Okay, so... another chapter.
Realized that writing this story has been fueling my desire to finish my other story. I might be writing two at the same time in the near future, which means alternating between this one and the Waywalker. But first I have to catch this story up to how many chapters are in the WW. Waywalker = prologue + 5 chapters. After that, I'll be alternating between the two. One update for one up date.
Anyway, read and review. Tell me whatcha think.
Bus Stop Shenanigans
Ren and I moored the Unagi to port, leaving Naomi and Oswald to look after the castaway. After some thought, that was probably a bad idea, leaving a five year old and talking otter to tend to a man who had just been hit by a medium sized ship and possibly disoriented. But I didn't really have time to care about the consequences of such a minor action. And they wouldn't be left alone very long.
Once the ropes were secure at the ship safe, I led Ren back up the gangplank and we stood over Mr. Driftwood.
"We should take him to the police." Ren suggested. "Two birds, one stone."
"And if the cops don't know who he is? What are they gonna do?" I asked. "Nothing. So we might as well save ourselves the hassle of dragging Sleeping Beauty over here all the way down there."
"Should we call the dock master?" Ren asked.
"He's funny." Naomi giggled, sitting on top of the towels and tickling the poor man's nose. "Can we keep him?"
"No, Naomi. He's not a stray panda pug. We can't keep him." I scowled.
"Awww." Naomi whined. "He could be our big brother! I always wanted one."
"He's someone else's brother, Badgermole." Ren said, crossing her arms. "He has a family that's probably worried about him."
"Can we at least wait until he wakes up?" She pleaded. "I want to know his name."
"How about no." I said, walking back over to the gangplank. "We ask the dock maestro if anyone's missing a meathead and deal with it, whatever it happens to be."
Mr. Driftwood snored loudly, then mumbled something under his breath.
"What'd he say?" Ren asked.
"Aura?" Naomi asked, leaning closer to the guy's mouth. "Repeat that, please?"
Another mumbled name, louder this time.
"What?" I asked.
"He said Korra." Naomi said, straightening.
"As in the Avatar?" Ren asked, turning to me with a raised eyebrow.
"What the hell you lookin' at me fo'?" I asked, giving her an exaggerated shrug. "Do I look like a phone book to you?"
"No. But it's a lead." Ren said, walking past me toward the gangplank. "I'm gonna go call Councilman Tenzin. He could send a car to pick him up."
"How the hell does a seven year old know so much about goddamn politics?" I grumbled, sitting next to Mr. Driftwood. Newt flew over with my memory sketchbook and my pouch of color fragments. "What? Want me to make you something?"
She turned a light shade of pink.
"Of him?" I jerked my thumb at the castaway.
Newt nodded vigorously.
I huffed, trying not to laugh. "Sorry sweetie, but your boyfriend isn't getting in my book. He's not someone I need to remember."
She turned yellow.
"Okay, you have point. If I run into him again, it'd be better to know his face." I sighed, turning to a new page. "But I'm putting him down as Driftwood, got it?"
Ren came back with a very sour face on.
"Didn't go through?" I asked, shading in the simple black and white profile.
"The operator said prank calls were going to be reported to the police." Ren pouted, sitting angrily next to me. "There goes our lead."
"We could call a taxi." Naomi smiled.
"No. Money. For. Taxi." I said curtly. "We broke as shit."
"Then we have to at least carry him inland. At least until we run into a bus stop." Ren said. "We're obligated, since we're the ones that hit him."
"True fucking shit." I grumbled, rubbing my eyes. "Why did this have to happen to us? We were suppose to be in and out, no troubles."
"If you haven't noticed yet, we kind of attract trouble." Ren said.
"Yeah, like some fairy groin." Naomi said, playing puppet with Driftwood's arms.
"Pheromone." I corrected, laughing. "It's pheromone. Do you even know what a groin is?"
"That's where you kick when a scary guy tries to talk to you." Naomi beamed.
"Where'd you learn that?" I asked.
"Daddy." She smiled. "He said that Mommy did that to him when they first met by accident."
I laughed so hard I nearly fell over. Ren rolled her eyes and walked over to her sister and the castaway.
"Naomi and I will get his feet, you get his shoulders." She instructed, pulling the snoozing man's feet from under the towels.
I huffed in irritation, but stood anyway. I wanted this bum off my boat as soon as possible. I grabbed his shoulders roughly, but underestimated his weight and nearly unhinged my arm.
"Gah!" I grunted. "What the hell does this guy eat? Rocks?"
"How should we know?" The sisters said in unison.
It was almost comical, the way we dragged Mr. Driftwood down the gangplank. I led, followed by the girls, who could barely hold up his legs. Naomi couldn't even wrap her arms around his thigh.
We staggered out onto the main sidewalk, with it's surprising lack of city-goers trampling across it's pavement, and walked toward the nearest bus stop. We sat him at the bench, with awkward precision, and I turned to leave.
"What are you doing?" Ren asked.
"Um, going home?" I said. "We got him to the station."
"We have to watch him! Make sure no one steals his money." Ren said. "Honestly, don't you have common decency?"
"Honestly?" I mocked. "I don't give two shits."
"You were pretty worried when you hit him with your boat." She pointed out, sticking an accusatory finger at me.
"Because he could have died!" I exclaimed. "Now he's in no harm."
"There are Triad members that could hurt him." Naomi said. "We should watch him until the bus comes."
"Fine. But we are not getting on the bus with him." I ordered. "We still have shit to do back on the Unagi."
"Fine, fine." Ren waved her hand dismissively. "Besides, if anyone's looking for him, they would have to come through here."
