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Cabbage Water; [Ryu, Ask otherwise]
Topic Started: Jan 31 2014, 12:07 PM (260 Views)
evilpizza_626


Setting
 
The place:Hideyoshi Ueda's diner off the beaten path
The time: Evening, start of the all night business hours



"Coming Uncle!"

There were some books Sayuri probably should have been reading for her upcoming exams but after forty five minutes it was more apparent that if the dishes weren't done her uncle was going to run out of bowls. Sayuri finished tying up her hair and an apron.

"Thank you dumpling!" Hideyoshi Ueda could barely be heard over the boiling and running water. Steam was billowing out from the kitchen as it was fired up again for the next business hours. Uncle slept to almost noon so the diner could be open from about one in the afternoon to 5 am the next morning. Customers stretched few and far between but all the used dishes inevitably ended up piled on the one table in the corner nobody ever sat at.

Sayuri stacked up the amount of dishes she could manage, took a finger like from the top bowl's residue. The Korean barbecue sauce. Pity the contents hadn't been finished that was a sad waste. She passed the serving counter to walk around to the kitchen entrance, where the plates were to be dumped in the industrial sink where she'd be washing them. Her uncle, humming some drinking ditty, was at the steamer.

It was always slippery back here and after being careful on the way in, Sayuri was trying to pick up time when going back for dishes that she forgot to watch her step and bumped into somebody.

"Oh! Sorry!" She had knocked into Ryu Kurohani. Her uncle didn't hire too many people but Ryu had come on for the night shift. He sure was odd looking, like overcooked rice, but Sayuri never tried to say anything.
Edited by evilpizza_626, Feb 3 2014, 06:17 PM.
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Tokoz
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Not a manipulative loon. Really.
As steam billowed around the small kitchen, the young cook stirred a pot of sauce with one hand, humming quietly to the tune on his headphones. The music was fairly low, so he could hear any orders. Still, it was helpful. Ryu enjoyed cooking, but making similar or identical dishes over and over got a bit boring. He was happy to have a job at all. Hiring an albino teen wasn't a move many would make. He tended to startle people, so any job with customer service was out.

Grabbing a pan of pork dumplings, he was half-turned, about to stretch out and place them on the counter behind him, when he was smacked full on by someone. The dish flipped, and the boy managed to catch it by only the tip of his fingers. Grumbling, he turned to look over.

The offender in question was the owner's niece, Sayuri if he recalled accurately. She was shorter than Ryu was, and a bit hefty. Freckled too, which was odd. Her clothes actually annoyed him a bit. Seriously, It's not hard to look put together. Well, that's not really fair, she might not be able to afford it. Recalling that for a teen, he was rather a dandy, the Albino placed his dish carefully upon the counter, and turned to look over.

"It's... fine." He replied, a tad begrudingly. With a shrug and a glance away, he gave the headphones a quick gesture. "Was listening to music, didn't here you." Speaking of not hearing things....

"Huh. Looks like that crowd left. I should probably wash a few things while there's a lull." Probably was an understatement. The stack of dirty cookware he had was starting to dwarf his own height.
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evilpizza_626


Must not stare--must not stare-- Hey, you never told me you knew a Whitey McWhiter-San!

Sayuri bit her lower lip. Not that past times her part-time work had overlapped with Ryu hadn't been as awkward, they had been thankfully free of a demonic rabbit inside her head.

Nature-spirit-psychological-anthropomorphic-manifestation, thank you very much!

"Sorry," Sayuri repeated again. Past them her uncle chopping Chinese cabbage and--some kind of tubular meat? What did he call that stuff again?

"Yeah, everyone just left. Even the creepy guy with the eyes like runny eggs," who always freaked out Sayuri and was something of a 'regular' that ordered nothing but soup from seven to nine whenever he came in.

"I-If you wouldn't mind helping I was just starting on the dishes," she said, a look to the counter and inwardly groaning--or was that stomach growling--as that had been her order of pork dumplings now getting cold because it would have to wait after dishes. Not that she wouldn't eat them cold but they were nice warm.

