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You're too unique for my tastes.

Ibiki looks at me like I've grown another head and I watch him purse his mouth out of the corner of my eye. I know what he's thinking. He never misses a beat, and on some days, that's one of the things I like about him. It's comforting to have your mind read when you want it. Avoids explanations or rather, the vulnerability when things get too serious. When they know it's me and not the sake talking.

This is one of those days.

He slides me a steaming mug of coffee. As usual, I wait until it gets cold to drink it. But something's up and I settle for strumming my fingers on its glazed handle. He raises a scarred eyebrow and smirks.

"What?"

"Nothing," he says nonchalantly, and he knows that it grates my nerves. "Just didn't think you'd be the type to fall for the nice guy."

I feel a frown wanting to emerge. But I don't. I don't give him the satisfaction and pour my burning coffee down my throat, all in one gulp. I'm childish like that, and he knows it. He's being a bitch, I'd like to tell him, but I can't because my esophagus is burning out of pride.

"You're lucky this is decaf. I hate decaf. Can't feel a damn thing."

"Yeah, yeah," and he waves it off with a paw. There's the undercurrent of I-told-you-so, though he's the one that's surprised.

We don't say anything for a while, actually. A part of me wants to flick a few senbon his way. But eventually I tilt my head and mumble into my empty mug.

"I didn't think so either."

He doesn't raise his eyebrows like he already knows what you were going to say. He just smiles and takes it as it comes.

Ibiki's a nice guy too, though he doesn't look it. From his gruff voice and the scars on his face, and the way his eyes just burrow into you, most genin would have just pissed in their pants the moment they saw him. But he laughs, and it's something, alright. It's these great big rolling thunderstorms and you can't help but feel safe and warm inside.

He makes me feel like that. Like I'm small like a baby, and life's just something we're all born into and can't help.

I can't help it. That son of a bitch smiles like nobody's business and then I feel cold like I haven't been for a long time. I say that I still have some mission forms to fill out. When I leave the building, the combination of heat and relief and frustration leaves my chest. I remember Iruka and those groceries he's asked me to pick up. I remember him not coming back, and the waiting.

I'm damn glad that I had decaf.