Day 66: Sun Room (Third Shift)

[freewill]

When the shift changed, Gabriel didn't hesitate to take his leave, and Castiel couldn't blame him for that. He likely had other people he wanted to talk to, and as a newer patient, he might even be curious about some of the other areas. Castiel had seen it all multiple times by now, so when his nurse asked him if he wanted to move elsewhere, he declined.

It seemed better to remain in one spot for as long as he could and stay still so that his body wasn't pushed past its limits. His nurse couldn't argue with that, so instead she went to go get him some more painkillers, which he swallowed down instantly.

Relying on human drugs... It seemed ridiculous, though Dean had once given him a whole bottle to take. He wouldn't mind doing so again, but with the way his body was right now, that likely wasn't a good idea. So he'd just have to go along with what the nurses allowed him.

"Though Michael, you should really try to eat," his nurse insisted as she set a brown bag into his lap. "I know you're hurting a lot right now, but you'll feel better if you can get some food down."

Maybe she was right, but when Castiel stared at the bag, it seemed like a trial to even open it. Maybe if he just drank something... Slowly, he lifted his hand to push the bag open and reached inside to see what was there.

"There we go," the nurse encouraged him with a smile. "I'll be close-by in case you need anything."

At that point, she walked off, and he was left alone again. Maybe after he drank something, he could even see about getting some rest. Humans could sleep sitting up, couldn't they?

Comments

[faeth]

She needed to clear her mind, she had said, when she had left Ishida-kun's side -- but even the bright weather filtering in through the glass did very little to help. Even the adrenaline, the post-exercise buzz was more galling than calming. Orihime reached out into a ray of sunlight, moving her fingers until the warmth crept up her fingertips, her knuckles, her wrist. No good. Her skin still felt as cold and clammy as ever.

Kurosaki-kun.

A lot of people had once stayed within these walls. She had, too. Try as she might to remember, the memories never resurfaced, the headache never went away. Her cheeks were hurting from smiling too hard, too forcefully and too fakely, but psychology had never kicked in, and instead of happiness she only felt lonelier. She never did learn how to fake it until it became the real deal, after all. Maybe she never should've tried to leave Ishida-kun.

This was a hopeless venture, she knew.

Orihime stood in front of the bulletin, her hands folded at her center, holding her sack lunch and looking hopeful and lost all at once. There were a lot of messages. People looking for other people, some finding them while others waited.

She waited. For what, she didn't know. But she wasn't hungry, and that in itself was a strange circumstance all its own.

[ for Kurogane! ]

[seekingmystrength]

Each time he got the freedom to move, Kurogane was in the Sun Room, checking over the board to see if there was any response. At one point he had asked to head for other rooms - to check if the magician was around somewhere else - but he'd been denied that possibility by his nurse. She knew he was ill and didn't want him moving around too much. Like that was any of her business.

The fact that he'd been in the room three times without finding Fai or getting a response wasn't good though. The ninja had been there long enough to know what getting no response could mean, and none of those possibilities were good. With the lack of any response still persisting on the board, Tsubaki's assistance excluded, he had determined that room 99 would be his first stop regardless of whatever atrocities Landel had planned once night fell.

Swearing quietly, he'd turned from the board with the intent of finding a nurse that wasn't as set on keeping him in one place when the presence of another there finally registered. His attention had been so set on both locating the blonde man and getting to the board for a response that he'd overlooked all others. That, or his persisting illness had just dulled his senses too much, because even he couldn't understand how it was he could have missed the young woman with orange hair.

"Orihime," he said plainly, watching how she would respond while thinking that he had better not be to the point of hallucinating.

[faeth]

She'd been in front of the bulletin for ten minutes or so, Orihime wasn't really sure. Although she was usually the type to approach and to be approached, the tentative look on her face and the furrow in her brow had been enough of a message -- do not disturb, check in later, please leave a message after the beep. But that type of isolation was never good for anyone, especially her, and it was all she could do, not to get anxious for a reason of her own making.

There was a man beside her, and the way he towered over her in height was not quite as intimidating as the fact that he somehow knew her name. It was a simple statement. She jumped.

There was something decidedly different about being called by her first name, and it seemed like ages ago since she was called by such, with such a casual familiarity that even she was slightly swayed. Orihime turned her head to look up at the man's face, taking in his features and trying to recollect, but... to no avail. Still, she replied, more curious than hesitant. "Yes?"

[seekingmystrength]

Though it wasn't verbal at first, he saw the young woman respond at the name. A jump, as if in surprise, and then a look up at him that did not speak of recognition. When she finally spoke, her words echoed the same.

Possibilities... There were more again, and too many of them to easily figure out why it was the girl was not only back, but did not recognize him.

Some weeks had passed since he'd last seen her, but he never forgot those he met. Whether or not she knew him, if she was at least the same person - maybe even a different version of the same - then he couldn't confuse her too much. The one he knew had gotten flustered far too easily.

That was how he had to approach her in any event.

"You don't know who I am, do you?"

