Shiranui Genma (teaguardian) wrote in strangergamesrp, @ 2012-09-30 18:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | balfour vallet, closed, log, observable, shiranui genma |
[Log] Food and Other Things Pt. 2
Who: Balfour Vallet, Shiranui Genma
When: September 12
Where: Cafeteria, wandering around, forest.
What: Balfour meets a new Other, and Genma is highly amused. There’s showing off, talk, and onigiri-making!
Warnings: Genma. Flirting, teasing, a kiss!
Open or Closed: Closed.
Observable: Sure!
Genma didn’t act as if he were particularly concerned over where they were going, but once he was outside, there was a definite change in his mood. He drew in deep breaths, smiled a little brighter, and even whisked the bandanna from his head to tuck it into a pocket. His straight brown hair was pushed back with his fingers, before he looked back toward Balfour.
“I haven’t tried the tea here yet, just the coffee, but I would hate to live in a place without good tea. Or have to have it improperly prepared. One of my sisters always going the temperature just off, or steeped it wrong for the type of tea, and it was just...”
He wrinkled his nose fussily.
“Life without good tea just isn’t life.”
“That’s why you learn how to make your own tea to your own tastes,” Balfour said happily, stretching his arms behind his back and smiling upside down at Genma. “And then you don’t have to worry about making it wrong or it tasting weird, and if it does, you have no one but yourself to blame.”
He laughed softly. As if having someone else make his tea was even an option.
“Mind, I prefer mint teas over almost anything else, so I know just how to make mine.”
“That’s a very solid approach,” Genma said with a nod. “Have you been able to find good mint around here?”
He was already very much impressed by the sheer variety of supplies that seemed to be available. He grinned a bit, walked up the trunk of a tree that happened to be in his path, and then flipped over a branch and came down the other side, landing on the path near Balfour again without much of a pause.
Balfour laughed when Genma disappeared from behind him and appeared on the path in front of him, shaking his head and walking past him again, quite purposefully brushiing against his front.
“Show off,” he accused playfully. “And yes, there is some mint in the greenhouse, plus dried mint in the cabinets in the kitchen. It’s not hard to come by it, nor any kind of tea.”
“Very useful information,” Genma said, obviously not the slightest bit repentant over showing off. In fact, he leaned in closer to Balfour, lowered his voice, as if to share a great secret.
“Did Izumo ever mention that ninja training can look to the unpracticed eye very much like a whole lot of big kids goofing off?” he asked, in a solemn tone.
“Mm...No, I don’t think he did,” he said softly, looking up at him and shifting just the slightest bit closer, a mere shifting of his weight from one leg to another, a soft smile on his face.
“I vote that you give me a demonstration.”
“Hmmm...”
Genma shifted his gaze away for a second to survey the path, checking to be sure there wasn’t anything that he could harm with what he wanted to do. He had a clear enough shot, plenty of soil, and didn’t see anyone in the vicinity that could get hurt.
So he flicked his senbon from one side of his mouth to the other, shifted his own weight so that he was just that much closer to the younger man’s face.
“Pick a leaf, any leaf.”
Balfour grinned when Genma decided to take him up on his offer, tucking one hand into his pants as he glanced among the leaves, spotting one several hundred feet away that was just now turning red, the first leaf of the fall, he guessed, or an early leaf one. It wouldn’t have been easily seen if his sight wasn’t as good as it was.
“See that one?” he said, pointing to it, pressing close so that Genma could see where he was pointing. “The one that’s just changing colors?”
Genma squinted and leaned forward a little, looking down Balfour’s finger to try to find the leaf in question.
“Next time I ask someone who doesn’t have eagle’s eyes,” he said with a laugh, but he seemed cheerful enough about it anyway.
He made a show of measuring the distance, raking his eyes over the space between and then raising his hand, waving a finger about as if testing the wind. It was, after all, a show and not a fight. This, of course, meant stepping away from Balfour a little, which was sad when he’d managed to get in close without startling the young man, but such sacrifices had to be made.
Then, he started two motions at once: going through a series of hand signs and shifting his chakra a bit, just enough to give the right push he needed... behind the senbon in his mouth, which flew straight for the leaf.
As the small red leaf fluttered down, pierced with the metal needle, a thin spindle of earth rose to meet it from the ground, catching it as it fell.
