Desert Sunset (IO)

Kai would sigh, and relinquish the boy to his desired plate of food. He had simply wanted Shiro to learn some damn manners and ask. But once Kara invited him to do so there was little he could do about it. Hopefully the boy would at least thank her for her kindness. After that though he'd listen intently to Kara's words before realizing what a 'date' was. "Oh, so like a courtship ritual?" He would ask, an eyebrow raised as he considered his thought carefully before. Looking toward Kara "Is this a 'date'?" He would ask, wondering what she thought of the matter. To be honest he was ambivalent to the idea of romance, but Kara was an exceedingly attractive woman, and if she were interested, he would certainly be willing to explore the avenue. At that point Shiro would point out a sleeping guard and Kai would get up and move over to the edge and look over, ensuring that he stayed planted by using chakra to his feet.

"Uh..Shiro.." He would say as he cocked his head to the side. "What kind of scorpion was that?" He asked as he looked at the man. "No one sleeps at the foot of the wall like that, if the wind changes direction on them they can get buried. I think he got stung by whatever you threw." He would say, further clarifying his thoughts. That man might need medical assistance, which Kai himself could not give. Kara however? Perhaps she could, he'd wait to gauge her reaction to the matter to discover what she thought. Perhaps she had seen the scorpion and knew it wouldn't be bad? Kai would probably go down anyway to get the man to safety at least, lest the wind change and bury him as Kai had described before.

Kai would take a moment though to consider what had been said previously as he looked down at the man before idly noting, a bit later than the comment had been made for sure, but noting nonetheless. "Wait, when you say people fall off the walls, are you referencing out mission? When you stole Kensai's cigarette and took a puff and fell off coughing?" He'd ask idly, wondering if it had been the case. In retrospect the situation had been humorous and Kai certainly didn't mind clarifying what had happened to give a little minor embarrassment to Shiro, it'd be good for him at that age.

(120)

YES! Music to his hears! Shiro would roll back to his seated position in between the two of them and start munching on the food. Since he started living alone, most of his meals had been pre-cooked crap he could get for cheap prices at the local market. It wasn't that he didn't know how to cook, but his mind was always busy with something else and time spent cooking was time he didn't spend on his workshop. "Thanks miss Kar-*munch* Yau'r duh besht" This was a golden opportunity to eat a proper meal and now that he had actually been invited to it, Shiro felt even more at ease.

His eyes would remain glued to Kara as she explained what a date was. Her explanation was pretty much flawless, but Shiro couldn't say he fully understood it...or even half of it! He didn't want to sound stupid and make more questions however, so he kept his mouth shut. But back at home he'd have to remember to go look up what a "colloquialism" was. And a "nuance". Miss Kara used some pretty fancy words! But Shiro simply nodded time and time again until she was done speaking. Then he'd glance at Kai to try to see if he had understood anything, but the sunglasses did their job and Shiro was unable to tell what he was thinking. Instead Kai spoke about the dangers of sleeping during guard duty.

"Kai... you underestimate us guard duty regulars!" Shiro would raise his fists and pump his chest while flexing his arms. The sight was pretty comic considering Shiro didn't really have much muscle. "We have intensively trained our bodies to wake up every 15 minutes during gate shifts! No sand is gonna bury us!" Shiro spoke of an "us" but really he had been the only one to master this type of useless skill. Alas, he had a lot of free time on his hands during these missions.

He would go back to a normal stance and focus on Kai while he remembered the wall episode. The thing is, it was very hard to embarrass someone as clueless and clumsy as Shiro. He couldn't have his pride stepped on because the concept of pride had been left behind by the child, somewhere along the sands. "Oh? No no, that was due to me being distracted by his armour and...well, the cigar. I meant when the winds actually push people off the walls! Like it happened to me the other day, I was taking a walk and fell off from the very top! Now that was a proper adventure...I must've been halfway through my fall when I remembered I could use chakra strings!" He'd chuckle loudly. Shiro was by no means afraid to share stories of his own mistakes or incompetence. After all, the majority of his stories depicted him screwing up things on way or another. That was just his life, and a Shiro had the notable capability of being able to laugh at himself.

His eyes' focus would go back to Kara. "Oooh, people guard you? Hmmm...." He would make a serious face. From an outside perspective one might think Shiro was pondering on why Kara was valuable enough to be guarded at all times. But of course, that wasn't it. "We can apply to guard people instead of walls?! I didn't know that...how do I do that?" His gaze would become more intense. "I'll work for food like this, and only sleep on the job occasionally! Where do I apply?"

