[RP Log] Naruto and Karin
Who: Naruto (messandentwine) and Karin (meganesartist)
What: FIRST MEETING, and slightly more~
When: After school on the first day of classes. (Yes, it took us that long. ;_;)
Where: A McDonald's bathroom.
Warnings: ... Lots of talk about Sasuke and panties.
Karin had been going through her art supplies for over two hours now, picking the best of her things to pack into her new supply box to bring to school tomorrow. The growling of her stomach had grown louder over the last half hour to the point where it was now disrupting her concentration. She sighed and stood.
She didn't have much to work with in her kitchen, she was overdue for a trip to the grocery store, but she didn't have time to waste. Fast food it was, then, by process of elimination. She picked up her purse and a light sweatshirt she had painted and slid on her loafers. She hadn't changed out of her school uniform, but she didn't really care - it wasn't important.
She made her way to the lobby of her apartment building (it wasn't the most expensive on the island, but it was definitely one of the better ones due to it's closeness to the beach and location on the south side of the island) and asked the doorman for directions to the closest chain store.
A McDonald's a few blocks away was her destination. She absorbed all the people and sights Oshima had to offer at this time of day - the evening traffic rush had just ended but students who had finished their work were milling about the streets. She arrived and put her hand out to grab the handle of the door just as another person did.
One Uzumaki Naruto blinked at her almost stupidly in the second proceeding.
Oh, goody, somebody else going to McDonalds in the middle of the afternoon, almost conveniently at lunchtime, presumably on the quest for - get ready for this - food.
(What a shocking development!)
His face went slate-like as he wrestled to yank the Sarcasm Cord out of the outlet on the side of his brain, and he studied the girl in front of him in a, uncharacteristically mild-mannered sort of way: she was about his height (which was a little biting, as a matter of fact) with hair like feathers. Her clothing was modernized by the occasional clasp and light-catching plastic with white seams, and it complimented her form with was lithe without being toned or muscle-clad. He eyed her up and down once, not seeing anything really out of the ordinary before-
His lips unfurled and spread-eagled in an overly-illustrious grin, his almost-sharpened teeth catching the light and his eyes glowing with some joke he had inevitably just told himself.
"Hi."
Killer legs.
She raised a brow has high as it could go and narrowed her eyes slightly. She took him in exactly as he had, only (unluckily) enough for her, there was nothing remotely impressive or attractive about him. Except for maybe his blue eyes, but as soon as he gave her that too large grin it ruined any beauty in his face.
She pulled her hand back and discreetly wiped it on her skirt. "Hello," she said, ignoring the decorum her mother had tried to pound into her head (she was the daughter of a yakuza boss, she couldn't be as feminine as her mother wished in a million lifetimes). A sport motorcycle zoomed by on the street (faster than the speed limit, she could tell) and the ensuing breeze danced at the hem of her skirt. Maybe she should have unrolled it back to its required length. His wandering eyes weren't appreciated (but the hottie from lunch could undress her with his eyes any time he wanted, and she hoped it would be often).
She looked back at the boy, he seemed familiar somehow. "Do I know you from somewhere?" She pushed her glasses up and watched the way his blond hair waved in the gentle breeze, and how the sun shone in it. It was bright. She wondered if she would have to mix a color to match it (not that she'd ever paint him, of course).
Naruto didn't miss her contemptuousness at all (and he was used to it by now - he'd had to endure alot of it from Sakura in their younger days, and she'd taken a rather long while to win over,) and went along with it without complaint or faltering. (Naruto's specialty therein lay, of course - he was known for never faltering.) He pushed the door open for her (since ladies go first - Naruto had never needed an adult to teach him that,) and the bells on the opposite swung and collided with one another, wraith-like in their chime.
"Know me?" She might've. It wouldn't have surprised him. There were plenty of people who knew of Naruto without ever having to meet him - he had plenty of stage presence. Enough, atleast, for three or four hundred people. (And everyone knew that the whole world was a stage.) He was rather difficult to miss in a crowd, and even more difficult to miss if he was only standing a few inches from you, enjoying the less-than-modest length of your skirt.
Here's to women.
Then again, the rumors that seemed to tail him endlessly weren't always pleasant, regrettably enough, and so he decided to take her age into consideration and hope for the best. The age gap between them didn't look too overly-wide at first glance, and so he decided to give what he could a decent go before the opportunity missed him. (Avoided him, more like. But Naruto was hard to avoid if he wasn't avoiding you.)
"You go to the high school a few blocks from here?"
Her brow lowered a fraction and she nodded, stepping past him. The restaurant was air conditioned and she felt her skin prickle instantly at the sudden drop in temperature. "Oshima? Yes, I just transferred over the break. Fine arts major."
He had really nice eyes (though not as make-you-shiver-just-thinking-about-them as the boy from lunch's), and a slightly better-than-ordinary face, she discovered upon closer inspection - so long as he wasn't smiling. There was a flair to him that hinted at his not being completely Japanese, and it interested her enough to keep talking to him. "And you?"
There was a short line and she scanned the menu for something that at least attempted to be healthy. She didn't want any food ruining her complexion before her important morning session with that boy before school tomorrow.
Come to think of it, she should have gotten his name. Maybe this boy knew him. Though she hoped to God they weren't friends. The dark-haired boy was far too refined for the likes of this familiar stranger.
She moved forward a couple of steps and looked to the boy. He was still where they had been, checking out her ass. She rolled her eyes and sighed mentally. If he kept that up she'd have to show her roots, and she had hoped that wouldn't be necessary until after she had already sealed the deal with the dark-haired angel who dipped his sushi into sauce.
“General studies.” Naruto s reply was fluid, after he’d finished oggling. (He giggled to himself. Ha. Fluid.) Very nice. Very nice. Yeah, there was definitely a God. Absolutely had to be.
He stuck his hands in his back pockets and smiled to himself, moving back and forth rather idly to the beat of a song he wasn t singing because he was in public. Grease, fat, saturated fat, grease and fries, or a tab of sugar to suit all your diabetic needs he wasn t a huge fan of fast food as things went (his ass looked fine without stretch marks, thankyou very much,) but it hadn t really been his day and it wasn t like he was going to miss out on something that tasted good just because his Sasuke Sense was tingling. He reached up and scratched with just his nails at the back of his nails.
He glanced over at her suddenly, grin flashing. “Uzumaki Naruto. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
His easy grin tugged her own lips into a slight smirk (though it had formed from a sneer). "Tono Karin. Still uncertain in that regard." So he was general studies, huh? In other words he didn't really have a real reason to be there, unless something unknown was tying him to the island. Karin knew enough about the school to know there weren't many on that particular track. Naruto was proving to be intersting, maybe opening up a tad bit wouldn't be such a bad idea.
"What year are you, if you don't mind my asking. You seem pretty confident of your surroundings, but in a cocky way that feels like you've earned the right to be cocky about it. Are you some type of hot-shot star student?"
“God, no.” Naruto stressed the “God” of the sentence, face rolling along with his eyes as he seemed to catch something almost offensive at the intimation. “I gotta roommate who is but he’s a total ass. And, I mean, I m pretty sure my sister’s passing all her classes, but honestly there’s no telling.” He shrugged and shook his head vaguely, glancing over at her as he folded his arms, as if he expected her to nod all-knowingly. He rotated his head to one side, once to other, his neck popping slickly, (what a nauseating sound) and seemed to consider the idea of being a “star pupil”. “I don t know. I play a lot of sports, I guess, but school’s not exactly my thing. Bores the hell out of me, you wanna know the truth.”
The way she came off, he really doubted she would, but it didn’t really bother him all that much. Naruto was well adjusted to talking to people who really didn’t give a shit what he thought about, or whether he even thought that much at all. He shrugged it off. “I’m a sophomore, though. So I guess I have at least a while longer to sit through six teachers a day, five days a week.” He yawned suddenly, put a hand up to stifle it.
Karin turned her head as she yawned in return (what a stupid reflex, though it came in handy in a fight so long as the person you were up against was really stupid and/or weak). Turning back to him she softened her smile. “Sophomore, huh? That means we’re in the same grade.”
Wait - he had said something about an ass of a roommate (who was male). Even if she was wrong, Naruto might be of help. “It’s handy I bumped into you tonight, Naruto. Maybe you could help me with something?” The cashier cleared his throat impatiently and Karin turned to quickly, shooting him a look. “A salad and water, please. For here,” she glanced at Naruto, implying for him to not dash off with his food to go. The next register became available and Karin continued after Naruto ordered. “I set up a date (okay, so it was more like an appointment, but that wasn’t important) with a student today during lunch, but in the excitement (and driving need to get him to model for her) I didn’t catch his name. If I described him do you think you could tell me more about him?”
Her food was placed on a tray and she stepped back from the counter after paying.
Naruto’s food came at the same time and he picked it up without really looking at it, his gaze interested. If there was anything Naruto could talk about for hours (save himself) it was people. He nodded enthusiastically, smile blooming and eyes catching the light. (At night, sometimes his retinas reflect it back red, but they hadn’t done that in a long time - not since the beginning of summer, not since-) And so he wasn t especially worried about them. He picked up his tray, “Yeah, probably.” It was an honest statement, which delighted him. “I don’t get terrific grades, but I know practically everyone on campus.”
And practically everyone on campus knew him. Including the freshmeat. (But they didn’t really count in the long run because he didn t know them too well. Whenever he got too close his Big Brother fetish started going crazy and so he’s avoided them for the most part. He really didn’t know what appealed to him so much about kids anyway. They were annoying as hell.)
He supposed that that’s what came out of babysitting the adults you adopted into your family. (Naruto’s concept of family was entirely his own after all. “Baa-baa.” He’d stared out the window, surveying the gray of the landscape. “Don’t worry about them. You look...” A studious pause. Thoughtful. “...you look fine.” Beautiful. Naruto never stopped hoping that his parents would be the ones that he picked for himself, had never given up faith in his own intuition. Since he was a small child, this has been his hope. “You can be my-”) You searched until you found the ones who suited you and you took them in of your own accord, sometimes without their even knowing, and you took in whatever came with them because that was the way family worked. You took in what you took in and you took in everything because they were your family and there was no way around it.
(Togetherness had always been vitally important to him.)
He followed her to a table and set his tray down only after she did. (How gentlemanly.) He slid the chair down and folded down onto it. “At school today, then?” (Cause I wasn’t.)
