The Enemy of My Enemy

Chapter 16: Endearment

Ashiteru...

He loved her?

His words were like a blur to her. Everything, in that instance, changed...

Was it possible for someone to love her? Was it possible for someone to love her, someone who was cursed to be nothing but a burden?

It was too much. The deaths of her dear comrades, his sudden confession and her self-hate, low self-esteem which conflicted with his love for her. She didn't understand it, she was overwhelmed. Why, why would he love her?

She was a monster, an Akai, the last descendant of the cursed clan. She was an outcast, accepted by none and isolated. Everyone she knew, her family which she held dear were slaughtered. They were killed for the crime of living and she was charged with the same crime. It was her against the world yet this man, Kakashi Hatake said he loved her.

Did he know what that meant? To love her was to stand with her, one who had stood alone for her whole life. She looked up at him, her eyes meeting his and freezing for just a brief moment. She looked at him and knew that he did indeed mean to stand with her. To be with her. She wouldn't be alone anymore. Her vision began to blur at the prospect of that, the prospect of having someone, of being loved and loving. 

"Akemi? Why are you crying? Are you hurt anywhere?" Dumbfoundly, Kakashi checked the vital regions and searched her body for any particular wounds. His gut tightened as her expression had quickly changed into sorrow.

Akemi's lower lip trembled and her body wracked with harsh sobs and shakes. Kakashi, immediately recognized that he had caused Akemi to cry, and he engulfed the girl, wrapping his arms around her.

"Ka-Kakashi..." Her hand clutched his shirt, her tears overflowing from her eyes. She presses her face against his chest,"I... I... don't understand... Why do you love someone.... Like me?"

Her emerald orbs blinked rapidly; the tears gradually slipped down her cheeks. She felt awed, by the fact that he had feelings for her, someone that she would never thought would learn to love...

She was someone that didn't deserve any kind of affection. Any kind of love. She didn't deserve to live.

So why... Why did this odd man have feelings for her?

Akemi opened her mouth to speak once more, but her lips were sealed by the press of his finger.

"Please don't ask me any questions..." He spoke, softly a sheepish smile on his face "...You have already overwhelmed me with your crying."

The silver-haired male took a deep breath and exhaled. His larger hand squeezed her much smaller one; his lone, obsidian eye focused upon her hazy, emerald stare.

"All this time, when I've been training you... When I've been helping you through jutsu after justu... When I've been supporting your strength... When I was with you..." His words stressed. Kakashi raises her hand and kisses her knuckles, which were bruised from the earlier battle between Totaru and Ami's killers.

He continued "...I never felt more than accepted in my life. All this time, throughout the years of my whole living norm, I had never thought I would be able to attract to anyone. I had shoved myself away from everyone. I locked myself up from the world."

His mismatched orbs found their way to gaze into her viridian stare. Her tears were continuously streaming past her cheeks.

He loved her.

She loved him.

Akemi's hand trembled as she reached to cup the silver-haired male's face. Her thumb runs across his slightly torn mask and dips into it, pulling the garment down.

She leans in and kisses him. It wasn't lustful or forceful. Instead, it proved nonetheless that she actually loved him. The kiss was intimate... Passionate.

She belonged to him just as he belonged to her.

"...I don't want to lose anyone, anymore..." Kakashi muttered. His free hand runs through her crimson locks,"...I don't want to lose you..."

"...Neither do I." She responded vaguely, with a weak smile,"...I don't want to lose you either, I... I love you"

This was not infatuation. This was not any obsession. This was actual love. Love. Was it even such a word?

Kakashi's hands reaches to take her's. His larger hands squeezes her smaller ones, reassuringly. His heart throbbed with affection for his paramour. All of the emotions he had perceived from the beginning in which he had met her, it was all bleeding out.

Akemi's lips pressed against his again, her dainty hands taking grasp of his hefty ones, "Let run away from here. I don't want... the both of us... or either of us to d..." Her voice trails off and Kakashi responds with a simple nod.

She had made up her mind. With their confessions, her goal and ideal exacting revenge on Orochimaru had completely dispersed. She did not want vengeance not at the risk of her losing her loved one. She wasn't one for revenge anyways, she was not a cruel being to do such act. Akemi was never the one that belonged on the path of revenge, and darkness, sin and evil. She was light, her parents had named her 'Akemi' which meant bright and beautiful and she was thus. A warm sunrise, she was never meant to be dark.

Akemi had finalized her decision, and made up her mind.

She was going to stay at Kakashi's side, no matter what. No matter the hardships that laid ahead, no matter the consequences, nothing was right without him by her side, and her by his.

All along, she had thought that there was no other meaning in her life but revenge. She had nothing, no goals, no relationships, or loved ones. She had no future and saw no future for herself; Yet, her future, this man had stood right under her nose this whole time...

How could she have been so blind until now?

Her lips spread into an endearing beam and her arms wrapped around his neck. Akemi pushes her beloved's silver bangs from his eyes and fixate her virdian orbs upon his alluring, mismatched pair of eyes.

"I love you."

Kakashi inhales a sharp breath and pulls her in closer. His lips brush against her forehead, and his hands run through her crimson hair, responding with intimacy;

"I love you, too..."

You're the only one I can hold onto...

-

A/N:

I apologize for not keeping up to date with this work! Biggest apologies to Anni, my co-writer, as well! D: ( Lol no biggie, XD I know how busy you are -Anni)

I'm just going to say that I get distracted, and I easily forget that I have other priorities to finish off.

Anyways, I'm sure Anni will stack up a chapter in no time! Be grateful that at least one of us gets the job done! *nervous laugh* ( ha ha... Gee thanks for the pressure 0.0 -Anni)

-Ryo