Quiet Celebrations; Cold Iron [Occam/Yuki]

A flak jacket, that was the mark of what he was now; a Tokubetsu Jonin. He stared at the armour as it hung up in front of him, it seemed to be quite sturdy and bulky but that was to be expected, he was from Hakagakure after all. He let out a soft sigh and scratched his cheek, none of his usual jewelry sitting on his hands or ears. He didn't feel much different, he knew that he had done some interesting things in the name of advancement but that was what people wanted from shinobi now. The world was reaching a breaking point, that much was obvious, there was still a lot of tension and the ceasefire between the Allied Shinobi Nations and the Shogunate was... Flimsy at best, so many things threatened to shatter it. "Did ranking up really make me this fucking boring?" Occam scolded himself, leaning his head back and letting out a long sigh before he stepped away and opened one of his drawers. He pulled out a series of rings and slipped them onto the proper fingers and then he put in his piercings and brushed his hair out, letting it frame one of his eyes.

He left after throwing on a long coat and checking his breath. Occam knew where he was going tonight anyway. It was quite late and the lights of Haka had dimmed into the night cycle. There were quite a few loud celebrations going on, that happened after a good haul from an exam but Occam wasn't really one for that kind of thing. Instead he made his way to a particular house and knocked on the door. A house that contained a friend of his, a girl that had ranked up at the same time and was a member of his team, one Yuki Kuroshio.

It felt odd not carrying his gourd with him but he turned and leaned against the doorframe, one foot up against it and his eyes looking forwards. Hopefully Yuki wouldn't be too long or wouldn't be out partying or something like that but it didn't seem like her. He didn't go to Mu because he knew that he'd have some serious family and clan festivities going on, thankfully Occam was enough of an outcast that the Kaironokuma didn't care about him, they were too busy doting over his cousin who had been flying through the ranks. Good thing Occam didn't get jealous either... Too much energy was needed for that shit.

Upon nearing the Kuroshio household, two voices could barely be heard through the door. It sounded like Yuki and her sister were doing something. Rather, it was her sister gushing over Yuki with pride about how her team passed their exams. There was a moment of silence when Occam knocked."That must be Occam- Kori please let me go! I can't breathe!" "I'm just.. so proud of you!" "Kori!" There was a light shuffling before the door opened. Kori still had her arms around Yuki's waist while Yuki had answered the door. "..Hi.. Occam..", Yuki said, a slight bit embarrassed that he had to see her like this. "Come in if you'd like. We don't have to go anywhere immediately." She paused and looked around. No Mu? She figured with how large and closely bonded his family was with his clan, he'd probably be busy. She recalled him mentioning something like that, perhaps even inviting them but... Yuki didn't thrive too well in crowds and Occam didn't really seem much like the person to excel in situations like that.

She stepped back, pushing Kori back with her to let Occam in and pondered for a moment over something. "Got any plans for tonight?", she asked, not really having any of her own. "If not, I guess we can go out for pancakes or something.", she offered, recalling his love for the food. It was the only thing she could think of that would be special for her teammate. Though... She wouldn't reveal that she had a couple of things to give him and Mu to help celebrate things that Kori helped her make. She'd save that for later and keep it as a surprise. But when should she give the little gifts to them? The next time the three met up or tonight while people were still partying over successes and leaving Mu's at his place for him to see later?

A soft chuckle left Occam's mouth as he heard the voices within and he whistled quietly to himself, staring out into the dim streets, eyes half lidded until Yuki and her sister finally came to open the door for him. He tilted his head towards Yuki and gave the Kuroshios a mock salute before stepping off of the doorframe and entering their household. He brought his hands up and rested them on the back of his head, silver eyes scanning around before he turned to smile at Yuki. "Thank you kindly for letting me in, it was a little too warm out there, will probably be colder in here of course... So that's good." Reaching over he ruffled her hair before shoving his hands in his pockets. He wanted to tell her about what he actually had planned but he didn't want her sister or mother getting worried... Then again, Yuki was a Chunin, she could do what she wished, she was tough enough and trained enough for it.

