Nightshift 55: Main Hallway, 1-West

[tightsofmight]

[From here.]

All righty. First one here. Surprise surprise.

Peter took a thin breath and took up a post across from the hall, where he could watch both entrances for the gang. His arms crossed and he leaned against the wall. The whole thing was rather broody-looking, to be honest. Not the kind of chipper attitude you expected from a guy dressed like a cast member of Cirque du Soleil.

He was allowed to have bad moods. They happened. He hadn't started the night in one, but he'd tripped into it easily enough on his own. That sort of thing happened when your life sucked this much, okay. There was no sanctuary from the suckage. He sighed yet again. It'd be easier to perk up once somebody else showed up. Then he could push his mind away from all of this garbage and pound some small talk out of it.

Not to mention that waiting out here alone in the big hallway was twice as creepy as it was moving alone through the little ones. His flashlight swung back and forth. Please don't let anything be creeping on me in the dark. Please please please...

He was so not in the mood for whatever monstrosities were lying in wait for him. And knowing Landel's, they were.

[For the Platonic Family!! Y'all know who you are.]

Comments

[kingdomless.livejournal.com]

Oh god, she was late. Kairi was running by the time she entered the hallway, and there, she could see ... yup. Sora and Roxas. At least, the first thing she saw was Sora's hair, followed by Roxas. Oops. She was in trouble.

"You need to stop being first!" Kairi greeted Sora with a playful smile, setting her sword down to the ground so she could brush her hair out of her face and catch her breath. "I'm only letting you get here first, you know. Tomorrow we'll make a game of it. First person to get here has to carry the other person for the whole night. Just saying."

Of course, he knew this was in jest; there was no way she would be able to carry him for the whole night. Still, sometimes you needed to make things funny when stuck in a hellish world you couldn't escape from.

Turning towards the other boy she hadn't seen in a while, Kairi gave him a small smile, noting that they ... both had different clothes on. What gave. That was completely no fair. At all. "Hi, Roxas. Long time no see. I hope you've been well?"

[lighthearted]

Surprisingly, Roxas made it before Kairi, and he was even wearing the Organization's coat as his nighttime outfit. That sight was enough to set Sora back for a moment. He'd mainly been fighting against people who wore that coat, so seeing a friend in it -- no, more than a friend, but his counterpart -- was just bizarre. Then again, Riku had worn it too, so he could get used to it. It was just shocking at first, that was all.

But apparently Roxas was also confused about what Sora was wearing, which made it more and more clear that his Other had a lot of spots in his memory. Was that the institute's fault or Sora's? Was the fact that they were both existing separately making it harder for Roxas to remember things or was it just Landel (or Aguilar) messing with them?

Sora didn't know and he also didn't think there was any easy way to find out, and so he put it to the side, smiling in greeting instead. "It's just what I wear! It's actually pretty comfortable."

And in the next moment Kairi ran up with her sword in hand. She had clearly rushed, which only made Sora feel better about making it here first. "Hey! Even if we put down rules like that, I'm still gonna win!" He knew that wasn't guaranteed, but it was always nice to play around and break up the mood.

As Kairi said hello to Roxas, Sora had to wonder if his Other even knew who she was. He should have known, but with the state his memories were in there was no certainty of that. Sora watched quietly for the other boy's reaction.

[rischiarare.livejournal.com]

Roxas knew this was more evidence of how he had to be different than Sora, considering he was entirely sure he would not want to be caught dead in all those belts and pockets and things. It looked entirely too constricting. Even if the Organization coat had basically been created for him, it was still lighter and less complicated. One zipper and that was it.

Either way, he didn't have much time to think about anyone's wardrobe choice, ridiculous or otherwise. Roxas hadn't realized it at first, but Sora must have been treating this meeting point like a race - and considering the second person's response, she must have too. Like a few other things, Roxas looked at her face recognized it, immediately thinking: Kairi. That's who that is. Unlike Riku, he didn't feel anything weird about this girl. In fact, he seemed to recognize her as being nice. Nice and... pretty, which he noticed as she pushed her hair out of her face.

That was weird. He'd never really thought that about a girl before.

She knows who I am? he wondered once she spoke to him. Had Sora mentioned him or something? He was supposedly missing some memories, according to Sora... had he forgotten her? A thought rose up out of his mind without warning, a thought that insisted I wouldn't have forgotten her.

"Um..." His eyes jumped between her and Sora, who was also watching him expectantly. What was he supposed to do? His automatic response would have been to introduce himself, but that would have been stupid considering she knew his name. "I-I don't remember you. I'm sorry."

[kingdomless.livejournal.com]

Kairi grinned at Sora's response to her wager, shaking her finger at him. "I don't think so! Things will be different tomorrow, I promise you that."

It was then, however, that she noticed that Roxas was ... staring at her. Turning towards the blonde boy, she looked at him with a tilt of her head, listening to him as he spoke about ... not knowing her. Oh. It made sense, didn't it? After all, Riku appeared and disappeared in the institute many times, so why wouldn't anyone else? Axel had vanished and appeared as well, and he had been ... different. She guessed that the Roxas she was currently speaking to was not the same Roxas who had saved her on her first night in the institute.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions," Kairi told him with a small smile. "I'm Kairi. We ... met a while ago, but it doesn't matter now. What matters is we're all together, right?"

