Work Text:
He finished arranging the few dishes he had in the kitchen and glanced at the clock, it was almost time. He was a little anxious. Having finally worked up the nerve to ask him to lunch, everything was almost ready.
There was a knock at the door and his heart skipped a beat. A smile lit up his face. It was him, he still remembered him fiery from last night.
He opened the door to reveal the smiling man in bright red-framed sunglasses. “Come in,” he said. And the aforementioned man, heeding the order, left the public hallway to enter the house. The door closed behind them and their sunglasses made eye contact. The tension between the two was beginning to gain ground and was marked on Ebisu's face with a reddish colour that painted his cheeks and ears.
Aoba was touched by how ridiculously expressive the man could be, especially unintentionally. “Come here!” He exclaimed, closing the distance between them. He took him in a hug and secured his waist with both hands.
There was nothing Ebisu wanted more than Aoba's affection, so he let himself be trapped, but he was nervous because he knew they could hear them.
Aoba planted a kiss without a word. It was gentle, and Ebisu put all worries aside for a moment. “How are you?” the guest whispered. “I guess I missed you.”
“Shh!” interrupted Ebisu. He made a gesture of silence by placing his finger on his own lip.
Aoba received the message, but rather than being alarmed or having his spirits dampened, he pressed the shinobi against himself and transmitted telepathically with a smirk «So, you want me to talk to you like this?»
«I didn't mean it like that!» Ebisu replied telepathically, taking advantage of the sensory ability the other shinobi was executing, «Just let me put a seal so we can talk quietly.»
«Ah, that! I have a seal here, look!» He playfully transmitted and again deposited a kiss that was somewhat more provocative than the previous one. «Do you like my seal of silence ? I hear it's very effective against horny teachers.»
«Idiot» thought Ebisu. Aoba heard it too and they both laughed.
“Enough,” he asked, now using his voice. His flow of thoughts was at the limit of what any human being could control before beginning to ramble. He didn't want to risk sharing his innermost thoughts with the sensor and risking embarrassment.
At the request Aoba cut the mental jutsu immediately.
“Just a moment, please.” Ebisu insisted as he took a piece of paper from his pocket.
Aoba broke the hug and Ebisu placed the small piece of paper on the door. He attached it using chakra, there, on a border full of marks that evidenced the hundreds of seals he had placed in the past.
The paper bore a large front kanji that could be read as ‘silence’ bordered with some designs in ink. The elite trainer executed two hand positions to activate it and the ink of the once black kanji glowed orange. The room had been sealed.
“Ah, now it is!!” Ebisu announced with satisfaction. The jutsu would remain active until someone deactivated it. “Sorry, it's just that in this place the walls feel like they're made of board. There's no such thing as privacy!” he explained, chuckling a little anxiously and guiding the sensor towards the kitchen area.
“You want privacy but you invite intelligence agents into your home, sensei,” he remarked humorously. The concept of breaking intimacies was something Aoba related to on a daily basis. After all, he stole information straight from the minds of those being questioned.
“Fortunately, there is not much secret information to steal here.” Ebisu's house was entirely modest. He lived, like most single shinobi, in the large conglomerate for ninja that Konoha provided for its troops. Commonly known to all as The Veterans' Compound.
Aoba knew it well as most of his friends resided here, in fact Raido lived on the first floor of this very building. His boss Ibiki too, first floor.
“Come on!” Aoba continued. “It doesn't have to be anything surprising.” He took a seat next to a small table in the kitchen. “I'll settle for some good gossip.”
Ebisu found the idea funny, which made him laugh. No doubt his neighbours provided him with an endless supply of nonsense that he had to hear on a daily basis. He shot an accusing glance at the sensor now occupying his chair and folded his arms as if berating him. “Yamashiro, your job is all about listening to other people's stuff! I'm sure you've already got more than enough of that, don't you think?”
“What can I say, I'm a workaholic,” he replied, putting a hand to his chest and overplaying an expression of astonishment.
He got another laugh out of him. Ebisu normally didn't let himself look so relaxed but Yamashiro infiltrated with his goofiness. «He's a clown.» He thought tenderly. He used to ridicule himself often to make him laugh. A quality that lowered his guards and broke through the wall of solemnity with which the proud elite trainer clothed himself.
“Well,” said Ebisu, clearing his throat. “First of all, thank you for coming,” he said sincerely. And secondly, He would have liked to continue but couldn't bring himself to do so. It made him dizzy to think that he might say something inappropriate and make the other man uncomfortable. Push him away. It made his stomach clench at the thought.
“Thank you for inviting me.” Aoba replied with his usual cheerfulness and kindness.
The other's positive attitude gave him a little light in his dark sorrow. «He's here after all!» he encouraged himself, trying to be rational. He was here, in his kitchen, next to him again. He had accepted his invitation... everything seemed to be moving forward in the right direction. So why was he hesitating?
His heart raced and he finally blurted out, “Don't laugh, but…” he started somewhere. The heat again painted his face. He felt ashamed and stupid to think what he was thinking: The awkward Aoba who was offended by an inappropriate phrase, and walked out of his life for not being proper enough was only in his mind.
