A day of rest, was it? Okita leaned back in his seat and tucked his legs up beneath him on the couch. He still felt somewhat uncomfortable sitting in chairs like a Westerner. Bringing his hair over his shoulder, he idly threaded his fingers through the purple strands and kept a faint smile on his lips. A real day of rest would be nice. "I suppose it is, considering how leisurely the day is going."
He wondered if it really had been Jack he'd seen last night on the bus. It had been dark and so many things had been going on at once, that he hadn't been able to see clearly, but he could have sworn he'd seen Jack there. "It certainly was exciting, wasn't it? I had a hard time getting any rest at all, so I was awake when the first announcement came." He never had been one to sleep in, anyhow. Smiling a little more mischieviously, Okita leaned forward to peer up at Jack. "I wonder what your definition of interesting is, if last night didn't meet your standards though."
As for his night... The swordsman shrugged slightly and sat back again, waving a hand dismissively. "It was just the usual running around. Although I found a lovely present in my closet for some reason. I wasn't the only one, either. Did you find anything?"
Jack chuckled, reaching out to gently tweak a strand of the hair Soujirou was playing with. "I missed breakfast, I slept so late. I haven't done that in... wow, a really long time." He grinned. Decades, really. "Might as well take it when it comes, right?"
He shook his head. "I kind of overdid it at the start of the night, so I wasn't really with it for most of it. Hope I didn't miss anything too cool. But... normally, I have a gun. It's always more exciting with a gun, right?" He laughed. "And the world's going to blow up or something. Always some sort of emergency. Invasions or giant monsters crawling out of rifts in time-space or who knows what. It's a great life."
He was slightly puzzled by the reference to something in the closet. "I'll have to check whenever I get back to my room. I never made it back last night. What did you find, hm? Or is it a secret?"
That made two people today who had touched his hair. He didn't particularly dislike the feeling, but he wondered if it was because he'd taken to playing with it as well. Without a proper comb, his hair tangled easily, so it was more of a necessity than out of idleness that he'd started using his fingers as a substitute. "Taking rest when you need it is certainly never a bad thing."
Unless you slept in as late as the vice-commander. Then it was almost Okita's duty to do some sort of mischief until the offending party woke up.
Jack's talk of guns and monsters and invasions and time-space just got a blank look from Okita. He had no idea about any of those things, save for the guns, but they certainly sounded interesting. It took him a moment to wrap his mind around the concept of the entire world blowing up, but once he did, he laughed. "I can see why you would think last night wasn't up to par then! You certainly have an interesting life, Captain."
Remembering what was waiting for him as soon as dinner ended turned Okita's smile into something a little more bittersweet. How he wished there was someone other than Kenshin who could truly appreciate the effect of the Shinsengumi's uniform. It was garish and unmistakeable, and that was exactly why it had been chosen. Anyone who saw the mountains on blue would know who they were facing without having to bother with announcing names.
"It's only a secret if you're part of the staff," he said, leaning in to whisper into Jack's ear. It wasn't like there was anyone else to hear them, but the nurse's couldn't know what he had. "I found my old clothing in my closet. My uniform to be exact."
Jack chuckled. "Not that I'm complaining," he said. "It's kind of nice that for once I only have to worry about myself. Though I guess that sounds selfish, huh? But right before I got here, we had to deal with this thing that crawled out from a rift that goes through the city, and it was about three hundred feet tall and uglier than the floor of a sewer, and everything its shadow touched got the life sucked out of it. It gets kind of silly."
His grin became a secretive smile as Soujirou leaned in close. Now that was interesting. He turned his head to murmur back, "I'd love to see that. I've always liked men in uniform."
Kind of silly? Okita couldn't grasp the concept of something three hundred feet tall rampaging through a city. Kyoto certainly would never survive that, and the idea that a shadow could kill was... Well, it was disturbing to say the least and highly improbable at best. It had been difficult enough to reconcile the facts of his world with the magic he'd seen when Saitou had reappeared. The crazy aristocrat had found a double of him and attempted to bring down the Shinsengumi with magic and false accusations, but to no avail. If the man had been able to conjure a three hundred foot demon?
