Kurogane was very much not the creative type, so naturally the nurse didn't care for his protests of having an "Arts and Crafts" time and forced him into the room
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After his talk with Miku, Okita was left both strangely determined and quite...confused. Having people know him was odd enough, but having fans? And the talk of cameras? It wasn't exactly what he expected when he had finally met his little poet from the board, but the meeting had been informative at least. Now, rather than head to the Sun Room, he was taken to the Arts and Crafts room. The nurses seemed to think he'd do well enough on his own for finding entertainment and left him near the doorway. He surveyed the room and spotted Ayumu, but didn't let his gaze settle on her anymore than anyone else. Himura was snooping and he didn't need to blow her cover anymore than he already might have at breakfast.
Strolling into the room, Okita paused next to a young blond as he was sketching. Trying to keep as quiet as possible, he leaned over a little, taking a peek at the man's drawings. A rather stern profile looked back at him and Okita couldn't help but think it rather matched the artist's own troubled expression. The man started sketching something else and Okita finally spoke up.
"Do you always mimic your art?" he asked, smiling pleasantly down at the stranger.
Claude hadn't sensed anyone behind him. When the newcomer finally spoke up, he visibly jerked and whipped his head around. The stern expression from earlier instantly melted into one of surprise. "Wh-what?" The blond scratched his head and glanced down at the sketch of Dias, suddenly looking a little sheepish. "Oh, no. I was just, uh, thinking about something."
That wasn't anything unusual, though. With how much stuff went on around here, it wasn't like his plate was more full than anyone else's.
The patient's face looked familiar, but Claude didn't think he'd ever actually spoken with...her? It was kind of hard to tell at first glance, and for a moment, Claude tried to remember if he'd seen this person during the any of the male shifts. He might have, come to think of it, but then, it wasn't like he spent his time in the showers looking at other guys, either, so that wasn't particularly helpful.
"Do you like arts and crafts?" he suddenly asked, figuring it would be kind of awkward to leave his last comment as it was.
Thinking about something unpleasant more than likely, judging from how similar the man had been to his sketch. Moving around to the chair next to him, Okita pulled it out and sat down, linking his fingers beneath his chin as he looked at the artist next to him. Since it seemed that the man didn't want to talk about what made his face so serious, Okita decided to just answer his question and leave it at that. "Yes, I do. Although many of the things in here I don't know how to work them." Reaching out he plucked a pen from the table and drew a little piglet chewing on a shoe off in the corner of one of the papers and smiled. "But that's about all I can do."
Where had he seen this patient before? Okita was certain he knew him from somewhere, but he couldn't quite place him. Was it at a lunch shift somewhere? A breakfast? Perhaps at some other time when they were all gathered together in the Sun Room or something. He knew he was familiar, but that they'd never met.
Well, that was easy enough to rectify. "So, what's your name, Mr. Artist?"
Claude watched him as he took a seat. When he saw the doodle of the piglet, he couldn't help but smile. It was actually kind of cute, and it helped him forget the serious subject from earlier. "I take it you're not from around here, then?" he asked. The blond didn't want to assume he was from another planet since a lot of captives here were from Earth, but from a different time period. Still, he was curious to know why he didn't know how to use the materials in here.
Even though it felt like ages since he'd first woken up in Landel's, there were still so many people he didn't know, weren't there? Granted, it was difficult to learn everyone's names with how many appeared and disappeared, perhaps to reappear later with no previous memories. But it was still something he wanted to keep working at -- the more friends he had in this place, the better.
"I'm Claude," he replied. "Claude C. Kenni. First names work fine for me, though." The blond smiled. "How about you? What's your name?"
When the stranger smiled, Okita felt a little bit of relief wash through him. It seemed that his little doodle had its intended effect. Taking even a little bit of worry off someone's shoulders was enough and it seemed that Okita still hadn't lost his knack at that. "No, I'm from quite a bit in the past."
Strange how he'd gotten used to saying that lately. A nurse came over and handed Okita some paper and a pencil and Okita smiled at her pleasantly until she was gone. He moved the paper closer to him and started folding and tearing it into squares while he listened to his companion for the shift. "Claude-san? It's nice to meet you."
Where had he heard that name? He'd seen it before somewhere that had caught his attention. It took him a moment to place it on the bulletin board and he took a moment to finish pulling his paper apart into four squares while he thought. Claude C. Kenni. Guy. Guy's friend? He'd seen them exchanging notes on the bulletin, yes. Could this be the man he'd been hearing about at night? If it was, then telling him his name would cause no harm. "Are you Guy-san's friend? I'm his roommate - Okita Souji."
