damned_institute | Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

After the couple glasses of water Leon managed to gulp down during breakfast, the mage felt immensely better. He was still a bit tired, but that was nothing a little lounging on one of the sofas wouldn't cure. Stretching his arms above his head, he couldn't help but wish he'd had the chance to grab one of his new doctor's coats before leaving his room that morning. Maybe they would have let him get away with wearing it. Maybe.

He grabbed an empty sofa, pulling out the journal he tried to keep on him at all times. It was nearly complete now. Just a couple more pages to go. It might not improve his spellcasting that much, but any improvement was better than none. It was getting to where it might be too dangerous for him to use spells at all, if it left him so worn out without even finishing a monster off.

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Falis paused her hand and let out a sigh of relief, looking up at the ceiling in thanks, that Hokuto hadn't attended breakfast at all. That meant Hokuto hadn't talked to her brother yet. That meant Hokuto didn't know about the princess' mistake. That meant... she could relax some. Unfortunately, the moment of silent thanks meant she missed the reasoning behind Hokuto's smirk.

When she finally noticed the tiny smirk, the bounty hunter eyed her for a moment. "What's that look for? Do I have food on my face or something?" Then she realized how stupid that sounded given she hadn't eaten anything at breakfast because she'd been too busy trying to hide underneath her hair to even think about food.

"Shit. Never mind. Of course I don;t have food on my face."

"Did something happen?" Hokuto asked, immediately concerned. It might be nothing, or it might be that Falis had been poisoned the night before and hadn't risked eating yet.

So, she had a rescue complex. Some things never changed!

"No! Nothing happened," Falis replied quickly - a bit too quickly - and sat up. Again, too quickly. Hissing slightly, the bounty hunter looked away from Hokuto. Stupid ribs. Stupid ancient forbidden technology attached to stupid boy's face.

"Alita-kun??" Hokuto sat up too, alarmed, and put the kitten in her lap for the moment. She leaned forward but didn't touch her, just looking her over worriedly. She wouldn't see a healer unless her life depended on it, would she? Falis had to have been treated for her wound, whatever it was, but the pain must be bad for her to have even flinched.

If I have to, I'm tricking her into getting healed.

"I'm fine. Every thing's fine," Falis stated, her brow drawing down in a bit of a scowl.

She looked up then and blinked, almost surprised. Reaching her hand out, the bandaged one, she lightly touched Hokuto's cheek with the back of her fingers. "You have... pretty eyes," she said, a smile tugging at her lips. She'd never really noticed Hokuto's eyes in proper light before.

Alright, so maybe this room is good for something.

Hokuto smiled back, but felt herself blush a little. Normally she didn't react like that to compliments, dammit! "They're nothing special," she said quickly. Falis' were pretty attention-getting, though.

In a rush, she thought that the thing she hated most here was not the dangers, not knowing the staff had anything but their best interests in mind, but the lack of freedom. Things with Falis couldn't--couldn't progress naturally, because they couldn't go off on their own at will. And she wanted to.

That thought had her turning bright red... of course she did, for a lot of reasons. She just wasn't sure how many of them had anything to do with Falis herself, and that was important to know. And it was almost definitely too soon to be sure.

The blush upon Hokuto's cheeks was cute and Falis chuckled, her voice naturally husky. "On the contrary. I find them to be amazingly clear," she replied, her own eyes locked onto the ones across from her.

She traced the curve of Hokuto's jaw for a moment before dropping her hand down to the soft fur of the feline in the girl's lap. She titled her head to the side. "I hope your night was eventful and you came across exactly whatever you'd been looking for."

"At the very least, more fruitful than mine."

"I, uh, hopefully made some new friends," Hokuto stammered. She'd hoped her hormones couldn't make things any worse... so much for that idea. "Even if we met under... especially bad circumstances. My group was on the second floor, helping the people who were taken for experiments. Mission accomplished, at least."

She bent her head (partly to hide her face) and petted the kitten as well, but nearly flinched when her hand brushed against Falis'. "I--sorry." She really hoped this didn't look like a rejection, when it was the total opposite of that. Nerves combined with hormones were just making for a LOT of awkwardness.

Well. If that touch could give her a jolt, it was probably a good sign!

"Friends are good to have," Falis said. "Especially here."

The princess looked up, a small knowing smile touching her lips, when the other girl jumped a little. Hokuto certainly was... interesting, to say the least. "Don't worry about it," she said, shifting her hand just enough to touch Hokuto's. "My hand doesn't hurt at all. There's little reason for the bandage other than to shut those annoying women up."

Hokuto smiled, trying to make herself calm down a little. "That's good. So how was your morning?" Hopefully she hadn't been provoked into stabbing someone with a fork again.

