The main hallways. Good. And the coast seemed to be clear, so far. Link briefly wondered if the new clue would help the situation, or only make it more grim. He would know soon enough.
It smelled like blood! And not all of it good, healthy blood. What an annoying stink.
The tangle of scents in the air slowed the vampire's progress down a little as he tried to tease them apart, but not by much. Time was always of the essence. He slipped out of his cell block, looking behind him once in a while, instincts on edge. It was going to be a difficult night to concentrate, clearly.
Despite the night's tension bearing down on his shoulders, Aidou kept up a swift pace, moving from shadow to shadow until he arrived in the main corridor and spotted the young, fair-haired female standing off by herself. He knew that figure. The tired lines to her face had also grown familiar over the last few days.
But she was still herself. That was... good.
"Aigis." Silence and economy of movement was the nature of most vampires, but she was more aware of him than most.
"Aidou-san..." Aigis' voice was a little strained. The pinch in her stomach wasn't lessening, but she refused to let the pain show on her face.
Aidou didn't look too wonderful himself, but that was to be expected in this place. She glanced around but she didn't notice Sasuke in tow. "You are alone?"
She wasn't yet a drooling, mindless creature, but the girl sure looked like she was close to dropping dead. This infection was getting troublesome.
"For now," he answered, moving up to her. "No audience." Or at the very least, no open invitation for one. They were in a high traffic area of the hospital, but the darkness was almost impenetrable for normal human eyes, and Aidou positioned himself in front of her so any flashlight-wielding voyeurs would catch his back in the spotlight instead of her.
Not true privacy, but as close as they were going to get without taking her aside into a private room.
Without preamble, he reached for her chin, expression set. If anything, his prickly nerves only made him more focused--he looked over her face, the pulse point in her neck, the way she was standing, every pertinent detail he could glean in a glance. "Any changes?"
"I told Sasuke-san to meet up with you, as requested..." Perhaps the blind young man was going to find Aidou here in the main hall, but Aigis would have thought he would be here by now, if that were the case. She couldn't help but wonder what was keeping him. Would it have been another patient, a monster, or something else entirely.
Aigis allowed Aidou to move close and block her from the rest of the hall's eyes. She appreciated his effort to keep her safe, but still she felt her safety ought not to have been a priority in the long run. Her eyes widened very slightly as he looked her over. A very slight rush sped the beating of her heart, primarily because of her infection but not entirely.
She frowned, moving a hand to cover her stomach. "Other than the usual, there have been sharp pains here." She paused for just a moment. "Perhaps I should seek out a surgeon..."
That got his attention. “You spoke to him?” Damn that boy. What was with him lately? If he was purposely trying to avoid Aidou, it was a little late to start now, not when he’d already been privy to so many of Sasuke’s secrets. They were, for lack of a better term, committed. And yet as of late Sasuke always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
No matter.
“Well, he’s sure taking his sweet time. At the very least, I told him to meet me after you. Assuming you were still you and didn’t require more of my attention, anyway.” But Aigis still her usual deadpan self, which was a positive sign. A spontaneous transformation would happen sooner rather than later, wouldn’t it? If the oncoming of night hadn’t set her off, Aidou didn’t see why Landel would wait and flip the switch on her later. For maximization of terror, he expected the transformations would happen right off the bat.
But stomach pains… Taking into account the previous night’s “clue,” that wasn’t a good sign. Yet it was just one more variable to file away--it didn’t change his position on all of this surgery talk.
He let his hand fall away in order to cross his arms. “You remember I said I was going to give you my opinion when we spoke in person? “ he said. “Well, here it is: I think mounting an expedition into the depths of your stomach would be a bad idea, not only because I doubt you‘ll find a legitimately trained surgeon that doesn‘t already work for the Institute. ‘Hasty’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. Shall I give you the bullet points? We don’t know if we can even trust that clue. You don’t know if there’s even anything to find. In your state, trusting an outsider could be a death sentence, let alone the rest. This has all the telltale signs of a trap. Perhaps you don’t want to hear this from someone like me, but I’m only being objective.”
