Dayshift 49: Bill's Hardware

[yin_yang_fox]

An effort at movement only shuffled the Digimon around, leaving one place to end in another. A hardware store wasn't the worst she could think of, but it still rankled. The humans outside, nurses and otherwise, that were almost panicking at the natural movement of rain was irritating, more fierce a sensation than she would have believed

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[notthistrain]

Cloud, on the other hand, held no such feelings toward the townspeople. They might be innocent, sure. They might know nothing about anything that went on back at the Institute. But something fishy was definitely up if they'd all turned into the undead the week before. Not only that, but they certainly hadn't treated any of them with anything resembling kindness since they'd arrived. Perhaps if at least one of them had graced himself or his friends with a smile he might have felt a little bad for the theft, but that wasn't the case.

The fact that he was also reminded far too much of Nibelhiem didn't make matters any better. What was that about a fire? No, we've always lived here, you must be mistaken. What was that about zombies? No, we haven't seen anything but hooligans.

And on that note, it looked like the blame for any damage was being placed on them, as if it wasn't enough that those who'd been there the previous week had to fight for their lives. Now they had to receive dirty looks just for trying to survive. No, Cloud didn't feel bad for taking just a small screwdriver after all that. It probably didn't cost more than a couple of gil, or the equivalent of. Not exactly grand larceny.

He noticed Claude didn't look all that cheerful all of a sudden, and wondered if the other blond had at least seen what he'd done. If he had, was he really that bothered by it? Cloud couldn't even find it in himself to feel guilty. "What about you?" he asked just to break the silence. "Do you have any friends here?"

[full_score]

"Hm?" Claude shoved his hands into his pockets and glanced back over toward Cloud when he heard him speak. It was difficult to act natural with the sorts of things that were running through his head. He knew he couldn't exactly blame Cloud for what he'd done, but Claude still wished he hadn't seen it. Regardless, he forced himself to push the matter aside for now. Instead of dwelling on what just happened, he offered what he hoped was a convincing smile. "Oh, sure. Technically, we're from different planets, but I was on their world before I wound up here with them."

He wondered what it was about Expel that had gained Landel's attention. Did he know about everything that had happened with the Ten Wise Men? Claude couldn't imagine why else he would have bothered capturing any of them. But, then, if that was the case...what else did he know? And did he capture other people for similar reasons?

Claude thought about giving the names of his friends in case Cloud had run into any of them today, but part of him decided to hold off for now. They had just met, and while Cloud hadn't done anything to suggest he was an ill-meaning person, Claude wasn't inclined to share that kind of information with him at that particular moment. It wasn't his usual style, but after some of the things he'd been through lately, he didn't think his feelings were unjustified, either.

"It makes you wonder how Landel manages to take people from so many worlds," he said instead. "It can't be easy, and yet it seems like we get new folks almost everyday."

[notthistrain]

"Different planets?" Cloud blinked. That was interesting. If Cid found out that there were people in other worlds who'd managed to go between planets he'd probably get crazy jealous. Then again, it might just be the traveling part that he really wanted. Another planet was just another mass of land, after all - another place to ground him when he belonged in the sky.

When Cloud thought of beings from other planets, the first thing to come to mind was Jenova, which kind of took some of the intrigue away. But if they were friends, then the circumstances couldn't be nearly the same, and he did want to know more.

"Were you the alien visitor, then, or were they? Do you look much like each other?" Everyone was the same species here, that much was clear, but he knew there would be others like Red XIII who'd been changed from their original form in order to better fit in. It was strange just thinking about it. Hell, maybe Claude didn't even look like that where he came from.