fandomtownies | Devil's Nest, Wednesday Night 1/30

Kabuto was in a disturbingly good mood.

Ino... had a notebook in hand. And no actual intentions of speaking to Kabuto tonight. In fact, her tentative plan was to hide in the lounge and observe him. It was to help her decide on how to make up her mind about everything.

Really. It was. The fact that she'd was there had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was used to seeing him more often. Absolutely nothing. She wasn't even going to talk to him. Really.

... just watch. Shut up.

Ino paused in the doorway and blinked. Was he humming?

Kabuto was, indeed, humming. "Good evening, Yamanaka-san!" he called cheerfully, not looking up and his pen never stopping.

She eyed him dubiously, glancing at the door to make sure she could still get out if she had to, you know, run for it. Ino also had to squash down a small flare of hurt at the fact that he didn't seem to care half as much as she did at all their problems.

Ino inched towards the lounge. "Evening, Yakushi-san..." If it sounded doubtful well, it was.

If Ino had to run for it, there was very little chance she could really outrun Kabuto unless he let her. Which, judging by his current mood, he probably would.

"Have your classes been enjoyable?" Polite, inane conversation that was completely normal-seeming.

"... you should know, seeing as how you're in both the ones I've had so far this week." Ino? Was being a bit creeped out, yes.

"It's more polite to ask than to assume, is it not?" The smile wasn't wavering, and definitely wasn't fake. Someone like Ino, who had spent so much time with Kabuto, would be able to easily see that.

And she could definitely tell that it wasn't fake. That was sort of why she still hadn't come close to the bar. "You're being seriously creepy tonight," Ino said, ignoring his question.

"Creepy?" Kabuto laughed. "How am I creepy, Yamanaka-san? It's been a very excellent day."

... now he was laughing.

"I'm happy for you," she said faintly, seriously considering the door.

...

"Why?" One day, she'd learn not to care.

"Oh, no reason, really. I just happened to sign up for a great class this term." The grin wasn't fading. It might have been a Sign.

Probably a bad sign. Yeah, she was just going to stay away from him. But somehow not leave. Brilliant.

... and Ino remembered that she couldn't trust a single thing he said to her.

"Right," she said blandly, "a class."

"Yes. You would like Juli-san." Kabuto used the more companionable terminology intentionally, nodding. "She has a way of making others see things from a different perspective."

Ino flinched.

"D-do you need a different perspective?" That wasn't a hitch in her voice. It wasn't.

"Sometimes it's nice to get an outside, yet no less professional opinion. She has proven to be a wonderful professor." Ino's reaction had not gone unnoticed. Kabuto was amused to find that she was still just as easy to manipulate.

She never ever wanted to meet 'Juli-san' or whatever. Ino refused to like her just because Kabuto had thought she would.

... or perhaps he'd said that just to make her dislike the professor?

Of course, she was still easy to manipulate. He knew her well, after all. "I'm... happy for you, I guess," Ino said, staring at her feet, "that you're... well."

"It's amusing to see how well people react to specific words." Kabuto ignored Ino's comment entirely, moving from behind the bar and walking closer to her. "You should have seen the way they all reacted to the word 'freak'. It's been a long time since I've seen anyone so angry."

At that, he was suddenly beside Ino. Brushing his hand against her cheek, he smiled almost sweetly.

After a split second of hesitation she flinched back from his touch, shying away from his expression and keeping her eyes firmly on the ground. Ino ignored the way part of her wanted to stay where she'd been.

It was best not to think on that.

"... can't blame them," Ino muttered, "who wants to hear that?"

"It was a discussion on genetic manipulation and how people react to it. 'Freak' is a common enough term." He smiled at her flinch, turning to walk back toward the bar.

One hand crept up to touch her cheek. "What was that all about?" Ino demanded. She wasn't talking about the class.

"Well, it appears that many - if not most - of my fellow students in the class are experiments, themselves. They took offense, yet had no decent defenses to argue their points." Kabuto deliberately misinterpreted her.

"Kabuto!" She flushed upon realizing her slip and started over. It took her a few moments to control her temper enough to manage to do so. "Yakushi-san, I meant what was up with you touching me?"

"Ino." Kabuto smirked. "Yamanaka-san, there was nothing up with anything. Would you like there to be?"

She spun, turning her back to him and hugging her sides. "I messed it up," Ino said quietly, "I know that. And you've made it quite clear that even if I did want there to be I wouldn't be able to trust a single thing you said."

"Oh? Have I said that?" Kabuto tilted his head to the side. "Or are you assuming things again, as you so seem to enjoy?"

"I do not make assumptions. When you contradict yourself then both statements can't be true." She still had her back to him. "I don't know what to believe."

"I didn't contradict myself, Ino." Kabuto's voice was quiet. "Just because you are unable to figure out a simple truth does not make me a bad guy. Thank you." He'd gone cold, again.

Ino blinked, startled, and turned to face him while still hugging herself. "I didn't say you were a bad guy!" she protested, "I just said I wouldn't know what part of you to trust!"

"Then you never knew me as well as you pretended to." Kabuto hopped over the bar and went back to his notebook.

"That's not fair!" Ino said, clutching her notebook tightly, "I, I know that I h-hurt you," but did she know that for sure? "b-but you paid me back for my mistake and now I don't know what to d-do. I'm trying."

She was not going to cry. Ignore any furious blinking she was doing.

"No, Yamanaka-san." Kabuto shook his head. "Do you even understand why things are this way? Or are you just going to cry about it?"

"I'm not crying!" She rubbed at her eyes, "A-and I know what I did wrong. I shouldn't have, have been with Michael."

"And why is that?" Kabuto asked, sounding the words out slowly, as if talking to a stupid child.

Ino flushed at his tone and said in a trembling voice, "Because I was w-with you."

"There might just be hope for you, yet." Kabuto smirked. "And here I was beginning to wonder if you had any intelligence left."

"I made a mistake," she insisted, "that doesn't make me stupid."

"It can." Not that it did, though. Kabuto closed his notebook, capping his pen.

"I'll talk to you about this in-depth at another time." There were just too many nosey squirrel reporters to go into the details at the bar.

She didn't question why not now. Ino knew she'd been lucky to get this far. "Promise?"

It slipped out before she could stop it.

Kabuto snorted slightly. "If you insist."

It was really stupid that that made her feel better, a bit, about this whole thing. Nothing had really changed after all. He... he still wasn't her person right now.

Ino stared at the floor. "Please?"

"Fine. We'll talk about this later."

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Good night," Ino hesitated, did she feel comfortable enough to call him that? "K-Kabuto-san."

"Goodnight, Ino-san." Kabuto waved, turning back to his classwork.

Oh look, sparkling clean!

Tuned into some sort of dance music station. Kabuto wasn't listening, really.

Mmmmmm I have Japanese take-out....tempura shriiiiiiimp...

Devil's Nest, Wednesday Night 1/30

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The Lounge

The Dance Floor

OOC