| [Feb. 26th, 2017|09:01 pm] |
Raidou resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. One problem at a time. He smoothed a hand down Genma’s back, chasing the renewed shivers away. With the other, he reached over Genma, grabbed Ryouma by the shoulder, and yanked. Ryouma toppled with a startled sound, landing against Genma’s other side. When he tried to scramble back upright, Raidou held him there.
“But—” Ryouma stammered.
“It’s okay, Tousaki,” Raidou said.
Before Ryouma could pull away or argue, Genma snaked a hand out and caught Ryouma by the forearm. Raidou shifted, easing some of Genma’s weight across, and after a wary, uncertain moment, Ryouma accepted it. A notch of final tension unwound in Genma. Buttressed between two taller, physically stronger shinobi both prepared to hurl Kuroda into the ocean, he could let himself be weary.
On Ryouma’s other side, Kakashi looked extremely unconvinced, but he kept a lid on further questions.
Silence drifted in, broken when Ryouma said, “Kimiko still trusted you.”
“She listened to you on the beach,” Raidou remembered. “When Hatake scared her non-verbal.”
“Hey,” Kakashi said mildly.
Genma’s head dipped in a shallow nod. “She let me take Sango,” he said, and there was a breath of hope there. “She was there when Fukuda died, and she let me take Sango.”
Raidou let out a soft breath. “Yes,” he said. “And they both survived the channel crossing because of you.”
Genma swallowed hard, voice catching on a new crack. “It was all of us. Not just me.”
“I killed sharks,” Kakashi put in.
“I swear to, like, eight gods, Hatake,” Raidou said.
Genma gave a scratchy chuckle, barely audible, and settled more heavily between Raidou and Ryouma. He looked like the aftermath of every worst mission, exhaustion so deep the shadows under his eyes were blue with it, but there was a glimmer of lightness again. A weight taken from his shoulders, if only briefly.
Silence settled around them again, a quiet shelter beneath the ocean storm. They hit harder waves, which made ropes creak alarmingly and the swearing above them get louder. Raidou had to grab the deck with chakra to stay seated. Thunder boomed. Kakashi made a contented sound. Raidou sincerely hoped Usagi and her concussion were unconscious by now, or someone was getting an earful. Maybe Satomi could genjutsu her and the rest of Team Thirteen.
On the next pitch and sway, Ryouma gave a faintly nauseated groan.
Raidou said, distractingly, “Did you know Shiranui’s personal name means ‘original horse’?” |
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