"Ugh," Sunny twitched."That is enough!"
On the table in the middle of Yosaku's lab, Sunny and Teppei had amassed a toppling pyramid of fresh animals and vegetables from the fields, grocery items from Sunny's Hair Shopping, plus a few processed foods from Yosaku's collection.
"Mm, thanks Sunny," Toriko said between mouthfuls. "Did you find these Log Mushrooms?"
"Yes, I did," Sunny removed his palm from his face enough to preen. "They have strong anti-bacterial properties and will keep away some of the more deletrious bacteria in the other items."
"Yum, delicious," Toriko said, not breaking eye contact from his mound of food.
For his part, Teppei hadn't felt so exhausted in a while. Even the extreme cold of Ice Hell hadn't been as exhausting as all the twists and turns in this day. His body slumped heavily in a chair. The room quieted except for Toriko's chewing.
"Hrmm," Toriko's lethargic grunt broke the haze sometime later. "So sleepy." Seconds later, his face fell into a Pudding Mushroom.
"Right," Yosaku declared. "He'll be asleep digesting for about eight hours. Teppei, Sunny, help me lift him."
Teppei rose to obey, and even though Sunny sauntered over oh-so-casually, it was clear he was obeying too. Yosaku and Sunny hefted the massive man's shoulders, and Teppei hoisted his legs. In an awkward hobble, they lifted Toriko to the Healing Jelly bed, and dropped him in.
Sunny hesitated over his sleeping companion for a second. A whisp of colored hair flicked over Toriko's face, wiping off the pudding.
"Nn, Sunny stop licking me," Toriko mumbled.
"Shut up," Sunny blushed and swiveled away.
"Heheh. Zzz."
"Not an ounce of dignity," Sunny said, mostly to himself. Although Teppei was listening, so maybe it was something he was supposed to hear too. Definitely not something to give a reaction to.
He didn't manage more than a smile and a wave when Sunny headed for the door, saying, "I'm going back to my hotel. Good luck to you two, I need beauty sleep."
The room was once again silent after the door slammed. Teppei observed Yosaku taking measurements of the sleeping Toriko. Not with any tools, of course. Yosaku wasn't big on putting anything metal between himself and his patients. His big brown hands roved over Toriko's body with a delicate precision, stopping every so often to take a pulse or measure muscle tone or one of the other many things that Yosaku was so good at on people and Teppei was mostly fluent in on creatures and plants.
"He's quite the princess," Yosaku said, attention focused on the small bud wriggling on Toriko's stump.
"Wuh, Sunny?" Teppei startled. "He's fine. He's basically a good guy."
"Still a prissy one," Yosaku said.
"Sure," Teppei smiled.
"Go to bed," Yosaku replied. Then, finally fixing his deep stare on Teppei. "Did you find a job today?"
"Nah," Teppei said.
"Then humor me and wake up at sunrise tomorrow. Oh, and cover that food."
"Yes, sir." Teppei was halfway through wrapping the whole table in clear Saran Leaves when he realized that he and Yosaku were no longer stricly Master/Apprentice and he didn't have to take any commands.
That didn't make it easier to ignore them.
Yosaku always knew best, and besides, with all the hullabaoo he'd still never had that talk with Sunny.
Nope, he wasn't headed back to the field anytime soon.
The next morning, Teppei shuffled into the kitchen softly-lit kitchen, half-awake and dressed in threadbare green pajamas that were older than some of the stains on Yosaku's wall.
Yosaku sat at the breakfast table, shoveling down oatmeal with large flowers in it. Teppei slumped into the next chair and grabbed a Milk Orange from the bowl. Through the mess of his undone hair, he could barely see Yosaku's oatmeal but knew it was stuffed with medicinal herbs and energy boosters. Always had been. Teppei preferred fruits and eggs, if they had any. Eggs, that would be good...
"Eat a burrito from the fridge," Yosaku said. "Toriko's asleep. Once he wakes up, he's going to be starving, so I don't want you banging the pots around like you always do."
"Master!"
"I don't suppose you have any Beautiful Beef?" called a voice.
Sunny cut a figure in the entry, looking impecibly dressed in his usual pink and blue garb. A large pink bag was thrown over his shoulder.
Yosaku choked into his oatmeal.
"What? You said Toriko would be awake in eight hours," Sunny glanced haughtily down at the Reviver rounding up bits of sprayed oatmeal.
"There's still a lot of food left over from yesterday," Teppei pointed out. "I wrapped it. It should be good until lunch."
"Then we've got extra time to get done early so I can get real beauty sleep tonight."
"No one's going to get much beauty sleep until Toriko's cells start to stabilize," Yosaku interjected.
"And when is that?"
"How should I know? He keeps breaking all the rules!"
"What's the bag for?" Teppei asked Sunny.
"It's an overnight bag. I checked out of the hotel. I'll be staying here."
Yosaku's eyes bugged out.
"Tep, show me to my room."
"Uh, this isn't a hotel," Teppei said, getting up to show him a room anyway.
"I am quite aware of that," Sunny said. He looked at the walls with unfettered disgust. And when they were out of Yosaku's range, "You probably couldn't charge a rat to stay here."
"If you feel that way, why are you staying here?" Teppei asked, more out of curiosity than defensiveness.
"I can't very well feed Toriko if I have to keep commuting," Sunny explained.
"Yeah, guess that's silly," Teppei said absently. He led them to one of the bedrooms down a wood-panel hall. Despite, or because it was an infirmary, the Revival Lab had a number of smaller bedrooms and did in some ways actually resembe an inn.
None of the bedrooms were actually bloodstained.
Sunny stopped in front of one, nodded, and set his bag inside. Apparently, it had met his standards.
"Now then, finish that oatmeal or whatever and I'll watch Toriko. After I see that lazy jerk wake up rested and ravenous, then we'll go out to get more food."
A/N: You never see the characters eat breakfast... Is there such a concept as "breakfast"? Obviously there is. I also think breakfast is a really individual thing in real life, so I actually put a lot of thought into what Yosaku and Teppei would eat ./ / /.