Day 55: Cafeteria

[tightsofmight]

A night spent inside his room had done nothing to ease his jitters. Peter couldn't stop worrying. Over Brainy, what he thought of him now that he knew about what he'd done to Grell, and where he was going for the night. If he'd be safe. If Indy and the others would be safe, trucking on down to the basement. (Not frigging likely, considering 'basement' was synonymous for 'giant ass doom pit'.) If that ominous intercom announcement had meant anything. Peter had spent hours staring into the dark after that, his stomach churning his supper into butter over the horrific possibilities. Whatever punishment that arose for the food fight was a mystery. It didn't seem to infect him, unless it was a particularly trying case of insomnia. No matter how badly Peter tried, he couldn't find the will to sleep. Much of the night had been spent making notations and doodles in his journal by flashlight, peppered with long stretches of staring at the dark.

Honestly, he'd rather be taking another crack at the Hall of Hallucinations instead of rolling around in his bed. Paranoia was his only company the whole night.

Morning felt like a blessing by the time it came. He wasn't sure when sleep had finally overtaken him, but as he blinked his way into life he couldn't help feeling a bit...off.

It was really quiet. Peter's face scrunched under the light, and he stretched underneath the covers. There was a zip of cotton on cotton, and his shirt half dragged itself out from under the belt.

His eyes shot open. Belt? The covers flipped back, and Peter gaped down at his form on the bed. ...Belt?!

What the frigging hell was this? Peter jolted to his feet, patting himself down. He looked like some kind of air cadet. There were freaking epaulettes on his shoulders (was that even what they were called?), boots on his feet and a beret on the dresser. A single pin was nestled into the front, looking freshly polished as it glinted in the light. Peter snatched the hat up and stared. Two letters were inscribed on the pin. Nothing more, nothing less.

"SC..."

Special Counseling? Peter's expression took a turn for the frantic. What else could it stand for? He tried to run through a few candidates, but nothing stuck. Nothing applied so neatly without being ridiculous, because it clearly didn't stand for Super Cuckoo or Spider Cadet. Was he supposed to wear this like some stupid badge of honour? God, just brand it across his forehead, why don't you? My name is Peter Parker and I totally snapped a guy's arm for Mother Landel's. Hail the Smiley!

Peter pressed the beret against his face and groaned into the fabric. This was it. They weren't playing games anymore. They were finally turning this into death match boot camp and sending them off to war. Shit. Shit he was going to be in the frigging army in some messed up alternate universe, and he didn't even know what the frick they were fighting against or why they were fighting. If they were pulling magical whatsits out of every book and TV show known to man, then who knew what wacky threat they were up against. Aliens? If it was aliens, he was quitting. He was going to curl up on the ground hugging a grenade and pull the pin. Just no. No. This was not happening. This could not be frigging happening.

Except that it was. The person who whipped open the door that morning wasn't the affably sour Nurse Rachel, but a hulking, thickly built man who looked like he consumed a toddler a meal solely to fuel his pecs. Peter couldn't even find the breath to argue as he was told to tuck in his shirt and put on his boots and come to the cafeteria. He left just as another soldier brushed past them to collect Brainy, and Peter abruptly realized that in his confusion he'd forgotten to check if the boy was okay.

Too late for that now. Peter tried to match pace with the burly man, fumbling to put his snazzy new beret on and watching with wary eyes as other patients were dragged by. Things seemed even bleaker as they hit the cafeteria. The buffet was empty. The scent of food was lacking. Soldiers packed along the borders of the room so neatly you would think they were part of a particularly tacky wall paper. And worst of all? Buckets. Mops and rags and brooms, all piled in the center of the room.

The lady officer's speech was entirely unnecessary at that point. Peter withered where he stood as she told them their duty. It was like a scolding from Aunt May, if someone gave her a gun and a license to use it. Except the joke only made things worse - now he just wanted his Aunt. The force of his loneliness bowled him over like a wrecking ball. He might never see Aunt May again. Peter's gaze fell to the floor and he clenched his fists.

Was this it? Was his life really over? Escape never seemed so far away.

There was no protest from him as they were sent to work. Ashen and queasy, Peter stumbled towards the cleaning supplies and selected a bucket and a rag. He couldn't even bemoan his lack of breakfast. His nerves were making it impossible to even think about food.

They needed to get out tonight. Everyone. Somehow...

[Lion!]

