(no subject)

[moonsheen]

Since it's summer and I have no more papers in the way, no dumb excuses, and am a hopeless masochist, I think I'll go with what all the cool kids are doing and open up the drabble meme again. You know the drill: Gimme series, characters, situation. And if it doesn't immediately break my brain (...chira yes, I AM looking at you) I'll write a short piece of god-knows-how-many-words-I-Am-Bad-At-This in response. So let's get to it.

Comments

[suzukiblu.livejournal.com]

Naruto. Evil crack pairing of Chouji/Neji, in the ever-cliche setting of the baths. *mwahahaha*

*only doing this because she LOVES you, honest*

[sairobi.livejournal.com]

You're my hero. <3

[moonsheen.livejournal.com]

The wounds had healed into knitted, sunken, perfect circles of dark flesh. It was about as neat as could have been managed. His shoulder particularly ached as he sunk into the water. Neji held it and leaned back, and that served and soothed for the moment. He rested in the warmth of scents and steam, nearly relaxed, ‘till the sound of footsteps roused him and he was just alert enough not to obey reflexes and peer through any walls--an unwise choice to make in a bathhouse. They made themselves known soon enough, Akimichi Chouji, holding his towel around his waist with a visible discomfort. Of course. He still must have been at least twenty pounds underweight, for a member of his clan; too thin in his cheeks and his arms. It was the habit of a Hyuga to widen their eyes rather than squint when examining a person and this is what Hyuga Neji did, tipping his head, and sliding his hand from his spider-scars.

“May I help you?” He drawled. Akimichi jumped and turned and—ah, it looked like he was working to correct the matter of his body mass, if what he carried was any indication. “…I hope you’re not planning on bringing that in with you.” And Neji was annoyed, but feeling charitable in the way evidence of a shared near-death experience could make someone, so he was polite and left it at that, straightening his back and waiting for the other boy to finish looking surprised.

“…didn’t think anyone would be here,” he muttered, hitching up his towel again.

“Hmm,” was all Neji said, because clearly he’d been wrong. Still, Akimichi shook it off with a grin that had a little bit of nerves in it but a lot more cheek as he slid into the water, and dragged the food right up to the edge--which was disgusting. Neji informed him of this and the other boy merely shrugged and met his eyes plainly.

“Want some?”

“No.”

“I’m offering,” he said, like it was something important and Neji with a twitch irritation wondered exactly what there was to miss in a question like that until he realized it was an Akimichi who’d asked it. Then he tightened his lips, and replied with a simple:

“Why?”

His companion didn’t deign to be direct beyond that. “You look good, Neji.”

Neji said nothing.

“They released you a couple of days ago, right?”

“…yes.”

“You survived.”

Neji felt a twinge in his side. “Obviously,” he said stiffly, and failed to see the point in this. Akimichi popped a bit of his snack into his mouth, and his smile brought crinkles to the corners of his eyes. He swallowed and laughed.

“Guess it’s not a Hyuga thing,” he said, mostly to himself, and then to Neji: “Living people eat. Dead people don’t. Do you see?”

It was, in Neji’s opinion, a stupid question. “I see.”

“No. You don’t,” said Akimichi, stretching out. “Living’s kind of nice, isn’t it?”

It depended on the life, he could have noted, but there was some sense beginning to be made. “Ah.”

“Want some?” Chouji asked again. His eyes open and amused, there was color in that face. He offered Neji the dish, across the water-- which was even more disgusting, really. Neji reached out and took it.

“…fine,” he said after a moment, and helped himself to a bite.