“My Strong Shiori”

It all started when one day he saw her sitting against a large Sakura tree sobbing.
In all the years he trained her whenever she got injured she never cried once. But now she
was ‘what’s causing her to cry?’ he asked himself. He pondered ‘what could possibly be
making her so sad?’ but his concentration was quickly broken by her gasping for air in
between cries.
He slowly walked over and knelt down beside her, “Shiori? What’s
wrong?”
She stopped long enough to look up at him, her long blonde hair fell into her
face; but he could still see behind her hair that her eyes were red, and puffy from her
crying. She quickly wiped away the tears from her eyes, and looked away from his
gaze, ashamed that her trainer who always saw her at her finest, her strongest, her best;
now saw her at her weakest.
“Nothings wrongs Kiba.” She looked away, hoping he wouldn’t notice the pain in her voice.
“Shiori. I know you’re lying to me. In all the years I’ve known you, You’ve never cried once.”
She looked in his direction, but not into his eyes. She didn’t want him to see the worry in hers. But he was right, this was the very first time anyone had ever seen her cry.
He sat down beside her and began again still looking at her, “Even the day you were stabbed in the arm while we were training. It would have made even the strongest solider cry. But you didn’t.” She closed her eyes and remembered back to that day.

~~FLASHBACK~~
Her team was training with daggers for the first time. After Kiba was finished
instructing them on how to throw the daggers properly, they began to practice throwing
them themselves. One of her teammates getting ready to throw a dagger at a tree had
pulled his arm back, and accidentally lost grip of his instrument. As it went flying back,
it embedded itself into Shiori’s arm. He hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to Kiba
when he was instructing them on how to hold, and throw the daggers. Once the dagger
cut into Shiori’s arm like liquid fire, causing her blood to slowly seep out, she let out a
scream.  She remembered how kind and caring Kiba was to her.
He rushed over to her side, pulling the shirt off of him, and ripping it into strips to wrap around her wound. He slowly removed the blade from her skin, and quickly began to apply pressure to the cut and began to wrap it with the strips of torn fabric. During the whole ordeal she didn’t show any sign of pain, or tears; only watching him securing the bandage, as if to make sure it was done properly.
~~END FLASHBACK~~

She seemed so strong to Kiba then, but now she was so weak; this wasn’t his
Shiori, this was another girl he never met before, and he wasn’t at all certain what he
thought of her. This was the very first time he had ever seen Shiori, ‘his Strong Shiori’
cry. He didn’t like the thought of her in any type of pain, it tore at his heart. He wanted to
make her happy again, he wanted to see her smile again, hear her laugh again.
“Shiori, you can tell me. I promise. Whatever it is I’ll do everything I can to help you.” He looked at her, wrapping his arms around her, and pulling her closer to him allowing her to feel safe. He let her head rest on his chest.
She allowed her head to rest on his chest and him cradle her in his arms. “It’s my, my….” She began sobbing again.
“Shiori, it’s okay. You can tell me.”
She looked up at him, but like before not into his eyes, “My house was burned down. I don’t have anywhere to stay. I don’t have anything to eat, any money, any clothes other than these. I don’t even have a safe place to sleep!” She began sobbing wet tears into his shirt, her hands gripping at it, trying to control her tears that were threatening to spill over her eyes.
He placed a hand on her back, as the other smoothed her hair. He felt horrible, ‘she doesn’t have a place to stay?’, just then he was brought back from his thoughts by her new broken sobbed words.
“I..don’t.. want to.. have to sleep.. out here again… tonight! It’s scary… out here at night Kiba!”
“Shiori? You slept out here last night?”
She shook her head in agreement trying not to saturate Kiba’s shirt with her tears, “I didn’t have a place to stay, and, and I didn’t know where to go.”
“Oh Shiori. You could have told me.”
‘She didn’t want people to know she didn’t have a place to stay. She wanted to remain strong, and survive on her own, so others would still see her as strong, if not stronger than before.’
He whispered looking down at her stroking her hair, “ ‘My Strong Shiori’. ”
“What did you say Kiba?” she looked up at him.
“What? I didn’t say anything.” he began blushing, ‘oh shit I said that out loud, and she heard me, Stupid Kiba! Stupid Kiba! Stupid! Stupid!’ he looked away from her gaze. He didn’t want her to see him blushing; it was already bad enough she had heard him say that she was ‘His Strong Shiori’.
But she did, ‘he called me ‘His Strong Shiori’ didn’t he? No, he couldn’t have, I must have just heard the wind, or something like that. But then why in the world is he still blushing? He must have said it, that’s the only logical explanation.’
She unknowingly whispered his own words aloud and smiled as she did so, “ ‘My Strong Shiori’. ”
“Shiori…”
She looked up at him, his tone worried her, he seemed upset, “Yeah?”  
“Why didn’t you tell me that you didn’t have a place to stay?”
“Because I didn’t want anyone to find out, I didn’t want to have to rely on anyone, I wanted to remain Strong...” her words trailed off.
“But you are strong! Shiori.” he said as he lifted her chin allowing their eyes to meet, “You’re ‘My Strong Shiori’. ” He kissed her lightly on the lips, and looked into her Azure colored eyes, seeing them filled with so many different emotions, but the one that stuck out the most to him, was love, love for him. In his eyes she saw love, and understanding; as if he knew why she didn’t tell anyone about her house. “You’re going to stay with me.”
She looked away from him blushing, and surprised, “You want me to stay with you?”

