damned_institute | Night 37: M11-20 Hallway

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Night 37: M11-20 Hallway

[From here, roundabouts M16]

Celes tapped her foot and as she tried for the life of her to remember just where the Gambler resided. Hellfire, she should have gotten a straight answer from him. But then, it would have meant she'd also asked. Celes sighed and shook her hair from her eyes, adjusting her hair clasp. She walked for a bit, up and down the halls, listening for voices that were familiar. When the first hallway bore no fruit, Celes turned to the next one.

Halfway down, she heard the familiar accent of Luxord's voice through the door. There was still plenty of time to meet her subordinate, she'd been quick tonight. Celes rapped on the door three times and waited. "Master Luxord? Are you within?"

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Frey smiled slightly, relieved that Takaya was indeed back in control. He was less happy, though, that Uesugi had chosen such a spiteful way to leave. "Nothing in particular. I asked him to leave, and I gather he decided to do so in a most sudden manner."

Takaya scowled and leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms and looking miserable in an absent sort of way.

"I wasn't paying any attention," he said. "Fucker just likes to be a dick about everything."

"Are you hurt at all?" That had seemed like an awfully solid thump on the head, but Frey realised that he was perhaps a bit over-protective of Takaya, when it came to Uesugi's nasty tricks.

Takaya frowned. "What?" He reached up, almost touched th back of his head, then snorted.

"Nah. I'm good. Got a hard head." Smirking, the teenager snorted. "Guess Morino was right," he added absently.

Though Frey didn't think it wise to bring up the matter of what Uesugi said about him, he did want to discuss the issue of weapons with Takaya himself. "Takaya... you've been here a long time. Have you never thought about approaching one of the weaponsmiths for something to defend yourself with?"

Takaya shook his head, letting his hands drop to his lap. "No. I'm not any good with weapons like the people here. I'm better with my fists anyway. Brute force and that kind of crap, you know?"

Takaya remembered the shovel incident quite clearly, but mentioning that might require an explaination and while being a fucking nutcase with another dude in his head was one thing, Takaya didn't think he needed to mention the whole 'undead army' thing just yet.

"Fists are weapons too. Why not something like brass knuckles? Or, rather, steel I suppose, as that seems to be easier to come by here than brass, and rather more durable in any case." Any edge that Takaya had in combat would be good for both of them, if they did indeed start travelling together more often. And, of course, Frey just didn't want Takaya to get hurt, period.

Takaya shrugged again. "It's probably not even worth it," he said. Truthfully, he didn't want to ask when other, more skilled people had a greater need. "Maybe I can find a bat or something outside. There's the weird-ass storage buildings out there."

He glanced over at Frey. "I don't want anything with an edge or some shit anyway and that seems to be the thing to have around here."

The conversation seemed to be edging towards precisely the topic Frey had wanted to avoid, but there was no sense dragging it straight there if Takaya didn't want. "May I ask why?"

Takaya shot Frey a Look. "You really think it's a good fucking idea to give that asshole a knife?" Kagetora had experience, as he often pointed out, and knew his way around a blade, of almost any type.

"Last thing he needs is something sharp to fucking play with."

Flashes of fire and pain made Takaya wince for a moment and shake his head slightly as though to get rid of it. The flash of memory notmine notmine not mine died away quickly.

"Honestly, I don't know. I would hope he would be more likely to use it to defend himself, and therefore you, but I'm afraid I cannot read him as well as I would like." Of course, Frey would worry a bit if the day came when he truly did understand men like Uesugi easily--better not to connect with such mindsets.

Takaya shrugged. "Bastard's just as likely to do that as dig your fucking eyes out or something with it." He shook his head.

"Son of a bitch is fucking cra-" His head connected soundly with the wall again. "Motherfucker!"

Frey winced at the sound and shook his head slightly. "Perhaps it's better not to antagonise him needlessly? Are you okay this time, as well?"

Takaya sighed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." He settled with his back against the wall again and considered Frey.

"Are you okay?" They'd been talking about some pretty heavy stuff before the bastard had shown up.

Frey nodded, though his expression turned a touch sad. "I think so. I will be, in any case." He'd been through loss before, and much worse than this. And each time he'd thought he'd been left alone, abandoned, he'd managed to come through. He'd come through this, too.

Takaya frowned, uncertain and hesitant. He wasn't any good at this kind of thing.

"Sorry," he finally managed. "For, you know, your loss and stuff." The wording had gotten mangled between his brain and mouth, but Takaya was sincere.

"I'll be okay, I'm sure of it. No sense moping about it, anyway." Frey was determined not to cause Takaya any more worry--the other boy had enough to deal with as it was, and the Star Dragon Sword's departure was really a small matter, compared to Takaya's problems, wasn't it?

Takaya shrugged, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the emotional display.

"Yeah, well... If you want to, uh, talk, I guess. Or whatever. I'm here." God, he sounded stupid. "Or not. Fuck it."

"Thank you. For offering." Frey was quite touched by the offer, knowing how uncomfortable Takaya was with this sort of thing. He had no intention of straining their friendship by crying all over Takaya, but the offer itself was a precious thing.

Takaya shrugged again, looking towards the door and then back to his uneaten food, unsure about what to say or do.

Give him something to hit, to fight, to argue about, but this? The 'sharing' shit? Fuck that.

It was testament to how unsettled Frey was that he was only now noticing that Takaya had, once again, not eaten any of his dinner. "Takaya... you need to eat. You shouldn't still be feeling the effects of those drugs from before." So tonight he had no excuse for not eating.

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Night 37: M11-20 Hallway

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