Night 64: West Wing, South Hall 1-A

[dualistic]

[From here.]

Still no one. Harvey imagined that before long these areas were going to be flooded with sick people who were going to follow that clue, so he was glad that he'd beaten them to the punch. It wasn't that he thought it was contagious anymore -- by this point, they would have known -- but he didn't need to be surrounded by a bunch of miserable, sniffling people, either.

Relieved that he'd dodged that bullet, at least so far, Harvey reached the end of the hall and took a right toward their regular meeting spot.

[To here.]

Comments

[nobleman]

[From here.]

Still no Anise here as far as Guy could tell, so she was probably waiting closer to the main hall. He wasn't going to jump to any conclusions about her whereabouts until they got there. She was already sick, so he doubted the institute wanted anything else with her. Not that he could assume anything.

It probably wouldn't be long before they reached her, though, which meant that if Guy wanted to tell Claude about Okita, it had to be now. He slowed his pace slightly and glanced over his shoulder at his friend.

"There's something else I need to tell you," he admitted. "Today at dinner, instead of Okita, someone else showed up." Guy moved his head back around so that he was looking straight forward again, not sure he was ready to observe Claude's expression in response to that. "I asked the nurse, and she said he's been released."

He tried to keep his tone even as he delivered the information, but Guy knew he couldn't completely fool Claude. His friend had to know how much this was affecting him.

[earthling]

He could tell from Guy's body language, and from the way he slowed slowed down, that there was something on his mind. Of course, that wasn't so surprising, considering the sickness going around, and Claude had been willing to let it go. But when his friend specifically mentioned something else, he knew it was serious.

At first, he'd wondered if maybe Luke had been released again, and so he braced for the worst.

The last thing he expected was to learn that Okita was gone.

Claude's pace faltered, and he was unable to hide his pained expression. "Okita?" he echoed in disbelief. "No way..."

The news felt like a punch in the gut. He hadn't been as close to him as Guy, but he would never forget the kindness Okita showed to him in light of the tragedy in the basement, and his genuine interest in Guy's well-being. The thought of losing him so unexpectedly made his heart hurt, not only for Okita, but also for Guy, who was undoubtedly taking the man's absence even harder.

"Hey..." Forcing himself to take a few larger strides, he reached out to place a gloved hand on Guy's shoulder.

[nobleman]

It was the sort of thing that would have come as a surprise to anyone, but Guy realized that it had been wrong of him to see anything as a constant here. Anyone could be taken and have their mind rearranged at any time. It made it hard to make friends and keep them, but at the same time he couldn't think of going through any of this alone.

What if Claude disappeared next? Or Anise? Of course, it was also possible that he would be the next one on the chopping block, but that was almost harder to fathom. Still, if it had happened to Okita, it could happen to any of them.

When Claude's hand clapped down on his shoulder, Guy glanced at it before meeting his friend's gaze with a strained smile. "It's not really the sort of thing you can prepare for, I guess." That hardly encapsulated all of his feelings about what had happened, but he couldn't dwell now.

"Anyway, we'd better keep moving or Anise is going to worry." Though for the moment, he didn't move away from Claude's grip.

[earthling]

There was a lot Claude wanted to say, but he realized that this wasn't the time or place to say it. Moving through the halls at night made having any sort of deep or meaningful conversation impossible. That was probably just as well, though. They had things they needed to do, after all, and they didn't want to keep Anise waiting.

Still, he didn't move immediately, instead giving Guy's shoulder a squeeze as he met his eyes. If you ever need to talk about it, I'm here, was the unspoken message. And though he felt like Guy could use a hug, it sounded like his friend was ready to focus his efforts on something more productive, so Claude was willing to leave it at that for now.

"You're right," he said once he broke eye contact. With that, he finally let go of the other man's shoulder and resumed his earlier pace. "Let's go."

((To here.))