[Log] Skewering Fish
Characters: Momoshiro Takeshi & Kaidoh Kaoru
Location: On a little secluded area of the beach (no ... not that part, Oishi and Eiji)
Time: Set today, May 25, after Momoshiro learns to fish with a spear, set before this log
Rating: PG-13, some swearing
Summary: Kaidoh washes up on shore and Momoshiro finds him, and catches some fish to eat for him. Written in present tense, because present tense is awesome.
Catching fish with his bare hands is one of Momoshiro’s specialty, as it was something he had learned while camping a lot in the mountains. Catching fish with a spear … not so much. In fact, he rather sucks at it. Completely. Those lessons with Saeki didn’t really pay off, though he shouldn’t blame his inability to spear some fish on other people.
He should blame it on the fish. Yeah. It’s all those damn fish’s fault, for being so slippery and scurrying away from anything pointy.
The cold ocean water reaches up to his ankles, as Momoshiro stands with a self-made spear in hand, watching the fish swim away from him once more. This isn’t working, this is the opposite of working; this is completely failing. Stupid fish.
Echizen will just have to munch on some fruit today then, no meat for him. Then again; fish isn’t meat. Is it? Vegetarians don’t eat it … so it had to be! Well, whatever fish are, Momoshiro certainly isn’t going to be eating it today. Maybe tomorrow, when he’ll get a bit better at using a spear instead of his hands. If only he can find a small river with fish in it, then he could catch fish with his hands, and show off his awesome ability to everyone else.
Either way, there will be no fish for today. So Momoshiro finally gives up and slouches his shoulders, huffing at himself. He treks through the water, the cuffs of his pants getting slightly drenched with water, going the opposite way of his seaside shack. He’ll go exploring a little bit today; he’s got to do something, right?
Kaidoh Kaoru feels like he's been walking forever. According to his watch, it's only been about twenty minutes, but with the humidity in the air, it feels like much longer. When he turns around he can still see his ruined canoe idly rocking against the rocky shore of the peninsula, but there isn't much in front of him but sand, sand, and more sand. He tugs at the front of his shirt, peeling it away from his chest, and keeps walking, trudging through the sand.
Up ahead he sees the shoreline curve around into what might be a bay. There could be fish up there, or maybe fruit from the trees. Kaidoh hears his stomach growl on its own volition. He isn't sure when he last ate; it might have been a day ago. Maybe two.
At the next palm tree, Kaidoh stops to rest, dropping his bag at his side. He kicks off his shoes and goes down to the water's edge to rinse them out. They're completely filled with sand and his feet feel raw and itchy. He decides to go barefoot the rest of the way, and picks up his bag and continues walking. He walks for another minute or two when the sound of a nearby bush rustling him dead in his tracks. Kaidoh freezes.
“Goddamn fucking hermit crab!” Momoshiro yells out loud, and he comes crashing through a clearing, having previously stood on a hermit crab skittering its way across the sand. “Watch where you’re walking!” he yells at it, as if it understands what he’s saying. It doesn’t, but it makes Momoshiro feel better.
“Geez,” he huffs. Momoshiro readies his spear in his hand and looks straight ahead.
His mouth drops open in shock, and his spear slips away from his hand, landing with a small ‘thud’ into the sand. There, straight ahead of him, was someone very familiar, someone who he hadn’t seen in years, and someone who certainly shouldn’t be here on this god forsaken island.
Momoshiro rubs at his eyes; this has to be some weird hallucination. It has to be. Like he got a stroke from the sun or something. Anything. Anything besides Kaidoh Kaoru standing in front of him, feet in water.
Kaidoh stares dumbly at Momoshiro, having momentarily lost his ability to speak. His mind seems to be yelling, What?! repeatedly, and he feels like he's going to get a headache from the sound. He looks down at the spear on the ground and then back up at Momoshiro's face.
"Who are you?" he asks finally.
Momoshiro bends down to pick up his spear from the sand, dusting it off a little bit, and then he flips it around, so that the pointy steak knife is in his hand, and the wooden stick is pointing straight at Kaidoh. He leans his arm forward, so that the stick pokes Kaidoh’s stomach, as if Momoshiro were some sort of pirate, fending off the enemy.
Kaidoh's fist closes around the stick and he yanks it away from his stomach. "Back off, asshole," he growls, voice low and dangerous. He wonders if he could make a break for it and run, but isn't sure where he'd go. He could surely take this moron in a fight, anyway. He takes a step forward and his bare toes squish into the sand. "Now tell me who you are, or leave me alone."
“Oh my god,” says Momoshiro exasperated. This isn’t some freaky hallucination like the time he thought he was pregnant, this is real. This is Kaidoh, standing in front of him, being the general asshole that he is. Momoshiro flings the spears away into the ocean, then he takes one-two steps forward and tackles Kaidoh to the ground. Thankfully, the sand cushions the blow, and thankfully, Kaidoh cushions Momoshiro’s fall.
“KAIDOH!” he screams at him, and crushes his body by wrapping his arms around him. “It’s really you! Bandana and all!”
Kaidoh is about to strangle this idiot who had the boldness to threaten Kaidoh with a spear and then tackle him when suddenly a light bulb clicks on in his head. No way. "Momoshiro?" he tests.
Momoshiro clings his hands on Kaidoh’s trademark black tank-top, crunching it up between his fingers, and he pulls back, happily straddling the now older man, and he nods really fast.
“Of course it’s me, you idiot! Can’t you recognize me?” he asks a bit insulted. What is it with people and not recognizing him? Does he looks different? Oh … wait … his hair. Okay, currently he did. So he’ll give Kaidoh that.
Then he starts to shake Kaidoh at his shirt. “What in the world are you doing here? Did you come to save us? Did you? Did you? Oh god, you came to save me didn’t you? That’s why you’re here! You were worried sick that I had gone missing from the cruise ship, so you came to rescue me yourself! Oh, I think I love you!”
Kaidoh shoves Momoshiro off of him. "What the hell are you talking about?" He feels his heart pounding and can't decide if it's because he's angry or actually a little bit happy that the only other person on this island is his old rival. Even if his old rival doesn't seem to be capable of shutting up. What cruise is he talking about? Who is this 'us'? And why does Momoshiro's hair look like someone just drenched him in seaweed?
Kaidoh looks down at his now rumpled tank top. "Why are you here?" he asks.
Momoshiro spits out some sand that he happened to eat when his face got shoved into the sand. He sits up straight and crawls back over to Kaidoh. He still can’t believe it; it’s Kaidoh. That rotten bastard he hadn’t seen in years, and still looks roughly the same. A bit older. A bit uglier. A bit famished.
“So you’re not here to save me?” asked Momoshiro for confirmation.
Kaidoh lets out a long low hiss. "Why would I want to save you?" he asks. Wait, don't answer that question. "My boat is over there." He points back behind him, but his canoe is probably just a microscopic speck right now, and Momoshiro was never that perceptive anyway. "I didn't know anyone was here. I'm supposed to be in Florida right now."
“Florida? Isn’t that like, in America or something? What the hell are you doing over there?” asks Momoshiro. He completely dismisses Kaidoh’s own questions. “You know what-I don’t care. I was on a cruise ship. Atobe’s cruise ship. We crashed here like a month ago, and still haven’t been rescued. There’s like a bunch of us, at least twenty.”
Kaidoh looks around. He doesn't see anyone else. He wonders if Momoshiro is messing with him. He does vaguely recall some invitation from Atobe that he'd automatically pitched into his trash can, but he still feels suspicious. He narrows his eyes at Momoshiro. "So let me get this right... You crashed here and no one came looking for you? No one at all?" It sounds too stupid to be true, but Momoshiro doesn't look like he's joking. "We're probably just a couple miles off the coast of Florida anyway," he adds. Kaidoh isn't actually so sure about that. He doesn't remember how long he was drifting for, just that there was water all around him and no sign of land on the horizon.
“I know right!” says Momoshiro angrily. His fingers dig into the sand, and he grabs a handful of it, then throws it up in the air, behind him.
“No one came. Not a single helicopter in the sky, not a single thing drifting in the ocean-besides sharks, we caught one, you know? But that’s besides the point-it’s as if no one really cares about Atobe. It has every single one of us stumped.”
Momoshiro then bites his lips and frowns at Kaidoh. “I heard people say we’re in the Bermuda triangle? Or something like that? I don’t know, I can’t read maps, and I can’t read those,” Momoshiro wiggles his fingers at Kaidoh, “weird ship instruments. But I’m positive we’re not near America. I think.” What was Kaidoh doing in America anyway? Did everyone he knows ship off to America?
"Huh," says Kaidoh. Momoshiro's story is starting to sound more and more plausible. "How are you still, you know, alive?" The Momoshiro that Kaidoh used to know doesn't seem like the kind of person who would survive in an empty house, let alone on a deserted island. "Did you find a palm tree that drops burgers instead of coconuts?"
Momoshiro suddenly wishes he didn’t throw his spear in the ocean anymore. “No,” he spits out. “Idiot. Of course not. Those don’t exist. And I have eaten coconuts. I’ve been drinking coconut milk for the entire damn week, and I’m damn sick of it. And I’m damn sick of this island, and what the hell are you doing here if it’s not to come and save us? Damn you too.”
Kaidoh launches himself at Momoshiro and hooks his hand into his collar, pulling him close and screaming in his face. It feels so familiar, although this time he can tell that they're both really angry. "I was floating out in the open ocean for maybe three days before I got here so don't you dare act like I should be saving your sorry ass! You're so full of it, Momoshiro," he grinds out, dropping his hand. "Always were."
It hadn’t even been five whole minutes, and Momoshiro was already in an argument with Kaidoh. Well, it had been close to six years really, but still. “Only an idiot like you would get lost at sea,” he mumbles. Then he punches Kaidoh’s arm, and before he can retaliate, Momoshiro finally stands up.
