Day 28: Bus 2

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo tugged on the collar of the light blue sweater she was wearing as she followed her nurse to wherever these buses were, winding her hair up into its customary bun as she went. It was an odd feeling, knowing she was about to go outside of the institute's borders. Maybe the Head Doctor was about to make an error and the shinigami, as well as

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[gentiana_clusii]

Ken didn't consider himself picky when it came to clothing, but what the nurse had surprised him with this morning was almost enough to make him rethink that opinion. He looked like a colorblind raver. The lime-green shirt was bad enough, tight enough that it would be more at home in Yohji's closet than his, but the white vest was just pushing it. He'd been given a denim jacket as well, nearly enough to hide the eye-blinding combination under.

The narrow bus aisle was difficult to manage with crutches, but Ken moved toward the back with his muffin and juice box anyway. He figured he might as well make an attempt at being social, since there was only one other person on the bus.

"Morning," Ken said absently, falling into one of the seats nearby. If the girl didn't want to talk, then he would just wait for someone else to show up.

[hajike_tobiume]

"Good morning," Momo replied automatically, though she was somewhat distracted by the juice box in her hands. It was such an odd contraption. She turned the box over and peered at it, pulling the plastic straw off its side.

The shinigami held the little plastic package containing the straw up in the light and tilted her head at it. Did they expect her to somehow gets the tiny edge of the weak plastic straw through the thick paper that the liquid was contained in? She set the juice box onto the seat next to her where her muffin sat so she could use both hands to extract the straw from it's cellophane confinement.

... and promptly dropped the thing, still in its packaging, onto the floor.

"Oh no!" Momo exclaimed, flustered that she couldn't quite figure the whole juice box thing out. She leaned over and attempted to find where the straw had run off to.

[gentiana_clusii]

At least she hadn't gotten the straw out of the plastic first. The floor of a bus couldn't have been sanitary. "...do you need some help?" Juice boxes could be difficult sometimes, but watching her...had she ever seen one before?

Ken stabbed his own juice box and held it out. "You can just take mine if you want." He didn't care for the overly-sugared fruit-flavored water these things usually contained.

[hajike_tobiume]

Aha! There it was, hiding underneath the seat just in front of her. Momo knelt on the floor and fished it out, not caring how unlady-like she seemed in the process. She stood back up, the little straw held triumphantly in her hand and she sat back down on her seat

[gentiana_clusii]

"I guess they're just worried about us spilling it all over." Ken took the juice box back and set it to the side, tearing off a chunk of his muffin. Some breakfast. "Either that or they think we're kids." Juice boxes were usually reserved for the elementary school crowd, after all.

"I'm Hidaka Ken. Nice to meet you." Friendly smile in place, Ken settled himself in with his leg stretched out into the aisle, thinking it distinctly awkward to be sitting on a bus when he couldn't bend his knee. But even if his nurse had given him the option, he wasn't going to miss the trip into town. Like Aya had said last night--it was an opportunity. Now that he was free enough of angst to actually think about it, he could appreciate that.

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo glanced down at the box and shrugged a little. "I suppose it does function in a manner that prevents spillage, even if getting it to work is a little confusing." She flashed him a grin and chuckled. "And they do think we're children, confused children."

She took another sip of her drink and then examined her own muffin. It had some kind of berries in it and crunchy things on top. "Mmm, I'm Hinamori Momo. Nice to meet you Hidaka-san," she said as she poked experimentally at the muffin. Odd Western foods. "Do you know what this is?"

[gentiana_clusii]

"They are hard to open sometimes. If you don't stab it hard enough, the straw'll just make a dent, and if you stab too hard, juice might shoot out of the end. The kids I used to coach would have juice-fights with them." Ken grinned. It'd been fun to watch (and he'd gotten a few shots in) but their moms had been pissed off.

"It's a muffin. Sort of a cross between cake and bread, usually with fruit of some kind in it." Decent, for western food. Just not something Ken would usually eat for breakfast. At least not without eggs and whatnot.

