Two days later…
"What exactly is this?" Hisoka asked, scowling at the test tube in his hand with a skeptical look on his face.
The test tube was about half-full of a clear liquid.
"It's a special, secret cocktail!" Watari explained with a wink. "Just afew things I mixed up… it should decrease his inhibitions and increase his psychic abilities. Add a little magic to throw in some of YOUR abilities… and voila! It's perfect!"
"And you're sure this is going to work?" asked a not-very-convinced teenager.
"Of course, it will!" said Watari cheerfully.
The boy looked at him flatly.
"Oh, come on. When have any of my potions failed?" asked the scientist in his most innocent tone.
Hisoka rolled his eyes. "Um… well, let me see… not counting all the times you blew up the lab… how about that time when you turned Tsuzuki's hair pink, or when you turned us into kids? Or when you made Wakaba so hyper that she made 400 muffins in one day, or that time when you made the toaster come alive? Or when you actually turned me into a FLIPPING BUNNY?!"
Watari was completely unfazed by the teenager's rant. He just shrugged and smiled his brightest, most sunny smile.
"Nah. Those were experiments, but this was a straightforward recipe." He held up the test tube proudly. "This one can't fail!"
Hisoka snatched it away, took a dropper and added one drop of the fluid to his own water glass.
"Somehow, that makes me trust you less," he muttered. "I won't let Tatsumi take this unless I know it's okay…"
Quickly, he downed the glass of water. He waited afew seconds.
"Well, it hasn't turned me into a bunny yet, so that's a start," he grumbled.
"I told you!" insisted the scientist childishly. He shoved his gold hair out of his face and tied it up with a ribbon. "How are you feeling?"
Hisoka nodded slowly, running his tongue over the roof of his mouth.
He was starting to sense a slight increase in his own abilities… it felt like a prickling sensation all around him. There was a certain clarity in what he could sense, an ease of reaching out, and an increase in range of his empathy.
"Yeah…" he said slowly. "I think… it's good…"
"Yay! It's going to work!" Watari cheered.
"And it's not going to hurt him?" the younger shinigami insisted.
Watari beamed at him confidently. "Nah… it will be just like getting drunk. He will probably have a headache later, but it would be like a hangover!"
Green eyes stared at him, unimpressed.
"Okay, first of all, I've never seen Tatsumi drunk, and secondly, hangovers aren't fun. I've seen what Tsuzuki goes through…"
Watari looped his arm over the teen's narrow shoulders. "Come on. This will be good for him. You know how uptight he is! If we don't do something to help, they will never fall in love!"
Hisoka pushed his long, sandy-coloured bangs out of his face and sighed. "You're right. I'll make the tea."
Ten minutes later…
"No, Watari-san, I have not finished reviewing your grant requests."
Tatsumi's low, smooth voice was firm.
Watari was standing in his office with a cup of tea in one hand and a stack of papers in another.
"Please, Tatsumi-san, can you just approve one or two so I can get started?" begged the blonde man, doing his best imitation of Tsuzuki's puppy-dog eyes.
It didn't work. The secretary merely shifted his glasses higher on his nose with two fingers and levelled an ice-cold stare at the scientist.
"Contrary to popular belief, Watari-san, money does not grow on trees. The funding available to the Ministry is finite, and there are only so many ways I can re-arrange the numbers… a number of ways, which are drastically reduced by Tsuzuki's food expenditures and the innumerable times that I have had to reimburse damages to your laboratory caused by your carelessness. Honestly, people would have to ask me for money less often if they simply learned how to spend it responsibly in the first place."
Tatsumi delivered his lecture calmly with his hands folded, piercing blue eyes gazing directly at the man on the other side of his desk.
Watari sighed and gave up. He knew Tatsumi wouldn't budge.
"Okay, okay," he relented. "Take your time. Here, I brought you some tea."
He set the teacup and saucer down on the desk. Long fingers reached out and pushed the teacup away.
"No," said Tatsumi firmly. "I know better than to accept any sort of beverage from you."
Gold eyes widened with pretend-insult, even though Watari had secretly counted on this reaction. "You don't trust me?!" he whined.
"Not at all. Kurosaki-kun?"
(Hisoka walked in front of the office door and had just stepped into the secretary's view.)
"If it's not too much trouble, would you be so kind as to bring me a cup of green tea?" Tatsumi asked politely.
Hisoka nodded. "No problem, Tatsumi-san," he answered.
When he returned, he was holding the teacup that Watari had prepared earlier… the one containing both green tea and the potion.
"Thank you very much, Kurosaki-kun," Tatsumi said with a very slight smile and a nod, taking the teacup and saucer with one hand while continuing to write with the other hand.
"Do you need anything else?" asked Hisoka. He felt nervous.
"No, that will be all," he replied calmly. "Watari-san, if you want any of those idiotic projects approved, then please leave my office. I need to redo the budget, again."
He took a sip of his tea.
Hisoka and Watari glanced at each other and left the room. Now, all they could do was wait.