[Log] Something of a Great Necessity [Backdated like WOAH]

[cranesandroses]

Characters: Konan (cranesandroses) and Hyuuga Neji (optical_white)
Date: January 3
Location: The Corner Store
Rating: PG.
Warnings/Notes: This log has been done ages ago but somehow, Judo and I manage to keep on forgetting to post it. :D
Summary: There is something Konan needs and Neji is the only person who can provide. Surprisingly, all ends well.


Closing time. Neji thought it would never come. Today had been particularly rough in the business area, with unruly customers and more spills than seemed godly. Oh, the joys of being understaffed. He coughed into his hand, lips tugging into a frown. For the most part of his stay in Cena, he had avoided sickness with workouts, good housekeeping, and eating as well as he could. But it seemed like his luck was running out. Lack of funds had robbed him from the money he normally spent on food. Even cutting out all non-necessary purchases, Neji barely had enough to buy anything substantial. Conservation of resources had led him to eating two meals every day--something that served to weaken his health considerably. It wasn't a pretty thing, but Neji hated doctors. All he needed to do was drown himself in tea and get some sleep.

It was easier said than done, to say the least.

But the end of the day had finally arrived, at long last, and he would be able to go home, eat, and sleep until he had to wake up the next morning, when he would have to repeat the entire process over again like a good slave of the law. He was sleeping a lot more lately, but it didn't seem to be doing any good. The stale state of his health was rather irritating.

Locking up the register, Neji went through the meticulous process of doing all his closing duties before he could finally go home. Lights off, supplies put away, back doors and windows locked. Check. [And double check, just to be thorough.] His boss liked him to be on closing duty because Neji took painstaking measures to keep everything under order, and was not likely to forget anything. Not likely translating to "he didn't forget anything," which only worked further in his employer's favor.

One final scan of the store and Neji headed for the door, tugging it open and preparing to finish the final routine of the day, before beginning the too-long trek to his apartment. It looked like it was to rain soon.

There was a sense of urgency tonight. Perhaps it was with the way the wind sharply blew across her face, the tap-tapping of her heels against the pavement, or the pressure of Hidan's words as he told her of her client and the importance of properly pleasing him. There was a great chance he would throw in a hefty amount of cash and not only will it serve to quieten Kakuzu but it would also give her a bigger sum than what she was used to getting and this would go to the money she had kept for the explicit purpose of finding another location for herself to stay in.

And she had been halfway to the designated point of meeting, carefully reviewing her cards, the field in which they were going to play and the words that were going to be uttered when she realized that there was some item of great importance that she had omitted to bring.

She berated herself (as she adjusted that very flashy piece of clothing she was wearing beneath her cloak) and turned on her heel towards the nearest convenience store from which she would be able to buy the necessary materials. From a distance, she could see the lights were off and the store seemed closed for the night and she vaguely hoped to herself that this was not the case. But it was and she brushed past some unlucky fellow trudging silently down the street to stand in front of the glass doors.

It was, indeed, closed.

Konan could almost feel the shiver that accompanied the thought of attending the tryst without any of her prerequisites. (Besides, who had taken them from the kitchen cabinet where she would have easily seen them and be reminded on her way out?)

Pale eyes cast a halfhearted glance in her direction. "We are closed," was the absently delivered answer. He was in no mood to tolerate latecomers, or beggars, or anyone else who wanted to disturb him at this point in time. All Neji planned to do was lock up and head home to where he could follow his previous schedule just as he had planned. Anyone who wanted to stand in the way of those plans, well. They didn't have much going for them.

The key twisted in the lock and found its way into his pocket, and Neji turned around, expecting to find the straggler gone. Instead, he found her standing very near, and wearing a very familiar face. He almost made a sound of surprise, calling out, but restrained. Instead, he scanned at her critically, somewhat sympathetic, but not much. "Closed," he repeated, gesturing to the sign on the inside of the grubby window to make his point. He really hoped she'd just accept it and leave him be. Neji really didn't need problems today.

There was absolutely no way he was not going to let her inside. Did he even know the possible repercussions of what he was telling her? There was half the mind to get the nearest object and strangle himself with it, though that was not advisable since the nearest accessible object for doing such a deed was her pantyhose (and she could not stain it with blood, at least not yet).

