Day 55: Cafeteria

[mustbethesuit]

Comments

[bitpartgod]

Kibitoshin opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. Everything hurt- or that was the way it seemed to the Kaioshin, at least, lying heavily with the dull, sensitive throb of pain spreading from the tips of his toes up through his neck. He’d thought he’d only have to deal with the pain of his injuries, which as he could now see had been carefully bandaged, both leg and arm; he’d entirely forgotten about how tiring healing could be, even the next day.

What he wasn’t expecting was for the door to swing open a few seconds later, and for a tall, broad-shouldered, stern-faced man to sweep him and start barking orders at him. M-more soldiers? Still?! As if things couldn’t get any worse

[iwhipthefool]

Franziska woke with a start and shot up in bed, clutching at her chest as she struggled to breathe. What had just happened?! One moment she'd been in the hallway, facing off against a giant rat clinging to that redheaded fool's arm and now....? The room was silent save for her roommate's breathing and a metallic tinkle from around her neck. Moving her hands away, Franziska found herself in strange clothes - clothes that reminded her of some sort of military prep school - with a cheap ball chain around her neck that sported dogtags. She barely had time to look at what it said (Wilhelmina von Richter, B Class, 20120101F) before the door opened and a woman wearing the same military uniform from the previous day came in.

"Out of bed. Get your boots and hat on."

The woman's tone was nothing like the nurse's and so Franziska warily complied, lacing the boots up and finding the beret (How tasteless. She was not one for this sort of attire.) on the dresser by the bed. So this was the result of Landel being kicked out, was it? Were

[bitpartgod]

Given the mood he was on the verge of being in, Kibitoshin hadn't been entirely sure he wanted to be near anyone. He wasn't actually very sure of how to deal with being in a bad mood when there were so many people around; his world had only ever been made up of five people at most, which generally meant he got all the space he could ever want without ever even having to ask for it. Was that the way it was done? You asked to be left alone? Or was it more like a warning?

At any rate, that probably wasn't going to be very effective here- and it certainly wasn't going to work at all on the person who eventually turned up to scrub next to him. The first thing he noticed was the voice, and then, just in case there was any doubt, the fool thrown on the end

[iwhipthefool]

He turned around and did as he was told and Franziska felt a bit of her own control coming back. The soldiers were infinitely more difficult to boss around and so much more sure of themselves which was admittedly a little intimidating for her. She was, after all, still considered a child in the eyes of the law, even if she was a feared prosecutor and a terror on the battlefield. The soldiers here had no inkling of who she was and a journal or even a whip was ineffectual when confronted with a pistol or rifle. And though Franziska hated to admit it, she was still afraid of being shot. After all this time, the sight of one still made her blood run cold

[bitpartgod]

That was definitely a relief, one that made the smile come a little more easily to him. It was true that Franziska didn't seem to be injured at all, but even so it felt better to have asked; who knew if she'd had a bad experience or not last night, or if she had bandages under her uniform? But though Kibitoshin would have been all too happy to explain himself on the matter, telling her he couldn't see under her clothes was almost definitely the fast way to a beating, even with all those soldiers around.

Fortunately she was already talking again before he could get a word in edgeways- and, of course, it was with the reminder that he could barely take care of himself. Ahh, and they'd done so well in the conversation up until then!

He put on a wounded look, the sort he would have called a fair expression of his feelings on the matter and his Ancestor a pout. It wasn't a pout, though. Really. "Actually, I managed to beat a lot of monsters last night, and I healed someone," he explained. Admittedly, they wouldn't have needed to fight or

[iwhipthefool]

Franziska wondered why men thought looking ineffectual and weak would work against her. So many times she'd come up against men (sometimes women) who would pout or sulk at her words, thinking it would make her feel some shred of sympathy for them. The fools were incapable of realizing that von Karmas did not feel sympathy unless duly earned. And kicked puppy looks did not earn sympathy

[bitpartgod]

Well, yes, that was true. Kibitoshin gave a terse little laugh, trying not to seem quite so bothered as he actually was by the fact that she was arguing with him about being helpful. She would have complained that he'd been selfish if he'd tried to heal himself first. Really, was there anything he could do right, or did something suddenly become wrong simply because he was the one to do it? Ahh, it was just so circular

[iwhipthefool]

Was he being uppity? Franziska glanced down at the man next to her and her frown deepened. This was unexpected. He was taking shots back at her and predicting what she was going to say. No one did that to her, least of all someone who wasn't even in the legal field. She would need to shake up her routine if she wanted to keep the upper hand without revealing any weaknesses. Because, if last night proved anything, she had to remain strong. Her father was gone, Battler was insane, and there were giant scorpions and giant rats lurking around every turn of the hall. She was the only one she could really rely upon

[bitpartgod]

Kibitoshin flinched as though he'd taken a jab to the gut. He'd heard that snap in her voice before and seen her point at him like that dozens of times already, so why was it that this one hurt as much as it did? This wasn't thr first time she'd spoken to him like that, and he'd just let it roll off of him before, and it wasn't as though she was wrong, was it? So why was this time different?

Slowly, it dawned on him. Maybe it hurt exactly because she was right.

After all, who was he to prance around playing the hero, like it really meant anything? Franziska was totally right. What if Sechs had done something stupid last night and tried to rescue him instead of protecting himself? What if he'd been so badly hurt he couldn't help him? And what if he'd died? It wasn't as though he was the only healer in the Institute, but there would always be more injured than there were people who could help them. The realisation was stinging. How could he have been such an-

IdiotKibitoshin stopped. Maybe it was because he was already in a bad mood

[iwhipthefool]

The silence wasn't something unusual and Franziska felt a certain kind of satisfaction in having made the so-called Guardian of the Universe fall quiet. Maybe he had understood what she was trying to say and now he would be more careful. Seeing him injured and her without any way of preventing it was difficult enough, but the way Kibitoshin was, he'd likely go out and do it again tonight. She couldn't follow after him to make sure he didn't get eaten by a gruel or whatever it was American nerds called those things.

She was quite certain of her infallible position up until she heard the sponge snap against the ground so hard it rebounded. A moment later and Kibitoshin was far too close for comfort and shouting at her. The reality in front of her eyes took a second to register, but when it did, she took a faltering half step back and grabbed her right shoulder. Kibitoshin was shouting at her. No one shouted at her! Except in court when they were yelling their pitiful objections and then she usually overrode them with better

[bitpartgod]

The silence that followed was almost defeaning to the Kaioshin. For a moment he found himself faintly confused, unsure of what he'd said aloud and kept inside of his head; he'd been thinking a lot of it for so long now that it seemed downright wrong to hear it spoken, as though he were breaking some sort of unwritten law. He wasn't really supposed to talk about how he was feeling if it didn't matter, was he

[iwhipthefool]

Understand her? This fool didn't need to understand her and she didn't need to understand him! He should just follow orders and listen to her superior wisdom and things should be simple like that! Only...Franziska knew that wasn't going to fly here. He had gained the upper hand and now she would never recover it without losing face. There was only one way to repair this relationship, but a von Karma apologizing? Giving in to demands? Acting buddy-buddy because someone said pretty please?

NeverNow that he wasn't shouting anymore, Franziska felt the freeze on her brain begin to melt as her indignant rage boiled up from beneath the surface. How dare he speak to her like that? Certainly she'd said some harsh things in the past and she was being a tad bit rude here, but still! She was merely expressing concern as much as she could for him. Admittedly, it wasn't the way any other normal person would do it, but von Karmas were extraordinary people and so they had to do things against the norm. To do otherwise just wasn't in