don’t plead me your case, don’t bother to explain

[felinemystique]

Characters: Crimson crimsonmischief, Lin sting_to_death and Bastet felinemystique
Date/Time: backdated to February 16th, late morning
Location: Bastet’s house, section 4
Rating: PG-13, may go higher for language
Summary: The three recover from post-Ichithing injuries, and Bastet has some words for idiot geniuses who fight Hollows with rocks and pointed sticks.

Comments

[sting_to_death]

Oh, Bastet wasn't the only one who was pissed. For once Lin had had a chance to show the woman her worth, and Crimson had gone and blown it. Of course, she couldn't be completely sure she would have won against that monster, but at least she could have tried, if she didn't have a child to protect.

But, mostly, she was angry at herself for acting so foolishly. Should've let him die. She hated Crimson, so she couldn't explain what got into her. And even admitting that maybe, maybe she didn't completely hate him-- even assuming she liked him, what did that matter? She should have let him die anyway

[chibimischief]

Crimson shuffled between the two of them, grey eyes worriedly tracking their movements and noting the stiffness, one small hand shoving the hat back in frustration every time it fell down to block his view again. Worried, angry, upset and still frightened, his five-year old body remembered every feeling and was hardly as capable of handling it as his normal one. That, combined with his still recovering from the drain to his reiatsu, was causing his small frame to shake a little, even as he did his best to hide it as he laboriously dragged out a chair and climbed up it so that he could scramble onto the counter, finally on level with the two women, reaching out to push one cup of tea across to Lin.

And he did it abnormally silently, because what could he say except to apologize profusely? But he didn't feel right doing that in this body... They deserved a proper one.

[felinemystique]

"Stop that, Kisuke," she says, her voice mild as she continues to prepare tea for them all. "You're exhausted, you're not fooling anybody." Even though she could tell he was sincerely upset, it wasn't going to save him from her anger once he recovered.

And while Bastet understood why Lin didn't want to talk to Kisuke, she wasn't sure why she wouldn't even look at her. She'd have to do something about that, but getting information out of her was like pulling teeth sometimes, and frankly, she didn't have the patience right now.

"Both of you sit," she said, picking up the tea Kisuke had pushed across the counter and handing it to Lin. "I'll put something together for breakfast."

She turned back towards him, extending her arms to pick him up and set him back down on the floor; the movement only pulled at her wounds slightly, and wasn't much more painful than just moving about normally.

[sting_to_death]

Lin watched Bastet take care of Crimson, not quite knowing what to say. She wanted to offer to make breakfast, but maybe the woman wouldn't have let her, and maybe speaking up would have only irritated her even more. For now, the safest choice seemed to be to keep quiet.

Maybe as soon as she got better and crazy things stopped happening she could do something to apologize-- for everything. For unintentionally invading her privacy over and over again, for this, for being a dead-weight in general lately.

Obediently, she stayed where she was, hoping Crimson, even small as he was, would have enough common sense to sit down and keep his mouth shut.

[crimsonmischief]

For a moment, Crimson obviously debated letting Bastet pick him up, grey eyes focused on the bandages covering the wounds. But resisting was futile, so he silently let himself be lowered to the ground before quietly padding over to where Lin was and scrambling up to seat himself next to her.

[felinemystique]

She moved about the kitchen, not looking at either of them as she filled the rice maker. Once that was ready, she moved over to the fridge, opening it and gingerly bending over to look inside.

"Kisuke," she said, rummaging through the contents, "do you know if there are any more pickles?" He cooked in her kitchen more than she did, so he'd know what was in there better than she would.

"And Lin," she said. "you like mackerel, right?" It would have to be a simple breakfast; rice, soup, pickles and fish...if she had any fish left. Damn.

[sting_to_death]

"Anything will be fine, Bastet-sama." It took her a moment to realize what she'd just said. But it felt right, didn't it? And she had heard herself calling her 'Yoruichi-sama', so maybe... Maybe it'd been a mistake not to use that honourific for so long?

Anyway, this wasn't the right time to worry about that.

"I like mackerel, but just white rice would be fine." She added quickly, partly to cover that slip-up (but had it really been a slip-up?) and partly because Bastet might have been irritated by her initial reply, maybe it was too submissive? Too vague? It was worth adding something, just to be on the safe side.