“You hungry?” he asks.
Kaidoh wants to growl that he doesn't need food from stupid Momoshiro, but then his stomach decides to growl for him. He can feel heat rising in his cheeks because he knows he's about to ask Momoshiro for something he swore he never would: help.
"I wouldn't say no to food," he replies flatly, and averts his eyes, trying to find an interesting seashell to glare at instead.
Momoshiro is already off to wading through the ocean again; searching for his spear he threw in it. Spotting a shine in his eyes, he sees it lying a little ways ahead of him, so he quickly scoops down to grab it.
“Don’t worry, I’m awesome at fishing,” he throws back at Kaidoh with a smug grin. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be cooking some grilled fish for you.” He walks further into the ocean, spear in hand, staring at the moving light rays through the blue ocean water. If luck would have it-dumb luck is his middle name, really-there’s a school of fish swimming nearby him. Sardines maybe. Or snouts. Or whatever; who cares, it’s fish.
“I hope you’re not a vegetarian!” he yells at Kaidoh. Momoshiro stands completely still, spear ready; the quest for food is now serious. Back at his shack, Momoshiro still had plenty to eat, but he wanted to catch fish. Right now, there was a starving Kaidoh washed up on shore, how he came here, Momoshiro doesn’t know; he still has a hard time believing he’s there in the first place.
Kaidoh looks up in surprise when he hears Momoshiro splashing into the water.
Wait, he's serious? he thinks. Momoshiro is going to fish? Since when did Momoshiro become cool? Kaidoh wonders if not having all that idiotic gunk slicked up in his hair made Momoshiro himself less of an idiot by association. Maybe Momoshiro had changed more than Kaidoh gave him credit for.
Or maybe he's just putting on an act and is about to fall face first into the water. Kaidoh suddenly feels a little worried. If Momoshiro drowns, the others-Momoshiro did say there were others-would probably think Kaidoh did it.
"I hope you know what you're doing," he says, and Momoshiro sure looks like he does, but Momoshiro always looks overly confident and Kaidoh's learned that it doesn't mean much.
“Of course I do!” he lies through his teeth. Saeki gave him a few pointers; he should be an expert at fishing with a spear now. That he failed his previous attempts, is something Kaidoh doesn’t need to know.
Momoshiro’s eyes follow the school of fish, and he doesn’t dare to move an inch. The fish are now so close, that they are swirling around his feet. It should be as easy as picking out nasty food from his teeth with a toothpick. So Momoshiro takes in a deep breath, steadies himself, feet planted firmly into the wet sand, and he raises his spear. In a swift movement, the spear is thrown at the ground, and … and …
“I got one!” Holy fucking shit-he’s got one! For real! That’s the first time it worked! Maybe Kaidoh is his lucky charm or something. Momoshiro eagerly lifts up his spears that’s stuck in the sand, the rest of the fish swim away, and he lifts it up in the air. A small little grey fish is speared at the end, still struggling. It’s the size of his hand; not big, and it certainly won’t fill Kaidoh up, but it’s something.
Kaidoh watches the fish flop around in a panic on the tip of Momoshiro's spear, and he feels a similar flop in his stomach at the thought of finally eating.
"Good job, moron!" he calls out, but there isn't any irritation in his voice anymore and he can feel a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Momoshiro really surprised him. They meet after all this time on an island in the middle of nowhere and Momoshiro has turned into Tarzan, and here he is skewering fish like a native. It's possibly the strangest thing Kaidoh has ever experienced. He almost expects Momoshiro to start beating his chest and bellowing.
He also expects that now he's going to have to learn how to fish for himself because there's no way he's losing to Momoshiro at something he just made look so fucking easy.
Momoshiro turns around smugly, spear in hand, with a tiny fish still struggling for life at the end, and he puts his hands on his hips. “I’m awesome, I know. Thank you very much. These past six years I haven’t just been sitting on my ass, you know.” And the past month, Momoshiro certainly hasn’t been sitting on his ass at all, he’s been trying his best at gathering resources for everyone, and making his life-as well as Echizen’s-a lot more comfortable since they were stuck here for that long.
Wading through the water once more, Momoshiro walks back to Kaidoh. He then lowers his spear and plucks off the fish from the steak knife. He looks at the gaping fish for a bit; fish were gross, and then he chucks it at Kaidoh.
“Here, hold it for me,” he says dryly, then turns on his heel and walks back into the water. One fish wouldn’t be enough, so he’s being generous and kind, and will catch another one for Kaidoh. Then, a bit thoughtful, he turns to look at Kaidoh.
“... Don’t eat it raw,” he feels the need to point that out. Floating around in the ocean for days can make people go a wee bit crazy.
Kaidoh stares at the fish that is now silently opening and closing its mouth in his hands, its eyes like wide, blank saucers. Kaidoh crinkles up his face. Stop looking at me, he thinks at the fish.
"I wasn't going to eat it raw," he retorts to Momoshiro, and the fish squirms slimily in his hand as if to demonstrate his point. "You said you'd grill it for me." His voice turns sarcastic and he adds, "I'm looking forward to your cooking skills."
“My cooking skills-just like my fish catching skills-are awesome. Just watch.” Which meant; he was still learning.
The school of fish are back, once more swirling around his feet. Momoshiro could get used to this. Overconfident at his previous catch, Momoshiro follows one particular fish that looks rather big and tasty, and then he pierces it with his spear.
Well, he would have liked for that to be true, but it’s not. He misses. Completely off the mark. Momoshiro curses under his breath, and he hopes Kaidoh didn’t see him fail miserably. He yanks the spear out of the sand again, and stands still, but the fish have been scared away. So he stands a bit longer, until they’re back. Maybe they like his feet or something, maybe his feet smell like roses. Can fish even smell?
With another attempt, Momoshiro throws down his spear at one of the bigger fish, and he hears the satisfying sound of it piercing the skin of its scales. Momoshiro happily fistbumps the air.
“And another!”
Kaidoh thinks Momoshiro looks the way he used to after scoring a particularly tricky point. He looks dopey, to be sure, flailing his arm in the air like that-What is he even doing?-but he looks happy, and he's getting Kaidoh food, so Kaidoh's stomach, if not the entire rest of him, is happy too.
Kaidoh hopes Momoshiro won't make Kaidoh hold this fish too, though. The first one has gone limp now and it's slowly setting in that Kaidoh is cradling a fish corpse in his palm. He doesn't care that it's tiny; it could still have a vengeful fish spirit circling around Kaidoh's head. He shivers involuntarily at the thought.
Momoshiro is humming as he walks back with another prize on his spear. He can’t believe he actually managed to catch two of them! He’s been trying to catch one for over an hour, and suddenly, poof-with Kaidoh there, they just seem to jump at his spear voluntarily.
“Oh right, you’re probably thirsty,” says Momoshiro. He puts the spear underneath his arm, then he digs through his shorts to pull out a very small flask. It had some water in it, not much, he wasn’t planning on staying away for that long, but he’s sure Kaidoh will appreciate it.
“Here.” He offers the flask, and with his other hand, he grabs the fish out of Kaidoh’s hold.
Kaidoh is sure that he's making a truly embarrassing facial expression when he reaches out to take the flask of water, but he can't help it. He's completely parched and as soon as the water hits his lips, his shoulders relax and he starts to feel like himself again. He drains the entire contents of the flask in seconds.
"Thanks," he says quietly, and wipes the back of his hand over his lips. He hopes Momoshiro won't be angry-it's not like there was much water in there to begin with! And besides, just because Momoshiro caught fish for him doesn't mean Kaidoh automatically has to be super nice and gracious. He's pretty sure he'd have gotten the hang of fishing on his own. Eventually.
Still, he does feel grateful. It's like he's stepped into some kind of twilight zone where he and Momoshiro don't want to kill each other. Maybe they've both changed a lot since they last saw each other. Maybe this is what being a mature grown-up means. He completely ignores the fact that just minutes ago they were at each other's throats, fighting in the sand. Yeah, Kaidoh has totally matured.
Yanking the flask back from Kaidoh, Momoshiro has to hold himself back from sneering at Kaidoh as he drains all of his pathetic water supply. Now what if he’s on the brink of dehydration? Then what, huh? Well, whatever, Kaidoh can go carry him back or something if that happens. But he doesn’t know where everyone is so that’s out of the question. Alright, all he has to do is not think about drinking water. Easy enough.
Now he’s thirsty. Damnit.
He spears the now dead fish back onto the spear, so it looks like some kind shish kabob, along with the other one which is bigger and still alive.
“Wait here, let me go find some wood to burn for a small campfire,” he tells Kaidoh. Throwing the spear on his shoulder, Momoshiro marches away like a true island-man. Kite should be proud of him.
"Like I have anywhere to go!" Kaidoh calls after him, and buries his toes into the sand. Now that he's not completely dehydrated, he has a better chance to look around at his surroundings. The island is nice, enough, all things considered. He could be stuck in worse places. The company maybe isn't what Kaidoh would hope for, but at least being with Momoshiro isn't boring. Kaidoh throws his head back, feeling his neck and shoulders stretch out. It's been a while since he had a chance to just rest and relax and he enjoys the silence that Momoshiro has left him with. That is, until his stomach starts growling again, reminding him of how hungry he truly is and how he hopes finding wood doesn't take too long.
It doesn’t take long for Momoshiro to come walking back, spear still on his shoulder, and a bunch of twigs gathered in his arms.
“Yo, miss me?” he says as he walks back over to Kaidoh. It still doesn’t seem to be registering inside of his mind, that he has found Kaidoh washed up on the island as well. It’s got to be a one in a million kind of chance encounters. Though Momoshiro barely pays attention to that, he’s happy to see at least another familiar face. Even if it was Kaidoh’s.
