A bit shorter than the previous chapter, but really it's amazing this got written at all. Don't expect me to make a habit of this whole "writing new chapters" thing.
Oh by the way, I got an anonymous on the last chapter asking me to make this a Mai/Naru story. The answer is no. There's like a million Mai/Naru stories, go read one of those. Shipping is not the point of this story.
That said, my ship is probably showing, so that sort of makes me a hypocrite. Too sleepy to care. Good night.
There was a short pause and then Mai burst into laughter, leaning against one of the picnic tables for support.
"You forgot your tent?" she gasped out. "After I warned you how many times to make sure you had everything?"
Ayako was snickering too at this point, and Masako looked like she was hiding a grin behind her sleeve. Naru and Lin were setting up some equipment and diligently ignoring everyone. Yasuhara felt a sudden need to defend himself.
"It wasn't my fault," he said. "I was distracted." He pointed at Takigawa. "He was throwing things at me."
"Are you saying this is my fault?" Takigawa asked, his face slowly reddening. "It was your tent!"
"Yeah, and I told you I didn't have room for anything else! You said you had everything!" Yasuhara suddenly became aware that he was yelling and abruptly stopped, turning to face away.
He heard Takigawa draw breath behind him, probably for another argument, but he was interrupted by a loud clap. Naru was standing next to their equipment, arms folded, looking dangerously annoyed at having had to draw everyone's attention.
"Oh, come on Naru!" Takigawa whined. "You can't possibly expect us to focus on work right now, we need to figure out what we're going to do without our tent!"
"That doesn't concern me," Naru replied. "You can figure it out on your own time." Ignoring Takigawa's muttered protests, he motioned to the equipment on the table. "This is all we could carry up with us. There are several microphones and sensors for tempurature and electromagnetic activity. We don't have a computer to record the data for us, so we need one person to monitor the sensors at all times. This person will record readings in a notebook every fifteen minutes, and if there are any drastic changes at any time Lin or I will need to be alerted. There are eight of us, so if we take it in two-hour shifts, everyone should be able to get a good night's sleep."
"I'll go first," Yasuhara said quickly, eager for any excuse to get away from Takigawa, who was still glaring daggers at him, and John, who looked like he might cry. It was not his fault, so why did they have to make him feel guilty?
It had seemed like a reasonable plan at the time, but the two hours soon began to drag on until he was sure he would die of sheer boredom. None of the equipment registered the slightest change, and the pen that Lin had given him to record the readings with was faulty, and only worked correctly when it was moving in a clockwise arc. Takigawa and John had commandeered a spare ground tarp and strung it up between two trees. It looked like the smallest amount of wind could blow it over, but at least if it rained most of the water would be redirected elsewhere.
Yasuhara scratched at the table with a small twig he'd picked up as he thought. John didn't seem to be angry with him, which was good, but Takigawa was obviously still upset. He would pointedly turn away and start fiddling with the ropes holding the tarp up every time Yasuhara tried to catch his eye. It was probably because he had yelled at him earlier. Or maybe it was because he hadn't helped set the tarp up. Yasuhara put his head down on folded arms with a dejected sigh. This whole friendship business was hard.
Mai was passing by as he sighed, and gave him a curious look. He nodded toward the sensors and rolled his eyes. Mai always got very wrapped up in trying to solve everyone's problems for them, and he didn't think it was strictly necessary here. He was sure Takigawa would be calm again by dinner time. Mai gave him an encouraging smile, and held out her watch. "You're done in half an hour," she informed him, "and then Lin is taking over for a while."
He had been wrong, Takigawa was still upset at dinner, although Yasuhara thought it might have been more a product of the cold than anything else. Everyone was wearing at least three layers of clothing, and there was very little conversation as they ate. The food had gone cold almost immediately, and Yasuhara shuddered as he swallowed the last bite.
He could see John looking up anxiously at the clouds that still covered the sky, and gave him a quick pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, it'll clear up soon." He wished he could entirely believe it, but with the way that the trip had been going so far, rain would not surprise him.
Walking to their shelter, he kept his hands stuffed in his pockets to try to warm up his fingers. He had his coat zipped up almost all the way to his face, and his breath was fogging up his glasses. As they approached the tarp, Takigawa fell back to walk next to him and gruffly said "Watch out for the rope, kid. It stretches out kinda far."
"What ro-ARGH!"
Yasuhara fell over with a crash, Takigawa burst into laughter, and suddenly there was no more anger. Takigawa leaned down and helped him up. "That one. Come on, let's get inside before we freeze to death."
When they crawled inside, John was already curled up in his sleeping bag like some sort of gigantic caterpillar. Yasuhara could hear his teeth chattering through the fabric pulled up over his head. On the other side of the campsite, he could hear the girls chatting happily. Now, why couldn't they get along that well when other people were watching?
Struggling his way into his sleeping bag, he found that he was actually very glad John and Takigawa had tossed his bag into the center of the small space. The tarp was still an inch or two off the ground in several places, and the cold air from outside was blowing in. He felt John and Takigawa inching away from the gaps on either side of him, and gave them both warning kicks so that they would remember not to squish him. Feeling his sleeping bag warm up, he yawned and closed his eyes.
Some time later, Yasuhara was woken up when John, flailing around a bit in his sleep, kicked him in the shin. He yelped and scooted back as best he could, managing only to fall across Takigawa's stomach.
"Ouch! What was that for?" Takigawa sat up and pushed Yasuhara off of him, rubbing at his shoulder where Yasuhara's head had landed.
"I'm sorry!" Yasuhara whispered back, making shushing motions. "John kicked me! But he's still asleep, so let's not wake him, okay?"
They fell silent as John muttered something before turning over. Yasuhara turned and grinned at Takigawa, knowing full well that it was too dark for Takigawa to really see it.
John talked in his sleep. It was something they had discovered a long time ago, during some other case, but it never seemed to stop being funny. Yasuhara lay back down and said, in a conversational tone, "Sorry John, I didn't quite catch that. Can you repeat it?"
For a moment there was no response, but then John mumbled "Have to keep them away from the tortoise..."
Behind Yasuhara, Takigawa settled back into his sleeping bag, snickering quietly. "What tortoise?" he asked, voice wavering from the effort to keep his laughter controlled.
"The one with the jewels on the shell."
Yasuhara snorted. That was a new one. He could feel Takigawa shaking with silent giggles next to him. Everything was always funnier at night, it seemed. "So this tortoise," he said. "What's so special about it that it has jewels on it?"
"...It's a piano."
And they lost it. Yasuhara's head fell into his arms and he shook with suppressed laughter. Takigawa muffled his laughter into Yasuhara's shoulder, tears streaming down his face as they both struggled to gasp for air quietly.
Evidently it wasn't working, because suddenly there was a series of taps on the side of the tarp. It was Ayako. "Pipe down and go to sleep!" she hissed. "And wake John up, it's his turn to watch the sensors."
After John had stumbled bleary-eyed out of the shelter, Yasuhara stretched out contentedly. Once you got used to the cold, and the rocks on the ground, sleeping outside wasn't really so bad. He was just drifting off into the realm of sleepy, half-formed thoughts when suddenly, predictably, mayhem ensued over at the girls' tent.
I was excited to write this, too. Wonder why. Half asleep at the moment, have been the whole evening, so it probably sucks even worse than usual. Thanks for reading if you read it, all four of you.
