[Log]Momo Hinamori, Toushirou Hitsugaya
Title: Late Nights
Characters: Momo Hinamori (davyn), Toushirou Hitsugaya (kellenanne)
Timeline: May 31, 1950
Rating: PG
Summary: Neither one of them could sleep the night of the bombing.
Momo rolled over and stared at her window. The shade had been pulled to block the street lights from her room, but there was enough creeping in that she could make out the various articles of clothing and books she had tossed around the room earlier. She closed her eyes and sighed. She had been trying to sleep for the last two hours, never mind it was a Friday and it didn't matter if she got her needed eight hours or not. She didn't have to work tomorrow but still.
Someone had blown up the downtown orphanage and… and she couldn't sleep. There was absolutely nothing she could do to help the children, the police, fire department, or anyone else on the scene right now. In fact her presence would be nothing but an inconsideration and annoyance and she knew that. She still wanted to march down there and see what she could do to help. Not that anyone would let her dig or help pull out bodies and if she was really honest with herself, she didn't want to do that either.
Still though, she wanted to do something and the fact that she couldn't frustrated her. And she couldn't sleep, which meant tomorrow when she made it to the office to see what she could do, she would be a grumpy and would have to change her name to Toushirou.
She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Those poor children. Who would blow them up? Why would they blow them up? She reached up and covered her eyes with her hands and sighed. She was going to have to give up sleeping completely at this rate.
Toushirou wasn't sure what prompted his late night trip across town except he just knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. He didn't want to sleep. Every time he closed his eyes - and most of the time while he was awake - he saw it.
He wasn't lucky enough to see the children pulled out alive. He wasn't the optimistic sort. Never had been. No, when he remembered, he saw the bodies.
The night was balmy and peaceful once he got further away from the chaos that still reigned the police station, and still reigned over the scene itself. The people who were on the street seemed to be subdued, keeping mostly to themselves and when they did speak, it was in hushed tones. Alien and wrong; Toushirou was used to noise and people. Not this.
He should have gone home and got drunk, but instead he went out and made himself feel worse. He didn't really think about where he went; it was just ingrained in him. When he needed something, he went to Momo. When he needed to make sure all was right with the world, he went to check on Momo. He leaned against the wall and knocked on the door.
He just needed to make sure Momo was all right, that's all.
Momo paused mid turn when a knock sounded on her door. She glanced at the clock and blinked. Three in the morning? She threw back her covers and stumbled to the bathroom. Only one person knocked on her door at three in the morning and that was Toushirou. There were really only a handful of reasons that he would show up tonight and she didn't like any of them. She managed to get her robe on without slamming into something this time and stumbled to the front door. She managed to trip on only one pair of shoes and that had to be a new record.
She peered through her peep hole and caught white hair. She shook her head, Toushirou. She clicked open her locks and opened the door and blinked at him. He had ash on his face and he looked... grim. She opened the door a little further so he could slip in.
She understood grim and there was only one place in town that he would have gotten ash.
"Whiskey?" she questioned, shutting the door behind him and heading for the kitchen. He would click the locks into place and he would check them again later if he was twitchy. It was better to just let him do it now and save her the headache later.
At this rate she was going tonight she was going to need a drink herself.
He didn't bother answering the question; she was already heading for the kitchen. He turned back and locked the door, leaning against it for just a moment before pushing off and walking toward the couch.
He sat heavily and waited for her to come back with the whiskey. He wouldn't try to deny he needed it.
Momo rummaged out her whiskey bottle and a glass and poured several fingers worth into it. A small shot wouldn't do him any good, he didn't drink much else. She grabbed a washcloth from a drawer and wet it down for him as well. She would have offered him a shower but that meant walking through her room and it was… messy. She would need a few minutes to straighten out her room and he looked like he needed company more than a shower at the moment. She would badger him into it later.
She set the glass on the table and offered him the wash cloth. "Here," she motioned to his face. "It will help with the ash."
