Private Can a box of chocolates go a long way? [Orchid Vale | Kohana's House]

[Kureji]

Kureji would be in the marketplace at first. He already had some things for her but he decided to wait to give her those things. Instead, he was here for some gifts that he could give her as soon as he sees her. He racked his brain. What do women like? He had asked around and the general consensus is chocolate and flowers. He would buy a box of chocolates, dunno why the box is in the shape of a heart and bought a bouquet of roses. The easy part is done.

Now comes the hard part. Talking to her. Kohana. Kureji's face would turn a deep red as he thought about her. The kiss. He remembers it as if it had just happened. But then he also remembered her running away from him soon after... He feels that it might be his own fault, though he doesn't know what exactly he did wrong. Taking a deep breath, he would walk to the Chikamatsu clan estate. It was about midday and most of everyone should be out and about doing errands, missions, or the like. He sure hoped that Kohana was here and that he isn't knocking on a door with nobody to answer.

He was in his usual clothing with the only thing to really note was that he was holding a heart shaped box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses. He stood awkwardly around for a second as he psyched himself up. "You can do this. Just say you're sorry and give her these things and ask if she is able to talk."

But even after he psyched himself up, he stood at the door for a few minutes before knocking.

 

[Chikamatsu Kohana]

The knock landed at a bad time.

I was sitting cross-legged on my bed with Caliburnus across my knees, a needle threaded with something that wasn't quite silk and wasn't quite chakra thread between my fingers. The desert rose sat on the nightstand in a glass of water—still alive, somehow, which felt like a fucking personal attack—and I'd been working in silence for the better part of an hour, carefully separating one petal from the bloom and pressing it flat against the flat of the blade.

I wasn't thinking about Kureji.

I was absolutely not thinking about that stupid fucker Kureji.

The petal darkened slightly where it touched the steel, edges curling inward as my chakra pulled it flush against the metal. I threaded the needle through the base of it with the same precision I applied to everything that wasn't feelings. The rose wouldn't last forever like this. But the essence of it—the chakra signature, the color, the fact that it had grown in a place it had no business existing—that could be kept. Preserved. Worked into something that would outlast the original.

The knock came again.

"I'm not home so fuck off or die in a ditch."

I set the needle down. Picked it back up. Set it down again. Fuck.

You already ran. You can't run twice. Running twice is a whole thing.

I put Caliburnus aside carefully, petal still pressed to the steel, and crossed to the door. Stood with my hand on the handle for a full five seconds.

Then I opened it.

He was standing there with a heart-shaped box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses and the most aggressively awkward expression I had ever witnessed in my entire fucking life. I stared at him. He stared at me. My hair was down, training clothes, needle still threaded between my fingers like I'd forgotten I was holding it.

The silence lasted exactly four seconds before I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him inside.

"In. Before someone sees you standing there looking stupid like that."

I released him, stepped back, crossed my arms. My eyes went to the chocolates. The roses. Back to his face.

"You bought roses."

A beat.

My gaze cut involuntarily to the nightstand—the desert rose in its glass of water, a couple petals already missing—and I caught myself doing it immediately.

"...I already have one. So..."

I turned back to the bed, picking up Caliburnus with a deliberateness that was absolutely not avoidance. The missing petals were pressed flat against the blade now, edges beginning to fuse where my chakra had been working it. I sat back down, picked up the chakra infused needle, and resumed working like he hadn't just shown up at my door with flowers and whatever expression that was on his face.

"I'm sewing it in," I said, without looking up. My voice came out quieter than I meant it to. "The rose. Into the blade. It'll hold the chakra signature, the essence of it. So it stays."

The needle moved in a small, precise arc.

"I don't know why I'm telling you that, its not because it fucking means anything to me or shit, I just can use it for like poison creation and.... fuck."

I finally looked up, and whatever I'd been trying to bury in the work was sitting right there in my expression anyway—defensive and open at the same time, like a door being held shut by someone who wasn't sure they wanted it closed.

"You have about thirty seconds to say whatever you came here to say before I convince myself this was a terrible idea and throw you out the gods damn window. The chocolates can stay, though. You? You're negotiable."

 

[Kureji]

And there she was, beautiful as ever. His mouth hung open, there was something alluring about her down to her personality that he just can't get enough of. "Wow..." He managed to say before she pulled him inside. He looked around the room. It was nice and tidy and then he seen the desert rose that he had given her. He masked his emotions about it for now as she talked to him about already having a rose from him.

He would smile at her and say, "Well I wanted to give these to you because I..." The L word didn't come out. Love. This whole situation is awkward. She hates him doesn't she? That's why she was tearing the petals off of the desert rose. But... Why was it in her room if she hates him?

He would follow Kohana and sit next to her, the side that the pointy end of the sword isn't on. It was then that he realized what she was doing. There's that feeling he had again, back at the outlook. He had taken a huge risk and she kissed him. He still felt the softness of her lips, how it felt to be wanted by someone. Kohana explained what she was doing. Preserving it. Using the rose that he gave her to ultimately have as part of her weapon. That was so romantically bad ass.

He might be stupid, but he was picking up on what she was saying didn't match what she was doing. She was trying to explain it away as mere coincidence, but he was seeing through.