Good Lord, it sounded like a story to tell children if they didn't behave.
Okita laughed a little and went back to threading his fingers through his hair, picking at whatever knots he came across. Since coming here, those children's stories were becoming a lot more believable. "Certainly an interesting sort of life, Captain Harkness. I can't even imagine such a thing in my time... It was a marvel to see a human over six feet tall, let alone a three hundred foot beast!"
As for his uniform, it reminded him of what he had to do tonight and what he'd done the night before. He wondered if that nurse was brought back to life today, or if him twisting her head off had truly killed her. Keeping a mischievious tone in his voice, Okita leaned over to Jack and just barely kept from brushing shoulders with him. "I'll be wearing it tonight, but if you see me in it, I'll have to admit another secret to you. I wonder if you'll be able to catch me before I run away."
Jack chuckled. "You must be in a wonderland now," he said, with a wink. There were quite a few tall people around; even some of the women were fairly tall. "I'd love to take you to Cardiff for a visit some day. Though hopefully without the 300 foot tall monster. Just for sightseeing and the nice little Italian place."
He leaned a little closer with a conspiratorial smile. "I like secrets," he said. "It's not nice to tease."
Okita laughed right along with Jack and shrugged slightly. "A wonderland is one way to put it! It's been an interesting situation to adjust to." It wasn't just the people, but the place itself. The floor that was always cold. The beds that were raised off the floor. The chairs, the utensils, everything about it was so new and interesting, but also terrifying and depressingly foreign. Even if the Tokugawa government had opened its doors to the foreigners, that didn't mean Okita was altogether happy with it. He was merely following Hijikata and his dream. Breaking out of his thoughts, he smiled at Jack again and tilted his head to the side. "Cardiff...? Where is that?"
It might have been mean of him to tease, but that's exactly what he did best. Giggling lightly, he turned in his seat and widened the slight gap between him and Jack - just enough to keep up the teasing flirt routine. "I wonder if you can guess it if I were to tell you what the uniform looked like, Captain. You seem familiar enough with history."
Jack nodded. "I know how you feel," he said. "I mean... I'm used to this stuff now, but everything was really weird when I first started hanging around in this century." That was really an oversimplification; the real adjustment had come when he'd started traveling through time in general; after a while you just learned to take things as they came, to be a chameleon. That was the part that had been difficult. "Cardiff's in Wales," he said. "Which is in England." If he remembered correctly, Soujirou should at least have a general idea of who the British were, since he was probably from a time during the height of their empire building.
It had been a long time since Jack had gotten to flirt with someone quite so charming and good at the game. He was enjoying himself thoroughly. He leaned in enough to close the gap again, interested but not overly eager. "I'm a self-taught student," he said, "It would be so embarrassing if you caught me unprepared." He smiled. "But for you, I'll try."
Okita still wasn't entirely certain he believed Jack when he talked about time travel or space or whatever else, but statements and slips like saying 'century' rather than 'country' always gave him pause. He wouldn't have believed it at all if he wasn't certain he was supposed to be in a different century himself. It didn't make any sense, but neither did candles in the ceiling, so he was able to take Jack's statement in stride. "England..." He paused, recalling a world map he'd seen once in passing. "Another island, isn't it? Closer to where the Dutch are."
Okita laughed and smiled at Jack apologetically. "I'm afraid I've only heard vague rumors about the place. My government didn't allow trade with anyone but the Dutch until very recently, you see. You'll have to teach me more about it."
When Jack leaned closer again, he winked at him and did the same, leaning forward to smile coyly at the other captain. "Sky blue with white mountain stripes at the sleeves, circa 1860s in Japan. Do you know it? We are apparently still well known in the future." Not wanting to linger too long lest he invite trouble too soon, Okita sat back and grinned. "If not, I'm more than willing to teach you in exchange."
Jack nodded. "A much smaller island than yours," he said. "A bit west of where the Dutch are from. Though in your time, they're pretty much everywhere... building a pretty big empire up." Jack had been in most parts of that empire during various portions of his rather checkered career. The British military was a good place for him. "The time period I'm from, Japan trades with everyone," he said. "All of the best technology comes from your country." He grinned. He figured Soujirou would be pleased to hear that.
