Talking to a Friend Part 1
oOoOoOoOoOOoOOoOo
“May I sit here?”
Jin followed the voice and turned his head. He looked straight into Fuu’s face, her lips smiling from ear to ear.
He only moved aside a little so that she could sit.
It was a very warm summer night; the wind blew smooth through the trees and brought the smell of fresh mown grass with him
“Can’t sleep?“, she asked. Jin only nodded.
“Well that makes two of us“, sighed Fuu and leaned against the wall of the little cottage where they were staying overnight. “Mugen’s snoring … again.”
She rubbed her eyes and yawned.
“Why can’t you sleep, Jin?”
He only shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch the moonlight reflecting on the little pond next to their cottage. No matter how hard she tried, she never seemed to bring him toa decent conversation with her.
‘Fuu has noticed’, he thought and also leant against the wall. He looked up into the sky and watched the stars.
Fuu watched him with worried eyes. This was the third night or maybe even the fourth that he hadn’t been in bed. She sighed: “You miss her a lot, don’t you?”
Jin continued watching. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Fuu-chan.”
She leant her head against his shoulder:” It’s not a shame to miss the ones you love, Jin-kun. You love Shino. You should be grateful that she’s alive and that you will see each other again.”
Another sigh. “Of course it’s okay to miss her. Believe me I understand this feeling more than anyone else, but you should get some sleep as well.”
Jin looked at her questionably: “Do you really believe that I’ll see her again?”, he asked. “I gave up on that hope. I bet she’s already got another man. I’m not worth being with…”
Before he could finish, Fuu growled angrily. “Don’t you dare to say such ridiculous things Jin! You’re the only man worth it and you know it! What would Shino think of you if she knew what you are saying right now! You love her, and she loves you too. You can do nothing against that.”
And before he could do anything against it, she hugged him tightly. “I hate it to see you like that, Jin. You’re my friend and I don’t want you to be sad.”
To her surprise, he pulled her closer with his right arm against her shoulder. “Thank you, Fuu-chan”, he whispered. Fuu smiled and hugged him tighter until he let out a short gasp.
“Oh my god! I’m sorry Jin. Did I reopen your wounds?” She looked at the samurai with deep concern. Only a week before he and Mugen had to fight against a group of Ninjas sent by the Shogun to capture them.
Jin got hurt in order to safe Fuu but it hadn’t been life threatening.
After a few moments breathing in and out deeply he shook his head. “I’m alright.”
“I’m sorry”, she said and blushed a little.
Awkward silence followed. Fuu wanted desperately to help Jin. She hated it to see him so sad.
“Tell me Fuu-chan”, he said, breaking the silence and watching the stars again. “Why do you give ME love advice, when you don’t even take care about your own love problems?”
She looked at him confused, and a little frightened. “W-what do you mean?!”, she yelped and turned at least ten shades of red.
How did Jin know? She had tried to be sooo careful! She only looked at Mugen in secret. Innocent glances while they where all eating or sleeping! How had he noticed? “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about Jin”, she stuttered.
Just one stop-trying-to-convince-me,-I’m-cool-and-I-know-everything-look from him and her mouth was shut. He knew all about her affection for Mugen. But he couldn’t understand.
He always insulted her and was mean to her. Fuu was such a cute and nice and caring girl. Too cute, too nice and too caring for him But she liked him, and he didn’t have the right to say anything against it.
“Why don’t you tell him?”, he asked and looked at her questionably.
She only shook her head and then looked at him with a sad expression in her eyes.
“Am I really that obvious Jin?”
He nodded, but gave her an encouraging smile.
“Well, why do you ask then?”, she asked and closed her eyes. “I’m sure if you noticed, than he noticed as well. He didn’t do anything.”
The sound of her voice got even sadder. “He thinks I’m ugly, flat chested and good for nothing. And he’s right. Otherwise he would like me.”
Jin once again laid an arm around her shoulder. ‘My turn to cheer her up’ he thought.
“Want to know a secret?” Fuu blinked at him questionably.
Jin smirked. “He’s looking at you all the time, didn’t you notice? He’s frustrated. He knows he likes you but he’s trying to deny it.”
