Day 27: Lunch

[norainu]

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.

Comments

[notexactlyrich.livejournal.com]

Haruhi looked up at the sound to see Hikaru (and his soup-sodden tray) heading towards her quite quickly. Inappropriate touching? What was Hikaru talking about? No one had touched her since she had seen him last, except - wait. Cliff had ruffled her hair a little, and they had shaken hands.

So that was what Hikaru had been upset about before.

"No, he didn't," she answered, slightly peeved. Hikaru and Kaoru, after all, had done quite a bit more in the department of inappropriate touching.

[forgot-it-all.livejournal.com]

His nurses had picked him up from the Arts and Crafts room, scolded him lightly for refusing to participate, and dropped him into the lunch line. Thankfully, they were serving something Ritsuka actually wanted to eat for once. He picked up a grilled cheese sandwich that he'd have to hold with both hands and french fries, leaving the cole slaw and soup alone. With his eating habits, he was likely going to die at an early age.

Once he had his food, he was shoved off toward a table where a young... boy? No, it was a girl. She was highly androgynous, but little things about her pointed more toward the female side. Or so he hoped. Ritsuka wasn't very good at telling the difference. Then Hikaru bounded into view and Ritsuka could only guess that she was a friend of his.

He wanted to leave them be, knowing how important it was for friends to be able to talk alone sometimes, but his nurse took the initiative before Ritsuka could protest and dragged him over to them. "Elizabeth? Andrew? Jordan needs someone to look after him for awhile, would you mind? Thank you!"

With that his nurse deposited him and his tray at the table and bustled off, leaving Ritsuka fuming at her. How dare she assume that he needed looking after! He glared after her a moment longer, then turned to the new girl and Hikaru, bowing slightly before taking a seat. "...sorry, but if I leave, she'll just push me back here. You can ignore me if you want."

[totallytheseme.livejournal.com]

Hikaru sighed, sitll a little out breath. "Good. I was about ready to go over there and...I dunno." That guy had been about twice Hikaru's size in sheer muscle mass. There probably wasn't a lot he could have done to him. Maybe he could have stood there and looked threatening. That worked. Sometimes.

He was saved from further embarassing himself by the arrival of a nurse manhandling Ritsuka. The Host rolled his eyes when the kid started to make excuses. "Ritsuka. It's fine." Hikaru grinned. "Belive it or not, some of us actually enjoy your company. Anyway, this is Fujioka Haruhi. She...goes to school with me and Kaoru and Tamaki." And he was completely in love with her, though he wasn't even ready to admit that to himself, much less a prepubescent boy. "Haruhi, this is Aoyagi Ritsuka. He's Milord's roommate, and a friend of mine."

Hikaru laughed. "And I don't think you look like much of an 'Elizabeth,' Elizabeth."

[notexactlyrich.livejournal.com]

Haruhi let it go. Hikaru didn't mean badly, really, he could just be a little frustrating sometimes. She looked instead in the direction of the new arrival. The nurse was dragging Ritsuka (who the twins had pointed out at breakfast and who apparently had a stalker) over in their direction. Hikaru's name, it seemed, was Andrew, and Ritsuka's was Jordan.

Ritsuka was small (shorter than her even, and Hikaru had to be a whole foot taller), and he seemed polite and gloomy - an interesting roommate for Tamaki, who was always large, even disregarding height.

"I don't think so either," she told Hikaru mildly. Elizabeth was quite a female name, and Haruhi had never been very feminine. Well, it wasn't her name, and the nurses were going to insist on calling her that, she remembered hearing from the other Haruhi whenever ago.

She turned to Ritsuka. "Don't worry," she told him, "I don't mind at all." Hikaru had taken over the introductions. "It's nice to meet you." He didn't seem very chatty, but Haruhi didn't want to leave him out. Typical gut reaction for a girl, even a not-so-girly one when faced with cute kids and stuffed animals, perhaps. "How's your day been?"

[forgot-it-all.livejournal.com]

Haruhi? Hadn't he heard that name somewhere before? Ritsuka couldn't quite place it though, and once Hikaru introduced her as a friend of his from school, he figured he'd just heard it from him or Tamaki.