[chibimischief]

At her answer, Lin got quietly amused look from Crimson before he was sliding back off his seat and moving over to the fridge. Easily ducking under Bastet's arm due to his height, he almost stuck his face inside, stretch and leaning in to pull out the jar of pickles with both hands and holding it up to Bastet.

"I have fish at my place, if you want."

[felinemystique]

She raised her eyebrows a bit at the form of address; it felt...not right, but familiar. Ever since she'd heard Lin call her that in her memory, it seemed like part of her had been waiting for her to resume.

There was no point in really arguing, either; she knew Lin well enough to know that it wouldn't do any good. "If you can keep down more than just rice, you should try," she called, still searching the fridge. "At least some soup."

She looks down at Kisuke, shaking her head. "I don't feel like making the trip. I could have sworn there was still some in here..." she trailed off, narrowing her eyes as she scanned the fridge. "Set the pickles on the table for me--maybe the fish is behind something else."

[sting_to_death]

Lin nodded obediently, whether she could keep it down did not matter, she was going to force her body to eat whatever Bastet made for her and to like it. And she never really felt too hungry, but that day she was starving.

She envied how Crimson could walk around and help out, even in that body, but that just meant she was going to have to make up for... everything, as soon as she was feeling better.

[crimsonmischief]

Instead of obeying, Crimson just handed the jar of pickles to her before almost disappearing into the refrigerator again, using his small size to his advantage as he shoved the carrots, broccoli and chicken to one side. There was a quiet sound of triumph before he emerged again, red-nosed and messy-haired, but with the mackerel in tow.

"Bastet-san shouldn't bend too much," he offered as an explanation before holding out the fish. "Did you want anything else?"

[felinemystique]

She held the pickles while he rummaged through the fridge, gingerly straightening up when he produced the fish. He was right; bending over for too long did put strain on her wounds, and she was probably going to be sore for a while after this

[sting_to_death]

Lin raised her gaze at being finally given something to do. And stood up a bit too quickly, had to hold herself up until her head stopped spinning, but was more than glad to do something to help. Sitting down and let Bastet serve her felt incredibly wrong.

At least she had something to do. Had Crimson been an adult she would have pushed him out of the way, but in those conditions-- she gave him a brief, thoughtful look before walking to the cupboard. She took the dishes out, set them on the counter, then put down three glasses, too.

As she brought the dishes over to the table, she didn't quite tell Crimson he could take care of the glasses she had left behind, but she glanced at him, then at the counter, then at the table. Then, she continued ignoring him.

[chibimischief]

And in he went again, pulling out the asked for ingredients by coming onto his tip toes before nudging the door closed with his head. Bringing them over to Bastet, he set them down besides her and pulled out a pot, eyes flashing over towards Lin who didn't look entirely stable on her feet. But when she didn't fall and instead joined them in the kitchen, he didn't miss the look, reaching up to carefully pick up the glasses and shuffle over to the table with them, setting them on the edge of the table before scrambling onto one of the chairs to set them in their proper places.

And then he stayed on the chair for a little while. Just a small breather before moving for the utensils.

[felinemystique]

She couldn't help but notice how labored their movements were, but she refrained from mentioning it. The food would be done soon enough, and then they could both get back to resting.

Once the grill pan was hot enough, she lay pieces of fish inside, sliced thinly so they would cook as quickly as possible. The pot Kisuke had gotten went on another burner, and she poured in the stock; once it was warm enough, she could add the miso paste, and breakfast would pretty much be ready.

As the slices of fish cooked, she pulled them out of the pan and set them on a plate, unconsciously letting out a tired sigh; Kisuke needed his body back so he could start cooking again.

[sting_to_death]

When Lin walked in the kitchen again she hesitated a bit, was it really okay to let Bastet cook? Something about that situation just felt wrong, but she couldn't stand there watching her for too long. She got the chopsticks and reached her chair again, sitting down. Maybe Crimson could set them on the table, for now it was more important not to move around too much. The last thing she needed was for her wound to open again so that Bastet would have to lose even more time taking care of her.

(( ooc; chopsticks? I assume chopsticks TELL ME IF I'M WRONG |D ))