Day 54: Breakfast

[arc_wrench]

For once, HK was working very hard to hide a giddy facial expression as he met his nurse at the door. He'd already hidden his scalpels in his clothing. The wonderful, sharp implements of doom would be needed today. “Statement: Despite my reticence towards all processed meat and plant products, I am experiencing intolerable levels of hunger,” he

Comments

[bitpartgod]

With the number of people coming in it was difficult to really keep track of any one person- and every time Kibitoshin thought he saw someone he recognised and tried to follow them to the food section he had to take his eyes off of the door, which only meant that even more people passed him by. He had to try really hard not to seem surprised when someone eventually managed to creep up on him.

Fortunately for him, it wasn't anyone who was likely to have been actively trying to scare him. Less fortunately, it was exactly the person the very sight of whom immediately (and most likely unintentionally) sent Kibitoshin into an anxious, apologetic tizzy. And it wasn't even Franziska! Ahh, and to think he was going to start his day like this! He'd almost managed to avoid feeling guilty about not being there when they'd needed him, but Peter had managed to stir it all up again.

... actually, that was unfair. Peter certainly hadn't seemed like the type to come over just to make him feel bad. He'd seemed perfectly friendly. He was even smiling now. Hnngh. His nerves were fraying faster than- than a fraying thing.

"Oh, no, sit down! It's fine!" He tried to smile back anyway; maybe if he acted happier, actual happiness would come with it. It couldn't hurt to try, right? Anyway, it seemed unfair to push all of his worries onto Peter. "I haven't seen you in a while! Are you okay?" And did you get by okay last night? And did anything horrible happen? And did I miss anything serious? went unspoken (for now), even if it was probably written all over his face in figurative, ten-foot neon letters; he could almost hear his ancestor starting on thinking before he opened his mouth.

[human_sponge]

It seemed that Kibitoshin was his normal, nervous self, and so Peter took that as a sign that the weirdly-colored kid was doing fairly well. His smile lingered as he took his seat, settling into it comfortably. While he was pretty bothered by the fact that the previous night had been so useless for him, all he could do now was put it behind him and focus on the future. One night at a time, one foot in front of the other.

"It has been a while," he agreed as he took a bite of his meal, appreciating the quality even now. It definitely beat the cafeteria back in the hospital where he'd done most of his training to get certified, that was for sure.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he quickly confirmed. "I've been staying out of trouble." Not by choice, but still, that was the truth of the matter. As it turned out, things mainly only got done if he put himself into some amount of danger, so being in good physical condition wasn't necessarily a good thing in his book.

Still, it was clear that Kibitoshin was even more flustered and worried than usual, and Peter was totally oblivious as to why. He eyed the kid for a moment, trying to find a reason and yet coming up blank. In this case, maybe it was best to ask so that the boy could get it off his chest. "How about you? You don't look so good."

[bitpartgod]

Staying out of trouble was always good if you could manage it (for some reason trouble always seemed to come at him), and Kibitoshin was definitely glad to hear that Peter had been sticking with it as a general rule. It would have been a real shame if anything had happened, partly because the Kaioshin knew he'd have felt terrible if it had and he'd not been there to help. Which was sort of selfish, really, but oh well.

The other reason it would have been a shame was that, as he'd thought before and as Peter just went on to prove pretty quickly, the man really was incredibly nice. So nice that he probably didn't realise why asking what was wrong wasn't exactly the best thing to do at that moment.

Kibitoshin's expression fell. "M-me? I..." Okay. What he needed to do was answer calmly, gracefully and apologetically, without burbling or begging for forgiveness or any kind of behaviour like that which was, quite simply, unbefitting of a Kaioshin. Right. It wasn't like he'd endangered any lives by not turning up to- oh.

Calm and graceful apology. Calm and graceful apology.

"I-I'm so sorry!" The words sprang out of his mouth so suddenly that Kibitoshin barely noticed the half-muffin sailing over his shoulder. "I did mean to be there last night, but for some reason the night ended and- and- did anything terrible happen?!"

Calm and graceful as a lead balloon. Classy stuff.

[human_sponge]

Maybe he shouldn't have asked after all, seeing how Kibitoshin's face fell and he started to squirm uncomfortably (even more than before) the moment that Peter had said something. Still, it wasn't like him to ignore when someone seemed out of sorts, so he couldn't have really stopped himself from expressing concern.

It just seemed to have had the wrong sort of effect, making the boy more uncomfortable as he tried to answer. Peter just watched in slight bewilderment as Kibitoshin stumbled through a response, and it took him a second to realize what the kid was getting at.

"Oh, you were supposed to head upstairs too?" Peter hadn't realized, seeing how he'd never gotten a full list of who was on board last night. He'd have to make sure to change that in the future, since it had let to a lot of standing around twiddling his thumbs. "I had no idea, but don't worry... I didn't make it up either."

Which he felt bad about too, of course, but there wasn't much that could be done about it.