Momoshiro sticks the spear into the sand, then crouches down and begins to form a neat starter campfire with the twigs on the sand, and places some tinder on top. While he might be an expert at creating fire on his own as well, Momoshiro isn’t completely stupid, and he brought a lighter with him on his journey. He takes it out of his pocket and lights the tinder. It starts to fizzle up and burn, and spreads towards the other wood. Soon enough, he’s got a small campfire burning.
At the back of his mind, Momoshiro thinks that he’s looking pretty damn cool in front of Kaidoh, and pretty damn competent. Take that snake, what does he have to show for? Other than sandy feet.
Kaidoh watches as the fire begins to take shape and lick at the air. It feels warm and dry and he shifts closer to it, curling his knees up to his chest. He feels like he ought to say something like Thanks for finding me, but he doesn't want it to go to Momoshiro's head, so he settles for punching Momoshiro lightly in the leg, which, to Kaidoh, is basically equivalent.
“Ow hey, what’s that for?” snaps Momoshiro. Clearly, he didn’t seem to think the same. He gives Kaidoh the stink-eye, and then he pulls the spear from the sand, and hovers it above the fire to start grilling the fish for him.
Again, he’s still a novice at cooking, so it doesn’t really get through to him he’s burning one of them alive. Perhaps he should have cut off the heads first?
“So, you’re not a vegetarian, right?” Momoshiro asks again.
"No, dumbass," Kaidoh replies, "and even if I was, I'm hardly in a position to be picky." His stomach grumbles again demonstratively. The fish is starting to smell pretty damn good. Kaidoh can still see the saucery eyes staring at him though and, as if the vengeful fish spirit had noticed his gaze, one of the eyes suddenly crackles and bursts from the heat of the flames. Kaidoh jumps back about a foot in terror.
Momoshiro chuckles. “Scared of fish, Mamushi?” Wow, it feels so nostalgic calling Kaidoh that. When’s the last time he has even used that word? Momoshiro can’t even remember.
“What are you doing here, Kaidoh?” he asks in a much more serious voice. He twists the spear around so he can grill the fish evenly.
Kaidoh hisses, composes himself, and inches back towards the fire. "I told you," he starts, "I came by boat. I got separated from my research group and somehow ended up here. I thought I was paddling back towards the coast but I just kept getting further from it." Putting it that way just makes Kaidoh sound like an incompetent rower, so he adds, "It was like my canoe was being pulled by a strong current." It's the truth, that and Kaidoh had no idea which direction Florida was.
“... So you were drifting out at sea in a canoe?” asked Momoshiro, a look of incredulousness covering his face. “And you didn’t go mad?”
"It wasn't that bad," Kaidoh replies, not wanting to back down and admit that it had actually probably been one of the most awful and traumatic things he'd ever had to endure. If Momoshiro could spend who knows how many days on this island and still have a smile on his face then Kaidoh could be stuck in a canoe for three. Besides, it wasn't like he'd been stuck in the canoe with Momoshiro. No, he'd remained perfectly sane, and un-annoyed; peaceful, even. Kaidoh was completely zen.
Momoshiro didn’t believe that one bit. “Sure, whatever you say. So like, why didn’t you come with us? I mean, you must have gotten an invitation for the cruise ship as well. Anyone who ever played tennis before has been invited, and that has to include you as well. Ah well, at least you weren’t here for the horror that is a sinking ship filled with ghosts.”
"Ghosts?" Kaidoh asks warily. "I don't think those were mentioned anywhere in my invitation..." Then he shrugs. "I didn't go because I didn't want to go. Why do you care?"
“Why? Dude, everyone came! The entire old Seigaku tennis club was there, you’re the only one missing. Even Echizen came back from America to see us.” The scent of burnt food suddenly creeps up Momoshiro’s nostril, so he quickly turns the spear around so that the fish wouldn’t burn completely. He is still a novice after all. He’ll get better … hopefully.
“It was weird not having you there too. It lacked something,” Momoshiro says thoughtfully.
Kaidoh blinks and then grimaces. Great, he thinks. Now he looks like the jerk who doesn't care about or respect his old teammates. He just didn't want to be stuck on some stupidly fancy ship with Atobe and all his loser friends, forced to hang out with them, and have conversations with them, and all that other dumb shit. He doesn't know how to explain that to Momoshiro in a way he'd understand. Momoshiro always seemed to love talking to everybody, and did. Loudly. All the time. That idiot practically never shut up.
Well, if there's such a thing as karma, it's biting Kaidoh in the ass now, because he ended up stuck on a boat anyway, just by himself, and now he seems to be trapped on an island with all the things and people he'd been trying to avoid. All he'd done was tear up Atobe's stupid invitation. Maybe it was cursed. Maybe this was his punishment.
He wasn't expecting anyone to even notice he wasn't there, especially not Momoshiro. If anything he'd have thought the dumbass would have been happy. "You wouldn't get it," he says, toeing at the sand. "But lucky for you, you seem to be stuck with me now."
Momoshiro looks up from the fire and raises his eyebrows at Kaidoh. “You mean the other way around, dumbass.” After all, Momoshiro has been on the island for over a month now.
“You’re stuck with the rest of us. We’re still all waiting for rescue, but we’ve been doing alright, for now anyway. I built a shack made out of bamboo too! Me and Echizen currently live in it, everyone else is sleeping in caves or something. Oh, and there’s this one guy-do you remember him? Kite? Wears purple? Looks like a yakuza? Well anyway, he’s been on this island waaaay before we got here, and he was stranded as well or something, and he build this frickin’ treehouse! A treehouse. Man, I want to go live in it, it beats my shoddy little shack anytime.” Momoshiro barely notices how he’s been firing off about ten words per seconds, but he can’t help it, he’s got a motormouth, and he’s sort of happy seeing Kaidoh again.
Kaidoh just stares at Momoshiro, feeling a little bit in awe. That idiot build a shack, too? What can't he do? He mentally fills in the answer: Shut up, that's what, and has to turn away to hide the smile that follows. Okay, so maybe, just maybe, just a teeny tiny bit, he'd missed hearing Momoshiro's voice.
"A treehouse sounds dumb," he says instead, because he can't help but argue with Momoshiro.
Momoshiro’s mouth drops open for the second time that day. “It’s not! He took a picture of it, and it looks awesome, seriously. He built it in the jungle though, so I haven’t yet seen it. But seriously, that took skill. He’s got windows! Well, there’s no glass in it yet, well, maybe there is now, I told him that the cruise ship had glass elevators that he could use, so maybe his windows have glass in them now. I don’t know, I still haven’t gone to see it yet. You should come with me, I can’t get anyone to come with me through the jungle! It’s because that dumbass set up traps, and people are afraid of walking into them. Hah, traps-I can take them!”
Kaidoh has to admit, a treehouse with real windows does sound pretty cool, but he isn't going to get all excited about it like Momoshiro. The way Momoshiro is talking makes him sound like some kind overly energetic puppy. But not in the cute way.
"I guess if you're too scared to go on your own," Kaidoh says, eyes narrowing in challenge, "I could come with you." The fire lets out a loud pop and Kaidoh looks at the fish which is now starting to turn charcoal-black.
"Uh, Momoshiro?" he says, pointing at the spearhead.
Noticing the fish wasn’t looking so healthy anymore, Momoshiro quickly pulls it back, away from the fire. “Right. Sorry, wasn’t paying attention.” He offers the spear with the two thoroughly cooked fish on it to Kaidoh.
“Here you go, remember to take out the fishbones. Fish have bones.” Does this make it meat or not?
Kaidoh tries not to look overly eager as he grabs for the fish and bites into it. It tastes delicious, although Kaidoh isn't sure if that's a testament to Momoshiro's cooking skills, or just that Kaidoh is really damn hungry. It's weird having Momoshiro just sitting there watching him eat though, and Kaidoh feels hyper-aware of how he's chewing, and gets embarrassed every time he has to spit out a fish bone. He hopes he isn't blushing again.
"It's pretty good," he admits. It's the closest Momoshiro is going to get for a compliment.
Momoshiro doubts that; he’s eaten plain fish before, and without any seasoning-especially salt-it wasn’t all that great. Plus he kind of forgot to wash it … well, he would have done it, if Kaidoh didn’t drink up all the water like a drunkard drinking alcohol.
“You’ll probably have to get used to it,” says Momoshiro. “Our stash of food we salvaged from the ship is running out, so a lot of us have been scavenging for food, like fruit … coconuts … and of course, other people set up traps to catch small animals. I know there are rabbits on this island at least, so that’s good to know.” At least he knew rabbit was actual meat, unlike fish. Stupid fish.
Momoshiro leans back on the palms of his hands, sinking into the sand, and he wiggles his toes into it as well. “You know, you can stay with us for a while,” he mentions. “At our shack I mean, just for now. Until I can kick you out as soon as you’ve found your own place to sleep at. I think it’ll be a while before we’ll see helicopters flying over this place.”
"Thanks..." Kaidoh says hesitantly. This is still really weird for him, to be sitting here having a friendly conversation with Momoshiro, eating fish that Momoshiro caught, drinking water that Momoshiro gave him, and now getting invited back to the shack that Momoshiro built. Kaidoh wonders if he's going to wake up at any moment back on his little canoe and still be floating out in the middle of the ocean somewhere. It doesn't feel real, or right, but when he pinches himself in the knee to see if he's dreaming, nothing happens. He's still sitting here, holding a spear full of fish. Well, okay, then. At least his subconscious isn't making up dreams about Momoshiro being some kind of island king.
"How is everyone," he asks, after swallowing another bite of fish.
