The Fire Fox PV Ruka Closed

Despite the things Ruka had had to listen to in his head while he was in Cardiff, returning to Hogwarts had turned out spectacularly uneventful. There were no imminent threats to deal with, no danger, nothing but a whole lot of school work to catch up on if he wanted to graduate his third year along with his classmates. Life had moved on while he was gone and yet everything seemed to be exactly the way it had been before he left.

As such, Ruka had also returned to his barely existent social life, exchanging words of shallow conversation at meal times, asking his classmates for notes when he was having trouble with a subject, sticking his nose in a book whenever he didn't feel like risking anybody approaching him while he wanted to be left alone. Not that he had crowds of people swarming to greet him, but he couldn't help feeling like he was being watched whenever he left a classroom or while he was eating. It would have been unsettling if Ruka hadn't expected to come back to much worse when he entered the school again. Curious eyes following him around were nowhere near as concerning as the various scenarios his mind came up with at night when there was nothing left to think about but all the traumatising events that seemed to keep happening around the school.

So when Ruka made his way to the library that afternoon, he ignored the nagging feeling of being followed and simply settled down by a table with his textbooks and a roll of parchment to write his Herbology homework on. Despite his strong ties to nature, he found himself thoroughly bored with actually studying plants rather than just appreciating them for their aesthetic qualities, and not even the fact that some of them could scream or squirt out lava like substances made the theory of it any more exciting. It was no wonder, then, that Ruka's attention started drifting not too far into his assignment. His eyes drifted across piles of books and a few other students who had settled in for study sessions or do their homework as well. Tables were strewn with Charms books, Potions books, Astronomy, Herbology, Divination, Baking, Ancient Runes... Hold up. Baking?

Ruka's gaze fixated on the out of place book at a table not too far away from his own. There was nothing wrong with anybody being interested in baking, but it still seemed off somehow, especially with the way the book was popped up on the table while a pair of eyes seemed to occasionally peek over its edge. The mop of black hair behind it was vaguely familiar though Ruka couldn't be completely sure about that from a distance, so without further ado he shut his own text book and rolled up his piece of parchment before stuffing them in his bag and slinging the strap across his shoulders.

For a moment he was tempted to leave, to try and confirm his suspicions, but he couldn't find any patience inside him to wait for answers, so instead he made his way over to the baker's table and pulled out an empty chair to settle down on with his arms crossed over his chest and one knee popped up, the heel of his right foot pressed against the edge of his seat.

"Cakes or Cupcakes?" he asked thoughtfully, pressing a finger against his lips as he pondered his own question for a moment. "I like pumpkin pie. Just in case you were planning on baking something for me in particular." He grinned, shrugging his shoulders as if to dismiss the topic. "It'd be the least you could do to make up for following me around, really." Tapping a finger against his temple, Ruka raised his eyebrows to give the other kid a meaningful look. "Could've just let me know if you wanted to talk to me, you know. You and I have a better form of communication than figuring out each others' class schedules, don't we?"

April 16th, 4:00pm - After Class
@Ruka Burnett-Tân

He hadn’t been paying attention the entire time. That would be too obvious, wouldn’t it? He would glance down at his journal from time to time, his doodle evolving into a fox mask, a little bit at a time. His last sneaking glance at Ruka, he watched the older boy packing up his books in his bag. Was he going to leave already? Had he finished his homework? As Ruka stood he quickly shifted his gaze down, not wanting to accidentally catch his eyes. As he nervously added fire patterns to the fox mask's eyes, the footsteps he expected to retreat grew closer.

Kuso. Shit. Shiiiiit.

The sound of a chair being pulled out opposite him made him look up slowly. On the one hand, Ruka was talking to him. That was what he had wanted, a proper face-to-face conversation. On the other hand, he probably looked like an idiot. No, not probably. Definitely. What kind of conversation could they possibly have that wasn’t tainted by that very uncharming impression? He studied Ruka quietly as the other boy spoke, contemplating how he could possibly redeem himself. The more Ruka talked the slimmer his chances at talking his way out of his idiocy became. Ruka had noticed. Not just here in the library. He'd noticed Kaz tailing him at other times as well. Usually no one noticed him and he practically cultivated that skill. He was impressed.

