[thread] want to kiss and kill you too [Team 8, Kureno]

[aburame_h]

[[after the team decides they really need to get together and see Kureno, shortly after Hoshino assassinates visits Asuka in the hospital]]None of them really looked... well

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[chicks_dig_dogs]

There was some comfort to be had in the fact that all of them were together; not much, but some. And Hoshino's mildly neurotic touch soothed sort of. Kiba's hand slid from Akako's fur to catch Hoshino's as it patted the large ninken. A hand was firmly holding on to each teammate and she was not letting go.

The 'march' to Kureno's was too long and yet not long enough. That sick feeling in the Inuzuka's stomach had only grown and she held onto her teammates' hands harder, not wanting to let go.

She couldn't bare to lose them too.

Unsurprisingly, when they got to the house it was empty and cold although Kureno's scent was there. The Inuzuka looked inbetween the other two, all three (four) of them huddled together against the wind. "So... should we wait inside for him?"

[hyuuga_hinaji]

"I think...he wouldn't mind. ...Right?" Perhaps it was the wrong thing to do, but standing out here in the wind wasn't really going to be very effective. And a small part of Hinaji--the part that had turned just a little cynical--worried that if Kureno saw them he might try to dodge this talk.

...But Kureno wasn't like that, so Hinaji very quickly put that fear aside. Nothing good came from that form of thought and he felt guilty for it.

"...Maybe we could help clean or something...?" Kureno had been in prison a long time, after all.

Really though, Hinaji just couldn't think of something to make this any less awkward than it felt.

[aburame_h]

"We don't need to." It was a firm and directional thing to say, much like tugging Kiba's hand was a firm and directional movement to bring the other two into the house. They didn't need to sneak around Kureno's house like so many thieves, she added silently with a pointed glance over her shoulder.

Whatever had happened to their official relationship, they were still Team 8 and Kureno was still Kureno-sensei. If he felt otherwise, he would tell them directly. The respect had to have remained in tact, even if the trust had not.

Besides that, inside would be warm. And a much better strategic vantage point from which to prevent Kureno from blowing them off.

Not that Hoshino felt cynical in the least bit.

[chicks_dig_dogs]

It seemed all of them were feeling a little cynical.

Kiba carefully picked Kureno's lock (after having Hinaji check for traps) before all four of them slipped inside. It was a slightly tight fit with the ninken but they all managed to get inside somehow. The house was warmer, but still dark and dreary and it didn't seem right. Kiba had only been over here twice since Kureno had moved and it just... she didn't know, it just didn't settle well.

Normally Kiba would have leaped at the chance to take charge. But Hoshino seemed to be best at it right now and slitted eyes moved over to her teammate as she slid one hand back in Hinaji's and the other back in Hoshino's.

Now what?

[hyuuga_hinaji]

Now what, indeed?

Hinaji eventually released Kiba's hand to walk around on his own, gently touching the furniture and walls. The last time he'd been here had been to get some advice about his relationship with Kiba.

...He wished things could still be that simple.

"...Maybe we should sit? He might be a while..."

[aburame_h]

Hoshino couldn't help snorting slightly at the comment, much as she knew she shouldn't. Giving Kiba's hand a squeeze, she let go as well to move to a more comfortable vantage point: leaning against the wall near a window. Half of her intention was clinical, the desire to monitor the world outside, to be ready when their sensei (former sensei? sort-of sensei?) did come home, to keep the mental illusion that it was better to be hard and quiet in this situation because it was more like a mission than anything else.

The more important half of her intention was to keep an eye on her team no matter where they spread to in the room.

It was a habitual thing with Team 8: Hinaji moving nervously, Kiba having fits and starts and bouts of quiet, Hoshino standing back and watching them with thinly masked concern. They always waited for bad news like this.

It probably didn't bode well that it was the pattern they were falling into.