"LENALEE! LENALEEEE!" Komui spluttered, waving his arms wildly. A wall of papers exploded like fireworks, individual documents fluttering to the ground just as starbursts in pyrotechnic displays trickle down or paralyzed butterflies waft to their perch. Reever stepped back as the last few official-looking age-worn (due to neglect) papers fell around his feet and then rocked forward upon discovering that what lay behind him was not empty space but, by and large, the remainder of the science department. "LENALEEEE!" More paper stacks were cleared from his desk by his melodramatic flailing. "COFFEE!" As the flurry of his desk papers came to an end, a veritable blizzard of things to be signed commenced as the not-so-well-suited-for-physical-challenges science department members lost their own personal wars against gravity. "I NEED LENALEE'S COFFEEEE!" Komui howled, the sustained "e" echoing in his high-ceilinged office.
"Well… she's not here, obviously, so you're just going to have to find a way to-"
"NOOOOO!!! I can't operate without coffee! I need coffee! If I don't get-"
"65 made you a nice cup of-"
"NOOOO!" He had passed the point of no return on the tantrum spectrum. Reasoning with him now would be pointless. Reever tuned him out expertly as he attempted to collect the fallen papers with little success due to the inches of other such papers that had lain there so long the experts in the mathematics department would be hard pressed to calculate the time. Being well practiced at ignoring Komui's rants, he knew precisely when to resume listening, "-and then I'll die." He paused in collecting the documents to look up at the hysterical supervisor. He was flopped across his desk, freshly cleared save for a sickly black liquid trail that Reever followed across the floor with his eyes to Komui's distinctively patterned mug a few feet from the desk.
He sighed, shoveling all the papers in his immediate area into a pile with the assumption that the ones he dropped were there (this was actually an ingenious move by Reever because he managed to accumulate more than he had dropped and therefore saved the Order from several late dues and chaotic fiascos).
"Well," he stood, straightening the stack, "you're going to have to find a way to survive. Here," he plopped the papers on his desk, earning a pouty scowl, "sign these, that should wake you up." The rest of the paperwork deliverers took advantage of Komui and Reever's stare-off to deposit their stacks without complaints from their temperamental supervisor. Komui's flinty uplifted gaze bore into Reever's tawny eyes for several long minutes before Reever could no longer take it. He would not be guilt-tripped into- "No!" Sheesh! Does he spend all his time coming up with shirking strategies?
In the instant that his eyes had been shut, Komui had quickly reached for the phone.
But Reever was faster. He smacked the hand away,
"Johnny, take the phone away!"
"But what if someone calls for me, what if-"
"We'll get it. You do your paperwork… No!" Komui leapt to his feet. They tensed. Komui faked left and then sprinted for the door.
"I have some important business elsewhere!" he protested as he skillfully dodged several science department members and eluded Reever's lunge in his direction.
"Someone get him! We can't let him escape!" Reever tried to struggle to his feet but slipped in the trail of coffee, falling face forward into the puddle near the discarded cup.
It tasted awful.
"NOOO! LET ME GOOOO!!!" A flurry of white lab coats fluttered violently around the door signifying the capture of the would-be escapee. Reever picked up the fallen mug and coffee-stained papers. The pink demented rabbit smiled tauntingly up at him. He glared.
It was mocking him.
Komui had been forced into his chair by the time Reever stood up with the offending cup. He scratched his head.
