The Ratway

"It's not really a plane, when you get into the technicalities," Mori says decisively before he throws back the rest of his liquor - quite deftly ignoring everything she said about him 'drinking to forget' something because honestly, sixteen. She was sixteen, just met him, and was already trying to snipe his alcohol stash. He wasn't about to listen to any kind of philosophical crap from anyone anyway. "It's barely a spaceship, but that's, closer to the mark," he adds with a vague wave of his hand in a quick means of goodbye before he turns back to the ship, back to the damn inexplicable pipe. He's not interested in conversing with the ragtag crew upstairs, and he's not interested at all in whatever technical jargon is going on with navigation or whatever, but he does have two main priorities he's going to adhere to: one, to make sure this whole engine isn't going to up and fall apart the next time the ship banks, and two; to keep his booze under a close eye. Both can be achieved right here so he's more than content to just leave everything else to the others.

So long as the ship keeps moving, there's some form of food around and there isn't an actual, active mutiny on board, then there's nothing to worry about.

Nothing at all.

At least, he thinks as he grabs at the wrench he discarded earlier, turning it over in his hand; that's what he's going to keep telling himself. Just keep the ship moving.

---

Two weeks move quickly. Or, really slowly (depending on just how much Mori's had to drink on a particular day) and somehow, they all fall into some kind of rhythm. They converge for breakfast as per Yuki's attempt at team bonding - Abby yammering on about something or other (or the both of them just bitching about the state of the Underworks), Yuki waving around star charts and grinning as he assures everyone (and probably himself more than anything) that they're quite perfectly on track, thank you; Dr Ryan considering them blandly and, every fourth day, Taro snickering quietly over whatever Mori has deemed to be 'team breakfast' that day. Which pisses him off to no end.

Nothing's wrong with toast.

That morning finds him shovelling some kind of pretty damn good bacon kind of thing down as quickly as possible because he could swear Abby's eyeing off the stuff on his plate, while Taro leans over Yuki's charts, clutching a bowl of dried fruit in his hand.

"You'll want to go in to dock through the south airway," the blonde is saying, gesturing slightly at the planet they'll be reaching in a few weeks with what looks like an apricot. Or a durian. Or- Mori quickly slides his plate away from Abby and casts her a not-smile-but-nearly-a-smirk as he skewers another piece of mystery bacon.

Abby pouts in return as she turns back to her own plate. She knew that she should have cooked more Bacon. Bacon is the food of gods. Bacon is what makes the universe expand and worlds turn. There was never too much bacon.
At least she has Taros share. So that is a plus. And Taro is speaking. Taro is speaking about docking.
She should probably pay attention to that. "Wait. Why that dock? That's like.. On the other side of the planet. Why can't I dock in the closest one? You know, the one with less traffic."
Not that she is looking forward to leaving the ship. Okay, maybe she is a bit. So would anyone else stuck on a ship with grumpoids, snark-masters and more than one bout of hyperness.
She also wants a drink and Mori isn't letting her touch his stash. Bastard.
At least he lets her babble though. So he isn't too bad.
Her thought train is interrupted as the captain replies to her question.

"Because it's cheaper and its a good idea." Yuki tells her. "Besides, from the raving reviews Mori gives you can do it. Just slip through and blast them out of the way!" He grins at her. Abby returns the smile and turns to look at the machanic.

"You give raving reviews about me? Aww shucks. The monkey thinks I'm awesome." She punches him playfully in the shoulder before reaching to grab a piece of bacon from his plate.

Elizabeth clears her throat. "While this is all wonderful, and finally docking for more supplies sounds fantastic I feel this is the time to tell you all." She goes silent as her face turns serious. "Not once has any of you come for your check up. Not once. I don't think I need to remind you of the dangers of space travel-"

"For the 90th time." Abby mutters to Mori, pouting as he moves his plate again. Elizabeth ignores her and continues speaking.

"But before we get our shore leave, I'm invoking my ranking. Not one of you will leave this ship you will each need to report to me."

