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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"Well, that ain't a surprise," Cid replied to both the kid's admission of not knowing Gaia and his guess that the pilot didn't know what the hell a Fire Country was. The name sounded like the kind of mystic crap that Wutaians threw around, and... huh.

Cid paused, chewing on a mix of banana-nut and blueberry as he glanced up at the kid. He actually looked pretty damn Wutaian, but Cid figured the possibility of having run into a distant relation of Yuffie was either really bad or really, really bad, so he kept his mouth shut on that count.

Instead, he said: "Been doin' good? Found people from your, uh, Fire Country, or you been shit outta luck like me?"

The question gave Sai pause. His brows knitted together just slightly as the rest of his face remained impassive. "There are, were, a few," he began slowly, staring at his fork. "Some I haven't seen for a few days. I worry that they may have... disappeared." It might be too much to hope that they had escaped. Disappearing patients seemed a common thing here, even if some returned again.

"I know of two still here." Maybe even just one. He hadn't seen Hatake Kakashi around lately either. That would leave just him and Sasuke... "What about you?"

Cid tensed as the kid spoke, every word mirroring the very situation that the pilot was currently gloomy over. He looked up at him, eyes slightly widened before he narrowed them again and grit his teeth.

"Same fuckin' thing right here," he growled, looking away and glaring murder at the nearest nurse. "Buncha my buddies were brought here one at a time - all from years after I'm from, too, and... they're slowly goin', goin', gone..."

He trailed off, then looked back to the other patient.

"What's yer name, anyway?" The kid seemed all right, so Cid figured he should stop being a blunt asshole for at least a couple of seconds. He outstretched a hand. "I'm Cid - Captain Cid Highwind."

Another man who referred to himself as a captain? That was something to take note of, though it still seemed as though this place picked up people of all different ranks. "My name is Sai," the boy answered, having grown rather familiar and attached to the name by now. "No title or surname." He gave the man an awkward smile. He tried to keep them from looking so obviously fake, but it was difficult when he still lacked the real emotion to back them up.

"I have had friends from different times as well. When I arrived, only one of them recognized me." Ironically enough, that one was the only one that remained from the original group. Kakashi had remembered him, but he'd arrived later. He'd nearly forgotten about Haku and his "master," but they were from a different village and had never met him to begin with.

Cid eyed the kid and his weirdly unsettling smile. Sai, huh? Even his name sounded Wutaian, and his situation was sounding more and more like Cid's. It hadn't fully occurred to the pilot that this could be happening to other people - that similar universes and timelines could be tweaked in the same way as his own - but he figured that had to be the effect of avoiding those he didn't know in this strange new world. The fact that he and the other Gaians weren't alone in their predicament was a bizarre concept to consider even if it was an obvious one, and just thinking about the whole thing was pissing him off more and more.

"Yeah, sounds 'bout right," Cid grumbled, taking a bite out of an apple. "I seem to be the one missin' out in my bunch - pretty much everyone else is from my 'future,' with goddamn clone brats and marriage jokes and cornrows..."

The pilot trailed off, realizing he probably wasn't making much sense through his ranting. He sighed and shook his head, raising his eyes to Sai's.

"Bottom line is it's good to hear I ain't the only one tearin' my hair out over all this."

Cid hadn't been making much sense, but then a lot of things involving other worlds didn't, and Sai was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He didn't need to ask questions about the man's personal dilemmas.

"Tearing your hair out? Oh. You're saying I'm upset. No, that's not true." He smiled again, staring down at his tray. "I'm a little confused - I admit to that. But I don't get upset, because I don't feel much of anything. So there's no need to worry about that. I'm sorry if you're troubled." He'd read that talking about one's problems to someone trusted was a good way to help lessen the stress. If Cid didn't have anyone to talk to, then Sai could offer an ear.

Leaning forward, he tried his best to appear attentive and interested in Cid's issues. "I'll listen if you need to rant about it."

The kid was sounding weirder and weirder by the second, judging from both his words and the tone he was saying them in. Then again, given the fact that Cid had Cloud and Vincent and a talking dog as comrades, he really wasn't one to judge.

"Nah, whatever," Cid waved the kid away, taking the last bite of his last muffin. He looked to his empty plot and then back to Sai, arching an eyebrow. "What do you mean by not feelin' stuff?"

"I mean exactly what I said." And then it was back to explaining his lack of fine social skills. As was the norm. Not that Sai was one to complain about this. If others needed to know then it was simply a matter of telling them.

Still smiling, the ninja leaned back so that he was sitting straight again and elaborated calmly. "I don't have many of what you'd call emotions. So I mean that I don't feel in the emotional sense. I do feel things physically." The last bit probably wasn't necessary, but he decided to go ahead and point it out just in case he'd confused the captain.

