[Log] Office Romance [Shizuya & Tenzouko & Rin]
[set before drinking thread with ANBU's]
It was very, very strange, Tenzouko thought, to realize you suddenly had so much to come home to. As predicted the mission had been a nightmare, but nightmares were Tenzouko's chosen field of expertise. Irregardless of the odds her squad had made it through with no fatalities, the back-up ANBU hadn't needed to be dispatched, and Tenzouko herself had just finished reporting to the Hokage on the particulars of the mission.
Right now this moment she was standing silently in her full ANBU uniform outside Tsurude's office, listening to the heavy gush of rain outside the windows and holding very still so that she didn't give away the rush of thinking in her head. Strange thoughts, new thoughts. About all the people she had suddenly found herself expecting to see.
She suddenly thought of Aki, and of Asuka-senpai and Kakami-senpai. For a long moment she wondered what new jutsu Sai would have invented to show her. But her mind inevitably began to slip and speed down one distinct track and her feet got her moving onto it. Her heart hitched some in her chest and she didn't realize until she'd located and ghosted herself right to Shizuya's office door that this was a spectacularly bad idea. For a start, she wasn't exactly at her most presentable being as she was still in her field uniform and soaked straight through, and besides that this was all supposed to be kept very, very secret. Most of all from Tsurude, who was right now in the same building.
Her mind was calmly telling her all of this, as she lifted her gloved hand to knock on his door. Clearly the rest of her wasn't listening.
At first, he hadn't heard the knock. Chin-deep in paperwork like he was used to, Shizuya often lost himself in the prints and numbers, and anyone who'd really had to deal with Shizuya while he was in the office often knew better than to knock so softly anyway.
But after one knock came another, then another, and finally Shizuya diverted his attention long enough to catch the fourth knock. He pushed his seat back and headed towards the door, fully expecting it to be Izume or Kotsuki again, railing on him for locking himself in his office when it was a beautiful day outside, aside from, y'know, the rain and stuff.
The last person he expected to see was Tenzouko, looking both confused and excited that she was where he was, and Shizuya was quite sure he was starting to look the same too.
"Ten," he breathed, after a brief moment of shock. He looked around them hastily, almost expecting Tsurude behind her with a hand on her shoulder and a look that clearly meant 'you got some explaining to do'. But the Hokage was nowhere to be seen, nor was anyone else for that matter, it was just her, just back.
Hastily he reached out and pulled her into the office, hurriedly shutting the door behind him once she was in. "Is everything alright? Are you hurt? What are you doing here?" Wait, wait, slow down a second. Take a breath.
"Hi," he tried again.
It took a long moment for Tenzouko to stop just staring up at him. It was all she'd been able to do the second she saw him. It was all she wanted to do, just to look at him and watch him and realize exactly how it felt to have gone out so far and come back so close.
It almost gave her vertigo. She smiled up at him, her tiger's mask pushed to the side of her face and tangled in her soaking hair, and felt a sudden warmth that was probably scientifically impossible given how much rain she was soaked in.
"Hi," she breathed back. "I... everything's okay. We all came home and I--"
And she'd just been unable to keep from coming to find him, no matter how bad an idea it was. So unprofessional. So not herself. But she wanted to see him. Wanted to--
Her gloved and armoured hand reached out for him, almost all on its own, looking for his free hand.
"I didn't want to wait until you got out of work," she frowned a little at herself, almost puzzled. "I think I'm impatient."
Shizuya could barely express how surprised he was-- both at her sudden appearance, and her reason behind it. He felt a bit of himself swell and warm at the thought that she'd missed him, and that maybe, just maybe, he was part of the reason she made it home alright.
He took her searching hand and used that as leverage to tug her in closer, lifting up his other arm to wrap it around her shoulders.
"Welcome home," he breathed softly, voice full of awe and emotion.
More of that warmth filled her up as she leaned into his chest, ignoring the water transferring to him, and squeezed his hand maybe a little too tight and wound her own arm around his waist. It was so good to be back with him, in every tiny way. Tenzouko pressed her face into his shirt, against his chest and sighed a little at the sound of his voice.
