victory_road | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Keith and residents of Sevii Island
Where: Sevii Islands
When: Throughout March
Summary: Keith is new and has to meet whoever's been looking after his friends. Probably specific log starters later in the month who knows.
Rating: G? Probably PG? We Just Don't Know

A. Do You Wanna Ride?

The little bit of sleep he got at Cherrygrove didn't really prepare him for the flight over. Sure, the speed and actual flight itself didn't bother him much, but the length of time it took wore him down again. Maybe a solid day of sleeping would do some good. Keith watches the change in weather as they get to the islands. He's accepted this is real and not delirium. But it doesn't stop astounding him. This is where they've been all this time.

The minute he's landed, Keith is getting his litten out of its ball. He hadn't wanted to put her back in there, but it was the best way to travel with her over this long a distance. But they're out and about on the beach, exploring the immediate area on the way to the house and getting a look at the island.

B. Hidden in the Sand

So, after a solid eighteen hours of sleep, Keith feels a little refreshed. Enough to explore a bit further. The water is .... okay, but not really to his liking. So Keith goes the opposite direction, inland and to the trees. His litten seemed insistent to walk before him, listening in for anything. It's almost cute.

"Come on, I'm sure there's nothing out here." If Matt and Shiro both live out here, it's bound to be safe. Probably.

Except when there absolutely is. Litten stops and arches her back, growling when there's a rustle up ahead. Keith wishes he had his knife, but there's only so much you can do against -- a ball? His shoulders drop a little as he watches this red-and-white ball roll closer, then stop. Then turn to face them with an actual face. And then there's a second. And a third, fourth.

He's already losing count.

"Uh."

How are you supposed to wrestle a ball?

C. First Transition

If Keith isn't outside or asleep, he's in whatever common room is set up in the house. Studying was never his strong suit, most of it going over his head. He's better at practical application, learning things by doing. But in this case, that would only get his litten hurt. Not something he wants to risk. So Keith will try things the nerd way: sitting and reading, trying to cram all this into his head and keep it there. Pokemon, pokemon types, pokemon skills, pokemon natures, and abilities and levels and evolutions - it's a lot.

And he's only gotten through what he's been able to record on the island itself, which isn't much. He growls looking through the dex, his little lifting her head only to lay down again.

"This is stupid."

It'd be better to just walk out the door and do this himself. But that soft purring against his leg on the couch is the only thing keeping him from doing it.

[ooc; if you'd like something specific, let me know and I'll toss up a starter! Going to be using this throughout March.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not impressed, huh, K.J. Keith smiles a little as the pokemon walks away, Litten following after. She still insists on staying a few steps ahead of him. It's a better kitchen than he had, so he leans against the doorframe and watches.

"I understood 'pasta' and 'fish' out of that, so. Sounds good to me."

Shiro trusts this guy, so Keith will too. There haven't been any red flags yet that he's seen.

Hunk gives a soft laugh, "Sorry, making food is kinda my jam so I can really get into it." As he starts pulling out ingredients and getting to work, Shay comes bounding into the room. The little Rockruff gives a greeting bark to her partner, and tilts her head upon seeing the stranger.

"Hey Shay, go say hello to Keith. He's a friend from my home world."

With a way of her tail she trots over to him, and gives him a sniff.

Keith watches the rockruff bound over. He lets her sniff before reaching to pet her head.

"Then you're probably way better at it than I am." He hesitates because he isn't sure how well he can joke about this. How well does Hunk know Shiro? How long have they known each other?

"Probably better at it than Shiro too."

Shay enjoys the head pets, giving a happy little yip and licking at Keith's hand.

The admission about Shiro's lack of cooking skills draws a soft, amused snort from Hunk, "Uhhh yeah, not to toot my horn here, but I'm definitely the best one at among our team. You and Shiro might be awesome fighters, but neither of you can turn a Arusian yana root into a tasty, tasty pasta dish! Although, no worries about weird alien ingredients here. This place seems to have pretty average Earth ingredients. Which... is actually really nice."

