| [Apr. 8th, 2017|09:01 pm] |
Ginta’s expression sharpened, but it wasn’t a knife this time. It was distractions shearing away, to show a glimmer of something real underneath. “I remember,” he said, and tilted his head to study Raidou’s face. “Team Six has had the shit beat out of it. You’re a strike squad, so it’s expected, but even so…” Two fingertips ghosted over the battered metal hitai-ate plate at his forehead. “We’re on the same team. I want the same thing for your rookies that I want for mine.”
Raidou felt his mouth tilt fractionally. “A basic survival instinct?”
Humor sparked back in Ginta’s eyes. “That’d be a good start.”
This was almost becoming a reasonable conversation.
Raidou nodded and made to head back to the office before his day got stranger — or before Usagi tried to wrestle Genma on the carpet. He got three steps past Ginta and paused. "Just so we're clear, I'm not chaperoning their love lives. I don't think it's right for officers to pursue rookies, but for someone not on their team... They can make their own bad choices." He glanced back at Ginta. "That said, neither one of them is over twenty, and they don't have the sense god gave a duckling. If I thought someone were trying to take advantage, in any sense, that person and I would disagree."
“Noted,” Ginta said coolly. “Just so we’re clear, that’s exactly what I told Tousaki. In ANBU we govern ourselves, and we don’t tolerate coercion. I don’t know where you got the idea I was planning to pressure either of your rookies into something they didn’t want, but it’s unkind of you to think that.” The way he stressed unkind made Raidou think there had been a much nastier word there, before the diplomatic filter had kicked in. “I have plenty of opportunities for consensual recreation. I don’t want or need to resort to duress.”
There was the outrage that had been missing earlier.
And there, perhaps, was the man Genma liked. For the briefest of moments, Raidou saw his own protectiveness mirrored back: the complete certainty that Ginta wouldn’t hesitate to provide a short, fatal solution for anyone who wronged Team Thirteen.
It was definitely the soldier Usagi liked. She was a woman who appreciated leashed chaos.
Raidou nodded again, acknowledging, and continued back to the office. He was just in time to witness Genma dodging out of the room, with an armful of paperwork and Usagi on his heels.
“Just one match, lieutenant. I’ll be gentle!”
Her back was turned. Raidou grinned and went to get his payback. |
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