damned_institute | Nightshift 31: M21-M30 Hallway

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Nightshift 31: M21-M30 Hallway

((Specifically in room M22))

This night was shaping up to be another long and tiring one. Adelheid mentally ran through the checklist of things to do: give a spear to Yukari Takeba, create the sakabatou for Himura Kenshin, sharpen Kenren's blade... and then, if he found a moment to breathe, to do something to let off some of the anger he still felt. At least he wasn't powerless tonight; that was the only good thing for him to look forward to. It had been too long since he'd gotten to fight something that wasn't a patient.

He kept one ear on the radio, still wondering if Jack was honestly gone and convincing himself that such could not be the case. Besides, he was too busy to feel grief now. He had to focus, or else this night was going to be just as frustrating as the previous one.

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While Peter did feel a little better for having talked things over with Nathan during the last shift, he had still felt nervous while being led back to his room for dinner. His roommate had been asleep, as usual, which meant he hadn't even had someone to distract him from the coming nightshift.

With his injury still slowing him down, he wasn't sure how much of a help he would be, even with the shovel he had found in hand. The fact that neither he nor Nathan knew how Claire was doing made things worse, and it sounded like trying to search her out at night was a lost cause.

They would just have to rely on the bulletin to search her out the following day -- it was just hard having to wait that long to know whether or not she was all right. Then again, what could have happened to her? She healed, after all. Though his powers were completely gone and Nathan's were weakened, so who knew where that left Claire.

His worries and his sore back made it hard to focus on eating, but he managed to get a few bites down before the intercom went off. It was more of the same, though it sounded like another person had been added to the confusion of the routine announcements. Peter didn't bother trying to follow along, instead focusing on gathering his shovel and flashlight in anticipation of the doors opening.

Once they did, he headed out into the hall and made the short trip to M21. It was a good thing that he and Nathan had ended up with rooms so close to each other. Positioning his shovel a little awkwardly under his arm to free his hand, he reached forward to knock on the door.

Cid's head snapped up as he heard the knock, and it didn't take long for him to press his hands on his knees, stand up, and head for the door. Maybe his buddies had been planning something and they just hadn't had a chance to tell him. In any case, it'd be nice to venture out without as much worrying as usual, even if his last foray into the darkness had earned him an injury.

Cid pulled back the door, ready to start with a string of fond curses until he saw a stranger in front of him and stopped. He arched a brow and frowned, miffed.

"And who the hell are you?"

Peter hadn't expected someone other than Nathan to answer the door, so when he was greeted by a stranger (and not a very friendly one, at that), he didn't know what to say at first. Had he remembered the room number wrong?

"Uhh, I'm looking for Nathan...?" He trailed off before leaning to the side to see if he could get a clearer look into the room.

It occurred to him that his brother might have a roommate who didn't sleep all day and night, so he waited as patiently as he could, hoping he hadn't screwed up somehow.

Cid's angry expression faded into something a little more diplomatic as realization washed over him. Oh, right. Someone else lived here.

"Uh, yeah, y'got the right room," Cid said, moving away from the door and waving the guy in. "Sorry, he didn't mention he was expectin' visitors."

The apology was weak, and Cid's spirits were even weaker. The hope and subsequent disappointment of his buddies showing up had reminded him of just how crappy it was to be without comrades. Sure, he could fight and make plans on his own just fine back home, but the atmosphere of this place made things that much more demoralizing.

On the other hand, Peter was relieved to hear that he had remembered correctly. It would have been pretty embarrassing to have knocked on the wrong door and disturbed someone for no reason.

Nodding appreciatively, he stepped inside, surprised to see that Nathan was fast asleep on his bed. He knew that the days and nights wore on them, but his brother had been unconscious for most of last night, too.

He glanced to the roommate and was shaken when he noted the man's expression. Was this a bad time? He turned toward him, expression unsure. "Sorry about that. I'm Peter, Nathan's brother," he explained, holding out his hand as he glanced back to Nathan's bed. Should he wake him up? He felt bad, but they had things they were supposed to be doing tonight.

Cid took his hand and shook it, looking over the guy's face. Brother, huh? Yeah, they looked alike, though it was a damn shame the guy had family stuck in here. Cid had been an only child, but if Shera were here... Hell, after what he'd done to her and what she'd done for him, he'd protect her with his damn life.

"Cid--Captain Cid Highwind," he gave his usual introduction as he let go of the guy's hand. He shrugged and sighed when he saw Peter look over at his brother. "Came back from the shift, ate, and went to sleep. It's happened to me sometimes too--just passin' out and waking up a couple days later. Don't think you'll have much luck gettin' him up, sorry t'say."

