[Log] The Handy Man Can

[triggerhappyk9]

Characters: Kurenai and Kiba
Date: March 30th, immediately following this
Location: Kurenai's apartment
Rating: PG-13?
Warnings/Notes: Language, Most likely violence.
Summary: Kurenai gets a hand with some pesky appliances and Kiba's probably going to get shot.

Comments

[triggerhappyk9]

"Nah, I'd not survived you just to be tripped up by a smoke bomb, but nice try, Teach." A cheeky grin nearly split his face as Kurenai came closer. It was odd seeing her in civilian clothes rather then the uniform, and that mixed with the lack of curly disarray was enough for him to have disregarded the woman. "Besides. You know I'd be able to rock the pink like nobodies business!"

It was a little odd, not being the gangly prepubescent teenager who tagged along faithfully anymore, and with the added bonus of being able to joke around without it earning his ass a good twenty laps around the building at that.

"So this is where you've been hiding yourself? Not too bad for ya, Teach," he observed, following her inside with his thumbs tucked into his rear pockets as he peeked about, taking in his surroundings. He stopped short when she did, raising an eyebrow at her sizing him up.

"You shrunk on me," he deadpanned, drawing himself up to full height so she could get her answer. Sticking his tongue out cheekily at her, he returned to his slight slouch and cocked his head to the side for his own analyzing. "But you're still looking good. Life treating you ok here on the outside?"

[carmineflush]

Kurenai's hands were already itching for her service pistols, which just weren't there anymore. These days, they were under her pillow and in her drawer. Pretty much anywhere she could stash them and pull them out at her convenience. Once an ARCEOS always an ARCEOS. Habits died hard.

"Hiding? You better reword that, Kiba." Kurenai stonily told her student, not the least fazed by his chirpy mood. She had dealt with him many a times to know how to be impervious to that cheeky smile and carefree attitude. "It's called moving on." Or at least that's what she hoped it was.

His blunt observation almost made Kurenai ready to smack him, pistol or not, but she was a bit lost in seeing just how far of a difference they were from each other now. She was actually considered tall for her size, a couple of inches more than Anko and little bit less than that of Yamato. Kakashi and Asuma were the tall ones, but Kiba was getting there. He was close to Yamato's size, actually. And the vividness that she remembered her comrades were heart-breaking.

But she had become impervious to crying these days, too, so it didn't matter.

"Steroids?" she raised a brow at him, joking of course, but deadpanned it just as well as he did before opening the fridge and taking out a bottle of beer for him. Even if he wasn't of age, Kurenai knew she wasn't going to offer him a juice box that she knew he was going to refuse.

"It's fine. It keeps me busy and on my toes. A far cry from target practice, but enough."

[triggerhappyk9]

"As if. Ma would have my ass if I even thought about that mess. These babies are all me," he gloated, flexing a little bit and lifting his arm to press a kiss to his bicep. But booze wasn't steroids and he gladly accepted the beer without any comment but for a quick 'thanks', not putting it past his old teacher to break it against his head if need be.

"Boring as hell then, eh? Guess you can get a cheap thrill when it comes to rent collection, get to bust a few kneecaps I s'pose, but not the same. Ain't gonna lie, Lieutenant. Took me and some of the others for a hell of a loop when we heard you'd left and went civ. If you don't mind me sayin' so, figured you would have been one of those lifers," he admitted, taking a casual pull of his beer in between rambling on and carefully gauging Kurenai's expression to his words.

[carmineflush]

Kurenai choose to ignore and keep quiet about Kiba's "babies" so not to insult or stroke his large ego, popping off the top of her own beer bottle with ease and taking a large swill herself. She would need the liquid courage and the strength to answer what she knew seemed to be like a mini interrogation session. What happened to the days when her students were the quite malleable naive kids?

But she loved them, they were one of the many reasons why she was reluctant to go at first, but the ache in her heart in seeing Anko and also in losing faith with the government was the deciding factor in calling it quits. However, it wasn't wise to let Kiba know about it.

"Nice to know you kids cared," she gave him a genuinely thankful look, complete with a smile before taking another swig. "Everyone has their decisions to make and sometimes there aren't reasons for it. Mine was to leave and try to start life differently, try civilian life. Take a breather." Red eyes looked evenly back at dark ones.

[triggerhappyk9]

"'Course we did. It was the profs like you that kept a lot of us brats in there rather then calling it quits. Wasn't kiddin' when I said that a couple of us were really looking for ya there when we got bumped up," he reminded her, easily swilling back the remainder of his beer before having the grace to seem at least a little apologetic for the unmeant guilt trip.

"So AC's. Trying to get a leg up before it gets too bad, eh?"

