There was only so much stalling a man could do. Genma shifted and stretched his spine, and leaned back against the wall, shoulder to shoulder with the captain. “Okay,” he said. “Romances it is. One, my spinach allergy ruined a date with someone I really liked. Two, I turned down a marriage proposal last year. Three...” He hesitated a moment, deciding on one last plausible statement. Katsuko and Ryouma leaned in. “Three, my favorite romantic movie is The Maiden and the Mechanical Bird Soldier.”

“Proposal's false,” Katsuko declared instantly. “No one in their right mind would want to get hitched with active ANBU.” She hesitated. “Unless it was another ANBU.”

Genma nodded. “Sticking with that guess, Ueno, or changing your vote now that you’ve realized there’s a loophole in your logic?”

“I don't back down, lieutenant,” Katsuko said, meeting his eyes. “Ever.”

“One of the things I like about you,” Genma told her. “That’s a truth, by the way.”

Katsuko blinked in surprise, and then, hesitantly, offered Genma a small, genuine smile.

Genma smiled back, surprised in turn at the warmth her smile kindled. Foxhole magic was working on him, too, it seemed.

Raidou glanced between Genma and Katsuko, expression lightening at the exchange between them. “I've seen The Maiden and the Mechanical Bird Soldier,” he said. “It's a good one. Little sad at the end, but some people like that. I could see that being a favorite.” He looked up thoughtfully, scratching the back of one bandaged hand where adhesive tape was pulling hair. “The marriage proposal could've been an after-mission adrenaline thing, or too many on a night out, or a friend's kid being cute. Too many variables to guess,” he decided. “I'm calling the spinach allergy as fake.” A teasing smile tipped the edges of his mouth up. “Real ninja don't have allergies, no matter what it says in their files.”

Genma chuckled. Was Raidou was trying to throw the game on purpose? “The allergy’s genuine,” he said. “If you don’t believe me, you can ask my dad or my jounin sensei. They both ended up dealing with the consequences at one time or another.”

“Ah well, too late to change my vote now,” Raidou said.

Ryouma lasered a narrow-eyed look at Genma. “Allergy being genuine doesn't mean the date was, though. And you're smart enough not to eat something you know you're allergic to, especially on a date. So that one's my vote.” He lifted his chin to punctuate his statement, then let a sly grin steel across his face. “But I want to hear the story behind the marriage proposal.”

“If you’re right, maybe the story can be your reward,” Genma said. Although being right for the wrong reason didn’t seem like it really deserved as good a reward as being right for the right reason. “Hatake, your guess.”

“You're allergic to spinach?” Kakashi demanded.

“I am. And if you try to test it by sneaking spinach into my food, we’re all going to be sorry, but you’ll be sorriest when I recover.”

Kakashi slunk further under his blankets until he was almost completely prone, with his head at the edge of Katsuko's lap. An indistinct grumbly protest about not poisoning his teammates, who would do that? filtered through the layers of cloth in a drug-laced slur. Genma caught something that sounded a lot like, Poor lieutenant with his last team of sociopaths. Which was almost sort of sweet.

For a moment it seemed medication and fatigue had gotten the best of Kakashi, but then he resurfaced, shoving the blankets away from his face to say, “The film is fake. It's the only definitive fact that reveals anything. Ergo, not true.”

Ryouma’s mouth twisted around the word ‘ergo’, like he was trying to puzzle out a mysterious flavor of jam.

“It’s a thing they say in court,” Genma said. “It means he thinks he’s proven his point.”

“I always prove my point,” Kakashi declared.

“When were the two of you ever in court?” Ryouma asked, nonplussed. “Did you get court-martialed?”