Balfour watched, fascinated, as Genma judged the distance and spat the senbon at the leaf, tracking the small needle’s progress through the air until it hit the leaf he had pointed out. He whooped, jumping up into the air, pumping his fist.
But then he noticed the earth and he turned and shoved at Genma’s shoulder.
“Show off!”
“I thought the point was to show off!” Genma protested, starting off down the path toward his little spire, to retrieve his senbon. He turned to grin over his shoulder at Balfour, licked his lips and winked.
“Besides, I didn’t want to make it seem like I was only pointing out I was good with my mouth.”
Balfour continued to laugh, trotting after him. He was right to suggest the forest, especially if Genma preferred to use his earth-magic over just hand-to-hand fighting.
“Well, yes, but I made it hard on purpose!” he said with a chuckle, his face going red again at the innuendo. Ah yes, it did seem quite...promising, what Genma could do with his mouth.
“I suppose that is better than making it hard on accident!” Genma shot back cheerfully, reaching out and snagging the senbon. Just for amusement value, he tossed it up into the air and caught it again, flipped it around between his fingers, and then held it up.
“You know what the best thing about this is?” he asked, smiling.
“I suppose,” he said with a shrug, watching Genma closely once more before reaching for the leaf and tucking it in a pocket as well.
“What’s the best thing? That you can stab people before they realize you’re there?”
Genma’s smile widened as he realized Balfour was taking the leaf for a souvenir, and he turned the needle a little more before slipping it back into his mouth.
“Well, there’s that too. But you see, I carry it around so much that people... forget about it. Or if I attack them with it, they at least expect me to have to transfer it to my hands first. It’s very useful to be able to attack someone without using your hands.”
He flicked the thin piece of metal up and down a little with his tongue. “Though I have to admit, I was only half sure I could hit at that distance. And for a while as a kid, when I was learning that trick, my mouth was so torn up I couldn’t have gotten anyone to kiss me.”
“Well, clearly you don’t need to transfer it,” he said softly. “So that throws them a little, I’m sure. Aren’t you going to clean it off before you put it in your mouth?” He shifted, bouncing up on the balls of his feet, doing his level best to ignore the comment about kissing, all the while suddenly hyperaware of his lips and the possibility of scar tissue inside his mouth and wondering how that would feel against his tongue.
“You never answered my question. What’s the best thing?”
Genma smirked, seeing that obviously his audience was distracted if he’d missed the answer. He licked his lips, very deliberately, and then swirled the senbon around again. “I didn’t put that end in my mouth,” he pointed out, as if to argue for the cleanliness factor.
Then he leaned in a little closer, teasingly, and quirked the senbon to the side.
“The best part is that now everyone finds my mouth interesting,” he amended.
“Ah, good. I just...don’t know if those trees are poisonous, you know?” And he didn’t want Genma to die now that he’d just gotten there.
He bounced a little when Genma moved closer, using his body to distract himself from how interesting hi--
Oh. He was caught. He grinned even bigger.
“You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve never met anyone who runs around with a needle in their mouth!”
Good cover. It was the truth, after all.
“That would mean you’ve probably met a good many people more intelligent than me,” Genma replied airily.
He wasn’t even going to argue the question of whether it was dumb to run around with a needle in your mouth; he’d been told that from the beginning, and it hadn’t stopped him. He did have to concede that the poison issue was valid though, and he slid the needle back out of his mouth and peered at it.
Then, just because he was already showing off, he took half a step back, made a couple of quick signs with the needle between his fingers, and then watched as a puff of flame flickered over it, sterilizing it.
Balfour just grinned a bit at the fire-magic, having seen that before, and glanced back up at him, scratching the back of his head.
“I suppose it doesn’t apply now, what you said before.”
“Hmm?”
“When you were younger, I mean,” he said with a shrug. “You said something about the needle cutting up your mouth. I don’t suppose that’s a problem now, is it?”
Nor would getting kisses. The man was attractive.
“Oh, that!” Genma laughed, then shook his head. “Definitely not a problem now. Even I’m not quite dumb enough to keep doing it if I weren’t able to pull it off without hurting myself.”
He smirked, then carefully removed the needle again, tucked it in his hand, curling a finger around it and letting it rest against his wrist. Then he leaned in just a little, spoke quietly.