He opened his mouth to reply, then shut it, eyes shifting to the baking book then back up to Ruka. He wrinkled his nose in mild distress then sighed. "Lemon bars. Cake is too sweet. And you don't want me to bake for you. I've never baked in my life. High chance of food poisoning. Or at the very least, terrible tasting pie." He knocked the book over so it was laying flat, abandoning all pretense of reading. "Wouldn't that be strange, though? It feels… impersonal. Too personal. Something. I don't know." It was a bit of a ramble, the lack of precision in his words a reflection of his own uncertainty. He rested his cheek on the palm of one hand while the other fiddled with his pencil. "Hello disembodied voice. Now that you have a body, care to join me for tea?” He arched a brow at the mock invitation, a hint of a smile playing at the edges of his lips. “We only met briefly before you left. Then this...” He waved his free hand vaguely in the direction of his head and shrugged. “It feels like we did everything out of order. And my protocol-loving ass doesn’t know how to untangle it.”

He leaned back then, rocking the chair back onto its back legs and balancing on it precariously. “I admit, I didn’t know if you even wanted to talk to me. You and Jack are close. I was an outsider. What made you decide to come back?”

@Kazuo Shimada

There was one thing about the way Kazuo responded to Ruka's approach that made his lips pull into an amused smirk. With so many words spoken, there was one thing the other boy didn't do and that was denying having followed Ruka around, which felt like confirmation enough that Ruka hadn't imagined being watched on various occasions.

"It's the thought that counts," he pointed out with a small shrug wen Kazuo claimed to not be able to offer Ruka anything but food poisoning or terrible tasting pie. Not that Ruka needed anybody to bake him something anyway. He hummed quietly as he watched the other boy tilting the baking book over to lie flat against the table, revealing another book that had been hidden behind. A notebook maybe, which Kazuo had been drawing something in that looked like an animal face. A mask, perhaps, with its large cut out eyes, fox like features and what appeared to be flame patters across it. Ruka eyed it for a moment as if to remember the image for once the journal was closed, then turned his attention back to Kazuo.

The other boy seemed unsure of what he was saying, words coming out in a jumbled mess of thoughts, rushed and unstructured. "Name one thing about any of this that isn't strange," Ruka challenged with an amused chuckle before reaching into his bag to pull out a sheet of red paper. If Kazuo had his journal to doodle in if he needed an outlet for his frayed nerves, then Ruka was going to be prepared to do some origami to keep his own mind focused as well.

"You knew I was alright with you being able to hear my thoughts, but you weren't sure I wanted to talk to you?" Ruka questioned dubiously, tilting his head to the side as he started on folding in one of the corners of his paper with steady fingers. "Wouldn't it have been even stranger to be connected like that to someone you've never really talked to?" He frowned slightly before leaning back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest as he fixed Kazuo with a curious stare. "You say Jack and I are close, but he wouldn't have marked you if he didn't think you and he were close as well," he pointed out. "Or if he didn't think you and I had potential to grow close too." Leaning forward again, Ruka placed both elbows on the table, folding his hands together as he watched Kazuo fiddle with his pencil.

The last question seemed out of the blue, not particularly connected to the topic beforehand, but Ruka decided to go with the flow of the conversation anyway. "They have a broader variety of food here," he said, amusement sparking his eyes. "More freedom to do whatever I want. Unicorns. One of those, take your pick." He grinned as he continued folding his paper down to quarter its size. "Started feeling a bit helpless stuck in Cardiff," he admitted more seriously after a moment, tapping his fingers against his temple again. "Hard to listen to what's going on and knowing there's nothing you can do. Can you imagine?"

@Ruka Burnett-Tân

There was no further mention of his stalking though the amusement in Ruka's expression evoked some level of concern in him, perhaps irrationally. It wasn't as if he cared about getting caught stalking; only insofar as it would reduce his ability to learn things about his targets. And logically speaking, his stalking of Ruka had been more a side effect of his own uncertainty than a quest for secrets. Yet if he had been in Ruka's shoes, there was no question that he would use such a discovery against the stalker. At the very least, it was great ammunition for teasing.

