Chapter 2:

Domicile

"You took that job just to annoy me, right?" I asked him, wiping an errant hair from my face and smudging my cheek with soy sauce in the process. At least he was kind enough to stay and help clean. Or at least sit around while I cleaned. It was nice to have company.

"That's about right," he said.

"And you don't have any place to stay." It was not a question. I knew this to be true, just by knowing Mugen.

"Nope."

Well, then. I had gone two years without any sign of him, without any evidence that we knew each other at all outside of my own memories, and within one hour he had managed to completely take over my life.

"Aw, come on," he smiled, reading my thoughts, as he occasionally did. "You know you missed me."

God help me, I did.

Gengi had set me up with a tiny little two room apartment over the restaurant. It was modest, but homey. Plenty big enough for one person, and it even had a little area for cooking. He thought it was only fair considering I was his only waitress, and that he couldn't really afford to pay me properly. Plus, I think he sort of took a shine to me. People are always taking shines to me. I still have not figured out how I feel about that. Or what that means.

But if it resulted in a free apartment, I was content to accept it for now. Mugen certainly didn't mind. He made himself right at home, cat-like, on the floor of my sitting room. I decided I would keep this little tidbit from Gengi. I didn't want him to feel like I was taking advantage. Even though I was, I did not want him to feel that way.

I expected Mugen's presence to be a great inconvenience but in truth, I soon began to like having him there.

I liked tripping over him when I got up in the morning, and I liked hearing him rustle around at night. I didn't like it so much when I heard him pissing in my tea kettle, but I liked that I got him to go out and buy (steal) me a new one as a result. It was nice.

Though, it did take some getting used to. He tended to disappear after our shifts a few times a week, and then come back early in the morning all wired and jumpy. I'd hear him tapping out little rhythms on the floor with his knuckles or doing these spastic little katas. He seemed annoyed that he always woke me at first. I think partly because he felt bad and partly because he didn't want to deal with me. But once he accepted the fact that I was going to be an early riser as long as he was coming in late, he almost seemed to look forward to it. In fact, if I didn't wake up, he always managed to knock a pot over or trip over himself in most dramatic fashion. "Oh. You're up."

Then I'd make tea.

"Ya' know caffeine doesn't bother me?" he said once. "I can drink a whole kettle of that shit and go right to sleep." He seemed proud of this. Mugen: Tougher than Caffeine.

Sometimes we'd just sit and drink tea and not say anything to each other. And sometimes, if he were particularly high strung, we'd talk about everything. "I watched two birds do it."

"Yeah?" I smiled.

"Yeah. It was lame. The guy bird, at least, it probably was the guy. He had this whole dance. He was bobbin' around and flappin' his wings and just struttin' around like he was the shit. The girl bird seemed unimpressed. Like, who is this joker, you know?"

"Oh, I know."

"And he gets done doin' this whole routine, right? Like he was practicing this for days. And then finally, he gets up behind her and its like, bang, bang, bang and then done. And then he just flies away. It was like, three seconds. Tops. All that song and dance shit for three seconds of action. And the girl bird was just still sittin' there. All like, 'I shaved my legs for that?' It was so lame."

I nodded, taking that entire visual in. "I saw two turtles doing it once," I offered.

"Sweet."

The only thing it seemed we didn't talk about was our trip. And by default, Jin. I approached the subject one time during our shift, the one time I knew I had him trapped.

"Why you askin' about him for?" he grumbled.

"I was just wondering if you've heard from him."

"Nope."

I rolled my eyes. "And that's it?"

"I haven't heard from him. Just like you haven't. And that's it."

"Why are you getting so defensive?"

"I am not getting…whatever you said. I just haven't heard from him. Now, if you'd please shut up," he said, attempting formality as he hurled a sake glass at our burliest patron.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" the customer boomed, over the sound of breaking glass.

"I have a fight to break up." Bam, biff.

He was totally lying. I just hoped it was, "Me and Jin had a lover's spat and now I'm being a baby about it" lying. If it was, "Something happened to him and I don't want to upset the dumb broad" lying…well. I didn't want to think about that.