Author's Note: Now a multi-chapter story. It grew.

Chapter 2

After work, Ibiki and Anko left the office together, walking side by side. He was aware of how foolish they looked together.

He towered over her, looking more like a drug dealer or a gangster than anything else with his leather duster, scarred face, and bandana. If it weren't for his slate gray police uniform, he'd be arrested.

She, on the other hand, was a typical kunoichi in an oversized trench coat missing its belt. He supposed that it was barely possible she could be mistaken for a hooker. That was about as much of a visual connection as they had to each other: they could be mistaken for criminals.

"So where are we going, Biki?" Anko asked cheerfully.

"First?" Ibiki glanced at her. "My apartment."

"Why? Gonna get all dressed up? That's cute, Biki." She grinned at him.

"No," Ibiki said. "I need to take my medication."

"Medication?" Anko looked at him with curiosity.

Ibiki snorted, grinning at her expression. "You don't think I'm this stable without a pharmaceutical miracle, do you?"

Anko laughed.

"If you want a date instead of a breakdown, we better go by my place," Ibiki said.

"Either one sounds interesting, Biki-chan, but you promised me a date." Anko seemed singularly unfazed by that kind of talk.

Ibiki supposed that was a good sign.

xXx

Ibiki stopped in front of the door of his apartment, pulled out the key from an inside coat pocket, and unlocked it. He opened his door and gestured. "Here it is."

"I get to come in?" Anko bounced on her feet, looking thrilled.

"Well, I can't leave you in the hall," Ibiki said. He glanced at her and then entered his apartment, taking off his sandals in the foyer area like any good Konoha native. He slipped on his house shoes.

Anko entered and followed suit, playing at being a good guest, at least for now.

Ibiki closed the door and locked it. "I always lock it. Don't think it's anything personal."

"Huh? Sure." Anko was too busy looking around his apartment to pay much attention to him.

He knew the décor couldn't interest her for long. His apartment was nothing special. It was just a small kitchen with a white tile floor, counters and cabinets and appliances crammed into the space in the usual way, a small dining area to the right and a living room beyond that, separated from the kitchen by a partial wall.

"Just don't break anything," Ibiki said. "I'll be right back." He walked through the house to his bedroom at the other end of the apartment, and through his bedroom to the master bathroom. He fished out a key from his pocket and unlocked his medicine cabinet.

He'd installed the medicine cabinet after his recovery from enemy hands. Some of the medications he'd been put on could be cooked to make street drugs. It was irrational to think that anyone would dare to break into his apartment, but it made him feel better security-wise nevertheless.

After washing down a variety of multi-colored pills with two glasses of water from the sink, Ibiki pulled off his gloves, washed his hands, and then powdered them moderately with talcum powder. Talcum powder made it more comfortable for him to wear his gloves for longer periods of time.

He slipped his gloves back on, flexed his fingers, and nodded. Guess I'm going on a date. He had a fair idea of how many jokes there were about him and his dating potential, or lack thereof. Most of them were even pretty funny. Genma had told a good one that he still didn't know Ibiki knew.

Ibiki left his bathroom, only to be confronted with Anko, inspecting his bedroom. "You like it?" he asked wryly.

Anko took in the king-sized bed with dull navy covers, and the pale slate blue paint on the walls. "It's okay."

"Believe it or not, the apartment came this way," Ibiki said. "I haven't painted the walls once since I moved in."

"That, I can believe." Anko studied the pale ivory carpet underfoot for a moment. Then she grinned at him. "Cause you'd pick a cheerful color for this place, like yellow or pink, right?"

Ibiki chuckled. "Right."

"Can we try out the bed?" Anko asked.

Ibiki was taken aback, but after a moment's reflection, he didn't know why he hadn't seen this coming. "Sure. If you want to take a nap before dinner."

Anko pouted. "A nap is not exactly what I had in mind, Biki."

"Then you don't need a bed, do you?" Ibiki asked reasonably.

"There are other things beds are good for," Anko protested.

"Oh?" Ibiki scratched the underside of his chin and looked away, feigning ignorance. "Like what?"

Anko grinned. "It's a comfortable place to have sex." She sauntered up to him and pressed herself against his back, her hands going to his hips.

Ibiki tensed in spite of himself. Okay. Line crossed. Line crossed. What to do? He turned around to face her.