Mori openly snorts around the bacon in his mouth, and then lifts a hand as he swallows in a far too late attempt to cover up the laugh by clearing his throat. He rescues his last piece of bacon from Abby and, with an iron blank face as if he'd never even considered laughing at the idea that he's just going to hand himself into medical, he eats it before the nutcase pilot can ninja it off his fork. "I don't need a checkup," he says then with a simple shrug that pretty much means there's no way in hell he's changing his stance on the issue. He grabs his plate and stands up, already plotting his escape before her eyes narrow any further. "You scanned me, before, so-"

"So really, that should just about cover all the information you need," Taro adds with a plastered on smirk as he follows by example and for all purposes starts backing slowly towards the door. "Not to mention, that was a non-consent scan, and I don't need another one either, or a checkup, because, uh, biological light show."

The blonde is grinning and still clutching the bowl of fruits as he backs up, and even as he speaks Mori's starting a quick ramble of everything he needs to do now, and for the rest of today, and the moment Taro falls silent Mori says "There's just no time," and then immediately realises that basically that was the worst excuse he could give.

He wanted a medic on board for medical reasons, not so some alarming doctor could harass them into constant healthcare awareness.

The look Elizabeth pierces them with shows that tis no room for arguments. "You will all attend this examination. You will be at the Med-bay within a five minute window of a pre-given time. You are paying me for my services, and so you will receive them. If you do not attend or are 5 minutes late, I will hunt you down, I will find you and I will force it on you. I will send each of you a time within the hour via communicator." The smile she gives next is nothing short of acidic. She grabs an apple and turns to leave. "I will see each of you by days end." With that last remark, she leaves the mess hall.

There is silence. Abby turns to the remaining crew members. She clears her throat. "That woman is the devil in heels." Yuki nods his head in agreement.

"Great legs though." He shakes his head and turns back to the star charts laying on the table in front of him. "Well, I guess we have an hour before the doctor seeks us out. So lets try to get as much work done as possible. Abby, do you think you can get us safely into this port? Honestly. If you're that worried we can-"

"Nuh, I got this. I'll get us there alive, though it may be a bit of a bumpy ride." The girls grin grows. "It'll be like a roller coaster." He clears her throat, her voice deepening slightly as she mimics an announcer. "Ladies and gentlemen, please keep your arms and legs within the ship at all times and grab hold of the closest, stationary object. Shits about to go down."

The captain smiles at the pilot; his amusement at her comment clear, as well as his slight fear.
The two fall into strategies, flight plans and 'Try to keep my baby unharmed.'
'Hey! I crashed my pod once. Okay, maybe four times. But this will be a piece of cake.'
'You're a dangerous girl.'
They include Mori and Taro in on the conversation, finding out if the ship can handle the manuvers the girl is talking about, as well as what to expect once they land.

After exactly one hour passes, each crew members communicator beeps with a new message.
Abby: 12:00
Mori: 14:00
Yuki: 16:00
Taro: 18:00
I look forward to seeing you all.

"Why am I first?!" Abby exclaims after reading down. She turns to Mori panicked. "Swap with me."

"Ha! Four and a half hours to find a good hiding spot." Yuki grins.

"I'm running out of time already," Mori says quickly, jabbing an accusing finger in Abby's direction as he continues backing up towards the door, "You, you don't come anywhere near me, she's going to be looking for you first." He shoots a quick glance down at his communicator again, swears, and then just wheels around and starts out the doorway. "If I'm honestly busy, she can't make me go to a checkup; I'm suddenly busy - Abby, find somewhere away from me to, be equally busy," He adds as he vanishes around the corner.

He isn't going to waste a second.

For all that she's probably got camera access into every corner of the room, he knows for a fact that the Underworks isn't technically updated as far as security measures go, so he's heading straight there to get down a few quick shots of drink before he finds somewhere to get some actual, and still sneaky, work done. Maybe he can hide out in that freaking useless pile of pipe.

At least it might have one discernable use after all this.

He's extra careful to secure the hatch - not that it's any help with the emergency release right above the thing, but hey, a second is a second. He swigs down a few mouthfuls of really nasty bourbon whiskey and clambers underneath a mess of machinery to pry apart some of the old, disconnected circuits, maybe fix some stuff up for the next hour or so. Maybe she won't want to physically crawl underneath greasy engine parts.

