Day 44: Sun Room (4th Shift)

[mizuhomaiden]

As soon as she had the chance, Sheena ninja'd herself out of the cafeteria and away from the conversation she'd been semi-forced to have. She probably could have just clammed up and told the boys to go away, but she'd kind of owed at least Endrance some kind of explanation. It wasn't everyday the embodiment of darkness pops up and delivers a

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[tostepforward]

There'd been no sign of Robin in the cafeteria, though it was still possible that Ayumu had missed him somehow. It seemed odd, though - he'd been with her in the Sun Room before lunch, so he shouldn't have been that far behind her. But then, that was expecting things in this place to proceed upon logical lines, and that was something she shouldn't really be doing. Time in the Institute seemed to follow its own rules, which made her work incredibly difficult.

Being back in Kyoto again would be a relief for a number of reasons, but among them would definitely be the fact that the world would follow the rules she had lived with for the first twenty years of her life.

Another reason would be the lack of busybody nurses trying to lead her from place to place. This time they apparently wanted her to go into "Arts and Crafts" and she...well, wasn't terribly interested. Her target was in this room, to begin with, and she needed to sit and think and piece together what she'd already gathered. Fortunately she'd been well-behaved enough that

[host_club_honey]

[from showers]

Honey padded into the Sun Room without much of his usual cheer. There was hardly anyone he knew here too. But after a moment of looking, he did manage to spot Sen on one of the couches. He didn't waste time and toddled over to her, hugging her lap, heedless of the pen and paper, and burying his head in one of her legs, holding back sniffles all the while.

"Sen-neeeee," he wailed.

[tostepforward]

It wasn't as though Ayumu hadn't noticed Honey's approach; quite the opposite, in fact, since she was watching her surroundings and had made note of the familiar face once he'd entered the room. She simply hadn't expected...well, that.

For half a second even she was startled, with an inward twinge as memory supplied the image of another young man, hair red and spiky rather than blond and calling "Ayu-nee!" Almost automatically she dropped the pen and stroked his hair gently before resting her hand on his head. "Honey-kun?" she asked, sounding concerned. "Whatever is the matter?"

She couldn't help but notice that the unexpected jostling had allowed the pictures concealed in the pages of her journal to shift, leaving the corner of one just visible. Hopefully Honey wouldn't think to look, especially not if he was worried about other things. And she'd pretend not to notice, lest she called attention to it.

[host_club_honey]

After that awful lunch, having such a pretty girl worrying over him was like a salve on his emotional wounds. He wiped away tears on Usa-chan and Sen's pant-leg, but they came back quickly. He sniffled a few more times before he looked up.

"The nurses were mean and... and they made me sit with someone even meaner at Lunch today," he pouted, hugging his rabbit tightly in front of him. Really, he was disappointed in himself too. If it were any other time and place he would've been confident about defending his friends. But here, where things were just so different, even the things he'd once been able to count on had been shaken. "We got in a fight."

[notachick]

[Waiting for JunpeiSensei. He hadn't been called that since arriving here. Even when he was teaching Heiji and Shinichi, they never called him that. Since he knew them less as his students and more as his friends and allies, he preferred it that way, but Okita couldn't deny that he missed hearing someone call him 'teacher.' Up until the move to Kyoto, that had been his job, after all. He, with Kondo and the others, had spent his childhood teaching at the Shieikan, moving through the countryside to collect more students. While they weren't particularly famous or rich, they were well known in their area - and following their move to Kyoto, the Shieikan had gained prestige in leaps and bounds

[whos_da_man]

[from here]

Once back in the Sun Room, hair wet from his shower, Junpei stretched and took a look around at the people about. He wondered what Okita looked like. Since he was, like, the most hax swordsman to ever set walk Japan, he had ot be this badass looking guy.

The teen stopped and tilted his head in thought. Well, back then all samurai-type guys had long hair, so there was that. He probably had the cool mustache thing that some people in those old pictures had. Yeah, badass.

How old had he been when he died? Shit. Junpei knew he shouldn't have slept through half his History classes.

[notachick]

The kitten had taken to gnawing on one on his fingers probably because it smelled the hamburger from last shift and, while Okita wanted to keep a sharp eye out for his student, it was awfully distracting. In the slightly painful way. Okay, in the really painful way now. Okita pulled his hand away and the furball chased after it, batting at his nails before rather clumsily falling off Okita's lap face first into the couch. Laughing, he reached over to pick it up again and said, "Well, that decides it. You're definitely like hi

[whos_da_man]

Junpei had noticed someone approaching, but a quick glance told him it was some dark-haired chick and not the uberhax swordsman he was looking for. For once, he decided that he had more important things to do than flirt with some random chick. He still hadn't found anyone who matched his flawed mental image of Okita when the cries of a kitten caught his attention. And then someone spoke to him.