This could get to be a real problem… He sighed. "Look… if you can get through all that paperwork," this was dangerous: he had never tried bargaining with Komui before, "and all of the ones you threw off your desk plus anything else we bring up today…" Komui was listening. This just might work… "Then I promise we'll find you some drinkable coffee… deal?" Komui remained in his slouched sulking position for a few moments, obviously considering this proposition. Behind him, Tap's bandages rose where his eyebrows would have and from the corner Johnny shot him a questioning look as he clutched the phone to his slight chest. Reever gave a small "hey, if it works…" smile which Tap returned with an "and if it doesn't…" arm cross. Their silent communications were interrupted by the click of Komui's pen. No way…
"It's a deal Reever!" he said airily. With a swish he laid the first signed form to his right. The science department members gaped. Komui looked up, pushing his half-spectacles up the bridge of his nose with a pale, perfect finger. "Well, what are you all gawking at? Get busy! Busy! Busy! I can't work with all of you hovering in my office!" The office jumped into life as the lingering science department members made for the door. Reever closed the door but opened it a crack again before leaving, unable to believe that Komui was actually working. Another paper was placed in the growing stack on his right. Without looking up, he shouted, "Take care of Yoshi, Reever! If you hurt him, there will be dire consequences." Reever shut the door, studying the cup thoughtfully.
He's… kind of scary when he's serious. The hallway got a few degrees colder (about twenty by Reever's estimation). He shivered.
The rabbit grinned, challenging smile unaltered by the chill. He glared, stashing the mug in his freshly coffee-stained lab coat. You're mine rabbit…
"Come on guys, we'rescientists! We should be the most qualified to find some way to replicate Lenalee's coffee! I mean," he waved a packet of coffee grinds as he gestured to the simple machine before them, "how hard can it be?" Johnny took the packet and read the back, brows furrowed over his immense glasses.
"We just have to follow these instructions right?" he passed the packet on for someone else to examine. Reever shrugged,
"As far as I know. Hasn't anyone ever made coffee before?" There were some affirmative but hesitant murmurs. "See? It should be fine!" Reever took the packet again and put it on the counter. "Let's just do it and get it over with…" Silence ensued as they all stared at the packet resting on the usually cluttered worktable.
The silence stretched.
"How do you open it?" someone finally whispered.
"With scissors, of course-"
"What if that impacts the flavor?"
"Why would it? If anything, being in a cheap packet will spoil the taste-"
"Can't you get coffee in a can? That seems much more eco-friendly-"
"What if we use a scalpel? That should be efficient-"
"Does anyone even have any scissors?"
"Here's an exact-o knife, will that work?"
"Let's give it a try-"
"No, wait! Here's a drill! We can make a small hole right in the center for maximum pouring control-"
The squabbling continued (they settled on a precision laser to avoid contamination and leave a clean cut on the edge) and then dissipated after the packet was cut. Silence fell upon them again. After a while someone carefully removed the sliver of packet they had cut off with the tip of a pencil. Time passed until finally,
"What do we do now?"
"Well, what do the instructions-"
"'Carefully empty into coffee machine'-"
"Where in the coffee machine, here-"
"No! Don't touch it! We'll move the packet with crucible tongs!-" Reever sighed as the discussion crescendoed steadily.
"This is going to be harder than I thought…"
"Ptt!" Komui clenched his throat. Johnny removed his coffee drenched glasses and wiped them off on his lab coat. Reever had no such protection.
"I take it you didn't like it," he said with exasperated disgust as he wiped his eyes off.
"W-water!" choked Komui, hands fluttering with desperation. 65 hovered away to obtain the requested liquid. "Don't send him alone!" spluttered Komui, waving his arms frantically as his face reddened. Tap hurried to accompany the fallible ghost.
Moments later Komui was gulping down the contents of a small paper cup. He breathed heavily, hand on his heart.
"What did you do?"
Reever scratched his head,
"Oh, I don't know… lots of stuff…"
"It's probably the packet. I told you we should have found coffee in a can-"
"No, it was the crucible tongs! Weren't you using those to fish something out of the trash can last week-"
"We should have used the drill! It's too strong because you up and dumped the whole packet in-"
"I think it was the tap water… sink three has always tasted a little bitter to me-" Komui raised his thin brows at Reever, peering over his glasses with an unreadable expression.
"We made a deal, Reever. I'm doing my end…" he tapped the impressively high stack of signed papers, "You'd better do yours."
The room darkened. It was like someone changed the 60 watt bulb in the overhead light to something much lower (a 5 watt bulb by Reever's reckoning). The moment passed.