---

"I'm going to be a neutral party in this, perhaps." Taro decides as he leans back into his chair with a wry smile, biting leisurely into a piece of dried peach and considering the Captain in amusement, "Solely because I have time. And it seems safer to not assist avoidance." He sweeps a hand just above the surface of the table, left eye suddenly lighting up in an entirely unnatural way, flickering with intermittent lines of light, and then a holograph of the ship shimmers into being in the path of his hand, miniscule specks of dust lighting up in the small projection.

"Totally neutral. But, in an unrelated topic that we've yet to discuss, are those air vents?" He asks, spinning the image around in mid-air to face Yuki as if it were perfectly pliable and zooming in with a pinch-flick to highlight a few entrance points. He smiles blandly at the other and then directs his attention back to the bowl of fruit on the table in front of him, leaving the flickering image in place as he picks through the bowl for another piece of apricot. "Interesting architecture." He adds in a musing tone as he pops the piece of freeze-dried fruit into his mouth.

Abby glares after the monkey, a look of mock shock following him as he leaves the room. How rude, after all. Banishing her to her own devices. She’s the baby of this endeavour. They should be helping her learn the ropes, namely how to avoid overzealous Doctors who are demanding check-ups!
But then Taro is doing that trick with his eyes and suddenly she doesn't care anymore. Within moments she is plastered to Yuki’s side, both with concentration over their features as they try to learn every miniscule detail of the ships layout.

Air vents. That’s perfect. If Elizabeth has actually managed to place their life signatures into the computers then surely the sensors don’t reach the air vents. Right?

“Blondie…” Abby breaths as she looks over the image. “You are amazing!” She launches herself at the older man, forcing a hug on him that he doesn’t expect, and probably doesn’t want either.

The captain continues to look over the layout, a smile forming on his lips. He looks through each room until he comes to the one that they are currently located in. There is an entrance right above the stove.
Perfect. He tears himself away from the heliographed image as he makes his way towards the oven. “Come on, fly girl. We got a doctor to escape.” He grins to the young girl as he stands upon the cooktop; his hands lifting open a concealed entrance. It’ll be difficult to get them inside, and it will most likely be cosy, but that shouldn’t be a problem. So long as they remain hidden.

Abby looks to the captain, a look of pure adoration in her eyes. “I can hide with you?”

“Well, we got a long hide ahead of us. Mori’s fault for dismissing you so easily.” He grins as he send a wink her way. “I’m sure you got loads of stories to share.”
The pilot rushes over, carefully navigating Yuki’s body as she climbs into the vent above. The male only lets out a few grunts of discomfort as she makes her way inside. She soon turns around and offers him a hand. Two minutes later they are hidden away in the vents.
“You’re awesome, Blondie!” Abby calls down, the only sign of where they had gone.

---------


“This sucks.” Yuki comments an hour later, 11:45 to be exact. They had been crawling for an hour, looking for somewhere they could hang their legs and sit for a bit. “This is the worst idea we have ever had. Why would we agree to this?”

“Are you kidding?!” Abby exclaims from behind him, the wide grin still in place. “This is awesome. It’s like we’re spies, or part of a wounded crew that’s been overrun by an alien race on a mission to save our ship, crew and race!”

There’s a pause from Yuki before he answers. “How many old school earth movies do you watch?”

“Well, first there’s-“She starts on a list of movies that she used to watch with her father on his ship. She continues for what feels like hours to Yuki, when in reality it was only a few seconds.
He still kept an open ear though. For all her strength, humour and ramblings, the girl rarely spoke of her father, a man she appeared to idolise. He didn’t want to appear disinterested and close her off again. The girl had a surprising number of walls.

“Hold that thought a moment,” Yuki finally interrupted when he came to a wide opening. There was a thin piece of metal that lead across it. Yuki was nervous to cross it, as there was a large fan beneath them. But he’d rather it be him to cross and fall, then the sixteen year old behind him. He took the next few moments carefully, each calculated to him stable.

“Careful.” Abby whispers when she noticing what is going on. One. Two. Three. He’s across and he’s grinning like an idiot

“I’m always careful.” He tells her as he watches her sit herself upright, the relief obvious in her face as she stretches. “So, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but what are you doing here? I mean, you’re so young! You should be flirting with boys, worrying about school or just wondering what to do with your life. Not out here with a bunch of misfits who just sort of fell together.”

