damned_institute | Day 27: Lunch

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Day 27: Lunch

Renji wasn't so certain what this grilled cheese thing was all about, but he liked the sound of some soup. Even if it was strange western soup, well... there wasn't anything bad people could do to soup, in his experience. His good mood was starting to fray at the edges, a little, from the strain of dealing with the Ichimaru issue, and even more from what had been on the bulletin board earlier.

He'd never had difficulty simply writing something before. But...

He shook his head as he entered the line. He didn't want to think about it. He wanted to hold on to the tenuous equilibrium he'd managed to find.

Renji got himself a large bowl of soup, water, and even one of those sandwiches, just to try it. Old habit, recently awakened, had him over to one side of the cafeteria, where the fewest people possible would have the chance to pass behind him. He sat there with his back toward the wall and started eating.

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"Yes, that's so true." Xelloss sighed heavily, then shook his head. "You know, you're perfectly right! I can't afford to let my poor friend suffer, even if he is angry with me."

He stood, lifting his tray. "I'll be sure to keep a good eye on Zelgadis, from now on, just in case he needs me. And when he's ready to accept my help, I will be there for him."

And with that noble sentiment, he left the table. The less time he spent with his Mazoku superior in public, the better.

[off to make new thread and eat alone]

Phibrizzo watched Xelloss leave with a plastered smile and fought the urge to fling his tray across the room and break the table in anger. He was going to have to start being extra cautious now, thanks to that stupid Chimera.

Sliding slightly under the table, the Mazoku lord bowed his head and attempted to finish his meal inconspicuously.

Ginji hadn't really wanted to leave his room, but his stomach started making noises and he knew that there were new patients and thought that maybe someone he knew might be in the new faces. His nurse wheeled him into the mess hall and cheerfully told him that soon he might not be needed his wheelchair at all. She asked if he wanted to sit with anyone.

He looked around and while he saw faces he had met at the hospital, there was no sign of Ban's spikey hair. Disappointed, but also relieved, he shrugged and smiled. "You pick!" he said with fake happiness in his voice.

She brought him to the table with Phibrizzo and Ginji couldn't help but be a little surprised by how young he looked. It made him sad inside. The nurse set down his lunch, bid his a good meal, and then left them alone.

"Hi," Ginji said with a nervous smile. "I'm Ginji."

Phibrizzo watched Ginji sit down and introduce himself, sighing inwardly. He smiled brightly, though he wished he had been left alone. He needed to rethink his plans and chatting was not going to give him an opportunity. Still, he couldn't be rude to a potential tool and Ginji could at least be counted on to act as a shield. He was taller than Phibrizzo, anyhow, and the wheelchair would add some cover width-wise too.

Hellmaster scooted over slightly so that he was eclipsed by Ginji from the greatest number of angles he could determine and offered a new name. "I'm Lei! Nice to meet you!"

Ginji looked at 'Lei' with a small smile. "Yeah, it is. Do you mind if I eat with you?" he asked. "I could always ask my nurse to take me somewhere else."

He didn't like the idea of leaving a kid alone in this place, but he didn't want to be rude.

The Mazoku lord continued to beam at Ginji, expression betraying nothing of his thoughts. "No, of course you can eat here, Mister! I like meeting new people!"

He cocked his head to the side, curiously. "Why are you in a wheel chair?"

Ginji smiled and poked at his lunch. He was hungry, of course, but he wasn't feeling very well. It was the first meal he hadn't started woofing down right away since being here.

The thought of what had put him in the wheelchair made his face pale slightly and forced him to push away his lunch.

"A monster attacked me," he said, frowning slightly. "I don't want to scare you with all the details though."

"Ehhhhhh?" Phibrizzo looked absolutely shocked. "A monster did that?" He recoiled. "I've seen them bite people, but not put them in wheel chairs! Does it still hurt?"

He peered at Ginji's legs. "Where did it get you? I bet it DOES still hurt, right? How can you sleep at night, Mister? I'd be really scared!"

A barrage of words, sure, but Phibrizzo liked to think it portrayed the curious and concerned youth appearence.

Ginji flinched outwardly as he though about it but then forced a smile for what he thought was a boy.

"It still hurts, yeah, and I can't walk well, but I'll be okay. Promise." He felt a little grateful that the boy was worried and curious about him and didn't want to let the child think that he was in too much pain.

"You're so brave, mister!" Phibrizzo continued the assault, "I'd be really sad, and scared, and depressed all the time if I got attacked by a monster and couldn't walk! But you're not! How did you get to be so brave, mister?"

Practice, Ginji thought, but he shrugged instead. "It's better to be happy, isn't it?" he asked, still smiling though it flickered a moment as he thought about all the times before he had smiled when he hadn't really felt happy. And brave? He wasn't brave at all. His other self had taken over before he could really face the monster that had tried to eat him.

Phibrizzo nodded. "That's true! Happy is good!"

...no, it really wasn't. He'd need to open an emotional wound or he'd get bored. "You say that as though you're unhappy though, Mister. Is something wrong? Is it the monster-bite?"

