Still a little sensitive about the reading thing, too. Kakashi hadn’t even been trying to insult him that time. “Sorry,” he tried. “Next time we see someone famous from another village, you can get the first shot.”

“Wow,” said Ryouma, with a quick blink. “Okay, that’s better than flowers.”

Apparently ‘sorry’ was super effective with Ryouma. Kakashi would have to remember that. “Why do you keep talking about flowers?” he asked.

"Payment,” Ryouma said, as if that made complete sense. “There was going to be a fruit basket too, but I think I cancelled it out by not kicking you out. I still have to save your life a couple of times, too." He crossed his free hand over his chest, gripping the opposite biceps, and took a casual sip of his coffee. "Though I could probably make alternate arrangements if you still want the fruit basket."

Kakashi put his head on one side. “You’re keeping score?”

“Not score,” Ryouma said, nose wrinkling. “More like—whatever people record their debts in. Ledge?”

“Ledger,” Kakashi said.

“Ledger. Right,” Ryouma said, with just enough stress on the word that it sounded like memorization. He grinned, sudden and light, pulling focus away from the slip. “For serious accounting only.”

“I use a points system,” Kakashi admitted.

Ryouma lowered his mug slowly. “Like— You award yourself points in your head? Against other people?”

Put like that, it did sound a little strange. Kakashi shrugged awkwardly. “It’s a system.”

Ryouma’s expression sharpened in rapid suspicion. “What’s my score?”

“Minus thirty,” Kakashi said. “Give or take.”

“I melted a demon monster,” Ryouma said.

“Which got you twenty points,” Kakashi said. “It’s a fair system.”

Ryouma’s dark eyes narrowed. “So I was minus fifty before that. I wasn’t that terrible at Trials.”

“You lost points in training, and for the pre-mission,” Kakashi said, ticking items off on his fingers. “And the post-mission. And for flat-lining yourself.” He was missing something. “And for getting out of paperwork. That’s a permanent minus five.”

Because he was also five at heart, Ryouma retaliated by sticking out his tongue. “You’re just jealous,” he declared, and drained the rest of his coffee, setting the mug down. “You can take another two points off for that. I’m going to eat all the oranges in your fruit basket.”

“The fruit basket that you cancelled?”

Ryouma turned a flat, lethal stare on Kakashi, like a nettled jaguar, then pretended to inspect his fingernails. “I’ll share it with Naruto-kun. We’ll eat it in front of you.”

Kakashi gave himself a point. “Whatever makes you happy, Tousaki. You probably need the vitamins more than I do anyway.”