It was a dark and stormy night in Konoha. The streets were deserted, and rain lashed like a whip. Sarah was huddled in a blanket in her living room, eyes glued to the television. She was supposed to be at an extra training session with her team, but no way was she venturing out into that! When she saw them tomorrow, she was sure they would understand.
Never the less, when there were three sharp raps against her front door, she could not help but jump. She got up; blanket wrapped firmly around her, and walked to the door as she quickly began to think of an excuse to explain why she was missing training.
With one – not brilliant but usable – excuse in mind, she pulled open the front door, but instead of seeing her Sensei or another of her team-mates, she saw her friend, Ino, shivering and cold but with a determined grin on her face.
“Oh good! Sarah, you're in!” Without being invited Ino walked through the door, passing Sarah by, into the hallway where she proceeded to try and dry out her hair, “It's a bit wet outside.”
Looking down at the trail of water that had followed Ino into her house, Sarah nodded,
“No kidding?” She looked up from the pool on her floor, to Ino, “So why were you crazy enough to venture out into the storm, in that?” she said, pointing disbelievingly at Ino's usual attire of short purple clothing, a few bandages and nothing else – not even a jacket. Ino, after giving up on attempting to dry herself off, gave Sarah a wink, tapping the side of her nose. This seemed to worry Sarah more than any verbal answer could have done.
“What are you up to?” Sarah demanded. Ino, seeing her friend's expression, giggled.
“Don't look so worried, Sarah! It's nothing bad-”
“So it is something?”
Ino winked again, beginning to put her hand into her side-bag,
“Well of course.” She produced a small pouch from her bag, no bigged than her hand. Sarah looked at it suspiciously but before she had time to ask about it, Ino was already holding it out towards her,
“Pull out the first thing you grab.”
Sarah stepped back, attempting to hide her hands deep within the blanket around her so that Ino could never find them.
“Why should I? What's the bag?”
At this, Ino began to pout,
“Why so suspicious all of a sudden?”
“Last time you told me to do this,” Sarah reminded, “I pulled out a-...” her face paled at the memory. Ino laughed, waving her free hand about in the air,
“I already told you it wasn't me! It was that Naruto kid, using transformation jutsu – I swear!”
Quickly giving up the attempt to get out of putting her hand in the bag, Sarah decided to give Ino a small jab to her pride, instead. Holding her hand out in defeat, she smirked,
“Yeah, it was Naruto. A likely story.”
Ino flipped her hair,
“It's true. Where would I have been able to get one of those things, anyway?” A grin grew on her face and she undid the fastening on the pouch, then held it out for Sarah, “Now pick one.”
Sarah, looking at the fabric pouch with suspicion one final time, closed her eyes and slipped her hand between the folds of the fabric, praying she would not feel anything slimy.
She didn't. What she felt were undoubtedly pieces of paper, and lots of them. Following the instructions of her friend, Sarah grabbed the first piece of paper that ran between her fingers and fished it out of the bag. She held it out in front of her, then opened it, looking at what was written there. Ino, once she had slipped the pouch back into her bag and had produced a small notepad, asked,
“Eight,” Sarah said uncertainly, looking at the sideways eternity symbol on her slip of paper.
“Eight?” Ino confirmed, flipping open the notepad to scribble something down. “Okay, that's great.” Once she was done, she put the notepad back into her bag, took the piece of paper from Sarah, then proceeded towards the door. It was only as she put her hand on the door-handle that Sarah realised Ino was about to leave without any hint of an explanation.
“Ino,” she said quickly, “What's this all about?”
Ino stopped and turned, giving Sarah a devilish smile,
“Well you see,” she turned fully, facing Sarah now, “I decided you, me, and a whole bunch of others are going to play Blind Date, okay?” Sarah's jaw dropped. “You picked eight so your date will be round at eight AM tomorrow to pick you up. He'll be the one choosing what you do, and you'll be spending the day together.”
“But-”
“Look, Sarah, we both know you need to find yourself a guy, and so do most of the girls around here. It's a great way to get the ball rolling!”
“And what about you?”
“Oh,” she said with a wink, “I'm just playing it for the fun. Well, now that that's sorted out, I'll be seeing you after your date.” She turned quickly, wrapping her hand back around the door-handle, not giving Sarah any time to protest, “Don't forget to tell me all the messy details afterwards!”