"Indeed. Before lunch today." That had surely given Sasuke plenty of time to find a different distraction for his night, though the young man didn't strike Aigis as someone who would shirk an engagement. She didn't know him well enough to say for sure, however.
"And I am still me, it seems." She state the obvious. Then another set of stomach pains raked through her and she clutched at her stomach again, unable to hide her wince. Whatever was causing it, that butterfly or whatever mechanism, Aigis didn't like it. Not one bit.
Aigis straightened when it seemed Aidou was ready to explain his position. She hadn't expected it to feel quite so much like she was being scolded but she compartmentalized it as Aidou just being his usual abrasive self. It was still a little hard to take.
"... I do not mind hearing it from you." If anything, he was probably the only one who would give her this kind of honest, difficult reasoning. "I just do not wish to hurt anyone. And I would rather not experience death in this body." She took a shuddering breath. "It is hard enough having experienced a full shut down when I was fully mechanical."
Her flash of pain was unmistakable. Was that... guilt he felt? That struggling thread of feeling he'd tried so hard to bury away?
It was quite unlike him, he thought, to be so conflicted that one moment he could be promising himself no distractions with that knife-like intensity that often characterized his cruelty, and the next be reaching for her shoulders to hold her steady. Something like sympathy twisted in his gut, marring his expression with discomfort. The self-protective part of him wanted to crush that feeling, crush it until there was nothing left because that kind of feeling only got in the way.
The heartlessness of vampires was such a standard part of their image that it was almost easy to make it real. A heart that that didn't beat couldn't feel, couldn't care, couldn't mourn. Without loneliness, a vampire child couldn't miss home. Without affection, a vampire couldn't make someone else's pain his own and invest a part of his already withered reserves.
It hurt a little, to recognize how closed off he had become. But it also hurt to think he could like this girl. There was no good in it, these bonds between people who had no business being near one another.
His gaze wavered, dropping to the right of her. His voice, when it came, was far quieter than before. "Look, I know you're... you're tired. I know. But--" What was the 'but'? The girl didn't want to suffer and lose herself, and succumb to death. Was it any surprise that she wanted to seek out a solution? What cold-bloodedness lurked at the heart of his warnings to abandon her attempts?
Aidou didn't know. And he didn't know what words to use to fill the silence. He knew what he could say, that he could try and protect her and make things right. But--
But.
But.
Finally, he lowered his eyelids. There were times when his youthfulness seemed almost eerie, next to what lay underneath his skin. "I'm a mean person, you know. I only say these things because I don't fear your death the same way you do--you, who will probably never live as long as I. You should do what you see fit to save yourself."
The change in Aidou was anything but instant, but perhaps that was why even one as socially dense as Aigis was able to pick up on the change in him. She watched, mildly intrigued, as he went from spouting his own opinion with little care for her comfort to almost humbly telling her to do whatever she thought best for herself.
She blinked. And then an emotion that was almost fully foreign to her whenever the vampire was concerned came over her; true warmth. She studied his face a moment longer, taking in the lowering of his eyes, such a contrast to the proud creature she knew him to be. She had the unmistakable urge to reach out to him, but she knew she should not, so she didn't.
"You surprise me, Aidou-san," she said softly. The barest hint of a smile reached her lips. "And I must say, you are wrong. On two counts even. One in that you assume I would die so long before you when my existence can be prolonged for however long my parts are kept in sustainability. And two, for considering my existence a true 'life' at all."
If one did not live, one could not truly die. She had probably said this to him dozens of times over by now, but he still found it so hard to accept. She did not suppose she could blame him. Even sometimes she forgot when she was in this body.
He had offered her a small kindness just now. One that he never had before, and one that she would treasure.
This time, when the urge to touch him came to her she did not fight it. Very lightly, she moved to touch his arm with just the barest glance of her fingertips, doing what she could to draw him along with her.