Kara would nod as Kai said ‘courtship ritual’, it was an apt description even if it was a bit more formal than the word ‘date’ implied. She wondered, idly, what region Kai must be from then, to have such a formal understanding of dating. She had visited much of the surrounding lands throughout her life and had yet to observe that type of formality. She decided then that she must definitely ask him about it, learning new things was amongst her foremost passions. She wouldn’t ask, it hardly seemed like the time, but eventually. When Kai asked if this was a date however, a half smile would form on her lips as she considered her answer. “Well, no. I’m not entirely certain what the word for this would be, but a date typically involves that both people are aware of that to start.” She would chuckle as she continued. “The rules surrounding dates and the like are somewhat foreign to me as well, ever shifting as they seem to be.” What she would not reveal was that she had never been on an actual date before. Flirting sure, that was easy and relatively mild all things considered. But she had yet to either be allowed due to her unreasonably overprotective father, or had the opportunity to invest herself in any sort of true romanticism. It was not something she thought of overly much, and having to think of it now caused her just the tiniest bit of embarrassment.

At Kai’s questioning about the shinobi guard being stung by a scorpion Kara let out a sigh. She had been enjoying not being a doctor for a short while. Most likely the guard would be fine, she assumed that being on guard duty in the middle of the desert meant that most would be familiar with the more common dangers of the post. “I think he will be fine, I did see him administering what I assume to be an antidote to himself. However, it would be remiss of me to not verify that, seeing as that is my actual profession. I will need another ride down the wall however, despite having seen the ability twice now I don’t think I’ve quite mastered it.”  She would rise again to her feet, signalling her preparedness to check on the guard.

She was distracted when Kai and Shiro began reminiscing about a particular event involving someone falling off a wall and she grinned when she heard the name Kensai. “So you’ve met my roommate have you? What an incredibly small world we live in. I’m honestly surprised that the story didn’t include getting yelled at for stealing a cigarette.” She laughed goodnaturedly, Kensai wasn’t mean, but he could certainly be gruff. And she would know, she’d known him longer than almost anyone - other than her parents of course. Their living situation was comfortable though it often involved her being annoyed that he didn’t understand what cross contamination was, and him being annoyed that she literally did not know how to. . . adult. Her few attempts at cooking had been quite awful. Having most things done for you your whole life did apparently have its drawbacks.

She would laugh along with Shiro not sure which of the two stories or which parts of them were true. It hardly mattered to her though, the kid was an interesting one even if he was a bit more excitable than she was used to. His interest in the fact that people guarded her was mildly concerning, and she was unable to keep that concern from her features. It struck her suddenly that she was on the outskirts of the village with two people she really didn’t know and no one knew where she was. Again. At this rate Azuma was probably going to lecture her, she was aware that she had a probably annoying habit of wandering off without the means to take care of herself. She had never been taught to fear, the constant guards at her side growing up had left her with a poor sense of self preservation or a healthy sense of caution. Just as her eyes began darting around to seek an exit she was relieved when Shiro noted that he was excited at the prospect of being a guard.

Her relief, and probably the multiple shots of sake, translated into a bout of laughter. In a quite less than ladylike fashion she would place her hands on her thighs to support her while she practically doubled over with laughter. Her voice was broken by the occasional giggle as she spoke. “Oh Shiro, you honestly had me worried there for a moment. All this business with Shinobi and being in all of . . . this.” She would gesture broadly at all of Sunagakure. “I sometimes forget that I’m essentially powerless in a world filled with far too many that wouldn’t think anything of taking advantage of a situation like this one.” That last thought would sober her somewhat, drawing her back to her time with the caravan and taking a deep breath she would pull Kai’s coat closed again and shiver slightly. “To answer your question though, I employ people personally to guard me. I feel like quite a lot of us civilians do, at least the ones who can afford it. You could just ask someone, they might say yes. If it’s just food you want though you’re welcome to come help me in my greenhouse and I can feed you. You seem to have a knack for it. I should warn you though, I am a terrible cook.” She would nod towards the bag of herbs on the wall, before moving a touch closer to Kai and looking him in the eyes. Or where his eyes probably were. “You don’t have to keep those on for me, your eyes are quite beautiful and now that I’ve seen them, what’s the harm?”  

(120 exp)

Continued from here.

Kara considered the options presented and decided that it was probably best that she return home after all. It was late, and she did have a mountain of paperwork to go through both from her private practice and the Stag. “Perhaps you could take me down now, I’ve had a lovely evening and while I would love to while away the time I must regretfully return to my work.” She would allow herself to be assisted down the wall and to the ground again and after retrieving her shopping from the mysterious shinobi she would make her way home.

{Exit Thread}

(260 exp)