The door was wrenched open, welcoming the sound of howling gales and rain like daggers. Forgetting about the preposterous game – thinking more about saving her friend from a fate worse than death – Sarah yelled,
“Ino! Wait! Stay here until the weather's calmed down, for goodness sake!” but it was too late. Ino had already stepped out, clutching her bag, into the storm. The door crashed shut behind her.
Sarah stared at the door a moment longer, debating whether or not to go out and drag her friend back to safety, but then she realised that Ino could be more headstrong than a bull sometimes, and left her to it. Instead, her mind wandered to tomorrow's game of Blind Date. Oh dear Lord, what wonders would that hold? She did not want to date, and no doubt her date would be someone she did not like – she had a knack for bad luck, like that. It would probably be someone like Gaara, for all the luck she had.
Beginning to depress herself with these thoughts, Sarah decided to do something to cheer herself up. She would do some baking – she had not done any in a while, and at the moment she felt like eating some cakes, so baking sounded like a great idea! She headed off into the kitchen.
* * *
It was a good hour later when Sarah finally decided to leave the kitchen again, covered in flour and feeling sick from licking the remains of the cake-mix from the bowl, with the sweet smell of sugar-coated treats wafting in the air. All that baking had tired her out – that and the fact she had had to battle with the oven to get it to work without spitting cake-mix at her at random moments. She was tired, and she was a mess.
Sarah decided, what with having to be up at eight AM tomorrow, that, even though it was only nine PM now, she was going to have a shower and then it was straight to bed for her.
She walked along to the bathroom, removing cake-covered clothing as she went, went inside, locked the door, turned the light on, switched the shower on and jumped in quick. Now with the warm water lapping at her skin she gave a long sigh that let out all of the day's stresses in one go. She stood there a moment, just letting the water trickle over her, then picked up the shampoo bottle and squeezed a generous amount of goo into her hand. She rubbed it between her fingers, making a thick lather of foam, then rubbed it into her chestnut-coloured hair as she began to softly hum her favourite song.
Well in to the second chorus, Sarah was just finishing washing the remains of the shampoo from her hair when there was a small flicker from the light-bulb above. She stopped in her tune to glance up for a second, but when nothing more happened she continued humming and picked up the shampoo bottle for a second time. That was when the shower ran cold. Sarah yelped, jumping and flattening herself against the side of the cubical in an attempt to get away from the ice-cold water currently spewing from the shower-head. The shampoo bottle was dropped, forgotten, as Sarah stretched her hand out to try and take hold of the power-switch for the shower, trying to remain as out of the water's line of fire as possible. With her fingertips scraping the top of the power-switch, the lights above suddenly flickered again, and then before she knew it she was in complete darkness, the shower still running ice-cold over her skin. Not able to see much, Sarah decided to momentarily sacrifice her warmth and almost dived through the stream of water to where the power-switch was, grabbing it and turning it towards the wall to shut it off as fast as possible.
Now with only the gentle drip of water coming from the shower-head, Sarah stopped, feeling out for the handle to the shower-cubical – more for support than actually wanting to get out of the shower. It was unsettling – being in darkness in your own house, with not even the light from outside to give you silhouettes to look at; a storm brewing on the other side of the windows. Sarah did not like it. She pushed open the cubical door, stepping out onto the cold-tiled floor of the bathroom, reaching out towards where the towels were kept. She fumbled slightly, having to close her eyes to actually know where she was going, and picked one up, wrapping it around her short hair to stop it from dripping, then groped around for her dressing-gown, putting it on a moment later. She knew already that the other lights in her house would not be working, so she took a deep breath, shuffled across to the door and wrenched it open.
It took her longer than normal, having to shuffle inch-by-inch along the corridors with her arms outstretched to prevent her stumbling in or over something, but eventually she arrived at her room. Thank goodness. She knew her room like the back of her hand, so she did not need to worry about tripping and falling in there.
She pushed open the door and walked inside, just once taking a pause to check the light-switch – it did not work – then walked over to her bed and jumped onto it, leaning over the other side to grab her phone. She pressed a button and flickered in into life, relieved slightly by the small glow of light it gave her.
She jumped, then, hearing a sudden rush of rain and wind crashing against her window, frightening her. She grabbed the insides of her dressing-gown, pulling it into her to try and ward off the chill running along her spine, but it was no use. She could not shake the ominous feeling when there was wind howling and rain pounding against her window, if there was no light to help her. True, she could light some candles, but she knew they would only flicker about madly, adding to the foreboding presence building about her house. She would not be able to cope – heck, she already knew she would not be able to sleep tonight, that was for sure. She wanted to, desperately – she was tired – but she knew she would not be able to.
