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.

At least there was rice. He grabbed as much rice as he could fit on a plate, scrambled eggs, some vegetables from the salad bar, and fruit. That seemed like it would be pretty easy on him.

He found a seat as close to a wall as he could, so at least his back felt sort of safe. He sat with his food and opened his notebook, starting work on the first of the new map copies for the non-Arts and Crafts people. He tried not to think about the fact that Daemon had asked for a copy as well. He couldn't hold what had happened against Daemon; it wasn't his fault. But he also just didn't know how to deal with it.

Better to not think about it at all. He carefully began to copy the lines of the map onto a blank piece of paper.

[Waiting for Aidou]

[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 someone he didn't know, couldn't bribe, and would most likely kill one of his kind before helping them.

Every second Akatsuki didn't show made Aidou want to wretch. This wasn't home--absences weren't welcome.

"... I need a favor. Do you have a minute?"

[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 back."

[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.

Just on the principle of it - not out of sympathy for Aidou - he felt a little down about it already. He had a feeling more and more people would be asking the Shinigami to do this, as their friends came and went. It was a feeling he was familiar with. And no one liked losing people. Apparently not even bitchy little trolls like Aidou.

And it seemed that Ichigo had vanished again. That put things a bit closer to home as well. He voiced none of those thoughts, showed none of them on his face.

"Who are you looking for?" he asked, then said, "I'll keep that in mind." He would do this for almost anyone, and for free. He didn't believe in charging or however people thought of it. But he had to admit, after butting his head with Aidou as many times as he had, it wouldn't hurt for there to be a slight debt between them. Maybe Aidou would be less insufferable, then.

...he kind of doubted it.

[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.

But Akatsuki was. Akatsuki was a vampire he'd grown up with, family, and now he was probably dead or worse.

Aidou leaned forward, rhythmically curling and uncurling his fingers in the fold of his right sleeve. The pressure of his fingertips against the healing gash hurt. "Would it make a difference," started Aidou, lowering his voice both to mask the slight quaver in his tone, and to quell any eavesdroppers, "if I was confident we would look very similar? We are the only two of our kind here. Would that effect anything?"

If it didn't, he needed a plan, not just a contingency. He knew Akatsuki was in danger, knew probably that it was too late, but he need to know: the who, where, how. How he was taken. How Aidou was supposed to find the answer when everything he thought of was a dead end, and he was all by himself. How he was supposed to help his own blood when he himself was weak and squirming.

"It feels like I've been here for longer... But I am here. Five days, a month, a year ... I'll do my best to find you."

The explosion had been long coming, and when Aidou finally erupted he slammed his palms on the tabletop, half out of his chair. His cheeks felt hot, but still... still nothing came out of his mouth. Squeezing his eyes shut, he hissed out a breath. It felt like choking. His cousin was beyond reach, no doubt, and he knew it.

"I am gifted, you know. I have a genius IQ, and I'm resourceful," Aidou said finally. "But I can't think of anything." The statement was overwhelmingly simple.

[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.

"No one can," he said. He took his time leaning forward, moving like an old man, and settled his forearms against the table with care before bowing his head. This would take a while, and he was already tired and aching with every nerve. This sort of thing, though, was more important than his aches and pains.

It took more concentration than it should have to see the spirit threads. He took his time examining Aidou's, then began methodically sorting through all of the other patients, noting absences, and so many new souls. All the while, blood pattered down from his nose onto his folded hands steadily.

He didn't know how long it took; when he finally let the technique go, his head was too heavy to hold up, though he had thought to cushion it with his arms. He swallowed hard against a moment of extreme vertigo and nausea, where the only thing he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat in his ears. It was far faster than he would have liked.

"Three," he said thickly. "Two other than you."

[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.

What, precisely, Renji was doing, Aidou didn't know in the slightest--ever needing to rely on foreign powers, ever having to believe such things even existed, just wasn't something he considered--but it was a great tax on the body, that was for certain.

Searching out 'souls'... Something only Akatsuki would be interested in, no doubt.

He kept his mouth shut all throughout the process, and even when Renji gave him a number, he kept staring at the wall. Staring at the blood wouldn't lead to anything good. Eventually, when he thought Renji's heartbeat might start slowing, he ventured, "Thank you for looking. But are you able to tell where they are?" Three was already the wrong number to Aidou, but revealing his frustration by questioning how effect such an ability was would get him nowhere. Aidou had already made it clear he wasn't human, and any more than that would be too much information.

[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?

It was both good and bad luck that Allen Walker approached when he did. It saved Aidou from answering Renji's inquiry, but it also made him want to slam the ugly brat's face into the table. And keep doing it until he started snivelling. He hadn't forgotten their earlier exchange. Then the kid shot him a look, and his bloodlust spiked. Aidou returned the reception with a cold glare of warning, dangerously inhospitable. His eyes were just barely retaining their normal cast, one step away from shifting to the unnatural mercurial state of a vampire ready to harm.

Needless to say, he didn't let his gaze linger. Damn everything.

"Another time, maybe. Thank you for the help; I'll repay this debt when you wish," he said to Renji, sliding out of his chair. There was no reason or desire to stay any longer. "Though I'd appreciate it if you kept the specifics of this meeting to yourself." It was hard not to look at Allen when he said it. It had less to do with what Aidou had revealed himself, and more to do with... keeping Akatsuki's disappearance to himself. No one knew them here, no one cared whether a vampire went missing, and it was only Aidou who felt the loss.

And if Renji was correct, now he had something else to consider on top if it all.

[bowing out and going here]

[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, "I know that you and your men would keep your word, but I don't know if I can make the same promise of mine. The Noah are our enemies. Even here, it doesn't change that." Not only that, but hearing that people were going missing around here didn't set well either. Or that Ravi had gone and attacked a group of innocents! This place just... didn't make sense at all sometimes.

[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?"