She nodded and slowly dug into her meal after the ritual thanks. After she had satisfied enough of her cravings she took a sip of her water and cleared her throat. “This boy...” she paused reminding herself not to get overly rapturous. No one liked being labeled a stalker. “He’s very very pale, like he never spends any time outside. He’s so white you’d wonder if he bathed in milk. Has a complexion a girl would kill for, and there’s a fine edge of femininity about him, but he’s pure male. Best bone structure I’ve ever seen anyone have. Eyes deep black like midnight, but glassy like marbles. Large, beautiful. His hair was just as black, with a blueish shine to it when the sun happened to land upon it. Style-wise... messy but well-tended to. The hair on the back of his head stuck out at odd angles which contrasted to the straight locks framing the front of his face. It looked really soft and silky.”
She stopped to catch her breath and sip more of her water. She had a tendency to talk fast when something excited her, and the sushi boy certainly had her excited. (She might have to excuse herself in a few more moments if this kept up. Where was the bathroom? Oh, over there by the-)
“He was rather twitchy, in a stiff way. Does that makes sense? He seemed very neurotic and touchy about his space - a large personal bubble he didn’t take kindly to having invaded. Even went out of his way to eat a block away from the school.” She chuckled at the memory. “He was drinking out of a water bottle, one of the fancy kinds only rich people buy becausee they can, and had a homemade bento. Dipped his sushi into the dipping sauce before eating it like a little prince.
“His voice was melodious, seductively deep - a voice you’d like to have whispering in your ear in the dark as-” She caught herself and blushed demurely, poking at her salad. “Deeper than you’d think he’d have by the look of him. Nice build, but lithe.”
Another pause, eyes meeting Naruto’s. “Any idea who that might be?”
At that particular moment, Naruto was actually busy being very, very glad he had only unwrapped his hamburger and not bitten into it. He had choked, promptly, on his spit, presumably to make up for how big his eyes had gotten over the course of her description, and while it wasn t exactly fun to sit there hacking and staring down at his lunch tray because he didn t want to see the expression on her face, he had a feeling it would ve been a lot less fun to be doing all that and have a piece of ground meat lodged in his windpipe. Yeah. That didn’t sound enjoyable, really. That didn’t sound enjoyable at all.
(He wasn’t gunna laugh, he wasn’t gunna laugh, he wasn’t gunna laugh.)
Irony is as irony does.
He finally regained his ability to breathe after a few seconds and then continued staring into his lunch tray as if it were something mystical and fascinating while he regained his composure, and then he sat up and struggled to keep a straight face.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure I know exactly who you’re talking about.”
(And I am going to laugh at him so hard when I get home.)
He knew?! This blond-haired peer with eyes as blue as the ocean eyes that knew how to inspect a female but a personality that screamed immature knew exactly whom she was talking about? Karin didn't know what emotion she was feeling stronger - joy at his being identified or concern that he was so well known by this boy. But maybe she was jumping to conclusions. After all, the ivory-skinned heartthrob not being recognized (with or without her thorough description) was a frightening though.
She loosened her grip on her water bottle after she realized water had been pouring down her hand since the boy across from her spoke. The crack of the plastic bending back into its original shape (how quickly the water fell back) drew the attention of a few other patrons (had she been squeezing it that hard?
Two inches of air were between the top of the water and the bottle rim.
Yes, she had.)
Karin leaned over her food, stomach tingling with butterflies and chest laboring with anticipation (the word rang through her head from that English movie she had seen a few years ago, the one with the transvestite...). "Who is he?" Her breath was breathy and full of want as she covered one of her hands over one of her classmate's tan ones.
Naruto had nothing against Sasuke’s fan club. Heavens no. Really, for the most part he tended to encourage them, because watching his roommate whine and struggle and bitch over them was more amusing than anything else he had yet to find. But the idea of telling Karin her apparent superhero’s true identity really ripped up his insides; gouged them out and turned them over.
He was absolutely torn. In one respect he was ridiculously tempted to be completely obscene with what he told her (and he had no idea why. For all means and purposes, Karin was cute, had a fantastic lower half, and was treating him with a near sublime amount of decency based on just how disrespectful he was being. She was catty, he could tell, but he didn t mind her company at all; for the most part she was behaving herself very well, and she didn’t really have to. Naruto was the person he was, after all. He knew that she was the person having to try, in this particular situation. But there was just that part of him - that part of him that listened to her talk about Sasuke and-) Obscene like he almost never was in public. Obscene like Sasuke absolutely hated.
(-fucking bristled.)
And then there was the Sakura-inebriated part of him that warned him to be polite to this one, good to her just because she had been good to him thus far. It squealed at him, whispered at him through his fingernails, Naruto, be nice! Be nice! Just tell her! Tell her who Sasuke is, plain and simple, no details!
No details.
(None.
but-
-wouldn t that include his name ?)
Who Sasuke is?
My best friend.
He thinks for a second.
My roommate.
Smirks darkly to himself.
A slut.
“His name?”
(You re the-)
Her hands gripped his (tightly) and she leaned even more across the table, shoving her food tray out of the way with her elbow. She blinked her eyes a few times - (cue water-lined eyes in
3
2
1)
"His name, major, where he's from, anything. Everything." That was desperate, she knew, but she had to know. Time to lay it out all out on the table. If he helped, he'd be rewarded, if not...
Well, she was a kumicho's daughter. She smirked mentally at the images her mind was creating.
Karin loosened her hold on his hand and stroked the rough skin in an (almost) placating way. "I ran (after) into him during lunch and without asking his name strong-armed him into agreeing to sit for me tomorrow morning before school so that I could draw him. Aside from what he looks like and how he treated me, I can only infer so much, and I'd rather have cold hard facts.
"Seeing him woke something up within me, and I need to have more chances to be with him and put what I see to paper - without having to work around a restraining order. If I go in tomorrow morning with even a little info on him, I've got a better chance of securing more chances. I know he'll like my work, but the more I have in my arsenal the better, right?"
She smiled at him and brought her elbows closer together, knowing full well how it enhanced her bosom.
Needless to say, Naruto’s conscience was obliged to nearly win him over, thanks to this all-too-wonderful enhancement, and he proceeded to seriously consider her demands as his fingers twisted absent-mindedly through his hair, his eyes wide and blinking.
(The perfect woman. That much was certain.)
...he paused and made a well-deserved mental note on the matter.
(All due apologies, Sakura-chan. I’ll get a pair of her panties for you to make up for it. Swear to God.)
“I should carry around a sign up sheet. Have people check him out library-style. It’d be the perfect escort business.” His voice was quiet (it was obvious he was talking to himself, though - about what - no one could be sure) and his attention never truly diverted itself from the brilliant amount of cleavage she exposed to him so purposefully; by most (and all) accounts, his eyes never once left it, his mind simply paced behind them, taking the work and making it easier. (Because, honestly, what kind of person with any kind of libido looked away from something like that? Karin was truly the green flash of women - she really was.) “I could just put it on a clip board and keep it on my person at all times - his stats and everything. I could probably get all his measurements when he was sleeping, even. It’s ingenious really, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”
All this he half-said around his hand, not every looking away from her or even attempting it (because Naruto wasn’t an idiot no matter what people said), almost-silently and entirely to himself. It was an incoherent should-have-stayed-in-his-head stream of consciousness that simply filtered through his lips the way breath might. (It was strangely natural, like an interpretive dance of some sort.)
He paused though, still hesitant.
And then he tilted his head very thoughtfully.
He’s one hell of a fag anyway. It couldn’t really hurt.
(An angry pang in his stomach that positively wasn’t hunger told him that women like Karin could easily effect the natural balance of those sorts of things, but he told himself that his friend could probably do with getting laid sometime.)
“I should warn you.”
He finally looked up at her eyes (it was very very difficult but he managed all the same), and he smiled widely.
“I charge twenty bucks an hour fee for pimping services.”
Karin's smile grew and she knew her pleasure reflected in her eyes. She pat Naruto's hand. "Didn't I tell you? I'm loaded."
She tossed her head to keep her hair off of her face and crossed her right leg over her left knee. She slid her foot out of her loafer and dangled it against one of his calf muscles. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship, Naruto-kun." She practically purred the suffix. He seemed like a boy who'd appreciate it.
This was almost too easy. She'd vowed to herself to reward him, but the only determinate now was how much information he shared. The more information about her black-haired sex god, the larger the reward. Karin sat back and brushed her foot against his leg as she lifted her water bottle. A little more teasing wouldn't hurt, he was obviously caught (hook, line, and sinker).
It was sore temptation is what is it was.
And Naruto could’ve lied.
But he didn’t.
(A whisper like the rustle of leaves in the back of his mind, a dark, deep overly-masculine chuckle that sent bits of electricity shooting down his spine. Dark red eyes, shifting passion, the kind of memories that went black to you, right before your eyes, but your hands know what you d done, your hands had all your memories, even the ones that didn’t really belong to you. “You fucking-” Dark laughter: He ll kill you for this, boy.)
“Name and major?” He smiled almost toothily, a great vulpine grin that cast him (oddly accurately) as the love-to-hate character of wiles in a western stage production. “I can absolutely give you so much more than that.”
He was a very bad person.
But girls would be girls.
And Naruto liked girls.
A lot.
“I assume you have a pen and paper with you? ♥”
His toothy grin was growing on her.
"But of course~" she returned, drawing her purse closer to her hip and pulling out the small sketchpad she always carried with her. (One never knows when or where inspiration may strike, after all.) "I'll even write down the time that way I can be sure to pay you properly. In addition to a generous personal thanks."
She opened her tin pencil case and picked the pencil with the sharpest point on it and set the pad on the table, ready to write down every word that came out of his mouth. Karin was used to taking dictation from both of her parents for their business dealings, and this was hardly any different. She noted the time and his pay rate on the top of the sheet and lifted her eyes to meet his. "At your leisure, Naruto-kun."
And so it began.
“Uchiha Sasuke. Aged sixteen years, thirty-eight days; birthdate July 23. Son of the gorgeous and altogether-far-too-smart Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku; younger brother of none other than the Uchiha Itachi, an Oshima High school graduate. A Cancer, self-conscious with a monster inferiority complex that he likes to think people can’t notice. Bitchy as all hell, most prominently when caught doing something he purportedly frowns upon, i. e. shaving his legs in our bathroom with all the lights on when he thinks I’m not home, or stuffing his face with raw vegetables when he thinks I’m sleeping.”
(February 3rd had been a very good day, this year.)
