#interlude 5

Teak had almost made it too easy, really.  Maybe getting back at Teak didn't require confrontation - even if Emre did fantasize over beating the life out of the other man - just payback.  And when Emre discovered that Teak, bereft of his Leander home, had found himself a little corner in one of the farm buildings, he immediately let Madi know.

They just needed to get in there, and find the letters, and nab them.

"You search, I'll keep watch, yeah?" Emre said to Madi, as they headed to Teak's miserable little squat.  "You're...dunno I just figure you'd be better at searching."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

The main objective was to find the letters and steal them, give them to their proper owners, but as far as Madi was concerned, if she found something else that seemed like something Teak would be heartbroken about, she was taking that too. The gloves were off now - he wasn't playing fair, so she wouldn't either.

"Not sure why. The only thing I know about searching is that when you are trying to move fast, start pulling out the bottom drawer first so you don't have to waste time on pushing the drawers back in too. Which obviously doesn't apply here and--" Madi shook her head. "And this doesn't matter. I'll be fast. Or, well, try to be."

Once she was in Teak's space, she just started tearing through his belongings, not intending to stay unseen about it. She wanted Teak to know somebody went trough his stuff, wonder what they took.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"Aren't you clever.  Regular little B&E, she is,"  Emre said in amusement, loving the idea of Madi being someone who'd furtively dig through other people's belongings quickly, to the point of having a strategy.  Maybe she saw it on some tv programme, he figured.

Madi seemed unconcerned about being circumspect about hunting through Teak's things, and Emre didn't stop her.  It seemed Madi's anger at Teak had carried through even now, her momentum still jumping.  Emre wanted to encourage that.

He heard a noise around the back and made a small hsst noise at Madi, pointing in the direction he planned to go.  He snuck outside, peeking about the corner...only to find it was one of the goats, trundling about and causing a ruckus.  "Bloody hell..." he muttered, not realizing he'd left the front entrance unguarded.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Madi just let out a small chuckle and shook her head. "It's not like I did this every other week." She wasn't even sure where she knew it from, and it's not like it helped them even now.

She just nodded when Emre shhed her and gave him a thumbs up, but kept on searching. She figured that she wouldn't be able to find the letters right away, of course Teak would have hidden it away, but still some part of her thought maybe she'd just get lucky and they'd be out of there in the matter of moments.

When she heard somebody come in, she just assumed it was Emre - she didn't hear any signal or Emre trying to stop Teak or anyone else, so it didn't even occur to her that it could have been Teak himself. "I haven't found it yet," she told Emre without even looking up, "Do you think he could have possibly hid it somewhere else on the island?"

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"Hid what?" Teak wasn't surprised, exactly, to find these two rooting among his things. When he'd moved up onto the farm, he'd known that he was entering their territory, so to speak, so he was highly aware that Emre and Madi (maybe especially Madi) would be watching him like the world's most self-righteous and annoying hawks.

He stepped further into the building, looking boldly at the both of them. "Come on, I already heard you and you're clearly messing around in my stuff, so -- what is it you think I'm hiding, that you wanna steal? Because it is stealing. Even if it's you two doing it with all your super-special big-deal whatever."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"It's not stealing if it don't belong to you, mate," Emre piped up before Madi.  Not to defend her but merely because Emre was so used to antagonizing in situations like this.  Confrontations.  Rumbles and rows, so to speak.

He motioned to Madi, arms deep in Teak's things, in Teak's little hovel.  "Go on call the rozzer, yeah.   See if we care.  Madz, I'll help."  Emre stood closer to Madi, glancing at Teak as if writing Teak off as incidental, now.  "Where's the letters?"

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Of course Teak had to come home now. Of course he had to choose those two seconds when Emre was on the other side and couldn't see him.

Emre already jumped by the time Madi turned around, the anger she felt towards Teak all this time since she found Emre in the water coming back all over again. "We just want the letters and postcards and whatever else of other people you found on the yacht. And be happy that is the only thing we're here for now, because frankly you'd deserve a lot worse - pushing Emre in the water and then leaving him on his own like that..."

She didn't elaborate more, instead she went back to digging around in his stuff, with even less care now. "So come on, Teak, where are they. Just give it to us, it'll be easier on all of us."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Teak looked from one to the other. He didn't, to be honest, care that they were rifling through his things (considering all of his really good stuff was in hidden suitcases elsewhere) but it was interesting. Seeing them both in this light, scrabbling and furtive. Folding his arms, Teak took a few steps back, out through the door, so that he was standing in full view of anybody else on the farm who might care to see.

