How Taki joined the Akatsuki(Tobi love story)

Chapter 15: Zetsu's garden

Zetsu dragged me up the stairs, and out the back door. We walked out, hand in hand, to meet a brisk fall breeze.

I shivered, and Zetsu looked at me. "You cold? Of course she's cold, Baka. Oh.. well, here. I'll warm you up."

His arms wrapped around me, warming me up almost instantly. He let go, and we came to a beautiful garden.

Dirt paths winded around various flowers, trees, and other plants.
The forest surrounding us made us even more appreciative of the beauty of nature.

We sat down on a bench together, watching the sunrise.

'Seeing the beauty of nature always makes me cry.' I thought to myself.

"Me too." Zetsu replied. I guess I said that out loud by accident. I was glad he heard though, or I never would have known that about him.

I leaned on his shoulder, continuing to look at the sunrise. "But that makes me feel like the crybaby of the group." He said.

"Oh, Zetsu. You're not a crybaby. I actually think it's pretty sweet that you weep at beautiful things, like I do."

I looked into his eyes, to see that they were watering. I could feel my own vision get blurry, and we wept at the beautiful scenery before us.

"I'm happy that there's at least one person who feels the same way about pretty things. I'm also glad that you're that person, Taki. I'm glad I was able to meet you.. and be your.. friend?"

We were silent for a long time. It was still pretty early to be outside in such cool temperatures.

I turned my head to look at Zetsu. "Weeping is a pretty human thing to do. When Kisame said that, it hurt your feelings, didn't it?" 

Zetsu frowned a little at the mention of it. "Yeah." After a couple of seconds in silence, I said, "That is another thing that makes you seem pretty human. I know that you're not really human, but you have many traits about you that makes it easy to see the human in you. Get what I'm saying?"

...

"Yeah."

I turned my head back to the sunset. "I also think you should think about how Kisame feels, too. I'm certain that he felt bad for hurting your feelings. Especially for a human, it's pretty hard to lower yourself enough to realize that you've done something wrong, and apologize for it." 

Zetsu lowered his head. I sighed contently. I felt my eyes start to get heavy. I fought off the sleep that nagged at me. "Just.. think about it, okay?" 

Even though I couldn't see it, I felt his head nod. We were struck with another considerable length of peaceful silence.

I yawned, and tiredly asked Zetsu, "Mmm.. Zetsu, could you keep a secret?"

He continued to stare straight ahead of him. "Of course. You can trust me, and I know that I can trust you, too."

"I have feelings for Tobi. I just don't know if he would understand how I feel for him if I tell him, though." I nuzzled into his chest, to warm myself up.

Zetsu put an arm around me. He didn't have even a hint of surprise or judgement on his face.

"Even though it may seem that he wouldn't understand your feelings for him if you did tell him, I'm sure that deep inside he would understand perfectly."