Since I actually needed to do another personal post I combined it with my mission post requirement, this is really long so strap yourselves in
Post - North
After not sleeping for days du...
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Response to Buried too Deep - Mamoru
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Ever since Keisuke nearly killed Satomi and pushed Mamoru away he was dreading the inevitable conversation the former best friends would have. He put it off after Mamoru interrupted his "procedure" but now he was finally ready for it and he gave Mamoru a golden opportunity to ask whatever he'd like. But what did he ask?
"Have you been eating the bean buns?"
At first Keisuke didn't know how to react. That lone sentence stopped him in his tracks. He stood in the middle of the street, his eyes wide, and his shoulders starting to shake. Behind him Mamoru was worried that he'd said something wrong. That Keisuke was about to punch something. That... that he'd failed.
Actually, the exact opposite was true. The shaking wasn't from anger, it was from laughter. Keisuke suddenly fell to his knees and then his butt. Laughing hysterically the whole time.
"Y-you, pfff, I've been-" He sputtered, holding his gut and rolling onto his back. "Gimme a minute!"
Overwrought with laughter, Keisuke's eyes were tearing up and he was having a hard time breathing. It was probably five minutes later before he calmed down well enough to actually speak. All while this was happening Mamoru was standing over him, confused. 'Did he snap again?'
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Keisuke continued to laugh a bit. "I expected some hard ass questions. I sure as hell didn't think you were worrying about the damn bean buns!"
"Well... I just..." Mamoru said hesitantly and quietly.
"I've been eating them, yeah." Keisuke finally confirmed, rolling back onto his shoulders and using his hands to spring him back up to standing. "They've been sort of coming out my ears, didn't have much of a choice."
When Mamoru's face fell, Keisuke started to chuckle. "Oh my God I'm joking." He reached his hand out and ruffled Mamoru's hair. Something he hadn't done in a long time. Then he unconsciously dropped his hand and lightly pinched Mamoru's nose. "Thank you, Mamoru."
Smiling to himself he started to wander off with a wave. "See you around." Keisuke said before vanishing into thin air.
That left Mamoru alone, feeling happier than before, but it reduced him to tears. He'd been so worried about Keisuke and said he was fine... he seemed fine... having him turn a 180 like that just relieved all of Mamoru's stress in a rush. He was bawling. And he couldn't stop himself.
"Idiot..." He muttered. "We just made up and you leave me just like that...? Get back here and hold me... stupid..."
Then in a brief instant, Keisuke reappeared smirking. "Ask and you shall receive."
Mamoru looked up, tears streaking his face, and he just put his head against Keisuke's chest, his sobs getting muffled. Keisuke rubbed his hand over Mamoru's back, trying to ease his overworked nerves. He honestly didn't know what else to do. In the past Keisuke used his fists to stop him from crying. He couldn't exactly beat up himself.
"Hey, everything's okay now..." Keisuke muttered as he placed his lips against Mamoru's hair.
"Hnnnh hh." The silverette muttered into Keisuke's shirt.
Keisuke looked down and quirked a brow. "What?"
"Hold me." Mamoru said louder, his face turning red.
Chuckling at the uncharacteristic bluntness of his friend, he obliged him. Keisuke wrapped his large arms around Mamoru's middle and buried his face in his shoulder. Mamoru reached up to snake his arms around Keisuke's neck, his tears soaked the larger man's shirt.
They stayed like that for a while. Neither really cared who passed, who stared, they had each other again. Keisuke repeatedly placed kisses against Mamoru's temple to try and ease the hysterical silverette. He was still crying minutes later.
Then Mamoru looked up before looking back down and muttering, "I love you."
Even though Keisuke heard him perfectly, he found himself saying teasingly, "Oh? What was that? Speak up! You're so softspoken!"
Glaring as malevolently as he could, Mamoru pulled his fist back and delivered a punch to Keisuke's gut. "I said that I love you, you idiot!"
Despite being hit, Keisuke laughed wholeheartedly. And so the two best friends were reunited again. Even though one of them would probably be regretting that to some level in the future, but never for long.
BURIED TOO DEEP - END
Response to Buried too Deep - Ino
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Walking away from the Flower Shop with flowers in tow, Keisuke sighed. He really just wanted to run back and tell her everything. Like he wanted to tell Mamoru everything, and Kimiko, but he just couldn't. That wasn't his role in life. He just had to suck it all up. He wouldn't be living a long life anyway.
He stopped by Kaoru's grave, laying down the lilies as he'd promised. And he placed the lavender on his parents windowsill, careful not to draw any attention of the maids or groundskeepers, before slipping away and heading back to his place.
Planning to train later, Keisuke wrapped his wrists and knuckles when he returned to his apartment. He picked up Kaoru on his way back out, nestling her on top of his head as he finished getting his stuff together. When he was finally done he opened the door and was planning on putting Kaoru down when he suddenly froze. Standing in front of him...
was Mamoru.
They were both standing there looking at each other. Keisuke didn't really have the mental energy to put up his usual cold demeanor and that meant it was going to be hard to keep Mamoru away from him. Still not really sure what to say or do his gaze lowered to the case of bean buns in Mamoru's hands. He chuckled quietly to himself as he put Kaoru on a shelf to his left.
"You're insufferable." Keisuke muttered, moving closer to Mamoru so he could close the door behind him. As he descended the stairs he called out, "Well? Come on, what're you waiting for?"
