damned_institute | Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

Hitsugaya woke with a start.

His entire body ached, but the pain was nowhere near as bad as it had been the night before. His injuries had been tended two with clean gauze and bandages, and he found every movement wasn't agony. He wasn't in the best of shape, but thanks to the miracle of landel's strange time distortion, he had mostly recovered from the vile poison without having to waste anyone else's talents.

And in his hand, still...there was the key.

He dressed quickly, sliding the key onto the key ring from his desk drawer and stuck it into his pocket. Whether the key stood to gain them anything or not, it stood as a vital reminder that they could succeed in this place. There was hope, as insignificant as it often seemed. They could beat this place.

That small shred of hope made getting up worth it.

The nurse who escorted him to breakfast was cheerful, and commented idly about how wonderful it was to see young Tommy Winters up and about again after his unfortunate run-in with a bad case of food poisoning. He smirked slightly, knowing that any lies the institute forced into their heads were only that: lies. He wouldn't buy it for a second. And on top of that, the concept of muffins sounded almost appetizing. While he still preferred his authentic Japanese cuisine, the food here was slowly becoming more and more bearable. He would have preferred a warm bowl of sweet nattou over rice over the mufffins, but they would do. The plain yogurt and fruit, on the other hand, was excellent. He piled his plate high with fruit as usual, and got several small bowls of yogurt as well.

Finding the most convenient table to the end of the food line, he took a seat and scanned for the new arrivals. New arrivals meant people who would be lost and confused. Renji did a good job of making a bulliten post last time...he should recommend abarai-fukutaicho do the same again this time.

[Waiting for Angel]

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When Kairi woke up, she didn’t want to move.

Her entire body was sore, but that was to be expected, she guessed. Taking in a shuddered breath, the redhead forced herself to stand and wander to the door.

Her arms were bandaged, as well as her broken hand. There was a large bandage over the cuts on her cheek, and her neck was bandaged as well – she could only imagine the bruise that was underneath. Her stomach was still sore, and when she lifted her shirt up she was also not surprised to see a nice large bruise where the wound had been. Oh well, at least that had been fixed. She’d have to thank Rukia for it later.

Her throat still hurt even as she wandered into the cafeteria, and she grabbed a bowl of cereal before moving towards one of the empty tables. Scooping some of it into her spoon, she swallowed it down quickly – only to find that it hurt her throat something fierce.

Coughing, Kairi sighed and grumbled, swallowing down more cereal.

For all intents and purposes, Axel would admit just this once that his night was marginally better than someone else's.

From the moment he walked into the Cafeteria Kairi stuck out like a sore thumb, but try as he might to make a beeline towards her, his nurse quickly intervened and pushed him into the breakfast line before he could get close. Despite his protests the redhead grudgingly gave in after one harsh look, plating a few cinnamon rolls and gathered a glass of juice before going for a second attempt.

"Hey sweet stuff." The Nobody greeted with his usual grin, carefully seating himself next to the other redhead and set his food aside for the time being. He hadn't exactly prepared anything to say while he still had the time, so he was left to sit there for a few seconds to ponder.

"... You know, a cinnamon roll would've been better." He finally responded on a dull note, resting his elbows on the tables edge as he watched her eat.

Upon hearing Axel’s voice, Kairi turned her head and peered up at the taller man with a pout, her spoon resting against the bowl she had grabbed. “I don’t want a cinnamon roll though.” She told him with her hoarse voice, a sigh escaping her afterwards as she tried to clear her throat. “Besides,” she began again, scooping more cereal into her spoon and shoving it into her mouth so she could quickly chew it and choke it down, “I’m sure you’re going to eat them anyway. That, and I can barely eat this, so I doubt I can eat those.”

She felt so stupid and weak, sitting next to Axel, who wasn’t bandaged in the slightest, while she was done up like practically a mummy.

Blushing slightly, she turned to look up at him, that frown still plastered on her face. “So. How’re you?” He was bound to ask her what was wrong within a few minutes, so she might as well try and delay it as much as she could.

"Are you trying to say that you're fat?" One had to wonder how exactly Axel interpreted it in that kind of way, or maybe he was just trying to humor the teen to divert their attention to anything other than the wounds that she sported.

