Downed And Dumped [Catherine/Doku]

"A job you like's hardly a job," Her cig danced in her mouth as she spoke, only to be parted momentarily with a brief puff of smoke rings, "But the things in the job, what it enables me to do, I guess I enjoy."

The most she could lend in a way of thought to Doku's interests was a simple 'that's nice'. Wasn't like she had the experience of a sibling to really relate to it - she'd mostly been on her own growing up, and especially after her first hunt. She didn't want to answer that last question either, noticing Doku's demeanor change with her comment of how uplifted he should be given he doesn't have to worry about caring for another person for once in his life. Then it collapsed into yelling - he had lost his cool.

Ah. She won. No need to hold back, then. The fire burning in her chest from the words thrown her way was just begging to be exposed to air, and she had the excuse she needed to open that vent. Her pale face didn't express what she was thinking or feeling at all, quietly smothering her cigarette butt by twisting the edge of the stick into itself with her power until the gentle ember stopped smoking. Only then was when she got up so suddenly and aggressively, the air tasting of her anger and indignation as she glowered at Doku with piercing eyes.

"You know what Doku, you're right," Her voice was unusually cold, tone harsh as she breathed this thought into the room, "I wouldn't know what it feels like to care for someone, especially not family. Never knew my mother - she died before I was even capable of conscious thought. My father was always working to support us, so sure didn't know what that was like. No siblings - I was in the house alone. Grandfather's a piece of shit who reminds me of how inferior I am for not being a proper heir, yet daring to be that anyway every time i'm within orbit of him. And i've killed whatever remained of any other members."

Voice grown harsher, she held back the want to grab the man and shake sense into him, her heart twisting beneath this veneer of cold rage, all the experiences she'd never be allowed to have... "Your sister's alive. Shes' with people who can actually take care of her, and I doubt she'd be put up to any dangerous jobs. You can visit her anytime you want, you can call her, you can see her. Is your ego that weak that you can't see the benefit in this situation? Are you that thrilled to be someone else's caretaker til you croak in your goddamn house broke and unfulfilled?! Does being charged with this responsibility the only damn thing that makes you feel important?!"

She slammed her fist on the coffee table, with no measured control of her frustration. The table collapsed into a pile of splinters with such ease, the items atop it either gone flying or caving along with it. Her head whipped around to look at what she'd done, the flourish of pain in her fist.. She grit her teeth, got up, and moved away into the bathroom, locking the door with a veil of silence falling upon the room in her wake.

A frustrated silence was the only thing that followed the poor attempt at a joke in coming into her space without her being ready. Her gaze came upward, as if she expected him to come into the bathroom for a brawl, shoulders arched and eyes leering like a predator in the brush. Her fingers squeezed her knees in the position she sat, behind the door as he spat out words like he knew even half of it.

"You don't." She'd calmly correct between his words, but she wouldn't trouble on the subject. The way he responded... Was uncomfortably familiar - but she knew full well that Doku wasn't that irresponsible. He was just careless with his words, it wasn't something she was going to hold against him for sounding like someone she hated for a moment. At least he didn't frame it like a negging sentence.

Deathly silence followed the last of his words, before the door would creak open. She was there, brilliant orange locks a mess over her face and shoulders. She had a face of someone who wanted to cry, but buried it under stone and dirt.

"Don't act like I know what you did or didn't mean," A huff would come from her as she'd walk past him, over to the table she had smashed, "If you actually feel bad about it, apologize."

Her own apology was underway. Table was in rough shape, but not irrecoverable. Like putting together a big puzzle.

"Come here. Let me show you something." Her tone was commanding; she had already started the process - the two large halves of the table were already standing back together, her hand between the large pieces like glue as she had pulled the souls within the wood into a delicate weaving pattern, binding them at the center,

"You're a Fullbringer. You'd be able to do stuff like this, too. So watch and learn something; you see how i'm pulling the wood? Pull with the grain, it's sturdier. Be slow and gentle; it might not be alive anymore, but that doesn't mean it won't crack from overdoing it."

As things got silent Doku took another puff from the cigarette, honestly, it wasn’t doing anything for him, his stress was still spiked, as both of them sat in silence, he let Catherine’s words cook in his head. Though one thing was for certain he needed to think before he spoke with Catherine. He still couldn’t put his finger on it, just what brought him joy, helping his sister, but he could never imagine himself being something like a firefighter or police officer. Maybe it is more so lies in the relationship built with the person? Nanaly and he had a tight bond, maybe Doku liked looking after people he truly cared for.

However, he finally heard his old door open up as the orange-haired woman stood before him, by the time he rose to his feet she was already walking ahead to the table. Already back to her old self. “Sorry. I took my stress out on you, I know you were only trying to help b-” he was about to bring it up again, but it might be better to put a pin in that for later.

He whistled as he watched her practically bind the objects together. That was his weakest skill when it came to his Fullbring abilities, Slow. He took notes. “I’ve only ever used that on stir drinks and to fix some broken glass at the bar, you should show me some more complicated stuff sometime.” Once Catherine fixed his table, he walked over and pressed against it, testing it, though he was certain it would hold just fine, after all, he just watched Catherine repair it.