Abby laughs softly. “Yeah, I can see how that may confuse. But I like to consider myself part of the misfits. I mean..” She sighs softly.

“Hey, I can easily change the subject to something else. Like how ridiculous is Mori’s hair, am I right?” The girl laughs at his comment.

“I know right! Why long hair when you work around a ships engine all day?” The giggle continues for a few more moments before she smiles, serious this time. “Its okay, I guess you have a right to know about my past. I grew up around space crafts, ya know? My father was a pilot, although a young one he was the best damn flyer I knew. He could get a ship out of the tightest scraps, the toughest fights and have only a few scratches on the ship as evidence. He taught me everything In know. I was flying safer paths by the time I was four. By the time I was ten I was co-piloting the more dangerous missions. Then one day, when I was 12 we weren’t so lucky. We lost the ship and my father died of his injuries. The crew took care of me for a while, but over time they just went away. New jobs, other adventures, stuff to steal. You know how it goes.” She smiles softly as she hugs her knee’s close. “At 13, I was living by myself, with nothing but a few books and a doll he had given me. So I used my piloting skills to help build pod racers, since I knew how the machines worked anyway. Then one day I was flying my own. Flying is all I know, it’s what I’m good at and in a way it keeps me close to my Dad. So it just seemed the most logical route to get out there, explore the worlds and do what he loved, flying.”

Yuki watches her for a moment, surprised she opened up so much. “Really, 13?”

“Is it really so shocking?” Abby asked, her smile never leaving her face. “There are younger kids out there. I mean, how old were you when you found yourself on the streets?”

That shocks the captain for a moment. He had never mentioned that he was a street rat. “Ahh… I guess I was just always there. Me and Mori. Sometimes I think he just hangs around because of it.” He laughs uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck.

“He cares about you.” Abby smiles at him gently. “He may never say it, but he does. He seems to be harsher with those he actually does care about. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t, I can tell you that.” She laughs softly.

“I don’t know, man. The money’s what really got his attention. We were growing apart, you know? Before I got the damn ship. He owned his own business, it wasn’t doing as well as he hoped, but it was his. And then there was me, the poor street kid with No money, an aching for five finger discounts and a list of lovers a mile long. I think he was not only trying to move away from our old life, but also me. I could never seem to get out of it and he never liked that. So I think it was just easier for him to throw me away along with everything else. The dudes like a brother to me… I just..” He sighs, buring his face into his hands. “I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

Abby looks him over. So, this is what her captain looks like without his mask and snarkiness. A broken man with real problems, real fears and real, deep love for those he lets close. “Did you get this ship to keep him around?”

“I don’t know.” Yuki answers quickly and with a sharp laugh. “Maybe? I just…” He laughs again. “God, it sounds like I’m in love with him.” He shakes his head. “Its nothing like that. I just… He’s the only thing that’s kept he sane for the longest time. Our friendship is, I guess you’d call it unhealthy. We used to rely on each other, and now I rely on him enough for the both of us.”

It did sound unhealthy, but then again all friendships were. Relationships too for that matter. But something still seemed off. With how the captain and Mori acted around each other there had to be more there, right? She didn't think it right to ask about the romantic history between Yuki and Anyone, she instead she opted for a question that fit in with what he spoke about. “Are you sure? About loving him, I mean.”

A sad smile crosses the man’s face as he looks to the female before him. “There’s only ever been one person I have ever loved, and that ended badly. Mori’s just the brother I never had.”

“I think I understand what you mean.” Abby smiled back at him, the same look on his face. “Have you talked to him about this?” The answering laughter makes Abby’s smile grow.

“Are you kidding me?! No way man. Mori and I don’t do talks and we don’t do feelings. We just bottle it all up, explode and beat the crap out of each other. Then its all better, We don’t do that chick stuff.”

“Are you sure?” Abby grins at him. “You seem pretty good at it.”

“Shut it, flygirl. Tell anyone about this and I’ll tell every official at every port your real age.”

Abby sticks her tongue out as her answer. They both laugh for awhile, the subject changing to something more light, something easy to smile too. After a Lull in the conversation, Abby turns herself around.

“Alright. As fun as this was, I think I should go and find the Doc. I have a feeling that she’ll be ready to pop a vain at my absence. Maybe I can distract her long enough that I will save everyone else her wrath.” She flashes him one last grin over her shoulder before climbing away.

