Ooc Log: A cigarette break
Gokudera read over his thread with Fujiko for the nth time in twenty minutes. He had a lot of questions but didn't want to ask her. It would make her type more and he really didn't feel like heading back inside to hunt down his reading glasses. He preferred to sit on the deck and admire the towering bug zappers he'd placed to destroy any large, six-legged attackers. Maybe it would zap away sea kings too. The mental image of one being warded off by a zap made him grin. Reborn would probably praise him and he'd be Juudaime's right-hand man yet! He turned back to his laptop and scrolled over the conversation once more, the same questions bubbling up and rolling about in his mind. Their lingering frustrated him to no end and he snapped the screen down, shoving a hand quickly into his pocket to find a cigarette.
Fujiko wandered out onto the Vongola deck having just gone over some of the last minute preparations for pirate bounty hunting and trying to hammer down every detail she could, as if it would make her feel more secure even though it just seemed to add to the nerves. Like she told Smoker she desperately needed a smoke. And it'd been almost weeks since her last one so she was overdue. She spotted Gokudera with a small amount of surprise under the bright blue bug zappers and half out of her own amusement reached into her bra to pull out a small, silver lighter to light his cigarette before adding the flame to her own.
Since Reborn had mentioned giving Tsuna a gift, Gokudera had planned out, constructed, and installed the giant lights without taking any time to break. Although he knew his boss disliked it, he was still very prone to overworking himself. He let out a heavy sigh before he placed the cigarette between his lips. Before he could even flip open his own lighter, there was a flame at his. He jumped, sputtering and bristling up as he nearly dropped the small, crooked cylinder.
"Yo," Fujiko said casually, inhaling a sharp bit of air and sweet bitter nicotine. "Still freaking out?" She was more nervous than she let on, which was often the case but usually on her cigarette breaks with Gokudera she wasn't anything close to this nervous. She hated smoking alone and he was good company for this sort of thing.
What a pointless question, He thought as he took a drag from the cigarette, eyes shutting for a moment as he felt the smoke slide down. Unlike Fujiko, Gokudera was always smoking. He wasn't going to admit to an addiction, it was just so he'd have the flame ready to light a fuse in case the Tenth needed him. He wondered if Fujiko expected some kind of apology from him. "Define 'freaking out'," He said as smoke curled out from between his ever-pouting lips.
Well he was still acting like Jigen, but nicer again. At least for now. "Just..." she sighed. Was there even a right way to say this? Probably not. "I don't know. I didn't mean to upset you. I don't get along with a lot of people and the people I DO like tend to get fed up with me fast. I'm used to that but usually I know what it is I did. This time..." Did he even realize he was being more cactus-like than he usually was with her? He had a reputation for being that way with everyone except a select few but Fujiko considered herself part of the select few more recently. "If I did something... I'm sorry."
Gokudera turned his head so suddenly that he heard a snapping at the base of his skull. He ignored it, or else his scowl of discomfort would take away from the dramatic impact of the look he was giving her. "WHY?!" He said, one eyebrow rose almost comically high on his face. "How do you think you've upset me?" Gokudera liked to think that he wasn't so bad, but even the Tenth described him as 'scary.' Maybe today was one of his sharper days... Was it the lack of sleep? Or maybe it was the lack of the Tenth's company.
Fujiko was now definitely confused. Maybe she was off of being able to read emotions but hadn't he been acting more upset than usual? "Ah," she started, putting a hand to her head wondering where to begin. "You just... I think... well... normally when someone yells at me about babbling they're mad at me." Tried to shoot her even. "And maybe I was over-reacting?" She leaned her back against the wall looking up at the blue light and feeling a little more relaxed already. It didn't help that people usually hated it when she seemed to understand them and they didn't want to be understood. Jigen was like that too. Fujiko herself probably would be more that way if anyone ever understood her.
"Tch. Girls talk too much." Gokudera said, looking forward and taking another long drag from his cigarette. What he lacked in quantity of words, he usually made up for in volume. "I wasn't yelling." It's fucking typing. "I was annoyed." Same old, same old "Nothing new." He stood up slowly beside her and flicked the ash from the tip of his cigarette before placing it back between his lips, where it could be chewed on and rolled about further. "You assume too much shit."
