Asuma leaned his head back against the elevator wall and watched the floor numbers steadily increase. As lies went, it wasn’t a bad one—better than he would have thought of on short notice, especially considering the way Reiko had a habit of pushing all the buttons on his temper. Just once, he thought, it would be nice to have a five-minute conversation with her that didn’t devolve into a lecture.

It was good to see some stuff in Konoha hadn’t changed in the last year; his sister’s belief that he was a complete moron was one thing he wouldn’t have missed.

“As long as moving in with you doesn’t come with a marriage proposal.” He rolled his head against the wall to look over at Genma. “I need to get the hell out of there. I’ll sleep in your tub if that’s what it takes.”

Genma blinked, looking surprised, and started to wave his hands in a cancelling gesture, leaning his armpits on the crutches. “No. No, that wasn’t what I—” and then caught on to Asuma’s (apparently very bad attempt at a) joke, shaking his head with a wry laugh. “You couldn’t afford my dowry. But I think if we find a two-bedroom place, you could, you know, sleep on a bed or a futon, and we could leave the tub for bathing.”

The elevator slowed and stopped at the third floor, letting on a pair of nurses. Asuma shifted towards his friend automatically, rather than letting the nurses step between them. “It’s a good idea, I like it. I really can’t stand living with her, and going in together would make it cheaper over all. I have no idea what the rent is like.”

Which he knew was a bigger problem on Genma’s side. Asuma’d had the luxury of never really needing to rent—either he had been put up in lodging as a condition of his current position, or he had been living with relatives. That had enabled him to put away a good chunk of his paycheck without needing to spend any of it on living expenses. Even if he didn’t get paid nearly as well moving papers like he was now, he could handle half the rent just out of savings for a while. Probably.

Genma visibly brightened, looking relieved that his suggestion had gone over well. “Depending on where we look, we should be able to get a decent place that won’t bankrupt us. Definitely under 120,000 ryou a month. That’d be 60,000 to each of us. That’s doable even if we aren’t getting a lot of mission bonuses.”

Yeah, he could probably swing that. Especially once he got cleared to actually do missions again. Until then, savings. Anything to get away from Reiko.