"From the past, huh?" That made Claude kind of curious. "Do you know how far?" Probably a long time ago if the materials in here were unfamiliar. It was a good thing they weren't on a completely foreign planet, but it made him feel bad for the non-Earthlings who were stuck here, too. "I'm from the future myself, so there are some things here that I don't know how to use, either."
The blond watched as his table companion folded and tore at the paper, silently wondering what he was making.
When Guy was brought up, though, Claude's eyebrows rose. "Oh, you're his roommate?" he echoed, perhaps sounding a little more surprised than he'd intended. "I mean..." Claude suddenly laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, I'm Guy's friend. It's nice to meet you, too!" Any friend of Guy's was certainly a friend of Claude's, after all.
Whatever traces of Claude's earlier anxiety had melted completely by now. They hadn't been talking for all that long, but the blond already felt at ease around him. "You two seem like you'd get along pretty well," he remarked. "You and Guy, I mean."
"If the current year is 2008, like people have been saying, then..." Okita pressed a finger to his lips and looked to the ceiling as he thought. 1868 from 2008 was 140 years. It wasn't that long, now that he thought about it, but it was longer than it was supposed to be. "140 years in the past. Not too bad. How about you?"
Now that he had four squares, Okita set about folding the first of them into a crane. He carefully creased the paper, sliding his fingers over the smooth paper and smiling at the feel of it. He liked origami - it was very clean and very easy to do. Looking over at Claude as he repeated what Okita said, he noticed the easy smile on his face and returned one of his own. This man was definitely the one Guy talked about. He didn't know much about him, but he could just tell. There was something in the way Claude automatically took Okita in as Guy's friend that spoke to how well the two men got along. "He's mentioned you before, but not by name. I'm glad he has a friend like you though."
As for how well he and Guy had been getting along, Okita had to wonder. He certainly liked his roommate, but lately - what with everything that had been going on with Okita - the swordsman was afraid he'd strained the relationship. Guy was wary of him now, and of everyone in the Institute, he didn't want his roommate to watch him as he wasted away into nothing. Guy couldn't do a thing about it (no one could), but he would take it hard. "...yes," he said, a little wistfully as he started making the tail and head of the crane. "I like him quite a bit. He's a good person." The crane was soon finished and Okita brightened his smile, holding the little paper animal out to Claude. "But you know that, hm? He's your friend too, after all."
"Wow, 140 years?" That was probably before a lot of the gadgets found in today's time were invented. "I guess some of the stuff here must seem pretty weird to you, then." As for himself, that had been slightly harder to count up since they used a different calendar system during his own era, but after pausing long enough to jot down a few numbers on the corner of his paper, he was able to figure it out. "About 444 years into the future, I guess..."
So that put a good 584 years between his own time and Okita's. But then, differences like that were kind of irrelevant when they were stuck in the same time and place, weren't they?
As they talked, Claude's gaze sometimes followed the way the other man was folding the paper, though he couldn't immediately tell what he was making. "Oh, really?" Part of him wondered what it was Guy had said about him to his roommate, but there wasn't really any reason for him to ask. The blond's hand moved to the back of his neck, and he grinned. "I'd say I'm the lucky one to know someone like Guy, though. You can really tell he cares about his friends, and he's pretty easy to talk to, too."
By now it was becoming apparent that Okita was shaping the paper into a bird. Interested, Claude scooted a little closer as he watched. "I agree," he replied. "We could use a few more reliable people like Guy around."
His blue eyes brightened when he saw the completed crane. After a moment, he reached out and gently plucked it from the other man's hand so he could examine it. "Hey, this is really neat! Do you make paper cranes often?"
If Okita were to list the things that seemed weird to him, he could probably go all day. But he liked the weirdness. The difference from home was scary and sometimes it was annoying, but the future was definitely interesting. Things he'd only seen in pictures or in passing were readily available and he'd been able to test so many new things like flashlights and scalpels and pens. "Oh dear, 444? You certainly have me beat." Okita laughed a little and started in on another bit of origami. "If things seem weird to me, things must seem positively archaic to you."
It was interesting to hear what Claude had to say about Guy. Okita and his roommate had a somewhat closed relationship where neither really probed very deep into the other's life. Okita wasn't one to talk about himself anyway, but neither was Guy (or so he thought), and yet Claude seemed to have gotten quite close to him. That was a good thing. Everyone needed someone they could confide in. And Claude was certainly a talker - which was a good thing. Okita liked listening. "I'm glad he has such a good friend in you then. He seems very happy."
