damned_institute | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yuuhi made a sound that was something like a whistle, but not quite. "Hyuuuu... that long? Wow! I've been here a little over a week now I think." He scratched his head. Second day had been the trip into town, and they'd just gone again, so that was a full week and then some.

"You must know this place really well, huh!"

"It feels likie longer, but I'm sure that you know that," Yohji replied with a wry smile. It felt longer for everyone, it seemed. Who was to say that it wasn't actually longer? Who knew how long they were actually unconscious at the end of the night after all? It could be hours, it could be days.

"I guess," he volunteered with a shrug. "Never been to a lot of places." Hell, he'd only been upstairs what? Twice? He'd just had other things to be doing.

"It really does," Yuuhi admitted with a smile. The last week felt like it'd aged him years. He'd been through enough trauma to last him a good long while.

"Ah, that's too bad. There's still a lot of places that are unexplored I think. Wonder if we'll ever which one leads out."

"Glad it's not just me then," Yohji said with dry amusement. He didn't think that his sense of time was quite that screwed up, but it was always nice to be certain.

"That's always assuming there is a way out," Yohji replied with a shrug. It sounded pessimistic, and it was, but it was also a valid speculation.

"Eheh," he gave a short laugh, "I guess that's true." He had his doubts and some days it was an internal struggle just to decide who he really wanted to be. Today he was stronger, today he could be Fai, but how long until he slipped? Until things got too hard?

"You don't seem very hopeful. I guess after three weeks I might not be either," though he said it with a smile, there was still some truth to it. "So how do you like to pass the time around here?"

He supposed that at times it was a case of either laugh or go insane, but here he had yet to be convinced that it wasn't a matter of doing both. No, he had to remain as together as he could for as long as he could. Sucked when he had to be the one to hold someone else together, but he and Ken were kind of out of other options.

He shrugged in response. "I'm not a particularly optimistic person in general," he replied. "And considering what happened in my own world before, it's a little difficult to think of any option as being that good." To pass the time though. Now that was a question. What did he do? "Sex, mainly," he said finally with a shrug. That was the most entertaining thing that he'd done besides drinking every so often. "And smoking." He laughed, shaking his head as though it was all a big joke. "I have a couple of people from my own world here. I spend time with them mostly. We don't get much done but..." He shrugged. No-one seemed to get much done.

Yuuhi was beginning to see that Yohji's outlook was very different from some of the other people here. He didn't think it was bad, not at all, Yohji really seemed like an alright person. Just different.

"What kind of world was it?" he asked, unable to hold onto his curiosity. Yohji seemed willing enough to talk and Yuuhi would rather him talk about himself than the other way around. Though sex and smoking weren't how Yuuhi might choose to pass the time, drinking being his personal favorite pastime, it seemed to keep Yohji in good enough spirits.

"Mm, well that's okay, sounds like you're having fun, right? Well, as much as you probably can in a place like this one. Personally, I'd love a stiff drink, but I don't think they really carry the stuff around here."

"Difficult, kind of a mess. It had it's moments, but there was so much corruption, so much death... not the kind of place that most people would be desperate to get back to." At least, not if they'd been living the life that he'd been leading, the path towards self-destruction. No, there were few enough reasons to care about going back.

He smirked slightly at the mention of alcohol. "You could try the Doctor's offices," he suggested. "I found a decent amount there just over a week ago. Might not be any more, but you could always take a look." He was tempted to head over that way himself one night.

"Mm, I can relate I guess. Not quite on the same level, but for me there's not a lot to go back to." He could relate, and certainly more than he cared to admit. There wasn't a day that went by that memories of his home world didn't haunt him. Still, he hid it all behind the friendly smile.

"Really!?" he asked excitedly. Oh, it had been so long since he'd had a drink; in this place he was starting to wonder if he'd ever find one again. But if there really was some in the doctor's office, he'd be making that stop soon.

"Ah, that's so good to know!" he said with some relief. "I tried to relax and get a drink in town, but the people at the shop said I didn't look old enough, how silly is that? Haha, I was starting to think I'd never have another drink."

"I can understand that," Yohji replied quietly. "Would be nice to not be in here, but there's still not so much of a desire to get out as everyone seems to think there should be." He didn't want to give in the the Institute, but he was more concerned about getting Ken back to his own world than himself.

He smiled a little when Fai seemed so happy to hear about the alcohol. "Got a pretty decent sized bottle of good whiskey last time I went there," he said. "I think if this is America they're more picky about checking for ages."

Day 37: Breakfast

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