He was reaching for the whiskey when Momo offered him the washcloth. He paused and blinked at her. Oh. Ash. Slowly, he took the cloth and nodded his thanks.
Ash. He swallowed. He didn't want to think about what was in that ash. He held the cloth in one hand and picked up the whiskey.
One small swallow and then he could scrub the ash off his hands and face. He put down the whiskey afterward and wiped his face. Between the cool damp cloth and the warm whiskey, he almost felt a little more human.
Almost.
Momo settled on the couch next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Toushirou?" she questioned quietly. She really didn't know what to ask him, she had stayed away and that had been for the best she knew, but he didn't have that luxury and she didn't really know what to do for him. Sometimes she made him play cards and sometimes she got him drunk, others she just gave him a couch to sleep on. She had no idea what would or wouldn't work for him right now. All those children…
Toushirou glanced at her when she said his name. She looked so... so concerned. That wasn't right. He'd come to check on her, right? So, he should be the concerned one.
He should. Not her. He looked away and stared into his whiskey. "You okay?"
She blinked at him. Was she okay? "I am fine," she probably should have given him a little more space, but she wasn't the one who looked like the walking dead now was she? "You however, look horrible." She tapped his shoulder.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Best to give him options before she started working on him to get more information. He might need more whiskey before he started talking. She didn't think tonight was a get drunk night, but it might turn into one. If that was the case she was going to need to get her extra bedding out for him before they started down that path, she wouldn't be able to manage him drunk and bedding and she refused to sleep on the couch.
Did he want to talk? He snorted and swallowed a good portion of the whiskey. Of course he looked horrible; he'd been out in it, in his office, back and forth so many times he'd lost count. He hadn't been home all day, hadn't eaten much at all - his stomach had roiled at the thought of food for the longest time - and hadn't had a chance to even clean up.
"No," he said and took another drink. He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't. He just... didn't. He swirled what was left of the whiskey around the glass and leaned forward, until his elbows rested on his knees.
"They were children." He didn't want to talk about it, but here he was.
Momo leaned over and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. He wasn't sitting up so actually giving him a hug was practically impossible. Still though, she would do what she could. "You couldn't have prevented this," she tightened her grip on him just a bit.
She closed her eyes and did what she could to reel in her sympathy. He wouldn't want sympathy and she didn't know what to say anyway. She probably should have offered him food, he was pale enough she was willing to bet he hadn't eaten in a while, but she wasn't sure what she had that she could fix him that wouldn't make him feel worse.
"But you can catch whoever did this." She shook her head. Those poor kids, already all alone with no one but a few kindly strangers to take care of them… she needed to figure out some way to help the survivors. At the very least she would fight for the case when it came up.
He nodded. It had never crossed his mind that he wouldn't catch who did this. He wasn't about to let this go, not like that. Hell if someone was walking away from this one.
He shifted, paper crinkling in his pocket. He'd slipped the notes he'd taken on the phone call earlier in the day into his pocket and promptly forgotten about the paper. It wasn't as if he needed it. He could still hear the bastard's voice ringing in his ears. "I will." He'd catch him. Somehow.
Momo nodded and squeezed his shoulders before loosening her grip. "Yes you will," she offered the back of his neck a half smile. "And then I will prosecute him and make sure he spends the rest of his life rotting in jail." She could do that for the children.
She was good at that sort of thing, putting people into jail. She took a deep breath. "You can stay here if you want," she had a big couch for a reason. She eyed his glass. "But you should probably drink tea and not whiskey if you need more to drink."
She loosened her grip and Toushirou found himself actually missing her holding his shoulders that tightly. He shook his head and raised his glass, just a little. "Tea later."
Later, when he couldn't remember a damn thing about that day.
"I think," he said, "someone involved called me." He wasn't sure why he said it; maybe she could put her prosecutor's mind to work on it. Maybe he just wanted to tell her something. Who knew?
