Darui exhaled, rubbing his hands over his face in the small ryokan in the Land of Hot Water. Their ship would be arriving tomorrow to carry them back to the Land of Lightning. In the meantime, Ay ordered them to stop on account of the three traumatized genin. He could hear the Raikage in the next room talking in low tones to the teenagers about the horrors of war. More than a debriefing, it was part of the psychological evaluation he had made mandatory when he became Raikage.

The door creaked open, and he glanced up at C.

"Is she still sleeping?" C asked.

"Yeah. She came to a bit ago. She thinks she's being interrogated by us. All she gave me was her name and some shinobi ID number from Konoha."

"I'm sorry, man."

"How's Samui?"

C shrugged and sat down on the opposite futon. "Still holding Atsui. She hasn't let him go since we got here. She's convinced he almost died."

"That's dull, I had it well in hand."

"The repair job I did on your shoulder suggests otherwise."

"Are you sure she's not in pain?"

C sighed. "I have no guarantee. It's not like I have imaging equipment. You said it was her head? There's a reason we do MRI and CT in the hospital. The lightning chakra makes everything fuzzy. It's all well and good for most fixes, but the brain? Even Mina doesn't touch brains without imaging."

Mina groaned and sat up in the bed. She stiffened when she saw the two men. Her breaths came quickly as she hyperventilated.

"Easy, baby, easy," Darui coaxed. "We're the last people on the planet that would hurt you. That's C, one of your best friends. And I'm Darui, your…mission partner."

"Bullshit," she rasped. "If that's true, then let me go home."

"We are taking you home," C said, leaning back on his hands.

"Konoha is my home. I don't even know you. Except maybe you," she met Darui's eyes. "You attacked me on that bridge, didn't you? Stabbed me half to death and didn't think I'd recognize you."

Darui reared back as though he'd been slapped. "Mina, I could never raise a hand to you, let alone stab you."

"Holy heck," C muttered. "I'm going to go check on Samui."

Darui nodded at him. "You know me, baby. You know me. I know you."

"No, you don't. You couldn't possibly."

"I do. I know you take eleven cubes of sugar in your coffee. Honey in your tea. You cry when a book has a sad ending. Any stray animal you've come across, you've fed. I couldn't tell you how often I find dog biscuits stuffed in our mission bags."

He tried to move closer and she recoiled, frantically shaking her head. "Okay, I won't touch you. What would convince you?"

"Nothing. I want to go home." She gasped in pain and slammed the heel of her hand against her forehead. Green chakra lit between her palm and head.

"You were diagnosed with endometriosis when you were seventeen. S had died the year before, and you were terrified. Samui held your hand during the appointment with the lady doctor. You cried when she told you that you probably would never bear children because of the scar tissue that remained from your childhood injury. Up until then, you said you wanted them after you turned twenty-five. You had wanted to retire from being a shinobi-recovery medic to be a resident physician at the hospital to raise them. It was one of the reasons you took the correspondence courses from the university and got your medical degree at fifteen.

"C went into surgery with you to make sure they removed all of the extra tissue that was causing you so much pain. You wanted someone with you, and I wasn't qualified to walk behind that red line. He went instead. The person you really wanted was S. I brought his old lab coat to the hospital. And a bouquet of daisies."

She could see the coat, boxy and shapeless. It hung on a hook in her office, dark blue embroidery on the right side. Years later, she could still smell him. His stethoscope lived in her pocket, a scratched silver with a small panda ornament for the kids. She could almost smell the hospital room, and the mountain scented detergent the hospital used.

A tear slipped down her cheek, and she stifled a cry. Holding her knees to her chest, she dropped her head down.

"Mina, let me touch you, please."

"Okay…"

"Okay." He picked her up and held her against his chest, still wrapped in the blanket. Leaning over her, he picked up a small tissue box and passed it over. "Still not completely convinced though, are you?"

"No."

"Alright, I can keep going. We lost our virginity together when we were fifteen." A blush rose on the tops of his cheeks, but he held her closer. "I, uh, Sandaime-sama was beating me into the ground every day. There was this one day I felt like I could barely move. But I had plans to meet with you; for what, I don't really remember. You told me to lay down on your bed so you could rub the pain away. So, you took S's massive jar of cocoa butter and massaged my back. You still use a lavender-scented version of it every morning, and whenever you rub me. Honestly, I get a little hard smelling the stuff."

