run_barry | Guy's Night Out

After everything that's been going on lately, the time has come for a break. A planned visit from a friend is just the thing and with no major crisis going on at the moment, it's the perfect time to make that happen.

So, with an itinerary that includes science, food and video games, Barry is excited to bring Yamato in from Milliways for another trip to Central City.

Opening the door from the bar that's a broom closet in S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry gestures Yamato through.

"Here we are," Barry says with a smile. "Welcome back, dude."

The corridor, like most of rest of S.T.A.R. Labs that doesn't get used by Team Flash much, is usually pretty dimly lit, but today the passageway is bright in anticipation of their guest and the science that's about to commence.

Nodding down the hallway, Barry says, "Cisco and Caitlin are in her lab and we're all set up for you."

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Man, Yamato wishes he had Cisco's confidence here.

"Right. Yeah," he says to Joe, a little hesitantly, before reaching over to shake his hand. "Yamato Ishida. It's nice to meet you."

"Hey, Joe," Cisco replies, tossing a salute Joe's way.

"RAW!" GP squawks with his own greeting.

Here now Cisco's approach comes off as confidence, anywhere else and it would just be more evidence of his lack of self-preservation skills.

"Nice to meet you," Joe returns, giving Yamato's hand a firm shake. "Sorry I missed you the last time you were in town. That flu-bug-- "

Joe shakes his head, giving a kind of shudder at the thought of it.

"I appreciate you helping out like you did," Joe adds, taking his hand back.

Barry stands by smiling, pleased to have this meeting finally happening.

"I-I didn't really do anything," Yamato says, shaking his head, trying not to look too nervous. "Barry was the one running around keeping everything under control."

Edited Date: Oct. 26th, 2019 09:25 am (UTC)

"Kept him from running himself into the ground," Joe returns, looking over at Barry. "He was more and more exhausted every time he came by to check in on me and Iris. For awhile I was worried he might've been catching it, and then Central City would've really been in trouble."

There's no reprimand in Joe's voice, just a quiet relief for the turnout of something over and done with, and gratitude towards Yamato.

"He also helped take down a bad guy meta and his gang," Barry pipes in.

"That too," Joe says, nodding towards Barry and what he's said.

"Gave him a terrible name though," Cisco says with a 'tsk'. "Also? Totally junked my robot, but I'm over that now."

Obviously.

Yamato's gaze flicks over to Barry when he talks, raising an eyebrow, as if he doesn't really believe Barry thinks he helped.

"Thanks," he says to Joe, ducking his head a little more. "But really, all I did was read a few maps. Barry would've been just fine without me."

He glances over at Cisco. "... You know I'm pretty sure I apologised for junking your robot, kid."

Barry feels a flicker of something that's almost hurt on Yamato's disbelief, there and gone again in a heartbeat, but Barry plays it off with an easy smile and a shrug. The gesture and Barry's expression conveying, 'It's true.'

Joe studies Yamato and makes a thoughtful sound. "Hm. May not seem like much to you, but it means a lot to us."

Yamato may want to continue denying how much he did or not, but Joe doesn't leave much room to try and do so. Turning, he nods Yamato, and by extension Barry, to follow.

"You want something to drink?" Joe asks, heading for the kitchen. "C'mon, let's get you set up in here. Barry didn't say what you were cooking, but if we're missing something you need just let us know."

Passing the couch, Joe notes to Cisco, "I don't know what this robot did, but I feel like it's to the good of everybody that you don't have it anymore."

"And I'm over it," Cisco replies to Yamato

Cisco pouts at Joe and mutters, "Well that's rude."

Just because his adventures in robots so far have turned out bad doesn't mean he shouldn't have one!

Yamato gives just the faintest grumble at Joe's remark, but he doesn't push it, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly instead.

To Cisco, he remarks: "You know, I left it mostly intact." It was just missing an arm! And a head. And a hand.

"Something to drink would be good," he says to Joe, following him towards the kitchen. "Thanks for letting me use your kitchen, too, er, Joe-san."

Yamato's not used to using honorifics with people, and it feels weird, but he's trying to make a good impression and that involves being less abrupt and rude than usual.

"You took it's head off," Cisco responds. "Besides, the idea of that creepy peeper Camera Commander driving it around gives me the willies. You might've given him the boot out of our tech and he might be in lockup, but it's still weird."

Cisco shudders.

"It's that same feeling like knowing someone else has worn your underwear. It's not going away."

Joe glances at Barry who just shakes his head.

"I'm not even gonna ask," Joe decides out loud, turning his attention to Yamato. 'Joe-san' gets a bit of an amused smile; certainly not making fun of Yamato, just taken a little by this new cultural experience.

"You're welcome. What would you like?" Joe offers. "Not beer... right?"

Yamato doesn't look old enough to be drinking, but Joe could be wrong about that.

Leaning against one of the counters, Barry brushes a hand past his mouth to scrub off a grin and shakes his head, "No, not beer."

Joe nods and pulls the fridge, looking inside. "Coke, Sprite? I can put on some coffee or water if you'd rather have tea... "

Yamato just gives Cisco a Look and holds his hands out at his sides in a 'what was I meant to do? Not rip parts of it off?' gesture.

He gives Barry a wry glance, because he caught that gesture.

"Coffee would be really good," he says, perking up a little. "We're having to pretty heavily ration our supplies of it back home, it's been a while since I had a half decent cup of coffee."