"There is something I need, which you could no doubt provide." Gradually, Konan turned and her let her eyes fall onto the figure of the person who had talked to her. In the dim lighting, she could just barely make out his figure but it struck a cord of familiarity within her that she could not quite place. But that was not the matter at hand. She needed something and needed it quick.

"I can provide many things," he responded coolly. No move was made to take the key from his pocket in order to open the door. The look of stubbornness on his face did not waver, and his unspoken negation echoed in non-verbal implication. Just because he was able to do something, didn't mean he would. "Why should I help you?" Of course, they had met before, but they weren't familiar enough for him to do any personal favors.

Well, it was easy to say they weren't familiar at all.

Besides which, Neji wasn't often the kind to inconvenience himself for others. Only if it ever applied to the honour code would he take the trouble to stick his neck out in the way of danger. Some called him a hypocrite, but he disagreed. There was a method to his madness, after all. It might not have been a very proper method, but it was one, nonetheless. His father had lived by the code Neji now followed--breathed it, practically. Neji remembered him quoting the majority by memory. It was a beautiful way to live, he supposed, or at least it would have been had anyone in the family followed it properly. Alas, years of warped tradition and clan preservation had all but crippled the importance of the code.

Neji would not have been surprised if he was the only Hyuuga who still lived by the honour code fully. Rather pathetic, seeing as he wasn't anything more than a--what terms had they used, again? "Smear on the noble Hyuuga family line," and a "disgrace to the clan." Not to forget that he was "unbefitting of the name of Hyuuga," and his father would be ashamed to know that he had sired such a "worthless piece of rebellious slime." He hadn't been seen as more than a black mark under Hyuuga Hizashi's name for at least three years now, no longer even thought of as a member of the clan.

The spite was almost enough to make him smirk, but he refrained, as it would not be befitting of the situation.

It all boiled down to Hizashi, if one wanted something simplistic enough to explain the scenario in a single word. Neji followed the code because his father would have wanted it to be that way--it was an obligation, or sorts. After breaking the most important pact of his life, and being thrown into exile, following the code was the only thing Neji had left to honour his father's memory.

Opening a store late to allow someone to purchase an item was not included in the code of honour. [It was spoken against, rather. Be responsible, and take responsibility for your actions. If she wasn't able to remember what she needed, she should accept the consequences. Indulging her would be akin to spoiling a child; teaching them that irresponsibility was something they could get away with. It wasn't.] His arms folded neatly across his chest as he stared her down, refusing to budge.

Konan had to resist the urge to tap her boot against the pavement in impatience. The stubbornness of this person was not being appreciated at the moment and could he merely open the door and sell her the materials she needed so she could go in her own way and he to his? This was absurdity, foolishness. She was willing to pay, and that was something when it came to people from Cena. It was a few minutes of his time, and since he did not seem to be rushing anywhere then that meant he was not in a hurry to fulfill previous engagements and such.

Perhaps she should not have come when there was someone else in the same street. That would have ensured the one hundred percent rate of success if she ever attempted to break in the store. Not that she would. It was a very undignified manner of acquiring something that one needed. Konan did not stoop down to such methods. She glanced at the man, and the realization came to her of who he was.

Ah, the Hyuuga.

Well, he did not seem to fear violence as one was normally ought to so threatening bodily harm was out of the options. He did not seem to be particularly attracted to the feminine population, providing a stark contrast to those foolish imbeciles in the bar she frequented. Flashing him was not an option too. Could he not sense her immediate need for it?

"I can acquiesce to what you are saying," she looked at the toes of her boots as if in defeat and crossed her arms, "but there is a possibility that once we go our own ways, I would go back and...ah, enter this establishment without your permission." Konan lifted her head and leveled her gaze at him.

Threatening him with it did not mean she was going to do so, anyway.

It was with dry, and completely humourless amusement, that he inquired, wondering, "Is that a threat?" It wasn't so much as what she said was funny, per se, but the situation was so completely ridiculous Neji could barely suppress the wry feeling that almost made him want to smile out of sheer bitterness toward the entire bloody thing.

He was going to have to go back in there, turn the lights on, let her make her purchase, re-total everything up again and close everything down a second time--all of which would take at least half an hour away from his travel time--ending up in Neji himself losing at least thirty to forty minutes aiding someone whose name he didn't even know. If he refused to indulge in this whim, complete utter waste of his time that it was, he ran the risk of the store being vandalized and robbed, of all things. It was a desperate attempt, he knew, but he was not well enough aware of her habits to predict whether she was lying or not. Perhaps she should have been responsible in the first place and not neglected to obtain that which she needed at such last minute--or so it looked. She seemed rather hurried.

