damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 1

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Day 35: Bus 1

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

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Armand blinked and flushed with embarrassment. He mentally reviewed the faces of the people he'd only met once and found a match but not a name. He'd not brought his notebook with him either. Well, that was stupid of him.

"Oh yes, I recall now, but I am afraid I don't recall your name."

He picked at the wrapping around the muffin with his nails, keeping his eyes on that instead of his seat companion.

"Sorry. It's Takaya." Most of the time. "Don't freak over it. Nobody remembers me." He smirked. "I've got one of those forgettable faces."

It was his personality that people didn't forget... and kept them away.

"I was distracted," Armand said by way of apology, though he didn't go as far as to claim he hadn't forgotten him. It would be too obvious a lie. "It doesn't look like you had a good night," he observed, nodding to the cast.

Takaya couldn't help the snort, nor the oddly content half-smile. "Nah. One of my better nights actually."

Nothing like a decent fight with something that was more or less 'human' to get his spirits up. "I went up against one of the brainwashed patients. And I'm gonna kick his fucking ass when I get the chance."

"Revenge isn't exactly the highest motive," Armand observed. How sanctimonious you're getting in your old age, Armand, he thought. It was true though, even if very few people, including himself, heeded the advice. He finally took a bite of the muffin. To his disappointment, it was dry and crumbly.

"After a night like that, it would be nice if the nurses weren't so militant about dragging us out of bed. I was wounded night before last. Not as bad as you though."

Blinking, Takaya turned to look at Armand. "Revenge? Fuck no. It's just a fight. For revenge, it'd have to be personal or some shit."

And Takaya didn't really do revenge. That was more Kagetora's thing...

"Then why do you have to get back at him? He must have been stronger than you to do that? Why invite more grief?"

Armand had no idea why he was pushing the point. The more he remembered of Takaya, the more he recalled the young man's temper. And the language! Not polite at all. He put the muffin back into the bag for the time being to eat later if he got hungrier. Trying not to telegraph how unhappy he was with this situation, he poked through the bag some more.

"All the more reason to go up against him. I'm not getting back at him for something stupid like this that's not even his fault," he said, shifting the broken arm slightly. It still hurt, quite a bit, but he could ignore it for now. "I want to learn. You never wanted to learn to fucking fight? That's like a death wish here."

"I fight because I have to," Armand admitted. "I learned on the streets of Paris when I was a boy." That was the kind of fighting one never forgot. It wasn't a lot of help against people who were armed. "Last night, two friends of mine were teaching me how to block attacks. That is how you learn. Not picking fights with people who want to break your bones."

Now he was lecturing the boy. This had to stop. He pulled out the small box of juice and shook his head at it. "I'm sorry. It's not any of my business. I just think violence for its own sake is a waste of time. Not when we're all trapped here."

Takaya shrugged, having no interest in eating at the moment. "I wasn't ever taught to fight. I learned to fight by getting into fights, a lot of them, with people bigger, stronger, and tougher than me."

That, and the voice in his head which could control his movements at times had enough formal training to satify any desire to learn Takaya may have had.

"What good is learning when it's safe? Fuck that. You remember shit like a broken arm. I learned last night, and the more I fight, the better I'll get."

"That sounds like a method to get yourself killed," Armand said. "Perhaps we should talk of something else. You seem to taking my advice as an invitation to insult me." Had he started it? Armand thought he might have, but now was time to end it.

"What are you going to do in town today?"

"As little as I can get away with," Takaya said, not really careing what was talked about... to a point.

He was still just a bit too on edge from last night and the day before to risk Kagetora getting free again... Not that he would be able to do much to stop the asshole if he really wanted out.

"I learned there was a nice bookstore, and I'd very much like to eat this time." Armand really hadn't learned much about the town the week before. "There's a park too. Mademoiselle Anthy quite liked it, I recall."

Takaya shrugged, intending to make a non-commital sound to what seemed to be plans for the most boring day ever, but someone had other ideas.

"What was avalible in the bookstore?" Godfuckingdamnitalltomotherfuckinghell!

Armand smiled to have found at last something that interested Takaya. "No history to speak of, not that I found. Cheap novels, romances, children's books. But it is a slightly better selection than I hear they have at the Institute."

He sipped at the juice, trying to keep aware of the bumps in the road so he didn't end up wearing it. "Do you like to read?"

Opening his mouth to say that no,he certainly di not like to read proved fruitless. He didn't have command of his vocal cords any longer.

With a look of horror, he heard his voice respond. "It passes the time and the shit they have at the hospital blows." How... that dick! Kagetora was making him look like a dork now. Of course, the fact that Kagetora actually did like to read ... fuck. Now he was going to spend all goddamned day in a bookstore.

"You said you were looking for somewhere to do much of nothing. Few people bother a man with a book in his lap." He grinned and finished the small juice box. How did they expect them to survive all day on only this?

Armand wasn't pay much attention to Takaya's facial expression, since he was consciously keeping his eyes aside or down.

"I was hoping to see my roommate. According to the bulletin board, he has an interesting meeting scheduled today."

Kagetora, exerting a bit more control now that he was somewhat interested, sat up a bit straighter. He hated how Takaya slouched.

"Oh? There's a lot of people meeting up for business or pleasure today. Are you?"

"I don't have any specific plans, no. I just have a few vague hopes to run into certain people."

Armand didn't catch onto the signals that he was now speaking to someone different. He was too relieved to have moved past the tension of their first exchanges. Talking to some people withouth offending them or provoking them could be very difficult sometimes.

"I hope these idiot nurses let my night partner stay home today. He has a broken collar bone."

A snort escaped,a very 'Takaya' expression. "They probably patched him up, and told him to take care before shoving him on a bus. They seem to not take into account just how serious some of the wounds could be.

"They see things far differently here than we do," he pointed out.

"He was hurt two nights ago, trying to protect me from a monster. The people on the bulletin board said it was an alien. Are there such things?"

That didn't mitigate his worry much. Morrison had no business walking around town with a broken collar bone. He needed to sit and rest. Perhaps he'd end up at the bookstore.

"Are the staff even human?" he added, allowing his unguarded thoughts to come out his mouth. "I hate them so much."

With a shrug, he shook his head. "I don't know. Never thought about it.

"I suppose they're at least as human as I am." This was said with a slight twist of the lips that could have been a smile, though it was unclear even to himself if this was a sentiment of his own, or Takaya's rising to the surface.

Now Armand turned to stare at the young man beside him. "You're not human? I don't understand." Like the nurses, he looked perfectly normal to Armand, but he had never seen Takaya at night so who knows if he was something different then. "I'm as ordinary as dirt myself. Human and far too fallible."

Kagetora turned to level a half amused, half annoyed look at Armand, his eues shining gold in the light from the windows as his pupils contracted into neat slits. "I said that they were at least as human as I am. I said nothing about not being human."

Shrugging, he smirked. "Human's are all like that though, as are the things the staff become. Mortal, fallible, and easily put down. What does it matter?"

"Paired with the question I just asked, it was an easy assumption to make," Armand retorted. "Most humans don't find the things the staff become to have much in common with us, especially in the 'easily put down' category." He watched Takaya's eyes now, suddenly feeling as if he were looking at a predator. Weren't they dark before? He wasn't at all sure, since he'd been trying so hard not to be too confrontational.

"If you're not so easy to defeat, then explain your attitude about fighting."

As soon as he said that, Armand groaned. He hadn't gone there, had he? Where was his self-control today? Or at all lately. Nothing for it but to keep a straight face until the end.

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