Night 70: Main Hallway, 1-West

[freewill]

[From here.]

And here he was.

Castiel had made it to the meeting spot without any complications, which also meant that he was the first to arrive. Not only out of him and Kratos, but out of the entire patient body. There wasn't another soul here, and Castiel wasn't even in a position where he could sense if others were close or not. With no other recourse, he leaned against the north wall and pulled his new radio out of his trenchcoat with his free hand.

He glanced down at the three numbers printed at the bottom -- 77.7. It caused him to twist his mouth, because he knew the meaning behind it, at least from a human's perspective. It had to be a coincidence -- there was no other logical explanation for it -- and yet he still had to wonder.

He turned it on, but there was still only static. Castiel imagined that the radio wouldn't be of much use unless he had someone else's number to switch it to.

[For Kratos.]

Comments

[knightspirit]

[from here, assuming Kratos and Castiel have already left ]

It sounded like Lloyd didn't know much about where they were going, which didn't come by much surprise, since he'd said something to similar effect that morning. He hadn't heard that Kratos had found him, though... Lloyd didn't seem very happy about that, but not exactly upset, either—Kyousuke couldn't seem to get a read on the expression that flashed over the over boy's face as he mentioned it. He wondered what that meant, but he didn't say anything. Having some complicated feelings toward the man himself, he understood that poking around unnecessarily would be uncomfortable.

"... It's fine," he shrugged. "We'll just have to look around for some clues. If we can't find it, maybe we can ask Kratos where he found you."

He frowned as he said that, hoping that it didn't come to the point. To tell truth he didn't want to get Kratos involved at all, even if he was also trying to help him. Or more because if it. But he kept that to himself. The reasons were all selfish, so if it did come to that, he couldn't let that get in the way of helping Lloyd, or either of them.

Still. He wondered how all this was connected. Why would they take either of them to begin with? He turned back Lloyd, and asked carefully, "Do you mind telling me what happened that night? ... You don't have to answer if you don't want to." If it was too hard, he wasn't about to push him.

[redcladidealist]

This time the reluctance was clear on Lloyd's face when the suggestion to ask Kratos was brought up. He still hadn't been able to pick apart his feelings about the man. His thoughts were all a mess whenever he thought back on everything between them. Facing him now, asking for his help, when he didn't even know if he should call him "dad"? Lloyd's stomach twisted uncomfortably at even the thought.

Beyond that, though, part of him wanted to prove that he could do this, an independent, stubborn part that wanted to show that he didn't need to run to his father for help. He was eighteen. He should be old enough that he could help people himself. "Maybe," he said noncommittally. "But we can't talk to him tonight anyway, so let's see what we can do ourselves."

There. There was a set of stairs. Tense, remembering the monster that had attacked him in this hall just a couple nights ago, Lloyd scanned the hall briefly before heading for the stairs. He had to resist the urge to take them two at a time.

[To here.]