Nightshift 27: 2nd Floor, Locker Room.

[beloved_less]

[From here.]No sooner had Soubi stepped into this supposedly dangerous room, when the radio clicked on. He stopped dead in his tracks, fists clenched, and waited. He let out his breath after five long seconds and moved deeper into the darkness. Another pause, his hand resuming it's place on Ritsuka's chest to keep him close, and then he moved on

Comments

[forgot_it_all]

Jack had the best timing in the world. Ritsuka listened carefully to what the man had to say - nothing of real importance today - and then turned his attention back to the room. The darkness ate the dim beam of the flashlight like a furious creature, creating shadows where things could hide. He didn't want Soubi to know how agitated this place made him, so he tried to keep his heart rate down. He wasn't all that successful, however

[beloved_less]

Soubi was watching Ritsuka from the corner of his eye, because that's what he did. He watched Ritsuka making sure Ritsuka was ok. He seemed incredibly on guard, whatever had gone for him had really scared him, hadn't it?

He didn't want to speak or touch Ritsuka, for fear of making him jump. But as he walked by and saw the contents of the locker, he reached in and took the matches. "Take anything that can be exchanged for information. Deodorant could work, judging by the smell of some of these people."

Soubi tried the next, but it was full of wrappers and old clothes. The smell was enough to knock a sensitive person out. The next few turned out an old rucksack (which he took), more deodorant, some foreign coins and a tennis ball. Soon, however, he discovered a small goldmine. In the jacket pocket was a pack of cigarettes. Almost full. Soubi took one out and lit it with a match, his face full of bliss as he inhaled.

[forgot_it_all]

He really wouldn't mind it if the floor decided to open up and swallow him whole right about now. Mortified, Ritsuka shut the locker quickly without taking the deodorant. "I doubt they'd use it even if we gave it to him," he coughed out, moving over to another locker

[beloved_less]

Soubi was still checking lockers... it was just a little half hearted now. The tatty old rucksack handing from his shoulder while he stood there smoking, occasionally dropping chocolate bars and personal affects into the bag. His expression said he was elsewhere and that place was clouded in nicotine.

He paused, sure he'd heard something. He looked over to Ritsuka and smiled, the cigarette pointing up as he did, in a salute to the boy. "How many? Not enough." He had a sneaking suspicious he shouldn't tell Ritsuka about the two in his pocket or the extras in his room. If they went missing he was going to string his roommate up by his balls, even if he was a ninja.

Soubi suddenly gave a short Hah of laughter. He'd forgotten about that.
"My roommate is a Ninja," he announced, out of the blue.

[always_a_victim]

[ From here ]

Kain followed his cousin into the room and paused near the doorway, eyes scanning the small area swiftly. Content that there wasn't anything obviously lurking he side stepped away from the door and leaned against the wall, hands once more safely in his pockets so he wouldn't make another impulsive movement.

They had been in these positions before, but Hanabusa -- things weren't the same. He stayed silent, eyes fixed on Aidou. His cousin wasn't the suspect here. He was. So Aidou was the one who would have to make the decision on what to do, because if a suggestion came from Kain it couldn't be trusted.

Not that he was some monster pretending to be Kain Akatsuki -- he was sure he'd know it if he was.

[blood_and_pocky]

Aidou didn't know why the universe seemed to mock him so when he took a few steps into the room and froze. If it wasn't already so familiar, he might not have been ruffled. Ritsuka's blood.

It was easier to speak if he kept his back to Akatsuki. "First things first," he said, after a moment. "I - " One thing that was clear was that Aidou was really in no position to be making decisions, he didn't want to be. He'd had a headache before - dulled during his feeding - but now it was back, and it was the cold, nauseating kind of headache. The kind that made him want to curl up in his four-poster, doze during the daylight, and routinely complain at his roommate when he would pluck at the curtains. Akatsuki.

And there was a large difference between vampires and... monsters.

He didn't say anything more before he turned his palm over, and drew his thumb down it, splitting the skin. Turning, he held his hand out, letting the blood well. "I'm me."

[damned_monsters]

"No! That thing is not me at all." Aidou's voice called out in urgency, and from a dark corner Aidou's body emerged, eyes narrowed in anger. He stepped closer to the pair, glaring at the other one, the real one, but they didn't have to know that yet. "It's a trick Akatsuki. That thing lured you in here so it could devour you. Don't trust it you idiot!"

Or it would have, if the real one hadn't found the fleshy thing first. But they were in here, and the mimic would be as happy with both as he would have with one. A perfect copy of Aidou, down to the inflections in voice and the movement of his hair. 'Aidou' kept careful watch of the real one, eyes almost daring him to come forward.

[Tad]

[always_a_victim]

Kain had been about to say, "That wasn't necessary, I know it's you," when a very familiar voice sounded from the corner, and --

And suddenly Hanabusa was the one under suspicion? He had been sure, positive that the Hanabusa he had walked in with was his cousin, but here was another, one who sounded just like him, one that was almost more like his cousin than -- his own cousin?

Kain straightened from the wall quickly, looking between the two, eyes wide with startled doubt. This was all wrong. There couldn't be two of them. But the first Hanabusa hadn't attacked him -- no, that wasn't right, he had attacked him.

"Just hold on," he spoke suddenly, loudly to interrupt the flow of words from the second Hanabusa, striding forward to separate the two, because one of them had to be the fake and it wouldn't be safe for the real Hanabusa to get close to the other.