[THREAD] Sound and Fury

[white_chakra]

Who: Hatake Kakashi, Hoshigaki Kisame
Where: Fight Club/The Arena, Abyss
When: Night 
Summary: Kakashi and Kisame spectate fights!
Rating: R
Other: Lots of prose in this!

Comments

[seeingeyeshark]

Cocktails and hor d'oeuvres had never really been his style; Kisame would have been uncomfortable and out of place in the expensive boxes even if he'd wanted to sit in them, a fish--shark--out of water in any sense of the words. The chair was uncomfortable and felt like it might give out entirely under his weight, but at least it didn't need to be sat in delicately; he was slumped in it as though he intended to fall asleep then and there, a half-full bottle of beer he'd been nursing for a while tucked between his legs

[white_chakra]

For anyone else, it could've been about any number of things -- weather patterns, fine dining, or a page right out of their lives

[seeingeyeshark]

"Books." Kisame echoed, deadpan. Books, as though it weren't obvious. Books, as though it were a perfectly innocent, perfectly normal thing to blog about on a semi-daily basis. Books, as though porn were the only sort of book written, or at least worth reading

[white_chakra]

Sometimes it was. Not everyone was naturally skilled in the art of cutting down another man's life at the root, burying him six feet under the mud that held him

[seeingeyeshark]

It made sense, after all--could anyone really put a precise value on human life itself? Aside from paying a hitman to end a life, or paying the hospital to save one, there was no way to quantify it. And even then, there were so many different factors changing those numbers that there was no way to agree on a base standard. One's life was worth only as much as it was valued, by themself and by others, was worth only as much as it was allowed to be. One could grow valuable here in Abyss, but never too valuable. People like that moved up in the world once they got to that point, literally

[white_chakra]

"You're assuming I'm not going to write anything interesting, Kisame." Kakashi lightly said with a smile that crescented his eye. The kind that probably wasn't really a smile.

There was a method to how he smiled, like everything else he did. Kakashi was as strategic as he was calculated, and even his smiles factored into that proclivity. Rarely did he smile without intent, without a reason. Even rarer did he laugh the way children do when they still believe the world is as bright and colorful as it appears to be, the sky limitless above arms that stretch towards it. They think maybe if they reach high enough they can reach it.

Some people still laughed in that open, honest way, and smiled just the same, even after learning that the sky was unreachable.

Kakashi didn't.

[seeingeyeshark]

But Kisame did. Or at least, he liked to think he did.

Why not? He liked to grin and not care how many teeth he showed, or how damned scary it looked. He liked to laugh. It felt good. It let him know he was still human at heart in spite of his looks, to be able to feel something like that, to be able to connect with people. If he could still smile and mean it, if he could feel that joy, it meant he was alive; it was just as powerful a reminder of that fact as it was to kill someone else, or to hurt and bleed himself. If he could laugh and keep smiling, then he could get back up and face everything again, no matter what it was. He could get up, he could face life head-on and look it squarely in the eye, and he could keep moving forward, keep reaching for the sky

[white_chakra]

Except Kakashi was as analytical as he was strategic and calculated. Boiling anything down into summary form was no different than writing a blurb. It took out the interest he held in its dissection, in cutting apart and putting back together, what meaning he could derive from the pages

[seeingeyeshark]

Kisame admired the fighters silently as he watched them square off, looking them up and down. The first man was strong, but not strong enough to impress him. The second.... well, he wasn't much to look at, slender and lightly toned as he was. But then again, Kakashi wasn't all that visually impressive either, and he knew intimately just how bad an idea it was to underestimate the man.

Perceptive he might have been, but unlike Kakashi, he wasn't a genius; he preferred to read people as he got to know them, and keep the insight to himself rather than bring it to bear for any specific purpose. He let the experiences speak for themselves to give him a richer, deeper understanding of those he knew, rather than trying to form an in-depth impression immediately--first impressions were things he had found increasingly distasteful after his own appearance had been so drastically altered. After all..... what did people think when they looked at him for the first time?

What had Kakashi thought?

Obviously nothing too bad--or hopefully not,

[white_chakra]

But Kakashi had no intention of opening any doors. He kept his tightly shut, barricaded, like the covers of his life, sealed up in the packaging it came in.

There was a two second pause between the suggestion of field research and Kakashi's raise of an eyebrow. The corner of his eye crinkled with vague amusement as the shadows of his lips curled into something of a smirk. "Mm, I was thinking more along the lines of sex advice or tips. Not writing about my own sex life." Even though sex was something he enjoyed, and had quite a lot of experience with, Kakashi never joined in on bawdy, heated confessionals let loose by one too many drinks between missions. How and who Kakashi fucked was all very hush hush.

He planned on keeping it that way, even if they sometimes whispered about him.

[seeingeyeshark]

Kisame couldn't contain the grin Kakashi's raised eyebrow earned; sometimes it almost felt like a game, trying to get his captain to react. It took a certain amount of creativity and willingness to go out on a rather unprofessional limb, but he was capable of it. He could prompt, at the very least, a little levity. The man needed more emotional expression anyway--it couldn't be healthy to bottle it all up like that. He'd probably be a complete robot or something if people like himself and Urd didn't enrich his life, whether he wanted them to or not

[white_chakra]

It could have the power to change the lives of those who desperately needed more spice to color the blandness of their literary and sex lives or the lack thereof

[seeingeyeshark]

Or maybe he just knew that he couldn't touch it here. In a place like this, where even the ceiling sported blood stains, there was no point in reaching for the sky--not until you got outside, at least. But then, wasn't that what this place was all about? Being backed into a corner and fighting your way out of confinement

[white_chakra]

Some believed demons were exalted in ascension to the glory, glory, glory that composed the holy, holy, holy majesty and grace of God. They were fitted once more with the wings and the skin of what they had been before their great fall, reclaiming His command and the sacred sword. But others whispered, believed, that demons were angels who walked the earth; and angels only existed in the minds of men who believed souls could be saved, that divine justice still ruled the world

[seeingeyeshark]

Oh, yes, Kisame approved. Demon, angel, or whatever he may be on this earth--could he ever really reclaim anything of glory, if he had never had the chance to Fall? What happened when Hell had been all you had ever known?--, whatever state his soul was in, he knew that it and he would remain gloriously drenched in blood for the rest of his life. How long that life would be, he wasn't sure--gold and gore and genuine kindness alike, the world could be beautiful and free, and people could find salvation and happiness, in this life if not what lay beyond. After all, just because you couldn't find it, didn't mean it wasn't there, especially if it looked different to everyone--, but he was going to enjoy it for everything it was worth, just in case; Kakashi might angst himself into an early grave or something if he always thought like that, but damned if he'd let himself go down in flames that way.....

After all, you didn't have to leave the ground behind when you reached for the sky

[white_chakra]

Maybe that was all he needed -- something to believe in. Like everyone else