Yuki is kind of glad that she left. He felt uncomfortable about having revealed so much about himself. Though, even through all of that, he was kind of glad. It had been a worry that had been plaguing him, and even though they hadn’t discussed it in detail (Another fact he was glad of) it still felt better to have gotten it off his chest.
Though he may have to do a couple of push-ups and down a case of beer to rid himself of all the girly feels.

--------------------------------------------


Abby arrives in Elizabeth’s office nearly an hour late. The doctor is fuming, her anger coming off her in waves. Abby is terrified, but keeps making inappropriate comments throughout the examination. She even gets the older woman to smile a couple of times and give a snort of laughter.
So she counts that as a win.

The exam lasts 20 minutes, so Abby spends the next 30 sitting on the bench and chatting to the doctor about every day trivialities while she inputs the girls information.
Elizabeth can’t help but smile about the fact someone actually is willing to talk to her.

After the 30 minutes are over she kicks the Pilot out of the med bay and goes to find Mori. She presumes he’ll be in his usual room, fixing something or drinking.
He hadn't showed up, and even though she had been completing another check up at that time it was still unbelievably rude.
She doesn’t even announce herself as she steps into the Engine room, the sound of her heels the only thing alerting anyone to her presence.

Mori's distracted, not really focused, and so it takes him three tries before he manages to fit the shift-wrench around the head of the bolt. He's sitting on the edge of a creeper board, head craned upwards to look at the base of the metal plate he's removing, and he only briefly glances over his shoulder when he hears her heels clicking against the metal. He jams the wrench in again, twisting it around until the bolt starts to give under the pressure, loosening in another three twists.

He leans back a little and gives the plate a violent tug, pulling the whole thing out in one movement. It drops down and he grabs onto it to steady the large piece of metal as it drops the short distance to the floor, muscles straining against the weight of it as he settles it back against the sturdy side of the useless pipe.

"Time's up?" He quizzes, offering the woman a quick look, a nearly smile, and carefully places the bolt heads down in a small pile near the plate. "I'm perfectly healthy, don't need to have a medical checkup, can promise you that. That'd be wasting your time." He sets down the wrench, despite his objections, and casts around for a rag to wipe his hands clean of grease as he stands up, letting the cloth drop down onto the creeper board, double checking that the brake is on before stepping away from it. "Can't we just- I'll show you how to... Fix something, or, I don't know, and you can just, say it's all good? Elizabeth, ah, Dr. Ryan?"

He shrugs a little and lifts a hand to rub at the back of his head, crossing around the side of the room to clear away an empty bottle or two, clearing his throat. He knocks a pack of cigarettes off the edge of a crate into an empty box in a completely wasted effort at hiding the things and for a second, there's a wry grin on his face.

Elizabeth smiled softly at his obvious discomfort. "I promise to be quick." She tells him easily, motioning for him to follow her down to the medbay. "Its just a few scans, a couple of jabs, a small list of questions and at the end, if you've been good you may even receive a lollipop." She stands still, waiting for him to walk in front. "I'm not that scary, and really I could use the company. So if you don't mind?"

"Company, that's fine, but I don't see the point of all this, that's all, not like any of us are diseased or anything," He grumbles, but he doesn't ignore her, or just walk away, not really capable of just shoving her off, no matter how uninterested in this whole thing he is. Which is such a level of utter disinterest that he actually casts a longing look at the toolbox he'd left out as he makes his way out of the underworks, back into the main halls that lead to the medbay. He heaves out a resigned sigh and shoves his engine oil-stained hands in his pockets as he starts the trek to the med bay, waiting a little for Dr. Ryan to fall into step - because walking in front of someone like that was just plain, weird.

"I should be exempt, I made him hire you," He picks up again with the half-hearted complaints as they reach the doorway, quirking another grimacing smile as he follows her into the small room, a hand leaving a pocket to rub at his other arm. "I don't do the doctor, medical thing. So. Can we just,"

He feels awkward as hell, and his discomfort is only amplified by the way this place has really, seriously been converted into a medical bay, from the dark, dingy unused place it was before. Down to the alarming cleanliness. He wants his engine room back. He wants his drink back. It takes more effort than he'd ever admit to not openly fret which is some serious bullshit. "What do you need?"

