Day 44: Lunch

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

That had been a very frustrating shower. For many reasons. At least Raine was going to at least look at Forte. Hopefully, she'll actually heal him. The showers had also succeeded in making the ninja feel like a pervert. A mild one, but still... It was as if Yukari had picked that spot in the showers because she knew the ninja could easily see her.

Ugh! Damn youkai.

Squirreling herself away in a corner of the cafeteria, Sheena finger combed her wet hair before pulling it back with the bright red ribbon. She so needed her own hair ribbon back. She was attempting to formulate her plan of acquisition - she was ninja after all - as people started trickling into the room. The plan was put on pause, though, when her stomach rumbled.

Food now - plan later.

[Closed to Haseo and Endrance]

Comments

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

"Right," Kenshin sighed. No use arguing. "Of course. Apologies." Kenshin wasn't entirely thrilled, but he didn't want to argue. Picking an argument with Yuffie would go about as far as picking an argument with...oh...a drunk Sanosuke. On a bad day.

"No, Yuffie-dono, this one doesn't want to talk about it. This one doesn't really really want to talk about any of it. But it happened, and pussyfooting around it isn't going to make it go away."

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

Ahh, and here she'd been hoping for a bit of protest! Trust him to bat it aside just like that. "You're hard work," she whined, swearing to herself that one day, one beautiful day, she would get him to bicker with her properly.

The little ninja sobered up quickly at his next response, though. She sat back sharply, staring down at her plate. Kenshin was right, of course; bottling things up never got you anything but misery and an explosion, in the end. "I know, I know. I'm…" She sighed, reaching up to scrub the sudden bleakness from her eyes. Sincere apologies weren't something she was used to handing out, but maybe he deserved an attempt, just this once. "I'm sorry, that was a dumb thing to say."

Yuffie dug her fork around in her salad. "I scared the hell out of Suzie last night," she admitted, running the words through the usual girly-talk filter just to prove to herself that she still could. "I scared the hell out of me. Thought we were gonna get eaten by, I dunno, bears or something, while the one responsible--me, if you're wondering--was too busy giving up the ghost to save the day. Don't get me wrong, I know that he's a perfectly capable fighter, but that's not… What if I'd been with somebody else?"

People. It always came back to people now, didn't it?

Because she was already talking, and once she'd started it was hard to stop, Yuffie found herself going on, saying more than she'd meant to, "Worse than that, though, is this whole… thing. You ever been wound up so tight that you just know, one wrong move from anything and you're gonna snap? Not burst into tears or even go perma-loopy or anything, though that might be on the cards too; I mean the other kind of 'snap'." The kind where you could take it five steps too far in a fight, whether it was against a routine small-fry monster, an innocent opponent in a training session, or anything in between. "Normally I'd take a hike and go work it off on my own, but this place kind of puts a damper on that plan."

Recklessly throwing herself into battle against every monster she could find here would have its downsides, too. Fact was, Yuffie couldn't afford to be irresponsible here, and didn't that just suck.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin was very good at listening. He wasn't the type to interrupt or automatically pass judgment without a lot of forethought. He didn't smile and nod, either. He actually listened.

Especially in situations like this.

Yuffie was more emotionally guarded than she pretended to be. She was not one to speak openly and honestly about her fears and feelings. The rurouni didn't think she'd ever been this candid and personal with him before.

"If you ever want to work it off," he said softly, "we can spar." It would be good for both of them to burn through some of this energy. "And...this one is sorry, about what happened. He really is." No one should have to go through that, especially not people he cared about. He knew it was irrational, but Kenshin felt almost guilty that he hadn't been there, like he'd let her down somehow. He hadn't been able to protect her from it.

"We were just at the top of the stairs on the second floor when it happened to this one. Suddenly there was pain and...the next thing this one knew, he was staring at Kaoru-dono's face, and she was crying." His voice caught, just a little bit. "There was so much blood."

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

She'd spent most of her young life fighting to be heard, but that's what it really boiled down to; the fighting, not the 'being heard'. Why should she trust others with private things like fears and feelings? How could she, when she'd practically been raised to think 'fake tears are fine, real tears are not'? Taking action was what really counted. Take care of yourself, and do whatever you have to do.

Even the collective influence of AVALANCHE and the WRO hadn't completely stamped that out. Not nearly, not by far. But Yuffie was getting a little better, and… well. Frigid bitch, she was not. That was Shelke the Jailbait's job. 'Sides, it wasn't every day that Kenshin dropped his own guard like this. Honesty was kind of a privilege and it wasn't like he was completely wangsting, so Yuffie listened as best she could.

"Think I'll take you up on that offer," she said when he'd finished. "Sounds like we both need a break, not to mention a bit of stress relief." And Landel's head on a pike in the middle of the Sun Room, preferably on fire, but she left that part unspoken. "Then we can both get back on form, and that'll be one hurdle down, right? It's hard looking after other people when you're all messed up yourself…" She paused, leaning her elbows against the able. "Are you running around for Homura the Mighty Mallet again tonight?"

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin gave Yuffie a smile. It looked a little sad, and it wasn't nearly as bright and sunny as usual, but it was genuine. He hadn't given many of those out today.

"It's a date, then. Kaoru-dono can referee." If he could find her. He hadn't seen her all day, but then again after what had happened...

She'd spent two days locked in her room without eating when Kenshin had left for Kyoto. How would she react if she thought he'd died? Once again, the rurouni felt the shame and anger burning inside him.

He'd failed her. Again.

"Yes," he sighed, "this one assumes so. Though this one can't help but wonder why sometimes. Nothing seems to get done anymore. Homura gives 'soft' assignments to those naive enough to refuse killing." There was a touch of unintentional, unfamiliar bitterness in his voice.

"Apologies, Yuffie-dono. This one doesn't mean to complain."

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

"Deal," said Yuffie, returning his smile with a perkier one. "We could steal some of the Boxing Club's space, up in the staff training area. Stupid patient's rooms are 'bout as big as a lunch box, if you ask me."

Something in Kenshin's expression wavered, just a little, just slightly. Was it… Oh, okay, that'd make sense. Maybe. Yuffie, who made a point to at least visually check on everyone who was the least bit 'important' to her or her plans, hadn't seen Kaoru around at all today. It made sense, what with everything that'd happened last night. The chick seemed super attached to her red haired punching bag.

Yeah. Okay.

Her smile turned totally upside down at the mention of 'soft assignments'. Geez. "Complain more," she encouraged. "Homura is the dickiest dick that ever dicked, and that's said with personal experience to back me up. He thinks he can treat valuable allies--like you n' me--like dumbass subordinates, or something." Yuffie actually laughed, a little huff that bordered on derisive. "He'll lose out if he keeps it up. I don't take crap from my boss back home, and old man Reeve earned my respect already." Being war buddies, in a weird manner of speaking, did that to you.

"Honestly," she added, almost as an afterthought, "I'm surprised you're putting up with it."