Naruto was smiling the whole time to himself, arms folded at a matter-of-fact angle, eyes closed so Karin wouldn’t catch him being wistful. A beautiful face when he really is asleep, loves to snuggle up to whatever’s warmest whenever he’s not actually conscious. (He sounded like a stalker, and he knew it. And that was probably because he was one, and like all stalkers, he made sure to only get caught at the right sort of times.)
“Stands straight with perfect posture at no shorter or taller than one hundred fifty six centimeters - a small waist with hardly any muscle, which runs in his family. He doesn’t build it well. Spends at least twenty minutes on his hair in the morning, and almost a full hour on it at night, and he’s extremely picky about the way it looks. Hates cigarettes, idiots, and all things lude and crude that are in any way related to him.” Blushes the prettiest shade of rose you’ve ever seen in your life when you call him ‘cute’ .
He grinned up at the ceiling, laughing to himself, deep in thought. “Hates women, men, his brother, his cousin, being by himself, being small, being subordinated or patronized and being told how good looking he is. Tends not to cuss unless you get him in a very certain mood,” that I can always manage.
“Hates close to everything, Sasuke does.”
So wistful, his features.
“Small arms, bony hips, and an adoration for tomatoes and chick flicks, his favorite of the latter being Pretty In Pink, St. Elmo s Fire, and The Breakfast Club. A writing major with a hell of an attitude.”
He turned back to her, skin flushed with the energy of his thought.
(The boy I’m gunna marry someday.)
“Anything else?”
Karin was practically salivating with all the data Naruto was sharing with her. So detailed! So they were roommates, hmmm? She placed aside the thoughts of concern that such a living situation might bring about and scoured her mental list of questions for those unanswered.
"Boxers or briefs, favorite scent, what kind of body wash and shampoo does he use? What's his favorite and least favorite colors? Least favorite food? Favorite time of day? One lump or two? Does he use moisturizer? What time was he born?
"Does he enjoy alcoholic beverages? Flying? Fighting? Theatre? Sports? Long walks on the beach?" She shook her head even as the question left her mouth, with skin like his he probably only walked the beach on nights with a new moon. "Does he enjoy television, and if so, what shows does he enjoy and ignore? Is he a fan of literature, does he like museums, history?
"Who're his favorite and least favorite teachers at school, and who does he hang out with and avoid like the plague?
"How old is his brother, and do they get along?" (Do they look like, because ohGod, she'd ruin her underwear right there if they did.) "Is he a momma's boy, or a father's son?"
Her eyes glimmered and she tapped her pencil on her pad. "And you forgot to tell me his major, Naruto-kun."
His smile was all the wider for her enthusiasm.
What a girl.
“My apologies, Karin-chan. Allow my rectify myself.”
(Then we’ll start from the end and work our way up.)
“A literature major, not that he broadcasts it. A mama’s boy, no doubt about it.” (I’ve photographed him talking on the phone to her more often than I’ve photographed him bathing. And Sasuke’s one of those people who thinks cleanliness is, godliness, you know what I mean.) He paused, mused over the ‘brother’ mention. Kyuubi prickled delightedly in the back of his brain for reason Naruto neither understood nor really wanted to, and he swallowed the fox’s comments hard and forcibly.
“Itachi.”
It was the first time his voice went serious, his grin suddenly seemed- (a) grim(ace).
“He can’t stand Itachi.”
He cocked his head lightly to the side.
“It’s a real shame, actually. Sometimes if you put them in the same light, they could be twins. Itachi’s a little taller, of course, but they’ve got the same complexion they both look ridiculously similar to their mom. You line ‘em all up, they look like little Uchiha dolls Mikoto made in her basement. It’s pretty crazy. Itachi’s about three years older than he is I think. Last time I heard, he was fucking their cousin, and that was supposed to be big news; I wouldn’t put it past him, I guess is what I mean. The way Sasuke-” He paused, deciding that that tidbit was his to keep. His smile (frown) broadened again. “Well, I mean, Uchihas equal incest. I wouldn’t go much further with it than that.
“Not that that’s why he can’t stand him.” He reached forward and sipped his drink idly, the noise soft and complacent as it slid through the straw. “Their cousin s pretty creepy, I guess, but he’s nice too. ...in a really creepy sort of way.” He seemed to ponder his words more carefully, as if this part of Sasuke was worth stepping around and into very cautiously. “He doesn’t really like to talk about it. His brother, I mean. Hates if you even mention him in context, even if what you re saying is something-
(“Sasuke, ow, what the fu-”
“Don’t talk about my family, idiot.”)
-negative.”
His smile dissipated like smoke in cold air and he chewed his lips, eyes cloudy. “Itachi’s really where the whole inferiority thing comes into play. I’m actually pretty surprised that you don’t know him by name,” Naruto looked at her pointedly, “but you probably know him somehow. Almost everybody does. Guy’s a god as far as most people are concerned, and even if you aren’t most people it’s hard not to admit that he’s unnaturally well-gifted. Smart as fuck is what he is - good at what might as well be practically everything.
“You live in that shadow for a few years and it’ll really tear you up. Sort of makes you doubt your own worth and value.” Not that Sasuke would ever admit to a thing like that. “You know?”
He sipped a little more from his drink and then the smile was back in place and he was rolling again.
“As for school, Sasuke s somewhat of a teacher’s pet just because he’s a brainiac and a hell of a suck up, but pretty much everyone either annoys the shit out of him, babies him too much, or gives him a mad case of the heebeejeebies. He doesn’t really have a bunch of really good friends - I doubt he d even acknowledge anybody that way -” even me, “but he gets crowded a lot because he’s such a good student and so ridiculously fine.” (Stay away from obscenities, boy.) “For the most part, he keeps to himself, but I can usually track him down whenever and wherever, and he usually puts up with me, for whatever reason. Sakura-chan can too, of course, because she’s got a great nose, but she usually gives him his space, for whatever reason.
“Can’t drink for shit - first time he tried he drank himself under the table and then barfed the whole rest of the night, and the second time-” Another pause and his smile went extremely perverted for a second. (The second time Sasuke got drunk, we made out on the couch. Stellar, baby. Positively stellar. ♥) “Well, that was eventful too. He tries to avoid for the most part since he knows what it does to him.” Made him cute and tipsy as hell is what it did to him. (Such a pervert, Naruto was.)
He looked up at her gleefully. “There was more, hm?”
Karin was actually rather surprised at his thoroughness. He was being honest with her, telling her more Sasuke's family than she had hoped he'd give (willingly). She nodded to a few of his points (being the only child - a female of a kumicho had certainly put certain pressures on her when she was younger. That was one of her mother's reasons for the divorce-) and decided that most of what was said was spoken in a form of trust, and didn't write it down. "I only came to the island a month before school started, so the particulars on key students and such I'm not quite well-versed in."
She ate a mouthful of salad and picked up her pencil once more. "I'll move more slowly from now on." She gave him a small smile. "Boxers or briefs?"
It was always first, no matter who was being questioned after.
"What scents does Sasuke-kun prefer, which ones doesn't he like? What body wash and shampoo does he use? What are his favorite and least favorite colors? You mentioned he likes tomatoes, but is there any food he doesn't like?"
Another mouthful of salad as she waited for him to begin.
“Sweets,” Naruto said, lightly, taking the plastic top off of his drink and taking it out, along with the straw. “Sasuke can’t stand sweets. Doesn’t matter what it is ice cream, chocolate, parfait, crepes. He doesn’t even like fruit. Anything with sugar, you can count it out of his diet - he positively can’t stand it.
“As for scents, he usually tries to avoid them - I’m not saying he uses standard everything, God no. I’m saying he s a hell of a minimalist. Pays a lot more to get a lot less, and always has. Uses mouth wash that looks the same, tastes the same, smells the same, but costs twenty dollars more than anyone sane ever pays for mouth wash. He’s got cash to burn is what he’s got, and I don’t think he really likes it. He doesn’t go out of his way flaunt it at all, just out of his way to use it in all of the very worst way possible. Like his clothes. You’ve seen his clothes, right? Sasuke made his mom stop shopping for him a while ago but he never buys himself anything that (a) costs less than a few hundred dollars and (b) compliments his figure at all. I think he actually goes out of his way to look as much like a slob as he possibly can, just to- God, I don’t even know. It makes no sense. ‘Look, Ma, I can dress myself like a stooge, and-or a person five times my size!’ Yeah, big statement there, Sasuke. Nice one.” He looked annoyed at this juncture, cast his gaze up to the ceiling and half growled out the words in a very frustrated manner. For a moment, it was like he wasn’t talking to Karin at all, but his demented best friend instead.
He rolled his eyes at last and came back down to Earth to settle back on her. “So, getting back to things, what he buys for his hair - which I m pretty sure I mentioned he’s positively anal about - it hardly ever smells like anything. I’m pretty sure my sort of thing appeals to him - I tend to stick by my citrus guns - but he only uses it when he either thinks I’m not goingto be home for a while or that I won’t notice. Either, or. I’m the only one of us who uses regular soap - he goes through the whole sanitizer, moisturizer, whatever-creamy-shit-costs-that-much sort of routine everytime he bathes himself.” (Which is twice, daily, no matter the circumstances.)
“As for colours, he generally sticks with dark ones - navy blues and blacks, for the most part. Usually, whatever he’s wearing is supposed to be the very least attractive thing he could ever put himself in, especially on the weekends, and it’s usually supposed to cover as much skin as humanly possible. He’d buy himself a bio-suit if they came in black, I swear to God he would. I don’t know if he has any least favorites, but I’m sure if he does, they’d have to include yellows, oranges, and lime green.”
And he smiled.
“I’ll keep underwear details to myself, though.”
Karin narrowed her eyes slightly before opening them to a coy gaze, lifting a thin brow just enough to be sexy. She leaned forward again and pursed her lips together (it wasn't exactly a pout, but close enough to be considered seductive without being obvious). She ran her foot along his calf muscle again, sliding the silk-covered arch of her foot against the muscle's fullness underneath the sturdy denim. She could tell there was strength in his body, and that was something Karin could respect. Oh yes, Naruto was certainly growing on her.
"Is there anything a girl could do to get you to share those details? I give you my word I won't share it with anyone else."
'Now flutter your eyelids twice and make it look like you're just blinking quickly.' She followed her mental stage directions and twisted the cap off of her water bottle, taking a long, deep drink. 'Keep your eyes locked with his.' She finished and licked a bit of the clear liquid from the rim before setting the bottle back down, expression betraying nothing.
She knew exactly what game she was playing and felt no shame in it. She wanted to know everything about Uchiha Sasuke, and she'd go to any lengths to secure it. "Well, Naruto-kun?"