Claude also seemed pleased with the crane. It wasn't very difficult to make and as they talked, Okita started folding a butterfly, shaking his head. "I don't, actually. I haven't had time until very recently, but once you learn, it's rather difficult to forget. Do you know how to fold them?"
"Yeah, you could say that..." Granted, this wasn't nearly as underdeveloped as Expel, but it was still miles behind the technology that was around in the year SD 366. "It's not a bad thing, though. You know that small town we go to every week? You'd never see a place as quiet and laid back as that in my time." Actually, if he ever escaped from the Institute and couldn't find a way back to the future, he could see himself adjusting to this Earth, perhaps even learning to like it more than the one he'd left behind.
Not that they were going to be stuck here. There had to be a way back home, right?
He was a little embarrassed to hear Okita saying something so nice about him, but at the same time, it made him sort of happy, too. "Y-you think so?" he asked. "He'd probably be happier if he and his other friends had never wound up here, but...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad for the chance to get to know him." The blond smiled at Okita. "And other interesting people, too, of course." But there was no denying that Guy was one of the patients he'd become closest to since his arrival.
Claude gazed at the origami as the other man spoke. Something one never forgot..they said the same thing about driving cars, didn't they? "I never learned how," he admitted. He might have been able to make a paper airplane, but that wasn't really the same thing. "It'd be nice to learn how sometime, though. They're known as symbols for world peace in the future."
Okita nodded as he started to finish the butterfly, thinking of the bustle of this place compared to Kyoto. Or even, the bustle of Edo compared to the suburbs of Kyoto. If he took a walk down out of the city, he was easily surrounded by the quiet solitude of nature, and yet here, amid all the technology, he wondered if he'd ever hear a bird's song ring out clear against the sky again. There was a tinny sound in the air, an artificial quality to the footsteps that resounded off the floors, and it left Okita feeling out of sorts at all times. "It's rather nice to find such quiet places, isn't it? I enjoy the town as well."
As for Guy, the answer was the same as everyone else. "We'd all be happier not being here, Claude-san, but the things that make this place bearable are the people we've met while here. And for some-" One more fold into the butterfly and it was beginning to take shape. "-the people we meet here become those we cannot live without."
The butterfly was finished and Okita passed it over to Claude along with an unfolded square. He didn't really wish to speak about the people here that he couldn't live without because soon enough he'd have to, so he quickly changed the topic. "Are they? They're good luck to us in my time. Shall I show you how to make them then?"
"Yes, it's too bad we only get to go out once a week, but I guess we should just take what we can get," Claude said. Besides, there were some good things about not going more, like avoiding the risk of getting caught in the buses once night fell. Still, the sterilized smell of the Institute and the drab uniforms everyone wore wore on him after awhile. Going outside sometimes was really be a nice chance of pace.
"You're absolutely right," the blond replied quietly as he turned his gaze to the forming butterfly. "Without the friends we have here, I think it would be easier to lose our will to keep fighting." That included his Expelian friends and those he'd met at Landel's. Some of them had already become victims to this horrible place, but Claude could be strong for them, even if it was becoming harder to stay strong for himself. That went doubly so for the ones who had a special place in his heart...
"Good luck, huh?" Claude smiled as he examined the finished butterfly now. The wings were crisply folded, giving it a distinct, yet elegant shape. "I could use a bit of that. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like to learn."
"I suppose we should," Okita said absently, tapping a finger against his bottom lip. If he were at the town more often, perhaps he'd get a better chance to look around - or even a better chance at escaping. He still had to find where Hijikata was being held now that he'd disappeared and that would no doubt take more than just leaving the town. There was no way that Hijikata would be so close and not realize what was going on. He had to be somewhere outside of the town, somewhere further down that road. "But it would be nice to go a little more often when it isn't probably filled up with nasty monsters."
As for losing one's will to keep fighting, Okita remained quiet on the subject. If it wasn't for the people left here, he'd probably lost his will a long time ago. Perhaps when Hijikata had left the first time. It was still a struggle to not just follow after Hijikata and give up his life here, but he couldn't do that to Homura and Heiji and the others. Not now with Ayumu here either. Since he was a child, he'd always been acting for others. It was silly of him, perhaps, but he could never be a lone wolf like Saitou or some of the other captains. He needed the Shinsengumi more than he liked to admit.
