**This fiction is dedicated to TrueDespair, as a belated Christmas/birthday gift.**
RE:seARcH
"Your captain… Kurogane-san, was it? He seems very strict."
"Oh, no, not really! Well… Yeah, actually, I guess so… but he's always looking out for us. He'll say something really rude every now and again, or that if we get caught up in something he won't help, but he always does anyway. We've all come to terms with the fact that it's just how he is."
"Really? It must be reassuring to have him as your captain; you make him sound so devoted!"
"Kinda. At the very least you know you're definitely not gonna get stranded somewhere, because he won't leave the city until he knows everyone's onboard."
"Then what about Syaoran-kun? He's a little like that isn't he, with how he seems to be looking out for everyone. What's his job on the ship?"
"Syaoran-kun's our engineer. We've pulled through some really tough situations thanks to him. One time, when some part of the engine was malfunctioning, I don't know how, but he managed to keep us in the sky long enough to give Fai-san time to land on the nearest city."
"That's incredible!"
"It really is. Fai-san's great too. He can be a bit goofy at times, but he's an amazing pilot. Kurogane-san's line of work can get a little shifty sometimes, but we have all these people who are skilled at all these different things, so there isn't really too much to worry about for those of us who don't do much."
"What sort of business is it?"
Watanuki paled. He hadn't exactly meant to say that, but over the past few hours of cooking and chatting with their guest, he'd found quite a few things had slipped out. It was just so easy to talk to this girl; he couldn't help it.
He couldn't find a single thing about her that didn't make him want to spill his guts.
"Oh, well, um… You see… Kurogane-san… He works with trade. Kinda. It's a little hard to explain… But it's similar."
"Oh, I see. What does he trade?"
"Um… Services, I guess. Kind of like… if you pay a good enough price, he'll go and get whatever item it is you're after, within reason. I think there have even been a few bodyguard jobs, and transport occasionally pops up too. And then on the rare occasion we take on passengers."
She frowned lightly at this statement, pursing a finger to her lips as she contemplated Watanuki's examples. "So… If I… say… wanted this really rare flower and I knew where it was, but I didn't have the means to get it, then as long as I paid him… he'd go get it for me?"
"Something like that." The black haired chef smiled with a little shrug of his shoulders. "I'm not really the person you should be asking though. I wouldn't ask Kurogane-san what he does, because he'd probably just say it isn't any of your business… I mean, he said that to me and I'm on his crew! So, you'd probably have better luck asking Fai-san or Syaoran-kun."
"Would Doumeki-kun know?"
As soon as Watanuki's back went rigid, the girl promptly wondered if she'd done something wrong. Did the two not like each other, or was it just something she'd said?
The chef's shoulders gave a single violent jerk before his whisk was suddenly spinning at 100 miles an hour.
"THAT JERK? THAT PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW IF HE'D BEEN WHACKED IN THE FACE WITH A BASEBALL BAT! Then again, his face is so blank it might actually help, because then maybe that stupid bored expression wouldn't be the only thing on his stupid assed face! BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT!"
Watanuki slammed a fist into his palm, managing to splatter the dough he was mixing against the wall and his person in the process. His sudden anger towards the name 'Doumeki' disappeared within a second flat upon the discovery that his conversation partner was giggling.
At that point, Watanuki had completely and utterly forgotten why he was angry, and mentally cheered himself for causing her to create such angelic sounding laughter.
"Ne, you two sound like such great friends!"
And then his face met the bench.
Yawning, Fai yanked the intercom microphone from its holding place and blearily spoke.
"Doumeki-kun, time to practice piloting…"
Said person glanced up at the static mention of his name, and dutifully replaced his arrows into their quiver and stowed his bow carefully away in its case. He climbed the Firefly's corridors and silently took his place in the 'passenger' pilot's seat and gave a swift nod to the blonde who managed a tired smile.
"You alright with taking over?"
Doumeki gave another nod.
"Okay… Co-ordinates are still imprinted into the system's memory-" The blonde paused to yawn. "… So everything should be shiny if Captain Kuro-tan wants to go somewhere. I'll take over again after dinner."
And with that the blue-eyed male left, flexing his arms above his head as he dissented down the few steps leading out into the corridor.
With Watanuki having excused himself from the kitchen to try and find the captain to mention the quickly reseeding supply of ingredients –muttering to himself not to let slip that he'd accidentally tipped half of the dough batch he'd been mixing onto the floor during his Doumeki rant–, she found herself at a slight loss of what to do.
She glanced briefly over the messy, but welcoming dining area, smiling at the rugs coating its steel floors, the wooden furniture, and– were the walls wallpapered?