Dear Christ, she was good.
Naruto let the ligaments in his hand string and unstring themselves, refused the violent need all of a sudden to clear his throat, forced down blood that would ve flushed his cheeks and instead ran squealing and giggling elsewhere (fuck, what a girl, Jesus,) and tried to keep his face completely straight and quash the all too blatant fact that the touch to his legs sent goosebumps scrambling and cascading across his bronzed skin.
Jesus God.
He kept his hands very forcibly in place, and examined her body again from arms length. (He wasn’t a rapist, but Kyuubi was, and the fox - who had been dormant for so long, almost four months until only a few hours ago - had a few very interesting things to say on his opinion of Karin’s physical blessings, and Naruto didn’t think it was a great idea to listen to him. It just gave him all more reasons to-) He remained rather steadfast, keeping his distance only ever so slightly, eyes roaming her face and her body rather unscrupulously.
“I think I might propose a trade, then.”
Hook.
Line.
And
sinker
indeed.
She winked and closed her sketchpad, stretching a hand over to one of his, tracing the tendons that stood out against his large hands. She wasn't one much for tanned guys (there was something about pure white that just begged her to dirty it up in some way) but as Naruto's good points grew more and more apparent his looks were improving as well.
"And I believe I'm highly inclined to agree to your terms, Naruto-kun," she purred, her hand feathering across his as her foot continued moving against his leg, sweeping around the shin and rising up the flat part of the muscle.
A few seconds ago, Naruto had wondered - vaguely and to himself - if this conversation might be getting slightly out of hand.
When another passing thought alerted him to the fact that he was now wondering if it was proper etiquette to snog a girl you had just met, and then have kinky exhibitionist sex in the middle of a McDonalds you had wandered into no less than about twenty seven minutes ago, Naruto didn’t have to really wonder anymore.
Then he was stuck with wondering how he was going to ever move three inches from this spot without jumping her and hence becoming a very bad person who most likely either died or went to prison - perhaps both, though not necessarily in that order. And that was not a very pleasant thing to sit around wondering, especially with food that he no longer had any desire to eat sitting approximately two feet from him.
No facial expression showed on his face; that he was careful of. But it was very very difficult not to react in any other way (ways which he adroitly kept to himself) and he took the hand that was the only part of him not in physical contact with Karin and moved it through his hair.
(A nervous gesture.
Was he nervous?)
And so he waited a few seconds before announcing his terms in a low voice.
“Your underwear for details on his. No more, no less.”
That was it? Something within her deflated slightly. So that was his kink, was it? She scanned his face and tapped his hand with her pointer finger before sliding her loafer back on. She turned on the seat and stood, not bothering to smooth out the pleats in her uniform's skirt just yet.
She scanned the restaurant, pleased it was rather empty for the time of day and strode over to the bathroom, winking at Naruto over her shoulder before pushing the heavy door open. Lucky again, she decided, when she saw two empty stalls and a sink attached to the wall with a hand dryer and paper towel dispenser on the same wall.
The school blazer was too form-fitting for her to stick her panties in one of the pockets, and she couldn't very well shove the garment between her shirt and the coat only to hand him the flimsy material out in the open. She smirked.
She opened the door and peeked out - there was a perfect view of where she had been sitting with Naruto. She raised her hand and motioned for him to come over.
There was no doubt in her mind that this would work. 'Oh, no siree.'
And the boy’s brain did an extremely visible double back flip, landed in a split, forward somersaulted into a shoulder freeze, spread its legs can-can formation, and started whooping and hollering obscenities.
Up, duck out of sight, and there was no ifs, ands or buts about it, he half flew across the floor and ducked underneath her hand to join her there.
Oh dear God those legs.
She liked that he was a fast mover.
After he practically slid into the room she leaned back against the heavy feet out enough for her to slouch a bit and give him a different view of her legs since he seemed to enjoy them so much. She played coy.
"I realized I forgot my purse and didn't have a way to get my panties to you, I hope you don't mind." She could care less about her purse right now, in all honesty. Her heart was speeding up little bit. "I realize this causes a problem for you should another female come in, so if you'd like to wait in one of the stalls..." she blinked slowly, inflecting her voice into a question.
And he almost contemplated doing it before he got considerably nauseous the waist up.
I’VE GOT THIS ONE YOU-
A wide, deeply feral and almost way-too-charismatic grin spread across his face regardless of his demands, and he felt himself forced onto the proverbial mental backburner. Teeth caught light, eyes billowed a charged red, but subtly - it simply flowed slowly at the very bottom of his right pupil, the recognizable crimson. For the majority of things, Naruto was still in control, and so he attempted to stop breathing to try and force Kyuubi back.
No cigar.
“If you don’t mind terribly,” a deep voice that was not his own practically purred (oozing sexuality from every available- YOU ASSHOLE, IF YOU TOUCH HER I SWEAR TO GOD-), “my modesty leaves very much to be desired; I’d much rather stay out here.” If it weren’t for the smoothness of the syllables, the words would’ve slid out looking like jagged bits of ruined electronics Naruto knew this. For such a debonair speaker, Kyuubi s modesty wasn t the only thing that left quite a bit to be desired - his vocabulary was positively vulgar.
Naruto would’ve snarled into him, but there wasn’t much of a point - especially seeing that he wouldn’t really mind the opportunity to see Karin lose her underwear either. (No person in their right mind, would after all. and, of course, if Uzumaki Naruto were any sort of example, no body not in their right mind would, either.) His only real rule - and he maintained it from the confines of Kyuubi’s overwhelming seizure of influence - was that he not feel her up, because he could tell they were both wanting to and it didn’t strike him as outrageously appropriate.
But hitting on her shamelessly?
Oh, that was fine.
Karin shrugged and settled her hands on her hips, hooking her thumbs on the waistline of her skirt momentarily. "I don't mind terribly. I was raised by men, you see, and my mother was never truly successful in turning me into a proper lady."
She moved her hands down her skirt (it was shorter because of the way she rolled it up) and then up under the hem, shoulders pressing into the door. As her hands found the top of her slightly over-priced underwear. (Bought more for the aesthetic appeal rather than modesty.)
Tiny boy shorts made mostly of red lace with orange and yellow accents. She rolled her hips as her hands side beneath the delicate material and slithered down her thighs, bringing the material down as well. She drew her right foot from her shoe and stepped out of the leg hole, holding the panties up with her left hand. She stepped back into the loafer and removed her other foot, letting the lace trail down her leg to her ankle. She held her foot up about a foot off the floor and raised her lidded eyes to meet his.
"There's not much to them, are you sure this is enough to trade with?"
Naruto almost choked on himself, and it was only by Kyuubi’s help (the fox withdrew and gave him back control, but they maintained it rather equally, as sitting side by side on a throne). His eyes, rather than his face, flushed a royal violet, and he wrestled with the idea of just giving everything over just so he wouldn’t have to worry about losing them when they were almost within he grasp. (They were probably one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life, that not-very-innocent pair of panties, and he nearly asked if he could see her bra, just to check that they matched, but he knew full well what that would probably lead to and nipple pinching is not a very good way to convince a person that your motives are entirely pure.)
Instead, he whistled, low and appreciatively, and it echoed across the room.
“Very nice.”
His voice lingered as a soft semblance of Kyuubi’s and blooming shadow of his own it was a strange sort of place for a voice to linger, an odd timbre, and for the most part he sounded either incredibly sex-deprived or incredibly hoarse. His vocal chords didn’t seem to be able to make up their mind which, and he didn’t really have the energy or the attention span to worry about it much. He reached out and took them from him almost daintily. Dragged fingers through his hair, and then around his waist tightly, twirling the earned panties around the pointer finger of his other hand.
“Briefs sometimes, boxers most times. Sometimes cotton, usually silk, less print, more black. Very black. Lots of black. Tight, tight, tight. Anything else you want to know is yours.”
She had him right where she wanted him.
She lifted a brow and pushed away from the door and stepped closer to him. Not really invading his personal space, but closer than people who've just met usually stand. She lifted her chin to meet his eyes (he was just a bit taller than her) and gave him a pert grin. "Well, it's getting late and I only stepped out for a quick bite. Might I have an I.O.U. for that ‘anything else’, Naruto-kun?"
She examined him from this close distance and saw the hint of red in his once blue eyes. It gave them a feral hint, and it stirred something within her. Interesting. She had noticed the slight way his voice had changed during certain parts of their conversation and she rather liked the deeper, slightly rougher sound it produced. He was certainly getting her attention more this way than when they had first met. "An I.O.U. for everything except one thing, if I may, Naruto-kun."
Karin lowered her chin and lifted a hand and placed a finger on the small round skull charm of one of his necklaces, rolling it along his skin slowly. She raised her eyes and peeked at him from behind her thick lashes above the frames of her glasses.
“Ah.”
And it was Kyuubi’s smile, Kyuubi’s words, and Naruto’s jealousy that so chocolate-coated his words.
“But only when the reward is unlimited will the answers too be so.”
A delighted air to him as he caught the panties mid-lazy swing and took them between his two hands, fingers delicate and thoughtful at the corners. (T)he(y) admired them for a good second before folding them deftly in half, quaterly, and over themselves, and then slipped them deftly into his shirt pocket. The bulge was nearly imperceptible, the way he did it, and for all that Karin could see from her angle, they simply looked like another part of his shirt, lace hidden from view to make it match better.
His smile was suave in its very own way, was what it was, and his eyes fluctuated in a very delighted fashion. “But of course you’re entitled to ask whatever sort of question you d like.”
A step closer and she rolled the skull into her palm, smiling at it before tilting her head to the side and answering. “I already offered you anything and everything, Naruto-kun, that’s a vow that stands for however long we wish out acquaintance to continue.” She closed her fist around the charm and rose to the balls of her feet, lips just in front of his ear before whispering. “What about you? Boxers or briefs?”
One, magical word-
(-is enough to settle things.)
A bright, wide grin, lips suddenly pressed against the shell of her ear and whispering.
"Neither."
Karin ran her tongue over her teeth and stepped back, eyes sparkling and a knowing grin on her face. “Just the way I like it.”
She let go of his necklance and turned to the door. “Thank you for your help, Naruto-kun. I’ll see you tomorrow at school, right?” She slipped through the small opening before he could reply, hips swaying as she walked back to their table and gathered her purse and sketch pad. She didn’t look back behind her as exited the building, a grin playing on her lips as a gentl breeze lifted the edges of her skirt a fraction of an inch. Just the way she liked it indeed.
