Costa Del Drunk

[Dust]

Dust shot his friend a look when he mentioned the Doll's title after he'd been careful to avoid the term around Gildarts. You know there is something wrong with what you are doing when you are trying to hide it from someone that you respect. He was no fool, he knew Gildarts had a high chance of not approving. How did he explain it though?

'See I was thinking about Tamsin and about how it would be convenient to have someone as cute as her around to kiss, and out popped Hoseki! Oh, by the way, he has no will and no way to say no. What? Why do I want someone to kiss? We'll see, about that! I am a different type of human, a satellite gives me my powers but at the cost of a kiss between 3 and 15 seconds depending on how powerful I want to be. 3-Seconds get me some claws and some teeth, 15 seconds will turn me into monstrous wolf. But I haven't been able to go werewolf since coming here, so I can only prove the first part. But that means someone has to kiss me.'

..Yeah... That will go great.

He turned back to his attention back to the food, the rack of ribs he’d snatched without thinking. He’d been picking the leaves off as he got to them, only to remember the countless dishes from his native land that had something of nature wrapped around the food. A type of rice-ball immediately came to mind. He tried it with it and found the taste to be the same, but stronger. Like dipping the pork into a bowl full of sauce, but without overpowering the senses.

He enjoyed it properly after that, eyeing the tree he’d climbed and wondering if he could remember the leaves for another time if it ever came. He eventually took up the small thing set aside for Jewel and brought it over to the doll. Slowly he understood, and the Hoseki began nibbling on the food while Dust planted his butt in the sand with his own drink.

He took a big drink of the mix before bringing his knees up and giving his arms something to hang over. Dust was still trying to find the words that would explain his situation in a way that wouldn’t be misunderstood. That would almost be impossible though, and deep inside he knew that if anyone was misunderstanding the implications, it was him. Hoseki - whoever this kid was - had been dragged away from his life the way Hokori had been.

He liked to imagine he helped the kid in some way... Because of the blood that had been on his face at the time of discovery. At what cost, though?

Rosie’s words echo through his soul once more.

He took another big drink, letting the mix burn away his problems one drink at a time. Pulling his cup from his lips he sent his voice in Takezo’s direction. “If you are such a master chef then why were we stuck eating rations all of Dante’s Abyss?” He joked, provoking his friend to smile.

“When did you expect me to cook? Or even hunt?” Takezo tossed it back at him. “We barely got any sleep.”

Dust let out a short laugh. “Gildarts and Illidan treated me to wild Bear.” He teased, taking a sip. “That was the first night, I think.” He added.

“We were lucky to find that.” Gildarts chimed in.

“You ate a bear?” Takezo asked, looking up from his food.

Dust cracked a smile at his friend. “It’s not the first time. I eat whatever they give me.” He said honestly but was vague about who ‘they’ were. He moved on, not offering an explanation for that either. If he out ran his own mind, there was no way they could keep up. Maybe that was the alcohol. “What about you? You seem well traveled.” He invited Takezo to talk about himself.