"Come on, everyone! Back to the lab!"
After the phenomenally pathetic first attempt on mission "Uber Coffee or Die" (for they had reached the consensus that the punishment for failure was most certainly death), the science department had thought it best to divide into groups and work from there in order to cover more experimental ground. This decision had been reached two hours ago. Since then there had been exactly two hundred and six failures that produced a whole array of indignant reactions from their supervisor, the most violent of which was in response to the coffee made by Team 5's "Cafébot Delta A". Reever had never imagined that the slim supervisor was capable of throwing his own weight (in the form of Johnny and the cafébot) quite so far.
The door to the lab flew open to admit a sprinting Johnny. It hadn't swung back and forth but twice before it was flung open again by a wailing Komui.
Apparently "Cafébot Delta B" was not a huge improvement.
"IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" Komui stuck his face under a sink and turned it on.
"Oh crap… Johnny, what did you do?"
"I… I don't know!" He looked down at the pieces of metal that had once been Cafébot rather shakily.
"GA! This tastes like sewage!"
"He spat it out and then Cafébot went into self-destruct mode… maybe increasing the emotion register was a mistake…"
"THIS TASTES LIKE LEMONS!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THESE SINKS!?"
"Hmm… I guess sink three is bitter… Shoot. Now I owe Tap a quarter." Across the room Komui rose from the sink, gasping for breath. His glasses caught the light, hiding his eyes, but Reever knew that he was looking straight at him.
He could feel the death glare boring into him.
Oh sh-
"You. YOU TRICKED ME INTO DOING PAPERWORK!!!" Komui grabbed Reever by the coat and shook him hysterically.
"N-no! Hey, we've been working all day to make you a cup of coffee, it's not like we're not trying to keep our end of the deal-"
"THIS WAS ALL A SCHEME-"
"Hey! You should be doing that work anyways-"
"I'M GOING TO DIE!!! LENALEE! LENALEEEE-"
"Sheesh! Calm down! I said I'll do it and I'll do it!" he clapped a hand over his supervisor's mouth. The usually bustling room was dead quiet.
"Here, Komui-san," someone timidly placed a cup into his hands. Reever lowered his hand to allow him to drink. This time he was ready and quickly dived to the side to avoid the ill-taken liquid. Komui squeezed his eyes shut and waved a hand as if he could waft the taste away. He shoved his mug into Reever's hands.
"Not quite!" he choked, heading towards the door.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I have to finish the paperwork, don't I?" He gave his mysterious little smile (slightly crooked due to the puckering of hi slips at the coffee's aftertaste). "I said I'll do it and I'll do it." Reever opened his mouth to reply but the door swung shut, wheezing with finality.
He's so cryptic sometimes… He looked down at the mug.
The pink rabbit beamed steadily up at him despite the desperation of the situation. Stupid bunny…
"That's it, I give up!"
"Huh?"
"I'm giving up, Reever. We've got our own deadlines to worry about."
"Oh yeah, yeah… sure, go on," he waved Tap and his group away without looking up.
"Reever, it's been five days since we started this crazy deal, why don't you just give it a rest and tell Komui we can't do it. None of us have slept since Monday… It's not worth it. He'll understand, I mean, he may squawk a little at first, well, he'll definitely be a bit unhappy and probably violent, being realistic, but he'll get over it. Besides, he should be doing all this work anyways… no need to kill ourselves over a little thing like this-"
"No," Reever looked up with a hard, cold expression that rarely crossed his usually lax (if somewhat tired and perpetually stressed) face. "It's not just a 'little thing'. I promised him… promised him…" the slew of sleep-deprived scientists exchanged a few skeptical glances, "Then there's the matter of this rabbit… This rabbit!" He held the mug aloft for all to see. "It's mocking me! Look at his evil little smile. If I give up now, this little good-for-nothing, bastard of a rabbit will win! Win!" he shook Komui's cup at the crowd. They fell silent and stared back at Reever's accusingly passionate glare.
"QUICK, GET HIM!"
