Hero For Hire
Cap'n Couri
Dislaimer: I don't not not own Samurai Champloo
Chapter 3: Adjustments.
Over the next few days everyone had to make adjusments. Fuu, perhaps, had little to adjust too, and certianly there was nothing unpleasant about having a girl with her, a warm, friendly girl who hugged Fuu often, a girl she could gossip with. Fuu thought of Raharu like a big sister. She especially didn't object to Raharu's hunting skills, which helped fill her stomache on a number of occassions. Fuu liked Raharu best when the boys snuck off to satisfy their lust for the bottel and the brothel, nights where Raharu and Fuu would sit up around the fire, Beau's sleeping soundly at Raharu's feet, and just talk. Sometimes they even drank a bit, but most of the time, they got drunk off of their own laughter.
"Who do you like better, Mugen or Jin?" Fuu asked one night, this night sake was involved, and it bit her cheeks till they were a pleasant pink.
"Both of them are unfriendly, out of the group I suppose I like you best." Raharu said, pinching Fuu on the cheek, deepening the pink tint.
"But which one do you find more attractive?" Fuu giggled. She had often considered the question herself and could never come to a simple awnser, she was glad to finally have someone to talk with about it.
Raharu looked confused for a second, then disheartened. "Oh, I don't know Fuu," she said and shrugged, "I suppose... well if you have to have an awnser." She bit her lip and looked up at the heavens as if asking for help. "Mmmhm... Jin. Mugen's too...rougish. And he picks his nose too much." Fuu giggled, kicking her feet in a frenzy of girlish hysterics. If Jin and Mugen were there she'd be too embaressed to squeal and giggle as she was, but at that moment it didn't matter, it was just her and Raharu. Her bestfriend. She suddenly realized why the girls in her village seemed so attached to one another. There was this bond that formed between two girls, she thought, that only two girls can share, no third's or fourth's. No boys allowed.
"Now you."
"What?"
"Which one do you find attractive?"
"Well, I don't know..." Fuu whinned, "I don't wanna..."
"No fair," Raharu said, grabbing Fuu in a headlock, rubbing her knuckles into her scalp. "I told you."
"Okay, okay. I guess I think they're both attractive!" Fuu squealed, "But in diffrent ways."
"How so?"
"Well, Mugen is kinda wild, you know? Like, when ever I think of him in that way, it's always because I find him thrilling or exciting, like being with Mugen could be the greatest adventure, or mistake of my life, and thats..breath taking. Like a never ending adventure. But I know he'd never care or anything, so the romantic adventure is kinda shot, but when I daydream he isn't like that at all. Jin. Well Jin is kind of the Fairy Tale prince, whenever I think of Jin I think of getting married, having kids. I think of holding hands, and kissing under the stars.." Fuu said, not stopping to think that she was talking too much, or taking notice of her friends odd behavior.
"What about me?" she asked, giving Fuu an odd look. Fuu sometimes saw it Mugen's eyes when she talked to Jin, and had to wonder what it was exactly.
"You?" she asked, not sure how she was suppose to respond to a question like that, "You make me feel like I'm a little kid again. Like I can laugh." The older girl seemed content with this, and grabbed Fuu around the neck, grinding her knuckles into Fuu's head.
"You make me feel like I'm at home too."
Fuu had adjusted. She had adjusted to Raharu's odd way of walking, which resembled Mugen's in a way. Sometimes if Fuu watched Raharu walk from behind, she'd swear she looked like a man. She'd adjusted to Raharu's crude way of spitting, and smoking pipes full or tabacco, and sitting with her legs open. All of these things were apart of Raharu, and she had grown quite attached to her. These things just had to be accepted.
Mugen had the hardest time adjusting to her, and her dog. They were always in the way when he had thought of particularly cruel joke or thing to say to her. She was loud, and agrivating, and commanded all of Fuu's attention. All of the time. He couldn't pin down what exactly pissed him off the most about her. Fuu didn't nag him whenever he went off to fufill his needs at some brothel, infact, she seemed to encourage it, a fact that should have pleased Mugen, but just suceeded in pissing him off more. She no longer needed, or valued his company. She didn't have to seek him out everytime she felt like talking, (holding a conversation with Jin was about as interesting as holding a conversation with a deaf-mute,) now that she could talk to another girl, and not get verbally abused every other sentence. And the girl talk- Oh the never ceasing chatter of the female sex- he could hardly stand it! They were always sharing some secret that he and Jin weren't allowed in on. Granted, Jin most likely didn't care to be let in on it, but it infuriated Mugen everytime their voices dropped a notch, and the next minute they'd burst out laughing. So much so he was tempted to cut the bitche's head off and take back the little friendship he and Fuu had shared. If you could really consider their constant quarrels as friendship...and she loved Fuu! Mugen could see it, and Fuu loved her too, granted, not in the way Mugen suspected Raharu to love, but still.. Raharu had become Fuu's friend. Fuu's dear friend. Fuu's best friend. A place Mugen could never hold, and would never hold. He'd never get to make Fuu laugh as easy as she did, and he didn't know why it bothered him but it did. She had changed the dynamics of their group, and Mugen didn't like it.
