Day 47: Lunch

[idontregret]

Heat was able to ignore the still faintly throbbing spot on his head as he was led back into the cafeteria for another meal he had no intention of eating. He kept himself from rubbing at what he knew would be a small bump because dammit it didn't hurt that much. It was embarrassing, was what it was

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[host_club_honey]

"He is!" Honey was quick to agree and rubbed his hand over the top of the rabbit's pink fuzzy head. Those who were nice enough to acknowledge Usa-chan were also those lucky enough for Honey to offer to let them hold the toy. "My Nana made him for me. You can hold him if you want to."

Taking that as a cue, he picked up the rabbit and held it out toward Cloud, it's fluffy ears drooping to one side and button-eyes staring up at him. It might be silly to keep carrying around the toy after so long, but Usa-chan was a comfort and here, of all places, he needed that the most of all.

"Eheh," he gave a pleased giggle at Cloud's praise. He seemed like a pretty nice person and definitely didn't give out the creepy vibe like some of the others today.

"I think I'm just lucky," he smiled. There hadn't been more than a handful of encounters over that time and the enemies thus far hadn't been too frightening. Except maybe the zombies. Those he really didn't wanna think about. "What about Cloud? Are you doing okay? I bet everyone told you all kinds of really crazy stuff. It's hard to believe, huh!"

[notthistrain]

"Ah..." Cloud didn't know what to do when being offered the chance to hold a plush like that, so he just shook his head. "No... that's okay. I wouldn't want to accidentally get any of my lunch on it." A truthful enough statement, given that he wasn't sure what they'd do about washing it here. Mostly he'd just feel awkward.

He hadn't played with many dolls when he was young. It had seemed such a childish thing to do despite being a child himself. He wouldn't know what to do with one if it was gifted to him - stick it on a shelf?

"I'm doing as well as can be expected," he assured the boy. "It is a lot of crazy stuff to take in, that's for sure." Come to think of it, he hadn't dealt with a whole lot of kids in the past either. He was sure it had something to do with how he'd tried to grow up so fast, avoiding that stage of life even when he was well past it.

Well, was it ever really too late?

[host_club_honey]

No? Well Haruhi had said that at first too. Honey just nodded as if Cloud's reasoning were very wise indeed and set the toy on the table near his tray while he worked on his lunch. He went through the fruit quickly, leaving only the fish and chips behind and trying not to seem thoroughly disappointed at the prospect of having to eat it.

"That's good. You shouldn't push yourself too hard, there's a lot of dangerous stuff!" he explained, finally taking another bite of his fish, though he did try to hide his sour face.

"Do you have anyone you know here?"

[notthistrain]

Pushing himself too hard wasn't the problem. He hadn't even gotten far enough to where that would have been an issue. There was one time he'd come close to fighting anything and the night had ended before he'd really had a chance. Cloud almost wished there was an opportunity for him to push himself and test his limits. At least then he might feel as if he was getting things done.

At Honey's question, he automatically looked up to scan the room for familiar faces. "Yeah, I know a few people." Yuffie, Aerith, the Turks, and... He tried not to stare too long at that tall figure and spiky black hair. At some point he was going to have to confront Zack. That would be better than letting the other man run into him first. Avoiding the issue would be impossible. "What about you?"