Jack almost would have missed the question - almost, if Japanese animation hadn't been so popular in twenty-first century. Even then, it took him a moment, to visualize what Soujirou had described, and at least recall the name. He knew little else about it; he hadn't been able to pay Japan a visit at that time because he would have been far too out of place. "I think... Shinsengumi?" He smiled, raising his eyebrows; his pronunciation probably wasn't too bad. "But even if that's right, I don't know very much. Good thing I've always been an eager student."
Recognition flickered across Okita's face as he finally put a name to the rumors that had floated about in Japan. A power far to the East had been rapidly spreading influence across the world, even to the extent that the Dutch complained about them. They must have been one of the reasons the Tokugawa were so wary of opening their gates to the West, allowing more foreign trade. In the end it had been in vain, but the threat still stood.
"The British Empire...yes, I believe I've heard rumors." Beyond that, Okita was willing to leave that subject behind. The last thing he needed Jack to feel was his hostility toward anyone threatening the Japanese rule, after all. It had been his job to support that government, even with all its flaws. To think that Japan became a country powerful enough to trade with the world, however, was something of a surprise and he could feel his curiosity tug at him. He hadn't heard much of the future because people were wary of telling him once they knew who he was. "Really now? We're a technologically advanced country in the future? In what way?"
Jack answered his question with minor pronunciation discrepencies and Okita grinned wide. The swordsman clapped his hands together once, clearly pleased with Jack's guess. "Pin pon~! That's correct!" He laughed and sat back, drawing a circle on the cushion between him and Jack. "It's likely to come out sooner or later since I'm running about in uniform at night now, but I'm a member of the Shinsengumi. We protect the rule of the Tokugawa family and the safety of the people of Kyoto. It's our duty and our honor to fight against the rebels from Choushuu, Tosa and Satsuma to bring peace back to Japan. At least, in the past it was - apparently we didn't accomplish that. Any questions?"
"You've pretty much got the best engineers in the world," Jack said. "For the last couple of decades, Japan's pretty much dominated the electronics trade." He considered for a moment; Soujirou was from a time period too far back to really know about those things. "Like... you know those radios we have, the ones that guy talks out of at night? Stuff like that, but a lot more advanced and complex. Also a lot of entertainment... pretty much all the best video games of the century come out of Japan. And a lot of the younger kids are nuts for Japanese comic books. And if I remember correctly, your country's got some of the fastest, best trains in the world." There were down sides to it, of course, but he had a feeling Soujirou would know the pitfalls of his own culture far better than Jack could even guess.
Questions... there were a lot of questions. History, Jack didn't worry about too much. History sorted itself out. People, though, he was much more curious about. He smiled. "What drew you to the uniform?" he asked.
Engineers, electronics, video games - all these terms were completely foreign to Okita. He'd heard of the video games before, but he still didn't full understand what the term meant. Trains were still a foreign concept and the idea that all these things came from his home country was just mind boggling. Japan advanced to become a world power. A world power. The corruption would be horrendous, he was certain of that, but he could only hope that there were men around like Hijikata who would do what they had to do to remain true to the ideals of Japan. They had killed Serizawa for that reason when he betrayed the honor of the Shinsengumi and earned them the nickname the Wolves of Mibu. They had killed so many in the name of the Code and to support the Tokugawa rule. Were there such dedicated men in the future?
He finally learned one thing, however, from the confusing stream of electronics related talk. The things they carried at night were called radios. The little speaking boxes had names. Perhaps Jack could teach him more about this alien technology and help him understand it a bit better. "Radios? Is that what they're called? Are the ones on the walls called radios, too?"
Then Jack asked him that question and he remembered Tetsu asking him nearly the same thing. He hadn't answered the boy then, only because he was certain he'd be laughed at. Even now, he wasn't sure it was safe to tell the truth. He'd been brushing off that question for so many years now that he doubted he could give an honest answer.