"Why should I?" he asked. "We all went out to the yacht and it gave us the things it gave us. I didn't steal anything. There were letters from my grandfather in that bundle and that's what I saw, when I got it. I only realized there was stuff for other people once I hit land and took a look at it." Teak smiled, blandly, broadly. "And I've been giving those letters to whoever they belonged to. Hey, Cherry--" he flagged down a person who was bustling along, who didn't look altogether pleased to be stopped, "--I gave you those postcards from your cousin, right?"

Cherry nodded, once at first, and then again a couple more times, more emphatically, before continuing along their way. Teak looked back at Madi and Emre. "So tell me why I should give them to you two bullies."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Emre smiled at being called a 'bully', pleased by it really.  It was hardly insulting to him; it was just evidence of the stronger getting one-over on the weaker lot - namely Teak.  The idea of Madi being a bully was laughable, though.  But Emre stopped speaking now, ignoring Teak completely while the other prattled on with all his fancy words and reasoning.  Emre didn't care at this point; and arguing with Teak was exactly what the prat wanted.

"Useless," he proclaimed to Madi, kicking aside the blankets.  "It's all useless, tosser's got them somewhere else, yeah.  Squirreled away."

He stared Cherry down as she hurried past.  He'd never much liked her, even if Madi said to give her a chance.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Emre might have not gotten insulted by being called a bully or rose to the argument, but Madi wasn't in the same mindset and she pretty quickly spun around, leaving her searching to stare daggers at Teak. "Bullies? Us two? Are you kidding me? You're the one doing the animal pen burning, you're the one throwing people off of cliffs and leaving them to die, but we're the bullies? That's really rich, even coming from you Teak."

Madi sent a sympathetic look towards Cherry and mouthed a big sorry for her before she scurried away and then she turned back to Teak, her expression back to cold and mad. "Whatever your angle is with giving out the letters, you are not going to get away with using them to get things out of people. If they're not here, they have to be somewhere else, and we'll find it."

But Emre was right, though, they were not here. "Yeah, let's get out of here. And you know, what, Teak? You should find some place else to be, too. The farm is not for the likes of you." It wasn't her farm or even her authority to say, but she didn't want to keep seeing him around this place.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"I never threw Emre off a cliff!" Teak looked astonished. "Is that what he told you? He attacked me! It was snowy! I managed to shove him back and he went into the water which by the way is his attunement, so why would I be worried? Was I supposed to just lie down and give him whatever he wanted just because you two think you're hot shit on the island and you get to do whatever you want to anybody?"

He stared even more aghast at Madi as she continued. "Whatever my angle is?" he repeated. "My angle is that I ended up with the letters and I'm giving them to the people they belong to. Have you even spoken with anybody else who I gave letters to? Have you even bothered to talk to Iyaz, considering I gave him his postcard from Peter instead of forking it over to Emre as if Iyaz doesn't deserve to have his own correspondence given directly to him?"

Teak was talking quite loudly at this point, and although the other people on the farm didn't exactly come over, many of them were clearly hearing if not outright listening. "You're kicking me off the farm, Madi?" Teak said when she was done ordering him out. "We just went through all of this snow, and I'm here helping, but I guess if you and Emre don't personally like somebody, you can throw them off the farm--"

"That's not right," a woman interjected, stopping on the path. "You guys don't get to tell people to leave, not now." Her companion didn't say anything, but was looking at Madi and Emre, his face face contemplative.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Emre picked up Teak's small belongings, bundling them quickly as another woman interjected into the fray - exactly what Teak wanted, of course.

"It's relocation luv," Emre said to the woman.  "Mind yourself, yeah?  No one gets to live on the farm, it's a working farm and if we got one squatter then we'll get more.  We're only moving him somewhere more homey is all.  Out of the way so he's not trod on taking up room for food storage.  You alright with that, darling?  Offering him your place to stay, then?  Where d'you live, you got yourself a new flatmate here, as you care so much."

He looked at the companion, a tall fellow named Paul.  "What about you, then?  Concerned about his well-being, or you going to finish the fence as we'd started on a day ago?  Same one you promised you could do, Minecraft whiz and all.  Seems it's not quite done yet is it?  Bloody hell, got to do everything ourselves..."

