damned_institute | Nightshift 23: Second Floor, hallway containing disciplinary therapy rooms and nurse station

[From here!]

The lock to the smaller hallway's door had burst. The door had slammed open. And Ashton had crept in, signaling to Xigbar and Naminé behind him with the end of a long metal ladle, gripping the other one tightly, ready to attack with his makeshift weapons if need be.

He didn't see anything yet, but that didn't mean that something wasn't lying in wait just behind the corner. It was dark, after all, and he'd just made enough noise to probably stir whatever was in here waiting for them. Anticipation crawled up his spine.. it'd only been two days since he'd been in a real, proper, honest-to-Tria fight, but was he ever ready for it.

He was ready to save his roommate from his terrible fate.

He was ready to be a hero again - not for the fate of the entire universe, but for one man. Granted, there were other people who had been taken tonight for the Institute's plans, and Ashton would help save them if he could.. but he had one priority right now. He'd save the eighth member of this elusive (yet ever-present) Organization, and he'd get him safely back to their room.

Now where the heck were they keeping the man?

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He glanced over Hakkai's shoulder at the monk, managing to gesture behind himself to the door. "Woke up in there with some psychotic guy deciding to play doctor." Not to mention murderer. That poor bitch.

He looked back up at Hakkai, regretting ever saying anything now. Did he really have to have that expression? It wasn't anything he was used to seeing. Cold rage would have been more comforting at the moment, not to mention familiar. He shook his head, wincing as it started to throb, pain shooting through his covered eye. He lowered his voice to speak to Hakkai. Sanzo didn't know, didn't need to hear whereas he was fairly sure that Hakkai had already pieced things together. "It's all mixed up in my head. Whatever that guy did, I can remember stuff I shouldn't know. So if I say something I shouldn't, then I'm sorry. Still trying to figure out what's my own memories and what're... that guy's."

So his suspicions were right. This was the block where he'd been taken. Too bad that son of a bitch was probably gone: there wasn't anyway he'd have let Kenren go if he was nearby. The question now was what had Kenren done to prompt this.

Sanzo drew close, enough to see that Kenren's hair had gone red from blood and a sticky red residue he didn't recognize. The marks on his face - even now, it was hard to keep referring to him as Kenren and not Gojyo - were in the exact same place as the kappa's. But these ones were fresh.

The eyepatch was new.

"You aren't worth this much trouble," the monk grumbled, but offered a shoulder for him to lean on.

"If you need any help sorting them out, let me know. I would... like to help." There, that was probably as close to admitting he cared about Kenren as Hakkai was likely to get without an act of God. Or gods, as the case may be. Especially when Kenren looked like this, almost as vulnerable as Gojyo at his worst.

Hakkai shook his head, reminding himself that they were separate people, even if they did share a soul somewhere along the line. Just as he obviously wasn't this Tenpou Kenren often mentioned. "In any case, if you have some of his memories, you'd know we were close. I doubt there is much of anything that you could say that hasn't already been said at least once. 'We hurt the ones we love,' isn't that the saying?"

And then Sanzo was there, actually doing as Hakkai asked, which was both pleasing and surprising. Hakkai matched Sanzo on the other side, putting his bad arm toward Kenren. There was nothing wrong with his shoulder, and he couldn't use his knife if Kenren was blocking his good arm. He laughed. "According to you, nothing is worth trouble, Sanzo, and yet you still manage to consistently find it. Shall we go?"

He couldn't help but smile gratefully at that, despite the way it made the cuts on his cheek pull uncomfortably. "Thanks," he said quietly. It meant a lot that Hakkai would offer that. He nodded in reply. "Yeah, I have some idea. You and he are as close as me an Tenpou are... were..." He shrugged. "Maybe closer." It was weird now, like he was out of step with things. Just slightly out of synch with the way things should be. "We hurt them, or get hurt for them," he said quietly.

He was a little surprised when Sanzo offered him an arm, but he wasn't about to argue. The blood loss wasn't enough to be life threatening, but just enough to make him wobbly enough to do something dumb like collapse and get eaten by a rabid kitten or something. And Hakkai too. He leaned carefully against the other man. "Lead on!"

Sanzo started walking them both down back the way they came. He could feel the blood on Kenren starting to stain into his shirt and against his skin. The monk scowled.

"This is a one time thing, so don't get used to it," Sanzo said. "I'm not dragging your ass anywhere else."

Of all the things he'd mentally prepared himself for, this certainly wasn't it. This was almost as bad as having to carry the roach around, and most of the time, Sanzo was just tempted to leave the idiot, since most of the shit he got into could have been avoided.

"Of course not, Sanzo. We wouldn't dream of imposing upon your good graces too often." It was becoming almost natural to just include Kenren in his thinking, in the same way he'd included Gojyo as a matter of course. On some level, he knew he should be violently opposed to such easy acceptance, but this seemed to be the rare exception to an old rule.

Gojyo, and apparently Kenren now as well, had always enjoyed breaking rules.

He smiled to himself and continued to follow Sanzo's lead, lost in his own thoughts for the most part.

Nightshift 23: Second Floor, hallway containing disciplinary therapy rooms and nurse station

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