Habits

Title: Habits
Pairing: GenKure (post AsuKure)
Summary: Even as laid back as Genma is there are a few habits of Kurenai's he hates.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters, this story is mine however.
Dedicated to: Jyukai-Koudan in thanks for the 100 pts to be used for turning the KakaIru group into a super group.
Special thanks to my beta/cohort Kita

Habits were interesting things. Like routines they were a part of life that was inescapable, normal, and always there.

Some were gross, like the way she left her tooth brush on the counter instead of in the holder or the towels on the floor. Logically, he knew she should be the one complaining because she was a woman and not a messy bachelor. It was why he hadn't realized she would have habits like that. The worst, however, was how the bag of girlie-stuff, that Kurenai brought with her whenever she stayed the night, seemed to spread out and take over his relatively clean bathroom. Sometimes they would escape her watchful eye when she left too. He swore the stuff multiplied. A tube of lipstick would be on the counter one day and the next he'd find a tiny little brush tucked under the edge of the cabinet that he could swear wasn't there previously.

Women were supposed to be the clean ones who came over and rearranged your mess of an apartment with tidy little flower pots and useless frilly curtains. Kurenai didn't do any of that. Her apartment was clean when he went over and it had all of the girlie things he expected, but when she came over to his she didn't mess with things. Genma knew he was fairly clean for a guy, but he'd deliberately messed things up a few times just to see what Kurenai would do which had turned out to be... absolutely nothing. She hadn't even made a face. If anything, he thought she'd seemed more comfortable in his apartment when it was messier.

Other habits were cute, like the way she chewed her lower lip when she was filling out a mission report. In comparison to her normal confidence she wore this goofy, but thoughtful expression made her look five. Genma loved it. It was an incredibly innocent expression and beautiful in it's own way. He could watch her filling out paperwork all day and be perfectly content. She seemed the most relaxed then and he loved it.

Some were just weird. Genma couldn't figure out why she felt the need to touch his eyebrows. He hadn't paid much attention to it at first but when he had his head on her lap she tended to do it. He couldn't decide if she liked the way the short hairs felt when she brushed them absently or if there was something more to it that had nothing at all to do with him. Sometimes, while she does, her eyes are distant and he knows it's not him she's thinking of. He doesn't say anything though, just leaves her to her thoughts, because he knows that they've all lost someone.

Occasionally, there were even habits that were outright sexy. That was disregarding the obvious ones like the way she stretched her arms over her head when she flopped on the sofa or her habit of tucking the throw on the couch up under her boobs. He actually found the second one funny because it was like she used them as a way to pin the blanket in place.

The habit he thought was truly sexy, the one that really caught his attention, was the way she'd come up behind him, slide her arms around his shoulders, remove his senbon with one hand, tilt his chin up with the other, and kiss him. It was easily the sexiest thing in the world. All of her confidence and softness came out in that one little habit and he loved that she couldn't seem to be in the same house as him without doing it at some point during the day. He looked forward to that little routine.

Some were annoying like the way Kurenai insisted on checking on the baby exactly three times before bed. The first time was to see if he was sleeping. Genma couldn't say he minded that one because once she was sure he was asleep then he could stop pretending to be well-behaved and slide his hands and lips over those gorgeous curves. The second time, an hour later, was to make sure he hadn't rolled over and wasn't inadvertantly suffocating on his face. This one was funny, because he had to wonder what evolutionary trait allowed for that.

The third time was because she missed him. Not the cute little baby laying in his crib sleeping like the little angel he wasn't, but him, Asuma. This one annoyed him a little. Okay, a lot.

Her eyes changed then and he could see the guilt settling inside her. It annoyed him because he knew Asuma wouldn't want to see her like that. He tried to assure her of that, but no matter what he said some part of her felt guilty for being able to hold her own baby when Asuma couldn't. The most annoying part of the habit was that if he mentioned it, she'd close herself off from him. A smile and a kiss and she was gone, emotionally if not physically. Genma was laid back and he ignored the habits he didn't like in favor of the ones that he did, but that one.... that one bugged him.

Asuma was a habit Kurenai would never quit and Genma would never ask her to, he just wished Kurenai would stop thinking he didn't understand. Because he does, and he hopes that someday, when he doesn't come back from a mission, that someone will remember him that fondly. In the darkest part of his heart, he wants it not to be Kurenai, because she's suffered enough and carries too many memories, but she's a habit that he can't quit.