capeandcowllogs | insert weak garden pun

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insert weak garden pun

WHO: Kuwabara, Blue, the space rodent in above icon
WHERE: Hakuhaus, the garden out back
WHEN: Saturday morning/afternoonie
WARNINGS: Harmless
SUMMARY: psychic things and plants and nobody's life in grave peril for a time! go figure. hopefully keith won't suddenly be compelled to shoot a giant, planet-razing laser through it all just on principle.
FORMAT: no

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, a kind of squash...Carrots, unseen - root plants, Blue learned. He was still learning. But most of the plants that had grown and flowered in that garden bore their color above the ground to be seen, making the experience much more satisfying. Granted, Baroona did most of the work, as he knew his way around the garden much better. Anyone on Earth probably could, comparatively, as life in exile on a space ship hiding in the mountains offers little chance to growing much of anything of this nature. Blue always approached the plants tentatively; not only did he not know much outside of sunlight, water, plants weren't thinking lifeforms. He couldn't tell what was needed and when. Baroona knew, seemingly by just the way a leaf would lean, which never ceased to impress.

But he'd been reading about it, now and then, when there was enough chance for repose (rather rare lately, but even so). He had borrowed the book from the library he'd initially mistook for Lupin's place of work, and still had a few days left with it. With Ophelia's torment gone and the migraines that came with it just a memory, setting his mind to something quiet and productive did him well.

He had the book open on the ground beside him as he sat before the tomato plants, looking from the pictures to the plants themselves to compare. Rain, happy to be allowed outside, was scampering and skittering throughout, a little blue blur getting lost in the greens. Like the violence, the heat had ebbed, too, making it a pleasant day to be outside; it felt almost safe to be content. Blue was trying, at least.

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Kuwabara just wasn't going to do anything today. He refused. There'd been the riots and then that weird zombie-magic-horde thing... Yeah. He was done for the week. He was done for the month, too, and if fate would be so kind as to give him a freakin' year, bet your ass he'd take it.

He'd been taken and robbed. He'd watched what was his used as a tool without his permission. The house was way too empty, now. Baroona had still left, right? Without changing a thing. Yukina was gone... He'd been quieter, lately, and he knew that too. He didn't like complaining when it wasn't just him being an asshole. His actual troubles, shit that was just his, wasn't gonna be put on anybody.

He wanted to go home. Just... Rough season. Whatever.

He'd woken up late and was suitably groomed and only just grabbing coffee by mid-morning, and there was Soldier Blue in the garden. Conversation couldn't do any harm, right? Kuwabara shuffled into the yard with a somewhat puzzled expression, mug in hand.

"What's going on?"

Blue felt Kuwabara stirring inside, but, like music or television in another room, he was able to tune it out into the background. And it was while Blue was reading about the ripe texture of tomatoes that he became a foreground presence, grabbing his attention. He lifted his head, turning to look over his shoulder, and smiled small, as he usually did.

"Good morning," he said. Before he could explain right away, Rain burst out of one of the hedges and squeaked loudly, a childish, psychic voice sounding over top.

The food is here! Rain said.

"We are checking on the plants," Blue clarified. "They're supposed to be close to picking, so I've read." His hand rested on the book to indicate.

Kuwabara cast a bit of a surprised glance at Rain, and smiled a little because that weird thing was just so darn cute. No acknowledgement of the little exclamation, though, and his attention was soon drawn to the vegetables once Blue mentioned them.

He took a couple of steps closer, leaning to look over the plants, and he nodded approvingly. "Yeah. They look pretty good."

"Do they...?" Blue looked back down at them, reaching out to cup one in his hand. "I thought so, but I can't be sure. I've never raised plants before, let alone ones you can eat..."

"Easy enough." He wasn't sure what Blue knew about how things worked here, if he went grocery shopping for produce a lot or had sampled a lot of stuff. He'd rather not ask, though. Blue's world was always rough to hear about. He still wanted to spare the guy going back, but... That looked like a farther shot than ever. Hell.

"If you look at it and figure it looks like you might wanna eat it, you probably can. It's ready."

