What Happened To Bereavement Time?

[Kender Bard]

"Healer Mikasi? I know you said that you're not taking any visitors or patients at the moment, but we really need your help..."

Mikasi looked at the small, nasally man that stood in the doorframe to his shop. The sign on the door clearly said closed. Mikasi was only in the shop area because that's where he had some of his comfiest chairs and he wanted to recline in one. He'd opened the door out of politeness, though he had been sorely tempted to ignore whoever had come knocking.

Now he wished he had even more.

~Get out~ he said quietly. ~You do not want me in people's heads until mine has been cleared.~

The man gave a slight bow. "I understand, Mikasi, but this is very important. The patient-"

~Has the entire staff at the Healing house to tend to them and if an entire staff of mind healers can do nothing for him, then I, alone, undesiring to help, certainly cannot~ Mikasi interrupted and his eyes narrowed. ~Get. Out.~

"But sir-"

Mikasi turned away and rummaged at his desk a moment.

"-you ARE the best, and while I understand circumstances have arisen that are most regrettable, you are the most capable and it is really your moral duty to-"

Mikasi then turned and, with all his physical strength and an extra telekinetic push, hurled a bottle of ink at the man. It shattered, sprayed his entire face and shirt in ink, and cut him up in several spots from the glass. The man fell back in the street with a cry and looked in alarm at Mikasi who trembled with rage at his door.

~Next time it'll be a Force damned book!~

[Darastrix]

Dart happened upon the scene just as Mikasi threw the ink bottle at the other man, and for a moment he just stood still in slack-jawed surprise. He didn't know the healer intimately well, but he'd been acquainted with Mikasi long enough to know that he didn't have a temper to speak of.

Well, grief affects us all differently, he rationalized as he hastened over.

"I think you'd better move along," he said to the now ink-covered man. "You know what they say about annoying healers."

[Kender Bard]

The man did indeed know as a testimony to it dripped off his nose. He got up and ran off.

Mikasi looked at all the other people who were staring at him and snapped, ~What are you looking at? Never seen a man mourn? This isn't a show!~

He huffed and turned to Dart, scowling... then shut his eyes and visibly forced himself to calm down. ~Sorry~ he muttered.

[Darastrix]

"You don't have to apologize," Dart told him. "If he made you reach the end of your patience, he probably deserved to have something thrown at him." He gave a slight, brief smile and gestured at Mikasi's door. "I actually was coming this way to see how you were doing. You don't have to take me up on the offer, but if you need a sympathetic ear for a while, I've got two to spare."

[Kender Bard]

Mikasi managed a faint smile and he gave a small nod. ~I... would like a little company~ he admitted. ~The non-demanding kind. I promise not to throw anything at you either.~ He headed back inside, gesturing for Dart to follow. ~I'm coming along. My parents weren't young, and I knew that their time was coming soon either way. I just wish it had been something more... peaceful. Something in their sleep, you know?~ He fixed some tea.

[Darastrix]

"Yeah, I do know," Dart murmured, taking a seat. "Ray was so young, but still, if he had to die that day, it wouldn't have seemed quite so bad if he'd laid down for a nap and just...never woke up."

[Kender Bard]

~Life never decides to do anything clean~ Mikasi sighed with a slight shake of his head, and settled down with a cup, gesturing that Dart could help himself if he liked. ~You're not the only one who stopped by though. Filly - I don't know if you ever met her, but she assisted me in Khelek? - is in the area and decided to spend some time with me. Sweet woman. Was telling me about the family she has with the man who I could have sworn wanted to kill her when I introduced them.~ Mikasi shook his head. ~Making life just as bizarre as can be on top of my earlier statement. I bet it's nice...~

He trailed off, frowning into his cup a little. ~What's it like to have a wife?~

[Darastrix]

"I'm not really sure," Dart replied as he got a cup for himself. "Kris and I aren't married. I love her, but I'm not closed off to other possibilities. I guess you could say we're...circumstantially monogamous."

[Kender Bard]

Mikasi trembled lightly with laughter. ~All right, fair enough. I can't really ask Thelon though. Well, I suppose I could, but I can't imagine what his response might be. He'd probably give me a strange look and tell me it's like being married.~

[Darastrix]

"The best I can give you from observation is that it's like having a housemate who gets into every aspect of your life and adds some new ones in the form of her family, her job, her everything else, and kids if you decide to have them," Dart told him. "And that if you both really like each other, it's a pretty good thing."

[Kender Bard]

~I'm not the kind of man to pine over my lack of love-life~ Mikasi told Dart. ~But sometimes I think it'd be nice to have someone around. A wife might be a bit much, but maybe I should get a pet, aye?~ He smiled wryly. ~I'd be nagged less.~

[Darastrix]

"Maybe a cat, then? Or a songbird," Dart suggested. "You don't strike me as a dog person, really."

[Kender Bard]

~No, but perhaps a bird would be nice, though I have to keep my patients in mind when I choose~ Mikasi mused. ~A cat maybe. I'll look around. Would you like to come with me? Maybe if I'm with someone, nobody will assault me begging for my medical attention.~

[Darastrix]

"Be glad to," Dart replied. "I might find something for Hotaru while I'm at it. Efil knows with all the braid and thread I keep on hand, a pet would have no lack of things to play with."

[Kender Bard]

Mikasi smiled and grabbed his cloak. He knew precisely where to go first. Leading Dart through the town, the healer strolled into a stable at one of the far ends of the city and looked about. A young man peeked from around a horse. "Can I help you?"

~Do you happen to have any kittens or cats you'd be willing to part with?~ Mikasi asked. He knew that cats were sometimes kept to keep mice out of the stables.

"Actually, sir, one mouser just had a litter," the boy remarked. "Some timing, huh? We can't keep them all so if you'd like you could pick one."

~Do you think Hotaru would like a kitten?~ Mikasi asked Dart.