"Excuse me, Kunogi-san? What are you doing in here on your own?"
She gasped lightly, smiling happily at the woman standing in one of the dining area's three archways.
"Well, I wasn't, not to start with. But supplies were low, so Watanuki-kun had to inform Kurogane-san."
"Ah. Then in that case, I suppose Watanuki-san needs to be scolded. He should know better than to leave a lady waiting."
"Oh, no, that won't be necessary! Say, Daidouji-san?"
"Please, call me Tomoyo. Would you care for some tea?"
"Yes, that would be wonderful, thank you! So, Tomoyo-san" The two exchanged bright smiles when Tomoyo took a seat opposite the other and handed her a steaming cup. "Watanuki-kun and I were talking before, and he was telling me about all of these different things on his experience here. Would you be so kind as to tell me how you came to this ship? And also, would you do me the favour of calling me Himawari?"
"Certainly, Himawari-san. I have had some very interesting experiences onboard this model that I would be more than happy to recount. Although, before that, I feel it's only obligatory that I warn you of a few things. It can get impossibly noisy here, unfortunately. Mornings are the worst."
"-even with the right equipment, I couldn't even dream of trying to make one myself. And the compression coil is getting old, if it fails it has the potential to shut us down; we'd practically be sitting ducks with quickly decreasing air. It doesn't look like much, but once you lose it, it turns out to be everything. Also–"
"Um, Kurogane-san?"
The ebony haired male sighed in annoyance and turned to face the bespectacled chef, who wilted slightly under the intense gaze.
"Another gorram thing needs to be replaced, right?"
"W-we're running low on food stock, b-but I think we have enough to maybe last us four days? Five if we're lucky."
The dark haired man growled and rubbed at his temples. "Tell Doumeki to set a course for Paquin - should only be eight hours away, and there are always jobs available somewhere."
Cringing in irritation, Watanuki marched back out of the engine room, mumbling under his breath about how annoying it was that he still hadn't figured out how the intercoms worked and had to go and tell the stoic male personally. The ebony haired chef stomped down the corridor, pausing and opting to creep across the steel floor as he passed the crew's rooms.
His annoyance all but flared up again when Doumeki's head turned to face him as he stood glaring in the doorway, silently wishing for the taller male to throw himself on the floor and cower at the Hell-Fire intensity of his stare.
"Oh, it's you."
"DON'T 'OH IT'S YOU' ME! I HAVE A NAME, MORON! And before you say anything, it isn't 'Oi'!" Watanuki grunted, glare pinning itself to the floor. "Anyway, Cap'n says to set a course for Paquin. We're running low on food so even an idiot like you should know what that means enough not to screw it up."
"Ah."
"AND TALK LIKE YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE AN EDUCATION, YOU BARBARIC OAF!"
Himawari, giggling and delicately sipping at her tea, found that she quite enjoyed Tomoyo's company. The woman was dramatic on occasion, but still reserved enough to be easily respected. And she did have some amazing stories to tell about her life aboard the Firefly vessel Shoujiki and her crew, even though Himawari doubted all of it was true, Tomoyo was a very entertaining and interesting person to say the least.
"Syaoran-san and Sakura-chan too; oh, Sakura-chan's just adorable. We knew each other as children, so I can honestly say I was surprised to find her on a transport ship such as this one. Not that there's anything wrong with living here; life certainly keeps you on your toes, but sometimes it's all just a little too hectic. As I said earlier, when I began renting the shuttle, the crew wasn't many - Subaru-san and Kamui-san came afterwards, and Syaoran-san and Sakura-chan before them. Actually, Kurogane came across Syaoran-san accidentally; he was passing by when he was thrown out of an engineering workshop. Syaoran-san realised they were working for a high ranking crime lord and refused to fix something. He has an admirably strong sense of right and wrong, Syaoran-san. It's really no wonder Sakura-chan ended up with him. Anyway, I think the only reason Kurogane offered him a place on the crew was because he found out that he had talent and nowhere else to go, so, as you may know; around here, you take whatever you can get."
Tomoyo paused, taking a deep sip of her tea, smiling brightly at her eager listener when she began again.
"If you look close enough, it's easy to tell Kurogane's grown attached to his crew, even if he only took them in because he needed people and they needed a home. But… after Syaoran-san had been invited on board, it was about a week later that Kurogane found Sakura-chan. Needless to say he wasn't very impressed when he went looking for his new engineer only to find a pregnant woman in Syaoran-san's cabin instead."
Tomoyo chuckled softly to herself, cupping her white mug of lukewarm tea in her palms.