“Of course I do Shiori.”
“But I don’t want to be a burden to you Kiba.”
He looked into her eyes, “You won’t be. Come on, it’s getting late.” He stood up, and held out his hand to help her up from the ground. He put his arm around her small waist, and led her to his house.
Once they got to his house he opened the door, and showed her in. “Are you
hungry?”
“Yeah, I’m starving!”
“All right then, I’m afraid all I have is Spaghetti, is that
okay?”
“Spaghetti’s perfect Kiba. I haven’t had it in a really long time.”
When he placed the plate in front of her, her eyes widened it was nice to see some hot food. He studied the way she ate the food he prepared for her, and himself; he watched her silently as she picked up the fork, and began to eat the hot food. She placed the fork in her mouth and wrapped her lips around it, and slid the fork out, between them. Her tongue slid over her lips, allowing her to taste every succulent morsel.
Kiba involuntarily did the same, as he watched her. She glanced up and caught him studying her, she looked away as she began to blush; but he didn’t seem to notice, and continued to watch her intensively. When she looked at him again she was still red, as he was still gazing at her starry eyed.
“Yyeeesss?” she said drawing out the syllables.
Realizing he had been caught he quickly turned away as his face reddened, “Oh, No-nothing.” he stuttered.
She smiled sweetly, and giggled at his awkwardness. His expression was like a little child, with their hand caught in the cookie jar. He looked over at her again; she was smiling, and giggling at him. He slowly got up, walked over to her, and slid both his hands on her tiny hips. Looking deeply into her azure colored eyes, they seemed to be so pure, so full of love, so bare and unprotected, so vulnerable, and it was all for him. As she looked lovingly, and longingly into his sapphire eyes, he seemed to be looking straight into her heart, she saw the exact same look in his eyes that he saw in hers, they too were filled with pure love for her. He had completely bared his heart it was unprotected, and vulnerable. Their eyes were filled with love, only for each other, nobody else. She could see it in his eyes ‘ He really does love me.’
He looked deeper into her eyes, almost looking through her; he took a hand off her waist, and used his thumb, and index finger to raise her lips to his. Their lips met in a passionate kiss, they poured all their emotion into that kiss, she put both her arms around his neck, and hooked them in the back, pulling him closer into the kiss. He wanted to tell her how he felt, but feared her rejection.
She sensed his fear, and leaned up to his ear and whispered, “I love you Kiba.”
He quickly looked her in the eyes, and searched them for any hint of uncertainty, but all he saw was the truth, she did love him.
He was no longer afraid to tell her what he wanted to say. “I love you too Shiori. ‘My Strong Shiori’. ”
She smiled at his words kissed him again, and repeated his words aloud “ ‘Your Strong Shiori’. ”
He took her into his bedroom and they made love. The next morning he woke up with someone’s arms around him, and his around them, he looked at the person. It was Shiori, she looked so peaceful sleeping, and at that moment he knew that’s how he would wake up for the rest of his life. Next to her, next to ‘His Strong Shiori’.



~~ “Love is giving someone the power to hurt you, and trusting them not to.” ~~
-Unknown