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

[felinemystique]

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

Comments

[sting_to_death]

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

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

[chibimischief]

He obediently placed the chopsticks in their places before looking over at Bastet at the sigh, a small frown creasing his face before he was scrambling off the chair again and pushing a stool over to in front of the stove, gently nudging Bastet and holding out a for the handle of the ladle.

"Bastet-san should rest." He knelt up on the stool, the perfect height for cooking now. "I can do this."

{OOC: Chopsticks seem fine to me!}

[felinemystique]

She raised an eyebrow, relaxing slightly when he made it safely up on the stool. "We both need to rest," she said, her voice firm. "Neither of us is exactly healthy right now."

Nonetheless, after a few moments, she handed him the ladle. "The soup's almost done--you can finish it while I work on the fish. But don't try to carry the food; I'll do it." He was still too shaky and weak to be trusted carrying hot liquid.

She pulled another piece of fish from the pan, replacing it with a raw one. "We're almost done," she said, giving Lin a look of mild worry over her shoulder--she really did look exhausted. "We can all go back to bed after we eat."

[sting_to_death]

Lin gave a firm nod, trying to show she was doing just fine. And she would, in a few days. The hit had been stronger than she had expected, not quite enough to kill her off-- but if Bastet hadn't been there to heal her, who knows what would have happened?

"I'm fine." She gave the woman a weak smile, still deadset on ignoring Crimson for as long as possible. Usually by now she would have already commented he was too short to be useful, too dumb to cook anything at all, but considered the situation, she did not say anything at all.

[crimsonmischief]

Usually, Crimson would have made some teasing quip about them going back to bed together, but this was hardly the time and place to do that, so he just nodded quietly and focused on making the soup, adding in the paste to the stock and stirring before climbing down the stool to fetch from soft tofu from out of the refrigerator, then moving back up to cut it up and add it to the pot.

[felinemystique]

Despite Lin's reassurance, Bastet didn't linger, transferring the pieces of cooked fish to a plate as quickly as possible. She kept an eye on Kisuke as he worked, but he seemed to be managing well enough.

Finally, she set a plate of freshly grilled fish on the table. A glance at the rice cooker showed that the rice was done, so she spooned it into a bowl and set it next to the fish.

"How's the soup, Kisuke?" she asked. It probably wouldn't be too much longer.

[sting_to_death]

Lin gave a small sigh, would it have been better to leave as soon as possible so Bastet wouldn't have had to be worried about her, or was it better to stay where she could see her and constantly check on her if she felt the need to?

At times like these Lin realized she really didn't know Bastet much, after all. She adored her, yes-- but as far as predicting her actions or reactions went, all the affection in the world was completely useless.

She didn't touch the food yet, she wouldn't eat until Bastet had started.

[crimsonmischief]

"It's done," Crimson announced after stirring it a couple of times before ladling some out into three bowls, then slowly climbing down the stool, knowing well enough to let Bastet carry them over instead of trying to do so himself. He merely put everything back in their place before making his way over to the table and climbed into his seat with a quiet grunt of effort, then waited for Bastet to join them.

[felinemystique]

She set the first two bowls in front of her guests, then went back for her own, placing it on the table before finally taking her seat.

Her brow was faintly creased with discomfort; all the cooking had begun to pull on her wounds. Still though, her stomach growled at the smell of the food, and she knew she'd need to manage to feed herself.

Something told her neither of them would eat until she did, so she served herself both rice and fish, mounding the rice into her bowl until it looked like it would topple. Without a word, she reached for her soup, bringing it up to her mouth. She paused, savoring the way the bowl warmed her hands before sipping, glad to finally get some nourishment into her body.

[sting_to_death]

Finally Lin felt authorized to eat and proceeded to imitate Bastet's actions step by step, even warming her hands around the bowl like she had seen the woman do. But, eating a lot more slowly.

While she didn't really pay much attention to things like that, even Lin had to admit it was weird to eat without talking at all, especially considered who she was with. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen that much tension between Bastet and Crimson, but she didn't quite mind. Bastet was right to be angry. She was too. She should be more often.

[crimsonmischief]

If Crimson was the type to snort, he probably would have done so at how Lin was mimicking Bastet's every action, but he wasn't. Besides, he was a little preoccupied with his chopsticks, using them to push the little cubes of tofu around in his soup and absently blowing on it to cool it down, managing to take a sip or two before he felt too tired to even eat. His rice remained untouched, as did the fish, as he concentrated on finishing the soup without spilling or wasting any of it.

[felinemystique]

Bastet definitely wasn't eating with her normal speed, but she worked steadily, making inroads into the food. She finished her soup and got halfway through her fish before realizing that she wasn't going to be able to manage everything before needing to go back to bed.

No matter; she'd just have to eat the leftovers later. As she'd been the one to initiate eating, she figured once she stopped, the others would too. When they were all done, they could just go back to sleep.

As Lin had noticed, Bastet didn't have much to say to Crimson right now. She'd decided to refrain from yelling at him until he returned to normal...if she was lucky, it would happen when she'd recovered some.

Even if he regained his body before then, as angry as she was, she figured she'd be able to scrape up the energy somehow.

[sting_to_death]

Lin made sure to finish everything in her plate, maybe it wouldn't be appropriate to break the silence to compliment Bastet over her cooking, but at least if she ate everything, Lin could hope Bastet would understand anyway.

Considered how things were, she decided to just sit back once she was done, glancing at Crimson and Bastet every now and then, wondering when they'd speak again. Never wasn't an option, was it?

[crimsonmischief]

By the time Crimson was done eating, his soup was finished, but only about two bites of rice and three bites of fish had been taken. And he seemed like he was about to collapse into his bowl of rice before he pushed it away from him and set his chopsticks down. Moving slowly, he slid off his chair and brought his leftovers to the kitchen, covering them up before setting them in the fridge for later. For now though, he really hated being in this body.

[felinemystique]

Bastet managed to finish most of her food by the time Crimson stood, and she figured she'd made pretty good progress. Besides, if she stayed up, he'd keep pushing himself hovering over them.

She stacked her plates before standing and taking them over to the sink; the small amount of food left wasn't worth putting away. Her muscles weren't quite shaking with fatigue, but it was a near thing. Crimson looked like he was on the verge of falling over, though.

"Lin," she said, frowning as she moved towards Crimson. "Just leave your dishes there, so we can go back to sleep. We'll take care of them later."

Picking him up would pull on her wounds, but he didn't look like he'd make it on his own.

[sting_to_death]

That order was very much needed, or else Lin would have definitely tried to wash those plates. It was the least she could do-- but if Bastet didn't want her to, then so be it. She didn't feel like sleeping any longer, but lying down would have helped, it was better to rest for a few days than to pretend everything was all right and keep hurting for weeks. She didn't know where she had learned that lesson, but she was pretty sure Bastet's was a good advice.

She put her dishes in the sink, then started walking back to bed, lingering just outside the room to hear whether Bastet and Crimson would talk, now.