She then asked, or rather demanded to say what he wanted to say before she has reason to kick him out. "About that night." Kureji started. "If the reason you ran away was because of me, then I'm sorry." He truly thinks that it was his own fault. It is also the first time that he has actually said sorry to anyone.

"Look, I just want to know what was wrong. That I'll do my best to do better for you. Because I..." He hesitated again. That L word eludes him. Is it because he's scared to fully commit? He had already said that he would die for her. That he chooses her forever and always. So why is it that this one word is so hard for him to say. "I..."

He rubbed the back of his neck. He could feel his heart beating against his chest, threatening to burst. He took a deep breath and put a hand on her thigh as he scooted a little closer and looked into her eyes. This is it. Now or never. "Because I love you."

 

[Chikamatsu Kohana]

I felt it before he finished the sentence.

The hand on my thigh. The way he'd scooted closer. The look on his face that I recognized because I'd watched Shin navigate emotions his whole life and this was the same expression, the one that meant someone was about to say something they couldn't take back and they knew it and they were doing it anyway.

Don't you dare.

Don't you fucking dare.

"Because I love you."

The needle stopped moving.

I sat there for what was probably three seconds but felt like the entirety of my existence—which, granted, was mostly spent screaming in someone else's head, but still you get the fucking point. The desert rose petal was half-sewn into Caliburnus, chakra threading through steel, and my hands had just... stopped. Like my body forgot what it was doing.

He was an idiot.

He was a complete, catastrophic, guitar-buying, piano-sealing, rose-picking idiot who had shown up at my door with a heart-shaped box of chocolates and said sorry before I'd even asked him to and meant it, which was somehow the most disarming thing anyone had ever done to me in my entire miserable existence.

I looked down at the blade in my lap. At the petal I'd spent an hour and a half carefully preserving because throwing it away had somehow felt wrong and I hadn't wanted to examine why.

You absolute fucking coward, I told myself. You literally sewed his flower into your weapon and you're still going to pretend this is nothing.

My jaw tightened.

"You're an idiot," I said.

My voice came out quieter than I meant it to. No real bite to it. Just... the truth, stripped of armor.

"You're an idiot and you're annoying and you bought me a heart-shaped box of chocolates like I'm some normal person who knows what to do with that and I don't, Kureji. I genuinely do not know what to do with any of this."

I set Caliburnus aside carefully, petal and all. My hands were steadier than they had any right to be.

"I didn't run because of you."

I finally looked at him. Actually looked, not the sharp assessing look I used on enemies or the deflecting smirk I used on everyone else. Just... looked.

"I ran because it was real. Because you meant it and I could tell you meant it and I have spent my entire existence being the part of someone that destroys things and you were standing there handing me a flower and saying forever and I didn't—"

I stopped. Pressed my mouth shut. Looked at the ceiling for a second like it might offer me some structural support. Tears began to well in my eyes...

"I didn't know what to do with someone choosing me. Nobody chooses me, Kureji. No one. They choose Shin. They always choose him, and me? They fucking tolerate me because they chose him."

My hand moved before my brain caught up with it, fingers finding his where they rested on my thigh and not pulling away.

"So don't apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."

A beat. My grip tightened slightly.

"I don't... I can't say it back yet. I don't know if what I feel is that or if I'm just—" I exhaled hard through my nose. "I'm still figuring out what feelings even are. But I kept the rose. I'm sewing it into my sword. And I didn't throw you or your chocolates out the window."

I met his eyes.

"For me, right now, that's everything."

I leaned in and kissed him again.

 

[Kureji]

He listened to her speak, how she felt. She never knew what to do with the bomb that he dropped on her that night. How she was never anyone's choice. How this is all a new experience for her. Heck, he himself is new to this all, but he is also a different person than she is.

He felt her hand rest on his, then their fingers interlock and he could feel her hand tighten. He looked into her eyes as tears started to come down her face. There was something that made Kureji now feel protective of her. Yes, he knows that she can kick ass. But he has a feeling that this is the probably the first time that she has ever shown vulnerability like this. While part of him was a little sad that she can't say it back, he was understandable. Now more than ever as she explained herself.

And then the kiss came. It was sweet, mixed in with a little bit of saltiness from her tears but he didn't mind at all. Kureji would kiss her back as he would gently pull her closer to him by her waist with his free hand, his fingers only slightly grazing her soft skin from beneath her shirt. They would kiss for what seemed like an eternity before Kureji had to pull away to be able to breathe. He would then wipe Kohana's tears with such gentleness as he looked into her eyes.

"We can take as much time as you need." He would whisper softly into her ear. "You don't have to go through this alone... This is as much of an experience for me as it is for you. Nobody has had genuine liking to me. Only to my music and fame. But you...." He would kiss her neck, "You showed up and didn't care about all of that and just.... Treated me the way that I have never been treated before."

While she may have been a bit harsh on him when they first initially met, she was always truthful. That is what Kureji most liked about Kohana. She would always say what's on her mind no matter if the truth was harsh.

He would brush a strand of hair out of Kohana's face before hissing her lips once more and then pulling away, resting his forehead on hers as he held her close to him.

"We can do this together at your own pace." His hand that is interlocked with hers, his thumb would brush against her own fingers, as if trying to memorize this feeling. How he doesn't want any of this to end.