Dango Shop

[Ino-pig]

Kurenai smiled, shaking her head as she rounded out her now silent giggles.
"If I were to flatter you, Asuma, you would know." She commented wryly, eyes glittering in mirth. Yes, Kurenai could suck up, could be coy words and admiration. But she was not really like that. She was just the quiet Jounin who liked her glass of wine before bed and the simple things in life.

"Anko's rubbed off on me," Was the only explanation that Kurenai offered. Once, she had been something akin to close to Anko. They had drifted, only really crossing paths if they happened to both be at the dango stand at the same time, or if they were (rarely) paired up for a mission.

He winked at her and slid out of his seat, offering his hand. Unsure, she glanced up at him, her smile fading as she searched his eyes. As kunoichi, she was always wary around men, in jest or not, when they began to act so gentlemanly. She was not one to so casually give out of her heart, not when it would serve as a distraction on missions.

But he was honest and sincere, and the scent of cigarette smoke was curling around her again, pulling her upwards. Taking his hand quietly, she rose from her seat, black curls bouncing as she shifted her weight and looked up at the significantly taller Jounin.

"Thank you, Asuma."
Another smile, muted but true.

[Chouji]

Asuma watched her face go through the drooping of a once smile. "It's okay,....I too...am a ninja you can trust me." He gave a reasuring smile and clasped his hand in hers. "Fancy having dined with cha'" He chuckled, he rarely laughed, and put on a false accent. His next move was bold but he had done it anyways.

He borught her hand to his face. Slowly he brushed his lips gently agianst the top of her hand in a polite manner. "There....NO more gentlemen personality" He promised and gave her hand a gentle squeaze before letting go.

He turned to look at her. "Your very presence flatters me....or awes me rather." He snickered "I thought you knew that Kurenai-chan"

He guided them to the door and left with a brusque thanks. He instantly pulled out the cigerette pack. "Want one?" He offered knowing that would most likely decine. However he still tried. He withdrew a cigerett and gently lit it. He slipped the cigerette inside his mouth and inbetween his lips. He took a long drag.

[Ino-pig]

Kurenai chuckled quietly at his reassuring words, clasping his hand as she rose to her feet. She arched a brow as he kissed her hand, the ever present blush intensifying momentarily.
"Good." She said quietly. "I was beginning to miss your brash self."

Accepting his look evenly, the corners of her lips quirked upwards into a lighthearted and teasing smirk. She was gone past caring about the rumor mills, what gossip would spring up in the Jonin lounge.
He did that to her; inspiring the devil may care attitude in her, allowing her to relax and become something resembling the old her.

"Good answer." She commented, her voice half purr and half laughter. Following him to the door, she nodded her head in thanks to the owner of the stall. She looked to Asuma, and her blood-red eyes flicked to the cigarette. Shaking her head, she clasped her hands behind her.
"Fancy a walk?" She asked suddenly, looking up at him calmly. "I don't fancy going back to my flat and drowning in books yet...y-you don't have to if you don't want..."

[Chouji]

He watched her blush increase. I'm gonna miss that blush" He chuckled. "Yeah well Mr. Brash is back..." He had an urge to brush his hand through her long hair that was wavy pools of black. He took out the cigerette and let the smoke billow from his full lips.

He eyed her and his grin grew warm. "Why would I ever decline the offer to walk beside a godess....?" He smiled and lowered his head so he whispered in her ear. "I'd love to walk with you" He pulled away.

He stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. "Over the time we bonded...as I left the mission...I missed talking...and seeing you" He said slowly as he began to walk in small strides.

[Ino-pig]

Kurenai looked up at him, watching the smoke curl away from his lips and dissipate into the air (what wouldn't she kill to be those poisons--). Her painted lips smirked, at his words, his warm grin.
"Mortal man are known to be fools," She quipped back, eyes dancing with some sort of secret promise, only known to her. And now she was assuming a myriad of roles, as the ice queen, the lover, the vixen, the tease, weaving them into her until she became all sultry smiles and quick wit.

