damned_institute | Day 32: Intercom, Evening

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Day 32: Intercom, Evening

The intercom clicked on and the Head Doctor spoke with his usual fervor.

"Good evening, patients and staff! I am pleased to announce that the arrival of nearly all of our new patients will conclude this shift. In addition, we have a very delicious dinner in store for you: carved Turkey with a side of mashed potatoes and steamed, seasoned vegetables. For drinks, we have our usual assortment available, and as a dessert included with your dinner, we will be serving a slice of warm apple pie with each meal.

"I trust that those of you enjoying the company of new roommates will give them a warm Landel's welcome, and I also hope that those of you who participated in therapy today were able to find a productive time with their doctors.

"That's all for now! Enjoy dinner, everyone!"

The intercom clicked off again.

[ Please respond to this post with all dinner shift threads between roommate, putting your character's respective room in the subject line. While we have none scheduled for this shift at this time: all introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post; the introduction may then continue on to be a regular roommate thread. ]

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Haku shook his head. "Oh, no. I'm not going to hurt you." He smiled.

"There are plenty of different ways of showing affection," Haku said. "That's one of them, but ... something like that is usually reserved mostly for lovers or people with a more intimate relationship. There are exceptions of course..." He was remembering what he'd seen as a small boy, and while growing up in the Land of Water.

"I like it when you're close though, so no. You didn't do anything wrong. Just ... unexpected."

"Oh..." Artemis' face went very red. Well, this was an embarrassing situation. Why in the name of Frond did he take relationship advice from Schuldig of all people? That was like a one-way ticket to A World of Pain.

"I just... thought that since we've kissed that we had a relationship like theirs. I'm still getting used to this, so you'll have to forgive me." Artemis laid his head on Haku's shoulder again, gently of course, and with a bit more restraint.

"Once the night comes, I can heal you. I'd like to, if you'd let me."

"We're close," he said, wanting to reassure his friend. "Very close."

Thinking for a moment as Artemis rested against him, Haku ran over what he knew. Artemis was getting information from people he didn't know, but that were in a relationship of some sort; Artemis had abilities he hadn't known about until now; and finally, Artemis was most likly interested in a deeper relationship, but his age and lack of experiance made him awkward.

Shifting slightly in his bed, a cool hand on his cheek, Haku moved Artemis' head up and lightly kissed him. Pulling back and smiling warmly, he shook his head. "I know that the use of power here can hurt the one using it. I will be fine, but thank you. Really."

This was completely and totally unfair. Artemis' mind went completely to mush whenever Haku did that. He nearly didn't have the will to argue with him.

Nearly.

"It doesn't hurt me. It's just difficult to get going sometimes." He conveniently left out the part about it being drained every time he used it. Artemis figured that would only make Haku refuse again. "Please. I don't like seeing you in pain when I can help..."

Stubborn. Haku smiled again and bowed his head.

"I'm not in pain," he said after a long pause. "Not physical pain at least." He looked up, and though he was still smiling, his expression was slightly sad. "Having the physical marks though, distract me from the things I saw and felt while ... they were being given to me." He reached up and ghosted fingers over the bruise at his neck. Strange... the closer nightfall got, the more sore the marks became. He wondered if they were getting darker and easier to see as well.

"But, really. I'm very grateful for your offer." He smiled again. "I would rather you save your skills for something more important."

"Like what?" His sharp tone of voice indicated that this was not a question. "What could be more important to me? What could possibly be more important than relieving your pain? Both forms of it..."

He paused, watching Haku examine his wounds. "What's hurting you, Haku? If not the wounds, what?"

"Someone that is dying, that you could save, is much more important than older wounds." Haku's voice was gentle.

He looked down at his wrists, weighing the wisdom of telling Artemis. He should. The boy ... was his best friend, and at the moment, the only thing keeping him alive. "Fear. Fear is hurting me Artemis. It's not my fear, but at the same time, it is. I was ... forced to see and experience things I have yet to understand. Having a physical reminder let's me know I didn't imagine what happened."

Artemis nearly disagreed with that point, but he kept his mouth shut. A stranger was a stranger, and while he would gladly help someone who asked for it, Haku was... much more important.

"But in that case, wouldn't it be best to just forget?" Artemis asked, gently raising his hand to Haku's neck. "Out of sight, out of mind. You won't have to be frightened anymore, if you forget. You've always helped me, I want to help you. But I can only do it if you let me."

He looked Haku in the eyes, obviously still not understanding why Haku would want to do something as silly as keeping his wounds. He could help, Artemis just wasn't sure how exactly to go about it.

Haku smiled again. "I can't forget. That's the point. Everytime I close my eyes, I can see the ritual. Over and over again. Without a physical reminder, I would feel as though I was going insane. Without something to look at, I would think I was a coward. It's pathetic to be so frightened of something as small as that, but even the dull ache is welcome."

This time, he drew Artemis closer to himself and took his turn lightly nuzzling the other boy's ear. "I am fine, but your concern makes me very happy."