She dropped her arm so that she could stare at him. "Someone called you?" she ignored the raising of the glass for a moment; he could have more whiskey later. Maybe. She watched his face for another moment and sighed. Who was she kidding? She reached down and took the glass from him and moved back towards the kitchen.
One more glass.
"Do you know who it was?"
She took his glass and got up; while he was grateful she was getting him something to drink - whether it be tea or whiskey - he almost wished she'd sit back down. Having her next to him was... comforting. He couldn't figure it out any better than that. She'd always been around; it didn't seem right she wasn't right there, next to him, right now.
"Not a clue," he answered. Not a damned clue. "He was careful, on the phone. Didn't let his voice give him away. Didn't say a thing about where or who he was. Nothing."
Momo nodded and poured him another half glass and blinked. "Nothing?" Normally people who were... well insane, wanted the attention and the credit. She blinked again and frowned at the amber liquid before sighing and moving to sit next to him again.
"That's it unless you eat something first," she was not putting up with a hung over Toushirou, it was grumpy squared and always gave her a headache. She stared at the wall and chewed on her cheek for a moment.
"Did he take credit for the bombing?"
He wrinkled his nose and debated asking for food, but let it be. Not worth it, not the way his stomach was reacting to food.
"No," he said. "Said he was delivering a message. 'Watch out.'" He shook his head and took the whiskey. "I'll figure it out." He would; he'd find the bastard whose sweet-voiced message made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
"It was... interesting."
Momo glanced up at him. "Interesting how?" She wasn't going to question him like she would someone who didn't know how to pick these things up. He knew the signs and he new them better than she did but… what had made it interesting? There were threats all the time, she wasn't going to tell him how many 'watch-out' type warnings the DA's office got in a week. It would just make him grumpy, but she wasn't sure he had called anything interesting before either.
He glanced at her, eyes narrowing. "Interesting," he repeated, and pressed his lips together. "Confident. Careful." At least, that's what he'd picked up in their short conversation. "Implied he was in danger, telling me all this. But it was message; even if he was the errand-boy, he would be going against anyone by delivering it."
He shook his head. "Interesting." He delivered his message, contradicted himself, tried to play with words, control the conversation. It wasn't the message so much that was interesting; it was the delivery itself.
"He talked so casually about it." He didn't want to talk about this. "Sweet and sincere. Could tell he was smiling." He really didn't want to remember any of this. The call hadn't shaken him so much as the call in relation to the orphanage.
He sighed and downed a good portion of the whiskey.
Momo caught the hand that wasn't holding onto his whiskey glass and squeezed it. "Toushirou," she sighed. Drinking was going to get him in trouble someday. It really was, telling him that would just get her grumped at however.
Asking him what was bothering him wasn't going to work either, she knew what was bothering him. A bombing and a psychopath on the phone. Hugging him had never really helped much, he always pushed her away. Granny used to stuff him so full of cookies he couldn't move, but she couldn't cook. Cards were not an option, he was to… grumpy. He was a horrible at losing when she beat him at cards.
She sighed. She had nothing, so she squeezed his hand again and just… hope that he didn't beat himself up to much over this one.
He shrugged one shoulder and then looked down at her hand wrapped around his. He... he could take that. He turned his hand, rubbed her wrist with his thumb for a moment, and set the whiskey glass down. He still had a load of work to do, a lot depending on him. He couldn't afford to get drunk tonight.
"There's still work to do," he said, not really talking to her, but grateful she was listening anyway. "Have to be back in the office come morning." Not that it wasn't already morning anyway, but… she got the point.
She snorted. "You need to sleep," she glanced at the clock. "It is four in the morning and knowing you, you haven't slept since sometime last night and you have dark circles under your eyes," she motioned at his face. "You need to get at least eight hours of rest or you're going to miss something and not realize it, even you get sloppy when you're exhausted."
"Also, I know tomorrow is your day off, so taking half the day to recover is not a crime."
She frowned at him. "You had better be here in the morning when I wake up Toushirou."