"Well, I did have some plans, wanted to share them with you, see if you wanted to come out for a little bit with me. Not quite pancakes though, I was thinking something a little more mature than that now that we're Chunin." He held up a hand to stall any protests. "Now don't you think I'm growing out of pancakes, they are my favourite and always will be but sometimes my palate hungers for something else. Heard there was a new tavern opening up in the main square, bringing stuff over from the West Continent, thought you'd maybe like to come try some with me and we can stop in for a bite to eat? My treat, a reward for doing so well in your exams and for being there to keep me alive when I'm being dumb." He grinned and leaned on a wall, although kept his feet on the ground this time. He was lazy, he wasn't disrespectful.

It seemed like Yuki was actually in more casual clothes, despite this being a celebratory moment. Either Kori hadn't gotten to that yet or Yuki managed to talk Kori out of it.

"YOU WENT TO A TAVERN?! You didn't drink anything anybody gave you, right? Nobody touched or spoke to you inappropriately did they? Why were you even in a bar to begin with?!"

"No! He's asking if- Kori, I take my mirror with me at all times if I need you!" Yuki took out the mirror to show her sister that she still had it with her before lightly tapping Kori's forehead with it. "Kori, I promise, I'll be fine. I'll be safe and I'll only have what I get from there and I'll be very careful." Reassuring her sister was difficult, but she was glad that she cared so much. ...Even if she overdid it....a lot... "Though... I am surprised we're not getting pancakes for once." She struggled out of her sister's grasp, stumbling forwards and catching herself with a couple of steps. "Oh, um! Before we go, or at least on the way there, I have something to give you and Musei. So can we drop his gift off at his place, or is it in another direction..?"

"Calm down, Kori. We're old enough now to go there and I'll protect Yuki with my life. Anyone tries anything to her and I'll make sure they don't remember the previous week let alone the previous night." He told Yuki's sister to try and make her less angry, chuckling quietly and shaking his head. "Already had my celebratory pancakes, they were tasty and not the kind of thing to share with friends, a bit too strange." He pushed himself off of the wall to stand up properly, looking between the two sisters before shrugging. "Sounds like a plan, don't know if we'll be able to see Musei himself, clan and all, but we can definitely leave the gift with his family and it'll get to him, they're nice enough people after all. I'm curious as to what you got us though." He smiled and then opened the door again.

"Have a good night Kori, I'll make sure Yuki is home at a.... Somewhat reasonable time and not too drunk." He winked and then waited until Yuki had left the house before stepping out and closing the door himself. He then set off towards the Shinto Clan compound. "Might want to get a move on before Kori realises just how bad what I said was and starts hunting me down, your sister's a little bit scary." He laughed to himself and shook his head, hands getting pushed into his pockets.

"You'll bring her home on time! I'll be waiting up for her and she had better be in good condition or else!"

"It's okay if we don't see him. He's got a really large family that's more than likely keeping him busy. It'd be great if he did join us, but if he can't, then he can't." Yuki jogged over into another room, returning a couple minutes later with two small bags tied with a coloured ribbon. She held out one of them to Occam, tied by a silver sparkling ribbon. "Kori helped me make these. They're not much but... It's something as a thank you and a present for the exams." The other bag had a goldenrod ribbon with blackened edges, supposedly for Musei. There wasn't really much of anything different aside from the ribbons. In the bag were small sweets and a little card with a message written in them. She placed the other bag into a drawstring purse and walked out of the door with Occam. "Have fun Yuki-chan!~ Give me a call if any strange men approach you and I'll mirror my way over and deal with them." "I will, thank you Kori.", Yuki responded while putting her shoes on.