"What are you guys doing!?" Reever struggled wildly as the mob of his lab coat-clad comrades tackled him and wrestled the cup away.
"If you won't give up, we'll force you!"
"Quick! Get him over to a sink. Cold water should smack some sense into him!"
"No! Let's use shock therapy! I've got a system set up that I've been waiting to test-"
"Where's the drill? Maybe fear can bring him back to his senses-"
"No, no! Knock him unconscious so he's forced to sleep for a while. Give me that sledge hammer!"
In the squabble that followed, Reever managed to escape and made a break for the door, scooping up the discarded cup as he ran as fast (and straight) as his barely conscious body would let him.
"There he goes!"
"Don't let him escape!"
"Get him!"
Reever blinked away water droplets and stared at his reflection critically. He turned his face slightly to examine the encroaching hairs that now speckled his jaw line.
He grumbled.
"Geez… maybe I have let this go on too long… I don't even remember what happened the last couple days…" He glanced down to where the bunny cup sat on the sink rim, grinning patiently up at him. He squinted at it as through trying to read extremely fine print.
Then he smiled.
"Eh…" he lifted it by the handle with one finger, letting it dangle next to his eyes. "Look at us! We're both a mess, huh, little guy?" He turned to the pink ceramic creature as if expecting a reply before turning back to his reflection. He stuck his tongue out to the side, mimicking the rabbit's expression. "Ha! How's that, rabbit? Think I did a good impression? No? Well… we are different species… It's be kind of hard for it to be perfect… Say, bunny, er- Yoshi, I mean… that is your name right?"
He propped an elbow on the sink to face the cup fully.
"Hey, I'm sorry about earlier. I just never considered that you might be a nice guy. We should be friends, Yoshi, you know, figure this whole coffee issue out together. You're just so bizarre and kooky I assumed you were against me but you're really an okay guy, aren't you? Like the supervisor... I should have known that you'd be like him… Heh," he looked down into the seemingly endless sink drain, "you know, Yoshi… I may seem to gripe about the supervisor a lot but, and this needs to stay between us, okay? I really have," he ran a hand through his hair with a tired laugh, "I really respect him. A lot. He's got a hard job you know, Yoshi, and he's never fallen through for the order or for us. I guess that's why keeping this coffee deal is so important to me. He deserves it, something as insignificant as good coffee, he really deserves it."
He turned the cup around in his hands contemplatively. "Ready, Yoshi? Let's go." He carefully put the mug in his coat pocket, arranging it just so in order to ensure that Yoshi could see out still.
Reever pushed the bathroom door open and stepped out into the circular hallway.
He had no idea what to do or where to go but his feet started off without the consent of his brain and he decided (for once in his usually highly logical life) to trust this instinct.
And so, in time to Reever's soft humming; the previous enemies took off into the night.
Reever's instinct led him to the cafeteria. Normally he would have reasoned that the place would be deserted and Jerry would be in bed but, pleasantly surprisingly but not completely unexpectedly (being sleep deprived gives some people a strange sense of confidence and omniscient knowledge, for reasons unknown), the light behind the counter was on and Jerry's high distinctive voice could be heard echoing gently in the empty dining hall. Without any hesitation or fear that what he was doing was inappropriate, Reever opened the door to the 'Employees Only' area where, perched on a stool, sat Allen, who blinked up at him questioningly.
Reever waved casually at the silver-haired exorcist as if they met like this every night and pulled up a chair.
"Hello, Jerry."
"Ah, hello, Mr. Wenhamm… can I do something for you?"
"Mm, yeah, kind of… Does Lenalee make our coffee in here by any chance?"
"Of course she does, right there," he pointed with a spoon to a coffee machine nestled between a rather dangerous looking assortment of appliances, "what about it? Is Komui going into withdrawal again because she'd not here to make his coffee?" he smiled as he pried the edge of the egg he was frying up to check for the burning on the other side. "I saw 65 in here…" he chuckled, "But no ghost can do a human's job right," he flipped the egg expertly on a plate and handed it to Allen.
