run_barry | Guy's Night Out

"But you have talking animals," Joe replies, deadpan in his voice because of course the talking animals part would be true.

"They're more like Pokemon, with powers and everything," Cisco says, voice high and excited. "It's pretty awesome."

Joe shakes his head at Yamato to let him know it's okay to ignore Cisco if he wants to, then asks, "You went from summer camp to fighting in a war? How old were you?"

Joe may not have an exact age on this kid, but looking at him right now, seven years ago would still put him as pretty young.

Yamato gives a brief, wry smile in Cisco's direction, because the excitement over Digimon is pretty nice at least. He turns his attention back to Joe pretty quickly, though.

"Eleven," he says, lifting his shoulder in a slight shrug. "Some of us were younger, one of us was a little older."

Joe's eyebrows lift a little while the rest of his expression goes carefully blank.

Eleven.

The coffee pot sputters out the last of the water Joe poured into it, and Joe turns to take care of it.

He pours out a cup then turns back around to offer it to Yamato.

"Here, I'll let you make it up how you like it. There's cream, sugar, we also have milk if you want it." He gestures at the counter where he's set everything out along with a spoon for Yamato.

Yamato just about manages to avoid ducking his head or lowering his gaze, but the trade-off is that his own expression goes fairly blank as well.

"Thanks," he says, taking the cup and heading over to the counter to start adding sugar. One teaspoon, two teaspoons, three, four, five ...

(What? Sugar is nice! It's good stuff.)

Joe pours himself out a cup and then waits for his turn at the sugar. After seeing all that gets dumped into Yamato's cup though, Joe decides just to take his black.

Carefully sipping his coffee Joe asks, "So what's this rescue mission you're on now?"

Five teaspoons should be enough sugar. His coffee is fully sugared.

"Oh, er," he says, a little uncertainly, because he's still not exactly sure whether Joe has put him in the Crazy Guy Who Kills People And Who Shouldn't Be Around Barry category. "Four people from our world got kidnapped for -- complicated reasons. They weren't all being held in the same place, either, so we've had to rescue them one by one."

Joe isn't making it easy, his demeanor hasn't shifted much to give away where he's at as he continues the conversation with Yamato.

"Why you?" he asks, throwing a nod at Yamato. "Why is it your team looking for these people?"

Yamato cocks his head, like he doesn't understand the question entirely. The idea that he wouldn't jump at the chance to rescue people is a little alien to him.

"Why wouldn't it be us? They need to be found, and we can find them," he says. He shrugs a shoulder, taking a sip of his coffee (and making a few 'ah, hot, hot' noises of distress). "We're the only people right now who can move between worlds, we're the only ones who know the terrain, and we know how to survive there better than anyone."

He takes another sip, frowning.

"Besides, it's -- ..." He has to pause for a moment, because he's not sure how to turn this particular nebulous feeling into words. "We can't not help people who need it."

"But you're kids," Joe counters, disapproval over the situation entering his voice. "Sending kids into danger, especially war, is never right."

But it still happens, and hearing Yamato's listed out reasons why it should be Yamato and his team, Joe can't really argue with them; him not knowing or understanding the whole situation or circumstances.

Joe frowns, realizing this is a situation where he has no authority or any ability to help, and so he's forced to accept it

He frowns a little as he relents, backing down from the line of questioning.

"That sounds like something Barry would say," he comments on Yamato's last, by tone and the brief upturn of his mouth into a faint smile, that's not a bad thing.

Yamato's pretty surprised that when Joe first expresses disapproval, it's at the people sending them out -- Gennai and the Bureau and everyone else -- instead of at him. That surprise shows on his face, despite his best efforts.

"We were chosen for this long time ago. I don't know if it matters anymore if it's right or not," he says. "... And besides, I can't speak for the others, but I think I forfeited the right to be a kid back a while back."

As far as Yamato is concerned, he gave that up when he first took a life, along with any notion of being some kind of hero.

He does crack a quick, awkward smile at the comparison to Barry, ducking his head. "Thanks, but don't be fooled, we're nothing alike."

"Sounds to me like that was taken from you," Joe says, no judgement on Yamato, but things would turn interesting and fast if Joe were to ever meet Gennai or anyone else who would send the kids into battle.

As for comparisons, as far as Joe is concerned there isn't really anyone like Barry, so he won't hold that against Yamato.

Taking a drink from his coffee, Joe gives a quick hiss and pulls the mug away, brushing his mouth with his hand.

"Alright so, what're you doing?" he asks, turning the subject back to the now by giving a nod towards the items Yamato has so carefully set out. "Anything I can do to help, or you wanna just wait for Barry to get back?"

Yamato gives a shrug and a quick smile, as if to say that he doesn't see much difference.