"Possibly," Fujiko's eyes narrowed dangerously for a second but she shrugged dismissively. "I overstep boundaries a lot. It got me kicked out of the marines." She said it casually, like it was no longer a big deal to her and glanced at her fingernails as if looking for chips. "And in a lot of trouble." That was an understatement. Her overfamiliarity typically got her almost killed. Still, Fujiko wasn't one to back down over such things. She glanced back at him sideways, looking up, "So you're... fine then? Nothing new bothering you?" Right. Way to go Fujiko, he was probably going to wind up kicking her at this rate.
"Tch, why do you care?" Gokudera glanced to the side to avoid looking at her. Seriously? Why did she care?! It was like that fanclub that started back at Namimori. He knew he was attractive and that was why most of the girls started it, and then bombarded him with chocolates and love letters and confessions, but things on the grand line were vastly different. People seemed to care about him for other reasons besides his unique looks and what's worse is that they tried to make him feel better. Sure he appreciate it, but it was hard to show them that when every single ounce of his appreciation was dedicated forever to the Tenth Vongola.
"Tch," Fujiko hated having to explain her motives too much. In the end she always wound up babbling or offending someone. "Because. I like you. You've got guts, you're one of the very few people in the world I enjoy hanging out with. You make me laugh when you're trying. Why wouldn't I care?" She just barely managed to refrain from saying 'because you take it out on me without even realizing.'
Gokudera ran a hand through his hair as he listened to her explanation. Maybe this time he'd understand it? "Because you're not supposed to." He frowned. It was the same frown he always found himself directing at Yamamoto and Ipin and his sister and every other horrible person who wanted to make him happy in one way or another.
Fujiko blinked. "Hn. You gonna tell me what to do?" she was resonating a little of the pricklyness herself. "Smoker told me you can't stop worrying about someone just because you're not supposed to care. Especially if you're someone like me. I still don't know what he meant completely and I know he was talking about himself for a lot of it but maybe it's true. I'm no good at forgetting about people even if I turn my back on them. But 'I'm not supposed to' isn't a good enough reason to make me stop." A long drag on the cigarette as she paused trying to figure out how to sum up what she wanted to say. "I'd need something more tangible. I'm not sure there is a good reason to make me stop." She sighed, she was probably going to make him mad but there was little for it. "Why does my giving a damn bother you? I'm not trying to change you or hurt you or make you do something you don't want to."
Gokudera couldn't help but smirk inwardly at her first question. He would rather she fight back a little. However, challenging him to explain was rather irritating. The silver-haired teen bit on his cigarette before he answered her. "It's a waste of your energy to care about someone who has really almost nothing to do with you. Your nice and all, but if you try to stick your nose into my business" (get too close) "You're only going to regret it."
Fujiko couldn't help but laugh at that. "You sound like Mello now," she rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to 'meddle' or get too close or whatever other nonsense you men fear. But we're in the same fleet and we're stuck working together so we might as well not hate each other." Same speech she'd given Jigen before just different specifics. "'Sides pipsqueak," she was faking bravery again but it was a saftey net that had yet to fail her. "You try blowing me up and I'll take you down too. I'm not as meek as I act."
"I'll take you down with me!" Gokudera snarled, bristling up suddenly. His hands were itching to retrieve his ever-present dynamite sticks. The only thing holding him back was the Tenth's 'Don't use dynamite on the ship' rule. He puffed out more smoke as he turned to her. "And I'm not afraid to do it, either!"
"You can sure as hell try kiddo," Fujiko smirked, hands instinctively reaching for twin PPKs that she twirled about unconciously around a finger. "But it won't come to that. Tsuna's not a bad kid and he could use people like you around. And you don't really piss me off that much."
"Call me pipsqueak one more time," He snarled. This was one ship. They could always get another.
