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

[gald_digger]

Anise woke up with her body curled into a ball at the top of her bed, above the sheets. A pen sat just next to her, with her notebook pressed under one of her arms. Picking up and pushing away the book, which had left a slight imprint in her skin, Anise straightened out her body and sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes. She felt more well-rested than usual, and her shoulder wasn't too sore anymore, but there was this nagging feeling in the back of her mind, like she was forgetting something important

[razing_phoenix]

Having the night end as Claude was trying to hold back his tears wasn't really the way he'd hoped for things to go, and so Guy woke up feeling oddly somber and quiet. All in all, their conversation had been a good one; they'd sorted through a lot of the secrets kept between them, and he was fairly certain that they would be able to get back to how things had always been between them. Still, learning about what had happened to his friend's father was enough to put him in a strange mood

[gald_digger]

Immediately, a smile came to Anise's face. After losing so many friends lately, and not getting to see Natalia last night, it was a huge relief to see even one familiar face. "Ooh, you missed me that badly after just two days?" she half-joked at him with a cutesy giggle. Two days wasn't that long a while, but the truth was that she kinda missed Guy herself. Time seemed to stretch forever at the institute sometimes

[razing_phoenix]

Luckily, Guy knew Anise well enough to realize that her first comment was only a joke. She often made remarks about how she wouldn't mind being wed to someone as polite and high-class as him, even though Guy didn't know if his status as nobility even counted at this point. Still, she was much better off going after Luke, and so Guy usually directed her toward his friend. Unfortunately, Luke wasn't here anymore, but he didn't need to dwell on that when they were just joking around. Instead, he just sent her a charming smile. "Of course, Anise

[gald_digger]

Guy's question received a small nod from Anise. Though she was pretty worried over sleeping through the night like that, between her injury and all the stress that had been piling up lately, it was possible that she just needed some rest. "Yeah," she agreed, trying to look on the bright side for now. "It probably did me some good."

When Guy suggested traveling together, Anise's eyes lit up. "Ooh! You want to? I'd really like that!" It felt like forever since the last time they spent a night together. And that time, their plans had really been messed up. This time would be different, though!

"Got anything in mind? I still kinda want to check out the area north of the building." There was that quarry Edgar had mentioned to her, and maybe some other interesting things up there. Of course, if Guy had any other ideas, she was open to hearing them. Anise was just curious about the stuff she hadn't seen yet.

[razing_phoenix]

It was good to see that Anise was just as eager to spend a night with him as he was with her, and Guy couldn't help smiling despite the somewhat morose mood he'd woken up in that morning. "Yeah, it's been too long." Part of him felt guilty about it, even if he'd never actively avoided the girl. They'd just ended up going different ways for one reason or another, and there was nothing necessarily wrong with that. Still, now that both of them had other issues or physical ailments out of the way, it seemed the time was finally right

[gald_digger]

The pause and the frown Anise's suggestion received caused her to tilt her head ever so slightly to the side, curious about the reaction. Was it a bad idea?

But in the end, he seemed to agree with her, so maybe it was fine. Guy probably would have said something if he had any serious objections, so Anise decided to just take his words at face value. "Okay! I'd be happy to have Claude there, of course!" Guy probably knew by now that Anise thought of Claude as a good friend. She didn't trust people easily, but he'd definitely proven himself in her eyes. And he was fun to talk to, and rich to boot! Really, there wasn't anything she could object over.

"You're still in the M-B block, right? Maybe we can meet in the hall just outside of there. It's close to the exit." Anise figured it would be convenient for Claude too, if he came along. And meeting outside in the field was risky, so someplace indoors was best.

[razing_phoenix]

It sounded like everything was falling into place, then. "I'll make sure to ask him today, but I think we'll do fine even if it's just the two of us." It was true that he was used to groups of four when it came to traveling in monster-populated areas, but he and Anise were accustomed to this place enough that he thought they'd be fine on their own. Plus, he had that sword and he needed to have a proper reason to use it.

"That meeting place should work, too. Claude's room is in the same block as mine, so it'll make it convenient for all of us." Anise would have a bit further to travel, obviously, but at least it wouldn't cause her to go out of her way. And she could probably make the trip pretty quickly by this point.