What: FIRST MEETING, and slightly more~
When: After school on the first day of classes. (Yes, it took us that long. ;_;)
Where: A McDonald's bathroom.
Warnings: ... Lots of talk about Sasuke and panties.
Karin had been going through her art supplies for over two hours now, picking the best of her things to pack into her new supply box to bring to school tomorrow. The growling of her stomach had grown louder over the last half hour to the point where it was now disrupting her concentration. She sighed and stood.
She didn't have much to work with in her kitchen, she was overdue for a trip to the grocery store, but she didn't have time to waste. Fast food it was, then, by process of elimination. She picked up her purse and a light sweatshirt she had painted and slid on her loafers. She hadn't changed out of her school uniform, but she didn't really care - it wasn't important.
She made her way to the lobby of her apartment building (it wasn't the most expensive on the island, but it was definitely one of the better ones due to it's closeness to the beach and location on the south side of the island) and asked the doorman for directions to the closest chain store.
A McDonald's a few blocks away was her destination. She absorbed all the people and sights Oshima had to offer at this time of day - the evening traffic rush had just ended but students who had finished their work were milling about the streets. She arrived and put her hand out to grab the handle of the door just as another person did.
One Uzumaki Naruto blinked at her almost stupidly in the second proceeding.
Oh, goody, somebody else going to McDonalds in the middle of the afternoon, almost conveniently at lunchtime, presumably on the quest for - get ready for this - food.
(What a shocking development!)
His face went slate-like as he wrestled to yank the Sarcasm Cord out of the outlet on the side of his brain, and he studied the girl in front of him in a, uncharacteristically mild-mannered sort of way: she was about his height (which was a little biting, as a matter of fact) with hair like feathers. Her clothing was modernized by the occasional clasp and light-catching plastic with white seams, and it complimented her form with was lithe without being toned or muscle-clad. He eyed her up and down once, not seeing anything really out of the ordinary before-
His lips unfurled and spread-eagled in an overly-illustrious grin, his almost-sharpened teeth catching the light and his eyes glowing with some joke he had inevitably just told himself.
"Hi."
Killer legs.
She raised a brow has high as it could go and narrowed her eyes slightly. She took him in exactly as he had, only (unluckily) enough for her, there was nothing remotely impressive or attractive about him. Except for maybe his blue eyes, but as soon as he gave her that too large grin it ruined any beauty in his face.
She pulled her hand back and discreetly wiped it on her skirt. "Hello," she said, ignoring the decorum her mother had tried to pound into her head (she was the daughter of a yakuza boss, she couldn't be as feminine as her mother wished in a million lifetimes). A sport motorcycle zoomed by on the street (faster than the speed limit, she could tell) and the ensuing breeze danced at the hem of her skirt. Maybe she should have unrolled it back to its required length. His wandering eyes weren't appreciated (but the hottie from lunch could undress her with his eyes any time he wanted, and she hoped it would be often).
She looked back at the boy, he seemed familiar somehow. "Do I know you from somewhere?" She pushed her glasses up and watched the way his blond hair waved in the gentle breeze, and how the sun shone in it. It was bright. She wondered if she would have to mix a color to match it (not that she'd ever paint him, of course).
Naruto didn't miss her contemptuousness at all (and he was used to it by now - he'd had to endure alot of it from Sakura in their younger days, and she'd taken a rather long while to win over,) and went along with it without complaint or faltering. (Naruto's specialty therein lay, of course - he was known for never faltering.) He pushed the door open for her (since ladies go first - Naruto had never needed an adult to teach him that,) and the bells on the opposite swung and collided with one another, wraith-like in their chime.
"Know me?" She might've. It wouldn't have surprised him. There were plenty of people who knew of Naruto without ever having to meet him - he had plenty of stage presence. Enough, atleast, for three or four hundred people. (And everyone knew that the whole world was a stage.) He was rather difficult to miss in a crowd, and even more difficult to miss if he was only standing a few inches from you, enjoying the less-than-modest length of your skirt.
Here's to women.
Then again, the rumors that seemed to tail him endlessly weren't always pleasant, regrettably enough, and so he decided to take her age into consideration and hope for the best. The age gap between them didn't look too overly-wide at first glance, and so he decided to give what he could a decent go before the opportunity missed him. (Avoided him, more like. But Naruto was hard to avoid if he wasn't avoiding you.)
"You go to the high school a few blocks from here?"
Her brow lowered a fraction and she nodded, stepping past him. The restaurant was air conditioned and she felt her skin prickle instantly at the sudden drop in temperature. "Oshima? Yes, I just transferred over the break. Fine arts major."
He had really nice eyes (though not as make-you-shiver-just-thinking-about-them as the boy from lunch's), and a slightly better-than-ordinary face, she discovered upon closer inspection - so long as he wasn't smiling. There was a flair to him that hinted at his not being completely Japanese, and it interested her enough to keep talking to him. "And you?"
There was a short line and she scanned the menu for something that at least attempted to be healthy. She didn't want any food ruining her complexion before her important morning session with that boy before school tomorrow.
Come to think of it, she should have gotten his name. Maybe this boy knew him. Though she hoped to God they weren't friends. The dark-haired boy was far too refined for the likes of this familiar stranger.
She moved forward a couple of steps and looked to the boy. He was still where they had been, checking out her ass. She rolled her eyes and sighed mentally. If he kept that up she'd have to show her roots, and she had hoped that wouldn't be necessary until after she had already sealed the deal with the dark-haired angel who dipped his sushi into sauce.
“General studies.” Naruto s reply was fluid, after he’d finished oggling. (He giggled to himself. Ha. Fluid.) Very nice. Very nice. Yeah, there was definitely a God. Absolutely had to be.
He stuck his hands in his back pockets and smiled to himself, moving back and forth rather idly to the beat of a song he wasn t singing because he was in public. Grease, fat, saturated fat, grease and fries, or a tab of sugar to suit all your diabetic needs he wasn t a huge fan of fast food as things went (his ass looked fine without stretch marks, thankyou very much,) but it hadn t really been his day and it wasn t like he was going to miss out on something that tasted good just because his Sasuke Sense was tingling. He reached up and scratched with just his nails at the back of his nails.
He glanced over at her suddenly, grin flashing. “Uzumaki Naruto. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
His easy grin tugged her own lips into a slight smirk (though it had formed from a sneer). "Tono Karin. Still uncertain in that regard." So he was general studies, huh? In other words he didn't really have a real reason to be there, unless something unknown was tying him to the island. Karin knew enough about the school to know there weren't many on that particular track. Naruto was proving to be intersting, maybe opening up a tad bit wouldn't be such a bad idea.
"What year are you, if you don't mind my asking. You seem pretty confident of your surroundings, but in a cocky way that feels like you've earned the right to be cocky about it. Are you some type of hot-shot star student?"
“God, no.” Naruto stressed the “God” of the sentence, face rolling along with his eyes as he seemed to catch something almost offensive at the intimation. “I gotta roommate who is but he’s a total ass. And, I mean, I m pretty sure my sister’s passing all her classes, but honestly there’s no telling.” He shrugged and shook his head vaguely, glancing over at her as he folded his arms, as if he expected her to nod all-knowingly. He rotated his head to one side, once to other, his neck popping slickly, (what a nauseating sound) and seemed to consider the idea of being a “star pupil”. “I don t know. I play a lot of sports, I guess, but school’s not exactly my thing. Bores the hell out of me, you wanna know the truth.”
The way she came off, he really doubted she would, but it didn’t really bother him all that much. Naruto was well adjusted to talking to people who really didn’t give a shit what he thought about, or whether he even thought that much at all. He shrugged it off. “I’m a sophomore, though. So I guess I have at least a while longer to sit through six teachers a day, five days a week.” He yawned suddenly, put a hand up to stifle it.
Karin turned her head as she yawned in return (what a stupid reflex, though it came in handy in a fight so long as the person you were up against was really stupid and/or weak). Turning back to him she softened her smile. “Sophomore, huh? That means we’re in the same grade.”
Wait - he had said something about an ass of a roommate (who was male). Even if she was wrong, Naruto might be of help. “It’s handy I bumped into you tonight, Naruto. Maybe you could help me with something?” The cashier cleared his throat impatiently and Karin turned to quickly, shooting him a look. “A salad and water, please. For here,” she glanced at Naruto, implying for him to not dash off with his food to go. The next register became available and Karin continued after Naruto ordered. “I set up a date (okay, so it was more like an appointment, but that wasn’t important) with a student today during lunch, but in the excitement (and driving need to get him to model for her) I didn’t catch his name. If I described him do you think you could tell me more about him?”
Her food was placed on a tray and she stepped back from the counter after paying.
Naruto’s food came at the same time and he picked it up without really looking at it, his gaze interested. If there was anything Naruto could talk about for hours (save himself) it was people. He nodded enthusiastically, smile blooming and eyes catching the light. (At night, sometimes his retinas reflect it back red, but they hadn’t done that in a long time - not since the beginning of summer, not since-) And so he wasn t especially worried about them. He picked up his tray, “Yeah, probably.” It was an honest statement, which delighted him. “I don’t get terrific grades, but I know practically everyone on campus.”
And practically everyone on campus knew him. Including the freshmeat. (But they didn’t really count in the long run because he didn t know them too well. Whenever he got too close his Big Brother fetish started going crazy and so he’s avoided them for the most part. He really didn’t know what appealed to him so much about kids anyway. They were annoying as hell.)
He supposed that that’s what came out of babysitting the adults you adopted into your family. (Naruto’s concept of family was entirely his own after all. “Baa-baa.” He’d stared out the window, surveying the gray of the landscape. “Don’t worry about them. You look...” A studious pause. Thoughtful. “...you look fine.” Beautiful. Naruto never stopped hoping that his parents would be the ones that he picked for himself, had never given up faith in his own intuition. Since he was a small child, this has been his hope. “You can be my-”) You searched until you found the ones who suited you and you took them in of your own accord, sometimes without their even knowing, and you took in whatever came with them because that was the way family worked. You took in what you took in and you took in everything because they were your family and there was no way around it.
(Togetherness had always been vitally important to him.)
He followed her to a table and set his tray down only after she did. (How gentlemanly.) He slid the chair down and folded down onto it. “At school today, then?” (Cause I wasn’t.)
