damned_institute | Day 37: Breakfast

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Day 37: Breakfast

[for Sylar, I believe]

At the sound of the intercom, Wally jerked awake and blinked around at the room. He’d fallen asleep. He should have been up and keeping an eye open for ZEX, but he’d fallen asleep waiting on his bed.

“Idiot,” he groaned, ruffling his hair and sighing in annoyance. “Way to help a guy out, hotshot.” Hopefully ZEX hadn’t dropped by and thought he’d left or something, or wouldn’t be too mad at him for just forgetting about it like that. If he was lucky, he’d be able to catch up with the other patient at some point and explain what had happened.

Rolling himself a little awkwardly out of the bed, Wally took the opportunity to stretch his injured leg and test how well it was holding up. It was feeling a bit better, not so much that he could abandon his crutch or that it didn’t pull painfully if he wasn’t careful, but better. Tony had apparently made it through the night in one piece as well, which was a relief. He really didn’t feel comfortable about the thought of his roommate wandering about on his own with an injured arm. Not when Wally himself could relax and fall asleep in the apparent safety of their room.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to let himself forget that one in a hurry.

It was at that moment that the door swung open to admit one of the nurses. She seemed surprised to find him awake and ready to go already, but smiled warmly. “Hungry, are we Mr. West? Well in that case, let’s get you to the cafeteria. The staff have provided some delicious French Toast as well as a range of other foods I’m sure you’ll like. Now will you be needing a hand with your leg, dear?”

“No thanks, I can handle it,” Wally replied, smiling back. After all, it probably wasn’t the nurses’ fault that this place was so messed up, so it wasn’t like picking fights with them would do anything. With a cheery wave goodbye, Wally slowly made his way to the cafeteria, keeping a tight grip on his crutch all the while. Obtaining a plate of food was only slightly less difficult than it had been yesterday – he didn’t have the painkillers to work around this time – but he managed well enough, coming away from the buffet with a tray containing a plate piled high with slices of French Toast and slathered in maple syrup, butter, and sugar, as well as a glass of juice. Not quite as good as some coffee would be right now, but the sugar would hopefully make up for it. And, with how few people were here at the moment, he could afford to take more food than might have been considered ‘normal’ – he’d have most of it gone by the time anyone came to keep him company, then he could just worry about how many extra serves would be allowed before he aroused suspicion.

Feeling pretty happy with how things were looking so far, Wally hummed faintly to himself as he dug in to his breakfast.

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There had been no further progress made after they left the room; time spent searching for Kenren was fruitless, and the night was over not long after their departure. In its own way, that was good. Homura would need time to put together a team to defeat the monsters there, the goals of course being to minimize injury and claim the items he had seen. Particularly if that one thing was what he thought it was.

There was no way to be certain at present, however, and the notes he'd left before his memory loss meant the subject wouldn't be brought up immediately, provided Kenshin and Kenren both arrived around the same time. The more urgent matter in regards to that pair was being certain word of Okita's illness didn't spread any farther than that group. Sagara would need to be addressed as well, but Homura decided to leave that to Himura. The man was the obvious choice to lead his friend, and it would be easier to dismiss only one person in order to talk to Kenren privately.

His muscles were stiff, but Homura's injuries could have been much worse, given what had transpired. He got his meal for the morning, then took a seat where he could be seen. The two he had called on weren't the only ones he watched for, however; he wanted to check on Okita as well.

Kenren had slipped out of the room as soon as he was certain that Sanzo was asleep and unlikely to do something insanely suicidally stupid just to prove how self-sufficient he was. Kenren really couldn't help but wish that he had Hakkai or Tenpou to back him up when it came to the monk. They were both so much better at bullying him than Kenren was.

He still woke up in his room the next morning. Zelnick was already gone which was a shame because it would've been fun to ask him how far he'd got with the other guy last night.

He spotted Homura when he entred the room and took his meal over to the other god, slipping into a seat near to him. "Morning," he said, cheerfully enough.

Kenshin felt distantly concerned when he woke up and saw Homura's note to him on the bulletin board. What did the demigod want to speak with him about? It could have been any number of things, but it probably wasn't good. If Homura just wanted a report from last night, he would have asked on the board. The rurouni must have done something to warrant a face-to-face conversation.

