| [Mar. 5th, 2018|04:19 am] |
Raidou leaned back, too, and blew a long breath skyward. He sat up a little straighter, and looked first at Kurenai, then Genma. “Look, I like you both, I really do, and in other circumstances…” He blew out another breath. “But none of us really knows each other that well. I’ve already slept with one member of this team, and I’m not sure it’s done Tousaki’s mental health any favors, no matter how okay he thinks he is.”
Kurenai’s eyebrow flick said that information hadn’t been part of Team Six’s dossier.
“Before Tousaki joined ANBU,” Raidou explained. “It was a one-night thing. Yondaime-sama and Sagara-sama are aware, and still allowed me to be his captain.”
Before she or Genma could respond, he took a quick breath and pressed on. “If we make this a thing, the rookies are definitely going to find out when Hatake smells it on us.” A complication Genma hadn’t thought of, and should have.
“But most of all,” Raidou said, looking right at Genma, “I'm supposed to be your captain. I can screw with your career. I could order you into danger tomorrow.” He brought a hand up to touch Genma’s face. “If this goes sour, how could you trust me?”
There was tenderness in the gesture, and wistfulness. Genma reached up and wrapped his hand around Raidou’s forearm. And wanted to kiss him more than ever. “Because you’re a good man, and a good captain. And because I know it worries you. That’s how I can trust you.”
He let go and sat back with a sigh. “Other than that though… I really don’t think you’re to blame for Tousaki’s mental health issues. But you’re dead right about Hatake. Hell, he’ll probably be able to smell that we were horny as fuck and didn’t have sex.”
“How fortunate,” Kurenai observed, “that we have access to a bath.”
Genma had to laugh. “You have a point. I don’t know how good his nose is, but maybe the soap will confound it.” He sighed and looked up at the stars twinkling overhead. “You know, about that other thing though. You could just be pissed at me for any reason and order me on a suicide mission, it wouldn’t have to have anything to do with us having a personal relationship. Any captain could. That’s why they don’t make officers out of people who would do something like that. Kuroda excepted.”
Raidou opened his mouth to argue. Closed it. “Okay, point. But what if you got injured and I lost my shit and put the team in danger? Again?”
“We can what-if all night, but really?” Genma shook his head. “This team seems to happily go into danger on my behalf whether you or I want them to or not. Even when I’m actually just fine. Like Hatake reverse-engineering a summoning scroll and dimension hopping, and Tousaki, who I am most definitely not in a relationship with, offering his hand to a demon wolf.”
Kurenai touched her mouth, looking thoughtful. Raidou didn’t interrupt.
“The thing you need to know about me, Raidou, and maybe it’s something you still need time to trust, is that whatever I am to you, and whatever you are to me, I’m a Konoha shinobi first and last. And I’m pretty sure you are, too. We both took that oath, and neither one of us would break it.”
Raidou looked at him with a complex mix of emotions on his face — fond, rueful, touched — before it softened into his familiar crooked smile. “I know that.”
This time it was Genma who brought a hand up to caress Raidou’s cheek — stubbly, strong-jawed, steam-warm, and sake-pink. “Then we’re good.” He shifted into the pool, crouching to face Raidou, and reached his other hand for Kurenai’s. “And sometime when the stars are aligned or something, we’ll pick this back up.”
Kurenai laced her fingers into his and leaned forward to bestow another kiss. Not quite so lingering, but just as full of promise. “Don’t wait too long,” she said when she broke it.
It was almost physically painful to let her go. Genma sat back on his heels, submerged in the pool, and took a moment to compose himself. It was no easy feat to will this much arousal away.
|
|