Break time! [Mai/Kaminari]

Everyone was working overtime at this point, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that normal working hours had been thrown out the windows. That was usually what happened when everything came crumbling down about people’s ears though, especially when you were talking about those who were tasked with keeping everyone else in more or less one piece. The Second Division had been working around the clock since everything had started exploding, in a more or less ‘all hands on deck’ type of fashion. This meant that everyone was tired, stressed, and generally depressed and/or grumpy.

Well, almost everyone.

Mai Fujino had been just as busy as anyone else, and had seen just as much horror over the last several days as most in the Division. And yet for all of that Mai’s unrelenting optimism marched on, a smile on her face and encouragement rolling off of her like fire shed heat. In addition to helping out with as many injured as she could, she had taken it on herself to also check in and on members of the Division themselves. The people who were more than likely not taking care of themselves. She brought snacks with her, largely out of her private stores that had more or less escaped destruction.

And right now, she had a special delivery for a specific someone.

Mai bounced down the walkway, sharing kind hellos and smiles to those she passed and trying to brighten things if only a little. She found the person she was looking for just as said person finished up one piece of work but before she could begin another.
“Ka~ mi~ na~ ri~,” he sing-songed as she rounded the corner, reaching into a sack she had been carrying and drawing forth this most special delivery. A special little container from the world of the living.
“Break time~, come on!” he said with a small giggle before simply slipping back out of the room and continuing on. She didn’t leave much room for argument as she led the way out of the workstation and into the sunlight outside.

That was about when she noticed that Kaminari had ignored her. So, about fifteen seconds after her first appearance, Mai stomped back into the room with a pout and grabbed Kaminari by the arm.
“I said, break time! With ice cream and everything!” she half whined, half sang as she all but bodily forced Kaminari to follow her out of the building and into the sunlight.

A little trek of less than a minute found a place with enough sunlight to be healthy and space to afford a breath of air. Mai took a seat, placing Kaminari’s bribery on the ground next to herself and drawing out a small tub of ice cream for herself along with a pair of spoons. Mai took a deep breath of air, letting it out as the two of them sat.
“You hanging in there okay?” Mai asked, turning her full attention onto her friend with a note of genuine concern.

“Ka~ mi~ na~ ri~.”

Oh no…

Oh no…

Oh no, no, no, no, no…

Kaminari was always busy, always healing, always needed, especially during this chaotic time, so there was no way she thought of taking any breaks beyond the absolutely required, and she had skipped her last two. Technically, she was way, way overdo for a break. But when she heard that cheerful, joyful, sing-songy voice come from around the corner, she wasn’t sure that was going to be allowed. Kaminari cautiously raised her head, eyes popping up over a large binder to Mai. She tried to pop back down and go unseen, but Mai came around the corner, popping a gift out of her sack, causing Kaminari to raise a curious eyebrow.

Still, she had work to do, no matter how enticing that little container was. Kaminari let Mai walk out of the tent and immediately returned to her paperwork, assuming Mai would get the hint. She was not expecting the return, however, and was suddenly grabbed by the arm and dragged from her workspace like a child. Kaminari sighed and relented as she followed Mai’s bubbly bouncing butt out into the sunlight. They found a grassy spot away from everything and Kaminari sat down, picking up her ice cream, and immediately digging in. It was her favorite flavor and would help give her a boost: coffee. A tolerable usage of bribery...

"I'm doing as well as I can be with all this... Putting people back together can be exhausting after the thirty-hour mark..." Kaminari said, half speaking with a spoon in her mouth. "What about you? You seem as bright and cheerful as always... It's like it hasn't affected you at all."

“Ah, isn’t that the truth,” Mai said in response to Kaminari’s first statement, and it was about what Mai had guessed and feared. Kaminari, for all her rough exterior and trouble with people, cared about them. She put her all into everything she did, and she had a bad habit of just not stopping doing that.

Granted, Mai couldn’t throw stones where that was concerned.

Mai had her spoon in her own ice cream, about to draw it up to eat it when Kaminari asked her questions; there was a small stutter, a stalling of motion. Mai seemed to stay there, stalled, for a second or two.
“I’m hanging in there as well as can be expected as well. Been running largely similar shifts to you, I imagine. Which was part of why I wanted to drag both of us out for a bit of air,” Mai said, fiddling with her spoon in the ice cream for a few moments as her thoughts floated about into an order that made sense.
“I think its affecting everyone, in their own ways. There is plenty of sadness going around, don’t see a lot of point of adding to it,” Mai said, and for a moment her happy demeanor seemed to dip.

Then she took up his spoon and took a big bite of ice cream, squirming slightly at the cold sensation.

“Which isn’t to say that I’m hiding that pain or anything. But...I don’t think indulging that sadness is gonna help me or anyone else move forward. Besides, we all deal with grief in our own ways,” Mai said, giving Kaminari another look and smile.

Kaminari often found herself at a loss for words around Mai. Her ability to just… deal was impressive, though Kaminari also wondered whether Mai was immature or insane sometimes. She was humorously certain it was one of those. There was no way someone could be this cheerful when they had gone through so much loss like this. Even in seeing that brief dip in Mai’s joyous demeanor, it was like she bounced right back.

"Whatever that is, you should give me a bit of it..." Kaminari said and then gave Mai a friendly nudge before chuckling. She took a big bite of her ice cream, but didn't shiver like Mai did. "Thanks for this... I really did need a break..." Kaminari said, yawning. She could fall asleep any minute if she relaxed too much, but knew she couldn't do that.

"Did you get into any fights out there? Save any lives?"