[carmineflush]

Kurenai remembered the time when the team she was in charge of had contracted the disease that was floating around. She remembered every single detail about the afflicted that she was in charge of, the way their eyes constantly swelled with tears, whether it was for the pain or if it was thinking of the ultimate outcome. The black coffins that came after and was burned in the crematorium; all details that stood out strongly in her mind. Kiba was strong, he had last through it as well as a handful of others. So it was hard to keep a straight face, her emotions finally caving in and allowing her face to finally form some sort of reaction, other than that of indifference. These kids meant too much to her for her to ignore them, wholly.

"I'm still proud of you and everyone else that made it. I'm sorry I wasn't there for the ceremony." Red eyes looked directly into that of her student's, hoping that Kiba would understand that for an apology. Even if she hadn't really talked about the reason for her leave, it was clear that she was living with the consequences every day. But it was for the best.

[triggerhappyk9]

A niggling pang of guilt gnawed at the young Arceo's conscience for pushing the issue. Despite the fact that it had hurt for one of his guiding lights to miss a hard earned reward that was not only a testament to his skills, but to hers as well, he really didn't want to upset his old teacher. He was a good soldier and he followed his orders, but it didn't mean that he'd adopted the stereotypical persona that everyone seemed to associate with his fellow brethren. He really didn't care for bringing someone else unnecessary grief.

"I know y'are, and I'm sorry. You've got your reasons and it ain't right for me to be prying in too much. Even if you're just a civvy now, I figure you're still ok to just slap me in the back of the head if you need to. Some privileges don't go away with just because the badge ain't there anymore."

[carmineflush]

Kiba's words brought on a faint smile on Kurenai's red lips, amused that he would offer her himself and discipline as a peace offering for this. She shook her head, sighing a bit before pushing herself off of the counter, placing the beer down on the surface. She could never be that stern with him, his own livelihood and attitude almost being quite uncanny to two prominent people in her life. Maybe that was why she found herself unable to loosen herself from this little pup, even if he was sometimes impossible to deal with.

"Don't say 'sorry', Kiba. It doesn't suit you. Although I don't need you to remind me if it's okay to rough you around or not. It's a right, not a privilege." Her hand reached up to playfully ruffle his hair a bit before passing him to the broom closet, searching for instructions on for putting the AC together that she had thrown into the closet earlier in frustration.

[triggerhappyk9]

The old comforting gesture of Kurenai ruffling his hair did a lot to ease some of Kiba's discomfort, knowing that he hadn't really overstepped himself. How many times in the past had she done the same to put him at ease, congratulate him or any of numerous other reasons behind the gesture. He followed behind her a few paces, curious to see where she was going, and admittedly could not help the small amused grin that something so mundane could stump one of the few women he thought to be truly capable of anything?

"Ya know, for someone who can dissemble a semi-automatic in seconds, I'm finding it hard to believe these things are really that bad," he observed, rocking back on his heels even as he stuck his hand out for the directions.

[carmineflush]

"A semi-automatic is a beautiful killing machine, each part having its significance in making it work," Kurenai started, almost like in a lecturing way as if she was introducing Kiba to it. She couldn't help it really, just seeing him was making it impossible to not try to drop down and give her fifty for comparing a semi-automatic to an air conditioner. "An air conditioning machine is a machine. Built to create comfort for us, a drone machine, really."

She reached further into the closet to pull out the box that contained all the parts.

"Don't compare the two and don't question my skills, Kiba."

[triggerhappyk9]

"Yeah, but they're both still machines," he countered, eyeballing the directions and having the briefest moment of panic when he could quite make out if the things were even printed in a real language. While Kurenai was still buried in the closet with her back turned to him, Kiba tried turning the instructions this way and that, seeing if they made any more sense from a different angle.

No luck there.

...This really couldn't be that difficult, right?

The box of parts rattled when it slid across the floor to stop at the tip of his boots. With just a little more panic he lowered himself down to rifle through the box, pulling out odd pieces and sitting them out separately as if he had the slightest clue as to what he was doing.

"So no old man to give you a hand with all this stuff? Or did he just disappear when it came time to get his hands dirty?"

[carmineflush]

This time, Kurenai didn't hesitate to use a spare part that she had unearthed from the rubble inside the closet and whap her student at the back of his head. That was both for comparing guns to air conditioners and talking about the one subject that she knew could turn ugly and make her look bad immediately. This made her vaguely wonder exactly where was Asuma these days and exactly what was he saying about "relationships" in general.

"Don't talk back and don't ask about my personal life. There is no 'old man'." She leaned down and flipped the directions to the right, or what she perceived to be the right way. At least that's what she thought it was, since she was pretty sure no "a" looked like that upright in the other direction.