"Nice to meet you," he said, an automatic response to her own greeting. Glancing over at Hikaru, he started ripping his sandwich into a more manageable size, leaving the crusts on the tray. Thinking back on his previous conversation, he glowered slightly. "Some people here enjoy my company too much."

Well, not so much people as monsters, but the meaning was the same. He finished pulling the crust off and took a small bite, shrugging slightly as he chewed. Better to play it casual than to let Hikaru and the newly introduced Haruhi know how crappy his past few days had been. "It's been uneventful compared to other days. What about you?"

[totallytheseme.livejournal.com]

Ritsuka may have been trying to make light of the fact that he was all bandaged up, but Hikaru looked grim. "Enjoy your company?" he asked, sounding a little sharper than he would have liked. "Like that tall guy who was asking about you last night? Ritsuka, who is he?" Hopefully this would all be a misunderstanding. If not, they were going to have to lay some major Host Club smackdown on the pervert.

At least Haruhi was being her normal, polite self. Honestly. Could anything ruffle her?

Hikaru couldn't explain it, but he felt...very protective of the two of them. He was starting to see Ritsuka--who he'd only known for a few days--as a sort of little brother figure. The kid needed all the help he could get!

He raised an eyebrow. "Uneventful. Right. You look like your doing your best King Tut impersonation, so cut the crap. What the hell happened?"

[notexactlyrich.livejournal.com]

Ritsuka's words made Haruhi's mind shoot straight towards 'stalker' - because Kaoru had mentioned it at breakfast. His glare, directed at no one in particular, only served to reinforce that idea and - she was going to inquire, but Hikaru beat her to it. She let him, it got the question across anyways.

She did wonder, though - if the last day or so didn't qualify as quite so bad, what did? Those injuries didn't seem that old to her, even if she was no judge. So she chipped in after Hikaru, only taking Ritsuka at face value.

"What, then, is considered eventful?" She gestured wordlessly at the bandages.

[forgot-it-all.livejournal.com]

He wanted to smack his face into his palm with how badly that plan had backfired. He didn't want them focusing on him right now! Now, however, it was too late and unless he wanted to seem like an idiot and run away (which seemed tempting), he'd have to answer. "Tall guy? What did---" Ritsuka stopped, thinking about what tall guy could have been looking for him. "...Soubi? Tall, blond, glasses? He's a friend of mine from home."

If he left it at that, perhaps he wouldn't have to explain exactly what Soubi was to him. It was weird enough telling Hikaru about his ears on the bulletin, but trying to tell Hikaru and now Haruhi about how Soubi was the one who kept saying he wanted to take them? Well, that just wasn't something he wanted to attempt now or ever.

His face clouded over and he looked away, taking another bite of his sandwich to buy him a little time. It was both a blessing and a curse to be around intelligent people. No one at school asked about his bandages, but here everyone knew it meant something. Should he go on the defensive or just answer them plainly? Human relations were too hard.

"Every night for me is 'eventful,'" he said, shrugging it off as if it were nothing. "So far I've managed every night to meet with one of the nighttime only residents here. They've apparently enjoyed my company, too."

He didn't want to say that it was Seimei - or rather, the creature wearing Seimei's face - that had taken a bite out of him. Hikaru may or may not have known his brother, but he didn't want him getting a bad reputation when it wasn't his fault.

[totallytheseme.livejournal.com]

Hikaru blinked. "Oh, so you know him? Ritsuka...he was kneeling to you earlier. Don't you find that at least mildly creepy?" He sure did.

But...if Ritsuka wasn't going to say anything, he wasn't going to pry. He and Kaoru were just going to have to go spying on the kid, that was all. They did it so often that they had it down to a science, pretty much.

"Do you go alone?" he asked sternly. "You ought to stay in your room, with whatever Tamaki's new club is called. It's safe there. You can help us bandage and stuff." He looked over to Haruhi. "Same goes for you. Meet us in M35 tonight, okay?"