Poochy-Woochy Baby

Deep Color

"What the hell is wrong with this life!" Ban kicked the coconut beside him and watched it fly a good twenty meters above their heads, screaming out his manly frustrations into the empty horizon.

"Maa, at least there's plenty of food and we won't starve," comforted Kazuki, who was getting pretty anxious himself.

"Oh, yeah, and how long are we to eat coconuts and wild monkeys? …That's not what I was complaining about in the first place!"

"…" Kazuki couldn't think of anything helpful to say. Except that he wanted badly to note how nagging Ban's complaints were getting by the minute, only he didn't feel like arguing with the Jagan master at this particular point in time.

Ban heaved a heavy sigh and watched the string weilder in his earnest quest to start a fire. He was mighty annoyed to see him so calm and collected; it almost made him want to kick another coconut in his direction this time. "God dammit, why does it have to be you of all people!" he exclaimed in all honesty, wondering why he had to be stuck in this place with the one person he didn't share any similar wavelength with at all in the whole of the Dakkanya team.

Despite himself and his own apprehension about the predicament they were currently in, Kazuki tried his best to remain calm and not lose his head on this annoying man in front of him, presenting himself freely to be killed by his deadly strings. Instead, he simply said, "I'm sure they're going to find us. Or if not, we can always find our way back home." He tried to smile as confidently and as sweetly as he could. And with that, he stood up and continued the fire he was starting a while ago.

- - - - - - -

It all started with Ginji dragging the Get Backers gang to Okinawa to 'loosen up' according to him (but Ban could tell, it was only because he wanted to spend all the money he got from their most recent case – Ginji sure wasn't a fellow who knew how to deal with huge sums of money). Of course, everyone agreed and they set of for Okinawa – Ginji, Ban, Hevn, Kazuki, Shido, Himiko, even Akabane and also Paul and Natsumi.

Everything was smoothly coming on – barbecue for lunch, ice-cold shakes, staring at beach babes, and day swimming for their first day. Until afternoon, that is, when they went boating in pairs. Ginji had the most brilliant idea in the universe of choosing a random method of pairing them up, since the canoes were only meant for two people and a kid at most.

Ban and Kazuki ended up getting paired off for the first trip, during the climax of the high tide. They figured they could handle it and rode, anyway.

In five minutes, they were a good deal away from any visible shore. Waves were pelting their way as if they were living things wanting to see them killed. They were actually fine, albeit worried and not at all liking their situation, until their small canoe tipped over as they went out of control. It was, of course, because of a giant wave that would've pleased an expert surfer but endanger two fairly inexperienced boaters.

And now, it was roughly 7 in the evening, Kazuki was starting a bonfire as Ban went looking for food, in a deserted island which they guessed to be big enough to fit at least three mansions.

And right now was the time Ban had decided to put on a relentless tantrum. One, because he wanted badly to enjoy Okinawa with the rest of the world, and not just the effeminate man he supposed he was destined to be spending the rest of his life with. Two, he had yet to get back at Ginji for his stupid pairing method and boating order that got him here in the first place. And three, he had badly wanted to hook up with the woman he was eyeing earlier on in the populated shores of the main Okinawan island --- now he just knew there would be no chances of that happening. Not now, not tomorrow, and if not until next week, he swore he'd hang himself before he went nuts with the obsessive-compulsive son-of-a-bitch he was stuck with in this island.

"Ban-san, the fire's ready."

"Great. Now you can throw yourself in so I can feed on your flesh. You'll be two to three days' food, at most," Ban said, sarcasm dripping in his voice. He actually had no idea why he was so angry, except maybe for the fact that the Strings master was not yet bickering back with him.

So, you can just imagine the wave of relief in him when he saw the slightest twitch of a nerve in the forehead of Fuuchouin Kazuki, who, in turn, still chose to ignore his temper for the betterment of the world. "I'll go fish. Do you have anything I could use for a hook or a rod?"

Ban didn't have to turn around to show his face for Kazuki to note his sarcasm when he said, "What do you think? You can use your hair, for all I care!"

Kazuki sighed. He knew his attempts at any civilized conversation were going to be futile, anyway. "Right. I'll be back after I've caught some fish… and after you've composed yourself and realize that your anger will really do us no good." Kazuki said, finally giving up on his long burned-out patience.

- - - - - - -

Around an hour later, Kazuki went back to the fire with two fish in his hand. He had actually caught the fish half an hour earlier, but decided that his companion needed time to mend his present temperament. When he arrived, Ban was already seated by the fire, roasting whatever animal it was he caught --- he couldn't make it out; but later on, he guessed it was a monkey.

Kazuki stuck the fish with the stick lying on the floor and placed it carefully in the fire. He chanced a glance at Ban to look at his expression, only since he was starting to feel quite uneasy about the deafening silence around them.