Comments

[prodigalson]

"I would never do the injustice of saying you only look okay," he said, clearly disgruntled with her words. His attempts at keeping the conversation light were not going to work, but it didn't mean he would stop trying. They needed small moments like this to stop from going insane. He was just as sick of the institute, and this morning had already made him realize how much easier it probably had been with a sociopath at the head and slow, dim-witted nurses as his various hands.

He sighed as well, matching her own. "I miss when only high school teenagers were rolling their eyes about our public displays of affection. I really miss those days." Well, and the teachers. But since when did Edward ever care about what a human thought of him, especially one with only a moderately average level of intelligence?

Comparatively, however, high school hadn't been so bad.

"I wish I could kiss you right now. How about if I promise I will give you one tonight that is good enough to forget all of this, if only for a moment?" He chuckled underneath his breath, changing his area of scrubbing to the grout in between the tiles. "I admit that's a hefty promise, but I will attempt to fulfill it."

Also, that was his subtle way of asking her if she be with him tonight. Maybe it wasn't the best way, and despite her words... he still thought that, even if she didn't, she should have some sort of grudge against him. If she had gotten hurt doing something for him, and he seemed unappreciative -

Oh. Well. He had expected that question. It snapped him out of his thoughts.

"I'm not going to try lying to you anymore, Bella. I went hunting, like I told you... with Stefan. I used Venom's ring to teleport us to the forest so we would be away from the rest of the patients. Something found us. It was, ah." He looked down at the tiles, watching the slow movements of his brush. His voice was more quiet, so he leaned closer to her. "A squirrel. A very large, very angry, very carnivorous squirrel. And it fought back."

His eyes turned back up. "I got what I needed, as you can see." He imagined his eyes were very bright, almost yellow with the amount of blood he had consumed.

[vitale.livejournal.com]

"My point still stands," Bella told him with a roll of her eyes and a small, albeit still unabashedly amused smile. "As long as you could see my legs, I mean." And at that she couldn't help but give a smug grin, hoping he was remembering what she was remembering. Prom night. Not even trying to hide his wandering eyes. She had said nothing on the matter then.

At the mention of high school, she let out a small laugh. "Oh, please. We weren't even bad. Just kissing and holding hands. It's not like you slammed me up against someone's locker on a daily basis and blocked them from getting their books. If we had, then I could see why they were so upset. We were practically Disney rated G back then."

And then he was talking about kissing her, and her eyes instantly dropped to his lips. Oh.

Where had the sadness, the anger, the fear she had only moments ago gone?

"Promise accepted," Bella lifted one of her hands towards Edward, holding out a bandaged pinky for him to shake. At least he still had one good arm. Not that she minded one side embraces, per say. She knew how much it would kill him if he weren't able to touch her, though. "Though. If I asked to meet you part way, would you be mad at me?"

She half expected him to threaten her at this rate, but she kept her mouth shut. After all, he should know better by now, that even if she had a limp, it wouldn't stop her from getting where she wanted to.

Bella listened intently as Edward spoke about his night, frowning when he spoke about something finding them, and then -

She tried her hardest not to let her lips quirk into a smile. That would be insulting, especially considering she had her ass whooped by a child last night. "A squirrel. Really? No judgment here, I promise. Let's just never tell anyone we were beaten up by squirrels and children and I think we'll get out of this okay."

When Edward looked up and she actually noticed his gold eyes, Bella's smile only grew. "Yes, I can see that," but she paused, however, and looked down at the floor. "But regardless of what color your eyes are, you are Edward to me. Forever."

[prodigalson]

The smile he gave her at that was very private. "I wouldn't have minded trapping you between me and a locker, but I wouldn't have wanted to embarrass you." She must have been thing G-rated in the way they acted publicly, because... well, suffice to say if she had heard any of the vast number of things he imagined, she wouldn't have said the same. Also, he distinctly remembered a certain girl who had had, one more than one occasion, decided to attempt to rip his clothes off. Her mind certainly was not G-rated either, he imagined.

He extended the pinky of his free arm, very gently curling it around hers and lifting their hands up and down once. "I imagine you think I'm going to say yes. Actually, that's true. I will be mad. But I have regretfully accepted that you are never going to listen to my voice of reason, and I have no way of stopping you outside the fact that you limp and I do not. Just... please, please be careful."

That was it. That was him, accepting defeat. He couldn't keep fighting her all the time, not when it wasn't doing any good to either of them except stressing them both out. The only thing on his side was his speed; her stubbornness was his mortal enemy, and he would not be able to defeat it about this.