"Kori's going to kill you if she actually heard what you said...", she whispered to him as soon as the door closed. Her sister's hand went through a mirror and out of Yuki's in attempts to grab Occam. "That goes for you too!" "Kori!", Yuki squeaked, being the one grabbed instead of Occam. "You need to stop doing that!"

"Yeah, we'll see him soon, don't worry. Might try and sneak into the Shinto compound later at night to say hello to him, scare the fu... Crap out of him while he's sleeping or something." Occam grinned at Yuki and continued walking, scanning down to look at the mirror as the hand came out of it. So Kori had heard and was able to transfer through the mirror. A loud sigh left Occam's mouth, that sort of thing was getting really annoying, especially when he wanted to spend some time with Yuki and not Yuki's sister. He checked the box and smiled at the sweets and the message that came with it. "Thank you very much, Frosty... This is really sweet, hopefully this night out will be good enough to make up for the gift." Occam knew what he was going to do though to deal with Kori, and after leading Yuki down an alley, he pulled away a few bricks to make an opening and pulled out his gourd of Iron Sand with a few other small bottles and the like attached to it. Reaching out he then swiped Yuki's mirror from her hands and stuck it in the hole in the wall before bricking it back up. With that done and his gourd on his back he turned to look at his teammate.

"I'm afraid to say that I kind of lied to you. We're not really heading to a bar tonight, I've got something much better planned and I brought my own booze. Sorry about the mirror but... I'm sick of Kori butting in and listening on everything, you're a Chunin now, Yuki, you don't need your big sister to look after you all the time. If anything, leave that to me, it's why I've got my sand with me. Now come on, let's have some fun." He grinned and started walking again, however rather than heading towards the central districts where the bars and shops were, he was instead walking towards the elevators that brought people to the surface and down from it, they were Chunin now and free to leave the village whenever they wanted, they didn't need to stay cooped up in here when they weren't on missions and as far as Occam was concerned... That was liberating, that was good and he wanted to use that liberty as soon as he could.

Yuki thought of Mu's expression when they did spook him awake. Though.. His home must have been relatively large and complex, potentially guarded. "It'd be fun to surprise him, but is sneaking into his house really that good of an idea?" She heard his overly exaggerated sigh, feeling a bit bad that Kori was butting in like that. She knew her sister was doing her best to protect her and that Kori really didn't like Occam, and she'd need to talk to her sister about that. Yuki's eyes snapped up and followed the mirror that appeared to fly out her hands, only to see Occam taking it and putting it into a wall. "We... we are getting that back out of the wall before we go home, right?", she mewed. Her eyes quickly flickered between Occam and the mirror a few times before she had her attention fully on Occam. She followed Occam, not entirely sure where they were straying off to until she noticed the elevators. "Are we... to the surface?", she asked, her question incomplete from the idea of the two actually going above ground without a task to do. Just going there for the sake of doing so. She still wished Mu was there with them so they could all experience it as a team, but he was already occupied with family celebrations, which was just as good.

"Yeah, we'll get the mirror back when we come here again. I'll need to put my gourd away anyhow so that Kori doesn't get unduly worried." He told Yuki with a smile, only slightly tilting his head to look at her before nodding at the elevators. He stepped into one and then gave a thumbs up to the attendant once Yuki was in and the entire assembly started shifting smoothly towards the surface. "I started going here when I was younger to be honest, isn't technically allowed but they can't stop you if you hide on top of the elevator. The surface at night is cold and because all of the light is contained underground... The stars are always out. I picked this night in particular because there isn't a cloud in the sky." He leaned against one of the walls and crossed his arms over his chest. "I know things are a bit difficult just now and you're worried about Mu.... But it'll be fine, ranking up isn't easy, takes a bit to get used to your new role. If you need a break, we could go on a team vacation to Dipugakure, get some sea air in you?"

