Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

[secret-orchard.livejournal.com]

There were still too many things on Armand's mind for him to truly relax. The morning with Alec had been a help. And seeing that TK was going to be well helped him know that it was time to work out something else, but what? He'd already, without success again, tried to reach one of the club leaders about his sole idea of something new and different. Maybe it was hopeless.

There was no way he was going to play with paper and glue like a small child, and he glared at the nurse as best he could until she gave up on the idea. There was a free chair in the Sun Room--in fact, there were many free chairs--where he settled down to see what the new patients looked like. Prisoners, not patients. He felt bad that he had to remind himself. Even if he was crazy, he wasn't going to give in to Dr. Landel's game, not today. He nibbled on an overgrown cuticle and kept an eye on the room. No dozing today.

[for Citan]

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[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

"It's alright," Sakura sighed and played with the kitten's soft pink paws, moving her fingers just quickly enough to avoid being batted at.

She knew she should be suspicious and on her guard, but with everything all pent up inside, it was really hard not to let it all out to the first person who asked. Sakura thought she was doing a pretty good job of not mentioning names and not going into anything too specific though.

"We used to be a team, but he left us behind so that he could get stronger. He said he didn't need us anymore, that we don't mean anything." She wanted so badly to believe he was lying. To believe that if he came back to them, she really could make him happy. But his cold refusal to have anything to do with them still pained her.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin listened, sympathetic. He was rather good at listening, and he knew that this girl was opening up to him because he was the first person who had lent an ear. She was probably a fighter, what with this talk of teams and getting stronger. She was built like one, too, small (though, admittedly, taller than the rurouni) and lithe. That probably made it doubly more difficult for her.

Maybe it was time for the "kindly older man" to dispense some wisdom.

"This one...is just an observer, and has never met this young man, but...well, it seems odd that he would be so emphatic about avoiding you. That you aren't a team. Perhaps there are other reasons for his distance. You obviously care about him a great deal. Usually, in this one's experience, that feeling is at least a little mutual."

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Sasuke might not have been diligent in avoiding them; he simply didn't care much if he was found, but he definitely was insistent that they weren't a team. Why the distance then? She'd even offered to go with him that day he left the village. That was a puzzle that had bothered her for a long time. Was it because she was too weak? Because she'd get in the way? Because he didn't want to involve her in his dark schemes for revenge? She'd gone through all the options and more and still didn't have a real answer.

"We are useful to him now, as allies in this place," she said, not looking up from the kitten in her lap. Useful. As if he had any right to decide who was and wasn't. Like he had any right to judge the worth of a person.

"I would like to think that he cared, even just the smallest bit," she added. Somehow, even if it was only a little, knowing he cared would make all the difference in the world. She was still in love with him; a part of her probably always would be, but more than that, even if it was only as a team-mate or a friend, that would be plenty.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Useful. That was also something that Kenshin knew a lot about. He'd been "useful" to his superiors back during the Revolution, and he was "useful" to Homura now. That was why the truce was still in place, after everything that had happened. He was still too useful for the demigod to allow infighting to put two of his best swordsmen out of commission.

"This one...knows it's difficult, and he knows that it isn't a great position to be in, but maybe you should be useful to him, Sakura-dono. If this young man sees how useful you actually are, maybe he'll remember why. This one knows that it hurts to be shunned by a former teammate. Were this one in your shoes, this one wouldn't want to give him the time of day, much less work with him." The rurouni smiled gently. "But you'll find that, oftentimes, men are idiots who need to be hit over the head by pretty girls a few times to get the message, hmm?" Kaoru was certainly a firm believer in that philosophy.

...Somehow, he didn't think that part of their relationship would have changed much in the five years that separated Kenshin and Sano from Yahiko. Unfortunately.

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

There was just enough truth to what Himura was saying that she could start to believe, even only a little. And she nodded as he made each point, unable to keep from agreeing. She really didn't want to give him the time of day, but at the same time, she missed him so much and she really did care about him, enough to put those angry feelings away.

So maybe she should have smacked Sasuke a good one! She was relieved to hear she wasn't the only one who thought so. And he'd said she was pretty! Er, sort of at least.

"You really think so?" She knew she would follow Sasuke either way, but it helped to get her feelings all set in order. She could show Sasuke that she'd grown, that she could be useful, and maybe, just maybe, he would remember why they were friends in the first place.