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

[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?