"Wh-what?" Mamoru stuttered, clearly stunned.
When he reached the bottom step he turned and gave his old friend a sad smile. "You've probably got questions. If you bring those bean buns, I've got answers." He continued walking away after that. "Better use this opportunity while it lasts. No telling when I'll go back to being a dick. Just hope you don't mind sparring with me for a bit."
END
Ugh. Tired.
Response to Buried too Deep - Mamoru
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"I'm not leaving you alone, Keisuke!"
'I can see that, you little idiot!' Keisuke exasperated to himself as he went and bought a pack of cigarettes from an "unofficial vendor".
Mamoru had been following him around the village for the past half hour, trying to get him to talk. And Keisuke was running out of patience. His right eye was twitching. This wasn't even him trying to push Mamoru away, he was just legit annoyed. He wanted to go home, to his own apartment, to his own bed, and clean up all the blood and whatever else was scattered about his place. And he didn't want to be stuck with Mamoru in a small enclosure. He'd definitely have a hard time keeping his cool.
Finally though, a miracle happened. "You know what, fine. I can see this isn't working." Mamoru growled a bit. "But don't think this is over."
Then Keisuke felt Mamoru's chakra leave his presence. Finally alone, he let out a sigh of relief and headed back to his apartment. 'I don't remember that hole being there.' He thought as he walked in through an unhinged door. 'Did I put my fridge here or...?' He sighed. 'This place is a mess... why are there so many containers of bean buns in he- Mamoru...'
His fridge was embedded in the wall near the door, a distinct person sized hole was across from it, a mountain of bean buns were strewn about the place, and his table was turned over. Well. He'd be able to deal with the table easy enough. He kicked it up with his foot and just as it was about to land he heard a distinct, "Mew."
In a flash he threw himself to the floor and under the table before it could make contact. Huddled in his arms was probably the smallest kitten he'd ever seen. Small, the darkest brown, with big yellowish green eyes looking up at him.
"How the hell'd you get in here?" Keisuke asked the little bundle of fur.
"Mew." It responded.
Keisuke didn't speak for a second then said, "God you're cute."
The kitten looked as if it were smiling at Keisuke's words and reached his paws up towards him. Keisuke sighed and pulled the kitten up to his face. It lightly grabbed his nose between his paws and mewed again. With one hand holding the kitten he brought the other one up and pinched its nose. That seemed to please it.
"I'll call you Kaoru." He said calmly and it mewed once more.
Keisuke then put his new pet on his pillow and started to clean up when a knock resounded at the door. 'If that's Mamoru, I swear to God I'm going to punch his lights out.'
Angry and out of patience Keisuke stormed to the door and yanked it open. "What." He barked...
... at a particularly sweet young girl. "Um, sir...? Have you seen my kitten? She's really small and has really dark brown fur and-"
"No." Keisuke said just before slamming the door in her face.
'Well now I've kidnapped a kitten.' He thought with bit of a dry laugh. 'Eh. I don't really care.'
He sat down on the bed and ran his thumb over Kaoru's fur as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it with his ash trick. "It's gonna be a long few couple of days."
END
Satomi, if you want to respond to this go ahead. If you can comment with a definite yes or no so we can continue if you're not in the mood to respond (or can't think of anything, that happens too).
Response to Buried too Deep - Mamoru
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"I get it, you want to be alone, or something stupid like that, but a lobotomy? Why are you closing me- ...why are you closing us out? No, I take it back. Why do you keep closing me out? I care about you, alright? I'm here. Talk to me!"
'No no no no no no no!' Keisuke yelled inside his head as Mamoru spoke. 'Just let me do this and everything will be alright! No one will ever care about me ever again!'
But outwardly Keisuke was cool as stone. He stood slowly, not bothering to look Mamoru in the eye. If he did his resolve might break. And he couldn't have any of that. He put his hands in his pockets and tried to calm himself down. He'd been planning this procedure ever since he pushed Mamoru away. Ever since...
"Keisuke!" Mamoru yelled once more, pulling Keisuke out of his calm and sending him into a cool rage.
"Does it look like I care about any of that?" He seethed. "But you want to talk? So let's talk." 'I'm sorry Mamoru.' "Let's talk about how we haven't spoken in three years, where were you when I lost Asuma? Huh? Or Shikaku? You spout on about how you're here for me, but where have you been?" Keisuke paused to let out a chilling laugh. "But I got through those deaths just fine. Has it ever occurred to you that I don't need you? That everything I've gone through has only made me stronger? I don't need someone to hold my hand, I don't need anyone to tell me everything's going to be okay, claiming that I do will only piss me off more.
"You know why I live alone? Because my parents pulled this same shit when they figured out I was training under Ibiki. I turned my own parents away, Mamoru. What makes you think you're special? That with one little word from you I'll see the "error of my ways" and come running back? You should know by now that you're nothing to me anymore. I'm not going to dote on you" He started walking towards Mamoru with a cold smile plastered on his face. "Besides, Moru-chan," He stopped right in front of his childhood friend and leaned down to whisper in his ear, "what makes you think I'd want any help from the person who killed Kaoru?"
As Mamoru's eyes widened with shock Keisuke's lips twitched in a smirk. He patted Mamoru on the shoulder and walked straight for the door. All the while cursing the words he'd just spoke. If Mamoru was going to leave him alone, he'd have to be harsher than he'd ever been before. But he knew it was for the better. He wasn't the type of person anyone should be troubled with caring about. Not ever.