She nodded and slowly dug into her meal after the ritual thanks. After she had satisfied enough of her cravings she took a sip of her water and cleared her throat. “This boy...” she paused reminding herself not to get overly rapturous. No one liked being labeled a stalker. “He’s very very pale, like he never spends any time outside. He’s so white you’d wonder if he bathed in milk. Has a complexion a girl would kill for, and there’s a fine edge of femininity about him, but he’s pure male. Best bone structure I’ve ever seen anyone have. Eyes deep black like midnight, but glassy like marbles. Large, beautiful. His hair was just as black, with a blueish shine to it when the sun happened to land upon it. Style-wise... messy but well-tended to. The hair on the back of his head stuck out at odd angles which contrasted to the straight locks framing the front of his face. It looked really soft and silky.”
She stopped to catch her breath and sip more of her water. She had a tendency to talk fast when something excited her, and the sushi boy certainly had her excited. (She might have to excuse herself in a few more moments if this kept up. Where was the bathroom? Oh, over there by the-)
“He was rather twitchy, in a stiff way. Does that makes sense? He seemed very neurotic and touchy about his space - a large personal bubble he didn’t take kindly to having invaded. Even went out of his way to eat a block away from the school.” She chuckled at the memory. “He was drinking out of a water bottle, one of the fancy kinds only rich people buy becausee they can, and had a homemade bento. Dipped his sushi into the dipping sauce before eating it like a little prince.
“His voice was melodious, seductively deep - a voice you’d like to have whispering in your ear in the dark as-” She caught herself and blushed demurely, poking at her salad. “Deeper than you’d think he’d have by the look of him. Nice build, but lithe.”
Another pause, eyes meeting Naruto’s. “Any idea who that might be?”
At that particular moment, Naruto was actually busy being very, very glad he had only unwrapped his hamburger and not bitten into it. He had choked, promptly, on his spit, presumably to make up for how big his eyes had gotten over the course of her description, and while it wasn t exactly fun to sit there hacking and staring down at his lunch tray because he didn t want to see the expression on her face, he had a feeling it would ve been a lot less fun to be doing all that and have a piece of ground meat lodged in his windpipe. Yeah. That didn’t sound enjoyable, really. That didn’t sound enjoyable at all.
(He wasn’t gunna laugh, he wasn’t gunna laugh, he wasn’t gunna laugh.)
Irony is as irony does.
He finally regained his ability to breathe after a few seconds and then continued staring into his lunch tray as if it were something mystical and fascinating while he regained his composure, and then he sat up and struggled to keep a straight face.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure I know exactly who you’re talking about.”
(And I am going to laugh at him so hard when I get home.)
He knew?! This blond-haired peer with eyes as blue as the ocean eyes that knew how to inspect a female but a personality that screamed immature knew exactly whom she was talking about? Karin didn't know what emotion she was feeling stronger - joy at his being identified or concern that he was so well known by this boy. But maybe she was jumping to conclusions. After all, the ivory-skinned heartthrob not being recognized (with or without her thorough description) was a frightening though.
She loosened her grip on her water bottle after she realized water had been pouring down her hand since the boy across from her spoke. The crack of the plastic bending back into its original shape (how quickly the water fell back) drew the attention of a few other patrons (had she been squeezing it that hard?
Two inches of air were between the top of the water and the bottle rim.
Yes, she had.)
Karin leaned over her food, stomach tingling with butterflies and chest laboring with anticipation (the word rang through her head from that English movie she had seen a few years ago, the one with the transvestite...). "Who is he?" Her breath was breathy and full of want as she covered one of her hands over one of her classmate's tan ones.
Naruto had nothing against Sasuke’s fan club. Heavens no. Really, for the most part he tended to encourage them, because watching his roommate whine and struggle and bitch over them was more amusing than anything else he had yet to find. But the idea of telling Karin her apparent superhero’s true identity really ripped up his insides; gouged them out and turned them over.
He was absolutely torn. In one respect he was ridiculously tempted to be completely obscene with what he told her (and he had no idea why. For all means and purposes, Karin was cute, had a fantastic lower half, and was treating him with a near sublime amount of decency based on just how disrespectful he was being. She was catty, he could tell, but he didn t mind her company at all; for the most part she was behaving herself very well, and she didn’t really have to. Naruto was the person he was, after all. He knew that she was the person having to try, in this particular situation. But there was just that part of him - that part of him that listened to her talk about Sasuke and-) Obscene like he almost never was in public. Obscene like Sasuke absolutely hated.
(-fucking bristled.)
And then there was the Sakura-inebriated part of him that warned him to be polite to this one, good to her just because she had been good to him thus far. It squealed at him, whispered at him through his fingernails, Naruto, be nice! Be nice! Just tell her! Tell her who Sasuke is, plain and simple, no details!
No details.
(None.
but-
-wouldn t that include his name ?)
Who Sasuke is?
My best friend.
He thinks for a second.
My roommate.
Smirks darkly to himself.
A slut.
“His name?”
(You re the-)
Her hands gripped his (tightly) and she leaned even more across the table, shoving her food tray out of the way with her elbow. She blinked her eyes a few times - (cue water-lined eyes in
3
2
1)
"His name, major, where he's from, anything. Everything." That was desperate, she knew, but she had to know. Time to lay it out all out on the table. If he helped, he'd be rewarded, if not...
Well, she was a kumicho's daughter. She smirked mentally at the images her mind was creating.
Karin loosened her hold on his hand and stroked the rough skin in an (almost) placating way. "I ran (after) into him during lunch and without asking his name strong-armed him into agreeing to sit for me tomorrow morning before school so that I could draw him. Aside from what he looks like and how he treated me, I can only infer so much, and I'd rather have cold hard facts.
"Seeing him woke something up within me, and I need to have more chances to be with him and put what I see to paper - without having to work around a restraining order. If I go in tomorrow morning with even a little info on him, I've got a better chance of securing more chances. I know he'll like my work, but the more I have in my arsenal the better, right?"
She smiled at him and brought her elbows closer together, knowing full well how it enhanced her bosom.
Needless to say, Naruto’s conscience was obliged to nearly win him over, thanks to this all-too-wonderful enhancement, and he proceeded to seriously consider her demands as his fingers twisted absent-mindedly through his hair, his eyes wide and blinking.
(The perfect woman. That much was certain.)
...he paused and made a well-deserved mental note on the matter.
(All due apologies, Sakura-chan. I’ll get a pair of her panties for you to make up for it. Swear to God.)
“I should carry around a sign up sheet. Have people check him out library-style. It’d be the perfect escort business.” His voice was quiet (it was obvious he was talking to himself, though - about what - no one could be sure) and his attention never truly diverted itself from the brilliant amount of cleavage she exposed to him so purposefully; by most (and all) accounts, his eyes never once left it, his mind simply paced behind them, taking the work and making it easier. (Because, honestly, what kind of person with any kind of libido looked away from something like that? Karin was truly the green flash of women - she really was.) “I could just put it on a clip board and keep it on my person at all times - his stats and everything. I could probably get all his measurements when he was sleeping, even. It’s ingenious really, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”
All this he half-said around his hand, not every looking away from her or even attempting it (because Naruto wasn’t an idiot no matter what people said), almost-silently and entirely to himself. It was an incoherent should-have-stayed-in-his-head stream of consciousness that simply filtered through his lips the way breath might. (It was strangely natural, like an interpretive dance of some sort.)
He paused though, still hesitant.
And then he tilted his head very thoughtfully.
He’s one hell of a fag anyway. It couldn’t really hurt.
(An angry pang in his stomach that positively wasn’t hunger told him that women like Karin could easily effect the natural balance of those sorts of things, but he told himself that his friend could probably do with getting laid sometime.)
“I should warn you.”
He finally looked up at her eyes (it was very very difficult but he managed all the same), and he smiled widely.
“I charge twenty bucks an hour fee for pimping services.”
Karin's smile grew and she knew her pleasure reflected in her eyes. She pat Naruto's hand. "Didn't I tell you? I'm loaded."
She tossed her head to keep her hair off of her face and crossed her right leg over her left knee. She slid her foot out of her loafer and dangled it against one of his calf muscles. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship, Naruto-kun." She practically purred the suffix. He seemed like a boy who'd appreciate it.
This was almost too easy. She'd vowed to herself to reward him, but the only determinate now was how much information he shared. The more information about her black-haired sex god, the larger the reward. Karin sat back and brushed her foot against his leg as she lifted her water bottle. A little more teasing wouldn't hurt, he was obviously caught (hook, line, and sinker).
It was sore temptation is what is it was.
And Naruto could’ve lied.
But he didn’t.
(A whisper like the rustle of leaves in the back of his mind, a dark, deep overly-masculine chuckle that sent bits of electricity shooting down his spine. Dark red eyes, shifting passion, the kind of memories that went black to you, right before your eyes, but your hands know what you d done, your hands had all your memories, even the ones that didn’t really belong to you. “You fucking-” Dark laughter: He ll kill you for this, boy.)
“Name and major?” He smiled almost toothily, a great vulpine grin that cast him (oddly accurately) as the love-to-hate character of wiles in a western stage production. “I can absolutely give you so much more than that.”
He was a very bad person.
But girls would be girls.
And Naruto liked girls.
A lot.
“I assume you have a pen and paper with you? ♥”
His toothy grin was growing on her.
"But of course~" she returned, drawing her purse closer to her hip and pulling out the small sketchpad she always carried with her. (One never knows when or where inspiration may strike, after all.) "I'll even write down the time that way I can be sure to pay you properly. In addition to a generous personal thanks."
She opened her tin pencil case and picked the pencil with the sharpest point on it and set the pad on the table, ready to write down every word that came out of his mouth. Karin was used to taking dictation from both of her parents for their business dealings, and this was hardly any different. She noted the time and his pay rate on the top of the sheet and lifted her eyes to meet his. "At your leisure, Naruto-kun."
And so it began.
“Uchiha Sasuke. Aged sixteen years, thirty-eight days; birthdate July 23. Son of the gorgeous and altogether-far-too-smart Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku; younger brother of none other than the Uchiha Itachi, an Oshima High school graduate. A Cancer, self-conscious with a monster inferiority complex that he likes to think people can’t notice. Bitchy as all hell, most prominently when caught doing something he purportedly frowns upon, i. e. shaving his legs in our bathroom with all the lights on when he thinks I’m not home, or stuffing his face with raw vegetables when he thinks I’m sleeping.”
(February 3rd had been a very good day, this year.)