"Thanks, Jerry!"
"Hmm-hmm!" he watched Allen devour the egg, smiling in a rather maternal way. "Cooking comes from the heart, you see… In fact, the top chefs in the world could come to cook for you and you wouldn't like it half as much as you like my cooking. You know why?" he shook his spoon at Reever, splattering egg on the counter. "Because when one of you asks me for something, take Allen for instance," he waved the spoon in Allen's general direction without looking up due to the fact that he was occupied with cracking another egg open into his pan. "He came here so hungry I thought he was going to collapse. Didn't you?"
"Mm-hmm!"
"See? Well I sat him down and asked him, 'Allen. What can I do for you?' and he said he wanted something to remind him of home," the toaster sprang up and Jerry deftly snatched two English muffins up and onto a plate, shaking his hand to rid it of the stinging pain of heat, "so I just started cooking. And I put all the energy I had left into it. But the most important thing I did was put all my heart into it. When you cook, you cook because someone is hungry, not just because you can or to show off your skills, because there is a need. You have to want to fulfill that need with all you heart of you're not a true chef," he flipped the egg onto the muffin and passed Allen back his plate, "Do you understand?" For the first time, he took the time to look up from his cooking to the attentively listening Reever.
"Yeah… I think so."
"No good," Jerry replied. "You have to know so," he lifted a hissing kettle from a back burner and poured it into a tea pot with ease, "I would think a rational person like you from the sciences might have a bit of trouble understanding."
"Well, cooking's a science you know… We're really in the same field."
"Hmpf! You scientists… I think sometimes you get so bogged down in the numbers and rules you forget that it's all about fulfilling a need and the joy of discovery. Your kind of science is so limited. I can cook anything I dream up as long as someone needs it. Can you? You can't even make coffee right," he checked the sitting tea and poured a bit of milk in. "That right, Allen?"
"Mm- A bit more, please!"
"Good, good!" the white consumed the dark liquid, blending into an appealing toffee color. "Can't even make coffee!"
"Well, it's not that-"
"No, it's exactly that! I've heard you all banging around up there trying all kinds of crazy things. I'm surprised Komui hasn't been down to tell me all about it…"
"Wait, he hasn't been down?"
"Nope. Not once since… Monday it must have been…"
"But… but that means…" Reever blinked. Has he actually been working all this time? "Jerry! You have to teach me how to make coffee!"
"It says right on the packet-"
"No! Like Lenalee makes coffee. Can you teach me that?"
"Hmm? What's this all about? You can't make coffee like Lenalee for Komui, if that's what you're after. That's the only kind he'll drink and actually enjoy. No one else can do it for him…"
"Why not? What's she have that, I dunno, someone like me doesn't?" He subconsciously put a hand over his pocket where Yoshi sat, smiling blankly at the world. Jerry's eyes didn't miss the motion or the object it covered from behind shaded lenses but he said nothing about it.
Maybe I'm wrong about you Wenhamm… Maybe you can do it…
"Look, can you at least tell me for Komui's sake? We have a deal… he said he'd do his paperwork for once if we could get him some decent coffee and I can't go back on my word. I said I'll do it and I'll do it, even if I have to figure it out myself."
"I've already told you part of it: there has to be a need. The second part is all on you though. Can you do it?" For the second time he spared Reever a glance.
"I'll do anything I have to." Geez… I can't believe I'm making such a big deal over coffee… I'm such an idiot…
"There's a special something you have to put into the process. Love, if you want to think of it that way. If you don't make it because you want, more than anything, for someone to be happy, it won't work. Lenalee loves her brother more than anything in the world and when she makes his coffee you can tell," he put a hefty scoop of sugar into the tea and looked back at Allen.
"Um, one more will do I think…"
"Pale and sweet, hm? That's just the opposite of Kanda you know. He always wants his dark and without sugar."