Half the Chosen became caffeine addicts since their last long trip to the Digital World, and coffee is weirdly difficult to find there.

"I'll take some coffee, too," Barry pipes in.

"Coffee it is," Joe says, grabbing a can of Coke from the fridge and closing the door.

He passes the soda off to Barry, then heads for a cupboard to pull out a box of coffee filters and sets about getting a pot brewing in the machine.

Accepting the soda, Barry is gone and back again in a blink and a few moments later the top is popped in the living room.

"Thanks, Joe," Cisco calls out, slurping his soda.

Focusing on Yamato now, Barry asks, "Alright, where do we start?"

Because naturally Barry is going to help.

Yamato considers protesting that Barry doesn't have to help, but -- why not, having Barry's help might be nice.

"Let me check what we have, and I'll see what I can make and if I need to send you out on a shopping trip."

He takes a few moments to look through the cupboards and the fridge, mentally cataloguing what he sees there, then steps back, pulling a notepad and pen from his jacket pocket.

"Pretty sure I can make some good okonomiyaki with the stuff we have here. Mind grabbing me some extra stuff for some teriyaki and takoyaki to go with it?" He says, writing a few things down and tearing the page off. "I just need some beef, mirin, bonito flakes, pickled ginger, and octopus."

"Octopus?" Barry cants his head, thinking for a moment and then nods.

"Oh, yeah, I know where to get that," he says, reaching for the list. "Anything else?"

"Nah, everything else I need is already here," Yamato says, handing the list over. "I'll start getting stuff ready."

"Okay cool," Barry says with a quick nod then looks over. "Joe?"

With the coffee pot bubbling along in its task, Joe turns around, reaching a hand into his pocket.

"Get plenty of what he needs and pick me up some bacon and eggs. I keep trying for breakfast this week and finding I'm out of the two main ingredients." Drawing money out of his wallet, Joe gives Barry a pointed Look and then passes it over.

Looking sheepish, Barry nods. "Right, I'll get a lot of that, too. Be back in a bit."

Joe blinks against the blast of air from Barry's exit, then looks at Yamato.

"Coffee'll be ready in a minute."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Yamato says, giving Joe a quick smile.

He takes a moment to take off his jacket, finding a chair to place it over the back of, and starts getting out the ingredients he needs: Flour, eggs, milk, meat and vegetables on one side, sugar and spices on another, all neatly arranged on the worktop.

Edited Date: Nov. 1st, 2019 08:43 pm (UTC)

Joe watches Yamato for a moment, then sets about pulling a trio of coffee mugs down from the cupboard to set by the coffee pot, along with cream and sugar.

"So, you said it's been awhile since you've had a good cup of coffee?" Joe asks, curious about the rationing comment, but willing to leave it alone if it turns out to be a sensitive subject.

Stretching the pantry on a tight budget is something Joe knows a thing or two about, and he's grateful now that it isn't an issue anymore.

"Yeah, er ..." Yamato pauses for a moment, not because it's so much an awkward topic, save that every time they find a new can of coffee there's a genuine risk that Koushiro will try to physically fight him for it, but because he's not sure how much Barry's actually told Joe and how much context he needs to provide.

"My team's been on a mission for the last few months, and coffee's been pretty difficult to find," he settles on eventually. "Most of the supplies we brought with us got destroyed, so we've been trading for them whenever we hit a new town, but after food, water, medicine, et cetera, there's not been a whole lot left for luxury items."

Joe squints at Yamato, not sure what he should be concerned about, but feeling like he should be concerned about something here.

"You're on a mission and you lost your supplies. Where? Doing what?" That seems like a good place to start.

"You're from Japan, right?" he asks, then waves a hand in the air to indicate space or whatever. "Via that magic... bar... place."

Joe knows about that much, at least.

"Right. Odaiba, specifically. That's, er, not where I am right now. Back home."

Odaiba has plenty of coffee. Drowning in the stuff. Coffee for days.

"Rescue mission to another world, it's, er," Yamato pauses for a moment, thinking. Does he give the full explanation? He should probably give the full explanation.

"So, my world is actually a lot of different worlds. About seven years ago, the rest of my team and I were dragged into one of those worlds to fight in a war," he says. "And since then there's been a few other wars, and some crises, and we take smaller jobs in between. Right now we're on a rescue mission."

He's a little nervous as he explains it, because -- well. Fought in a war necessarily carries the implication of killed people, and Yamato knows how Joe reacted to Oliver, and he's willing to bet his body count is several orders of magnitude higher than Oliver's.

Edited (fluffed up the timeline there, it should be seven years) Date: Nov. 2nd, 2019 12:04 am (UTC)

"Dragged into another world... " it's a little beyond him, but Joe's trying to wrap his mind around it.

"Like Narnia," Cisco pipes in from the living room where he's playing with his phone, but still half tuned into the conversation. "With the talking animals and everything."

Joe turns his head towards Cisco, some understanding dawning, then looks back at Yamato.

"That's the one with the lion, right? And the cupboard thing?" Joe asks, taking what Yamato's said one piece at a time. Trying to understand the first bit before moving onto the next because, he definitely has questions about the rest.

Yamato opens his mouth to protest that it's not like Narnia at all, then shuts it again. It is a little bit like Narnia.

"I think so. Er, we didn't get pulled through a cupboard, though -- we were at summer camp and the sky opened up and pulled us through."

You know. As it does.