Oh well.

At least last night had gone fairly well. Robin was doing better and might actually be able to hold his own from now on, with a lot of practice. He'd horribly bungled things with Sen, of course (Kenshin hadn't slept soundly since before he first came to Kyoto, and had overheard some of his conversation), but at least he was slightly better equipped to handle the monsters here.

"Good morning," Kenshin said brightly, sitting down across from Homura and Kenren. What is it that you wanted to talk to this one about...about..."

The rurouni had just spotted who Sano was talking with. It looked like...no, it couldn't be. He was too old. He was nearly a man, not a child.

But if they could take Okita from the past, why couldn't they take him from the future?

"...Yahiko...?"

"Morning." Homura looked up when Kenren came over, followed shortly by Kenshin. Both were prompt, and the demi-god held out hope that he would have time to speak with Kenren privately once his business with the pair was done. Judging from how Kenshin was acting just then, it seemed Homura wouldn't have too hard a time dismissing him. He followed the man's gaze, seeing Sagara, and a boy he didn't recognize, but whom Kenshin apparently did. "A new friend of yours?"

Thankful for the circumstances, Homura nodded slightly. "I'll be brief then, in case you want to join them. I spoke with Okita last night." With words and sword both, but that Homura suspected went without saying. "He's calmer now, and has agreed not to go after your life, Himura. But the information about his illness isn't to spread any further than it has now. He was as angry over you telling me as anything else. If someone new mentions it, I doubt I'll be able to stop him."

Homura might not even be willing to, now that he'd made his orders clear. "I'll trust you to pass on that information, Himura. And let me know as soon as you can if you'll be rejoining our group tonight."

Kenren smiled and nodded at Kenshin when the other man came to join them, before starting in on his meal while they talked. He still paid attention however; it concerned him what had happened with Okita, and he wanted to avoid bloodshed if he could possibly avoid it. The mention of the illness though, that could be a problem. Kenren's eyes narrowed in thought. "Some people are going to pick up on his illness even if all of us keep silent about it until the very end," he pointed out. "There are people here who are healers after all, trained to recognise the signs, and others who are just damn perceptive." And if his health was going to deteriorate? Yeah, that wasn't going to be good for anyone involved. "Hope he's not going to accidently mistake someone figuring it out for themselves as one of us telling them."

"Yes," Kenshin replied, tearing his eyes away from the young man. He'd go over there as soon as he was done with Homura and Kenren. "Myoujin Yahiko. This one and the young woman this one lodges with took him in. He's a very talented young man. Quite the warrior." The rurouni quirked a smile, obviously proud of the boy. "Though slightly less young than this one remembers. This place does enjoy taking us from slightly different times, doesn't it?" Yahiko had to be at least fourteen or fifteen now, by the look of him. He still wasn't very tall--only about Kenshin's height--but he'd filled out, matured. His eyes didn't seem to have lost any of their old defiance, though. That was good.

Facing the other two men, the rurouni bowed. "This one apologizes for putting you in that position," he said sincerely. "The news of Okita-dono's sickness will not spread further. You have this one's word. Sano and Yahiko will also be spoken with, of course." Kenren raised a very valid point, though. What if Okita did think that one of them had told? He wasn't a terribly rational person when he was in one of his killing moods.

"Kuroba Kaito and Hattori Heiji need to be spoken with as well," he said finally. "They're from much further in the future than we are, and Okita-dono's life and death have become history for them. If they see Okita-dono coughing and put two and two together..." He trailed off, trusting that the other two would get the implication.

"Yes, this one will, but if you could please assign Sano and Yahiko to him, it would be very much appreciated. Yahiko needs to see what this place is first hand. Now if you'll excuse this one..." He bowed again and gathered his tray, dismissing himself from the conversation. After what Sano had just shouted, he was eager to get over there and speak with them.

[moving here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/509905.html?thread=40864721#t40864721).]

Edited 2008-11-20 22:00 (UTC)

"I'll deal with that when the time comes." Homura had already planned on keeping a close eye on Okita, and not only to make sure the man kept his control. "But it is his right to decide if and when others are told." Especially Hattori and Kuroba, if Homura was right to think that Okita was the one over charge of them. His memories were coming back faster now, trickling in to fill the gaps at a quicker rate. There were still large details missing, but smaller things, like Okita's puppies, were more easily obtained at this point.

