[Log] Crazy Inventor, kind smile

Aug 01, 2012 10:07

Characters: Echizen Ryoma, Akatagawa Jirou
Location: The Island
Time: July 14
Rating: PG-13 for the shower scene.
Summary: Ryoma and Jirou chat about stuff.


Jirou wandered along the beach, picking up seaweed and putting in the basket by his side. He had a wicked thought during his morning nap and wanted to see if it would work. Plus the ocean water was cool and welcoming on his toes. He laughed a little as the surf washed over them again and looked for more seaweed.

Ryoma was by the water, or rather in the water, trying effortlessly to chase after a school of fish that had dared getting closer to the beach. "Wi--Will you hold still," Ryoma muttered as he stumbled through the water, long green hair flopping wetly against his shoulders. He wanted to catch more fish, wanted more sashimi. Or sushi. Either sounded good.

“Ryoma-chan!” Jirou cried out as he spotted the other. He waved and splashed toward the green haired man. “Hi! It’s really nice to see you up and outside and conscious and stuff,” he said with a grin.

Ryoma stopped and grinned back, awkwardly and sheepishly. "Yeah, I kind of appreciate the conscious part myself."

“Hopefully Momo-chan will calm down a bit now that you’re more mobile and able to take care of yourself,” Jirou said with a sigh. “He got pretty...wound up there for a while. Honestly, though it was rather brutal, I think he really needed that kick in the head Kite-chan gave him.” He looked up suddenly, then down again, rubbing at the back of his head. “Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud!”

The grin disappeared from Ryoma's face. "... Yeah, he really needed to wander around lost and confused for an entire week. That's classy." Annoyed, he started towards the solid ground, stingy simply because the subject of Momoshiro was brought up. Which probably was childish.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way,” Jirou said with a sigh. He sat down in the shallow water and splashed water onto himself. “I just meant...well, he need to reset his brain. It felt like to be that he was getting so...paranoid and possessive of you that he would barely let you go to the bathroom alone. I wanted to come visit, but that kind of stress...well, I didn’t want to add to it. He seems to be a lot more relaxed and back to his more natural bubbly personality now. But then, I am looking at it from the outside.” He looked up at the other man. “I do know from Hiro-chan that aside from the amnesia, he seemed to mostly have bumps and a lot of bruises. And Hiro-chan is going to be a doctor, so I believe him. Have...you actually been able to talk to An-chan or one of the med students to see how your recovery is going?” he asked.

Forcing himself to stop and listen to Jirou's explanation mellowed the frown out on Ryoma's face and his shoulders relaxed visibly. He turned around and crouched down in the water himself, thoughtful. "Yeah, he was getting a bit over the top... I'll admit that. It's nice that he's not like that anymore, but..." But now he was all over Kaidoh, and Ryoma wasn't above getting a petty pang of jealousy once every fifteen minutes or so. He shrugged, deciding to stop right there.

"Good point. Nah, I haven't. I mean... I feel pretty okay now, and they've got other shit to bother with. Everyone does. I don't want to burden them unnecessarily."

Jirou raised an eyebrow, a serious expression crossing his face for a brief moment. “Ryoma-chan! Ten minutes for one of them to poke and prod at you and they’re done. Heck, I bet they’d enjoy the opportunity for some hands on experience, even. Plus, then you know for sure. And what if they find out that you could have been healing faster if they’d had a chance to properly tape up your ribs or something?” Helping other people was the whole reason he’d become an inventor, so the subject was dear to his heart.

"I'd actually appreciate it if people kept their hands off me, no offense." The words were uttered before he could stop himself, a knee-jerk reaction more or less. "And besides. Could have, would have... That doesn't change how long it took for me to heal anyway, I'd just end up really frustrated if I knew that I could have been better a lot faster." He paused, slowly moving his hand through the water, watching the ripples. "But... Maybe I should go check in with one of 'em."

Okay, touchy subject. No pun intended, of course, Jirou though with a small smile at the thought of his new friend, Davi-chan. “Sorry, sorry. Guess you’ve kind of had it with people telling you what to do, too.” He grabbed some passing seaweed as it tried to wash ashore and stuffed it into his bag. “Uhm. My, what a pleasant day it is?” he offered. He stood back up and stretched in the warm sunlight. Paradise was kind of boring after a while, he decided.

"Yeah. Sun's shining, imagine that." Nice try, Ryoma. He sighed and gave a small, apologetic smile. "Sorry if I'm being a dick-head, okay? What are you going to do with that, anyway?" He nodded at the bag which now contained the seaweed.

