damned_institute | Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

Okita hadn't been expecting it when his nurse suddenly appeared in the Game Room. He'd expected to be left alone like last week, but instead she gently took him by the arm and told him he needed to say goodbye to Kaden for now. Okita assumed it was time for his visitor and waved goodbye to him, only to be led off himself. The swordsman had followed obediently into the Sun Room, but when he tried to go off to another room, she stopped him. "Not today, Julian."

Not today? Something about his nurse's demeanor seemed off, almost as if she were worried about something. It wasn't until she led him out of the Sun Room that he understood what was going on. He had a visitor. There were only so many people that would come to visit him in a place like this. His sisters, Tetsu, Kondou or... Okita didn't want to think about the last option.

Taking a step into the waiting room, he stopped at the door and turned to look at his nurse. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, feeling actual fear for the first time in a long while. If this wasn't some strange punishment/joke for behaving poorly in the chapel, he didn't know what to do. Badou's graffiti was still on his hand and he quickly slipped that hand into his pocket. He could feel the pen there, clipped to the inside of his waistband. The nurse shook her head and moved to the side of the room, keeping a close watch on him as he stayed by the door, trying to hide his anxiety by feigning interest in the strange magazines on a table nearby.

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The nurses had insisted he finish another glass of juice and some vitamins after he'd almost passed out in the Sun Room. If he didn't get to feeling better, they told him, they'd have to send his visitor away and he wouldn't be able to see him until next time.

He'd complied, trying to focus and remember the things he'd read in his file. Maybe, just maybe, if he seemed like he was getting better, they'd let him go this time.

The room was still fairly empty when he was wheeled in. Just himself, Shiki, and Okita he remembered, was a friend of Homura. He watched the door carefully, like a dog waiting for his master to come home, sitting up a little straighter each time it opened, only to sink back into his seat when it was just a nurse or another patient.

He had arrived early, but there were always procedures. He smiled to the nurses, patiently waiting his turn before at last they let him into the room. Had it already been a week, or only a week? It seemed to him a paradox, each second moving at a maddening pace, though if it were slow or quick depended on the circumstances.

There were times when he couldn't make time stop. There were times when he couldn't push it forward.

But now at last the amount had finally passed, and there was his ward, young Robin waiting. His smile was real as he walked over, his hands by his side in an open gesture, but not one that would force the young man in.

"Good afternoon, Robin." His heart beat faster, just a touch, but undeniably so.

It was really hard to believe that only a week had passed since the last time he'd seen Ashura. He was hesitant to trust anyone, and when the king said he would return, Yuuhi had wanted to believe him, but something kept him from hoping too hard. Now that Ashura was really here, he had to show that he was ready to come home, that maybe this time, this second chance he'd been given wouldn't go to waste.

The soft expression, the smile, all of it had made it so hard to believe that this was the same man who'd destroyed his own kingdom because of his madness.

"Aaron," he said the name, even though it felt forced, not at all right. His face brightened, though he didn't try to push himself out of the chair. "You came back."

Aaron. Aaron.

No one had ever felt delight like his at hearing his own name. Robin remembered, at least that much, and Aaron's smile lifted. "Yes. I told you, didn't I? Wherever you are, I will come for you."

His precious child. His precious hope. He reached out as he had that first time, touching the line of Robin's jaw.

"You look pale." His own relief was put to the side, and Aaron looked over his ward in concern. Nothing could happen to jeopardize the life of the person he cared for most. He wouldn't allow harm to come to Robin. "Has something happened to you?"

Aaron was a dedicated father. Those who harmed his child he would find. And they would suffer, said a darker side of the man. They would indeed, and Aaron would feel no remorse for it.

"I'm glad," he said, and did his best to mean it.

He tried not to look guilty when he saw how pleased Ashura was to hear the false name. He'd spent most of an entire week trying to decide how much of their last meeting had been a lie. This was his Ashura, or Aaron, or whatever he wanted to be called. There was no doubt in his mind. And he knew he had to save him, no, that he was the only one who could. Wasn't that what he'd said before?

It would be easy to accept the pretty fantasy. To believe that he wasn't such a cursed existence. But could he just leave everyone behind? It didn't have to be that way, did it? It wasn't as if they needed him here, but... He didn't know what he ought to think.

"No, I... I haven't been sleeping very well, but I'm fine," he lied, glancing up when Ashura touched his face.

"Will... they let me come home yet?"

A lie. Was it because Robin feared him, and what he might do? Aaron wouldn't blame this dear man for it if that was his reason. Hadn't he just been thinking what ways he would repay the tormentor, after all? Just what he would do to the body, how much of its blood he would send splattering out all over the walls?

But now wasn't the time for those thoughts. Not in front of Robin. He'd never meant to bring the boy into that part of his world, as glad as he was for it. Hope, yes, precious hope, brought about by total accident.