"Tonight will be better, I promise. We can stay in... we can go wherever you want. As long as we're together, I don't care what happens." Stefan had already become what Edward considered a good, trustworthy friend, but Bella needed him more, and he needed her a lot more. "I can tell that, despite your lie, you are judging me. I am relatively okay with this. It was only a squirrel the size of a cougar. I think we can agree never to speak about either again, however."

Besides, Edward wasn't about murdering children if... this thing was still alive. He wasn't sure how a child had burned her arms, but no one touched his Bella. He couldn't imagine she meant a literal child. Maybe it was like the not-Zato, the not-him, that simply looked like one.

Which brought him to the thought of something attempting to look like him to hurt her -

"It's better this way," he cocked his head to watch her expression. "I feel like less of a murderer."

[vitale.livejournal.com]

Bella's cheeks flushed at the way he looked at her, and her heart beat like a trapped bird in her chest. However, despite that, she remained looking at him, a fire in her eyes as she smiled once again. "I think at this point, I would just say to hell with it. I wish you had, back then. I wish you could now. You really want us to become one of those PDA couples, I can see it now."

At the pinkie shake, she smiled all the more, and released his to go back to scrubbing. "Well. Can't blame a girl for asking. Maybe one of these days I'll let you come to my room first, since I suppose I owe you one. Maybe. But don't quote me on that, since I might change my mind." He knew how paranoid she was. And she knew how paranoid he was. It was endless.

But Edward was still speaking, and she looked at him with a smile. "Was that night apart as horrible for you as it was for me? Because it ... gets pretty terrible when you're not by my side."

She had other friends, of course. Other people she cared dearly for. But ... Edward was different. Wasn't that understandable?

"No, I'm not," she said with a laugh, reaching out with a shaky hand to poke him gently on the cheek. "Really. So you were attacked by a cougar squirrel. Big deal. Can't say that it's the strangest thing that's happened to you, right?"

But ... then he was talking about being a murderer, and instantly Bella's face dropped, and she looked at him with side eyes. "Don't make me say it, Edward. Because I will fight you to the death for it," a pause. "But. I guess if you're a murderer, than so am I. Or, will be. Misery loves company."

[prodigalson]

There was so much to talk to her about, it seemed like there were several conversations at once. He'd missed this - being able to talk calmly, just sitting next to each other and enjoying the other's company. It made sense, though; it had only been a day since he'd last talked to her, but a lot had happened between then and now. Military takeovers, nearly being digested by a squirrel, Venom coming back (a fact that he believed if Bella said it was true, but it was still very hard to swallow - and yes, Edward felt a sick sort of happiness that someone he would call his friend was back, but that he shouldn't be in the first place was what made him feel disgusted by the thought.) The whole Twilight thing.

Right, he'd gotten over that. He had gotten over the fact that nearly every tragic thing that had occurred in his life - his parents dying, his own death, nearly a century of soulless solitude - was just someone's idea of entertainment. But that was if he bought into the idea that everything was of the same world. It wasn't. He knew that now. It wasn't just the fact that he had been to Venom's home, or some version of it. It was that he had seen the recognition there, the memories of his home that Edward had not seen before those moments. The people, the things he'd seen -

He laughed at her finger in his cheek, but he did lift his head to look around. No sign of his assassin compatriot...

God, what did he owe Venom now? This was beyond saving him from starvation. It wasn't even the first time he had saved Bella. There was no way to ever repay this sort of debt.

"You're not going to be a murderer," he stated flatly, his lips still curled up softly as he turned back to her. "I will never allow it. You're too kind to try, I think." Which was true. She wouldn't be the newborn he had been. He didn't even want to think of what sort she would actually be. "Last night was horrible, yes. I like hunting, but not when it results in... this. Stefan was nice company, though." That thought actually turned his gaze suspicious, but not for the reason she might think. "You lied to me about going out with someone last night, didn't you? You planned it all out when we were writing to each other."

He'd had his suspicions, but it was safer to have them confirmed.

[vitale.livejournal.com]

Bella gave her vampire a small smile when he told her she wasn't going to be a murderer, finding it endearing how he thought so highly of her. Yes, she had a dislike of blood (that, she remembered, she was certainly getting over, especially considering last night. ... and the other nights where blood had been involved.) and she couldn't help but wonder if it would drag over to when she became a vampire, but. ... He said it. She didn't believe it.

Part of her wanted to, though. Wanted to remain that pristine image he clearly had of her in his head.

