| [Feb. 7th, 2015|06:31 am] |
"If you bothered to put a modicum of effort into your penmanship," Kurenai told him, "you might improve from poor to marginal. I understand you've actually regressed from your Academy days."
Tousaki's straight dark brows climbed a step up towards his tousled hair. He looked more like the handsome young man in his personnel picture, today; she could begin to see what Riei had been so enthused about. Katsuko must be enjoying herself tremendously on Team Six.
"I spend my time on more interesting things," Kakashi said loftily.
Kurenai glanced idly at the glossy magazine lying forgotten on the side of Kakashi's bed. The front cover promised all the sordid details of the latest celebrity sex scandal, offered one quick work-out for a hot butt by bikini season, and hinted at ten new ways to Please Your Man.
Kakashi'd followed her gaze. "My point exactly," he said, without a sliver of shame. "There's an article about how to go from sleepy to sexy in five minutes flat, if you need tips."
Tousaki made a faint, inquisitive noise.
He didn't look like a rookie ready to break and turn all his sharp edges in on himself, but Kurenai was a field agent and analyst, not a psych expert. Still, she had a duty to observe and report. She cleared her throat. "Come in, Tousaki. What's the homework?"
His brows came down again. He took a short step into the room, but left the door half-open behind him. "Training logs," he said. "Lieutenant sent 'em."
"Shiranui-fukuchou's out of hospital already?" Kurenai had thought his injuries serious enough to require at least another few days' bed-rest.
"Not til tomorrow." Tousaki gave her a guarded, wary look. "You debriefing the whole team?"
Spare me from paranoid ANBU, Kurenai thought, and pinned on one of her gentler smiles. "Not quite. Agent Hatake's scared off my colleagues, though. We're short-handed at the moment, too."
He took another two steps in, to lay the creased folder on Kakashi's bedside table. "You know Kakashi." It wasn't quite a question. "And you knew Katsuko, too. She called you Kurenai-chan."
The belligerence was unexpected but not, perhaps, surprising. If he'd begun pulling back from his teammates after the mission, only to find someone stepping into his place once he returned… She glanced, thoughtfully, at Kakashi.
Surgical mask and bandaged eye weren't much easier to read than shinobi mask and hitai'ate-covered eye, but Kakashi did manage to look extremely dry. "Everyone knows everyone in Konoha, Tousaki. The only way to escape is permanent misanthropy." He paused. "Or death."
"I don't know everyone." Tousaki seemed to take it as a personal insult. "And you didn't know the names of half the rookies in our year, until I introduced you."
"Permanent misanthropy," Kurenai murmured. Kakashi's good eye curved agreement, like a friendly scimitar.
Tousaki's mouth thinned. He shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched against the wall. Kakashi's head tipped up and sideways to watch him for a long, thoughtful moment. Then Kakashi said, "Need me to send her out?"
Tousaki's eyes flicked; his hand bunched in his pocket. He wouldn't say it, Kurenai thought, but he wouldn't be comfortable until she left.
And Kakashi was worried about him. |
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