[PRP] The Real Journey Begins

[BlackPidgeot]

Sagestone had been left behind, along with the girls who had stayed there. Now it was just two young bachelors striking it out in the wild! Or something of the sort anyway.

Yuri was now taking his time in their journey around the island, and they had spent the day casually exploring around the outskirts of Sagestone. Such as the caves nearby, some of the forest and beach for heading on the road towards Makko. The trip to that city would be fairly short at least, but the sun was already setting in the sky about halfway there. Thus, Yuri had them stop and set up camp for the night.

With a campfire crackling nearby, and dinner having been cooked and dished out, the raven haired man now relaxed. Enjoying his food while Repede lightly slept nearby.  

[Suudonym]

He was starting to feel a bit sore from moving around so much after spending so long almost entirely inactive, but he didn't specifically mind it; it was a familiar ache, one he had learned to associate with progress in the days that he had just begun to learn to use a sword. He ignored the sensation for the time being, eating lightly of the prepared meal while considering various thoughts. One such thought managed to find its way to his voice, offhanded though it was without the context his considerations supplemented, "You were in the military, right? Did you use guns often, or just swords?"  

[BlackPidgeot]

The sudden break of silence and the nature of the question, drew a blink from Yuri, looking over at Luke with mild surprise.

"Well that came out of nowhere," he remarked, wondering what on earth had brought that on.

"Yeah, I was trained to use guns, but I've always preferred swords. What's with the interest all the sudden?"

He was pretty sure it was more than idle curiosity if Luke was bringing it up out of the blue like that.  

[Suudonym]

Idly he watched the fire, his expression impassive. "Is it difficult? I want to learn."  

[BlackPidgeot]

"It takes practice, like anything else," he said while looking sidelong at the boy.

"Why?"  

[Suudonym]

Though his features remained unchanged, there was a quality to his words that wasn't often present as of late: a calm defiance, a resolute composure, "I don't want to have to keep relying on others. I want to be able to fight - or I guess to prevent fighting, or at least to end it." He was personally aware now of how debilitating a bullet could be, though he supposed his own case had been a bit out of the ordinary.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri was quiet as he heard Luke out, and for a few moments afterward.

Then picking up a stick, the man poked at the fire idly. "I know where you're coming from, but guns are pretty dangerous." Although Yuri was pretty sure he didn't have to tell Luke that. Still, the point remained.  

[Suudonym]

"About as dangerous as being threatened by a Rocket, taken hostage, or shot at by someone else." He paused, a bitter remorse spreading through his expression. "Camphoreon is dangerous. Kodo is dangerous. I don't want anyone else to die."  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri knew Luke's point. He was well aware of it, but Luke seemed to fail to see his. While guns were good for self defense, they could easily lead to an unintentional tragedy, even moreso than with a sword.

Still, the man considered this for a few moments.

"I don't mind teaching you, but there would be some conditions."  

[Suudonym]

He turned his head slightly to regard Yuri, his gaze silently expectant.  

[BlackPidgeot]

"You need to keep eating and start sleeping like normal people," he said matter-of-factly. Which meant that Luke needed to overcome these demons that were preventing him from functioning.

"And you have to master using your sword first," Yuri continued. "In other words, you need to prove to me you can handle a gun without doing something stupid."

Luke clearly wasn't ready to handle a firearm. However, if he managed to come through and meet these conditions, Yuri would feel more comfortable teaching him.  

[Suudonym]

Yuri's first condition was met with a frown as his eyes fell to the flame. "I mean yeah, that would be nice," he replied, his voice hot and impatient, "but it I'm not sure how many drug combinations there are left that I haven't tried. I thought I finally scored on the side-effect roulette with just insomnia and loss of appetite." He could force himself to eat when he wasn't hungry, sure, but he had yet to discover the switch that could completely disengage his consciousness when he wanted to sleep. Relearning swordsmanship was fine - in fact, was something he was interesting in regardless - but overcoming things physiologically outside of his control was sounding like a frustrating impossibility.

Realizing the tone he had taken, he breathed a sigh. "Sorry. What I'm hearing is 'too bad, you'll just have to live with being defenseless and totally dependent then,' and I get it but it still pisses me off." Outwardly irritated, though more so towards himself and his situation than anything else, he leaned to place his chin in his palm.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri sighed, but remained patient. He knew Luke was frustrated, and didn't blame him one bit.

"You did it before," Yuri pointed out. "And you can't rely on those drugs forever, anyway. No offense, but its not exactly a good idea to give a mentally unsound person a gun." His voice a little hard in that last sentence, as if vaguely reminding Luke what he had almost done with his sword.

"And trust me, if I didn't think you could pull it off, I wouldn't be having this conversation with you."  

[Suudonym]

Luke winced faintly at the reminder of his actions in the manor and the phrasing employed, responding in silence. He eventually shifted his posture to lean his weight through his elbows to his knees, his head down and his features dim. "Well at least one of us has faith," he said, obviously feeling rather hopeless about the situation himself. It all came in waves, determination and discouragement.

In testament to that metaphor, he abruptly and excessively shook his head and pushed into a straighter posture, murmuring an obstinate "I don't care" without any distinct awareness of what exactly it was he didn't care about at the moment. When he spoke again, it was with a renewed focus and vigor, even if forcedly so, "Master sword use, right? Can I borrow yours?" Thinking was self-destructive; doing was movement and thus advancement.  

[BlackPidgeot]

It may have been harsh, but if Luke was going to whine about it, he needed to face reality. Yuri wasn't going to baby the kid. That wasn't going to get him out of this rut.

Thus the man sat there and watched Luke with a straight face. Seeing as he started to fall into despair again, but then suddenly regained his resolve once more.

A smile then broke out on Yuri's face, and he reached out to clap a hand on Luke's shoulder.

"We'll start in the morning."