"There wasn't much else for me to do," Okita finally replied, his smile softening as he remembered his younger days. It was probably best that he not tell the truth, after all. It would only remind him that the real reason he joined the Shinsengumi was no longer among the patient body. Thinking of that, it brought back the tiredness he felt earlier and the pain in his heart. "I'm a samurai, it's my duty and my honor to protect my country."
What else was there for a demon child to do, anyway? Hijikata and Kondou had been the only ones to have a place for him. For Jack, however, the basics would do for now. He didn't need to go revealing all his secrets at once. Slipping back into a more cheerful demeanor, he turned to Jack and tried to change the topic off himself. "What about you, Captain Harkness?"
Jack nodded. "Technically, portable radios, but since pretty much all radios are these days, might as well leave the first part off. The speakers in the walls are technically an intercom, but they function pretty much the same way. If you want me to explain more of the stuff, I can give it a shot."
He listened to what Soujirou had to say, leaning in a little, like a good, attentive listener. He nodded. Duty and honor were a bit foreign to him, but knowing what he did about the culture, it made sense.
He noticed the shift in topic; his instincts were always on alert for that sort of thing. So Soujirou didn't like talking in detail about his past. Well, he wasn't the only one. But Jack preferred to divert people with big, cheerful lies. "Oh, I just kinda fell into it," he said. "Didn't have anything better to do, the uniform looked great, so I decided to give it a try."
Jack should have been more wary with offering Okita an outlet for his curiosity. Guy liked to talk about mechanical things, but he spoke of things that weren't even in this world and Okita struggled to keep up with him. Jack, however, was from his world - albeit a future one - and had proven himself somewhat knowledgeable on this subject. Intercoms were what the Doctor spoke out of. The taunting man came from the radio. Okita wondered how people so powerful could fit their voices into such small devices.
He wasn't about to waste this opportunity, however, and began firing off questions as soon as he thought of them, his eyes gleaming like a child in a candy store. First, he pointed at the floor. "What is this material called? It's unlike tatami or even polished wood." He then looked off toward the bathrooms and pointed at them. "In there are things where water comes from the wall. What are they? Oh! And those white utensils they give us instead of chopsticks, what are those made of? They're so bendy!"
Jack did the same sort of maneuvering Okita did and the swordsman laughed a little. Hadn't he just been doing this same thing to Fai earlier in the day? It was easy to distract people with pretty smiles and turns of phrase, so Okita let himself be led astray. It wasn't as if anyone was asking him for a report on Jack as Homura had been asking of Fai. It wouldn't matter if he let the man keep his secrets, so long as Jack let Okita keep his. "Haha, I wonder if you would have joined us then. Our uniform stands out among the rest and the blue would go so well with your eyes."
Jack grinned. "What, the carpet? Or do you mean the smooth stuff? That's linoleum," he said. "That's what it's called. It's made of linseed oil and a couple other things. It's actually The bathroom thingies are showers. Just water that's been pressurized by putting it through pipes, with a head on it to spread the flow out. And the forks are made of plastic. Lots of stuff around here is actually made of plastic, just all different kinds. Plastic's made from oil that they pump out of the ground."
He wiggled his eyebrows. "And I definitely would have. The uniform sounds downright sexy. Though I don't know if I could do it the same justice as you."
He wondered if it really had been Jack he'd seen last night on the bus. It had been dark and so many things had been going on at once, that he hadn't been able to see clearly, but he could have sworn he'd seen Jack there. "It certainly was exciting, wasn't it? I had a hard time getting any rest at all, so I was awake when the first announcement came." He never had been one to sleep in, anyhow. Smiling a little more mischieviously, Okita leaned forward to peer up at Jack. "I wonder what your definition of interesting is, if last night didn't meet your standards though."
As for his night... The swordsman shrugged slightly and sat back again, waving a hand dismissively. "It was just the usual running around. Although I found a lovely present in my closet for some reason. I wasn't the only one, either. Did you find anything?"