"I need you to remove your shirt and sit on the bed there." She points at the bed, the friendly smile never leaving her face.

The poor man is panicking worse than what she expected. If what he says is true, and he had asked for Yuki to hire her, then logically he should have expected this. He should have been calmer.
The whole thing just made her more curious. She wanted to know how his brain worked, how he handled himself, why he chose certain things as a way of avoidance. He was like a puzzle that she wanted to unlock.
But she had to be careful how she approached him, less he run like a frightened Hylen, which were similar to the humans rabbits. Only Hylan were larger, with great sharp teeth and had a refined taste of the flesh of intelligent beings.

She made her way over to the tray, ensuring that all her equipment is there. Scanner, injections against foreign infections, her questionnaire form... Check. Check. Check. She turns her attention back to the man before her. "The quicker we do this, the faster you can run back to the underworks and pretend that I don't exist and that this never happened."

"Right," He hesitates, shrugs in a way that's more jerky and uneven than calm, and he yanks his shirt off over his head and lumps it into a pile on the bed, rolling his shoulders and sinking down to sit on the edge. He's muscular from years of hard work in metal shops and training, and there is a gear themed tattoo from his shoulder down his arm, branching out across his chest, botched in places where a scar has tainted the design, a few burns and a what looks like an old knife wound. Mori is clearly not in the slightest bit self conscious though - that's not where the discomfort is coming from - and so he just sits and wait, eyes shifting every so often to the door with the corners of his mouth frozen in a grimace.

He wants to try and make a snarky comment about doctors and shirts, but quickly changes his mind, because his heart isn't in it, and he'd rather just get this over with as quickly as possible regardless. "We don't have to do this every time we stop over, do we?" He asks instead, raising a brow in question and scrubbing a hand over his face.

He feels faintly ill.

"Deal, and next time I see you, no medical talk or I'll end up dodging you," He warns with a quick grin.

"Deal." Elizabeth laughs with an easy smile. She pulls a chair over and sits in front of him, scanner in hand. The guy was ridiculous. His body was ridiculous. How can someone who drinks so damn much still look like he just stepped out of the gym? Theres not even the slightest belly on him. Its hard to look away. Lucky for her she doesn't. She considers this payment for all the times he dodged when she tried to bring him in for examinations.

"This is ridiculous." SHe voices, finally deciding on vocalizing her thoughts as she runs the scan over him and waits for the results. "You're just... You're body is just... and with how much you drink! Not that I'm complaining mind you." She throws him another easy smile as she reads over the results.
Of course his blood alcohol was still too damn high. She sighs softly. "You really need to cut down on the drinking." She informs him as she places the scanner down by her computer and reached over the injection. She prepares his arm for the jab.
She's starting to believe he no longer knows how to function without the constant buzz. "I'm not sure I, or anyone else feels safe knowing that you are the one keeping our ship running when you can barely see straight." She pauses and looks up to meet his eye. "Not that I mean offence, its more of an observation based from your readings."

He can't help the scoff of laughter at the first thing that comes out of her mouth, but ends up watching the needle that she's about to stab into his arm instead. "I've figured out how much I need to do to negate the, drinking," He says with a quick grin, and she's clearly trying to make this easier for him, and he's going to just go with it, anything to just have even the mildest distracting effect from the fact that he's trapped in a damn doctor's office.

Even if the doctor in this case is a lovely, brilliant and considerate woman.

"I've already cut down on it, figured I should, so the reading you have is an improvement," He says, clearing his throat again. "And I can see straight. It's fine. Totally fine. I can function, with far more than that in my system. I can tell when it's- There's nothing to worry about. Trust me. I could be on the verge of blacking out and still be able to put an engine together."

"That is something I'd have to witness before I believe it." Elizabeth chuckled as she placed the needle in his arm. She watches carefully as the liquid joins his system, glad that medicine has come such a long way that the alcohol shouldn't effect its anti-body purpose.
She pulls the injection out slowly, placing a cloth over the area to remove any left-overs, or any blood that may bubble there.