His fears were leading him to be unfair to a person he loved and hated himself for it.
A glimmer of confidence welled up from somewhere inside him and he took the momentary courage to come clean. “You know, I…” he looked away, “I actually thought you weren't coming,” he admitted painfully.
Since the day he felt wanted, he had been negotiating with the idea of possible rejection.
He focused on the cloud beyond the windows because what he had revealed left him exposed and weighed on him. It weighed on him to be so insecure.
Opening one's heart was rare in this opaque military environment. Although Ebisu considered himself a coward, Aoba had just witnessed a gesture that could only come from a brave man. He contemplated as his host tried to relax his mind above the distant white clouds. He added, this time without joking. “I was interested in coming. I wanted to see you again,” he made clear.
Ebisu took a moment to process those words. He realised it was something he needed to hear.
He liked this man, and had already slept with him, but he wasn't there now looking for sex. From the moment he invited him into his place, he had expected something more, but he wasn't sure if it was right to expect anything more. At least, until this moment.
The cloud on the horizon was glowing a radiant white as the warm sunlight bounced off it.
Yamashiro's confirmation was a great relief. He took a deep breath and felt a sense of calm. He regained his composure and felt ready to continue with the lunch that was taking place in his own kitchen.
Aoba was still there, waiting patiently. With the brightness of the sky reflecting in his sunglasses. Happy, as usual. With the gentle expression on his lips, as if welcoming him back after this journey to the bottom of his soul and the top of a cloud.
Decisively he adjusted his glasses with his middle finger and proceeded. “You like fish, don't you?” he asked, though he already knew the answer as he had seen Aoba eat fish on occasion. Besides, it was an extremely common ingredient, (the Ebisu of the past who planned this lunch had seen to it that everything went well, and went for the safe option).
“I love it,” said Aoba.
Ebisu could have sworn those words were spoken with special affection. He gave him a smile as he received them. “Great, then!”
♥♥♥
They'd both done the same course at the Ninja Academy, but they were just distant acquaintances at the time; just classmates. But life brought them back together after 20 years as adults. Like two unknown colleagues, full of new experiences.
They had lunch together and talked about their new lives as shinobi and citizens of Konoha.
“Cheers!” they cheered in unison as they clinked glasses.
Ebisu had been specializing in tutoring. He advised shinobi of all kinds who were assigned to him or who came to him personally. His solid theoretical background was useful in identifying any shortcomings in the execution of a jutsu.
Rumor had it that he was the best in his field. That personal title was his most precious treasure and he wielded it with pride.
One of the culprits in forging such a reputation had been his then chunin teammate, Gai.
The young Gai was an unstoppable beast in martial arts, but his mastery of chakra was nonexistent. So one day, after losing a race because he couldn't keep up with his opponent through the water, he turned to his teammates for help.
A common technique that all shinobi of his age, except Gai, mastered. «Having a partner incapable of mastering ninjutsu could be a problem for the team.» they immediately concluded, so they tried to remedy this. But they soon realized that teaching the theory of chakra regulation was no simple matter.
They took one of the instructional scrolls from the library. But neither Genma nor Gai could stay awake for more than 20 minutes after reviewing the endless paragraphs with academic lexicon. However, there it was, it was the theory that his partner Gai needed, he just needed to make it more... accessible.
It was then that Ebisu shone with his patience, summarizing the dull scroll until he distilled a summary illustrative enough for the Blue Beast to understand.
Jutsu after jutsu, technique after technique, when someone congratulated Gai for performing some impressive ninjutsu, he celebrated loudly and pointed out that it was Ebisu who had taught him.
Perhaps back then, young Ebisu wanted to be swallowed by the earth every time his name rang out in the wind. But it was thanks to him that he was able to keep the laurels of his personal title.
“It was very tasty," Aoba complimented him as he finished eating.
“Thank you," he accepted the compliment, swirling some sake at the bottom of his glass.
Aoba was a shinobi with the rare ability to perform mind-reading jutsu. A trait that led to him being recruited by the intelligence division to use his skills.
Like everyone else who was not a Yamanaka, he had spent half of his youth at the centre of the mental pranks of the members of that clan. First, they entered his mind, without his consent of course. They went through his memory and knew everything! His privacy, his deepest and most embarrassing thoughts.
They would send him obscene images out of the blue. During lunches they would send disgusting ideas, and if anyone managed to make him vomit, won.
In the beginning, physical force was used to keep them at bay. A young Ibiki Morino once made it clear to him as he punched one in the face. “If they're afraid of you, they won't mess with you.” But Aoba was not a threatening type, and such tactics would not stop them forever. He tried to stop the aggression by learning how to build mental defences. While he was doing that, the others were learning how to break through his mental barriers. It was a cycle where no one could be left behind.
It was arduous years that shaped their defence systems. His mind was now one of the safest places to store sensitive information. Barriers, passages and traps that were triggered when an intruder's chakra made contact. This made Aoba a very versatile unit, so it was common for him to be sent on long journeys out of Konoha to bring or carry sensitive information.
Luckily, for the loving couple, Aoba was not on such missions and would not be, if God was kind, for a long time.