An unplanned whimper escaped her throat as a sharp whistle blew through the room, causing the chime-bars on her ceiling to tinkle ominously; like something from a horror film right before the main character gets jumped on by the murderer and-
Sarah fell forward, crashing her head into the mattress to try and drown her thoughts out. They were not helping. She knew what she was going to have to do, even if she knew she would be branded a coward by her friends forever more, but, with no second option other than to hide in the wardrobe from murderers of the night, she picked up her phone.
There was only one person she could turn to at a time like this – no, not Ino, PU-LEASE. She would tell the whole world. No, there was one friend who always looked out for her, and knew what she got like when there was a late-night power-cut. Pressing a number on the speed-dial, Sarah took a shaky breath, flinching as a flash of lightning illuminated her room for a second, then held the phone to her ear. There was a very short pause, then a panicked voice asked from the other end,
“Sarah, 'you okay? I was just about to call you. The power's out at mine, how is it at yours?”
Sarah let out a sigh of relief, hearing the familiar voice in her ear,
“My power's out too. I-”
“Do you want me to come over?”
Sarah, if she had not been so scared or had been wearing more than just a towel, would have jumped for joy. The awkward moment of having to ask someone to come and protect her from non-existent monsters and murderers had just been bypassed in one simple question.
“Yes please.” She gave another small sigh of relief – short lived, as the next moment there was another short blast of wind against her window, rattling the glass. “But please hurry, Kiba.”
“I'm on my way.”
The phone beeped, indicating the conversation had just been ended from his side, so Sarah dropped the phone to her bed, feeling a little bit better about the situation already. She was glad Kiba understood what she got like during power-outs. Her imagination always seemed to spark at the worst possible moments – it probably did not help that she was living alone at the moment. It seemed as if creatures were coming from every shadow.
She decided to get changed quickly – knowing that greeting Kiba in nothing but a pair of towels was bound to cause a scene – so slumped off her bed and wandered around the room, picking up a pyjama top and bottoms from the floor, pulling off the towel and putting them on instead. This had only taken her a few minutes, and yet, as she was straightening out her loose pyjama-top, there came a knock from the front door. Even given the circumstances, Sarah raised an impressed eyebrow.
She walked to her bed, picked up her phone and used the dim glow to guide her through her hallways once she had left the comfort of her room. She wanted to close her eyes to avoid having to look into shadowed corners, but knew if she did that, she would only end up walking into a wall, so attempted to focus putting one foot in front of the other instead. It was working so far.
Eventually she made it to the door, fearing her friend had drowned in the rain for having to wait for so long, and pulled it open. There, in the doorway, stood her shaggy, brown-haired friend, Kiba, plus his ever-faithful canine companion, Akamaru. They were both drenched. Sarah gave an apologetic moan,
“Sorry.”
Kiba stepped forward into the house, Akamaru following suit, then the pair shook themselves off,
“Don't worry about it. If I'd cared about getting wet, I would have brought an umbrella.” He turned his head to look at her, flashing her a reassuring grin. She gave a soft smile back, shutting the door to stop the rain from getting inside. It was once the door was closed, and that everything became quiet, save for the thundering of rain and wind outside, that Kiba turned properly to look at Sarah. She had her fists clenched, now looking at the floor awkwardly. He could tell she had scared herself, over what, he had no idea, but that did not matter.
He strode forward, causing Sarah to look up at him again, then threw his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. She stayed there for a moment, her eyes wide with shock, but she soon relaxed, feeling his arms tight around her, and slowly crawled her hands up between them, taking hold of his shirt slightly to hold herself there. Akamaru, feeling left out, tottered forward and rubbed the side of his face affectionately against Sarah's leg.
“We've got your back,” Kiba murmured with his chin resting gently on the top of Sarah's head. “Nothings going to get you, now we're around.”
Sarah let out a soft chuckle, grateful that he had come over on such short notice, but that quickly turned into a yawn. Kiba noticed,
“Tired?”
In amidst a second yawn, Sarah managed to force out a slightly sarcastic,
“No. Whatever makes you say that?”
Kiba gave a low chuckle, unlatching himself from around Sarah's frame, then pulled her unwilling hands from the front of his shirt, taking one of them in his own instead. He tugged her forward, as if to send her in front of him – expecting her to lead him somewhere.
