Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya left the chapel no less frustrated than before. The head doctor once again had chosen not to hide his face, yet promised he would be making an appearance at some time in the near future. He didn't like being patient, but there wasn't much choice. Either the head doctor would show his face, or he wouldn't. Renji had already seen him,

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[stray_shinigami]

Renji got his nurse to let him retrieve his notebook before heading to the cafeteria; it would give him something to do. He didn't feel like eating, but knew that he needed to yesterday. He couldn't get in the habit of ignoring food just because he was upset; he needed to fall back on the childhood habit of just eating, even if it was disgusting, because he needed it to keep going

[blood_and_pocky]

By midday, Aidou knew something was wrong. Conversing with Guy in the Chapel had been all well and fine--it was early, a late arrival could be explained. Or perhaps he had gone to nap in the Sun Room, or even....

But now it was brunch, and his cousin still hadn't found him, and he still hadn't found Akatsuki, and something was definitely, undeniably wrong. They'd grown up together. They knew each other well. Akatsuki wasn't so brainless to think being so late wouldn't... wouldn't scare Aidou. It did. And the only solution he could think of that might help to immediately relieve his suspicions wasn't one he'd ever thought he'd need to consider. As soon as he entered the cafeteria, fully prepared to snag the first shinigami he could identify, he saw Abarai Renji sitting against the wall. It doesn't matter who, I have to do it. Picking his way through the room, he approached Renji's table.

Although he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Whenever he needed genuine assistance, it was from family. Other nobles. Other vampires. Not from

[stray_shinigami]

Renji put down the fork as Aidou approached. He at least knew who the kid was, now, since Rukia had pointed him out a couple days ago, but he had no idea what he'd want with him. They didn't exactly get along, though he had nothing against the kid other than a bit of annoyance.

Apparently, something was bothering him. And after Renji thought about it for a moment, he realized that it must be something pretty damn major, if Aidou was bothering to ask for a favor. The kid had made it quite clear that he thought Renji was annoying scum - fair enough, Renji thought nobles were useless wastes.

His expression didn't change with those thoughts. He simply looked at Aidou, then said, "Have a seat." He leaned back against his own chair carefully, slowly, easing into the burn of the seat back against his skin. "What is it?"

[blood_and_pocky]

Aidou did as instructed, albeit with a fair bit of reluctance. However, standing would only make his fidgeting more obvious. Dread was never a good feeling.

"I've heard rumors that you can... recognize a person from a great distance, with whatever abilities you have." His voice didn't crack or shake or waver in the slightest, which Aidou took as a small blessing. Feeling distress was altogether different from showing distress--that was a lesson he knew well. Still, he didn't quite meet Renji's eyes. "I need that--or rather, if it's true, I need you to find someone. I felt it was... urgent enough to warrant a sudden meeting like this."

Talking was the easy part. Explaining the what and how and why was a small bit of a denial, a way to keep from fully focusing on the consequences. Of what it would mean if it was possible and if there was a confirmation.

Aidou blinked, realizing he'd trailed off somewhere, and abruptly shook his head. "Of course, like I said: if you can do it, it'd be a favour! I don't leave loose ends. I'd pay you

[stray_shinigami]

"I can track peoples' souls," Renji said. "If I've met them." He had to know what he was looking for, first, otherwise it was just one more line in a tangle of unfamiliar spirits

[blood_and_pocky]

"Even if trouble doesn't find you first, you find it. But you're more than able to take care of it. That's a given, Hanabusa. And whatever you can't handle on your own -- for whatever reason -- I'll be around. Here or home, or wherever we happen to end up."

He hesitated for a moment, before finally saying, "We're relatives."

He couldn't even say for sure when he thought Akatsuki had gone missing, because he'd been foolish enough to first let his cousin wander off to nap on his own, and then finally to fail and locate him during the night. Too busy participating in needless scuffles with those birds. He hadn't even spotted his cousin once, not once. What he should have done was search him out as soon as the sun rose! Why had he waited!? Some kind of sick irony that he felt worlds more stable the morning Akatsuki went missing. Prisoners that slipped away when no one was watching and were never seen again didn't ring sympathy Aidou. Still didn't. He didn't know them, and they weren't one of his

[stray_shinigami]

Renji had been thinking in that direction himself, considering the longer he sat near Aidou, the more he was reminded that the boy wasn't human. He didn't bother fighting about credit for the idea. Even in this case, he was just too tired. He was also too tired, in too much pain, to react to Aidou's statement about his IQ, his little tantrum there. That, he could put down to worry and the like. It was natural enough

[blood_and_pocky]

He pressed his lips into a hard, white line as Renji quieted down and began. Let it be said that bleeding in front of an agitated vampire was not the safest course of action; though he had no intention of feeding off someone like Abarai Renji, now or ever, the thrum of Renji's heart and the blood on the table served to remind Aidou that his impromptu starvation diet just wasn't cutting it. Not for boosting his healing, nor keeping him healthy. Touching one bandaged forearm, he sat down again, sighing softly

[stray_shinigami]

Renji didn't look up. He felt like his skull was going to fall apart if he moved. "One of 'em is in this room," he said, waving one hand vaguely in the direction the thing had been coming from. He hadn't gotten that precise about it, just looked to see what it was. "The other one's not. I can't say more than that unless I grab the thread and follow it. Not something I can do right now." Other than the certainty that the nurses would stop him, there was also the fact that he didn't think he could stand and grab one of the threads, let alone follow it at the moment.