Though of course, some things just weren't meant to be when Kairi's next question came up, leaving the redhead sighing before he began to idly tear a cinnamon roll apart.

"Oh I'm just peachy. Or at least, I'm not the one wrapped up so tightly for fear of my limbs falling off if that's what you mean."

“I am not fat.” Kairi whined, turning to glare up at Axel through her lashes. “At least, not when I’m sitting next to you, anyway.” Moments later, a grin crossed her lips, and she swallowed down yet another spoonful of cereal.

Needless to say, the grin faded moments later at Axel’s sarcastic comment, and she sighed, placing her spoon once again on the table so she could turn to the side and look up at Axel as he pulled apart his food. “Axel, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” As long as she was still able to move, she was fine. “I just … got …” She didn’t want to lie to Axel. Then again, she also didn’t want him to “worry”, but that was clearly backfiring as he refused to look at her.

Sighing once again, Kairi lowered her eyes and began to pick quietly at her bandages with her good hand. “I just … was in the wrong place at the wrong time last night, that’s all.”

The look on Axel's face made it easy to assume that he wasn't buying Kairi's words, but in the end he decided not to push it. The last time he did that he just ended up making the girl cry, so it wasn't going to do much good if he tried to pull that stunt again.

Still, he wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily. Without warning he took a small piece of cinnamon roll that he tore off and quickly pressed it into Kairi's mouth, being considerate about her wounds while smirking.

"Shut up and eat."

Kairi could tell as such, and so, before she could stop, she was rambling. “It’s true. I was supposed to meet Sora and Rukia, but I forgot a map Naminé made for me in my room so I went back out to get it and then as I was walking down the hall I saw this girl who was injured so I went to ask her if she was okay and she started attacking me!”

It was at this point that Axel had shoved his breakfast in her mouth, thus silencing her for the time being. Pouting up to him with sad eyes, she chewed the piece of food down quickly before picking up her spoon once more, except this time she didn’t use it to eat anything.

Breathing out at the curved part, Kairi turned in her chair quickly, reaching up with her broken hand to place it against Axel’s cheek so she could turn his head in her direction. With her good hand, she quickly placed the spoon on his nose, holding him still for a few moments before finally releasing him and going back to her own bowl of cereal.

"You're nothing but a magnet for trouble, you know that?" Axel teased after listening through Kairi's little ramble session, finally paying mind to his food and began to chew diligently on a piece. Even now he could sense that the air had lightened quite a bit from what it was a minute ago, and so he allowed himself to slump ungracefully over his seat while he ate.

However, the peace didn't last for more than a minute before his head was pulled forward to look directly at Kairi before a spoon was pressed up against his nose.

"... Morning breath." He winced out when she finally pulled away, though kept the spoon on his face to humor the girl as he tried to eat around the utensil.

"You better take it easy tonight. You'll probably just get hurt even more if you try to do anything else."

“It’s not like I mean to. I was just … concerned about the girl.” The thought made Kairi sigh – all she had done was ask if the girl was okay, and then she had been the one to end up bleeding. That was what she got for being nice.

The mention of morning breath made the young girl turn towards Axel once again and stick her tongue out, staring down at her bowl of cereal when she realized that she had no new way to eat the rest of her food. Turning back over to look at him as he tried to eat around the metal object, Kairi reached up and plucked the spoon off of his nose, rubbing it with her shirt once before using it to scoop up some more cereal.

“I know,” she started, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she set her spoon down and reached up to gently touch at the bandage on her cheek. “I think I’m going to just … stay in bed tonight. And hide under the covers.” While she knew it would be better to travel with Sora, she also wanted to give him a night off – she was worried enough about him as it was, what with her having attacked him without even being able to control herself.

Shuddering at the memory, she picked up the spoon once again and began to finish. “How was your night?” Her voice has become a whisper once again – her throat was starting to hurt.

"Yeah well, the F block is full of psychos anyway so I guess you're out of luck there." Though by then Axel's humor was rather strained, un amused by the thought of the redheaded teen sitting out for the night just because she was attacked by another patient merely by being concerned about their well-being.

