DAY 59: CAFETERIA

[touchedgod]

Billy surfaced into wakefulness. Sleep receded like an inky tide, and it didn't say anything to him before it was gone. His dreams had been nothing but the sensation of water, rocking him restlessly in his bottle. There seemed to be an ocean beyond his confines, but he couldn't see it and couldn't reach it. He pawed at the glass, but any progress

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[36_24_35]

Tifa hadn't expected to see Zack so early either, but it wasn't an unpleasant coincidence. Or at least, it hadn't started that way. Her friend had a strange look on his face. Either he had a lot on his mind or he had rolled off the wrong side of the bed this morning like she had.

She pulled out a smile from her infinite reserve as the former SOLDIER came closer. His frown, though, only grew with every step. It was rather disconcerting. For as long as she had been here, Tifa couldn't recall Zack ever looking so grim. If something could bring down Mr. Optimistic, it was a true threat to everyone in this whole institution, including herself.

"I'm... eating?" Tifa's words inflected at the end, just in case this was all just a trick question. By the color of Zack's face, she was pretty positive he wasn't trying to pull her leg. This meal was the same every day; nothing should have surprised him, unless--

"This isn't... poisoned is it?" The bowl of gruel was pushed away as far as her arm could take it. It probably did little now to stop her carelessness, but at least she wouldn't be shortening her lifespan with another spoonful.

[zack_fair]

The fact that she seemed so confused caused a ton of warning bells to sound in his head. Zack paused, glancing from Tifa's expression to the plate of putrid food. She went ahead and pushed it aside, though she didn't seem to think that there was anything obviously wrong with it.

The soldier sighed, wondering if he was the one seeing things or if Tifa was the one missing what was staring them in the face. "Well, not sure about that, but just eating it is probably going to make you sick. Can you not tell that that stuff's completely spoiled?"

While he was pretty reluctant to sit down when that plate was still in such close proximity, he couldn't simply wander off after telling Tifa that she'd just been eating rotten food. Besides, he wanted to get to the bottom of this now. As he fell into the seat across from the woman, he sent a glance around the cafeteria. Maybe it was just him, but it looked like a few other people were staring at the food like it was diseased.

Not just him, then. So was Tifa the odd one out? "Uhh... seriously, did it not taste weird to you?" he asked as he rubbed at the back of his neck.

[36_24_35]

Tifa was glad she had plenty of experience keeping a straight face during bouts of instability, because right now this episode with Zack was turning a might disconcerting. He wasn't one to overreact, so Tifa tread lightly.

Bringing her bowl back to her, she stuck her face in and smelled it. Smelled bland and boring as usual; she even stirred her spoon through to check for any signs of spoiling.

"I'm not sure," she lied. "I can't tell. Let me see yours..." Carefully scooting her bowl to the side and away from Zack, Tifa brought his over to her. She sniffed it and it smelled exactly the same as hers. The thought of tasting his crossed her mind and she wondered if he would be offended if she stuck her "spoiled" spoon into his--Though, by the look on Zack's face, it wasn't likely he was going to touch it anyway.

Tifa scraped her spoon clean and took a small scoop of Zack's. She didn't bother looking at him since she knew what face he was going to make as she brought it to her mouth.

[zack_fair]

This was really just a whole new level of bizarre. Zack realized that Tifa must have had no idea of what she was doing, seeing how she went ahead and put that disgusting pile of food right up to her nose like it was nothing. Just the sight was almost enough to set his gag reflex into overdrive, but he'd been around things that smelled a lot worse than some spoiled food. Take monster carcasses, for instance.

Still, he couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that Tifa had no idea. This had to be some sort of trick. The food had never been like this in past days and yet the woman was acting like there was no change whatsoever.

"Look, I don't know what this is, but I don't like it. Either I'm seeing things that aren't there or you're missing things that are there, but... I'm pretty sure you should just stay away from the food for now." Zack hadn't done anything out of the ordinary last night, hadn't taken any drugs. Why would this be happening?

He could only hope that he was right about not being the only one who was aware of this, because he really didn't want to have to deal with the possibility that he might be going out of his mind. He didn't feel crazy, but the truly crazy ones didn't, right?

[36_24_35]

"Okay..." Tifa said peaceably and pushed the two bowls as far away from them as she could reach. She kept her brown eyes on Zack and hoped her critique wasn't too obvious. If Zack was actually delusional and not simply paranoid, she wondered if this was another side effect of those pill he popped two nights ago.