For some reason Yuki didn't really find it all that surprising for Occam to break the rules and she felt a bit mixed that he's already seen the sky around here prior. It only meant they wouldn't have the same awestruck look but that was fine. She watched the city shrink as they went further upwards towards the surface, more or less trying to avoid looking at Occam as he spoke about his concerns. "I... I really just worry about everyone." Though she had a feeling he really meant another variant of 'worry'. At the mention of the sea, Yuki's head shot up and she turned around to Occam. "I actually meant to talk to you and Mu about that. You see.. I met another person who said something about going to the beach and I thought maybe the four of us could go together. But... we can also go somewhere to vacation together as a team too." The idea of just simply hanging out with her team, not really needing to go anywhere was ideal to her. They'd at least get to know each other and hopefully strengthen bonds as a team and as friends through that as much as missions.

"Another person, hm? Just walking around talking to people or did they specifically seek you out?" Occam smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at her although he knew she'd be a lot more coy about saying anything if it was like that. It didn't take long for the elevator to reach the top and he stepped out, offering a hand to help her out as well. "If he's alright I don't mind that, I'd want to meet him first myself before I invite him to a team vacation but that's just how it goes, yeah? What's his name anyway, anything special about him?" Occam asked, putting his hands back in his pockets and looking around for a few moments. He seemed to pause after a minute and nod before leading them off in that direction. "I know a good little spot to sit and watch the stars. You know, with anyone else I'd mention the cold and ask if you were okay but I realise how dumb that is with someone like you, eh?" He chuckled and gently nudged her with an elbow, a smirk sitting on his lips.

"Occam....", she sighed, knowing full well he was only teasing. She took his hand and stepped out of the elevator and looked around. "His name's Enzo. He's a bit weird, but that makes him interesting. I kind of bumped into him while wandering around the city the other day and he was balancing on rotted logs, saying he was going tree surfing or something. He also said something about how he's the 'ambitionless' ninja." She kept straying to look around and jogged up a few paces to keep up with Occam. Yuki let out a small giggle, Occam was right that she was naturally cold so it didn't really bother her at all. "I guess... Now that I think about it, Toketsu is a bit of a weird clan when it comes to cold..."

"With how cold you are, it makes the heat of Graves quite bearable. It gets ridiculous sometimes around these parts. That's what we get for making a village in a desert though, isn't it?" He smiled and walked around a few trees before hitting a patch full of quite dense trees that broke out into a clearing of rocks in a semi-circle with a flat patch in the middle. "Nice little place to sit and be alone. Been here a few times just to try and rest and get away from the Clan." He smiled and then walked into the cleared space, sitting down and taking his gourd off to put it off to the side. He then leaned against the rocks and let out a sigh. "That's much better." He murmured before opening an eye and patting the ground next to him for Yuki to sit down. The ground was soft, harsher rocks cleared away likely by Occam and the rock he was leaning on allowed one to lean back to look up at the sky. "Ambitionless Ninja? That sounds... Absurd, why even bother being a ninja if you don't want to go anywhere with it?"

"As long as I'm not set on fire, the heat's not too bad. But it's still uncomfortable and sometimes feels like I'm suffocating in it." Yuki hopped over and sat down cross-legged next to Occam, observing faint circular scrapes that made it clear these weren't naturally set like this. "I know, it sounds really silly! But.. It just seems like the regular methods of teaching are just not exciting for him and he needs it to be made exciting... Like a game or something." She leaned back, holding onto her legs and stared up at the sky. Admittedly, she's only seen glimpses or pictures of the sky like this, but never really had a moment to actually observe it in its sparkling glory. "Do you make wishes when you see shooting stars?", she asked, staring at the starry band above them.

"The training is pretty boring at times but you make it fun yourself, you push yourself to new limits, ensure that you're strong enough to take on anything that comes at you. The fact he sees himself as ambitionless is the problem, he needs to find an ambition or he's going to end up as a chunin instructor, bored and making other people bored." He shook his head and raised his hands, resting them behind his head and leaning back so he could look up at the sky, a smile on his features. "Never really thought about shooting stars if I'm being honest. I look at the sky and I see the possibilities there, what we don't know, I think I look more at the darkness than the light... Maybe next time I'll make a wish on one?" He told her, turning his head to the side for a moment before going back to looking at the sky. "What do you wish for? Or are you not allowed to tell me?"

