'Are these honey loaf cakes...or poison?'

Shino had dodged her kunai so many times, he wasn't taking any chances.

'Does she really think I'll fall for this again?'

With one brow raised suspiciously over his dark shades, Shino studied the honey loaf and Bee's Flower tea left behind for him on the riverbank.

Why couldn't she just make up her mind?

To kill him or not to kill him?

Why were girls always so complicated for him to understand?

If this was yet another pathetic attempt to poison him to death, she'd never get enough of disappointing herself.

He'd worked up his immunity for poison since the Chunin exams, with a little extra help from breeding Torune's Rinkaichū insects with his.

A little smile played on the corner of Shino's mouth.

Was her relentless pursuit to fight him really the magnitude of her passionate undying hatred for the Aburame Clan...or just a passionate obsession for him?

He couldn't tell for certain anymore.

Whatever it was, hatred never smelt so delicious.

The same honey-sweet way that he'd often catch a whiff of when the breeze played in her silvery hair.

Maybe she tasted like honey too.

'I mean the cake,' he quickly corrected his formidable slip of mind. 'As in this cake probably tastes like her venomous sugary hatred...ah, never mind.'

Summoning a handful of Torune's Rinkaichū out of one of his bug jars, Shino offered them a small piece of the honey loaf cake. Knowing that if the honey loaf was really poisoned, Torune's bugs would detect it without suffering any damage, allowing Shino to spare his own kikaichū from any unnecessary harm.

The plan seemed to work.

The venom-resistant insects were unimpressed by the bee user's honey loaf, returning to their jar with no trace of poison to report.

Declaring the meal safe to eat.

Still, as baked to perfection as the bee user's honey cake was, something was missing.

Shino gazed down at the unexpected gift in quiet contemplation.

The sweet, savory meal somehow made sour by a gnawing sense that he was being avoided.

Everyone back at the Leaf village had done it to him too many times because of his bugs.

But not Firefly.

He couldn't bear to let her treat him the same way.

Why did she insist on avoiding him, rather than giving him this unexpected gift herself?

Was it because she didn't know yet the power of what doing it might have over him?

Was she truly unaware that if she really were Firefly, the impending battle between them was already won in her favor?

And the reason for that was because...

'Because if she really wanted to kill me without baking a cake,' Shino thought. 'All she really had to say in the end was 'thank you.'

.

"I'm really starting to hate the dark," the bee user sighed.

Lying with her head outside her bamboo hut, as she pretended to count stars in the constellations she bitterly missed, somewhere above the fog barrier swirling around her, knowing she'd probably never see any real stars again.

Her stomach grumbling with hunger, after harvesting only enough honeycomb for Shino's honey loaf cake. Without any proper beekeeping tools, it had taken hours to even make him a small loaf. And she was too tired-and frankly, unmotivated-to try harvesting anymore for herself.

"A never-ending fog," she thought in her melancholy, as she watched it dance above her hut. "I wouldn't wish this mental hell on anyone...Even Aburame."

No matter the existence of daylight before, would this bamboo grove always be doomed to the tyranny of night in this hopelessly imprisoning jutsu?

Did the sun she missed so much from the outside world even still exist anymore?

"Or has everything of the world and my future become just me and Aburame now," she lamented. "Stuck here with each other forever like this."

And then she paused, her attention suddenly drawn to the forest around her, where the gentle humming from the beehives in the trees subtly quieted to a whisper, putting her on alert.

The bee user curiously sat up, glancing around the forest for the approaching newcomer to her pity party.

But knowing it was probably just Aburame being a jerk again, she rolled her eyes and didn't bother moving anymore from the comfort of her cozy hut.

'Does he really think I'm gonna fall for this again? '

It was always the same tricks, and she was done with them.

'If he really thinks I'm dumb enough to let him sneak up on me again-'

But no sooner had she started that thought, his hand suddenly snatched her chin, turning her honey eyes into Shino's gaze, until his face was only inches away from hers.

Her body tensed, staggered by how close the Aburame was to her lips now. So close that she could feel every breath of his take away hers.

"Don't fight me," Shino whispered to her. "Just take it and swallow."

And her face turned pink as a katydid, fire-ant-hot and steaming.

What in the jumping spider!

Like a butterfly caught in a bug catcher's net, she was completely caught off guard for what Shino could possibly mean by so casually telling her to 'swallow'.

"How dare you talk dirty to me like that, you little pervert," she scolded him. "We barely know each other!"

But before she could slam his jaw with her fist, Shino dropped a slice of honey loaf cake into her mouth.

Dumbstruck and cheeks full of cake, the bee mistress didn't know whether to kill him that very instant...or kiss him for being so right.

She might've never admitted to him otherwise how badly she was starving...and how much her honey loaf was to die for!

Just like it always was when she baked it.

Aphrodisia.

A nirvana of all the sunshine and honeydew-kissed flowers she was tormentingly pining over from the outside world.

The delicious sweetness of the honey cake chasing away the descending depression she'd been dragging herself through all evening, as she withered away in the cold of the fog around her.

"I know," Shino said to her, reading the look on her face that melted into a sugar rush. "That's why I saved half of this for you."

Shino offered her more of his honey cake, sliding it between them on a bamboo leaf for two to share.

"Honey loaf is a special treat in my village. The reason is because not many people make it like beekeepers do," Shino said. "So, when we do have it, we always share it with friends."

"Friends?" she mumbled, the word hardly audible through her mouth stuffed full of honey cake.

Too helplessly tangled in his waiting web to fight back now, as all she could do was be still next to him, and surrender herself to another mouthful of irresistible sweetness he offered her.

"I'm glad you're still awake. I couldn't sleep either," Shino told her. "The reason is because I really wanted to see you."

Gradually, she stopped chewing her honey loaf, gazing at him curiously.

What did he mean by that?

Noting the surprised look on her face, Shino quickly explained himself.

"What I mean is...can I show you something?" he asked her. "If you let me take you there, I would be very grateful for your company tonight."

But suspicious of the Aburame and the dark around her, the bee user stopped chewing, her cheeks still full with cake as she watched Shino stand to take an offbeat path into the bamboo forest. Not budging an inch to follow him outside of the safety of her hut.

What does he want to show me in the bamboo forest this late at night?

And sensing that his unlikely companion was still reluctant to follow him, the beetle user glanced back at her over his upturned collar, his stoic lips breaking into a playfully cute grin, leaving the bee user unwittingly breathless.

"Don't tell me," he teased her. "a great shinobi like you afraid of the dark?"

And strolling back to her with his hands in his pockets, Shino offered his elbow for her to take.

"If it makes you feel safer, you can hold onto me," the Aburame told the Kamizuru. "I know my way around the dark."

She hesitated.

Caught in the drama of conflicted silence as her glance darted back and forth between his sunglasses and his elbow.

Knowing she'd never be caught dead on the arm of an Aburame, but at the same time, unable to resist the gentle allure of his unexpected chivalry.

How was he always this kind to her, after every attempt she'd made to destroy him?

Shino waited.

And he didn't seem to care how long he had to wait for her.

Until she finally made a decision, gingerly slipping her arm around his elbow. Letting the Aburame guide her away from the warm fireside of her hut into the harrowing darkness with him.

Blushing secretly to herself for his quietly alpha and assured presence walking beside her, the bee mistress hardly remembered why she'd always been so afraid of the dark in the first place.

She didn't care where Shino was taking her in the end.

To her, it was such a novel and irresistible allure, to feel so safe and comfortable with someone like Shino walking every step of the way beside her.