She places the needle off to the side, her hand still on his arm. "Seriously? How can you even be real?" She shakes her head as she removes the cloth. She slides away from him and collects her clip board. She clears her throat. She's going to try and make these questions an informal as possible. She has a feeling that she'd have a better chance getting these out of him if it were over a few drinks, but she'll take what she can get.

"You may be uncomfortable with some of these, and if thats the case, feel free to tell me. But it will be better if you answer honestly so I can safely judge your mental stability." She offers him the kindest smile she can. "How would you say your relationship with all crew members are? I've noticed a friendship of sorts between you and our pilot, but other than that you seem to keep to yourself a lot of the time."

Mental stability? That's another thing to go onto the 'bullshit' pile. He's stable. Might drink too much, by okay, most of the crew's standards, might not be the social butterfly that Yuki's always been able to act out, but he's not unstable. Piece of cake. Just have to answer the questions.

"Yuki's my closest friend," He says without pause, "And Abby's a good kid, and I'm not going to turn away another pair of hands considering how much work there is to do," He says, and falls quiet for a moment before he looks back at her with a small frown, "That's answer enough, right? Don't know anything about Taro, can't peg what it is that I don't like, so I don't really talk with him. And I'm not interested in getting in your way, you always look about as busy as I feel. Apart from that, don't know what else to say." Actually, there's a lot more he could say, and probably is prying for, but that's not what she asked, and even with the clipboard crap, he's not going to just hand out verbal essays because she asked what he'd done the day before.

"Next question?"

"It'll do." Elizabeth tells him. "For now." The warning is light, almost teasing in its way. She doesn't make any notes though, simply moves her pen down to the next question.
"Do you have trouble falling asleep?"

"Nope," He continues, fishing around for his shirt and tugging it back on now she's apparently onto questions. Though, it hasn't escaped his attention that she only actually needed to get to his shoulder. Short sleeves aren't that restrictive. "No trouble." Thanks to the amount he's drinking. Which probably isn't the kind of sleep she's talking about, but also, not the question. "And that's saying something about Abby's piloting. Hate air-ships." He adds offhandedly, peering at the jab in his shoulder and prodding the skin around it. "You?" He asks with a quick, mocking grin.

"I would sleep better on the ground." She replies with her own grin. She feels saddened by his shirt, but at least she got a bit of entertainment out of the evening. ""Do you worry that because of your lack of communication about what others think of you? That they may reject you, or dislike you?"

"No," He deadpans. "Frankly, I don't care whether or not someone dislikes me. Not here to ruffle feathers, here to keep the ship in the air and keep and eye on Yuki. That's it. That stuff doesn't matter," He says and he puts both hands on the edge of the bed either side of him, pushing off the thing and standing, leaning against it instead. "How many more questions do you have? I'll cut back another drink today if you fill in the rest for me. We can go to the mess room, have a coffee instead, pretend you interviewed me."

"As tempting as your offer for a coffee date is, Mori It will have to wait until these questions finish. If you're still interested then... Well, we'll play it by ear." Her smile takes on a flirting undertone as she teases him. She fills in his answer and moves on to the next. "When it comes to certain situations and activities do you find yourself avoiding them because they cause stress and/or bring up unwanted memories?"

He snorts, "No, I don't avoid certain-" Even though he just did, just then, try to avoid Elizabeth and this whole medical thing, and so his denial dies before it leaves his mouth. "Yes. It's an undesirable human trait I hear," He says, quirking a brow. He'd been calming down, a little, maybe, and now, right this second he wants to just up and leave. He grips the metal edge of the bed that he's leaning his side against. "Which seems to help avoiding repeats of situations, so, not something I'm going to try and get rid of. Next question?"

"I never said it was a bad thing." Elizabeth tells him easily as she jots down his answer. Even though there are a few questions left, she decides to skip those and fill them in for him. She can see how closed off and upset these questions are making him. What she doesn't understand is why he keeps answering them, she had given him the opportunity to reject any questions at the beginning of the session.
She smiles at him. "I think that will do. Thank you for coming and sitting through it all. Oh!" She ads quickly. She pushes her chair back, the wheels on her seat carrying her over to her desk. She grins as she turns back around, a deep red lollipop in her hand. "As promised." She stands and hands it to him.