Before anything else could be said or any more bad feelings exchanged, however, a glass of milk came careening their way, hitting the table... which sent the contents splashing all over Peter's shirt and onto his pants. His immediate kneejerk reaction was to stand up, letting the milk drip off of him as he stared down at it in disgust. "God! What the--"

But then even more food was flying, and Peter had to say that he was more or less at a loss.

[bitpartgod]

Peter hadn't made it up either...?

Kibitoshin blinked- once, twice, then three times, just to make sure he'd heard Peter correctly and hadn't just managed to process the words strangely and optimistically in his brain. Then he broke into a warm, delighted smile.

"Ahh, really? So it wasn't just me?! I'm so glad! I thought for a second there I'd really-" ... that. Probably wasn't the mature response to have, was it? Especially not when they were supposed to have been helping people. Ahh, that was definitely selfish! Very quickly indeed he put on what he hoped was a far more suitable look of dignified-but-relieved concern, which seemed like an awful lot of emotion to get across in one expression but he could try.

Or, at least, that had been the plan before a glass of milk exploded onto the table and splattered both of them- but mostly Peter. As if make up for the fact that he'd gotten away mostly scot free, half of a sausage promptly smacked into the side of Kibitoshin's head.

The Kaioshin stared at Peter, bewildered. Then he gave a little gasp and ducked down under the table and, most importantly, out of the line of fire. His voice floated up from the floor, muffled and mournful. "We're under attack! Quick, take cover!" A little dramatic, yes, but still! Who knew what the nurses might do to retaliate! As if to demonstrate, he gave the bottom of Peter's pants leg (about all he could see of the man from his current position) a little tug.

[human_sponge]

That sort of reaction really wasn't what Peter had been expecting. Neither of them getting up to those rooms was definitely a bad thing, and for a split second he looked at the kid like he had two heads. How could he be glad about something like that?

Though if he really thought about it, Peter could understand not wanting to be the only one who'd failed at something. But it was one thing to subscribe to the idea of misery loving company when it was something like flunking a test; it was another to apply it to something where people's lives were at stake. He knew that that people didn't ever die from the sleep studies (as far as he knew), but it was still something that couldn't be taken lightly.

Kibitoshin seemed to realize his mistake fast enough, but it wasn't like they had a chance to talk about it either way. Peter's pants were soaked, for one thing; for another, the kid was panicking.

He watched as the boy dived under the table, not sure if he should join him until he started getting urged. In the end, this was probably the best reaction to have, and so he nodded and crouched down to crawl under as well.

"This can't end well, with those soldier guys around," he muttered as he watched the action unfold. The guys were armed, so what did these other patients think they were doing...? Peter knew that frustration built and sometimes that needed to be vented out, but there had to be a better solution than this!

[bitpartgod]

It only took a couple of moments of scuffing his knees and bumping his head on the table while he tried to get comfortable for Kibitoshin to start to have second thoughts about his tactical maneuver, but the fact that Peter joined him only a little while afterwards kept him down on his knees. Obviously, that meant that it had been a good idea, right? As good as it got in a situation like this, anyway. There wasn't really anything they could do about people throwing food. The Institute people, on the other hand...

"You're telling me," he agreed, peering out from through the chair legs. He'd been doing his level best to avoid looking at the men in their severe black uniforms, but he didn't really have much of a choice now that someone had started a full-scale coup. It seemed kind of silly, really- why would you attack when there were more of the enemy? Even he didn't make mistakes like that!- but now that they were in the thick of it, that didn't especially matter. "They really look like they mean business."

Looking out a little further, he saw the end of a gun swing down towards someone just out of his line of vision- urgh. He really didn't want to be that patient by the end of this shift. Creeping back just in time to avoid getting a fried egg to the face he managed to give Peter a smile, even if his brow was still a little creased from frowning. "I guess that means we're stuck here for now, huh? I wouldn't normally cheer for them, but I kind of hope the nurses get this sorted out before things get really ugly. People could get hurt." He paused. "Like last night. I'm sorry, I- I just..."

[human_sponge]

It was definitely uncomfortable to be scrunched under the table the way he was; both of them were about the same height, which meant that they were in the same boat when it came to their limbs having to be pulled in tight and their heads brushing up against the bottom of the table. In fact, it made Peter feel pretty ridiculous overall, but he hadn't wanted to get Kibitoshin in trouble when the guy was already so much of a worrywart.

As for Kibitoshin's comment about the soldiers, he couldn't have been closer to the truth. The situation turned from a normal one -- with sedating going on everywhere, as was expected -- to something much worse. The soldiers started retaliating, mainly against those patients who were throwing punches, but they were doing so brutally, treating this like a real riot. And maybe it was one.

Still, it didn't sit well with Peter, and part of him wanted to scramble out from under the table to try and help his fellow patients from getting too hurt. He felt his body tense in preparation, but that was when his companion spoke up. He glanced over. "Well, the longer this continues the worse it's gonna get, yeah." The apology was what stopped him completely, though. If he rushed out, Kibitoshin might want to follow him on principle, and he didn't want to do that to him.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a shake of his head. "We'll just have to try and do better next time." If there was a next time. Just what kind of long-term consequences was this whole thing going to have?