Yuki rocked back and forth for a few moments. "Mmm... I hear so many different kinds of rules for wishmaking. Some as simple as make a wish when you see a shooting star or others as hard as wish three times while the star is there. You're not supposed to tell anyone the wish unless they are a wishmaker. But... I guess telling the gist of my wishes wouldn't hurt, right?" She rested back on the rock and closed her eyes, recollecting wishes she's made regardless if she saw a shooting star or not. "Most of my wishes are for other people I care about to be happy with whatever makes them happy. That sounds.. kind of generic... doesn't it?",s he mumbled, opening her eyes to look at the sky again. "Why do you stare at the darkness more than the lights in the sky?"

Occam let out a soft laugh and nodded. "I kind of thought you'd be the sort of person to do that. Caring more about others, no selfish wishes for you. That's good, that's good... Keep that, hold onto it, it means a lot in the end." He told her, staring at the sky again in silence as he mulled over her question. After a few moments he did speak, slipping almost into his serious tone. "What we don't know holds the most potential. That darkness is any number of vast, immeasurable things and that interests me more. I want to know what's there, we know what the lights are; stars but we don't know everything about the darkness. So maybe I'm looking at the darkness hoping that one day I'll be able to know or find out what it means and what it's hiding from us. I guess that's why I look at the darkness, yeah?" He turned his head, watching her as she looked to the sparkling sky. He could feel the cold emanating off of her even though the ambient temperature was so low and she was rather attractive, glittering under the wan light.

She shrugged, his words having a truth to them. "What about the things around stars?They could be parts of systems like ours, right?" The more she stared into the sky, the more she noticed finer and finer details of the sky. Aside from the countless stars, the band of them that ran across the sky had darker bands around them that looked like black clouds. Her expression seemed to light up the moment she saw a flash of light streaking across the sky. Yuki closed her eyes to make a wish, and then opened them while sighing. "I don't know how people could make three wishes if shooting stars are that fast.", she said, laughing a little and turning to notice Occam staring. She cocked her head to the side. "Is there something on me?", she asked, reaching up to run her fingers through her hair in case there was something like a bug or a leaf in it.

Occam only just managed to catch the shooting star out the corner of his eye and he spent a moment thinking before looking back at Yuki. "Maybe they just think too fast? Some people are like that..." He chuckled and then leaned in a little closer, narrowing his eyes. "Oh, there is... Here... Let me get that..." He murmured as he reached forwards and then gently poked the tip of her nose. "Oh, nope, it was just your nose. Silly me." He told her rather drolly, a smirk hitting his lips as he looked away and up to the sky again. His other hand reached out and picked up the bottles of alcohol he had around his gourd and he brought them around. He opened the first and took out a pair of glasses from inside the gourd, pouring a measure of a black-ish liquid into them. It smelled heavily of spices and caramel and he handed one of the glasses to Yuki before holding his own up. "Black rum, got it from the port a few days ago. To us, to the team, to a bright future." He grinned and tilted his glass slightly so they could make the toast.

Yuki let out a little squeak and covered her nose, a blush flushing on her face from embarrassment. "Occam, you're so mean!" She curled up a little and watched him pulling off a dark bottle and poured them in their respective containers. Her hand still covered her nose, as well as her mouth, as she spoke. "It... certainly is...black..." She uncovered her mouth and held onto the cup, smelling the a sweet scent that didn't really do a good job of masking the spices. Yuki nodded slightly and tilted her glass to his, making a soft 'clink' sound before taking a small sip of it.