Not even standing up, Fujiko's hand stopped twirling the gun on a finger. "Don't make me do it," her eyes narrowed. She grit her teeth on the cigarette. "Ipin's fond of you, if I shoot your hands even without lasting damage she'll be mad at me. Tch. Just... relax. What's got you so insistent on having a fight tonight? Save it tomorrow, you'll have entire ships to blow up and Reborn won't get mad at you for those." She put emphasis on the man's name still not clear what he held over Gokudera or why it mattered to him that Fujiko distrusted the man so much more than Gokudera himself.
"Tch." Gokudera lifted his chin, "I don't care if Reborn gets mad at me..." Yet since she pointed it out, he kind of did. It actually scared him and the Tenth would be so upset at losing the ship... The teenager stuffed his hands into his pockets. It's not worth it, he told himself.
Fujiko continued to eye him warily. His hands were either away or reaching for dynamite and she couldn't tell which. She sighed. She didn't want friends but lack of open hostility was greatly preferred. "How are things with your sister?" she asked softly, nervously. She was hoping to be amicable but it seemed anything was a spark to the powder keg that was Gokudera for now
Gokudera had looked away, intent on not paying her more attention than he personally deemed necessary. However, with the awkward and sudden topic change, he turned look at her again. “What!? Fine! Why would you bring her up?!” After his tongue had changed colors it was making everything taste particularly sour. He’d had worse but it certainly was irritating. “… Been giving me nothing but trouble…” He was still going to hate his sister, no matter how much she guilt tripped him into training with her or begged and sobbed and looked pathetic.
"Because you're willingly eating poison to get stronger for her? Tch." Fujiko put a hand over her eyes. Was it even possible to say this without making him still more frustrated? "Look," she sighed, "I don't know if it'll help. I have no idea what kind of poison she uses but awhile back when Mello and I were fighting, I poisoned a ton of his chocolates. I don't like using poisons because they always backfire so I made sure I had antidotes to everything and a couple all purpose ones." She shrugged like it meant nothing to her, quickly exchanging guns for small wrapped packages and stood up. "I get that you're trying to be stronger. But it'll help. If you just keep poisoning with no set of antidotes at all it won't make you immune, just wear you out." She held out a hand offering the small white packages. "If you want."
"It's not for her!" Gokudera scoffed, dropping his cigarette to the floor and crushing it under his heel. He glanced at her as she held out the small wrapped objects. "Hn?" The teenager bit his lower lip and gave her an uneasy look, "They're all purpose?" He didn't reach, too hesitant. It was as though she were trying to tempt him or something. He narrowed bright green eyes at Fujiko, "This isn't some kind of test, is it?"
"No," Fujiko shrugged. To be fair, EVERYTHING she did was a test but she also meant it as a nice gesture. She hated getting poisoned herself and that he was putting himself through the pain to prove something in and of itself did prove something. It was more a test for herself, though she didn't want to say it. "It's just so you're not sick when you need to fight." She split the wrapped packages with her thumb showing off the three divisions in her fingers. "First one detoxes your body. It binds to anything it views as foreign and helps remove it. Downside, you have to wait 6 hours after taking it before you can eat or it'll just remove the food. Second one searches for about nintey-five percent of poisons, only the really rare stuff that mimics something innocuous will it miss. And the last one only works on that other 5% but it'll make you throw up if there isn't any of that type of poison in your system."
Gokudera looked at them carefully, wondering exactly what kind of poison was in his sister's cooking. Maybe it was just really unhealthy? "She's been feeding me what she likes to call a poison cocktail." He held out an open palm and stuck out his tongue. There were vague blue and yellow splotches all over it. "It's either deal with this training or she's going to feed me something seriously harmful..." And yet with the intent to win me over. He didn't think his sister would try to kill him, but seeing her face alone made him feel so ill he wished he could just be dead long enough for her to leave him alone.
Fujiko's eyes widened in alarm and sticking the packets in Gokudera's hand she added a fourth on top. "I'm... no expert on poison. I just.. you know have to deal with them. Same as most assassins in my world but this one should help with the... side effects." She took out a small pen and made a mark on the label. "That one, the first one should handle most poison cocktails. It's ... uncomfortable to use and it won't save you from the most fast acting stuff but it looks like the most applicable for ... this." She shook her head. "I'll be honest, I don't get the sibling thing. But you've got to be... really dedicated to not just try to hide from her."