"Thanks," she said, hugging him tighter. There was a long pause as they both stood there, holding each other, unwilling to move.
"How are you?" she asked, pulling away just enough to look at his face again. At his dark, tired eyes and his brown hair and his expression.
"Better," he answered almost immediately, with a tired smile to match his tired eyes. It was then that he seemed to notice-- oh, yeah, she's soaking wet. There was that worried line between his brows then, as he took a step back to look over her. "You should get out of those clothes," he murmured quietly, before stuttering, realizing how that must have sounded.
"I mean-- you'll catch a cold. And then I'd be worrying about you even more, annoying you, no doubt." He gave her a weak grin.
Tenzouko shook her head slightly, smiling quietly up at his grin. Then she gently reached up to grip his shirt, leaned forwards onto her tip-toes, and kissed him lightly.
"You don't annoy me," she told him, wanting to kiss him again. "And I'm not cold if you're here, so..."
Shizuya's lips pressed into a tight line. "That wasn't really what I meant-- you'd still catch a cold and--" Oh, what was he doing? He had a beautiful woman--soaked!--practically trying to kiss him every other second and he was more concerned about the common cold!
Honestly, sometimes he was more medic than man.
With a small sigh he slid his arms around Ten's waist, bringing her a little closer. "Though I suppose it can wait.." And then he was smiling, leaning down so she wouldn't have to tip toe so much.
Of course that's when there was a brief knock on the door, the handle jiggling as it slowly began to open...
Tenzouko hmm'd happily at his response and was about to even more happily kiss him the very best she could when she realized what he did. That the door ---oh!
The look on her face could only have been described as busted. She gasped slightly, then bit her lip and looked to the door and then suddenly Shizuya was left standing with his arms around thin air.
And then the door did open, and in walked Rin, half-a-ton of paperwork stacked in his arms and nose buried in a cardiology text book perched on top. The stack of paper swayed wildly, and the medic holding it yelped slightly as he chased it to keep it from falling over.
"Shizuya! Hey, hi! Uhm, help?"
Shizuya started, thankful Rin had his face buried in his book so he wouldn't have had to see that 'deer caught in headlights' look on the older medic's face. He hesitated, just briefly, wildly looking around the room as if he expected Ten to be hiding on his ceiling or under his desk or something, holding a finger to her lips like they were playing hide-and-seek.
"Uh-- sure." He moved forward and took some of the papers from his friend's hands, settling them down on his desk carefully. He blinked at the other, absently licking his lips and tasting Ten there.
He felt slightly annoyed.
"What-- uh.. What're you doing here, Rin?"
Sighing with relief now he wasn't about to drop all those papers, Rin put the rest of the papers on Shizuya's desk and picked up his textbook with a sort of sheepish smile.
"Ah, well I ran into Izume-san on my way up to see Tsurude-sama and she kind of asked if I'd take these down to you. I think she went back for the rest, it looks like personnel files or something, not that it's my business!" He smiled and waved his book a little. "I'm just a medic, not a multi-tasker like... hey, you get caught in the rain or something?"
Rin gave Shizuya a curious look, seeing as he seemed to be a little rain-soaked in odd places considering how total the downpour was outside. Hidden behind the open door, Tenzouko peeked her head out and caught Shizuya's eye as she looked past Rin's turned back.
She winced slightly and put her hand over her eyes.
Shizuya did a double-take; his eyes caught the movement over Rin's shoulder and his eyes very nearly fell out at the sight of her, but he quickly forced them back to meet Rin's curious look. He floundered.
"I uh.. um.." He glanced down at himself, and had to wince at the suspicious-looking wet spots over the front half of his body. He was only thankful you couldn't really make out her breasts or anything.
"I had gone to the bathroom to splash some water on my face," he looked up and feigned a sheepish look. "Looks like I need to work on my aim..."
His eyes darted towards Ten's again, before settling back on Rin's with a strained smile.
To Tenzouko's complete surprise she had to put her gloved hand over her mouth to stifle laughter. Oh Shizuya... Here was hoping Rin didn't take anything from it.
