Night 68: M11-M20 Hallway

[forsworn]

Kratos grimaced as Landel gave his usual little speech to begin the night. Having kept a close eye on the board, he hadn't failed to notice the influx of notes subtly telling of another death, another person that had succumbed despite all the advances they'd made in finding a cure. It was frustrating, and it hurt: he had contributed to that influx himself, killing Sora in self-defense the other night. Truth be told, he had been utterly useless the past two days, and unfortunately, he couldn't say that tonight would be the night where he'd turn things around--well, perhaps it would be, if he could actually accomplish what he wanted to do. That would be something to be satisfied about.

Neither of his old uniforms tonight; Kratos chose instead the old military gear left over from Aguilar's tenure, careful as he tugged one of the gloves on over his still-healing hand. Without the bulk of the Key Crest, it fit far more easily, but the victory meant nothing. At the very least, though, the long sleeves of the shirt and the glove served to hide the bandage from prying eyes.

He gave a slight nod to his roommate before turning to leave. Time to find Tsurugi.

[to here]

Comments

[oyaji]

"The way you woke up!" he explained, waving his hand a little frantically. He was so full of adrenaline that he couldn't calm down so quickly, and it gave his words a bit of a bite to them. "You... I mean you woke up like a princess under a witch's spell, and I hadn't even kissed you ye--ehhh! Not that I was going to kiss you!" He corrected with utmost haste as he jumped off the bed in spasmodic horror. Why in the hell had he even said that?! Kotetsu had been so nervous and so crammed full of worries, ideas, imagery, he just started talking out of hand! He hoped Barnaby understood that!

"I just meant you--Oh man, this is just too bizarre!" Cupping a hand over his face, the former Hero tried to figure out how to even start describing what the hell happened to him. "You wouldn't wake up! I've been--I've been here for like ten minutes shaking you and you just... wouldn't wake up..." Sadness overwhelmed his emotions again as he relived the fear and guilt he felt. "I thought that flower I gave you had poisoned you..."

[baniichan]

Up until now, he'd been completely unaware of Kotetsu trying to rouse him. That thought unnerved Barnaby, especially when he considered how little control he had over what happened to him in this place as it was. What did he sleep so deeply? And how long had he been out? Since the night before?

As usual, Kotetsu wasn't making a whole lot of sense, going on about fairy tales and kissing him -- or, rather, not kissing him, as he so adamantly insisted. Barnaby watched him with a flat expression as he flailed away from him like he'd just been burned by his own senseless rambling.

"Well, I doubt your breath is all that fresh, so maybe it's for the best that you didn't kiss me," Barnaby countered, folding his arms over his chest as he spoke. Not that any of that mattered when compared to the rest of his story, he just wanted to give the man a hard time.

Kotetsu was right to suspect the flower, seeing how the odds of it magically solving their problems from before seemed to have been built more around wishful thinking than anything else. Barnaby wondered if he should have been more forceful about not eating the damn thing, but a quick glance at his arm showed that the rash hadn't returned. If he was awake now and the symptoms weren't back, then it was possible this bout of unconsciousness was completely unrelated to that so-called "cure".

A small frown pulled at Barnaby's mouth. "You were worried I wasn't going to wake up." It was an observation, not a question. "Was that why you were hovering over me like that?"

[oyaji]

Wow, what? His breath was totally fine! Kotetsu huffed at that, but soon enough paranoia set in. Putting his hand up against his mouth, he breathed out to check it. It smelled fine to him! "Whatever, I'm always kissably fresh!" Thankfully he didn't have to prove it to Barnaby, so his partner would never know if he was just being a bullshitter or not. They had more important things to worry about than his breath anyhow!

Sitting back down beside the young man, Kotetsu worried his hands together trying to come up with any logical reason he wouldn't wake up. The problem was there just wasn't one! "Y-Yeah. I didn't know what else to do--I mean, your pulse was fine, your heart beat was fine, you were breathing! It wasn't like you were dying, but you wouldn't respond and..." Kotetsu wasn't sure how to put his fears into words properly, so he just moved on without them. "I couldn't just let you lay there all by yourself!"

[baniichan]

"You didn't exactly need to go out by yourself, either," Barnaby flatly pointed out. But then his eyes softened, and he averted his gaze a little. "I'm sorry for troubling you, though."

They had enough to deal with without having to worry about Barnaby spontaneously falling asleep. He hoped this didn't become a pattern, especially if they intended on getting out of here as soon as possible.

"For what it's worth, I feel fine physically," he added. "So, there's no need to worry." As for how he was doing emotionally, well...that was another matter, but now didn't seem to be the time to dig into that mess, as much as he wanted to get everything sorted out. They were both clearly exhausted in some fashion or another. Still, he didn't immediately meet Kotetsu's eyes.