Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

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]

Comments

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"See how your nails are all chipped and short, broken down right to the quick?" Valn ran his finger over the tips of hers, circling the nail on her pointer finger.

"Now look at mine. They're a bit jagged, but you can still see the difference." He held out his free hand to her, the nails chipped and a few broken cleanly, but the evidence of fine sculpting and buffing still visible.

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

She was too distracted by the feel of his fingers brushing against hers, the caress somehow sensual despite his blunt words, and for a moment, she forgot what he was talking about.

"Yes, but my nails got that way from me working. Besides, if I grew my nails and painted them like elven ladies, they'd be ruined in the span of fifteen minutes. If they even survived that long. I've too much work to do to worry about whether my nails match my shoes, or my eyes, or whatever other fripperies they try to color code. I don't have time for that."

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"You should make time," Valyn pointed out, logically. "How you present yourself is how people will perceive you. I'm not saying you need to change yourself, but a bit of regular grooming would go a long way. Especially now." It wasn't about fripperies at all. It was simply about presenting yourself properly.

"You're a beautiful girl, Shana, you shouldn't hide that."

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

Shana blinked at him again, her cheeks reddening further at his words. "Now you're just making things up," she tried to laugh it off in embarrassment. He couldn't truly think she was beautiful. Not when he'd lived his life surrounded by the elegant elven ladies and the Hernalth harem.

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm not. You've striking features, an attractive figure..." Valyn shrugged, saying the words with little more emotion than one would use when appraising a piece of art or livestock. "A bit of cosmetics and something done with your hair would be a vast improvement."

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

The flush of pleasure quickly turned to one of embarrassment at his blunt words and she ducked her head, hiding her face behind the thick fall of hair, blinking quickly, as his words stung more than they should have. "Like I said, there's not much time for that when you spend most of your time living in the wilderness and trying to stay two steps ahead of people looking to kill you."

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"Yes, but that isn't your life now," Valyn pointed out, again. "Perhaps I'm just being selfish." He shrugged once more. "But I do think you'd be more striking if you stopped looking so much like a waif." He knew he'd probably upset her, and he sighed and reached over the table to brush her hair back out of her face and tuck it behind her ears.

"You do know I didn't mean that as an insult."

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

Shana wasn't quite ready to meet his gaze just yet, needing a moment to compose herself, a moment to hide the fact that his words had hurt. It was her own fault, and there was no way she could ever look like the females he was used to.

"It is still my life now, even if it's only at night. This place isn't all that much safer, you said so yourself. Do you really think the next giant bird or doppleganger or monster I stumble across is going to care whether I brushed my hair or not? And for that matter, is anyone else? I know just securing my hair back in a braid or with twine isn't the height of fashion, Valyn, and the state of my nails and my skin would most likely send most of your elven females and concubines run screaming in the other direction, but this is me, Valyn, and I'm different.

"Yes, maybe I'd like making myself up fancy once in a while, and the skirt I got to wear to town wasn't as bad as I thought, but when it comes down to a choice between saving my nails or saving a friend, I'd rather get my hands dirty."

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

Valyn just shrugged. "I'd care," he finally said, a bit pathetically and helplessly, somewhat at a loss in the face of her tirade.

"I know you're different. I said I didn't expect you to change, I just... would like to see you all cleaned up and powdered and painted. I told you it was probably simply me being selfish. That is me. And for all that you're badgering about me to make small adjustments, I don't think it's so horrible of me to want to see you like that."

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

She blushed again and ducked her head once more, fingers fidgeting with the ends of her hair as she bit her lower lip uneasily. She felt so uncertain, unsure of herself. What if she dressed up and he realized that it didn't make a difference after all?

"Do you really want to see me like that?" she finally asked hesitantly, glancing at him from beneath dark lashes.

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"And if I do?" Valyn found himself shrugging far too often during this conversation. "I don't think it's such a bad thing. I just...wonder what you would like."

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

She chewed on her lip, thinking, before glancing down at her half-eaten plate of food. "Alright," she answered vaguely, saying no more as she went back to eating. She was doing her best to hide and subdue her insecurities, because either way, there was hardly anything she could do about it at the moment.

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"I'm not saying that I dislike you how you are," Valyn clarified, just to sure they were alright. She took things so terribly personal sometimes, when there was really no need for her to.

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

"But you'd like me better if I did those things." It wasn't really a question, although Shana still wasn't sure how to take that realization. Part of her was slightly insulted, part of her knew he was probably right. After all, she doubted the elven ladies could look that perfect all the time without a lot of maintenance, and if one of them had to do half the things she usually did in a day, they'd look worse than her. Her priorities were just normally different; she was who she was, and normally, she was fine with that.

She wondered if it would be a good thing or a shallow thing to start putting more effort into it just because he'd said he'd like it. She honestly didn't care, but she wanted him to like her. Did that make her selfish too?

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"It isn't a matter of liking you better," Valyn pointed out, wondering why he'd even broached this subject in the first place. "I like you Shana, you know that. It's purely a matter of... aesthetics." That seemed a safe thing to say. It wasn't aesthetics, it was more his sexual drive's curiosity - but that wasn't something to say to a woman. Even Shana.

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

That made sense, although she wasn't sure why it should make much difference. She liked him just as much dressed as he was now as she had in the clothes he'd worn to town, or how he'd looked back in their world. Maybe it was an elf thing?

"Well, I don't know how much I can do about it here, but I'll try," she replied thoughtfully, her expression distracted as she pondered the possibility.

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"I doubt you'd be able to do much here," Valyn found himself saying. "It isn't as though they even give us a chance to attend to basic personal needs as it is."

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

"It could be worse. At least it's not a cave. Or the middle of the forest," she teased him with a crooked grin and an amused glint in her bright green eyes. "We still have beds, and cooked meals provided. And showers."

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"Beds we don't have time to sleep in, and showers they rarely let us use." He shook his head slightly. "Even when we were running or at war, we had time to sleep and clean ourselves regularly."

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

"Is it odd we still feel slightly rested in the morning, though?" she pondered allowed, looking thoughtful. "Or, at least, I do. I mean I don't feel like I was up all night running around. Do you think there's some amount of time that passes between when night ends and we wake up in our beds?"

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"It's this place." Valyn stabbed at his fruit with one of the strange utensils. "After a few days, you won't feel like that. It starts to weigh on you and you wake up feeling as though you drank the night away. Especially if you've used a great deal of magic the night before."

And it was a miserable feeling, to say the very least.

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

"I think I'd prefer drinking the night away sometimes," she mused, heaving a sigh and picking at her pastry as she watched him. "What do you think we should do tonight? Or do you think you'll be staying in?"

Then her gaze dropped to his bandaged throat, and remembered her own bandaged hip, which still made maneuvering rather uncomfortable for her. Maybe the shower would make that feel better? "How are you feeling, by the way?"

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"It often isn't worth it." Valyn had enough experiences with drinking too much. "I don't know what I'm doing tonight. Shadow and I did a bit of exploring last night, but we didn't discover anything new." He didn't think he'd be staying in, though.

"Hmm? Oh, fine, I suppose." It didn't hurt very badly. As he'd feared, his voice hadn't recovered.

[hamenleai.livejournal.com]

"How much of the place have you actually explored?" she asked curiously. She'd not seen much of the place yet at all, since she hadn't yet had the chance to get out and explore after dark. Maybe she'd wander out tonight...

[notmyfather.livejournal.com]

"Most of the first floor," Valyn admitted. "We..."

Whatever else he was going to say was cut off, as he was aware of a commotion in the dining hall. It looked like some sort of uprising. And it looked as thought it were spreading.

"Shana...?"