“Though if you’d feel better inspecting, you can try.”
Ooops. Genma really needed to stop reading Balfour’s mind. The young man’s gaze darted from where it had landed somewhere over Genma’s shoulder, lips in the corner of his gaze, to his shoes, shaking his head. He really shouldn’t.
Anyway... “You can’t be serious...”
Genma shrugged a shoulder.
“I can be, but I don’t have to be. It’s my habit to be serious when I have to be, and not serious when I don’t have to be, and let things fall out however they like from there.”
The corner of his lips twitched.
“How about I leave the invitation open and you make of it what you will?”
Balfour squirmed a little bit. That totally wasn’t what he was asking, but when Genma said that it was, indeed, an invitation, he kicked his foot against the ground. That one would take some thinking. Was it worth it to kiss the man? It wasn’t as if he and Izumo were exactly involved--the image of Izumo and some strange man all snuggled up flashed into mind--and it wasn’t like he would be doing anything wrong. The flirting didn’t feel wrong.
He looked up, biting his lip a little, and stepped forward.
“May I?” he whispered.
Oh, that was too cute. For someone who had been getting Izumo lessons, the young man sure seemed very innocent still. Then again, what Genma knew about Izumo’s sex life was nothing but rumor, really, so he could possibly be extrapolating too much from the kind of teasing he himself did but didn’t often follow up on.
He didn’t move his feet, simply shifted his weight forward a little. Making it the other man’s action, his choice, his move.
“I just said so, didn’t i?” he said lightly, amused.
Balfour watched him a little bit more, fingers reaching out to touch the hem of Genma’s vest, sliding up a little, then pulled back. Could he? There was nothing wrong; he wanted to, after all.
But the proximity made him nervous despite the fact that he wanted the kiss. Wet warmth, scratches, vague sensory memories made him shake a little even as he leaned up, leaning for the kiss, using the hand on Genma’s chest to balance himself.
It wasn’t just that he could, but that he would. He wanted this.
Genma was very careful as he dropped the hand that wasn’t still holding a senbon down to gently rest against Balfour’s side. He smiled against the man’s lips, softly, and bowed his head a little to add just a bit of pressure to the kiss.
He didn’t make any move to deepen it, waiting to see if his new friend would do so. This, for him, was pleasurable and nice enough, and he hadn’t really intended to seduce Balfour, despite the teasing.
Balfour waited a moment or two to deepen the kiss, that being the whole point of the thing. He enjoyed the soft, chaste part of it while it lasted, and then pressed forward, taking a deep breath through his nose as his hand came up to comb through Genma’s hair, guiding his head just a little closer as he teased at his lips with his tongue, both asking for entrance and investigating.
Genma obediently parted his lips, enjoying the attention. Balfour was very sweet, Genma decided, and hopefully wouldn’t feel too awkward after this to be friends. Either way, this moment was making a nice vacation from thinking about the larger situation going on in this world, and Genma cheerfully let his hand rest a little more firmly, dropping it a bit to Balfour’s hip.
He once again pressed in just enough to be responsive, teasing his tongue against Balfour’s for the barest second before retreating, inviting him in.
Balfour let out a soft sound, pressing closer as he chased Genma’s tongue into his mouth, fingers curling on the back of his head as his tongue investigated his mouth.
He was glad that he’d gone ahead and instigated the kiss, enjoying the closeness. He wasn’t quite as comfortable in the kiss as he would have been with Izumo, but it was worth the experience. The scars alone--few as they were--were interesting to him.
Genma let his mouth be explored - since after all that had been the joke - for a long moment before starting to chase the other tongue a bit with his own, playfully and lightly. If this were someone he knew better, a friend, he might have moved closer, might have tugged the other man’s body against his own, but...
That wasn’t the case. So he was still but for the kiss, letting the tip of the senbon he was still holding in his free hand dig into his skin a little to remind him to behave.
Balfour moaned again against Genma’s lips, chucking and scooting a little bit closer, the hand tangled in his vest tugged him closer, asking for a little bit more even as he allowed his tongue to be chased back into his mouth.
Genma let himself be pulled, and since he was being so nicely invited, gently look over the kiss. There was still something very tender and exploratory in his motions, careful and a little apart.
