Nightshift 23: M31-M40 Hallway

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Dinner had been an altogether depressing affair - Tamaki's problems only seemed to underline what Seimei had said earlier about not relying on other people here. Ritsuka had hoped that perhaps he had been wrong, but if Adel was so easily turned against someone like Tamaki, then who could turn on Ritsuka? Or Seimei for that matter

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Ritsuka hadn't noticed that someone was in front of him until he ran right into them - or rather, her. The shock knocked the wind out of him as well, luckily cutting off his cries for help. When had his throat become so hoarse? The hands on his shoulders didn't calm him any and he looked up at her, eyes wide. He hated being so pathetic, he hated it with everything he had, but he was right now. He had nowhere else to turn.

"Seimei! They took him!" He couldn't believe it, but the fear of losing his brother - of finding a burnt corpse in his place - had him shaking. "I... I can't find him. I went to his room and he was gone."

The young boy reached forward and gripped the girl's shirt front in both hands. "Please - do you know where they take people at night?! I can't let them hurt him!"

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Upstairs. That's all he needed to know. Ritsuka almost took off when he gained that tidbit of knowledge, but Elena's hands on his shoulders stopped him. She was right, he needed to calm down, but it was so hard! The thought of Seimei being taken away by the doctors despite Ritsuka's promise to keep them together and safe... It hurt. His small hands slackened their death grip on Elena's shirt as he fought the urge to cry. Seimei had no friends here, he'd said as much himself, so who would help him

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Now that he was starting to settle down and his brain wasn't racing to find an anchor amid the chaos, Ritsuka was finally able to pick up on Elena's tone. Was she treating him like he was four or something? Sure he had acted a little irrational, but the hug? The hand-holding? What the hell. He picked up his flashlight before they started off and resisted the urge to rip his hand from hers. He walked with Seimei that way, and recently with Soubi that way, but Elena was still a stranger and this... Hand-holding was rather intimate to him

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Elena's reaction surprised him a bit - her willingness to leave her friends for someone she barely knew. It didn't seem like the normal sort of reaction. As they walked, Ritsuka glanced up at her. Something about her was familiar... but he was certain they hadn't met before. The thought that he'd forgotten something already was bugging him, but that's what he got for not having his camera. It'd be easier if this stupid place had just let him keep it

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Ritsuka only nodded, not really wanting to get into the traumas of the past. He didn't need or want to explain how his brother was murdered and then miraculously rose from the dead or faked his own death. He still wasn't 100% clear on what had happened anyway