Momoshiro now lets himself fall back into the sun, so he can look up at the cloudless sky. Today seems to be very sunny. “Hmm, could be better, I suppose,” he says. “Everyone got off with only minor injuries, or none at all … and some,” Momoshiro gulps feels a twist of guilt creep inside of his stomach, “they weren’t so lucky,” he finishes.
Kaidoh's eyes widen. "What do you mean by that?" he asks. He isn't used to Momoshiro looking so serious and it makes him kind of nervous.
“Hmm,” mumbles Momoshiro. “I was with Echizen when the ship went down. Trying to get out as quickly as possible, you know? But stuff just seemed to keep messing up for us, as if someone was deliberately trying to block our way from escaping. Well … since the stairs were blocked, we figured we could walk through the concert hall to find some other stairs-yes, there’s a concert hall inside the ship. It’s Atobe, what do you expect? So we were walking on the podium …” Flashes of Momoshiro’s most horrible memory fills his mind, and his closes his eyes in fear of them watering up. He will not look weak in front of Kaidoh. Definitely not.
And he most certainly will never cry in front of the snake.
“The ship tilted a bit, the piano slid from the podium, and rammed Echizen, hard. He was bleeding from his head all over the place, and I had to carry him on my back for the rest of the time until we got out. Turned out he needed stitches on his head, and he’s broken a rib. He’s still recovering from that, and it’s a month later.” Momoshiro sighs quietly as he finally finishes the story. Well, now Kaidoh knows at least. In case he’ll start wondering why he’s so damn protective of the little brat. He still thinks it’s his fault, he still could have pushed him out of the way.
Kaidoh lets out a long breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"That's..." he starts, but comes up blank. Momoshiro's face looks a mess of emotions and Kaidoh's never seen him look that way before. He isn't even opening his eyes. Kaidoh breathes in and then out again and then reaches out and puts his hand on Momoshiro's shoulder the way he's seen coaches do with players who've just lost a match. That's the manly way to offer comfort, right?
"That's really rough," he says, finally, which is probably the understatement of the century, but Kaidoh was never good with dealing with feelings.
Momoshiro cracks an eye open, and gives Kaidoh a little, trademark Momo smirk. “Thanks for showing me your comforting skills,” he jokes. “Still as awkward as ever.” He finally lifts himself from the sand, not even caring his shirt is covered with sand now, and he throws some sand on top of the still burning campfire to put it out.
“But, that was a month ago, he’s getting better, so that’s good. No one died at least,” Momoshiro laughs. Nope, thankfully no one died at all. “And we’ve got a bunch of doctors in training with us as well, so if you’ve got any injuries, they’ll fix you up.”
"That's good," Kaidoh says, and is glad to see Momoshiro seems to have cheered up again. "So what have you been doing here besides building shacks and running around the jungle with a spear like an idiot? Why haven't you tried to leave?"
For a few seconds, Momoshiro is quite stumped at that question. “We figured someone would come save us … why try to get off the island without knowing where to go, when we could be staying here with all the supplies still available, and wait for rescue?” He also didn’t want to move Echizen around, but since he is getting better now … perhaps Kaidoh has a point. They did have plenty of lifeboats.
“I’d probably get as lost as you would,” he mumbles negatively. No way could he sail the seas without something horrible happening to them.
"No," Kaidoh says, "you'd definitely get more lost. The only reason I got lost in the first place was because of the weird current. You would get lost because of pure idiocy.” He flicks a bit of sand at Momoshiro. "So you've just been sitting around here... waiting?" he asks, his look changing to one of confusion. "Isn't that boring?"
Momoshiro lowers his head down into his shoulders and pouts childishly at Kaidoh. “It’s been anything but boring,” he says with the pout still on his lips. “First all we did was wait, yeah. I took care of Echizen, we got a bit of food from the ship … and we waited. And waited, waited until we just started getting more food from the ship, and made ourselves more comfortable.”
Kaidoh made it seem like they’ve been doing nothing but sit on their asses, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Momoshiro hasn’t been sitting on his ass; only sometimes! When he’s with Echizen, that is.
“I mean, I started building shacks, looked for food, explored a bit, took care of Echizen and his stupid cat, took care of other people, and I mean-come on, I was fishing right now before I saw you! We haven’t been doing nothing all this time, we’re working to keep ourselves alive. Getting off of this island alone without any rescue just hasn’t come up yet.” Momoshiro pouts some more at Kaidoh, feeling as if his own personal achievements has amounted to nothing when he says it like that.
"What's wrong with your face?" Kaidoh says flatly. "Stop looking at me like that. What do you want, some kind of award? Okay. Glad you didn't die, moron."
Momoshiro’s pouty face morphed into an annoyed, irritated face. Leave it up to Kaidoh to piss him off in just a few milliseconds. “Asshole, of course I didn’t die, I’m not stupid like you. You’d have died if I didn’t fed you!”
"I would not have!" Kaidoh retorts immediately, and his hands clench into fists at his sides. "I would have been perfectly fine without you!" And he totally would have! Maybe he'd be surviving on weird jungle bugs, but he'd be surviving all the same and certainly wouldn't need Momoshiro of all people to keep him alive.
Momoshiro stands up straight again, almost stepping inside of the still smouldering ash pile, and he balls up his fists at Kaidoh. “No you wouldn’t, you dickhead, admit it! I helped you out while you were hallucinating about hamburgers falling from palm trees!”
And then Kaidoh is on his feet too, heart suddenly pounding. he grabs Momoshiro by the front of his shirt and starts yelling. "I didn't ask for your help!" He didn't, right? Never explicitly anyway. Accepting help wasn't the same as requesting it.
Momoshiro grabs Kaidoh’s stupid tank top as well, which is a bit hard, since it’s tight, and stuck to his chest, so it takes a few pathetic tries at scratching his chest to get a grip on it. Smugly, he thinks to himself that he at least got first dibs on hurting Kaidoh-by scratching his chest like a cat.
“You were virtually screaming it!” he yells back. “Projecting it really! Like sending ESP signals to my head. Saaavvee me. Saaaaaaave me, I’m dying - cough-.”
Kaidoh yanks up on Momoshiro's shirt roughly so that his fist knocks into Momoshiro's chin. "Like I would want you! If I was going to project any kind of signals, they wouldn't be directed at you! And I wasn't sending them anyway!"
Momoshiro roughly pushes at Kaidoh so he could back off. “Sure you weren’t. Idiot. Learn to cry for help when you need it. I have no problems letting you die of starvation or dehydration. Moron.”
"Then why didn't you just let me, if you were so unconcerned?" Kaidoh hisses, feeling his fingernails dig further into his palms. "You just had to swoop in and be the hero, didn't you?"
Momoshiro grins at him. “Of course. I have to show off to you, don’t I?” He pushes at Kaidoh once more, hard enough so that they’re finally separated. “Now, can we act like grown-ups for once, and not kill each other on the spot? As much as I like to kick your ass right now, I’ve got someone waiting for me at home.”
Catching himself saying the word ‘home’, Momoshiro starts to splutter red. “I mean, back at my shack. Yeah. It’s not home, why the hell did I even call it that …” A month is way too long to be spending on an island. Way too long. He wants to go home for real.
Right. Kaidoh was supposed to be a mature adult now. He was totally zen. He didn't need to fight idiots like Momoshiro, no matter how infuriating they were being. He let his fists unclench and drop loosely to his sides.
"Your shack had better not just be some cardboard box with a door cut out of it," he says.
Frowning at Kaidoh, he shrugs. “You’ll eat your words once you see my awesome fort. Or house. Or shack-whatever. I live in it and it protects me from rain and bugs. That’s good enough for me. And good enough for Echizen. We’ve got a bed too.” Momoshiro gives Kaidoh a disapproving look. “You’re not sleeping in it.”
Kaidoh huffs. "Like I'd even want to!" Well, that's not true. He would kind of want to. In fact, a bed sounds amazing right now. Sleeping on his rickety little boat was restless and uncomfortable. Kaidoh got maybe an hour of sleep each night. Two, tops. But no, a bed with Momoshiro sounds restless, uncomfortable, and, on top of that, just disgusting.
“Then it’s settled!” says Momoshiro cheerfully. “You sleep on the floor.” And, if he even needs to say this, “don’t go anywhere near Echizen.” He claps his hands together and rubs them. “So, wanna go meet the little bugger and the rest?”
"Yeah, whatever," Kaidoh replies, ignoring the nervousness that zings through Kaidoh's bloodstream at Momoshiro's words. He doesn't know how he'll react to everyone, and how they'll react to him.
“Alright, let’s go then. It’s not far from here, just a ten minute walk or so. Maybe twenty.” Maybe an hour. Momoshiro wasn’t really paying attention to the time. He already starts to walk back into the direction he came from, but not before making sure the fire was really out. It feels weird to have Kaidoh by his side. Who would have thought, honestly? Though he’s glad he seems to be alive at least. A bit malnourished, but he’s got food and water back at his home.
Shack, his shack, damnit.
Kaidoh walks with Momoshiro, keeping pace with him out of old habit. he doesn't allow himself to fall behind, because that would mean losing, and he's already shown enough weakness to Momoshiro today as it is. He doesn't really know where they're going, but he trusts Momoshiro not to get them lost. Or maybe he doesn't. But anyway, Momoshiro seems to know where they're going, and Kaidoh supposes he'd better if he's been living here as long as he says he has.
After a while of walking, Momoshiro nudges closer to Kaidoh. “So,” he starts. He swings an arm across Kaidoh when they’re close enough, as if they’re the best of buds. “I’ve got a question for you.”
Kaidoh side-eyes Momoshiro suspiciously. Why's he being so friendly all of a sudden? "What?" he asks.
“Are you gay?”
Kaidoh stops dead in his tracks. "What the hell?!" he yells, and before Momoshiro can get a word out, Kaidoh socks him in the jaw.