Passion was vulnerability. Genma had given himself away a few times in their conversation, to some degree or another, but physical intimacy was entirely different. Still, he shifted a foot, let his own body nestle close against Balfour’s, since that seemed to be what was desired.
It did feel nice. He pressed into the kiss a little more, testing, waiting to be pushed away.
Balfour didn’t want to push away. The only pushing he did was to get closer when Genma allowed himself to be tugged, pressing up against him and kissing him passionately. He was still aware of the hand with the senbon, but he didn’t care much about it. He was interested in the kisses and the touches, allowing Genma to take over the kiss when he did, letting out another soft murmur of approval.
It wasn’t Izumo...but it was what he needed, especially when those half-remembered sensory images came through to haunt him; it was a good distraction, he’d learned.
But Genma, for his part, after a few moments of kissing, pulled back just a little. Just enough to catch a breath, though he left his hand on the other man’s hip, left their bodies resting close together. He smiled a little sheepishly, having not actually expected the kiss to become quite so heated.
“Answer your question?” he asked, very softly.
Balfour didn’t chase Genma when he pulled away, allowing the distance between them, his head dropping a little as he concentrated on breathing and not the closeness of the warm body. His fingers moved in his hair gently, stroking his scalp gently.
“Yes, thank you,” he whispered, leaning up for one more chaste kiss before pulling back completely, tucking his hands in his pockets once more. That had answered more than just the question he had vocalized, at least.
“Thank you,” he repeated, clearing his throat and turning to look around. Well hell, it was a clearing. “I assume this would be sufficient for you to practice in?”
Genma blinked, actually surprised a little, and then turned his head, took a good look around. There was something more outwardly alert about it; he wasn’t looking from under lowered lids, and not slouching quite as much as he had before.
“This looks like a very nice spot, actually,” he admitted, laughing softly.
“Good,” Balfour said, allowing his posture to fade just slightly. He probably would either need to disappear off to himself for a while after that or find Izumo one. It was tempting to just slip off and see to himself...but one, that would be rude. Two, what if he did get to see Izumo? Then what would he have for him?
Then again, that was never a problem before.
“I’m glad you like it.”
Genma glanced back at Balfour for a second, licked his lips, and then slipped the senbon back between them. There was a single dot of blood on his hand from where he’d dug it in during the kiss, but he simply wiped his hand against his pants and then grinned.
“It’s a very nice place for training. Or reading. Or an afternoon nap.”
He walked out into the middle of the clearing, did a lazy little spin, and then flopped himself down into the grass, rather bonelessly.
“Maybe I used up all my energy showing off. Not that it wasn’t worth it,” he teased, without looking up.
Balfour knelt beside Genma, then folded himself up into a sitting position, his hands folded in his lap.
“Don’t be surprised if you see me here. I quite like it. Then again, I could always find another clearing,” he said with a shrug. The biggest reason he would be in this particular clearing would be to watch Genma practice.
Once again, Genma’s eyes were nearly closed, heavy-lidded and sedate.
He lay sprawled on the grass, one leg slightly askew, and yet there was a readiness in him, the slightest tension of muscle that anyone looking closely enough might see. He twitched the senbon a little.
“Oh? Does that mean you’ve changed your mind about wanting to be my friend?” he said, lightly. “Because if it’s stray senbon, I promise I’m always careful to check for civilians when I practice.”
Balfour shook his head a little bit.
“Ah, no,” he murmured. “It’s just...that I’m not sure whether you’d be willing to be interrupted or observed. I do enjoy watching people practice.” He shrugged.
“Well, there’s no reason I should ever have to fight against you, so I don’t see why I’d mind you watching.”
Genma cracked one eye open a little further, one corner of his mouth twitching.
“And you’ve already seen that I like to show off.”
“Yes, as I’ve said, I don’t fight here,” he said softly with a shrug, then yawning a little as he shifted to get more comfortable. “Not that I would be able to use any of that against you, though. Especially not the magics.”
At least it wasn’t wind-magics. He’d had enough of those, too.
Genma laughed. “Magic?”
He reached out, bumped an arm against Balfour’s leg, casually. “Have you heard anything about those sort of things from Izumo? What ninja do, I mean?”
“Ah, a little. I think he calls it...’chakra’. I don’t know, but it looks like magic to me, and you know what they say.” He laughed and shrugged, glancing off to the side. He seemed relaxed and not at all awkward now that he’d kissed Genma. In truth, with that part out of the way, the curiosity sated, he was more at ease.