"No, no, I got it - I'm. I'm getting to it," Paul said quickly, and nodded to his companion, urgently muttering, "Come on."

Emre gave Teak a cold stare and then nodded at Madi.  "Come along, let's relocate Teak then."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"You've got a place for him to go?" Jeanine asked Madi, unsure.

"Yeah, don't worry, Emre is just being Emre, but there are-- you know, a couple of people who offered up their homes and all, for anyone who lost their home in the snow. --And the crash of the Leander." Madi really wasn't the best at lying, but Jeanine also didn't seem to want to take anyone in at the moment, so it worked out and both her and Paul has rushed off.

"Yeah, let's get out of here before Teak decides to twist even more things around," Madi nodded and started leading the way towards a section of the East Beach that was far away from both of their homestead, more towards the jungle line.

"Just shoved him and it was snowing. And just giving out letters for absolutely nothing..." Madi mumbled, quietly, more to herself in disbelief and anger than anyone else, really. She didn't believe anything Teak was saying - whatever happened, he had a knack for twisting it in a way that served him and his gain.

Once they reached the jungle-line, Madi stopped and opened her arms, a very obviously fake smile on her face. "How do you like this place? Just perfect, right? Nobody around, so you'll have privacy, and if it rains, you can just scoot over under the trees and you won't get wet." It was an asshole move, and a too dangerous place to live, but Teak could find his own place all he wanted. As long as it was far from the farm or the two of them.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"You guys are assholes," Teak said. He hadn't bothered to get involved directly with Jeanine and Paul, letting them come to their own conclusions about what was happening, and had stayed quiet while the farm's own little stormtroopers frog-marched him out to where the jungle started. "You're so sure that your clique is gonna be the be-all and end-all forever, but it's not. People are gonna see the way that you boss everyone else around when it suits you. They're gonna see it."

He didn't reach for the meagre bag of his belongings, pretty certain that Emre would likely drop it on the ground, hold it away from him, or toss it into the jungle.  "Believe me," Teak said again, his voice even and hard as he looked from Madi's angry smile to Emre's smirk, "they're gonna hear about this. When I bring them letters from their loved ones, some of them half-destroyed from when Emre threw them into the snow when he attacked me.  I'm sure people will be real happy about that."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

There really was nothing sweeter to Emre's ears, than having a mate - a true mate - come to his defense.  Standing up for him just because it was the 'right' thing to do, in the context of mates.  Emre reveled in Madi's snark at Teak, he adored her for it.  He was riding high now, almost completely forgotten why they'd done this in the first place.  So Teak already gave Iyaz the postcard.  So be it.  Nothing Emre could do about that now except-

"What do you do?" Emre asked, as they strolled along, Teak lambasting and threatening them helplessly.  "It's a long game for you, innit.  Yeah, you seem the sort.  Learn people, yeah?  Maybe hang about as they read personal letters from Auntie or ex-girlfriend, knowing full well what them letters contained.  Watch them feeling things. Figure people out so you got leverage from the useful sorts innit.  It's clever, I'll give you that, man.  All behind this cute act of yours, this stupid Yank."

Emre kissed his teeth, as Madi paused them at the treeline.  "Nah, you'll get your own soon enough, mate. You--" But his words were cut off by a loud, unnerving humming sound.  Emre dropped Teak's bundle, withdrawing his cutlass - to find five gigantic flying insects with huge pincers for mouths, emerge from the jungle.  They hovered for a bit, then flew in an attack towards the trio.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Teak said he'd talk about this and Madi believed it. It meant that they'd need to find those letters and anything else he might have found that Teak was hiding somewhere else. He would still talk, he would still try to turn them into the bad guys, Madi knew that, but at least he wouldn't be able to turn those items around and use it to his favor.

And Emre was right, sooner or later people would see through it, hopefully. SHe was just about to agree with him, when suddenly five gigantic flying insects appeared and while Emre dropped Teak's bundle, Madi picked it up - she didn't carry around a big weapon like Emre did, she only had a small pocketknife on her she used at the farm and a full bag had a better reach than that pocket knife. She did get the knife out, too, though.

"Great. Fun. Yaaay, somebody dropped some growth cakes in the jungle. Just what we needed," she grumbled as she hit one of the insects that came at her with the bag to get back. It didn't seem like a very intimidating weapon, but Madi put her strenth into the hit and that could do its own work. "We can't let them get away and fly around," another hit, "and attack other people or do even more damage on the farm."

