled with panic and loneliness. "I know what it's like to be abandoned. I pretend I'm okay, but deep down it hurts. I won't give you that same pain."
Her eyes still swam in tears, but he saw her cheeks mellow as she made a small smile.
"Are we really in this together?" she asked. "Whatever happens?"
"Yeah. I'll never leave you, Yamuraiha. That's a promise."
Last night was a stupid mistske. But at least they could go through the consequences of that stupid mistake together. She decided then that maybe she didn't hate him so much after all.