Short Stories To Satisfy My Hunger

-Ryu & Hana-

Hana's eyes shot toward the front door of their humble, one-room home. Her heart seemed to stop for a moment as the hope gathered up in her chest. It all released as a sigh of relief came from her mouth.

She stood up from the futon that they shared and realized just how nervous she had been when her knees trembled as she stood up.

Standing at the door and kicking his sandals off was her husband of almost six months now, Ryusuke.

His black hair looked rattier than the usual ungroomed appearance he was known for. A chain hung around his neck that always shone and stood out to Hana because hanging from it was his wedding ring. 

He saw her walking towards him and gave her one of those smiles that always made her heart dance.

And then that smile instantly disappeared and was replaced by a look of sheer terror as he spotted the anger on his wife's face. She grabbed the collar of his kimono, wadding up the fabric and bringing his nervous face closer to her's.

"Where the hell were you?!"

"I-"

"Six hours late Ryu... SIX WHOLE DAMN HOURS!"

She motioned to the small table behind them in the center of the room, "There's your cold ass food that's just been sitting there. I had to eat my dinner alone with my grim thoughts thinking you were fucking off dying in a pit somewhere. Just what the hell do you have to say for yourself?!"

The neighbors were definitely listening in, their lives were too relaxed for them to just ignore the newlyweds arguing.

Hana panted as she waited for an answer, just staring into his brown eyes.

Eventually it was clear he couldn't handle her stare because her normally loud and boisterous husband was silent, he tore his gaze away from her and bit his lip before saying softly, "I have a job to do Han."

Her grip on his kimono tightened and for a second her eyes darted down to the katana just hanging from his sash.

She sent the inanimate object a glare before saying, "You promised me that if you had to work overtime you would let me know, somehow." Her voice had calmed down, mainly so the neighbors couldn't hear them.

He still avoided eye contact with her and she saw him take in a big breath of air before just sighing.

The anger pricked back to the top of her throat but she stopped herself from yelling when a thought popped into her head. As she searched his uncharacteristically quiet and almost guilt-ridden face it occurred to her.

"W-Were you doing something that you didn't want me to know about?" Her heartbeat picked up as his face darkened and - rather than lie to her -  he nodded solemnly.

A lump formed in her throat and she hated that this news she should be used to still shocked her enough to make her wanna start bawling like a child. When she married the young member of the town's small police force she knew that he would be getting himself into lots of trouble. Dangerous trouble.

She had seen him get hurt for years before she was brave enough to admit she loved him and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

After that things had always just seemed like the normal level of hectic that she was used to, no dangerous trouble in sight. Her husband was safe and strong and happy and he loved her just as much as she loved him.

But now that she had a tight fist in his collar and was staring at his somber face, she realized that there was still trouble out there. Trouble that would make him six hours late for dinner and trouble that he didn't want her knowing about. Trouble he didn't want her involved in. She soon spotted a cut just above his right eyebrow; it wasn't intense or graphic just a simple cut. But being able to leave a scratch on Ryusuke was a rare feat, and graphic or not it was still there and it just made the lump in her throat grow.