If her brother knew who Hokuto was interested in, that might make for an awkward conversation.

Falis froze for a moment upon hearing the question posed to her. A moment later and she swore internally and concentrated on petting the cat. "It was... okay," she answered. "Mostly."

Unfortunately for Falis, very little tended to escape Hokuto's notice. "Did something happen?" she asked, concerned. Come to think of it, she didn't know when Falis had gotten that hand injury. And she was pretty reckless...

Umm... yeah," the princess replied, looking directly at the cat. "I made a... bit of an idiot out of myself cause I... accidentally joined the wrong person for breakfast." Falis shrugged a little, playing it off as not so much of a big deal. "It's what I get for not paying attention first thing in the morning."

"That happens," Hokuto said with a dry smile. Not everyone wanted company first thing in the morning, especially here. "Mistaken identity?" It would be really easy to do if she was trying to meet someone who had only given their description on the board.

There was perhaps a reason it took so long for Hokuto's grandmother to realize the girl had very little magic.

Falis glanced up and then back down at the cat. "Yeah... something like that." She scritched the cat behind the ears and then rest her head against the side of the couch and sighed, closing her eyes. "I tend to be groggy in the morning anyways unless someone's trying to hurt or annoy me."

Hokuto just petted the kitten for a while, wondering how much she should say; finally, she asked softly, "How far in advance do you plan your nights?"

This was MUCH faster than she usually suggested anything, but--she wasn't honestly intending to rush things. It was a date, that was all. ~~And it wouldn't look as bad if she asked for a night off slightly in advanace.~~

It was the change in tone that caught Falis' attention. She cracked an eye open. "I'm usually a spur-of-the-moment kind of girl and don't know what I'm doing until not to far before the night in question," she replied. "I know I'm going to hunt gain tonight, probably check to see if there's a nest in the basement with Namine."

She shrugged. "I just haven't told Namine yet. Though Ami might have found one of those mikrobscobes and then I might have to put the hunt off another night. But I haven't seen Ami yet today."

"Found one of those what?" Hokuto blinked. A moment later she realized what Falis might mean and managed not to smile. If she'd thought high school biology could be incomprehensible...

"Any idea when you'll know what's happening?" Then she could adjust her plans accordingly. And hopefully not explode in the meantime.

"A mikrobscobe! Ami said you can look at those cell thingies in people's blood with one and I want to get a good look at it," Falis emphasized. She had to make sure those cell thingies with the DNA weren't arming themselves in an attempt to mount a coup. It made perfect sense to the bounty hunter to double-check those sort of things.

"I'm going to tell Namine at lunch and if I see Ami and she's got one, Namine will probably come along." The princess gave Hokuto a small smile. "You got plans with that group of yours? I talked to your commander last night - that's how I found out about the basement."

Oh! "Microscope," Hokuto corrected. There was something she wouldn't have expected Falis to get interested in. "I'm always assigned to a team at night, but I usually don't find out what the plan is until late in the day."

She paused. "So... what do you plan to look at in that blood?"

"Well, that kinda sucks if you want to do something fun instead," Falis said casually, rubbing the cat's ears.

"I hope it's something interesting and not with that guy that was with her last night. He was being an asshole, so i socked him one; she didn't take too kindly to that."

As for the blood... Falis shrugged. "I dunno what to look at. I've never seen it, so I just want to get a good look so I know."

"I--I can always ask for time off," Hokuto managed, as ~~less than~~ smoothly as ever. "The higher-ups don't ask people to make any long-term obligations." So is that a "maybe not tonight, but tomorrow"?

She was going to suffer another actual nosebleed at this rate.

Interesting that a group she figured out through the grapevine as being a lot like the military wasn't expecting or even asking their members for commitment. Not that Falis had too many issues with that since she tended to be similar.

"How kind of them," the princess said, her voice dropping just a little as she rubbed the cat's ears again. "All work and no play makes Hokuto an unhappy girl, I bet." A small smirk sat in the corner of her lips.

"Well..." Hokuto smiled, but she was turning bright red yet again. "A break would be nice." Daytime didn't really count, with all the surveillance they were under. If she made plans with Falis at night, however... anything was possible.

Which was another reason part of her was seriously bemoaning her lack of firsthand experience.

"Ah." Falis' eyes shifted from the cat to Hokuto's. "Should you decide to take... a break, let me know."

Removing her hand from the cat, she leaned forward (carefully) and slipped her fingers into Hokuto's hair. She brushed the dark strands back from her face, nails grazing lightly across the girl's temple, around behind her ear and then trailing off across the side of her neck.

"I'm sure you deserve some relaxation with all those missions you've been on..."

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Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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