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He shook his head. "I kind of overdid it at the start of the night, so I wasn't really with it for most of it. Hope I didn't miss anything too cool. But... normally, I have a gun. It's always more exciting with a gun, right?" He laughed. "And the world's going to blow up or something. Always some sort of emergency. Invasions or giant monsters crawling out of rifts in time-space or who knows what. It's a great life."
He was slightly puzzled by the reference to something in the closet. "I'll have to check whenever I get back to my room. I never made it back last night. What did you find, hm? Or is it a secret?"
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Unless you slept in as late as the vice-commander. Then it was almost Okita's duty to do some sort of mischief until the offending party woke up.
Jack's talk of guns and monsters and invasions and time-space just got a blank look from Okita. He had no idea about any of those things, save for the guns, but they certainly sounded interesting. It took him a moment to wrap his mind around the concept of the entire world blowing up, but once he did, he laughed. "I can see why you would think last night wasn't up to par then! You certainly have an interesting life, Captain."
Remembering what was waiting for him as soon as dinner ended turned Okita's smile into something a little more bittersweet. How he wished there was someone other than Kenshin who could truly appreciate the effect of the Shinsengumi's uniform. It was garish and unmistakeable, and that was exactly why it had been chosen. Anyone who saw the mountains on blue would know who they were facing without having to bother with announcing names.
"It's only a secret if you're part of the staff," he said, leaning in to whisper into Jack's ear. It wasn't like there was anyone else to hear them, but the nurse's couldn't know what he had. "I found my old clothing in my closet. My uniform to be exact."
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His grin became a secretive smile as Soujirou leaned in close. Now that was interesting. He turned his head to murmur back, "I'd love to see that. I've always liked men in uniform."
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Good Lord, it sounded like a story to tell children if they didn't behave.
Okita laughed a little and went back to threading his fingers through his hair, picking at whatever knots he came across. Since coming here, those children's stories were becoming a lot more believable. "Certainly an interesting sort of life, Captain Harkness. I can't even imagine such a thing in my time... It was a marvel to see a human over six feet tall, let alone a three hundred foot beast!"
As for his uniform, it reminded him of what he had to do tonight and what he'd done the night before. He wondered if that nurse was brought back to life today, or if him twisting her head off had truly killed her. Keeping a mischievious tone in his voice, Okita leaned over to Jack and just barely kept from brushing shoulders with him. "I'll be wearing it tonight, but if you see me in it, I'll have to admit another secret to you. I wonder if you'll be able to catch me before I run away."
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He leaned a little closer with a conspiratorial smile. "I like secrets," he said. "It's not nice to tease."
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It might have been mean of him to tease, but that's exactly what he did best. Giggling lightly, he turned in his seat and widened the slight gap between him and Jack - just enough to keep up the teasing flirt routine. "I wonder if you can guess it if I were to tell you what the uniform looked like, Captain. You seem familiar enough with history."
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It had been a long time since Jack had gotten to flirt with someone quite so charming and good at the game. He was enjoying himself thoroughly. He leaned in enough to close the gap again, interested but not overly eager. "I'm a self-taught student," he said, "It would be so embarrassing if you caught me unprepared." He smiled. "But for you, I'll try."
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Okita laughed and smiled at Jack apologetically. "I'm afraid I've only heard vague rumors about the place. My government didn't allow trade with anyone but the Dutch until very recently, you see. You'll have to teach me more about it."
When Jack leaned closer again, he winked at him and did the same, leaning forward to smile coyly at the other captain. "Sky blue with white mountain stripes at the sleeves, circa 1860s in Japan. Do you know it? We are apparently still well known in the future." Not wanting to linger too long lest he invite trouble too soon, Okita sat back and grinned. "If not, I'm more than willing to teach you in exchange."
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Jack almost would have missed the question - almost, if Japanese animation hadn't been so popular in twenty-first century. Even then, it took him a moment, to visualize what Soujirou had described, and at least recall the name. He knew little else about it; he hadn't been able to pay Japan a visit at that time because he would have been far too out of place. "I think... Shinsengumi?" He smiled, raising his eyebrows; his pronunciation probably wasn't too bad. "But even if that's right, I don't know very much. Good thing I've always been an eager student."
