Day 32: Lunch

[damnrudecock]

Sanosuke hadn't quite been ready to part ways from Kenshin, but his nurse was insistent, and she was offering food. That second thing was what really got Sano off the couch and headed to the cafeteria. And at the very least, the thing about Okita had been settled, which meant the fighter could focus on his meal

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[theycutitout]

Pizza was an interesting subject. Traditionally hand-tossed, but they probably didn't go such lengths here. It was expected that they would import frozen, flat bread and complete the half-started process with tomato-based sauce and coagulated, cow milk.

River didn't answer when the servers asked her if she preferred plain or something a bit more exciting. She wasn't focused on the pizza. Her eyes were turned curiously to a figure sitting alone, someone she hadn't seen before. Maybe someone she wasn't supposed to see. But it was the next stop on the trail. There were birds there, if you looked through the binoculars. It was only when the woman sighed and simply opted to pile two pieces of plain pizza on River's tray along with a glass of juice and a small portion of cheese sticks that she moved out of line and along the path further. It wasn't long before she'd settled into a seat across from him, not all focused on her food as she settled for just looking at him, almost as though she were searching for someone.

Perhaps she was looking at someone else entirely.

[tender_cruelty]

Allelujah could feel eyes on him as he ate, but paid it no mind at first. There were a lot of people here, and if a lot of people were knew then they'd be staring. He couldn't help it himself. But it was when the girl sat down across from him that he really took notice, the hairs on the back of his neck rising as she looked at him intently. Like she was looking right through him. It was an uncomfortable feeling to say the least and made him shift awkwardly in his seat. She wasn't even paying attention to her food, just... looking at him. Not a good thing when he'd made a habit of trying not to be noticed. It was safer that way.

He smiled at her, trying to break the tension and make himself feel a little better. "Hello," he said, a little hesitantly in the face of her focus. "I'm Allelujah." Maybe that would make make her less intent on him. She gave him an odd feeling though.

[theycutitout]

"You are," she agreed, offering no introduction just yet herself. "Sometimes." Idle fingers picked a bit of cheese off of the piece of pizza laying on her plate. Finally breaking eye contact, River looked down at her plate almost apologetically as nibbled on the cheese. When she looked back up, she understood.

"It's hard for you. I'm sorry," the girl offered finally, reaching out perhaps in the only way someone like her could.

[tender_cruelty]

A gasp of indrawn breath left no doubt that her words had affected him. But how did she know? It seemed too much of a certain thing for it to be a wild guess. He'd though that no-one knew. Not even the other Meisters had known, although they might have guessed. "What else would I be?" he asked, smiling to try to distract her from the truth.

He looked at her for a long moment, tilting his head to the side for a moment as she nibbled on the cheese. "Hard? What do you mean?" Although there was so little point in hiding it if she knew already that he wasn't sure why he bothered. "Are you from that place too?" he ventured after a long moment's thoughts. He could make up an explanation if she didn't understand, but it was a risk he had to take. He needed to know if she was like the others who they'd killed.

[theycutitout]

River was quiet for a long minute, a minute that probably seemed longer than most for both of them. There were always things lying inside, and it was always so hard for her to communicate without waking her own demons. Her eyes fell again to the food on her tray, not really looking at it so much as she was looking through it to a spot on the floor that seemed comfortable enough to rest her eyes on for the moment.

"I'm from that place. Different that place, but the same all the same," River replied quietly. "Torn down and stripped bit by bit."

[tender_cruelty]

Allelujah couldn't help but shift uncomfortably as the silence grew between them, feeling like he was being interrogated somehow, or interrogating her and dredging up things which were better left alone. Even Hallelujah was silent, watchful but closed off from him.

He bit his lip when she replied, slumping a little in his seat at the knowledge. He'd thought it might be the case. It didn't matter which that place it was, it would be the same in the end. He reached out, touched her hand lightly with his finger. "I'm sorry. I should know better than to pry." His time with Celestial Being had taught him that at least. He felt a knot tighten in his stomach. "None of us deserved what they did to us." Torn down and stripped bit by bit. That was a perfect way of describing it. He knew what it entailed.

[theycutitout]

River only nodded, overcome by the strangeness of it all. Simon had always been with her before, but she'd been walking alone down a path that he couldn't take up behind her. She'd been lost, broken, alone. There had been peace, and there had been family, but there had always been that. Whatever that was at the time, whatever that had always been. Here they were breaking people who knew what it was like to smile every day, and here all the same there was a strange comfort in someone who knew.

Not the same. No, two duplicates could exist. But the same in things beyond physical or behavioral modifications. She flinched a little when he touched her hand, but didn't yank it away immediately.

"The same to you. The same to me. But it's not. And it is," she mumbled, trying to get a grip on herself. But the words couldn't be held back. The dam was cracked. "Water's always leaking out."

[tender_cruelty]

He'd never thought... never expected to find anyone like him. There had been that girl, woman really, who had fought against them, but the rest he'd left behind when he'd pulled the trigger or drawn the knife.She's not going to hurt us. But Hallelujah was strangely quiet now, only giving a soft snort of derision with an edge to it.

He swallowed thickly when she flinched, feeling guilty for causing it. He just wasn't used to how to act around people like them anymore.

He bit his lip, feeling like he'd caused her some hurt with what he'd said. Water always leaking out because they'd poked so many holes in them, how could they ever be whole again? "We just have to patch it up and hope it holds for long enough," he murmured. "Hope they don't notice."