damned_institute | 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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Maybe a part of him had expected it. He'd played enough mind games of his own and he'd sensed her before she'd walked through that door. But there were just some things that were impossible to prepare for and even if he hadn't been here, in this place, seeing Buffy would've still thrown him. It always had.

Angel blinked once, twice. Her name fell from his lips before his mind could completely catch up, quiet but startled. "Buffy?"

Brittany rolled her eyes and plopped into a chair. "Oh, ha ha. Been in here so long you've forgotten my name, but you know it's something silly that starts with a 'B', right?" Sean's sense of humour had always been pretty lame, but if he was at least trying to make jokes that was a good sign, right? At least he hadn't tried to strangle her, muttering 'If I can't have you...' again. "You gonna sit, or do you prefer to loom for a while?"

All right, so that Angel hadn't been expecting and she really hadn't even needed to ask him to sit because it occurred to him that that would probably be a good idea right now. He stared at her. She acted like she had back when they'd just met, as if they'd never--

For the first time, his head actually spun, bordering somewhere between utter bewilderment and the sinking realization that...

"What're you talking about?" he asked, a part of him immediately regretting the question.

"Oh, I don't know. You, me, the whole 'stalking' incident. I really shouldn't even be here, Sean, but I wanted to see you. Can we skip the games? I don't think they'll let me stay too long." Maybe this whole visit was a mistake, if Sean didn't even want to see her. He was treating her like she was the one who'd pulled the sunglasses at night/every breath you take 80s stalker song schtick.

What?

"I never--" Angel stopped abruptly. There was nothing to protest except her use of the name they'd assigned him. He wasn't sure why the truth, why something he already knew, had surprised him so much. Maybe because it wasn't her, except it so obviously was. He knew her scent.

He looked down, trying to find something to say as the heavy silence stretched on. And he could've asked the string of questions running through his mind (did I hurt you?), but there was no point. He'd only be confirming what he remembered far too well.

"Sorry," he said finally, not too clear what he was apologizing for (everything) but knowing it didn't matter, anyway, because it changed nothing. "I just--I didn't expect to see you."

"Well, I never did have any common sense, when it came to you. So here I am." Brittany had to laugh at herself a little--even she knew how really, really dumb it was to be visiting the guy who'd half-killed her. But he seemed like he was doing good, or better anyway.

Brittany sighed and raked her hair back away from her face. "Anyway, I knew you were getting kinda unstable and I didn't say anything. Then I sprang the whole 'going away to college' thing on you like that. Not that it was 'my fault' or anything, but I should have gotten you help sooner, or something."

Angel smiled briefly, almost too quick to be noticed. He hadn't heard her laugh in a long time. It was...nice, despite it all. Although now that his mind was finally starting to function again--was this just a different version of Buffy? How the hell did this work? She wasn't the same. Lighter, almost. Like the way she might've been if she'd never been the Slayer. And with doppelgangers seemingly running around in other worlds as fictional characters and people being dragged in from any point in time, the notion of a different Buffy didn't seem entirely out there.

Or maybe he was just trying to convince himself, too. He was bothered as much as he was relieved that she didn't really know him. What he was.

He glanced up. "You've helped me a lot," he replied softly. He left it at that, feeling the sudden desire for the conversation not to go down this direction.

"So you've been...doing well? I mean, are you--" He hesitated. "Are you happy?"

The implication of the question was left unspoken. Angel wasn't even sure he was fully aware of what he meant himself.

Oh, but Brittany noticed the smile. She was an expert at noticing every little variation in Sean's non-expressions. A smile was good--rare even at the beginning, before he started... fraying at the edges--and it sparked another smile in Brittany. He really was doing better, it had been the right thing to send him here, no matter how hard it was. "Oh, yeah, big help. Got you sent to this place. But you look like you're doing good."

As for her... "After all that, I ended up not going to Northwestern after all. Mom didn't want to let me out of her sight, the dorms at UC Santa Barbara were about as far as I could negotiate. She'd have a stroke if she knew I was here. But it's good, it's a nice school. Weather's better than Chicago, that's for sure." She wasn't seeing anyone, though there'd been that Army recruiter who'd been interested, but she wasn't sure that was exactly a good topic of discussion.

Huh. Santa Barbara.

Angel frowned. "You left Sunnydale?"

Then again--he knew she'd stayed because of the Hellmouth. If there was no such thing, then...

What else was changed? She'd talked so much about having a normal life, but it so clearly couldn't ever happen that to see it actually come true now was jarring. But she was...happy. And to her, he wasn't in her life anymore, and that was probably a good thing.

Right. It wasn't as if they'd decided any different in the end, anyway, back home.

"Sunnydale?" If that was a joke, it was going right over Brittany's head. "Is that what they call Santa Barbara in LA or something?" Well, it wasn't exactly unusual for Sean to be talking about something Brittany didn't quite get--their frames of reference had always been really different, given the age gap. "Anyway, I go home most weekends, to reassure Mom I'm okay and all. Plus to get some half-decent food and free laundry. Totally cliche college student, right?"

Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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