"Uh... yeah," he replied. It was that chick, though something seemed... off. He just wasn't sure what it was. "Do you need something? Cause, I'm kinda looking for someone and I don't wanna miss him." Not that Junpei knew what Okita really looked like.

[mukuchi]

Somehow, Mori had a feeling that something was wrong. And not in the "man, I forgot to turn off the ceiling fan" way, but the "crap, I just pushed the red button" sort of way. Something was off - terribly off and Mori couldn't put his finger on it. He'd been kept at the other side of the cafeteria from Mitsukuni during lunch, but he'd also not seen Tamaki or the Twins during the meal. Usually the Twins were right in the midst of things, but they'd been...quiet lately. All day, in fact.

And since their showers were different, Mori hadn't been able to check on them. Asking after the boys did nothing since his nurse just patted him on the head and said not to worry himself. But how could he not? Something was wrong and he couldn't--

Stepping into the Sun Room, Mori caught sight of Mitsukuni as he went diving toward a young woman, wailing. Crying. Mitsukuni was crying. And Mori hadn't known what was upsetting him and stopped it. Why was he failing so much at what had been so easy before? Why couldn't he protect

[runner_up_robot]

[from here]

After he had been thoroughly cleaned by the nurse and orderlies, Forte's arm and hand were dressed and bandaged again, and he was dried off and dressed again. His hair would still take a while to completely dry, but the whole process seemed to be very thorough, but surprisingly quick. For Forte, no amount of time could be short enough.

His arm was covered again, dry and secure against his chest, where he couldn't bang it up or stretch the healing skin. But he'd seen it, the disgusting mess of inflamed skin, and he knew it was still there, hidden under the gauze, along with the rest of his wounds - all over his body. It was easier to ignore, now that it was tucked away and vaguely sore, not exposed and stinging, but his bravado about the injuries was completely deflated. Were humans ever supposed to look like that? Well, obviously not, but was it getting better or worse? Was that how it healed or had something gone wrong? Normally, he wouldn't trust the nurses for the time of day, but she was very calm about it, and he

[no_barbarian]

Teisel had made it clear to his nurse in no uncertain terms that, no, art therapy was not what he needed to brighten his day. Wisely, she left him to his own devices. Spotting Forte (looking slightly soggy and worse for wear), he made a beeline for him. Forte was one of the least obnoxious people here, and they hadn't caught up much since his reappearance.

"What's up, kid?" Boy, he sure looked pale. "Are you okay? You look like crap."

[runner_up_robot]

Forte looked up at Teisel, then back down at the sling on his chest, still shaken. "I saw what's under these bandages. It... metal doesn't do that." Had it looked like that when he was attacked? It was hazy, all he remembered was blood everywhere and pain.

[no_barbarian]

"Ah." A bad injury could be traumatic enough even when you were expecting blood and gore. It was still hard for Teisel to really wrap him mind around the robot thing. "Yeah, I'll bet it was none too pretty. It'll heal." He wasn't any good at being sensitive, or comforting, but in this case it was probably better not to make a big production out of it...

[beloved_less]

Soubi had barely made it out the cafeteria when he was pulled away and whisked to a far corner of the sun room. He knew Sheena wanted to see him, but she hadn't seemed this desperate. Of course, once they stopped...she just stared.

Soubi had been in situations like this before, but it...he was almost certain Sheena wasn't about to confess feelings for him. If she was? Well, he could do with the laugh.

He frowned and flicked her hands away from the bell. "Somebody afraid of losing track of you?" he asked. He'd have liked to have referred to her as a cow, but she looked more like a kitten so he decided to leave it at that. For now.

"Something's different about you," he said, looking at her with an artists eye. Sure he picked up details, but he generally ignored things that weren't Ritsuka, so it was hard to work out what it was.

[mizuhomaiden]

"Keeping track - what?" Oh, the bell. "No. This was... Corrine's. He was my first summon and he died protecting me back home. But... he came to see me yesterday. This damn ranch... I know it was him because I could feel the pact when he was here. Not now, but..."

She stopped when Soubi commented on her looking different. "Uh, something's different? Like what?"

[beloved_less]

"A visitor?"

Soubi removed his hand trying not to obviously clench it. He didn't want to hear ANY evidence that those people were real. Would he have felt a connection with Seimei? He'd been too messed up when Ritsu came, proof being that he hadn't punched the miserable old idiot.

"I don't know," he sighed, turning away and sitting on the nearest seat. "You're carrying yourself differently, maybe? Or you've had a hair cut?"

[mizuhomaiden]

"Yeah. I decided to hide in my room last night," Sheena replied. Without fail, a bit of color sprung to her cheeks at the thought of the previous night.

"My hair?" Oh. The ribbon. "You mean this?" She fingered the end of the red ribbon in her hair. She then fussed with it; it just felt so weird.