Walking beside him in companionable silence, she let the crisp afternoon breeze wrap around, ghostly fingers weaving through her hair, brushing her face. She wasn't exactly walking to anywhere in specific, just through the village she fought and loved and killed for.

His strides grew shorter, his pace slowing. She slowed hers to match his automatically, and she looked over to him.
"Me...?" She asked.
She didn't really dare to believe it.

[Chouji]

Asuma smirked and let out his first casual laugh. "Indeed mortal men are foolish. I am no different. For I myself have made a fool of myself intfront of your eyes" He said whiping her quip with a wave of his hand.

He looked back into her eyes and shis smirk twitsted into an undying smile. They were.\, or at least he was, playing a dangerous game. But the point of life was to survive the dangerous and the feel of living was how it mattered to his.

He nodded softly. "Hai...." He tilted hist head to the side. He locked gazes with her. " Yes. You. I missed you than anyone else." He shrugged. "Surley you were expecting that Kurenai-chan"

[Ino-pig]

Kurenai laughed, a tinkling and melodic tone, his antics earning the rare sound. She pushed him lightly, the action friendly and more open, equally as rare as her laughter.

Glancing up at him, she watched his smirk change, and felt the grin on her face fade into something more quiet and subdued. This was different now, not their usual banter and friendship. She was acutely aware of how close she was standing to him, and how much taller he was than her, of the way the breeze danced about her, pulling her hair into dancing ribbons of black.

Her red eyes locked with him, and she felt something shift. Something profoundly normal and stable become awkward and uncertain.
"I've learned not to expect much..." She mused, pulling her eyes down and away. Maybe she could salvage what had been...

[Chouji]

"Ah....predict to early and it won't turn out" He smiled warmly. Hemshuffled his feet and returned her soft shove. But as he gently pushed her he found his fingers lingers on her shoulers a bit longer than needed. He coughed as he removed the cigerate which had grown extreneky dull, He flicked it near by and he let his eyes stay on her own. A wierd sensation took over him and he found himself cupping her clean face. You know your eyes to your hair.....you are amazing...and what not'' He pulle his hands from her

[Ino-pig]

And there he went again, reminding her why he had always been the wiser one. Drawing to a halt, she felt his hands on her shoulders, and a small tingle of electricity on her flesh. Oh god no, please don't...

Her heart was swelling in her chest as she felt his hands rest on her face. He had such large hands, she noticed, calloused from wielding kunai and shuriken and the many years of a hard life. Her pale hands, soft and gentle (all calluses had been removed years earlier; spies couldn't have hands that betrayed their power), gently rested on his arms, torn between pulling away and pulling him closer,

Before she could decide, his hands were gone, and her face was bitterly cold. Hands returning to their sides, she suddenly wished she was in the habit of smoking.
She needed something to calm her nerves.

"H-hai..."
She didn't even know what she was affirming, if he was talking again or what. She just needed to fill the silence.

[Chouji]

"I'm sorry Kurenai-chan...I...shouldn't" He sighed and shook his head. "I...got...carried away...." He he looked back at her and stepped close. "Kurenai pease forgive me, lord forgive me" He muttered and grabbed her shoulders just as gently as before. He leaned forward slowly and brought his lips to kiss her cheek.
"...Gomen" He turned...What had he done? It was terrible

[Ino-pig]

His words were like a catalyst of destruction. She realized now what that had meant, and he regretted it, and a sort of emptiness pooled in her gut. Her heart went still for many moments, shocked back into racing at the feeling of his lips on her cheek, tickling her with stubble and his beard.
She closed her eyes against the sight of him so deliriously close, assailed by every other sense then. The pressure at her shoulders, the slight chap of his lips against her skin, the way his presence overwhelmed her whole being, and she could nearly taste him on the air (she didn't want to think about what that meant).
But she recovered quickly. Kurenai was not a weak woman by any means, and she had been through things more gruesome and gritty than a kiss on the cheek. Her crimson eyes focused, taking in the sight of him, scruffy and relaxed, with some unreadable expression.
She smiled, pressing her face into his shoulder, pale hands grasping his broad shoulders.
"You idiot," She mumbled, voice muffled by his kevlar. "You're hopeless."

