A/N- Welcome back to another instalment of, 'what the heck is going on'. Enjoy.
After Sai's final customer (in which she forcibly assisted by whipping a bloody/inky tattoo with a microfiber cloth soaked in some type of solution) he ordered Chinese takeout.
Ino couldn't get over how he lingered behind her earlier, perusing the menu over her shoulder—speaking mandarin somewhat fluently and carrying on like some suave asshole. The dialect really meshed well with his deep monotone, and she looked over her shoulder, only understanding when Sai began to state his phone number.
By then he had wandered off to pace around the pit, Ino maintained her slouch over the counter, languidly dragging the chipped nail of her index finger down the 'specials' column.
Everything sounds good when you're starving your ass off.
Her cellphone chimed lightly beside her, blue light skid down the screen, and she cocked her head to the side as the notification dropped down.
NShikimaru
Yamanaka, if you need a place to crash, you have our house key.
No judgement or anything.
She wondered which of the women in her life had harassed Shikamaru to message her and figured that it was likely a group effort, full of humiliation and various types of hazing. The lazy bastard found it troublesome to text, something about it being, 'too much.' Ino had gotten use to calling him, though most of the time his battery was either dying or in the process of dying. He'd always drone out, 'It's on one percent, talk fast.' Something just didn't add up.
Lost in her thought about her friends and what crazy stunt they'd pull next, she remembered snapping up in a state of confusion as Sai closed in behind her once more.
"Figure out what you want?"
In the end Sai ordered way too much and everyone in the shop just decided to sit around the lobby stealing their food. She didn't seem to mind as much as Sai did, reminding everyone that the lo mein belonged to Ino.
Several white cartons containing Kung Pao chicken, chow mein and dumplings now circulated the lobby.
It was so late, people outside strolled by with a glimpse through the shops glass door, huddled under rain spattered umbrellas or hunched in hoodies. Rain streaked down the glass door, reflecting the piercing green of a traffic light. Car lights dashed past and muted engine noises persisted.
"We call it," Konan paused for dramatic effect, holding her chopsticks aloft, "the smittin kitten committee!"
Ino nearly choked on her lo mein mid swallow, she fanned at the tears that had sprung up from her inebriated induced laughter.
EOP has long since closed and Ino had been meaning to go home but Sai insisted on feeding her once more (seriously it's like some type of fucking ritual). She attempted to talk him out of it but decided she'd stick around a bit more after taking a tour through the place (courtesy of Konan) and meeting some interesting characters.
"You're telling it all wrong woman; that delivery was god awful," A man sitting on top the receptionist desk critiqued, he knocked back the remains of a bejeweled flask (which was also been making its rounds through the lobby). The man grimaced distastefully at the flask, holding it in front of his face as though he couldn't believe his eyes. "Who concocted this wretched brew?"
Ino recalled Konan introducing this man as Hidan, a retired tattooist and one of her boyfriend's good friends. Though Hidan seemed leagues older than everyone else, Ino credited that to the creepy slick-back style of his dark grey hair and his outdated sense of style. He dressed like a western cowboy wearing, tight skinny jeans, a yoke button down shirt and sandy brown leather boots.
"Sounds like what your mom said, after we made you!" An adolescent looking blonde shouted around a mouth full of steamy udon. He lounged on the floor, beside several packets of empty soy-sauce packets, his back against the brick wall.
Deidara, or as Konan called him the resident delinquent snarled out a laugh.
"Oi, this must be you," Hidan deduced, shaking the flask in Deidara's direction, "Right? It packs a punch, how about dial it back next time kiddo."
"Just admit that you're a snowflake Hidan, why are you even stickin' around old man?!" Deidara spat, shrugging a shoulder, and tweezing up more noodles with his chopsticks.
"Chillout Dei, your prison hooch is pretty damn toxic dude."
"No one put a gun to your head and made any of you bastards drink it!"
Someone howled with laughter, "Hooch! That's what we're callin it now?!"