"Usually that's my strategy. She has ways of... tracking me." Gokudera scowled. "I'd probably join another ship if I didn't have to look out for the Tenth." He pulled out his cell, glanced over the screen, and then stowed it away. "Yamamoto usually texts me if he sees her around so I can stay pretty safe."
A small sigh of relief. "Ah good," she tried to not to show she was worried at all, kept up the tough front. "Don't go looking too hard for that kind of danger, ok?" She couldn't explain why she was worried. She never could and she'd given up trying years ago. Smoker was right, she just did. "Maybe Reborn will keep her distracted," she grinned slyly.
"Why the hell would I?!" Gokudera said, looking slightly annoyed by the fact that the only thing that distracted his sister hung around the Tenth so much. "Yeah... but he's been so busy lately." He slumped visibly beside her.
"Busy?" Fujiko sat down cross-legged next to her smoking companion, back to the wall. "Trying to get back his curse or whatever?" She fiddled with the cigarette, otherwise no show of nerves. Fujiko couldn't understand why anyone would want a curse back but it seemed not having it was affecting Reborn far worse than when he did. "Isn't that something she could maybe help with? Or does he just not trust anyone to do it but himself?'
"Nah. He's just been paying extra attention to the Tenth." Gokudera smiled at the thought. "He's a very good tutor and the Tenth looks up to him. I'm sure that whatever he is doing with the boss is very special!" There was a sparkle in his eye. "Tch, I'm not sure that it's any of our business really. I'd like to help Reborn-san any way I can. I owe it to him." He reached in his pocket and drew out another cigarette.
"Hn." Fujiko had already offered her services or help to Reborn, if he wanted it, he knew he just had to come to her. "Do you think he'll take you up on it?" She didn't even observe the part about being nosy and that she was still doing just that. "I offered too but I can never really tell with that man. I guess that's what makes me nervous with him." Normally it would have been weird to confess that so honestly but with Gokudera it wasn't a frightening confession and there wasn't any means for him to use against more than he could have without her admitting it out loud.
"For the good of the Vongola, I will help in any way I can!" Gokudera said. He wasn't going to wait for someone to ask for his help. He was going to give it, dammit, just like he'd given his loyalty to the Tenth. "I will find a way to help." He lit his cigarette and took a drag from it slowly, eyebrows knitted together in determined concentration.
At that Fujiko grinned ear to ear. "Okay then I'll offer you my help in helping him. If you want it." She was trying not to overdo her offers lately given the amount of it backfiring. "I like you better anyway," she added casually. She kept her face smooth but inwardly cringed. It seemed Fujiko really was incapable of refraining from saying the things she even set out specifically not to do.
"I'm fine on my own." Gokudera shot her a narrowed glance and chose to ignore the last part of her statement, "But if that might make you trust him more, I think that would be best." He motioned for her to follow him as he headed back inside the ship. He smoked all the time everywhere he went, so if someone complained about Fujiko smoking, he'd give them something to personally bitch about for the next week.
Fujiko stood up and followed, she wasn't sure where they were ging but he seemed to be insistent on it and Fujiko wasn't about to object. "It probably would actually make me trust him more. Basically... people who don't... try to keep me at a distance." She was still trying to put her finger on what it was that made her trust or distrust people and especially in the case of Reborn. "If he lets me help then yeah. I would distrust him less." Because it meant he was willing to accept her prescence and help.
"I don't think he'd push your help away. You don't seem to be a nuisance..." Gokudera said as they walked down stairs toward the hold. He was sure she could be a nuisance if she really wanted to, but he doubted that was her intention and he knew some other people who were far worse. "Everyone says stupid shit some time in their life. Reborn has been around people far worse. If you have a use, he will be interested in finding and exploiting it."
Grinning coyly, Fujiko added, "I'm pretty useful. It's how I got by with any mafia men in my world." She took a quick glance around trying to figure out where they were going but she couldn't immediately figure it out and she doubted Gokudera would tell her if she didn't ask. "So where are we going?"
