Nightshift 31: M21-M30 Hallway

[grosse-sklaven.livejournal.com]

((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.

Comments

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

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?"

[dawning-dreams.livejournal.com]

"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.

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

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.

[dawning-dreams.livejournal.com]

"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.

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

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.