"Don't go so fast," Ibiki said gently but firmly in a voice specially designed to stop her without hurting her feelings.

"Why not?" Anko asked. She looked up at him with dark eyes and a furrowed brow.

Oh, god, she's hurt anyway. Ibiki cleared his throat and fidgeted, then squeezed her hands. He wanted to look away, but even visual rejection might hurt her further. Instead, he gave her the gentlest look he could. "It's not romantic. You wanted romance, remember? I couldn't let you do a thing like that. Why don't we go to a nice restaurant or something?" He tried a small smile.

"Oh." Anko's eyebrows rose, and her voice was tiny, startled. "You're scared, aren't you?"

Ibiki flinched, and he immediately hated himself for it. "No, no, no. I'm not scared." He mustered a glare.

Anko giggled. "You are." She kissed the tip of his nose. "It's sweet."

"It is not sweet and I am not scared," Ibiki declared.

She wrapped her arms around him and gently rocked him. "Biki-chan, I'm not going to hurt you."

"I'm not going to be hurt," Ibiki said. "I know that. I am also not having sex with you tonight, Anko-chan. Maybe some other time. Like when it hasn't been less than ten hours after we started going out."

"Oh, that's no fun." Anko pouted. "You're too used to doing boring things, Biki-chan."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "What happened to dinner, then?"

"Dinner's boring."

"Even if I buy you dango?" Ibiki asked.

Anko let her head fall back dramatically. "I don't want dango. I want Ibiki. I want Biki-chan's love stick deep inside me."

"Whoever taught you to sweet talk is full of crap," Ibiki said, wanting very much just to peel her off of him. He was blushing and embarrassed and a little bit – Only a little bit, he told himself fiercely – scared. "I don't even think that's the right way to talk dirty."

Anko gasped. "You mean the porno lied?"

Ibiki looked at her skeptically. He couldn't tell if she was joking.

"I thought the way to get a man into bed was talk about his love stick –"

"If you say love stick one more time, this is off," Ibiki said. "I'm being serious. I can't stand that term, and I think it's disgusting."

"Penis," Anko hastily redirected.

"It's a start," Ibiki said. "Go on. I'm listening."

"I thought the way to get a man into bed was talk about his penis and how much you wanted it deep inside you." Anko looked at him with wide eyes, scanning him. "It's supposed to drive him mad with desire so that he can't resist you, and then you have sex for like, hours! And then you get up in the morning and you're all rumpled and stuff…but you feel good." She grinned. "That last part's from a movie, but I stuck it on there at the end because I never saw what happens at the end of the porno."

Ibiki had to try not to laugh. That would give her entirely too much encouragement. "No, Anko-chan. That's not the way to get any good man in bed with you. It might work on lust-crazed perverts, but not on me."

Anko looked disappointed. "Then what do I do to get into bed with you?"

Ibiki smiled fondly and slipped his arms around her, hugging her gently. "You date me. You go on a series of dates. And if they go well enough…I'll get into bed with you. But only then."

Anko nodded, suddenly turning determined. "Kay. Got it. How many dates do I have to master before I can sleep with you, Biki?"

"Hmm…" Ibiki had to think. "How about…six?"

"Three," Anko immediately said.

He should have known that she would haggle with him. The buyers and sellers at the marketplace hated her because she haggled over everything like her life depended on it. "Five," he said firmly.

"Four," Anko said. "Final deal."

Ibiki snorted. "You're the one who's trying to sleep with me. So I don't think so."

Anko wilted slightly, and then rallied. "Well, I must be worth something, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Ibiki was stricken. She's serious, isn't she? "Anko, you mean a lot to me." He cupped her cheek with one hand. "That's why I can't…"

Anko poked the tip of his nose. "Hey. You said you wouldn't use me and throw me away." She grinned cheekily. "So why does it matter when we have sex the first time? It won't be the last time, and you'll take me just as seriously as before. So you are you trying to protect? You, or me, Biki?" She tickled his sides.

He gritted his teeth and resolutely refused to show that it did tickle, a great deal. He gave her the I'm-in-charge smile and refused to answer.

"Cause I think you've got a big case of good ol' fashioned stage fright," Anko said. She smacked his rump playfully. "Come on. Off with the pants and let me see it. Come on, Biki-chan…"

"You don't think I'm going to take off my pants because you tell me to, do you?" Ibiki asked.

