damned_institute | Nightshift 30: M1-10 Hallway

Renji picked his sword back up and stuck it through through sashes. Rather than just leaving, he sat on the edge of the desk, arms crossed over his chest.

"Better now?" he asked. Which seemed dumb to ask a guy in that much pain, but there'd been a point to him beating the shit out of Daemon. Supposedly.

"Brilliant," Daemon rasped, rolling back over onto his back once more and glaring up at the ceiling. He curled an arm around his midsection as he mentally probed his own body for injuries, making sure Renji hadn't inflicted anything too severe. He hadn't, but Daemon was still going to feel it for a few days.

"They did something to me."

Renji laughed at Daemon's first comment. He laugh abruptly died at the second. "Like what," he said. He wasn't sure if this was going back to when they'd taken Daemon and made him fight, or something more recent. Which was... worrying.

Daemon lifted a hand and stared at it, concentrating for a moment. No Black shield appeared.

"My craft's gone."

It had been there last night, he'd used it. So that left today. The span of time he'd been unconscious after the riot, perhaps? Or could they control that without physically doing something to him?

Renji frowned. "Just gone?" He stood up and walked back over to Daemon, looking at him like he somehow expected there to be some physical sign.

If nothing else, in that case he figured he should probably heal the guy before he left.

But it was worrying. Really worrying.

"I can still feel the webs," Daemon answered a moment later. "But the Black's no longer responding at all. No shielding, no spark. Nothing.

"Mother Night!" he cursed in frustration, curling his fingers into a fist and pounding the wall beside him. "Will they never cease meddling? As if taking my jewels didn't weaken me enough as it was, now they've taken all of it. Now I wish I'd just let go and blasted the place while I could this morning."

But he hadn't. There'd been too many innocents in that room who could have been harmed. If he'd unleashed whatever power he'd had left, he wouldn't have been able to pick and choose targets, it would have weakened what he could have done. Still, he'd done nothing, other than lose his temper. And now his magic.

Even more worrying. Renji stayed silent for a moment, thinking. Maybe it wasn't permanent, but he wasn't going to offer up a false hope that might get crushed in the next couple of days. That sort of fake cheer didn't do anyone any good.

Eventually, all he said was, "That really sucks." It wasn't helpful, but he didn't have anything helpful to offer. And it reminded him that he should have been fighting this morning, and hadn't, because Sora had stopped him.

Daemon snorted, trying to curb his temper somewhat. At least for now. It did no good to vent it on Renji. They'd done that already. He didn't know if he felt better, or just sore. He'd figure it out tomorrow.

"It does. Remind me to punch you again when I can move."

Renji snorted. "Because you had real luck with that this time around." He made an annoyed noise. "I just don't know, Daemon. Haven't heard of that happening to anyone else. I feel fine. But... I also didn't end up fighting today. So maybe... dunno. We can ask around in the morning, see if it happened to anyone else."

Suddenly, he remembered that Rukia had been in the fight. Maybe the same thing had happened to her, and that scared him a little. But she also wasn't going to be out fighting today, so maybe it was alright. She'd have some people with her, and he trusted Ed to protect her if it came to that.

He shook his head. It was too late to worry about it now. Instead he focused on what was at hand; he reached down and grabbed Daemon's shoulder. He'd have a headache for the rest of the night, which would suck, but he wanted Daemon to be able to move around and do stuff - especially now that his abilities were so hampered, he needed to be in decent physical shape.

He began to quietly say the words of the healing incantation.

"Hell's fire, Renji, save it for someone who might really need it," Daemon grumbled as soon as he realized what the redhead was about. he tried to shrug off the Shinigami's hand, but his bruised collarbone kept him from being very convincing about it.

Renji ignored Daemon's protests - the man wasn't trying that hard to stop him. He finished the incantation and then gave Daemon as much of his spirit as he could, to heal. It at least would take care of the worst of it, if not everything.

When he opened his eyes, energy spent, he was swaying rather dangerously on his feet.

Feeling slightly better, Daemon muttered another curse, reaching up to drag Renji down onto the bed. "Sit down before you fall down," he grumbled, not realizing how unsteady Renji actually was as he tugged the Shinigami off balance.

Renji had intended to sit down. On the other bed. He didn't get a chance to stagger that way, though; Daemon yanked him down, and he fell, onto Daemon. Between the dizziness and how unexpected it was, he didn't have a chance to make it graceful.

One minute he could breathe relatively easily and the next minute there was a redhead all but falling on top of him. His bruised ribs protested the added weight, but Daemon was so surprised by the Shinigami's fall that he could only blink up into the face now mere inches above his own.

Knowing laughter would quickly piss off the redhead, he quickly stifled the urge, although golden eyes glinted faintly as he peered up at Renji. "Or you could do both at once," he murmured, having gone carefully still beneath the redhead.

Renji gave Daemon a faintly horrified look and quickly - and very clumsily - scrambled off of the man, though he did his best not to cause him further injury.

He sat up and put his face in his hands. "Your own damn fault," he muttered.

"Wasn't complaining," Daemon remarked dryly, staring up at the ceiling again. He fell silent for a moment, then added. "I apologize for traumatizing you so."

Renji massaged the sides of his head with his fingers, squinting against the inevitable headache. "You just made me fall over," he said. "You didn't fuck traumatize me, you goddamn drama queen."

"I didn't mean just now," Daemon countered softly. "I meant the other night. I made things more difficult for you, and had I been in control of my senses, I never would have done such a thing. Especially that, after what you confided in me. Something like that... shouldn't be used by force. That's what I'm apologizing for."

Renji didn't look up. He didn't really want to, trying to decide how to feel about much of anything. It was difficult.

He finally settled for taking one hand away from his head, so that he could strike sideways and punch Daemon in the face.

"Enough," he growled. "People ain't responsible for what they do those nights. So shut the fuck up."

Daemon lifted a hand to deflect the punch, taking it to his arm instead, grunting from the blow. "I needed to apologize anyway. I hate that you jump anytime I come near you now. Although you've a right to. I never meant to destroy your trust."

Renji just shook his head again. The entire... thing had been disturbing on so many levels, in some ways more so than what had happened to him before. He didn't know how to explain it, or if he even wanted to. He settled for saying, "I'm always kind of jumpy. Has to do with where I grew up."

Daemon shot the redhead a dry look, expression faintly exasperated. "This has nothing to do with how you grew up," he retorted wryly.

Renji gave Daemon a nasty look in return. "And how the hell would you know that?" he demanded.

...even if it was true, he still wasn't going to let that go without a fight.

He went back to massaging his temples. "I thought the whole point of me tooling the shit out of you was so you could stop apologizin'."

"Is that why we were doing it?" Daemon gave a strained laugh, rolling over on his side to stretch out behind the redhead. "I'd forgotten."

Renji made an exasperated noise. "Are you trying to drive me fucking crazy?" he asked. "Just... stop worryin' about it."

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