Location: On a little secluded area of the beach (no ... not that part, Oishi and Eiji)
Time: Set today, May 25, after Momoshiro learns to fish with a spear, set before this log
Rating: PG-13, some swearing
Summary: Kaidoh washes up on shore and Momoshiro finds him, and catches some fish to eat for him. Written in present tense, because present tense is awesome.
Catching fish with his bare hands is one of Momoshiro’s specialty, as it was something he had learned while camping a lot in the mountains. Catching fish with a spear … not so much. In fact, he rather sucks at it. Completely. Those lessons with Saeki didn’t really pay off, though he shouldn’t blame his inability to spear some fish on other people.
He should blame it on the fish. Yeah. It’s all those damn fish’s fault, for being so slippery and scurrying away from anything pointy.
The cold ocean water reaches up to his ankles, as Momoshiro stands with a self-made spear in hand, watching the fish swim away from him once more. This isn’t working, this is the opposite of working; this is completely failing. Stupid fish.
Echizen will just have to munch on some fruit today then, no meat for him. Then again; fish isn’t meat. Is it? Vegetarians don’t eat it … so it had to be! Well, whatever fish are, Momoshiro certainly isn’t going to be eating it today. Maybe tomorrow, when he’ll get a bit better at using a spear instead of his hands. If only he can find a small river with fish in it, then he could catch fish with his hands, and show off his awesome ability to everyone else.
Either way, there will be no fish for today. So Momoshiro finally gives up and slouches his shoulders, huffing at himself. He treks through the water, the cuffs of his pants getting slightly drenched with water, going the opposite way of his seaside shack. He’ll go exploring a little bit today; he’s got to do something, right?
Kaidoh Kaoru feels like he's been walking forever. According to his watch, it's only been about twenty minutes, but with the humidity in the air, it feels like much longer. When he turns around he can still see his ruined canoe idly rocking against the rocky shore of the peninsula, but there isn't much in front of him but sand, sand, and more sand. He tugs at the front of his shirt, peeling it away from his chest, and keeps walking, trudging through the sand.
Up ahead he sees the shoreline curve around into what might be a bay. There could be fish up there, or maybe fruit from the trees. Kaidoh hears his stomach growl on its own volition. He isn't sure when he last ate; it might have been a day ago. Maybe two.
At the next palm tree, Kaidoh stops to rest, dropping his bag at his side. He kicks off his shoes and goes down to the water's edge to rinse them out. They're completely filled with sand and his feet feel raw and itchy. He decides to go barefoot the rest of the way, and picks up his bag and continues walking. He walks for another minute or two when the sound of a nearby bush rustling him dead in his tracks. Kaidoh freezes.
“Goddamn fucking hermit crab!” Momoshiro yells out loud, and he comes crashing through a clearing, having previously stood on a hermit crab skittering its way across the sand. “Watch where you’re walking!” he yells at it, as if it understands what he’s saying. It doesn’t, but it makes Momoshiro feel better.
“Geez,” he huffs. Momoshiro readies his spear in his hand and looks straight ahead.
His mouth drops open in shock, and his spear slips away from his hand, landing with a small ‘thud’ into the sand. There, straight ahead of him, was someone very familiar, someone who he hadn’t seen in years, and someone who certainly shouldn’t be here on this god forsaken island.
Momoshiro rubs at his eyes; this has to be some weird hallucination. It has to be. Like he got a stroke from the sun or something. Anything. Anything besides Kaidoh Kaoru standing in front of him, feet in water.
Kaidoh stares dumbly at Momoshiro, having momentarily lost his ability to speak. His mind seems to be yelling, What?! repeatedly, and he feels like he's going to get a headache from the sound. He looks down at the spear on the ground and then back up at Momoshiro's face.
"Who are you?" he asks finally.
Momoshiro bends down to pick up his spear from the sand, dusting it off a little bit, and then he flips it around, so that the pointy steak knife is in his hand, and the wooden stick is pointing straight at Kaidoh. He leans his arm forward, so that the stick pokes Kaidoh’s stomach, as if Momoshiro were some sort of pirate, fending off the enemy.
Kaidoh's fist closes around the stick and he yanks it away from his stomach. "Back off, asshole," he growls, voice low and dangerous. He wonders if he could make a break for it and run, but isn't sure where he'd go. He could surely take this moron in a fight, anyway. He takes a step forward and his bare toes squish into the sand. "Now tell me who you are, or leave me alone."
“Oh my god,” says Momoshiro exasperated. This isn’t some freaky hallucination like the time he thought he was pregnant, this is real. This is Kaidoh, standing in front of him, being the general asshole that he is. Momoshiro flings the spears away into the ocean, then he takes one-two steps forward and tackles Kaidoh to the ground. Thankfully, the sand cushions the blow, and thankfully, Kaidoh cushions Momoshiro’s fall.
“KAIDOH!” he screams at him, and crushes his body by wrapping his arms around him. “It’s really you! Bandana and all!”
Kaidoh is about to strangle this idiot who had the boldness to threaten Kaidoh with a spear and then tackle him when suddenly a light bulb clicks on in his head. No way. "Momoshiro?" he tests.
Momoshiro clings his hands on Kaidoh’s trademark black tank-top, crunching it up between his fingers, and he pulls back, happily straddling the now older man, and he nods really fast.
“Of course it’s me, you idiot! Can’t you recognize me?” he asks a bit insulted. What is it with people and not recognizing him? Does he looks different? Oh … wait … his hair. Okay, currently he did. So he’ll give Kaidoh that.
Then he starts to shake Kaidoh at his shirt. “What in the world are you doing here? Did you come to save us? Did you? Did you? Oh god, you came to save me didn’t you? That’s why you’re here! You were worried sick that I had gone missing from the cruise ship, so you came to rescue me yourself! Oh, I think I love you!”
Kaidoh shoves Momoshiro off of him. "What the hell are you talking about?" He feels his heart pounding and can't decide if it's because he's angry or actually a little bit happy that the only other person on this island is his old rival. Even if his old rival doesn't seem to be capable of shutting up. What cruise is he talking about? Who is this 'us'? And why does Momoshiro's hair look like someone just drenched him in seaweed?
Kaidoh looks down at his now rumpled tank top. "Why are you here?" he asks.
Momoshiro spits out some sand that he happened to eat when his face got shoved into the sand. He sits up straight and crawls back over to Kaidoh. He still can’t believe it; it’s Kaidoh. That rotten bastard he hadn’t seen in years, and still looks roughly the same. A bit older. A bit uglier. A bit famished.
“So you’re not here to save me?” asked Momoshiro for confirmation.
Kaidoh lets out a long low hiss. "Why would I want to save you?" he asks. Wait, don't answer that question. "My boat is over there." He points back behind him, but his canoe is probably just a microscopic speck right now, and Momoshiro was never that perceptive anyway. "I didn't know anyone was here. I'm supposed to be in Florida right now."
“Florida? Isn’t that like, in America or something? What the hell are you doing over there?” asks Momoshiro. He completely dismisses Kaidoh’s own questions. “You know what-I don’t care. I was on a cruise ship. Atobe’s cruise ship. We crashed here like a month ago, and still haven’t been rescued. There’s like a bunch of us, at least twenty.”
Kaidoh looks around. He doesn't see anyone else. He wonders if Momoshiro is messing with him. He does vaguely recall some invitation from Atobe that he'd automatically pitched into his trash can, but he still feels suspicious. He narrows his eyes at Momoshiro. "So let me get this right... You crashed here and no one came looking for you? No one at all?" It sounds too stupid to be true, but Momoshiro doesn't look like he's joking. "We're probably just a couple miles off the coast of Florida anyway," he adds. Kaidoh isn't actually so sure about that. He doesn't remember how long he was drifting for, just that there was water all around him and no sign of land on the horizon.
“I know right!” says Momoshiro angrily. His fingers dig into the sand, and he grabs a handful of it, then throws it up in the air, behind him.
“No one came. Not a single helicopter in the sky, not a single thing drifting in the ocean-besides sharks, we caught one, you know? But that’s besides the point-it’s as if no one really cares about Atobe. It has every single one of us stumped.”
Momoshiro then bites his lips and frowns at Kaidoh. “I heard people say we’re in the Bermuda triangle? Or something like that? I don’t know, I can’t read maps, and I can’t read those,” Momoshiro wiggles his fingers at Kaidoh, “weird ship instruments. But I’m positive we’re not near America. I think.” What was Kaidoh doing in America anyway? Did everyone he knows ship off to America?
"Huh," says Kaidoh. Momoshiro's story is starting to sound more and more plausible. "How are you still, you know, alive?" The Momoshiro that Kaidoh used to know doesn't seem like the kind of person who would survive in an empty house, let alone on a deserted island. "Did you find a palm tree that drops burgers instead of coconuts?"
Momoshiro suddenly wishes he didn’t throw his spear in the ocean anymore. “No,” he spits out. “Idiot. Of course not. Those don’t exist. And I have eaten coconuts. I’ve been drinking coconut milk for the entire damn week, and I’m damn sick of it. And I’m damn sick of this island, and what the hell are you doing here if it’s not to come and save us? Damn you too.”
Kaidoh launches himself at Momoshiro and hooks his hand into his collar, pulling him close and screaming in his face. It feels so familiar, although this time he can tell that they're both really angry. "I was floating out in the open ocean for maybe three days before I got here so don't you dare act like I should be saving your sorry ass! You're so full of it, Momoshiro," he grinds out, dropping his hand. "Always were."
It hadn’t even been five whole minutes, and Momoshiro was already in an argument with Kaidoh. Well, it had been close to six years really, but still. “Only an idiot like you would get lost at sea,” he mumbles. Then he punches Kaidoh’s arm, and before he can retaliate, Momoshiro finally stands up.