Artemis looked slightly repulsed at the idea of Haku constantly seeing something that caused him emotional trauma. Of course, in this situation, he couldn't do anything except let Haku recover in the best way he knew how. If that meant that Artemis had to sit there and watch... then he would have to sit there and watch. It was as simple as that.

"I-I don't think you're a coward," Artemis stammered, trying to get his point across through the fresh wave of affection. He had been right--it was rather nice. "It's natural to... to withdraw from what will hurt you. It's a human reaction. Of course you've been instructed to perform tasks outside the range of 'normal', but..." He was rambling now. His face was red and he was rambling. Blast his hormones. Blast them.

Haku laughed softly, bringing his arms up to gently hug Artemis, being careful of the broken arm.

"Thank you," he said. "And, no. By your standards I'm not 'normal'." He pulled back slightly. "I hope that doesn't bother you too much?" Time to steer the conversation away from himself.

Artemis shook his head lightly, "No, of course not. If 'outside normal' bothered me, I'd be a very different person and I wouldn't associate with the people I do."

He paused and looked sideways at Haku, "You're changing the subject, and doing it in a rather dastardly manner, I'll have you know."

Haku laughed again at that. "You're catching on. I can see I'll have to work a bit harder now."

Haku wasn't overly fond of dwelling on himself. He never really had, and the only other person he really talked to about himself had been Naruto-kun... and look where that had gotten him.

"Well I'm not one for making things easy on anyone," Artemis said with a hint of cruel pleasure. It was what he did, after all: make other people's lives uncomfortable. At least, the ones he didn't like.

"So I've noticed," Haku said, a smile on his face. "But while you may be good at that, I've known people that are much harder on people than you." And the subject was already turning to other things.

"Oh is that right?" Artemis said, feigning being indignant. "I'd like to meet the person who can give me a run for my money in that department."

He was silent for a moment, thinking. He spoke a great deal concerning his own life and outlook, but on further insight, realized that he didn't know a great deal about Haku. Friends were supposed to know these kinds of things, weren't they?

"Haku?" Artemis asked, "If you could have one thing right now, what would it be?" He smiled.

"I'd introduce you, but most of them are dead." His voice was still light and teasing.

The question surprised him and he blinked. "I... I don't know." Nobody had ever asked him that. He wanted a lot of things, but he didn't think he had the right to actually talk about any of them. He wanted to know if Zabuza-san was alright. He wanted to have Zabuza-san, Artemis and, on a selfish note, himself, safe and away from here. But if he had no idea how to express something like that.

"Oh," Artemis' smile turned a bit strange. "I'm... sorry." The issue of death seemed to loom quite often when around Haku, didn't it?

The boy looked thoughtful for a moment, not at all surprised that Haku didn't know what he wanted at that particular moment. "Well, as for me, I'd really love some tea right now. Tea and a warm bed sounds absolutely lovely," he sighed happily.

"Why are you sorry?" Every so often, Artemis did or said things that made absolutly no sense to the ninja. "Because I can't decide what I want more?" He smiled and shook his head. "That's silly."

Tea and a warm bed? So it was more of a 'simple things' question. He could do that. "That does sound nice," he agreed. "I... I'd like to see the snow again."

"No... that's not it. It's nothing," the boy said with a smile.

"But anyway," Artemis said, sounding rather pleased. "If that's all you want, you may very well get your wish. It happens to snow in this part of the country during the winter--which shouldn't be too far off. Maybe a month or two."

Haku smiled and nodded. "Where I'm from, the only time it's not snowing is when it's summer. Then it's warm and it rains. A lot." He laughed. "Then again, it is the Land of Water, so that's expected." Only a month or so? He'd been here for quite a while already. Staying longer wasn't too much of a stretch.

Artemis laughed as well, "I suppose the Land of Water lives up to its namesake then. No wonder you miss it."

The boy wondered if Haku's body temperature was lower because of this strange phenomenon in his country. Snow every season except summer? Climatically impossible...

"Well," the boy heaved a great sigh. "I'd suggest another pillow fight, but we're both rather... ill-suited for it at the moment." He gave a nervous laugh.

"Well, that and it's made up of mostly islands all joined under one larger island." Haku laughed again. "But I'm sure hearing about things like that is rather dull."

At Artemis' suggestion, Haku shrugged a shoulder and shifted slightly in his bed, giving the other boy more room to get comfortable. "I findI like this though too. Just sitting here with you."

"Oh I like this as well," Artemis assured his friend. "I just thought we could move away from such serious topics before the night came," he said with a small shrug. "After all, I like it when you really smile for me. I feel as though I'm the only one who sees it, and I enjoy keeping treasures to myself."

Haku laughed and shook his head. "I smile for you because I don't want to hide from you." He tilted his head. "I suppose I could steer the conversation to something less serious. Hmm..." He pretended to think.

"Did you ever have any pets?" Simple,easy topic of conversation. Learn little things about each other. As long as Haku watched what he said, this should be fine.

Day 32: Intercom, Evening

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