“Do you know Izumo from here only or...did you know him before?”
“Chakra, yes. You don’t see it, but I actually use it when I spit the senbon, too.” Genma said. It didn’t really matter if he gave away information about himself on this level; not just anyone could emulate the things he did with chakra, anyway. And while cutting off his chakra - if anyone could discover how to do it - would keep him from doing jutsu, he could still fight without it. He could even spit the senbon with it; just not with the same range.
He considered the question of Izumo, as if not entirely sure how to answer. Things were strange, there.
“I’ve known him for years,” he responded after a moment, then laughed a little. “I would have probably referred to him, loosely, as a friend, though we weren’t close. I think we’re a little closer here, already, just because... it’s nice to have someone around who understands things that are very much ‘ninja points of view’.”
Genma’s lips curled up a little on the last words, a quote from an older sister who had given him “lessons” on such things when he was a child.
“Do you have to go through special training or are you born into having the chakra?” Balfour asked after a moment of considering what Genma had just said about Izumo, biting his lip as he watched him closely, head tilting slightly. “And how do you know if you have it? In my world, there were two different types of Talent: born Talent and, ah...’manufactured’ Talent, I suppose you could say. The Ke-Han could give anyone a Talent, though it was usually element-based.”
He’d always wondered what the difference was.
Genma shook his head, though it wasn’t a denial of the question, or a refusal to answer it. Rather, it was an attempt to clear his mind and focus on explaining something in a way he wouldn’t normally have to.
He wasn’t a teacher, and these lessons were very old for him.
“Chakra is just life force,” he said, after a moment. “It’s created by basically everything, including humans and our bodies. Learning to use it can mean a lot of different things; some people use chakra to affect their own bodies as well as directing it outward as in the earth jutsu you saw me use.”
He closed his eyes, trusting the rest of his senses to keep him aware of the man beside him, of the world beyond their little social bubble, of the forest around them.
“Being a ninja involves learning to build it up, control it, mould it, and conserve it. Everyone has different limits in how much chakra they can create and store, and some people are better at controlling it than others. There are also specific types of jutsu that one is born with more of an affinity to, and some family lines have special things only they can do.”
Balfour nodded, eyes never once moving from Genma’s face, hands folding, twisting, not staying still. Seemed he’d picked up a bad habit or two from Shisui, as well.
“Like what?”
Genma’s mouth pulled into a straight line for a moment, as he tried to come to a decision about something. There were easy examples in this world, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to use them, because it seemed... unfair, somehow. In his own world, anyone would know about the Uchiha, but here it wasn’t necessarily a matter of common knowledge. And Genma wasn’t really comfortable being the one to say anything, even to someone who didn’t himself fight.
He chose a different example instead.
“There’s a family in my village who have special eyes that allow them to see what others can’t. They can do such things as see the pathways through which chakra - energy - moves in the body, and use blows to those areas to cut it off.”
He wrinkled his nose. “With something like that, centered on the eyes, in some cases people not born to it can use it if an eye is transplanted. But there are other techniques that aren’t tied to one piece of the body, too. My family doesn’t have anything like that.” Genma cracked one eye, offered a smile. “I’m actually a pretty boring ninja, Balfour-kun.”
“I see,” he said with a nod. He wasn’t exactly sure what Genma meant by what he was talking about, the way the chakra moved, but he did understand the gist of it: certain families had specific talents that were passed through the blood.
“Ah, you’re not boring, especially to me. I’ve never met anyone with talents like yours, like Izumo’s, before I came here.”
“I never met anyone like a lot of the people I’ve seen here,” Genma replied with a snort. “Like giant talking lizards that apparently aren’t always lizards. But my place in my own world is...”
And here he was back to the complicated issue they’d bumped up against before. Genma wasn’t sure how he felt about it, but he couldn’t seem to get it out of his head, exactly. “Just because you have an affinity for something doesn’t mean you have to do it. And then there are ninja who barely use chakra at all, or ones who use it only to enhance their own bodies, to strike harder blows or increase stamina and speed. For me, it’s like... art. I enjoy doing it for its own sake, molding the chakra and doing different things with it, even if I don’t always use a lot of the jutsu I know in battle. Especially when I can take people out without wasting the energy.”