I want to! Rain insisted, climbing over Blue's arm and onto his lap, stretching out its nose to sniff at what was in-hand. Blue made no protest, still considering what Kuwabara had said.

"That...only works with plants?" he asked. "Or is that something you found works all the time?"

Kuwabara thought about it, brow furrowing slightly.

"I... Kinda figure it'd only work with plants. Maybe. I dunno'."

Because you could go shopping and decide that a steak looked good and you might wanna eat that, but you'd still have to cook it.

"Look. We're applying it to vegetables. Let's not make this more complicated than it has to be."

That drew a smile out of him, small still but wider than before. Kuwabara was as, if not more, blunt than Yusuke - a way that would seem harsh in some lights, but Blue could see the motivation behind it, and knew it for what it was. It reminded him of Zel, though...Kuwabara was seldom as temperamental or stubborn to extremes, as far as he'd observed.

"Alright," he conceded, a faint chuckle in his voice. He nodded, tightening his grip on the tomato and pulling until it had been plucked free. He lifted it over the mouse's head and settled it between both hands, studying it with a bit more care than a tomato probably warranted. He was trying to recall the ones he'd seen Keiko bring home before; those ones were always bigger (ah, the glory of creepy food engineering), but no less red.

"I wouldn't mind eating it, so that makes it ready." It was worth saying allowed, lesson learned. "Some of these others, too...but not all, I don't think." His head tilted as he squinted at one of the other plants. "I've never seen them eaten green before, I don't think."

"I think some people might. I never have either, though. Red means they're ripe and everything. Seems easy enough." He took another drink of his coffee, watching the little mouse-thing with mild interest. Then he smiled a little bit. "Make sure it doesn't have a worm in it or something before you take a bite. Might wanna wash it, too, but... No chemicals to worry about here, huh?"

"I would hope not," he agreed. "Baroona never has any on-hand when he tends...This is more his work than anyone's." Which made him hesitate from taking more than he already had. Baroona would hardly mind, probably, but...keeping them there gave him more reason to keep coming back. There was a pulse of worry at that, concern that would shadow him for a while to come, but Blue showed no indication of it on his face as he looked up with his invitation.

"Would you like any of it? When I cut it."

Kuwabara shrugged, frowning just slightly again and for only a moment. There might have been something there, some kind of trouble on Blue's mind, but his expression didn't seem more than pleasant enough. All right, then.

"It'll go bad if we don't eat it all or give it to somebody else who will. So sure. I'll pitch in."

With a nod, Blue began to stir, urging Rain to hop off and mull about as it pleased. It would be slow following in, obliging the last one in to open the door again just for it's sake. The book was left on the lawn, as Blue had intention to return later.

Knife and cutting board were where Keiko and Yukina typically left them, and Blue moved it all closer to the sink and soaked the tomato as he'd been advised.

"Your power seems more whole lately," he remarked as he did so, lifting his head and looking over at Kuwabara when he'd washed enough. "Does it feel that way to you?"

Without speaking further on the matter, Kuwabara simply waited for Blue to get up and followed him back inside, waiting on the mouse-thing for a moment before closing the door. While Blue went to the cutting board and the sink, Kuwabara leaned against one of the kitchen counters, setting his mug down when there was nothing left in it. One of the cats, Shizuka, was stretched out on the floor, and he poked at her playfully with his toes until Blue addressed him.

The question kind of caught him off guard. He hadn't had any big discussions about his powers and how that whole getting kidnapped mess had affected him in that sense. Again, he took a moment to try and think, reaching up to scratch his forehead. "I guess so, yeah. There was a ringing... That's gone, now."

Blue made a thoughtful sound, carefully lining up his knife against the skin of the tomato for an even, clean cut. "The things you could do before...they're all back?"

"Yeah, mostly."

He hadn't really put anything to a great test or anything. The basic sword could be summoned again, while the power for the Jigen Tou, which almost always felt just beyond his reach, felt as though it had ebbed further away. His other abilities... Well, he'd been lousy with wielding them from the beginning.

"It's harder to work, somehow, but it's there."

