| [Feb. 22nd, 2012|04:53 am] |
“I’m pretty sure he believed you the first time,” Ryouma said, sliding his hands a little deeper into his pockets and rocking back on his heels. “You don’t have to lay the gay stuff on all that thick.”
Katsuko’s brows twitched together. “Gay stuff? I just wanted to pull the chair out for you.” Her mouth twitched a grin. “But the ‘Madam’ is ‘cause you’d look cute in a dress.”
“You have horrible taste,” Ryouma told her. “And manners. And if Im tellin’ you this, you know you got a problem.” He took a chair at the other side of the table and pulled it out far enough for him to lounge comfortably, long legs stretched out straight. “Why’s your sensei’s old buddy still givin’ me the stink-eye?”
Katsuko’s lip curled at his rejection of her chair, but she flopped down in it herself and drummed her fingers restlessly on the plastic menu. “Wakahisa kinda adopted my genin team the first time Hideki-sensei brought us here. Guess he’s still pretty protective of us.”
“Never took a team himself?” That was unusual, in Ryouma’s experience; experienced jounin were scarce enough that most of them were badgered into taking at least one genin team over the course of their careers. With ANBU out of the picture, perhaps he should look into it himself. Maybe in a few years, when Saki graduated...
He plucked the cheap wooden chopsticks up out of their paper packet and spun them idly between his fingers. “Y’know, when I didn’t show up for six months, I had a reason.”
She flinched, almost imperceptibly, and looked down at her menu, tracing a finger down the badly printed listings. “My genin teammates and I don’t... Well, they hang out here a lot. I heard they were both on different out-village missions this week, so I figured now was as good a time as any to let Wakahisa know I’m not dead.”
There were years of silent pain in that non-explanation. Ryouma set his chopsticks down again. “The three of you seemed pretty close when you stayed over at Dainichi Nyorai, years ago. Things changed when you came home again?” |
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