Gokudera snorted a small laugh. "My sister is horrible with guns and she's been pretty useful in the mafia world." He remembered watching her shoot a gun and was amazed that she hadn't seriously injured someone unintentionally. "You'd do just fine with Reborn." He stopped at a large metal door and pulled a key from his pocket. "In here." Duh. He said as the weight in the lock shifted and they stepped into the hold. Everything inside was dusty and looked like junk. In fact, it was a maze of dusty junk. It was safe to say that anyone with an allergy to dust (or junk) would never be caught stepping into the room. The towering boxes and strange useless, rusted weapon parts ominously swayed with the ship's movements. A steady humming filled the air as he walked in and held the door open for her.
"Yeah but she's good with poisons," Fujiko shrugged, "Different weapons for different people." Not that she'd ever be without her guns. She'd feel naked if she was. She looked around the dusty room examining various weapons and instinctively sifting out the worth of anything plausibly useful.
Gokudera almost tripped over a large cord on the ground and cursed, "Careful. I don't even know what all this shit is doing here..." Not that it was unfamiliar to him. He had been down in the hold of the ship for way too long. Fujiko was the first person he'd ever taken into it, but he had good reason. "If you bump something, I'm not responsible for what could fall on you." Not that he cared if she got hurt. Well, he did, but he wasn't going to pay her too much attention. He weaved through the piles, thinking he might just organize it all one of these days. He stopped to clear a giant pile of books off a chair, barely paying them any mind as certain ones landed unceremoniously at his feet with their spines in the air.
"It's fine," she chuckled softly, "I've been in a lot worse. At least none of this is booby trapped." Still, it kept catching her attention. Little things that caught the light ant turned out to be a brass doorknob instead of gold; not that she was expecting that in a place like this. She continued following him curiously, at one point stopping to pick up a dagger, examining the rust, and putting it back all in one fluid movement.
"Hm." Gokudera picked up a clean rag draped over the back of the chair and set it down before a pile of boxes, "Have a seat," He said as he began to push (and kick) some of the boxes away to reveal a rather old, and graying piano. Despite the dust on it, it looked as though the keys were clean and the strings intact. The teenager began to run the rag over the piano, bringing out the black of the case under the layers of dust.
Fujiko carefully took a seat, instantly cheered up at the sight of a piano. Gokudera had promised to play for her sometime but she'd expected him to forget about it.
"I've been working on it for a while," Gokudera said, stepping back to look at the large instrument with a scowl. He placed the rag over his left shoulders and dust puffed out onto the dark green fabric of his t-shirt. "So it's starting to sound too familiar." He wasn't exactly a professional when it came to tuning instruments, but he expected someone else to have an idea of what sounded correct. He placed his ever-burning cigarette in a glass ash tray on the ground before pulling the piano bench close. "Still kinda sounds like crap..." The Storm Guardian glanced back at her from his seat on the bench, "Still want me to play something?"
"Yes please," Fujiko smiled eagerly. She was extremely pleased he'd remembered, and even surprised he was going to go through with it. "Whatever is your favorite to play." She was tempted to ask if the music she'd given him during his forced bed-rest had been any inspiration since there was quite a bit of piano pieces and classical music in there but she was too impatient to stave off any longer. The curiosity alone got to her extremely quickly.
"Tch." Gokudera turned away from her eager smile to face the keys of the piano. His right foot slid onto the pedal, "I have a lot of favorites..." He took off his rings and stowed them carefully in his pocket, raising and then relaxing his shoulders as he straightened up. He wasn't terribly rusty, since he practiced often on what he liked to call "The Poj piano". The bangle bracelets on his wrists jingled as he rolled them and spread his fingers, brushing them over the keys. Index fingers only an inch apart, he began to play chopsticks, wondering how long it would take her to figure out that he was just being a bit teasing. He could tell she was eager to hear him play so he was going to do everything but play seriously for the moment.