I sat down with a huff next to Mr. Driftwood and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
"Oh my fucking god!" I exclaimed after two hours of nothing but sitting around. "When is the bus getting here?"
"Maybe it broke?" Naomi shrugged.
"They could have discontinued this stop." Ren lazily replied.
"Holy flying fuck!" I yelled, jumping to my feet and slapping both of hands on my forehead to keep from punching something. "Now what're we gonna do?"
"I can't believe we lost him!" Some guy exclaimed.
The three of us turned to stare at the Satomobile across the street, right in front of us. Three people were sitting inside, arguing about who was to blame for the mishap that had befallen them.
"Asami's the one who wanted to go for a boat ride to begin with." One of the girls, a Water Tribesman, huffed with arms crossed.
"You were the one driving, Korra. And both of us were telling you to slow down." The other girl, prettier and wearing expensive city clothes, retorted.
I didn't really pay attention to them after the name Korra slipped out. Telling Ren and Naomi to stay put, I walked over to the Satomobile.
Plastering a fake, polite smile on my face, I approached the driver's side door. "Um, excuse-"
"How many times do I have to tell you that I don't know how to drive?" The Korra girl argued, frowning.
"Then why did you jump at the chance?" The boy in the backseat exclaimed.
"Uh, hello?" I said, deflated.
"Oh!" The Asami girl noticed me and smiled politely, the other two busying themselves with their argument. "Thank you, but I don't need my windows washed."
I stared at her, my mind slowly splitting into an angry frustration. Keep calm. Keep calm. Keepcalmkeepcalmkeepcalmkeep calm.
"Uh, I'm not-"
She turned back to the others, who were starting to become volatile. I felt a vein in my forehead pop with rage.
"Screw it." I mumbled. "Fight fire with fire, right?" I slammed my hand against the hood, silencing everything, and took a huge gasp of air. "DID YOU THREE ASSHOLES LOSE AN IDIOT?"
I waved my other hand at the bus stop, where Naomi and Ren were trying to keep Driftwood's head upright. It kept lolling backwards and the movement had thrown the bum off balance. He slowly drooped toward Naomi and eventually toppled over on her. Ren laughed, but wasn't able to rescue her sister.
"BO!" The three exclaimed.
TheAsami girl floored the gas pedal and I was forced to grab onto the driver's door to keep from being sideswiped into the street. She yanked the wheel sharply, parallel parking in front of the bus stop. Afraid that she would do some other crazy shit with the car, I immediately hopped off and ran around to roll the castaway off of Naomi.
"What happened to him?" The young man asked, jumping out and hurrying to Driftwood's side. He had oddly shaped eyebrows as well. They reminded me of dolphin seals.
"He got hit by our boat." Naomi said cheerfully.
"What?" Mr. Eyebrows turned to glare at me. "You hit my brother with a boat!"
"Eh he he." I chuckled nervously. "Sort of an accident. Wasn't exactly expecting someone out in the middle of the ocean."
Eyebrows glared at the Korra girl, who glared back in defiance.
"But hey!" I said, plastering on a fake smile. "You found him, he's not dead, and you can move on with your life! No need to shove blame at each other."
"But you really shouldn't be going that fast in fishing waters." Ren said, picking up her little sister. "Our friend, Oswald was diving out there and nearly got clipped by you guys."
"Ren." I hissed. "Stop stirring the pot."
"No, you're right." The Asami girl said, stepping forward. "We're sorry. I promise it won't happen again."
"Okay." I said, straightening and brushing my pants off. "I'm glad we were able to find you. Hope your brother doesn't catch a cold."
"Thanks for taking care of him." Asami replied. "And sorry about mistaking you for a window washer earlier."
"It's fine." I shrugged.
There was an awkward pause as she stared at me and I stared back, wondering if I could leave.
"Um… Did you want something else?" I asked.
"Just your names." She smiled. "So we can tell Bo when he wakes up."
"No need." I said, shaking my hands in front of me. "I don't plan on staying in the city too long."
"Really?" Asami pouted. "But I'm sure Bolin would want to know who saved him. And we would like to thank you properly."
I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck, studying the ground with anxiety. "You can just call me Captain. The little shits do."
"We're crew mates one and two." Ren said, resting her arm on top of her sister's head and leaning to one side. "Names aren't really important."
The Korra girl chuckled. I wasn't quite sure if it was in a mocking way, or if she generally found Ren's humor entertaining. "Nice to meet you."
"I'm Asami Sato." She waved her hand at the young man who had placed his brother in the back seat. "That's Mako, he's Bolin's brother."
"And I'm Korra." She introduced herself. "I'm-"
"The Avatar?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Recognized me, huh?" She smiled.
"Nope. Never seen a picture of you in my life." I said. "Crew mate number one has, though." I looked between her and Mako. A thin red line connected them together at the fingers. "You two dating?"
Mako blushed and Korra smiled sheepishly.
"That's a yes then." I mumbled, turning toward Mako. "And your Drift- I mean… Bolin, right? Yeah. You're Bolin's brother?"
"Yeah. Did he say something?" Mako asked, frowning in worry.
"No, no." I said, waving off the suggestion. "He hasn't woken up once since we found him. I just… read people. I guess." I shrugged. "Well, better be going. Got work to do."
"Okay. Thank you again for helping Bolin." Asami smiled.
I nodded, then spread my arms out and brought them swirling back to my center, but not clasping them together. "The Spirits watch over you." I bowed, my hands remaining in there position at my abdomen.
Ren and Naomi did the same, "The Spirits watch over you."
We walked away, Naomi and Ren waving goodbye to the band of heroes. I couldn't stop thinking about how Driftwood had said the Avatar's name, or how his brother was dating her.
Maybe I was coming down with something.