“Go to bed then.” he said. She took a step forward but did not feel him following. She looked over her shoulder uncertainly. “It's okay. Me and Akamaru'll sit in your room.”
“Thanks,” she said, looking forward into the vast darkness of her hallways. She chuckled at her own lack of sense of direction, “It might take a while to get there. It's too dark and I keep bumping into things.”
Kiba let out a laugh, having to quickly stifle it for fear of being glared at,
“You're kidding? You can't make it through your own house in the dark?” Sarah's head sagged in shame, so Kiba sighed amusedly, sending Akamaru to the front of the queue. “Follow Akamaru.”
Akamaru barked happily, glad he was being of some use, then set off at a slow trot from the hallway, along to where he knew Sarah's room was – this was not his first visit during a power-cut. Sarah let go of Kiba's hand, confident enough to follow Akamaru through her house to her room, Kiba following at the back with his hands behind his head as he shook it, trying not to chuckle at how Sarah could not walk through her own house at night. Still... maybe he shouldn't. He knew she had her reasons for not liking power-cuts, even if she would not tell him what they were. Maybe she just didn't like the dark? Maybe... without being able to turn the light on, she felt powerless in a place she should feel safe? He did not want to ask.
In a much shorter time than what Sarah would have done on her own, the trio arrived at Sarah's room. She walked in first, quickly followed by Akamaru who bounded straight over to the bed. Kiba ran in afterwards, scorning,
“Akamaru, get off her bed! You're wet!” But it was too late. The wolf-like dog was already spinning in circles to make himself comfortable at the foot of Sarah's bed, dropping heavily against the covers. As Kiba ran over and attempted to shove his dog off the bed – unsuccessfully – Sarah giggle quietly to herself. She was certain now that she was going to be able to sleep; what with these clowns here to look after her. She always felt safe around them.
“It's okay, Kiba,” she said suddenly, walking forward towards her bed, “He can stay there.”
Kiba turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow,
“Sure? If he rolls over he'll break your feet.”
Sarah let out a sharp, unexpected burst of laughter; Akamaru growling disapprovingly at Kiba's remark. Kiba turned back to Akamaru and shrugged,
“What? You're not as small as you used to be.”
The dog rolled its eyes then dropped its head heavily onto its paws – letting Kiba know that there was no way he was going to shift Akamaru now until morning. Kiba chuckled, running a hand up through his wet hair,
“You're more stubborn than me.” He leant forward, stroking Akamaru along the back. That was when there came a sudden, bright flash of light from outside again, illuminating the room enough to put great, looming shadows in every corner. Sarah tucked her hands into her chest, moving quickly to jump on the top of her bed, hurriedly diving below the blankets. Kiba looked at Akamaru, and Akamaru looked at Kiba, then Kiba gave a small sigh, patting Akamaru's head, then moved around the bed to stand at the opposite side to where Sarah was. He kicked off his shoes, watching Sarah as she huddled in a small ball under the blankets, then slipped onto the bed, above the covers. He put his hand on top of her shoulder through the blankets, attempting to comfort her. He could feel her trembling.
She did not make another movement, but continued to shake, so Kiba changed tactics. He had done it every time so far when he had come round to check on Sarah during a power-cut. Usually she would already be asleep, but something was biting at Kiba, telling him there was something more that was worrying Sarah this time. It was probably the storm. He pulled off his cold, wet jacket; quickly discarding it over the side of the bed, then did the same with his damp shirt, trousers and his socks, then moved so that he was under the blankets, next to Sarah; though her back was towards him, her body curled up in a tight ball.
“It's okay,” he said softly, “we're here. Nothings going to grab you.” He reached forward slowly, taking hold of Sarah around the shoulders, shuffling forward so that her back was pressed against his warm chest. “What's wrong?”
Sarah did not speak, but feeling so close to Kiba she felt herself relax and slowly uncurled herself from the protective ball, stretching her legs out so that her feet were tucked under the warm body of Akamaru.
“It's nothing...” she said quietly, closing her eyes as another flash of lightening lit up parts of the room in a way that cast shadows everywhere else. Kiba's arms tightened their protective hold around her, his legs shifting to tuck in close behind hers, his forehead resting on the crown of her head. For the goodness-knows-what time, she was not going to tell him what was wrong, but again, he did not mind. She would tell him one day, and then he could help her get over her fear, but until then he was quite content with just staying with her, making sure she was safe and happy.