“You hungry?” he asks.
Kaidoh wants to growl that he doesn't need food from stupid Momoshiro, but then his stomach decides to growl for him. He can feel heat rising in his cheeks because he knows he's about to ask Momoshiro for something he swore he never would: help.
"I wouldn't say no to food," he replies flatly, and averts his eyes, trying to find an interesting seashell to glare at instead.
Momoshiro is already off to wading through the ocean again; searching for his spear he threw in it. Spotting a shine in his eyes, he sees it lying a little ways ahead of him, so he quickly scoops down to grab it.
“Don’t worry, I’m awesome at fishing,” he throws back at Kaidoh with a smug grin. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be cooking some grilled fish for you.” He walks further into the ocean, spear in hand, staring at the moving light rays through the blue ocean water. If luck would have it-dumb luck is his middle name, really-there’s a school of fish swimming nearby him. Sardines maybe. Or snouts. Or whatever; who cares, it’s fish.
“I hope you’re not a vegetarian!” he yells at Kaidoh. Momoshiro stands completely still, spear ready; the quest for food is now serious. Back at his shack, Momoshiro still had plenty to eat, but he wanted to catch fish. Right now, there was a starving Kaidoh washed up on shore, how he came here, Momoshiro doesn’t know; he still has a hard time believing he’s there in the first place.
Kaidoh looks up in surprise when he hears Momoshiro splashing into the water.
Wait, he's serious? he thinks. Momoshiro is going to fish? Since when did Momoshiro become cool? Kaidoh wonders if not having all that idiotic gunk slicked up in his hair made Momoshiro himself less of an idiot by association. Maybe Momoshiro had changed more than Kaidoh gave him credit for.
Or maybe he's just putting on an act and is about to fall face first into the water. Kaidoh suddenly feels a little worried. If Momoshiro drowns, the others-Momoshiro did say there were others-would probably think Kaidoh did it.
"I hope you know what you're doing," he says, and Momoshiro sure looks like he does, but Momoshiro always looks overly confident and Kaidoh's learned that it doesn't mean much.
“Of course I do!” he lies through his teeth. Saeki gave him a few pointers; he should be an expert at fishing with a spear now. That he failed his previous attempts, is something Kaidoh doesn’t need to know.
Momoshiro’s eyes follow the school of fish, and he doesn’t dare to move an inch. The fish are now so close, that they are swirling around his feet. It should be as easy as picking out nasty food from his teeth with a toothpick. So Momoshiro takes in a deep breath, steadies himself, feet planted firmly into the wet sand, and he raises his spear. In a swift movement, the spear is thrown at the ground, and … and …
“I got one!” Holy fucking shit-he’s got one! For real! That’s the first time it worked! Maybe Kaidoh is his lucky charm or something. Momoshiro eagerly lifts up his spears that’s stuck in the sand, the rest of the fish swim away, and he lifts it up in the air. A small little grey fish is speared at the end, still struggling. It’s the size of his hand; not big, and it certainly won’t fill Kaidoh up, but it’s something.
Kaidoh watches the fish flop around in a panic on the tip of Momoshiro's spear, and he feels a similar flop in his stomach at the thought of finally eating.
"Good job, moron!" he calls out, but there isn't any irritation in his voice anymore and he can feel a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Momoshiro really surprised him. They meet after all this time on an island in the middle of nowhere and Momoshiro has turned into Tarzan, and here he is skewering fish like a native. It's possibly the strangest thing Kaidoh has ever experienced. He almost expects Momoshiro to start beating his chest and bellowing.
He also expects that now he's going to have to learn how to fish for himself because there's no way he's losing to Momoshiro at something he just made look so fucking easy.
Momoshiro turns around smugly, spear in hand, with a tiny fish still struggling for life at the end, and he puts his hands on his hips. “I’m awesome, I know. Thank you very much. These past six years I haven’t just been sitting on my ass, you know.” And the past month, Momoshiro certainly hasn’t been sitting on his ass at all, he’s been trying his best at gathering resources for everyone, and making his life-as well as Echizen’s-a lot more comfortable since they were stuck here for that long.
Wading through the water once more, Momoshiro walks back to Kaidoh. He then lowers his spear and plucks off the fish from the steak knife. He looks at the gaping fish for a bit; fish were gross, and then he chucks it at Kaidoh.
“Here, hold it for me,” he says dryly, then turns on his heel and walks back into the water. One fish wouldn’t be enough, so he’s being generous and kind, and will catch another one for Kaidoh. Then, a bit thoughtful, he turns to look at Kaidoh.
“... Don’t eat it raw,” he feels the need to point that out. Floating around in the ocean for days can make people go a wee bit crazy.
Kaidoh stares at the fish that is now silently opening and closing its mouth in his hands, its eyes like wide, blank saucers. Kaidoh crinkles up his face. Stop looking at me, he thinks at the fish.
"I wasn't going to eat it raw," he retorts to Momoshiro, and the fish squirms slimily in his hand as if to demonstrate his point. "You said you'd grill it for me." His voice turns sarcastic and he adds, "I'm looking forward to your cooking skills."
“My cooking skills-just like my fish catching skills-are awesome. Just watch.” Which meant; he was still learning.
The school of fish are back, once more swirling around his feet. Momoshiro could get used to this. Overconfident at his previous catch, Momoshiro follows one particular fish that looks rather big and tasty, and then he pierces it with his spear.
Well, he would have liked for that to be true, but it’s not. He misses. Completely off the mark. Momoshiro curses under his breath, and he hopes Kaidoh didn’t see him fail miserably. He yanks the spear out of the sand again, and stands still, but the fish have been scared away. So he stands a bit longer, until they’re back. Maybe they like his feet or something, maybe his feet smell like roses. Can fish even smell?
With another attempt, Momoshiro throws down his spear at one of the bigger fish, and he hears the satisfying sound of it piercing the skin of its scales. Momoshiro happily fistbumps the air.
“And another!”
Kaidoh thinks Momoshiro looks the way he used to after scoring a particularly tricky point. He looks dopey, to be sure, flailing his arm in the air like that-What is he even doing?-but he looks happy, and he's getting Kaidoh food, so Kaidoh's stomach, if not the entire rest of him, is happy too.
Kaidoh hopes Momoshiro won't make Kaidoh hold this fish too, though. The first one has gone limp now and it's slowly setting in that Kaidoh is cradling a fish corpse in his palm. He doesn't care that it's tiny; it could still have a vengeful fish spirit circling around Kaidoh's head. He shivers involuntarily at the thought.
Momoshiro is humming as he walks back with another prize on his spear. He can’t believe he actually managed to catch two of them! He’s been trying to catch one for over an hour, and suddenly, poof-with Kaidoh there, they just seem to jump at his spear voluntarily.
“Oh right, you’re probably thirsty,” says Momoshiro. He puts the spear underneath his arm, then he digs through his shorts to pull out a very small flask. It had some water in it, not much, he wasn’t planning on staying away for that long, but he’s sure Kaidoh will appreciate it.
“Here.” He offers the flask, and with his other hand, he grabs the fish out of Kaidoh’s hold.
Kaidoh is sure that he's making a truly embarrassing facial expression when he reaches out to take the flask of water, but he can't help it. He's completely parched and as soon as the water hits his lips, his shoulders relax and he starts to feel like himself again. He drains the entire contents of the flask in seconds.
"Thanks," he says quietly, and wipes the back of his hand over his lips. He hopes Momoshiro won't be angry-it's not like there was much water in there to begin with! And besides, just because Momoshiro caught fish for him doesn't mean Kaidoh automatically has to be super nice and gracious. He's pretty sure he'd have gotten the hang of fishing on his own. Eventually.
Still, he does feel grateful. It's like he's stepped into some kind of twilight zone where he and Momoshiro don't want to kill each other. Maybe they've both changed a lot since they last saw each other. Maybe this is what being a mature grown-up means. He completely ignores the fact that just minutes ago they were at each other's throats, fighting in the sand. Yeah, Kaidoh has totally matured.
Yanking the flask back from Kaidoh, Momoshiro has to hold himself back from sneering at Kaidoh as he drains all of his pathetic water supply. Now what if he’s on the brink of dehydration? Then what, huh? Well, whatever, Kaidoh can go carry him back or something if that happens. But he doesn’t know where everyone is so that’s out of the question. Alright, all he has to do is not think about drinking water. Easy enough.
Now he’s thirsty. Damnit.
He spears the now dead fish back onto the spear, so it looks like some kind shish kabob, along with the other one which is bigger and still alive.
“Wait here, let me go find some wood to burn for a small campfire,” he tells Kaidoh. Throwing the spear on his shoulder, Momoshiro marches away like a true island-man. Kite should be proud of him.
"Like I have anywhere to go!" Kaidoh calls after him, and buries his toes into the sand. Now that he's not completely dehydrated, he has a better chance to look around at his surroundings. The island is nice, enough, all things considered. He could be stuck in worse places. The company maybe isn't what Kaidoh would hope for, but at least being with Momoshiro isn't boring. Kaidoh throws his head back, feeling his neck and shoulders stretch out. It's been a while since he had a chance to just rest and relax and he enjoys the silence that Momoshiro has left him with. That is, until his stomach starts growling again, reminding him of how hungry he truly is and how he hopes finding wood doesn't take too long.
It doesn’t take long for Momoshiro to come walking back, spear still on his shoulder, and a bunch of twigs gathered in his arms.
“Yo, miss me?” he says as he walks back over to Kaidoh. It still doesn’t seem to be registering inside of his mind, that he has found Kaidoh washed up on the island as well. It’s got to be a one in a million kind of chance encounters. Though Momoshiro barely pays attention to that, he’s happy to see at least another familiar face. Even if it was Kaidoh’s.