It was then that something caught the longhaired man's sharp eyes --- Ban had his left hand clasped around his right arm. The night may have been very dark, but Kazuki could have sworn he had seen a trail of thick liquid drip from where the hand was placed.

It took him a few more seconds to get used to the little light the bonfire offered while he continued to stare at the Jagan master's limb. Now he was certain that it was nothing less than fresh, scarlet blood dripping from his fingers to the pristine white sand. Oddly enough, he was calm as he asked, "Are you okay? What happened?", whereas usually, he would have been running in mad circles to go attend to an injured companion.

"Just a scratch–"

"A scratch wouldn't have produced so much blood... Come here," ironically enough, it was he who approached Ban, and a little too close at that. Ban liked to believe it was because there was not much light to see his wound with, but… gods! The Strings master's shampoo scent was fast driving his thoughts into a nasty road. The man in question, unknowing of Ban's wild imagination, proceeded on with inspecting his wound. It had deep scratch marks that Kazuki guessed was made by the monkey he caught.

Kazuki did need to speak for Ban to know his thoughts on the lacerations. The strings master's twisted expression told him he thought it was quite awful. And the stinging pain it bought him confirmed that it was awful.

For a good five seconds, Kazuki just stared at his arm stupidly, that twisted expression of mixed worry and convulsion still on his face, not really knowing what to do or how to help in this situation. Finally, Ban, embarrassed at the 'attention' and their proximity, withdrew his throbbing arm and continued to watch his roasting monkey.

The reflex action on Kazuki's part came just as fast as it was slow a few seconds ago --- in no time, he was ripping off the partly torn sleeve of his shirt, which was as badly torn enough as to actually allow him to remove almost three-fourths of the good, quality cloth he had paid quite a price for.

It was now, officially, Ban's turn to stare stupidly at him. "What are you doing?" was all he could utter.

In this nearness, Kazuki could see that there were five deep cuts from the monkey's sharp nails, and that some of his flesh was exposed. He then got some less-saltier water from inside the coconut and washed the wound, causing Ban to flinch in suppressed pain. "It's the best we have next to saltwater. Work with me here…" Kazuki commented, immediately wrapping the cloth tightly around his arm so the blood would stop dripping and the pain would lessen from the pressure.

As he did this, Ban spoke, in a fashion so quiet, any other man would have missed it if it weren't Kazuki, "Look, I'm sorry I was being so anal a while ago…"

"Tell you what. I'll forgive you if you do me a favor and don't do anything ostentatious for the meantime, okay?" Kazuki said, smiling neutrally at Ban. For some reason, Ban found himself blushing at this. He looked away and hoped Kazuki didn't notice.

- - - - - - -

Since Ban was injured, Kazuki was insistent that he would be the one to feed him, much to the disapproval of Ban, since he was one who hated being helped by someone at something he could do perfectly well, thank you. And much to his annoyance, Kazuki was treating him like a baby – literally, babying him with the words he used. Ban knew Kazuki was just teasing him and had to restrain himself from giving in and losing to the longhaired man, but it was just too annoying and it had to stop…

"Oh, would you just shut up!" Ban shouted, annoyed.

"Ara, what's the matter, my poochy-woochy baby Ban? Is baby's diaper wet again?" Kazuki said, barely stopping himself from bursting out laughing. He was far into the joke now to actually stop, although he would never admit to doing it only because he was having too much fun. And besides, Ban was forgetting his silly tantrums against him, Kazuki, at least for the time being that he was babying him.

"Whatever, Ito Maki, once we get back, I'm telling everyone that Fuuchouin Kazuki, the last successor of Fuuchouin Ryu, likes babies!"

Kazuki had to stop to think for a while. "Well, what's wrong with that?" he asked, startled at how empty Ban's threat was.

Ban shut up and realized that in fact, there was nothing wrong with liking babies. "Ok, so I'm telling Juubei you want to have a baby…?" he said, almost in a tone of a question, unsure of the sense in what he just said.

"Oh, that's okay, he already knows that–-Whoops…" Kazuki stopped smiling. "I mean since we were children, he knew I loved to take care of babies…" he 'corrected', but that line sounded as unconvincing as it could possibly be.

Ban raised a perfect eyebrow. "Oh, come on! You even try to hide it when you two have been too blunt? Everyone knows it, Yarnball, you have to wake up!"

Kazuki seemed to debate with himself whether to reply or not, and what to reply with, if ever he was going to answer that. He settled with a low, "Was it that obvious? I told him we had to keep it down…"

Ban rolled his eyes at the pathetic situation. "Whatever. Let's just go to sleep. We've to get out of here tomorrow or I'm hanging myself on that tree on basis of insanity."

/to be continued

Notes: 03.17.06 After 2 years, basically, I just broke the piece down into a few chapters and did a few touch-ups here and there. Nothing major. Just fixed the flow of 90 of this story, hope you don't mind. Oh yeah, it's my birthday today. –D.C.