“Oh! I’m going to wash it, then beat it flat and put it in the food dehydrator to make sheets!” Jirou said, happily on a new topic. “As bizarre as it sounds, we haven’t run out of rice yet. I suck at making sushi, but...isn’t Taka-chan running around here somewhere? If I make nori, he can make sushi, I’m hoping. Since we haven’t been able to figure out pocky, yet,” he said, rather sad. “But sushi is good too!” His bag was almost full. He hefted it a moment. “Would you like to help me rinse this off? I’ll show you the setup I’ve got back at my cave. Oh, oh, and I have bread! Would you like a loaf?” Jirou was so happy that his fiddling around and making things was actually helpful. Like the oven. Otherwise...well, he’d be doing even more sleeping than he already was.

Ryoma nodded a 'yes' when Jirou asked about Kawamura, and then he looked at the curly haired young man, somewhat baffled. "We still have rice? Wow..." How did that even make sense? Well, he wouldn't question it, it probably made as much sense as the water turning into Inui juice or burnt zombies running around. Maybe he should just go with it for now. "Sure, I'll help. It's a great idea, you know. You've really done a lot to help out, right? I haven't helped much at all... Would it really be okay if I have some bread, you think?"

“Of course!” Jirou said with a smile. “And you haven’t helped much yet,” he stressed. “But you’ve been healing. It would have been silly for you to try to help until you were all better, you could have injured yourself worse! Now, see, look, you’re being helpful already!” He blushed a little at Ryoma’s words. “I’m just trying my best. I take a nap and wake up with ideas on what else we can do to improve our quality of life here. I...I know some people see it as giving up or maybe even not caring about getting off the island, but none of the things I’ve tried to get a signal out have worked and this at least makes me feel like I’m doing something, you know? Rescue will come! Until then, why not try to be happy and keep busy, right?” He started walking toward another of his little projects, motioning for Ryoma to follow along if he wanted.

Ryoma really wasn't one for many words, but he nodded in what he hoped were the right places as he fell in behind Jirou - but then he realized that nodding when Jirou had his back turned sort of made his silent agreement moot, and he managed a small, agreeable sound in the back of his throat. He searched for the right words. "I guess I get what you mean. Idle hands and the devil's playground and all."

Jirou looked back over his shoulder with a smile. “I think I’ve heard Chou-chan use that line before. I just don’t want to get all depressed and end up sleeping too much.” He laughed. “Not that sleeping is bad! But when would I fit more in? Between naps?” Up the path as if going toward the caves, but taking a left and going around the other side to where there was a small stream. Not big enough for fish or anything, but the water was fresh and clean and there was a small waterfall that he’d repurposed. Using a couple of industrial sized copper pots as a cistern, and some pipes from the ship, he’d made a little wash area, including a shower. He gave Ryoma a look, biting his lip. “I haven’t really told anyone about this. The sun heats the water, but it takes a couple of hours to get it back up to a decent temperature after each shower. Since there isn’t enough warm water for everyone I didn’t want to share yet, at least not until I get all the kinks out.” He pulled out a couple of basins and filled them with a mix of cold stream water and warmed water from the cistern and set them on the table he had there. He cleared his dry dishes back into their bag and placed the seaweed in their place.

Ryoma gave an impressed whistle and wandered around between the basins and the cistern, every now and then dipping his fingers into the water. "I love showers. But... Couldn't you light a fire under the cistern or something? So you don't have to rely on the sunlight all the time, I mean." He watched Jirou get to work, mentally trying to figure out the mechanics of it all. He had never dried anything before, flowers or seaweed or anything. "Hey, you can dry fruit too, right? So it stays nice longer. Like raisins and stuff." Another thought hit him. "Hey, if you haven't told anyone else about the shower, can I have first dibs on it? … Besides you, I mean."

“Uhm, sure,” Jirou addressed the last question first, since it was rather evident that Ryoma had been out of it for a while. He pulled a rubbermaid tub out from under the table and opened it. Inside were some folded towels. “They aren’t quite as soft and fluffy as they were when we got them off the ship,” he apologized. “I think it’s because they’re line dried.” He pointed to the clothes line strung across one end of the clearing. “Just hang it up there when when you’re done. If you wash well, the towel should be good for a couple of times before you’ll need to wash it.” He put his hands on his hips and looked at the other man. “I am not a maid service, just so you know,” he said with a laugh.