"I'll keep that in mind." His lips quirked upward in amusement at Ruka's response. "I'm sure Brumby-sensei is well acquainted with children suffering from food related stomach aches…" He watched Ruka pull out the bright sheet of paper, eyes widening a bit in interest. "I grew up with magic…" He mused thoughtfully. "So I suppose it isn't so strange for me, not in concept anyway. The magic bits, I mean. It's the people bits that are strange to me. The mark is… active communication. It's not as if we are all privy to each other's every waking thought. So it seemed to me that it's just a magical version of a cellphone. But since there's no way to… You know, not accept the call, it seemed rude to use it frivolously. From that perspective, with everything happening so fast, I really had no idea what you thought of me. For all I knew, you were content to only know me as an occasional voice in your head."

His fingers drummed against the table as he watched Ruka neatly folding the paper, quickly recognizing what the older boy seemed to be doing. It drew a smile from him despite his serious demeanour. He considered Ruka's points about Jack then shrugged. "I don't know what Jack thinks of me. He seems to like talking to me and I suppose I must be useful to him. But Jack doesn't have friends, only people he trades favours with…" He arched a brow, a smirk on his lips, and it was obvious that Kazuo didn't really believe Jack's self-proclaimed lack of friends. Especially after the mess in the dungeon. His expression grew serious. "So this all could remain strictly… professional… if you or Jack wanted it that way."

He was putting the ball in Ruka's court with his response, framing everything logically and avoiding exposing any of his personal feelings on the matter. Fishing for answers, hoping to understand what Ruka wanted without having to examine his own feelings on the matter. He glanced down at his drawing, adding a border of flowers to it as he listened to Ruka talk about why he had come back. “Unicorns?” He arched a brow and snorted. “Hard to be in the middle of it and know that there’s nothing you can do…” He murmured, fingers tightening on the pen. “Yeah, I can imagine. I wouldn’t stay away either. Not the best welcome back, is it?” He raised his gaze to Ruka’s, giving him a wry smile.

@Kazuo Shimada

Ruka looked up at Kazuo with vague interest when the school nurse was mentioned, though it was not the topic that caught his attention but rather the title the other boy had used with the nurse's name. "Sensei," he repeated quietly, smoothing his fingers over the piece of paper in front of him. "It's a term of respect, right? Like 'Professor'? 'Master'?" He wasn't particularly familiar with other languages or cultures, was still struggling with his own at times, but spending his summer with Jack had given him vague knowledge on all sorts of things he had never known before. The curiosity in his eyes was genuine as he longed to learn about anything he possibly could.

Leaning back in his seat, Ruka adjusted his paper a bit, turning it a different direction to work on the other corners with practiced ease. "A cellphone," he said with light laughter lacing his voice as he took in Kazuo's words with an acknowledging hum. "One that only takes three-way calls. I gave up my private connection to my brother to share it with you." He looked up at the other boy with raised eyebrows. "I know you don't know me but trust me when I tell you that I wouldn't do that for just anyone." Quirking his lips into a little smirk, Ruka dropped his gaze back to the red paper in front of him to focus on the shape he wanted it to take. "If you think of it as a cellphone then it's a cellphone we gave to you. Keeping that in mind, wouldn't it be rude not to use it as much as it's useful to you?"

Ruka's eyes followed the drum of Kazuo's fingers for a moment, then he straightened up, searching out a short moment of eye contact to fully acknowledge the smirk that accompanied the other boy's words about Jack. Rolling his eyes, Ruka's face softened into a fond expression for only a moment before he shifted it into a lazy smile. "He doesn't trade favours with me," he pointed out with raised eyebrows before sighing heavily, eyeing Kazuo up and down as much as he possibly could in their position. "Jack can find use in anybody," he said matter-of-factly. "Being useful isn't special. Everyone can be, if the person who's using them knows what they're doing." The fact that Jack knew what he was doing went unsaid. "But you don't see him handing out... cellphones to anybody else he finds use for, do you?" With a small chuckle Ruka turned back to his paper, unfolding some parts just to fold them into the other direction again.

With Kazuo's expression shifting into something more serious, Ruka couldn't help but let his own fill with vague amusement. "Professional?" he repeated, shaking his head to himself. "You called it intimate a minute ago. There's nothing professional about it." Silent laughter accompanied his words as he took a break from folding his paper to glance at Kazuo's evolving drawing again. There was something calming about it...