Fuu blushed. “Y-you really think so? That’s hard to believe.” She just couldn’t imagine Mugen liking or even loving her. Was Jin really telling the truth? That couldn’t be true.
“It’s nice of you, trying to cheer me up Jin. But if he really liked me, he wouldn’t visit his stupid brothels every time possible,” she answered with a frustrated tone.
She drew up her knees and hugged them tightly. Her eyes were filled with tears she desperately fought back and every time she thought about Mugen, her heart beat faster but there was also a deep and depressing feeling, because she knew that he didn’t belong with her.
“Don’t be ridiculous Fuu, believe me I know.”
He stood up and reached for his swords.
“you know what? Wait here and you’ll get a prove”.
He smiled evilly and got into the cottage.
Fuu shivered. Not only because the night was getting colder, but because of Jin’s smile. He was sure up to something. ‘I hope he isn’t telling Mugen…’ She sighed again. ‘ Well wouldn’t make any difference. He doesn’t like me anyway.’
Fuu tightened her grip around her knees and closed her eyes. She listened to the sounds of the night. She could hear the water of the nearby stream that went into the pond. She could hear the wind whispering stories to the forest.
Then she could her mumbling from inside the cottage. ‘Oh dear…Jin woke Mugen… IS HE CRAZY?!’
Fuu waited nervously as Jin had told her, and after a few minutes, Mugen came out.
Fuu blinked confused. Mugen blinked back.
“What are you looking at? Are you coming or not?”
Fuu blinked again and gave him a confused look. “Fish-face said you wanted to take a walk in the moonlight or something like that. I don’t know why girls like that okay? He doesn’t want you to go alone… So are you coming or not?”
Mugen held out his hand to her, to help her up, and after a few seconds, Fuu took it and followed him into the forest.
In the meanwhile, Jin watched them go away and grinned to himself. Fuu-chan deserved to be happy, and he was glad that he could at least help her to get a little of the happiness she wanted.
OoOoOoOoOooOoOO
Talking to a Friend Part 2
OoOoOoOoOooOoOO
They had already walked for ten minutes. Awkward silence filled the air and it pressed Fuus mood down to the ground.
Mugen hadn’t said a thing and didn’t seem to care about her. He just walked beside her, his hands linked behind his neck. His look was focused on the stars and he seemed to think about why he actually was out here and not in bed.
So Fuu decided to watch her surroundings.
…”BELLFLOWERS!”, she shrieked and ran to the left side of the small way they were going on. Her cry had made Mugen reach for his sword, but when he saw that she was only running to some stupid flowers, he lowered his hand.
“Don’t scare me like that again. I almost…Fuu? Fuuu!! Hey Bitch! Are you listening?”
He stared at her back. She picked some of the flowers and smiled all the time, while humming a melody he didn’t know. ‘Nope, she’s not listening’
He grinned evilly, raised his right foot and tipped it against her left hip, so she fell over and landed on her butt.
She groaned: “What did you do that for?” She looked up to him with an indignant look on her face and scowling.
He sighed. „Just for fun. And you weren’t listening to me.” He shrugged his shoulders and walked on. Fuu stood up waggling and ran after him.
“That was mean of you!” She sighed. “Hold still”
Suddenly Mugen felt something tickling his ear. Fuu wiped his wild hair aside and placed a bellflower behind his ear. She giggled. “All better now”
Mugen stared at her with wide eyes. “What the-“. He couldn’t speak further because Fuu placed a finger to his lips. “Nearly finished”, she whispered and took another flower from her hands.
Mugen watched her curiously. ‘She’s gone mad. What does she think she’s doing? First Sunflowers and now bellflowers? Is she some kind of bouquet?’
Fuu laughed at his expression. Then he decided he liked it when she laughed. It seemed like she didn’t have a care in the world. It was beautiful. ‘Wait’, he thought shocked, ‘the word “beautiful” isn’t even in my vocabulary!’
In the meanwhile, Fuu was wrapping a bellflower around the grip of his sword.
“Hey! What are you doing?” He backed away. “Don’t touch my sword ever again!”
Fuu frowned. “Mugen… I’m almost done so come back here!” After a long staring contest between the two people, Mugen gave in and walked back to her.