He dumped the seaweed into the first basin. “And actually, I’ve considered that. With the fire, that is. But right now, as it is being constantly refilled from the waterfall, it makes it too damp to keep a fire lit. Once I work out that bug, I’ll let other people know about it. Heck, I might show them how to build a couple more even,” he said, swishing the seaweed around to loosen the sand and other inedibles from it. “As for drying fruit. Heh,” Jirou grinned. “After we’re done here, I’ll show you the other stuff I’ve been doing. I’m a bored inventor, Ryoma-chan. I have made a food dehydrator, a smoker and not one, but two ovens. One for bread and the other for Syuu-chan to fire clay in.”

"Syuu-chan? … That's Fuji, I take it." As he really didn't know what he ought to do to help right now, he simply stood around, hands in his pockets. "... An inventor, huh? That's kind of cool." It was Ryoma's way of saying that he was immensely impressed, really. Some sand from the swishing seaweed landed on his face and he brushed it away with an impatient gesture. "So, like... Can I take a shower now? I don't mind if the towels aren't fluffy, promise."

“Of course. That’s why I showed you where the towels were...eh, I did it again, didn’t I?” Jirou lifted a wet hand and scratched at the back of his head. “I have a bad habit sometimes of forgetting to mention that all important middle step out loud. Yes, please, feel free to take a shower!” He smiled at Ryoma, then started lifting the seaweed out of the first basin and into the second, one at a time.

"Hey, it's okay." He walked up to the wash area and stripped out of his shirt. Hands went down to start and peel off his boxers as well, but he stopped himself. Could he really...? It shouldn't matter; they were both guys and all, and it wasn't worse than getting naked together in an onsen or a shower room or something, but... Ryoma muttered something under his breath and turned the makeshift shower on, boxers staying on for now.

Jirou glanced over, then did a double take. “Hey, if you’d like some privacy, you can...hold on, it might be easier if I showed you. Turn that off for a second? You don’t want to waste the warm stuff!” He shook his hands off then went over to where Ryoma was standing. He pointed up to the copper basin above them that had another ring of metal welded to it. “Curtain rod,” he said with a grin. He stepped past Ryoma then and, from that angle it looked like he was putting his hand through the rock. It was one of those awesome optical illusions; in truth there was a little space back there that, in addition to some odds and ends was where he pushed the curtain to keep it from flapping in the breeze. He tugged it out and ringed Ryoma with it. Well, them, there were two, which he connected with binder clips. “I figured that if An-chan ever wanted to use it, a little more, uhm...discretion might be in order,” he explained. As touchy as Ryoma had been earlier, he should have offered it to begin with. “Roomy, isn’t it?”

"Wow." Ryoma gaped unintelligently. He flashed a smile at Jirou and quickly stripped out of his boxers as well. Much, much better. "You're gonna end up winning the Nobel prize one of these days." Maybe that was a bit too much of a compliment, but who knew? "Okay, gonna soak for a bit now, let me know if there's anything I can help with when I'm done, yeah?"

“Sure!” Jirou hoped Ryoma might be willing to help him spread the seaweed out on the drying racks. That was the kind of job that worked better with two. You had to get them all flat and just the right number of layers or they didn’t come out right, at all. Jirou had learned that the hard way. He continued picking the seaweed out of one basin and rinsing it in the second, then taking it out to lay on a clean towel. This, he discovered after again, much trial and error, got pretty much all of the sand off the seaweed.

After maybe ten minutes, Ryoma figured he was clean enough. There was also the fact that the water was starting to get uncomfortably cold, even though the air around him was almost too warm. (He was honestly starting to get tired of the tropical climate by now.) He stepped out of the shower and quickly grabbed one of the towels, starting to dry himself off. When he thought he was good to go, he wrapped it around his waist and walked up to Jirou. "Thanks, man. That was great~"

Jirou was patting out the excess moisture from the cleaned seaweed, having dumped out and rinsed the wash basins in the stream. “I know, especially in this climate, right? Never thought I’d miss Japan’s weird weather, I have to tell you.” He grinned at Ryoma. “We’re about the same size if you’d like to borrow some clean clothes.” He nodded down at another of the rubbermaid tubs. “Those things are like...I wish I had invented them, they’re so cool and useful, you know?”

"Yeah. Just wanna walk around like this a little bit more. Clothes are stuffy." California's weather was usually warm, but there you could easily escape into an air conditioned room. Not much chance of that happening here. "And don't sweat it. You're inventing enough useful shit as it is anyway, right?"

