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Medkit had agreed to hang out with him and Rocket! With how much his job had taken him up some days, neither of the two fully expected to see him around for this.
But not only was he around, he even agreed to come out to a café with the two of them this time! It was the one Slingshot baked at, and Medkit had fully agreed to pay for Sword’s meal as a cherry on top.
They’d already done the basic greetings, yada-yada, which meant they’d need to debrief the older one on the current drama within the Crossroads.
Being away meant he never had enough knowledge of the gossip.
“And look, I know Coil is cool and all, but—” He made a few loose gestures with his hands, looking over at Rocket, who’d nodded in response.
“Exactly. I don’t get it.” Rocket took a bite of the cake in front of him while loosely making a spinning motion with his free hand, raising an eyebrow at Sword to see if he’d comprehended it.
And, of course, he did.
Coil was doing too much.
He looked over toward Medkit, trying to involve him more in the conversation, “Can you imagine that, Med? We don’t even have the full story, by the way.”
“So this is based on fragments?”
Rocket answered for him, going, “Not really— some of the fights are recorded.”
“But partially?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“That explains something.” Sword could see the other’s furrowed brows as he looked between the two of them.
“You need to see the video, actually.” Rocket pulled out his phone without a second thought, quieting down while continuing, “Just look.”
Medkit looked down at the video, but he didn’t look too focused.
“See, because it’s just like,” Sword practically reenacted taking one of the blows momentarily, hearing Rocket laugh at him before adding his own part to the act.
There it was.
Medkit blinked, comprehending the cut-off sentence before questioning:
“Like what?”
“Like— Boom! Bwash!” Rocket’s onomatopoeias weren’t helping, but Sword was understanding it all perfectly fine. He even nodded while listening, responding just as positively.
“Bwash, indeed. ‘Cause see,” he paused the video at one of the harder punches before going, “That could’ve been a pow. But no!”
“Could’ve been a thwack if he’d tried hard enough.”
With one heavy sigh from Medkit, Sword remembered they hadn’t done their best job at debriefing him.
“Remind me why this drama started?”
“Coil was being messy, that’s why,” Rocket’s words came out in a harsh and hushed whisper, taking his phone back after he said that.
He instinctively reached for the phone, being handed it without any protest, to rewatch the video.
“There was so much he could’ve done differently leading up to that, honestly.”
“Like what? Based on what you two told me, it sounds fair enough.”
Was Medkit testing something?
“Keeping his nose in his business first, that’s what.”
When Rocket turned his head up slightly while commenting, he caught that hint perfectly.
“If he’d stopped being so nosy about all of it, they would’ve never been in some ring in the first place.”
“That’s what I’m saying!”
“You didn’t say any of that.” Medkit’s words came out with an exhale, leaning himself back into the chair before focusing more on the food in front of all of them.
“Yeah, he did?” Sword replied, giving a confused look in the man’s direction upon hearing those words.
Rocket nodded, not even bothering to argue whether or not he’d said it.
“He said ‘keeping his nose in his business’. That’s a drastically different explanation than an underground fighting ring.”
“No, but he also like-” Sword mimicked his best friend’s face, looking more confused at Medkit’s exhaustion.
It took one look at the man’s face for Rocket to add, “He wouldn’t get it.”
“It makes sense.”
“Yeah, duh, to us.”
“But Medkit should get it too.”
Sword looked directly at Rocket upon hearing that sentence, going back to their older style. They could have a conversation with their eyes if they really tried to sync it all up.
Eyes were a big part of their current language anyway.
It had formed by accident, a mix of little habits and words they’d reflect off each other.
The beginning was when they could barely form words— which explained how they’d translate each other’s stupid babbles or onomatopoeias.
But body language?
They’d only learned that part by communicating across the classroom in school, mocking teachers together.
There wasn’t a good way to explain it with how far into the language they were.
“Never mind,” Sword murmured, having backed down to the variety of arguments Rocket had introduced with one look alone.
Medkit’s expression somewhat visibly crumbled at that, but he gave a genuine effort in reply, “No, no, I’m patient and ready to learn. You two can show me.”
“You might be too old to learn it now.”
Rocket wasn’t even throwing shade with that comment; he was being head-on.
“I’m not that old.”
That sentence got Sword back into the conversation, saying, “Whatever you say, Gramps.”
They’d gotten him to form a proper frown.
He hadn’t gotten the chance to even look back at Rocket before the two of them started a synchronized laugh. It was clearly somewhat overexaggerated for the two of them to get a proper giggle out of it; it still looked ridiculous on him.
“I didn’t know I’d grown so much older, considering I’m only— what, six years older than you?”
“That’s closer to a decade than five years, technically speaking.”
“Either way, you’re too old to learn our language,” Rocket chimed in, almost sounding arrogant with how he’d worded it.
“I can still move my joints.”
The feigned look of doubt he gave at that got a softer laugh out of Medkit before he commented, “I don’t have arthritis just yet.”
“It’s just our personal thing, though.”
“Yeah, it’s our thing.”
Their voices overlapped when they spoke, both being equally protective of it.
“It’s like our kid or something, we raised it and—”
“Just, whatever that means.”
Rocket had cut him off early that time, looking away from the two of them.
There was some silence before Medkit commented, “It’s not hot enough for you to turn red, Rocket.”
“Right.”
Sword focused back on the other topic before even handling the implications of that, clearly trying to distract the man from his best friend’s blushing.
“Anyways! Med, you get it; we just can’t teach you our personal thing.”
“Ah, that’s a shame.”
Medkit was looking down at their food before glancing back at where Vinestaff was, standing at the cash register and waiting for them to pay. With how often he and Rocket visited for food, they’d prepare orders without pay first.
“I guess I can’t pay for the food then.”
“Never mind!”
There they were, in sync again as Rocket’s panic took over the situation, showing the man a mess of hand motions as Sword made a mess of noises next to him.
He understood nothing.
Still, the effort was appreciated.