| [Oct. 19th, 2013|04:18 am] |
Ryouma had fully intended to test his theory about the ANBU showers never running out of hot water. Kakashi and Naruto had food to eat, a movie to watch, and awkward questions to answer; they wouldn't miss him for a half an hour. Or an hour. Two, maybe. He scrubbed until plum-scented soap foam washed away even the memory of demon slime, and then braced himself with a hand against the tiled wall and just let the scalding water pound down, coaxing the knots out of his muscles and rinsing the pain out of bruises. He even let himself doze a little, slowly melting into the steam.
The outer door banged. A man said, amused, "You're still in here, Tousaki?"
"I'll be in here when you're ash on the wind, Hakone," Ryouma said, without looking around. "Forget to wash behind your ears?"
"Left my razor," Hakone said easily, lounging into the next stall. "What's Hatake doing in your room?"
Ryouma sighed, hit the dial, and raked his dripping hair out of his face. "Borrowing my TV. Why, you stopped by for a visit?"
"Passed in the hall," Hakone said. "The door was open. Was that Yondaime-sama's kid?"
"Thus the TV," Ryouma said. He dumped bottles and scrub-brushes into his bath bucket, toed it out of the water-slick stall, and picked up his towel from the bench outside. Hakone was waiting, razor in hand, wet-haired but fully dressed in jounin blues.
"Kakashi's looking after the kid while Yondaime-sama's gone," Ryouma said, stooping to towel his head roughly dry. He slung the damp towel around his hips and met Hakone's raised brows with his own. "If we're trading gossip, how come nobody knew you're the T&I Commander's son?"
Hakone's mouth twisted wry. He tipped his head, acknowledging the hit. "Door was closed when I came back, anyway. Your TV must have lost its charm."
Ryouma flipped him off amiably, gathered up his discarded trousers, his bath-bucket, and the half-roll of bandage he'd peeled off his hand, and headed for the doors. The hall was unpleasantly cool after the steamy showers; the rough carpet scrubbed his feet. He passed Kakashi's room, three down from his own closed door, and tried to decide if he was disappointed they hadn't waited.
A little, maybe. Naruto was a cute kid. Kakashi was unexpectedly gentle with him — though, remembering Hayama, Ryouma thought perhaps he might have expected it after all. Kakashi'd been a bastard most of the time, but he'd looked after Ryouma in the clinic and on the boat, and his hands were always warmer than his voice.
Except that time he'd woken Ryouma up with ice. That canceled out at least one of the life-debts, right there.
Maybe Ryouma could get him a fruit-basket or something to pay off the rest. Or save his life a few times. Raidou was building up his own tally, too, with three chakra transfusions and rescue from drowning in demon slime. And the lieutenant had cleared Ryouma's lungs out when inflammation grew too dangerous, the second day on the boat; that probably counted as life-saving as well. Katsuko, he thought uncomfortably, was the only one who hadn't saved him already.
Killing the demon queen was probably enough to wipe most of those tallies clean. Except for Kakashi, who'd saved him before there was ever a Team Six to look out for each other.
"Flowers," he decided, fetching up against his door. "And a fruit basket." And he wanted to be there to see Kakashi's face when they delivered it. |
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