theattic | Weird-looking, half blind, spook wrangling world-walkers that smoke.

He grunted when JW leaned over, but made no effort to push him off, instead just resuming his poking at the ground.

"For one thing, it's not cold. At this temperature, it should at least be starting to thaw toward the top, but it's rock-hard all the way through." He tapped a knuckle against the ground. Sure enough, he might as well have been knocking on stone.

JW leaned back up and turned his eyes skyward. It was so strange to see no jet trails above the clouds here in Nowhere, Japan.

"Oh. Wasn't there a mushi that turned people into metal?"

"Well, there's one that can turn them to wood... and that one that covered a town in rust one time. But it's not quite the same."

He frowned down at the ground, thinking. "My guess is that there's a mushi acting as sort of a bonding agent... there are a couple that could be responsible in that case."

"Seems awful specific that it'd pick just...some poor asshole's whole garden. Now if it were a faerie, that'd make sense. But..."

He finally leaned up and off of Ginko, relieving him of his chair duties so that he could walk down one of the rows. He kicked at the tiny piles of snow that remained on the wiry grass. He supposed he could let the man do his job. For a little while.

JW started to hum to himself--that same old Beatles song.

"Probably didn't pick it so much as it just landed here... just a matter of bad luck." He gave a quiet sigh of relief when he could move freely again, and stood up to go grab some supplies from his box. Time for some tests.

Ginko cast a glance at JW as he went through his pack, a fond smile crossing his lips despite himself. If JW caught him, he would be quick to look back to his supplies as if nothing had happened.

Throughout Ginko's testing, he would find that this mushi was not malicious but malnourished--small and sickly yellow flowers could be found here and there. The mushi's fruiting body. A good soaking with a hot solution that could more or less be called 'mushi tea' would cause the tendrils beneath the earth to relax and leave the soil full of little channels not unlike works working the soil for the new year.

JW didn't actually manage to catch Ginko stealing glances at him. He just kept poking at the ground (LOOK AT HIM HE CAN INVESTIGATE TOO!!!) and freezing up to listen to the tree line. While he wouldn't voice this to Ginko, he was afraid that a wild boar was going to come charging out at them. Or a bear. Japan had different wildlife than the Hawksaw backwoods. JW could deal with coyotes. He couldn't deal with hogs. And it was nearly spring. There would be little hogletts running around and the sows would be more terrifying than ever.

Eventually he gravitated back toward Ginko and stood against him, hands in his pockets.

"Any luck?"

He gave a quiet, satisfied hum when the ground reacted to one of his tests, and stood back up.

"Yes, actually. I'd had my suspicions, but I think I've about confirmed it. I'll have to talk to the client to put the cure together, but that's the easy part."

"Yeah?" He gave Ginko a hearty clap on the back. "Good work, Doctor!"

Wait. Easy part.

"What's the hard part?"

Ginko laughed softly. "I meant more that the hard part was figuring it out - but, to be fair, there's still the matter of curing the entire field. It's... likely going to take a while."

He looked over the expanse of hardened earth with a sigh. Theoretically, he could leave once he'd given the clients the supplies and instructions, but with this sort of thing they tended to feel better if he stuck around. Besides, there was always the chance of something going wrong. "Not long enough for it not to be worth staying to finish up the job, though."

JW grunted and looked out over the field. Maybe with him there, things would go faster. "You just make sure they pay you, yeah?"

He moved his hand from Ginko's back to his shoulder where he started to squeeze in what he hoped was a nice massage after the guy had been stooped over so long.

"What are we going to do anyway?"

"'Course. Still need to pay you back for my arm, after all." He glanced over with a small smile, leaning gratefully into that squeeze without even thinking about it. Of course, when he did notice a moment later, his face started creeping toward the pinkish side all over again, but that didn't mean he was going to move away.

"Well, simply put, the mushi here are looking for nutrients. We've got to mix up something like a tea and soak the affected area with it, and that should get them to leave once they've had their fill."

