| [Apr. 8th, 2017|11:08 pm] |
"We're talking about art," Ginta explained. "It's a famous work of art, Hatake."
"It's this octopus gettin' it on with a woman and she's really into it," Ryouma said, unnecessarily. "I saw it in Tea Country, we were guarding this rich merchant during contract negotiations, but nothing happened. I'd been spending my off hours goin' out restaurant hunting with my team captain—he was an Akimichi writing like a Bingo Book for food, so we ate everywhere—but then the client's hot son came home, an' I started—"
He stopped, his cheekbones tinting delicate pink. "Um," he said. "Anyway. He took me to a museum, once. We saw that print, an' a bunch of others."
"Any other memorable ones?" Ginta asked immediately.
The flush spread. "Couple," Ryouma said.
"I need a beer," Raidou said, loudly, before Ryouma could get descriptive. "Anyone else want something?"
Kakashi cupped his chin in his hand, ignoring Raidou with single-minded focus. "Were they all seafood? Because that seems like a very specific fetish."
"Some of 'em," Ryouma said. "It was a seaside town. There was this one with a guy an' a sea-slug, but it didn't look at all like the snot one—"
"Maybe you should have this art history lesson some other time." Genma leaned pointedly across the table, snagged the sake bottle by the neck, and refilled Raidou and Kurenai's cups. "Here," he told Raidou. "To tide you over until your beer gets here."
Raidou tossed back the sake gratefully. Ginta stole a tempura shrimp from Ryouma's plate, and smiled at him. "You know I have a pretty good art collection," he said. "I should invite you over to see it some time."
His optimism was impressive, undaunted by Kakashi's knife-blade scowl. Raidou looked, briefly, as if he were considering cracking the emptying sake bottle over Ginta's skull. Ryouma merely looked pleased. "I really dunno art all that much, but yeah, sure. I like the ones you can imagine the stories behind the pictures."
Genma said smoothly, "Ginta's favorite thing is making up stories. Tell the one about the time you almost died fighting a tengu."
And that was an even more impressive bit of verbal judo. Kurenai poured him the last of the sake in tribute. She had to press against Raidou's side to reach. Raidou breathed in, slowly, but didn't shift away.
"It wasn't a tengu, it was a kappa." Ginta mimed carrying a bowl of water on his head, and launched into an elaborate story involving at least three levels of genjutsu, several more of straight up mind-fuckery, and a last-minute electricity jutsu to save the day. Kakashi's attention sharpened when the jutsu came in; he sat up, and started asking questions. Ginta cleared plates off the table and stole more pieces of Ryouma's tempura to use as action figures. |
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