Work Text:
It wasn’t too often that Kira found himself in the throes of boredom- there was always something or another to be working on, and he usually was able to keep himself busy between trying to sketch out his own fingertips and general homework and familial obligations- but when he found himself there, it hit him upside the head with the force of an ambulance bashing his skull in.
No book held his attention long enough. He tried to read a little of some book he read for class a couple years ago, something he gave up on after reading the first line of “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure.” at least ten times and deeming whatever absurdity that came next meaningless. Sketching was out of the question- his charcoals were all broken or far too dull, and even then he didn’t feel like dealing with the fine coal mess on his fingers or his desk.
He could tell the stern from the bow from each individual mast on a ship blindfolded and with only his sense of smell intact, but spending a couple hours hunched over a small wooden model and slowly accumulating splinters was a thought that made him internally groan.
There was nothing holding his attention, and nothing he wanted to do. This was some kind of underrated hell, he was sure.
Kira waited for a couple moments, staring up at the ceiling on the off chance that something would be kind enough to drop in. Anything. Anyone at all. He was going to regret the latter thought later on, sure- but in the midst of everpresent, gnawing boredom eating away at him, even social interaction was seeming like an attractive option. Sure, he wasn’t about to seek it out himself, since that would mean actually dealing with people, but. Kira wouldn’t mind Kyo popping in to sit on his bed and talk at him, or even for that brat Josefumi to breeze through.
When nothing happened, he stared a little more vehemently at the ceiling and waited for a moment longer. When it became clear that nothing was going to happen except for the buzzing need to find something to do under his skin, Kira sighed and sat up and oh hello there.
Killer Queen had come out on its own. He thought that maybe he should be a little more startled by this fact than he actually was, but from what he understood, Killer Queen just kind of did what she wanted. Right then she floated somewhat above the bed, looking down at him with an impassive face. They stared at each other for a few moments longer before Killer Queen went off and started rifling through Kira’s drawers.
This again, huh. Kira sighed, but didn’t really have the energy to tell her to stop. She had a small tendency to try and bring Kira a multitude of things that he didn’t even realize were in the house, from cigarettes (which he didn’t smoke- the nicotine would stain his nails something fierce and he cared too terribly about them to do that) to an outdated radio that only blared one morning broadcast from the summer of 1999. Where had they even had that radio in this house? Kira didn’t know. And for right then, he didn’t particularly care- at least this was giving him something to do other than count the pockmarks in the plaster above him.
Then, Killer Queen came back over with a couple ratty old pieces of cloth in its hands. The stand shoved them insistently into Kira’s front, and Kira had no choice but to take them. He held one up, and he could make out one button eye still sewn in, as well as a shoddily made sailor’s cap. The other one was more suited for piracy, and there was a third piece that fell out the pirate’s hat that looked like an old monopoly toy car.
These old things. Kira only vaguely remembered making them with Kyo back when they were both barely old enough to run around the house without tripping over things. The sock puppets in his hands had long outlived their usefulness.
Or maybe they hadn’t really. Killer Queen looked at him expectedly, as if it knew something he was just now grasping. While Kira couldn’t remember what exactly those puppet shows had been about, he did feel that they were still fun to do, in the way that only rambunctious five year olds could make them fun for an easily amused three year old. Kira looked between the puppets, then his stand, and then got an idea.
He handed off the pirate to Killer Queen and put his own hand in the one eyed sailor puppet. He felt mildly idiotic, considering the fact that he was sixteen years old and sitting on his bed while his explosion inducing cat man of a fighting spirit floated in front of him moving the pirate puppet’s mouth slowly with calm indifference. But then again- it was still something to do. And it wasn’t as if anyone would walk in at that point, because then it would be life’s way of alleviating his boredom, and absolutely nothing could be that easy.
He kept the dialogue in his head for the most part at first, but honestly, Kira soon found himself getting somewhat into the imaginary plot that he’d cooked up for himself. The sailor puppet (”Gappy”, he’d idly named him somewhat unimaginatively because he remembered that there was a gap between the bed and the wall that he used to almost fall into every night) and his vendetta against Pirate Eye was beginning to heat up, especially with the addition of eight million yen’s worth of gold found in a rusty car at the bottom of the sea. Before he knew it, he was just caught up enough that he didn’t realize he was actually muttering to himself, or that the door slowly slid open.
“Christ, eight million yen?! I haven’t heard of that much gold since the case in Hokkaido a couple decades back...” Gappy reared back, eyes growing momentarily wide as he regained his composure, straightening up. “And I suppose you have that Ainu man on board because he can find it?”
“What other reason would I have some backwards grunt?” The pirate in front of him laughed uproariously, as if this entire thing were simply a game. “It was either him or a Matagi, and those hunters won’t say a damn word. Besides- none of those Matagis have what I have.”
There was terse silence as a thick parcel was dropped on the deck of the opposing ship. From this distance, Gappy couldn’t make out if it were regular paper in a stack thick enough to look like leather from a distance, or if it were something more sinister. He sucked in a breath, his fingers twitching towards the rifle over one shoulder. “The tattoos...!”
“That’s right! I have it now- the map that leads me to riches unrelenting! With this, I can finally do it. I can stage the coup of my dreams, and in the gathering instability, the navy will be too weak to stop my men from extorting them by the billion!”
“You’re one sick bas-”
“Kira.” Kira’s intense focus was broken by the wide eyed, incredulous stare of the sudden intruder in his room. Josefumi stood there, holding a massive venus flytrap that seemed to, for some godawful reason, be full of sharp animal like teeth. There was a long moment of silence, Kira with holding one puppet’s mouth open, Josefumi with a potted plant with the engraving “Audrey 2″ on the clay surface. Then, a wide smile broke out on Josefumi’s face.
“No.” Kira warned. “Don’t you dare.”
“Holy shit, dude-”
“Not another word, Josefumi, do you hear me-”
“I just- really??? Sock puppets??”
“Josefumi I swear to God,”
“Okay, okay.” Josefumi held up one hand placatingly, slowly stepping back. “I won’t say another word.” And he didn’t, for a good moment. Kira was slowly taking off the sock puppet, and was even about to dispel Killer Queen before Josefumi suddenly turned on his heel and took off running down the hallway at full speed, yelling at the top of his lungs.
“KYO! KYO HOLY SHIT YOU’RE NEVER GONNA BELIEVE THIS-”
“Josefumi you’re DEAD MEAT--”