“I can understand that,” Balfour said softly, smiling as he shifted to cross his legs, fingers playing along the hem of his pantlegs. “Art for art’s sake, yes? And if the magics that you use are much like art--and from what I noticed, they were quite beautiful movements.” Another grin.
Genma did his best cocky grin, though it was mostly in jest. He was reasonably proud, but most of that pride was for his village, his teachers, his hard work. Not any kind of idea that he was some kind of great talent by nature, or that he was somehow better than anyone else. He’d never been ‘special’ in the way some shinobi were, but he didn’t really crave the attention they got either. Or the dying young.
“I wouldn’t try something like what I did earlier in battle, most likely, because it’d be a waste of too much chakra at once. My reserves and my control are decent - I wouldn’t be able to do healing if I didn’t have good control - but I don’t have mass amounts of chakra like some people, either. But the chakra itself.. it’s something you start with a certain capacity for and build on.”
He smiled, softly. “And while everyone has limitations, to some extent or other, there’s something to be said for breaking them down, rising above them. One of the best shinobi out there has taken his greatest weakness and made it his greatest strength...” He’d never forget watching the boy that had grown to become that shinobi fight in his chuunin exams. He longed to tell Minato about the success of his son, but that... well.
There was a wistful expression on his face as he trailed off.
“You heal?” he asked quietly, leaning forward rather quickly, eyes alert, even more interested than what he had been a moment ago, which was quite interested. “Is it just with your magic or is it with something else as well? Could you possibly teach me?”
He bounced a little bit, fingers tapping against his ankle, shivering a little bit.
“See, when I was back home, before the Airman, I wanted to be a healer, and now, thanks to Izumo, I’m working as one here. I’m always open to learning more techniques.”
Woah, too much information, Balfour. Not that he noticed, caught up as he was in possibly learning something new.
“Hmm.”
Genma pushed himself up into a sitting position, then brushed a straight brown lock of hair behind his ear. He turned to give Balfour a slow look, finally focusing his attention fully on the man for the first time since he’d started trying to answer questions.
One shoulder lifted, fell.
“Maybe. I’m not sure I know much you don’t, if you’re working as one. I’m just field medic, not some kind of full-on medic-nin.” He paused, and again there was that decision to be made, how much to say, though he’d already mentioned his career very casually. “As a guard to the leader of my village, it was something I wanted to know for an emergency, so I know how to use chakra to heal a well as... bandaging and herbs and such. I could stitch someone up in the field - or myself, just as likely - but you’d really be better off learning from a real surgeon.“
“Ah, but there are so many different techniques that are unique to some cutures. It’s nice to learn about these things,” Balfour said with a grin. “I’m sure you know quite a bit more than I do. I’ve had to stitch a few people up, but it was only the straight-stitch. Here, they use some sort of crossing stitch, says it keeps people from popping them. I found it interesting.” He bounced a bit more, running his fingers through his hair.
“Come on, please?”
Genma opened his mouth for another refusal, but then he caught sight of the young man’s grin, and his own mouth closed again for a second.
No, this boy certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed being a soldier, would he?
“I’ll try,” he said, before he quite realized he’d said it. “But you really should find yourself a real medic for a teacher, if you can. In the meantime, I can probably give you a few pointers from what little I know.”
There was the slightest hesitation, and then, “and if there’s ever an emergency situation you can’t handle, I’ll try to help out.”
“I appreciate that,” he said, deciding to leave out the detail that the medics were teaching him, as well. He just wanted to get a hand on the cultural differences in Genma’s medicine, the medicine here, and the medicine in Volstov.
Currently, he looked like he was about to piss himself in excitement, all wiggly and puppy eyes and pure joy.
“Thank you.”
The excitement was just a little too much. Genma snorted, flopped down onto his back again, a slight twitch of his lips moving the senbon into a more secure position as he moved. His eyes fell closed.
“You sure have some energy on you, don’t you? No wonder Izu-”
He cut himself off, realizing that it might not be quite nice to go so far in teasing someone he didn’t know well, on that particular topic. He might be assuming things there anyway, though Balfour had said that Izumo was being educational in some way or other.
“You’re making me tired, and I am still getting used to this place, and have a few important errands to do before I can properly settle in. Lessons in a few days, perhaps?”