True to his accepting and utterly unsuspicious nature, Rin just shrugged and smiled back at Shizuya, not worried about it.
"Looks like," he acquiesced. "Oh, I meant to ask how you're doing? Tsurude's been muttering upstairs about you seeming out of sorts, things okay?"
"Hm?" Shizuya glanced at Rin, understandably distracted, but managed to muster up a nervous little laugh. "Ah, yes, yes, it's fine. Everything's fine now. Great, actually." He smiled then, an easy, genuine smile. He certainly was acting odd; all this time, he'd thought he was content. Happy. When really, he'd just been settling, but now... Now he knew what happiness really was.
"How're things with you and Kakami? Still good, I hope?" he was prompted to ask, partly out of courtesy, and partly out of curiosity.
Things with him and Kakami-senpai? Tenzouko's eyes widened a bit where she hid behind the door. She stuck her head out again and pointed at Rin as if to say 'you are kidding me? this one and Kakami-senpai!?' Tenzouko had known they were friends of some sort but even she could pick up the whole 'as in how are you getting along with the love?' part of Shizuya's question.
Hm. Now she definitely couldn't bop him one for being stubborn about his prescribed treatments.
Oblivious to the incredulity behind him, Rin just smiled dossily. "Yeah, good. We don't see each other much as we'd like but when we do it's..." He looked down, habit now to try and hide the smile. "It's good."
He sighed a little and looked up. "Okay, well, I better leave you to get on with it, 'kay? See you soon, don't work too hard." Rin grinned a little at that last part. Hipocracy and medics, right? He shoved his book under one arm and went to the door... then he couldn't help it.
"She, uhm... handprints round your side," he murmurred, brown eyes brightly bemused as he pulled the door shut behind him with a cocked eyebrow and a grin he couldn't really hide. Leaving Tenzouko standing there looking pale as a ghost, hand over her mouth, as she looked over at Shizuya and did indeed realize her wet gloved hands had left little handprints where she'd hugged him.
She winced again and once more clapped a hand over her eyes.
The perils of office romance, right?
It was very, very strange, Tenzouko thought, to realize you suddenly had so much to come home to. As predicted the mission had been a nightmare, but nightmares were Tenzouko's chosen field of expertise. Irregardless of the odds her squad had made it through with no fatalities, the back-up ANBU hadn't needed to be dispatched, and Tenzouko herself had just finished reporting to the Hokage on the particulars of the mission.
Right now this moment she was standing silently in her full ANBU uniform outside Tsurude's office, listening to the heavy gush of rain outside the windows and holding very still so that she didn't give away the rush of thinking in her head. Strange thoughts, new thoughts. About all the people she had suddenly found herself expecting to see.
She suddenly thought of Aki, and of Asuka-senpai and Kakami-senpai. For a long moment she wondered what new jutsu Sai would have invented to show her. But her mind inevitably began to slip and speed down one distinct track and her feet got her moving onto it. Her heart hitched some in her chest and she didn't realize until she'd located and ghosted herself right to Shizuya's office door that this was a spectacularly bad idea. For a start, she wasn't exactly at her most presentable being as she was still in her field uniform and soaked straight through, and besides that this was all supposed to be kept very, very secret. Most of all from Tsurude, who was right now in the same building.
Her mind was calmly telling her all of this, as she lifted her gloved hand to knock on his door. Clearly the rest of her wasn't listening.
At first, he hadn't heard the knock. Chin-deep in paperwork like he was used to, Shizuya often lost himself in the prints and numbers, and anyone who'd really had to deal with Shizuya while he was in the office often knew better than to knock so softly anyway.
But after one knock came another, then another, and finally Shizuya diverted his attention long enough to catch the fourth knock. He pushed his seat back and headed towards the door, fully expecting it to be Izume or Kotsuki again, railing on him for locking himself in his office when it was a beautiful day outside, aside from, y'know, the rain and stuff.
The last person he expected to see was Tenzouko, looking both confused and excited that she was where he was, and Shizuya was quite sure he was starting to look the same too.