"Ag, not this again! Can we please not discuss Kanda now? I'll lose my appetite…"
"I doubt it, Allen!" beamed Jerry, pouring out a cup of tea. "You might think the fact that you two are opposites is a sign to avoid each other but if sweet and sour were never mixed, the world would sorely miss some unreplicatable flavors!" Allen shook his head violently and accepted the cup of tea, muttering something about matchmakers and things that weren't certain people's business. Jerry just clucked and hid his grin from Allen by turning to Reever. "Well? There's the coffee machine, what are you waiting for?"
"Oh!" Reever slipped off his stool and past Jerry to the counter swamped with cooking gadgets. "Alright, Yoshi… let's do this," he followed the simple procedure as his pink friend stared up at him expectantly. He smiled back assuredly. "Hey, don't look so morose! We've got this, Yosh." He looked back up at the coffee pot and his own reflection. I wonder what's so special about coffee to him? I mean, there's probably some degree of caffeine addiction involved, but why'd he start drinking it in the first place? The first few drops of liquid plinked into the pot. I guess I could ask him… Wow, we don't really talk much outside of work… I guess we both have such long hours the only thing we do when we're not busy is sleep…
"Hey! Jerry!" Allen whispered. Jerry leaned closer.
But somehow, I feel like I know him really well anyways… I guess we spend a lot of time together and all but that doesn't necessarily mean I should know him as well as I think I do…
"Is all that stuff you said about cooking true?"
"We do what we have to sometimes, Allen."
"You're kidding! You made that all up?"
"Not exactly… It was mostly true."
This isn't just about coffee, is it? Or even giving Komui what he deserves and all that… When it comes down to it, I think I'm doing all this… The drops of coffee were falling down much more steadily now. … because I…
"He looks completely out of it, Jerry… Are you sure it's okay to let him-"
"Have a little faith, Allen. We just need to let him finish this one job and go deliver the coffee… then things can get back to normal around here," he turned to the stove and began cleaning up. "It may just appear to be about coffee, but there's much more to it underneath."
"What's going on?"
"You'll understand when you're older… It's just like mixing sweet and sour. A lot of good will come of it, mark my words," Allen glanced over at Reever. He was sitting slumped over and staring intently at Komui's cup, apparently deep in thought. He looked back at Jerry who was smiling mysteriously as he washed out the pan.
Allen sighed.
"Good night, Jerry! And thank you again!" he jumped off his stool and wandered into the dark dining hall, mumbling something about sweet mixed with sour and tea just like Mana's.
The coffee machine beeped once.
"Reever."
"Huh?" he started.
"It sounds like your coffee's ready."
"Supervisor? You in there?" He liked around the door and into Komui's office. Komui looked up with red-rimmed eyes unobscured, for once, by his currently discarded glasses. His dark hair fell in front of his pale face in fine violet strands, free from the confines of his characteristic white hat. He blinked a couple of times and then smiled gently, brushing the hair out of his face as he straightened.
"Reever… can I do something for you?"
"Um, I have your coffee…"
Komui's eyes widened and then softened.
"Oh, Reever… that's okay. I figured that you all would have stopped a while ago. I understand," he looked back down to his papers.
Reever stepped into the room, jumping slightly at the echoing sound of his footsteps on the floor. There wasn't a single paper scattered across the ground.
No way… "Wow… wow!" he made a full turn to take in the full effect. "You've been busy, Komui! Really busy," he sat the coffee pot down on the desk.
"Hmm? Oh… yes, I suppose you could say that…"
"What'd you clean up for? It's kind of scary seeing you sitting here all busy and serious among all this…" he gestured with a sweeping movement, searching for a word, "clean-ness." He sat down awkwardly on the couch facing Komui's desk as silence crept over them. A swish of paper broke the quiet temporarily. Reever studied Komui.
He'd never noticed how old he looked. How pale. How slight. How exotically handsome-
Woah, where'd that come from? Oh geez… He pinched his brow between two fingers. Come on, now, Reever… don't fall for your boss… That would be an extremely poor biological and social choice.