Momoshiro sticks the spear into the sand, then crouches down and begins to form a neat starter campfire with the twigs on the sand, and places some tinder on top. While he might be an expert at creating fire on his own as well, Momoshiro isn’t completely stupid, and he brought a lighter with him on his journey. He takes it out of his pocket and lights the tinder. It starts to fizzle up and burn, and spreads towards the other wood. Soon enough, he’s got a small campfire burning.
At the back of his mind, Momoshiro thinks that he’s looking pretty damn cool in front of Kaidoh, and pretty damn competent. Take that snake, what does he have to show for? Other than sandy feet.
Kaidoh watches as the fire begins to take shape and lick at the air. It feels warm and dry and he shifts closer to it, curling his knees up to his chest. He feels like he ought to say something like Thanks for finding me, but he doesn't want it to go to Momoshiro's head, so he settles for punching Momoshiro lightly in the leg, which, to Kaidoh, is basically equivalent.
“Ow hey, what’s that for?” snaps Momoshiro. Clearly, he didn’t seem to think the same. He gives Kaidoh the stink-eye, and then he pulls the spear from the sand, and hovers it above the fire to start grilling the fish for him.
Again, he’s still a novice at cooking, so it doesn’t really get through to him he’s burning one of them alive. Perhaps he should have cut off the heads first?
“So, you’re not a vegetarian, right?” Momoshiro asks again.
"No, dumbass," Kaidoh replies, "and even if I was, I'm hardly in a position to be picky." His stomach grumbles again demonstratively. The fish is starting to smell pretty damn good. Kaidoh can still see the saucery eyes staring at him though and, as if the vengeful fish spirit had noticed his gaze, one of the eyes suddenly crackles and bursts from the heat of the flames. Kaidoh jumps back about a foot in terror.
Momoshiro chuckles. “Scared of fish, Mamushi?” Wow, it feels so nostalgic calling Kaidoh that. When’s the last time he has even used that word? Momoshiro can’t even remember.
“What are you doing here, Kaidoh?” he asks in a much more serious voice. He twists the spear around so he can grill the fish evenly.
Kaidoh hisses, composes himself, and inches back towards the fire. "I told you," he starts, "I came by boat. I got separated from my research group and somehow ended up here. I thought I was paddling back towards the coast but I just kept getting further from it." Putting it that way just makes Kaidoh sound like an incompetent rower, so he adds, "It was like my canoe was being pulled by a strong current." It's the truth, that and Kaidoh had no idea which direction Florida was.
“... So you were drifting out at sea in a canoe?” asked Momoshiro, a look of incredulousness covering his face. “And you didn’t go mad?”
"It wasn't that bad," Kaidoh replies, not wanting to back down and admit that it had actually probably been one of the most awful and traumatic things he'd ever had to endure. If Momoshiro could spend who knows how many days on this island and still have a smile on his face then Kaidoh could be stuck in a canoe for three. Besides, it wasn't like he'd been stuck in the canoe with Momoshiro. No, he'd remained perfectly sane, and un-annoyed; peaceful, even. Kaidoh was completely zen.
Momoshiro didn’t believe that one bit. “Sure, whatever you say. So like, why didn’t you come with us? I mean, you must have gotten an invitation for the cruise ship as well. Anyone who ever played tennis before has been invited, and that has to include you as well. Ah well, at least you weren’t here for the horror that is a sinking ship filled with ghosts.”
"Ghosts?" Kaidoh asks warily. "I don't think those were mentioned anywhere in my invitation..." Then he shrugs. "I didn't go because I didn't want to go. Why do you care?"
“Why? Dude, everyone came! The entire old Seigaku tennis club was there, you’re the only one missing. Even Echizen came back from America to see us.” The scent of burnt food suddenly creeps up Momoshiro’s nostril, so he quickly turns the spear around so that the fish wouldn’t burn completely. He is still a novice after all. He’ll get better … hopefully.
“It was weird not having you there too. It lacked something,” Momoshiro says thoughtfully.
Kaidoh blinks and then grimaces. Great, he thinks. Now he looks like the jerk who doesn't care about or respect his old teammates. He just didn't want to be stuck on some stupidly fancy ship with Atobe and all his loser friends, forced to hang out with them, and have conversations with them, and all that other dumb shit. He doesn't know how to explain that to Momoshiro in a way he'd understand. Momoshiro always seemed to love talking to everybody, and did. Loudly. All the time. That idiot practically never shut up.
Well, if there's such a thing as karma, it's biting Kaidoh in the ass now, because he ended up stuck on a boat anyway, just by himself, and now he seems to be trapped on an island with all the things and people he'd been trying to avoid. All he'd done was tear up Atobe's stupid invitation. Maybe it was cursed. Maybe this was his punishment.
He wasn't expecting anyone to even notice he wasn't there, especially not Momoshiro. If anything he'd have thought the dumbass would have been happy. "You wouldn't get it," he says, toeing at the sand. "But lucky for you, you seem to be stuck with me now."
Momoshiro looks up from the fire and raises his eyebrows at Kaidoh. “You mean the other way around, dumbass.” After all, Momoshiro has been on the island for over a month now.
“You’re stuck with the rest of us. We’re still all waiting for rescue, but we’ve been doing alright, for now anyway. I built a shack made out of bamboo too! Me and Echizen currently live in it, everyone else is sleeping in caves or something. Oh, and there’s this one guy-do you remember him? Kite? Wears purple? Looks like a yakuza? Well anyway, he’s been on this island waaaay before we got here, and he was stranded as well or something, and he build this frickin’ treehouse! A treehouse. Man, I want to go live in it, it beats my shoddy little shack anytime.” Momoshiro barely notices how he’s been firing off about ten words per seconds, but he can’t help it, he’s got a motormouth, and he’s sort of happy seeing Kaidoh again.
Kaidoh just stares at Momoshiro, feeling a little bit in awe. That idiot build a shack, too? What can't he do? He mentally fills in the answer: Shut up, that's what, and has to turn away to hide the smile that follows. Okay, so maybe, just maybe, just a teeny tiny bit, he'd missed hearing Momoshiro's voice.
"A treehouse sounds dumb," he says instead, because he can't help but argue with Momoshiro.
Momoshiro’s mouth drops open for the second time that day. “It’s not! He took a picture of it, and it looks awesome, seriously. He built it in the jungle though, so I haven’t yet seen it. But seriously, that took skill. He’s got windows! Well, there’s no glass in it yet, well, maybe there is now, I told him that the cruise ship had glass elevators that he could use, so maybe his windows have glass in them now. I don’t know, I still haven’t gone to see it yet. You should come with me, I can’t get anyone to come with me through the jungle! It’s because that dumbass set up traps, and people are afraid of walking into them. Hah, traps-I can take them!”
Kaidoh has to admit, a treehouse with real windows does sound pretty cool, but he isn't going to get all excited about it like Momoshiro. The way Momoshiro is talking makes him sound like some kind overly energetic puppy. But not in the cute way.
"I guess if you're too scared to go on your own," Kaidoh says, eyes narrowing in challenge, "I could come with you." The fire lets out a loud pop and Kaidoh looks at the fish which is now starting to turn charcoal-black.
"Uh, Momoshiro?" he says, pointing at the spearhead.
Noticing the fish wasn’t looking so healthy anymore, Momoshiro quickly pulls it back, away from the fire. “Right. Sorry, wasn’t paying attention.” He offers the spear with the two thoroughly cooked fish on it to Kaidoh.
“Here you go, remember to take out the fishbones. Fish have bones.” Does this make it meat or not?
Kaidoh tries not to look overly eager as he grabs for the fish and bites into it. It tastes delicious, although Kaidoh isn't sure if that's a testament to Momoshiro's cooking skills, or just that Kaidoh is really damn hungry. It's weird having Momoshiro just sitting there watching him eat though, and Kaidoh feels hyper-aware of how he's chewing, and gets embarrassed every time he has to spit out a fish bone. He hopes he isn't blushing again.
"It's pretty good," he admits. It's the closest Momoshiro is going to get for a compliment.
Momoshiro doubts that; he’s eaten plain fish before, and without any seasoning-especially salt-it wasn’t all that great. Plus he kind of forgot to wash it … well, he would have done it, if Kaidoh didn’t drink up all the water like a drunkard drinking alcohol.
“You’ll probably have to get used to it,” says Momoshiro. “Our stash of food we salvaged from the ship is running out, so a lot of us have been scavenging for food, like fruit … coconuts … and of course, other people set up traps to catch small animals. I know there are rabbits on this island at least, so that’s good to know.” At least he knew rabbit was actual meat, unlike fish. Stupid fish.
Momoshiro leans back on the palms of his hands, sinking into the sand, and he wiggles his toes into it as well. “You know, you can stay with us for a while,” he mentions. “At our shack I mean, just for now. Until I can kick you out as soon as you’ve found your own place to sleep at. I think it’ll be a while before we’ll see helicopters flying over this place.”
"Thanks..." Kaidoh says hesitantly. This is still really weird for him, to be sitting here having a friendly conversation with Momoshiro, eating fish that Momoshiro caught, drinking water that Momoshiro gave him, and now getting invited back to the shack that Momoshiro built. Kaidoh wonders if he's going to wake up at any moment back on his little canoe and still be floating out in the middle of the ocean somewhere. It doesn't feel real, or right, but when he pinches himself in the knee to see if he's dreaming, nothing happens. He's still sitting here, holding a spear full of fish. Well, okay, then. At least his subconscious isn't making up dreams about Momoshiro being some kind of island king.
"How is everyone," he asks, after swallowing another bite of fish.