Captain? Peter wasn't sure what to make of that, though he thought he might be better off not asking. He had heard some weird stories in the short time he had been here, and now wasn't the time for another one.

Still, he appreciated that Cid offered an explanation without having to be prompted, as strange as it was. "Maybe he was drugged?" he suggested with a frown, moving over to the bed to look Nathan over. He leaned the shovel against the side of the bed and then drew closer, but his brother looked pretty healthy to him. Then again, he was sleeping, so that made it hard to tell.

Figuring there was no harm in trying, he reached forward and gave Nathan's shoulder a hard shake. "C'mon, Nathan, wake up."

Cid watched Peter approach his brother and then rolled his eyes when Nathan didn't stir in response. Yeah, Cid had been right once again, and once again, he wished he hadn't been. Aside from not being able to learn more about the aircraft from Nathan's world (shit, he was as bad as the blond kid from breakfast), he was now stuck in an awkward situation with a total stranger. Not that Cid had anything against the guy and not that the downsides of socializing bothered Cid much, but he just wasn't sure if Peter would end up being as tolerable as his brother.

"Yeah, it's like I said," the pilot finally sighed after a few seconds, realizing he should state the obvious, "he's out cold."

That more or less ruined their plans, then. Peter didn't know what had put Nathan out of commission like this, but Cid was right: it didn't look like he would be getting up anytime soon.

Considering how little he had accomplished yesterday, he knew that he wouldn't feel right just sitting around and waiting for his brother to wake up when there was a chance he might stay this way the whole night. He was going to have to go out, but he had been told multiple times that going anywhere alone was dangerous, and the fact that he was still injured made it even less of a good idea.

He turned to Nathan's roommate, looking a little defeated. Why could nothing ever go smoothly?

"Guess I'll leave him a note and try to find someone else to wander around with," he said with a shrug.

Cid nodded and tried to rub his eyes without touching his nose, but such a task proved to be too dangerous an undertaking. Kinda like wandering the halls alone at night; you took one step forward, but then you took, like, thirty steps back and broke a kneecap.

He glanced up at Peter and he was somewhere between deciding whether that crooked lip was caused by bad genes or a baseball bat when a thought occurred to him.

"Hey, uh..." He began and then trailed off, not wanting to sound too pathetic but not wanting to sit on his ass another goddamn time. He sighed and scratched the back of his ear. "You any good at fightin' at all? Or... healing or lock-pickin', those work too."

Peter perked up a little at the question. While he wasn't sure how much help he would be, the implication that Cid also needed someone to wander with was a pleasant surprise. That would certainly make things a lot easier, and it seemed like a good idea to get to know the man Nathan was sharing a room with. So far, he seemed like a decent enough guy. (He wondered if Nathan got along with him, though.)

"Well, not really. I mean, I had powers, but they're gone here, I think. I do have this, though," he offered, pulling his shovel off of his shoulder to give the other man a better look. It wasn't much, but it had been enough to kill that cat creature last night.

"Anyway, I didn't really have a back-up plan lined up, so..." He trailed off, wondering if this situation could turn out all right in the end.

Cid stared blankly as Peter showcased his trump card. Right, a shovel. Even sadder was the fact that Cid knew it wasn't something he should ridicule.

He looked at the guy while he talked, trying to size him up. Powers, huh? Nathan had never mentioned he had a kid brother with weirdo skills, but then again, that wasn't the kind of thing you advertised. Even back home, people who could use forms of magic without materia were pretty damn out of the norm.

Cid finally sighed, rolling his eyes. The night wasn't getting any younger and Dr. Landel wasn't getting any less bitchy.

"What the hell," he said, giving the guy a weak smirk. "You're up shit creek, I'm up shit creek... at least we can help each other paddle with that shovel."

Cid wasn't sure if his metaphor made any fucking sense, but he figured it got the point across.

While Peter wasn't sure he liked the way he was being sized up, he let it go when the man did agree in his own, crude way.

"All right. Lemme just leave a note for him." He glanced around the room before locating Nathan's journal, figuring his brother wouldn't mind if he used a page. He scribbled a quick explanation, ripped it out, and then set it on the dresser that was situated between the two beds before returning to where Cid was standing.

Figuring he would lead the way, seeing how he was the one who was armed, Peter didn't hesitate to head back out into the hallway, holding tight to his shovel and flashlight. He glanced back at the older man with a half-smile. "So, do you and Nathan get along?" While Cid didn't seem half bad, Nathan wasn't nearly as tolerant of people as he was, and he got the feeling Cid's manner might just rub his brother the wrong way.

