Day 48: Intercom, Evening

[damned_intercom]

"AACHOO! Ahem!" The Head Doctor's slightly-better-but-still-congested voice came on clearly over the intercom. The sound of Nurse Lydia sighing and pulling out a tissue from somewhere in the background was also audible

Comments

M7

[mitase]

People were going to be coming here. Here. And expecting him to tell them what to do and where to go, and--

And they had somehow already reached his room without him realizing it and Hanatarou jumped a little as the nurse addressed him, bobbing a wide-eyed nod when she asked if he was all right. She didn't seem entirely convinced, but smiled and told him to be certain to get some rest tonight, then patted his shoulder and left him alone with his dinner. He stared after her for a moment before breathing out a long sigh, letting his shoulders sag as he turned toward the desk and slumped into the chair. Dinner didn't look all that bad, but he was, as seemed to be common lately, not at all hungry.

Still, if he was going to be running around tonight he had to. And especially if he was going to be healing anyone, he needed the energy for it. He stared for a minute longer, then picked up the utensils and started in on his food, cutting neat bites of fish and putting them in his mouth almost mechanically.

[scintillatingly]

Sora couldn't help feeling unsettled as he headed back to his room. All that stuff going on with Neku sounded pretty serious, and Sora wasn't sure if there was anything he could do to help. He wanted to, but he didn't feel too comfortable targeting people who weren't his business. He felt conflicted enough about what he'd done with the Organization. On the other hand, Neku seemed like he really needed someone to give him a hand, and Sora wasn't sure if there was anyone else who could do that

[mitase]

It was too bad that eating dinner didn't do much to occupy his mind, because as much as Hanatarou tried not to think about how nervous he was, that just seemed to make it worse. The door opening provided a welcome distraction, and he glanced around to give his roommate a smile that looked almost relieved. "Oh, hello, Sora-san." Now they could talk about something that didn't involve--

Or not.

"Er." He turned back to look at his tray, poking at what was left of his fish for a moment before taking a bite. "Well, um, some people were interested in helping. And, and they're supposed to be...meeting here. Tonight." Another pause, then he glanced over at Sora with a worried expression. "You don't, er, mind, do you...?"

[scintillatingly]

The fish really was amazing. It had more spices and flavorings than Sora was used to, but that hardly made it bad. He tried to stop himself from shoving the food down his throat too quickly, since that was just bad manners, especially when he was carrying on a conversation with Hanatarou.

It sounded like the other boy had actually gotten started on putting his idea of the paramedic group together. Sora was slightly shocked, but mainly just happy to hear that. "That's great!" he exclaimed as he took another bite of the salmon, and then snuck in some mashed potatoes as well.

When Hanatarou asked if their room was open for a meeting, Sora quickly nodded. "Yeah, that's fine! I go out pretty much every night, so it's no issue for me." So long as no one took the stuff stored in his closet, Sora didn't mind. He was sure that his roommate wouldn't let that happen, though. Even if Hanatarou was soft-spoken, he would definitely say something in a situation like that.

[mitase]

Well, Sora seemed really enthusiastic about it, but then Sora usually seemed pretty enthusiastic about things. (Except that one day when he'd thought he was someone else, but that seemed to have been an unusual thing that hadn't repeated, thankfully.) It seemed like more people had thought it was a good idea than not, but the naysayers were always the most vocal in his mind. Could this really work? Well, maybe, if he wasn't the one running it.

Hanatarou valiantly tried to look pleased for his roommate's sake and nodded with relief. "I didn't think...I mean, you do seem to have, um, things to do. And hopefully we won't be here for too long, I just need to...to figure out who's going to show up. And where we're going."

Maybe he should figure that out. Check the maps and come up with some routes people could follow around the building. But...if he didn't know how many people were going to be there and how many teams and...everything, that would make planning difficult.

[scintillatingly]

It wasn't like Sora had assumed that Hanatarou would be spending the whole night in here, but even if that had been the case, it wouldn't have bothered him. His roommate could have meetings in here every night if he wanted! If anything, Sora was glad that he could be helpful even in some small way.

"How many people are interested so far?" he asked as he continued to work on his meal. If the boy was going so far as to hold a meeting, then he imagined that it was a good amount.

Hanatarou was really doing a good thing, as far as Sora was concerned. And now that Kairi was back here (and Riku too, for that matter), maybe he could ask the healer for a favor every once in a while. Not that he wanted to take advantage of his roommate, but Sora's priorities shifted a bit when it came to his friends.

[mitase]

"Oh, I have...um." Hanatarou stopped to think for a moment, then frowned and pulled his journal closer. While he listed people for Sora then he could write them down, or at least the people he knew were likely to show up. "There's...Kibitoshin-san, and Nataku-san, and, um, a couple people on the bulletin who said they might come."