Leading the charge on another stack of dishes coming back to the sink--Hey you know what this stew needs?--Sayuri almost dropped her dishes in a double take because the rabbit-form of the Phooka had popped up over the brim of the pot her Uncle was boiling cabbages in--Carrots. Can't have a rabbit enjoying their own stew without carrots.

"We don't have carrots for you--" Sayuri hissed under her breath as she turned the faucet on for the sink. After all the Phooka had identified itself as psychological-spirit-whatever.

Good because I don't even like carrots all that much. The green leafy ends of carrots, however, well, they say crack is cheaper for the same effect.
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Tokoz
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Not a manipulative loon. Really.
With a somewhat startled blink, the boy nodded, and grabbed his dirty pans. However, shortly thereafter, the girl began acting rather odd. He supposed he could be imagining it. However, it seemed unusual that someone would suddenly jump for no reason at all. She appeared to be staring at the pot of boiling cabbages. Well, this was odd, but he could forgive some oddities. The Albino kid who spent his free time doing parkour and watching people from atop buildings wasn't one to talk.

However, the following few seconds caused him to do a complete 180 in this opinion, as the girl hissed under her breath. What was that about carrots? Did she think the stew was alive? She didn't act like a lunatic, but then again, he had never spoken to her much. Well, there was one thing he could try....

As he leaned over to grab the next pot, Ryu whispered "Actually, I think there's some carrots in the new food order if he wants some." This could go a couple ways. Either she was crazy, and he was about to regret this, or he had misunderstood this whole situation, and was going to have to think up an excuse really quickly. This had the potential to be interesting, though, and he very much wanted to have something interesting happen. In the albino's opinion, it was worth the gamble.
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evilpizza_626


"What??" Ryu had heard the part about the carrots? Oh no. Sayuri tried to pass it off as something else. "I think Uncle is being inventive again, with the, something Germanic sounding but I didn't think it used carrots--Wait was there a new order--?"

There had been, with Hideyoshi pulling his head back in from the window. "Sakurahani," he said with a nickname modified from Ryu's surname. "Today's special number 3 with extra karashi sauce."

The suds and water in the sink had gotten high enough for Sayuri to wash with. So this Ryu Kurohani? Looks to be a prissy kind of guy.

Hush, that's a horrible thing to say. Sayuri didn't want to be caught muttering again before Ryu or her uncle caught on.

He's as pasty white prissy as you've got enough blubber to overheat a seal, I call 'em as I see 'em.

Sayuri continued to whittle away at the dish pile, getting the bowls to sit and rinse. She had accidentally gotten the soap in her eyes and that's what was irritating them--really. She lifted up another bowl to come face to face with a giant slug.

I've come to think that your main problem is that you're too tense all the time.

--that bowl was immediately dropped back down, which caused a kind of small avalanche of the next dishes in the stack falling into the sink.

Ya see? But cut me some slack, you know how hard it is to turn into a slug? They don't even have pelts.

Sayuri couldn't tell if she was flushing from embarrassment or the scalding basic suds starting to irritate her hands.
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Tokoz
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Not a manipulative loon. Really.
As the girl tried to cover by wildly lying her ass off, Ryu merely raised an eyebrow. Apparently she had something she didn't really want to tell the creepy bastard who worked in the back, looked like paper, and didn't talk much. How completely shocking that was. "Sakurahani!" He hated that nickname with the hate of a thousand flaming hells.

"Coming, sir." Good thing he kept a couple of the more common dishes mostly ready to go. Nearly lost it week one when I tried to cook everything as it was ordered. Within a minute, a plate had been assembled, sauced to the specifications, and palmed off to the customer. Heading back over, he noticed Sayuri fishing a bowl out of the sink.

Her front was wet, having apparently been splashed quite recently. Guess this is the splash a second ago. She seems really unnerved all of a sudden. With a mental groan, he headed back over. Still had several pots to clean, and he might not get a chance again until quite early in the morning. Grabbing a pan encrusted with vegetable remnants, Ryu began scrubbing at it. After a minute, the boy muttered. "Something wrong? You seem kinda out of it. " It was a little pathetic, but even talking to him felt like a favor, and he hated being in debt.
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evilpizza_626


It seemed that no matter how Sayuri tried she could never stay dry working in the diner--steam from all the hot water and things set to boil, sweat from the activity and nervousness seeping out every pore--and even wetter than usual given how the cascading plates had caused the water to cascade and soak her apron.

