| [Apr. 8th, 2017|08:48 pm] |
Ginta was never more delighted than when he had a new plaything, and Ryouma was interesting. Sexy, too, and it didn’t hurt anything that as a flirt he gave as good as he got. But there was a lot there, under the surface. Genma’d described his rookie as complex and unstable, and said Ryouma had a lot of potential. So far the instability wasn’t too manifest — if you didn’t count that dark reference to expecting to have died by twenty for reasons other than the war — but the complexity and potential were right out in the open.
He trailed happily down the hall at Ryouma’s side. “Team events are more your taste? I can support that,” Ginta said. “Depending on who my other teammates are. Not Usagi, though. That’d just be weird.”
Ryouma scowled quizzically. “Team—?” But a stride later the innuendo clicked like a key in a lock, and the edges of his ears colored a delightful red. “Oh. No, I didn’t— There’s nothing going on with my team.”
“Pity,” Ginta said. “But there’s always next month.” If Ryouma’s mystery officer wasn’t on Team Six, that eliminated Raidou. Genma was already off Ginta’s list of suspects, although on second thought, there was no reason that had to be true. He’d have to probe that avenue more thoroughly, but in the meantime...
“If it were to come up in the future,” Ginta said, “for instance, if you and I were to fraternize, I promise no one will go tattling to command. We police our own. If everyone’s consenting and happy, it won’t even really last as gossip fodder for long. Now if someone wasn’t consenting, or there was a power discrepancy that caused an issue, the transgressor could expect to get a few pointed suggestions that he end the relationship immediately.” He tapped his throat, just to the side of his Adam’s apple, where a kunai would open an artery.
Ryouma contemplated that for a second before he asked, “What kind of issue?”
“Any kind of issue.” Ginta said. He hugged the wall to let a clerk pushing a wheeled file cart get by. “Physical, mental, emotional… Like, if someone in a relationship can never say no, that’s a problem.” He looked up at Ryouma’s serious expression. The conversation had certainly taken an interesting, if somewhat dark, turn. “Is there something going on that my fellow officers and I should know about?”
Ryouma darted a skeptical glance at Ginta. “You’d take a rookie’s word over a fellow officer’s?”
“I’d take a rookie’s word that there was something that needed looking into,” said Ginta. “And I’d look into it. You may not have noticed, distracted as you are by the sexy tattoos and uniforms around here, but all the officers are ninja. We’re pretty good at ferreting out hidden information.”
“Pretty good at hiding it, too,” Ryouma said, unimpressed. “Or have you dug up any dirt on Kuroda yet?” |
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