Nightshift 27: M12

[bond_off_lame]

If anyone had been waiting outside M12’s door they would’ve been sorely disappointed to find out that the entire room was unoccupied. However, there seemed to be several slips of paper poking from underneath the door, all conveying the same message just in case someone decided to take one for any reason. If they choose to pull one of the slips out

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[heavens_too_far]

It was with some relief that, for the first time in several nights, Dias was able to step out of his room without a sling around his neck holding up his arm. His shoulder was - inexplicably, given the severity of the injury - healed up to the point where it was once again relatively usable and the wound unlikely to reopen, and he seemed to have regained enough of the feeling in his arm to be functional; apparently whatever nerve damage he'd sustained had been temporary. Whatever the case, his arm was usable again, and he could once again wield his sword with a semblance of his usual skill

[full_score]

((From here. ))

Claude moved swiftly through the dark, his flashlight beam illuminating his path. With a furrowed eyebrow, he couldn't help but think he'd need to be careful with his only light source in the future. He doubted the batteries were built to last forever. Maybe he could share with Dias or one of the others once they'd set out. He doubted anyone would object, considering it was the practical thing to do.

But first he needed to stop by Ashton's room. He was very grateful to have the opportunity to wield a sword for the night, and yet he couldn't take too much pleasure from it. After all, the only reason he was getting to use it was because his friend had been so injured the night before. There was nothing worse for a swordsman than losing the use of something so important. He knew if he were in Ashton's shoes, he'd be terribly frustrated.

I'll have to cheer him up somehow before leaving, the blond told himself. The drawing he'd made earlier that day was tucked in the pages of notebook. Maybe he could give that

[heavens_too_far]

Dias had deliberately detached himself from his surroundings and the world around him; despite the danger inattention presented, it had been pretty much the only way he could keep himself sitting still, knowing his friend had been taken and was having who knew what being done to him while he waited. It was something like a self-induced fugue state, a technique he'd learned out of necessity in the hours he'd lain waiting to die after the bandit attack. Some things simply could not be thought

[full_score]

Claude was relieved Dias had heard him. He didn't really want to go over and try to shake the taller man out of his thoughts. But the relief was short-lived. He's been taken for experimentation, Dias had said, and the blond's heart almost stopped.

Ashton...taken for experimentation...

"Those bastards!" he hissed suddenly, his grip tightening almost painfully around his flashlight. "Why Ashton? Why him?! He can't even walk properly. He didn't even have a fighting chance!" As soon as he found out who took him, Claude wasn't going to let anyone escape. It was bad enough that they'd all been brought here in the first place, but to take one of their own and torture him

[heavens_too_far]

[From here.]

It wasn't until Dias had Ashton actually inside his friend's own room again - stepping over the small drift of notes still in the open doorway - that he allowed himself to relax. The room was empty - certainly too small and bare to hide any lurking monsters that Dias wouldn't have noticed within seconds - which meant that at least now Dias could guarantee that Ashton didn't have to suffer any more tonight than he already had.

He strode over to Ashton's bed and, with a gentleness that seemed out of place for Dias unless one had seen him doing things like comforting frightened girls or making flower tiaras for his little sisters, set his friend down on it.

[part1of3]

[Jansen and I are trading turns again cause we're awesome]

And the patient did not say any more of the surgery until the little group reentered the relative comfort of his room.

As Ashton was lowered onto his bed, he couldn't help but feel a sense of emptiness that he hadn't expected. The surgery had been rather traumatic for him, and while the bitter tears and the loneliness had passed for the moment, he needed some sort of physical input - he was too mentally and emotionally weak to simply lay there alone. So as Dias set him down, he couldn't help but grab a handful of his friend's shirt - a rather crude way to ask someone to stay, but it would work for now. Ashton was trying so hard to not seem like he needed anyone that saying it would be simply too blunt, but .. Dias had always understood the importance of actions. Maybe more than anyone else.

Ashton thought to himself that it would probably have been fine if it was Claude he was asking to stay close to him, or Leon, or Axel, and he almost felt as if he was imposing on Dias

[full_score]

Mildly surprised, Claude glanced down at Leon as they made their way towards Ashton's room. He could understand the boy's need for reassurance, because, to be honest, he could have used some of his own at that moment. They'd all had a rough day -- even though the conversations he'd had with his friends earlier had taken a place at the back of his mind, they hadn't left him completely, and it just added to how unsettled he felt about everything right now

[heraldric]

It wasn't long after Claude and he had entered the room that Leon had found a nice spot to just fall into a sitting position, hand still clasping the blond's. With Ashton rescued, all the little mage wanted to do was just sleep through what was left of the night. Anywhere would do, really.

He hadn't expected the dismissal. In fact, it hadn't even really occurred to him that anyone would be leaving that room once they'd arrived. They'd just be sent back to their own rooms when the night was over anyway, wouldn't they? Why bother with the extra trip?

So it was with an ever so quiet groan that he got himself back on his feet again. He forced himself to smile, not wanting Ashton to think he was offended or complaining. Because he wasn't. Really! "Get some rest, okay?" he added to Claude's farewells. A little rest wouldn't be enough to help his friend, not really. And he knew this, but it was the principle