[FIN] Time to Talk~

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

A black-haired grunt used a pair of chopsticks to poke at his sushi, almost making a game of picking the pieces apart one grain of rice at a time. His eyes were distant as he seemed to stare right through his meal, chewing on each grain as if they would be his last ration of food for a month.

It had been a while since the last raid and his limp was almost gone so he no-longer needed a cane, but that didn't mean he was all that eager to get back to work. He was especially dreading pokemon training, but that was nothing new.

Idly, he wondered how the others were faring. Word had already spread about a new, upcoming mission and Nakura was curious how many from the previous one planned to sign up. He wondered if he himself dared, because all things considered from last time - the threat of Galactics, the Bird of Bacon and Doom, and the Water Unicorn from Hell - it might still have been preferable to tedious grunt work.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus' feelings about the upcoming mission were chaotic to say the least. The only thing he knew for sure was that he intended to go, that not going hadn't seemed like an option somehow. He'd never imagined that he would volunteer to go back to the mothership - small start bright room, a twisting snake of pale blue hair - and yet apparently he planned to. Apparently.

He wandered into the cafeteria in an absent state of mind, not even bothering to push past the grunts and trainees in line ahead of him. What if he found her there? What if he didn't? What if he didn't even get to go?...

Why was there never any decent vegetarian food?

Still looking blank rather than annoyed by the proliferation of meat and meat products Aulus drifted past the main queue to the self service sections where there were baked potatoes keeping hot and various toppings. He went for beans and cheese with some salad from the nearby tubs because it didn't require thinking about. Those items and a glass of water seemed like enough and so he turned to look for an empty chair, which he soon spotted and headed over to.

Aulus was so distracted that he didn't even notice he'd sat down opposite Izaya.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The grunt was used to empty chairs. In fact, on the occasion he did have company during a meal, it was usually because he sat himself down next to someone else, not the other way around. His reputation as a Rocket might have had something to do with it along with his lack of real friends, but he'd never really questioned it too much.

When someone else took up the seat across from him, however, Nakura's gaze rose from his food, slightly startled at the interruption of his thoughts. When he recognized the burly figure before him, his brows rose as well. "Agent...?"  

[TawnyAngel]

...Oh, right, and the rest of the world existed and included other people.

Aulus blinked and, as he registered just who the specific person before him was, he Scowled. "Oh. It's you."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Nice to see you too," the grunt answered with a sardonic smirk. "You must be pretty preoccupied to not have seen me here. Hope you didn't pick up any more hotdogs. You really should pay attention to what you plan to put in your mouth before you do so, you know?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus smiled... Well, he showed his teeth.

"And you, Nakurka, should pay attention to what you shoot out of yours, unless of course you would like to be handed your teeth in a small box." Still 'smiling' Aulus gestured the vague size and shape of said small box. "Tied up with a bow and all, because I'm a generous damn soul, I am. And it may shock you to hear it but I have more important things to think about than who I sit down opposite during the lunch rush, amazing revelation for your sheltered mind I'm sure but it's true."

Why, why, why had he had to pick this place to sit?

Ugh.

Well at least Izaya was a diversion he supposed, saved him from worrying about the impending mission... well a little anyway.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

After a beat of silence and a blank look, Nakura laughed aloud. "Mm, perhaps I should," he agreed, "But I think the risk is worth a conversation with the great and powerful Agent Aulus." He waved his chopsticks musingly. "Besides, I get the feeling that my speaking to you at all would be hazardous to some degree, regardless of what I said. No pain, no gain, ne?"

He smiled fondly at the other man as if Aulus was his dinner date rather than a bitter higher-up. "I'm still kind of upset you forgot about those 'words' we were supposed to have. I was very much looking forward to them."  

[TawnyAngel]

...Err. What had he been going to bollock him about again?

There was a part of the mission that was a blur, and it wasn't so much the part where he'd been injured. Panic. Rage. Panic. Galactics, that had turned out not to be, and now he was thinking of going up to their ship? He was. He was going there. If he didn't go there physically while he had the chance then he'd spend his whole life there inside his head.

Aulus started cutting up his potato.

