Hello my lovelies! How are you? I myself am lovely, and do you wish to know why?
It is, of course, because it is now winter break, and finals are now done with.
Also...
I got ALL A's! In EVERY CLASS! A'S! I literally beamed at learning this, and I am so proud of myself and am pleased with life.
Now, my loves, on to the chapter, which is for my sweet baby JacksonKid3, who has requested another Asuma and Ringo fic a time or two. This one's for you, babe.
Ringo took the corner sharply, not looking at where she was going as she tugged her satchel back up to her shoulder where it had slipped during her rush. In her hurry and with her attention elsewhere she ended up running into the girl coming towards her, looking down at the papers in her hands as she walked. The head on collision knocked both women down, sending Ringo's satchel to the ground and falling open to spread her belongings along the sidewalk, the other woman's papers scattering alongside them.
"Oh, man, sorry!" Ringo yelped as she shoved herself up, starting to gather the papers near her while simultaneously grabbing her bag and trying to gather her own things.
"No, no," The other sighed with restrained annoyance and well trained politeness, quickly grabbing her papers before the wind had a chance to grab them. "I should have been looking where I was... Ringo?"
Ringo's head snapped up at the stranger knowing her name, and realized that the stranger wasn't really a stranger, but someone she had actually on occasion played with as a child and had had passing conversations with I more recent years.
"Oh, God, sorry Yuka. I wasn't watching where I was going and I was going a bit too fast so... Sorry." She sighed, passing her the papers she had gathered.
"Oh, yeah, it's fine. But where are you off to in such a hurry anyways, especially with so many bags of candy in your bag?" The older woman asked as they stood, wiggling one of the bags she had grabbed off from the ground to make her point.
"Oh, well..." Ringo took the offered bag and put it back into her satchel. "There's this guy at the missions office I've been making eyes with for the past couple of weeks, and I asked him out to the movies and he said yes so..." She grinned and shrugged, moving her satchel back to its proper place. Yuki grinned back.
"And the candy?"
"Have you ever bought snacks at the movie theater? The prices there are murder, and there is no way I'm paying all of that for stuff I can buy for a dollar and sneak in." She snorted at the very thought, and then nodded to the dozens of papers in the other woman's hands. "And you? What's with all the papers?"
"Oh, these?" She smirked down at them before shrugging. "I'm teaching now, and my entire life is ruled by the act of trying to decipher nine years olds' hand writing." She chuckled, and then looked over Ringo with a critical eye.
She looked the same as she always had when in casual clothes, though a sharp and knowing eye could pinpoint where effort had been made. Her pants were dark capris instead of her go-to jeans, and her shoes were sandals instead of well worn tennis shoes. Her shirt was just a T-shirt, but it showed off her toned arms extremely well.
"Cute guy?" Yuka asked with a sly curl to her lips, and Ringo sent an equally sly grin back. "Well, you certainly look good, so you're sure to impress." Ringo rolled her eyes at the compliment.
"Yeah, I decided to be shallow and actually try a little, just to see where it goes." She shrugged it off, but Yuka had an idea and she'd never been able to leave an idea alone when she got it.
"Let me do something." She saw an eye roll start, and sent one of her own right back. "Oh, come on. Just one or two little things to really knock him dead. Please?" Ringo opened her mouth to say no and brush her off, but something in the other girl's eyes told her that it would just be easier to give in, and maybe she was a bit curious.
"Fine." She sighed, leaning down a bit so that Yuka could reach her hair when she motioned for it.
It was really a simple thing of just taking her hair down and pulling the front-most parts back with the barrettes in Yuka's own hair. And the result was... not as annoying as she had thought it would be, and it made her face look a bit girlier, which was something she supposed was good for a date. Especially one she wanted to look good for because he looked good, and maybe she wanted to impress him a bit.
"Thanks... Well, I guess I had better be going. Don't want to leave my date for too long and think that I left him hanging." Ringo said, smiling and starting to move past, thought Yuki grabbed her arm and managed to stop her.
