thefarshore | Heaven's BBS

Heaven's BBS | Video

[Hello, this is Souji leaning in close toward the camera with an intensely thoughtful expression.]

So! I have a really important question.

[He's clearly thinking very seriously about it, whatever it is. So it's probably pretty important, right?

Wait for it.

Waaaait.]

Do you think kittens would get along well with ducks?

[Yeah.]

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[Okay, this is important enough to interrupt his Quiet Morning Tea Time over.]

No.

[There. Settled, yes?]

[Okay, if Hijikata thinks he can win this with a Firm Voice then... he's just wrong. So wrong.]

So, does that mean "no, they wouldn't get along" or just... "no" in general?

[Asking innocently because look, miser, he's not putting up with the latter.]

[Hijikata stares at Souji's image on the screen for a couple of moments, calculating. His eyes, narrowed nearly to slits, are dark, sharp, forbidding...]

[At length, and with an aggressive air of finality, he speaks.]

Both.

Edited 2017-11-30 20:31 (UTC)

[He's blushing slightly, because that look is rather attractive, but he's not going to back down just because Hijikata is doing a Thing with his face. He'd never get anything done if he did.]

But people have cats together with all kinds of animals, right? Anyway, I thought cats growing up with ducks wouldn't be too bothered by them.

[So reasonable. And yes, he's ignoring Hijikata's other "no".]

[Goddammit, Souji, please stop confusing the Serious Authority Figure to be Respected and Deferred to face with the Dark and Brooding Smolder, it makes things all kinds of complicated!]

We aren't getting a damned cat, Souji...

[He's not confusing them, Hijikata. It's just that he finds them both attractive. Duh.]

...I said "kittens".

[Yeah, you heard him.]

[. . .]

Absolutely not.

But...

[Souji swings his camera around to show a sack of rather bedraggled-looking kittens on the ground, and then his hand comes into view, gently stroking one. This brings on a storm of purring and shoving to get to his hand.]

Look at them. I don't think they've got anyone to take care of them.

[Oh, you bastard.]

There are plenty of creatures without anyone to take care of them. It's not our job to deal with them all.

[But "not my problem," whatever he's ever forced himself to say and do, is an innately difficult concept for him. Between his innate drive to defend the helpless and make things right, Souji's stupid damned puppy eyes, and the still-too-near memory of a time when there was nothing left that he could do to make him happy, there's already a pretty serious crack in his defenses, one that Souji's probably all too able to hear in his voice.]

Well, I know that.

[He can probably hear Souji roll his eyes even before he turns the camera back on himself.]

But I'm not talking about all of them. Just because there are more... Hijikata-san, I can't just leave them here. [He makes an unhappy little face.] Though apparently someone could. The sack was tied when I found it.

[Something in Hijikata's eyes shifts, just a little. Softens, maybe, but grows sadder, too, more deeply steeped in the heavy weariness that has been his burden since he was a young man.]

[He's often been called cruel. Hell, he's often been sure people are right about that, but the worst of his actions have always been heavy with purpose -- they've been tactical, or driven by revenge, or by desperation to survive or protect someone else.]

[Not just to kill something helpless, but to abandon it to a slow death? It's pointlessly cruel, and that's a way of thinking that's unnatural to him, too.]

...You've let them out now, haven't you?

[It's a token protest, honestly. His heart isn't in it at all.]

[Souji already knows he has won, he knew it the moment he saw that small shift in expression, a fundamentally gentle man's response to reckless and casual cruelty. So he's not really arguing anymore, just following the thought to its inevitable conclusion.]

I have. I was just going to do that and no more, but then I realized how little they were. [He picks up one of them, gently nuzzling the back of its head. It opens its mouth, but it doesn't appear to have learned how to meow yet.]

I don't know much cats, but I do know anything this small without a mom or dad is just going to die.

[There's a special kind of contempt that he holds for the senselessly cruel. At its root, he supposes it's a sort of jealousy, turned into resentment at someone's wastefulness.]

[It would have been nice to have the luxury of not needing to be heartless. To have that luxury and squander it? Everything about the idea sits wrong with him. It almost makes him angry with humanity, for being so willing to sacrifice something so precious for nothing.]

You couldn't find a female cat who might take them in?

I... don't actually know where to find a female cat that would be okay with suddenly being a mom. I mean... what if she doesn't want them? That would be terrible. Someone already left them, and then it turns out their new mom doesn't want them either.

[Souji doesn't remember, but Hijikata probably recalls a little boy who was given away to a dojo for his own protection, and then didn't feel wanted there either. Which might be why Souji looks so upset at the thought.]

I'm sure we can find out what they need to survive. And then when they grow up, they can probably take care of themselves. [Except probably not because Souji will spoil them, but shhh.]

[He remembers. He remembers he way he acted after he lost his parents and was sent away by his sisters, the way he used to shrink away under Hijikata's aggressive, critical gaze, small and silent, tiny shoulders hunched defensively, all the emotion shuttered out of his eyes.]

[It honestly can't be helped. At the end of the day, the situation now is that Souji's going to be upset if he doesn't let him keep them, and that he's already promised himself that he's done letting Souji suffer when he can do anything at all about it.]

...Tch.

How many are there?

[And there goes the wide eyes and delighted smile, even as the kitten in his hand twists free and starts trying to climb (clumsily) onto his head.]

Four of them. I haven't given them names yet.

[Yet.

The kitten slips and dangles from his hair.]

[Hijikata sighs, and reaches offscreen for an open pack of cigarettes.]

They're your responsibility.

[Souji makes a happy little sound, starting to disentangle the kitten from his hair.]

Thank you, Hijikata-san! I promise I'll take good care of them.

[Except those are famous last words and they both know it, and Hijikata is going to end up with kittens all over him.]

Could you come over here with a box or something? I don't really want to put them back in the sack, you know?

[They do both know it. Hijikata makes a little irritated face when Souji thanks him, lighting up his cigarette.]

There’s probably a box out behind some store or other near you, if you’re in a town...

[And the humans won’t fuss about him taking something out of the recycling.]

[Souji will just absently stick out his tongue at that irritated face, and then promptly ignore it a moment later.]

Well, yes. I just... mm, I don't want to leave them alone. What if something happens? And I don't think I can carry all four of them at once.

[Look at these big, pleading eyes Hijikata. Look at them.]

They’re small enough, I’m sure you could manage.

[But this, too, is a token argument, more meant to keep Souji from getting his way too easily than to actually stand in his way.]

They wiggle, Hijikata-san.

[Souji laughs, holding up one as an example. It does indeed wiggle and try to squirm free, and Souji ends up almost dropping it.]

Now stop being stubborn and come get me a box, okay?

Didn't I just say they're your damned problem?

[...is what he grumbles, as he gets to his feet.]

Well, yes, but I'm your problem.

[Smiling shamelessly and winking here.]

[That's just going to get a vague, grumbly noise in response.]

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