"Hey, if you need any company you know who to turn to." He offered with a weak smile after taking another bite of his roll. There was no doubt that Kairi would heal in a few day's time, but until then she was pretty much a sitting duck. The patient halls were pretty docile compared to the rest of the Institute, but Kairi's little escapade last night was enough to show that nowhere was safe.

At the girl's next question he didn't bother to hide his sigh. In fact, he was more than happy to over-exaggerate and even drop his food lethargically to emphasize exactly how he felt about yesterday.

"It was boring. B-O... ring." But besides running around the halls or the occasional monster attack he was out of luck when it came to entertainment.

“Not true. Naminé and I are there, aren’t we?” finishing off her cereal, Kairi slid the blown forward and turned so she could peer up at him once again, her elbows resting against the table so she could rest her chin in her hands.

The mention of a certain someone as company made Kairi smile, and she shook her head. “I couldn’t do that to you. I mean, if you thought wandering around with a group of people was boring, you’d think I was even worse by just sitting in bed. Really, don’t worry about me.” It was nice of Axel to offer himself up for company, but she really didn’t want to be the reason he was bored all night. That just wasn’t very nice!

Watching Axel pull his little dramatic motion made Kairi let out a hoarse laugh, and she lifted one hand up to gently rub at her neck with a sigh. “Personally, I’d rather take your night over mine, but that’s just me.”

Sora's eyes flashed open suddenly as morning came. Back in his bed, he shifted into a sitting position. His arm was bandaged, which was probably for the best. Kairi hadn't wanted it to get infected, and this would prevent that. It would probably ensure that people asked less questions about it, too.

Noticing that he had a new roommate (and trying not to think about what that meant for Auel), Sora quietly got out of bed and headed for the door, which his nurse soon opened to collect him.

Upon getting to the cafeteria, he was quick to glance around in search of the people he had been helping last night. Hitsugaya was there, as was Kairi, but there was no sign of Artemis or the princess he had helped. For now, though, there was only one princess he was concerned with.

Sora was able to duck away from his nurse and make his way over to the table Axel and Kairi were seated at. He could worry about breakfast later. As expected, Kairi was bandaged up nearly from head to toe, and he was standing there with only one minor wound. He really hadn't done a good job of protecting her, had he?

"Hey," he said, a little unsure as he moved over to stand next to her. "You... okay?" She obviously wasn't, but it was best to ask, right?

True true, his night was oodles better than Kairi's, but that still didn't change the fact that they'd been stuck with a tedious task, no matter how necessary it may have been.

"Oh, don't worry about that. Maybe I can manage to steal a deck of cards from the Game Room or something. We can probably invite Naminé and it'll be like a good old-fashioned slumber party." Axel pointed out lazily as he stuffed another half off a cinnamon roll into the pocket of his cheek. True it may have been that he wouldn't get much done, but he could sacrifice a day for someone like Kairi.

And that was around the time where Sora popped in, for obvious reasons mind you. He had to refrain from snorting at the brunet's question, but even then he raised an eyebrow at his lackluster attempt at a conversation.

"It’s good to see you too, starshine." But other than that, he remained relatively quiet for the time being.

Kairi let out a croaking laugh at the mention of a slumber party, and she grinned, that same bright light filling her eyes. “Really now? Well, if you can, then sure, why not. I’m sure Naminé would love to play something with us.”

Around that time Sora had showed up, and Kairi graced her oldest friend with a smile. “Hey, Sora.” Her eyes fell on his bandaged arm, her eyes lowering almost instantly as that feeling of intense guilt began to make her stomach feel uneasy. She still felt horrible – she’d have to tell Axel about that sooner or later. He’d probably know more about it than either she or Sora would know. “I’m fine, don’t … don’t worry about me.”

Easier said than done.

Lifting her eyes finally, Kairi sighed and looked towards his injured arm once again, her uninjured hand grasping onto her pants tightly. “How’s your arm?” She was sure Axel was going to be curious later, and she was willing to tell him about it, really!

... Well, only slightly. But for Axel she’d be willing to at least make that sacrifice.

When Axel spoke up, Sora glanced over to look across the table at him and let out a sigh. It wasn't that he had meant to ignore him, but when he was worried about someone everything else usually got shoved to the side. "Sorry, it's just--"

But then Kairi asked about him, and he grinned widely. "It's fine! Doesn't even hurt." While that was a bit of a lie -- it was a little sore -- she didn't need to know the truth. Some soreness was hardly a big deal.