She sighed and squeezed his hand once more before letting go. She glanced at him for a moment, it had been a long time since had tormented him by kissing his cheek and mussing his hair, they had been twelve if she remembered correctly. Still though, he was in a rather deep funk and it had always gotten a rise out of him. Had made Granny laugh to, the way he would scowl and glare at her for hours after. He always made certain to get her back, but it had always been a small victory, getting him to acknowledge her presence for a little while. Even if it meant he spent the whole of the time angry with her.
He looked like he needed his feathers ruffled by someone who wasn't out for blood at any rate. She leaned forward and carefully kissed his cheek before musing his hair. She ignored the ash that floated up and snorted at him.
Underneath all that grumpiness was still the Toushirou who had ran barefoot through the house, teeth gritted and angry as hell. "I will get some bedding; you can at least pretend to try to sleep." She had some stuff that would knock him out if he needed it, hopefully the whiskey would take care of that though.
"You should take a shower," she told him. He was covered in ash and that was… dead people ash. That would make her skin itch. She glanced at her room and then back at him a little sheepishly. "Just give me a second to clean."
Toushirou ducked and scowled at Momo when she ruffled his hair; the kiss on the cheek he might not argue, but hair mussing? That was just... not right. Granny had only done that when she was particularly amused at something he'd said and muttered something about "Toushirou's way of thinking". Momo took it up when she wanted to get a rise out of him.
He could almost appreciate it this time. Almost.
He nodded slowly and picked the whiskey back up. He could stay until she woke up but he wouldn't guarantee he'd take a whole half day. That was an argument for later, though. "I'll shower," he said. He couldn't even think of sleeping until he'd washed the ash and dust off and stole the clothes he knew she had for him tucked away somewhere. He needed to scrub. He held up his glass. "When I'm done with this." That gave her time to clean and him time to just sit there and try to stop moving and thinking.
He could do with not moving and thinking. Just for awhile. He probably wouldn't really sleep - maybe; the whiskey might knock him out - but he could lay down and just stop for a few hours.
Then he'd get back up and tackle it all over again when the sun came up.
Characters: Momo Hinamori (davyn), Toushirou Hitsugaya (kellenanne)
Timeline: May 31, 1950
Rating: PG
Summary: Neither one of them could sleep the night of the bombing.
Momo rolled over and stared at her window. The shade had been pulled to block the street lights from her room, but there was enough creeping in that she could make out the various articles of clothing and books she had tossed around the room earlier. She closed her eyes and sighed. She had been trying to sleep for the last two hours, never mind it was a Friday and it didn't matter if she got her needed eight hours or not. She didn't have to work tomorrow but still.
Someone had blown up the downtown orphanage and… and she couldn't sleep. There was absolutely nothing she could do to help the children, the police, fire department, or anyone else on the scene right now. In fact her presence would be nothing but an inconsideration and annoyance and she knew that. She still wanted to march down there and see what she could do to help. Not that anyone would let her dig or help pull out bodies and if she was really honest with herself, she didn't want to do that either.
Still though, she wanted to do something and the fact that she couldn't frustrated her. And she couldn't sleep, which meant tomorrow when she made it to the office to see what she could do, she would be a grumpy and would have to change her name to Toushirou.
She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Those poor children. Who would blow them up? Why would they blow them up? She reached up and covered her eyes with her hands and sighed. She was going to have to give up sleeping completely at this rate.
Toushirou wasn't sure what prompted his late night trip across town except he just knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. He didn't want to sleep. Every time he closed his eyes - and most of the time while he was awake - he saw it.
He wasn't lucky enough to see the children pulled out alive. He wasn't the optimistic sort. Never had been. No, when he remembered, he saw the bodies.
The night was balmy and peaceful once he got further away from the chaos that still reigned the police station, and still reigned over the scene itself. The people who were on the street seemed to be subdued, keeping mostly to themselves and when they did speak, it was in hushed tones. Alien and wrong; Toushirou was used to noise and people. Not this.
