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.

 

[Chikamatsu Kohana]

The warmth of his forehead against mine, his thumb tracing my fingers like he was memorizing them, I let myself have exactly four and a half seconds of it. Four seconds of just... existing in something soft without trying to destroy it.

Then my brain kicked back on.

I pulled back, not harshly, just enough to put air between us. My eyes landed on the heart-shaped box of chocolates sitting on the bed like it had been waiting patiently for someone to acknowledge it. I reached over and cracked it open.

The smell hit me first.

I picked one up and shoved the entire thing in my mouth.

"Oh my g—"

I didn't finish the sentence. I couldn't. Whatever sound came out of me next was somewhere between a moan and a sob. My eyes went wide. I grabbed another one immediately, talking around a mouthful of chocolate like basic table manners were a suggestion for other people.

"What the FUCK is this." I didn't wait for an answer. Third one. Another groan that probably should have embarrassed me. "Why has nobody given me these before, this is—holy shit..."

Fourth one. I pointed at him accusatorially with chocolate-stained fingers, still chewing.

"Okay. Okay. I need you to talk because if you don't I'm going to eat this entire box and pass out and we won't get anything done."

I tucked one leg under myself, settling back against the headboard with the box in my lap like a dragon hoarding treasure. Fifth chocolate. Another involuntary sound that I absolutely refused to acknowledge.

"You mentioned your dad put you in stasis because you thought the Myakashi were a threat."

I said it between bites, casual as anything, but my eyes had sharpened. The scatterbrained chocolate chaos was fucking real, lets be honest—first time having it, genuinely losing my mind—but I was also absolutely paying attention.

"I know them. Well—Shin knew them. Same fucking thing, well mostly." Sixth chocolate. A groan. "Some fuck named Migoya walked into the medical facility once looking for a translation on a scroll. Runic Terran. Old dialect." I shoved another one in my mouth and the sound that came out of me was genuinely embarrassing. "يا إلهي، كيف لم أعرف هذا من قبل، يا لهذا الهراء الفاخر" I stopped. Chewed. Shook my head. "No. No that's not— hat's not it." Another chocolate. Another involuntary groan. "भगवान, यह चीज़ कहाँ थी मेरी पूरी ज़िंदगी" I pointed at nothing in particular, deeply satisfied. "Yeah. YEAH. That's the fucking dialect. You know that archaic shit." I paused, chewing. "Anyway. Jashinist shit. Like, end-of-days, Jashin-comes-to-purify type poetry. And the guy just... stood there being all cryptic and charming about it like that was a completely normal thing to show up with."

Seventh chocolate. I held one up briefly like I was examining it before eating it in one bite.

"Shin didn't trust him. And Shin fucking trusts everybody, which tells you something."

I looked at Kureji directly now, the box still in my lap.

"So here's what I want to know. Your dad decided that you thinking the Myakashi were dangerous was worth locking you in a fucking time prison over. Which means either your dad knew something about them that made him want to protect them—" I popped another chocolate, "—or he knew something about them that made him not want YOU near them specifically."

I tilted my head.

"And while we're at it—how does someone even fucking DO that? Time stasis isn't some basic ass jutsu you just pull out of your pussy all willynilly. Your dad had to be seriously fucking powerful to trap someone like you. So who the hell IS he, Kureji?"

I ate another chocolate. Groaned again, completely involuntarily.

"And don't you dare make me ask twice, I'm too busy having the best and worst moment of my life simultaneously."

Spoiler: Runic Terran

يا إلهي، كيف لم أعرف هذا من قبل، يا لهذا الهراء الفاخر - "Oh my god, how did I not know about this before, what fancy ass bullshit"

Spoiler: Formal Runic Terran

भगवान, यह चीज़ कहाँ थी मेरी पूरी ज़िंदगी - "God, where has this thing been my whole life"

 

[Kureji]

Kureji smiled as he witnessed Kohana eat chocolate for the first time. She then spoke a different language, he didn't know what she said, but he found it cute. However..... She had talked about the Myakashi, especially Migoya. "Charming?" There was a hint of jealousy in his voice when she had said that. But there were at least the connections that Shin knew about Migoya and he didn't trust Migoya, which apparently was a big deal. At least him and Shin agree on that.

But then she asked a big question. He unconsciously shifted a tad bit away from her as he ran his hand through his hair. Taking a big breath, he would say, "In terms of Migoya and his Myakashi clan. I've met him before. My band made a deal with him over a gig. But he didn't give us the full details. Because of that, it put me and my mates in a bad situation and put us in more danger than what we signed up for."

