| [Aug. 13th, 2015|02:49 am] |
“Where the hell have you been, Asuma?” And there was Reiko, in perfect form and exactly where he didn’t need her. Why not raise his blood pressure a little more? It wasn’t like the hospital did the trick by itself.
It took a moment to steel himself and turn toward her, and by then she’d already marched well into his personal space. That she wasn’t much taller than their father didn’t matter—Reiko on a rampage had a way of making a person feel two inches tall no matter what they did to deserve it. (He was pretty sure he didn’t. This time.)
“You didn’t come home last night. You didn’t even send a message.” Her voice might have been pitched high with concern, but her eyes were dark with indignant anger. “What were you thinking?”
One of the MPs inserted himself before Asuma could respond; he looked profoundly uncomfortable with getting in the middle of the situation. "Uchiha Bunnosuke," he said, in brief introduction. "Your sister contacted us this morning when she found you hadn't come home—"
"No note, no messenger, no nothing." Reiko shoved a finger into Asuma's ribs in emphasis, hard enough to make him twitch back. "I was up half the night waiting! You know you're on a watch and I can't not keep an eye on you right now, if you'd just let me know I wouldn't have been worried enough to contact the police."
That's when it clicked: she'd called out the suicide watch network. He’d gone to take care of Genma instead of going back to her home last night, without telling her because it wasn’t like she didn’t want him out already, and she’d called out the watch network on him. And now he had family drama spilling all over the damn hospital lobby, in front of what felt like half of Konoha, like he was a bad guy for taking care of his friend.
If his anger hadn’t been choking him dumb right then, he could have screamed.
The MP shifted away, slightly, and Genma was suddenly at his side, a buffer against a storm. “Asuma was with me,” he said, calm and reasonable. “We should have let you know. Maybe we could find a conference room to talk this situation over, Reiko-san?”
Reiko shifted to pin Genma with an irritated look. Asuma would be relieved for the respite if not for the fact that Reiko had decided a long while back that she didn’t like his friend.
“There’s no need for a conference room,” she replied. Her tone was still sharp, but somewhat less confrontational than before. “We aren’t here for a debate. What was so important you couldn’t have contacted me?”
None of your damn business, Asuma wanted to hiss in reply—the details of his life weren’t up for consumption, hers or anyone else's—but his frustration at her constant negative commentary strangled anything he could have said.
Genma gave him a quick glance before looking back to Reiko. “I really think this is a conversation better suited to a conference room. Or at least not the middle of the lobby, Reiko-san.” |
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