damned_institute | Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

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Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

Scar felt cold and sick, though more the latter than the former. As he rose from his bed, he didn't quite know which way was up, and the artificial light coming from overhead seemed as hot and as blinding as the Ishbal sun.

His head hurt, but that was nothing new. After all, the last thing he remembered from the night before was fighting a homunculus off of Lust and then having a conversation about events best left forgotten. The man hadn't been his brother. He just hadn't. And if what Lust had said they'd done to her was true...

Scar stood with shakiness that he wanted to attribute more to a bizarrely weakened physical state than a mental one. Had he been knocked out by some kind of lurking monster before the morning had come? He felt as if he had been out for days, being a veteran of such circumstances, though as he took the practiced role of being an obedient follower behind the nurse and orderlies that came for him, it didn't seem as if much had changed.

This place was probably just playing tricks on him again, and he was tired of being the man left out of the loop. He grabbed some food he didn't really care for and sat down, not seeing anyone he knew already seated. On one hand, he wished he had someone to talk to, and on the other, it scared him that he was no longer used to being alone.

He dug his fork into his food and tried to block out any related thought.

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Dias was rarely ever in what one would call a good mood, but conversations with Xigbar over the bulletin board - he doubted he could talk to the man in person without punching him - definitely didn't help. Entirely aside from his default anger at the man, the question of why he hadn't been there for Ashton when Ashton needed him (and, further, why he'd ever allowed Xigbar around Ashton without his supervision, since the man was so blatantly untrustworthy and Ashton so naively trusting) lingered in his mind without any justifiable answer. True, he'd intended to meet Edgeworth, but the man had never even bothered to show up.

And in the meantime, his friend had been in trouble, and he hadn't been there to help him.

He could easily have brooded over the matter for the entirety of lunch, but as it happened chance interrupted his angst as a familiar shock of pale hair caught his eye. He hadn't really been counting the days since he'd arrived, so he wasn't entirely sure how many it had been since he'd last seen Scar, but it had been a high enough number (four? five? Most of a week, he thought) to have left him distinctly uneasy in the back of his mind, the place where all matters he tried not to think about dwelled. Only the fact that River had failed to sense or say anything distressing about his plight had kept Dias from thinking the man might have died.

It wasn't so much curiosity over where he'd been that made Dias change course to sit down across from his friend so much as it was quiet relief. "It's been a long time." As far as the swordsman was concerned, Scar's absence didn't need to be accounted for to him so long as the man was all right, and that was all he'd ever say about the matter.

Scar stared at Dias for a moment, chewing on some spaghetti before he swallowed and responded:

"It has?"

He supposed it made sense, given that he felt no trace of injuries on his body, though then again, he'd been in pretty good shape the last he remembered--good enough shape to drive the violent homunculus away from Lust, anyway.

Still, it was worrisome that Scar had been unknowingly unconscious for so long if such was the case, and he wondered what kind of troubles had befallen those who were unwittingly close to him while he was gone.

"I didn't know," he mumbled, half-apologetically. He looked back up at his friend. "You and Lust were badly injured. Are you all right?"

Speak of the devil and he appeared. The same, apparently, could be said for certain nearly-human women. When Lust entered the cafeteria, still damp from her shower, she made a direct line for Scar. She hadn't seen the man since their night together and she'd had a great deal of things to say to him.

And he was with Dias, good. She took her food and sauntered over, taking a seat beside the Ishbalan.

"I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you," she said, mildly, as though she hadn't been worried. "Watch your step, Gluttony's about and I only have so much time a shift to detail who he can and can't eat."

"Several days, at least." Dias shrugged slightly, and winced when this pulled at his neck. The whole area was exceedingly tender. "I'm not sure how many, but I think it's been most of a week. I would have thought something had happened to you, except that River probably would have known about it." After a pause, he added, "I'm glad you're all right."

Regarding his wound, he nearly shrugged again, but this time caught himself. "It's not as bad as it looks...although it's made my arm numb, somehow." This was far more alarming to him than he made it sound, but his arm did still seem to be functional; it was simply more difficult to direct properly. But for a swordsman, that could be deadly, and it was his dominant arm. "There's some sort of monster here...it can disguise itself. It attacked me while looking exactly like River." In a way, he was glad Scar hadn't shown up until lunch; he'd gotten himself under control since breakfast, his hands no longer trembling. His eyes were still bloodshot, but he could pass that off as being due to any number of things. "I can't speak for Lust."

But speaking of her...Dias gave her a curious look that quickly turned to one of revulsion when she mentioned the name of another sin - presumably another creature like her - and something about who he was allowed to eat. Not what, but who. "He eats people?"

