The Geisha Way

Ch 28- I Wouldn't Mind.

"I was sick with anxiety, and felt a pit inside myself as big and empty as if the world were nothing more than giant hall empty of people."

She knocked on the door, and waited for him to answer. Somehow, no matter how many times she replayed it in her head, it never eased the nervousness from her being. Her palms started to sweat, and her legs involuntarily started to shake-her knees felt like jello. Miomomo felt like she would have drowned if someone didn't pull her head above the water of anxiety. The door opened and her breathing hitched in her throat.

"In the instant before the door opened, I could almost sense my life expanding just like a river whose waters have begun to swell; for I had never before taken such a drastic step to change the course of my own future. I was like a child tiptoeing along a precipice overlooking the sea. And yet somehow I hadn't imagined a great wave might come and strike me there, and wash everything away."

Gaara opened the door with a confused look on his face. He has only cried once in his life, but this time-this time felt like it could happen again. Staring out the door all he could see was his future, and what this very moment meant. He offered a half smile, because if he forced himself into a full smile, tears surely would have flowed down his face. It was okay-everything will be okay; a mantra he repeated over and over in his head. He cleared his throat, before speaking.

"I missed you." She said before any words were spoken, she smiled at him; but he said nothing. It was as if he couldn't believe she was standing there in front of his very eyes. She didn't blame him; their last encounter didn't exactly end on a happy note.

"Where is she?" He finally asked, looking at Naruto wearily. Naruto smiled sadly and handed him a letter. Gaara couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to take it; he knew what the letter would say before he even opened it. The words would leave him broken, hurt, betrayed. Those words would kill him.

"Mio..." Kakashi breathed out. He still had a hard time believing whether or not what he was seeing was real. Was she actually here, right now, at this very moment? His eyes trailed down to her fingers, but there was no ring.

"Kakashi." Miomomo walked inside and watched as he closed the door, mentally trying to remember what she wanted to say.

"I thought next time I saw you, you would be married." She put her head down and smiled before binging her gaze back up to him.

"One day there was a little girl with a bag of groceries standing over her parents graves, when a teenager with the hair of an old man came and asked her: 'What is your favorite type of ramen; beef, pork or vegetable?' The teenager treated the girl with such kindness after all the hatred she had endured, and she knew at that moment she wanted to spend every day with him. Later, on the way home after that little girl became a genin; they encountered a beautiful group of geisha. The little girl noticed how the teenager drooled over those girls, and she realized that not only did she want to become a ninja, but a geisha as well, like it was a stepping stone into his world."

"This story seems familiar." Kakashi smirked through his mask.

"Even though the girl was forced to grow into a woman, the teenager, who grew into a man, was there for her-always; until one day he wasn't."

"I remember now, that man was stupid." Miomomo chuckled a bit and smiled.

"That woman realized something."

"What?"

"That no matter how much the man had hurt her by leaving, no matter how many charming men came into her life, her thoughts always lead to one man-that man. He was the only man to never try and buy her love, dangle power in front of her, or even ask her to stop being who she was; because he loved her, unconditionally and understood things that no one else could." Her vision blurred with tears, as her eyes glazed over and Kakashi embraced her in his arms. "My mother, my mother use to say that I was water-" She sniffled. "That every obstacle was a pebble, every person a stone; but fuck Kakashi you were a boulder that demanded to stay there. Even after all the pebbles and stones sunk to the bottom, you stayed there." Her tears fell from her, but these were tears of joy, not the ones that needed to be released from overwhelming agony; just little droplets of happiness.