Nightshift 37: Stairwell by Waiting Room/Lobby 1

[thecamellia]

[from here and about to be perved upon]

She'd been upstairs once, to visit the Chapel, but that had been during the day. There were no staff members escorting her this time, which only made things more dangerous, in a way. The shinigami, Abarai Renji, had been killed battling nurses at night

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[thecamellia]

The girl thought alarmed question marks must’ve started circling her head by the time the second ‘babe’ registered, and the stranger finished giving her that look. She’d seen Professor Stein give similar looks to things he was about to dissect.

"Ah--" Tsubaki started to ask something (probably a repeat of her first question, with added awkwardness), before he introduced herself, and whatever she’d been about to say was promptly squashed by the sudden and reflexive urge to wince. She just barely held herself in check, an equally reflexive half-smile coming to her lips. That name, she’d heard it before, hadn’t she? Or at least read it. ‘Superboy’ had been that person she’d been sharing messages with on the bulletin board, wasn’t he!?

It was beyond her to rationally understand why her reaction was so strong in that moment. Tsubaki only knew her desire to make for the stairs was doubled.

So she bowed slightly, and backed onto the first step. I have a mission to take care of… "Thank you for your concern, but please don’t worry. I’m..." It felt a tiny bit wrong not to insert her name, and instead say, "in a hurry, so..." Whatever guilt that small impropriety caused was definitely overruled.

[gottabetactile]

Huh. Kon wasn't used to girls trying to get away from him, unless they were playing hard to get. Moving up onto the step beside her he offered his arm with what he thought was a gallant smile, saying "That's fine, I'm heading upstairs too. We can go together. Do you have a name I can call you gorgeous?"

He had no idea why she was wearing that outfit while he was stuck wearing the same dorky uniform as everyone else but he really wasn't about to complain. Whoever had made it had wanted to show off all her assets to their best effect and they had most definitely achieved that! Seriously, if it weren't for the killer squirrels he'd think the guy in charge was setting up his own Playboy mansion filled with heroes. You couldn't fault a guy for that.

"Where are you headed? I hear this place can be pretty dangerous at night, you don't want to be wandering around alone." Unless she had powers to defend herself which by this point he expected but well, chivalry right? If he was lucky she was going after the head honcho too. They could work together, kick his ass and maybe he could personally take her back to her own reality. People were always telling him his teamwork needed improving.

[thecamellia]

“I can defend myself if I have to; I wouldn’t want to cause you any added trouble,” she replied with a more steady, sober smile. By following me. Thankfully, with both of her hands full, she was spared having to respond to his offered arm.

She wasn’t about to be distracted from her assignment, no matter how unexpected the encounter with Superboy was. People were in trouble--a very immediate, tangible trouble--and while the shinigami mourned, everyone who was willing to face the possible danger would have to try their best to interrupt these “sleep studies,” and whatever experimentation they entailed. Without knowing the details beyond how much of a constant threat they were, Tsubaki had to assume it’d be risky, especially for the unprepared.

The smile waned, became more sombre. “My name is Tsubaki. I think we’ve already unofficially met.” There was a sudden flex of her knees, and then she was two steps ahead and rapidly ascending, her footfalls soft and muted. Her answer followed her. “I’m about to break into the disciplinary therapy corridor. Sorry, another time!”

Tsubaki didn’t want this person to follow her out of a sense of obligation and get hurt… She didn’t know why he was so ‘super’, but she wasn’t about to take a chance on someone’s well-being by asking them to tag along.

[gottabetactile]

Tsubaki? The name was familiar, where had he heard it? That was it! This was the girl he'd been chatting with on the bulletin board. Lucky he'd run into her now since he wasn't going to be here for their lunch date tomorrow. It'd be a shame to have missed out on getting to know her. Hurrying after her Kon pressed his hand to the small of her back, the closest he could come to wrapping his arm around her waist while they were climbing stairs.

"It's great to finally meet you in person Tsubaki. I was afraid I was going to have to wait forever to meet the girl I've been dreaming about."

Doing his best to keep up with Tsubaki's longer strides Kon tried to figure out what she was going on about. What the hell was disciplinary therapy? Did they give people therapy here as a punishment? Sure didn't sound like it would be that bad a punishment.

"Why are you headed there? If it's something dangerous I can help out. It's always better to have someone watching your back and I'd hate myself if I ran off and let a babe get hurt." As he followed after her Kon let himself fall a step behind causing his hand to slide down to brush 'accidentally' against Tsubaki's (nice, firm) ass.

[thecamellia]

And he was following anyway! Awfully closely, at that.

The touch at her back made her jump; the close proximity in general was growing more and more awkward, as a person and as an assassin. Part of her was suddenly very aware he was exactly the same in person as he had been... during that horrible, horrible conversation. (The girl he'd been dreaming about? Was he being serious?) She was too close to the railing to shimmy away without breaking into an all out run in an attempt to outpace him--too noisy, and, er, rude, of course.

