(This story is basically my characters (AustNora) but with traditional Japanese culture from the past like samurais and war and traditional clothing like kimono's and gi's(uniforms)(WARNING!!!!!, nothing lewd at all just a sad ending that will leave you pissed at me )(Enjoy!!)

 An unaffiliated Japanese warrior, Nora Salven, managed to list herself on the front lines of war against her countries enemies, while the princess had suddenly vanished. None are aware of her location and if she is still alive and unharmed.

~Nora's POV~

I hoped not to slip as I stood at the edge of a cliff, my heel failing to hold my weight as I was trying to fight back using my katana to protect my self from getting sliced.

The cold rain splashed against me leaving me soaked and shaky as I lost my strength, the ground under me shifted.

I stayed determined to not look down, I failed as I stared into a foggy abyss beneath me where the raindrops disappeared from sight, I would surly die if I fell off the edge. 

My feet seemed to float for a brief second as the sediment beneath me caved and sent me falling into the fog, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!" my faint scream merely echoing the cavernous ravine I fell deep into.

I could barely see around me as I fell my head hit something and blacked out, the rest a blur..

~Austin's POV~

The sun was blocked out of my hut full of medical supplies I had after leaving the doctrine business I worked for in the army.

I awoke late in the morning, my limbs stiff and my eyes tired.

I poured myself some hot tea to clear my muddy throat, I dressed in my white folded gi and loose pants soon finding my glasses that I had shipped when I worked for the medical business.

 I stepped outside to take in the fresh air under my cherry blossom tree that left the river dotted with pink petals.

Glaring down the slow calm moving stream, I saw something shine,"Huh?" I ran to see what it was

"I sword!?, " I exclaimed picking it up, it was engraved with markings of a warrior.

"Whoa...I've never seen something like this floating in the river." I looked further down the river, I squinted, my eyes suddenly widened when I saw a body floating in the river, it wore a helmet belonging to the army of Japan, I dragged the body out of the water, it surprisingly had a slow pulse.

It must have fallen because it was scraped and its side was badly bleeding, it was unconscious.

The body was light enough to carry into my hut, the scrawny figure would have died if it fell from the cliff into the ravine, but it survived.

I laid down the soldier and slowly took the helmet off, I dropped the helmet, my jaw dropped faster to see a girl, I was speechless, she was nearly dead!!

"H-how?" I asked myself before stripping her of her armor and tending to her bad wound, I was pretty shaken from seeing a female warrior samurai.

After stopping the bleeding and patching her up I stopped to admire her face for a brief second, I found myself staring.

I shook my head gaining my focus back, I wondered how long she'd be out from that tumble off the cliff, or how long she had been drifting in the river for.

I began to worry, I distracted myself by cooking some food for myself, I watched over her like a shepard making sure not to loose sight of her or any movement she would make.

The sun began to set and she still hadn't awoken leaving me stressed, I needed an explanation for why she was under that helmet.

I stepped outside to pick the best blossom on the cherry blossom tree and brought it back in to see her stirring to which I immediately start hyperventilating trying to calm myself down, I set the blossom down and sat next to the bed she rested in regaining my confidence.

She groaned and slowly opened her eyes, she looked terrified.

"M-My sword, th-the Shogun!, W-where am I!?" She blurted quickly.

"Calm down....calm down.." I said in a reassuring tone as to set her at ease.

"W-who are you?...."She asked giving me a look.

"I-I'm Austin..., Austin Massey, an old medical agent." I said smiling.

"And you are?" I asked.

"N-Nora....Nora Salven..." She seemed to hesitate with her name as if I should have known it already.

"What happened to you?" I asked, referring to her injuries.

"I fell off the cliff by the rope bridge.." She responded.

"What!?, That's an almost 500 foot drop!" I exclaimed surprised.

"Thanks to you I survived,.....now I gotta go.." She said bluntly trying to sit up.

"N-no wait, you'll hurt yourself." I warned her.