Fujiko instantly burst out laughing, "Now you're just kidding," she beamed, leaning back in the chair but making sure it didn't tip. That Gokudera did have a knack for making her laugh was one of the things she greatly appreciated. Ever since the first time he didn't just get her joke but joked back with her. "Don't make me pick though, everything I like is usually extremely obscure."
"Don't fucking laugh. I'm being serious." He gave her the most solidly angst-ridden expression he could come up with as he glanced back at her, fingers still poking out the same song as if on repeat. "I probably couldn't play anything you'd pick... It would be too advanced." His serious line of a mouth may have jumped into a tiny smirk.
That made the laughing worse. "Over a decade of practicing to become a master at Chopsticks? And I suppose you scared everyone into submission if they tried to tell you otherwise." She kept giggling and smirking with amusement asked, "I don't suppose you've ever heard of Fire Treasure?"
As she continued to laugh, he rose one hand, continuing to play one-handed while he flicked her off. The song began to drift off into something much softer, and his left hand fell back to the keys to press them and dance gently. "Mn, it doesn't sound familiar to me..."
Fujiko grinned in amusement at being flicked off even while he continued playing the piano, this time drifting into something more real. "See what I mean?" she added, leaning back some more and closing her eyes to let the notes float over her. "I have strange tastes usually." It was a byproduct of liking things the rarer the better. It usually meant no one else cared but sometimes that was exactly why it was so special to her.
"Didn't say it was strange," He muttered, having a relatively difficult time focusing on the piece and trying to keep up conversation. "Just not familiar. I probably don't listen to as much music as you do..." Gokudera said. "You could send it to me... and I could learn it." The teenager shut his eyes, searching for the note that was off. The instrument had been terribly water-logged when he'd found it and he was still sure that some of the piano needed further tuning.
"Yeah?" Fujiko's eyes blinked open in surprise. Goemon and Jigen flat-out hated her music and Lupin didn't have a good ear for it at all. "I will then. It's a good song. The piano in it is nice but I'm partial to the vocals." She bit the bottom of her lip almost shyly. "If... if you like it enough... maybe I'll sing it with you sometime? If you want to?" She noticed his searching for a note, "3rd octave G." Maybe that too was stepping over a line. It happened when she was trying too hard to be helpful.
"Close, not quite..." Gokudera said, without bothering to think too much on it. When he was focused on playing, it was much harder for him to lose his cool or snap. She might not have pointed it out exactly, but she was helping him narrow down in his search. He purposely chose a slower song, Chopin's #15 Prelude in D Flat to be exact so he could listen easier. He didn't intend to be looking for a note when he began to play, but he was one to start and easily become lost in his work. "And yeah. Maybe when I can do more to help this sorry piece of junk."
"Mm. Chopin," Fujiko purred softly before adding, "Where did you find it? It looks like you've done a nice job already, all things considered. But... I don't know that much about instruments. Just singing. And listening. It's kind of like art with me. I like to look at it and I can size it up okay but I can't create it myself at all."
"Here." He nodded. Gokudera had found himself in the ships hold after running away from Bianchi. He hadn't meant to enter this room, but at the time he knew she was going to turn the corner and be in the same hallway as him. "It was an accident," Gokudera smiled, glad she could point out a great composer by this one piece alone. "Have you ever played before?" Before the song could take a more intense turn, he quickly ran a hand through his hair, pulling it up and tucking most of it behind one ear.
"Heh lucky," Fujiko grinned. "Ah no. Not really anyway. I've tried but I'm not that great at it. And I've been on the run all the time. So the only 'instrument' I could take with me on short notice was my voice. And to be honest... I don't have the patience to learn one. I love to listen I just get frustrated when I try painting or music and it doesn't come out the way I want." It was more excuses than reasons but that was all she had to explain why not.
Like always, Gokudera was reminded of his mother. Every time he played he remembered her smiling encouragingly at him. He was lucky that he'd never seen her sad, or that he'd never have to, and wondered if somewhere she could hear him playing. "You like to have a lot of control..." He said. Just an assumption really. It seemed if she didn't know something, she didn't like it, which was probably why she never shut up. He grinned at the thought and closed his eyes, letting his fingers pick up where they'd left off.