The walk off the bridge to the Tosashimizu side is not as long as it is interminably awkward.
"So," Sasuke says as he searches for something to say, and his eyes catch onto the camera swinging off of Kakashi's shoulders like a buoy out in the ocean surrounding the Land of Waves. "Photographer, huh?"
The camera is in Sukea's hands before Sasuke can even blink, and it click-click-clicks with a flurry of photos. The light is—blinding.
"Very good, Yusuke. What incredible observational skills. But that only makes sense doesn't it, you must have such a fine eye for details." Kakashi's megawatt smile is almost as, if not more, blinding than the camera. It makes Sasuke want to crawl under a rock. For a very long time. Indefinitely.
"Of course," he says with a small smile of his own. "It helped me capture such an accurate likeness to yourself after all."
The late afternoon traffic flows around them, almost in a manner very reminiscent of a school of fish breaking around a reef. Some pedestrians even stare at the two of them with wide guppy eyes and even wider mouths. The crowds inevitably move along around them while they stand there, smiling. He imagines that their staring must be palpable to even non-shinobi, and Sasuke wonders if Kakashi's Sukea personality has always been this… Sai-like (who has undoubtedly become more emotive over the years, Sasuke will begrudgingly admit, but nobody could beat his thousand yard stare with his soulless smile), or if this is just a Land of Waves special. Sasuke just barely contains his sigh.
Yusuke, he thinks, would be appreciative.
"Thank you for the bill. It was most generous of you." He inclines his head. There you go, he almost pats himself on the shoulder, you can be civil.
"Don't mention it." Kakashi waves him off before walking to one of the news stalls off of the bridge. "It was worth it."
Sasuke tries to hide his snort with a polite cough. "Being funny?"
Kakashi turns to look at the papers and prints at the stand with an idle hand. His face is hidden from Sasuke's view, but he can hear the smile all the same. "No, not at all."
"What do you want?"
"Not much." By now the stall owner has turned his attention to the two of them, and he levels A Look towards Sasuke.
Kinshiro is a rather portly man that has been well loved by both the sun and the sea, if his tanned and weathered skin is to be taken as any kind of evidence. In his age he had stopped going out on the water and had instead set up shop on the bridge, where he sold all sorts of prints and souvenirs. His usual fare were those inspired by traditional irezumi tattoos, which did not hold the same taboo to the tourists flocking the shores of Tosashimizu that it otherwise would have indicated to the locals. Yusuke, in his effort to cultivate his local persona, had offered to craft new designs for the man in an effort to secure a "stable" income, and once his designs had shown promise Kinshiro had begun to pay more and more.
Kinshiro's look could be broadly interpreted as a great variety of things, but mainly Sasuke suspects it is some combination of protective and suspicious.
"I meant for dinner, Sukea." Sasuke says while trying to broadcast Do Not Disturb vibes at Kinshiro. He must only be moderately successful, because Kinshiro's frown makes his wrinkly face look like a scraggly cliffside.
"Dinner!" Sukea repeats, and he turns to look back at Sasuke with a hand over his mouth, face perfectly politely surprised. "I thought you were just going to show me around?"
"That's Yusuke for you," Kinshiro says with another Look at Sasuke, "always thinking with his stomach. I wouldn't get too excited about it if I were you, kid." Of course almost anyone and everyone could be considered a kid by Kinshiro, but there was something delightful about The Hatake Kakashi, The Rokudaime Hokage, being called a kid by some old man selling newspapers by the seashore. Sukea's frown is truly a thing of beauty.
"I can't believe it—using me for food? I thought we had a connection, Yusuke. You drew me such a wonderful portrait." Sukea clutches the paper to his chest and it is highly likely it will survive the night, what with all the manhandling.
"Bought one of Yusuke's portraits, did ya?" Kinshiro gestures to some of the paintings at the stand. "You can get some of his work here if you like it so much."
Sukea points to one of the more plain pieces, but Sasuke can see probably why he does. The boy, carefully nondescript, wears an obnoxiously orange rain jacket against the blue-gray mist of the Land of Waves. "Why are there two different prices listed for the same picture?"
Kinshiro raises one salt and pepper eyebrow at Sukea. "Well, one's the print and the other's the original—"
"Oh—yes, yes. I can see the quality and work." Sukea plucks one of the prints from the stand, which has a muddy sort of background smeared across it from the end of the printing process. It has none of the hints of mountains in the shadowy distance, nor the pale suggestion of the light gray sun in the corner. It is, frankly, a rather terrible copy. Sasuke can't help but raise one of his own eyebrows as well.
"...That's a copy," Kinshiro says after a pause so pregnant it is heavy with expectation.
Sukea doesn't even have the good decency to look embarrassed as he laughs. "I was testing you of course! I'm a photographer you know." He waves the camera swinging around his shoulders as if it is evidence of anything other than his apparent tendency to hang the rope around his own neck.
"Right." Kinshiro might as well just keep his face towards Sasuke for how often he is trying to give a subtle side eye. Sasuke tries to smile but it feels like a grimace even before his cheeks tug with the motion. A premature birth then, he supposes.
"Maybe we should leave Kinshiro alone so he can pack up for the night?" Sasuke suggests lightly, and he sweats under his shirt despite the cool of the hour. A migraine promises to greet him soon as it crests the horizon of his temples, and it has none of the gentle beauty of the sunsets he's come to appreciate in this town.
"Do you have any suggestions for us, Kinshiro?" Sukea asks with such an earnest expression that it almost seems to make Kinshiro forgive Sukea of any of his previous sins.
"Ayumi would always love to see you, Yusuke." Kinshiro says with another Look, and Sasuke very nearly throws his hands up in frustration.
Ayumi could keep someone there with the promise of gossip and fish and sake until it was the same time the next day. Not exactly the sort of scene you'd want to catch up on mission particulars with your superior, not unless they were going to consider tonight a wash before it even started.
"Maybe another time," Sasuke tries to say it as apologetically as possible, but he knows absolutely no one is convinced. "I think I might like something quick."
Sukea's face is ever mournful, truly the picture of dejection. "Maybe you can show me to Ayumi's place another time."
"For the love of Sage," Sasuke says as he tries to usher Sukea away as fast as possible, and he can't help but hear Kinshiro's huff as they go. Embarrassment is a well-worn friend. Only when they get suitably far away from the stand does he speak again. "If you came out here just to annoy me I'll have Garuda take you back."
Sukea's face falls even more. "Let's get something to eat. Is there somewhere we can talk or…?"
Sasuke breathes out through his nose, as steady as can be. "We can go to mine."
There is a Plot in here somewhere that will happen Sometime. Bit busy with life and just enjoying writing the silly parts right now :)