Hopefully they actually would, too. He pushed his tray of half-eaten dinner aside and started to write down names as he thought. "Sakura-san said she might come, but she wasn't sure if her friends would need her help tonight. And, um, Euphemia-san said she wanted to help us out, too. But she's not a healer."

[scintillatingly]

So, just going off of the people who Hanatarou listed by name, there would be four people coming. (Including that Sakura girl. Not that Sora was too surprised.) On top of that, it sounded like there were a few other people who expressed interest, which meant things were off to a good start

[mitase]

Hanatarou finished writing down all the people he'd mentioned plus the ones from the bulletin and frowned at the page. Did he want teams of two or three? Three would be safer, certainly, but would they have enough people for it? The last thing he wanted was to be sending people directly off into danger, especially since almost all of his volunteers had been healers and not fighters. He was pretty sure, at least. That should probably be a question asked when everyone showed up

[scintillatingly]

It looked like Hanatarou was pretty busy with looking at... whatever it was that he was looking at. Sora couldn't really see from where he was sitting, but it was easy to assume it had to do with his paramedic idea. Sora had been the one to ask him about how it worked last night, so it would make sense if his roommate was trying to piece that all together now

[mitase]

"...harm?" Hanatarou blinked, puzzled, then moved to set his pen between the pages of his journal to mark the place before he closed it again. Sora had reminded him that night was coming and he needed to change before the lights went out. (Maybe someone coming tonight would know how he could get his flashlight working again? He'd have to remember that.)

Sora's comment, though, had confused him more than slightly. He'd known Demyx, yes, but from what Hanatarou had seen of him, well. "Why would Demyx-san, er, hurt anyone?" Maybe if they'd taken away his sitar...he'd seemed pretty protective of that.

[scintillatingly]

Whoops. Sora hadn't been watching his words well enough, had he? He paused for a moment on his way from the closet to his bed and glanced over at Hanatarou. It felt wrong to start badmouthing Demyx now that he'd disappeared and everything, but what was he going to say to explain himself? He could probably just brush it off (he didn't think his roommate was going to question him that much), but that didn't seem like the right thing to do, either.

"Well, we were on opposite sides back home," he explained awkwardly, reaching the bed and laying his outfit down on it. He hoped that Hanatarou would start getting dressed soon, so then they could both turn away from each other again. "He worked with an Organization that did some bad stuff, but I don't think he agreed with all of it." That was the impression he'd gotten from his conversations with the man in this place, at least.

[mitase]

That seemed...kind of strange. No, more than kind of. It would explain Sora's reaction when he'd found out that Hanatarou knew Demyx, but the idea of Demyx doing "bad stuff" was hard to grasp. He'd been friendly. And hadn't talked about anything but the band and music. But, well. Ichigo had thought that Hanatarou was one of the people doing bad things when he'd arrived in Soul Society, so it could be something like that. Right?

"Oh," he finally said, still looking puzzled but obviously not wanting to dig any deeper. The subject seemed a little uncomfortable to Sora, and he didn't want to make his roommate upset or anything. He just turned back to open up his own closet, eyeing the supplies lying on the floor for a moment before pulling out his own clothing. Maybe he should start organizing all that and see what he could spare for the other groups while it was still light in here. But first he had to change, so people didn't show up and find him half-dressed. "Er, are you, um, doing anything interesting tonight?"

[scintillatingly]

That wasn't much of a response to what he'd just said, but Sora got the feeling that Hanatarou didn't want to talk about it. That was probably for the best, since Sora didn't want to end up getting in a fight about someone who wasn't even here anymore. He did feel bad, though, since it seemed like his roommate and the Nobody had been friends. Still, there was a chance Demyx would show up again a few days from now. He'd seen it happen enough times by now that he never discounted the possibility.

It looked like Hanatarou had decided to change, which meant that Sora could get started too. He turned his back away, toward the dresser, and started to undress. They could still keep up their conversation while they did this, though! "Oh, I'm going out with my two friends! I'm not sure what we're doing yet. One of them said he wants to go somewhere dangerous, but... that's pretty much everywhere, you know?" Sora knew that Riku probably meant especially dangerous, but that might not be the best idea. Not with how things had gone with Kairi

[mitase]

Hanatarou changed quickly with the ease of long (very long) practice, grateful as always for the familiarity of real clothing instead of the stuff he had to wear during the day. The shihakushou and the weight of his bag made him feel like a proper member of the 4th Division and ready to deal with people who expected to meet with a healer. Not that he was terribly useful or anything, but...well, hopefully he could do something.

Even though he was finished he decided to stay where he was for the moment, just in case Sora hadn't finished yet -- his roommate always seemed kind of uncomfortable when they were changing, and he'd already made things awkward enough by asking about Demyx. Instead he just crouched in front of the closet, sorting through the supplies he'd gathered as he considered what Sora had said. They wanted to go somewhere dangerous? Deliberately? He...didn't really like that thought very much