It would be an understatement to say that Yusuke hadn't been in the greatest state of mind when he flew out to meet Shaun a month ago.
No surprises there, really. After all, he'd only just woken up from one of those weird comas the day before - you know, the ones where you fell asleep and went home, but then woke up a week later to discover that you'd somehow still been in this world the entire time, just unconscious and unresponsive to any shenanigans your friends may or may not have tried to pull on you while you were out. (Looking at you, Killua.) Given how much of a trainwreck things had been at home and how utterly furious he'd been when he was brought back here before he could resolve any of it (which is to say, murder the shit out of the guy who'd helped mess everything up in the first place), it almost goes without saying that he'd been pretty preoccupied when he caught Shaun's message.
That said, seeing Shaun looking wet and miserable as hell had been enough to get him to respond almost immediately, and the decision to come hang out with him for a while had been made quickly thereafter - so quickly that it hadn't been until he was already halfway on his way there that he'd started to have second thoughts, not because of Shaun (never because of Shaun), but because he suddenly found himself uncertain as to whether or not he was the one who should be looking out for him. For one thing, he didn't know much about taking care of kids; for another, he had so much of his own shit going on that he couldn't help but worry if he'd be really be able to set all of it aside so that he could take care of Shaun. He wasn't going to beat himself up for feeling crappy about what was, quite frankly, kind of a crappy situation, but that didn't mean he wanted it to negatively impact Shaun. Hell, the absolute last thing Yusuke wanted was to let Shaun down, especially if it was just because he couldn't pull his head out of his ass.
As it turned out, though, he didn't actually have that much to worry about. He'd already known that Shaun was a smart kid, but he could take care of himself better than Yusuke had given him credit for. In retrospect, he probably should've known better - Shaun had spent the last couple of months travelling by himself, after all, and hell, if there's anyone who ought to know about how quickly kids learn to be self-sufficient when they're on their own, it's Yusuke. Either way, most of his time spent with Shaun was spent just kind of hanging out with him rather than keeping an eye on him and making sure he didn't fall in a ditch or something like he'd expected it would be, and so far it had been... a lot of fun, actually. More fun than Yusuke had had in weeks.
That wasn't to say that the gloom and the frustration he'd been entrenched in since the Sensui case wrapped up didn't still creep up on him, of course, because it did, usually in the dead of night when everything was too damn quiet and he knew that the only thing any efforts to get to sleep would lead to was him startling awake a couple hours later. (Friggin' nightmares.) But having Shaun around took his mind off things, and more than that, it kept him from just doing what he'd done back home and coping with his problems by retreating into himself. Can't exactly fuck off by himself when he's got a kid looking to him to help him give the security guard at the lighthouse a headache, can he?
(It's strange. The whole reason he'd started travelling with Shaun in the first place was so that he could provide him some company and help him feel less lonely. Now he's begun to suspect that Shaun's helping him more than the other way around. Funny how that worked out, huh.)
Speaking of the lighthouse security guard, the ice cream stand he and Shaun had decided to stop at after they'd wrapped up their training for the day was close enough to the lighthouse itself that Yusuke could see the guy lingering outside the door. He didn't miss the series of suspicious sideways looks the guy was throwing their way, either. Being as accustomed to dudes in uniforms giving him the stink eye as Yusuke was, he wasn't particularly bent out of shape about it. In fact, after making awkward eye contact with him for the umpteenth time, he even spared the guard a cheerful wave and a (shit-eating) grin. Hi there, Officer Friendly. Nice weather today.
He returned his attention to Shaun when he heard him speak up, huffing out a bit of a laugh at his words.
"Chyeah, no kidding. I dunno about your teachers, kid, but mine're a pain in the ass."
Not that there was much of a chance he'd have to deal with them again in the foreseeable future even if he wasn't currently stranded in Stupid Magic Animal Land, of course. Yusuke doesn't mention that.
The ice cream vendor reached across the stand, holding out their respective orders. Yusuke took the two cones he'd ordered and passed one of them off to the Lucario fidgeting impatiently at his side. He'd insisted on paying for both his stuff and Shaun's - not something he would do for most people, being the serial cheapskate that he is, but for Shaun, it only seemed natural. Puu was there with them too, of course, but had trilled out a polite refusal when asked if he wanted anything. He wasn't a particularly huge fan of ice cream, really. It made his feathers all sticky.
Once they both had everything they ordered (for themselves, and for their Pokemon as well), Yusuke turned away, leading them to a nearby bench.
"You know what else is pretty cool in my opinion? Bein' able to hit the beach whenever I feel like it. There're beaches 'n shit outside Tokyo that you can get to if you take the train, but I've never actually gone to any of 'em. Was always too busy with other stuff."
