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

Comments

[whichwayagain]

Renamon had given him some rather interesting explanations, and on the whole, Mihai found himself wishing he could just credit them to a youthful imagination. Yet she'd seemed so calmly convinced of her ideas that it was hard to immediately discount them, if only because she absolutely believed they were true. It simply remained to be seen if what she'd said meshed with reality.

The announcement of fish and chips had him wishing for a menu (or a different cook), but Mihai's nurse had returned. Having learned just how good his chances are of going against her routine were earlier, he simply followed the woman along as she explained to a fully grow man just how a cafeteria line worked. Regrettably, the woman seemed unimpressed by the annoyed look Mihai offered in return, or his reminder that he wasn't old enough for a nursing home just yet.

He was eventually left to his own devices, however, and Mihai claimed one of the empty seats near the entrance. He needed to find Badou, and either confirm Renamon's impossible theories, or find out what really was going on. And beyond that, Mihai simply wanted to see with his own eyes that Badou really hadn't died from falling debris or the bullet Mihai had fired so foolishly, both thanks to that bastard Berthein.

[Badou, come find the old man.]

[cigarettes_plz]

[Is he lost again?]

Badou still tasted bitter acid at the back of his throat. He'd spent the first ten minutes of the shift with his head in a toilet and, if he'd had his way, he would have spent the rest of it in the shower trying to scrape Makiko out of his skin. His eye still burned. If he had to guess he'd probably think it was red.

It was a sort of blasphemy in his mind to waste food even when it was so readily available, but the nurse forced him to take a tray and he carried it for all of two steps before dumping the contents into a garbage bin. He wasn't in the mood to be co-operative right now. He wasn't in the mood for much of anything except a cigarette. He could really, really use a smoke right now.

He dropped himself into an empty seat and put his head down on his arms.

[whichwayagain]

[Think about who you're talking about.]

Mihai had no complaints when it came to the food, so it was all the more concerning to watch Badou dump a perfectly good lunch into the trash. While Mihai been told more than once that he sacrificed quality for a good deal too often, Badou often took it to an extreme. Mihai never would forget the pitiful amount he'd offered for Mihai's efforts as a bodyguard. So such blatant waste now couldn't mean anything good.

Once Badou settled into a chair long enough for Mihai to be certain he wouldn't move, the man got up and crossed the room to join his friend. He'd brought along his own tray, in hopes that at least one of them might eat something off of it (he was still hungry, after all), but that was pushed to the side in favor of just looking over his friend for a moment.

"Badou. I need you to lift your shirt up." Maybe not the most normal of greetings, but what Renamon had said about time differences was still bothering him. The idea seemed so blatantly insane that it might not even be worth the effort, but how else could he check? The bullet would have left a scar even if it had healed; that Mihai was sure of. So he just wanted to see with his own eyes how much truth had been in Renamon's words, and how much fiction.

[cigarettes_plz]

[He made it all the way across the cafeteria ok. :<]

Badou's shoulder twitched as he was addressed. "Fuck off."

It took him a moment to recognize the voice, but when he did he looked up, eye widening just slightly. He didn't know why, but he felt just a little bit relieved. He wondered vaguely if Mihai had managed to get so lost he ended up here all by himself. "Old man? Sorry." Generally, he didn't mouth off to Mihai. He scrubbed his eye with the heel of his palm. "Hey, when'd you get... Did you just ask me to lift up my shirt?" To his credit, he only looked mildly scandalized.

[whichwayagain]

The corners of Mihai's mouth drew back in a deep frown when Badou gave one of his less friendly greetings. True, Mihai hadn't come bearing cigarettes on a silver platter, but really, was that any way to greet a friend? Of course Mihai wasn't actually upset, and the comment was easily waved away once Badou actually lifted his head. Clearly Badou had something on his mind, and Mihai knew well enough that it meant he'd want to be left alone. At least by most. He could hope to be the exception, at least.

