damned_institute | 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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Though it didn't exactly cheer him up, Xigbar's reply did make him feel... better, and he laughed half-heartedly. "You could say I left a bang behind," was his reply, a forced smile struggling to keep its place. "And... I think I'll have a home to go back to, thanks to the bang. It was up in the air there for a while," he confided, smile less strained, though not exactly full of joy and merriment. "Knowing it's probably safe is more than I've known for a long time, now."

Sighing, Zelnick let the smile slip away from his face. "Thank you," he said earnestly, looking levelly back at Xigbar. "And I'm sorry if I've been a killjoy or anything, but... thank you."

"You shouldn't put so much stock in knowin', either. Gotta take life as it comes, you know? In here, you're going to have enough problems that you don't need to heap more on your plate. Trust me on that one."

Still, Xigbar had to wonder. Who had this guy been fighting against? Was it anything at all as dangerous as a Heartless? If Zelnick knew the truth about Xigbar, would he hate Xigbar? It was kinda hard to think about that, with the firm knowledge that it wouldn't really matter in the end. Shoot, and he'd been in a good mood just a few seconds ago.

Huh. But then there was a thank you, and Xigbar looked at the captain with an odd expression plastered on his face. "Er... you're welcome, I guess? I'll even be nice an' say this session's on the house."

As someone who had managed to destroy a rather massive and all-powerful weapon through knowing things, Zelnick couldn't help but to quirk his eyebrows upward. "Knowing is important. Not as important as acting upon your knowledge, but... asking questions has saved my life, I think."

The knowledge wasn't always a happy thing to have, but... he hoped that trying to understand what had made his friends and enemies tick had also helped him to save them, even if there had been rough patches. And psychotic pain-worshiping space spiders. And wads of practical-joke-playing bubblegum that gave you ships then attacked you...

"You have been nice," Zelnick agreed, with a not-quite-genuine off-kilter grin. "Just because I don't like the information, doesn't change that you gave it willingly, or that it's... useful. Nor does it change that you told me... as gently as could be expected, if you've been torn away from your world, as well."

Despite the forced smiles, Zelnick's heart ached for his ship and crew and home, but there wasn't much Xigbar could do about those... and he was grateful for Xigbar's help.

Xigbar shrugged at that first comment, an almost-enigmatic (though, as it was Xigbar, a little goofy) smile on his face as he shrugged. "Yeah, that's a good point... but sometimes, if you get just the right kind of information, it'll destroy you. Just take it from the voice of reason, 'kay?" He leaned forward to tap Zelnick on the forehead, and added, "Sometimes it's what you do with what you know, you know?"

Such as not creating a portal into the heart of Darkness and losing your heart and becoming a pale shadow of an imitation of yourself just because a ~~friend~~ research buddy said it was a good idea.

Still... that single word brought it to a screeching halt. 'Nice.' Xigbar had been nice to someone? Maybe he had been. Maybe his good mood had carried himself through, or something. In any case, the sheer surprise of having someone calling him nice made Xigbar burst into laughter, as though it was a joke and it took him a second to catch the punchline. "Ah man," he said in between gasping breaths, "me, nice? Ah hah hah~! Tell me another one before that one gets old!"

Perhaps it was a good thing that, at that point, the orderlies began moving the patients back into their rooms. Something inside of the Nobody was tickled pink, and that was something he wanted to hold on to for awhile.

When a nurse came to drag Zelnick away, he barely had time to wave goodbye and say, "I hope we can talk again soon!"

On his way back to his room, Zelnick mused on what it meant that this wasn't his world at all... and that Xigbar apparently didn't know how nice answering all Zelnick's questions was. Compared to insults about Zelnick's appearance or ramblings about Juffo-Wup and violence ensuing, Xigbar had been polite...

Homesickness was already settling at the bottom of his stomach. What he wouldn't give to be called disgusting by some VUX captain, if only it meant he could be near Earth with his crew!

Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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