The air of the room was overall just not good, the smoke was getting a bit thick and the smell of booze and smoke mixed. Using his fullbring, he would open up a portal on the ceiling, which gave the smoke a hole to rise out of, while it wouldn’t eliminate the smoke outright, it did help a bit, dragging some of the cold nighttime air into the apartment.

“About what you said. Is it selfish to say I like the praise I got for helping?” He looked upwards, at the view of the stars of the early night. “I might not be good at a lot, but I know damn well I’m the best brother ever. That’s what she always told me.” He could feel his eyes swelling with water a little, two tears running down each side of his face. Using his wrist he would quickly wipe it away.

“I’ve fucked up a lot in my life, but being a brother was finally something I was good at” Looking back on his countless failures throughout life piled up his insecurities. First, he wasn’t a REAL Quincy, nor would he ever, second everything with Helen, a woman he loved and cared for just didn’t work out due to bad communication, and lastly he still holds some guilt for his mom, feeling as if he should have been around before she died.

While he wasn’t NOT Nanaly’s brother anymore, he just wasn’t going to be able to go above and beyond for her anymore. It was a weird feeling, to say the least. “I don’t hate working at the bar. I get to work for myself, the regulars are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met and I’ve met friends” He motioned towards the orange-haired girls.

“I guess I just need to find that spark. What Doku is good at, is something that makes me feel accomplished. You get what I mean?”

"It's fine. I get it," She murmured as she worked splintered ends back into smooth grain, adding little practical decorative imagery to the table; if this were done with typical methods, it'd create additional points of failure with the jigsaw puzzle-like structuring, but with the use of Fullbring it'd merely integrate this growing pattern of leaves and flower-like structures into the very make of the wood, a few additional tweaks to improve integrity. She was overly familiar with wood strengthening techniques via the manipulation of their souls - this was a piece of cake to fix versus the commissioned repairs she'd been tasked to fiddle with.

She didn't give Doku an answer to his inquiry of being taught until she gave the table the good ol' Knock - if a piece could survive The Knock, it was considered done. And that she did, a good three hard pounds of the fist in the middle where the break originally was. Table didn't even shudder; fix was done.

"That's recompense, by the way," Her voice sighed, throwing herself on the couch, "Grats, your table's stronger than it was an hour ago."

Good that he decided to air the place out finally, she was getting sick of the smell. Honestly wanted to bypass the emotional shit and just get a drink down, forget about it all... But he just kept going. There wasn't any resentment in her, no anger, no offense... She just hated being in a place of weakness. Hated admitting to it.

"Extremely," She'd begin, her head pushed back onto the back of the couch as she'd push herself into relaxing; her terrible sleep schedule hadn't gotten any better since she tried sleeping regularly, "But being selfish isn't that bad a thing. We all want something. We all got some... Psychological need, I guess. Need to feed the ego or we'd get lost in other people."

Her gaze would loll over to him, "You sound like you're very overdue for your own bout of selfishness, Mister Fischer. Get me something strong and i'll, show you something I guess. I'm piss tired."

Things were silent as Catherine put her finishing touches on the reconstruction on the table. Doku would mimic her movements with his fingers, taking a mental note so that he might be able to imitate it on larger objects. Currently, he had only messed around with water and cups that might shatter in the bar, but the table was a whole lot bigger with more moving parts. “Thanks.” He simply said as she plopped onto his couch. The man would lean forward and let out a sigh of relief. His long hair was being fixed while he leaned forward, fixing the wild strands from their shouting match. As he returned upright, his air was back to its usual appearance, neatly behind him, and his purple eyes looked towards Catherine yet again.

As he listened to her answer, it was reassuring, however Doku knew how Catherine could be. Impossible to read, so he just decided to stay ignorant and assume Catherine REALLY understood what he was saying. Sure, he was still upset and stuck in the dumps, but yelling like that, getting it off his chest. Talking to ANYBODY, made him feel just a little bit better.

He’d be over it, in time.

Ego was important to Doku, he craved attention, the praise. It sounded evil, but he just wanted what he was lacking. Opening his fridge he slid the various leftovers, soda, and water bottles to the side as he reached into the back to grab a bottle, it looked quite fancy. Bourbon, imported.

“Remember that trip to Brazil I took a month or two ago?” He shook the bottle. “I got this from the casino.”

He held the bottle up just a bit as he undid the top “Honestly, you wanted strong. This thing is like 95%? So it’ll get us both fucked up…so bottoms up?” He would bring it to his lips, the smell pungent, more so than the smoke. Oh yeah. He hesitate for just a bit, did he REALLY want to get shitfaced?

With one heavy sigh, he finally took a large sip from the bottle and swallowed quickly, the burn was unmatched, as he let out a few gasps and heaves. “Fuckkkkk dude…” He would set the bottle down next to Catherine, before sitting down on the sofa himself, leaning back and shutting his eyes.

It was gonna be a painful night, but he wasn’t gonna remember a thing.