Naruto was smiling the whole time to himself, arms folded at a matter-of-fact angle, eyes closed so Karin wouldn’t catch him being wistful. A beautiful face when he really is asleep, loves to snuggle up to whatever’s warmest whenever he’s not actually conscious. (He sounded like a stalker, and he knew it. And that was probably because he was one, and like all stalkers, he made sure to only get caught at the right sort of times.)
“Stands straight with perfect posture at no shorter or taller than one hundred fifty six centimeters - a small waist with hardly any muscle, which runs in his family. He doesn’t build it well. Spends at least twenty minutes on his hair in the morning, and almost a full hour on it at night, and he’s extremely picky about the way it looks. Hates cigarettes, idiots, and all things lude and crude that are in any way related to him.” Blushes the prettiest shade of rose you’ve ever seen in your life when you call him ‘cute’ .
He grinned up at the ceiling, laughing to himself, deep in thought. “Hates women, men, his brother, his cousin, being by himself, being small, being subordinated or patronized and being told how good looking he is. Tends not to cuss unless you get him in a very certain mood,” that I can always manage.
“Hates close to everything, Sasuke does.”
So wistful, his features.
“Small arms, bony hips, and an adoration for tomatoes and chick flicks, his favorite of the latter being Pretty In Pink, St. Elmo s Fire, and The Breakfast Club. A writing major with a hell of an attitude.”
He turned back to her, skin flushed with the energy of his thought.
(The boy I’m gunna marry someday.)
“Anything else?”
Karin was practically salivating with all the data Naruto was sharing with her. So detailed! So they were roommates, hmmm? She placed aside the thoughts of concern that such a living situation might bring about and scoured her mental list of questions for those unanswered.
"Boxers or briefs, favorite scent, what kind of body wash and shampoo does he use? What's his favorite and least favorite colors? Least favorite food? Favorite time of day? One lump or two? Does he use moisturizer? What time was he born?
"Does he enjoy alcoholic beverages? Flying? Fighting? Theatre? Sports? Long walks on the beach?" She shook her head even as the question left her mouth, with skin like his he probably only walked the beach on nights with a new moon. "Does he enjoy television, and if so, what shows does he enjoy and ignore? Is he a fan of literature, does he like museums, history?
"Who're his favorite and least favorite teachers at school, and who does he hang out with and avoid like the plague?
"How old is his brother, and do they get along?" (Do they look like, because ohGod, she'd ruin her underwear right there if they did.) "Is he a momma's boy, or a father's son?"
Her eyes glimmered and she tapped her pencil on her pad. "And you forgot to tell me his major, Naruto-kun."
His smile was all the wider for her enthusiasm.
What a girl.
“My apologies, Karin-chan. Allow my rectify myself.”
(Then we’ll start from the end and work our way up.)
“A literature major, not that he broadcasts it. A mama’s boy, no doubt about it.” (I’ve photographed him talking on the phone to her more often than I’ve photographed him bathing. And Sasuke’s one of those people who thinks cleanliness is, godliness, you know what I mean.) He paused, mused over the ‘brother’ mention. Kyuubi prickled delightedly in the back of his brain for reason Naruto neither understood nor really wanted to, and he swallowed the fox’s comments hard and forcibly.
“Itachi.”
It was the first time his voice went serious, his grin suddenly seemed- (a) grim(ace).
“He can’t stand Itachi.”
He cocked his head lightly to the side.
“It’s a real shame, actually. Sometimes if you put them in the same light, they could be twins. Itachi’s a little taller, of course, but they’ve got the same complexion they both look ridiculously similar to their mom. You line ‘em all up, they look like little Uchiha dolls Mikoto made in her basement. It’s pretty crazy. Itachi’s about three years older than he is I think. Last time I heard, he was fucking their cousin, and that was supposed to be big news; I wouldn’t put it past him, I guess is what I mean. The way Sasuke-” He paused, deciding that that tidbit was his to keep. His smile (frown) broadened again. “Well, I mean, Uchihas equal incest. I wouldn’t go much further with it than that.
“Not that that’s why he can’t stand him.” He reached forward and sipped his drink idly, the noise soft and complacent as it slid through the straw. “Their cousin s pretty creepy, I guess, but he’s nice too. ...in a really creepy sort of way.” He seemed to ponder his words more carefully, as if this part of Sasuke was worth stepping around and into very cautiously. “He doesn’t really like to talk about it. His brother, I mean. Hates if you even mention him in context, even if what you re saying is something-
(“Sasuke, ow, what the fu-”
“Don’t talk about my family, idiot.”)
-negative.”
His smile dissipated like smoke in cold air and he chewed his lips, eyes cloudy. “Itachi’s really where the whole inferiority thing comes into play. I’m actually pretty surprised that you don’t know him by name,” Naruto looked at her pointedly, “but you probably know him somehow. Almost everybody does. Guy’s a god as far as most people are concerned, and even if you aren’t most people it’s hard not to admit that he’s unnaturally well-gifted. Smart as fuck is what he is - good at what might as well be practically everything.
“You live in that shadow for a few years and it’ll really tear you up. Sort of makes you doubt your own worth and value.” Not that Sasuke would ever admit to a thing like that. “You know?”
He sipped a little more from his drink and then the smile was back in place and he was rolling again.
“As for school, Sasuke s somewhat of a teacher’s pet just because he’s a brainiac and a hell of a suck up, but pretty much everyone either annoys the shit out of him, babies him too much, or gives him a mad case of the heebeejeebies. He doesn’t really have a bunch of really good friends - I doubt he d even acknowledge anybody that way -” even me, “but he gets crowded a lot because he’s such a good student and so ridiculously fine.” (Stay away from obscenities, boy.) “For the most part, he keeps to himself, but I can usually track him down whenever and wherever, and he usually puts up with me, for whatever reason. Sakura-chan can too, of course, because she’s got a great nose, but she usually gives him his space, for whatever reason.
“Can’t drink for shit - first time he tried he drank himself under the table and then barfed the whole rest of the night, and the second time-” Another pause and his smile went extremely perverted for a second. (The second time Sasuke got drunk, we made out on the couch. Stellar, baby. Positively stellar. ♥) “Well, that was eventful too. He tries to avoid for the most part since he knows what it does to him.” Made him cute and tipsy as hell is what it did to him. (Such a pervert, Naruto was.)
He looked up at her gleefully. “There was more, hm?”
Karin was actually rather surprised at his thoroughness. He was being honest with her, telling her more Sasuke's family than she had hoped he'd give (willingly). She nodded to a few of his points (being the only child - a female of a kumicho had certainly put certain pressures on her when she was younger. That was one of her mother's reasons for the divorce-) and decided that most of what was said was spoken in a form of trust, and didn't write it down. "I only came to the island a month before school started, so the particulars on key students and such I'm not quite well-versed in."
She ate a mouthful of salad and picked up her pencil once more. "I'll move more slowly from now on." She gave him a small smile. "Boxers or briefs?"
It was always first, no matter who was being questioned after.
"What scents does Sasuke-kun prefer, which ones doesn't he like? What body wash and shampoo does he use? What are his favorite and least favorite colors? You mentioned he likes tomatoes, but is there any food he doesn't like?"
Another mouthful of salad as she waited for him to begin.
“Sweets,” Naruto said, lightly, taking the plastic top off of his drink and taking it out, along with the straw. “Sasuke can’t stand sweets. Doesn’t matter what it is ice cream, chocolate, parfait, crepes. He doesn’t even like fruit. Anything with sugar, you can count it out of his diet - he positively can’t stand it.
“As for scents, he usually tries to avoid them - I’m not saying he uses standard everything, God no. I’m saying he s a hell of a minimalist. Pays a lot more to get a lot less, and always has. Uses mouth wash that looks the same, tastes the same, smells the same, but costs twenty dollars more than anyone sane ever pays for mouth wash. He’s got cash to burn is what he’s got, and I don’t think he really likes it. He doesn’t go out of his way flaunt it at all, just out of his way to use it in all of the very worst way possible. Like his clothes. You’ve seen his clothes, right? Sasuke made his mom stop shopping for him a while ago but he never buys himself anything that (a) costs less than a few hundred dollars and (b) compliments his figure at all. I think he actually goes out of his way to look as much like a slob as he possibly can, just to- God, I don’t even know. It makes no sense. ‘Look, Ma, I can dress myself like a stooge, and-or a person five times my size!’ Yeah, big statement there, Sasuke. Nice one.” He looked annoyed at this juncture, cast his gaze up to the ceiling and half growled out the words in a very frustrated manner. For a moment, it was like he wasn’t talking to Karin at all, but his demented best friend instead.
He rolled his eyes at last and came back down to Earth to settle back on her. “So, getting back to things, what he buys for his hair - which I m pretty sure I mentioned he’s positively anal about - it hardly ever smells like anything. I’m pretty sure my sort of thing appeals to him - I tend to stick by my citrus guns - but he only uses it when he either thinks I’m not goingto be home for a while or that I won’t notice. Either, or. I’m the only one of us who uses regular soap - he goes through the whole sanitizer, moisturizer, whatever-creamy-shit-costs-that-much sort of routine everytime he bathes himself.” (Which is twice, daily, no matter the circumstances.)
“As for colours, he generally sticks with dark ones - navy blues and blacks, for the most part. Usually, whatever he’s wearing is supposed to be the very least attractive thing he could ever put himself in, especially on the weekends, and it’s usually supposed to cover as much skin as humanly possible. He’d buy himself a bio-suit if they came in black, I swear to God he would. I don’t know if he has any least favorites, but I’m sure if he does, they’d have to include yellows, oranges, and lime green.”
And he smiled.
“I’ll keep underwear details to myself, though.”
Karin narrowed her eyes slightly before opening them to a coy gaze, lifting a thin brow just enough to be sexy. She leaned forward again and pursed her lips together (it wasn't exactly a pout, but close enough to be considered seductive without being obvious). She ran her foot along his calf muscle again, sliding the silk-covered arch of her foot against the muscle's fullness underneath the sturdy denim. She could tell there was strength in his body, and that was something Karin could respect. Oh yes, Naruto was certainly growing on her.
"Is there anything a girl could do to get you to share those details? I give you my word I won't share it with anyone else."
'Now flutter your eyelids twice and make it look like you're just blinking quickly.' She followed her mental stage directions and twisted the cap off of her water bottle, taking a long, deep drink. 'Keep your eyes locked with his.' She finished and licked a bit of the clear liquid from the rim before setting the bottle back down, expression betraying nothing.
She knew exactly what game she was playing and felt no shame in it. She wanted to know everything about Uchiha Sasuke, and she'd go to any lengths to secure it. "Well, Naruto-kun?"