With Ryu over to clean out a pot it soon became crowded at the sink. Sayuri barely had a stack of air drying dishes that had been through the wash and there were at least five more full stacks worth out on the discard table. Still, she tried to do her best to not encroach past her share of the limited sink space.

Then after a minute he asked her how she was doing--Sayuri gulped. "Fine, just--" Trying to not go crazy with this-- She could hear the faint traces of the music he was listening to in his headphones.

Aw, how cute, he might actually be worried about you. Why don't you take a break and finish off your pork dumplings?

But that wouldn't be fair--and why should I after you--

Just 'cause I'm noting you're big doesn't mean I endorse getting bigger, smaller, dieting, eating or whatever freakout you're having about it. Just an observation. I'm no stranger to the girth myself when I need to be.

The Phooka was full sized now--like battle sized when she remembered that time with Aki and Aleph--and it she was lounging against the counter space. And if it hadn't just been a mental projection limited to Sayuri's perspective there would have been no missing the large rabbit-thing almost bigger than the confines of the kitchen.

Trying to shake the Phooka's distractions out of her head Sayuri realized she hadn't fully answered Ryu. "It's just--things are busy. With everything going on."
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Tokoz
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Not a manipulative loon. Really.
While he hadn't really expected much, the blatant dodging of the question left Ryu rather annoyed. As he finished rinsing the suds off the last pan, he gave the situation a bit of thought.

She obviously was not going to tell him why she was acting so odd. The song changed, and the beat of "Red Fraction" began leaking out of his cheap headphones. Thankfully, it wasn't so loud that he couldn't hear a new customer entering, the jangle of the bell as the door closed the tip off.

"I better get back over to the stove, sounds like someone else arrived. Hope.. "Things" get less hectic for you." With a nod, the albino began to head back over to his station. Ryu couldn't help but frown, though. Besides her odd behavior, something just felt off in here. His head was starting to hurt a bit as well, for reasons he could not discern.

Speaking of Sayuri and oddities, actually... "Hey, are the dumplings yours? They've been sitting here for about 20 minutes, and I'd really prefer not to cook stuff if you're going to eat it cold anyway." Well done, now I sound like a complete ass. Well, maybe she couldn't hear me. Except I have music on, so I probably yelled. Dammit.
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evilpizza_626


Between mopping her sweating brow with a forearm, Sayuri tried to focus on getting the washing done at a quicker pace--but Ryu's tone cut into all that attempts at concentration. She'd known him to be quiet and kind of snarky but never this surly. Had she said something to upset him? What could she have possibly said?

Well you don't need my help for that you've got enough of imagination to ponder what those slights could be.

And if the Phooka in her head could keep quiet for long enough she might be able to calm her thinking.

Now it's my fault is it? When it's always been that part of you that keeps the negativity express a-rolling, only now you have a fuzzy bunny character to attribute it to?

It didn't help that this thought--voice in the head--whatever timed itself just as Ryu made his last comment about the dumplings. "I'm trying to help!! Or would you like to be doing all of this washing because--"

"Something wrong?" Hideyoshi looked over from his own station.

"N-No uncle, it's fine." His focus went back to prepping the other special of the night. Sayuri turned back to the sink but after a moment went to pick up her plate of pork dumplings off the counter and brought them over next to the sink.
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Tokoz
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Not a manipulative loon. Really.
Well, dammit. Sayuri sounded kind of pissed now. Being in a small enclosed space with a girl who had been apparently talking to herself. Wasn't this night just going splendidly. Another order was called in, and Ryu had to abandon that line of thought for a moment, grabbing soup bowls and plates in a mad rush

After the sudden burst of activity, the boy had a moment to think about it again. Deciding that rectifying the tension in the air would be the best route here, the cook called across the room.

"Hey, Sayuri. I'll finish the dishes, take a break and eat. I'm not doing much anyway." Sliding a few pans onto lower heat burners, Ryu grabbed a towel, wiping the grease off his palms as he strode over to the sink. Hopefully she'd get that he wasn't actually mad at her.
Yeah, because I'm a master at subtly communicating things.
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