Anko pouted. "But I can try…"

"Fail," Ibiki said succinctly. "Now pick a restaurant to go to. I'm hungry."

"Someplace with great dango," Anko said immediately.

Ibiki laughed. "Okay. Some place with great dango, then."

"Yes!" Anko grabbed his arm and clung to it, flushed with happiness.

Ibiki was glad her personality was so mercurial. All it took to push her back into the happy zone was to offer her something she liked.

He opened the door for her, and they hit the street, headed for a little restaurant Ibiki knew on the edge of town that made dango just the way Anko liked to eat it.

Anko knew immediately where they were headed and launched into an adorable improvised song about dango that had Ibiki smiling the entire way, in spite of himself and his precious reputation to uphold. That somehow mattered less than seeing Anko happily bouncing alongside him on the way to their first dinner date.

xXx

At the little restaurant, the hostess met them without batting an eye. She was part of the family that owned the place, and she'd seen him and Anko often enough not to be alarmed. Most other places would ask if there was a criminal in the building. It came with the job.

The hostess got them a booth on the other side of the restaurant from the few other patrons who were already there, knowing that Ibiki and Anko both liked their privacy after a hard day of work at T&I. She left menus with them and promised to come back with tea and complimentary egg drop soup.

Ibiki grinned, settling back on the cushy bench seat. He loved the egg drop soup. As much as Anko loved her dango, probably, though she would deny it as long as she lived. According to her, no one could love anything as much as she loved dango.

The hostess came back with a tray laden with a pot of tea, two tea cups, and two bowls of egg drop soup. She set the table for them and bowed. "Is there anything else you would like?"

"Water," Ibiki said. "Please." He smiled at her. By now, he knew that he wouldn't scare her if he did.

She nodded. "Water." Then she looked to Anko. "And for you?"

"Dango," Anko said blissfully. "Lots and lots of dango."

"Of course." The hostess bowed and left, presumably to start making as much dango as this restaurant could possibly produce at one time.

Ibiki started in on his egg drop soup. Its rich, salty, chicken flavored broth was like liquid gold. He savored his first bite, like he always did, closing his eyes and emitting a soft, "Mm."

Anko didn't touch hers. She didn't find egg drop soup remotely interesting. Which was fine with Ibiki. It meant he always got two complimentary bowls of egg drop soup instead of one.

After the first spoonful, Ibiki ate his soup normally, but slowly.

"Ne, how come you're called Ibiki?" Anko asked.

Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "That's my name?"

Anko bounced in her seat. "But how come? It means 'snore', doesn't it?"

"I had cruel parents," Ibiki said. "It happens."

"What about Idate?" Anko asked. "What's that mean?"

Ibiki sighed. "It's actually Idaten. Idate is a nickname I accidentally created when I was little. Idaten means 'great runner'." He smiled wryly. "He was the favorite, or can't you tell."

"So you're a snore, and he's a great runner?" Anko furrowed her brow. "That's mean."

"I think so," Ibiki said. He ate a bite of egg drop soup.

The hostess came back with two glasses of ice water.

Ibiki thanked her. Then he glanced at Anko. "We ready to order?"

"Yeah!" Anko gave the hostess a dazzling grin. "Short ribs – with lots of spice! And a side of chicken yakisoba. With plenty of broccoli. I love broccoli."

The hostess bowed. "Of course. And you, Ibiki-san?"

Ibiki tried not to chuckle. "I'll have…um…" It took him a moment to think, with Anko grinning and squirming restlessly in her seat. "Crab," he said suddenly. That would be a nice treat. "If you have any. Steamed crab with steamed vegetables?"

The hostess bowed again. "It is no trouble at all."

"Thank you, very much," Ibiki said. He meant for having a restaurant where he and Anko could eat, and even have a first date, without being stared at, but he couldn't say that out loud. It would make him seem far too insecure. And he wasn't insecure, not really. He just knew the facts. At other places, people would stare, make jokes, and even pick on them. Not to mention it would be crowded and noisy. This restaurant was perfect, and he wouldn't rather be anywhere else.

The hostess merely bowed, smiled, and said, "Your meals will be ready in less than half an hour." She walked away, her gait steady and graceful. She was a small women, always dressed in a traditional kimono, with her dark hair piled on top of her head in a classic twist. Ibiki liked her a lot.

