unrelenting_rhapsody | Sometimes when you live oddly enough

Entry tags:

chiaki au,
rp

Sometimes when you live oddly enough

Who: Gokudera, Uri, and Yamamoto. Hibari guest star.
When: Just after the TYL arc
What: Everyone needs a little quiet time to internalize and comprehend all that happened in the future. Taking the time to do so is another thing all together though.

She sat atop the kitchen counter, staring down at the belligerent little cat that had come back with her from the future. "Look, I'm fucking sorry you're named melon alright? I froze and asked Tsuna!" SHE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!

Anyway. "Seriously, I'm not into sticking semi-living shit in boxes so you can stop glaring at me alright?" At least she assumed it was a glare, she wasn't exactly conversant with feline facial expressions. Who the fuck made a cat with scaled portions as a weapon? CATS DIDN'T LISTEN FOR SHIT.

Granted, she kinda liked that about the mostly-fuzzy thing. Fucked up huh?

Granted, Uri could also want some of the food sitting on the bowl on her knee. She'd only been picking at her meal, brain still churning a mile a minute from their trip. "Do you even need to eat?" Eh, what the fuck, it wasn't like she was going to finish it. She slid from the counter and set the bowl on the floor, hissing at the pull of cuts and bruises.

Proof they hadn't all been hallucinating right? Wounds didn't disappear just because they came home. Also? The future sucked and she didn't want to hear the people she cared about scream like that ever again.

Fuck. Torture. It was almost enough to make her regret being a delinquent Guardian. Almost. Fucked if she'd admit that though.

She didn't want to dream; that was probably why she hadn't slept. She hadn't slept for most the time they'd been in the future admittedly. Pushing past limits had been necessary; exhaustion also ensured a few hours of dreamless sleep. She'd learned that trick long ago.

"YOU LOOK LIKE SHIT!" Shamal yelped as he came in the door to see her spacing out in the short hallway. "Hold still!" His fingers were steady as they reached for dirt smudged bandages, it was a weird contrast to the worried expression he wore. "What did you do?!"

"Nothing much," she admitted in a slow drawl. "Just...been gone a while."

"All night," Shamal agreed. "I was checking alleys." And hospitals.

Oh, yeah. Time travel. "You know what..OUCH FUCK STOP THAT IT'S ATTACHED! Take it up with Reborn okay? He can fucking explain. Just give me the damn cream and stop poking my ribs!" They hurt like no one's business when he did that! Seriously, as long as no one was touching her injuries they could be ignored? Just...fuck. Ow. If Uri was a REAL weapon the damn cat would have been chewing on the doctor by now.

Instead the damn cat was still in the kitchen, polishing off rice and fish. Feh. Pets.

"These are burns, Chiaki," Shamal noted seriously as he peeled one of her sleeves back. "When did you get electrocuted? Take it all off, now, you need better tending than whatever you decided was 'fine'." Burns and breaks and bruises? Yeah. A lot better tending.

"You fuss too much," she growled, fingers spasming as leather peeled away from what had been salved burns. When the fuck had they dried out? Oh, right, probably some time in the week of training and advanced FUCKING WAR GAMES. "And it's GOKUDERA."

"Someone has to," Shamal pushed two fingers firmly against her collarbone and watched as she wavered on her feet, only the knowledge that leaning back against the wall would hurt worse kept her on her feet. "Don't move." He needed a better kit for this.

Don't move...like she had much choice at the moment with her jacket mostly off and her head swimming from his poking. Cruel, twisted fucker. Had he ever bullied Bianchi like this? She'd have to remember to ask some time, though based on how the pair acted around each other she was guessing he hadn't been a frequent visitor in the family home.

If Shamal was related at all. She was starting to have her suspicions. Fucked if she'd kick the old man out though, he did alright for an Uncle. Fuck, she was more tired than she thought if she was thinking that! "There's a cat in the kitchen," Shamal noted when he got back.

"Her name is Uri," Dera allowed, closing her eyes so she wouldn't wince away from the care Shamal had to do. She hated wincing. "She's mine."

"....ooookay then." that was new and unexpected from his voice.

"What?"

"It just seems..."

"I can have normal shit you know. A pet is fucking normal, even if Uri's not." She cracked an eye open to glare at him, not amused with where she assumed this was going. "She's a fucking construct. Don't try to mess with her too much it could damage her." Or something.