It was no excuse in his eyes. Neji was determined to be as merciless as he possibly could without putting his job or the wellbeing of the store in jeopardy. Unfortunately, it was looking as if his hand just might be forced on this issue. How irritating.

So he was taking his time. How...quaint.

And how she loathed him, at this moment. It vexed her to see him, it irritated her to have him standing right there. She wanted nothing more than to take off her boot and slam the heel on his skull. After all, there was that violence her house mates had been feeding which, sadly, had been unanswered. But then, what would He say if he came back to the Akatsuki ruined and diminished? Granted, it was no upholding well now and there were times when the hands of failure clawed at her and raked her insides because she had been thoroughly, definitely incapable of keeping the other members under his reign.

No, not now. She had better things to do than trifle with foolish males she had spared on a whim.

As it was on the same whim that she was asking him to open the store for her and give her the materials she needed. "Perhaps it is a threat. Perhaps I was merely uttering the truth, to which you adamantly turn your back on."

Who knew what violence she was capable of in her irked demeanor, without fully killing the fool.

"This is a great inconvenience to me." An inconvenience, indeed.

Fates be damned. Neji scowled and pulled the key from his pocket gripping it tightly in his hand as he fixed the strange woman with a look that could intimidate a brick wall. [Why was he not surprised when she didn't even flinch?] He didn't fail to realize that by giving in, he was veritably signing his death warrant, but he'd prefer not to be blamed--or receive a dock on pay--because she couldn't be responsible enough to remember items that seemed to be necessary to her.

A lingering burn rose in his throat, scratching to be let out. The persistent cough squeezed his chest with delicately caged fury, but Neji cleared his throat and forced the pressing compulsion back down.

Channeling death threats from every corner of his mind, Neji turned to the door once again, pressing the key to the slot and begrudgingly turned it, feeling quite hard-done-by when he heard the click of the lock. "You have five minutes." He couldn't believe he was giving in to this. A second thought made him reach over and flip the light switch on, stepping aside so she could walk past him.

She brushed past him, walking to the end of the establishment which, as much as she was unfamiliar with, she already knew where the certain materials she needed were surely located. They were always located at the back, as if they were something to be particularly embarrassed about. Not that she was, or she would not be striding inside and taking a couple of boxes without even blinking and walking towards the counter as if she was well-acquainted with the place.

She laid her purchases on the counter and eyed the man (...Hyuuga, was it?) with an indifferent gaze. Konan just hoped he would hurry. She was terribly late, as it was.

He was just re-opening the register when the cloaked woman morphed into his line of vision, holding... Neji furrowed his brow, and looked vaguely scandalized as his eyes focused in on exactly what had just been placed on the counter. It wasn't especially rare that such things were purchased at the store--this was Cena, after all, but...

Who on earth would be in such a hurry to buy condoms?

In response to the query, several answers [quite obvious ones] popped into his head, but he shook them out, preferring to just live without knowing. If she had been going for a date or something of the sort, would it have been so difficult to approach a different store? Neji's hand hovered in midair above the boxes, and he looked at them consideringly. After a moment, he shifted his gaze to Konan and raised his eyebrows, asking rather skeptically, "Is that all?"

Konan glanced at his name tag, which quite plainly said "Neji Hyuuga," and then at him, not missing the slightly mortified look that passed across his face as she put her purchases in front of him. These were human inventions, what was there to be scandalized about seeing them? Contraceptives were simply protection against unwanted pregnancies, which was not particularly high on her list.

It wasn't to say that she was against the idea of having children. There merely was no time in her agenda to give birth to one and subsequently take care of it. She was a busy woman, who had a lot of matters to deal with and a lot more to try to not deal with. A child would prove to be a distraction to the more important matters. And it wasn't as if it was going to be properly nurtured, especially not by her. Konan was adept at many things, but not this.

(Or perhaps she was merely trying to justify that apparent desire, hidden deep within her as her biological clock slowly ticked away, that she would want to have a child. Perhaps. One of these days.)

She nodded. Better not linger more than she already had.

After that, Neji made short work of scanning the items, bagging them, and calculating up the total. "Twenty-seven dollars and thirty-eight cents," he responded, pondering quietly the ridiculous price for two boxes of rubber sheathes.

