#[[inosuke gets a splinter from the training dummies and he runs to suk-ja like LOOK LOOK

[whirling-fangs]

next time something like this happens, you have to promise to tell me.

With any other person, at any other time, Inosuke would have refused to answer and walked away. He would have raised his voice, claimed that he didn't need anyone's concern, that his life was his to rule and that he didn't report to anyone but himself.

He didn't need to be cared for. He had spent all those years alone on the mountain, so why would it be different now?

It was different. When she was the one speaking those words, looking at him with those serious, yet gentle eyes, it was different. She took away his urge to protest, to claim that he didn't need anything or anyone – because he wanted to see it again. That light in her eyes, that feeling it sent through his body, like a warm, gentle caress running across his cheeks.

He didn't mind if she cared for him. No... perhaps he even liked it.

"... okay. I won't hide my injuries from you... even if they're not that bad."

She best be ready for him to come up to her at the slightest bruise or cut. Not out of malice, not to mock her wishes, but because he took everything to his heart.