[Personal Log]

[decideformyself]

It was sort of unfair. He'd only been sent home long enough to make sure that Fuuto hadn't been overrun by Dopants in his and Shotaro's absence. But on the other hand, at least he'd been able to ascertain that much. It seemed that no time had even passed since they'd left. Akiko had been baffled when Philip had asked the date, had demanded some sort of explanation, but of course he hadn't bothered to give one. Sure, he could have if he'd tried. But his attention had been occupied elsewhere.

Three hours. That's all he'd had. And then he poofed back into Ten Forward -- with a very fuzzy animal in his arms. Philip was grinning. He had to go tell Shotaro about this.

Comments

[tanteiotaku]

To say he was worried was an understatement. Philip wasn't answering his phone. Bat shot couldn't find him. He just couldn't find any trace of him. And finally, he'd asked the computer to find him. By both of his names. The confirmation he was gone felt like a kick in the gut.

He'd never considered that they'd get sent home separately. While it wasn't anywhere near as bad as before, it hurt nonetheless. He still felt like some part of himself was missing. He hadn't even gotten to the point of considering if he would have Double for backup the way things were.

He paced in his room for a while. He needed a new plan. And it probably started with finding Q. He took his hat back up again and headed for the door to his room. While punching him in the face probably wouldn't help, it probably wouldn't hurt either. Hopefully.

[decideformyself]

Philip's first priority now was to find Shotaro. He hadn't quite realized that it would happen so soon, without a chance to coordinate with Shotaro. He had to make sure Shotaro was still all right.

So he hurried through the halls to his partner's room, Mick following close behind -- he'd complained about being held for too long. He was standing right outside the door when Shotaro opened it.

[tanteiotaku]

He stopped, startled when Philip was standing in front of him. "Philip!" And the shock and worry was clear on his face. He raised a hand and it worked in the air for a moment before he finally took another couple steps toward him and grabbed hold of his shoulders. "Where the hell did you go? The ship said you were gone!"

[decideformyself]

His first reaction was to smile fondly. "I'm sorry, Shotaro. I spoke with Q about the possibility of temporarily returning home, but I didn't realize that it would happen so quickly."

And there's Mick rubbing against Shotaro's legs.

[tanteiotaku]

He glanced down and did a double-take. But he pulled his partner into a hug. He'll get to the cat in a second. "Warn me before you do that kind of thing!" Okay maybe Philip didn't need to know he was about to go punch Q in the face.

[decideformyself]

For once, he returned the hug. He couldn't blame Shotaro for this reaction.

"I haven't been gone for very long, have I?" he inquired.

[tanteiotaku]

He shook his head and let him go. "Just a few hours. Missed him, did you?" He crouched to see if Mick was going to let him pet him this time.

[decideformyself]

Mick let out a perturbed mrr sound and retreated behind Philip's legs. Ah well.

"Of course I did. Aki-chan as well, although she didn't believe a word I had to say..." He rubbed the side of his head in reminiscence. He should have known she would slap him. "On the plus side, my hypothesis that our absence is not missed back home has been confirmed. No time passed between our disappearance and my return."

[tanteiotaku]

Sigh, that's to be expected. Philip was the only person that cat really loved, anyway. He had the scars on his hands to prove it. He stood back up again. And of course Philip had run off at the mouth about their adventures so far. "I hope she wasn't too brutal." But with a fond smirk, he suddenly found himself homesick again. The feeling had mostly passed for a while, but this little escapade had brought it all back to mind again.

"Did you bring back anything else useful?" Other than the cat.

[decideformyself]

At that, Philip smirked. He reached into his pocket and procured the Frog Pod, merrily chirping "Did you bring back anything else useful? Did you?" It hopped out of his hand and onto the floor in front of Shotaro.

"I believe this might come in handy."

[tanteiotaku]

He smiled at the thing, and watched it hop off over toward where Mick was sniffing around his new environment. Mick! Mick! it tittered in Akiko's voice. "Hey there," he said. "He would have been useful with those pigs."

[decideformyself]

"Indeed. I have a feeling it will be of some use in the future. As well as this."

The next item he pulled out wasn't so light-hearted. It was the Lost Driver.

[tanteiotaku]

His stomach did a flip. He just kind of stared at it. He didn't take it, instead finally pacing away from the doorway and settling back into an edgy restlessness. "We don't need it, we're fine the way we're supposed to be."

[decideformyself]

Philip returned the Drive to the toku hammerspace whence it had come, and followed Shotaro into the room proper.

"You are," he corrected him. "But I can't simply put on the Double Drive to transform if something were to come up, though."

[tanteiotaku]

"We've always gotten by okay with that. And you've got Fang to back you up." Philip was really good at running away and buying time.

That driver was single biggest reminder of the worst year of his life. Sure it had helped him protect Fuuto just the same, but he'd been only too glad to hang it up in favor of the Double Driver. He wasn't in a hurry to use it again.

[decideformyself]

He nodded. "That's true. I hope there is never a need for either of us to use the Lost Driver. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared, Shotaro," he pointed out.

[tanteiotaku]

He huffed and looked over at his partner. Sure, that was perfectly sound logic. But this wasn't an issue of logic. It made his stomach churn to even think about using the thing. Not when Philip was still right here.

Without thinking about it, he reached out and lightly grabbed hold of Philip's arm. "All we need is each other. So long as we're still partners, we'll be just fine." And there was that self-doubt again.

Truth be told, they were in way over their head as far from home as they were. There was no intergalactic precedent to their skill sets. Sure some things didn't change, but here...

Maybe he ought to go make friends with Steve's punching bag friend.

[decideformyself]

At that insistence, Philip tilted his head and looked his partner directly in the eyes. It seemed that he'd made a miscalculation. It was only for emergencies, and yet...

Of course. Shotaro had spent a year fighting by himself with the Lost Driver. Philip had only used it for a short time, so it didn't hold the same unpleasant associations for him.

He rested a hand on Shotaro's arm and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. With any luck, we won't have any need for it."

[tanteiotaku]

Shotaro nodded and tried a tight smile. "Yeah, that's true. Thanks for bringing this stuff back, partner."

[decideformyself]

Philip nodded back. "I'm glad to see you again, partner."