"G-gah!" she yelped clenching her side that I bandaged.

"W-whoa!!, Easy!,..easy.." I said helping her sit down, holding her gently.

"You were bleeding pretty bad, luckily I was able to stop the bleeding." I explained.

"I-I can't stay here!, They're all counting on me, I have to leave!" She said in a panicked manner that frightened me.

I didn't want this angel they fell right into my arms to leave hurt and alone with no protection.

"Y-you can't......." I said in the most sympathetic way possible.

"Why not?" She said with an annoyed tone of voice.

"You're injured....I don't want anything bad to happen to you." I explained.

She stared at me her face stayed plastered with the same expression of annoyance.

"Fine...I'll stay, but don't expect me to like it.." She replied crossing her arms and sitting back against the wall as she sat on the bed.

I let out the quietest sigh of relief, turning my back to her as I cleaned my hut.

I heard the lowly growl emanate from her, she clenched her stomach.

"A-are you hungry?" I immediately asked.

"N-No!, I'm fine.." Her stomach seemed to groan for her stressing her hunger.

"How long has it been since you last ate?" I inquired curiously.

"About....a week..." She responded.

"You must be starving!!!" I said truly astonished with her not being dead in her condition.

"I-I made food, h-here have some, careful it's really hot" I said handing her a bowl of hot ramen noodles.

She hesitantly took the bowl, yelping, "Ah!, Th-that's hot!" She trembled managing not to spill.

When she finally ate some she didn't stop eating, not even to speak.

I chuckled a little finding it funny how she lied about her hunger when it was obvious how badly she needed food.

~Nora's POV~

He was one to stare, his eyes seemed to feed off of me.

Though at the moment I didn't care the unrelenting hunger I had was being cured and I could care less about my surroundings.

When I finished eating I set the bowl down and sighed, closing my eyes in pain due to my side injury.

"Hey, uh,........why do you have a katana and a bunch of armor?" He asked in in genuine curiosity.

"That's confidential.." I responded calmly trying not to draw any attention to the fact that I was a female samurai.

He sighed in a depressed way.

"Why are you so obsessed with me anyway?" I questioned him, to which he replied with a terribly stuttered sentence.

"O-Obsessed...I-I'm not o-obsessed..."He responded his face looked oddly pink.

"Your,........y-your..uh..." He said to me which confused me.

I realized the blanket on me had fallen and I was only wearing my pants and a few straps of bandages around my breasts and my side, the bandages covered the majority of my torso and up over my shoulder so nothing really showed, though his still wouldn't stop looking at me.

"Uuuuuhhh...are you ok?" I asked my normal tone of voice, he seemed to tremble.

"Y-yeah...I-I just need a moment outside..." He said stumbling out his door way shielded by a cascade of cloth split in the middle as to be walked through.

~Austin's POV~

"Oh, God...." I ran both my hands into my hair groaning as I clenched fists into my hair out of frustration.

"Why did this have to fall onto me now!?" I said to myself kicking a pebble into the stream.

"She's so pretty too......UGH!!!" I shouted out in frustration.

"Uh..." I heard her voice, I jumped and turned around to see her leaning against the door way to my hut.

"H-how long were you standing there?" I asked hoping she didn't hear me that entire time.

"I just walked out here from hearing you shout..." She responded draping her jacket over one of her shoulders.

"Sorry....I normally don't act this way, heh." I apologized approaching her and passing her into my hut.

6 hours went by so fast.

I was pouring my evening tea, I had managed to keep a steady state of mind around her all day but I was starting to break.

"Hey, be careful over there." She said tying a kimino robe around her waist for her to sleep in.

My limbs trembled as I tried pouring my tea, I split the boiling liquid onto my hand, "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!" I screamed dropping the tea pot and the cup and clasping my hand.

Everything felt like the world around me stopped, she rushed to me pulling me aside and setting me up against the wall.

She scrambled to the stream outside and grabbed the freezing evening water and dipped my hand into it.