"Ten," he breathed, after a brief moment of shock. He looked around them hastily, almost expecting Tsurude behind her with a hand on her shoulder and a look that clearly meant 'you got some explaining to do'. But the Hokage was nowhere to be seen, nor was anyone else for that matter, it was just her, just back.
Hastily he reached out and pulled her into the office, hurriedly shutting the door behind him once she was in. "Is everything alright? Are you hurt? What are you doing here?" Wait, wait, slow down a second. Take a breath.
"Hi," he tried again.
It took a long moment for Tenzouko to stop just staring up at him. It was all she'd been able to do the second she saw him. It was all she wanted to do, just to look at him and watch him and realize exactly how it felt to have gone out so far and come back so close.
It almost gave her vertigo. She smiled up at him, her tiger's mask pushed to the side of her face and tangled in her soaking hair, and felt a sudden warmth that was probably scientifically impossible given how much rain she was soaked in.
"Hi," she breathed back. "I... everything's okay. We all came home and I--"
And she'd just been unable to keep from coming to find him, no matter how bad an idea it was. So unprofessional. So not herself. But she wanted to see him. Wanted to--
Her gloved and armoured hand reached out for him, almost all on its own, looking for his free hand.
"I didn't want to wait until you got out of work," she frowned a little at herself, almost puzzled. "I think I'm impatient."
Shizuya could barely express how surprised he was-- both at her sudden appearance, and her reason behind it. He felt a bit of himself swell and warm at the thought that she'd missed him, and that maybe, just maybe, he was part of the reason she made it home alright.
He took her searching hand and used that as leverage to tug her in closer, lifting up his other arm to wrap it around her shoulders.
"Welcome home," he breathed softly, voice full of awe and emotion.
More of that warmth filled her up as she leaned into his chest, ignoring the water transferring to him, and squeezed his hand maybe a little too tight and wound her own arm around his waist. It was so good to be back with him, in every tiny way. Tenzouko pressed her face into his shirt, against his chest and sighed a little at the sound of his voice.
"Thanks," she said, hugging him tighter. There was a long pause as they both stood there, holding each other, unwilling to move.
"How are you?" she asked, pulling away just enough to look at his face again. At his dark, tired eyes and his brown hair and his expression.
"Better," he answered almost immediately, with a tired smile to match his tired eyes. It was then that he seemed to notice-- oh, yeah, she's soaking wet. There was that worried line between his brows then, as he took a step back to look over her. "You should get out of those clothes," he murmured quietly, before stuttering, realizing how that must have sounded.
"I mean-- you'll catch a cold. And then I'd be worrying about you even more, annoying you, no doubt." He gave her a weak grin.
Tenzouko shook her head slightly, smiling quietly up at his grin. Then she gently reached up to grip his shirt, leaned forwards onto her tip-toes, and kissed him lightly.
"You don't annoy me," she told him, wanting to kiss him again. "And I'm not cold if you're here, so..."
Shizuya's lips pressed into a tight line. "That wasn't really what I meant-- you'd still catch a cold and--" Oh, what was he doing? He had a beautiful woman--soaked!--practically trying to kiss him every other second and he was more concerned about the common cold!
Honestly, sometimes he was more medic than man.
With a small sigh he slid his arms around Ten's waist, bringing her a little closer. "Though I suppose it can wait.." And then he was smiling, leaning down so she wouldn't have to tip toe so much.
Of course that's when there was a brief knock on the door, the handle jiggling as it slowly began to open...
Tenzouko hmm'd happily at his response and was about to even more happily kiss him the very best she could when she realized what he did. That the door ---oh!
The look on her face could only have been described as busted. She gasped slightly, then bit her lip and looked to the door and then suddenly Shizuya was left standing with his arms around thin air.
And then the door did open, and in walked Rin, half-a-ton of paperwork stacked in his arms and nose buried in a cardiology text book perched on top. The stack of paper swayed wildly, and the medic holding it yelped slightly as he chased it to keep it from falling over.
"Shizuya! Hey, hi! Uhm, help?"
