Day 19 - Male Showers

[class_one]

It was in complete silence that Zack was moved from the cafeteria to the showers. Usually one would have expected him to be chatting with the nurse despite the fact that she happened to think he was a certain Parker Johnson, but... No, not today

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[_sixth]

Oh, no. No, no, no. Zexion was all for showering and excessive good personal hygiene, but this place was really pushing his buttons. Communal showers? That was something Number VI did not approve of.

Communal or not, a shower did seem very appealing at the present point in time. What with all the running around at night and the overload of stress, his skin was beginning to take on that disgusting creepy-crawly feeling. A good scrub would not only make him feel physically better, but possibly calm him down enough to think more clearly.

Nevertheless, Zexion still put up a struggle when it came time to disrobe. Of course, he was somehow polite about all of it, all while trying to slyly worm his way out of the whole affair. He even went so far as attempting to 'reschedule' a private shower, but, alas. Even he had to face failure now and then.

After grudgingly admitting temporary defeat, the Nobody swiftly undressed, only to replace his drab uniform with a tightly-wrapped towel. Eyes forward, the young man crept out into the showering

[brilliant_azel]

Azel was pretty blasé about the whole affair. He just didn't want to run into Darman here, while he was vulnerable. But he'd long accepted that it was better just to choose one's battles instead of arguing over every little thing

[clone_boy]

Azel was right to be afraid - the room wasn't as crowded as the cafeteria and Darman had headed into the showers with the single-minded intent of finding him, thoughts of actually showering shoved to the side

[brilliant_azel]

"Hey!-- ow -- stop it." A slight hint of anger as he was dragged off unceremoniously, but it was buried under layers of fearful anticipation. "Let go--" He couldn't believe that no one seemed to notice or care, yet.

When they stopped, Azel looked up sharply to meet the clone's eyes. "What, are you going to torture me, here, now, if I don't tell you everything?" Boldly said, but with a faint tremble in his voice.

He tugged at the grip on his arm, sighing softly. "Let go of me. I'm not some enemy you can just... do as you like with. I'm your friend. Okay? You want to hurt me, fine... but remember that, at least."

[_sixth]

Zexion was quite content to occupy himself with needless water adjustments, but evidently he was destined to never have a moment to himself here. Oddly enough, a rather.. effeminate young man, for some reason, decided to claim the space right beside him. It was a bold move, in the Nobody's opinion.

As harmless as the other seemed, Zexion couldn't help but feel wary, his hand tightening on the towel still wrapped around his waist. He managed to respond to the stranger's smile with a slight nod, however, for the sake of politeness.

Seemed as though he wouldn't have to worry about his new neighbor for long-- he watched as the boy was suddenly dragged away, his interest piquing as he took a moment to observe the two from a distance.

[clone_boy]

Darman ignored the sputtered protests behind him. It was only when the question of torture was brought up that he finally spared a glance over his shoulder, meeting Azel's eyes with a steady stare of his own.

"I could torture you if I felt it would get the answers I wanted," Darman said bluntly. "And I'm not letting go of you, so stop asking."

Darman cornered Azel, shoving him up against the wall and stopping just short of slamming him into the tiles. Despite it, he showed no open anger, voice level, black eyes calculating, as if he was just calculating the charge needed for an explosive entry than threatening a kid who thought he could be friends with a clone.

"I can do with you as I like, because as I see it, you made an attempt on my life and I want to know why," Darman said. "And I will know why. So you better start talking and talking now before I start hurting you

[brilliant_azel]

Azel lifted his head and looked into Darman's eyes. He wasn't going to cry or beg or even call out for help.

"... what do you want to hear? That they sedated me, dragged me off to a room somewhere? That I fought them, that they hurt me, strapped me down to a table? Because that's what happened."

He didn't flinch away from the locked gaze, holding it even if the other didn't. "After that, they shoved so many drugs into my body that I lost count. You want to see the needle marks? There are about a dozen. Look. Look, if you don't believe me."

"After that, I passed out. When I woke up... the night shift was already over and I had these memories... things that I had done, although it seemed like a dream... seemed too unreal. But the bruises... told me differently." Not to mention the rope burns from where he'd struggled against his bonds.

"What else can I tell you? It wasn't me. Whatever hurt you... it wasn't me. Because I wouldn't do that. You're my friend."

[clone_boy]

Darman only stared at him intently, rock steady even as he listened through Azel's disjointed explanation.

"Tell me everything in full details. I want to see where they put these needles, when they sedated you, what you saw of these people administering the drugs and exactly what it felt when you were roaming those halls," Darman said, voice quiet. "And I don't know about friends, but comrades - ner vode - don't go around stabbing people, and then apologizing after the fact

[brilliant_azel]

Azel took a deep breath and then put his free hand over Darman's where the other was holding onto his arm. "I will tell you what I remember. Give me time to gather my thoughts, at least. That's all I ask. Let me finish my shower and we can find somewhere better to talk."

The swordsman looked up at the clone, trying to keep his voice level and reasonable. Frankly, he was afraid that Darman was going to start hitting him sometime very soon, despite the fact that he'd told the truth with every single word he'd said so far.

"Whether you think of me in the same way or not doesn't matter. I'm your friend." He repeated it again, because it needed to be said. "I've already told you this, of course, but you don't seem to be listening. I've decided that for myself and I'll help you if you are in trouble, even if you won't do the same for me."

"Now. Let's finish our showers. We can talk at lunch. It'll be easier that way and we'll have a lesser chance of gaining unwanted attention. Okay?"

[clone_boy]

Darman knew the correct answer was no, that's not how we do it, followed by a healthy cuff upside Azel's head and getting down to the real nitty gritty details of a proper interrogation, but he couldn't seem to do it. Well, he could, but it was harder than it should've been. There was that, and the rational, calculating part of him noted that he couldn't very well get to it without risking being noticed

[brilliant_azel]

There was nothing more that could be said -- but Azel found that even the hot water he let fall over his body when he resumed his place at the shower head didn't warm him. He felt chilled and wary -- would Darman believe him, when the whole story came out? Or would he continue to demand more and more details?

At least it had gone better than he thought. The clone had been unarmed and had done little more than give him a couple of fresh bruises to think about. It didn't seem like the man was out for pure revenge -- at least not until he got the answers he needed.

Somewhere, Azel knew it wasn't his fault. He hadn't been in control of his body -- however, that didn't stop him from feeling guilty. But he gave himself credit for holding it together, even when he wanted to utterly fall to pieces. Any tears that he did shed were borne away by the water, a fact for which he was glad.

He finished and dried off, ushered by his nurse to get a fresh change of clothes... which in fact, turned out to be quite odd, indeed...