[hajike_tobiume]

"Oh... a muffin," Momo said and pulled a piece off, popping it into her mouth. It was an interesting combination of flavors and texture. She decided she liked the berries in it. "It's good."

"Juice fights..." A mischievous twinkle sparkled in her eye as she thought of the look on Hitsugaya's face if she conspired with Rangiku to have one of these juice fights with him in the middle. It would be priceless.

Unfortunately, thinking of Ran right now made her think of Gin. Such thoughts were never pleasant nor happy.

[gentiana_clusii]

"Yeah, they're decent." He popped another chunk of muffin into his mouth. "Not like the grease-covered stuff they usually try to feed us." Some of it was almost nauseating.

"Having one of those would lighten the mood around here, at least." Ken drank some of his juice, frowning slightly at the taste of it. It was alright, at least.

When Momo fell silent, Ken looked over--almost worried, but it wasn't really his place to ask.

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo pushed the thoughts of Gin and all that away when she noticed ken watching her. The smile returned to her face and she giggled. "It probably would, though I think the nurses would be a little upset that we got juice all over these clothes they gave us."

She giggled again and eyed what Ken was wearing. "You can tell they put a lot of thought into their choice for each of us," she teased.

[gentiana_clusii]

"The '80s were bad enough first time around. I don't want to relive them." Ken picked at the baggy gray cargo pants he'd been forced to wear. "...or whatever time era these clothes are from." He missed his comfortable sports jerseys and jeans. "At least there's no obnoxious smiley faces." Thank God for small blessings.

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo chuckled. "Judging from many of the others on this bus, it appears I lucked out with this sweater and pair of pants," she said after another piece of the muffin.

The bus was starting to fill up, so Momo cast a look up the aisle and giggled seeing what the nurses had dressed Hitsugaya in. It was adorable. She would have to tease him about it later. Though who she really was looking for was Captain Jack. She was hoping he wouldn't end up on another bus and was purposefully not sharing her seat with anyone since it was reserved for him. She also hoped, for his sake, he wasn't standing her up again. At least she had pleasant company while she waited.

"Oh, I don't know - I kind of like the smiley faces." She grinned impishly at Ken. "Sometimes people need to be reminded what a smile is."

[gentiana_clusii]

"I'm friends with a few of them." Ken grinned right back--he obviously hadn't forgotten how. Or at least he recently remembered. "The smiley faces just make them more grumpy."

Ken also looked around the bus--but he didn't see anyone he knew at all. ...scratch that, there was Farfarello. Oh happy day, stuck in an enclosed space with the crazed assassin. Oh, and there was the kid who'd beaned him with a book yesterday. And Hitsugaya...Ken still felt a twinge of guilt when his eyes passed over that particular head of white hair, even if he hadn't so much as laid a finger on him the other night.

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo giggled again. "My best friend is a grumpy pants I swear doesn't know how to smile unless I tease him so bad he does it just to get me to go away," she said. Half the time she thought Hitsugaya's smile muscles were broken. "It's cute though watching him try and be all stoic and stuff when I know somewhere deep inside is a big huge smile. He probably doesn't like the smiley faces either."

The shinigami really liked the muffin. "Do you know what these berries are called? I've never had them before."

[gentiana_clusii]

Ken found himself surprised to be considering Aya's stoicism 'cute' as well. And it was fun to tease him about it, even it was like taunting a tiger. One night and he was already completely out of his mind. What the hell was with him?

"They're blueberries, I think," Ken replied, scrutinizing said muffin.

[hajike_tobiume]

"Blueberries," Momo repeated as she looked at her muffin. "I like the crunchy things on the top too. I hope they have more of these at future breakfasts, however many more of those we have in this place."

A few more bites and a sip of juice later and the shingami tilted her head at Ken. "So Hidaka-san, what sort of things do you like to do for fun?"