Shizuya started, thankful Rin had his face buried in his book so he wouldn't have had to see that 'deer caught in headlights' look on the older medic's face. He hesitated, just briefly, wildly looking around the room as if he expected Ten to be hiding on his ceiling or under his desk or something, holding a finger to her lips like they were playing hide-and-seek.
"Uh-- sure." He moved forward and took some of the papers from his friend's hands, settling them down on his desk carefully. He blinked at the other, absently licking his lips and tasting Ten there.
He felt slightly annoyed.
"What-- uh.. What're you doing here, Rin?"
Sighing with relief now he wasn't about to drop all those papers, Rin put the rest of the papers on Shizuya's desk and picked up his textbook with a sort of sheepish smile.
"Ah, well I ran into Izume-san on my way up to see Tsurude-sama and she kind of asked if I'd take these down to you. I think she went back for the rest, it looks like personnel files or something, not that it's my business!" He smiled and waved his book a little. "I'm just a medic, not a multi-tasker like... hey, you get caught in the rain or something?"
Rin gave Shizuya a curious look, seeing as he seemed to be a little rain-soaked in odd places considering how total the downpour was outside. Hidden behind the open door, Tenzouko peeked her head out and caught Shizuya's eye as she looked past Rin's turned back.
She winced slightly and put her hand over her eyes.
Shizuya did a double-take; his eyes caught the movement over Rin's shoulder and his eyes very nearly fell out at the sight of her, but he quickly forced them back to meet Rin's curious look. He floundered.
"I uh.. um.." He glanced down at himself, and had to wince at the suspicious-looking wet spots over the front half of his body. He was only thankful you couldn't really make out her breasts or anything.
"I had gone to the bathroom to splash some water on my face," he looked up and feigned a sheepish look. "Looks like I need to work on my aim..."
His eyes darted towards Ten's again, before settling back on Rin's with a strained smile.
To Tenzouko's complete surprise she had to put her gloved hand over her mouth to stifle laughter. Oh Shizuya... Here was hoping Rin didn't take anything from it.
True to his accepting and utterly unsuspicious nature, Rin just shrugged and smiled back at Shizuya, not worried about it.
"Looks like," he acquiesced. "Oh, I meant to ask how you're doing? Tsurude's been muttering upstairs about you seeming out of sorts, things okay?"
"Hm?" Shizuya glanced at Rin, understandably distracted, but managed to muster up a nervous little laugh. "Ah, yes, yes, it's fine. Everything's fine now. Great, actually." He smiled then, an easy, genuine smile. He certainly was acting odd; all this time, he'd thought he was content. Happy. When really, he'd just been settling, but now... Now he knew what happiness really was.
"How're things with you and Kakami? Still good, I hope?" he was prompted to ask, partly out of courtesy, and partly out of curiosity.
Things with him and Kakami-senpai? Tenzouko's eyes widened a bit where she hid behind the door. She stuck her head out again and pointed at Rin as if to say 'you are kidding me? this one and Kakami-senpai!?' Tenzouko had known they were friends of some sort but even she could pick up the whole 'as in how are you getting along with the love?' part of Shizuya's question.
Hm. Now she definitely couldn't bop him one for being stubborn about his prescribed treatments.
Oblivious to the incredulity behind him, Rin just smiled dossily. "Yeah, good. We don't see each other much as we'd like but when we do it's..." He looked down, habit now to try and hide the smile. "It's good."
He sighed a little and looked up. "Okay, well, I better leave you to get on with it, 'kay? See you soon, don't work too hard." Rin grinned a little at that last part. Hipocracy and medics, right? He shoved his book under one arm and went to the door... then he couldn't help it.
"She, uhm... handprints round your side," he murmurred, brown eyes brightly bemused as he pulled the door shut behind him with a cocked eyebrow and a grin he couldn't really hide. Leaving Tenzouko standing there looking pale as a ghost, hand over her mouth, as she looked over at Shizuya and did indeed realize her wet gloved hands had left little handprints where she'd hugged him.
She winced again and once more clapped a hand over her eyes.
The perils of office romance, right?