Ibiki went back to his soup, smiling.

Anko watched him eat, her hands folded underneath her chin and her elbows propped on the table. "How come you always eat soft foods? I noticed it doesn't matter what you're eating, it's always soft."

"It's my teeth," Ibiki mumbled.

"Your teeth?" Anko looked startled.

He swallowed. He reached for his water and washed the salty soup down, then said more clearly, "My dentures. My teeth." He lifted his upper lip so she could see the line of the denture fitted up against his gums.

Anko almost fell all the way forward and smashed her face into her egg drop soup. "No way…"

"Yes," Ibiki said, amused at her reaction. He took another bite of egg drop soup. "How do you think I can eat, after being interrogated by the enemy? It's not because I have any teeth left." He held up a hand and hastily corrected himself. "Well, okay, I have six." He tapped his chin. "All on the bottom."

"Wow," Anko said. She looked at him with wide eyes. "How can you stand it?"

"I think I'm lucky someone invented dentures," Ibiki retorted.

Anko snorted and then rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I mean, how can you stand not having any chewy or sticky foods, like short ribs and dango?"

"I know that's your favorite meal, so I can see why you would be dismayed," Ibiki said, leaning over and cupping her cheek. "But that's why I'm glad it's not you that has the dentures. I can live without those things."

Anko blushed and cupped his hand to her cheek with her own. "You're heroic, you know that?" she whispered.

"Why is that?" Ibiki asked quietly.

She gave him a look as though it should be obvious. "Because you gave up dango!"

Ibiki laughed. "To be fair, I could have sticky and chewy things, if I wanted to. But it makes too much of a mess for me to feel like handling it."

"Now ask me something," Anko said, as abrupt as ever. She squeezed his hand and then let it go. "We're supposed to be trying to get to know each other, so ask me something, ne, Biki?"

Ibiki smiled at her and shook his head. "I don't know what to ask."

"Aren't you the least little bit curious?" Anko straightened and pouted.

"I'm curious about a lot of things," Ibiki said.

"So ask!"

"I was taught it's not polite," Ibiki said, after a moment of embarrassed silence, He supposed he always wondered things about her, but his mind was blank right now, and now was when it counted.

Anko laughed. "Biki-chan, it's okay. You're not going to insult me."

Ibiki tried to think of something that he could ask here, in the restaurant. "Why are you called Anko? What's your name mean?"

Anko laughed again. "Isn't it obvious? Come on, you know me."

"There are lots of different ways to write 'Anko'," Ibiki challenged.

Anko exhaled, and looked a lot more serious. "So you didn't take the bait. Huh." She played with the straw in her ice water. "It means 'apricot child'."

"I think that's a nice name," Ibiki said.

Anko pouted, staring at the condensation on her glass. "Yeah, my parents liked me a hell of a lot more than your parents liked you. I was precious."

Ibiki stirred the last spoonful and a half of egg drop soup, wondering how to form words for a moment. "You still are precious."

Anko looked at him, startled, and almost knocked over her glass of water.

"You're precious to me," Ibiki said, clarifying in case he was about to get an argument.

Anko melted. "You're so romantic. And sweet." She giggled. "How come we didn't do this before?"

"Because you never sat in my lap before," Ibiki said.

"Darn it!" Anko snapped her fingers. "I should have thought of that first."

Ibiki chuckled.

"Some wiseguy who no longer has a tongue suggested I was named 'cheap child'," Anko said. She scowled. "Just because you can spell 'Anko' that way doesn't mean my parents were losers."

"No, it doesn't," Ibiki agreed. "They obviously had good taste to cherish you so." Ibiki wondered what had happened to Anko's parents; he didn't actually know. He wondered if that was the kind of question he was supposed to ask during this first date interview. He didn't think so. Still…it was the only lead he had. "So…it is past tense or present tense?"

"Huh?" Anko took a disinterested bite of egg drop soup and then pushed it towards him, serving herself some tea instead.

"Your parents," Ibiki said.

"Oh." Anko made a face. "Past. Way past. They died six years ago."

"Six years ago?" Ibiki frowned. He tried to think of what could have happened six years ago. Then he stopped himself. Why am I assuming it was a violent death? Not everyone dies from being ripped apart or crushed.

