Day 35: Bus 2

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

Wally woke as the intercom crackled to life and was surprised to find himself back in his room. The last thing he'd remembered was feeling relieved at finally beating off those dragonfly-lizard things. There'd been that weird intercom message, then... he wasn't quite sure what had happened after that, but he was certain it hadn't involved falling asleep. He'd be half-wondering if he'd dreamed the whole thing if it hadn't been for the nagging ache on his back and ankle from where he'd been bitten. A quick check revealed they'd been bandaged, apparently while he'd slept. He wondered if he had Kal to thank for that. Maybe he'd get the chance to ask later.

He jumped as the door swung open to admit the familiar face of the nurse who'd woken him yesterday. "Up already, are we?" she said cheerfully as she busied herself pulling out clothes. A blue shirt and a pair of jeans were passed to him. Wally blinked, he hadn't been here long, but he'd gotten the impression that the grey-and-smiley-face combo was standard.

"Does this mean I'm being released?" he asked, hope creeping into his voice.

The nurse turned back to him, pity etched on her features. "I'm afraid not, dear." She smiled brightly as she continued, "but today's when all the patients get a special field trip into town! Won't that be a treat!"

Wally stared at the clothes, his mind working away. He'd been trying to get into town and to a phone last night before he'd been attacked. But if they were going in today, this might be the perfect chance for him to contact the Justice League. He smiled warmly and thanked the nurse as she left to allow him to change, then happily allowed himself to be led to one of the buses, picking a seat about halfway down and sliding in to look out the window. It seemed like today was going to be brighter than yesterday, at least in the area of possible phone calls and rescues. About the only dark patch he could see was that the contents of his paper-bag breakfast were going to be nowhere near enough to fill the yawning pit that had taken the place of his stomach, and even that was tolerable when he was positive he wasn't going to be here much longer.

"And you say that time goes rushing by, but it seems so slow to me, and you see a blur around you fly, but it takes too long, it seems so slow to me..." he sung absently.

[Oh Captain, my Captain~]

Comments

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

Misery loved company. Therefore, Yuffie loved company. Company didn't usually appreciate being puked on, though.

At least the bus hadn't started moving yet.

"What're you saying?" She stuck her bottom lip out petulantly, purposefully misinterpreting the statement. "I'm super hot. I am the epitome of gorgeousness." She paused just long enough to grace Sagara with the most pathetic look she could muster. "But I'd look even better if I wasn't on this stupid bucket of bolts."

Kenshin was greeted with a slightly more fierce look before Yuffie dropped her head onto her knees, groaning miserably. Trust the shortass to be so insanely cheerful. What was there to be cheerful about?! They were on a bus!

[damnrudecock.livejournal.com]

"Not really what I was talking about, Ninja Girl." Sanosuke grinned as he reached over to flick her forehead with a rather gentle touch, at least for him. He didn't want to bruise her or anything. Especially when she talked like she knew what the hell a bus was.

Kenshin might be a different matter though. Guy was too damn chipper for these surroundings. Which Sano liked, but he gave his friend a flat look anyway.

"You're talking like you're sure the bus isn't going to eat us or something. What the hell are these things anyway?" Sano really didn't get it. "Not to mention the damn clothes. Who comes up with this crap?"

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

"Oro?" Kenshin blinked at the girl. Why was she glaring at him like that? Did she hate buses that much? Well, he couldn't actually blame her. The way it had lurched forward last time had not inspired confidence.

"It's like a railroad car, only without tracks," he added helpfully, taking a seat behind Sano and Yuffie. "It moves on its own; this one doesn't know how." Just that he'd been convinced it was going to shake apart last time. But they didn't need to know that. He was the experienced one. Sort of. "As for the clothes...this one has no idea. Yuffie-dono? Do you know?"

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

"H-hey!" Yuffie yelped at the flick, automatically retaliating with a flick of her own. It wasn't like it had really hurt or anything... but it was the principle of the thing! "I want sympathy, not brain damage!"

She sat up again, wriggling uncomfortably in her seat. Why were Sagara and Kenshin talking like they didn't know what a bus was? Didn't they have 'em where they were from?

"If you guys don't have buses back home, I so envy you," she said, leaning her head back so she could stare balefully at the ceiling. Slow breaths. Deep breaths. No puking before movement had even commenced! In a smaller voice, practically to herself, she continued to rant: "Airships, trains, cars... Ugh. It's like a conspiracy theory! Like the whole world is ganging up on me, just trying to make me puke my guts out!"

But... maybe if she focused on talking with these guys, it wouldn't be so bad? Distracting herself had sort of worked in the past. Sort of. It was worth a try, anyway.

A little inventive wriggling later, and Yuffie was knelt with her back propped up by both the side of the bus and a bit of the seat in front. She could see both of the boys now. "Fashion designers with too much time on their hands?" She offered, shrugging. "We're pro'ly supposed to blend in or somethin', but... hey, what's a 'dono', anyways?"

[damnrudecock.livejournal.com]

"Oh come on Ninja Girl." Sanosuke gave Yuffie a friendly grin as she paid like for like, and whined about it on top of things. "Thought you were tougher than that."

Since Kenshin had claimed a seat, and Yuffie turned, Sanosuke took the open spot beside the woman. Suited him well enough anyway, since he could see them both if he turned his back to the aisle. Wasn't like anyone would be able to sneak up on him too easily or something. Plus, Kenshin and Yuffie both were talking about buses--or at least Kenshin was. Yuffie was talking about some shit that Sano didn't have a clue about, which was pretty evident from the look on his face.