He should have gone home and got drunk, but instead he went out and made himself feel worse. He didn't really think about where he went; it was just ingrained in him. When he needed something, he went to Momo. When he needed to make sure all was right with the world, he went to check on Momo. He leaned against the wall and knocked on the door.
He just needed to make sure Momo was all right, that's all.
Momo paused mid turn when a knock sounded on her door. She glanced at the clock and blinked. Three in the morning? She threw back her covers and stumbled to the bathroom. Only one person knocked on her door at three in the morning and that was Toushirou. There were really only a handful of reasons that he would show up tonight and she didn't like any of them. She managed to get her robe on without slamming into something this time and stumbled to the front door. She managed to trip on only one pair of shoes and that had to be a new record.
She peered through her peep hole and caught white hair. She shook her head, Toushirou. She clicked open her locks and opened the door and blinked at him. He had ash on his face and he looked... grim. She opened the door a little further so he could slip in.
She understood grim and there was only one place in town that he would have gotten ash.
"Whiskey?" she questioned, shutting the door behind him and heading for the kitchen. He would click the locks into place and he would check them again later if he was twitchy. It was better to just let him do it now and save her the headache later.
At this rate she was going tonight she was going to need a drink herself.
He didn't bother answering the question; she was already heading for the kitchen. He turned back and locked the door, leaning against it for just a moment before pushing off and walking toward the couch.
He sat heavily and waited for her to come back with the whiskey. He wouldn't try to deny he needed it.
Momo rummaged out her whiskey bottle and a glass and poured several fingers worth into it. A small shot wouldn't do him any good, he didn't drink much else. She grabbed a washcloth from a drawer and wet it down for him as well. She would have offered him a shower but that meant walking through her room and it was… messy. She would need a few minutes to straighten out her room and he looked like he needed company more than a shower at the moment. She would badger him into it later.
She set the glass on the table and offered him the wash cloth. "Here," she motioned to his face. "It will help with the ash."
He was reaching for the whiskey when Momo offered him the washcloth. He paused and blinked at her. Oh. Ash. Slowly, he took the cloth and nodded his thanks.
Ash. He swallowed. He didn't want to think about what was in that ash. He held the cloth in one hand and picked up the whiskey.
One small swallow and then he could scrub the ash off his hands and face. He put down the whiskey afterward and wiped his face. Between the cool damp cloth and the warm whiskey, he almost felt a little more human.
Almost.
Momo settled on the couch next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Toushirou?" she questioned quietly. She really didn't know what to ask him, she had stayed away and that had been for the best she knew, but he didn't have that luxury and she didn't really know what to do for him. Sometimes she made him play cards and sometimes she got him drunk, others she just gave him a couch to sleep on. She had no idea what would or wouldn't work for him right now. All those children…
Toushirou glanced at her when she said his name. She looked so... so concerned. That wasn't right. He'd come to check on her, right? So, he should be the concerned one.
He should. Not her. He looked away and stared into his whiskey. "You okay?"
She blinked at him. Was she okay? "I am fine," she probably should have given him a little more space, but she wasn't the one who looked like the walking dead now was she? "You however, look horrible." She tapped his shoulder.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Best to give him options before she started working on him to get more information. He might need more whiskey before he started talking. She didn't think tonight was a get drunk night, but it might turn into one. If that was the case she was going to need to get her extra bedding out for him before they started down that path, she wouldn't be able to manage him drunk and bedding and she refused to sleep on the couch.
Did he want to talk? He snorted and swallowed a good portion of the whiskey. Of course he looked horrible; he'd been out in it, in his office, back and forth so many times he'd lost count. He hadn't been home all day, hadn't eaten much at all - his stomach had roiled at the thought of food for the longest time - and hadn't had a chance to even clean up.
"No," he said and took another drink. He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't. He just... didn't. He swirled what was left of the whiskey around the glass and leaned forward, until his elbows rested on his knees.
"They were children." He didn't want to talk about it, but here he was.