“No wonder Izumo what?” he asked, a goofy grin on his face as he leaned forward, completely ignoring anything else he said. He wanted to know just where that man was going with it. He always did wonder how others saw the relationship between him and Izumo.
“Ah, it’s a little unfair of me to gossip,” Genma said with a frown, cracking one eye a little as he felt movement above him. The way Balfour had leaned brought him close enough to make Genma want to see him. And then there was the look on Balfour’s face, and the frown disappeared into another laugh.
“Gets along with you, I meant. You can probably keep up with him, can’t you? Somehow I doubt I could.”
He was giving something away there; the fact that he hadn’t actually been intimate with Izumo. Not that he cared about that either way, but it was still information. And information was always precious. In this case, he’d given Balfour quite a bit, but so far he didn’t think he was likely to regret it.
“I don’t think that was really what you were going to say, but I’ll forgive you,” he said, laughing softly as he flopped back on his butt, stretching his back a little bit as he wrinkled his nose at the ‘keep up with him’ comment.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “I’m afraid I haven’t actually tried.” He didn’t try for more than one or two rounds--three, maybe, if it was good--when he was with Izumo, also enjoying the closeness and the cuddling that came with the whole friends-with-benefits package. It wasn’t just sex he was after, thankfully.
“It was pretty close!” Genma protested, playfully. He let his eye droop mostly closed again, as Balfour moved backward.
“Still shouldn’t gossip. Kind of unfair; he’s been here longer than I have, and I’m only starting to grasp what he’s got going on around here. Wouldn’t want to mess anything up poking my nose in.”
Genma’s lips twitched, and something a little less nice was in his smile for a moment. “That’s a good way to die, for shinobi.” Not that he feared Izumo; he didn’t. But now that he knew who Izumo’s allies were... well.
“Ah, he’s a good guy. I won’t say you said anything, though,” he said with a quiet laugh, settling a little bit now that he was done laughing. “I doubt he’d get you for joking about bedding me, though. He...ah...”
He glanced around, then to his hands.
“I like him, don’t get me wrong, but an avalanche has more discretion. Ah well, I suppose, if he did have more, I probably wouldn’t have picked up on his hints.”
“You do seem rather...” Genma pressed his lips together for a moment, thinking and holding back a laugh. He tilted his chin down a little, an automatic protection of a vulnerable area, and then spoke again.
“Well, let’s just say I think someone would have to club you over the head with it.”
Balfour laughed hard, shaking his head a little bit.
“You’re...not wrong.”
But what Genma didn’t know was that he had been a virgin at that point.
Genma laughed along. At least Balfour was good about laughing at himself. That went a long way, Genma had found. In fact, an inability to laugh at oneself was something that would typically cause him to immediately like a person somewhat less: there were plenty of Hyuuga he wasn’t quite friends with for similar reasons. It was, of course, never too late to teach a person. But especially for someone like Balfour who made it sound like he’d had a very rough time with bullying, it was a nice thing to know he could joke.
“It’s all right, I’m told I’m similar when it comes to more emotional things, at times.”
He’d been told that by the few people who actually tried to coax him into relationships that weren’t based in friendship, at least.
“Ah, I don’t suppose that matters in the long run. At least, in that case, if you notice it, there’s no question about it.” He grinned, rolling his shoulders a bit, then flopped back on his elbows, looking up at the sky for a few moments.
“I suppose so,” Genma said, a little doubtfully. He flicked his eyes toward the other man, and then gave a laugh of his own. If he knew Balfour better, he might have told him a story, or perhaps explained just why it was sometimes a bad thing. But as things were, he wasn’t quite ready for that yet.
Izumo had put him at ease, Balfour was doing so a little himself, but that also made him remember that he mustn’t become too comfortable. He paused, though, and gave away just a little bit more.
“Well, if you were wondering, I think you and I could be good friends. Though it might be what Izumo would consider ‘ruining it’ to say it so plainly.”
“I see no reason why it would ruin anything,” Balfour said with a light frown, still staring up at the sky. “Friends are always welcomed, with me.”
He didn’t have many, after all, and his fear of losing the few he had--Itachi and Izumo, namely--was only growing. He needed a new friend.
“Why would it be...’ruining it’?”
“Hmm.”
