| Pay It Forward [closed to Tsume and Genma] | [Jan. 22nd, 2009|11:07 pm] |
[Takes place March 14th, five days after Would You Bite the Hand, two days after Connect the Dots, and one day after All the King's Horses and All the King's Men...]
"You're cheating."
"I am not!" Kuromaru shuffled his cards in his human hands, lips pursing together as if that might help him think.
"You are, too! If you have two aces, that means there are five in the deck." Tsume shuffled her stack and glared at her familiar, who was currently wearing her face--if horribly injured. In human form the scabbed injuries should probably be bandaged, but bandaging through a body-change was almost impossible, and they fell off his fur. She looked away again quickly. The hitai-ate he'd pulled down over his missing eye did little to hide the twisted, oozing flesh around it, raw skin that coursed across his temple, smearing over his forehead and writhing around the mangled flesh of his missing ear.
Her nausea was from the jutsu that had given him human form, a jutsu she probably shouldn't have done. His appearance wasn't helping her guts any, though.
"Okay. So maybe I only have one ace," he said slowly, claw-tipped fingers tapping the edges of each of his cards. "But you only have one queen, so you were cheating, too."
Her spine straightened. "I was not!" she lied. "You're counting wrong."
"Nooo. I'm not." His gaze rose from his cards, and he smiled broadly. The cheek under his hitai-ate, perfect and unblemished, pinched slightly. The scabs above slunk like caterpillars. "You cheated."
Tsume pondered her cards. "I'll take back that extra queen, and you take back the extra ace."
"Or... Patooey!" Kuromaru flung his cards on the ground as they both dove for the stack between them, scooping up as many as they possibly could. Really, it meant trying to plaster themselves over the messy pile, bending double and pushing at each other with claws and shoulders.
There was a reason this game was played on the floor, and Tsume's apartment--devoid of all furniture except a single chair and her futon--had plenty of floorspace. Kuromaru's feet scrambled, trying to shove Tsume father away, and she was momentarily grateful for trying the genin jutsu that had made Kuromaru smaller, even if Haruichi would have killed her for it. She'd never have won if Kuromaru had been his normal size and shape.
As it was, she got one foot braced against the base of the chair, her hands tucked under her chest holding onto the cards she'd grabbed. Her shoulder dug into Kuromaru's shoulder, their faces cheek to cheek.
"Okay," Kuromaru panted, good eye so close she could feel his eyelashes. "You give up."
"You give up."
"We'll both give up."
She sniffed. He didn't seem to be lying. Though with all the lying scents on the air, and the excitement on top of that, it was almost impossible to tell. "Okay."
He sniffed. They gave each other suspicious one-eyed glares. "On three," Kuromaru said. "One... two... three!"
With another mad scrabble of legs and arms and clawed hands, they broke apart, shifted, and found themselves locked together again--this time with Tsume curled on her side around most of the cards, while Kuromaru lay sideways over her, one hand locked around her wrists, the other pinned beneath her weight.
"You cheated!" he yelled.
"So did you!" She felt teeth on her shoulder and snapped, "No biting!"
Kuromaru snickered and, teeth still dimpling her skin in silent threat, began to gently gnaw.
"You are not funny. Patooey!" She released her stash and grabbed for his hair while he dove for the deck. They rolled again, ending with Kuromaru on the bottom, holding a stack of crumpled cards. Tsume's lower body was under one of his legs, her elbow pressing on his throat.
They took stock of their position.
"So... who won?" Kuromaru asked.
He had the cards, but she had him. He had her, too. But she could get him first. "I'm not sure."
He thought about that. "Wanna start over?"
"Okay." She started to get up, and when he relaxed she pounced, grabbed the cards, and tried to run. He tackled her legs and she went down.
"Cheater!" Kuromaru yelled gleefully. |
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