Of course, he would make it clear to Okita that his disease would be discovered; the sympathy he felt for the man came second to reality, as it had to. But he given Okita his word, and Homura intended to keep it as much as he could.

He nodded when Kenshin asked for his friends to be assigned to him, having planned on that anyway. Then the man excused himself, and Homura watched until he was certain he and Kenren wouldn't be overheard.

"We found the room where the key goes." The first major piece of news was easily enough to deliver. "But there's a massive group of nurses there. It'll take several of us to kill them, and I think it will be worth it to do so. There was something in the room, quite possibly a gun." Homura couldn't think of anything else that was metal and had a shape like he'd seen. "That was your weapon of choice, wasn't it?"

Then there was the other thing that was pressing. Homura didn't have to share it, of course, but Kenren had become something of a confidant for him over the past few days. He wanted to tell the man, even if there was no specific advantage or reason to. "And I remembered something fairly important when I was talking to Okita. I...died, Kenren."

Kenren nodded, accepting that Homura would deal with the problem with Okita if it arose. He trusted the man to do that, knew that he'd be a better person to arrange things with Okita if it came up. There was no sense in getting worked up over it until they actually needed to deal with the problem, otherwise they'd be running around in circles chasing their tails.

He waved idly to Kenshin when the other man headed off. "See you." That had been shorted than he'd expected, but he supposed if he had someone he knew just arrived, then Kenren would be doing the same. Well, for certain people anyway. Other people he would studiously ignore, while still others he would probably go to punch rather than reassure.

The god turned his attention back to Homura once Kenshin was gone, pushing his meal to one side and focusing on the other man. He was going to have to think of something to say about what had happened last night, why he hadn't been doing his proper assignment, without giving away too much about what had actually happened. He was just glad that the bandage around his shoulder was pretty much invisible beneath his shirt and sweatshirt.

He grinned widely when Homura told him about their success, the expression sharpening when Homura mentioned finding a gun. "That is my weapon, yes," he replied. "The sword was always more Tenpou's thing than mine." And a sword suited the Marshall much better. "How large a group do you think we'll need to take them out? Need to balance the size of the group against the size of the space." Having a huge group of people armed to the teeth would be as good as useless if they couldn't move to actually use their weapons.

Not so many days ago, it would have surprised him more when Homura's tone abruptly changed, becoming something more uncertain, younger perhaps. Kenren's own expression softened when he heard what Homura had to say, sympathetic and understanding. "That's what I'd gathered from the bits that you told me," he said. "I should probably have told you perhaps, but it's not the kind of thing that you believe unless you actually have the memories of it." He knew that he would have laughed if he'd been told that he was dead without having that experience.

"The room was large. Not wide, but long, and relatively empty." Homura ran over the details in his mind, remembering the layout. "There were four creatures total. I think they're the nighttime forms of the nurses and orderlies." Things that Homura had fought on more than one occasion, and though Homura understood Kenren's concern for space, the need for numbers also couldn't be ignored.

"The two larger ones chased us into the adjoining room." Homura routinely carried a notebook with him, which he opened now. A basic sketch of the second floor was simple enough to reproduce at this point, and while it wasn't entirely to scale, Homura was able to give a rough idea of the proportions of the two rooms. "If the same thing were to happen tonight, we could separate the creatures and take them out more easily. We would just need the numbers. I'd say six total. One person in each room to provide light, one each to distract the orderlies, and then two to take out the weaker nurses before joining the others." And then they could not only get Kenren's gun, but have a free sword for someone else. Provided, of course, that they could find ammunition to go along with the weapon.

That done, Homura considered Kenren's words. "I doubt I would have believed it, even coming from you. Besides, I think I needed to remember it. Now everything is filling in more quickly. Details I couldn't remember before." He paused, then gave a faint smile to the man beside him. "Are you going to regret it when I do remember everything? We weren't so close before, after all."

Yet some part of him wasn't sure he wanted the answer to that; given the assorted losses he'd endured, it seemed natural for Homura to cling to what he had gained over the course of that time. Regardless, it was something he needed to know, and wanted to be able to prepare for. Conflicting desires, then, and putting Kenren on the spot on top of it.

