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The dark haired young Uzumaki walked with surprising grace for someone who had just drunk as much as he had done. He had quite frankly lost count of how many shots and pints he had downed quite some time ago and just like with everything else in his life up until this point he just went on gut feelings and instinct and that had always been enough for him. It was instinct that told him that apologizing and distracting her with the offer of food as a way to say sorry for skipping out on her was a good idea. And it had also been instinct that had told him to take her hand on the way here, he did this with everyone but for anyone else he probably would have let go some time ago now. Walking like this with her just felt...Right somehow. He felt a slight smile tug at the sides of his lips. This one wasn't like his regular cocky grin, it was one of pure contentment which he couldn't remember feeling before. He looked back at her for a moment, noticing that her gaze was elsewhere and he followed it up to the moon. It looked unusually large tonight which was a good thing, the moon was one of the first things that he could remember from the first time he had met her in the pouring rain outside of the Amekage's tower. He decided to leave her alone to her own thoughts for now and continued leading the way.

He pondered on the situation for a few moments and came to the decision that she just hadn't noticed that they were still holding hands, it just wasn't like her to have realized and not cared. His suspicions were proven correct when his aptly named "Rukia senses" picked up that she was looking at him again and then down to their hands, and no sooner had she done so did she remove her hand from his own in the fashion that he had become accustomed to with having known her for so long. It was probably the fact that he enjoyed seeing her squirm as much as she did with him that he tried to subtly flirt with her sometimes. He knew that it would probably fail, he didn't expect much more from someone such as herself. But it was his way of dealing with a number of different things although the greatest of them was nervousness, and in all fairness he was actually attracted to her, not that he would ever admit that to her face however. He never did unless he was sure that the person he was admitting it to could potentially have feelings for him too in return, and he was almost certain that she did not. Which was a shame, because he had wanted nothing more for a while now then an actual relationship instead of yet another stupid fling.

The odd pair had been walking in silence for quite some time now, but after some indefinite amount of time she had finally broken the silence between them. He turned and acknowledged her as she Began to talk. "Hmm?" Before listening to the entire question and nodding, pondering upon it for a moment trying to come up the best and most precise answer he could before eventually shrugging as he spoke. "I dunno? It just felt like the right thing to do I guess?" He looked her straight in the eye and flashed her one of his warm, kind hearted 100 watt smiles that he gave people from time to time when he was being sincere. And he was, the entire reason that Akio ever did anything was precisely because at the time it just felt like the right thing to do. He then followed her gaze once she pointed out whatever she happened to be looking at, and shure enough they had come across the Ramen shop. It was odd, he hadn't even noticed right up until it was pointed out to him and before he knew what had hit him she was already taking a seat and pointing out that he had promised to pay. He was sober enough now to regret promising to do so, but backing out of another promise would probably spell disaster for him. He sat down next to her and waved her comment off. "Yeah yeah, don't worry about it I won't forget."

Akio didn't even need to think about it and he immediately placed an order for himself of three of their largest portions of Miso Ramen. He had a unique way of eating which he had come to refer to as his own personal Kekkei Genkai in which he ate so quickly that he was practically inhaling his food, but in the politest way possible of course. The old shop owner turned to speak to them after having taken their orders, Akio and Rukia were a common sight around these parts and where you found one the other was likely to not be far behind. And the silvery haired old man couldn't help but get a joke in there about it. "Rukia, Akio! It's so good to see my two favorite customers again. What are you doing out so late? Are you on a date perhaps?" Akio had already taken a big mouth full of his food and just about spat it out from shock as he heard the mans words, usually he would have just shrugged it off as a flippant comment and nothing more, but after all he had been thinking of lately and the mixture of the hand holding and everything had left his mind oddly muddled instead of it's usually blank and happy state. He finished his mouthful and pointed at the man before yelling, with a playful hint in his voice that obviously gave away that he was in fact just joking around. "Shut up old man!" He then sank back into his seat with a burning red blush upon his face, not something that happened often. He busied himself with eating until he had calmed down some, which obviously meant that he had finished an entire bowl in record time once again before trying to avert attention to other matters. "So I've been away for a while...What have you been up to? I bet I've missed a lot around these parts and things have probably been pretty boring without me around to entertain everybody huh?"

Akio had for the most part stopped blushing by now, he was really rather good at suppressing his embarrassment and nervousness when he needed to be. It was just another one of those skills that he had picked up over time out of necessity as he embarrassed himself often and greatly. It had started out as a cry for attention when he was younger simply because of the fact that he had very little skill in any other area and it was the only way that he could with which to garner the attention that he so craved at the time. Obviously his level of skill in Ninjutsu and even Taijutsu to a certain extent had increased too. The only thing he still completely failed at was Genjutsu. But then again he couldn't exactly be good at everything as much as he would like people to believe that he was. He was very nearly finished with his bowl at this point and he was starting to get a little full, which was probably due to his earlier binge of alcohol, but at the very least now that he had something in his stomach a little more substantial then the drink he was starting to sober up ever so nicely.

The dark haired Uzumaki turned his head with a slightly questioning looking on his face when she placed a hand on his shoulder and asked if he was alright. It would seem that she had picked up on his uneasiness, which wasn't exactly hard considering the wall was currently plastered in the contents of his first mouthful and he had only just managed to get rid of his bright red blush. He nodded softly, not exactly sure how to answer her so he just went for the straightforward approach. "Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" He was trying to downplay his earlier massive surge of awkward defensiveness, playing it cool although he was pretty shure that he was failing at it. Just as always. He had actually finished his bowl as expected way before she had, it was just another park of his own unique Kekkei Genkai, or at the very least that was what he liked to call it. He just hoped that the memory of his earlier very obvious reaction to the notion that they might be dating. He wasn't against the idea, it was just the first time that someone had actually vocalized it instead of it being locked inside his head safe and sound.

Akio had already finished his bowl at this point and had pushed it to one side so that it could be taken back and cleaned and all that. He suppressed the urge to burp because he knew that it wouldn't go over very well so he opted to just hold it for a later time when he was alone. He then settled himself into his seat a little better and listened intently to her tell her about how everything had been while he had been away, a small smile spreading across his face as she revealed that things indeed had been boring and such around here without him around. Which was both good and bad, it was good because it meant that people really did miss him when he was gone but on the flip side leaving people bored like that really didn't make him happy at all. He much preferred people to be happy, just more so when he was the center of attention. He played into her little act, acting hurt when she hit him on the shoulder before laughing it off. "That's what I like to hear. Let your true feelings out, don't be shy!" He said in a playful, half mocking tone that showed he knew she was only joking. He enjoyed these times the best, he could be himself around her without her thinking he was weird at all. It was then that she asked her next question and he fell silent for a moment or two. Dare he actually answer seriously? Or should he just brush it off as nothing? He decided to go the serious route. He looked her in the eye with a completely sincere look as he talked. "Of course I did Rukia. I always miss you when I go away, it's why I always hurry back so I can come see you again." He smiled softly, for once he was not joking and was actually being completely serious. It was an odd feeling, but he liked it none the less. True to his word Akio dug around in his pocket and eventually fished out his wallet. He was still loaded from all of those missions he had completed recently so paying was no problem. He put the correct amount of money on the table before offering her his hand in a gentlemanly manner. "I'd usually offer to walk you home at this point. But the night is young, how about we go for a walk?"
[Exit to Kirigakure park.]