It Started With A Kiss (A Kisame Story)

Chapter 15.

He tried to remain upbeat, dismissing Umi's attitude yesterday to a nightmare, something someone had said to her, a bad day in general—being on her period, even—anything that would brush off the idea of her simply pushing Kisame aside. He took a moment to pace and think about how he would greet her; should he act any different? Push straight in and ask if there was anything wrong, and that she could talk to him about it if there was? Or would it be better to ignore it and continue on as normal; bringing up something that Umi didn’t want to think about wasn’t something Kisame wanted to do. If it meant that all of it would get brushed under the carpet, he was all for it; he didn’t want to bring it up anymore than she did.

Sighing, he sat down on the bed, placing his head in his hands. Would any of this be easy?

But Kisame forced himself to shake it off and get up. He’d figure out how to react when he saw Umi's reaction to him there. If she was happy and back to her normal self, then he would do the same—if not, then he’d try and figure out what was wrong and ask about it. For the moment, however, he concentrated on getting there, walking out the room and heading straight for her door. Umi herself wasn’t particularly looking forward to the beginning of this day and with what she knew she was going to be saying to Kisame. It wasn’t as if she liked doing this to him, but she had no choice! All she could do was plough on with her plan, and so took a deep breath as she heard the knock. Blanking her face just like yesterday morning, Umi walked casually over to the door and opened it, glancing up from looking at her clothes and blinking in surprise to see Kisame there, as if she hadn’t been expecting him to be there. Allowing him to greet her, hiding a wince as he grinned sweetly at her and forcing herself to remain passive, she eventually knew she would have to speak up as he questioned as to what she wanted to do today, and swallowing hard, she finally managed to look up at his face—though not in his eyes—to state nonchalantly,

“Oh, no; I’m gonna be hanging out with Hidan today, Kisame—sorry.”

Kisame instantly froze, staring at Umi in utter shock and not knowing what the hell to say in return. After all, it was hisjob to look after her while all this was going on, and it was his job to teach her about the world and everything that Umi needed to know. It wasn’t Hidan's task; and there had never been any signs that he wanted it, let alone that Umi herself had wanted to switch over and allow this to happen. Wondering how long Umi had known about this, and whether Pein had decided this was going to happen, Kisame blurted,

“What?”

As Umi looked back at him as calmly as anything to reply simply,

“Well...I’m gonna be staying in the Akatsuki, aren’t I? And I’m gonna be doing missions with all of you and everything...so I figured it would be best if I hung out with all of you and got to know their abilities—so that if I’m put on a mission with them I’ll know what to do to complement their abilities. I’ll most likely be doing it all day, too, so...I might not see you.”

Still Kisame found it hard to take words and form sentences. He stared at you in utter bewilderment as to why all this was happening when only a couple of days ago they had both been hanging out together all the time; they’d been so close. Now Umi was standing there telling him this news as if it was a casual fact that meant nothing at all. She’dorganised it in the first place, and hadn’t bothered telling him it until he came to her room in the morning and greeted her—making him like a complete idiot in the meantime. He was the one who had gone to all this effort, and yet Umi made no attempt to thank him for it, or truly apologise for all that was going on. The one ‘sorry’ she had thrown at him had been half-hearted and in passing. Suddenly, instead of sadness at having all this occur, anger was the only thing that was running through Kisame's head, and as it did so, it finally allowed him to speak, his own expression changing to apathetic as he shot back,

“Okay; that’s fine. It’ll be easier to entertain myself this way, anyway,” before turning and walking straight to the kitchen to get himself something to eat.

Umi watched him as he walked away, biting back tears at the idea he was now angry at her; but at least this way it meant he would stay away from her. He wouldn’t try and be friendly and she’d have to try and ignore him, and overall that bond would be broken. It wouldn’t have to hurt as much when she became a mermaid again—even as she dived back into her room, placing her back against the door and hand across her mouth in an attempt to stop the tears that were already flowing. She hated doing this to him; but there was no other way—though Umi couldn’t help but wonder whether it was going to hurt any less either way.

Kisame was glad, however; it meant he could eat his breakfast in peace without having to see Umi there, eating silently and blanking him, treating him like he didn’t exist. If she was going to be like that to him without a single word of warning or a reason for doing so, then he had every right to react in much the same way. He had no idea what he’d been doing that day, all of his plans having gone right out the window, but he didn’t care. Kisame would find anything to do as long as it meant staying away from Umi. She had cut all ties with him, so it was time for him to let go and continue on with his life as normal—nodding triumphantly to himself as he finally finished his food, standing to place the stuff in his sink and head back out to his room. Only things didn’t go quite as he wanted as he abruptly passed Umi in the doorway, his eyes merely grazing over her face as he continued on through the door and down the corridor. He forced himself to act like she had done, true, pushing on towards his room and sitting back down on his bed—it was here that the image of her face came back to his memory. Although her expression had been apathetic, a glint had still remained in her eyes. But not of happiness this time; merely of sadness.

Kisame's anger immediately began to dissipate as he remembered all he had been thinking only minutes ago, and sighing once more, he flopped back and fully laid on the bed, closing his eyes as he got lost in thought. True, Umi might have cut all ties with him...but he knew deep in his heart that he could never do the same to her. That connection that had surfaced when he had looked into her eyes at that moment—one that still brought a shiver to his spine when he recalled it in his memory—hadn’t gone, only strengthening by the day. The friendship he had shared with Umi had merely cemented that connection, and as it had been almost innate to begin with, there was no way in hell Kisame could do a thing to get rid of it now. He could lay there and try and be angry; to try and react in the same way or sit in his room all day and cry...but the connection would remain.

But what would he do with it now?

Neither Kisame nor Umi's moods improved much that day. Though Umi allowed herself to react off of Hidan's comments and words, for the most part she tried to remain as distanced as possible. He didn’t really care, as she listened to all he was saying about Jashinism and took it all in, never once complaining or saying that his religion was stupid. Umi merely accepted it, and therefore Hidan was alright with her being around, offering to let her watch one in the meantime. Umi had immediately agreed, feeling as if she had to get out of the hideout. Maybe it was the idea that Kisame could still be in the hideout and that he was angry at her, or maybe because she felt she just needed some fresh air, she didn’t know—but she wanted to get out. Even the fact that she would be watching a sacrifice didn’t bother her; after all, she had a lot of frustration inside of her—this sacrifice might just let her release some of that.

Kisame hadn’t clue how to do the same, however. He tried everything throughout the day; doing casual things like watching T.V and reading, going out for a walk and even training a little. But no matter what he did, nothing worked; he ended up thinking about Umi once again, and every time having no idea as to what to do about the situation. By the time it got to early evening, he was lying on his bed again, having been there for several hours. All he could concentrate on was his thoughts, and he simply let them drift through, telling Itachi he wasn’t hungry when he knocked on the door to try and coax him out of his room for dinner. As he finally heard Itachi sigh, his footsteps softly padding away down the hallway, Kisame turned onto his side, staring blankly out the window; scared if he did anything else then the effects of Umi distancing herself from him would begin to show—that tears he hadn’t seen since he was little would begin to appear once more.