YUKI BOYS [P,NK]

Chiaki had been a bit... confused... when he had received a letter to meet at the Record Store from a "Nero Yuki". It had taken him a while to remember the small little boy his flower family would send him to play with whenever things got 'rough' at the brothel. His cousin, he had found out. His only connection to his mother. It had been so long since he had seen Nero, who had one day disappeared. Chiaki had never found out the why or how Nero left, only knowing that Nero's missing presence met that whatever semblance of normalcy he had in childhood would no longer continue.

He slid along the streets in relative silence, which made it easy to pick out the muted sound of a familiar song. He hated that song. But Chiaki had adored Nero as a kid, so he adored whatever Nero did. He hated it, but right now, he remembered it fondly.

The simple smile he always wore softened slightly. "A little cheesy, isn't it?" He waved his sleeved hand at Nero as he arrived. "Nero." He took in the white hair and broad shoulders of the taller Yuki. "You've grown. What's with the old man hair?"

A pause. Then, Chiaki started to laugh and reached forward for a hug. He may have lost his flower family, but he still had Nero. That would have to do.

Chiaki pouted and pulled his ponytail over his shoulder, carefully stroking the silken locks. "I would never dare to cut my hair, it is my pride." Plus, if he cut his hair, how would he disguise the barbed wire currently braided in to his ponytail? He pushed his hair back into place and the ponytail swung, always tempting somebody to try and grab it and innevitably stab their hand on the barbs.

He followed after Nero, gracefully walking up the wall and then leaping across the rooftop as Nero had. "Just like old days," he repeated in agreement with a small nod. 

He hummed thoughtfully and leaped across another rooftop, now ahead of Nero, using the Tree Climbing technique to make sure he would not slip when he landed. "What I've done?" His mind flashed to blood on his hands and in his teeth, to begging and screaming and the sweet, sweet feeling of justice being served. He defaulted to his simple smile as he looked over his shoulder at Nero. "Not much, really, dearest cousin. I must confess that I have not had the most intriguing of lives. Perhaps shinobi life will change that." Nero was family, but Nero could never know the truth. Nobody could.

"And how about you? You left quite suddenly back then. I don't recall ever learning where—or why—you went." Although he said it with his signature smile, there was something bitterly sharp in Chiaki's voice, hinting at a lingering hurt from that fact.

Chiaki shrugged. He couldn't enlighten Nero about any Yuki traditions, as the only other Yuki he knew was Nero himself. Still, he wouldn't bother to correct Nero's mistaken thoughts. His cousin didn't need to know about Chiaki's past or his lost flower family.

"They did what?" His brows furrowed in concern as Nero spoke about the beginning of his ninja life. Of course Nero would eventually kill, as was par with the life of being a ninja, but hadn't his parents been merchants? It was odd for Chiaki, whom had grown up seeing things as a civilian of the slums, to imagine a happy boy like Nero being given a knife and told to kill. But who was he to judge?

He lifted his hands almost automatically to catch the ice ball. He tossed it between his hands absentmindedly. "I supposed it's a bit belated then, but," he threw the ball back to Nero, "welcome back, Nero." He looked out at the busy farmer's market, his eyes darting from person to person as he guessed at what histories they might have.

He bit the inside of his cheek. "What anybody else does, I suppose. Missions and training, aim for the next rank, and the next one after that." Chiaki slipped right past the question regarding his family. He had no desire to lie—not more than necessary, at least—to his cousin. "And you?"

If Nero threw the ice ball again, Chiaki would look down at the icy ball in deep contemplation. "You weren't joking about teaching me how to do this, were you?" He would eventually look back up at Nero. "You think I can do it?"