"Yeah. I just woke up a little bit ago." Taking the seat next to Badou, Mihai looked at him expectantly as he continued. "I did. I just wanted to see if you'd recovered. Or, ah." Pausing for a moment to consider the options, Mihai let out a soft laugh. "I guess I could ask if you remember being in the concert hall, or how we got out." Really, how did someone put a nonsensical concept in the form of a sensible question?

[cigarettes_plz]

Of the people he could be talking to right now Mihai was, more or less, the least unwelcome. Maybe he was kind of stingy, and maybe Badou was never really any good at following his advice, but ever since meeting at Kiri's restaurant that day they got along pretty well on the off hours. All that time he spent working his debt off had been good for something at least

And now he was here, making far less sense than he usually did. Sort of.

"I don't even remember a concert hall." Badou replied slowly. "The last thing I remember is..." He actually had to think about it. "I was at the church with Haine and Naoto. Then there was an explosion or something. I've been here for a a little over two weeks and Haine showed up a few days ago." The implications slowly clicked into place, and despite himself Badou sat up a little straighter. (Or at least he slouched a little less.) "What happened?"

[whichwayagain]

So strange: with each carefully thought out word, Mihai could feel something in his guts tightening, pulling back as if all the organs wanted to compress into some tiny little ball, and perhaps bounce around in the space freed up in his body as part of a game. Mihai really couldn't remember the last time he'd felt something like that. Maybe not even with the conductor. Everything Badou had said was impossible--for him to not know that the explosion was the train, for him to have been there for fourteen days, instead of working at the store, getting a note, being lured into a trap.

Being shot in the chest.

Without another word, Mihai reached over and pulled up Badou's shirt. He'd remembered the hole, the center from where the blood blossomed. And where that mark should have been, either unhealed or as a scar, there was nothing.

"Shit." Mihai laughed loudly as he let go of Badou's shirt, and moved that hand to his forehead. It was the impossible evidence that proved Renamon's insane offering to be truth. He repeated his curse, then leaned back in his chair with a grin that went against his words. "We're really in a mess, aren't we?"

[cigarettes_plz]

"Hey HEY WHAT THE HELL. Not cool man." It was a halfhearted protest at best and Badou pulled his shirt back down, swallowing hard. Mihai hadn't answered his question but he had a bad feeling. A really bad feeling. Something to do with a sucking chest wound he might be expecting in the near future from who the hell knew where.

That was pretty much exactly what he needed to make this day even more fabulous. On the bright side, he'd probably find a room full of cigarettes tonight to balance out the universe.

The look on Mihai's face said it all. Badou slouched back down in his chair, fingers laced behind his neck, and laughed a little. His grin was a shadow of Mihai's. "Yeah, what else is new? Wanna break out?"

[whichwayagain]

Cool or not, Mihai had needed to see some form of proof with his own eyes. And luckily, Badou wasn't pressing too much about the events that led to this examination being the proof. Mihai's day had been pretty terrible so far, and telling Badou just how he ended up with a bullet puncturing his lung probably would make things worse. So better to leave the sleeping dog alone, before it woke up and bit a chunk out of both of them. Mihai had already apologized anyway, and poking at the coals would revive the guilt all the more strongly.

Breaking out, however, sounded much more promising. "That would be good. Kiri's going to kill me for being gone so long. Or worse." Because Mihai had been punished enough to know that death might just be too kind for the boss to find acceptable. "Maybe if I stop by the grocer on the way back, I'll be able to beg for mercy."

[cigarettes_plz]

Badou had no intention of leaving this alone forever, but it could wait for now. The day didn't need to get any worse for either of them. He even felt a little bad for the old man. Maybe his doctor wanted to eat his eyeball, but Mihai had to deal with Kiri when they got home. He might be a hardened assassin or whatever, but Badou was pretty sure that was the definitive proof that Mihai was packing brass ones.

"On second thought, maybe you should just stay here for a while. Free food. And it's not running if you're in prison." Sometimes he gave out reasonable advice too. "Did you get all the basics? I can tell you what I found out about this place, but it's not too helpful with the breaking out."