"You're kind of like Hollows," he murmured, vaguely bemused. It was enough of a difference that he wasn't going to get in an uproar about it; it was more of a feel than anything else. "All twisted up out of hunger. But I doubt you're going for souls, or you'd see them on your own. So what is it you do eat?"

[broken_exorcist]

[[from here]]

Allen carried two more trays of food carefully as he approached the table where Renji and the blonde boy were talking. He wasn't sure what they'd been talking about, but the boy looked... upset? Angry? He wasn't sure, but it looked like Renji had a really bad nosebleed. It'd dripped down his chin and dotted his arms here and there.

"Renji?" He set the heaping trays down on the table, grabbed some of his napkins, and held them out. "R-renji, you're bleeding, are you alright? Should... should I get a nurse?"

The other boy he hardly seemed to notice, save for sparing a moment to give him a dirty look, as though he might be the one responsible for this. Maybe it was just Allen's imagination, but Renji seemed to spend an awful lot of time with his head down in the cafeteria.

[blood_and_pocky]

Aidou shifted again, frowning. In the cafeteria? His practical side told him he shouldn't have expected anything definite, and should be glad that there was still a possibility of Akatsuki being alive... But then there was his impatient, worried, and aggravated side that just wanted to bite someone. Or demand that Renji stop wasting his energy on other things, rest up, and then follow Aidou's wishes. Not knowing thoroughly upset Aidou more than anything, but there wasn't much he could at the moment, now was there

[stray_shinigami]

"'m fine, Allen," Renji said, though he did reach out an unsteady hand to carefully take the napkins, using them to pinch his nose shut. "Nurses are trouble." Head down, he missed the dirty looks between the kids, and that was probably for the best.

"No reason to report on it," he said. It had been a personal thing, after all. Though he was planning on talking to Hitsugaya, to find out if they had any idea what the hell Aidou, and the other two like him, were. Anything that hungry made him a little prickly; hungry things eventually ate. "We can try again later." When he wasn't already sick and pathetically weak and in pain.

He was a bit surprised, though, that Aidou left as quickly as he did. Well, considering the kid's attitude, maybe it wasn't surprising. Renji really wasn't at his most useful, and it wasn't as if they particularly liked each other.

"You okay, Allen?" he asked.

[broken_exorcist]

If the other boy's glare bothered him, Allen didn't let it show. He was almost as obnoxious as Kanda and that was saying something. The eyes were strange, though he wasn't really one to talk, but there was no mistaking what the look meant. He waited for the blonde to leave before he finally took a seat across from Renji.

"I'm alright," he said, startling slightly after realizing Renji had asked him a question. It took him a moment to remember what the standard answer ought to be. "Ah- I ran into Rhode. Or more accurately, she decided to pay me a visit. You seemed busy so I didn't-" he began, trying to explain as best he could. "Well, I didn't say much, but I had thought perhaps you and I might speak with her. It seems I've come at a poor time though. Are you alright? That boy, he didn't... do anything, did he?"

[stray_shinigami]

He probably would have been annoyed if he hadn't been dealing with the headache. "You should've come and gotten me," he said. As far as he was concerned, this whole Rhode issue was the priority, since she was an imminent threat. If Aidou's friend was dead or missing, it wasn't like that was going to change in ten minutes. But it hadn't worked out that way. "Not like you can change it now, though." He slowly sat up, nose still pinched shut. "Yeah, let's talk to her. Just give me a moment 'til my nose stops." It was annoying. And it was also sad, how acquainted with mortal infirmity he was becoming. "What did you say to her already?"

[broken_exorcist]

Allen sighed quietly and shrunk in his seat when Renji berated him for not coming sooner. "I know. And I assure you, had you been keeping company with near anyone else, I would have been quick to do so."

He pulled his first tray nearer, munching on another hamburger between breaths. "But I am... ashamed to admit that he and I had a minor disagreement the other day. I nearly lost my temper and I didn't wish to create any more tension between us." Allen glanced off the way the other boy had left. "Though I seem to have failed at that as well."

He shook his head as if to brush those feelings away just as quickly, concentrating instead on the pile of wonderful food right in front of him. "My apologies, I don't mean to trouble you with such things, but I'd rather you not think I was hiding anything."

He coughed, "A-ah, anyway, we spoke only briefly. She said... that I... killed one of her family members." His expression became worried, "but that just isn't so! I wouldn't- I..." He took a breath to collect his thoughts, "

[stray_shinigami]

"Aidou's a self-absorbed, blue-blooded, childish dick that thinks the world owes him whatever he wants," Renji said. "Don't let him bother you. He's an asshole. So don't worry about it too much, okay? What was he on you about?" Because there were a couple options, he figured. Either Aidou had wanted something that Allen hadn't wanted to give him, and thus there'd been a tantrum, or Aidou just thought Allen was a fun target to pick on.

"If the Noah things are your enemies, then you shouldn't let the bitch make you feel guilty for doing your duty," Renji said. "Duty comes first. Protect the humans, right?" He shrugged one shoulder. "If your people decide to take her out, that's fine, and we'd help if asked. Remember, the only reason we're even doing this is because you wanted to give her the chance, Allen. Is she changing your mind?"