Keith mumbles aw hey when his hand starts getting licked. He's pretty pleased by that alone.

"I'll... take your word for it. I'm--" He huffs out a little sigh. He really hates not knowing who Hunk is, someone who clearly knows him well enough and likes his company.

"...Thanks for the card. I'm sorry I still don't... know you."

Keith mentioning the fact that he doesn't know Hunk draws a sad grimace from the usually cheerful boy. Thankfully, with his back turned towards the other, it's not shown. It's easy enough to mask the pain he feels with his voice, "No worries, my man. We were friends once, we can be friends again, right?"

Taking a quiet inhale, he steels his expression into a happier one as he looks over his shoulder, "We had a bonding moment after all. Even if you don't know about it yet, we're like destined to be buddies! So... no more apologies, okay?"

Hunk is so determined to be kind and forgiving for something that isn't even really Keith's fault. Keith just isn't sure how to handle that. He's used to Shiro being overly forgiving, but other people? Not so much. "If you say so."

And that's that on the matter. He's apologized on the network and apologized in person, that's all he can do about it. He lets rockruff alone and moves to stand next to him.

"Then we'll have a bonding moment now."

But if Keith thinks he's going to cook, he's really out of his mind.

Shay scampers off to go keep an eye on K.J. and Chuchule for now. Her trainer has asked her to keep an eye on the two baby pokemon, and she fully intends to do her utmost best!

When Keith comes to stand next to him, and declares they are going to have a bonding moment right now, Hunk blinks a few times in surprise. "You... you sure about that? It doesn't have to be right this minute you know. I, uhm, I know the kitchen isn't really your strong suit after all."

Accidental challenge issued.

Hunk did it now. He was ready to build their friendship again, but saying the kitchen isn't his strong suit? Keith side-eyes him cracks his knuckles.

"We'll make it my strong suit."

Besides, it would probably be good to know what's available to him to eat, right? So he's not entirely relying on someone else.

Oh quiznak.

Hunk knows that look all to well and he only has himself to blame for it. With a soft, but rather amused sigh, he holds out a box of dried pasta to the other boy.

"Let's start with making some pasta then. Normally, I would make my own, but since there's some instant stuff here we'll use that. All you gotta do is follow the instructions on the box. Easy enough, right?"

He takes the box and watches Hunk's face. Then looks at the instructions.

"Okay. Easy enough," he repeats after him. He takes half a step away to actually read the instructions. Boil 3 cups of water. Fine. Okay. In what? His eyes narrow and he moves to get a pot and starts getting that ready. He thinks it's right.

"So... How long have you known me, anyway?"

"Hmm..."

There's a pause while Hunk thinks on that.

"Well, I knew about you while I was still in the Garrison. My best friend Lance was obsessed with beating you, even though you didn't even really know who he was. Which is understandable really, since it was, like, a one-sided rivalry. But of we're just talking like actual time we've known one another equally... Well... It's kinda hard to say with how time flows in space." Hunk makes some more thinking noises, before adding, "I wanna say at least a year at the very least. Maybe like a year and a half at most?"

So basically, a decent amount of time.

"Hm."

He considers that while he turns the stove on. Oh, this is why he doesn't like cooking: the waiting. It's been two minutes and he's already bored waiting for water to boil.

He starts to say something then thinks: what was it someone always told him? Don't apologize, but try saying thank you. It feels weird trying to turn that around in his mind.

"...Thanks. For sticking by me that long."

Keith knows he isn't the easiest to be around for long periods of time.

Keith continues to keep surprising him. He's not expecting any thanks for anything, let alone for just being friends? Still, this is Keith after all. Pre-Voltron Keith at that. Hunk smiles brightly at him, warmth filling his chest. Reaching out, he gently squeezes the other boy's shoulder, "It's been one heck of an adventure, that's for sure... And, yeah, it kinda sucks that you don't know all about it, but we'll be able to have new ones in this world! So, I'll continue to stick by you, if that's good with you."