The first three slices were unequal in width, but Blue appeared to have gotten into the swing of things before the entire tiny fruit (/vegetable, whatever the scientific community decided it officially is) was spent. The mix of puzzling over making those slices even with thinking of ways he could be of use to Kuwabara's cause seemed to blend well enough and end with little incident; he divided the slices evenly, leaving the smallest aside.

"I wish I knew more of the way that power works," he admitted. "Or someone...in order to help you." He turned around, offering Kuwabara a share. "Are there any in this City who could?"

"Hell if I know."

Helpful, right? He's not really the kind to seek out help much less know how to do it if it came down to that. Their world was different, too. Here, there were no parallels, no spirit of demon worlds. That was how it always felt, anyway.

"It'll wake up when I need it. That's how it's always happened."

Blue lapsed into a ponderous silence as he set the knife under running water to rinse. He thought again of Remus' offer weeks prior, open and willing to lend a hand for Kuwabara's sake. He had never made mention of it before; whether or not it was place to interfere still conflicted him. Powers were so personal, and it wasn't the same as it was on the Shangri-La. The abilities of the Mu were all similar, he could easily speak from a place of experience and authority to mentor the younger. Not so in the City.

His brow began to crease, frowning with the thought, until he saw the knife unstained, glinting at him as he held it with an unsteady hand. It shook him out of his introspection, blinking a few times as he quickly turned off the water and set the knife aside. For a moment, he worried he had drifted off for too long, but not so.

Rain mewled at his feet, demanding attention (and his share).

"Ah..." Blue glanced up at Kuwabara before picking up the small piece of tomato and bending to offer it to the mouse. "I hope that remains the case," he said, almost a murmur. His volume raised as the rest of him did. "Or...that there may not be a need for it. Power to fight. There's been enough..."

Kuwabara mulled that last bit over for a moment and realized that he'd never considered that possibility before. Even after the Dark Tournament, when his powers had shut off completely and unexpectedly, or after Urameshi had gone to Demon World and he'd stayed behind to go to school, he'd never considered that he might never be a need for that power again.

He shrugged. "It's really dumb. In our world... I gotta be pretty far up on the scale of powerful humans, but everything here's all about that, you know? Super-powers." Pausing, he looked down to his hands, turning them so that he stared at his palms for a moment before dropping his arms again with a huff. "Humble pie, I guess, letting some creeps get hold of you and rearrange everything."

Anyway...

"Some else'll come up. I'll have to fight properly."

Truth was that he probably couldn't function right without fighting for something. He'd do it without the plethora of strange abilities that he'd gained, but they kind of helped a lot when it came to winning.

Blue watched, beginning to frown again. There really was no easy way to deal with what Kuwabara had been subjected to. Being subjected to forces stronger...having no say. It was never simple.

"Then you will," he said, holding out Kuwabara's share in view. He pushed a small smile for encouragement. "Because the same dirty tricks won't work twice."

Kuwabara maintained a more serious expression for a moment before catching up with the world. He turned up a smile when he reached out for the tomato slice and punctuated it with a 'ha.'

It was kind of a tricking thing to eat, being wet and prone to falling apart. He settled it by simply popping the whole slice into his mouth, chewing and swallowing with a nod of approval. After that, he gave Blue's comment a little laugh, "You'd be surprised, I bet."

"I think I would rather be hopeful," Blue replied, picking up a piece for himself. "And...surprised later, I suppose. But all the same." Wishful thinking had to count for something, even a small amount. He hoped so. People learned and grew, and even mistakes repeated weren't always the same. Not when everything else changed. He believed that, mostly. When he wasn't thinking about his future...

But that he put aside, and took the tomato instead. He hadn't expected it to be as slimy, but he followed Kuwabara's lead and instead of picking at it, just ate the whole piece at once, using the heel of his hand to wipe at juice from the corner of his mouth. From the look on his face, he hadn't expected what he tasted; it was a lot different cooked. Still, there was a smile left once his hand moved.

"I think you were right, being good enough..."

Kuwabara let the subject drop, at well, and he grinned in response to the smile, one of the more sure he'd seen, that Blue had on. He was kind of a grim guy in, like, the nicest way somebody could be grim. It was always nice to see him in good spirits.

"We got salt?" Probably. Why wouldn't they have salt? "Raw tomato's pretty awesome with salt."

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