damned_institute | Day 32: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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Day 32: Cafeteria, Breakfast

Sylar's gears were still turning as the nurse and a burly orderly escorted him down long halls and through a strange, sunlit room. He'd been forced to drop his pen when the orderly had seen it, and since then, he'd realized that this place had better security than he'd originally anticipated, as well as a large population of patients. It looked like he'd have to bide his time for now, pretending to be this 'Zachary Blaine' and trying to figure out how the hell he'd gotten here.

His mind went over and over the events in Mohinder's lab, tracing every second that led up to his unconsciousness. According to the computer logs and the decked-out loft, Mohinder was working for the Company now, so had that woman with the electricity been an operative? Was this all a Company front? Even so, it didn't make sense for them to drop him off somewhere without any close supervision. They knew how dangerous he was. How special he was.

But right now, his abilities had been nullified and he was left only with the option of playing along. It was a very good thing that it was something he excelled at, even with his sudden loss of the cure clouding his thoughts and telling him to do something drastic.

Still, it was fun to take ahold of strings and let someone think they were pulling him when in fact he was the puppetmaster. Who knew? Maybe he could find a new toy now that his last one had worn out.

Sylar took his syrup-covered waffle to a table and tried to keep track of both the security and the people flooding in. Soon, he'd find an opening, a weak link he could exploit. It was only a matter of time.

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Kyon yawned as he picked up his light tray and made his way over to a table of some kind. He'd oddly enough, fallen asleep last night before even doing anything. He didn't exactly have plans so there really was no reason to leave. It seemed like he'd avoided the monsters somehow as well.

There was a bit of optimism in him today, thanks to his more or less pleasant night. He felt a familiar tug on his mind from his bloodthrist, but for now, it was going unnoticed. He'd worry about it later, no doubt when Aidou found him later in the day like the uppity vampire often did.

He sat his tray down without really looking at who else was at the table and started to prod at his waffles.

Clark automatically looked up to see who was eating breakfast with him. He froze for a second, mouth still full with scrambled eggs, and hurriedly swallowed.

"Oh, hey, Kyon!" he said.

Was the kid okay? Granted, he hadn't seen him much (okay, at all) since that first night that he'd carried him away from that red hall upstairs, but looking him over, he seemed more or less okay if you ignored the bruise on his head. Wondering how he'd gotten that, Clark was almost tempted to x-ray him to be doubly sure he was okay - but that was kind of an unnecessary invasion of privacy and besides, Kyon didn't look like he was in pain or anything, just distracted.

Kyon nearly jumped at having his name called so suddenly, and so close by. Wow, must have had some kind of psychic link with the cafeteria today. If he wasn't mistaken, this was ...

"...Clark?" Kyon asked. He never got a chance to really look at him in the dark, not to mention how out of it he was when Clark had saved him. He barely remembered the conversation, at all. He set his fork down, ignoring his food now.

" ...Ah! I'm sorry about not meeting up with you yesterday!" Kyon gave him an apologetic look. "I got a ...doctor's appointment during the shift we were going to meet."

Clark beamed. For a second, he'd wondered if Kyon would recognize him; after all, it'd be pretty dark and he hadn't been in very good shape at the time.

"It's okay," said Clark, setting aside the list of mysterious deaths to the side for now. To be honest, he'd almost forgotten, especially with his own doctor shift with Dr. Burroughs. "How'd it go? The appointment?"

He'd understand if Kyon didn't want to talk about it. It seemed to be a better lead into real tough questions that he should ask, like how was Kyon doing (and not in the "okay, I guess" way), and if he still had that condition of his. Clark back then told himself he'd keep an eye on Kyon, both for his and the other patients' sake; he'd feel a lot better if he could just get an honest answer from Kyon rather than having to do anything by force.

Kyon was able to remember his voice at least, and match it with the general outline of Clark. It looked like he was right! Kyon sighed in a relieved way after Clark dismissed his absence.

On the subject of his doctor, Kyon looked a bit annoyed. "Fine, I guess. It was more of them trying to force that fake life on me. Apparently, my name is Jack Worthing, and before I lost my marbles, I was a kid obsessed with writing fantasy stories about my friends."

He didn't go into her getting a sample of his blood, he was still wary of that in itself. Also, thanks to him talking without thinking on the night of his experimentation, Clark knew about his little ...problem.

Clark tried to offer a comforting smile. "Nothing wrong with writing stories, is there?" he said. "Seems pretty harmless - not really sure what their explanation for why you'd have to be here is if that's all they can come up with."

He went silent for a bit, polishing off his scrambled eggs. Between being a farmboy and an alien on top of that, Clark found that he could positively inhale food without having to worry about packing on pounds - his friends used to pick on him for being a bottomless pit. He had to remind himself to slow down, especially since he wanted to bring up Kyon's condition and he'd probably need a few moments to figure out how to go about this a little bit more tactfully than just demanding if he'd sucked anyone's blood yet.

Lowering his voice, he changed subjects: "I was wondering how you've been, um, feeling, with your condition." Okay, not the best way to put it, but he wasn't sure how else to say it. "I'm guessing it wasn't temporary...?"