That stops Keith in his tracks. Because that is a big hand. That's a big hand.. He looks at it, then at Hunk, then back at the stove to carefully turn that burner to a higher level. He's fine. Everything's fine but he also really needs this pasta to cook faster which means the water needs to boil faster.

"Yep. Definitely." That's okay to say in response to something that nice right.

Hunk just... tilts his head a bit in confusion at Keith's little look about before realizing that he's probably being a bit too familiar. Drawing his hand back quickly, he instead focuses his attention on getting the fish ready. Until he hears an unholy screeching noise that can only come from one source.

"Ugh... Chuchule!!!" Turning around he storms off into the other room, yelling about he better not find a mess or someone will be spending a time out in their pokeball!!

He wants to say no come back, but there Hunk goes into the other room. Leaving him unsupervised. With a stove, knives, and near-boiling water.

Contrary to what it likely seems, Keith isn't that bad in the kitchen. His main problem has always been impatience. But he took care of himself well enough for years before the Garrison and did so after too. He takes a breath and starts working on that next set of instructions, keeping the pasta stirred and... realizing he's bored.

This is boring like this. He groans and rests his chin on the counter watching the timer tick down.... second by second...

He can't deal with this. He turns the stove on a little higher, watching it boil harder. Just starting to peek over the edge of the pot.

"Uh oh."

By the time Hunk has dealt with his feisty Cleffa (who is now being closely watched by both Shay and Picus), he makes it back just in time to see the water bubbling over the pot. The heating element hisses loudly as the hot water splashes on it. Rushing over he gently, but firmly, moves Keith out of the way. Lifting the heavy pot of boiling water and pasta up, and off the burner, he waits until the bubbling calms down.

Turning the temperature knob back to medium, he places the pot back onto the stove, and looks over at Keith, "Dude... I was literally gone for like two minutes. What did you do?"

He was only hesitating as long as it took him to register what was happening. By the time he can react, Hunk is already there pushing him out of the way and dealing with it. He stays where he's shoved, watching Hunk.

"I--I just, I was just," is about all he can stammer out. He takes a breath and looks at the pot like it betrayed him. This was supposed to be getting to know Hunk, not causing him trouble. He growls a little under his breath, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms.

"Wanted it done when you got back." He's irritated, clearly, but there's a hint of disappointment there too. In himself, mostly.

"It's not a good idea to rush things in the kitchen. That's how accidents happen. Or something gets burned. You didn't get splashed by any of the hot water did you?" Hunk asks, tone one of concern. He's not upset by what Keith did by any means. More that he's in a state of seemingly near constant frustration because of the two baby Pokemon he's attempting to raise. Considering their newly budding friendship, he doesn't want the other boy to think he's angry at him or something.

"No." Even if he had, it's not like he'd say it. He's used to open fires and small hot plates, this is already a lot by his standards. But he resigns to staying out of Hunk's way.

A minute to breath, to run a hand down his face, he realizes that was rude. He's always like this when he's stressed. He doesn't mean to be.

"Sorry. No. I wasn't splashed by any of it. It just started doing that when you came in."

That's ....normal conversation, right.

Hunk smiles when the boy clarifies that he's okay, and he relaxes considerably, "Good, I'd hate to you to have gotten hurt." Returning his attention to the pot, he stirs up the pasta and pulls the spoon up with some of the limp noodles stuck to it.

Plucking one off he blows on it a couple of times before slurping it up. He chews a couple of times before giving Keith a thumbs up. "It's perfect, let's dump it into a coliander and then we can start sauteing the fish. There should be a coliander in the upper left cabinet. Can you grab it for me and put it in the sink?"

"The...col..." You know what, he'll just try to guess. Upper left cabinet. He pokes around in it, hand on the colander itself but looking around it. Not seeing anything else he could think to work with pasta, he looks at it and sets it there in the sink.

Right. He can... do this. Hunk said those noodles were perfect, and at least half of that was his work. So yeah, he can do this.

"Okay, what next."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only