Kyuden Shika

Ishioka welcomes the kiss, growling faintly when it's so brief. Almost irritably he says, "I... We had... sort of agreed to be friends. It was clear that... things weren't working. I apologized for trying to make things happen when it has always been up to the Deer. We haven't spoken for two days..." He tries to relate what he recalls of their last conversation, which both his conscious and subconscious have been trying to suppress beneath a veneer of everything is fine. He sounds a little tired, still a little confused, but there's no graduation or resistance to telling her everything.

Inoshishi nods, snuggled up against the large Matsu.

“Well, you’re not the only one she hadn’t been talking to, apparently. She and I had…unfinished business. I thought I’d offended her, in some way. I hadn’t. Nor, it appears, was I wrong that she felt we had unfinished business as well.”

There’s a faint blush that may or may not be visible in the dark.

“I think it is finished now, however.” She’s clearly brushing over something, her voice too soft and happy to have told the whole story.

“But that doesn’t say why you were up now. Or sounding…how you were sounding.”

Dark room or not, she can probably feel the little movements of his face as his eyes narrow in curiosity. "Your... business is finished? What..." He hesitates, but he's braver than the Ishioka of a few days before.

"Whether it's finished or not, what kind of business did you have with her?" It's not accusatory, but it's clear he feels he should know.

Her eyes narrow slightly, knowing he’s dodging her question and curious as to the reason, so she addresses that first.

“Perhaps I have not been clear enough, my beloved. If your…little, though not so little, soldier wishes attention, even if I’m asleep, you may always wake me. And if you don’t wish to, you don’t need to be embarrassed.”

If nothing else, that topic should draw a response. It also gives her time to consider how to respond. Always truthful, but how to explain.

“Well…I had believed I would be spending my life with her as well. So I got to know her. And she is…different, I think, on her own. I grew to care for her and she, surprisingly, for me. So I worried I had offended. When it came out that I had not, we exchanged confidences, like girls do, and then she finished what I several times began. But it was a farewell, not like, well, with us.”

With her hands on his chest, she knows she’ll be alright with any action. Her feet press against his knees, since despite being the same height laying down, he was still longer.

It's a lot for the Lion to absorb, but the pieces click together, and he grins. Pulling the Dragon - his Dragon - over on top of him, he explains, "I am happy if you... finished what you needed to with Narumi-san. I suppose perhaps I haven't, but no matter. The reason you felt me hugging you, and the... near tears," he admits, "of relief, is the letter I heard slide under the door. It is the will of the Deer, not just our hearts, that it be you and me forever, Ino-chan." And though he thought he had passed the stage of shock and happy tears, she can see as daylight just starts to brighten the room that there are sparkling circles around both his eyes and he's shaking a little with excitement.

She smiles down at him, the sun and it's first rays kissing her hair for a moment as she smiles so wide it hurts. "Of course they have, my Ishi-kun." And then the sun doesn't illuminate her anymore.

/ftb?

His large hands take her in and they're lost to passion.
/ftb