As he intended, she snorted a laugh. He dared to kiss the crown of her head, relaxing when she didn't fight him.

"One thing led to another. We were making out, and you were worried S would walk in on us, so I summoned Hina but locked her out in the living room. After we had, uh…you cried. We didn't fit together right away, so it hurt when we tried that first time. I didn't know what to do, so I tried to bring in Hina to comfort you. She always liked you better. When I opened your bedroom door, there were these goose feathers everywhere. Her muzzle was covered in them. The floor, the walls. Everywhere."

Mina felt the feathers float to her cheek, making her forget the soreness between her legs. She could feel the belly laughter as the two teenagers looked at each other. S's prized pillow set imported from the Land of Iron lay in ruined shambles on the floor. An incriminating chicken bone lay on top of the pile of feathers.

"We laughed…you kept muttering that you were dead meat…" Mina said quietly. "She thought birds were inside the pillows because of the chicken bone."

"Yeah. That's right," his voice broke. "That's right."

"Darui…I'm scared."

He placed his hand under her chin and gently tilted her face up. "I love you, Mina. I will face this world together with you. I won't abandon you. I won't leave you. I promise."

She clutched his shirt and closed her eyes. His lips met hers gently, at first. He was her home. She felt the last vestiges of the genjutsu fall away as he deepened the kiss.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she cried, burying her face in the side of his neck. "I'm so sorry."

He took a calming breath and rearranged the blanket on her shoulder. "Tell me, baby. Tell me what they did to you."

"I was coming home to you. I was leaving that afternoon," she sobbed. "I was coming home to you."

"I believe you."

"I was coming home to you…"

He hushed her, and helplessly stroked her hair as she fell apart in his arms. Anger burned in his gut at the man that did this to her. She slowly and tearfully recounted everything that had happened in the last eight months. When there weren't any tears left to shed, she fell back to sleep, and he carefully tucked her under the covers.

"Sleep, baby. I'm going to find Samui for you," he whispered.

The Ryokan courtyard was abuzz with the chirping of the summer cicadas. Fragrant jasmine and lilies perfumed the humid air while the steam of the hot springs floated above fenced areas. As Darui paced along the paving stones of a small patio, his thoughts spun wildly in his mind. He braced his arms on the back of his head and focused on his breathing. C quietly closed an exterior door and walked over.

"Why'd you want to come all the way out here?" C asked.

"They raped her mind. They—fuck…Then that Uchiha, you know what he did? He replaced every memory she had of me and inserted himself. Just so he could keep raping her."

C sat down on the metal bench.

"He kept raping her thinking she would never know there was someone out there who loved her. Did he think I wouldn't come for her? That I would forget about her? About my partner of thirteen years? My best friend?" Darui continued to pace in front of C.

"He probably thought you would consider your position first."

Blue lightning cackled uncontrollably from Darui's palm as he swung his arms down. "Fuck it. I would come for her a million times over even if it meant never becoming Raikage. She would come first."

C frowned as he watched Darui continue to wear a path on the paving stones. "You don't mean that."

"I do. She comes first."

"Darui…Don't be a love-struck fool who's crazy in love. You love our village and the people in it. You can't run off on a vigilante mission to kill Shun-shin no Shisui. You already killed the man's uncle. Was that not enough justice for you?"

"No. Sorry, no. I'm angry. I'm so angry."

C was quiet for a second then sat down. "Who are you actually angry with?"

Darui exhaled.

"Are you angry with her?"

"No…" He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes. A little…maybe a lot. She left me. She drugged me then left me. Kept secrets from me like our partnership didn't matter. Destroyed the trust between us."

"But you still love her?"

"Two things can be true at once. I love her. Sorry. I'm in love with her still. When I saw her standing there in Konoha, my heart stopped. I couldn't breathe. She looked so fierce staring down those Suna-nin. And strong."

"You, my friend, are in fact, doomed. Might as well put a ring on her finger right now. Trust be damned."

He stopped pacing and turned to face C. "I can't marry someone I don't fully trust."