He hadn't turned into a weredog last night, but perhaps the drugs kicked in over a period of time. If she didn't think it would have made the conversation worst, the young woman would have asked for his opinion. And as curious as she was, she didn't want to fuel his paranoia just to theorize about things they could never understand. All she could was be a cheery distraction and Tifa was quite alright about that.

"What about your water? Can you drink that?" If nothing else, he could fill up on that until night when she could give him a box of her new cookies.

[zack_fair]

She didn't seem entirely convinced, and while Zack didn't really know what was going on here, he was glad that Tifa at least trusted him enough to take him at his word on this. It was possible that the damage had already been done and she was going to end up sick either way, but at least he'd tried.

When she suggested that he drink some of the water, Zack glanced over at the glass that he'd been given, eyeing it with some suspicion before he grabbed hold of it. It looked just fine to him, but what if it had been left out for days or something?

He didn't want to be unreasonable, though, and so he took a sip, swishing the water around in his mouth before swallowing. "Seems all right," he admitted. But they really needed to get away from this food topic, and so he latched onto their mini adventure last night. "So... that Sangamon guy seemed nice enough," he remarked with a small smile.

[36_24_35]

Tifa's smile spread too and she was fine with moving on as well. Nothing could be done to suppress Zack's paranoia and if the water was sufferable, that would have to be good enough for now.

Zack's general summary of Sangamon made her laugh out loud. "Yeah, he's pretty nice, alright. I'm just waiting for him to slap me with my bill and tell me to pay up one of these days. Maybe I can buy him off with booze and cookies." That seemed to be all she was accumulating lately. If he wanted more, well, it would have to come in the form of favors and labor. Sangamon didn't seem the shady type, but there were plenty of people that were happy to butter you up with a generous attitude and then strip you bare when the time is right.

It wasn't like she was new to the whole game. She'd be a woman of her word, seedy deeds or not.

"Thanks for helping me, though," she said, having felt a bit guilty for bearing down on him so bad last night. There was only the two of them now; Tifa couldn't let the last of her men wander off into the unknown without her.

[zack_fair]

"Bill for what? Do you owe him something?" Zack didn't like that thought, though Sangamon didn't seem like the sort of guy who was going to hold anything against Tifa. It was hard to say when it came to stuff like that, but... What Zack didn't understand was what this was even about. Tifa was the one who had collected all the booze, right? Was she maybe talking about the fact that he'd used his ring to get them to the pantry? But Tifa had a ring of her own, so that didn't make much sense either.

The fact that she went ahead and thanked him hardly seemed necessary. It was starting to feel like it was just the two of them left here -- he hadn't seen Cloud or Yuffie around in a few days, and while he hated to admit it, he knew what that meant. So...

"Don't mention it, really. We have to have each other's backs, right?" Tifa was no SOLDIER (far from it), but she didn't need to be one for Zack to feel some loyalty to her. That was already in place due to the fact that she was Cloud's friend.

[36_24_35]

"Well--" Tifa looked down at her hands as she laced them together and gathered her thoughts. "--He's done a lot for me. Help, advice, those things are rarely free." Her brown eyes touched Zack's blue. He was a SOLDIER. The pair of them were optimists in the truest sense, but that didn't mean they weren't realistic as well. Zack was just as intimately familiar with give and take in the world. He may not have come from the Slums, but the rule was a universal one.

Well, she would deal with that bridge when she crossed it and judge if it needed to be burned or not.

"Of course!" Tifa asserted with a smile. The two of them were now the only ones left. Tifa wouldn't trust anyone else half as much as she trusted Zack. They may have only met in the institute, Tifa liked to think they were old souls.

[zack_fair]

Help and advice, huh? Zack was curious to know what kind of help and advice, exactly, but he figured that Tifa would have elaborated if she'd wanted to. While he realized that it was totally feasible for Sangamon to turn around and demand more from her, Zack liked to think that here in the institute they all realized that they were on the same side. It was in their best interests to help each other.

"Look, if he gives you a hard time, just let me know," Zack said with a shrug, even though he realized Tifa hadn't been asking for his help in the first place. That didn't meant that he couldn't offer it now that he'd been given the opportunity.

"Anyway, the good news is I've got a real sword on hand now." Not that the one Lightning gave him hadn't been real, he told himself guiltily. It had just been a little short for his tastes. "We should make use of it. Anywhere you wanted to go tonight?" They'd had their night of rest, so now Zack figured it was time to get down to business again.