Wednesday1.17 - Visitors

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Outside the koneko, voices snaked out to the sidewalk, words unintelligable. It didn't bother Sato - he knew who was in the alleyway. Interrupting the men's conversation would only earn him their ire - and he doubted Hidaka would be telling him anything he wanted to know afterwards.

He had considered Omi's report. It had seemed inconsequential at the time - but as he'd made his way home, he felt a check-in was in order. The team, he'd decided, needed to know he was looking in on them after all.

His briefcase was back in his hand, and with the other he adjusted his tie, brushing against the disk stored on the inside of his dress jacket.

He came around to the front of the koneko, and knocked properly on the door.

Comments

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji missed the contact with Sato’s eyes, as he was rapidly scanning the room for the nearest available weapon. He really ought to stop removing his watch after missions, sick-leave be damned. He knew he was being overly dramatic, but much as he told himself that Kritiker agents should be trusted, something about this particular man put him particularly on edge. Perhaps it was just the latent detective in him looking for trouble…. It didn’t matter to him if he was being unnecessarily confrontational though, he always gave his gut feelings precedence, much trouble as that often caused him.

There was an unfortunate lack of knives present in the kitchen; Aya-chan had been a little too thorough in cleaning up. He nervously fingered the dirty chopsticks in his empty ramen bowl.

“It must be terribly inconvenient to you having such a short term memory,” Yohji said dryly. He didn’t move to answer the question though; he didn’t feel together enough just yet to invent a benign explanation for Aya-Chan.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

"It certainly can be," Sato crinkled his eyes at Aya before looking down at his hand fidgeting on his briefcase handle, concealing the frown that passed across his face. He looked up a moment later. "But it's good to see you're up and about, Aby-Ran's sister here told me you weren't feeling well. Or Ken, for that matter. I do hope something isn't going around."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Ken wasn't sick.

There was no reason whatsoever to prompt Aya-Chan to make such a comment to Sato.

As Ken wasn't sick, and his injuries from the mission were too minor to be worth mentioning, Yohji could not help but conclude that the man was referring to Ken's mental health. It was nothing short of a politely veiled threat.

How the hell did Sato even know about that?!

Yohji set down his dishes and strode over to Aya-chan, compulsively putting his arm around her in a protective gesture.

"I'm as well as could be expected," he addressed Sato curtly, "and Ken is perfectly fine." There was perhaps, a little too much emphasis on that last assertion. "There's nothing wrong with any of us which we are not perfectly capable of handling ourselves. You need not be concerned."

He eyed the briefcase suspiciously; he didn't like the way Sato kept shifting the handle in his grip. His body language oozed urgency, and Yohji was not inclined to press him for details with Aya-Chan present and the others absent.

"If you wish to speak about a flower arrangement I'd suggest you come back later, when Ran," the near codename slip had not been lost on Yohji, and it'd served to deepen his irritation at the unwelcome visitor's appearance, "and Omi are available." He nodded towards the door, hoping Sato would take a hint.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Sato just nodded amicably at Yohji's outburst. "I'm probably disturbing your rest," he agreed. He turned a smile tinged with apology at Aya. "It was nice to finally meet you, I've heard so much." He turned back to Yohji. "As I'd just mentioned, I believe I heard Mr. Hidaka outside. I was going to see if I could catch him on my way out." He nodded at Yohji before turning toward the door.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

There was no way in Hell that Yohji intended to allow Sato to talk to Ken alone. He didn't trust the man not to try to take his team mate away. And he didn't like to admit it, but he didn't trust Ken not to accidentally say something damaging, and justify whatever Sato was scheming.

He opened his mouth to object and then closed it again. Being uncooperative didn't seem like the smartest choice just now. He had probably already made things more difficult for Weiss with the quantity of open hostility he'd shown towards Sato. It was probably in his best interest to act agreeable...and simply trail Sato outside.

Yohji smiled stiffly. "I could certainly use some more rest," he answered in a flat tone.