She didn't see, and while she was focusing one one of the flying insects, another one came in and snatched at her wrist, making her drop the bag she was using as a weapon - Madi yelped from the pain and dropped the bag, while at the same sime using her other hand to cut at the insect with the knife. The knife connected with something, she could feel that, but it wasn't enough to actually kill the creature.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

He could have run -- easily, with both Madi and Emre engaged in fighting the evil pokemon that had emerged from the jungle -- but Teak was annoyed. Staying on the farm had been his best bet at having shelter after the sudden and devastating loss of his swanky Leander cabin, and now these two on their usual little power trip were intent on taking that from him.

"You're useless," he barked at Madi, then, "get down," as he clicked one of his precious lighters (thank god he stored those in one of his hidden suitcases). All it offered was the spark of its flint, but that was enough for Teak now that he'd had coming on a whole year of exploring his attunement, working with it, experimenting and honing it.

Grabbing for the tiny fire of that spark, Teak expanded it into long whips of crackling fire that ran up the insides of his forearms, waving out like rope that was aflame. "Remember last time I did this, Madi?" he yelled, as he lashed out at the insects, bisecting the one she'd tapped with her knife. "Remember how you set somebody's tent on fire because you flippin' suck, and when I put it out you got on your stupid high horse and wanted to know why I had to be dramatic about it? Remember that? When I saved that person's house that YOU SET ON FIRE but you still tried to make me the bad guy?"

Teak whirled his whips of fire through the air, the tips slicing gleaming wounds into the insects that dripped sloppy guts out of them, disrupting their flying patterns, cutting off pincers and wings. "What're you gonna criticize now, huh? Now that you still can't do anything and I'm saving YOU and Emre? You think I should have more exciting fight dialogue? You think I'm too close to the trees and might start a forest fire? C'mon, might as well tell me now, I can wield fire and be your scapegoat at the same time."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Teak was effortless, seamless in his skill.  He worked the fire as if he'd been on this island for decades, not less than a year.  He even talked non-stop too, focus split enough to rag on Madi in ways that hit so close to Madi's internal, buried fears, that it made Emre wonder at just how insightful and perceptive Teak was.  Extremely so, on top of his fire magic that he wielded with such adept skill.  Even when Emre had been super-charged by the stream, his water-magic wasn't half this effective. Emre had still failed.

But it seemed Teak did not fail.  Teak was extremely useful, and feeling deeply misunderstood.  This much was clear.

"Alright, allow it, man, leave off of her," Emre yelled, as he managed to slice through one of the insect's wings. It went into a tailspin and crashed but - it refused to lie there.  Instead, the creature started dragging itself back into the jungle. "Not everyone can do what you do, alright?  You're skilled. Better than most, yeah. We can't let these bastards get to the farm, they'll ruin it all. Look -"

Emre pointed to some of the injured ones, dragging themselves back to the jungle.  "Maz, go kill them ones before they escape.  Probably have signaling to others, best prevent that."

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

The thing was, Teak was correct. In all accounts. Madi really was useless when it came to fighting and when it came to her attunement. Anything she did that was helpful happened by accident, and even now, she could feel her face burn up - at first because of embarrassment and then probably more as she could feel herself heat up. "I--" she didn't have anything to say, though, and Emre jumped in before she could, standing up for her, and suddenly she felt very small and incompetent.

At least he was helping them. Madi wasn't even sure why, but she wasn't going to complain about it. His fire was doing the trick while Emre was doing his part with his cutlass, while she just hit things with her little pocketknife that was absolutely not helpful or anywhere near as effective as the other two. Not to mention she could feel the smell of burning textile, so her stupid attunement was acting up, too.

Maybe at least she could use that to her advantage.

"Sure, I'll take care of them. Please be careful," she told Emre and then focused on the ones getting away while she took her gloves off and shoved them into her back pocket. If thing were acting up, she might as well use it.

It was three insects trying to drag themselves back into the jungle, letting out some weird, unknown sounds and still, it took her longer to deal with them than how long either of the other two would have needed. But at least she's done something. She was feeling better about herself. She wasn't as good of a fighter (she wasn't any fighter, really), but she helped.