Momo leaned over and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. He wasn't sitting up so actually giving him a hug was practically impossible. Still though, she would do what she could. "You couldn't have prevented this," she tightened her grip on him just a bit.
She closed her eyes and did what she could to reel in her sympathy. He wouldn't want sympathy and she didn't know what to say anyway. She probably should have offered him food, he was pale enough she was willing to bet he hadn't eaten in a while, but she wasn't sure what she had that she could fix him that wouldn't make him feel worse.
"But you can catch whoever did this." She shook her head. Those poor kids, already all alone with no one but a few kindly strangers to take care of them… she needed to figure out some way to help the survivors. At the very least she would fight for the case when it came up.
He nodded. It had never crossed his mind that he wouldn't catch who did this. He wasn't about to let this go, not like that. Hell if someone was walking away from this one.
He shifted, paper crinkling in his pocket. He'd slipped the notes he'd taken on the phone call earlier in the day into his pocket and promptly forgotten about the paper. It wasn't as if he needed it. He could still hear the bastard's voice ringing in his ears. "I will." He'd catch him. Somehow.
Momo nodded and squeezed his shoulders before loosening her grip. "Yes you will," she offered the back of his neck a half smile. "And then I will prosecute him and make sure he spends the rest of his life rotting in jail." She could do that for the children.
She was good at that sort of thing, putting people into jail. She took a deep breath. "You can stay here if you want," she had a big couch for a reason. She eyed his glass. "But you should probably drink tea and not whiskey if you need more to drink."
She loosened her grip and Toushirou found himself actually missing her holding his shoulders that tightly. He shook his head and raised his glass, just a little. "Tea later."
Later, when he couldn't remember a damn thing about that day.
"I think," he said, "someone involved called me." He wasn't sure why he said it; maybe she could put her prosecutor's mind to work on it. Maybe he just wanted to tell her something. Who knew?
She dropped her arm so that she could stare at him. "Someone called you?" she ignored the raising of the glass for a moment; he could have more whiskey later. Maybe. She watched his face for another moment and sighed. Who was she kidding? She reached down and took the glass from him and moved back towards the kitchen.
One more glass.
"Do you know who it was?"
She took his glass and got up; while he was grateful she was getting him something to drink - whether it be tea or whiskey - he almost wished she'd sit back down. Having her next to him was... comforting. He couldn't figure it out any better than that. She'd always been around; it didn't seem right she wasn't right there, next to him, right now.
"Not a clue," he answered. Not a damned clue. "He was careful, on the phone. Didn't let his voice give him away. Didn't say a thing about where or who he was. Nothing."
Momo nodded and poured him another half glass and blinked. "Nothing?" Normally people who were... well insane, wanted the attention and the credit. She blinked again and frowned at the amber liquid before sighing and moving to sit next to him again.
"That's it unless you eat something first," she was not putting up with a hung over Toushirou, it was grumpy squared and always gave her a headache. She stared at the wall and chewed on her cheek for a moment.
"Did he take credit for the bombing?"
He wrinkled his nose and debated asking for food, but let it be. Not worth it, not the way his stomach was reacting to food.
"No," he said. "Said he was delivering a message. 'Watch out.'" He shook his head and took the whiskey. "I'll figure it out." He would; he'd find the bastard whose sweet-voiced message made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
"It was... interesting."
Momo glanced up at him. "Interesting how?" She wasn't going to question him like she would someone who didn't know how to pick these things up. He knew the signs and he new them better than she did but… what had made it interesting? There were threats all the time, she wasn't going to tell him how many 'watch-out' type warnings the DA's office got in a week. It would just make him grumpy, but she wasn't sure he had called anything interesting before either.
He glanced at her, eyes narrowing. "Interesting," he repeated, and pressed his lips together. "Confident. Careful." At least, that's what he'd picked up in their short conversation. "Implied he was in danger, telling me all this. But it was message; even if he was the errand-boy, he would be going against anyone by delivering it."