"I'd be more than happy to teach you. Take the paper you have there, hm? Fold it in half like this into a triangle and then once more," Okita said, taking great care in showing Claude each and every action with great deliberation. Running his nails down the creases, he made sure they were crisp and then checked to make sure Claude was following along. "Then you open the triangles into squares, like so-" He slipped a finger into one triangle, opening it up and then pressing it flat so that the triangle neatly became a square. "And do the same to the other side."
Strolling into the room, Okita paused next to a young blond as he was sketching. Trying to keep as quiet as possible, he leaned over a little, taking a peek at the man's drawings. A rather stern profile looked back at him and Okita couldn't help but think it rather matched the artist's own troubled expression. The man started sketching something else and Okita finally spoke up.
"Do you always mimic your art?" he asked, smiling pleasantly down at the stranger.
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That wasn't anything unusual, though. With how much stuff went on around here, it wasn't like his plate was more full than anyone else's.
The patient's face looked familiar, but Claude didn't think he'd ever actually spoken with...her? It was kind of hard to tell at first glance, and for a moment, Claude tried to remember if he'd seen this person during the any of the male shifts. He might have, come to think of it, but then, it wasn't like he spent his time in the showers looking at other guys, either, so that wasn't particularly helpful.
"Do you like arts and crafts?" he suddenly asked, figuring it would be kind of awkward to leave his last comment as it was.
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Where had he seen this patient before? Okita was certain he knew him from somewhere, but he couldn't quite place him. Was it at a lunch shift somewhere? A breakfast? Perhaps at some other time when they were all gathered together in the Sun Room or something. He knew he was familiar, but that they'd never met.
Well, that was easy enough to rectify. "So, what's your name, Mr. Artist?"
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Even though it felt like ages since he'd first woken up in Landel's, there were still so many people he didn't know, weren't there? Granted, it was difficult to learn everyone's names with how many appeared and disappeared, perhaps to reappear later with no previous memories. But it was still something he wanted to keep working at -- the more friends he had in this place, the better.
"I'm Claude," he replied. "Claude C. Kenni. First names work fine for me, though." The blond smiled. "How about you? What's your name?"
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Strange how he'd gotten used to saying that lately. A nurse came over and handed Okita some paper and a pencil and Okita smiled at her pleasantly until she was gone. He moved the paper closer to him and started folding and tearing it into squares while he listened to his companion for the shift. "Claude-san? It's nice to meet you."
Where had he heard that name? He'd seen it before somewhere that had caught his attention. It took him a moment to place it on the bulletin board and he took a moment to finish pulling his paper apart into four squares while he thought. Claude C. Kenni. Guy. Guy's friend? He'd seen them exchanging notes on the bulletin, yes. Could this be the man he'd been hearing about at night? If it was, then telling him his name would cause no harm. "Are you Guy-san's friend? I'm his roommate - Okita Souji."
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The blond watched as his table companion folded and tore at the paper, silently wondering what he was making.
When Guy was brought up, though, Claude's eyebrows rose. "Oh, you're his roommate?" he echoed, perhaps sounding a little more surprised than he'd intended. "I mean..." Claude suddenly laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, I'm Guy's friend. It's nice to meet you, too!" Any friend of Guy's was certainly a friend of Claude's, after all.
Whatever traces of Claude's earlier anxiety had melted completely by now. They hadn't been talking for all that long, but the blond already felt at ease around him. "You two seem like you'd get along pretty well," he remarked. "You and Guy, I mean."
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Now that he had four squares, Okita set about folding the first of them into a crane. He carefully creased the paper, sliding his fingers over the smooth paper and smiling at the feel of it. He liked origami - it was very clean and very easy to do. Looking over at Claude as he repeated what Okita said, he noticed the easy smile on his face and returned one of his own. This man was definitely the one Guy talked about. He didn't know much about him, but he could just tell. There was something in the way Claude automatically took Okita in as Guy's friend that spoke to how well the two men got along. "He's mentioned you before, but not by name. I'm glad he has a friend like you though."
As for how well he and Guy had been getting along, Okita had to wonder. He certainly liked his roommate, but lately - what with everything that had been going on with Okita - the swordsman was afraid he'd strained the relationship. Guy was wary of him now, and of everyone in the Institute, he didn't want his roommate to watch him as he wasted away into nothing. Guy couldn't do a thing about it (no one could), but he would take it hard. "...yes," he said, a little wistfully as he started making the tail and head of the crane. "I like him quite a bit. He's a good person." The crane was soon finished and Okita brightened his smile, holding the little paper animal out to Claude. "But you know that, hm? He's your friend too, after all."