[whichwayagain]

Mihai quirked an eyebrow upward at Badou's suggestion, though it'd obviously been made in jest. What was to stop Kiri from coming and finding him, in that case? It had happened once before, and the punishment had been all the worse for each step she'd taken in the snow. Really, how did Badou expect Mihai's dignity to be spared if he got dragged around by the scarf a second time?

"Some, from a friend of yours. Renamon?" Mihai had walked away with a favorable impression of the girl, who seemed a bit cold, but also very straightforward. That sort of honesty could be rare. "She told me about the nights here, including brainwashing and experiments. Also about the--" And here Mihai paused, because saying the words made them undeniably real. Not that they weren't already, but coming from his own lips gave them a weight he wasn't sure he wanted to carry. Ah well. "--the time differences.

"I wouldn't mind hearing anything you want to add, though." Mihai really didn't like not knowing, when it came down to it. Sure, there was a great deal he didn't talk about, even openly rejected or denied. But a little bit of knowledge was necessary to keep the people he cared for safe, both at home and here. Or so Mihai suspected.

[cigarettes_plz]

Badou was clearly surprised, though not unpleasantly so. "You met Renamon? That's lucky." If anyone could give Mihai a pretty through picture of what was going on, it was Renamon. They had their differences when it came to what they thought was important but she was smart and straightforward. Far from his worst ally. Badou found himself pawing his pockets for a cigarette and stopped, long bony fingers laced in his lap.

"I thought this place might be connected to the level below for a while. The going theory's about the same but you can't verify any of this shit so." Badou shrugged, lips pressed into a thin line briefly. "We're part of Landel's pet project. He started this place, but he's not the top dog. The company's called Next Wave, and they're working for this country's government; selling special abilities to the military, sounds like. This place is probably just a testing ground for whatever they can harvest in other worlds. What use is a telepath gonna be if his head explodes around too many people, right? Getting out's not gonna be easy, and even if we do we might get caught up in a war."

[whichwayagain]

"Yeah." And now the reason she'd asked about Mihai's relationship with Badou became a bit clearer, and the old man grinned a bit when he realized it. It wasn't hard to imagine, becoming so protective of each other in a place such as this. Especially if what he had heard about the nights was as true as the way time had been twisted.

But it seemed like there would be other concerns that needed to be addressed. Mihai may have thought Badou smoked entirely too much--anyone besides a cigarette manufacturer would--but such a habit wasn't easily broken by anyone, and few took it to the level Badou did while living to tell the tale. "How long has it been? You still have that smell, so it seems like you're getting by." Sufficiently enough to not cause a riot in the middle of the cafeteria, at least.

Badou had been at work since he'd arrived, and Mihai listened closely to what followed. That it wasn't connected to the deep underground sparked mixed feelings; what might have been relief suffered the taint of still being beyond Mihai's knowledge of the world. Worse, what little sense of stability Mihai had managed to find quickly became threatened again with a certain phrase. "Wait. Other worlds?" Despite her thoroughness, Renamon had apparently failed to mention another insane thing or two.

But getting caught up in a war? That Mihai knew all too much about. "Well, neither of us has particularly good luck when it comes to staying out of trouble. That might just be the most normal thing I've heard about all day."

[cigarettes_plz]

"Hey, don't get any ideas. It's mostly business." Mostly. He didn't think Renamon went for guys like him anyway. Probably smart nerdy types and why was he thinking about this right now anyway? Maybe he was spending too much time with Busty Asian Beauties after all. Not enough time with his cigarettes. How long had it been?

"Forever. Hours. Don't even remind me," Badou whined. "I got a few packs stashed away and they gave me these during the day." He passed a hand behind his neck to lift up the hair that covered a skin-coloured nicotine patch. They had never worked before, but it did the job for now. And it wasn't like he couldn't go a few hours without a smoke. He just preferred not to unless he was helping out at the store or something.

Badou raised his hands in a helpless gesture. "I know. It's all fucked up." He even laughed a little. "It's the most normal thing you'll ever hear around here."