So, here we are again. Not much feedback, but oh well. pokes readers Review! Even if you don't like it.
Two - Walk Away - Two
Hyun pressed his head against the side of the stall where he sat with Rinkai, mentally kicking himself for being foolish enough to actually agree to being dragged out for Ramen when he had a firm disgust for the crap. It wasn't really the Ramen itself which he hated though--h was actually quite fond of it, especially ones sprinkled in pepper and various other spices so hot that one bowl left your mouth burning for months--but the atmosphere of these restaurants which looked like something you'd find in one of those odd festivals that occasionally came through town.
The restaurant itself wasn't every large, or well lit for that matter, and smelled of burned food and fried grease. Why there would be grease in a place like this eluded Hyun and he could only frown at the thought of several pounds of lard being dumped into a large pot and set to simmer over the noodles before being poured into a bowl and served up to unsuspecting customers. He groaned out loud and further pressed his head into the dirty orange wall next to the window and opened one eye to stare curiously at Rinkai who was well on his way through a fourth bowl. 'Pig. This guy is a pig.'
"You shouldn't think bad thoughts about People," Rinkai snapped as he set down his bowl and sticks, setting them together off to the right side of the little blue bowl, before picking up his cup and downing his water with a loud gasp of breath that made Hyun flinch visibly. 'Well, he deserved it, scowling at me the whole time like that. Like he's never seen a guy eat before, sheesh.' Tilting his head to the side and leaning back to pat his stomach in satisfaction after having such a large meal, Rinkai grinned at Hyun once more. Though his eyes, bandaged to prevent the light of the sun from damaging them, didn't work in such a way to tell him the exact facial expressions crossing Hyun's face, he was more than able to pick up the negative vibes pouring out of the guy. Besides, he'd have to be blind and dumb not to feel the anger radiating off of Hyun in waves of crimson heat and if there was anything that Rinkai could see, it was heat.
"Good, you're done. I can leave." Hyun was excited to see the hog take a break from his intake of food long enough to speak, but had no intention of staying around long enough for him to order a fifth course, at his expense too! Rising from his seat looked quickly around for their waiter and the bill so he'd be able to escape that much faster.
"Oh no, you don't! You have yet to eat anything!" Rinkai yelled, but, noting the slightest wisp of desperation in his voice, he adjusted back to his cocky, ass-hole tone," Besides, I haven't even had desert yet."
"You have your desert, I'm going home."
"You are not. End of discussion."
"I don't believe it's up to you."
"Wrong, I spared your life and you owe me dinner."
"Which you just finished wolfing down."
Rinkai snorted and blew at a bang that fell across his face, shadowing his handsome features but for a moment before being pushed aside by his Ramen-scented breath. "Dinner implies social interaction as well as the physical act of eating. The food was good, but you, Hyun, were a frigid bastard the whole time."
It was Hyun's turn to snort now, but he did so silently and merely eased himself back down into his seat with every intention of getting this humiliating debt paid as soon as possible. After all, he had no intention nor any desire to see Rinkai again...No matter how handsome he was or how his tactics to agitate and annoy only made him all the more interesting to a certain young man who was at present shaking his head furiously to focus his denial into a stubborn determination to avoid further interaction at all costs.
"I may have been frigid, but you were an ass for taking advantage of our bargain like that! You said dinner and I was stupid enough to think that you meant maybe a meal and some drinks, not half the restaurant." Hyun paused his head shaking long enough to smirk slightly and sneer openly at the Tokage across the table from him. "Where do you put all of it, anyway? I mean, you'd have to have six stomachs to hold all that food."
If Hyun was trying to goad him into embarrassment, it wouldn't work. No, it would take a lot more than a snide remark about his appetite to throw him off and so he kindly returned the smirk and raised one eyebrow instead. "What's this? The frigid one thaws? I don--"
Hyun was spared further sarcasm as Rinkai as at the moment shifting his bandaged gaze somewhere over Hyun's head toward the front of the restaurant. Somewhat puzzled by the sudden pause, Hyun turned around to look at the two teens just entering through the door which banged back against the frame with a slight tinkle from the overhead bell.
A tall lanky boy with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes looking as though he was just short of blowing his stack judging by the ferocious expression painted across his features was being somewhat restrained by a shorter, leaner, girl with light brunette locks who seemed to be having a hard time holding on to the boy's arm as he spotted Rinkai and Hyun and made his way through the small crowd in front of him, despite shouts of protest from the people waiting in line to order their food, toward the pair already seated at the booth toward the back.
"Looks like he found me," Rinkai remarked with a light laugh as he put his arm across the back of the booth and sighed in satisfaction while he waited for the incoming yelling from the dark-haired boy's mouth.
"You lazy ass! Leaving Takara and I to fill out the mission report!" The young man growled through clenched teeth upon having reached the table at which Hyun and Rinkai were sitting only to have Hyun raise a brow at Rinkai before turning back to eye the new arrival with mild interest.
"Isamu, leave Rinkai-kun alone! I promised him I would!" The girl was just short of seething now, moving to stand between boy, now named Isamu, and the table. She threw a slight grin at Rinkai, who at the time showed no signs of guilt or regret and instead settled more contentedly into his seat, before turning back around to glare evilly at Isamu who seemed all the more enraged at the brunette's defense of said lazy ass.
"That's the problem! You're always promising him things!"
"Well he asked and he promised me something in return..." Takara turned now, her brown eyes as wide as saucers, to Rinkai with her hands clenched together and held to her cheek expectantly. "Well, Rinkai-kun?"
