Day 30: Cafeteria, Dinner

[captain-hunam.livejournal.com]

The cafeteria was all but empty when Zelnick got there. He was a little disappointed; he had gotten the impression that patients usually ate dinner in their rooms, so he hadn't arranged to meet anyone, and there really wasn't anyone to sit by and engage in conversation yet.

Quietly, he collected dinner and a big glass of orange juice, and chose a seat near the food-serving counters. Talking for so long had made him thirsty... and, well, fruit juice was a luxury he had missed.

[Stalk away, my dearest Admiral. <3 ]

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[black-ageha.livejournal.com]

Kikyo glanced up at him, eyes narrowing coldly. It should come to no surprise, to hear such an obnoxious reply from the urban ninja.

He chuckled coldly, looking down his nose at him as he answered briefly - "That is very kind for you to offer, but happily for you, it won't be necessary. I wouldn't wish to deprive you, after all, of your source of amusement."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack openly laughed at Kikyo's reaction. It was exactly as he imagined it would be. "It's ok. There weren't enough blondes for my liking. I can certainly part with it for a night or two. And if I need to, I can always borrow the midget's copy."

He added, poking at his food, "But I suppose it's not your thing. It's only women."

[black-ageha.livejournal.com]

The idea of touching a thing that had been in John's hands whilst the man was doing god-knows-what was thoroughly repulsive, and it was all he could do not to grimace from the thought. If Kikyo lacked appetite before, it certainly was not going to come back anytime soon.

It was rather disconcerting that Kikyo should find himself as fodder for the amusement of the likes of John. It probably didn't get much worse than this. He mused silently that should have just killed him when he had the chance.

And curious too, was John's rather fixed view of Kikyo's sexual preference. Kikyo slept with men as well as women, and probably too many of either to count, but why did it matter to this man?

"You seem to think you know me so well," he replied with a snort.

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack shrugged. "I never said I knew you. I was only musing."

Yes, he had hit a nerve with the other man. Messing with Kikyo was almost as amusing as the thought of his partners tonight, although to torment the man in front of him was far crueler than to imagine funny titles for his future companions. As far as Jack was concerned, though, Kikyo had no love for him and hadn't been particularly nice. There was no guilt in having fun at his expense.

"Why? Am I in the ballpark?"

[black-ageha.livejournal.com]

Kikyo was sure John would like to think he was, just to put him off even more. It was amazing that after days of indifference and utter lack of emotion, Kikyo could manage to get riled up over something this petty. He suppressed a sigh and set his eyes on the other with a mirthless smile.

"What do you think? Perhaps you would be, if you have been sharpening your wits, as I suggested before."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

"What do I think?" Jack parroted back. "What do I think...what do I think..." He tapped his chin, as if considering. "You know, I actually don't care if I'm right or wrong about you. Either way doesn't affect me in the slightest."

With that, he casually went back to eating, looking every way but at Kikyo.

[black-ageha.livejournal.com]

Kikyo laughed softly, surprisingly amused by John's reply. Maybe it was almost refreshing that he could tell him how it was without any fear of consequence.

Who needed niceties, really? They were useless, but Kikyo stubbornly stuck to them nevertheless, if for no other reason then because he was raised that way.

He lifted the cup to his lips to take a sip before he said- "And that, I think, is the smartest thing I have ever heard you speak."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

"And that," The Fable said, still not looking at Kikyo and shoveling food into his mouth, "Goes to show that you don't know me so well either. If you did, you'd know I'm a chronic liar."

He turned his gaze back to the assassin. "But then you get into that whole paradoxical bullshit about if that was a lie and so forth. I've never really been into the overanalysis of anything, though I guess if you wanna look 'smart' by the academic standards, you have to ape it."

[black-ageha.livejournal.com]

"Ah..." Strangely enough, this man's words made some sense. Kikyo never really believed that Shion's idealisitc words were anything but lofty bullshit disguised as philosophy. Someone who had lived in the world as much as Shion had should have known better.

There was analytical smart, and then there was street smart. John, he suspected, had the latter.

"No need to over-analyze at all. The problem with chronic lies is that you forget which was which," Kikyo said, arching an eyebrow. "It's always possible to speak what is true and still reveal nothing."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

"I do plenty of that as well," Jack grinned, thinking of that silly Fabletown law that forbid him to say much of anything. He was a traitor to them now anyhow, so why did he continue to follow their rules? Some habits were hard to break, though he had never followed it too closely to begin with.

"You got a confession to make?" He arched an eyebrow at Kikyo suggestively.

[black-ageha.livejournal.com]

"Me, a confession?" The expression that had been rather annoyed turned slightly more toward amusement.

It was a preposterous notion that Kikyo would reveal anything of his heart to anybody. And even if he could, there was nothing to be gained from confessing a thing. Usually guilt or shame went hand in hand with any sort of confession, and neither word was part of his vocabulary.

"What an unlikely thing to ask. What could you mean by it?" he grinned.