Well this has been waiting for a while to be done...

[cachinnusi]

Characters: Naruto, Doumeki, and anyone from the Way that wants to greet them.
Content: Doumeki and Naruto are in the port and they have a little talk. And end up being shocked by the Way's condition.
Setting: Shashta and the Way.
Time: After all the shit hits the fan (bombs, etc etc) and the Way docks.
Warnings: The threatening of crewmates,

Comments

LOL LATE TO THE PARTY

[flailingbento]

Watanuki had pretty much gotten used to Doumeki's being gone. He'd raged about it over various bubbling pots - "Goddamn that idiot, thinks he can just show up without a damn warning and disappear without saying a word, always was a damned jerk with no consideration for the food people make for other people who go off and leave before they get a chance to eat it because they're ungrateful bastards who don't deserve the generosity" - but as the weeks went on, he'd decided it was better Doumeki was gone. Yuffie was enough to handle without him around making his job difficult. Besides, if he didn't want to be there, it was entirely his own affair. It wasn't like Watanuki cared where he went.

But when Watanuki's eye flickered and showed him not a distant skyline, not a random doorway, not strange dark shapes that he forced himself not to think about in conjunction with whatever Doumeki had been doing, but the Way - front view, looking a right mess, with the docks of Shashta on either side - he nearly dropped the souffle he was carrying. An instant later, the location fixed in his mind, he tore out the galley door, apron flapping, still bearing the souffle, to give that idiot what was coming to him.

He nearly tripped getting down the gangplank, but the precious food in his hands restored his balance. He was shouting before he got closer than fifty feet. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE?" he bellowed. "WHERE WERE YOU AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST ABANDON PEOPLE TO DO YOUR OWN IDIOT BUSINESS SOMEWHERE YOU DON'T EVEN TELL--"

And then, fifteen feet away, he did trip. He was cut off with a squawk. The souffle flew in a graceful arc from his hands, far beyond his reach. Watanuki could only look on, too horrified even to keep yelling, as it arched down toward the cobblestones.

S'OKAY I'M ALWAYS LATE BB. Also half asleep and typo'ing.

[bentothief]

It was good to see that some things never changed. Doumeki blinked once, slowly, as he heard the yelling. He stopped in his steps, almost to the ship, and looked up at the cook that was storming down the gangplank. Normally, people would look at someone bellowing like that as though they were insane. He had moved past that point long ago, and simply looked Watanuki over, making sure he was all right.

Of course the idiot would trip.

Luckily for Watanuki, and his souffle, Doumeki had already been making his way closer after he assessed the yelling. It was better than idling around; there was work to be done, and he had to make sure that the yelling idiot was all right. He'd met him halfway, at least, so finding him was out of the way. Dropping his bag down again-there was the distinct sound of clattering silverware, though it was probably lost in squawking and the commotion of the dock-and he moved to catch the food before it was splattered all over the place.

Once it was safely in his hands-or not so, considering the risk of being eaten-he looked back to Watanuki, expression changing to a frown. "Yuuko had a job for me," from the way he said it, he didn't particularly sound pleased. Actually, he didn't even look pleased. He also didn't bother tacking on a reason he came back, considering the fact he hunted the ship down again was enough. He did, however, let slip an I'm sorry through his tone.

NP! 8D

[flailingbento]

Watanuki's sigh of relief when Doumeki caught the souffle actually silenced him for a short moment. Reappearances be damned, that souffle was art, and it would have been a crime to let it fall. The danger of Doumeki devouring it was something that Watanuki was quite sure he could deal with - he was more than ready to throttle him for looking at it wrong. Or less.

The fact that he was still sprawled on the ground, staring up at the bottom of the souffle dish, did not seem to bother Watanuki. "You couldn't have left a note?" he snapped. "Made a post? Alerted SOMEBODY? Do you know how badly you inconvenienced me, you jerk!?" He didn't specify exactly how - if pressed, he probably couldn't have thought of a way he'd been inconvenienced, actually - but let the jerk feel guilty. That'd show him.

<3

[bentothief]

Shifting the souffle to settle carefully in one arm, Doumeki made a note to try it later when he actually had the time. Right now, there was more important things to do. There was, of course, the obvious concern of the ship, but Watanuki took priority at the moment. Offering him a hand to help him up, he crooked a brow just slightly, the smallest trace of amusement showing up as he began ranting once again with a slight drop in volume.

"I'm sorry," he said, simply, completely in monotone, though did mean it. It wasn't like he wanted to go off without saying anything, though he had a feeling that Watanuki would've flailed and yelled even if he did tell him. "She was specific that I hurry." Pausing for a moment, his eyebrow raised higher. "Inconvenienced how, exactly?"

Re: <3

[flailingbento]

Well. If Yuuko had said "hurry," then Doumeki actually had a viable excuse. Watanuki knew this better than anyone. Didn't stop him from being annoyed, though.

"If you had been here," he said, hauling himself up without the help of any inconveniencing bastard's hand and brushing himself off with dignity, "you would know." Yes, he would have flailed just as much if Doumeki had told him he was leaving, but when had he ever needed a reason to flail at Doumeki?

He straightened his kerchief and glared Doumeki in the face for the first time in what felt like forever. It was very satisfying. "What'd Yuuko need you for?" he asked, a little quieter. "Or was she specific about it being a secret, too?"

[bentothief]

Snorting slightly as he got up himself, Doumeki gave him a brief once-over before looking back up at his face. "Of course," he replied, considering a moment before he held the souffle out. He'd get a bite later, like always, but he had a feeling Watanuki would feel better having his food back. It would at least delay any extreme flailing or threats upon his life, anyways.