"I think we could coin it, the elixir of death. One time I shit on myself after drinking that stuff, during a date." A man with red hair chimed in.
"You're full of shit Sasori…"
"Not anymore." Sasori retorted, ashamed, "but seriously I'm not playin' around, there's way more stuff in there than just whiskey and vodka. I experienced bubble-guts for a week straight."
The loud thunder of male laughter made Ino's ears ring.
"Goddamn dude, tmi."
"Well gee," Hidan spoke up, almost looking regretful, "Could've said something sooner."
Nagato, Konan's tall brooding boyfriend cackled and then everyone erupted into more laughter and stories about having diarrhea after drinking too much of Deidara's blend of alcoholic beverages ensued.
"And who's fault is that!?" Deidara snapped at everyone, unconcerned with all the insults being hurled his way.
"Gonna go out on a limb and say yours, dumbass?!" Konan sputtered, barely able to contain her chronic laughter. She tossed her hand out at Deidara, who offered a bandaged middle finger as he bit open another packet of soy sauce.
"Take it up the ass Nan."
"I do, like a champ!" Konan confesses, snapping her teeth coquettishly at Nagato, who simply covered her mouth with a palm and pulled her back into a snake-like embrace.
Ino could have sworn she heard him utter, "Shut up," in a voice so deep, she thought the floor under her feet had rumbled.
"Buttfuckers!"
"Ya know, I could have lived my entire life without knowing any of this mess about everyone's butt issues."
"Wow, you guys make me sicker than Deidara's assjuice."
"Please, can we stop talking about ass and shit…I'm still eating." groaned a woman sitting in the receptionist chair, she rubbed at her temples visibly disturbed. Hidan had come into the shop with her earlier and they appeared to be close. Konan didn't acknowledge Hidan's guest so Ino assumed she wasn't a part of the EOP clan.
Though the consensus was to avoid Deidara's flask of poison, Ino had already downed as much of the stuff as she could bum off Konan. Call it nervousness or just her seizing the opportunity to get shitfaced and friendly. The risks seemed justifiable, she could use a good time.
As fowl and bitter as it was, it didn't take much to get her there, bordering on wild and delirium. She winced after every pull, feeling the liquid coat and burn her throat—she was no amateur when it came to experimental drinks, though her tongue did feel irregularly parched and weighty.
She recalled Konan pressuring Sai earlier to take a few sips too, as she wandered around making people take it like communion—even peddling it to customers though Nagato scolded her for doing so. Ino had gathered that Konan disobeyed her boyfriend often and lived to get on his nerves.
Sai sighed irritably beside her, and she peeked over her shoulder to see him practically shrinking of embarrassment into the leather upholstery of the sofa. He seemed to be in a constant state of intolerable embarrassment since she had arrived.
"If you want to leave, I couldn't blame you…we could pick this back up la-"
Ino raised a brow, "Why on Earth would I do a shitty thing like that, I like it here. Everyone's so obnoxious and fun," She spoke lowly, though the lobby maintained its volume of chaos, "…hard to believe you run with this sort of crowd, wouldn't have pegged you as a guy with crazy friends. Clearly you ground the group."
Sai chuckled, "Ah," he says softly, nodding, " you find me boring?"
"Do you really care what I think about you?" Ino parries.
She crosses one bare thigh over the other, cocking her head to the side at Sai. A gentle grin lingered on his lips as he chewed on a dumpling. The sofa shook slightly from the incessant bobbing of his leg.
"Would you prefer that I care Ino?" he inquires, trapping her in a stare she could hardly break free of. His eyes held her there, paralyzed for several seconds before she blinked profusely and rolled her eyes.
"You could've just answered the damn question, asshole."
"I know that you know the answer to that," Sai says, "I believe I've made it quite obvious that I'm trying to make you feel at ease with me."
"Great, consider me eased."
A nice hot shiver melted down her spine and left her stomach feeling scrambled, though it could have just as easily been Deidara's mixture stirring within her, she knew it was something more.