"You're a little tit, you know that right?" he said, buying time while he tried to remember the specifics. Izaya had been saying things and kept climbing along a ledge when he told him to get down. "I mean, when being a berk was being handed out you were at the front of the line and went back for seconds before a dessert of inappropriate insinuations, followed by the cheese-board of cheek."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Uh...huh," Nakura continued to smile, but this time it was laced with puzzlement. "Aulus-san, you've made it pretty clear you're just as sharp with witty insults as you are with self-defense and combative skills. However, none of that is doing a thing for you if I don't know why." His smile disappeared. "Why continue to talk about me?"

"I may be a little tit with seconds of being a berk and all that. I could agree with you until I'm blue in the face, but I have a feeling all this bark and bluster isn't coming from nowhere for no reason. Are you sure you aren't using this aggression towards me as a defense for whatever you're trying to hide? 'A good offense is the best defense' as the saying goes. Seems to suit you well enough."  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus paused with a fork full of potato and beans half way to his mouth. His scowl changed, twisted for a moment to a snarl and for a moment he thought about just how easy it would be to impale Izaya's hand and make him Shut. Up!

But he was responsible now, right?

The fork bent very slightly in Aulus' grip.

"Okay," he said rather too calmly, "come on then theory boy, what is it you think I'm trying to hide? Analyze me, I dare you." He could rip him into- he could kill him! Easy, it would be easy, and it frightened him how easily those violent thoughts sank claws into his shoulders and murmured into his ear these days. He had always been vicious, always been spoiling for a fight, but he hadn't thought about killing people. Had it all changed him that much, stripped him of whatever goodness he had once possessed?  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The grunt tensed somewhat at the sight of the slightly-bending fork. There he went again, over-stepping his bounds. Much as he would have liked to, though, he wasn't about to back off just now.

Instead, he swallowed to wet his dry throat and set his chopsticks down, placing his hands in his lap under the table and away from the dangerous, angry man with the pronged metal utensil.

"I would if I could," he said softly, licking his lips to wet those, too. Suddenly everything seemed far too dry. "But I was never tortured. Came close once, but at that time, I was still in control of the situation. I don't even have an inkling of what you must have suffered through."  

[TawnyAngel]

The fork bent a little more and all words died in his throat.

Blood red eyes, wild and wide, fixed immovably on Izaya.

The agent remained silent, staring, torn between a chaotic storm of impulses and emotions.

The fork slammed down onto the table top, scratching the laminated surface and bending the cheap metal tines.  

[Shadow the Pokemorph]

Um. Whoops?

Maybe a little too direct, there. Not to mention a little too public. Glancing at the other Rockets out the corners of his vision, Nakura slowly, delicately made a move to get up from his seat. Perhaps the cafeteria hadn't been the best place to bring up the issue, but he really hadn't anticipated the full magnitude of the state Aulus was in. After all, he still hardly knew the agent compared to many of the others.

To run, or not to run? Well, maybe it was about time he test just how well that leg of his had healed. His quick gaze darted down to his tray of almost-untouched sushi one more time. Oh, well. He probably hadn't had the appetite to eat it, anyway.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus stood up abruptly, his chair screaming back across the floor with all the voice he suppressed or had tried to suppress again and again and again! That was it. That was what Izaya had been talking about. "Heeeey grunt where are you going?" the Agent asked, his tones sibilant and the look in his eyes still off somehow; not predatory and not exactly mad but Not Right.

"If you're not hungry, and I'm not either, wouldn't it be great for us to go and train together? I mean, we probably bonded on the last mission didn't we?" Aulus lent across the table, hands on its surface curled into claw-like shapes. "Why don't we go and train together and you can tell me what gives you the Gods damned right to mention that."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Oh s**t. s**t s**t s**t - ! Damn it all to hell.

The tone of voice that came out of Aulus' mouth sent shivers down Nakura's spine and he leapt from his chair, not bothering to even glance back when the thing clattered loudly to the floor. One more obstacle between him and the mad man behind.

He might have tossed his sushi tray at the agent as well if he didn't think it would worsen his situation. The red-eyed martial artist probably would have halved the thing with his bare hand without even batting an eye; if it had any influence at all, it likely would have only made him even angrier.

"You're honestly freaking me out, agent," Nakura muttered under his breath as he evaded Aulus' lunge and made a dash for the cafeteria exit. Narrow halls meant less space to run, but perhaps the various twists and turns of the new base would buy him some time.