| [Jul. 9th, 2017|10:26 pm] |
The watery light coming in the windows had edged towards pink. Genma tore himself away from planning where to put the bathroom mirror and whether he’d need a bigger hot water heater to cast an eye over their accomplishments. The roof was patched, the floor reboarded and far more sound than it had probably been in decades. Three lighted fans hung from the ceiling, waiting for the power to come back on and bring them to life. Goto-san was just turning the screw on a bracket in the kitchen, hiding new wiring in dull silver conduit, ‘the better to avoid fire danger,’ she’d said. Genma had instantly agreed to that expense.
It sounded like the rain had nearly stopped.
“I’m done with work,” Goto-san declared. She leaned against the butcher block and gave Pakkun an amused glance. “Not much more to do until the power’s restored. I’ve already had my beer, though, so I think I’ll clear out. You can settle up with me when I come back with the light fixtures tomorrow, Shiranui-san.”
“I can at least cover your emergency fee,” Genma said. He dug in his pocket for his wallet — it was damp, but the money inside was dry.
Raidou followed him over to her to say goodbye.
While Raidou saw her down the stairs, Genma turned back to his rookies.
“I’ve got one more job we need to do, and then beer and food,” Genma said. “If you haven’t eaten it all, already.”
Pakkun looked despondent. Kakashi and Ryouma, tripoded against one another, didn’t seem much interested in getting back to work, either.
“We just need to clean up downstairs a little more — clear out the debris that fell.”
Rather than expend physical energy, Kakashi clasped his hands together and materialized a clone. It gave him an unimpressed one-eyed look, and declared, “Lazy.” But it thumped down the stairs to start throwing broken boards into a pile.
Ryouma wasted no time following suit, sending a clone of his own to help Kakashi’s. “Now beer?” he said.
“Now we clean up here,” Genma said. He didn’t bother with a clone — there wasn’t much to do but sweep up some sawdust and stray nails, and make sure the cans of stain were sealed and the rags disposed of.
Kin, whose enthusiasm for the day was undimmed by the prospect of work, and didn’t seem particularly interested in beer, followed Genma happily around, tail wagging and tongue lolling, as he tidied up the mess.
When he was finished, he dropped a hand to her head. The creak of the stairs announced Raidou’s return. “Now beer,” Genma declared. “What do you say, Hatake? Is Pakkun allowed a beer?”
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