"Let us look for Sasuke-san. He is surely much too late to have not run into trouble." She said the words in order to give them both an easy escape from this; a moment that was so small but held too much meaning to comprehend in such a short amount of time. Perhaps he would deny her, turn away, flee to be on his own, but she would not stop him if he chose that either. It was his right to choose. She would just rather he took her with him this time, no questions asked.
"How so? Were you expecting me to be a gentle person?"
He assumed she meant his admittance that he had no great interest in whether she lived or died. If Landel's experiment resulted in her demise, he wouldn't cry for her, and that made it easy to look at her position objectively. Only natural if that coldness surprised her.
But as he looked at her from beneath his lashes, he thought perhaps he had surprised her in a different way. Aigis seemed almost... reassured by his actions.
Why? His brow furrowed faintly.
She was a strange person. To feel so strongly over the existences of others but doubting the value of her own. A being that felt fear, that felt pain, that could shed tears... that was life, surely, no matter what the body was made out of. But then that was the same sort of existential argument that plagued vampires and humans, for if a vampire could feel then he was certainly just as alive as any human. The same had to apply to Aigis.
"We could harp on those topics for a long while yet," he observed aloud. It steadied him, letting his feelings settle back down and reason take their place. "Though I dare say someone that has as much to fear as you is alive."
Maybe it comforted her to think otherwise, during this uncertain period. He couldn't say. She seemed to worry about strange things and take comfort in even stranger--which, at the moment, appeared to be his poor choice of words. If it had been Aidou in her place, he didn't think his first response would be to reach out to the other person, but he didn't try to stop her. He'd done it first, after all, and she allowed his touch readily enough.
After a beat, he retracted a hand in order to snag her wrist before she could move away. Even as he turned her hand over so that it was facing palm up, he was considering her suggestion. Yes, Sasuke was running late if he hadn't arrived in the hallway yet; a glance at the corridor told him as much. That was Aidou's problem to figure out, however, not Aigis'. Hadn't she already implied as much?
"What happened to searching for a cure?" he asked, looking up from her hand. "Up until now, you gave the impression you had plans."
Aigis couldn't help the smile that played on her lips. She didn't elaborate any further, unsure if she could quite fully understand the reasoning herself. He was Aidou. She expected him to be himself; no more and no less. Which route he had taken to surprise her... now, that was something left up to one's personal perception of the matter.
"Indeed, we could perhaps spend several lifetimes in discussion over what makes one a living being if we were given the freedom." She shook her head, unable to fight against his logic, though she knew better. She was not alive back home. And she never would be living there. Here, however.... "Now is not the time."
Aigis didn't pull away when he grabbed her wrist. This kind of handling was familiar. She had a feeling Aidou was returning to himself again. She found she did not mind that, even if the softer side to the vampire had been interesting to view.
"I have no plans currently. I was waiting to hear what you had to say first before I sought out a surgeon or other means of stopping this illness." And what he said tonight had given her some calm; better than her talk with Castiel, that was certain. Ironic. "Sasuke-san's safety is of higher importance. I do not like the idea of him running so late, despite what disorientation his blindness might cause him."
He snorted, but it was so faint it could have easily gone undetected. Landel’s was not a place where he had met many individuals who valued his thoughts. “Although I have many things I could still say, what you choose to do is up to you. I can handle Sasuke.” You should stay out of trouble was the unspoken implication.
Funny, that even after everything said and done Aigis continued to blaze ahead without paying mind to her weakened state. Seeking out someone willing to cut her open and fish around in her stomach almost made more sense than spending her time on a manhunt for Sasuke. But yet she was choosing someone else’s problems over her own.
He’d never understand people who thought like her. That made it easier to ignore her inscrutable little smile.
“But first, something I was intending to from the beginning,” he cut in, turning his attention back to her hand. Yes. First things first. Then everything else. When he could settle everything into priorities and lists, things seemed clearer to his mind. “I’ll check your blood while we’re able.” And just like that, he pricked her index finger, quick as a flash. The tiny bead of blood that followed was all he really needed.
Blood scents only revealed so much, but…
“Well, there is some good news in all of this mess. I don’t detect any significant changes from the last time I checked. Nothing to suggest a full-on transformation. That, besides sharing with you my opinion, was what I wanted to see you for.”