Deciding to focus on their conversation for the moment, Ruka didn't miss the way Kazuo's fingers tightened on his pencil or the way he just vaguely rephrased Ruka's earlier words as he repeated them. "You really can, huh?" he asked quietly, almost rhetorically. Kazuo's private life was none of his business, they didn't know each other well enough for that yet, but the reaction he had just received sparked some curiosity in Ruka anyway.

The observation that Ruka's welcome back was not exactly under the best circumstances made him smile, though it didn't reach his eyes, kept the rest of his expression empty. "Seeing that everyone was alright was important to me," he stated, nodding at Kazuo to make sure he knew he was included in everyone. He hadn't seen much of either Flash or Jack so far but he was sure to bump into the former at some point, and he wanted to give the latter the time to come to him himself. "I want to be there for my brother when he needs me." His fingers trembled for a moment so he steadied them again by reaching for his paper and continuing to fold its corners. "I haven't been. I'm not making that mistake again." He laughed drily as he cast another glance at Kazuo. "I should probably thank you," he pointed out, a genuine spark of gratitude lighting his eyes aflame for a second. "For being there in my stead." He straightened his back, folding his arms across his chest as he fixed his gaze on Kazuo with as much intensity as he could manage. "I owe you a favour."

@Ruka Burnett-Tân

He hadn't expected Ruka to ask about his habitual use of Japanese suffixes. Most people just ignored it, presumably because they didn't know how to respond to it. Yet Ruka seemed curious and he'd be lying if he said that didn't make him happy. He wasn’t like Hana, conforming to try to fit in. He was proud of his culture, of where he came from, but it was disappointing sometimes how little others seemed to care about cultures beyond their own. He gave Ruka a smile and a slight nod of his head. "It's a catchall for teacher. If you are in any kind of teaching position, you are addressed as sensei but we also use it for certain professional positions as well. Doctors are one of the biggest ones but it can be used for artists or even politicians. Functionally, it's for anyone wiser than you in their professional field, or more experienced. Technically, an older student offering tutoring could be called sensei if you wish to be respectful." He could have simply said yes. He had probably over-explained it. Did Ruka really need or want to know the social nuances of a word he would probably never use? Probably not, but Ruka's genuine curiosity made him want to share more than just a confirmation. "Master is different. If you are going with the idea of someone mastering their art or profession then it matches with sensei but if you mean master like a person in a position of power, we have different words for that."

Ruka seemed amused by his cellphone analogy, one that would probably have been lost on half the students at the school. Ruka's reassurance that they wanted him to be part of their group just confused him more, however. He didn't understand why Ruka would give up that private connection with Jack to let him in but it felt too awkward a question to ask. He felt as if he should understand, as if he was missing something obvious. He wouldn't do that for just anyone… yet Kazuo had no idea why Ruka had done it for him. He took Ruka's words in silence, keeping his expression passive, thoughtful, as he retrieved a red brush-tipped pen from his bag and added strokes of the vibrant color to his sketch.

"You… are family to Jack. I would lose all hope in him if he traded favours with you." Kazuo replied with amusement to Ruka's admission. "There's useful as a tool is useful… and there's useful." There was something in Kazuo's tone, something too old for a boy of his age, a reflection of his upbringing, no doubt. His eyes shone with amusement and a hint of wicked mischievousness as he responded. "I wouldn't give just any tool this cellphone either. Which only qualifies to me that Jack recognizes that I am not a tool. Which I appreciate, but I'm not sure that puts me on the same level. In hindsight, it seems to me that he had better options to choose from." His gaze returned to Ruka's origami progression, curious to see what the artful folds of paper would reveal once he was done. He wondered where Ruka had learned it from and what he had learned to make.

Ruka's amusement at his offer of distance drew a slight smile from him. "What, it can't be both intimate and professional?" He joked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sure there are entire professions who could disagree. Psychologists get pretty intimate while still being professional."

He fell silent at Ruka's quiet acknowledgement of his own admittance of helplessness. He hadn’t meant to reveal his own insecurities about what had happened. A frown crossed his face but he took a deep breath and banished it behind his usual polite mask as Ruka continued. Meeting the older boy’s serious gaze, he shook his head. “You don’t owe me anything. I was just a bystander. And Jack wasn’t exactly the one in danger. If anything, I should have done something sooner.”

