Nightshift 49: 2nd Floor Staff Lounge

[guardiancomplex]

( From here.Touya stepped through the door and stopped. He'd been in quite a few closets in his time of various kinds, and this was not a closet. Not unless Landel started storing couches and paintings of puppies in his closets. Did he take a wrong turn

Comments

[time-slipping and coming in later]

[purpletaint]

[from here]

This room was larger than the previous, and the air about it was less stifling. He trod forward, bare feet on the thick carpeting, towards-- A misaligned strip of carpet caught on a shard of glass protruding from the underside of his foot, moving it backwards. The boy inhaled sharply, dropping into a crouch and carefully letting go of the shotgun. He pulled a foot into his lap, eying it. A bit... worse than he had thought. No matter.

(But was it? Wasn't it more and more delayed? Moments passed before regeneration started, moments and minutes and time. And how, then, would it be this time? How would--)

An expression of fear had settled on to Albedo's face without his knowing. The boy made no move, frozen where he was.

[falseblack]

Another enclosed space, another dead end in appearance. At this rate, they would likely run around in circles, from room to room to room, until morning came or they stopped. Nigredo couldn't guess at which would come first. He couldn't even predict the amount of time that had passed, though his body felt as though it was running on its last limits for the day.

Still, he stepped back to continue their wanderings, to direct Albedo back to the door, when the variant noticed his brother sit awkwardly on the floor. Here, he realized a mistake the younger had forgotten. Albedo had walked on glass. Of course, he would be sitting.

Nigredo remained stationary but opted to speak, voice rising no more than subdued. "Are you all right?" he asked. "We can stop here." For a while, that is.

[purpletaint]

His brother's voice came as a shot in the dark, and Albedo started violently. He looked over his shoulder, eyes wide, before registering the who and where. Nigredo. Yes. If nothing else, he had to--

...Hm? And what was this? What an odd development! Wanting to move forward, only to make sure that the other was fine. His sibling was fragile, and when he acted what he was, this inclination grew. How opposite. The same reasoning had prompted violence before, saw Nigredo as prey to tear into and maim. And now, what? Something to protect? It seemed too laughable to be true. Should he search for a different reason, or--

Albedo swallowed once, then stared down again, reaching to pluck out a larger shard. Blood welled, and he watched it as it spilled over. "I'll be fine." Lie. "Sit down, then. We'll rest for a moment."

[falseblack]

He had proclaimed to not argue the point, and thus, Nigredo said nothing to the obvious lie nor the command thereafter. There was no reason for it. The boy could not bring up such a sour element a second time. After a long minute, the boy stepped forward and around his brother. Rather than sitting down, however, he began the routine visual sweep of the area. Nothing struck out as unique to the variant, though he noted with no particular feeling that the place reminded him of the Sun Room in terms of furnishings.

Carefully, Nigredo set down the bottle to a nearby table. With no other reason than to wait, he began to walk around the room's perimeter, green eyes fixed on details the child might have missed in his first glance. Logic recognized this as a way for him to distract himself from Albedo's foot but also understood to act otherwise would lead to unpleasantness.

It didn't matter that they'd been close only moments before. That was then, and this was now.

[purpletaint]

And here again, came silence. The muscles in his hand tensed, hovered over the glass shards. Would this continue? Brief affection to be misplaced by their absence? Nigredo had been more than... nice... tonight, but in the pauses between, Albedo's heart hurt. What was he looking for here? What was it that he desired so fiercely? (Something no longer there.)

Beneath his fingers, the telltale glow had started, one wound closing as the other seeped blood. He swallowed, then moved to work the rest out, making a pile of glass next to him. In the minutes that passed, the regeneration would start, slower, and more tolling, than he would have preferred. His head throbbed, and the room tilted on its axis, causing him to put a hand to his eyes. Logic would tell one to eat, give the body back what it had just used, but even with the granola bars in his pocket, Albedo didn't think of it. He merely sat there, then after a minute, started to slowly get to his feet.

[falseblack]

Closer inspection brought about a few oddities in their surroundings, strange knickknacks of the distant past now present. Nigredo only watched them, memorized their features, and moved on to another. He did not want to deal with them more than necessary; the child was only waiting, after all. For what couldn't be said.

Albedo shifted as though to rise, and the younger turned back immediately. Unlike moments before, he appeared unmoved, stoic. As though a sibling pulling glass out of his feet was normal. The thought slid through his mind in discomfort, but what else could Nigredo say? This could not be helped.

"You should be the one sitting down," he stated.

[purpletaint]

A pause gave one to think what they shouldn't. A brother's voice got a grin in return, amused but not cruel. The boy straightened, shifting his weight from one side to the other. "Should you be telling me that?" he wondered. "You should be resting more, if you're not feeling well."

