damned_institute | Nightshift 30: F1-F10 Hallway.

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Nightshift 30: F1-F10 Hallway.

[ inside f7]

“What?” Kairi had been in the middle of getting off of the bed when she heard the announcement the head doctor made, surprise overtaking her face. Hadn’t the man on the radio been well known? Hadn’t he helped all kinds of people?

Her look of shock slowly turned into a sad frown as she moved across the room, not saying a word other than the “what?” she had muttered before. This place was so horrible –

Moving to her dresser, Kairi pulled open the doors in hope of perhaps finding another flashlight. What she found instead was something much better (in her opinion, anyway) and much more useful!

“Oh!” she exclaimed happily as she pulled the pink dress out of the wardrobe, a grin crossing her lips. It had been such a long time since she had seen the pink dress she usually wore, and to see it now just randomly sitting inside the large wardrobe was a pleasant surprise! Before she could really even think, she slowly began to change into the outfit, pausing once she was done to look down.

She looked like herself again! (Minus the bandages, anyway)

Pumping her fists, Kairi did a quick hair flip and let out a happy giggle.

Now all there was to do was wait for Axel.

After a few moments of waiting, Kairi decided that perhaps it would be better to wait in the hall. After all, nothing would happen ... and if something suspicious came, she'd just run back into the room.

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"Staying in." Lyta nodded. So he wanted to spend the night in her bedroom with her. Right. He did look exhausted, but she couldn't help but let her mind wonder. They'd never really finished that conversation....

"So what are we going to do, while we stay in?"

"I don't know... how did your dinner go?" Fox took a seat on the empty bed, leaning the sword against the wall within arms reach.

He hadn't seen her, but he hadn't been able to pay much attention to his surroundings either. The drugs hadn't worn off, whatever they'd gotten him with was obviously more powerful than a normal sedative.

Lyta shrugged. "You don't really want to talk about that." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Look, Fox... I don't... I don't really have a good track record. With dating. I mean, I've never even really been on an actual date. I've never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I've had lovers, and I've had complicated situations, but I've never had anything normal. And I don't know how to do normal."

"Lyta... you're a telepath, and I've been killed twice now. I've been raised and trained since early childhood to kill people. Not only that, but we're both trapped in some crazy mental facility that we can't escape from. This couldn't be normal if we wanted it to be," Fox looked at her directly, tired of dancing around the issue and glad to finally just talk about this. It was certainly a lot easier to speak without the staff hovering over them.

"For the record, I don't know how to do normal either." The only relationship he'd ever had with a woman had been a disaster, and he didn't want to think about that.

"These things should be normal," Lyta said, pressing a hand against her forehead. "I mean, it's dating. It's... one of the most normal things in the universe. Or it's supposed to be. People do it all the time. They meet and fall in love and get together and do all those normal little things. I can't even tell if I'm being flirted with."

Unless someone was extremely obvious. And there had been obvious ones. But she didn't even know what she felt about anyone anymore.

"There was one guy who was just such an idiot that he couldn't even say anything and treated me like crap even though he loved me, and then another guy who blew himself up for our cause right when I decided we could have a life together, and one who hired me to be the mother of a new super race. Just to give you a little idea of my history with men."

"Who says we have to do this the way everyone else does? I know it can't be exactly the same from person to person, I'm sure there are unusual kinds of dates too, they can't all be normal."

Fox was quiet for a long time as Lyta shared her history of men. She certainly had more experience in this area than he did.

"The only relationship I've had with a woman ended in disaster. And then I died," He really didn't want to go into that, though. Fox did not want to bring up that he kept killing people he loved.

"I don't even know if you want to do this." Lyta finally sat up, leaning against the headboard and tucking her knees under her chin. "I mean... do you? I know I could just take a peek inside and find out, but I won't." She'd done that with Zack. And the bastard had never been able to just come out and say how he felt. He had to play those ridiculous head games and...ugh.

"I know I care about you. And you're probably the most important person in my life right now. But it's been a damn long time since I was with anybody. And... well, like you said. We're trapped in some crazy mental institute. Is there even any point to pursuing anything?" She paused.

"If we both want to pursue something, I mean."

God, why was this so hard all of a sudden?