From his pocket, Yoshi was smiling up at him in a prompting way. Reever glared and removed the mug from his pocket, turning it so the offending rabbit was facing Komui.
Reever looked back down at his feet, attempting to diagnose the burning in his chest with little success (he kept getting distracted by extraneous recollections of some of the things he had mulled over while making the coffee and had sworn to never think of again).
Across the table, Komui snuck a glance up and saw Yoshi beaming up at him encouragingly. He raised his arched eyebrows incredulously and quickly buried himself in his work again, finishing two papers in quick succession.
"Oh!" Komui's soft voice brought Reever out of his reverie.
"What is it?"
Komui lifted the paper.
"It's the last one," he smiled wearily, lips forming a perfect curve like the first sliver of moon that appears at the beginning of the waxing cycle. He picked up his pen in his perfect tapered fingers and poised his hand above the paper as if to write but let it fall back, spinning it between fingers. He leaned back. Yoshi was staring at him still, cajoling smile even brighter than before. He turned the cup so that Yoshi faced the side. "Um, you asked about the cleaning… I…"
"Yeah?"
"Consider it part of our deal."
"Huh?"
"The deal…" he waved his pen in a circle, "with the coffee," Reever blinked.
"You're kidding me."
Komui shook his head.
"But we didn't even- Here. Drink this," he leaned forward to pick up the pot and pour a cup.
"No! No, really, it's fine. I'm sure it's good coffee, but I just don't really feel like-"
"Don't really feel like coffee? Are you sick?-"
"No, no! It's just-"
"Let me take your temperature-"
"Please, no! I'm just a bit off-"
"Off? That's all you've got? Pssh, yeah, I'm taking your temperature-"
"Please, no! Please, Reever, I'm fine, I'm just tired-"
"Then drink your god damned coffee!"
"I don't-"
"Lean over here and open your mouth-"
"Reever, I am twenty-nine years old and perfectly capable of taking my own temperature, I am your supervisor and you are not my babysitter, and if I have to tell you 'no' one more time, I'm going to-"
"Going to what?" They were standing up, leaned over the desk and shouting in each other's faces. Komui hunched his shoulders and inhaled.
Then he relaxed, chest deflating and crossed his arms.
"I'll do something rash." Komui sat down and picked up his pen. Reever smacked a hand on the desk, forcing him to glare up.
"Well you know what? It's 3 in the morning, which is not within the scope of our work hours so, technically, right now you're not my supervisor; we're equals, and, you're right, I'm not your babysitter, I'd say I'm more like your mother, and I don't care if you're twenty-nine or two hundred and twenty-nine, you drink this coffee right now or I'm going to-"
"Do something rash?"
"No!" He broke their eye contact and picked up the coffee pot stubbornly, turning Yoshi back towards Komui. He poured a cup full slowly in a dark, even waterfall. Komui watched the stream trickle out of existence.
His breath caught.
"Reever-"
"Komui-" They cut each other off, turned to the side, and turned back to look at each other. "Go ahead, supervisor."
"Ah… Um, I…" Komui laced his fingers, looking away. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to blow up like that. I'm tired," in the very edge of his vision he could see Yoshi's prompting smile. "But I guess you know all about that," he gave a sad little smile, hiding beneath a fringe of stray hairs. "I'm sorry," he whispered to his fingers.
Reever blinked, at a loss of how to react (and had he been any more awake, he never would have figured out what to do). But because he hadn't slept in five days and had passed the point of no return, Reever managed to stumble over this roadblock with ease.
"Hey! Heeey!" he slid Yoshi forward, leaning down to rest his arm on the desk. "How can you get all melancholic when this guy's giving you his crazy little smile?" Komui looked up, dark irises floating in watery eyes. "See?" He mimicked the grin again. Komui gave a small choke-laugh, rubbing his eyes on the back of his wrist.
He picked up the cup with extreme poise. He inhaled and then lifted his eyes to Reever's.
"Smells good."
"Yeah?"
"Looks good."
"Yeah?" The cup leaned up to the perfect moon sliver smile.