Turning, she smiled to Sora and then back to Roxas, bending down to pick up her sword. The uniform was certainly confining, and she wasn't all that happy with it ... but what else could she do. Maybe she'd unbutton some buttons later on at night ...

"So," she chirped happily, trying to ... keep the mood light. Honestly, it didn't bother her that Roxas didn't remember who she was; after all, hadn't she forgotten Sora that one time? She didn't blame him for not knowing. "What are we doing tonight?"

[lighthearted]

What could have been a very awkward exchange actually turned out to be all right. Roxas admitted that he didn't know Kairi and yet the girl didn't miss a beat, quickly reassuring him. That was one of her best qualities, of course, and Sora smiled as he watched his Other and his friend interacting. If Roxas really didn't remember her, then there was only one way to fix that. He was glad that he'd arranged for the three of them to spend this night together, so they could have that chance.

Still, Roxas deserved at least some explanation if he was that curious, and so Sora pulled forward to place a hand on Kairi's shoulder. "Kairi is one of my best friends. We met when we were little and grew up together on Destiny Islands. We've been through a lot!" Including Kairi losing her heart and getting captured by the Organization; Sora glanced at Roxas' outfit once more, but brushed it off. It was just odd to think that someone who was another version of him had worked for those people.

However, with that all squared away, they did need to get going. When Kairi asked what their destination was, Sora laughed and shook his head. "What, you don't even remember what we talked about last night? We're going to check out the medical wing, aren't we?"

Kairi was the one who had seemed curious about it in the first place, but maybe she'd had a long day and it had slipped her mind. Sora was ready and raring to go, but he made sure to wait and see that the other two were all right with that plan before he took off.

[rischiarare.livejournal.com]

He didn't know for sure what he'd been expecting out of her reaction, but her easy shrugging off about his distinct lack of memories wasn't it. No shock? Or annoyances? Nothing? Even Axel had been really distracted that Roxas didn't seem to remember all this stuff they had done together, how all of it had tied in to Sora... and Roxas felt like he had thought the same thing about Axel, though he couldn't quite recall why that was.

"Right," he said with a nod. He felt okay about this, all things considered. If she wasn't bothered by it, he certainly couldn't be. Besides, he thought she was right. It did matter that they were all together. Something just kind of click into place like with Sora, like Axel. Like this was where he belonged and these were the people he belonged with.

Even if it was a fake feeling, it was nice.

Sora's explanation made something entirely different pop into Roxas's head. "Like Riku?" he blurted out, then immediately regretted it. He hated even mentioning the other boy, but he had forced himself to accept that Riku was Sora's friend and that was how they were meant to be.

Ugh. "Nevermind. The medical wing? Where is that? I haven't even heard of it before now."

[kingdomless.livejournal.com]

Kairi gave Sora an offended look, trying her hardest not to smile ... but ultimately failed. Grinning, she reached out and gently hit her friend on the arm, giggling. "I was just making sure! Maybe you changed your mind. Since there's always something new to do once the lights turn off."

At least, when some horrible kind of test wasn't going on.

Her face only dropped at the mention of Riku, but she quickly covered it up with a nod of her head and a small smile. "Yes, like Riku. We were all friends. Always have been, since we were little. They were my first friends on the island, actually." She turned towards Sora with a smile, remembering their meeting moment with fondness. "Ever since then we've all been inseparable," a pause. "... For the most part, I mean. But it doesn't matter, really."

Except she hated to be left alone. Sure, she acted like she didn't mind, but ... well. She wanted to help Sora and Riku with what they were doing. She was more than capable (she believed), and even if they didn't think so, they could teach her, right? They had been willing to teach her how to us her sword while in the institute ... so maybe they'd be willing to teach her once they got home, too.

At least Roxas changed the subject quickly. "The medical wing ... I was in it, but I don't remember what it was like," she said with a shrug. "It's apparently mostly locked, but ... who knows? It has to open sooner or later, right?"

[lighthearted]

Having Riku brought up all of a sudden caused a stabbing pain to hit Sora right in the chest, but he let out a breath and brushed it off. They had only just recently realized that he was gone again, so it wasn't something he wanted to talk about with anyone other than Kairi. Not even Roxas, because... Well, Roxas didn't like Riku. It was thanks to a lot of unfortunate circumstances, but that was still the case.

Luckily, Kairi was able to be strong in that moment and explain how it all worked between the three of them. Her explanation was kind of sad in its own way, but Sora just gave her a small, rueful smile and nodded to show that he agreed with her description of it. Riku wasn't with them now, but he would be again someday. Maybe soon, maybe not for a long time, but they'd find each other. That, Sora knew.

And it was time to get going, so he was going to force himself to forget about his missing friend for the moment. "Right," he added in once Kairi had explained their reasoning. "Kairi was gone for a while -- I thought she'd been brainwashed, but it turned out she'd just been kept there for a few days. We know that chances are we won't be able to get in, but we wanted to check it out anyway. And it's not far."

If they were lucky, they might be able to break the lock or do whatever they needed to do to get in. There were three of them, after all, so Sora could hope. "But I'll show you the way!" It had been some time since he had gone this direction, but it wasn't like he was going to forget so easily. So after nodding and pumping his fist in the air, the boy headed toward the Sun Room.

[To here.]