"Here. Just in case... Well, it's always good to prepare if everything goes well." She said with a smirk before darting off, leaving Ringo to stare at the tube of lightly shimmery lip gloss as if it were some strange foreign entity.
And it was. She didn't wear makeup of any kind, and had never had any interest in it. The closest she had ever gotten was chapstick during the winter months.
As she fingered the loose strands of her hair she started thinking about it and she figured that since she had gone so far, she might as well continue on just a bit more. It just felt like a night where anything could happen, including lip gloss.
Five minutes later she was standing in front of the theater watching as people slowly filtered in for the better seats, and as she checked the time again and again, she bit her lip. He was late, but she had been too, just by a little bit. And they still had the previews, so it would be fine.
But the steady flow of people disappeared and the time for the movie to begin came and passed, and it steadily became darker until the sky was black and the street lights flared to life. As Ringo watched the time leisurely stroll by she started to chew through the lip gloss until her lips were clear once more, and twenty minutes past the movie's start Ringo sighed and pushed herself off of the brick wall, slipping her hands into her pockets as she made her way back to her apartment.
If he ended up just being late, then they would have already missed the first quarter of the movie, and he should realize that she wasn't going to wait around for him for half the night when she had fuzzy pajamas and hot cocoa back at home that she could be getting to. And if he had just left her there because he hadn't felt like coming or hadn't felt like her any more, then she still had that cocoa, and he was missing out on what looked like a good movie.
Halfway home she glanced to the side as she passed by the wide window of a well lit and decent restaurant, and she saw her supposed date sitting at a table with the red-head who she remembered seeing working around the admissions office as well. They were holding each others' hands and looking into each others eyes like a pair of lovesick puppies that couldn't stand to be apart. Ringo supposed that some might have called the display cute, but that much sugar coated marshmallow affection all at once was just a bit too much for her. Shaking her head, she turned away from the sight and continued on her way home.
When she walked through the door, pausing to toe her shoes off and drop her satchel, she noticed Asuma laying on the couch reading a book, immersed so much that it seemed he hadn't noticed her, and so she shuffled across the carpet to flop down on-top of him.
"Oh God," He moaned, grunting at his taller, somewhat heavy friend got comfortable on him, "You're back."
"Yeah." She sighed, letting him push her a bit and wiggle around until they were in a more comfortable position with her still on-top of him but now between his legs, her head nestled in the spot under his chin that she always found and had claimed as her own whenever she felt like invading her best-friend's personal space, which was often.
"Thought you had a date." He said, glancing over at the clock to note that an hour had barely passed since she had left.
"I thought I did too, but I think it was just so he could make the girl he actually liked jealous."
He snorted, raising his book up and letting his free arm curl more comfortably over Ringo's waist. "Smooth."
"It seemed to work, if the way they were making adoring eyes at each other was telling of anything, which is actually pretty sad. A relationship based off of jealousy and built off of that foundation can't lead to anywhere good or healthy." Asuma made a sound low in his throat of agreement and then they lay there for a long length of time in silence, Asuma reading his book and Ringo laying on him, eyes closed as she listened to the solid sound of his heart beating beneath her ear.
After a little while, or it may have been a long while because she could have very well dozed for a bit, Ringo opened her eyes up half-mast and sighed quietly.
"Asu..."
"Hmm?"
"Do I look like a girl?"
The pause after this question was clearly incredulous, and she watched as he closed the book around his finger so that his page would be marked as he tried to navigate to where her line of questioning would lead him.
"Ringo, that should be obvious."
"No, no, I know that I am a girl, but do I look like a girl someone would date?"
"Yes, Ringo."
"Are you just saying that because you're my best friend and that is just what you automatically say because you feel it will make me feel better about myself?" She raised herself up so that she was propped up on an elbow, looking at him straight on.