She considered his words and nodded. "As you wish." It would probably be best if she returned to her room for the night after this anyway. "Please do let me know of Sasuke-san's condition tomorrow, if you would."
Her altruism was often also seated in selfishness. Perhaps if Aidou could see the truth in that, he would not find her behavior so perplexing.
Aigis didn't pull away when he moved to prick her finger. She was interested to know what he had to say on her blood. He seemed certain of his diagnosis and that gave Aigis immense relief. She even allowed herself a long exhalation as her eyes fluttered shut. "Thank you for checking on it. I greatly appreciate it."
Carefully, the vampire released her hand, avoiding having her blood touch him. Blood of any kind was challenging on his nerves; he didn't want to have to carry the scent on his skin.
"Yes, well. It was on my mind as well. Although Landel seems determined to push his experiment into the next stage, once again I think your infection has yet to reach that point."
And that was really all he'd come to do, wasn't it? Determine her status and give her a piece of his mind. With that done... yes, it was time to part and get on with his original plan.
Aidou tilted his head. "You should probably... rest. Conserve your energy."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
It smelled like blood! And not all of it good, healthy blood. What an annoying stink.
The tangle of scents in the air slowed the vampire's progress down a little as he tried to tease them apart, but not by much. Time was always of the essence. He slipped out of his cell block, looking behind him once in a while, instincts on edge. It was going to be a difficult night to concentrate, clearly.
Despite the night's tension bearing down on his shoulders, Aidou kept up a swift pace, moving from shadow to shadow until he arrived in the main corridor and spotted the young, fair-haired female standing off by herself. He knew that figure. The tired lines to her face had also grown familiar over the last few days.
But she was still herself. That was... good.
"Aigis." Silence and economy of movement was the nature of most vampires, but she was more aware of him than most.
no subject
Aidou didn't look too wonderful himself, but that was to be expected in this place. She glanced around but she didn't notice Sasuke in tow. "You are alone?"
no subject
"For now," he answered, moving up to her. "No audience." Or at the very least, no open invitation for one. They were in a high traffic area of the hospital, but the darkness was almost impenetrable for normal human eyes, and Aidou positioned himself in front of her so any flashlight-wielding voyeurs would catch his back in the spotlight instead of her.
Not true privacy, but as close as they were going to get without taking her aside into a private room.
Without preamble, he reached for her chin, expression set. If anything, his prickly nerves only made him more focused--he looked over her face, the pulse point in her neck, the way she was standing, every pertinent detail he could glean in a glance. "Any changes?"
no subject
Aigis allowed Aidou to move close and block her from the rest of the hall's eyes. She appreciated his effort to keep her safe, but still she felt her safety ought not to have been a priority in the long run. Her eyes widened very slightly as he looked her over. A very slight rush sped the beating of her heart, primarily because of her infection but not entirely.
She frowned, moving a hand to cover her stomach. "Other than the usual, there have been sharp pains here." She paused for just a moment. "Perhaps I should seek out a surgeon..."
no subject
No matter.
“Well, he’s sure taking his sweet time. At the very least, I told him to meet me after you. Assuming you were still you and didn’t require more of my attention, anyway.” But Aigis still her usual deadpan self, which was a positive sign. A spontaneous transformation would happen sooner rather than later, wouldn’t it? If the oncoming of night hadn’t set her off, Aidou didn’t see why Landel would wait and flip the switch on her later. For maximization of terror, he expected the transformations would happen right off the bat.
But stomach pains… Taking into account the previous night’s “clue,” that wasn’t a good sign. Yet it was just one more variable to file away--it didn’t change his position on all of this surgery talk.