[faeth]

The years have certainly added age and calm to her demeanor. Where she might've flustered before, she doesn't do so now, but old habits die hard, and in reality she was still the young girl who skipped down the hallways whilst singing her own theme song. "Um, m-maybe?" There was a lilt in Orihime's voice, a question, and she wasn't sure if it was because she was afraid of the consequences of not knowing (he was tall and bulky -- quarterback-material, perhaps), or because she didn't want to disappoint him. "Eh... p-perhaps you were sent from the water department? Of my apartment. But I'm sure I paid the bills before I left, unless I somehow got the postage amount all wrong." What a scary thought, if he really was hounding her for her bills and followed her all the way here -- she would never pay a late electrical bill again.

But the dark-haired man continued to look at her, a hint of confusion apparent in his eyes. She recalled what Ishida-kun had said about her being here before. That once upon a time, she was someone else, herself and not simultaneously.

She had thought, back then, and now as he asked her, that it was all very sad.

"...I don't," she admitted, chin tucking in as she regarded him. "I'm sorry, but um...

"I would like to."

[seekingmystrength]

"..."

It was her. If nothing else, he couldn't deny that much. But she wasn't the one he'd met. Another version, or possibly even a past version... whatever the case, she was Orihime - one of the more reasonable kids he'd met in the place, however strange her words might get.

"That happens here," he eventually told her. He didn't want her feeling like she was going crazy if he could help it. Not if she was new. "It happens for me a lot anyway. Don't let it get to you."

He gave a glance away from her and out at the room. There was still no sign of Fai, nor of many that he knew. He tried to think if there were any still around from back then that might also know her. Fai, wherever he was, came to mind, but no others. He couldn't be sure who else she had known outside of him though. Either way, a warning would be good.

"I'm Kurogane, and just for warning, there could be others here who will know you that you've never seen before. I know one." He held up his good arm just shy of his own height. "A tall blonde named Fai."

[faeth]

Happens a lot for me, he had said, and it took her a moment to figure out whether he meant the meeting-people-you've-met-in-another-life-and-not-remembering-them thing or... getting late utility bills. He must get a lot of late fees.

But no, even she knew better than that. There was something oddly devastating in the casual way Kurogane-san mentioned it, even if she recognized the attempt to mollify her (don't let it get to you). It was difficult to swallow -- he was talking about losing friends and seeing them again and having them forget like it was all a very ordinary, everyday thing. Monsters, she had initially thought, were the worst things this place could throw at her; she never even considered all of these tests to her psyche.

But she wasn't the one directly suffering. Because there was a time when Kurogane-san had met an Orihime, and they'd gone window shopping and sipped lemonade beneath an oak tree and were good friends and bonded -- and she remembered none of it. It was one thing if she was the one who'd lost a friend, but--

...but hadn't she, in a way?

"Nn, thank you for the advice, Kurogane-sa-" Wait. They used to be friends, right? "...Kurogane-kun. I've been informed, but I-"

... Something clicked, and she noticed now, the way he kept glancing out of the corner of his eye, the message she had seen on the bulletin.

"Ah. Have you been looking for him?"

/dates and honorifics...!! *ded*

[seekingmystrength]

He hadn't been trying to upset her. Just get her warned. When he'd gotten there, the first thing he'd dealt with was the magician running from him like he was some sort of monster. Getting a warning then would have been helpful, though chances were he wouldn't have taken it. Even he had to admit he'd been a lot more brash upon arrival.

Now he knew to expect that nothing would make sense.

When she started thanking him, he was nearly about to wave her off when she corrected herself in addressing him. Ever since he'd chosen the name, he'd not been called in such a way, not even by Tomoyo who most times saw it as her job to torment him. The magician had made up his own names as well, but that idiot hadn't even been attempting to call him properly those times. Because of that though, Orihime's words surprised him more than they should have.

"Hah?" he stared, not really sure what to think.

Where she came from, stuff like that was probably important. Ururu had called him Kuro-san, and she'd been from the same world hadn't she? He'd never really given this kind of thing much thought, nor practiced in how he addressed others. Names were rare for him to speak anyway.

"Just... Kurogane," he eventually said, shaking out his head and trying to get beyond the strange feeling. He looked back at the room again. "And yeah. Haven't seen him in a while."

alskdfj yes, she imagines how they were friends beforeasdf sorry

[faeth]

... Well, that wasn't the reaction she expected. Which wasn't bad, per se, but not really good either. Maybe -- odd?

"...O-oh! Um," She started, and before she was even aware of the fact, she was wringing her hands at her front, fingers fidgety and restless. "Kurogane." It came out as a strangely pitched squeak. But it was understandable when, besides Tatsuki, there wasn't another person whom she'd addressed quite so informally, with all the casual air of friends that have known each other for years and years. In the end though, it wasn't really much of a sacrifice if she really thought about it. Strangeness, she could tolerate -- but the thought of memories gone to waste was a sadness she couldn't bear, even emphatically.

She imagined shared photobooths and picnics and Tatsuki-chan, and tried to think about what it might feel like to suddenly lose all of that. At the same time, she understood that it wasn't right to assume friendship when she was still different, not quite the Orihime that he once knew.

At the very least, she'd be able to meet him halfway, she thought, if they were going to be friends, now.

"I see," she replied, as casual as the concern on her face would allow. The great deal of information that she'd been fed since morning wasn't doing very much to help put a stop to her imagination, that conjured up images of monsters, and nurses with their needles, and the various things that could've happened to this 'Fai' who once knew her -- knew a her. "Maybe we should go look for him."