Day 69: Breakfast

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar scowled, both relieved and angry that he had woken up once again in his own bed. That lanky man who had become his new roommate on the night of his death was sound asleep one bed over.

This was coming to be the new "normal." It was infuriating.

As always, he begrudgingly followed his nurse into the cafeteria and took a seat. He preferred to file in with the majority of the patients in order to avoid sticking out, but no such luck this morning.

Scar stared at his food rather than starting in on it, despite the newly found appetite that had been lost thanks to that blasted sickness. He had a lot to think about. He hadn't managed to find Frank last night. The damn intercom had beaten him to it. And judging by Tsubaki's reaction to him, he had been out for at least a day's time. How many had noticed? Cared? It couldn't have been many.

But it was the few who did whose detection Scar was desperate to avoid.

[Eddyyyy!]

Comments

[dividedby]

With the way his night had ended, Zero probably should have considered himself lucky to hear Landel's grating voice tell him to 'get his lazy bones out of bed'. Yet the only thing he could think with clarity in those first few moments awake was how much he wanted to shut that voice up for good.

Everything else was quite like the end of that night. A confusing, painful fog.

His arm reacted less to having pressure applied to it, which was good, but his injured right leg was a different story entirely - one he didn't learn until he tried to stand on it much too quickly. Big mistake. That action only rewarded him with sharp, burning pain that spread like a wildfire up his leg and into his lower body. Immediately he fell back down to the edge of his bed, wincing and gritting his teeth as he waited for the pain to die back down to a dull throbbing where the cut was. Now it was his frail human body who was taking the brunt of his internal anger.

The nurse was going to be next, for no other reason other than showing up and smiling in that condescending way. Pretending to be concerned like usual, huh? Or if not that, then still happily brainwashed? Whatever. Just let the day be over with already...

Unfortunately, thanks to his leg, walking wasn't going to be so simple. The nurse figured this was going to be the case and came prepared with a pair of crutches. Zero had seen humans and even a few Resistance soldiers use these before, but he'd never had a reason to use them himself before now...guess it was his turn at last. Lucky him. The crutches were awkward and uncomfortable, but he tolerated them only for the fact that it was far more uncomfortable trying to walk on his injured leg. What he could not tolerate was how his nurse now had more of a reason to hound him everywhere he went, even to the breakfast tables. Not that it didn't make sense - he wouldn't have been able to carry his tray himself with these crutches - but he hated having to be around her more than necessary.

For once, he was actually hoping that some other prisoner would pester him with mundane conversation. Anything was better than listening to her talk on and on and on about his health and the weather and everything he couldn't care less about...

[X!]

[maverickhunterx]

X, conversely, had a completely different sort of night.

He'd found himself not in bed, but under it, clutching his flashlight tightly to him in a way that could only be described as a deathgrip. His nurse had been the one to wake him up, nudging him with the end of a broom as though he was a cat stuck in the storm drain. With a blink of his eyes, he'd woken up, making some excuse about how he'd heard something outside and he'd gotten scared, and while the Nurse had hardly believed him...

It was enough to get her to get off his back, allowing X to tune her chattering out as his mind had wandered back to last night.

...

That sickness had come again. That craving for blood, the need to smell the sickeningly sweet scent of flesh, and his leg had cramped more than ever before. He hadn't even thought twice before staying in his room, closing himself in the moment his roommate dashed out into the hallway. He'd rolled under his bed, flashlight in hand, ready to flash it in unsuspecting patients' faces to scare them off if they'd bothered to wander in.

That, or simply huddle under the bed, silent, lost in his own thoughts as he tried to stave off the hunger that made his stomach growl, his nose twitch, and his mind whirl.

If he left his room, it would have very well been a repeat of the incident with Zero. He could have hurt someone, bit into their skin without thinking, chewing on flesh, savoring that sweetness that he'd only barely managed to give himself--

X held his mouth at the thought, barely able to keep himself from vomiting.

He just needed food. Real food. Something that tasted like something an organic would eat, rather than...the cravings he'd had the night before, as he'd ground his teeth, clutched the floor, and kept himself from leaping out whenever that unmistakeable scent of meat fluttered by.

"You know, the floor isn't a comfortable place to be sleeping, Alex--"

Oh, the nurse was still talking, even as he went into the cafeteria. Even as he grabbed his tray, she was still talking small talk, but X wasn't paying attention. He was just looking for a place to sit. A familiar face, someone, anyone--

Wait. Who was that...? That familiar face, blonde hair, sitting at a table with his nurse nearby...

"Zero!"

He sat down next to him, setting his tray down. He didn't notice the nearby crutches, so relieved was he on finding someone he knew, and someone he was already worried about, at that...

[dividedby]

Of all the prisoners who could have sat down and tried to strike up conversation, it was very fortunately X - someone Zero liked and was relieved to see in one piece - who ended up actually doing so. He was considering himself lucky for that. However--

"Oh, it's your friend Alex!" the nurse chimed in before Zero could say a word. "Why don't you two have a nice breakfast together?"

...That's what I'm going to do if you'll just be quiet, he wanted to say, but he held his tongue; no need to give her another reason to keep yapping. Instead, he ignored her by turning his full attention to X. (Of course, the irritation his expression had held while interacting with the nurse was noticeably absent now.)