She watched his face as he thought this over, watched as his eyebrows moved towards each other to create a crinkle on his brow, and watched as his eyes distanced themselves to think it over. Then, after only a moment or two, they refocused onto her with a sharp sureness that made her stare back and wait intently for the answer.
The hand that wasn't holding the book lifted up and carefully unclipped the clips from her hair, dropping them down to the carpet one by one where they then lay, forgotten. Finally her hair was free and it swung into her face in the way that always annoyed her, but before she could do anything about it Asuma was there for her, pushing the annoyance behind her ears and shoulders.
"I'm saying it," He said quietly, fingers lightly and accidentally brushing the spot just beneath her ear, "Because it is true. You don't wear any of that make up stuff or fancy clothes, or any of those other things that girls wear, but you don't have to. You wear your attitude and your confidence, and it works. Because it's you, and you have the insane ability to do anything and still know exactly what's going on and who you are, and that is attractive. And if guys don't see that, or can't see past that and are too uncomfortable with you being you," He shrugged. "Then fuck 'em."
She grinned at him, feeling the unease the night had left in her and the tightness it had sewn into her belly, though she had denied the existence of both things, leave. Asuma always, always, knew what to say to make her feel better. She moved back to her spot, finally relaxing as the weightiness of unease left her, and hugged him tightly to let him know just how much better his words had made her feel.
"And hey, I should be the one with the unease here. I'm the shortest guy of our age and even a bit younger around, and I look incredibly feminine no matter how much I deny it." He said lightly, and Ringo chuckled.
"But you have a girlfriend. Blondie, remember?"
"Had. Actually."
Ringo blinked at his flippancy with that remark, and lifted her head to get a better look at his face to see if he was broken up any about it.
"Oh? What happened?"
"She talked too much and had too little to say." He shrugged, and opened his book. "It's not that big of a deal."
Ringo nodded and moved back to her spot again, and as she closed her eyes a thought occurred to her and she smiled.
"Who needs boyfriends or stuff like that? As long as I've got you," She yawned widely, snuggling in for a nice nap, "I don't need anyone else."
"Yeah," Asuma murmured, smiling himself as he brought his arm back around her again, free hand running soothingly up and down her arm to coax her more fully into sleep, his heart at her ear like a drumbeat lullaby "Me too."
This idea has been cooking up in my head for a long long time, though it is a lot different than the original version. Asuma was dating Blondie (I might have even given her an actual name then), and then broke up with her to go to Ringo, Ringo was a lot more upset, and there was an actual romantic confession. Plus guy+girl from missions office were kind of cruel, and there was no Yuka. But Kathy came back (She's back!), took a sledge hammer to the entire original thought and storyline, and then forced me to start again.
Okay! I feel as if someone may mention this, to either me or in their own minds! The cuddles are platonic cuddles (for now)!
"But LadyArinn, my Goddess and bringer of such divine wisdom, there is no such thing!" You may be currently saying. Well then, my non-believing darlings, you need to get you some better friends.
My friends and I have literally ended up on top of each other, curled into each other, and in the oddest but strangely comfortable positions we could find. Laps have been occupied, boobs have been pillow-fied, and we've ended up in tangles and piles that had no beginning nor an end. (There is photographic evidence of our love)
To me, friendship means cuddles.
Now the end here is slightly romantically hinty, and most likely the next one will actually involve romance. So that is a thing to look forward to.
Things I have done:
- Saw Frozen (this is a cute little movie, and if you like other Disney movies this is a definite must see. If you don't, I'd still tentatively recommend it in the name of a good story and really good songs)
-Saw Desolation of Smaug (I didn't like the first one, but I feel like this one was much better. I can't even really sit through the first one with any interest after my first viewing, but I found this one quite a bit better)
-That was also my first midnight viewing.
-I went to Smash Burger for the first time (This is like Steak n Shake, but with better service, a dollar or so more, and better food (And oh dear lord, that milkshake))
I love you all, and I hope that I will see you again soon!