"Not yet, I'm afraid." Aaron had already spoken to the nurses. He offered Robin a comforting smile, despite his words. "They've told me you've made progress, but it's not complete. You have to be discharged by a doctor before they'll let you leave."

He paused then, and reached down, taking Robin's hands in his. "You would tell me, wouldn't you? If something was wrong." A soft voice, without a hint of the darkness that the heart held. "If someone was hurting you."

Could the king tell he was lying? In spite of Yuuhi's suspicions, it was so difficult to doubt the kind and open face of the man in front of him. There was worry, genuine worry on his face, and Yuuhi could feel nothing but guilt and remorse for what his curse had turned this man into.

When he was told that he couldn't be discharged yet, he was disappointed, but that urgent need that Ashura had for him to be well seemed to have lessened, at least a little. Maybe he could hold on for a little longer. Yuuhi wasn't sure how he could talk to a doctor, but he was willing to try.

"I'm sorry," he apologized for his own slow recovery, though it felt like he was being pulled in two different directions. He knew he had to pick a side, but he couldn't force himself to make the decision.

The hands that took his were warm and caring and Yuuhi made no move to pull away, but he couldn't make himself meet the other's eyes either. His own blue eyes glanced down, away from Ashura's face. "I-..." he started, but caught himself before he said much more. "Do you have to go?" he asked instead, shying away from the question.

"You've nothing to apologize for, Robin." No, Aaron was the one who held all the fault. He was the one to splatter blood over the walls, after all. He was the one who had gotten careless, hadn't locked the door, hadn't muffled her screams--

But those mistakes were in the past, that time that had gotten muddled and confused in Robin's mind. How painful would it be for the man to sort through all the truths, to have to face each one for what it was? No, Robin wasn't the one who needed to say he was sorry. But Aaron couldn't possibly hope to apologize enough.

Penance, however, could already be had, and he didn't miss the way Robin refused to answer his question. He knew enough not to trust his father-figure, and that cut Aaron to the bone. Even his perfect facade faltered, his smile falling a fraction as the icy truth washed over his heart. Such was the fate of a monster, wasn't it? To feel pain such as this.

He deserved it. He told himself this, and smiled again, leaned forward and kissed the center of Robin's forehead. "Soon, I'm afraid. You'll sleep better between now and the next time I come, won't you?"

Nothing to apologize for.

That was the real lie. Smile though he might, something in him just couldn't accept that as truth. When Ashura's smile faltered, Yuuhi didn't miss it, and when the man leaned in and kissed his forehead, he knew their visit was almost over.

He'd tried so hard to get that file, to remember all the information, and there were still favors owed for what he'd gained. And now it was all for nothing. Nothing was going to change unless he found a doctor to discharge him.

"Wait!" he panicked, fingers curling around the fabric of Ashura's sleeve as yet another question went unanswered. "Don't go yet. I can't-..." I can't do this. "They won't let me talk to a doctor. If I could just talk to someone then... then..."

How could he not falter when Robin clung to him that way, desperate and pleading? Aaron understood it, of course, but there was nothing to be done. He could only push the nurses so hard, after all, could only make so many demands before they began to wonder, or perhaps made a mistake, and released Robin too early.

He couldn't have that. Robin's sanity had to be unquestionable. It had been all too easy to fool everyone in the first place, which was why his stay was necessary at all. "I will see if I can convince them. But to be released, you must fully accept the truth. You must know without doubt that you are Robin Cross."

He had to know exactly what he had seen that day.

Slowly, reluctantly, Aaron took a step back. It pained him to do so, to separate himself from this adult. But it was necessary, so necessary, and there was that waiting at home for him.

"Good bye, Robin. I'll come again." His mask was perfect, not a trace of the disease that ate away at him, that surged as he thought of what he had planned for that day. "Unfortunately for us both, I have a guest to...entertain at home. I can't keep her waiting any longer."

Careless. So careless, and even cruel. Yet he knew that this was something he had to do, and with that same gentle smile, Aaron Cross took his leave.

So even Ashura still suspected he wasn't telling the whole truth. And unless he picked a side and stayed with it, things weren't going to change. That much he knew, though to see the truth of the situation laid bare was difficult to face.

When the king pulled away, Yuuhi tried to stand, to go after him, but the nurses held his shoulders down in his seat. He would have been content to stay and simply watch his back as he left, but that last thought Ashura left him with... Yuuhi knew exactly what the dark truth behind it was, and he tried frantically to go after him.

"Wait!" he cried out, squirming in his chair, though it made the room spin around him. "Stop! You can't! Please!"

A few moments struggle was all it took before he fell back weakly into his chair, barely able to sit up, and utterly defeated.

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Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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