"What the hell is all that?" At least Sanosuke knew what a train was, but that was about it. But then the fighter realized that maybe Yuffie didn't know about how time was fucked up. Kenshin and Sano had been forced to accept it right away with the people who were there, but it was possible she hadn't. "Uh, yeah. Kenshin and I are from Meiji Eleven. What, 1800's or something?" Sanosuke looked to his friend for confirmation, then shrugged. "Anyway, time is really fucked up in this place. They take people from all sorts of places. We don't have future crap like buses or air-whatevers in our time."

Maybe for Yuffie it was like Sano hearing someone asking about 'dono.' He had to laugh though, since hardly anyone used the term even in the Meiji. "It's this way of addressing people. Like 'san' or 'chan.' Except 'dono' is really respectful, and pretty much no one but Kenshin uses it anymore."

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin scooted a little further back. He was very sympathetic to Yuffie's plight (he never got motion sickness himself, but he'd been in enough boats that he knew it fairly intimately), but that didn't mean he enjoyed being vomited on.

He didn't imagine that anyone did, really.

"1878," he corrected automatically, not even looking up. What was an 'airship?' Well, a ship that flew in the air, obviously, but how was that even possible? He could jump fairly high off the ground thanks to his training, but he couldn't actually fly. Even that one member of the Juppongata that Yahiko had fought could only glide on the air currents created by his bombs.

How very interesting.

The rurouni gave Yuffie one of his patented kind, absent smiles. "It's a bit of a force of habit, really," he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Does it offend you?"

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

Yuffie stuck her tongue out at Sagara, but the conversation moved on before she had the time to give him a good bit of flack for his teasing.

... What the hell was 'Meiji Eleven', though? Was it a funky name for a place? She knew all about the mondo huge time fuck-ups, though. "I dunno what a Meiji Eleven is," Yuffie replied, relaxing back. "But where I'm from, it's 0011." She had to remind herself quickly that pretending it was normal made it hurt less. Her brain would thank her for it later.

At least the 'dono' thing was only a cultural difference. Cultural differences she could deal with! "Respectful, huh?" The ninja began to dig through the bag on her lap, shooting a friendly grin over at Kenshin. It was the first genuine un-grumpy expression of her day. "Whatever. I haveta deal with titles all the time back home."

She pulled out the carton-thing of orange juice and eyed it thoughtfully. Food would be a bad idea, but surely she could handle a mere drink.

[damnrudecock.livejournal.com]

[A little backthreading for the laughs?]

Sanosuke grinned in victory before he focused on the conversation, and laughed a little at Yuffie's question. "Meiji 11's the year. Just how we say it in Japan." Kind of weird that Yuffie said she was from 0011 though. Didn't that mean she was from before them? If she was talking Western time anyway. But they had all that future crap like air-whatevers, and that didn't make any sense.

Of course, to Sano it didn't matter much. Yuffie digging into her bag reminded him of a very important thing, and that was his stomach. "That's just how Kenshin is. There's nothing bad about it." Sanosuke opened his own bag, and was just wondering what the hell in there counted as food when suddenly the bus thing lurched. Sanosuke, of course, wasn't used to machines randomly moving on their own, and naturally he did two things. The first was to protectively grip his breakfast, because supposedly there was food in there, and that was important. The second was to reach out and grab something to keep his own balance.

"What the hell?!" Sanosuke shouted as he looked around in concern so overwhelming, that in that moment he didn't exactly realize what he grabbed was kind of squishy, and kind of attached to the very female ninja sitting beside him.

Oops.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Yuffie's answer intrigued Kenshin. 0011? The eleventh year of what? He and Sano counted years by which emperor was currently reigning. What was she counting? And what sort of 'titles' did she have to deal with back home? He wanted to ask, but before he could figure out the best way to do so, the bus lurched.

He was a little more used to it now than he had been last week, but not by much. At least he was slightly better off than Sano, though. Sano, who was currently...grabbing at certain parts of Yuffie's anatomy.

Oh dear. This wasn't going to end well.

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

Like Kenshin, Yuffie hadn't had time to speak. Unlike either of them, Yuffie had plenty of experience with moving vehicles. As soon as she'd felt the tell-tale shudders, she'd braced herself for movement.

She hadn't been bracing herself for being groped.

Sagara's hands... were on her boobs. Her boobs. Sure, they were only A-cups, but they were still her boobs! It took a split second to sink in before she reacted.

"Pervert!" Yuffie shrieked, flailing in a deceptively girly fashion against the back of the seat she was leaning against. The flail accomplished several things; first, she batted his hands away from her squishy bits; second, she managed to twist just enough to send a very well-aimed kick to his head, courtesy of her right leg.

And if that failed... well, her fists were clenched and ready, the white of her knuckles a stark contrast to the tomato red of her cheeks; the moment it looked like he was going to dodge, he was so in for it.

[damnrudecock.livejournal.com]

So just when Sanosuke had gotten used to the motion enough to be ready to let go of the squishy thing--and just when he was starting to realize what the squishy thing actually was--Yuffie began to freak out. Sano didn't even have time to apologize or move his hands himself before she was a bunch of limbs flailing all over the place.

Including right at his head.

Sano didn't quite manage to dodge, or even to get a chance to try. One minute he was fucked up from the bus, and the next he was falling back after being kicked in the damn jaw pretty damn hard. If he wasn't who he was, the kick might have knocked him out. But Sanosuke had some damn good endurance, along with a pretty short temper.

"What the hell was that for?!" Despite the motion, Sanosuke managed to pull himself up, leaning close to glare at Yuffie. "It's not like I meant to grab you there! You didn't even give me enough time to say I was sorry!"

Which was about the best way he had to say it just then. Sanosuke, for his casual attitude, was about as flustered as Yuffie by it, except his cheeks weren't quite as red.

His chin sure as hell was bruised though.