"Of course you can," Shamal agreed instead. "I think a pet is a good step, makes you more approachable you know?" His hands were working steadily but she had the sneaking suspicion he was grinning at her.

"Right...getting rid of the cat."

"No no no! C'mon, you can do SO MUCH BETTER than the baseball player! A kitten, learning to cuddle, maybe dress a little cuter..."

Yes, this was going EXACTLY where she thought it was. At least he was acting normal? She'd start to worry if he kept acting all worried and concerned and shit. That would mean she'd have to accept the injuries were worse than she was trying to play off. "That bullshit is a waste of time. Plus, really, do you want to be blamed if Yama ever gets jealous?" A natural born assassin? That would just be dumb.

Shamal snorted and taped a new bandage along an arm, amused at the thought, "It'd do him good, set him in his place if he suddenly he had to work for things."

"You're an idiot."

"And you should sleep. Want a pill?"

Shit, he was back to serious. "No. I'll figure it out." The only thing worse than sleeping and dreaming right now? Would be sleeping, dreaming, and not being able to wake up. "I know some tricks."

"Be careful, I only have one niece and no one wants to see the things I'd do if she died on me."

"It'd do you good," she snorted, pushing past him carefully so she could drop her jacket in the sink. It needed to soak and then get re-oiled...later. When she was back. She knew some tricks for bad nights, sure.

Her mom had shown her.

Fucked if she'd build a pillow fort here for him to laugh at though. It wasn't an uncle thing...it was a her thing. And her mother's thing. She had a couple of blankets in her closet that she didn't pull out often. One was a dark blue with holes neatly punched in it. Drape that over a lamp and suddenly there were stars...her mom's idea again. Another few were small, soft things left over.

Making a bundle of them was easy. Remembering not to toss it over a shoulder? That was hard. And she failed at it of course, "URI C'MON WE'RE LEAVING." she shouted instead of screaming. Ouch. For once the new cat listened, bounding out of the kitchen and hopping up to sink claws into the top of the blanket pack. Lazy little bitch.

Right.

She didn't look at Shamal as she headed out the door, she didn't want to see the look on his face or the calculation. She knew one of his bag of tricks was a sleeping sickness. She'd kill him if he sent a bug chasing her. Yes, anyway, where to?

The only place that made sense these days. The school was closed, naturally, but it was never hard to get over the fence and inside when someone really wanted to...and she wanted to. The Drama Club always had spare props she could dig through, and it only took a few trips to drag the cushions up to the roof.

There, a damn fort. The star blanket looked just as good with sun shining through it from above as with lamplight, and the softer pieces were nice on her stomach where she wasn't bandaged. The only problem was going to be getting a crick in her neck because damned if she'd lay on her back. Uri sprawled out in a patch of sunlight past the blankets and cushions, acting for all the world like a real cat.

Well then.

Sure, it wasn't sleeping? But it was relaxing wasn't it? It was closer than most would expect from her.

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This was a very protective uncle who didn't want his niece taken advantage of. They had enough damaged bastards in the family without some boy latching on to the youngest one. That and Yamamoto just rubbed him the wrong way. "Friends," he noted, putting so many layers in the word that it may as well have been a paragraph. "Every time I see you together someone is lacking clothes."

Okay, so that did get a blush, but it wasn't his fault! "The..." He lowered his voice, leaning past Shamal to make sure he hadn't accidentally woken up Gokudera. "The first time wasn't what it looked like, okay? She just got hurt cause of me, and she wasn't gonna take care of it." And yes, he was a hypocrite, but that was different. "And this time it's Hibari's fault. I didn't expect him to show up, and she yelled at me for not telling my dad about this." 'This' of course being the bandages, but now he was sulking, just a bit, so Shamal likely wasn't going to get that entire story.

"As far as I recall she was in the nurse's office," of her own free will no less. That didn't scream 'wasn't going to take care of'. But it did shed some light on her 'fell on the roof' story. "So that was you," he mused quietly. "Now tell me about the burns."

...He and Gokudera really needed to have a talk about exactly WHAT things were supposed to be secret, apparently. Cue looking like a deer in headlights. "Um..."

"Um?" He prompted dangerously. "Those are severe burns, boy."

"...Mine aren't that bad." He hadn't seen Gokudera's, really, so he couldn't comment on hers. He also wouldn't look Shamal in the eye when he said that, though.

"Bullshit," he said simply. And tiredly. Really? Just...really? "How old are they?"

