Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

[right-handed.livejournal.com]

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.

Comments

[traitors-smile.livejournal.com]

"A man without much t'lose has little t'fear," Gin said simply. His gaze followed Homura's gesture, though he didn't have to look to see who he was referring to. It had to be more than coincidence. He cursed himself for letting the gesture slip and this man's damned memory.

He could easily lie. He'd done it before. Say she was an unwitting mark of his, something. It wasn't as though most of the patients here would think less of him. The ones that knew him, already thought little. Not that he much cared about their opinions. Some things were worth selling your soul for. But he wasn't going to sell her out with him.

Luckily, his expression didn't reveal any of his inner turmoil. He only had to tell their history, not their relationship. This and that were separate matters. "Childhood playmates," he said cooly, "saved her when we were younger. Went to th' same school. Worked in th' same field for a time."

Gin watched the man's expression, trying to read his reaction, "even creatures like me were cute lil' kids once upon a time. Don't think I was always so jaded, do ya Homura-kun?"

[screwthegods]

Homura waited as Gin looked to Rangiku, and made his choice. His words were as casual as any of the others he had spoken, a simple statement of fact, and yet...and yet.

He closed his eyes, thinking once again of Rinrei for a moment, and of Shien and Zenon. "A man without much to lose still has something that can be lost." Another statement of fact? Yes, but perhaps something in the quiet way Homura said it, in the momentary distance in his eyes gave away hints about his own past.

Or at least, about all the demi-god himself had lost.

[traitors-smile.livejournal.com]

Not the reaction he'd expected. Homura seemed almost... nostalgic? Much as he disliked the idea of drawing comparisons, maybe he and Homura had more in common than he'd first thought. He'd hit upon something, of that much he was certain. What it was exactly, he had yet to uncover.

He waited for a moment, as though Homura might say something more, then leaned back in his chair. "Somethin' else on your mind?"

[screwthegods]

"There's always something more on the mind than what's spoken. Things that can't be forgotten." Homura grinned. Unable to forget, but he could hide well enough, and the sense of nostalgia about him was already fading. "But I'm hardly the only one who suffers from that trait, I'd think."

Normally, Homura wouldn't hesitate to tell stories of his own past: about the gods who had condemned him for being a heresy, and who had taken the woman who loved him in spite of it. But Gin had made him work for the answers he had gotten, and Homura was in a mood to return the favor, and the frustration.

[traitors-smile.livejournal.com]

Aw, and now he was trying to be all spiteful. For a man who had been so free with his answers earlier, now he was being terribly stingy. It was almost amusing. Unfortunately, the nurses were already coming to pick up their patients for the next shift.

Gin smiled and nodded once more to Homura, "Be seein' ya."