| As You Were [Open] | [Feb. 9th, 2008|07:15 am] |
Sumire was about a week behind New Year's celebrations proper. It didn't matter too terribly much, of course. She'd gone and cleaned the snow out of her mother's name, burnt the incense and left an offering (because who else had more fun during New Year's than their lively mother?). Now, she was walking up the snowy street with her elder brother, arm in arm. The two Murakami were almost painfully similar to each other, despite her brother height, and their genders. The older man kept his hair up in a queue, bound tight with red cord.
"You know, I don't like having to drop you off here," her brother told her quietly. "It feels like I'm leaving you at the kindergarten." Murakami Aoi glanced at the shadowy white building. Whether it was the fact that he hated giving his little sister up into the "loving" arms of ANBU (or Arakaki-sama, as the case may be) or that he knew he wouldn't see her for weeks, Sumire couldn't say. Her brother frowned at the building like it had taken his lunch money.
Silly older brothers.
"You know, considering how some of the agents act, Nii-sama, it's like a big kindergarten," Sumire agreed and tossed her hair behind her shoulders with a mitten-covered hand. "All the idiots shrieking and blithering on at all hours. It's enough to make me want to kick someone in the teeth."
"Sumi'e." Aoi gave his sister the same pale-eyed look she chastised Ren with.
"Yes, I know. Better to not speak of those that cannot control themselves," she muttered, cowed.
"You could always move back home, to Hanagumori, and not live in the complex," Aoi suggested as the rounded the corner. It would be best for her anyway, wouldn't it? He wouldn't have to worry about her defending her honor from some cruel, bloodthirsty sexual deviant. The fact that Sumire had taken care of her self for nearly four years and outranked him as a jounin was irrelevant, she was still his little sister.
"Not even if Hokage-sama got on his knees and begged me," Sumire replied sternly. "And don't you go planting ideas in anyone's head at home that it would be a good idea, either, Nii-sama." The building was insight now, rising up out of the darkness like a vicious creature that ate good girls and spat out vicious monsters. Aoi's frown deepened.
"Fine, but don't say I haven't suggested it." He kissed her temple and her forehead as they stood before the building.
"Aoi-niisama..." Sumire half-whined. "I'm not ten anymore."
"Pah, you'll always be ten to me," he grinned and tweaked a long bang. Sumire puffed her cheeks in frustration at him. "See you in a few weeks."
"Yes, see you, onii-sama. Have a good time with Karin-san, okay?" Sumire replied watching her brother walk down the street and get swept into a crowd of passerby. She straightened her shoulders, wiped that sweet, honeyed look from her face and turned on her heel to face the building. "Hmph."
It was time to go to work. She hoped no one had seen her brother's act of affection, and wondered if she might be knocking people out with the sensu in her jacket pocket. |
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