After that, he moved to pick his bag back up, hoisting it up over his shoulder. Despite the question and the shrug that accompanied his answer, he still had his amused look. "She needed a shrine priest that she wouldn't have to pay."

He paused, looking just a little thoughtful, then lifted a hand up to rub at the side of his neck slightly. "I finished the job, at least." Though I had no idea what exactly it was she was having me do.

[flailingbento]

...why wasn't he surprised that that was all Yuuko had dragged him away for? It was just like her. Probably it had some great, overarching significance for the universe at large; but Watanuki knew better than to ask for further explanation. Instead, he scowled and took the souffle, inspecting it carefully for damage and finding none. Luckily for Doumeki.

"Good for you," he said, turning to go back to the ship. "Nice to have you back with nothing else missing. Then you might be even uglier." I'm glad you're safe might have been in there. If you looked.

[bentothief]

"Hn," he replied, not having to look all that hard for the subtext. You, too might've been what the response meant, simply because of the state of the ship and what he'd seen in their shared vision. It seemed every time he went away from Watanuki, something happened to him. He made a note not to leave him by himself ever again.

Moving to stand next to him (rather close, though still leaving space), he shifted his bag around to dig out a rather large, wooden box, the sound of rattling silverware coming again. He didn't seem all that concerned that it managed to fit in the bag, but that wasn't the point at the moment.

The point was that it was part of Watanuki's present for Lunasa. Doumeki held it out to him, expression deadpan completely once again. Tugging his sleeve down over his arm to conceal his bandages completely again, hopefully before they were seen, he offered the cook the box. "Here," he said calmly, expression completely neutral again.

[flailingbento]

Watanuki didn't miss Doumeki's out-of-place tug on his sleeve. Doumeki was many things, not all of them classfied with words usable in polite company, but he was not a clothes-adjuster. He took the box with one hand but didn't more than glance at it, instead grabbing at Doumeki's arm and pulling back the sleeve.

He stared at the bandages in shock for a moment. What the hell. The bastard had gone and gotten hurt. What, he just disappeared and he thought he could go and get hurt, too? What was the matter with him? Watanuki swung his gaze to look Doumeki in the face, something between fear and anger on his face that only made him look confused.

"What," he said. "What the hell happened?"

[bentothief]

Doumeki sighed at him, at himself, but otherwise didn't react much to being caught. He underestimated Watanuki's attention span at the time and that was his own fault. No use crying over spilled milk, like they said. At first, he wanted to answer with 'nothing,' but then he decided that would be stupider than what he just did.

"It caught me off guard," he said instead, which was probably still bad to say, but marginally better than saying 'nothing.' It didn't reveal that he was distracted by images of galleys blowing up and bombs and explosions in general, at least. Watanuki would kill him with a rusty spoon if he found out panic and concern for him had allowed the spirit an opening.

Watanuki doesn't let his spoons get rusty! It'd be a CLEAN spoon!

[flailingbento]

Watanuki didn't know why he'd expected an actual explanation. He didn't get those from Doumeki. And he was fairly sure that this was bullshit, because Doumeki was infuriatingly difficult to catch off guard in any situation, particularly when he was under attack, but he knew very well that he wasn't going to get anything better out of him, because that was just how it went. But he didn't drop Doumeki's arm - whether or not he was going to get anything else out of him, Doumeki was not going to get to brush this one off.

"Was it treated?" he demanded. That would be just like the idiot, to get hurt and then do a bad job treating it so he could come rushing back sooner, and then he'd get gangrene or something and get his arm lopped off and it would serve him right but he'd probably demand sympathy food from Watanuki and that would just be too annoying to deal with. "Why didn't Yuuko send someone to protect you when half the time you can't see the damned things?"

Oh he'd find a rusty one just for killing Doumeki.

[bentothief]

Doumeki kept in another sigh, frowning slightly at him as he continued questioning. He should've known this would happen if he came back so soon, but it wasn't like he was going to wait for it to heal. Not when he was worried about Watanuki and the rest of the crew. The idiot was going to end up being the death of him one of these days.

"Yes," he responded, patient with the questions despite his annoyance with the topic already. Glancing to his arm for a moment, he looked back to Watanuki afterwards, his frown growing just slightly. As though he remembered something. "I need to change the bandages."

He snorted a bit at the last question. "She didn't think it was necessary." Honestly he sort of wondered if she knew what was going to happen ahead of time and wanted to see how he would react. That annoyed him more than it should've.

[flailingbento]

"And since when do you believe Yuuko when she says something's not dangerous?" Watanuki snapped. "When has she ever sent us after anything that's not dangerous!?" No, he wasn't being fair, but fair was not the point right now.

With an infuriated "GAH!" he dropped Doumeki's arm and started toward the ship again. "Get to the infirmary, idiot," he snapped. "If you get gangrene and try to make me cook for you, I swear I will wound you worse than any monster EVER did."

[bentothief]

"It still wasn't necessary," Doumeki simply said instead of arguing over the point. While it was valid, Yuuko also often kept facts from them for whatever reason. Whether it was beneficial to their jobs or not was a whole different story entirely.

Besides, the only person he worked well with on some level was Watanuki. He wasn't about to take Himawari with him.

Any normal person would probably wince if someone dropped their arm like that, but he had mastered steeling his expression through most anything. Besides, it wasn't that bad. "I will," he went after him without much concern. I know you would, was somewhere, under layers, but still there.