Kyon snorted a bit and chuckled. "I guess. The only weird about that was, the 'stories' I had written were taken directly from things that had actually happened to me. Things that no ones supposed to know about." Kyon was still heavily unnerved about that. Reading that private conversation with Koizumi on Washu's screen gave him a sense of dread.

Kyon poked at his waffles a bit again as Clark fell into a slightly awkward silence. The subject he brought up, however, made him almost drop his fork.

He shouldn't have been surprised, considering how their last encounter had gone. He sighed, not looking at him just yet. "So far it hasn't been. But, it's only been a few days, so who knows." He didn't exactly sound hopeful but he didn't want to alarm Clark.

This wasn't a subject that Kyon was comfortable with. Clark felt bad for bringing it up, but it had to be done. It'd be easiest to just outright ask if anything had happened, but he wasn't comfortable with being that blunt about it: whatever condition Kyon had, he certainly hadn't asked for it.

"Have you felt any...urges?" Clark wanted to wince at that. Way to go, Clark, he thought irritated, way to make it sound like this's out of his control. He tried to back-peddle a little. "Sorry, that didn't come out the way I wanted it to. The important thing is I guess to keep an eye on this and make sure you're okay, right?"

Kyon brought his eyes up to look at him by now. If he wasn't so used to being interrogated by now, then he might have been agitated. However, have his head picked for anything and everything involving his condition every day, over and over again, was something he was growing used to, thanks to Aidou.

He just looked resigned when he spoke, not taking any offense to Clark's wording, but finding it more surreal than anything. "I'm being taken care of, don't ...worry."

He hoped he hadn't said too much. It was bad enough that Aidou could probably be listening right now, he just had to hint that he had an accomplice just then, didn't he?

Clark blinked at this new revelation. Taken care of him? Who was taking care of Kyon who would know about this condition...unless they had some real, up close and personal experience with it.

"The staff?" he kept having a feeling that Kyon wanted to drop this topic, but Clark thought he had a right to know. He couldn't be of much use if he didn't have a better idea of what was going on. "Or someone else?"

By now he'd mowed right through the eggs and sausages, leaving the Belgian waffles without even realizing he'd gone through them so fast. He stirred the waffles around his plate, distracted, and glancing over at Kyon, measuring him up. If Kyon was getting help, then good. But was it from someone he trusted? Or was it something he couldn't avoid, like the staff?

Aidou was hardly someone he trusted, and he was indeed someone who could not avoid. Kyon was pretty sure the other vampire kept tabs on his every movement, if not personally but by someone who owed him some kind of favor, like Sasuke. Maybe come morning, he'd be still alive.

It wasn't like, he could tell Clark any of this though. He already had enough to deal with, thanks to Aidou. He didn't need Clark getting hero on his situation, and trying to confront Aidou. With the amount of concern Clark was showing, it didn't seem like a far fetched scenerio.

"Someone else. Another patient," Kyon said simply. He really hoped that Clark would leave it at that. In an attempt to change the subject a little, he brought up something else. "If it isn't to much trouble, I want to know if you could keep my condition a secret."

He didn't really like it, but he had to nod and agree. If anything, he should empathize with having to keep certain things secret, even if he hated having to lie all the time. So long as Kyon wasn't a danger to himself or to others, than there was no reason to refuse.

"Okay," Clark said. "But you'll tell me if you need any help or if there's anything I can do for you?"

He wasn't even sure there was anything he could do - he wasn't a doctor, for starters. But if there was anything he could do or get for Kyon, he could try his best to help.

Kyon had to say he was surprised at how Clark was so ready to offer him his help. He blinked at him before smiling gently. "I'll try to, thanks." Of course the thing he would need the mst help on, wasn't something he ever saw himself physically asking another person.

Can I barrow some of your blood? Yeah, that would have gone over well. He'd wait to see what Aidou had in mind for the night before checking anything out.

Now that this particular conversation was over, in Kyon's mind, the part-vampire decided to start up a different sort of conversation. "So, since we didn't really talk much last time we met, what with the monsters, what's your world like?"

Clark felt better once Kyon said he'd try to. It wasn't a promise, but at least he'd (hopefully) get some word if anything went wrong or if the patient needed anything.

He was aware that Kyon was changing the subject, probably uncomfortable with talking about it anymore, but he didn't mind. He gave a sad little smile when the other kid asked about his "world". For a guy who had super speed, his world had been surprisingly small, consisting of just Smallville (sometimes brief trips to Metropolis) and this new knowledge that out there there was - no, had been - a planet called Krypton.

Clark sighed, sounding wistful: "It was nice. I'm from Kansas, so it's pretty wide open with lots of farms and fields. Nice and quiet," if you didn't count all the meteor infected running around and causing trouble. Ignoring that, it was still quiet and relatively safe in Clark's mind. "I'm still hoping I can go back home to my parents farm; they've got to be freaking out about me being gone."

A week. He hadn't realized just how long he'd been gone until Hanyuu last night asked him while they were trespassing in Dr. Burroughs's office. He paused long enough to finish off the waffles, cleaning off his plate and washing it down with some juice.

"What about you?" Clark asked. Hopefully it wouldn't be too personal to ask.

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Day 32: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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