"I care about you, too," Fox admitted, "I've never been good at expressing my feelings." This was difficult to talk about, it was hard to think through this and hard to find the words to express what he was trying to say.

"I don't think it would be pointless to pursue it. I think that some things are worth going after," But he still hadn't answered the question. He was dancing around the topic, so it was time to just go our and say it.

"I do want this," And that was both a wonderful and frightening thing for Fox. It made him feel human to admit to it, but at the same time he was worried about going down a road he'd been down too often before.

"Okay."

Lyta nodded, not sure what she should say. She'd never had to say anything before. With Byron and Talia and all the others, it had just poured off of her in a language that transcended words. Now that she didn't have that, she found herself at a loss.

"I'm not so good at it either," she admitted. At least they were both on the same page. And who knew. Maybe they'd never get out of here. Or they would, and they'd be stuck here and forced to make a life in some strange, archaic world.

At least they had some sort of a life to make.

"Of course you know this means if they let us into town again, you have to take me out to dinner."

"I'll take you where-ever you want if they let us go into town again," Fox promised. Beyond that he wasn't sure what to say exactly.

Even to a beauty place if she wanted, though he didn't think she would be the type to go for something so impractical.

He smiled at her, glad he had something nice to think about for once, something to look forward to.

"I've ever been taken out to dinner before." Lyta laughed. This was all so surreal. But was that really surprising? Was anything less than surreal in this place.

"So what do you think about the intercom broadcast?" Now that that was out of the way, there were more important things to talk about.

Fox had been about to speak when an all to familiar melody began to play over the radio. He immediately stood up, listening in silence.

Had the man on the radio arranged for this to play in the event of his death? There was no mistaking the meaning of this, though.

"Well," Lyta said, looking down. "I guess that answers that, doesn't it?" So much for wondering if maybe it had been a bluff. Guess that radio guy had set this to play or something. Though how the hell would the radio know if its master was dead or not? That was something to think about....

"I suppose it does... And Landel doesn't seem like the type that's able to control his emotions very well, so I doubt he would have been able to bluff if he had been bested in his showdown," Fox had remained silent until the last notes had faded away, sitting back down once he had spoken.

"But it looks like we just lost all our outside help."

"No, and it isn't like he'd be able to keep up the act." The radio guy would just refute him. But other than the playing of the funereal song, there had been nothing.

"How much help was he, really?" Lyta asked. She'd never gone after any of his clues, other than once... "Last time I took his advice, one of our party got killed."

"I met him last night... he seemed like a good guy, he certainly knew a lot more about this place than any of us, he even took out the intercom," And he probably could have done a lot more than that if he had lived.

"He could have been doing more that we didn't even know about," Fox never liked being in a position where he didn't know what was really going on. It never ended well.

"Maybe." Lyta didn't know. Maybe he'd been helpful, maybe he hadn't. She didn't know, and his death - while regrettable as death was - didn't effect her personally. It wouldn't change anything for her.

Once again Fox was cut off by a radio announcement, quite surprised to find that the man on the radio had been replaced by a girl on the radio.

So Jack hadn't been working alone? That was interesting, and it changed his view of the situation slightly.

It had seemed like more of a personal vendetta, and while that might have been an aspect of it the fact that Jack hadn't been alone escalated the situation just a bit.

One person against an organization was one thing, but once that person started recruiting it could become an entirely different situation.

"I'm beginning to think that two-way radios would be a good investment," Fox commented finally.

"You know how to make them, right?" Lyta asked, turning and picking up her own radio. She didn't know what to think of this girl on the radio, or how much help she'd be, but she figured it still didn't matter much to her either way. She was just going to keep on doing what she'd been doing.

"These are really old technology for me," she went on, turning the piece of equipment over in her hands. "And I can't even feel it with my mind." Otherwise she could have just told it to be a two-way radio.

"There's not much of a difference between a two-way and one-way radio, but this technology is a bit dated for me too," Fox did have a tool kit, but he had been planning on letting Otacon make the two-way radios.

"It shouldn't be too hard to figure out, but I think I know someone who could do this for certain," Even though he was confident he could eventually make a two way radio, he would rather go with someone who actually knew.

"Well, let's break one of these things open and see what we can figure out," Lyta suggested. She didn't feel like waiting around for someone Fox thought could do it.

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Nightshift 30: F1-F10 Hallway.

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