Coffee and Nicorette [Kureno, Asuka]

[asuka_sensei]

Two weeks, Rin said. Two weeks working with the new team, without cigarettes, and see how she did before he'd decide whether or not to let her start smoking again. It was a matter of life or death, she'd said, theirs or hers or more likely both, but he still wanted her to wait two weeks

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[yuuhi_kureno]

Kureno had been having a headache lately. Partially from the unexpectedly large workload in the office and trying to catch up and keep up, and partially from his students. ...Mostly due to his students and their very delicate questions and requests they were asking of him. He was in the pharmacy because he'd finally decided to pick up some medicine before he developed migraines (and maybe look at some sleeping pills), and it was only by chance he passed by that particular section Asuka caught him at. He hadn't realized he stopped to stare at them however, growing lost in to how they brought up many of his current stresses

[asuka_sensei]

Um

[yuuhi_kureno]

The thing about a loud and obvious clearing of the throat was that it was, well...loud and obvious; and one only did so when deliberately trying to get someone's attention by giving them the decency of "noticing them first". Kureno wouldn't have thought much of it if he hadn't realized that he was still staring at the condoms and thus meant being caught in a rather socially awkward situation by someone he knew.

'Please don't be Kiba, don't be Kiba... And don't be Aki either. ...Or Kakami. Really don't be Kakami.'

Kureno turned to look and after a stupor of thought wondered why he didn't think to add Asuka to that list of "don't be's".

Well great. Because things weren't awkward enough between them, were they. 'Don't think about Kiba's condom joke and Asuka. Don't think about-- I said don't!'Really hoping he was miraculously keeping his embarrassment to himself for a change, Kureno quickly said, "I'm here for headache medicine

[asuka_sensei]

That would have been a much more convincing response if he hadn't been staring at the condoms for something like two and a half minutes. Unless he suddenly needed some extremely strong prescription glasses (which she'd teased him about for years, what with all the paperwork he did), only someone who was actually looking for condoms would stand there staring at the boxes for two and a half minutes.

"Right." It was hard not to say it neutrally, but Asuka thought she managed well enough; at least it didn't come out completely sarcastic. "That's not aspirin."

[asuka_sensei]

... thankfully, right about then a pharmacist came up with the keys to the display. Wonderful timing, guys! Wish everyone had such prompt customer service.

Asuka bit her tongue and suffered through the abrupt pause in conversation as the display was unlocked and two packs of gum given to her, struggling to contain her blush and not really doing a good job of it. World's sake, Kiba, why did she have to go and do that? No small wonder Kureno had gotten distracted by his own display; he'd probably gotten caught up in contemplating all the different ways he could kill his student for pulling a stunt like that on him. She hadn't said anything to prompt that prank, had she? Man, she really didn't need that.

Nor did she need to know that Kureno's stash was just fine, thank you. Too much information.

"I didn't say anything," she finally said grumpily, clutching the gum to her chest once the clerk had gone and blushing angrily at the floor. "I just said I was taking you out to dinner to celebrate."

[yuuhi_kureno]

Yeah, that's what Kiba had pretty much said she'd said. Kureno had just been hoping Asuka might volunteer or slip with something more, not that he was going to mention that. Especially not when she was looking so upset all of a sudden. Guess she wasn't happy to hear about Kiba going off and blabbing about it, or perhaps his student had teased her more than he originally thought and it was bringing up sour memories.

"Hm. Well don't let her goading get to you, she can get carried away sometimes," he replied, hoping to ease her embarrassment (or whatever) by acting nonchalant about it. He idly read over the instructions on the bottle of aspirin he'd picked up from the shelf as the clerk had helped her. "And if you're mad at her for talking about it, she didn't really proclaim at any point that you had actually said it was a real date. Even if she had, I'd wait to hear it from you before believing it."

There was a slightly obvious pause where the question, "So...is it?" wasn't asked aloud.

[asuka_sensei]

A grumble was all he immediately got in response as she stalked down the aisle, anticipating that he'd probably follow. There was some anger in there, yes, mostly because she really didn't need Kiba's interference in an already seriously awkward situation that didn't need to be awkward at all, thank you very much. It was just dinner, something they'd done a million times before. So what if she was dressing up for it? He'd been needling her into going somewhere nice like this for years, and more because he wanted to see her suffer in the choice between which fork to use and remembering to keep her elbows off the table. That was it.

But of course, everyone wanted to know if it was a date. Even Kureno. She could hear the silent So... is it? as clear as daylight, and wished so badly that she could just have a cigarette right here and now. Why did this have to be so awkwardShe forced down the twitches and anxiety that this didn't help with, and was able to look back up to Kureno without still blushing liked crazy at the same time by the

[yuuhi_kureno]

As much as Kureno wished to get an answer to his unasked question, he decided to let it go upon the offer to hang around him under the condition that she not have to. It had been a while since they'd sat down to talk just for the sake of talking. And boy did he ever have some things to talk about...

"I told you, just headache medicine." He shook the bottle to emphasize the fact. He didn't really look through them all like he might've liked to, but one aspirin pretty much had to be like the next, right?

[asuka_sensei]

Well, obviously. Asuka knew she was simplifying things somewhat, but in the end it was simple - if the Hokage had no objection, there was nothing to keep the kids from being together except their own ties to their families. Hinaji sure didn't have any reason to give a hoot what his family thought, and surely the Inuzuka wouldn't take offense to him. He was just too sweet

[yuuhi_kureno]

Kureno paused and put his cup down, arching an eyebrow at Asuka.

"Just now?" he asked with slight disbelief, not quite understanding. "So what, is dinner going to be in another one or two months?"

[asuka_sensei]

"No," she replied in some slight exasperation. "I know better than that. I made it back when we decided to do this. I just haven't been able to tell you when yet."

[yuuhi_kureno]

"Ah," he replied because that made much more sense.

...Wait.

"Why haven't you been able to tell me? I haven't been that busy. Have you?"