He let his hand fall away in order to cross his arms. “You remember I said I was going to give you my opinion when we spoke in person? “ he said. “Well, here it is: I think mounting an expedition into the depths of your stomach would be a bad idea, not only because I doubt you‘ll find a legitimately trained surgeon that doesn‘t already work for the Institute. ‘Hasty’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. Shall I give you the bullet points? We don’t know if we can even trust that clue. You don’t know if there’s even anything to find. In your state, trusting an outsider could be a death sentence, let alone the rest. This has all the telltale signs of a trap. Perhaps you don’t want to hear this from someone like me, but I’m only being objective.”
no subject
"And I am still me, it seems." She state the obvious. Then another set of stomach pains raked through her and she clutched at her stomach again, unable to hide her wince. Whatever was causing it, that butterfly or whatever mechanism, Aigis didn't like it. Not one bit.
Aigis straightened when it seemed Aidou was ready to explain his position. She hadn't expected it to feel quite so much like she was being scolded but she compartmentalized it as Aidou just being his usual abrasive self. It was still a little hard to take.
"... I do not mind hearing it from you." If anything, he was probably the only one who would give her this kind of honest, difficult reasoning. "I just do not wish to hurt anyone. And I would rather not experience death in this body." She took a shuddering breath. "It is hard enough having experienced a full shut down when I was fully mechanical."
no subject
It was quite unlike him, he thought, to be so conflicted that one moment he could be promising himself no distractions with that knife-like intensity that often characterized his cruelty, and the next be reaching for her shoulders to hold her steady. Something like sympathy twisted in his gut, marring his expression with discomfort. The self-protective part of him wanted to crush that feeling, crush it until there was nothing left because that kind of feeling only got in the way.
The heartlessness of vampires was such a standard part of their image that it was almost easy to make it real. A heart that that didn't beat couldn't feel, couldn't care, couldn't mourn. Without loneliness, a vampire child couldn't miss home. Without affection, a vampire couldn't make someone else's pain his own and invest a part of his already withered reserves.
It hurt a little, to recognize how closed off he had become. But it also hurt to think he could like this girl. There was no good in it, these bonds between people who had no business being near one another.
His gaze wavered, dropping to the right of her. His voice, when it came, was far quieter than before. "Look, I know you're... you're tired. I know. But--" What was the 'but'? The girl didn't want to suffer and lose herself, and succumb to death. Was it any surprise that she wanted to seek out a solution? What cold-bloodedness lurked at the heart of his warnings to abandon her attempts?
Aidou didn't know. And he didn't know what words to use to fill the silence. He knew what he could say, that he could try and protect her and make things right. But--
But.
But.
Finally, he lowered his eyelids. There were times when his youthfulness seemed almost eerie, next to what lay underneath his skin. "I'm a mean person, you know. I only say these things because I don't fear your death the same way you do--you, who will probably never live as long as I. You should do what you see fit to save yourself."
no subject
She blinked. And then an emotion that was almost fully foreign to her whenever the vampire was concerned came over her; true warmth. She studied his face a moment longer, taking in the lowering of his eyes, such a contrast to the proud creature she knew him to be. She had the unmistakable urge to reach out to him, but she knew she should not, so she didn't.
"You surprise me, Aidou-san," she said softly. The barest hint of a smile reached her lips. "And I must say, you are wrong. On two counts even. One in that you assume I would die so long before you when my existence can be prolonged for however long my parts are kept in sustainability. And two, for considering my existence a true 'life' at all."
If one did not live, one could not truly die. She had probably said this to him dozens of times over by now, but he still found it so hard to accept. She did not suppose she could blame him. Even sometimes she forgot when she was in this body.
He had offered her a small kindness just now. One that he never had before, and one that she would treasure.
This time, when the urge to touch him came to her she did not fight it. Very lightly, she moved to touch his arm with just the barest glance of her fingertips, doing what she could to draw him along with her.
"Let us look for Sasuke-san. He is surely much too late to have not run into trouble." She said the words in order to give them both an easy escape from this; a moment that was so small but held too much meaning to comprehend in such a short amount of time. Perhaps he would deny her, turn away, flee to be on his own, but she would not stop him if he chose that either. It was his right to choose. She would just rather he took her with him this time, no questions asked.
no subject
He assumed she meant his admittance that he had no great interest in whether she lived or died. If Landel's experiment resulted in her demise, he wouldn't cry for her, and that made it easy to look at her position objectively. Only natural if that coldness surprised her.