"O-ow!" I yelped flinching away from her, she persisted grabbed my wrist tighter and keeping my hand in the cold liquid.

My breathe was shaky from shock, but I soon came to a spirit of calmness.

"I told you to be careful..." She scolded me, ruffling my hair as I sat in the ground with my right hand in the now becoming room temperature water.

She held up my wrist gently, examining any burns, she took some of my gauze bandage and wrapped up my hand surprisingly well.

I moved my fingers around looking at how well she took care of my hand.

"Thanks...." I said standing up and dusting my gi off and untying the gi strings and taking it off to sleep soon.

She was the one to stare this time, I wondered why she was looking at me so weird, then I realized I always took good care of my physical health and that I had a 6 pack from having helped in war in the past as a young boy.

"Um, N-Nora?" I waved my hand in front of her eyes, she fluttered her eyes a bit shaking her head and turning away.

I raised one eyebrow in a questioning way and shrugged.

"I'll take my hammock for the night, you can have the bed." I offered her, she nodded without a word lying down and facing the wall.

I pulled the thick soft covers over her slender body, she buried her face in them.

After blowing out the candles in my hut I climbed into my hammock that hung next to my original now occupied twin sized bed.

2 hours past.

I couldn't sleep of course, I was looking and my bandages stroking my fingers across them gently.

I rolled over to face her as she slept, slow calm breathes escaped her lips.

Lifting my head only to see the moon through the window shining down on her with a gloomy gaze.

The pale light filled my hut with a glowing calmness, the whisper of the night breeze spoke to the stars above.

All in unison the sounds of nature seemed to slow to merely a hum of what it was, the quietness consumed me setting my emotions and frustration at ease.

My eyelids falling taking me deep into a world of vibrant dreams.

Like a flash my eyes shot open, I was quickly blinded by the sun beaming straight into my eyes.

I groaned rolling over and falling out of my hammock onto the floor with a thud, "Ow..." I groaned in a sheepish voice.

I sat up to see Nora was gone to which I immediately dash outside in worry only to see her picking petals off the cherry blossom tree and throwing them into the slow moving stream.

Her dark eyes, like dark orbs that shined like the midnight sky followed the pink petals with a steady gaze until they disappeared.

She was wearing my clothes, I quickly realized, my robe was tied around her waist by a dark blue band with golden crescent vines engraved in it and blue fabric.

She looked....rich, like she was a shogun herself, the head of all things the one with all the money and rule.

She turned catching my stare quickly, her eyes like deep pools of purple and darkness, I shifted my gaze apon her hand which held her sword firmly.

Pointing the sword at me from afar she broke the stare between us, making my feel unsettled.

'Why would she have her sword pointed at me?, Was she going to kill me if I didn't let her leave?'These thoughts flew through my brain causing my breathing to accelerate.

"Where did this tree come from?" She asked to my surprise, I answered quickly.

"I found this cherry blossom here 7 years ago....it was a younger tree, joined by a baby peach tree...which soon died, overgrown by the cherry blossom." I explained.

"These trees only grow by the palace..." She said to me, 'Confusing' I thought.

'Obviously she would know if they grew there being a warrior for her country, but the shogun forbids samurais to enter the gates of the palace..' I was lost in thought, my mind started trailing off in one direction and another.

I didn't realize that she put her sword back into her holster inside of her robe and approached me.

Suddenly I felt a soft touch of her small finger lift my chin, breaking my train of thought.

"U-uh....hi.." I said smiling awkwardly.

"Don't get so lost in thought....that's how I lost my best friend..." Her sudden darkness struck me like a bullet.

Her eyes were glossy with regret, loss, and turmoil deep within herself, she seemed tangled with so many problems......tense.

"Hey, are you ok?" I asked sympathetically, turning to her as she walked into the draped entrance of my hut.

Only silence was heard, 'Was she ignoring me?' I thought for a moment.