"It was only afterwards that Syaoran-san found out Sakura-chan would have been eligible to stay as she had some knowledge on first aid. We received the twins after them, so now Sakura-chan's just helping out where she can. Even if she couldn't do anything, I don't think Kurogane would have the heart to leave her out. He's a lot softer than he looks. Not that one would think too much of finding that side, given his temper. One would think he'd be better at controlling it, given he's a swordsman."
"Kurogane-san can wield a sword?"
"Yes! And very well too. He's quite traditional, oddly. It's the same with Doumeki-san; he's an archer. I think that may be the reason Doumeki-san was the first of Shoujiki's crew, aside from her captain. It's interesting how you wouldn't pick them for being ones to prefer so-called 'obsolete' weaponry. It comes across as quite a shock to some. Like yourself."
Tomoyo smiled gracefully at Himawari as she nodded in embarrassment. "I honestly never would have guessed it. But it is intriguing."
"Yes indeed." The seer brought a finger to her lips thoughtfully, browsing through her vast recollection to try and find yet another interesting portion of information for the other to soak up.
"Oh! And the twins; as it turns out, may not truly be twins. They have different last names; Kamui-san's being Shirou and Subaru-san's being Sumeragi. Although, with all the time they spent together and how they interact, they certainly act like twins. They said that they'd been travelling together for a long time, going from planet to planet by different vessels. Subaru-san once told me that they'd stayed on Ariel for a few years, where he practiced in the field of medicine. It really isn't a surprise they came across our Shoujiki. They were only planning to travel with us for a few weeks, but Subaru-san said he became attached to her, as well as her crew. He told us he didn't want to leave, and Kurogane had said that they could stay as long as he at least offered medical assistance. Kamui-san, being who he is, didn't really care, because they'd still be travelling."
Beaming, Himawari finished off her tea, sunny grin still prominent on her features. "I like it here too. I may have only just arrived, and may not have been able to talk to every one just yet, but I feel welcomed anyway. It's a warm feeling. Both you and Watanuki-kun are great to chat with!"
The two jumped in surprise as several bangs proceeded to sound through one of the corridors just beyond the kitchen, Tomoyo shaking her head slowly.
"Speaking of Watanuki-kun… I think if he stomped any louder down the corridor he could pass off as an elephant." Tomoyo chuckled behind a pale hand as the chef stormed into the kitchen, muttering under his breath about ignorant pigs with stupid stoic faces.
A/N: Wow, I put in a bit more about certain characters than I was originally going to, but hey, it works~ ^ ^
Progressing into this a little faster than I thought I would, but we're still in the overview of how everyone interacts~
Aaaaaaaaaand… next chapter should be the plot's initial introduction, even if only chipping the bigger picture~ :D
Wow, Tomoyo talked a lot. ^-^""
I've done a bit of research on Firefly planets, because I definitely didn't know too much about many, and want to save Tsubasa's worlds for cities~ ^ ^ So I now have a document related to this entirely on bits of research and random ideas that will eventually be slipped into the story. Yay for reference material~ :D
I also considered making a list of all the Chinese words/phrases that the original Firefly crew used, but then I thought about how many there were. -_-'' So at the moment, that isn't happening. Besides, Kurogane swears in English anyway. Not really much point in introducing it on him, at the very least. Maybe the people they encounter.
As for the ship's name, I decided it was likely that outer planets would still use languages other than English or Chinese, so Kurogane is still Japanese speaking (because I find that sexy for some reason ^_^"""). It took me a while to find a ship name that even remotely appealed. And like how the name Serenity was important to Mal in Firefly, I wanted something that would show significance to Kurogane (and I most certainly was not going to be calling the ship Suwa or Shirasagi), but even still, I'm not too sure on it.
Never the less, the ship is now named Shoujiki (Japanese for honesty). Given Kurogane's morals and determination to speak the truth, it seemed… relatively fitting. I've spent the last (almost) week browsing whatever seemed like it would fit, and even looked through the Seven Virtues of Bushido, but figured that would be more something of a calligraphy scroll hung on a wall. ^ ^ Who knows, the name might stick well, or it may not feel completely right, but it's too late to change now. -_-
Well, anyways; reviews do make me work faster, but I won't be silly and say I won't update if I don't get any. Because I'm loving writing this and currently looking forward to hitting the plot, (regardless of the fact that I have the end of next chapter but not the beginning, even though I know exactly what's gonna happen ^_^"" I guess it's just picking the right point of time) despite that it will be gory and I have yet to find out whether or not I fail at writing that. *big grin*
Although, at least one a chapter would make me one very, very, very happy writer. (Seriously, I squee when I find out someone's left me a review. I like them especially so if I have lots to reply to. It's heaps of fun that way!)
… Wow, KuRoHiTsUzEn talks a lot. `3`"