“Good boy”, smiled Fuu and continued to fix the bellflowers around his sword.
“They are purple, aren’t they?” He sounded worried.
“Yes they are”, she smirked. “Why d’ you ask?”
He let out a cry of agony. “Because purple is GIRLY! I’m not a girl! Give them to four-eyes!”
She took a step back. “Don’t complain Mugen. It looks nice.” She sighed, and petted Momo, who had crawled out of her kimono.
Suddenly she had a sad expression on her face. When Mugen gave her a questioning look, she smiled tiredly.
“It’s a good luck charm, you know? My mother used to give them away as presents for her friends and me. In our village, bellflowers are said to give luck to you beloved ones.” She blushed and looked to the ground.
Timidly, she walked on, with Mugen following.
“She loved them. Her favourite time of the year was spring, because then you can find a lot of them. We even have a certain day in the year for this flower in our village.” She smiled as she remembered the times when she celebrated with the people in her village.
Her mother had a lot of friends and Fuu liked to play with the other girls and collect bellflowers for the boys.
In the meanwhile, Momo floated to Mugen, holding tightly on his right arm. He snuffled, and followed the sent of the flowers until he sat on his shoulder.
“I miss her..” she mumbled and leaned against a tree, looking once more up to the stars.
Mugen watched her with mixed feelings. He didn’t like it when she was sad. On the other hand was it often him, that made her feel like that. Suddenly he had the urge to hug her, and he did.
Fuu stiffened and didn’t dare to breathe. ‘W-What’s he doing? Oh my god! He’s hugging me. Is this really Mugen?!’ She gulped and carefully placed her hands on his chest. After being sure that he wasn’t going to push her away, she slowly closed her eyes. She didn’t notice that she was crying silently.
Then Mugen did something, he hadn’t done ever before. He comforted her. he slowly rubbed her back and whispered in her ear, that everything was okay, and that he was there for her.
Fuu bit her lip. She had dreamed of Mugen holding her like that, comforting her and whispering sweet things into her ear. Her heartbeat got faster and she instinctively gripped his shirt tighter. She could feel his breath tickling her neck and earlobe. “Mugen…”, she whispered.
He could feel the goose bumps walking up his arm and back. Her voice sounded…sexy.
He looked her in the eyes. The moonlight was dancing on her cheeks.
Fuu had a confused, but curious look on her face. After a few moments of watching her, he smirked.
He placed both hands around her waist and pinned her to the nearby tree.
She squealed and tightened her grip. “M-Mugen what are you…”, she stuttered, but was interrupted by HIS finger now on HER lips.
“Now Fuu. If you wanna talk, you can go to fish-face. You know I’m a man of action.”, he said. And then he kissed her. Hard.
At first, Fuu couldn’t react. Mugens lips were crashing against hers and he was nibbling at her bottom lip. After a few minutes though, she closed her eyes and kissed back passionately. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to deepen the kiss.
She again let out a short squeal, when Mugen smiled into their kiss and tightened his grip around her waist to lift her up and pin her to the tree again, so she was a little taller than him.
His tongue licked her lips, asking for entrance, which was granted immediately. They kissed just like they bickered. Nobody wanted to give in or let the other one lead the kiss. After a very long and intensive battle of hands, tongues and lips, they broke apart for air and Mugen set Fuu back to her feat.
They panted heavily. Fuu laid her hands onto her cheeks which were getting at least 10 shades of red. ‘Mugen. Kissed. Me. MUGEN JUST KISSED ME!’
‘Why did I just do that?’ he thought to himself, but when he looked at her red face, he smirked. “Was the good-look-charm supposed to work immediately?”
She smiled happily. “I don’t know. It works when it’s needed the most I think.”
He laughed, pulled her back in his arms and wanted to kiss her again. But Momo bit his ear.
“GAAAAH!! Come back here you stupid Squirrel!”, he shouted and ran after Momo, who flew to a nearby tree and climbed up.
Fuu blinked confused and then laughed. “Mugen! Don’t you dare hurt Momo!”, she cried and ran after him. But she smiled.’ Guess it’s my lucky day after all’, she thought and silently thanked the bellflowers for their help.
OoOoOoOoOooOoOO