She was turning back to see how Emre and Teak were doing when she saw something moving in the corner of her eyes - she moved back on instinct, but it was too late, something big, bigger than what they were dealing with so far, suddenly grabbed her and she was in the air, getting dragged away.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"I'm not doing it for you to kiss my ass, Emre." Teak shot the other man a look but didn't linger, keeping his attention on the big hornet bee things that had been sort of taken down, but were sort of still around. The buzzing kept reverberating in an ominous way, and at first Teak thought it might be the wounded ones that were trying to get away, but then a thought occurred. "Hey," he said, "that racket they're making, you think it might be to call fighter bees or something? Ones that are gonna come and attack--"

Just as he was saying it, a big-ass hornet came droning out of the jungle, straight for Madi who was attending to the wounded crawling ones. "It's got her!" Teak yelled, but he didn't wait for Emre to respond. The hornet thing was getting higher and if they let it get above the tree canopy, there was no chance of catching it, so Teak leapt into action without waiting. He ran after Madi, but he sent boomerangs of fire on ahead of them, slicing through tree branches and sending them tumbling directly in the path of the flying insect. It wasn't a precise art, he couldn't tell if the branches would hit the thing or block its from flying up, but either one was good, Teak figured.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"Fucking --"  Emre felt a spike of possessive anger, that it was Teak who spotted Madi in danger first and not Emre.  He stared in horror as the thing took Madi away, further into the jungle.  And Teak didn't even hesitate to give chase, either.  Maybe he just wanted to show off his skilled fire-abilities, or maybe - well, maybe he did want to help Madi.  There wasn't anything Emre could do, except run after them.

"Cut it, Maz!  Stab it!" he called out instead, hoping she still had her pocketknife.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Madi was kicking and hitting whatever that was holding her, trying to stab it, but even though it was moving around, twitching and trying to throw her off, the stabs with her pocket knife didn't seem to be doing enough damage to stop it, to make her drop her.

She flinched when she felt the heat of the fire hitting the insect, so close to her, and she snapped her head up - Teak was running after her. Teak was running after her, throwing fire boomerangs after them, while Emre was running behind him, trying to catch up. Teak shocked her for a moment, but it also sprung her into action - if stabbing its body didn't help, stabbing at its mouth that held her might would - at least enough to drop her.

The creatures was shaking, throwing itself left and right at this point as the fire kept hitting it, and Madi moved her arm in a way that she shoved her hand into its mouth where it held her and then stabbed at its mouth - and it did the trick, finally, finally it let her go, and she was getting ready for the hit against the ground - except suddenly she was not above the ground, no, she was just over a ledge and she was scrambling, reaching, trying to catch the ledge, trying to catch the rock, but her fingers were slipping, slipping, slipping...

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Teak managed to skid to the ledge after Madi went over it, his fire boomerangs having done their work in both clearing out some of the top-heavy foliage and dissuaded the insect things from getting any more excited about attacking. He reached down, grabbing at Madi's sleeve and then her wrist, holding out his other hand. "Grab on," he demanded. "For once in your life don't be the stuck-up little martyr you're used to being, Madi, grab my wrist. Or let go if you're that intent on making me out to be a villain, I guess."

With Emre bringing up the rear, who knew what he'd think. Maybe he'd dive in to try and save sainted Madi and knock her hands free from Teak's and they'd both watch her go tumbling down. At this point, Teak wouldn't put it past Emre and Madi and all their attempts to make him into the bad guy.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

"Fuck!!"  Emre exclaimed, skidding to a stop at the sight of Teak crouched forward, reaching down over a huge drop.  He had no idea where the monster flew off to, he just knew they had to get out of here.  And maybe burn this part of the fucking jungle down for good measure.  But that could come later.

For now Emre focused on the present.  He couldn't see Madi but he could hear her grunting from effort, he could see Teak straining to help her, so Emre acted on instinct alone.  The moment he saw Teak's stance change, weight shifting to hold something heavy below him, Emre threw his arms around Teak's waist.

With a long, effort-focused growl, Emre put all his weight into his heels and pulled back.  Pulled for Teak to have a steady anchor, pulled for Madi to help Teak with scrabbling her way up as well.

And suddenly, the opposing forces gave way and gravity took over. Emre fell flat on his back, Teak on top of him, and Madi on top of Teak.

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Suddenly Teak was there right above her, grabbing onto her and holding on - and Madi didn't hesitate a single second this time, her fear in that moment overtaking everything else. What a hypocrit she was, really, mere minutes ago she was bashing on Teak, now she was silently begging for him to not let go of her.

