Trust was a strange thing. Until he'd seen the falcon laying at Sunny's feet, Teppei hadn't known that he'd trusted Sunny.

Teppei excused himself to the back rooms after unloading his sack at the lab, but felt unable to rest. So now here he was, wandering around town with an unexpected heartache.

Had he really trusted Sunny in the first place? He'd explicitly shown Sunny only the Slug Dragons, glazing over the topic of "larger prey." He'd forced Sunny to catch rabbits and things the man considered untouchable. He could have mentioned not to kill the endangered birds, but he didn't.

Maybe, sometimes he didn't talk enough.

But Sunny was one of the Four Kings, shouldn't he have known about the endangered status? Although Zebra hadn't seemed to care...

Teppei sighed.

They weren't in Ice Hell anymore. Maybe it was time to remember that Gourmet Hunters and Revivers were on different sides.

By the time Teppei wandered back, it was nightfall. Yosaku was puttering around a few of his other projects. Toriko was still eating at a rabid pace, but the table was relatively full of the food Teppei had gathered, and the pungent odor of Slug Dragon wafted in from the storage area.

"Master," Teppei said, squatting down near Yosaku's work area. "You're friends with the president of the IGO, right?"

As usual, Yosaku intuited the problem. "Did that Gourmet Princess do something to get you down?"

"Yeah," Teppei sighed. "How do you be friends with someone who undoes the work you do?"

Yosaku turned to his former apprentice. "You love your grandpa Jiro, don't you? Does it upset you that he goes around killing things?"

"Hrmmm," Teppei rubbed the side of his nose.

"You love him not because of what he does, but because of who he is to you," Yosaku asserted.

"Is that different?"

"Not always" Yosaku grinned. "But admiring a trait, or even a living thing isn't the same as one person's relationship with another."

"That isn't helping at all, Master."

"Sure it is! I've got a hunch everything's going to work out just fine."

"Your hunches are always right, but I sure don't get it this time."

That night, Sunny suddenly appeared in the doorway.

"I'm going to sleep," Sunny announced.

"Right!" said Yosaku. "Teppei, make sure he's got stuff for the bed."

it took a second to respond. "I think he can figure it out..."

"No whining! Just do it!"

Teppei scooted off in the direction of the living quarters. Sunny followed behind, an akward tension smothering their words. The linen cabinet had an assortment of odd blankets. Teppei chose the pinkest one and the warmest one and some sheets that still looked half decent. Ones that probably hadn't been used as bandages, at least.

"You do have a sense of style after all," Sunny commented.

"Huh?" Teppei looked down at the pile of fabric in his hand.

"They coordinate... Don't tell me, you didn't do that on purpose?"

"I don't think so," Teppei laughed nervously.

Sunny smiled. It looked a bit pinched, but then with his sharp features everything looked a bit hawkish. "I'm sorry about this afternoon, Tep. It wouldn't be very beautiful of me to hunt endangered species in a country like Life."

The apology felt warm and real. Teppei hadn't realized it, but honesty was also so Sunny.

"I wouldn't have really arrested you," Teppei replied.

"And we're forgiven," Sunny said, winking.

Teppei hesitated.

"Or not. Well, anyway, I know you can arrest people like me. You arrested Zebra." Sunny got a little grin on his face again. "What was he like?"

"Uh, big."

"Ha ha! Yes! That hulking oaf doesn't deserve any sort of eloquent description!"

"He looked kind of...accepting."

"Accepting?!"

"Yeah. Like he wanted to be arrested. Or didn't mind it. I've arrested a lot of poachers and criminals in my life and this was one of the few times that the criminal accepted what was happening. Like he was owning up to all the charges instead of trying to run from them."

"Oh, well that hubris does sound like Zebra."

Teppei thought Sunny was being a bit gossipy about the whole thing. Yet from what he understood, the Four Kings were kind of like brothers. If he'd spent less time growing up around old men, maybe he'd understand.

"Well, thanks for the sheets," Sunny slid them from Teppei's hands. "I'll set them up myself. See you in the moring, Tep."

"Night," he said belatedly. The hall felt strangely empty and himself rather buzzy.

A/N: I wish we could get a glorious flashback that records in pornographic detail Teppei/Yosaku's capture of Zebra. Of all the many flashbacks I'd like to see (more kid!Kings! Jiro and Setsuno! Acacia and Froese!) that one totally tops the list. It would include all of my favorite kinks, such as bossy Yosaku, Zebra losing, and Teppei...well, Teppei in general.