Dear Christ, she was good.
Naruto let the ligaments in his hand string and unstring themselves, refused the violent need all of a sudden to clear his throat, forced down blood that would ve flushed his cheeks and instead ran squealing and giggling elsewhere (fuck, what a girl, Jesus,) and tried to keep his face completely straight and quash the all too blatant fact that the touch to his legs sent goosebumps scrambling and cascading across his bronzed skin.
Jesus God.
He kept his hands very forcibly in place, and examined her body again from arms length. (He wasn’t a rapist, but Kyuubi was, and the fox - who had been dormant for so long, almost four months until only a few hours ago - had a few very interesting things to say on his opinion of Karin’s physical blessings, and Naruto didn’t think it was a great idea to listen to him. It just gave him all more reasons to-) He remained rather steadfast, keeping his distance only ever so slightly, eyes roaming her face and her body rather unscrupulously.
“I think I might propose a trade, then.”
Hook.
Line.
And
sinker
indeed.
She winked and closed her sketchpad, stretching a hand over to one of his, tracing the tendons that stood out against his large hands. She wasn't one much for tanned guys (there was something about pure white that just begged her to dirty it up in some way) but as Naruto's good points grew more and more apparent his looks were improving as well.
"And I believe I'm highly inclined to agree to your terms, Naruto-kun," she purred, her hand feathering across his as her foot continued moving against his leg, sweeping around the shin and rising up the flat part of the muscle.
A few seconds ago, Naruto had wondered - vaguely and to himself - if this conversation might be getting slightly out of hand.
When another passing thought alerted him to the fact that he was now wondering if it was proper etiquette to snog a girl you had just met, and then have kinky exhibitionist sex in the middle of a McDonalds you had wandered into no less than about twenty seven minutes ago, Naruto didn’t have to really wonder anymore.
Then he was stuck with wondering how he was going to ever move three inches from this spot without jumping her and hence becoming a very bad person who most likely either died or went to prison - perhaps both, though not necessarily in that order. And that was not a very pleasant thing to sit around wondering, especially with food that he no longer had any desire to eat sitting approximately two feet from him.
No facial expression showed on his face; that he was careful of. But it was very very difficult not to react in any other way (ways which he adroitly kept to himself) and he took the hand that was the only part of him not in physical contact with Karin and moved it through his hair.
(A nervous gesture.
Was he nervous?)
And so he waited a few seconds before announcing his terms in a low voice.
“Your underwear for details on his. No more, no less.”
That was it? Something within her deflated slightly. So that was his kink, was it? She scanned his face and tapped his hand with her pointer finger before sliding her loafer back on. She turned on the seat and stood, not bothering to smooth out the pleats in her uniform's skirt just yet.
She scanned the restaurant, pleased it was rather empty for the time of day and strode over to the bathroom, winking at Naruto over her shoulder before pushing the heavy door open. Lucky again, she decided, when she saw two empty stalls and a sink attached to the wall with a hand dryer and paper towel dispenser on the same wall.
The school blazer was too form-fitting for her to stick her panties in one of the pockets, and she couldn't very well shove the garment between her shirt and the coat only to hand him the flimsy material out in the open. She smirked.
She opened the door and peeked out - there was a perfect view of where she had been sitting with Naruto. She raised her hand and motioned for him to come over.
There was no doubt in her mind that this would work. 'Oh, no siree.'
And the boy’s brain did an extremely visible double back flip, landed in a split, forward somersaulted into a shoulder freeze, spread its legs can-can formation, and started whooping and hollering obscenities.
Up, duck out of sight, and there was no ifs, ands or buts about it, he half flew across the floor and ducked underneath her hand to join her there.
Oh dear God those legs.
She liked that he was a fast mover.
After he practically slid into the room she leaned back against the heavy feet out enough for her to slouch a bit and give him a different view of her legs since he seemed to enjoy them so much. She played coy.
"I realized I forgot my purse and didn't have a way to get my panties to you, I hope you don't mind." She could care less about her purse right now, in all honesty. Her heart was speeding up little bit. "I realize this causes a problem for you should another female come in, so if you'd like to wait in one of the stalls..." she blinked slowly, inflecting her voice into a question.
And he almost contemplated doing it before he got considerably nauseous the waist up.
I’VE GOT THIS ONE YOU-
A wide, deeply feral and almost way-too-charismatic grin spread across his face regardless of his demands, and he felt himself forced onto the proverbial mental backburner. Teeth caught light, eyes billowed a charged red, but subtly - it simply flowed slowly at the very bottom of his right pupil, the recognizable crimson. For the majority of things, Naruto was still in control, and so he attempted to stop breathing to try and force Kyuubi back.
No cigar.
“If you don’t mind terribly,” a deep voice that was not his own practically purred (oozing sexuality from every available- YOU ASSHOLE, IF YOU TOUCH HER I SWEAR TO GOD-), “my modesty leaves very much to be desired; I’d much rather stay out here.” If it weren’t for the smoothness of the syllables, the words would’ve slid out looking like jagged bits of ruined electronics Naruto knew this. For such a debonair speaker, Kyuubi s modesty wasn t the only thing that left quite a bit to be desired - his vocabulary was positively vulgar.
Naruto would’ve snarled into him, but there wasn’t much of a point - especially seeing that he wouldn’t really mind the opportunity to see Karin lose her underwear either. (No person in their right mind, would after all. and, of course, if Uzumaki Naruto were any sort of example, no body not in their right mind would, either.) His only real rule - and he maintained it from the confines of Kyuubi’s overwhelming seizure of influence - was that he not feel her up, because he could tell they were both wanting to and it didn’t strike him as outrageously appropriate.
But hitting on her shamelessly?
Oh, that was fine.
Karin shrugged and settled her hands on her hips, hooking her thumbs on the waistline of her skirt momentarily. "I don't mind terribly. I was raised by men, you see, and my mother was never truly successful in turning me into a proper lady."
She moved her hands down her skirt (it was shorter because of the way she rolled it up) and then up under the hem, shoulders pressing into the door. As her hands found the top of her slightly over-priced underwear. (Bought more for the aesthetic appeal rather than modesty.)
Tiny boy shorts made mostly of red lace with orange and yellow accents. She rolled her hips as her hands side beneath the delicate material and slithered down her thighs, bringing the material down as well. She drew her right foot from her shoe and stepped out of the leg hole, holding the panties up with her left hand. She stepped back into the loafer and removed her other foot, letting the lace trail down her leg to her ankle. She held her foot up about a foot off the floor and raised her lidded eyes to meet his.
"There's not much to them, are you sure this is enough to trade with?"
Naruto almost choked on himself, and it was only by Kyuubi’s help (the fox withdrew and gave him back control, but they maintained it rather equally, as sitting side by side on a throne). His eyes, rather than his face, flushed a royal violet, and he wrestled with the idea of just giving everything over just so he wouldn’t have to worry about losing them when they were almost within he grasp. (They were probably one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life, that not-very-innocent pair of panties, and he nearly asked if he could see her bra, just to check that they matched, but he knew full well what that would probably lead to and nipple pinching is not a very good way to convince a person that your motives are entirely pure.)
Instead, he whistled, low and appreciatively, and it echoed across the room.
“Very nice.”
His voice lingered as a soft semblance of Kyuubi’s and blooming shadow of his own it was a strange sort of place for a voice to linger, an odd timbre, and for the most part he sounded either incredibly sex-deprived or incredibly hoarse. His vocal chords didn’t seem to be able to make up their mind which, and he didn’t really have the energy or the attention span to worry about it much. He reached out and took them from him almost daintily. Dragged fingers through his hair, and then around his waist tightly, twirling the earned panties around the pointer finger of his other hand.
“Briefs sometimes, boxers most times. Sometimes cotton, usually silk, less print, more black. Very black. Lots of black. Tight, tight, tight. Anything else you want to know is yours.”
She had him right where she wanted him.
She lifted a brow and pushed away from the door and stepped closer to him. Not really invading his personal space, but closer than people who've just met usually stand. She lifted her chin to meet his eyes (he was just a bit taller than her) and gave him a pert grin. "Well, it's getting late and I only stepped out for a quick bite. Might I have an I.O.U. for that ‘anything else’, Naruto-kun?"
She examined him from this close distance and saw the hint of red in his once blue eyes. It gave them a feral hint, and it stirred something within her. Interesting. She had noticed the slight way his voice had changed during certain parts of their conversation and she rather liked the deeper, slightly rougher sound it produced. He was certainly getting her attention more this way than when they had first met. "An I.O.U. for everything except one thing, if I may, Naruto-kun."
Karin lowered her chin and lifted a hand and placed a finger on the small round skull charm of one of his necklaces, rolling it along his skin slowly. She raised her eyes and peeked at him from behind her thick lashes above the frames of her glasses.
“Ah.”
And it was Kyuubi’s smile, Kyuubi’s words, and Naruto’s jealousy that so chocolate-coated his words.
“But only when the reward is unlimited will the answers too be so.”
A delighted air to him as he caught the panties mid-lazy swing and took them between his two hands, fingers delicate and thoughtful at the corners. (T)he(y) admired them for a good second before folding them deftly in half, quaterly, and over themselves, and then slipped them deftly into his shirt pocket. The bulge was nearly imperceptible, the way he did it, and for all that Karin could see from her angle, they simply looked like another part of his shirt, lace hidden from view to make it match better.
His smile was suave in its very own way, was what it was, and his eyes fluctuated in a very delighted fashion. “But of course you’re entitled to ask whatever sort of question you d like.”
A step closer and she rolled the skull into her palm, smiling at it before tilting her head to the side and answering. “I already offered you anything and everything, Naruto-kun, that’s a vow that stands for however long we wish out acquaintance to continue.” She closed her fist around the charm and rose to the balls of her feet, lips just in front of his ear before whispering. “What about you? Boxers or briefs?”
One, magical word-
(-is enough to settle things.)
A bright, wide grin, lips suddenly pressed against the shell of her ear and whispering.
"Neither."
Karin ran her tongue over her teeth and stepped back, eyes sparkling and a knowing grin on her face. “Just the way I like it.”
She let go of his necklance and turned to the door. “Thank you for your help, Naruto-kun. I’ll see you tomorrow at school, right?” She slipped through the small opening before he could reply, hips swaying as she walked back to their table and gathered her purse and sketch pad. She didn’t look back behind her as exited the building, a grin playing on her lips as a gentl breeze lifted the edges of her skirt a fraction of an inch. Just the way she liked it indeed.