Sarah felt another yawn coming on, her eyelids feeling heavy. Knowing she would not be able to stay awake much longer, she let the yawn pass then said a quiet,
“Thank you.” Her eyes closed.
Kiba smiled, his breath dancing across the back of Sarah's neck, then he murmured with a smile,
“You're welcome.” He tipped his head up slightly, kissing the back of her hair.
Sarah's eyes were open again. She was staring ahead of her, her eyes wide. She could still feel the place were his lips had just touched her. Kiba, noticing that the pulse on her neck had just sky-rocketed, quickly realised what the problem was. He swiftly loosened his grip around Sarah and drew back, saying in slight embarrassment,
“Sorry. That was stupid. You don't need that now. I-... what?”
Sarah had rolled over on the bed and was currently looking at him through her large green eyes, looking more innocent and nervous than he had ever seen her. He saw her hand shift, stopping when it was half way between them, then she pulled it back, looking away shyly. She was hesitating. Kiba could not believe it: even in the darkness he could see the blush staining her cheeks red. He felt a lump build in his throat, realising what he had not a moment ago. Had she just been about to....? Did she...? Was she...?
Going off instinct alone, Kiba leant forward again, tipping Sarah's chin up with his finger, and brushed his lips gently over hers. She was startled by the action, but quickly – much to Kiba's delight – overcame her shock and leaned in closer, pressing her lips fully against his as if she had been prepared for it. He had been right. She had been about to kiss him, but her shyness had gotten the better of her. Now, however, shyness did not seem to be a problem. Her lips were moving rhythmically against his, her hands slowly rising up to wrap around his neck. He moved his finger from under her chin, moving it instead to her ear, tucking a strand of brown hair behind it before replacing his finger under her chin.
The two broke away, Sarah's fears momentarily dispersed, and Kiba pulled her forward into him, wrapping both arms tightly around her waist to hold her close to his body, resting his cheek on the top of her head. They did not speak; merely stayed there together, until Kiba felt the silence had gone on for too long. He let out a chuckle, which quickly turned into laughter. Sarah raised her head curiously,
“What?”
Kiba shook his head with a smile on his face, leaning forward to press their foreheads together,
“Nothing. It's just...” his smile grew a little wider, “Well I'm your blind date for tomorrow and-”
As Kiba continued to talk about what was so funny to him, Sarah seemed to phase out. He was her blind date for tomorrow. HE was, not anyone else. The one person that knew her well and always looked out for her, he was her blind-date. All night the feeling of dread had been building up inside her, adding to the angst she felt towards the power-cut, but now, well, it seemed almost as if a weight had been lifted. She phased in again,
“-date for tomorrow, but... don't you think this counts as a date?” he winked playfully, “I mean I'm already half-naked in your bed. What more could you want out of a date?”
Sarah let out a laugh, cottoning on to what Kiba was getting at. She shoved him playfully in the chest, only he grabbed her wrist when she tried to pull it back and, instead, pulled her into him, grabbing and twisting her so that her back was flush against his chest, then he proceeded to tickle her mercilessly.
Letting out shrieks of laughter, attempting to pull away but failing to do so, Sarah (and Kiba) managed to wake Akamaru up. He turned his head lazily to the top of the bed, saw what was happening, saw the expression on his master's face, wagged his tail a few times approvingly, then closed his eyes again. Sarah managed to grab hold of both of Kiba's hands, pulling them away from her, only with both of her hands occupied she had no way to stop him when he reached up and wrapped both of his legs around her middle, squeezing her tight.
“Hey!” She squeaked, letting go of Kiba's hands to attend to removing his legs. Again, with no way of stopping him, Kiba's hands were soon attacking her – neither of them noticing that the lights out in the hallway had turned back on.
A short while later, the pair were out of breath, Sarah held comfortably in Kiba's arms with her back to his chest, his chin resting in the crook of her neck. He turned his face and pressed his lips softly to her cheek, whispering,
“Good night, Sarah.”
She smiled, bringing her hands up to touch Kiba's, feeling another yawn coming on,
“Good night, Kiba.” the yawn passed, “Thank you for being here for me.”
He smiled again, cuddling her close, at this moment feeling like he never wanted to let her go. Here she was safe, here she was happy, here they were together, smiling as a newly formed couple,
“You're welcome.”
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