Reflection of God (Pein Story)

Chapter 18.

Kyo was in a good mood.

The day was a nice one, with clear blue skies and just the right temperature. She’d gotten over her worry about calling Pein by his first name and ultimately felt all the more relaxed for it. She enjoyed her training sessions as it was, knowing that she was improving her skills with the Rinnegan and just enjoying hanging out with Pein in general. But she was nearing the end of the training, having almost mastered the Rinnegan—something Pein had told her yesterday. She wasn’t going to be the one to judge whether her abilities were ready, but she trusted Pein's judgement, considering his position and having mastered the Rinnegan already himself. Even if she was unsure about what would occur once the training was over and she started doing missions with the rest of the Akatsuki, Kyo couldn’t deny she was definitely looking forward to finally mastering it all.

Pein could tell Kyo was in a good mood, and ultimately it had extended on to him, watching as she practiced jutsus and everything else with enthusiasm and a renewed vigour, enjoying observing her as much as she enjoyed doing it in the first place. But he hadn’t been able to keep back a smirk when he had told her she was nearing completion of her training with the Rinnegan. She had looked at him in surprise as if she hadn’t been expecting it in the slightest; almost looking unsure at the idea he was about to unleash her to the world with the abilities she had at present. But there was no doubt in Pein's mind, even if Kyo was unsure. With a few more training sessions, Kyo would be more than ready to start with her missions and get into her job.

Landing back on her feet as she completed the jutsu, Kyo glanced towards Pein, causing him to nod with a smirk in her direction—his equivalent of a ‘well done’. Walking forward, they met each other halfway as Pein began to suggest what she should do next, trying to stop himself from smirking at how Kyo nodded at every sentence and listened intently to everything he had to say. Maybe for some people it was the respect she gave him that would grab their attention; but Pein never felt that—it was all that was underneath Kyo's surface respect and obedience to authority that he concentrated on, and it was ever present as she was training today.

Training was nothing unusual to Kyo, but what she found strange was how enjoyable she found it now. It became more of a pastime, whereas where she had been working before it had been nothing but a task that she had no choice but to perform, and in some ways, it had served as a survival technique. Pein, however, had managed to change that completely, and it felt like she was merely sharing a practice session with a friend—though she couldn’t completely smother the urge to try harder than most would consider humanely possible. It had been hard-wired into her brain to do whatever it took to fulfill an order from a superior, regardless of how tired she was or whether it was something physically possible, and that hadn’t fully disappeared.  

But it was easier to forget as Pein joined in with her training.

Even more so when his shirt came off a little while later.

A part of Kyo wished he hadn’t done it as he placed it on the side of the clearing. She got distracted, her heartbeat automatically increasing if his torso got near hers. Sometimes it seemed she was physically unable to look away as he performed a technique, his muscles rippling with his body and the sweat running down his skin. But she was supposed to be training—he was supposed to be her ‘sensei’! She needed to focus; so at times Kyo could only wish that he’d just put it back on. Of course, there were moments when she was fine with it; that it was his choice and he had every right to take it off. But those were the moments when he was demonstrating something or just talking to her about general training things—times when she didn’t exactly need to concentrate.

It still surprised Kyo how much it got to her, even when there was so much else going on around her. Despite the way she had always been taught to treat and view authority, and the wariness she had had around Pein when everything was so uncertain, that feeling still surfaced inside of her, no matter what she did. Her opinion on it was much the same as her opinion on Pein taking his shirt off. Though she liked it…there were times she wished it wasn’t there. But it changed nothing. This new feeling continued to follow her, and Kyo didn’t quite know what to do about it.

Pein was unsure as well, but in a slightly different way to Kyo. He knew what he felt—it was just the consequences of that acceptance that were uncertain. Where was he going to go from here? Considering Kyo's reaction when he had asked her to call him Pein, going about the same approach with something like this was definitely going to be difficult. It had taken him this long to get her to see him as a friend, let alone anything more. Every option he came up with was shot down the moment he re-thought it, and in the end he was wondering whether anything would work. But as he glanced back up at Kyo, he knew he couldn’t back down from this. He’d never been one to give up, and he wasn’t ashamed of what was going on. It was the just the how that was the hard part.

Though both of them shook off their thoughts as Kyo once again stepped forward to try out a new jutsu. After all, regardless of what was going on in their heads, they still had work to do. But even that didn’t work to get Kyo’s mind off of her confusion and incomprehension of her thoughts, however, as she felt something slice across her skin on her side while she attempted the jutsu. Immediately slowing to a halt, she glanced down at it and frowned in frustration at the sight of blood. She should have been more careful.

Pein didn’t blame her; considering all Kyo had done, this was the first injury that had drawn blood—which could be seen as an achievement. Walking over to her the moment she stopped, asking if she was alright, he led her back over to the edge of the clearing so she could at least stop the bleeding, grabbing his shirt to use as a makeshift cloth to wipe it away. It wasn’t too big, so neither of them were about to get worried and have to take her inside to sit down for a moment, but it was bleeding enough for it to take a minute or two to clot, and stepping round to the front, Pein checked it over, Kyo letting him slightly hesitantly at the closeness. Then reaching up, he wiped away the first bit of blood, using his other hand to turn her body a bit more towards him. Instantly, however, and Kyo jerked away from his hand, breathing,

“Pein, wait—”

Looking up with a frown as to the problem, Pein gathered what the problem was when he saw a slight smirk on her face, gathering it had tickled. But somehow her reaction didn’t cause him to move away—if anything, it made him do the opposite. Suddenly all he could focus on was how close their bodies were, and the tone of her voice when she had jerked away caught him out, strangely alluring in the way she had said it. Staring at Kyo, all the feelings he’d been wondering about a while earlier surfacing with a vengeance, his hand moved almost automatically, as if he wasn’t controlling it, and laid in the same place it had been before, resting gently on her side.

Feeling his touch again, Kyo turned her face to look at Pein, wondering what he was doing, but found herself taken back at the look in his eyes—and even more so as he leant in and pressed his lips gently but firmly up against hers. Instead of becoming completely frozen at the kiss, however, like she would have predicted she’d be, Kyo somehow instinctively reacted, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling herself closer. How long had she sat there contemplating her feelings—what she didn’t understand? But now it all made sense. As such, she simply opened her mouth as his tongue dragged across her bottom lip, doing nothing as his hands slid around her waist and the waistband of her pants. This was what she had wanted for so long now. Maybe it had been because he was her boss that she had dismissed it and pushed it to the side—But she couldn’t do it now.

Finally snapping back to reality, Kyo pulled back, prizing his hands off of her and stepping back for a moment. She’d gotten too caught up to think rationally, but now she remembered that there were other things to consider—even if Pein had forgotten them as he stood there with a frown of confusion on his face, not quite understanding what was going on here.

“Pein…no, we—we can’t. It doesn’t matter if I call you by your first name and hang out with you in my spare time…it won’t make a difference.”

So Pein could only stand and watch once again as Kyo turned and walked away from him.