He had noticed Renji sitting, probably waiting for him, which meant that he couldn't stick around for too long. He wasn't too eager to discuss Nowe's visit now, but he knew it had to happen at some point. The timing was just bad.

"Take it easy, all right? And... do you think you could tell me a little more about what did this to you? Was it some sort of monster, or...?" He knew he was prying, but he thought it was his right to know. Kairi was his friend, and it was his responsibility to watch over her, so he had to be informed of these things.

"Yeah well, I didn't want you to pine all over me anyway." Axel retorted, but the tone of his voice anything but serious. If there was one thing that he learned during his multiple meetings with Sora it was that once he focused on one person his IQ dropped to at least 60. All it took was a patient mind to remedy this fault, and the redhead was more than happy to lionize Kairi's well being to get the job done.

But it intrigued him to see how the redhead was fretting over Sora's arm, almost like she was the one to blame for it in the first place. That definitely deserved a quirk of the eyebrow, but he'd ask her eventually.

"And everyone knows that the F block is filled with psycho monsters, if that's what you're looking for." After all, Larxene belonged in that category and looked what happen to everyone she came across.

Kairi turned to Axel with an amused smile before turning back to look at Sora, her smile becoming sad soon after. “It was … all I know was that it was a girl. I couldn’t see her face because her hair was covering it, but … I could see her eyes. They were blue, and they were glowing. After that she threw my flashlight away and I was in the dark.”

Lowering her eyes to the floor again, she sighed, lifting up her good hand to run into her hair. “Then, in the bathroom, there was another girl, but … she just watched. She didn’t do anything … and … I couldn’t see her, but I knew she was there. I told her to run and she said … it was … fun. To watch.”

After a quick shrug of her shoulders, Kairi shut her eyes and sighed once more. “That’s all I can remember before I … well …” her eyes lifted to peer at Sora’s bandage once again before returning to the ground. “But I’ll be careful. I’m going to sit in tonight, so … you won’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Lifting her head, she forced a smile on her face.

As Kairi explained what had happened to her in more detail, Sora found it harder and harder to listen to. Some girl with glowing blue eyes was involved, and then there had been someone else who had just watched for the fun of it? It was the sort of thing Sora couldn't wrap his head around... Why would people do such horrible things, and get enjoyment out of it?

He tried not to seem too shaken, but it was likely that he had paled a little. He set his hand on the back of Kairi's chair as some sort of support.

"Okay, it's... good that you're going to rest. But the girl who did it... was it a patient?" He knew there were human-like things that would wander around at night and attack people, so it would be best to distinguish. If it was a patient, then -- well, Sora wasn't certain what he would do, but he wasn't sure if he could just leave it alone in that case.

Like Sora, Axel wasn't too fond of the other redhead's explanation either, but it was to a much lesser extent of how the brunet was feeling. A sadist like that was a pretty common thing when one looked at it in a broader sense, and admittedly he had paid no mind to such a thing back when the Organization took full reign of his life. But maybe it had to do with the fact that it was someone he may have cared about unconditionally that he was even taking interest in it.

"If it'll make you feel better, I can show you how to dig a person's eye out with your finger." Axel offered to Kairi in an attempt to lighten the mood, but he knew he was onto something. With such a diversity of patients showing up in Landel's, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to teach the girl some self-defense for her own good.

"Anyway, you won't have to worry about anything like that while I'm around. And Sora for that matter, but I reek of more awesome than him."

“Well,” Kairi began with a sigh, lifting up her broken hand, “I had tried to punch her, but … it was like punching a rock wall. I don’t know what happened.”

After a few more moments of silence, the once Princess began to chew on her lip. How to put this … “I’m … pretty sure they were both … patients. At least, the girl that attacked me was a patient. She was wearing the same uniform. The other girl … I don’t know. Like I said, I couldn’t see her.” It was scary to think about, but … she knew Sora needed to know. That way, the same thing wouldn’t happen to anyone else, maybe.

Lifting her head up to peer up at Sora and Axel – though her glance at Axel was a simple roll of her eyes – she frowned, crossing her arms over her chest carefully. “I also know that the girl was really … strong. That’s all I really know about her.”

