damned_institute | Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

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Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

Hitsugaya left the chapel no less frustrated than before. The head doctor once again had chosen not to hide his face, yet promised he would be making an appearance at some time in the near future. He didn't like being patient, but there wasn't much choice. Either the head doctor would show his face, or he wouldn't. Renji had already seen him, and knew how to find him. That was enough.

The thought of eating made him slightly nauseous as usual, but he knew he needed to get his strength up. He could either be weak and try to force his way through brunch without eating anything, or he could be smart and actually give himself something to eat. And there was rice. Rice and fruit. He took a heaping pile of rice, and grabbed as much watermelon as he could fit on his plate, then proceeded to an empty table. He scanned the room, watching for Momo. He wasn't exactly looking forward to their conversation, knowing how she'd acted yesterday; however, he knew he had to speak to her, and there was a good chance that she would show more restraint now that the drugs were out of her system.

Thoughtfully he consumed his rice and waited.

[free at the moment, pester if you wish]

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Alfons Heiderich hadn't been doing so well. That went without saying, of course; he'd nearly disappeared after the attack on the buses, due to all of that smoke getting into his lungs and making him feel like he'd die from all of the blood he was coughing up. Somewhere between staggering between the seats and falling out of the bus... he'd woken up, weakened and staggered. He hadn't wanted to go anywhere after that; the nurses had had to support him to the Sunroom and ease him onto a worn chair, and now they had to help him again, despite his quiet protests.

At least, after getting into the line, he had managed to get his own food and gotten to his own table. Alfons was tired, sure, and worn-out, but he wasn't gone yet; with a small grin of triumph he started in on the cold cereal, munching thoughtfully as he looked around. So many people he didn't know... and so many of them who looked like they could handle themselves better than Alfons could.

A bit of a despondent look clouded his short-lived triumph. "What am I even doing here...?"

Shana limped through the food line very carefully, eyeing the strange array of food with obvious skepticism. At least it smelled good, even if she'd never seen a spread quite like this. And she'd though elves ate strange foods!

Once through and with her tray full, she looked around for a place to sit. She spotted no familiar faces nearby - not that she knew that many people here just yet - and spotted a young man seated by himself.

Limping over to his side with only the faintest hint of uncertainty, she shot him a game smile as she paused beside him. "Do you mind if I join you?" she asked, wondering why he looked so down.

It spoke a great deal about the toll this place was taking on him that a discussion about his family hadn't improved Hughes' mood any. If anything, it had brought it further down. As had the Head Doctor's taunting about family visits.

He got some food from the buffet and glanced around the room. He spotted Alfons with a red haired girl around the younger man's age, and headed over. He didn't think he was interrupting anything, and he wanted to see how the german was holding up.

"Room for one more?" he asked, pausing across from Alfons and offering a tired smile.

He knew it was impolite, but... at the start, Alfons had been unable to keep from staring at the woman who'd walked up to him. Not for any bad reason or anything, just... even in this place, he'd never seen someone with hair quite that vibrant a color of red! It was weird! But after that moment passed, he remembered his manners and, a faint flush of embarrassment coloring his pale skin- really, he shouldn't be so rude!- he nodded and indicated one of the chairs. "No, please, make yourself at home! I'm Alfons Heiderich."

But that tired smile on Hughes's face brought Alfons's worry right back to the fore. It just... looked wrong on the man's face, somehow. Sure, he'd seen his world's version like that, mostly after long nights that had worn him down; but Alfons, ironically enough, didn't think that Mrs. Hughes was the source of that tiredness. Concern written all over his own face, Alfons nodded and motioned for Hughes to sit down, as well. The boy leaned forward, his blue eyes glancing from the woman to his friend, and wondered if maybe he'd missed something by going to sleep in the Sun Room. Who could say? "Of course there is. I hope that everything's all right...?"

They were joined by another man, one that looked just as weary as Alfons - such strange names these people had - and Shana shot him a shy smile as well as she sank down in a chair beside Alfons.

"Thank you," she replied, tucking a wayward red curl behind her ear. "I'm Shana," she introduced, flicking a smile between the both of them as she set her tray down on the table, and then paused to eye all the food with only a slight bit of trepidation. Everyone else in the room was eating, though, so it must be edible, but still...

Roy wasn't all that surprised that the head doctor hadn't showed himself. It was so typical to have them expecting it after last week and then not show up. Still, it would have been nice if something had gone the way it was supposed to for once, but that had been too much to expect from the start, he imagined.

Heading into the cafeteria helped Roy's mood slightly, if only because he caught sight of Hughes, who looked to have gotten through the night without any serious injuries. Once again, the alchemist realized that he didn't need to worry about his friend nearly as much as he always did, but he didn't know if that was a habit he could break.

After grabbing a plate of food (he was more in a breakfast mood, considering they hadn't had a proper one the day before), Roy actually went ahead and walked in on the conversation his friend was having with two other patients. It helped that he already knew Heiderich, even if the young girl was a stranger to him.

He nodded to Hughes, holding off on sitting down just yet. "Glad to see you're all right."

Hughes held up a hand to Alfons. "I'm fine, just tired." It was such a good sentence. It was truthful without actually saying anything was wrong. People didn't hear 'tired' and think 'bone weary and exhausted' or 'mentally and emotionally drained'. They just thought 'lack of sleep'.

"I'm Maes Hughes, it's nice to meet you, Shana." He attempted to brighten his smile for the young girl - she was a pretty thing. Alfons always seemed to find himself in the company of pretty young girls.

Hopefully he'd take a shine to one.

When Roy showed up, his smile brightened honestly as he looked up at the other man. "Fit as a fiddle, how about you? You joining us, or have you got plans?"