"H-Hey, I ask-"-I was interrupted with- "I'm fine ok!-" She blurted the statement at me as if she wanted to move off the topic and go the farthest away from it as possible. 

She turned to me angrily, tears swelling in her eyes, "Just forget I said anything, I didn't mean to make you worried or sad, darn you-Ah!"She yelped in pain clasping her hand into the fabric on her side, stumbling, I caught her quickly sitting her down on the bed.

"Take it easy....don't strain yourself.." I rubbed her shoulder to feel her tense muscles.

"Wow, you're tense.....I could maybe massage the knots out if you'd like.." I offered with a polite smile.

For once she gave me a look of want, she slowly nodded.

I began rubbing her tight shoulder muscles, sitting behind her, her back facing me.

She sighed in a relaxed way, lowly groaning when I massaged out a tight knot.

When I finally finished, she looked tired, out of energy,  at a state of peace.

I went to fetch some tea for the both of us, "Careful this time.." She said, I looked at my bandaged hand remembering the pain of the boiling water.

I brought back some tea for her, she sipped the hot liquid a relaxed sigh came from her, as she closed her eyes for a brief moment.

~Nora's POV~

I'd never felt so at ease before, the stillness calmed me, usually I'd be worrying frantically, he seemed to be the cure for that, well.....the cure for everything thing I guess, my wounds, my hunger, my instability, my lack of sleep and clothing, and the cure for my tenseness.

He was like a savior sent from above to watch over me, but I knew every savior or guardian leaves when the job is done, the thought filled my mind, I suddenly wanted  to stay in his hut with him.

I didn't want him to leave, I felt a swept swelling grow deep within me, a root of emotion burrowing deep into my heart.

My eyes became wide and I was suddenly aware of the feeling I felt just then, my entire face grew deep red.

Luckily he hadn't turned to to me to see my expression, and when he did turn most thankfully he didn't look at me.

I needed to escape this heated moment, run away from my feelings.

I dashed out of his hut, I drew my katana and started hitting up against a rock grunting and swinging with great might, i wasn't aware if he was watching or not.

I shouted and yelled letting my feelings of rage, regret, love, hatred, and confusion all out.

I feel to my knees in with a minute, crying , I dropped my blade to the ground gripping my hands into my hair as I sobbed.

I know I was being dramatic but how else do I release my inner feelings?

~Austin's POV~

She was acting so oddly, chopping away at a rock and the ground outside, I rushed out quickly right to see her fall to her knees, tears dripping to the ground as shoulder shaking sobs emitted from her.

The once strong, bold, and blunt warrior was crying right there in front of me, she was broken up inside, I didn't know how to think, or what to do or say.

I hesitantly reached out my hand then paused, I dashed to the cherry blossom tree, I would always pick the best blossom in the morning, I pulled off the prettiest one and stepped on the ground gently in a clam walk over to her.

I knelt down at her side, she was facing the river as was I.

"Nora......" I said leaning over a bit to look at her face as I sat on my knees.

Her sobs quieted, "What do you want?" she replied with a voice crack, tears rolling down her cheeks.

I took the blossom and slipped it behind her ear with her hair, the soft pink made her eyes stand out, the dark circles darted up at me.

I didn't say a word, I was unsure of what to say, I was only doing my best to comfort her.

"Y-you aren't very pretty when you cry, the blossom makes your eyes ,even with tears, beautiful." I said staring into the stream in front of me.

I heard her audibly choke on her own tongue.

~Nora's POV~

"W-what are saying?" I questioned him wiping away the tears that were on my face.

"All I'm trying to say is that you're very beautiful.." He said in reply, his face flushing red visibly.

I felt my heart flutter, and the unfamiliar nauseous tickling feeling of butterflies in my stomach.

"Y-You think I'm...b-beautiful?" I asked.

"Well....yeah................you're probably the prettiest girl I've ever seen." He complied to my question.

"I mean to be honest, I don't really see many people anyways.......I live alone in a medical hut by a river." He said with a slight chuckle.

