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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Naruto stiffened, turning to Jiraiya, mouth set and brow furrowed.

"What?! She's -- " He paused, needing to gather his thoughts a little before speaking (for once).

So Sakura was here too? He wasn't if he was happy about that; he didn't like the idea of her being here, when it was far from safe. He would probably get punched, as she was perfectly capable of defending herself, but his first reaction was definitely worry and fear of what could happen to her.

He glanced around the room but didn't see her, his eyes narrowing as they passed over Itachi, who was sitting alone. Another swept of the room showed Aidou and Sasuke talking together and Naruto's glare intensified, directed at Aidou's back. He was sitting too close. This was breakfast, what was with these two, always on each other at the must inappropriate times?

Naruto would have slapped himself out of it if he'd been alone, but instead he shook his head and spoke softly.

"Is she okay?"

Jiraiya watched Naruto search for Sakura, and would have started searching himself, but he saw Naruto's glare focus and intensify on Aidou's back. He couldn't help but smile softly. Was Naruto actually jealous? Even if Naruto didn't realize it himself, Jiraiya at least knew that he was being possessive of Sasuke. Interesting...

This would give him a lot of material for his next book! Mind you, he'd have to make the boys into lesbians within the book, but the general plot could still work out. And obviously older, too, because he didn't want to get in trouble. These uniforms wouldn't do, either--they'd have to be in dresses, probably short ones....

Naruto speaking up once again broke Jiraiya out of his miniature plotting session, and he found himself looking down at him again. The boy was back to being quiet, looking worried.

"She seemed fine to me," Jiraiya reassured Naruto, turning his chair to look at his student--no, godson--better. "She's in denial about some of the stuff I told her, perhaps, but that's normal for anyone who's new here. I made sure she knew about Sasuke."

"You told her? How'd she -- she got upset, didn't she?" Naruto asked, worried and brow furrowed. There was a helplessness that came with the knowledge that their teammate had become blind, and that neither of them had been there to stop it.

He knew Sakura cared even more than he did about Sasuke, in a really different way, so it must've been a blow to her also.

Jiraiya smiled weakly. "She threatened to go without me if I wouldn't help find you two immediately."

"She didn't know whether to be mad or upset about hearing Sasuke was blind," Jiraiya continued after a moment, sighing and shaking his head. "But either way, she'll probably want to accompany you to the basement during nightshift. She seemed pretty determined."

"Shit," Naruto breathed, discontent with the fact that Sakura would be trapped here, too. At the same time it comforted him some, because it was Sakura, and her presence always made him a little happier.

He just didn't want anything to happen to her, and the burns on his side tingled at the thought, reminding him that this was nothing, and he could have been much more badly wounded.

"I'll have to try and find her later," he said, taking a last drink from his glass.

"She's strong, Naruto," Jiraiya reassured him, knowing what was worrying Naruto. "Tsunade taught her."

"And you can find her later, she doesn't find you first..." Jiraiya grinned a little.

He then thought of an idea that made him grin wider. "You'd better hope that Aidou doesn't give Sasuke another hickey while she's there. She's a lot more likely to kill Aidou than you are. ... ... Hmm. Probably shouldn't tell her that Sasuke's probably gay, either."

"I know," Naruto said, sighing and picking at the food on his plate. "I'll be there if she needs it though!" He added with a grin, that died off quickly when Jiraiya brought up that subject again.

"He'd better not! She'd punch them both," Naruto said, glaring at the two sitting a couple of tables away. They were still talking in hushed tones and Naruto wanted to walk to that table and sit down with them to interrupt, and loudly boast about how he was Sasuke's best friend forever.

"...Should ask him about it first before saying anything," he added in a mumble, knowing that if Sakura got upset and it turned out it wasn't true, he'd be the one in trouble.

"You probably should," Jiraiya agreed, a bit surprised that Naruto had been that thoughtful--there was still hope for the boy learning how to be subtle yet.