A reminder of that had the child considering the thought from the past two rooms. Something not to eat, then. "I'll sit if you drink something, hm?" Again, there was the question, the strange concern rising and the questions with it. But he passed over it, leaving nothing to thought this time.

[falseblack]

The grin was ignored. "Maybe so," replied Nigredo, who crossed his good arm over to grasp at the broken, "but I can say the same for you. Besides--" He glanced away, his voice carrying throughout the room. "--throwing up helped." Not really, but the child could pretend.

Until Albedo mentioned drinking, that is. This brought honest confusion to the surface, and instantly, Nigredo glanced at the bottle resting on the table. "I don't think I should drink that again." He'd heard that had risks. And now that the child considered it, the fog from two rooms over had grown exponentially. He was having difficulty focusing on the objects in front of him.

[purpletaint]

The response came habitual. "I'm--" Fine, he had meant to say. I'm fine. But the denial of that rose quick as an absence of a heartbeat, of a throbbing of the soles of his feet. Albedo's gaze dropped, staring at the carpeting. "...not fine," he whispered to himself.

But hadn't that been known, in and of itself? He had always been the one who--

Heat moved behind his eyes and he didn't know if it was from anger or sorrow. He didn't know if they had become the same in truth. The boy bit his lip distractedly, raising his voice slightly. "Not that. Something else." His mind recognized the fridge for what it was before self caught up. "There might be water in there," he added, pointing.

[falseblack]

And there lay the truth of it all. Nigredo watched him for a long minute, bright green fixed on the form across the way. He opted to drop the first subject--nothing could be addressed with that--and moved to consider the second. Literally. With lagging steps, the child walked to the object that was pointed out, considered its make, and held out a hand to open its door.

The contents were nothing particularly eye-catching, though the names came off as alien. None of the transparent bottles contained water, and the cans... Nigredo couldn't tell what they consisted of. After reading a few of the labels, he chose a tall, black-colored can with green lettering.

"Well?" he began as he returned to his brother. "I'm keeping my end. How about you?"

[purpletaint]

There was a beat, brief as it was heavy. Albedo put out his hands, palm up, in a 'what can I do' gesture, and wandered to one of the couches plopping down. His gaze stayed on his brother, the intention obvious. If one sat, the other should, too. However, it remained.

The boy drummed his fingers once on the material of the couch. "Sitting is counter-productive to what you wanted, isn't it?"

[falseblack]

Nigredo more than understood the intent and promptly sighed in resignation. How could he not? It seemed strange enough to stand while the other sat. Plus, opening a can would have its difficulties when one hand was practically useless. He closed the remaining distance and climbed in on his brother's left. The can went between the child's thighs for stability reasons, before he worked at its opening.

He talked as he did so, figuring a filled space was better than an empty silence. "What is needed is usually counter-productive to what I want." There was a sharp snap, indicating success. "But I don't mind."

[purpletaint]

Here, again, was relief as a sibling moved closer. Moreso as Nigredo listened to him, opening the unknown drink and speaking. His words mirrored those said on the bulletin the day before, and again, Albedo was prompted to react without knowing why. The boy pulled a knee up, curling an arm around it before leaning slightly on his brother. "I mind," he gave softly.

And what, now? What should he say--do--to move from here? He had given himself away as he hadn't the first few times, and now he didn't... particularly mind. There was nothing to be lost in this place that hadn't already been lost. He had said as much to his roommate. All that Albedo had left was next to him. His head tilted, resting slightly on Nigredo's shoulder. "I don't know why," he admitted quietly, half lie and half truth. "But I don't want to see you sad."

[falseblack]

What could he say to that? Albedo claiming something so significant as wanting a sibling's happiness required a form of disbelief. It wasn't to say Nigredo thought he was lying; it just sounded ridiculous. The child stared down at the can for a long moment, words failing to produce, pressure at his right giving way to an odd sensation.

Eventually, he lifted the can to his lips and took a tentative sip. An acidic sweetness filled the boy's mouth, a fact Nigredo expressed with a blank face. "This tastes weird," he stated.

[purpletaint]

Here was another kind of relief, a silence instead of words (and when had that become something wanted?). Perhaps only because this touched too close to a chance of rejection, perhaps simply because he had said what had been shifting within his mind, perhaps that was why he could take the subject shifting as something impossible before.

He sighed, cause unknown, and glanced to the can in question. A moment, and he reached over to snag the drink to try for himself. Agreement came in the form of an expression similar to the one he had made earlier in the night; he made a face and handed it back. "Really weird," he answered in kind.

[falseblack]

Despite the statement and the subsequent agreement, Nigredo took the drink back and continued his slow sips, each portion growing subsequently larger than the last. When he spoke again, half of the can was gone. It was an accomplishment for someone who typically disliked sweet things.

"Albedo," he started, sounding slightly disoriented, "if we're still here tomorrow, do you want my things? I don't care what you do with them." It would keep a section of last night from occurring a second time.