Like giving over half the gangs in the city reason to shit their pants at the sight of him. And also, you know, saving humanity.
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No surprises there, really. After all, he'd only just woken up from one of those weird comas the day before - you know, the ones where you fell asleep and went home, but then woke up a week later to discover that you'd somehow still been in this world the entire time, just unconscious and unresponsive to any shenanigans your friends may or may not have tried to pull on you while you were out. (Looking at you, Killua.) Given how much of a trainwreck things had been at home and how utterly furious he'd been when he was brought back here before he could resolve any of it (which is to say, murder the shit out of the guy who'd helped mess everything up in the first place), it almost goes without saying that he'd been pretty preoccupied when he caught Shaun's message.
That said, seeing Shaun looking wet and miserable as hell had been enough to get him to respond almost immediately, and the decision to come hang out with him for a while had been made quickly thereafter - so quickly that it hadn't been until he was already halfway on his way there that he'd started to have second thoughts, not because of Shaun (never because of Shaun), but because he suddenly found himself uncertain as to whether or not he was the one who should be looking out for him. For one thing, he didn't know much about taking care of kids; for another, he had so much of his own shit going on that he couldn't help but worry if he'd be really be able to set all of it aside so that he could take care of Shaun. He wasn't going to beat himself up for feeling crappy about what was, quite frankly, kind of a crappy situation, but that didn't mean he wanted it to negatively impact Shaun. Hell, the absolute last thing Yusuke wanted was to let Shaun down, especially if it was just because he couldn't pull his head out of his ass.
As it turned out, though, he didn't actually have that much to worry about. He'd already known that Shaun was a smart kid, but he could take care of himself better than Yusuke had given him credit for. In retrospect, he probably should've known better - Shaun had spent the last couple of months travelling by himself, after all, and hell, if there's anyone who ought to know about how quickly kids learn to be self-sufficient when they're on their own, it's Yusuke. Either way, most of his time spent with Shaun was spent just kind of hanging out with him rather than keeping an eye on him and making sure he didn't fall in a ditch or something like he'd expected it would be, and so far it had been... a lot of fun, actually. More fun than Yusuke had had in weeks.
That wasn't to say that the gloom and the frustration he'd been entrenched in since the Sensui case wrapped up didn't still creep up on him, of course, because it did, usually in the dead of night when everything was too damn quiet and he knew that the only thing any efforts to get to sleep would lead to was him startling awake a couple hours later. (Friggin' nightmares.) But having Shaun around took his mind off things, and more than that, it kept him from just doing what he'd done back home and coping with his problems by retreating into himself. Can't exactly fuck off by himself when he's got a kid looking to him to help him give the security guard at the lighthouse a headache, can he?
(It's strange. The whole reason he'd started travelling with Shaun in the first place was so that he could provide him some company and help him feel less lonely. Now he's begun to suspect that Shaun's helping him more than the other way around. Funny how that worked out, huh.)
Speaking of the lighthouse security guard, the ice cream stand he and Shaun had decided to stop at after they'd wrapped up their training for the day was close enough to the lighthouse itself that Yusuke could see the guy lingering outside the door. He didn't miss the series of suspicious sideways looks the guy was throwing their way, either. Being as accustomed to dudes in uniforms giving him the stink eye as Yusuke was, he wasn't particularly bent out of shape about it. In fact, after making awkward eye contact with him for the umpteenth time, he even spared the guard a cheerful wave and a (shit-eating) grin. Hi there, Officer Friendly. Nice weather today.
He returned his attention to Shaun when he heard him speak up, huffing out a bit of a laugh at his words.
"Chyeah, no kidding. I dunno about your teachers, kid, but mine're a pain in the ass."
Not that there was much of a chance he'd have to deal with them again in the foreseeable future even if he wasn't currently stranded in Stupid Magic Animal Land, of course. Yusuke doesn't mention that.
The ice cream vendor reached across the stand, holding out their respective orders. Yusuke took the two cones he'd ordered and passed one of them off to the Lucario fidgeting impatiently at his side. He'd insisted on paying for both his stuff and Shaun's - not something he would do for most people, being the serial cheapskate that he is, but for Shaun, it only seemed natural. Puu was there with them too, of course, but had trilled out a polite refusal when asked if he wanted anything. He wasn't a particularly huge fan of ice cream, really. It made his feathers all sticky.
Once they both had everything they ordered (for themselves, and for their Pokemon as well), Yusuke turned away, leading them to a nearby bench.
"You know what else is pretty cool in my opinion? Bein' able to hit the beach whenever I feel like it. There're beaches 'n shit outside Tokyo that you can get to if you take the train, but I've never actually gone to any of 'em. Was always too busy with other stuff."
Like giving over half the gangs in the city reason to shit their pants at the sight of him. And also, you know, saving humanity.