medicine man, i'll lay my head in your hands; medicine man, you will clear my mind

[willowed]

Shrugging off her heavy winter coat, Nuriko stands in the middle of the back room to Urahara Kisuke's cat café, giving the nearest feline a suspicious look as it lingers a few paces away. To the side, a seat has been prepared with treats and sweets for Robin, who seems to be examining the contents of his plate with interest, though Nuriko suspects that he's still keeping his ears trained on herself and the shopkeeper, as per his agreement. His presence relaxes Nuriko, allowing her to follow Urahara's steps as he enters the room with careful confidence.

She has very little idea what to expect, but budgeted for the time just in case. As far as Rin knows, she's out running errands all night for the restaurant, only available by phone, and likely only to return until morning.

"So... it feels to me like there are two options. Either I stay in my body, which will let you examine whether or not it acts and behaves like a regular human body, or I step outside of it so that you can see the stone it will revert to," Nuriko says, folding her coat over her arm and resting her hands in front of her person. "Is there something I'm forgetting? What do you want me to do first."

Her hands tighten against the folds of her coat, and Nuriko bites down on her lower lip, looking slightly apprehensive.

Comments

[willowed]

Nuriko glances over at Robin, suddenly sitting straighter and offering his input, and she can't help the small smile that stretches across her lips, finding the help unexpected. Of course, she brought him along for a reason, as he pointed out; she simply didn't realize that he would be looking out for her even financially.

Of course, when she gets a better look at his expression, she can only imagine that part of the reason for his help is the love of negotiation. He's a businessman, after all.

"I have the best boss, don't I?" Nuriko says, smiling more broadly as she turns back to Kisuke, her hands still wrapped around the cup of tea. "I do want to point out that making me your first guinea pig for these bodies here in Darrow is risky, no? I can't imagine you've had as easy of a time finding your materials here."

Taking another sip of the tea, Nuriko inhales deeply, then settles a calmer gaze on Kisuke. "What is it that you most want out of this city, Kisuke?"

[vivememorleti]

"You're damn right," Robin says, folding his arms over his chest in apparent pleasure, before giving the floor totally back to Nuriko. Kisuke doesn't hold the exchange against either of them. Even if they were treating him, outright, like an enemy, he truthfully wouldn't be offended.

His goal isn't, after all, to be particularly well-liked, or well-recieved, but to do the work that he wants to do, with relative ease, in relative peace.

All he's ever wanted, really.

He drinks from his own cup and clears his throat. "I don't want much. I just want it to sit quietly while I take as many opportunities from it that it allows me to, and then I want it to let me leave. In the interim, I suppose that I want to be a decent neighbor to the individuals who have found themselves here with me. I'm not complicated. I really ... am not."

[willowed]

Nuriko offers Robin a fast smile, nose wrinkled in amusement. Maybe it's obnoxious, but Nuriko has always found it easier to deal with the obnoxious people over the elegant ones. Even Hotohori, in his own way, had been unbearable at times regarding certain topics. His beauty, for one. Finding love with Miaka, for another.

Not that she ever blames him for the latter.

But before she turns her gaze back to Kisuke, Nuriko works on draining the rest of the cup, giving it a thoughtful turn in her fingers as she lowers it again. It was good tea. Bitter and strong, almost thoughtful.

"I find it interesting, Kisuke, that you put together a look and behavior that make you seem like that complicated, eccentric shop owner," she says, tilting her head and gazing neutrally at him. "And now you're telling me that you're not complicated. But what you do... I fail to see how that isn't complicated. How it can be done by someone who isn't complicated."

[vivememorleti]

Kisuke carefully slides a plate with a small slice of a dainty little cake toward Robin, who gives the food an assessing glance before accepting it. Kisuke isn't sure it will pacify him, but he'd liked the first piece, and eating it will at least give Robin Goodfellow something else to do with his mouth.

"Nuriko," he says, giving her a smile as sweet just as sweet as the confection. "I appreciate that you think so highly of me, but I'm only telling you what I think is the truth. I just want to help people. Whatever else is just the ghost of the goals of a man with something to prove, but that book's been closed. Old habits are just the hardest to break."

Finishing his drink, he stands.

"I can offer you a test-drive. Free of charge."

[willowed]

For the moment, Robin seems placated, and Nuriko shifts in her seat, sitting further up as she listens to Kisuke's reasons for... well, for being who he is. For carrying himself the way he does. And breaking old habits feels like one of the most plausible answers — even if Nuriko's immediate impulse is to ask exactly what it is he's trying to break.

She raises her cup, draining the rest of the tea and suppressing the slight shudder in her shoulders. It's lukewarm.

"Okay," she says, quick to take up the offer before it slips through her fingers. Because it would be silly not to consider. Because she hasn't met anyone else in the city yet who can give her the opportunity. "A test drive. Long..." Nuriko pauses in thought. "...long enough for me to need to use the bathroom and wake up after a nap. How you feel when you wake up in the morning is important. And for this problem, being comfortable going when you need to."

There are other things, Nuriko thinks, that are important for this decision. But all of those matters are larger than the physical comfort.

[goodfella]

"Hai," Kisuke says, agreeing to her terms with a soft bow of his head and moving toward the door to the back office.

"Nuriko-san, Nuriko-san's employer, I'll be back in a minute. I want to draw up some papers. To protect you, Nuriko-san, as much as myself. Both of us have worthy interests, after all. I'll be back in just a minute. Please do make yourselves at home in the meanwhile. It won't take long," he assures again, before disappearing through the doorway with the soft sound of rustling fabric.