"Eh, maybe a little bit but I'm sure you don't mind that much. I saw that blush." He stuck his tongue out to her before clinking their glasses together. "Kannpai!" He declared before downing the entire contents and filling it up again. This time he sipped it although he spent a few moments taking a deep breath to get rid of the slight burn that the alcohol sent down his throat. "Some damn good stuff... I'll need to thank those sailors that I got it from." He mumbled before lifting his leg and resting his arm on his knee. "So what's the home life like, Yuki? I know we haven't been on many missions and we'll need to get that sorted but it must be nice at home, yeah?" He smiled to her and sipped some rum before putting it down and scratching his cheek gently. He kind of wished that Musei was with them but sitting with a cold cutie was... Surprisingly nice. He didn't think he'd be the sort of person to enjoy sitting around with others but he was quickly being proved wrong in that regard.

Yuki stared into her glass, hair falling in front of her face to help hide her blush. The sweetness of the rum was a nice little relief after the initial burn. "It's.. okay. Kori's usually locked up in her room making clothes for her team or me and my parents are doing work or something. It's kind of been really quiet lately..." She looked up at the sky again. "There's not much for me to do there with everyone else so busy with their own thing, so I just practice..." Now that she thought about it, if she wasn't sleeping or socialising, all she seemed to be doing was practicing something, anything. Little tunes and melodies, testing and training, even reading and studying the scrolls of the forbidden arts. My life is so...boring.... she commented to herself.

"I know that feeling. Mum is almost never around but she does a lot of missions to try and bring income into the house, make sure we have a comfortable life. She seems... Happy enough with me so she doesn't really talk to me much, I'm good enough not to have her nagging me. My dad does his things, generally stays at home but sometimes he helps out in the market. I just make metal, it's what I do, what I've always done. Been trying to make some actual solid things so that I can be a bit more helpful to the team, like senbon, kunai, knives, wire, things like that. I'm pretty damn boring, sometimes I go for walks down to the port and the like... Maybe you should come with me on them? Meet some people?" He smiled to her and sipped his rum before shuffling a little closer to her so their shoulders ended up touching. "Do you ever get sick of the stagnation? The repetition? Going back to your home day after day and doing the same things again and again?" He asked softly, staring up at the sky.

"I do my best to keep things interesting or switched up. With practice, I try out something new to see if I can do it, and try to make combinations I can use later but... Overall, if can get pretty boring for a while." She looked down into the cup, staring at the slightly rippling liquid that near perfectly reflected the sky. "I'm...not exactly the most social person... But... Maybe a walk or two down the docks with you wouldn't be so bad.", she mumbled before taking another sip. Yuki leaned closer towards Occam, so that their arms were pressing a little more. "It wouldn't be that bad of an idea to wander around the market from time to time together, even bringing Mu along. Or to just hang out or have sleepovers or something. Maybe even taking trips to sight see or something to keep things lively for us."

"Don't really need to be sociable, the others do that sort of thing for you, just talk at you and let you enjoy the ridiculous swearing and similes." He chuckled quietly and then leaned back onto the rock, shifting his arm away from them so that he could wrap it around Yuki's shoulders and gently pull her in against him. "It's a little more comfortable for me this way, my arm doesn't get jammed up against you." He told her, softly, his face showing no hint that he was actually trying to hide anything. He took a sip of rum and then nodded. "Sleepovers... It sounds so childish but sometimes it's difficult to remember that I am a kid, really. So you know what? I'm actually up for that and I'm sure Mu will be as well..." Occam paused and frowned slightly. "...I hope he won't try and grope me while I sleep, I'm a bit of a heavy sleeper." He mused before chuckling and shaking his head. "I need to stop treating us so much as a team, a unit of combat, I need to start treating you guys like friends. I've tried but it's a little difficult just... Due to the way my head works. I'm happy to try and change that though, and you two are my best friends so there's really no reason not to." He nodded and sipped his rum again, a smirk sitting on his features.