Just tired? Mm... but still... Alfons was worried about Hughes, just like he worried about anyone who could actually do something during the night. He and Roy and Ed, and the others as well; all of them were pushing themselves so hard, and it had to catch up to them sooner or later. Alfons could barely even swing a knife at something. It was rather bruising to what little masculine pride he had, realizing that he was so much excess baggage when it came to the night.

But... perhaps there was something else he could do? He'd just need to find it, somehow.

Heiderich only smiled and nodded to the alchemist as Roy walked to their table, welcoming but not wanting to intrude on the conversation he obviously wanted to have with Maes. Instead, the German turned to Shana, feeling ~~maternal instincts~~ worried about her, too. If she was worried about the food, she had to be newer, and it wasn't fair for girls to be brought into it. "Shana? That's an exotic name," Alfons mused, wondering what sort of place she had to come from. It had to be in a place like the south, right? Somewhere arid, that'd explain why her hair was that color! Perhaps, anyway. Alfons would have to puzzle that out later, as for now, he felt like he should help alleviate her unease. What little there was, anyway.

"Is... this sort of food not what you're used to?" That was a polite way to ask, right?

"Is it?" she asked, when he commented about her name. She'd never stopped to think about it before. "My full name is Lashana, it means 'Orphan' in elvish. My foster brother named me for what I was, when I was little," she explained with a slight smile, poking at her food with the tip of her finger.

She gave a wry little laugh at his second question. "You could say that. I don't think I've seen one familiar dish since coming here. They're not bad, they're just... very different from what I'm used to."

Shana shot him a shy grin as she shrugged and picked up a piece of sausage to nibble on experimentally on. Another man had joined the first that had joined them - Maze? - and she flicked a curious glance at the pair of them before returning her attention to Alfons and her breakfast.

"Then again, there is not very much here that is what I'm used to," she admitted, fingers playing with a stray curl.

Once it seemed that no one was going to protest his joining them, Roy took a seat next to his friend and started eating some of the sausage he'd served himself.

Judging from the last bit of conversation he'd listened in on, the girl Hughes and Heiderich were speaking to was from an under-developed world. It had to be even harder for her than it was for them, if even the food was foreign to her.

"No plans, for once," he informed Hughes with a small sigh. In fact, it seemed like there weren't as many patients out as usual, and he figured that made sense. After the trip yesterday and the chaotic nightshift, he didn't blame people for sleeping in. He had to wonder why he hadn't done the same, but he'd wanted to make sure his friend had gotten through all right.

Figuring he couldn't be anti-social any longer, he made eye contact with the girl and offered a smile. "Roy Mustang," he greeted her.

"Well, can't say I'm surprised," Hughes said, shrugging. "I think everybody's laying a little low today. Can't blame'em." Last night had been one of the worse in the institute.

"Food's good," he said to Shana, indicating with his fork. "Not as good as home cooking, but it's not bad. I take it you haven't been here too long?"

"It is rather exotic for me," Alfons affirmed, his eyes a little wide as she explained. Elvish? Like... the Alb? Was she trying to say that she'd been named by the fairies? The German almost couldn't imagine it; if he hadn't learned to accept more and more as best he could, he would have rejected it out of hand. But now? He nodded a bit, trying to piece together what he could. "Ah, so... you had a foster family? Were they Elvish?"

...and did that mean she had been stolen from her crib and there was a wrinkled old faerie woman masquerading as her now? Alfons shuddered at the thought.

Still, he gave a sympathetic nod as Maes asked his question, and fell silent to let Shana have a chance to answer. He'd had some things that were familiar to himself, but he still longed for some of the hearty German fare he'd finally gotten to afford after getting his research grant. But Maes was right- the food wasn't bad. That was a very positive thing.

What wasn't so positive was Roy. Alfons couldn't explain it, but... he felt a bit shy around the older man, at least now. It was probably just the combination of Ed's stories about his colonel- which had been laced with more than the usual level of vehemence- and the firey alchemy Roy could apparently use... and then what had happened the last night. Even the faintest hint of smoke made Alfons fear that his lungs were going to start up again, so he scooted a little further back from the table.

Munching experimentally on the sausage, Shana had to agree with them; it was good, and she happily reached for another piece. "I woke up here the afternoon before we all went to town," she explained with a nod towards Maes and the new man who'd introduced himself as Roy.

At Alfons' question, she couldn't help but grin. "No, the elves would have killed me if they'd have found me when I was a baby. I was raised by dragons."

She wasn't sure anyone here would believe her tale, but she was starting to find amusement in their expressions when she spilled it.

Roy didn't take any note of Heiderich's behavior - he didn't know the boy well enough to realize there was any change from the norm, really - and was instead caught up in what the redhead was saying.

Dragons? That was just preposterous, as far as he could tell. He raised an eyebrow at her, but he knew better than to come out and say something like that was impossible. He had met so many people here with wild stories, and some of the other patients had even found his world hard to believe. There was no reason she would be lying, really.

It still sounded ridiculous, however, which meant that he had no proper way to respond. Roy decided to on eating and let the conversation play out however it would.

Elves, dragons... Hughes raised his eyebrows but had been there long enough not to be leap to disbelief.

"That sort of stuff's all kid's stories, where I come from," Hughes said, remembering the fairy tales and things he read to Elysia. "And dragons... well, they aren't usually the sort of creatures that take in orphans. What are they really like?"

Alfons seemed more interested in the girl Shana than in talking to Roy or Hughes. Hughes picked up on this, but attributed it more to the fact that Alfons was a young man, and Shana was a very pretty young lady.

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Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

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