I unintentionally stared, his calmness was obvious, he was hiding something by using calmness to shield it and to comfort me and put me at ease.

Turning to him I lifted my self up on to my knees grabbing him and abruptly pulling him into a sudden kiss.

~Austin's POV~

"Mmmm!" I blurted into the kiss, my eyes shot wide and my face blushed a dark beet red color.

I was surprised by her action, gaining my confidence I kissed back, closing my eyes slowly.

She let go of my gi shirt and rubbed her hand up my neck supporting the side of my face as we kissed under the cherry blossom tree. 

When our lips separated she suddenly spoke in her normal tone of voice.

"A princess..............................you wanted to know why I was under the helmet and why it was confidential, I'm the missing princess....I was hiding away in the army."Her eyes trailed down the stream.

"N-no way!" I blurted out loud jumped away from her a bit.

"I was fighting for my country because my father couldn't, though he insisted, being the emperor and all that he wanted this even if he lost his life. I listed myself down as a hidden prince of his to get in, it worked." My mind was blown by her words.

The princess was in my presence for 2 days and I was unaware of who she really was.

"Th-that's why you needed to leave....your country is counting on you..." I said in realization.

"Take me with you, I'll fight in your place!" I said suddenly wanting to protect her with my own life on the line.

"I'm not risking that..." She responded bluntly, you have to stay here, I'll come back and find you.

She stood and went back into my hut, she came back out wearing her armor, though she wasn't wearing the helmet, maybe as a sign to say that she would be confident to fight as a female samurai.

When she left up the ravine I felt my heart drop to my stomach, the love I found was leaving, and I didn't know for how long..

I wasn't going to take it, I searched my hut till I fond my old armor and dull blade tat I sharpened on the rock outside my hut.

It took me 3 days of prevailing to reach where the war was taking place, the last frontier of battle approaching in a slow march, I blended in perfectly with Nora's army.

I gazed around looking for her when I spotted her apon a horse leading this army, holding her katana firmly in her hand, shouting demands here and there to support her army.

The troops approached quickly and all hell broke loose, men were dying left and right I managed to keep my head and actually fight back, I got blindly distracted by Nora fighting in the distance I was unaware of an enemy approaching me.

"HuGhhhh!" I grunted lowly as a blade stabbed through my lower right ribs, and was retracted from me, I looked down to see the slow trickle of dark blood down my clothes and armor, I fell to my knees and lay there weakly but alive as the war raged on, the pain becoming unbearable.

It took hours and hours before the battle ended, there was a ringing in my ear as I heard Nora's voice shout, "Search for survivors!"

She hopped off of her horse and walked in my general direction, the blurriness around me became more clear as I saw her standing above me. "I found one!" She yelled kneeling down and pulling my helmet off.

"No...., no no no no no.....Austin..........why....why are you here.." She began sobbing, she cradled my limp body in her arms as her tears fell on me.

"Nora.........I d-didn't want anything to happen to you..." I said coughing out weakly, she lifted her hand to see that it was covered in my blood, noticing my terrible wound.

"A-Austin....I-I don't want to lose you..s-stay with me.." She said noticing my breathing was slowing down.

She leaned down and kissed me suddenly, I did my best to kiss back.

"I love you...." She said through tears.

"I love you too...." I breathed out.

~Nora's POV~

I held him tightly to me hoping to keep his now becoming ice cold body warm.

"Please.....please....don't die on me..." I cried.

He caressed my face with a weak smile, blood trickled down his chin from his mouth, I took the cherry blossom out of my satchel and let him hold it to his chest the petals becoming slightly bloody from his wound.

He sighed taking his final breathe, his body becoming a motionless vessel, no pulse, no breathing, he was dead.

I sobbed holding his dead body, I kissed his forehead as left my sword at his side in honor of the love of my life, he was the true warrior.

                                                                                            ~Fin~

                                     (I almost cried writing this, I hope I don't make you cry too <3)