Momoshiro now lets himself fall back into the sun, so he can look up at the cloudless sky. Today seems to be very sunny. “Hmm, could be better, I suppose,” he says. “Everyone got off with only minor injuries, or none at all … and some,” Momoshiro gulps feels a twist of guilt creep inside of his stomach, “they weren’t so lucky,” he finishes.
Kaidoh's eyes widen. "What do you mean by that?" he asks. He isn't used to Momoshiro looking so serious and it makes him kind of nervous.
“Hmm,” mumbles Momoshiro. “I was with Echizen when the ship went down. Trying to get out as quickly as possible, you know? But stuff just seemed to keep messing up for us, as if someone was deliberately trying to block our way from escaping. Well … since the stairs were blocked, we figured we could walk through the concert hall to find some other stairs-yes, there’s a concert hall inside the ship. It’s Atobe, what do you expect? So we were walking on the podium …” Flashes of Momoshiro’s most horrible memory fills his mind, and his closes his eyes in fear of them watering up. He will not look weak in front of Kaidoh. Definitely not.
And he most certainly will never cry in front of the snake.
“The ship tilted a bit, the piano slid from the podium, and rammed Echizen, hard. He was bleeding from his head all over the place, and I had to carry him on my back for the rest of the time until we got out. Turned out he needed stitches on his head, and he’s broken a rib. He’s still recovering from that, and it’s a month later.” Momoshiro sighs quietly as he finally finishes the story. Well, now Kaidoh knows at least. In case he’ll start wondering why he’s so damn protective of the little brat. He still thinks it’s his fault, he still could have pushed him out of the way.
Kaidoh lets out a long breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"That's..." he starts, but comes up blank. Momoshiro's face looks a mess of emotions and Kaidoh's never seen him look that way before. He isn't even opening his eyes. Kaidoh breathes in and then out again and then reaches out and puts his hand on Momoshiro's shoulder the way he's seen coaches do with players who've just lost a match. That's the manly way to offer comfort, right?
"That's really rough," he says, finally, which is probably the understatement of the century, but Kaidoh was never good with dealing with feelings.
Momoshiro cracks an eye open, and gives Kaidoh a little, trademark Momo smirk. “Thanks for showing me your comforting skills,” he jokes. “Still as awkward as ever.” He finally lifts himself from the sand, not even caring his shirt is covered with sand now, and he throws some sand on top of the still burning campfire to put it out.
“But, that was a month ago, he’s getting better, so that’s good. No one died at least,” Momoshiro laughs. Nope, thankfully no one died at all. “And we’ve got a bunch of doctors in training with us as well, so if you’ve got any injuries, they’ll fix you up.”
"That's good," Kaidoh says, and is glad to see Momoshiro seems to have cheered up again. "So what have you been doing here besides building shacks and running around the jungle with a spear like an idiot? Why haven't you tried to leave?"
For a few seconds, Momoshiro is quite stumped at that question. “We figured someone would come save us … why try to get off the island without knowing where to go, when we could be staying here with all the supplies still available, and wait for rescue?” He also didn’t want to move Echizen around, but since he is getting better now … perhaps Kaidoh has a point. They did have plenty of lifeboats.
“I’d probably get as lost as you would,” he mumbles negatively. No way could he sail the seas without something horrible happening to them.
"No," Kaidoh says, "you'd definitely get more lost. The only reason I got lost in the first place was because of the weird current. You would get lost because of pure idiocy.” He flicks a bit of sand at Momoshiro. "So you've just been sitting around here... waiting?" he asks, his look changing to one of confusion. "Isn't that boring?"
Momoshiro lowers his head down into his shoulders and pouts childishly at Kaidoh. “It’s been anything but boring,” he says with the pout still on his lips. “First all we did was wait, yeah. I took care of Echizen, we got a bit of food from the ship … and we waited. And waited, waited until we just started getting more food from the ship, and made ourselves more comfortable.”
Kaidoh made it seem like they’ve been doing nothing but sit on their asses, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Momoshiro hasn’t been sitting on his ass; only sometimes! When he’s with Echizen, that is.
“I mean, I started building shacks, looked for food, explored a bit, took care of Echizen and his stupid cat, took care of other people, and I mean-come on, I was fishing right now before I saw you! We haven’t been doing nothing all this time, we’re working to keep ourselves alive. Getting off of this island alone without any rescue just hasn’t come up yet.” Momoshiro pouts some more at Kaidoh, feeling as if his own personal achievements has amounted to nothing when he says it like that.
"What's wrong with your face?" Kaidoh says flatly. "Stop looking at me like that. What do you want, some kind of award? Okay. Glad you didn't die, moron."
Momoshiro’s pouty face morphed into an annoyed, irritated face. Leave it up to Kaidoh to piss him off in just a few milliseconds. “Asshole, of course I didn’t die, I’m not stupid like you. You’d have died if I didn’t fed you!”
"I would not have!" Kaidoh retorts immediately, and his hands clench into fists at his sides. "I would have been perfectly fine without you!" And he totally would have! Maybe he'd be surviving on weird jungle bugs, but he'd be surviving all the same and certainly wouldn't need Momoshiro of all people to keep him alive.
Momoshiro stands up straight again, almost stepping inside of the still smouldering ash pile, and he balls up his fists at Kaidoh. “No you wouldn’t, you dickhead, admit it! I helped you out while you were hallucinating about hamburgers falling from palm trees!”
And then Kaidoh is on his feet too, heart suddenly pounding. he grabs Momoshiro by the front of his shirt and starts yelling. "I didn't ask for your help!" He didn't, right? Never explicitly anyway. Accepting help wasn't the same as requesting it.
Momoshiro grabs Kaidoh’s stupid tank top as well, which is a bit hard, since it’s tight, and stuck to his chest, so it takes a few pathetic tries at scratching his chest to get a grip on it. Smugly, he thinks to himself that he at least got first dibs on hurting Kaidoh-by scratching his chest like a cat.
“You were virtually screaming it!” he yells back. “Projecting it really! Like sending ESP signals to my head. Saaavvee me. Saaaaaaave me, I’m dying - cough-.”
Kaidoh yanks up on Momoshiro's shirt roughly so that his fist knocks into Momoshiro's chin. "Like I would want you! If I was going to project any kind of signals, they wouldn't be directed at you! And I wasn't sending them anyway!"
Momoshiro roughly pushes at Kaidoh so he could back off. “Sure you weren’t. Idiot. Learn to cry for help when you need it. I have no problems letting you die of starvation or dehydration. Moron.”
"Then why didn't you just let me, if you were so unconcerned?" Kaidoh hisses, feeling his fingernails dig further into his palms. "You just had to swoop in and be the hero, didn't you?"
Momoshiro grins at him. “Of course. I have to show off to you, don’t I?” He pushes at Kaidoh once more, hard enough so that they’re finally separated. “Now, can we act like grown-ups for once, and not kill each other on the spot? As much as I like to kick your ass right now, I’ve got someone waiting for me at home.”
Catching himself saying the word ‘home’, Momoshiro starts to splutter red. “I mean, back at my shack. Yeah. It’s not home, why the hell did I even call it that …” A month is way too long to be spending on an island. Way too long. He wants to go home for real.
Right. Kaidoh was supposed to be a mature adult now. He was totally zen. He didn't need to fight idiots like Momoshiro, no matter how infuriating they were being. He let his fists unclench and drop loosely to his sides.
"Your shack had better not just be some cardboard box with a door cut out of it," he says.
Frowning at Kaidoh, he shrugs. “You’ll eat your words once you see my awesome fort. Or house. Or shack-whatever. I live in it and it protects me from rain and bugs. That’s good enough for me. And good enough for Echizen. We’ve got a bed too.” Momoshiro gives Kaidoh a disapproving look. “You’re not sleeping in it.”
Kaidoh huffs. "Like I'd even want to!" Well, that's not true. He would kind of want to. In fact, a bed sounds amazing right now. Sleeping on his rickety little boat was restless and uncomfortable. Kaidoh got maybe an hour of sleep each night. Two, tops. But no, a bed with Momoshiro sounds restless, uncomfortable, and, on top of that, just disgusting.
“Then it’s settled!” says Momoshiro cheerfully. “You sleep on the floor.” And, if he even needs to say this, “don’t go anywhere near Echizen.” He claps his hands together and rubs them. “So, wanna go meet the little bugger and the rest?”
"Yeah, whatever," Kaidoh replies, ignoring the nervousness that zings through Kaidoh's bloodstream at Momoshiro's words. He doesn't know how he'll react to everyone, and how they'll react to him.
“Alright, let’s go then. It’s not far from here, just a ten minute walk or so. Maybe twenty.” Maybe an hour. Momoshiro wasn’t really paying attention to the time. He already starts to walk back into the direction he came from, but not before making sure the fire was really out. It feels weird to have Kaidoh by his side. Who would have thought, honestly? Though he’s glad he seems to be alive at least. A bit malnourished, but he’s got food and water back at his home.
Shack, his shack, damnit.
Kaidoh walks with Momoshiro, keeping pace with him out of old habit. he doesn't allow himself to fall behind, because that would mean losing, and he's already shown enough weakness to Momoshiro today as it is. He doesn't really know where they're going, but he trusts Momoshiro not to get them lost. Or maybe he doesn't. But anyway, Momoshiro seems to know where they're going, and Kaidoh supposes he'd better if he's been living here as long as he says he has.
After a while of walking, Momoshiro nudges closer to Kaidoh. “So,” he starts. He swings an arm across Kaidoh when they’re close enough, as if they’re the best of buds. “I’ve got a question for you.”
Kaidoh side-eyes Momoshiro suspiciously. Why's he being so friendly all of a sudden? "What?" he asks.
“Are you gay?”
Kaidoh stops dead in his tracks. "What the hell?!" he yells, and before Momoshiro can get a word out, Kaidoh socks him in the jaw.