"Uh-huh," Cid intoned, fixing the kid with a dubious stare. Was he for real? Sure, the pilot had met more than his fair share of sociopaths and psychopaths and all the other damn paths in his time, but he couldn't remember anyone ever explaining their crazy so openly and clinically. Cid didn't know whether he should feel reassured or really fucking creeped out.

"Well, I uh..." Cid tried and then trailed off. He wasn't sure how to respond to something like that until he realized he didn't have to say anything monumental: The kid had just said he wouldn't care either way, hadn't he? Goddammit, this place was sucking the smart out of him.

"Guess that ain't so bad," he finally said. He gave a wry smirk and gestured his fork at Sai. "I was wonderin' why I hadn't pissed you off by now."

"Oh, I see." The cheerful expression didn't waver. "It's good that I've explained it, then." And without another word on the subject, Sai went back to finishing his breakfast. There had been many meals when he'd gotten so involved in discussions with other patients that his food had gone cold by the time he'd gotten the chance.

There wasn't all that much of it this morning, so it didn't take long for him to set the plate and fork aside and return hid attention to Cid. "How long have you been here?" he asked, purely for the sake of conversation. He would have been perfectly willing to spend the rest of breakfast in silence, but that wasn't the preference of most.

"Too damn long," Cid grumbled, grabbing his cup of apple juice and taking a swig. He tried to pretend it was iced tea. "Though I guess 'too damn long' could mean five minutes, so take that as you want."

And then, suddenly, commotion broke out across the cafeteria. Cid narrowed his eyes and took a look over Sai's shoulder; it looked like the girl who'd been sicced on them that one time had gone berserko on some orderlies and that half the damn hall was starting to join in. The pilot's gears started turning, and he found himself in a state of mind that started at 'mildly impulsive' and ran the whole gamut down to 'fucking nuts.'

He knew that the people sitting down were the real smart ones, and that anyone who rioted was gonna get their ass beat down once things were said and done. But still...

"Hey, kid..." Cid started in a mild drawl, eyes still fixed on the growing brawl. "You any good at fightin'?"

Now that Sai gave it some thought, he realized he'd actually been in Landel's exactly a week that day. Odd that it seemed so much longer. He was about to mention this to Cid, but the other man had become distracted by whatever commotion was now breaking out around them.

Could he fight? "I'm a highly trained ninja. Yes, I can fight. Joining this brawl right now might not be in our best interests, however." The staff seemed to be rather good when it came to overwhelming the patients, no matter how strong they were. "Were you thinking of doing that?"

"Ninja, huh?" Cid grunted in response as he watched the fight unfold. This kid must've been some distant cousin of Yuffie's, which was weird considering he was apparently an emotionless husk of a human being whereas Yuffie was... Yuffie.

In any case, Cid figured that with lack of feeling came lack of stupid, and the pilot would've laughed at the sheer understatement Sai was making had it not made him feel so deflated. Not in their best interests. Heh, that was one way of saying it, and he might've gotten pissed off at how the kid's words were tearing the fight out of him had he not known it was for his own damn good.

Finally, after a full moment's contemplation, he slowly and uneasily sat back down. He grabbed his apple juice.

"Yeah, I was," he muttered from behind his glass. He took a swig and tried not to let on just how emasculated he felt.

The boy kept an eye on the struggle. It was important to note how the orderlies and nurses reacted, and he found himself wondering where exactly all of them were coming from. They had to be stationed all around the building, as he'd never seen so many congregated in one place. The Institute obviously employed a good load of people.

"I understand there are those who like to relieve stress through violence. Rather, I've read about it." He let his head tilt slightly to the side, though the expression he regarded Cid with was mostly blank. "If you'll feel better for it, then perhaps I shouldn't stop you. The drugs will wear off before night, I think."

"Nah," Cid sighed as he watched a whole shitload of nurses add to the chaos. "Pain in the ass, and it looks like the whole goddamn cavalry's just arrived anyway."

It wasn't long before Cid saw a couple of self-righteous nurses heading their way, and the pilot had a good idea what that meant. It might not be bedtime for everyone, but breakfast was definitely over.

"Hey, uh..." he said quickly, looking to Sai, "nice to meetcha, really. You seem all right for... bein' a fuckin' weirdo."

And come to think of it, weirdos were the ones who Cid got along with best.

"Well!" The nurses approached them, smiling far too widely given the current situation. "I do think it's time to get you good boys out of here! Come along!"

Cid's gut churned and choked itself in its own humiliation at that, but he managed to gulp it down. He began to follow the nurse and then, on impulse, turned his head and yelled back at Sai over the ruckus:

"Hey, kid, my room's M21! If we can't find buddies to fight with... then what the hell, right?"

He turned back to the nurse and, strangely, felt a little better.

[ To M21. ]

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Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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