She felt bad that she couldn’t really be of much help – for all she knew, there were a lot of other people with long hair and blue eyes.

Axel's comment did make her smile though, and she nodded her head, letting out a soft laugh. "Thank you. I promise one of these days I'll stop making you worry so much."

While Sora didn't like the idea of Kairi having to learn how to fight (especially if it involved digging out people's eyes), he had to admit that it might be the most practical way to deal with their current situation. She didn't even have a weapon, did she? Then again, those were difficult to get a hold of in this place, so maybe it wasn't that surprising.

So both of them had been patients. The descriptions weren't very much to work off of, but that didn't stop Sora from glancing around the area, as if he expected to recognize them. "All right, well... If you ever see the girl who hurt you around, you need to come find me and let me know, all right? Because... I want to talk to her." He wasn't even sure what he would do if he came face-to-face with the person who had injured his friend so badly, but it wouldn't be good.

He wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to leave Kairi now, but she had Axel to talk to, which wasn't all that bad when it came down to it. She seemed comfortable enough with him, at least. Sora glanced to the Nobody. "Would you mind watching over her for me? I'm supposed to go talk to Renji." Though it looked like another patient had made his way over; still, Sora had to check in.

"Nonsense. The only way we'll stop worrying about you is if you make us hate you." It was a completely honest answer in his book, but Kairi was just being too damn modest for his liking. And then Sora had to go pop in the most obvious suggestion.

"Of course, you only pay attention to me when you want me to do you a favor." He replied back in that same teasing tone, but nonetheless it was a suggestion he was already way ahead of. Still, it was nice to know that Sora at least had some faith in him instead of being over protective about his gal like he was before.

"Anyway, there's nothing to fret about. As long as she's under my watchful eye nothing's going to happen to her. But I can strap her to my back if you're still aren’t convinced."

At this point, Kairi found the thought to be fully doable. The whole ... heartless thing put a huge damper on her conscious, so at that moment she was being pretty down on herself. “I guess.” She answered Axel in a soft voice, her eyes still watching the floor.

At the mention of being strapped to his back, Kairi turned to Axel with a frown, letting out a whine. “I don’t want to be strapped to your back! What if you forget about me and you lie down and I suffocate to death?” she was joking, of course … but hey, it was always plausible. Lord knew Axel wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box (… in her opinion, anyway.)

The mention of Renji made Kairi flinch – uh oh. A part of her almost didn’t want him finding out – she didn’t want him to be worried too. “Tell Renji I said hello.” She said as happily as she could, a smile crossing her lips. “I’ll try to ... get in contact with you if I remember anything, or see anyone, okay?”

"And we'll never hate you," Sora said with a quick smile. He drew his hand away from the back of Kairi's chair and set it on her shoulder for a split second before pulling away.

He let out a quick laugh at Axel's comment and shook his head. "I don't think you have to go that far. But thanks." Maybe Axel wasn't at the top of his list as far as who he would have wanted to watch over Kairi (other than himself), but he wasn't at the bottom either.

"I will," he told Kairi. "And yeah, you better!" He knew that he shouldn't be targeting other patients when there were so many other things to worry about, but he couldn't let something like that brush past him. Kairi hadn't done anything to merit being attacked, which meant that the other girl had done it for no good reason. If anything, he wanted to make sure it didn't happen again.

With those thoughts roiling around inside his head, Sora waved to the two and then headed toward Renji and the other patient.

[ Skittering over here. ]

"Since you weigh more than a semi-truck, I think I'd notice that if you were still strapped to my back." Axel fired back with a playful sneer at Kairi's sharp-edged remark, but that quickly disappeared when he saw the girl flinch. Maybe that little brawl of hers did more internal damage than he thought.

He gave Sora a small wave as the brunet left the table, quickly reverting back to stuffing down the rest of his breakfast while he still had the chance. Now that the Keyblade Master was gone, he could prod Kairi with a few questions that had been bothering him since the start of their conversation.

"Say...." The redhead began after washing everything down with some juice. "Do you know how Sora got that injury on his arm? It didn't seem like he got it from the psycho chick that attacked you."

Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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