The fear also just strengthened her own heat and she was burning up now, burning Teak, and really, if he let her go, she would have understood. "Please," she breathed, but he didn't let her go. He was holding on and pulling her up and once she managed to get a base for her foot, she managed to help and push herself up and then the three of them (Emre was there, too! and he was okay!) were one big pile and for a single moment Madi let the relief wash over her, and then she was scrambling off, scrambling back from both of them, wrapping her arms around herself.

Then, it was like...ewww, scientists, miss him with that shit. True, he pretends NOT to understand what they’re on about half the time. He’s not stupid, but he is cool, so, you know, fuck scientists. Which is a thought that makes more than a passing tour in his mind even weeks after meeting Miss Shirayuki and Co.

 ‘That’s Mission Specialist Shirayuki to you,’ she’d said, trying to muster all the piss and vinegar she could into eyes that were too green and telling. Hadn’t worked much. Her anger had fizzled like clouds on a hot summer day.

 Then, one night at O’Malley’s, Torou had stopped flirting with the waitress enough to casually say Cute kid you got saddled up with. And that had NOT landed well with him. He’d bugged out with a leer to the waitress and a fucked up goodbye: Stop trying so hard, honey. That one’s an easy catch.

 Torou had given him a wide berth for a full month after that. Not because of the waitress incident, mind you. Torou had been angling to be a bitch and he’d called her out on it - they were cool about that. No, it probably had to do with his suspension - or how Zen had officially termed it, personal time off. So, he’d stewed a bit in his own anger, went to lunch every day with Kiki for a whole fucking month, hit the gym, got laid some and got off on the image of that bloody monkey’s bloody face burned into his retina.

 Mihaya was a douche and everybody knew that, so it shouldn’t have surprised Obi that when he’d gone to take a piss, Mihaya had followed suit, like the creep he was, pulled out his useless dick and hit the porcelain with a fucking trickle and a grin. So how hard are you tapping that hot little redhead’s ass?

 Obi had put his stupid head right through the fucking tiles, zipped up, washed his hands and had left Mihaya all battered and bruised with his dick hanging out. He could swear he’d never felt better.

 He’d almost handed in his resignation then and there had it not been for the security tapes and Kiki’s awesome lip reading skills. Zen had sized him up and told him, with a nod to the tape playing his hand in Mihaya’s sleezy hair almost gently encouraging contact with a hard wall in slow motion: This? It doesn’t happen again.

 Mihaya is lucky to be alive, Obi thinks, but he’s not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say. He takes his leave - literally, for like a month - and walks out feeling like something has changed. A shift he hadn’t anticipated. Like the fact that the only reason he’s not happy to be out on his couch for four glorious weeks, watching Shark Week on Discovery, is that as he is walking away from Zen’s office, he can see blood in the water. Yeah, sure,  it’s just MS Shirayuki’s red hair bobbing cluelessly down the corridor, but he fancies he can already see sharks circling.

 He expects Mitsuhide’s large paw on his shoulder, as much as he kinda resents it - God, deliver him from marines - but the Big Guy’s voice is oddly reassuring. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.

 Later, Kiki texts him a picture of Mitsuhide and Shirayuki bonding over kale, of all fucking things. And then another picture of the Miss looking inquisitively up at Kiki, a look of wonder in her eyes. And something that looks like happiness when Kiki videocalls him and Miss is chattering a mile a minute, of all the things he’s already missed out on and Obi, when are you coming back? Shark Week is almost over. Even Ryuu chips in with a So did you finally figure out who killed baby beluga?

 After that, he gets the kid’s digits from Kiki and keeps him updated on the whereabouts of baby beluga for the rest of his suspension.

 He comes back to Miss and Ryuu moving in to their new lab, closer to the Commander’s office and of course she almost drops a box of heavy lab equipment on her toe because she’s probably running on yesterday’s tea and sheer stubbornness. Ryuu sidles up to him and plops a box into his arms. She’s just happy to see you back. Now put this on the table over there. I’ll unpack.

 Torou tells him during lunch she’s on the hunt for the call Zen made to Izana about Obi’s little staycation. These things get logged and Torou wants to hear it for herself - Izana’s booming laugh when Zen sheepishly told him what happened between Obi and Mihaya in the bathroom. Rumour mill had it that Zen had walked around in a daze for days after.