Mai gave Kaminari a friendly nudge back, chuckling along with her friend. She let out a breath, enjoying the fresh air.
“We both did; heck, I think everyone does. But I don’t have enough ice cream for that...” Mai said, trailing off as though she had consider that for a few moments. She didn’t need to though, she was quite certain; she didn’t have a freezer large enough to hold enough ice cream for the entire Second Division, though she was certainly considering if she could find such a freezer for the future. Kaminari pulled her back from those thoughts with her question; it rendered yet another uncharacteristic pause, though this one only lasted for a moment.

“Got into a pair of fights actually. First one right when things went up; lot of Hollows rolled up out of nowhere. Made a real mess of everything. I’d been back in the Division Headquarters when it went down,” she said.
“Second one...was a little later. I was helping at a triage point that got set up in the South East, trying to help those that got caught up,” she started, but seemed to stall out for a moment.
“I think I saved some people, but I also messed up some. Tried to deal with a big ol’ chonker of a Hollow that had turned up near the triage center. We brought it down eventually...but not before it got someone. I couldn’t help bring it down fast enough,” she continued; her tone was strange. It had an element of sadness too it, but there was a strength in it as well. As though this was something that did hurt her, but was also something that was starting to propel her forward yet again. She might not be happy about it, but it was motivation to not let it happen again.

She gave a small smile after that though, and looked over at Kaminari again.
“After that, it was a lot of the same kind of work I hear you’ve been doing. I ain’t quite as good as you at the healing thing, but I know my way around it and I got the energy to throw at it. Got some people through the worst.”

‘So, even you had a rough time of it,’ Kaminari thought as she took note of that shift in Mai’s tone. It felt horrible to think, but she was kind of relieved that Mai felt sadness, even for that moment. If she hadn’t Kaminari might have thought her a robot of some sort. That sadness let a bit more of Mai’s humanity come through, even if it was for a brief amount of time. Seeing that bubbly, cheerful nature return was still a hopeful sign for Kaminari. Things would likely get better.

"Great job, Mai," Kaminari nodded, eating a bit of her ice cream. It seemed the coffee in it wasn't working as quickly as she'd like. With so much to do, Kaminari was going to need some spirit fortification pills to continue to work through all of this. "I never got to battle, but I was able to save the lives of quite a few that almost slipped away... You remember that date I went on? He brought friends in, and now I'm gonna end up taking him to lunch to make up for my crap-tastic attitude."

When Kaminari gave Mai the compliment, Kaminari got a huge smile back from Mai. Mai proceeded to take another bite of her ice cream, enjoying the companionship. Kaminari started to speak, and Mai nodded along. She was happy her friend hadn’t had to be in the thick of the fighting; make no mistake, Mai knew damn certain that Kaminari could hold her own. Still, it was nice to hear in some ways. She was sure however that Kaminari was doing it again, ‘burning the candle at both ends’ as they said. She was likely running herself straight into the ground.

Mai didn’t exactly have room to throw stones there though…

Still, Mai was pretty sure she wasn’t gonna talk Kaminari out of the continued work. Not least of all because, well, they needed it. There was just so much to do. Once this was over though, Mai would have to see to trying to help Kaminari out somehow. The Kaminari got on to the rest of her rundown of the last few days.
“You got a second date, after that?!” Mai asked, a note of astonishment in her question. Kaminari had said it herself; her attitude had been absolutely lousy, and if Kaminari was saying it then it had probably been baaaaad.

“Ehhhh….. I wouldn’t call it a date, but more of two people going to lunch for the fun of it,” Kaminari said and then realized she just defined a date. “I mean… No, more like two acquaintances hanging out having a meal to try and have a good ti-… This isn’t working. It’s not a date, just… It’s not a date.” Kaminari facepalmed herself and shook her head. She was too tired for this. “And even if it was, which it’s not, I doubt he’s actually interested after the first… I’m just making up for being a horrid person.”

Mai couldn’t lie, it was funny watching her friend flounder at this as she tried to talk away the ‘date’ she had agreed to here. Mai didn’t even need to say anything, simply keeping her mouth shut with an ever so slight smirk and blinking a few times as Kaminari continued down the attempt. After a moment though, Kaminari gave up. At her final comment though, she found a hand lightly touching her shoulder.
“You’re not a horrid person. You have some hangups, and sometimes you have a hard time with people. You’re also one of the best people I know, and I don’t think you’d have to look far to find people who can see that,” Mai said, giving her a smile full of sincerity and heart.

“But fine, fine; its not a date. It’s still good of you to do it, and it’ll be good for you to get out when you get to it. We both know you need more sun and social interaction that doesn’t include the equivalent of a prescription,” Mai said, giving a bratty little wink and sticking her tongue out ever so slightly.

Kaminari could tell Mai was enjoying watching her fail at this. She didn’t want to call it a real date, but a spade was a spade… Damn it. Kaminari smiled at Mai’s compliments, though the tiredness prevented any real brightness from accompanying it. Mai knew how to make someone feel better about themselves; it was surely a skill granted by the same creature her possessed her with the joy of a fairy tale creature.

Kaminari raised an eyebrow and playfully scoffed. "Are you firing shots at my vitamin D pills? I'll have you know, these are just as good as real sunlight. Who cares about the artificial creation and overly done processing that has little to no scientific evidence backing it up... They're doing me just fine." Kaminari stared and then laughed at the absurdity of her obviously false claim. "Well... I owe him a decent time." Kaminari nodded, returning to the conversation. "He deserves it... even more-so now that I watched him heroically carry his injured friends from the battlefield to get healed. I can't exactly deny that was pretty hot, can I?"