At the topic of her lie, Bella bit her lip, turned her gaze back towards the floor even as he continued to glare ready to throw daggers in her direction.

She didn't want to lie. They weren't lying to each other anymore, right?

"Yes," she finally said after a few minutes of preparing herself for the silent wrath that would eventually follow, whether it be now ... or when they were allowed to be alone once the lights shut off. "I knew you needed to go out last night, and if I had said I was going out alone, you would have been beside yourself. I wasn't going to stop you from feeding yourself," her gaze then turned away, so he couldn't look at her face - for the moment, anyway. "Considering how much hunger hurts."

"And I wasn't going to stay alone in my room," she continued, finally turning back to look at Edward. "Because knowing my luck, something would have found me there, and I'd have been cornered. At least when I went out by myself I was able to make a run for it."

Never mind the fact that she couldn't feel any of the pain from what had happened to her last night, but she was sure he would ask about that sooner or later. If he remembered.

"So," she finished, shrugging her shoulders slowly, wincing once the pain shot down her spine. "Yes. I lied to you. And I will accept whatever punishment you feel I deserve," she turned to him then, quirking an eyebrow. "And as I recall, you said you would kill whoever it was I was with if I got hurt. Should I start writing out my will now?"

[prodigalson]

He nodded to himself throughout her explanation, his attention turning devoutly to the floor as he noticed the closest soldier eying them a little too long. It was good he was a well-balanced vampire, considering it wasn't the easiest task to lean over the floor with his arm wrapped against him, scrubbing one-handed. A particularly stubborn stain of ketchup reminded him of the previous breakfast, hiding under a table with a starving vampire and nearly starving himself.

She was so selfless. It didn't make sense to him, how she could be human and fragile and still go out into a darkness she knew held monsters, monsters that were more than capable of consuming her than he was right now, just to get him something to drink, something so he wouldn't starve. He never asked for it, never hinted that he wanted her to make such a sacrifice, but she did it anyway. She had thought of him during a night when he had only been thinking of himself.

His eyes itched, trying to meet some unreachable expectation. He leaned back so he could drop the brush and lift his arm to his eyes and rub them without falling over. He wasn't actually sure how he would get off the floor, funny enough.

"I'm not going to punish you," he said, his voice not nearly as strong as it had been before. "I'm not your father, and I never want to be. I can't... I can't even be mad. It's so hard, Bella. I should be but I can't be, knowing you did all of that to help me. That you sit here and you seem so proud of it, that you are completely unapologetic about all of it... I understand why you lied. I wish I could thank you in a way that did not involve words."

[vitale.livejournal.com]

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Edward sit up, and automatically concerned (especially when he began rubbing his eyes), Bella sat up, completely ignoring the way a soldier suddenly had their attention on her and the boy to her side. What was the worst they could do? She had already been burnt, bitten, gassed, chased ... they had even been split up. It wasn't like they could split them up once nightfall fell, right?

Right.

When he spoke, her face softened, and she reached out - fuck the guards - and gently touched his face, her palm resting against his cheek for a moment that was much too short for her tastes, before running her fingers down his jaw, index finger brushing over the lips that she so longed to kiss. "Even if you didn't say thank you, I still would have done it. I would have done it if you asked me to. I would have done it if you asked me not to. I love you. I love you so much it consumes me."

Her head shot to the side suddenly when she heard a soldier moving towards them, and for a moment, a look of determination crossed her face before she slumped her shoulders, looking defeated. "And if you so want to," she told him quickly, "You can show me your thanks tonight. I mean, if you're up to it."

The soldier was behind them now, glaring down at her. "Say goodbye to your ... friend, Irving," the soldier said her in a stern voice, and Bella forced herself to stand on shaky legs. She didn't want to say goodbye.

[prodigalson]

He stared at her, his lips parting under her fingers as he leaned his head into her hand. Edward knew it was stupid to be so openly intimate with her when there were about two dozen pairs of eyes staring them down - at least two dozens that were part of the threat - but he tended to forget what he was thinking about when she touched his face, mostly because he forgot about everything that wasn't her when she did it.

Edward turned his head with her, watching her get up unsteadily, his only attempt at helping her to be his arm lifting with her just in case she lost her balance. He concentrated on her face, if only so his lips didn't curl back over his teeth in response to the soldier's interference. He would remember what the man looked like, in case there was a chance they ever met again in a dark hallway.

"I will, Bella," he said conspiratorially, intentionally waiting until the soldier had turned around to lead her away. Right before she moved away, he mouthed the words I love you back to her.