“I hope so,” Jirou said. He looked a little wilted for a moment. “I just want to make sure everyone is going to be okay, just in case we’re here for a while. If I can do that, make people happy in spite being stuck here for who knows how long, then I’ll consider it a success. Although,” his smile came back, “I think that my prototype that I brought with me might be able to help both Kura-chan and Sanada-chan regain mobility in their arms. It was primarily designed to help people with carpal tunnel and tennis elbow...repetitive motion injuries, especially. But...” he cocked his head to the side, “I think it will work on their injuries too.” He shook himself and picked up the towel full of cleaned seaweed. “Now, off to my cave...hey, if my cave is my laboratory, does that make me Batman?”

He honestly didn't have much of an idea of what Jirou was talking about - didn't even know about Shiraishi's and Sanada's injuries - so he didn't comment on that, as he didn't want to come off as ignorant. Instead he zoned in on the last comment from the curly haired man, and grinned. "Maybe. Or the Hulk or something. Pretty neat either way, right?" He nodded at the seaweed. "Need any help carrying anything?"

Jirou laughed. “I don’t look that good in green! But still, it’s good to know I have some options!” He thought about Ryoma’s question for a moment. “Mm, yes! Could you grab that bucket and fill it with some water? I’d have you help with this,” he hefted the seaweed, “except it requires two hands and I think you should keep one free just in case your towel starts to slip,” he said with a grin.

Suddenly beet red, Ryoma made a small sound in the back of his throat that could mean just about anything. He nodded and walked over to the bucket, stopping for a moment to consider if Jirou wanted seawater or freshwater. He opted for the latter and made his way over to the small brook. As he sat down to fill the bucket, he took extra care to make sure the towel didn't slip, thankful that Jirou had reminded him of it. Once the bucket was filled to the brim - too much for him to carry with one hand, really, but he set his jaw stubbornly and started to drag it along - he returned to Jirou with a ridiculously proud look on his face. "All set!"

Jirou didn’t say a word about how Ryoma was carrying the bucket. In fact, he managed to turn around with a, “This way!” before he grinned widely. He was actually rather proud of himself. But then, he did have experience with difficult kouhai. Really, compared to Piyo-chan there were few as...special. “I have a table and chairs set up outside my cave with a nap spot too. Watch your footing here, the stream cuts across the path up ahead, but we’re turning to the right, not crossing the stream,” Jirou pointed out helpfully.

"Hm? This way the--" Ryoma turned his face to the right to see where they were going, and the sudden movement caused the equilibrium in his body to dip over, the water bucket spilling its content on his feet and the rocks underneath him. He slipped and landed on his buttocks with a thud, the towel slipping up and falling into the water. "... Whaaaaaaaaat...!"

“Ha~aaare you okay?” Jirou asked, trying to focus on the fact that Ryoma fell and not on how he’d fallen or the fact that he was naked. He put the bundle of towels and seaweed down, then stepped carefully over the wet rocks to crouch next to Ryoma. “Did you hurt anything? You just got better, people would kill me if you are seriously hurt! Don’t be hurt, okay?” He held out his hand. “Can you stand?”

"My fucking ass," Ryoma complained, but he guessed he had to be glad he hadn't hit his tailbone. That would have seriously sucked. He grabbed a hold of Jirou's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. He winced and reached down to check if he had scraped himself up enough to draw blood... Which didn't seem to be the case. He guessed he would simply bruise. There. Oh brother. Oh. And the towel. It was gone. His eyes widened for a second, then he quickly covered himself up in the front the best he could, using his hands. "... Ah, I spilled the water...!"

“We can get more,” Jirou said, smiling a little and keeping his eyes on Ryoma’s face. “We have more towels too. Though you shouldn’t throw them into streams that go over cliffs like that. I’m betting there is a very confused bird somewhere right now. Hold on.” He dashed back to the shower area with the bucket, coming back a moment later with another towel and a less full bucket of water. “Want to try again?” he asked, handing Ryoma the towel.

"Definitely," Ryoma mumbled, still red in the face. He quickly grabbed the towel and draped it around himself, muttering a few choice curses in English under his breath. Once he figured he was decent enough, he took the bucket and sighed. "Okay, lead the way."

Picking the towels and seaweed back up, Jirou continued the short walk back to his cave. “I’ll poke up the fire and make some fresh mint tea, if you want,” he said, trying to distract Ryoma from his embarrassment. “If you don’t want hot tea, it doesn’t take very long to cool it. I don’t have the ice maker up and running yet, but it’s only a matter of time,” he added, setting his bundle down on the table. “The water goes right there next to the kettle. Thank you for your help!”

