When they’d gone, Raidou fell in next to Genma. “I can’t believe you agreed to this.”

“I can’t believe Hatake agreed to this,” Genma said. “Didn’t seem like an opportunity we should waste.” He shrugged. “Besides, it can’t hurt to blow off a little steam. If you don’t like dancing, you can always sit at the bar and nurse your drink. Or the table. Embers has booths.”

Raidou gave him a sidelong glance. “I like dancing.”

Genma’s thoughts wrecked hard on the shoals of ‘wait, is he saying he’d like to dance with me?’

“I do, too,” he said. “So… Good.”

And wow, not smooth, Shiranui. Also this is your captain and what the hell are you even thinking?

Raidou’s mouth quirked with amusement, but he didn’t comment. After several turns down one corridor and another, Raidou asked, “How long have you and Sakamoto known each other?”

Genma thought about that for a moment. “About three years. He was a veteran on a different team when I was a rookie. Our teams had a joint mission. And then I ran into him at a club one night, almost a year later, and we hooked up. It was just a casual thing,” he added quickly. “He’s fun in small doses.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Raidou muttered. Genma was about to ask what it was about Ginta that had gotten under Raidou’s skin, when Raidou abruptly grinned and said, “You didn’t strike me as the clubbing type. Is there a whole other side of you with a secret social life?”

“Well… yeah.” Genma allowed. “I have friends. I go to the clubs with Aoba sometimes, or on my own. Actually I met Katsuko before Trials at a cherry blossom viewing party. I would have thought she’d told you all about it.”

“Nope. That’s one named friend and two entire activities,” Raidou teased. “I barely recognize you.”

“What can I say?” Genma said, “Some people are just born to be wild.” He laughed, then added, “I also like movies. If you wanted, we could hang out sometime. Then it’d be two named friends and three activities.” He would have brushed a hand over his face to hide the faint twinge of color that came with that suggestion, but he’d have dropped the files he was carrying.

It had been easier to transition from teammates to friends with Hajime. Maybe because Hajime had been the one to extend the invitation. Genma hoped he hadn’t just run headlong into Raidou’s boundaries issue. That afternoon drinking sake in Raidou’s backyard, before the Mist mission, had felt like the beginnings of a friendship…

“Yeah. “Raidou smiled, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “That could be fun. So long as it’s not a horror movie, otherwise you’re going to spend an afternoon dragging me out from under a chair.”

Genma felt a slipknot of tension work loose. Raidou almost looked shy.

“Between mine-demons, Bingo Book legends, and enemy villages that wholesale exterminate their bloodline clans, I think we get enough horror in our lives,” Genma agreed. He hefted his armload of files as evidence. “It’s a deal: no scary movies.”

“Alright, then.” Raidou said. They walked in companionable silence for a moment, and then, as the mission office door came into view, he said, “Clubbing. I’ll bet money Hatake cuts and runs in ten minutes.”

Genma chuckled. “I’d take that bet, but then I’d be poor.” He paused at the door. “So see you at Embers at 2100? You know where it is?”

“I’ll find it,” Raidou promised. He glanced at his watch and swore under his breath.

“Go, go,” Genma said. “You can still get those logs filed before the payroll office closes if you hurry. I’ll get the rest of this turned in.”

Raidou offered a small, grateful nod, and disappeared back towards Team Six’s office, while Genma went to do battle with half a dozen different departments inside the mission office.