Jin was happy Fuu had found someone she could talk to, even if he had to adjust to the obnoxious laughter, and her uncouth way of smoking, picking her nose, adjusting her underwear, snorting when she laughed, cussing, her untraditional men-clothes, the list went on and on. She reminded her of Mugen, and he was afraid he'd rub off on Fuu. She was very impressionable, and Jin could only guess that Fuu hadn't had a large female influence in her life. A lady just shouldn't act that way. Not at all. He wouldn't admit that he missed the way Fuu looked to him for support, or that it bothered him that when ever she was frightened, she now hid behind Raharu instead of clutching to his back in that oh-so-charming damsel in distress way. If anything, Raharu made him appreciate Fuu's more lady-like quallitys. Sure, Fuu wasn't the most girly girl around, but atleast she dressed appropriatley, didn't act like a boarish man, didn't spit, pick her nose, wield a man's sword, snort, burp. She combed her hair, she groomed herself, blushed, smelled like flowers, pouted... the list went on and on as well, where before Raharu came, Jin thought Fuu was the most uncouth girl he met. Oh-how Raharu had changed his mind. Now Fuu looked like a blessing, a drink of water in a never ending drought. He didn't mind Raharu so much. Not so much as Mugen. And he found ways to distract himself when Fuu clung to her arm during moments of intense terror when they hear something in the bushes, or approach a roudy group of young men, the smelly, hairy rude type Fuu is so use to being kidnapped by.
In battle, Raharu was almost as useless as Fuu, except she always managed to drag Fuu out of harms ways. Sure, her arrows, when she was far enough away, always hit their mark, and sure she kept food on the table with her hunting skills, but Mugen and Jin regarded her as just another distraction. Mugen made several cruel remarks about it from time to time, but before Raharu could ever respond, Fuu always stated simply that Raharu serves her purpose.
"What purpose is that?" Mugen would sneer in their direction, nearly every time. It seemed Mugen could just never keep his mouth shut.
"She keeps me company." Fuu would shrug, "She keeps me feeling safe when you two are gone." After this Raharu would make this or that face in Mugen's direction, mocking him, and Mugen chuck a rock- or some food- or a shoe-or anything that was withing his reach at Raharu's head. Sometimes she ducked in time, sometimes she didn't. This was the routine they had fallen into, but no matter what bruises or bumps Mugen left on Raharu's head, he always ended up the worse for it, as Fuu snubbed him more and more each time, and Raharu took up more of Fuu's attention. It had come to the extremes that Mugen had tried filling up the empty space by talking- even trying to tease- Jin. It wasn't the same of course. Jin was above responding, and even if he did, they'd always end up in another duel. There was no "cute" pouting, or tiny fists pounding on Mugen's chest. There was no flustered tripping or glaring- nothing that gave Mugen the rush of teasing Fuu. Fuu held, and would always hold, the place of Mugen's favourite target. Lets face it, any other broad that talked to him like that, would have got the shit kicked out of her, maybe even killed. Fuu had grown on Fuu, like an unwanted appendage, or a boil. But Mugen held no special place in Fuu's life. Raharu now occupied every inch of it. He even hated the way Fuu pet his dog.
He hated it most of all when Fuu tended Raharu's wounds, meager as they were, and if Jin and Mugen didn't have a wound that required direct attention right away, Raharu was always tended to first! Granted, Raharu let her tend to her wounds easier than Mugen did, and was more grateful then either of them but- GOD DAMMIT, he needed attention too! He needed someone to worry about him like she use to. Even if he wouldn't admit it. Even if he didn't submit to it. It had grown on him, and now that bitch was taking it away. Mugen felt like the middle child. Niether the maturest member of the familly, or the most doted on. It was like Fuu was their mother, caring for a new baby, while Mugen pulled at her apron like a toddler desperate for attention. And damn Jin. Damn him for taking it so easily. Damn him for letting it happen. Damn him for not joining in when Mugen complained, leaving Mugen to pout alone in the corner. Damn him, damn him, damn him! It was enough to make Mugen spit, and curse, or even leave. But he couldn't leave, fearing to loose the little connection he still had. But he'd never admit that. Never in a million years.
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A.N. Thanks evvverybody for the reviews. Am I still doing alright? I was told that my sentences need work, lacks flavor. Could be, but I don't know how to fix it. My language is stiiiiiiffffff.
I got a job, Mc donalds, blah. So I might have to work on this less between the job and wild, sexy parties.
Shh.. yeah.. I wish I had wild sexy parties... Who am I fooling.