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"The British Empire...yes, I believe I've heard rumors." Beyond that, Okita was willing to leave that subject behind. The last thing he needed Jack to feel was his hostility toward anyone threatening the Japanese rule, after all. It had been his job to support that government, even with all its flaws. To think that Japan became a country powerful enough to trade with the world, however, was something of a surprise and he could feel his curiosity tug at him. He hadn't heard much of the future because people were wary of telling him once they knew who he was. "Really now? We're a technologically advanced country in the future? In what way?"
Jack answered his question with minor pronunciation discrepencies and Okita grinned wide. The swordsman clapped his hands together once, clearly pleased with Jack's guess. "Pin pon~! That's correct!" He laughed and sat back, drawing a circle on the cushion between him and Jack. "It's likely to come out sooner or later since I'm running about in uniform at night now, but I'm a member of the Shinsengumi. We protect the rule of the Tokugawa family and the safety of the people of Kyoto. It's our duty and our honor to fight against the rebels from Choushuu, Tosa and Satsuma to bring peace back to Japan. At least, in the past it was - apparently we didn't accomplish that. Any questions?"
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Questions... there were a lot of questions. History, Jack didn't worry about too much. History sorted itself out. People, though, he was much more curious about. He smiled. "What drew you to the uniform?" he asked.
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He finally learned one thing, however, from the confusing stream of electronics related talk. The things they carried at night were called radios. The little speaking boxes had names. Perhaps Jack could teach him more about this alien technology and help him understand it a bit better. "Radios? Is that what they're called? Are the ones on the walls called radios, too?"
Then Jack asked him that question and he remembered Tetsu asking him nearly the same thing. He hadn't answered the boy then, only because he was certain he'd be laughed at. Even now, he wasn't sure it was safe to tell the truth. He'd been brushing off that question for so many years now that he doubted he could give an honest answer.
"There wasn't much else for me to do," Okita finally replied, his smile softening as he remembered his younger days. It was probably best that he not tell the truth, after all. It would only remind him that the real reason he joined the Shinsengumi was no longer among the patient body. Thinking of that, it brought back the tiredness he felt earlier and the pain in his heart. "I'm a samurai, it's my duty and my honor to protect my country."
What else was there for a demon child to do, anyway? Hijikata and Kondou had been the only ones to have a place for him. For Jack, however, the basics would do for now. He didn't need to go revealing all his secrets at once. Slipping back into a more cheerful demeanor, he turned to Jack and tried to change the topic off himself. "What about you, Captain Harkness?"
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He listened to what Soujirou had to say, leaning in a little, like a good, attentive listener. He nodded. Duty and honor were a bit foreign to him, but knowing what he did about the culture, it made sense.
He noticed the shift in topic; his instincts were always on alert for that sort of thing. So Soujirou didn't like talking in detail about his past. Well, he wasn't the only one. But Jack preferred to divert people with big, cheerful lies. "Oh, I just kinda fell into it," he said. "Didn't have anything better to do, the uniform looked great, so I decided to give it a try."
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He wasn't about to waste this opportunity, however, and began firing off questions as soon as he thought of them, his eyes gleaming like a child in a candy store. First, he pointed at the floor. "What is this material called? It's unlike tatami or even polished wood." He then looked off toward the bathrooms and pointed at them. "In there are things where water comes from the wall. What are they? Oh! And those white utensils they give us instead of chopsticks, what are those made of? They're so bendy!"
Jack did the same sort of maneuvering Okita did and the swordsman laughed a little. Hadn't he just been doing this same thing to Fai earlier in the day? It was easy to distract people with pretty smiles and turns of phrase, so Okita let himself be led astray. It wasn't as if anyone was asking him for a report on Jack as Homura had been asking of Fai. It wouldn't matter if he let the man keep his secrets, so long as Jack let Okita keep his. "Haha, I wonder if you would have joined us then. Our uniform stands out among the rest and the blue would go so well with your eyes."
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He wiggled his eyebrows. "And I definitely would have. The uniform sounds downright sexy. Though I don't know if I could do it the same justice as you."
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