"Yeah, you know that guy who did the bombing in that one place?" Anko said, swirling her straw in her glass of ice water. "That was my parents' neighborhood. They died, and I was left all alone. That's how I joined T&I."

"Oh." Ibiki wondered blankly how he didn't put it together, then realized he'd only become the head of T&I five years ago. He wouldn't have had that kind of access to a new recruit's files. "And your brother?"

"Died in the Kyuubi attack," Anko said. "That really sucked."

"Your life is just as bad as mine," Ibiki blurted.

Anko grinned at him. "Kinda. That's why we're good for each other, don't you think?"

Ibiki gave her a small smile. "Tell me about your brother," he said softly.

Anko wrinkled her nose. "Tajiro was such a showoff. He was always saying, 'Big sister, big sister, watch this!' And then he'd do something really stupid." She gave Ibiki a crooked smile. "It was kind of cute, though. After a while. I kind of miss it." She laughed. "These days I act out for the two of us. I told him I would: I'd fill the gap that he left since he's such a slacker."

Ibiki knew instantly he'd never be able to get annoyed at one of Anko's pranks ever again. "Tajiro. That's a nice sounding name. What does that mean?"

"Next Waterfall Son," Anko said. "That's because our father was Waterfall Son – Taro." She made a face. "Not as nice as my name, I know, but boys get those kinds of names. Heir names."

"Yeah." Ibiki nodded. "It's really common."

"He liked it, though," Anko said. She took a sip of water at last, after playing with the straw for so long. "He said, 'Dad, I'm gonna be just like you!'"

"Was he?" Ibiki asked.

Anko shrugged. "I dunno. I never got the chance to see. No one did."

"Oh."

She snorted. "It's okay, you know. I asked you to ask me these kinds of questions. If you don't ask me now, you won't ask me later, either. Let's get the big stuff out of the way."

Their food came. The hostess cleared away Ibiki's finished bowl of egg drop soup, and Ibiki pulled Anko's soup over to his side.

"Well, it's your turn, now," Ibiki said. "It's got to be, because I've gotten several more questions in than you."

"You have?" Anko looked confused. She counted on her fingers. "Nuh-uh! You got only one more than me. 'Tell me' isn't a question. It's a request." She grinned and attacked her dango. "Keep going."

"Even if I only asked one more question than you, it's still your turn," Ibiki said.

"Alright, fine." Anko chewed dango with abandon, took a drink of tea, then worked on her short ribs. "How come you never dated anyone before? T&I is full of hot chicks."

Ibiki almost gave her the answer he gave anyone else who pried into his dating life. He stopped himself. Instead, he busied himself with getting the top shell off of his crab and digging out some meat. "Would you like the easy answer, or the real answer?"

Anko grinned. "Where do you think I work all day? The real answer, Biki. That's much more interesting to me."

"I have lots of reasons," Ibiki said. He ate his first bite of crab. "First of all, in practical considerations I can't afford to date my co-workers and I can't get enough time off to get to know someone else. Most of our co-workers would jump at the chance to sleep with me just because they want advancement, or because they want to know what it's like. Either way, it's a selfish conquest for them. It doesn't appeal to me. Just having sex isn't enough."

Anko nodded slowly, absorbing all of that. "So what are your other reasons?"

"I never fell in love with anybody else," Ibiki said simply. "Only you."

Anko looked at him with wide eyes, and then her lower lip started trembling.

Ibiki almost had a heart attack. "Don't cry. I just – I'm sorry!"

"Sorry?" Anko exclaimed. "What are you sorry for?" She wiped the tears from her eyes. "That was beautiful! And romantic! And I love you too!" She bawled, definitely loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear, and used up her napkin on blowing her nose.

Ibiki was caught between cringing and laughing. "Holy shit."

Anko started giggling at that, and just couldn't stop.

Ibiki had to laugh with her, at the end. "What was that?"

Anko blew her nose a final time and wiped her eyes. "Whew." She tilted her head, looking mildly surprised at the question. "Romance makes me cry. Didn't I warn you?"

"No," Ibiki said wryly.

"Oh." She leaned over and smacked his arm playfully. "Then I guess that's one question you should've thought of asking before you became so romantic."

Ibiki grinned. "I guess it is."