"X. Are you okay?" The younger former Reploid seemed to be in good health, but looks could be deceiving. What had happened to him last night, while Zero had been off getting himself injured in a foolish way? Hopefully X hadn't put himself into any dangerous situations...

[maverickhunterx]

Was he in good health? Yes. Yes, he did seem to be. His body was unbruised, and he didn't suffer any discomfort other than feeling cramped and achy after his date with his bedroom floor. Even the imprints of the textured outside of the flashlight in the palm of his right hand wasn't alarming, and X himself...

...well, he felt fine.

But he didn't say that, nor even mention anything relating to Zero's question. At least...not concerning himself.

"I should be asking you the same question."

It came out of X's mouth faster than expected, but he couldn't help it. Was it because of simple worry? Was it because it had been on his mind all night, sitting in the edge of his thoughts like a particularly insistent bird chirping in his ear?

...No.

His eyes had settled on the nearby crutches, finally, and his stomach had wrenched. All thoughts of speaking about himself flew the coop, concern fluttering to the surface (and on his face) faster than one could blink.

His head jerked towards them as he spoke:

"Or are those someone else's?"

[dividedby]

...X was too obvious about his thoughts and feelings, wasn't he. And he was so good at showing such absurdly intense worry for his friends, enough that Zero could practically feel the worry radiating off of him. It seemed like he did this every day since showing up in this place...though perhaps Zero shouldn't be so surprised. Even though the X he knew from his own time was much different, he remembered how X used to be in some way...and he had never, ever lost his concern for the people he cared about.

Nevertheless, it made Zero frown, seeing how X reacted to the sight of the crutches. The worry was not necessary. He was fine...really.

"They're mine," he confirmed, plain and simple, as if answering any old question. He stared at his friend, saying nothing else for a moment. But then, he decided to turn the conversation back around, as it should be. "...You didn't answer my question."

[maverickhunterx]

X sighed.

Really? He shouldn't have been surprised that Zero was going to talk about this like he was making a simple remark about the morning coffee, but it didn't make it any more vexing. No explanation? Nothing?

"I'm fine, but..."

He shook his head.

"What happened? I'm pretty sure you didn't just fall down the stairs. Were you...?"

Attacked? Trapped somewhere? Had a wall collapse on you? All three things at once?

[dividedby]

"Maybe I did fall down the stairs," Zero replied at first, the sarcasm perhaps a bit noticeable. Clearly he wasn't happy about where this conversation was going, and for good reason: was this really necessary? This miniature war on who talks about their problems first? Zero only cared about what X had been doing last night, not himself. He didn't think explaining his own failure the night before was necessary, or was going to make the man feel any better. If anything, it was likely going to make X feel worse.

But if he wanted to know so badly... (In other words, X probably wasn't going to shut up until he got his answer.) Zero let out a small sigh. "...I got lost upstairs. Then an eagle attacked me. It injured me, but I got away...that's all." Once again, he spoke nonchalantly, like there was nothing to talk about. And to him, there really wasn't.

...But apparently, the nurse disagreed. "Now, Yūdai," she suddenly chimed in, "I understand your injury frustrates you, but please don't make up stories about it. Eagles don't attack people."

Did she really have to interrupt? The frown on Zero's face became even more noticeable, though he once again tried to ignore her outwardly, not even looking in her direction when she spoke. Still trying his 'ignore and maybe she will go away' tactic; he quietly stared at X in the hopes that he would participate.

[maverickhunterx]

Ignore her and maybe she would go away...it was a childish notion, sure, one that X had found hadn't worked one bit in his days of staying here, but it was something he still ended up doing from time to time...

Like now.

"A...what?" he asked.

Eagles? Eagles. Eagles. First monsters, then strange, disgusting afflictions that caused him to want to do things that he didn't even want to think about, and now eagles? Where were they even hiding? In the rafters? Why was Landel keeping them? Where were they even living?

The nurse was right about one thing, though; eagles didn't normally attack people. And yet it attacked Zero, enough so to where he was on crutches.

...

If X didn't feel that...that...feeling tonight, he was going to watch over Zero, to make sure he was safe.

But really...

What else did Landel have hidden in this place?

[dividedby]

"...An eagle," Zero said again, his expression unchanging despite X's reaction. Was it really so unusu...oh. Wait. Beyond his first night here, had X really been outside at night? From what Zero understood, the answer was no. So he probably hadn't encountered them or even heard of them yet...hmm...

With that in mind, he was going to add on to that - a description of what the eagle had looked like, perhaps, or what it had done to him specifically - but before he could say anything, the nurse chimed in yet again. This time, she spoke directly at X. "Actually," she oh-so-helpfully said in that cheerful voice of hers, "he had an accident in the Greenhouse yesterday afternoon. But he'll be alright!"

... Clearly, she wasn't going to catch any clues from being ignored. So this time Zero, with his frown still quite noticeable, momentarily glanced back at her as he said rather flatly, "We're having a conversation."

But as originally predicted, that only provoked a defensive response from the nurse. "Yūdai, please. Not one of your moods again, and especially not in front of your friend." She spoke to him as if he were a child throwing a tantrum. It was almost enough to make him say something far ruder to her, but once more he held his tongue. As satisfying as being a jerk might be, in the end he knew it...wasn't worth it. Not when X was sitting right next to him, and not when any prolonged conflict with an Institute staff member always ended poorly.

So instead, he grunted with displeasure, then looked back at X again; the expression on his face seemed to say Well? Aren't you going to say anything?