"It's definitely a coincidence," she offered in a preoccupied murmur, watching him from the corner of her eye while she focussed the rest of her attention on what she was doing. And what to do with... Superboy. Why was he following her like this!? "I-I won't get hurt... I've been told the people taken for sleep studies are really being experimented on, that's why--"

She broke off when something brushed her rear, her foot coming down on the top step at full volume, mask of stealth gone. Then she spun on the spot, an arm folding back to press against the spot, as though Superboy's hand had burned her.

Watching someone's back doesn't mean touching someone's back!

For a moment, she was dead silent. A body falling down the stairs made a lot of noise...

[gottabetactile]

"Whoops," Kon said unrepentantly when Tsubaki spun around to face him. "Sorry about that, guess I wasn't watching where my hands went." Anyone looking at him would be able to tell that was a total lie based solely on the grin currently splitting his face open. Now was about the time he'd normally get a smack about the head or a lecture for being immature. Of course that just meant he had to go out of his way to distract whoever it was delivering said punishment.

Unfortunately his mind chose that moment to replay what Tsubaki had said before his little 'slip up', distracting him from whatever retribution she might choose to enact. "Wait, people are being experimented on right now?"

There was no way he could just let that happen! Kon had been under the impression the whole prison/letting-people-out-to-fight-monsters-at-night thing was an experiment. A weird one, but who could say what went on inside the heads of crazies with a penchant for human experimentation? Knowing that there might be people being experimented upon in some other way that they might not be able to fight back against, Kon couldn't just go straight to the man at the top. Getting rid of him would stop the experiments - eventually - but who knew what would happen to those people in the meantime?

For almost the first time since leaving his room Kon looked serious. "Let me come with you. They said there were going to be a few people taken for those studies and I don't think you can help them all on your own."

[thecamellia]

Tsubaki carefully kept her expression neutral. Even without the playful, unrepentant grin to give him away, it was obvious he was a different kind of prankster from Black☆Star. A more resolute kind. She'd just been groped, and without a real apology.

But now wasn't the time. She swallowed whatever feelings she had, nodding at his question.

He was right, of course. Tsubaki wasn't the type the weapon that could fight independently of a meister. "More people are coming to help, or they might already be there," she said. Like Black☆Star, the boy in front of her had gotten more serious after registering the implications; her partner wouldn't let anything so silly as girls trounce the need to help others in trouble, either.

She didn't relax, but brought her arms back in front of her, shifting her grip on the pillowcase and the flashlight so that she could move again. "Are... you a fighter?" He'd said he could help if it was something dangerous, but was that the truth...?

[gottabetactile]

If there were other people already stopping the experiments then he could always go back to the original plan of finding the head doctor. But first he had to be sure the people taken for experimentation were going to be OK.

Sighing at Tsubaki's question Kon replied "Man, I hate this place. I'm Superboy. I'm a superhero and one of the best. Yeah, I can fight." He just hoped she didn't ask about how his arm had gotten injured. That was plain embarrassing and it wasn't like he'd need both arms to take on a few lousy scientists. Not like those guys could ever put up much of a fight.

Eying the pillowcase Tsubaki carried curiously Kon shrugged, gesturing for her to lead the way. "Ladies first." He didn't know where the experiments were carried out so it was best for Tsubaki to go in front. Plus it let him enjoy the view from behind. It wouldn't help anyone to worry about what they'd find before they even got there so he'd focus on more enjoyable thoughts.

Making no effort to keep his voice down, Kon asked "I gotta know, where'd you get the outfit? It looks amazing, way better than the stupid uniform the rest of us get." He remembered a few other people wearing different clothes. That crazy girl who'd attacked him last night for one, but he thought she might have been brainwashed. Maybe some people in the hallways too. The only explanation he could think of was that they'd found wherever their stuff was hidden. Which meant when he was done here Tsubaki could show him where his costume and stuff were. Then she'd recognise him as a hero. Even if people didn't know Superboy they always recognised the 'S'.

[thecamellia]

There was that hero thing again… She wasn’t sure what a superhero was supposed to look like, so it wasn’t as though she could judge… He seemed to take some pride in it.

“All right,” Tsubaki agreed, after another moment of hesitation, “let’s go together. I’ll, uh… watch your back, too.” Not anything more than that, to be sure. At least he could trust that Tsubaki would be there for support, no matter how impromptu the partnership. She didn’t have any qualms over going alone, but this way it would be safer for everybody involved, especially the people they were going to help, right?

She hadn’t been able to tell from the bulletin board, but now she was more sure that Superboy was a joker, not dangerous or intentionally rude. Well, the latter was arguable.

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