He's relieved that Joe isn't turning him out of the house, though, and doesn't seem to have taken against him.

"I can wait for Barry to get back. If we start without him, he'll probably pout at us," Yamato says wryly. "But I figure beef teriyaki, okonomiyaki -- kind of like a pancake but with a meat and vegetable filling -- and takoyaki, which is like an octopus dumpling."

There's a large difference there to Joe's mind, but now isn't a good time to get into a conversation to point that out.

Instead he laughs on that comment about Barry. "He just might."

And no one wants that.

"Teriyaki I know," Joe says, then tries to repeat the names Yamato gives, with mild success. "Oko-- oko-meeyaki and taco-yaki are new ones."

He scratches the beard on his chin and mulls a moment before adding, "I think I've had octopus, though. Barry and Iris, they've taken me to some sushi places before, and one of those restaurants with the open grills? Where they do all the flashy cooking in front of you."

Yamato laughs a little, tilting his head. "Well, I can't promise that my cooking will be as fancy or as good as those places, but I'll do my best."

"Aaaalways prefer home-cookin' to any restaurant," Joe informs Yamato.

A beat, and then he amends, "Well, except for maybe sometimes when Iris is cooking... "

Joe smiles then holds a finger to his lips to let Yamato know that's something Yamato never heard Joe say. As far as Iris will ever know, her dad loves her cooking.

Patting Yamato on the arm, Joe steps back to exit the kitchen.

"Barry should be back in a few, so I'll leave you to it."

Yamato solemnly mimes zipping his mouth shut. If Iris asks, he'll tell her that Joe praised her cooking for hours.

"Cool. Er, thanks again for letting us use your place for this," he says, giving Joe an awkward but happy smile.

"You're welcome," Joe replies.

Taking his coffee and heading back upstairs, Joe passes by the living room on his way. Stopping by the couch, Joe reaches down and gives the lazing Cisco's shoulder a firm squeeze.

"Go in there and hang out with your friend," Joe says to him in his 'dad voice'.

Cisco squirms and nods quickly. "I'm going."

Joe heads upstairs and a few moments later Cisco steps into the kitchen.

"Hey Yams, hows it going in here?"

Yamato is somewhat buoyant, at least for now before the uncertainty sets in. As first meetings go, especially ones that ended up with some pretty heavy subject matter, he thinks that went pretty well.

He hopes it went pretty well.

"Hey, kiddo," he says as Cisco steps in, flashing a grin at him. "You here to help out with the cooking?"

Cisco pushes up the sleeves of the button-down he has thrown on over his t-shirt and shrugs.

"Yeah, sure. I think I've marathoned enough episodes of Iron Chef to start showing off my skills."

GP comes wandering in, stopping in the middle of the floor to peer up at Cisco and Yamato.

Yamato laughs, reaching forward to tap his knuckles against Cisco's forehead.

"That so? Maybe I should be deferring to you here, I haven't seen any Iron Chef," he grins. He gives a wink down at GP, too, just for a second. "Alright, can you cut up some vegetables for me? Just some leeks and peppers. I'll start on the batter."

"Seriously, the Digital World definitely needs to get itself some cable TV," Cisco says mournfully, shaking his head.

Bragging aside, chopping things is definitely something he can handle so Cisco heads to the sink to wash his hands and sets about getting things sliced and diced.

GP squawks, then flutters up onto the countertop, inspecting Yamato's careful setup.

"I know, it's a travesty," Yamato says cheerfully, patting Cisco's shoulder as he passes by on his way to the sink to wash his own hands.

Once that's done, he lightly shoos GP away from where he's working and starts mixing up the batter.

A gust of air hits the kitchen and on the counter beside the sink two reusable grocery bags materialize. A moment later a third tote and two jugs of milk join them. Finally Barry drops in, coming to a neat sliding halt beside the counter, carefully setting down a fourth bag loaded with egg cartons down.

"Did you guys know Coast City has an amazing Asian market? I went there for the octopus and they had literally everything else. Plus, I got these."

Holding his hands out towards Yamato and Cisco, he opens them and two small cats blossom from his palms.

GP makes an indignant sound and Cisco heads back to the sink, turning the cold tap on low.

"Here you go, bud."

Delighted, GP leaves Yamato and heads for the sink to splash around underneath the falling water.

Barry's return draws a mild reaction from Cisco until he sees the presents.

"Oooo, squishy!"

Yamato tenses up on instinct when that gust of air hits, but he quickly relaxes again, pausing his work on the batter to turn towards Barry.

"I did not know that," he says, flashing a smile and padding over to peer at the cats. "Huh, those are pretty damn squishy."

He claps a hand on Barry's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Thanks for all of this, Gramps."

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