damned_institute | Day 34: Men's Showers

Artemis Fowl was, yet again, exceedingly displeased to be naked.

As much as Haku insisted that since he had experienced public bathing before, this time would be easier, the feeling was not mutual. Artemis' body was his own personal business, as far as he was concerned, and no one else's. His only comfort was the fact that he was not hideously tattooed anymore with various and sundry insults branding him a moron.

Still, that did not stop him from taking a towel into the shower area once again, Nurse Hedgerow grudgingly allowing it. She could see no other way of getting the boy to bathe. He was as stubborn as ten teenage boys. And after that lecture on psychological torture through means of public humiliation...

The boy let the water run over his head, the towel clutched firmly around his body. And he thought. July. How was it July when it had been fall just a week previous? It was impossible, logically speaking. But what part of this place fit in with any sort of logic Artemis had ever encountered? No, if he didn't let go of the fact that things would be as insane as people claimed he was, he would lose his mind.

His fingers brushed the burn mark Caleb had given him for what seemed the fortieth time. ...He had to get himself together, or this would only be a small taste of what awaited him in the hallways.

[For Omi]

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In the showers now, Sai was allowed to remove the bandages from his arm just while he cleaned, with instructions not to scrub the wounded areas. He unraveled them slowly, looking over the stitched up skin impassively. The nurse would wrap it back up before lunch, but for now it got to breathe.

He found himself an empty shower head, no worry for who he happened to end up next to in the process. Public showering didn't bother him. The closest other patient, however, appeared to be talking to themselves. Sai glanced over out of curiosity.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, plastering on the usual fake smile.

"Huh?" Heiji looked over at the guy who had joined him at the showerhead. He grinned openly. "Nah, nothin' really. Jus' thinkin'. Pretty dismal situation, huh?"

My group's leader is falling apart, I'm left with a case where I don't know if the results will matter or not, and my last night lasted a grand total of five minutes. Yeah, Heiji thought, That's dismal.

"How's it by you? Don't think I've met you before! 'M Hattori Heiji, but y'can call me whatever you want," If possible, his grin widened. "'N you are?"

"This situation? Yes." The smile remained, despite his answer. It wasn't only being stuck in the Institute that made it so, but his current predicament with Sasuke. He seemed to have gotten himself in well over his head, though he'd expected this from the moment he spoke to Itachi.

But that was something he'd have to worry about as it came up. "I've had better times. Nice to meet you, Heiji-kun. My name is Sai."

Heiji liked this kid. Despite the fact that the chances of escape were low and things were trying to kill them around every bend, he still managed to smile. This was a guy much like Heiji, who believed that refusing to show outward signs of frustration and anguish was a way to fight back. Landel wouldn't turn him, and obviously wouldn't turn Sai either.

"Sai-kun, then," he said with another toothy grin. "Nice ta meetcha too! Where d'you hail from?"

The ninja took the washcloth to his injured arm as he answered, dabbing ever so gently so as not to jar any of the stitches free. He kept the whole limb out of the shower's spray.

"The Village Hidden in the Leaves," Sai replied simply. He knew Heiji wouldn't recognize it. The only ones who had were ones he recognized himself. This boy definitely wasn't a ninja, and he couldn't see why any civilians would be pulled from his world. "Within the Land of Fire."

"Ohh," Heiji said nodding a few times. "Never heard of it. But it sounds pretty neat. I'm from Osaka in Japan," he added. Sai hadn't asked, of course, but Heiji was more than willing to provide the information.

"That looks like it stings," Heiji commented, looking over at the wound Sai was tending to. "What did that?"

"I didn't expect you to have." Sai'd heard of Japan, though. People kept asking him if that's where he was from. Heiji was using the honorifics he was used to. Perhaps the language was similar for some reason, though everyone appeared to speak the same language here.

The ninja tested the fingers on his bad hand again, just to see if there was any change in how well they functioned. "It was a large spider. Got a good grip on me with its mouth." On an already wounded arm, no less. it hadn't helped that it was able to tear the puncture that was already there even further.

"Ooh," Heiji hissed in mock pain. Being bitten by a huge spider wasn't exactly something he would have liked to do, thank you. Insects in general... and spiders that big had to be poisonous by default or something like that.

"Yeah, I've been pretty lucky recently," Heiji prodded his stomach, which had once been torn to shreds by that monster Okita had killed. "Not much has gone after me, so I'm pretty healed up and fresh. Wonder why..."

The detective pondered this for a moment, then shrugged and continued to wash himself. He glanced over at an escalating brawl, but decided that it wasn't a good idea for him to get involved.

"So how long have you been here?" Heiji asked. "Too long, am I right?" He laughed at his own wry humor.

"Ten days," Sai replied without much thought. It wasn't all that long in the grand scheme of things, but it was longer than he expected to be here without results, and it felt like a greater length of time still.

How long had Naruto been there before he vanished? And Sasuke had been there longer than any of them, so he should be able to understand the boy's growing frustration. Well, he might, had he more experience with the emotion himself. His experiences here, he believed, would likely cause him to get in touch with that emotion more and more.

Despite these thoughts, he smiled again. "Any time is too long, isn't it?"

"Yeah, no kidding," Heiji agreed with a deep sigh. "Ten days though. Man, I've been here for eight and I'm startin' to lose it a little. But y'gotta keep smilin' yeah?"

He thought about Kaito. How long had it been since he'd found him here? How long had they had each other's backs? Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Kaito this morning. He hoped the guy was okay.

"Because if we don't, Landel'll think he's got us beat, yeah?"

Day 34: Men's Showers

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