[Chouji]

Asuma blinked at her as she settled her head on one of her shoulders. Along side her pale hands gripping each shoulder. "I am an idiot." He confirmed as he took in the scent of her shampoo inher hair. He brought his head down so he could drown in her scent.

He closed his eyes slowly. Next thing he knew Asuma was allowing one hand to become tangled in her hair. His other hand cupped her chin and brought her face upward to view him. His eyes locked with hers. "I'm hopless...but...you can fix that can't you Kurenai-chan?" He asked his own strudy voice had become faltered.

[Ino-pig]

She felt, but wasn't really aware of his hand threading in her hair, her fingers gripping his shoulders. She didn't want to look upwards, to risk everything going back to normal and awkward, and losing this quiet moment that time was not seeing.
She felt more than heard his voice, the rumble of it surrounding her like a giant bear. She smiled inwardly at the comparison--yes, that was most apt.
A giant, friendly, grizzly bear. Or maybe a teddy bear...no. He wasn't nearly flowery enough for that (not like Yamanaka-sempai, not at all).

Gruff fingers mover her chin, she flicked her eyes upwards at him, red orbs unreadable. His voice faltered, and a small frown tugged at her lips. That wasn't like him at all.
"I will try."

[Chouji]

He looked down at her. He saw her frown. Asuma gave a warm smile. "Try?" He question. "I know you will succeed in not making me such an idiot...and not so hopeless." He pulled her into a strong hold of his warm embrace. "Rumors are going to be spread about this huh? I don't care much...but do you?" He whispered in her ear.

Sighing softly he stroked the side of her cheek with his thumb. "Why am I an idiot?" He whispered softly into the air. "Maybe...I'm..." He stopped then closed his eyes. "I'm making you uncomfortable aren't I Yuuhi-chan?" He honestly did not want to pull away.

His hand that had been tangled in her hair now stroked the back of her head. He slowly moved it down to her back. He shook his head. "I'm sorry Yuuhi-chan...tell me to stop...because if I tell myself I know I can't"

[Ino-pig]

[[Sorry my posts take so long, and I'm only posting here~~cleaning my room ^^;]]
She felt hidden away from the world, set apart. Her dark hair had formed a curtain, and he shielded even that with his larger frame, having pulled her flush to him. She could nearly hear his heartbeat (but the pounding in her own chest was too loud). He was warm, and comparatively, she felt freezing, Huddling into his grasp, comfortably squished against him. Eyes half lidded and hands fiddling with the scroll pockets on his kevlar, she simply listened.

"It's not like there aren't rumors already," she mused quietly, closing her eyes. She felt as though she could drift away into forever, half-asleep and half-awake, into some dream-like world that was neither here nor there. It was a most curious feeling. "Honestly...I do not mind much."

Feeling his hand move to her back, she halted into her fiddling, opening her crimson eyes. And of course, now came the real test, the real question. He was still giving her a way out, an opportunity to back away. And she considered it, going back to the way things were, too close to be friends, too distant to be anything more. Back to the subtle flirtations and flushes as everyone seemed to imply they were together, and the strange fluttering of half-wishes.

But she wasn't a fool either. There really wasn't a going back. If there was a going back, things in Konoha would have been so different, half as beautiful, half as strong. Never quite whole. Never quite so real.

And Asuma was very real, whole, strong, a thousand other things. Kurenai was kunoichi; one meant to shadow her heart, and perhaps offering it to another would destroy her career. But looking up into his honest and simple gaze, she did it anyways. If there was anyone she could trust, it would have been him.

There was no thinking or rationalizing as she leaned up, standing on tip-toes, and kissed him.
It just was.