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So that put a good 584 years between his own time and Okita's. But then, differences like that were kind of irrelevant when they were stuck in the same time and place, weren't they?
As they talked, Claude's gaze sometimes followed the way the other man was folding the paper, though he couldn't immediately tell what he was making. "Oh, really?" Part of him wondered what it was Guy had said about him to his roommate, but there wasn't really any reason for him to ask. The blond's hand moved to the back of his neck, and he grinned. "I'd say I'm the lucky one to know someone like Guy, though. You can really tell he cares about his friends, and he's pretty easy to talk to, too."
By now it was becoming apparent that Okita was shaping the paper into a bird. Interested, Claude scooted a little closer as he watched. "I agree," he replied. "We could use a few more reliable people like Guy around."
His blue eyes brightened when he saw the completed crane. After a moment, he reached out and gently plucked it from the other man's hand so he could examine it. "Hey, this is really neat! Do you make paper cranes often?"
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It was interesting to hear what Claude had to say about Guy. Okita and his roommate had a somewhat closed relationship where neither really probed very deep into the other's life. Okita wasn't one to talk about himself anyway, but neither was Guy (or so he thought), and yet Claude seemed to have gotten quite close to him. That was a good thing. Everyone needed someone they could confide in. And Claude was certainly a talker - which was a good thing. Okita liked listening. "I'm glad he has such a good friend in you then. He seems very happy."
Claude also seemed pleased with the crane. It wasn't very difficult to make and as they talked, Okita started folding a butterfly, shaking his head. "I don't, actually. I haven't had time until very recently, but once you learn, it's rather difficult to forget. Do you know how to fold them?"
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Not that they were going to be stuck here. There had to be a way back home, right?
He was a little embarrassed to hear Okita saying something so nice about him, but at the same time, it made him sort of happy, too. "Y-you think so?" he asked. "He'd probably be happier if he and his other friends had never wound up here, but...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad for the chance to get to know him." The blond smiled at Okita. "And other interesting people, too, of course." But there was no denying that Guy was one of the patients he'd become closest to since his arrival.
Claude gazed at the origami as the other man spoke. Something one never forgot..they said the same thing about driving cars, didn't they? "I never learned how," he admitted. He might have been able to make a paper airplane, but that wasn't really the same thing. "It'd be nice to learn how sometime, though. They're known as symbols for world peace in the future."
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As for Guy, the answer was the same as everyone else. "We'd all be happier not being here, Claude-san, but the things that make this place bearable are the people we've met while here. And for some-" One more fold into the butterfly and it was beginning to take shape. "-the people we meet here become those we cannot live without."
The butterfly was finished and Okita passed it over to Claude along with an unfolded square. He didn't really wish to speak about the people here that he couldn't live without because soon enough he'd have to, so he quickly changed the topic. "Are they? They're good luck to us in my time. Shall I show you how to make them then?"
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"You're absolutely right," the blond replied quietly as he turned his gaze to the forming butterfly. "Without the friends we have here, I think it would be easier to lose our will to keep fighting." That included his Expelian friends and those he'd met at Landel's. Some of them had already become victims to this horrible place, but Claude could be strong for them, even if it was becoming harder to stay strong for himself. That went doubly so for the ones who had a special place in his heart...
"Good luck, huh?" Claude smiled as he examined the finished butterfly now. The wings were crisply folded, giving it a distinct, yet elegant shape. "I could use a bit of that. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like to learn."
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As for losing one's will to keep fighting, Okita remained quiet on the subject. If it wasn't for the people left here, he'd probably lost his will a long time ago. Perhaps when Hijikata had left the first time. It was still a struggle to not just follow after Hijikata and give up his life here, but he couldn't do that to Homura and Heiji and the others. Not now with Ayumu here either. Since he was a child, he'd always been acting for others. It was silly of him, perhaps, but he could never be a lone wolf like Saitou or some of the other captains. He needed the Shinsengumi more than he liked to admit.
"I'd be more than happy to teach you. Take the paper you have there, hm? Fold it in half like this into a triangle and then once more," Okita said, taking great care in showing Claude each and every action with great deliberation. Running his nails down the creases, he made sure they were crisp and then checked to make sure Claude was following along. "Then you open the triangles into squares, like so-" He slipped a finger into one triangle, opening it up and then pressing it flat so that the triangle neatly became a square. "And do the same to the other side."
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