"Mmm…"
"Taste good?"
"Mm!" Komui's long slim hand pressed against his loosely clenched one. It was unfathomably soft (given he had never really taken the time to consider how soft his supervisor's hand might be, but it was still startling). "Reever… did you make this?" Komui looked up at him seriously.
"Ha, yeah, is it that bad?"
Komui took another sip.
"What was it you were going to say?"
"When?"
"Before we cut each other off."
"Oh, um, hey! Why are you changing the subject?" Komui just gave his mysterious, all-knowing smile and took another sip of coffee. "You know, don't you?"
"Know what?" The smile widened.
"Ah, geez… do I really have to say it?" Komui finished his cup and poured himself another mug full contemplatively as Reever watched in begrudged acceptance and slight embarrassment. Finally, as he was about to take another drink,
"No… I'd rather you not, actually… It's funny…" he sat the mug down, "after waiting for so long to hear you say it, I really think I'd rather wait until all this," he waved his free hand at the office, indicating the war and work, "is over. Just to be safe." He had taken up a rather mischievous expression now, much to Reever's exasperation. He finished his second cup and as he was pouring the final dregs from the pot looked up, eyes gentle despite his somewhat evil grin, "Deal?" Reever put his head on the desk.
"Ahh…" he lifted it wearily.
Komui was just too mysterious sometimes.
"Yeah, okay, deal," they shook on it as Komui finished off the coffee.
"Mm…" Komui's long fingers enveloped the cup and brought it to rest in his lap as he gazed up to the ceiling that had some special meaning only he understood.
Just before Yoshi's face was covered, Reever swore he saw the rabbit wink.
"Ah, Reever?"
"Yeah?"
"You asked about the taste, yes?"
"Yeah…"
"Would you like to taste it and judge for yourself?"
"Yeah, sure, except you just drank it all," Reever smirked at this characteristic absent-mindedness. Komui smiled back at him and brushed the stray hairs from his face with little success.
"Reever, I think you misunderstand… I never said that you were going to drink anything." Komui stood and leaned across the desk, capturing Reever's suddenly tensed hand with his own.
"Kommm-"
The office door opened slowly.
"Nii-san?" the whispered words echoed unexpectedly loud and Lenalee put a hand to her mouth as she stepped lightly into the room and stared around, dark eyes huge. Before finishing a full turn she caught sight of the desk and it's occupants.
"Nii-san!" she kneeled beside her incapacitated brother, taking one of his milky white hands in her own.
It was warm.
She smiled and stood without releasing the hand. "Oh!" she clapped a hand over her mouth again at the blaring rebound of her exclamation, then much more quietly, "Reever?" She looked from him to her brother, both slumped across his desk fast asleep, and in between them-
"Hm…" Lenalee gently placed her brother's hand in his lap and picked up the empty coffee mug and pot carefully to reach the single sheet of paper that remained on his desk. "'Last name- Wenhamm, First name- Reever, Age'- This is Reever's information from the day we hired him! He's worked here all these years without this getting officially signed? Ah, Nii-san," she shot her sleeping brother a reprimanding look but couldn't keep the expression long when faced with his innocent aura (obviously, this aura was present only in sleep). The stern look melted into a soft smile and she shook her head. "Oh!!" Upon pulling it further from underneath her brother's elbow, she discovered a familiar neat and curvilinear signature.
"Nii-san…" still smiling, she tiptoed to the filing cabinet where everyone's papers were kept and flipped to the empty file in the back. "There… I wonder how many other people's hiring forms he forgot to sign… oh, Nii-san… I'm surprised the Order hasn't been sued yet…"
She slid it closed with a slim shoulder and shifted the coffee pot and mug back into both hands. The cup fell to it's side, stopping at the edge of the pot. Yoshi beamed up at her. She beamed back. "So you like him too, huh? Even though he's been here so long, it still feels nice to know that he's here for good, doesn't it?"
Yoshi smiled back (because, after all, he is only a rabbit painted on a ceramic cup and can't do anything but smile).