Cid grabbed a sweatshirt from the closet as Peter wrote the note, tying it around his waist and grabbing his lawnmower blade and flashlight from his hiding place in his dresser drawer. It... all looked pretty fucking pathetic in comparison to that damn shovel, but Cid tried to be a good sport and not think too much about how unfair it was he didn't have anything useful as they exited out the door into the hallway.

He found his mind wandering as they began to walk. The whole situation made him really ache to be back with his buddies. Last night had been like a taste of honey--Cloud, Barret, hell, even Reno--it had all harked back to times that were better not so much because of the circumstances but because he was around people he knew he could work with. People he knew he could trust.

And now he didn't know if they'd be missing by the next morning.

Cid was jolted out of his thoughts by Peter's question, though the timing of it was actually pretty good to improve his mood. He looked down his flashlight's beam's range of illumination, grinning.

"Why the hell wouldn't we?" He cast a side-glance at Peter, as if his question had been totally unnecessary, if cheering. "I swear, yer brother's the one damn lucky thing thrown at me in this whole mess. Same interests and shit--nah, more like the same lifestyle."

His eyes looked far-off for a second before he paused and arched a brow at Peter.

"Didn't mean that to sound so gay."

There was an awkward silence before he coughed and added quickly:

"Anyway, the man flies! I fly! Damn good coincidence."

While Peter didn't see the reasoning behind Cid tying the sweatshirt around his waist (was he honestly worried about getting cold?), he wasn't about to question it. Everyone had their different quirks, after all.

Though even more surprising than that was how excited the other man was in regards to Nathan. Peter didn't think that the way the man acted would really blend well with Nathan's (sometimes) judging personality, but apparently that wasn't the case.

Trying to work around the awkwardness (why point it out in the first place?), Peter was brought to a halt in his walk down the hall when the F-word was mentioned. And not the curse-word, either.

He stared at Cid, mouth agape before he forced himself to recover some composure. "He... told you that?"

"Sure he did!" Cid replied with a grin. He winced a little at a shot of pain from his nose, but continued walking, ignoring it. "Guy's like me; someone who..."

He trailed off when he realized that Peter had stopped in his tracks. He turned around, a frown on his face. What the hell was so shocking about a coupla guys talking about flying?

"What's up?" He asked, looking a mix of confused and suspicious. Was Nathan a compulsive liar or something? Would be really depressing if he was. And angering.

On top of being baffled that Nathan had let go of such a well-guarded secret, Peter also had to deal with the fact that Cid didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with someone telling him that they could fly.

Maybe that was normal where he came from (at this point, Peter was willing to accept most anything), but it still didn't explain why Nathan would suddenly open up to someone he hardly knew when he was usually so careful and did his best to trivialize his ability.

"It's just... he doesn't usually tell anyone about that. If people had found out about it where we come from, it would have been a big deal." He wasn't going to get into the fact that his brother had been running for office since that would have opened up a whole other can of worms, but hopefully Cid would be able to follow the logic regardless.

"Big deal?" Cid arched an eyebrow. Sure, pilots were in kinda short supply in Gaia due to planes being one of the pinnacles of engineering (not that he minded; made him more awesome), but it sure as hell wasn't anything to be ashamed of. "Whoa, whoa, wait, you sayin' flying's illegal in your world? Because that's bullshit."

After Cid's immediate reaction, his thoughts started aligning, and a moment later, a couple of things Nathan had said came back to him.

"Oh, wait--y'mean he didn't want people to know he was a vet?"

Didn't make much sense, considering the guy was supposed to have been a politician, but hey, different world and all that.

Oh. Oh. Peter had to fight to keep the panic off of his face as he realized his mistake. Maybe he could still salvage this misunderstanding somehow - in fact, he had better be able to if he didn't want Nathan disowning him.

He couldn't just drop the subject without any explanation, though, and he didn't want to lie to Cid if he didn't have to.

"You meant being a pilot? Sorry, I got kind of confused. He was in the Air Force a long time ago - I was just a kid," he started, though this still didn't explain his earlier outburst.

"Do you mind if we just forget about earlier? It's... kind of hard to explain." He wasn't sure if that would be good enough, but it was always worth a try. Maybe if he drilled in the fact that it was a sensitive topic, Cid would leave it.

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Nightshift 31: M21-M30 Hallway

(Outside) M21

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