Ginko leaning in was just an invitation for him to put his other hand to work. While he dug the heels of his hands into Ginko's shoulders he looked out over the field again and let out a low whistle.

"That's a lot of tea. And keep your pennies, arms are expensive. You'll have to pay me back in increments over the next few years."

He gave a quiet sigh of relief, relaxing slightly as JW worked on his shoulders. Between his constant stooping over to examine the ground and the fact that he was perpetually hauling around a huge box on his back, his shoulders pretty much just always hurt. Needless to say, JW's efforts were appreciated.

"It is. I might need to go harvest more herbs from the woods to make enough... this is one of the largest infestations of this type that I've seen in a while." He gave a soft snort. "Great, indebted over my own arm. Just what I need."

"Welp...if we want to get home in time for supper I guess we'd better get started."

That and if they were in the woods, JW wouldn't have to worry about the farmers watching them through the windows. It was hard keeping his hands off Ginko and he didn't really know how that kind of thing flew here in Nowhere Japan. He guessed: not well.

He gave the white-haired man a last pat on the back before shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah. Just a minute, I'll go let the clients know."

Ginko gave JW a quick smile before heading over to the house. He did appreciate his discretion about this; it would probably make things... a little more complicated if his clients saw that.

He headed inside to explain the situation to the farmers, and returned a few minutes later. "Alright, they're going to start heating up some water. Let's head out."

"After you." JW gestured showily to the treeline. He knew a few things about finding herbs but only in America, so this nature walk would once again consist of JW trailing behind Ginko.

Which he didn't mind at all because of the view.

Once the little farm was out of sight, he picked up the pace and decided to make a pest of himself by hooking his chin over the man's shoulder.

"So what are we looking for?"

Once again, Ginko hesitated for a moment when JW was suddenly touching him, but he managed to start walking again (albeit a little more slowly) without too much trouble.

"We need to find more of... these." He dug around in his pocket and produced the envelope he had used to explain the situation to the farmers earlier. Inside were some sprigs of tiny, pale green herbs with rounded leaves. "Fortunately, these bloom early, so keep an eye out for yellow flowers."

JW kept up easily.

He tilted his chin towards Ginko's so that he could get a look at the plants with his good eye. They weren't like anything from home and they were pretty small. Something told him he wasn't going to be spotting very many of them. Still, he could look busy.

"Got it. Wanna see who can find the most? Loser makes dinner."

He didn't wait for Ginko to process his challenge. Instead, JW stole a light peck off the hill of his cheek like a fucking bandit and sprang away on his long legs.

Ginko was just about to answer that he had better to searching, then, since he was pretty sure that it would be better for both of them if JW made dinner. And then JW went and did that and Ginko froze where he was, his face flushing bright pink all over again as it sunk in.

He took a couple moments to stand there and look alarmed before spinning toward JW again. "Hey-- what was that!"

JW is already backing away down the path, hands cupped to his mouth.

"I don't see any yellow, but I see plenty of RED!"

At first, Ginko didn't have the slightest idea what that was supposed to mean - then he noticed how warm his cheeks felt. And turned even redder.

He gave a snort and went after JW down the path, trying to make a grab for his hand. "What d'you expect, springing that on me out of nowhere?!"

"You've gotta be ready for anything if you're gonna run with me, Clover!"

He skillfully dodged Ginko's hand and circled back around him, flicking the hair at the nape of his neck as he passed.

"Hey, I can't just go through life always expecting you to be on me at any second!"

He spun around to try and make another grab for JW's shoulder, grinning despite himself.

"Well you better start! I could be anywhere! Any time! Im untracable, uncatchable, un--" As he sprang away again on one foot he lost his balance and landed ass-first in a bush. "You shut your god damn mouth and help me up."

Ginko gave a burst of laughter as he crouched down to take hold of JW's hand and pull him to his feet - then, on a sudden impulse, pressed a quick kiss on his nose.

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