@Kazuo Shimada

Leaning forward a bit, Ruka listened intently to the explanation Kazuo offered him. It was true, he could have just confirmed the assumption, but Ruka was infinitely grateful that the other boy was willing to share more than that. Language was fascinating, and while Ruka had more than enough issues with the subtleties of his own already, it didn't mean that he wasn't interested in foreign ones as well.

Nodding his understanding, Ruka smoothed a finger across the edge of his paper before puffing it out a little to give it a rounded shape. "What's the most common word you'd use for Master, then?" he asked curiously, now that Kazuo had mentioned that there were different words for that particular title if talking about someone in a position of power. "And would you use it as a suffix to their name as well?" That was how Kazuo had used the word sensei when talking about the school nurse. "And do... do teachers have a word to address their students with as well?" Kazuo probably hadn't expected their get together to turn into a vocabulary lesson, but now that some of the information was out there, Ruka couldn't help himself from wanting to know even more. Words held power, after all, so knowing as many of them as possible, even in foreign languages, could definitely not hurt, right?

Watching Kazuo retrieve a curious looking pen, Ruka hummed thoughtfully. His own fingers stilled on the paper figure he was working on shaping in favour of observing the way the other boy's sketch filled with a vibrant red, adding a liveliness that had only been hinted at before. "I haven't always been family to Jack," he argued gently, a small smile writing endless fondness across his face. "Yet, there has never been a time when he traded favours with me. What's that make me? An anomaly?" An exception to his brother's rules maybe, but it certainly disproved Kazuo's statement that Jack only had people he traded favours with. A small laugh accompanied his words; it was clear they both knew there was more to Jack's aversion to friendship than meets the eye.

"You say that like your usefulness is the only reason he gave you a cellphone," Ruka stated, deciding to stick with the analogy they were using, considering it worked so well for what they were talking about. "So you know he sees usefulness in you beyond being just a tool, and yes, maybe there would be better options out there as far as usefulness goes, but did you consider that that's not all there is to his decision?" Leaning back in his chair, Ruka fiddled with his paper carefully, unfolding some corners and folding them into even smaller ones. "Jack has reasons for everything he does," he continued, gently shaking his head. "If he decided you deserve a cellphone then you can be sure it wasn't on a whim. He's weighed his options and you came out on top. Congratulations." He said the last word with slightly exaggerated enthusiasm but his smile was pleasant, and the nod he gave was meant to reassure Kazuo that the sentiment was genuine. With his expression turning slightly more serious, Ruka heaved a small sigh. "This is a commitment," he pointed out. "You're bound to him. For life. So you better start trusting that, to him, you were the best option."

With that, Ruka returned his focus to his origami figure, adding some finishing touches to the shapes of the paper. The folds of it were familiar by now, had been repeated so many times in the safety of his dorm room that he could do them blindfolded, and yet the outcome never failed to fascinate him anyway. He had made that out of nothing but a flat piece of paper; a delicate fox, slightly rounded at the edges, more complex than any of the other origami pieces he knew how to make. It was clear to see that he had been practicing this particular shape with the urge to achieve perfection at some point. He wasn't quite there yet, but he was as close as ever.

Looking back up at Kazuo, Ruka found a smile on the other boy's face and he responded with one of his own as he shook his head in vague disagreement. "Psychologists get to go home at the end of the day," he pointed out. "They aren't intimate and professional - their intimacy is professional." Not that Ruka had a psychology degree, but he'd been reading enough about the topic over the summer to feel like he had a pretty good understanding what the difference was between a Psychologist and someone you shared true intimacy with. "They're schooled to recognise which lines not to cross to avoid real intimacy. Attachment. They go home and leave the intimacy they share with their patients at work, where it belongs." Tapping his forehead, Ruka raised his eyebrows. "We don't have that freedom. The mere concept of our bond is crossing every single line towards real intimacy. There are no office hours, there's no off switch. You don't offer this kind of bond to someone you want to stay strictly professional with, and I think you're too smart to really believe that a professional relationship was all Jack was thinking about when he offered it to you." Slowly shrugging his shoulders, Ruka placed his fox origami between them on the table, facing the other boy.

"You were still there," he said quietly when Kazuo argued that he wasn't owed anything. "That's more than I could have asked for, and I'm still grateful." He didn't have to be, after all, and the fleeting admission of knowing what it was like to feel helpless was enough to give Ruka the feeling that Kazuo hadn't been there just to satisfy his curiosity. "So whether you want to use it or not, I offer you a favour." The corners of his mouth quirked upwards for a short moment. "You should feel special," he teased lightly. "I never give out favours to anyone."