He looked away from her, "As for my father...." He would sigh, "I think it would be easier to start from the beginning. When I first awoken to chakra, was when I first lost my original family. There was this thing called the Void. It made my whole family go crazy. Believe it or not, I got off easier than any of them. I got the powers of the void walker back then."

Pausing, he would continue after a few seconds, "I was in a mental institution. There, they found out of my powers and trained me. Soon after, a man had come to adopt me. He had taken care of me for a while and I had trust in him. Some months later I had gone missing. After a while, I had come back and me and him talked. A plan to shake up the world. He wanted to have the world wake up to the falseness that is the peace between the Villages. And I blindly followed his ideals."

Taking another deep breath, he realized that he is admitting to a lot of criminal activity right now. "Afterwards, I met my mates in Moon country, that's where I met Migoya. And well... I already told you about why I don't like him. Afterwards, my mates went their own ways, how we all roll. Not holding either one back. Met back up with my old man and told him about Migoya. He then put me into the time stasis. Though, it wasn't an actual forbidden jutsu, rather an experiment of what is called the Creeping Crystal. Encases the victim into a crystal, keeping them suspended in time until they either break out or are let out."

He bit the inner bottom of his lip before continuing on, "It was after that is when I decided my own goals. My entire life, I've been looked at as a mere tool for everyone." His fists were clenched tight, "I was going to shake up the world in my own way. Not like how my father had envisioned. To strip away the rules of law that makes people just tools for other people to use. This is why I will fight so hard not just for my own freedom, but for the freedom of all. Why I am so chill about everyone doing their own thing as long as they don't take the freedoms away from others."

Kureji rubbed the back of his neck, "As for my father..." He hesitated. Why is this so hard? Shin knows about his history, heck, he dug up Kureji's history. He told Kyuji, who apparently has her own reservations about Akkuma. And Akari, who hates his father even more than he does. But Kohana.... This is the first time that he has been happy. Truly happy. Could the truth really take it all away? But if he lied..... It will only be worst...

Hesitation... One second... Two... Ten seconds would pass before he finally spoke, "He owns his own clan. Some of them, I guess you can call them my 'family', would probably revere him. While others are ashamed to be part of the clan. Me?" He scoffed, "I felt the betrayal he had done to me. He made no attempt to explain himself or any of that type of shit after he found out that I broke out. Just accepted it as it is. To me, I ain't got no connections to that clan nor that man." Pausing once more before continuing, "My father's name.... Is.... Mirokou Akkuma."

He let the name hang in the air, waiting to see her reaction. "I understand if you hate me..... Or if you don't want anything to do with me...." He turned to face away from Kohana... Tears would well up as he refused to look at her, assuming that she wants nothing to do with him anymore.... Welp.... He guessed it was good while it lasted.... Kureji would stand up....

(denouncing all connections with the Mirokou clan in the name of love)

 

[Chikamatsu Kohana]

The name landed like a blade hitting stone.

Miroku Akkuma.

I sat very still for exactly three seconds. The chocolate box was still in my lap. I hadn't moved. Kureji was already standing, already turning away, already bracing for the part where I told him to get out. I could see it in every line of his body, the set of his shoulders, the way he'd stopped looking at me, the posture of someone who had gotten very good at accepting rejection before it arrived.

I knew that posture.

I'd worn it my entire existence.

"Sit down."

My voice came out flat. Not angry. Not soft. Just... certain.

"Kureji. Sit. Down."

I set the chocolate box on the nightstand next to the desert rose. Put it down carefully, deliberately, like I was buying myself the two seconds I needed to organize the absolute catastrophe of information currently rearranging itself inside my head.

Because I knew Akkuma.

Not knew him the way you know a name in a bingo book. I knew him the way you know someone after you've walked into their casino, killed three people in the pit, and then tried to beat the immortality out of him while screaming. I knew him the way Shin knew him, through every interaction, every unsettling conversation, every moment where that man had looked at my brother like he was a fascinating experiment he hadn't gotten to run yet.

I knew what Akkuma was.

And I knew what he was capable of.

And now I was sitting here with chocolate on my fingers and desert rose petals sewn into my blade and the person I was—

I stopped that thought before it finished.

"I'm not going to hate you."

I said it to his back. Quiet. Precise.

"You don't get to just stand up and leave because you said a name and assumed I'd fall apart. That's not how this works. That's not how I fucking work."