In fact, it seemed like everything was going almost too well. Guy knew there were still a lot of problems floating around between them, such as the fact that a lot of their friends were gone, but at least this seemed to be working out

[gald_digger]

While taking a bite of her muffin sandwich, Anise nodded at each of Guy's comments. A lot of unpredictable things could happen at night, but she and Guy were pretty experienced as far as that stuff went. Even if something went wrong, they could handle it! And they could do it even better if Claude came along, too

[razing_phoenix]

While Anise had a point about getting out of here before they got caught in the crossfire, Guy also wondered if they might get in trouble for trying to sneak away. Then again, surely the staff would understand if they explained that they had just been trying to stay out of trouble? Who knew, though -- the nurses here had some strange logic that they followed, and the soldiers might too

[gald_digger]

"The Sun Room's probably better. They might think we're trying to make a run for it if we go outside," Anise suggested, though she didn't really know what the staff thought about anything. Still, the Sun Room probably had lots of staff, so going that way, they'd stay in sight and out of the riot. The nurses couldn't argue with that, could they? Hopefully the soldiers wouldn't...

"Anyway, even if they don't let us out of the cafeteria, we could at least stand somewhere out of the way." The cafeteria was a pretty big room, after all. As it was, they were sitting right in the middle of it, but there were probably some corners untouched by flying food or rioters.

Since Guy seemed to agree with moving, Anise cautiously rose from her seat, and while keeping her head low and her hands pressed against her pigtails so they wouldn't become targets, she made her way around the table and started towards the south exit.

Moving into Sun Room.

[razing_phoenix]

Everything that Anise said made good sense, and so Guy nodded, pushing his chair in as he tried to find a clear way through all of the food that was getting lobbed overhead. Anise also seemed worried that she was going to get pelted with some gunk, if the way she was protecting her hair was any indication.

He followed close after her, figuring that he'd be a bigger target considering his height. That turned out to be true when he got splashed in the shoulder with some milk, but... at least it made sure that Anise wasn't hit by any of it. She'd owe him for that, so maybe she wouldn't jump on him for a while. He could hope, anyway.

It took a while, but they eventually made it to the doors into the Sun Room. Half of Guy's shirt was now soaked in milk, but it could have been worse. The way was clear (most of the staff was too busy), but the second he walked through the doors he was face-to-face with an orderly.

"Ahh, umm." Guy paused awkwardly, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry, we just wanted to get out of the way..."

[gald_digger]

Anise cringed when she heard a liquid sloshing nearby, and then gave a sympathetic look to Guy when she realized where it had landed. It looked like his body might have shielded her from it... Always the gentleman, wasn't he? Anise sure appreciated it

[razing_phoenix]

While the milk was definitely annoying and maybe a little gross, Guy figured it wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Seeing how some of the other patients were getting into serious trouble, this didn't really match up. Then again, those patients had done something that had provoked a response, while Guy had just been trying to get out of the way.

Either way, it was something he could ignore for the time being, especially seeing how Anise had decided she was going to throw on her sugary-sweet act for the sake of getting them out of this war zone. Guy could only watch as she pleaded with the orderly, wondering just how she could pull that off with a straight face

[gald_digger]

When Guy motioned for Anise to follow, the girl gave a prompt nod and bounded after him. Once away from the orderly, she took on a wide grin, clearly pleased with her earlier performance. She sat down on the couch, keeping a little space between them, just to be nice.

Her mood soon sobered and her grin faded into something much smaller as she watched the doors, noting that a few other patients had gotten out, too. She looked over to Guy and nodded, sympathetic to the state of his shirt. "Yeah... it'd be pretty cruel not to." Not like 'not being cruel' was ever a big priority at Landel's, but still.

Anise's eyes wandered back to the cafeteria doors, but now something was different. Soldiers and staff were rushing out, but none of them were bringing patients out with them. Something about that didn't seem right. They were just leaving in the middle of a riot? They had to be up to something...

"H-hey... What are they doing?"

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy was tempted to make some sort of comment on how disturbing it was that Anise was able to toss on the cutesy act and then drop it just as quickly, he figured now wasn't the time. It was because of Anise that they'd made it through, so he owed her for that -- even if his shirt had gotten soaked in the process. He really wouldn't have minded so much if it'd been water