Chapter Fifteen: Leaves painting patterns

Ino snuggled further into Kakuzu's chest. It was wonderfully warm and she smiled to herself, awake but not yet opening her eyes. Allowing only her sense to enjoy the moment. It was late morning, not yet noon but the sun was high in the sky. Occasionally obscured by drifting clouds. The sky was a bright blue and Ino felt a thrill of pure happiness shake her heart as she inhaled the heavy scent of the man beneath her. Kakuzu was still in a rather deep sleep. Ino realised this by the steadiness of his heartbeat. A thrumming beat she could hear with her ear against his chest.

A rising blush scorched her cheeks as she recalled the previous night. Curling her toes she stifled a hysterical giggle. It hadn't been nearly awkward as she had anticipated her first time to be. The whole event didn't go by too fast but was swift enough to keep the burning desire that had built up inside her satisfied. The blonde had tangled slender fingers in dark hair and stared into glazed harlequin and carmine eyes. There had been a sense of discomfort at first but it was overrun with the most amazing sensations. Pleasure bordering on ecstasy. He had been so sweet. Ino had not expected him to be cruel at all but she had also failed to imagine him to be gentle, or at least as gentle as he had been.

Patient, loving words. Calm touches and sweet breaths. It made her squeeze into her lover on that bed even more. Slowly opening her eyes and blinking a few times to make up for the fact she couldn't move her arm to rub at the grogginess. She could however trail a fingertip over the space under his chest and above his abdomen. Long, deep scars marred dark flesh and she had never seen anything more gorgeous.

The trees outside the window swayed with the occasional breeze and the leaves painted patterns of light across the room in different shades of gold and green. Some of the silhouettes landing on Kakuzu's frame. Though the room was cosy enough, the sun made it even better as it spilled over the exposed areas of flesh on her body, namely her shoulders, arms and waist - all above the light quilt. Granted they were anything but chilly after their antics, through the night the coolness had crept it and Kakuzu had gathered the cover up over them.

There was a few more minutes of quiet breathing and leaves rustling before a faint grunt from above made Ino look up and grin as she saw Kakuzu waking.

"Good Morning" she muttered, genuinely meaning it. He opened his eyes fully this time and glanced down, face expressionless before he smiled.

"And to you"

The arms already around her tightened and she chuckled.

"Hungry?" she offered. Ino herself was definitely peckish and craved pancakes of waffles. Anything warm, soft and drizzled with syrup or ice cream really. That was how silly and romantic she was feeling. Besides, when was the last time they had a decent breakfast?

Well yeah, there was the motel but neither had managed to finish and it's definitely a damper on the scene when you're accused of murder but psychotic "police".

Shuddering a little at the memory, she was thankful when Kakuzu replied.

"Sure, but breakfast means moving, which isn't an inviting concept"

Ino laughed and sat up, resting her head on her arms, resting her arms on his chest. Tilting her head to the side she just looked at him as he raised one of his arms from her to rub at his eyes and run fingers through his hair.

"But sure" he agreed finally and she closed her eyes with a cheeky, cat-like grin.

Dressed in a long, pale blue pyjama top. Ino sat on one of the stools by the counter by the window. Staring out into the garden. Of course with such a magnificent house, there was a garden to match. She would have to plant some nicer looking flowers soon as there were only a few weeds to be found amongst the majority of emerald foliage.

Kakuzu wandered over in long, loose trousers, carrying a mug of coffee for her and some tea for himself. Ino had expressed her interests in pancakes and waffles and he was now acting on those requests. Setting the container of hot liquid on the side, he returned to the stove where he allowed the batter to spread out on the sleek black pan. Ino glanced over before darting off the stool and heading over.

"Ahh, that looks good, will your talents never end?"

"Nope" was the reply, and to accompany the single syllable was a swift, clean flip of the pancake and a smirk.

Rolling her eyes with a grin, the blonde made her way to the freezer where treats to decorate were found.

"Preference on ice cream flavour? I didn't think you'd have so much..."

"Vanilla please"

"Aww, so polite" she cooed, taking out the vanilla nonetheless along with raspberry ripple. There was indeed quite the selection and that was something she couldn't complain about. She gathered up some syrup and lemon juice from the cupboards. She was going to try and find it herself but after the sixth cupboard she called for Kakuzu to direct her.

"You'll get used to it" he told her as she brought the goods over and he set two plates out. Ino went still and before she even thought about it, asked.

"...Am I staying here then?"

The young Yamanaka hadn't really thought about what would happen now, after last night it made everything even more vague. Would she be staying here? Naturally she wanted to, very much so. But she wouldn't intrude and she still didn't completely know what she and Kakuzu were, it wasn't exactly a normal relationship.

"Of course"

Those words made her heart jolt painfully and a smile crept onto her face. Eyes shining as she let it all sink in. This was it, a new home, a sense of freedom and beautiful companionship.

Kakuzu had put his own pancake on his plate, nearly dropping the spatula after laying the crisp, golden base onto the china when warm,smooth arms wound around his waist. Looking over his shoulder with a tender smile, he held onto the forearm on his abdomen. Marveling at the luxurious texture of her silky flaxen hair against his back as she rested her head on him. They stood like that for a bit, both totally content to hold each other in silence.

"It's just pancakes Ino"

"Shut up!"

A/N: I'm a despicable human being making you wait this long, truly there is no excuse. I can only hope you can forgive me and that you enjoyed this story at its final moments! It has been a pleasure writing (then improving) this story and an honour meeting you all and receiving lovely reviews. Thank you again!

Holy fiddlesticks, that was sweet. In both choice of breakfast and the overall writing, my, my. I had to pull up a playlist of cute songs and everything. But what better way to end then on some soul-draining fluff?

-LAW09

Thanks to Girasol93 for your support and motivation to complete the story :)

To TheCorpseGarden: Oh my gosh thank you so much! It means a lot to me that you found it so interesting and you think my writing is good! I'm just so pleased you enjoyed it since this is one of my older works ahaha, I hope your studying went well, thanks so much again for the review!

To 4thkage: I'm glad you thought the story was good considering the couple is pretty unknown ahaha, I figured her and Kakuzu would make a pretty good match. Thanks so much for the compliments! Thanks for the review!