Genma wasn’t sure how to describe it, exactly. It wasn’t something he necessarily felt himself, not normally anyway. He had to admit that there were things he didn’t say before missions, or on them, and things he wouldn’t say to his closest friends that he’d like them to know.
He chomped on the senbon, hard enough to make a slight noise, and then slipped it a little more gracefully to the corner of his mouth.
“Spose shinobi are a superstitious lot,” he said, finally.
“I still don’t understand how being friends would ruin anything,” he said softly, sitting up and shaking his head. “It’s alright, though. I don’t suppose it matters. If you want to be friends, we can.”
And if he didn’t? Well then, he would repay Genma’s favor and get out of his way.
He didn’t realize that Genma was referring to saying they could be good friends.
Genma blinked a little at that.
“Noooo,” he said, drawing the word out a little as he tried to parse just what was happening in the conversation. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to bother trying to explain or not.
“Talking about things. Not being friends, talking about things. Like worrying about how if you say something, it makes it... somehow less true, or too real, or too vulnerable.”
He shifted, propped himself up on one elbow, and offered a smile in his companion’s direction.
“We’re a troublesome type, us ninja, but surely you know that already.”
“Oh... I see,” he said softly, offering a small, careful smile. No, he still didn’t understand completely, but he wouldn’t say so.
“If you want to be friends, then it’s likely that you’re not going to ruin it. And...I’m sort of the kind of person that needs things spelled out for me.” Which meant that if someone didn’t want to be his friend, they would have to be quite blunt about it.
“Ah, not so much troublesome as I don’t really understand you. It’s alright.”
“That’s okay, we don’t understand us either,” Genma said, breezily, but it was true enough most of the time. Everyone had their own little quirks, after all, and their own ways of dealing with things. It could take a whole lifetime to understand some of them, if you ever did at all.
He nodded his head though, a little too gravely for both his laid-back position and his casual tone.
“Well, friends then. Though if you’d like to be another type of friends, that takes quite a bit more time. Even if you are a pleasant kisser,” he added, winking.
Balfour chuckled a little bit and shook his head at Genma’s offer of being ‘another type’ of friends. He was flattered that he thought that he was a good kisser...well, ‘pleasant,’ but he’d take what he could get.
“Oh, no, that’s quite alright. If such a thing happens, then it happens, but I’m not after anything of the sort.”
Not even with Izumo.
Genma didn’t respond to that, simply gave a little wave of his hand. There were times when too many words could ruin things; he believed that himself, though perhaps his word limit and Izumo’s were a little different. It was nice, at least, to have the understanding.
And now that he had it, he could feel quite comfortable with the situation. He was in need of friends himself; having just arrived in another world, and having avoided so far... the person in that world he most and least wanted to see. He only had Izumo, aside from that, and as much as he enjoyed Izumo, there was something different about that association.
Genma pushed himself up a bit more at the thought, a quick and graceful movement, and then stretched a little. “I should do something useful instead of lying around all day,” he announced, with a bit of obvious effort. He would have loved to laze around in a forest clearing for longer, but things needed to be sorted out still.
“If you need to get things done, you shouldn’t let me keep you,” Balfour said softly, shifting to kneel there rather than having his legs sprawled out, prepared to stand but careful not to stand before Genma. He had learned from Izumo that ninja did not like being loomed over...even though Balfour wasn’t all that tall. He thought.
“Just let me know when you want your room cleaned and I’ll take care of it. Do you need to know anything else or...?” Or want company for a while longer?
Amused at the trailing off, Genma reached out a hand toward Balfour, as if expecting a hand up.
“You can walk me back in if you like,” he said cheerfully, waiting.
Balfour smiled as Genma reached a hand out, rising to his feet and taking his hand, giving it a tug. There was no way he would be able to lift Genma, but he could give him a bit of support.
“I can do that.”
Genma, grinning, let himself be helped up, just as if he actually needed such a thing. He tugged just a little once he was fully on his feet, brushed his lips against Balfour’s cheek, and then pulled his hand out with a jerk, taking off at a run.
A completely chakra-less effort, meant to be chased, playful.
“If you can catch me, that is.”
“Oh...!”
The kiss took him off guard, but he didn’t protest, only laughed and chased after him, lunging forward to tag his back before dropping back.
“I can do that.”
He was good at running.