I stood up too, stepped around the bed, and put myself between him and the door. Not blocking it. Just... present. In his line of sight. Making him look at me.

"I know Akkuma's bitch ass."

I let that sit for a second.

"Not know of him. Know him. I've bled in his casino. I've watched him flirt with my brother while proposing illegal medical collaboration like it was a fucking dinner invitation. I know what clan he runs, I know what his harbinger did to Cloud and Leaf villages, and I know that Shin has had to navigate around that man like he's a landmine in a flower garden for years. I watched him and spoke with him during the Sennin Games"

My jaw tightened.

"And I know that you are not him."

I crossed my arms. Held his gaze.

"You told me you denounce him. You told me you broke out of his time prison, that you built your own goals, your own reasons, your own life that has nothing to do with what he wanted from you. And I believe you."

A beat.

"I also need you to understand that this is complicated. Not you and me, you and me was already a fucking disaster and we're apparently doing it anyway like we don't give a shit. I mean the situation. Because Akkuma is not just some estranged father figure, he is a political fucking landmine in this village despite being a previous Sennin, and Shin is the Kazekage, and I am the Kazekage's representative, and if anyone ever connected you to him publicly it would—"

I stopped. Exhaled hard through my nose.

"It would create problems I'd have to solve with a blade instead of words. And I'm not saying that to scare you. I'm saying it because you deserve to know what you walked into when you showed up at my door with those gods damned chocolates."

I uncrossed my arms. Took one step closer.

"So here's what's going to happen. You're going to sit back down. I'm going to eat another chocolate because firstly, they are fucking delicious, and secondly, I have been through a lot in the last five minutes. And you're going to tell me everything else you know about what Akkuma wanted from the Myakashi, because that part? That part matters."

My hand found his wrist before I'd made the conscious decision to reach for it. Not grabbing. Just there.

"And then after that," I said, quieter now, "we figure out what the rest of this looks like. Together. At whatever pace."

If he wasn't looking at me I would reach for his jaw to make him look at me. I held his gaze for a moment longer.

"I'm not a fucking pussy, I don't run twice."

 

[Kureji]

The light touch to his lower jaw as she had guided him to look at her. He stared into her beautiful eyes, mesmerized by them. Instinctively, he reached up with one hand and found hers, holding it there, feeling the comfort of her presence. He allowed himself a few seconds to enjoy the moment. A few seconds would pass until he nodded his head. "Okay."

He would follow her to sit back down on the bed, as he thought to himself, all throughout his past of any talks of the Myakashi clan. He remembered vividly about his conversation with Akkuma, the day that he had put him into a time crystal. "He had said that with the Myakashi clans' help, he was able to break the inter-village relationships, how he allowed them to grow their own influence as long as they took the blame of initiating the attacks. He wasn't too much fond of giving out much information about them, even to me. But now that I'm thinking about it... He saw me thinking of the Myakashi as a threat as something to derail his plans. That is when he trapped me in the time crystal."

Kureji pondered as he thought more and more about that particular clan. "Migoya had said, when I first met him. About his own ties to Leaf. How he had butted heads with the leadership and ultimate left when some of the leaf shinobi had killed some academy students. I had confirmed that with the current sitting Hokage, though they had said it was another child that killed the other students. Must'a been some strong ass child. Guess that might be where Migoya's hate for the Villages goes. He wants complete control. To feel in control."

"Migoya had a way with words. Being able to look you in the eye and tell you exactly what you want to hear, not knowing if he truly was telling the truth or not. He spoke of also resting the control from all the Villages, with mention of what I had said earlier about the kids. He also said basically some of the same stuff that Akkuma had said. Make sure that all of the Villages lose trust in the others and bring instability to it all."

The rock star would try to think more on the matter, "Other than Migoya, I only know of one other Myakashi. Kiko. Met her when I was still kinda new to traveling the world and making music. She wanted to be a drummer. Outside of that, she told me that she was in all of the bingo books of all of the Villages with a Kill on Sight. Must'a did some serious type of shit to have all the Villages want her dead. She had told me that she wanted to also shake the world but didn't go into much detail."

He paused. This was all that he had to say, but why did he want to talk more? "About what you said about you, and me, and Shin, and Akkuma. About how complicated it all will be." He would shake his head, "I'm not scared of anyone, or anything. Only thing I am scared of... Is losing you." His fingers would move on the bed until they found hers. "Just tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it. All for you."