knightspirit: (this isn't good.)
♞ tsurugi kyousuke ([personal profile] knightspirit) wrote in [community profile] damned_institute2012-11-05 10:55 pm

Day 67: Breakfast

For the first time since Kyousuke arrived, waking up didn't feel the slightest bit strange or out of place. It was still like night had suddenly stopped, with nothing in-between then and now, but instead of being disorienting, or like there was something missing, it was like waking up from a nightmare. His breaths came heavy and anxious, everything flooding back to him, but unlike last night, he had more mental clarity, and he actually understood what it meant.

Sora... was dead.

After a moment, his breathing seemed to ease up, and he sat up slowly, and simply stared down at his blanket. The motion hurt quite a bit, a lot worse than it had yesterday morning, but he seemed to be in decent shape, all considered. Sore, battered, a little faint, but compared to worst of it...

He wondered if he should feel upset right now, or want to yell, or cry, but the truth was, he didn't. If anything, he was just numb. Tired and listless. He wasn't sure what to think or feel about anything, but somehow it seemed distant and disconnected, like something that hadn't actually happened. Yet, if he lingered on it too long, the lifelessness grew into something nauseating, heavy and constricting in his chest, and he didn't even notice until he realized he was gripping his bedding unnecessarily hard. So he forced himself to relax, and not focus on it too much. ... He preferred the cold sort of nothingness.

When the nurse arrived, she wasn't empty-handed, unfolding a wheelchair by his bedside and looking at him expectantly, as if she wanted him to settle himself into it. Looking at it was strange and uncomfortable, and he found himself refusing automatically.

"... I can walk fine. I don't need—"

"What you don't need," the nurse said sternly, "is to be overexerting yourself. You got to walk around yesterday, and what do you do? You go and reopen your injuries! Honestly, Mr. Taylor, you might be young, but you need to take better care of yourself! Today, you're resting, and if you're good about it, we'll see about maybe taking the chair away tomorrow."

That was bad enough, but then she wouldn't even let him wheel himself, and pushed him along from behind. This was totally unnecessary... But though it made him feel helpless, Kyousuke didn't have the energy to argue, so he let her do what she wanted. She asked if he wanted to make a quick trip the bulletin, first, but... Would the news be there? There were people who deserved to know, but there would be reactions to it, questions he didn't want to answer, and feeling his stomach give a lurch, he decided he didn't want to deal with it. Any of it.

Once in the cafeteria, the nurse asked him about breakfast, but Kyousuke insisted he wasn't hungry. ... He wasn't. Sensing he wanted to be left alone, she wheeled him off to an easily overlooked portion of the cafeteria, but quickly returned, setting food and some juice in front of him, "just in case." She set a small paper cup with a couple of painkillers on the tray, and after that, she left, leaving the boy to stare down the meal he didn't really want.

[ Kratos! ]
heroesdontshave: (oh?)

[personal profile] heroesdontshave 2012-11-08 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
"Dazed" was a good way to describe Snow as he walked into the cafeteria. Or maybe "drained." It felt like he'd been sick forever by this point, and spending all his time trying to act like he wasn't sick took a lot more energy than he really wanted to admit. He couldn't even bring himself to be rebellious that morning and just went along with his nurse with little more than some grumbles and dirty looks.

Dammit. Come on. It was just a little bug going around. Why was he letting it get to him this much? There was too much going on right now for him to sit around and do nothing. He needed to keep going. There were people counting on him. Besides, there were plenty of people moping around without him adding himself to the count. Come on, wake up! Snap out of it! No way was he going to let something like getting a little sick slow him down!

After mentally pep talking his way through the breakfast line and getting his weird grid-shaped food, Snow felt a little better. Or at least he felt like he could definitely push through and keep going like normal, which was good enough. He just needed to get a little energy going was all it was. Food ought to do the trick. And maybe some conversation.

As far as the latter went, Snow was remarkably unbiased and just plopped himself into the first seat he saw that happened to have a living body sitting across from it. No greeting. No introduction. No asking for permission to sit. He just spread a big smile and blurted out, "Whatcha got there? Anything good?"

Despite the fact that the guy was obviously really into whatever book he'd managed to get his hands on, it didn't occur to Snow that the guy might be busy or that he might be interrupting.

[personal profile] asteroidbelt 2012-11-08 04:58 am (UTC)(link)
The first thing Ryusei caught sight of as he looked up was his roommate, looking much worse than he'd had the last time he'd seen him. Well, naturally—that was the result of fighting. But it was...odd.

"Nothing," he replied, turning his gaze to the person who'd addressed him. Who seemed...scraggly. "Just my journal." Now the question was whether this big guy's smile was fake. It was hard to tell sometimes what would cause certain people to snap, and Ryusei was wary about cheerful people right now because there was that stereotype about the mentally ill....

He placed the notebook next to his tray and folded his hands above it. ... Why not take the chance? It was better than interrupting someone random later who might not want to be disturbed. "Hey. Uh, I'm Sakuta. What's that thing where they take you somewhere at night?"