He took a deep breath after being released from a fiery kiss. “Oh, I hate you,” gasped Ebisu. “You're ridiculously good at it.” Why? Why was this man driving him so crazy? He was in his thirties, but he felt like the hormonal fifteen-year-old he'd never been.
“I'm inspired,” boasted Aoba, as he held sensei by the wrists.
Lying on a futon on the floor, he glanced at the backlit body of the man on top of him. “Yes... me too,” he replied.
“May I?” he enquired, gently tracing the outline of the other's shirt with his fingers.
The touch tickled his skin.
They were both aroused. It was obvious in a sexual sense, but then Ebisu made a remark. “Yes, absolutely. But before that there's something I'd like to tell you.”
Aoba put his plans on hold and plopped down on top of the sensei. He looked at him for a moment and allowed himself to leave a kiss on his cheek. Finally, he lay down beside the sensei. "Tell me."
“I didn't want to bring this up before because there just wasn't the right time, but... you know, every time we're together at the end of the day I get this feeling. It seems incredible that I still don't know what you look like!”
“Oh, my face…” he answered simply. It seemed a reasonable demand.
“Do you ever take them off?” he asked very seriously, from sunglasses man to sunglasses man.
Aoba laughed. “Yes, sometimes. But when I'm alone.”
Was that a refusal to show what was underneath? He lifted his own sunglasses and arched his eyebrows, demanding a clear answer. "Explain yourself!"
Aoba looked up at the ceiling and took a moment before continuing. “It happens, certain glows stimulate me in a way that I perform involuntary readings. Or sometimes, transmissions.”
“Transmissions? Of what?”
“My short-term memory,” he explained.
“Oh…” he mused. He was trying to assimilate the workings of that innate ability in the other. “So, I'll never be able to see your face completely?” asked Ebisu with genuine curiosity.
“Quite a few people have been upset with me in the past for having triggered unintentional readings. Understandable,” he admitted calmly. “After all, it's really rude to listen to other people's thoughts.”
“I'm sorry that happened to you, I had no idea!” Now he felt like an idiot for asking him to take them off and making him think about something so uncomfortable.
"These glasses," he went on to say. "They're a shield that helps me, most of the time, not to push away those I love."
“Agg, I'm such a jerk!” whined Ebisu as he held a hand to his face in embarrassment. “I apologise for bringing this up!” he concluded.
Aoba gave a speech that was a little solemn, but he wasn't sad. "No, Ebisu. It's fine." He let out a hearty laugh. "I know it's weird."
“I didn't mean it like that!” Ebisu was shocked to hear that adjective, he didn't think Aoba was a freak at all!
Aoba laughed. “But it is!”
“Well, yes! But it doesn't matter!” Ebisu cried, blushing.
Aoba laughed even harder.
Ebisu was genuinely embarrassed, but relieved that Aoba was not sad.
"Come here!" Aoba said, as he gently hugged Ebisu and pulling him up. Now, it was Ebisu who was on top. You can see my face if you want. I just wanted you to understand.
“Now I don't know if I deserve it,” he blamed himself.
Aoba laughed at the thought, “You've already taken off your glasses. You have the right to take mine off. But just for a moment, okay? It's too bright and I can't control it for that long.”
“Ok!” he complied decisively with the indications he had received.
“Well, go ahead.” He relaxed, letting his head rest on the floor.
Ebisu contemplated him, beneath him in that surrendered pose. He had always looked handsome with glasses on. The fine chin, the seductive lips. He ran his hand along his cheek, caressing the contours of his jaw. It felt manly, soft and refined.
Aoba kissed his palm.
Ebisu's thumb stroked the bottom of the red sunglasses. He was one finger movement away from revealing the mystery! “My God! I'm more nervous than when I first pulled down your briefs,” he rightly pointed out.
Aoba laughed. “What are you trying to say?”
Gently, he reached up to reveal the full face of his Adonis. And there it was, making eye contact for the first time. Beautiful light brown eyes. Aoba was a little dazzled by the extra light, so he blinked his eyelids a little.
“So?” asked the sensor with his eyes free and his trademark smile, “Am I what you imagined?”
He moved his hand back to frame his face. “Much better, in fact. You were always beautiful.”
Aoba took a moment to contemplate the one above him. He also ran his hand over his companion's face. "Well then. Glad to have pleased you," he finished and let out a deep sigh. "I have to get back to my secret identity," he joked, putting his glasses back on.
“Thank you. Now I feel special.”
“Special, huh? You must be the first person to see my full face in at least a year. So feel special.”
“What? Really?!”
Aoba nodded.
“So, is it true? It was easier to see your dick than your face,” he joked.
“Ah, you're a lout!” Aoba protested with mock indignation.
“But it's technically true, sweetie.”
“I here, opening my heart!” he continued dramatically.
“Hey! I'm grateful that I didn't have to wait a year to—
“Showing you my secrets!” Aoba shouted to interrupt him. The smirk on his face was starting to ruin his joke, however he continued. “And that's what you come up with!”
So it was with laughter and something else that the sensor and the elite sensei finished their lunch. Fortunately, Ebisu had done the right thing, and the seal of silence paid off that afternoon.