Roses are Red

Attachments

Recappy from the Last Chappy: He nodded, giving her a small smile as he took hold of her hand and twisted himself so that they faced each other instead of her arms being around him. Too soon for her to realize it, and before she could resist, her mouth was drawn to his. Conveniently, she forgot to be nervous or embarrassed, so instead of pulling away, she closed her eyes.

Meanwhile, Hayden pulled her face from Kiba's warm chest and wiped her eyes, feeling only a little self-concious. Her eyes fell on Sasuke, coincidentally, and realized that he was looking at something with a mask of no emotions. She followed his gaze and saw-What the hell?-Maboroshi and Krystal kissing. Her brow furrowed. This was not good.

Chapter Thirteen: Attachments

Wounds collected from the battles were all dressed by Ino over the next hour once Edward and Takashi's bodies were cremated. In the end, Maboroshi had a bandage on his cheek to keep the cut from the shurikon sterile; Hayden had a few minor cuts on all her limbs that needed bandaging; claw marks on Kiba had already become slightly infected and needed to be both cleaned and healed; Krystal needed her arms to be bandaged and all Henry, Hinata, and Sasuke were unscathed.

It was through mutual agreement that the decision of no progress would be made that day was made and they would have to wait until the next morning. All shinobi, Hayden, and Maboroshi needed rest; some of them were having a hard time hiding their fatigue. Hayden, however, had to ignore it, for something else going on in the group was distracting her: Krystal and Maboroshi.

She knew very well the feudal lord's son could be a sort of womanizer-she knew VERY well. When she and Edward had noticed him acting flirtatious with a Konoha kunoichi, they were only minorly concerned and thought he knew where to draw the line. Kissing was crossing it, as for him, that was simply the beginning. Action needed to be taken. For the second time that day, she may have to literally slap some sense into someone.

"Lord Maboroshi. Talk. Now," she said, grabbing him by the ear right after seeing Ino. Because she would have rather avoided interference, she dragged him into where the trees grew a little thick. As soon as they were completely out of sight, she released his ear and slapped him across the face, catching his other cheek. "What the bloody hell were you thinking?"

Maboroshi rubbed at the red hand mark. "Dealing out a lot of slaps today, aren't we? It's about time you shagged someone, Hayden. Maybe then you wouldn't be so tense," he said, dropping his charm with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Don't make this about this one! Why would you do something like that? This one excused it when you were flirting, but kissing? Do you even know what you are actually doing? Getting that poor girl's hopes up for something that will never happen! Lord Maboroshi, you are getting engaged-you can't have any attachments with that girl! You will marry that woman from the Wind Country to keep peace; it's in your position to do so!"

"Are you sure you aren't simply jealous?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hn. Don't drag up ancient history like that. That ship sailed long ago, and this one could never be jealous of a girl unfortunate enough to want you," she answered venomously and crossed her arms. "You're missing this one's point."

"No, I know what you are saying . . . But believe me, she will not grow attached to me. Take it from someone with a lot of experience with women. In this scenario, I am the rebound man. Miss Krystal only has eyes for the person whom she refers to as 'someone-I-used-to-know' and I simply remind her of him . . . And, you know me. I never fall in love for real . . ." His expression softened. Hayden's arms loosened and her eyes showed concern.