how did this even happen...

[mooneye]

It wasn't a bad sort of place. Lots of things to do and people to see. Plenty of freedom to dart over the rooftops and down the alleys--or out of the village and into the woods and rocky wild places beyond. Obito liked Michi no Sato.

He had stopped for lunch and was eating at a table outside the restaurant, watching people walk past. The food was good. The cold breeze was nice. Ah, yes. Years and years trapped in a cave with a crazy old man and a bunch of plant monsters--it had left him really able to appreciate the little things.

[ooc: here is an AU Obito in his twenties. Got through the time with Madara, and Rin's death, but didn't go completely evil after all of it...]

Comments

[facevalue]

"How unfortunate. I have seen many people of your pathetic clan walking around here. Is there a reason they do not like you?"

[mooneye]

"Some of them like me. Others don't. It seems to depend on what kind of world they come from, exactly."

[facevalue]

"But you do not have that thing called a 'bond'?"

[mooneye]

"No." He shook his head. "Not here."

[facevalue]

"How unfortunate." Sai tilts his head for another smile. His cheeks were starting to get a little sore from all this smiling, but he had read that it was the easiest way to gain someone's trust. "Ah, but perhaps we now share a bond, yes?"

Though what to title that bond, he wondered...

[mooneye]

"You and I?" he smiled. "...Yes, if you like. It might be the start of a bond." And, after a small pause. "You don't need to smile just for me, by the way. Since you aren't feeling anything, are you? Unless you're doing it just to practice..."

[facevalue]

"Does it not look natural?" His expression folds as if it had never been there, and both hands come up to touch his own face. "I have been practicing, but it still does not look quite right..."

[mooneye]

"It could use a little work." He shrugged. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it eventually. But this seems more natural."

[facevalue]

"But this is not an expression at all." He lets his hands fall to his lap as he stares up at the other male. "I was reading that in order to facilitate a conversation and trust between one's partners, one should attempt a friendly smile."

[mooneye]

"Oh." Now he understood. That made sense. "I appreciate the effort. But since I know you're not feeling anything, don't worry about it now, hm?" He paused, thinking. "Animals don't smile. If two wild things became friends, or if they became enemies, it would happen naturally. Without smiles, or pretending. Why don't we try that?"

[facevalue]

That makes him blink and tilt his head, staring at the other. "You think us animals, then?" The other man certainly possessed the same kind of power and grace as... well, perhaps not a cat, he revised his earlier opinion. With that hair, it had become more clear with the sketching. A lion, predatory while appearing to be lazing in the sun.

[mooneye]

"I think of myself that way." He said, shrugging. Or at least, not totally human. One of Madara's creatures from the dark, not exactly a man but not quite anything else. "So if you wouldn't smile for an animal you wanted to make a bond with, then there's no need to smile for me."

[facevalue]

He makes a small, thoughtful sound, a hand coming to his chin as he genuinely contemplates that. "I wonder, do animals appreciate smiles?" he muses, seemingly to himself.

[mooneye]

"...Dogs might." He considered the question himself. "Dogs smile too, I suppose."

[facevalue]

"A dog..." In an instant, his sketchpad is open again, a quick several strokes against the page before he presents the image of a four-legged canine. "I do not think they smile, either."

[mooneye]

"Don't they? I thought when you scratched their ears, they did." He considered that, thinking of Kakashi's dogs and shaking his head, frowning. "But I don't like dogs, myself. I could be wrong."

[facevalue]

...Now he was curious. He nearly puts the sketchpad away to pull out his ink and brush, ready to draw a dog just to see what it did. Was this 'excitement?'

It fades all too quickly, though, buried beneath the practicality of being before a stranger. "I am not sure. I am only familiar with Kakashi-senpai's dogs, and they are not ordinary dogs, at all."

[mooneye]

"Those things are irritating." His brow furrowed slightly, at the mention of Kakashi. "If they smile, I don't think it counts." He glanced around them, like there might be a dog somewhere nearby that they could test the smileage of.

[facevalue]

"I think they are... what is the word?" His brow creases as he tries to think of what the proper emotion is to project. Ah, there it is. "Useful."

[mooneye]

After a moment, he nodded. Yes. That was true.

[facevalue]

His eyes are emotionless as ever as he stares up at the other man. "You know Kakashi-senpai?"

[mooneye]

A pause, as he thought about just how to answer that. "Yes. We were teammates, actually."

[facevalue]

At that, Sai's eyes narrow, just a fraction. Kakashi-senpai's teammates...

Then his eyes go wide as he suddenly realizes just where it is he's heard that name, in relation to Hatake Kakashi-senpai's Sharingan, and his team. Before he joined ANBU.

His voice is still smooth as he only blinks. "So being kersplatted did not end in death," he observes, though he's studying the other far more carefully now.

[mooneye]

"Ah. No. Not in my world, at least. It put me out of commission for a while, but." He shrugged.

[facevalue]

"Did it in any?" He tilts his head, the edges of his smile tugging at his lips again. "Or is Uchiha Obito only faking death in every instance?"