Mori declines the lollipop with a relieved wave of his hand and he pushes away from the medical bed, moving rather immediately for the door and brushing the creases out of his shirt as he goes, leaving nearly imperceptible dusting of engine oil on the black material. "Right. So you know, not avoiding you, avoiding your career aspects. So long as you're not trying to stick me with something, I'm not going to turn down company," he adds over his shoulder, because she is actually kinda nice, and he doesn't actually want to leg it without saying a thing, mainly because nearly the entire crew is currently either hiding or has already hidden from her. Seems a bit harsh, maybe. Then again, that's what you get for demanding people show up for intrusive medical exams. He gives her a quick, almost wave-like gesture and then steps out, letting the door swing shut behind him before instantly turning down the hall towards the Underworks.

Grog? Check. Spanner? ...no spanner. Wrench? Check.

He smacks the radio into life and dives back into work.

---

Taro checks his communicator. Yuki's up. Once the man goes in he's going to go straight down to the single chair in the hall that comprises the waiting room with a coffee for himself and Elizabeth, and once she steps out to find him he's going to wheedle his way out of the entire thing. Scans, you can't do a thing about. Everything else, though, can either be deflected by his physical/biological situation or simply refused.

It's an easy call to make.

"Guess no coffee then!" Elizabeth calls after him, a quick chuckle escaping at how fast he leaves her bay. She sits herself down at the computer and begins inputting the information she collected from Mori. There were a few things for concern there. But, she would save that for later.
With time it should hopefully fix itself, or it may require a long, tireless effort on her part to talk him through his problems.
Which was looking like an almost impossible solution. Men and their walls around emotions. Women were so much easier. You give them ice-cream and they open up without question.
Men need booze, companionship and prompting. Maybe even an angry outburst. Why couldn't they be simple.

She sighs to herself as she stands. Yuki still hasn't come in for his appointment. Which means he is one of the few hiding from her. Maybe she should have just become a dentist with the amount of avoidance she's receiving.
Seriously. All it is, is a scan, a jab and some question and they are free to go. Its not like she's the devil. She just happens to look fabulous in Prada heels.

Elizabeth stands and makes her way over to the ships systems, she inputs a request for Yuki's location. It takes a moment but soon all heat signatures are being shown on the computer, each classified by the data she collected from them on their first scan.
He's in the air vents. Of all places, the damn air vents. How was she meant to go and collect him? He could run away and they'd be at it for hours.
Then she gets an idea. Clearing her throat she inputs the combination for the load speaker, then the same for Yuki's communicator. She waits till he picks up before speaking.
"Captain, your attendance is required in the Med bay. Should you not be here within 10 minutes I will be forced to enter your quarters and do something drastic. I hear you have quite a nice collection of shoes, toys and other such things in waiting."

She only has to wait 2 minutes before Yuki is at her door, panting and covered in dust. She smiles as she motions for him to enter and for the examination to begin.

Taro catches the tail end of Yuki as he rushes down the corridor and into the medical bay, and the blonde allows himself a quiet snicker of amusement as he follows along, at least to the office chair that's crammed in the hall so he can wait his turn, two thermos of coffee sitting on the floor by his feet. For all that the air vents were something of a potential challenge, she had been incredibly efficient with dealing with that one, and she's probably not interested in chasing him around the ship. He'd be able to block the signals in seconds flat, but it honestly doesn't seem worth the effort.

He tips his head back and stares up at the ceiling, fingers neatly arched, hands resting in his lap.

They're nearly at their first stop. He doesn't need to get off the ship. He can't leave - and not because Yuki so politely asked him to be back in time - and he's sure that, in the worst case scenario of being denied shore leave, he's not going to be missing much. It's either that or he'll be missing an unspeakable amount, and will be far better off not knowing.

Still.

It is tedious, and desperately lonely being a somewhat unnecessary addition to a (somehow) functioning shambles crew. And he doesn't beat them ill will, barely an iota. Can't, and can't /not/ because otherwise the turnout when they reach their last stop might just- he snaps his eyes back down and reaches smoothly for the thermos he has claimed as his own.

He wants to talk. Wants to have told Yuki everything plain straight up the moment he tried to engage him in a serious, actual conversation and not have this front segregating him from near normality. But he can't. Couldn't. Won't.

If things were different, well. Then he wouldn't be contemplating this situation, now, would he?