"And I also need to ask how your night went, don't I?" Homura chuckled lightly, giving the elder god a chance to escape the question if he wished. Though Kenren likely wasn't the type to avoid giving an answer, or even delay it for time. Still, it wasn't necessarily a comfortable topic, and Homura wanted to keep the mood light. If these were his last moments of having Kenren's affection, he'd rather enjoy them.

Kenren listened intently to Homura as he explained the situation and drew the quick sketch of the area where the fighting would be taking place. A long room then, and making use of two rooms would help immensely. "Sounds like a plan," Kenren murmured. "Make one of the people with the lights a healer though," he added. "Or have a healer waiting outside. Things never go as smoothly as you'd like and I'd rather have someone able to take care of any injured there and then than have to send people down to the clinic. Besides, if we're going to have to fight nurses every time we go in there, we want to make it a single trip deal." There was no sense in going up there night after night, fighting the same fights when they could make a clean sweep of the area in one go.

Now that was a question. Kenren leaned back in his chair, looking at Homura with a small smirk on his lips. "You're crazy if you think that things are just going to go back to how they were if this had never happened," he said finally. "You've remembered, but you have more memories now. You're still different to how you were then." His smirk softened, became a smile and he shook his head. "It's been interesting. I don't regret any of it except that you got hurt, and I won't regret it when you remember everything." Regrets were a waste of time in his opinion. All that you could do was keep looking forward.

"You do," he continued, and this was going to be the more awkward part. "MOMO healed me, but I think she overtaxed herself," he said. "I left her to sleep and headed upstairs to take a look around. Didn't find the door that the key opened though." He thought for a moment before adding a little more, because it wouldn't have taken him all night to walk around the top floor. "Bumped into Sanzo," he said with a soft laugh. "He was having a bad night."

"Of course." Homura had planned on including MOMO as one of the members, as soon as he received confirmation of her involvement that night. The difficulty was that of their numbers, MOMO was the only one who could heal, and she had far too many bodies to deal with. There was little chance that Okita would be able enough to go into the fight without having to be helped first, draining MOMO of precious energy. And that didn't account for the injuries Homura had suffered, nor any the rest of the team he would put together might already have. "But making return trips might have its benefits. The room had been used, probably that same night. There were beds, and medicine bottles that were half-emptied when we got in there."

He almost felt like there was something he was missing then. Homura had seen the room, of course, but he didn't understand its purpose. There was one other area he hadn't yet mentioned, but that seemed important, and he mulled over it as he muttered. "And outfits other than the uniforms."

Whatever it was, Homura couldn't put the connections together yet. Regardless of that, he still smiled when Kenren answered him, honestly, about what he expected from the future. The reassurance that what had become wouldn't change was a welcome comfort, and he reached over to touch Kenren's hand as he nodded. "Thank you."

The report about the night past was brief, and while there hadn't been positive results, there was no damage done--at least, none that had been reported. At the mention of the ill-tempered priest having a bad night, the demi-god smirked. "Did he shoot you? I seem to remember him having a fondness for that, for some reason." Homura was certain he'd been shot at, and more than once, though at the moment he couldn't remember the details of those encounters.

"I'm not saying that we shouldn't go back, just that we want to get as good a look through there as we can in a single go. We can't be fighting nurses every night after all. Even for such fine warriors as we are, they're pretty tough opponents." They were fast and strong and damn persistent. He frowned slightly, considering what Homura had said about what they'd found. "A medical wing maybe?" They had to have one after all; someone had to bandage the wounds sustained during the night, and considering how serious some of them could be, then they'd need pretty good facilities. Although the half empty bottles suggested that they'd been used that night.

His eyes narrowed when he mentioned outfits. "What kind of outfits?" he asked curiously. There was something important there, he was beginning to think, he just couldn't quite fit the pieces together. "Like what a nurse would wear or...?"

He smiled when Homura thanked him, brushing his fingers over Homura's lightly instead of replying out loud. He'd be some kind of hypocrite if he spurned Homura because of changed memories after all.

A pained grimace crossed Kenren's face when Homura asked about Sanzo. "He did. It's just a graze though," he replied, reaching up to touch his shoulder lightly. "I should have been paying more attention."

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Day 37: Breakfast

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