He ruffled Naruto's hair. "She would punch them both, though. Sasuke would find out just how much stronger she's gotten the hard way."

The look on Sasuke's face would be hilarious, though.

Obviously, he'd have to write all four of them as lesbians in his book, and they'd have to be older... but, oh man, this was good inspiration. It was a perfect situation. He liked it!

If Naruto could read minds, he'd probably have screeched at Jiraiya and hit him already. Thankfully, he couldn't, so he just laughed at the idea of Sasuke finding out how strong Sakura's punch had gotten the hard way.

"Man, that'd be funny! I almost want it to happen now!" He grinned, eyes still on Sasuke's table, but much more amused this time. The bastard deserved it.

"You and me both," Jiraiya snickered. "She'd probably break his jaw, though...."

He shrugged, as if it didn't worry him too much. Which it didn't, really. Sasuke probably would deserve it.

"He'd deserve it!" Naruto said, reading Jiraiya's mind. He'd get a good laugh out of it, of course, depending on just how hurt Sasuke was.

He didn't want him hurt that badly. At least not right now.

"Read my mind," Jiraiya snickered. "And--"

He stopped, blinking as he noticed that the shift was almost over. He looked around, then reached over to ruffle Naruto's hair hard. If he remembered, Naruto and him would be going to different sections. It was time for a shower, and damn, did Jiraiya ever want one.

"Shift's ending," Jiraiya sighed, glancing to Naruto and pushing the photograph towards Naruto. "Make sure to take this with you."

Naruto glanced at the picture, smile faltering some but taking it and keeping it tightly in his hand.

"Yeah, thanks," he said, giving Jiraiya a small smile. "I'll talk to you later sometime today."

"If anything, check in with me at the beginning of nightshift," Jiraiya smiled back slightly. "I want to know about that basement."

He hesitated, then touched Naruto's shoulder. "Take care of yourself."

"Alright, will do! Usual spot," he said, before grinning up at Jiraiya, glad for the reassurance of the hand on his shoulder.

"I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Good," Jiraiya nodded, then smirked a bit. "Just remember that Sasuke will probably try to punch you when you ask him if he's gay. Might want to duck or dodge that."

It was very sound advice, at least.

"Don't worry, I will! I like my nose not broken," he chuckled again, glancing at Sasuke and Aidou's table before looking away quickly again, not wanting to be angry. His lighter mood was nice, and he wanted to keep it up.

"Me too, actually," Jiraiya snickered as their nurses arrived. "I'll try to think of a few embarrassing stories about Minato to tell you when we meet again, all right?"

He remembered how Minato had threatened him if he ever told Naruto embarrassing stories about him. Well, he was going to tell Naruto those stories anyways--to keep the kid knowing the happier moments of his father's life, instead of just the most basic of information. Kushina would have probably found it hilarious, anyways.

Jiraiya let go of Naruto's shoulder, waving to him slightly.

"Okay!" Naruto said, his grin wide and his eyes full of excitement. That was bound to be fun!

He waved back, making his towards his waiting nurse, but he didn't listen to her as she spoke to him. Aidou was touching Sasuke again, in a definitely not private room, and his eyes narrowed. If his nurse hadn't been right next to him and the presence of a syringue on her person, he might have gone right to their table and punched Aidou.

Yeah, he needed a shower. A good, long, calming one.

Jiraiya watched Naruto walk off and almost laughed as Naruto continued to acted suspicious and angry about Aidou and Sasuke. He had meant it as a joke, mostly, but it seemed like Naruto was already overly concerned about the relationship between those two without Jiraiya even saying a word. His poor student--he had hoped Naruto would be into girls, and he obviously was, but...

Well, at least Sasuke looked as pretty as most girls and often prettier. Naruto better damn well top the prissy brat, though. Jiraiya wouldn't forgive him if he didn't.

He let out a long sigh as he was lead out of the cafeteria. Teenage hormones! There wasn't anything like them in the world, and Jiraiya was very glad for that.

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Day 37: Breakfast

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