He shook his head. "Interesting." He delivered his message, contradicted himself, tried to play with words, control the conversation. It wasn't the message so much that was interesting; it was the delivery itself.
"He talked so casually about it." He didn't want to talk about this. "Sweet and sincere. Could tell he was smiling." He really didn't want to remember any of this. The call hadn't shaken him so much as the call in relation to the orphanage.
He sighed and downed a good portion of the whiskey.
Momo caught the hand that wasn't holding onto his whiskey glass and squeezed it. "Toushirou," she sighed. Drinking was going to get him in trouble someday. It really was, telling him that would just get her grumped at however.
Asking him what was bothering him wasn't going to work either, she knew what was bothering him. A bombing and a psychopath on the phone. Hugging him had never really helped much, he always pushed her away. Granny used to stuff him so full of cookies he couldn't move, but she couldn't cook. Cards were not an option, he was to… grumpy. He was a horrible at losing when she beat him at cards.
She sighed. She had nothing, so she squeezed his hand again and just… hope that he didn't beat himself up to much over this one.
He shrugged one shoulder and then looked down at her hand wrapped around his. He... he could take that. He turned his hand, rubbed her wrist with his thumb for a moment, and set the whiskey glass down. He still had a load of work to do, a lot depending on him. He couldn't afford to get drunk tonight.
"There's still work to do," he said, not really talking to her, but grateful she was listening anyway. "Have to be back in the office come morning." Not that it wasn't already morning anyway, but… she got the point.
She snorted. "You need to sleep," she glanced at the clock. "It is four in the morning and knowing you, you haven't slept since sometime last night and you have dark circles under your eyes," she motioned at his face. "You need to get at least eight hours of rest or you're going to miss something and not realize it, even you get sloppy when you're exhausted."
"Also, I know tomorrow is your day off, so taking half the day to recover is not a crime."
She frowned at him. "You had better be here in the morning when I wake up Toushirou."
She sighed and squeezed his hand once more before letting go. She glanced at him for a moment, it had been a long time since had tormented him by kissing his cheek and mussing his hair, they had been twelve if she remembered correctly. Still though, he was in a rather deep funk and it had always gotten a rise out of him. Had made Granny laugh to, the way he would scowl and glare at her for hours after. He always made certain to get her back, but it had always been a small victory, getting him to acknowledge her presence for a little while. Even if it meant he spent the whole of the time angry with her.
He looked like he needed his feathers ruffled by someone who wasn't out for blood at any rate. She leaned forward and carefully kissed his cheek before musing his hair. She ignored the ash that floated up and snorted at him.
Underneath all that grumpiness was still the Toushirou who had ran barefoot through the house, teeth gritted and angry as hell. "I will get some bedding; you can at least pretend to try to sleep." She had some stuff that would knock him out if he needed it, hopefully the whiskey would take care of that though.
"You should take a shower," she told him. He was covered in ash and that was… dead people ash. That would make her skin itch. She glanced at her room and then back at him a little sheepishly. "Just give me a second to clean."
Toushirou ducked and scowled at Momo when she ruffled his hair; the kiss on the cheek he might not argue, but hair mussing? That was just... not right. Granny had only done that when she was particularly amused at something he'd said and muttered something about "Toushirou's way of thinking". Momo took it up when she wanted to get a rise out of him.
He could almost appreciate it this time. Almost.
He nodded slowly and picked the whiskey back up. He could stay until she woke up but he wouldn't guarantee he'd take a whole half day. That was an argument for later, though. "I'll shower," he said. He couldn't even think of sleeping until he'd washed the ash and dust off and stole the clothes he knew she had for him tucked away somewhere. He needed to scrub. He held up his glass. "When I'm done with this." That gave her time to clean and him time to just sit there and try to stop moving and thinking.
He could do with not moving and thinking. Just for awhile. He probably wouldn't really sleep - maybe; the whiskey might knock him out - but he could lay down and just stop for a few hours.
Then he'd get back up and tackle it all over again when the sun came up.