Day 32: Lunch

[damnrudecock]

Sanosuke hadn't quite been ready to part ways from Kenshin, but his nurse was insistent, and she was offering food. That second thing was what really got Sano off the couch and headed to the cafeteria. And at the very least, the thing about Okita had been settled, which meant the fighter could focus on his meal

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[on_my_face]

Now Zuko could add therapy session to his list of hated things about Landel's. He wasn't too sure about this pizza thing either, so he carefully dropped some toppings on it and hoped for the best. Maybe a hot pepper would dull some of the pain from his leg.

So far the cafeteria was empty, people were still shuffling in from the last shift. Zuko noticed Sanosuke sitting by himself, and paused. The guy was annoying, but so were a lot of the people who approached the firebender whenever he was alone. So it couldn't hurt to give Sanosuke another chance...

"Hi," Zuko neutrally greeted as he sat down on the other side of the table, mentally preparing himself for whatever annoying phrase was going to come out of Sanosuke's mouth.

[damnrudecock]

Well that was kind of surprising. Given his attitude, Sanosuke would've thought Zuko didn't like him. Of course, he couldn't blame the guy too much; they hadn't exactly met under the greatest of circumstances. Not getting anything done, finding yourself in the middle of no where, and from what Sano could tell, Zuko didn't even have anyone from his own world here to sympathize with.

As bad as it was for Sano, the guy could only imagine how much worse it'd be if he were alone. Especially with the Shinsengumi guys around.

"Hey Shaggy." Sano knew Zuko didn't like the nickname, but the fighter couldn't help it if it fit. And he didn't mean any harm by it, certainly not by the way he grinned. "Feels like it's been awhile, doesn't it? You still doing okay?" The kid looked better than the last night they'd been together, if nothing else.

[on_my_face]

Zuko still wasn't thrilled about Sanosuke's nickname for him, but at this point he accepted that no amount of arguing was going to make him stop.

The prince nodded to Sanosuke while he dubiously eyed one of the peppers lounging on his pizza. It seemed like a good idea at the time... but eating strange foods never ended well.

"I completed my assignment last night for our club," he replied nonchalantly. He wouldn't admit to Sanosuke that it had made him reconsider working alone. "What about you and Kenshin?"

[damnrudecock]

Sanosuke could see where Zuko was looking, and really, he understood the feelings. The fighter could practically smell the heat radiating off the peppers when he was near them, leaving him to question eating the ones he'd gotten as well

[on_my_face]

Zuko looked up in time to see Sanosuke's expression change when he spoke about a girl. Girls weren't Zuko's favorite subject either, it just made him think of Mai finding his letter and being pissed off at him. He let the comments slide, moving on to answer the next question.

"That's good that he's armed." After his last outing with the two of them he wasn't sure that they could manage that task. "The last time was probably... just bad luck?" He still thought they were incompetent that night, but he felt obligated to say something nice.

Zuko looked at his leg. "It's fine, ran into an angry cat," he grumbled as he poked the pepper with a fork. "I was hoping this would dull the pain a little... but you're right, it's probably just going to make things worse."

[damnrudecock]

"Bad something." Sanosuke hadn't quite forgiven Adel for being an ass the last time they'd met, but the guy had made Kenshin's sword. And since they had enough to deal with here without holding grudges, Sano figured he could let this one go. It was too much of a pain to stay pissed off forever

[on_my_face]

"It was a big cat."

Zuko wouldn't underestimate the animals again. He speared a pepper with his fork and gave it a closer look, but quickly turned a warning glare at Sanosuke for his question. Nasty retorts raced through his mind-- if the guy wanted to pry into Zuko's business then maybe he should ask him what happened to his girlfriend after all. That's what Azula would do, find a weakness to stab into and give a good twist... but the guilt he would feel afterwards probably wasn't worth it.

"In a fight, when I was younger," he answered calmly, stabbing the fork and the pepper back into the pizza. Hopefully that was enough for Sanosuke's curiosity.

[damnrudecock]

Somehow, when Zuko said it that way, it seemed kind of funny to Sanosuke. It wasn't really, and the fighter knew it. He only had to look at Zuko's leg to tell it had been no joke. The way the kid had moved had told Sano pretty early on that he could handle himself in most cases. So a big cat was trouble

[on_my_face]

"I'd be better off with a weapon than a partner, but if that's my only choice for now..."

Zuko gave Sanosuke a deadpan stare. This was just like the night with the weaponsmaker when the fighter made stupid assumptions about people he didn't know and ran his mouth. He let out a derisive laugh, maybe Sanosuke really was trying to be friendly... or something, but his comments rubbed Zuko the wrong way.

"If you're so perceptive then why didn't you pick up that I didn't want to talk about it in the first place?" Zuko shrugged. "But thanks for the lecture, I guess."

[damnrudecock]

Okay, now Zuko was just being a smart ass. Thanks for the lecture? Sano would give him something to 'thank' him over. The fighter turned his plate, and flicked one of the peppers so it launched up at Zuko's forehead, right above the bridge of his nose.

"I just told you, different people were different, didn't I?" His grin was strained with playful frustration. He really had just meant for it to be friendly advice, but Zuko was just too moody. Kind of like Aoshi.

Zuko probably couldn't hold his liquor either.

"But since you liked that lecture so much, here's another. There's only so much you should take up on your own, you know. You get hurt any worse, and probably there's someone who'd be sad or upset over it. Even a happy guy like you has to have friends, right?"

[on_my_face]

"Hey!" Zuko shouted, slapping the pepper away before it made contact with his face. It caught him by surprise, but he should have expected an action like that from someone as immature as Sanosuke. What he expected after that was shouting and maybe a fight, so when the other boy remained friendly-- albeit forced, Zuko was almost shocked.

Friends? "I don't," Zuko replied impassively. Mai probably hated him, he never got the chance to apologize to his uncle and show that he changed, and he failed to find the Avatar and his friends in order to join their group. That left no one.

[damnrudecock]

Score one for Shaggy's reflexes. It was pretty impressive that he avoided the hit, even if it made Sanosuke just want to fire off another one. But any more and Pinky might get upset, and the last thing Sanosuke wanted was another one of those damn needles in his arm

[on_my_face]

Zuko poked at his uneaten pizza with his fork as Sanosuke spoke, raising an eyebrow at the idea that the fighter considered him a friend after such a short amount of time together that mainly consisted of disagreements. "Fine," he muttered. It wasn't that he was against being Sanosuke's friend, just confused by it.

"With my luck it'll be my crazy sister," Zuko tried to joke, but he realized that since Sanosuke didn't know Azula that it probably wasn't very funny. Zuko wasn't very good at jokes.

[damnrudecock]

"Try not to sound too excited about it. You're not a bad kid. Kind of like someone I know back home. More fun to tease though." Somehow Sano didn't think calling Aoshi 'Shaggy' would've gone over nearly as well as it did with Zuko. And maybe once the kid actually relaxed, he'd see that not everything was an insult or an affront. Just had to get him there.

Wasn't too easy, considering the hellhole they were in. But Sanosuke would do his best.

And already there was something; Sano recognized a joke when he heard it, sometimes. "Crazy, huh?" The fighter grinned. "I've got a younger sister. She's not crazy, or anything. Just overprotective." Which was Sano's fault for leaving, but there's nothing he could do about that now. And more to the point, there wasn't anything he would've done about it then, either. Sanosuke never once regretted joining the Sekihoutai, even after they met their end.

But it had been nice to go home again, and see how they were all doing.