"Hot tea's okay," Ryoma mumbled as he sat down on the ground of the cave after putting the water away. "I mean, I'll have some now and then I'll take some back to drink it cool later. If that's okay?" He thought for a moment. "For an ice maker, you need some good isolator, right? And to start off, you need some way to cool the water down, I think..."

“Well, Shiraishi and I were talking and it finally occurred to me that I just needed to pull one of the icemakers off the ship. So I did!” Jirou said with a grin. “I have it in my workshop. I just need to figure out how to power it. We don’t want to use the generators because we’d use up the fuel that much quicker. Though, if this works, I might be able to convert the generators as well. Oo, are you handy with stuff?” he asked Ryoma. He picked up the water and poured some into the kettle, then set it with the tripod so that it hung over the fire, then he stoked up the fire, adding a little more wood.

Ryoma didn't really think he was handy with things per se, but he picked up on things easily enough, more often than not, he only had to be told once or twice what to do and he managed to pull it off. It was handy at times. "I can learn," he admitted with a shrug.

“Well, I’m working on both solar panels and a windmill and could use an assistant, if you are up for the challenge! It’s mostly helping carry stuff and holding things while I attach them, that sort of thing. But it would be a big help!” Jirou said, grinning at him. “And if you want to do some of the more complicated stuff too, I’d be happy to show you how!”

Ryoma put his hands up defensively. "Whoa. Let's start with the easy carrying stuff, okay? Gotta get my muscles in gear anyway." Being convalescent for over a month did nothing to improve one's stamina. "I'll help with the windmill, okay?"

“Oh, right!” Jirou said. “After seeing you lift that bucket, I figured you’d already been working out,” he teased gently. “I promise that you will have lots of opportunities for exercise if you help! Oh!” He got up and went into his cave for a moment, then returned with a small plastic box, which he opened when he got back to Ryoma. “Would you like to try some of my dried fruit? It doesn’t look as pretty as the stuff in the store, but I think it tastes better!”

"Who the hell am I to complain about how it looks? I sure haven't been doing any fruit drying myself, you know." Quick as thought, Ryoma reached down into the box and fished up a piece of dried mango. He shoved it into his mouth and chewed, a pleased look on his face. "This stuff's good," he managed between mouthfuls. "Doesn't taste artificial at all. Storebought crap usually do."

“Thank you!” Jirou made an aborted move to hug the other man, but stopped it before it became too obvious, he hoped. Instead he beamed happily and held the box out so Ryoma could take more if he wanted to. “There’s a mix of papaya and mango and a little pineapple in there. Anytime people have leftovers from their meals, I’ve been asking them to bring them by. After all, leftovers in this climate don’t last long. I put them on the drying racks and presto! A few hours later, yumminess! Oo, want me to show you the set up?” he asked.

"Some other time." Right now, he just wanted to nurse his sore butt and enjoy the fruit. After finishing the mango, he took a small piece of pineapple, figuring its tartness would contrast well with the sweetness of the mango. "You can show me after we've done something with the windmill. Information overload otherwise, you know?"

“Good point! Come,” he said, waggling the box as bait, “let me show you my laboratory.” He pronounced that in the Mad Scientist fashion, naturally, with a grin. “I don’t have any lab coats, so I hope a pair of shorts and a t-shirt will do. Unless you prefer to do your science in the nude. Which I would respect, of course,” Jirou said, keeping a straight face.

"Well, you've already seen me in the nude, so maybe..." Ryoma too, could keep a straight face. Well, for a little while, at least, and then his face cracked up into a wry grin. "... Just shut up."

Jirou grinned. “I don’t recommend it, mind you. Although we’re not working with chemicals or electricity. Yet. Let me get you some clothes, hold on.” He ducked into his cave and emerged a couple of moments later with some boxers, shorts and a t-shirt. “Hopefully these will fit. Unfortunately neither of us were visited very often by the height fairy,” he said with a sigh.

"The height fairy?" Ryoma quirked an eyebrow and quickly pulled the clothes on. They fit, maybe a thought too big, but he had had worse. "She eloped with the Deep Voice Bunny and abandoned me. You know. Like she can do, sometimes."

“You too, huh?” Jirou asked. “Fickle. I bet Yuushi seduced them both and they got confused and visited Kaba-chan a few too many times. Darn him,” he said, pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes. “Yuushi, that is, not Kaba-chan. He’s just another innocent victim.”

"Definitely." Ryoma licked at some of the stickiness the dried fruit left on his fingers. "Wanna split now?"

“Absolutely!” Jirou said. “Wait till you see how I have my workshop set up, it’s awesome!” He led the way with a bounce.

&log, akutagawa jirou, echizen ryoma

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