"Yes, Rinkai-kun, well?" Isamu chimed in mockingly, blue eyes far more frosty in nature than their cerulean depths gave away. He was just so fed up with Rinkai getting anything and everything he wanted out of Takara with the slightest promise of attention or some asinine excuse of a gift thrown haphazardly together at the last minute because the bum had been too lazy to put any thought into at all. The very thought made his blood boil and his teeth clench because Takara, the lovely and beautiful Takara deserved so much more.
Rinkai would have cleared his throat if he didn't know that the gesture would give away his guilt. In all honesty, he'd forgotten that he'd promised Takara in the forest a couple of nights ago that he'd get her something really special if she went ahead with the debriefing and mission reports for the last mission.
Then again, it wasn't his fault he'd forgotten, not at all, because if he hadn't fought Hyun he would have remembered to pick up the stupid gift long before now.
Satisfied with his analysis of the situation, he'd just have to deal with Hyun later for getting him into this mess, he cocked a grin across his lips and leaned to the side so that he'd be closer to Takara and motioned for her to lean down before whispering into her ear. If her eyes had been saucers before, then they surely were the size of large dinner platters by the time he finished his private conference because she merely nodded and giggled with glee.
"Well, Hyun, tonight was a start. Tomorrow, we'll work on that frigid bastard attitude you have," Rinkai announced with a smirk as he rose and wrapped his arm around Takara's shoulder before sneering openly at Isamu. "Later losers, I must be going." With that, he ushered Takara toward the exit leaving a rather annoyed Hyun, he gave the girl an annoyed look before shaking his head and turning back to the remaining boy, and a fuming Isamu who had yet again been foiled.
Leaning back against his booth, Hyun shook his head some more and sighed in relief. His long night was finally over but now he'd after to eat two people's worth of deserts and probably get a headache from trying to figure out what just happened. That was when an idea struck him and he turned his grey gaze toward Isamu whose fists were clenched and looked about ready to explode. Smiling to himself, he nodded and forced a dimpled grin at the troubled youth.
"Is he always that charming?" Hyun was sarcastic sure, but his tone was drastically different from the way he spoke to Rinkai as it now had the slightest traces of humor, after all he could be almost warm when he wanted.
"Oh yeah, always, but who are you?" Isamu finally noticed the other boy now and noted the facial features, strong jaw line; high cheekbones covered by smooth, taut tanned skin, and strange eyes, before sliding down, without permission, into Rinkai's vacated seat.
"Jung Hyun. Rinkai's dinner supply for the next three months."
"Ahh, poor soul."
"I know, but now you owe me your name."
"Just call me Isamu, Rinkai's favorite target."
"Oh really?" Hyun once again arched a brow before grinning and crossing his arms on the table," And here I was thinking I was special."
"Oh no, he chooses only the best for his mockery." At this Isamu made a dramatic hand gesture, as if proclaiming his great honor at being set apart from the rest by Rinkai's cruel sense of humor which made Hyun stifle yet another grin. Damn, this whole 'emotion' thing was getting bothersome and giving Hyun all the more reason to end all interaction with the smirking bastard.
"Then I will just have to double my efforts. So, tell me about this mess..." Hyun asked with mounting interest as he leaned forward, to catch every word that came from Isamu's mouth. He started from the beginning, with Isamu, Takara, and Rinkai making their way back through the forest after a short C-Rank mission that involved escorting a group of wandering minstrels to the border of Fire Country and it had taken a week to get everyone there without incident so they were happy to be headed home.
Then Rinkai had taken it upon himself to stop just as they were approaching Konoha's gates and stare off into the dark like some crazed lunatic which of course prompted snarls of impatience from Isamu and giggles of awe from Takara but the selfish shinobi didn't stop there. No, that would have been too easy, so instead he gave Takara a grin and promised her a special surprise if she escorted Isamu, Isamu had actually paused to seethe about this during the recounting and had to be coaxed into continuing the story by Hyun's insistence that Rinkai was indeed a bastard for being so cruel, safely into the gates and did the mission report.
The result of Rinkai's special surprise was Takara screaming and all but dragging poor Isamu into Konoha while Rinkai ran off to pursue some unseen foe. All of which Isamu chalked up to too much sun and too much time spent gazing into a mirror, the vain baka.
Hyun was now leaning back waiting for Isamu to finish his ranting, he knew what Rinkai had done after leaving his team all too well--the bandages under his clothing wrapping across his stomach and chest were proof enough--and so he didn't have much need for any conspiracy theories on the part of the brunette who was well through his sixth bowl of cake.
"And so you see, Takara and I spent the last two days getting the mission report together since we couldn't remember all of the details right away. AND where was Rinkai?" Isamu paused and raised his knife into the air, glaring at it as the restaurant's light glinted off of it before continuing, "No where to be found! The only way we found him tonight was because we happened to see you two through the window...Speaking of which, why are you with him?" Isamu lost all interest in his cake and turned to face Hyun who seemed deep in thought about something, obviously not paying too much attention. "Hellooo?"
Hyun snapped out of his reverie as a hand waved in front of him. "Oh, sorry. Now, you want to get even with Rinkai, yes?" He paused as Isamu nodded before going on, "And I can't very well afford to feed him if he always eats this much so, what do you say we make a deal?"
The brown-haired boy nodded and Hyun just grinned, an evil plan forming at the back of his mind. 'No one ditches Jung Hyun. A lesson, Rinkai, you won't soon forget.'
You read, now review! . . . . Please? Hyun needs some motivation.