Interacting with @Ruka Burnett-Tân

As Kazuo explained the Japanese linguistic differences, Ruka continued to ask questions and he couldn't help but to smile as he considered how to best answer. He retrieved the black pen and wrote a short list of Japanese suffixes beneath the fox mask.

-san
-kun
-chan
-dono
-sama

-senpai
-kouhai
-sensei
-heichou
-shachou

He turned the book around so Ruka could read them then pointed to the first category. "There are roughly two kinds of honorifics that we use. This first group is standard in day to day use and sort of lines up with how in English you say Mister or Miss so-and-so. How well you know a person and what their status is compared to you tells you which to use. 'San' is the most common and if you're ever unsure of how to address someone, it's a safe bet to use. 'Kun' and 'chan' are less formal, used often between friends. 'Sama' is extremely formal and is used for someone high above your station. The Emperor is always addressed with 'sama'. And 'dono' would be the suffix you would apply to someone who is a master or lord. It's outdated and doesn't show up very often. If I wanted to call you Lord Ruka, I would say Ruka-dono." He pointed to the second group of suffixes. "These are more title based suffixes. 'Professor', 'Captain', or 'President', as examples. They specifically indicate a job position or professional role."

He turned the book around and added another word beneath the lists: goshujin-sama

"This is the word for master if I were to address you directly. You hear it a lot at the Maid Cafés in Tokyo." Kazuo mimicked the falsetto voice of a girl. "Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama!" He made a heart shape with his hands and batted his eyes in mock-cuteness. "Amusingly, it is also sometimes used to refer to one's husband, though often shortened to just 'shujin'. Take that as you will… Insert some commentary on the fragile egos of men..." He gave an amused smirk at that. "For teachers, they generally just use the 'san' suffix with our last names. There isn't really a specific word or honorific for students. Sorry, that was probably a long explanation for a simple question…" He finished with a chuckle, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck.

He considered Ruka and Jack's relationship silently, fishing out a blue pen and adding an outline of blue flames around the mask. “You’re definitely an anomaly.” He mused with a slight smirk. “I am not unappreciative. I know the bond was no casual decision for him. I didn’t make the decision lightly, either. I just want to understand. And understanding Jack’s motivations tends to be a puzzle at times. Mostly entertaining, sometimes frustrating. I know usefulness can’t be the only reason but his bond with you is an emotional one and I don’t see that in my relationship with him.” He looked up at that point, head tilted slightly as he studied Ruka. “What about you? What made you decide to accept me without really knowing me?” It was a question he wanted to know the answer to yet the asking also made him nervous because he genuinely had no idea what Ruka might say. This was a conversation he couldn’t predict, something he wasn’t used to. Something he appreciated.

He dropped his gaze to the origami animal that had finally revealed itself and grinned. “Fox! Where did you learn to do origami?” Curiosity drove him to finally ask about Ruka’s skill in the Japanese art. His grin widened as Ruka responded to his observation on psychology as both professional and intimate. He had chosen psychology out of personal interest and Ruka’s understanding of the profession excited him. “While what you say is textbook true and certainly how psychologists should operate, I would argue that the very act of becoming a psychologist is counterintuitive to the professional lines required. Psychologists are often empathetic people who get into the career because they care and, as humans do, grow attached regardless of the rules or lines they try to live by. Maybe Jack chose me because he needs a psychologist…” He added the last part with a chuckle. “Although if that’s the reason, he’ll need to give me a few years.”

He considered Ruka’s offered favour, chuckling. “In that case, I will treasure this favour and not waste it frivolously.” He gazed back at Ruka with a serious expression, acknowledging the value and, more importantly, Ruka’s feelings on the matter. “Next time there is an emotional crisis, though, you get to be the one to try to host an intervention.” He finished with a light-hearted joke.

@Kazuo Shimada

Ruka skimmed the two columns of words Kazuo presented him with with rapt fascination. Quickly he reached inside his bag to retrieve some parchment along with his standard quill and ink bottle to copy the words down for himself and add some notes as the other boy explained the different significances. He let his fingertip hover above the words "kun" and "chan" thoughtfully before looking up at Kazuo with bright eyes. "Do I call you by your first or last name?" he asked, genuine curiosity smoothing out his voice. With all these different ways to address someone it occurred to Ruka a little belatedly that other cultures may also have different ways of addressing each other, even among friends or peers.