Robin sits up more straight immediately, tracking after the disappearing robes with green eyes narrowed in cat-like suspicion. For all that Robin's eyes differentiate, the other man might as well be an ax-murderer.

"I don't really trust spirits," Robin says, before turning back on Nuriko with a look of surprise. "No offense intended. You're a bit different. What I mean is, I don't trust kami as far as I can throw them Nushi back at home was one thing, but, you know .. you can never tell what motivates them. In that regard, I'd rather deal with another puck."

[willowed]

"It's weird, isn't it?" Nuriko asks, eyes wide and blinking for a few seconds before she turns to Robin, pointing in the direction that Kisuke's wandered off. "Drawing up papers? A contract? Usually those things take longer to write up than just — he must have been drafting it for a while, no?"

Nose screwed up in wariness, Nuriko huffs a disgruntled sigh in Kisuke's direction, crossing her arms over her chest. Getting a woman's body now sounds like it's far, far too much to expect someone to just give her.

"I mean, I'm not that smart. I'm really not. What does he expect me to do, screw him over somehow? I'm not like that," protests Nuriko, her cheeks flushing. "That's how I'm different, too. I might be a spirit, technically, but I was human and I lived as a human and I still live as a human. Robin, what do you think I should do?"

[goodfella]

"Probably since the moment he laid eyes on you, even if it was only in his head," Robin says, honest and without judgment, though he narrows his eyes to slits a second later as he stares at the empty doorway, before turning his attention back to Nuriko.

If he were in that position, Robin would have done the same. But Robin isn't, and Nuriko is one of his fine employees.

"I know that you're different," Robin assures her. "Which is why I want to read that contract over. I think you should sign it. But only after I've read it. If the wording is too one-sided, we can negotiate. But those things can protect you, just as much as they can protect the other party. If they're written properly. Provided that person is someone who honors such things."

Robin can't tell one way or the other, which he is not planning on actually admitting. "Darrow is becoming a complicated place," doesn't entirely like Darrow, but he doesn't entirely dislike it, either.

[willowed]

"I guess I'm not really used to people upholding their end of a contract," Nuriko says quietly, almost a growl, as she thinks back on the way between Konan and Kutou. It isn't like there weren't any opportunities to settle things peacefully. Not like Hotohori hadn't tried. Instead, it was the greed of man that constantly pushed him over the previously drawn lines, always seeking more power.

She drops her head in her hands briefly, closing her eyes with a snort.

"Darrow has always been complicated, hasn't it? I don't even know how to bring this up to Rin," mutters Nuriko with a heavy sigh. "Do all non-humans view us this way? Like pawns for their personal use?"

[goodfella]

"Not all of them," Robin replies, with a laugh at the very idea. To start with, some of them just weren't clever enough. 'Non-human' meant just what it said on the tin, in Robin's experience. Something that just wasn't human. It didn't exclude much else.

"Some of them. For the rest, I'd say, you're more like any other thing out there. Either that's slow and small-toothed prey, or a competitor for territory, or a relationship far more delicate than either of those, it all depends on what you're working with. And how they've decided to treat the creatures around them. I can't even say that I wasn't the same. In the past That I didn't treat others like pawns for my amusement. But I've got other priorities now."

[willowed]

Nuriko pouts at once when Robin laughs, bright and delighted, not unlike the ringing of bells as his eyes shine with merriment. It's the kind of laugh that makes her feel a little bit condescended — but if there's anyone who's probably earned the right to be that to her, it's Robin. Robin, who's lived an eternity and then some.

"I don't know if any of those things feel very accurate to how I feel under Kisuke's watch. Maybe prey is the closest. But I think it's in his best interest to... make sure that I survive and enjoy this test drive he's offering me," she says quietly. "Then again, I can't read his eyes. Just like I can't read yours. I can't even imagine what would change the priorities of someone who's lived and seen so much. Or maybe I'm putting you on too high of a pedestal."

[goodfella]

At the comment that she can't read his eyes, Robin's face quiets, and he stares across at her with quixotic puzzlement. He doesn't always particularly relish what sets him apart.

"Believe me when I say that this is the first and possibly last time these words will ever leave my mouth, Nuriko, but you shouldn't put me on a pedestal at all. It isn't the years that mean as much as what you do with them. Anyway, realistically, no matter what kind of man he is, it's true enough that I can't find any reason that he would benefit from hurting you with this. If there isn't a benefit, there isn't a motivation."

[willowed]

"If you're able to help out a girl like me after only knowing her for a few months, I imagine that at some point, you must have stuck your neck out there. You must have done something good with some of those years," concludes Nuriko, staring contemplatively. For all the good Robin may have done, she wouldn't doubt if he did just as much harm. Maybe more.

But to someone with an eternity ahead of them, shouldn't forgiveness eventually enter the picture?

Nuriko leans forward and presses a kiss to Robin's temple. "I'm less worried about him hurting me. More worried about what this is a first step towards. But I trust your judgment, Robin. Don't let me down."

[goodfella]

"Now you're giving me too much credit," Robin cautions. But the press of warm lips softens his demeanor again, and he gives a soft, wary smile and a huff of exasperation under his breath. She is, honestly, too much.

"Well, there is no way to know without taking a step. That's all I'm betting on. But I won't let you down, sweetheart. Winning bets have got me this far, after all."