It was quite silly, when one stopped to think about it. There was a great deal of emphasis placed on sex anywhere one went, and in tow with that particularly irritating train came all the problems thereof: diseases, infidelity, rape, unwarranted pregnancy. The list went on, broadening and expanding until it was the root of quite an impressive number of problems in day-to-day life. Not to say that there was no effort to curb these never-ending complications, but the solutions always seemed overridden by new issues. For example: Contraceptives. Standard guard against a number of things, from children to STDs, but with such ridiculous prices who cared to purchase them? [Aside from she in front of him currently. He couldn't fully squash the lingering questions dancing in his mind in regards to this woman's hidden agenda. Anyone who had thirty dollars to blow on an urgent mission for birth control must have a rather... interesting story behind it.] Neji had always considered food, heat, and clothing higher up on the priority list than sex.

Then again, Neji considered most things over sex, judging by his complete disinterest in anything related to the subject whatsoever. Cena's population could enjoy their sickness and depravity, he had enough to deal with without that added factor.

Musing over it, it seemed the most direct solution--beyond increasing availability of birth control, which wasn't something that was going to happen anytime, what with Curian inflation and whatnot--was to get over the ridiculous fascination with sexual activity and promiscuity. The concept might have seemed veritably outrageous in the eyes of some, but Neji was by all rights asexual, and his lack of attention to other human beings extended to the customs of intimacy that typically involved another individual. [It was something that had no chance of happening, either, but knowing that it was considered outrageous to have zero interest in females at his age, and the amount of mockery to be considered if it was ever divulged that Neji had never touched a woman in his life--not for lack of opportunity, but sheer absense of want--well. It was more trouble than was fit to deal with.] For a teenaged male, Neji had surprisingly little hormonal activity. Some might consider him defective.

He supposed it was better that the family had disowned him, because the elders were constantly prying for new heirs, and it would have been quite the ordeal trying to explain to them that he was uninterested in copulation or reproduction without them thinking him gay. Again, far more trouble than anything pertaining to the subject was worth.

If a person asked Konan what she wanted most in life, that was to live it in whatever way she desired. A quiet home, far away from Cena, far away from beginnings and endings that so haunted her. There would be no more worries, or at least less of them, and her guns and weapons would be kept deep within her closet because they were not needed. Picket fences were overrated and they did not keep the stray dogs away, so she was going with a wooden gate. Maybe it was not entirely the safest, but it would do.

And it would have children running around, and the house would be bustling with activity, and she wouldn't be alone--

(She was pathetic. Why did these thoughts cross her mind? Ah, perhaps too much fraternizing with her companions at home. Else, why would she even bother?)

Konan slipped her hand in the pocket of her coat and withdrew the necessary amount, taking all her packages as she placed the bill on the counter. Without a backward glance and a care for the extra amount she had left, she made her way to the exit, a rush of air greeting her as she stepped out of the glass door.

There was business to take care of.

Watching her leave, Neji finally managed to crush the last wheedling bits of curiosity swimming in his subconscious. He hadn't until this point considered that this was their third direct meeting to date, amongst numerous inderect glances and run-ins over the past weeks. Things were beginning to become... interesting. While normally something not of the same boring caliber would be appreciated, seeing as they were in Cena, Neji wasn't quite sure if "interesting" was something he wanted in his life, especially at this point in time.

Lifting a hand to his mouth, he coughed once, ignoring the strain of his lungs to repeat the action, and watched her depart with a cool stillness. In the emptiness of the store, he seemed just another shadow left lingering against the walls in the dwindling daylight.

A barely-there curve pulled at the corner of his lip as pale eyes remained locked on the form that would disappear from his sight in roughly two seconds, beyond the cracked and dirty store window, beyond the craggy streets he had memorized like lines of his own palm, somewhere into the foul pit they called a home to do business that was assuredly not wholesome in any way. Stepping away from the counter, he moved silently across the floor, pressing slim fingers down against the once-white, but no longer, light switch. Neji looked up at the sky through the glass, just barely able to pick out the ghostly outline of the moon glowing in the smog-choked air.

Night. The end of another day, the close of another meeting. Closing up the store for the second [and hopefully last] time that evening, he stepped out into the hell-painted streets of Cena, thinking privately to himself of the next time he would encounter the strange, quietly perplexing woman with the gun on her hip and bright indigo hair.