Ginji frowned slightly. The boy could tell something was wrong and maybe it was mean to lie to him.

"I... really miss my friend I guess," he said. "Do you have a friend who makes you feel better no matter what's going on?"

A friend who made him feel better? No, but Phibrizzo wasn't in the market for friends. "Not really. No one likes me."

"What's your friend like? Is he nice?" He put a fork of fries in his mouth. "Do you think about him all the time?"

"I'm sure someone likes you!" Ginji said, a little stunned that a child would say such a thing, but the questions made him think about Ban and he frowned. "He's my partner. He's not very nice, but he's a good guy... And yeah, I think about him all the time."

Gluttony spent some time looking at the bulletin board before coming into the cafeteria. Lust said he could eat the small tasty looking boy who lied to him last night! That was very good. It had been a very long time since he'd eaten anyone. Two whole days, even! That was an eternity, and he was really, really hungry. The tasty looking small boy wouldn't be any more than a snack, but a snack was better than nothing at all.

As he entered the cafeteria, he saw the tasty looking short liar boy. There was no point in eating the not-tasty human food at all, then! Lunch would be much tastier.

Grinning a malicious smile, he slowly approached the table where the tasty looking boy and another potentially tasty young man were sitting. He couldn't eat the potentially tasty young man, but he could definitely eat the young boy. As he reached the table, he began to circle around it to reach Phibrizzo, all the while grinning the same sinister grin. His mouth salivated at the prospect of his next meal.

"I don't know, Mister," Hellmaster said and put a hand to his bruise. "I wish I had a friend like you do. I was hit this morning by a mean man and I don't think anyone really likes me."

...it was at that moment Gluttony appeared on the scene. Phibrizzo couldn't have asked for better timing, if it weren't for the fact the man obviously was not there to make his feigned lonliness more believable. Phibrizzo did not like the look of that grin one bit and had the sinking suspicion that the fat man must have found his Lust...

He screamed like a little girl and shot under the table as Gluttony circled. It was his hope to make it out the other side and away from the crazy Homoculi who now threatened his wellbeing, but the fat man seemed as though he could move when he wanted to.

Lunch was not going well.

Ginji was about to respond to the boy when screamed to get away from the stranger that had approached them. He moved as if almost to get out of the wheelchair but his body was still not completely healed.

"Leave him alone!" he yelled at the man, not sure what threat he posed but knowing that he was creepy enough to scare the kid. Come to think of it, he was creepy enough to scare Ginji too.

Gluttony ignored the other man's scream, focused as he was on his lunch. As his meal darted under the table, Gluttony quickly and with a surprising amount of agility for someone as obese ducked under the table as well, grabbing after the young and tasty looking liar.

His meal would not get away from him, not now that Lust had said he could eat the boy!

Gluttony managed to grab hold of Phibrizzo's shirt and the Mazoku lord knew he was out of options. Either he fought back or called for Xelloss, lest the fat man...eat him?

No, he couldn't and WOULDN'T scream for Xelloss, not when he needed to go unnoticed. If he made a production of it, the Chimera would undoubtedly catch on. Instead, he flailed about and looked to Ginji for help.

"Please!" He begged with the man, "Help me!!!"

Ginji jumped out of his chair, somehow managing not to fall over from the pain that hit him as he did and moved forward to try and get the boy away from the big creepy guy.

"Nurse help!" Ginji called, not looking away from the two as he did. He grabbed for Phibrizzo.

The cries did indeed draw a nurse, along with two powerful orderlies. The men quickly moved to either side of the table, one man grabbing Bob's legs while the other jerked Brandon free of the man's grasp, causing the boy's shirt to rip in the process.

"Just what is going on here?!" Even as she spoke, the nurse readied a large amount of sedative, appropriate for a man of Bob's size. "Mr. Griffin, the Institute will not tolerate the attacking of others, especially innocent children!"

The man who had saved Brandon almost as quickly released him, joining the other orderly to forcefully pull Bob from under the table. It took nearly both of them to restrain him, the man's sheer size making the job difficult, but certainly one they could handle.

He wasn't going to attack the tasty looking boy! He was going to eat him! There was a big difference there! He punched and kicked and, most importantly, bit at the orderlies, hoping to get a solid bite of sweet delicious flesh. He was so very, very hungry. He wanted to devour them and taste their flesh and listen to them scream, but he wasn't as strong as he normally was. He should have been able to shrug them off and bite off their heads without a second thought. But instead he fought, and hoped that one of his bites would connect to some delicious and tasty orderly flesh.

Phibrizzo watched the orderlies pull Gluttony back with amusement, though he didn't show it. Of course no one in their right mind would let the fat man make a meal of his flesh. He instead chose to run to Ginji and bury his face in his side, as if he were crying and scared.

"I TOLD you no one likes me!"

Ginji winced and put a hand around Phibrizzo. His shifted his weight to get more of it off of his bad leg. The pain was almost too much, but he wanted to protect the boy.

"It's okay," he said carefully, trying and failing to keep all the pain from his voice. "They'll keep that guy away from you."

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damned-nurses.livejournal.com - 2007-09-28 23:35 (UTC) - Expand

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