Shamal was scary, okay? Scary and interrogating him, and he'd had enough of that for a lifetime right now. He backed up to lean against a counter conveniently putting his back to a wall in the process. "I don't know. Few weeks. I kind of lost track of time in there." Between training and fighting and being unconscious for part of it, he didn't remember how long they'd had between the fight with Gamma and getting home.

Shamal was worried for his niece, of course he was scary. "Let me guess," he drawled softly. "Time travel. And you probably took care of your burns about as well as she did." Because teenagers were IDIOTS.

The debate now was whether the girl had tracked down Yamamoto And MADE him care for his burns or if the boy had used them as an excuse to Gokudera. Hmmm.

He shifted a little, still not looking quite directly at Shamal. "If she told you all of that, why're you interrogating me?"

"She didn't," he informed the boy simply.

Then why would anyone assume time travel? ...Unless someone actually knew enough to know burns were older than they should have been because they knew when the burns first showed up. Dammit. And he'd just gone and confirmed it. "Then why aren't you bugging her instead?"

"Because she," he pointed out, "is asleep. And you crack quicker." At least in Shamal's experience anyway. "I'm going to give you what you need for burn care, and you will take care of them so I don't find you in my damn sitting room again."

"Was," Dera growled dangerously from the other room. "Are you threatening my partner?"

He would be lying if he said he was anything but relieved that Gokudera had finally woken up. He hadn't been lying when he said Shamal couldn't touch him because Gokudera would be too upset, either, but he hated having to put that to the test. He wasn't moving from his corner, though, not yet. "Whoops, did we get too loud?"

"No," Shamal answered with a grin, posture slumping slightly into his usual relaxed facade. "I was threatening the half naked boy in my livingroom! But if you're keeping pets I hope you do the responsible thing and get him neutered."

"That was fucking crude," Dera snorted, running a hand up through her hair before moving around her uncle to hitch up onto the counter. "Touch my partner and we are going to have a falling out." Simple and stark as that. If he wanted to get touchy about Yama she'd just leave and he'd never get her back.

Sometimes it wasn't worth it to pull punches.

...

"I never sleep for shit." That was probably the answer to Yama's question?

If he weren't still acutely aware that Shamal could kill him without really thinking about it, Gokudera's scene would be practically heartwarming. Instead, she just got a very grateful and relieved smile. "I'll buy lunch or something to make up for it."

Or just invite her over for dinner. When your dad ran a restaurant, it was sort of the same thing.

Shamal's gaze went shuttered and flat as he looked at Dera, and the girl returned the look for just as long as the older man was willing to hold it. "You'd sleep better if you didn't spend your time worrying about idiots who can care for themselves."

She snorted, less than amused, "part of being in a family and shit, Uncle." "Besides, he's wearing a bit more than I do on a normal day, he's fucking way beyond decent so you don't even have reason to bristle there." Yama had more chest to bandage after all, came of all that bat swinging.

"I told him to take care of himself," Shamal pointed out. "I'll give him everything he needs, that's less on you. Let him be." The rest he could wince away from later okay?

"No." Why the hell would she even do that? Anyway. "Shamal does keep saying food is sleep and sleep is food," she admitted after a moment of mock-thought.

He looked between the two of them, scratching the back of his neck idly as his smile slowly faded to somewhere just above worried. This was getting way too serious. He edged away from the counter, not really enough to bring himself any closer to Shamal, but enough to indicate an intent to maybe go farther. "Maybe I should head home, huh? Hibari's probably gotten bored by now, so I can head back to the school and get the rest of my stuff."

Shamal shot the boy a look then reached up into cupboards to grab bandages and creams to pass over. Yes, he kept medical equipment in the kitchen cupboards. He kept them everywhere given his niece. "Go."

When Shamal backed down enough to stop staring Dera turned her attention to the jacket that was still soaking in the sink. Fuck that thing was a mess. "See you tonight, Yama." Because idiots didn't stop coming into their town just because everyone was tired and shit.

"...Yeah, haha, I hope so." He shot one last look at Shamal before squeezing past him and grabbing his stuff on the way out the door. He really hoped Hibari would be gone, because there was no explaining any of this to his dad.

"Know so," Dera noted, sliding her gaze to his back as he slipped away. Nope, she couldn't say she regretted how the day had gone honestly.

Shamal could, but Shamal could fucking bite her.

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Sometimes when you live oddly enough

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