C shrugged. "Why not? You love each other. She was coming back to you. Even after her 'journey of self-discovery.' Which, let's face it, was a solo espionage trip. She did send us all that information about the palace security. No doubt after having lived in Konoha for months, she knows even more."

"And drugging me? How are you going to possibly put a positive spin on that?"

"She's always had a flair for the dramatic. Why do you think you're the only person that lets her sleep in your bed? Everyone else in Kumo is too scared they'll do something to displease her in the middle of the night and end up with less balls than they started with."

Darui snorted. "That's very dull. She wouldn't."

C looked away and hid a smile behind his hand. "Your girlfriend is very much a hit it and quit it type. Except for you. She loves you. Has for years, I suspect. You didn't see her after that Iwa mission."

Darui sat down on the bench and rested his elbows on his knees. "I remember she wouldn't sleep with me for months afterwards. I don't begrudge her her fun, but she was sleeping with different men at least twice a week. Never the same one. I was worried."

"Why do you think that is? She was hysterical. That small woman dragged your large behind across two and a half countries with broken ribs, severe dehydration, and a concussion. When she came to, she screamed for you and fought against every nurse on my unit until we moved you into the same room. She thought she'd failed and you died. She kept you on chakra life support for almost a week. Do you know how intensive that is? It shouldn't have even been possible. At the time, I thought it was only because you were her mission partner…"

"I knew that."

"My guess is she slept around with so many people because she was afraid to love you as more than a friend."

Cicadas chirped louder around them while the crickets jumped on the walkways. Their symphony drowned out any form of thought as the two men sat in silence. Comfortable movements could be heard from the rooms that squared the courtyard. The Raikage's voice could be overheard dramatically retelling the story of how he was captured as a young fourteen-year-old genin—the reason the Sandaime raised the age of genin to sixteen.

"I'm angry at myself, C. I'm angry at myself. I know her better than anyone on this planet, and I was too wrapped up in telling her I loved her to see her bags were already packed. I was too busy to see any of it. And I waited too long. It's my fault. It's all my fault: her leaving, the attempt on her life, the mind control—gods…the rape. I could have prevented it if I had just—"

A door opened from the far end of the courtyard behind them. Soft footsteps approached in the dim twilight. "Darui?" Mina asked quietly. "C?"

"We're over here," C said from behind the arbor arch.

She hugged Darui's spare blanket tightly around her arms. "It's chilly out here for June."

Darui nodded. "Sorry, it is a bit."

"I couldn't stay in there…Samui wanted to be with Atsui. And Raikage-sama was done with them, he's in his room reading and didn't need anything. So…I said I'd find you two."

Darui moved over on the bench, and she sat down between the two. Leaning her head on Darui's arm, she closed her eyes.

"Happy birthday, Mina," he said quietly. "Sorry for not telling you earlier."

"Happy birthday!" C said brightly. He pointed back at the main Ryokan. "I, uh, have things to do."

Mina threw her arms around C. "I missed you, C."

"I missed you too. The work really piled on when you were away." He gave a watery chuckle and held her closely. He kissed her cheek then walked back to the Ryokan, leaving the couple alone.

"How are you feeling?" Darui asked.

"Head's still achy. At least I know my new medical jutsu works on extreme genjutsu…Most of it had lifted by the time you found me. The lie was easier…in some ways. Simpler. I was…I saw you in my dreams."

He tucked her into his arms and rested his chin on the top of her head. "I saw you too, sometimes. In the middle of the night, I would wake up and see you."

"I thought I was going crazy. Even before I used the jutsu, I would see you in the middle of the day watching me. Part of me knew something wasn't right, like something was missing. I missed you, Darui. I missed you so bad even when I didn't know you."

"I love you," he whispered. His voice carried off into the night, drowned out by the cicadas around them.

She buried her nose against the side of his neck. "I love you too. Take me home?"

"Always."

AN: Thank you for reading! If you have time, please leave a comment!

Yes, yes, I know this was a bit ooc for Darui, don't me. But the *romance* of it. The *drama*.

Beta'ed by: the unflappable Cherryberry12, who just celebrated her birthday. She writes Itachi/Karin, Sakura/Karin, and so much more. She also has a really cool OC/Itachi fic set in Ame.