On Tuesday evening, the day before we were going back to the church, I was a nervous mess. I kept walking back and forth, back and forth in my little apartment, brushing my teeth even if I hadn't had dinner yet, brushing my hair, putting it in a ponytail, remaking it, washing my face... I couldn't get a grip of myself out of anticipation for tomorrow. What should I wear? Why did I even care so much? He was a catholic priest, sworn to celibacy and not allowed to have a partner. Even so...

E-mail him, a little voice in my head said. No... No, I can't do that. Absolutely the fuck not! I don't think so, I thought as I went to my laptop and opened it up, signing on to my Gmail. I wrote the e-mail down, deleted it, re-wrote it, closed my Gmail, closed my laptop, made tea, came back to it, wrote again, regretted it, wrote it again, regretted it again. In the end, I just wrote and pressed "Send" faster than you could say "Bad Idea".

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

I am nervous.

Kind regards,

Izuna Uchiha

(The "kind regards" was my attempt to save face.)

As soon as I pressed I regretted it. What were you thinking?! "I'm nervous?" Are you dumb? He is a CATHOLIC PRIEST, Goddamn it. He doesn't care if you're nervous. Holy shit, what if there were more than him looking at the e-mail? It didn't contain his name, just "contact.greenparkcatholicchuch". My God, Izuna, you STUPID-

Suddenly, I heard a ping from my laptop. I looked on the screen.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Don't be.

T, xx

Oh my God. Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God. I took my phone so I could take it to bed, a simple mattress on the floor that was way too thin, and threw myself on top of it, phone in hand and opened my mail box on my phone instead. I looked at the two x:es over and over. Oh my God... I put the phone to my chest and found I was smiling like a madman.

In the morning, I thought I would have calmed down as I knew I didn't have to wait more than a couple of hours before I would see him again, but I was even more of a mess than last night. I put water in my cereal, hand cream on my toothbrush and accidentally decreased the shower temperature to freezing instead of turning the shower off. I blow-dried my hair more carefully than usual, and put on ripped olive cargo trouser, a black T-shirt and my black-and-white checked shirt on top this time, having the buttons open. I took my black coat, the only expensive thing I had bought since Madara fell ill, and left.

At eight-thirty, all the children had arrived, so I thought we'd start walking, even if it meant we'd be fifteen minutes early. I thought the children might have some time to look around then. Oh, who was I kidding; the extra fifteen minutes was for me to calm the fuck down. As we started walking, I felt a little hand in mine. I looked down.

"Don't worry, Mr Uchiha", Lisa said, looking up at me. "You look very handsome. I'm sure he will like you."

"What are you talking about?" I asked stupidly.

She looked at me. "That priest. You're crazy about him!"

I opened my mouth to protest, then decided to just leave it. "Is it that noticeable?"

"No. Only I notice. Not anyone else", Lisa said, looking forwards, very proud of herself.

Faster than I felt comfortable with, yet not fast enough, we approached the church. As we came closer, I felt myself take a deep breath, and Lisa squeezed my hand. I squeezed back, grateful. And I opened the vast, beautifully carved door.

A sound hit me as we came in. At first, I looked around, confused, but then it struck me that it was chanting. The voice was incredibly deep, forming words in Latin I did not understand, and probably wouldn't understand even if I spoke the language as the voice was so dark. Carefully, the whole class tip-toed forwards, all of us still slightly confused. The chanting was smooth, calming, blowing all my nerves away; I simply forgot them as I was drawn to the source of the chant. I saw a figure in the front, inside the fence surrounding the altar, bending forwards, clad in a black robe. Holy shit... As we got closer, I could see his bleached hair, and he was fingering something with his hand; a necklace of light purple pearls and a beautifully carved crucifix with rubies. As we came closer, his voice caused my ribs to vibrate. It was delicious. I don't know how long we stood there, but after a while, his voice slowly ebbed away, the dark chanting melting away in the vastness of the cathedral. He kneeled for a while longer, completely unaware of us, before he stood up and turned around.

"Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed as he saw us, startled. He locked eyes with me, and I found I couldn't look away; they were so icy blue it felt like they were piercing their way into my soul. I didn't mind. "Oh... You're early!" He didn't seem angry; on the contrary, his voice was dripping with warmth. It was such a contrast from his deep chanting that it almost made me laugh. "Welcome!"

"HI, DADDY TOBIRAMA!!" Angelica screamed.

"Oh my God, it's Father Senju!" I chastised her, but inside, I was screaming. Aaaaaaa no way no way no way! These children would be the death of me.

Tobirama laughed, and casually jumped over the fence and sat down on it. He reached his hand out and I, believing he wanted to shake mine, took it. But as he took my hand, he lifted it to his lips and placed a kiss on the back of it. "Still nervous?" he murmured so no-one but me could hear, referring to the e-mail I'd sent him, looking up at me with his lips still dangerously close to the back of my hand.

"Ehhhhhhh", I said intelligently.

"Don't worry, Very Loud Girl!" he said then, addressing Angelica. Tobirama the Priest put a hand on my shoulder, leaned in meaningfully. "Daddy Tobirama works just fine!" What in the Goddamn fuck...

"I'M NOT LOUD!!" Angelica screamed happily, her face beaming. God, I needed to fix her with a hearing test at the school nurse's.

The session went on as last time. Tobirama told us a bit more, and even I learned a few things.

"Is it true you're not allowed to marry?" Lisa asked, bless her.

"There are exceptions." Tobirama answered. I didn't know this. "Some, like my brother, were married when they converted from the Protestant Church. They have permission to maintain their marriage. But for the rest of us..." He slapped his thighs a little.

"So... What happens when you fall in love?" Lisa asked.

"Lisa, dear, what about asking questions about the actual religion, and leave poor-" Don't say Daddy Tobirama don't say Daddy Tobirama don't say Daddy Tobirama. "Umm, Father Senju's private life out of it?"

Tobirama just smirked. Something told me he didn't usually like being the centre of attention, but with children, he felt more comfortable, and was now enjoying everyone's eyes on him. "It's okay. I think it depends." I looked at him, frowning. "Is God challenging me to see if I would stay loyal to the religion? Or, is he challenging me so that I may realise that sometimes, love is more important than a set of rules created for us who believe in Him?"

He looked at me then, a serious expression on his face I really hadn't seen on him before. The church was dead silent for a while, the tension so thick it created lightning bolts that flew between my eyes, and the eyes of Tobirama the Priest.

"Are you allowed to eat cake?" Aiden asked, and the moment was gone.

When our time slot was up at ten, the children begged if we could come back next week.

"We will have started reading about the Orthodox Christian church by then", I told them, and they wailed unhappily. "We can visit an Orthodox Church perhaps. We don't want to use up too much of Father Senju's time."

I felt Tobirama's big hand on my shoulder. "Maybe I'll convert, just to have you lot back." He winked at me, poking his lip piercing with his tongue. I swallowed. Was he even aware he was doing that?

"I would love to see that", I smirked at him, the first time I'd dared to talk back ever so slightly.

He took my hand again, put it to his lips, kissed it, not breaking eye contact with me. "E-mail me tonight", was all he said. I looked back at his diminishing figure as he walked away, in awe.

Outside, the sun was scorching, a vast contrast from the dim, reddish light of the church. I had almost forgotten there was a world out here; there was something about that church and about him that made me feel I was in a different world, a parallel universe. I felt Lisa stick her little hand in mine.

"So?" I asked her.

"So what?"

"What did you think? About... You know."

"Ohhhhh!" she exclaimed giddily. She gestured for me to bend down so she could whisper in my ear. "He's crazy about you, too." She looked forwards again, very proud. "Trust me, I know these things."

I smiled, putting my free hand to my blushing cheeks. Inside, I was screaming out of pure joy.