Painted Butterflies

Shino muttered curses under his breath as he crept through the flimsy branches near Konoha's west gate. The sun was soon going to set, which wasn't fantastic news for the jacket-less shinobi, for he knew that once the sun set, Sai would retire to his room and answer the door for no one, a routine picked up from working with the ROOT nin. His feet seemed too heavy as he leapt across from one branch to a rooftop, overcoming the boundary between what was central Konoha and wilderness. Skimming the top of the buildings, he inwardly questioned why that was so easy.



Sai stared outside the window, trails of dried sorrow staining his pale skin. It was soon time for him to retire, but he couldn't stop himself from wishing that the sun would spring back up, giving him more daylight, more time to think. But, no ROOT nin stayed out past sundown, one law instilled in the very framework of the rookie ROOT nin the day they arrived. Every sundown recalled memories of one arrogant shinobi, strolling outside his tent when everyone was commanded to retire. Taking this leisurely stroll was the last thing he'd ever do on this earth alive, for the moment the sun died, so did he, under a rain storm of kunai and arrows. Those peaking outside their tents, including a young and naive Sai, dared not to break the added rule of never leaving the tent for anyone, anything, even if someone was screaming for help. Exposing the teams whereabouts was the highest form of disgrace and dishonor. When the sun rose the next morning, only nine ROOT rookies did, all coming to inspect the folly of the previous night. Under careful inspection, Sai, the only one brave enough to approach the stiff, frightened corpse, noted that the weapons used to kill were the same that he held in his pouch, the same that all ROOT members carried. It was a lesson he would not soon forget.



The sun was falling again, much like his memory recalled, and he grimly reached for the outward opening window panes, slowly resolving to close his hope away in the box too full of misery. "I guess I didn't make a new friend after all..." The window pane had inches left of open air when Shino appeared on the adjacent rooftop, breath erratic, chest heaving, body dripping with sweat. Mere seconds and the sun would be gone, but Sai's desperation pushed the window wide, enough for Shino to slip in when the sun hid under the horizon. Sai immediately closed the window and locked it shut for the night.



"Sai..." He wished he had locked it sooner.



Night was a peculiar time in Konoha, much unlike many villages Sai had visited before as a ROOT nin. When inside tents or borrowed rooms of average looking homes, he spent the time painting when he couldn't evade the nightmares. Always in dull, cool colors, his pictures featured thin strokes of ink, horizontal in nature, faint and fleeting much like the inhabitants of the villages when night fell. Even though he knew he was supposed to be in by dark, he always expected the civilians to stay out at night, enjoying a time of evening that he could only imagine. But, maybe they, too, feared what happened when the moonlight was the only source of warmth. For, he did note, using minute splashes of auburn and crimson, the pain that struck the those who stayed out late, whether from an actual kunai to the back, or a figurative one to the heart.



Konoha, however, was different. It seemed that all the shinobi crawled the street at night, even partaking in the menial tasks of daily existence, like grocery shopping. During the night, shinobi frequented bars and common restaurants that served thousands of variations of the same main ingredient, sex. When painting the limelight of this village, blue only covered the night sky and purple colored the shadows, for everything else was bright reds, greens and yellows, shining with laughter and unresolved sexual tension, that would be resolved by day break most assuredly.



Which is partly where Sai hoped he'd end up.



"Sai... I need to talk to you..." Sai, still staring out the window at the Konoha nin that were already taking to the streets, trembled at the recollection that his new interest, who he had thought he had turned away so cruelly, was standing inside his bedroom, after dark, with no where to go until morning.



"Ye... Yes, Shino?" He didn't even bother trying to feign composure.



"Your painting..." Sai's eyes popped out of his head if only for a split second as he turned to see the open scroll hanging before it's destined owner. Before he had scared the butterfly away, Sai had managed to paint the perfect rendition of Shino holding the golden butterfly in the palm of his hand, triumphant in his year-long hunt, golden dust illuminating the glory that could hardly be captured on paper. He didn't know that Shino had found it. "You... Drew this for me?"



"Ye... Yes, Shino..."



"Why?"



"I-I just wanted.. Wanted you to have a good memory of this day..." His words were whispered, barely audible to unstrained ears. But Shino was doing much more than straining to hear the shy painter's voice. His whole body practically leaned in Sai's direction, aching to show his appreciation.



"No one has ever been this kind to me..." And his words were true. Since his adolescence, Shino had suffered the brunt of most jokes, had wared the never-ending waves of name callings, had dealt with the desolate loneliness that was brought on simply due to his clans traditions. For this, he had previously pushed the thought of ever making any friends, outside of his close teammates of course, and settled in the thought of remaining alone. But, when Sai appeared, he couldn't ignore the strange pangs in his chest, the awkward swelling in his heart when he smiled in his direction. 'Til now, he had ignored them the best he could, saving any precious glance his way for private moments in his bedroom. But now, he couldn't deny it any longer. Whatever it was that Sai pulled from him, whatever feeling Shino refused to acknowledge, was screaming forefront in his mind, and could not be ignored much longer.



"Shino... I..."



"How can I repay you?"



"What?"



"How can I make this up to you?"



"I don't understand..." Sai, nervous as his mind already began to swim with ideas of what seductive ways he could have Shino repay him for whatever it is that he had done.



"For being a a heartless, insensitive, raging fool who hurt you... After that, and this painting... I'll do anything to make it up to you..." Shino, with his body commanding some sort of contact with the still shivering, shorter, slimmer shinobi, stepped slowly toward Sai. "Anything, Sai... Anything at all..."



Taking it upon himself to catch the flurry of hints thrown his way, Sai, too, took a step toward the taller, tight, trembling Aburame. "How far will 'anything' get me?"



In the moonlight shining in from the uncovered windows, Sai saw what he had been hoping for the whole day long, a rare glimpse of Shino's curving lips. "Well, we are stuck in here 'til morning, right?"



Sai never loved his ROOT training more.