This was the second time in two days that Dias was faced with the prospect of a creature hungry for human flesh.

Scar had only enough time to watch Lust with red eyes softer than usual before both of his allies made clear that he had been gone a considerably long time without his even being aware of it. The Ishbalan frowned at both the thought of having been sedated for days and at Dias' obvious injuries, though it was when Lust mentioned the appearance of her old friend that Scar scowled and turned on her with angry eyes.

"He's here?" While Lust had been here alone, without her constant companion of the past, it had been easy to see her as the woman he'd once loved and been easier even to accept her as she was now. This new reminder of what she was and who she had served unnerved Scar more than he wanted to admit.

"Oh, Gluttony eats anything," Lust said, shrugging. "And yes, Scar, he's here. But he's perfectly harmless. As long as I've specified who's friend and who's foe. Though he seems perfectly capable of making friends on his own, and he hasn't tried to eat anything but a bit of furniture. He's simply very confused and frightened here and doesn't understand what's going on."

And she certainly couldn't explain it to him. Could Gluttony even comprehend what was going on? Sometimes she wondered just how much he understood. "Anyway, I spent most of the morning putting the idea in his head that Envy is an enemy. Honestly, Scar, I'm sure you two will get on splendidly. You've already got something in common - you're both violently overprotective of me."

The conversation hadn't really made much sense to Dias; Lust's description of Gluttony seemed considerably disturbing, but for the moment he was willing to reserve judgment if he was Lust's companion. (That, and he sounded oddly - naive from the way Lust was describing him, not the sort of person Dias generally associated with cannibalism. Between that and his trying to eat furniture, it seemed the swordsman simply didn't understand enough about him to come to any sort of conclusion just yet.)

He probably wouldn't have said anything, might have turned his attention elsewhere, except for River's appearance. But before he could say anything to her -

Dias stared. What River said, and her flouncing off, barely registered. Scar with spaghetti slithering down his shoulders had galvanized him.

What happened next was something that hadn't happened in years. Almost before Dias realized what was happening - and long before he had the chance to consider whether or not it was a good idea, given that Scar had his pride - he was laughing harder than he could remember laughing in a long time. (Actually, laughing out loud at all was rare for him.) Once he realized what he was doing, he covered his face with his hands, trying to stifle it, but it was a futile effort.

Scar was about to make some manner of retort about Gluttony being far from harmless when he noticed Dias glancing at something over his shoulder and he followed the gaze to find himself looking at--

A plate full of spaghetti.

It took five long seconds for Scar to register what was going on, and when it finally dawned on him that River had dumped tomato sauce and noodles alike on his head, he only found it in him to slowly pull off the plate and stare at it.

He heard laughing and looked to Dias, his red eyes narrowing into a murderous glare as he clenched his fists and spoke.

"I need a towel."

It was only River's actions that kept Lust from commenting on what the girl had said. That would be dealt with later.

She had the good sense to cover her smirk behind her hand, clearing her throat to cover the laughter that threatened. She couldn't help it. Scar looked ridiculous as he was, the sauce dripping down his face.

"Here." She snatched up a handful of napkins and offered them to him. "She's none too pleased with you, it would seem. Be thankful, you won't need to deal with her incessant question about breeding."

It took several long moments for Dias to force back his laughter again; he wasn't used to being so open, and Scar couldn't look any more obviously disapproving without actually slugging him, but the sight of his serious friend with spaghetti slithering down around his ears - never mind that it was too much for even Dias to be expected to keep a straight face through, it was probably something he'd never see again.

In a way, it was reassuring to know that even in this place, there was amusement to be had. Leave it to River to be the source.

Clearing his throat once he'd regained his composure, and wordlessly offering Scar his own napkins, Dias was then free to process what exactly River had said, and what Lust was now referring to. "Breeding?" he echoed, with a look on his face that suggested he was refusing to believe he'd just heard what he thought he had.

That was a good way to sober him up, if all else failed.

"It's not my fault I was away so long," Scar growled, snatching napkins from both Lust and Dias and beginning to clean his hair out despite the obvious futility of it. The shock of white had nearly been stained red by the tomato sauce, and Scar's haphazard grasping of spaghetti didn't seem to be working all that well.

Still, even with all the distraction, it would have been hard for him to miss the word "breeding" enter the conversation. His foul expression suddenly turned into one of dumbfoundedness.

"Breeding?" He echoed, nearly in unison with Dias.

"River wants a little brother or sister," Lust said, turning her attention to her own lunch. She kept her tone even, but there was a rather serious glint in her eye.

"She seems to think we'd make wonderful parents. I told her 'no'. I doubt you'd protest?" She glanced to Scar, as though challenging him to say otherwise.

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Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

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