Being around Sai the entire day awakened some feral urges she was certain she quenched the night prior, only to be visited once more with an ache. It all adds up, usually a week before her cycle began, she always felt impossibly horny, like a dog in hellish heat.
Throughout the day, every time he'd brush past her or stood behind her and attempted to educate her on matters of cleaning the autoclave, all she could think about were those rough tattooed fingers all over her.
She felt winded, just sitting there thinking about it.
"I know you relish the idea of triggering me," he starts, his voice even lower than before, but somehow the loudest sound in her ear, "I think…" he lingered, "…you think there's something you need to be fearful of, about me. It always feels as though you're putting me through an exam. It's plain to see that you've been through…a lot, and if this is too muc-"
Ino felt her brows decline in a frown, her chest felt rather stony as she tried to shift through the clutter-fuck of thoughts rushing like a stream so quickly through her esophagus, trying to form an intelligible sentence.
"Are you really pulling t—this shit?" She managed to say, a shouting whisper—she stared at him and he stared back earnestly, his eyes resembled the darkest parts of the sky. "I've been waiting to do exactly what you asked for weeks, you've been t—the hold up, like you're disgusted with me or somethi-"
"I can't give you," he paused abruptly, enunciating 'give' with a bite. Smoothly, he hunched forward, gravitating towards her. His breath crashed against the shell of her ear, hot and damp. "I have no desire to hurt you, nor do I want you to get the wrong idea about me. I've done this before, most feel indebted—sometimes even want more. I can't give you, more."
He admits and she could feel the deeper connotations of it. He had said it to her before, from the start but it hadn't quite hit home like it did in that moment. She doesn't know why her own actions felt treacherous, but she does like Sai and hardly did much to conceal it either.
She flirted, teased and said things to him as though they were courting one another.
That isn't what he wanted and yet, for some reason he humored her—and engaged in trivial talks, taking her out to eat and allowing her to meet his friends.
Maybe he thought that he had to do these things to make her feel less like-like, a slut.
"Often times, women on the site—tell horrendous lies and legal issues stem rather abruptly," he continues when she hadn't said a word, "emotions get involved an-"
Oh my fucking god, he thinks I'm, like that.
Embarrassment made her want to evaporate into the floor. Her forehead dotted with sweat and her body felt unimaginably heavy.
Her heart stampeded through her ears, and she blinked profusely. Placing her carton of lo mein down at her foot and squeezed at her thigh, hoping to get a grip on reality. She took a deep breath, twisted her head toward Sai and looked him in the eye.
"I'm eased," She reiterates. She'd chuck the feeling of sickness up to Deidara's brew, though she could feel her cheeks—hot with shame and irritation. Yes, she thought very highly of Sai.
She liked the way he treated her, respected her and touched her.
No one has ever taken care of her this way, so, she may have gotten complacent. Most women would swoon over a man like Sai, hell, she had witnessed it in every establishment they frequented together.
What's not to like, though he could come off as robotic at times, even that hadn't been enough to throw her off.
An uncomfortable silence settled between them, though all of the interactions within the lobby continued on, unaware of their conversation.
Sai's knee bumped her knee and she looked over to see him staring into the empty carton of dumplings.
He rubbed at his jaw for a second and licked his lips, "Let's go outside," was all he said, he placed the carton at his feet with finality, stood up and grabbed her by the wrist.
She gaped, her vision a swivel once her head snapped up to gauge his face.
The room came alive with penetrating silence and then Konan asked,
"Excuse me, were we boring you guys?!"
"Where are you taking that young lady Sai?!"
Sai ignored the taunting calls of his friends, his gait hard to match.
His heavy hand shook around her wrist. Ino followed him clumsily, the footfall of their boots unsynchronized. They flew down the hall and Sai thrusts against the stubborn back door with a grunt and the door gave. Once he had pulled her out the door, he used her body to slam it shut.
It became a sobering moment for her.