Snorting ungracefully, Ruka listened to Kazuo's words about how someone's husband was oftentimes addressed with the word for Master, and how it reflected on men's fragile ego. He decided not to comment, though the other boy's high pitched mimicking of a girl's voice drew a burst of giggles from him that took a short moment to calm down again. "No, no," he said quickly, waving a hand to dismiss Kazuo's apology. "I asked because I wanted to know. So thank you, I appreciate it." With a smile and a grateful nod Ruka hoped to communicate to Kazuo that he was more than happy to listen to his explanations, would have let the other boy go on for ages if it meant learning new words and aspects of a different culture. The bashful gesture of rubbing his neck was something Ruka thought to be completely unnecessary. "I'm not polite enough not to tell you when I want you to stop talking," he pointed out jokingly and offered Kazuo a playful wink before rolling up his parchment carefully and placing it to his left in case he needed it again before their conversation was over. There were plenty of questions Ruka still wanted to ask but he also didn't want to take over the conversation like that when Kazuo had clearly sought him out to discuss other things.

Namely their relatively new bond and all the decisions that had led to it. Meeting Kazuo's observations that Jack's motivations were entertaining as well as frustrating at times with a small laugh, Ruka considered his words for a moment. "Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there," he pointed out. For all his talk about logic and keeping things professional, Ruka found most of Jack's biggest decisions emotionally tainted to some degree at least, whether he would want to admit to it or not.

Kazuo's next question made Ruka bubble up a laugh. It was blunt albeit not completely unexpected. He'd thought it to be almost obvious, but it wasn't like Kazuo had really been around both him and Jack at the same time. "I don't trust people," he said bluntly, tilting his chin up to muster Kazuo intently. "Not anybody, not really." The corners of his lips quirked into a small smile. "But I trust Jack. I trust his decisions as long as I can't find a reason not to." Raising his eyebrows, Ruka leaned forward a little. "And I like being able to keep a close eye on his decisions, so if they turn out to be untrustworthy after all..." Leaning back again, Ruka lightly shrugged his shoulders. "I can take care of them."

Relaxing his expression into something casual again, Ruka gave his origami fox a little tap with his ring finger, nudging it further into Kazuo's direction. "I wasn't doing so well last year," he admitted easily, gesturing vaguely around his head as if to indicate the mess he still had to deal with at times. "Then Nico, the Slytherin Prefect, held an Origami Errand. I found it was really relaxing so I asked her for some instructions." He smiled fondly at his little paper animal. "I've been doing it a lot when I've been nervous or restless. Calms me down." He looked up with a smile. "Do you like Origami?"

Something Kazuo clearly did seem to like was Ruka's observation of the Psychologist profession. It sparked a grin and further elaboration on professionalism and intimacy. Obviously Kazuo was interested in the subject and excited to be talking about it, which inspired Ruka to his own excited grin. "That's a good point," he admitted with a little nod. "Seems to me though that as soon as those lines are blurred things turn more intimate than professional. When that happens, intimacy tends to consume all professionalism sooner or later. The two aren't really meant to co-exist, are they?" If even professionals had issues to keep intimacy out of their relationships, who were they to pretend they would be able to keep things strictly professional? Though the sound of it may have been appealing to Jack's insistence of pretending like he wasn't just as ridden by emotion as everyone else. "Jack definitely needs a psychologist," he confirmed with a snort and a roll of his eyes. "Planning ahead seems like something he'd do." He chuckled, rolling his eyes again, though with more fondness in them this time. With Kazuo's interest in Psychology, maybe he'd be able to dig through some of Jack's deep seated issues at some point. Maybe he could take a shot at Ruka's as well.

Locking eyes with Kazuo, Ruka smiled brightly and nodded when the other boy accepted his favour with a single condition. "Deal," he agreed, the right corner of his mouth quirking into a smirk. "I'll make sure to keep some bug repellant on me." Chuckling at his own joke, Ruka poked a finger in the direction of Kazuo's drawing before their conversation could turn to more traumatising events. "What is it exactly?" he asked curiously, eyeing the animal mask with admiration. "It looks beautiful."