But as he looked at her from beneath his lashes, he thought perhaps he had surprised her in a different way. Aigis seemed almost... reassured by his actions.
Why? His brow furrowed faintly.
She was a strange person. To feel so strongly over the existences of others but doubting the value of her own. A being that felt fear, that felt pain, that could shed tears... that was life, surely, no matter what the body was made out of. But then that was the same sort of existential argument that plagued vampires and humans, for if a vampire could feel then he was certainly just as alive as any human. The same had to apply to Aigis.
"We could harp on those topics for a long while yet," he observed aloud. It steadied him, letting his feelings settle back down and reason take their place. "Though I dare say someone that has as much to fear as you is alive."
Maybe it comforted her to think otherwise, during this uncertain period. He couldn't say. She seemed to worry about strange things and take comfort in even stranger--which, at the moment, appeared to be his poor choice of words. If it had been Aidou in her place, he didn't think his first response would be to reach out to the other person, but he didn't try to stop her. He'd done it first, after all, and she allowed his touch readily enough.
After a beat, he retracted a hand in order to snag her wrist before she could move away. Even as he turned her hand over so that it was facing palm up, he was considering her suggestion. Yes, Sasuke was running late if he hadn't arrived in the hallway yet; a glance at the corridor told him as much. That was Aidou's problem to figure out, however, not Aigis'. Hadn't she already implied as much?
"What happened to searching for a cure?" he asked, looking up from her hand. "Up until now, you gave the impression you had plans."
no subject
"Indeed, we could perhaps spend several lifetimes in discussion over what makes one a living being if we were given the freedom." She shook her head, unable to fight against his logic, though she knew better. She was not alive back home. And she never would be living there. Here, however.... "Now is not the time."
Aigis didn't pull away when he grabbed her wrist. This kind of handling was familiar. She had a feeling Aidou was returning to himself again. She found she did not mind that, even if the softer side to the vampire had been interesting to view.
"I have no plans currently. I was waiting to hear what you had to say first before I sought out a surgeon or other means of stopping this illness." And what he said tonight had given her some calm; better than her talk with Castiel, that was certain. Ironic. "Sasuke-san's safety is of higher importance. I do not like the idea of him running so late, despite what disorientation his blindness might cause him."
no subject
Funny, that even after everything said and done Aigis continued to blaze ahead without paying mind to her weakened state. Seeking out someone willing to cut her open and fish around in her stomach almost made more sense than spending her time on a manhunt for Sasuke. But yet she was choosing someone else’s problems over her own.
He’d never understand people who thought like her. That made it easier to ignore her inscrutable little smile.
“But first, something I was intending to from the beginning,” he cut in, turning his attention back to her hand. Yes. First things first. Then everything else. When he could settle everything into priorities and lists, things seemed clearer to his mind. “I’ll check your blood while we’re able.” And just like that, he pricked her index finger, quick as a flash. The tiny bead of blood that followed was all he really needed.
Blood scents only revealed so much, but…
“Well, there is some good news in all of this mess. I don’t detect any significant changes from the last time I checked. Nothing to suggest a full-on transformation. That, besides sharing with you my opinion, was what I wanted to see you for.”
no subject
Her altruism was often also seated in selfishness. Perhaps if Aidou could see the truth in that, he would not find her behavior so perplexing.
Aigis didn't pull away when he moved to prick her finger. She was interested to know what he had to say on her blood. He seemed certain of his diagnosis and that gave Aigis immense relief. She even allowed herself a long exhalation as her eyes fluttered shut. "Thank you for checking on it. I greatly appreciate it."
no subject
"Yes, well. It was on my mind as well. Although Landel seems determined to push his experiment into the next stage, once again I think your infection has yet to reach that point."
And that was really all he'd come to do, wasn't it? Determine her status and give her a piece of his mind. With that done... yes, it was time to part and get on with his original plan.
Aidou tilted his head. "You should probably... rest. Conserve your energy."