damned_institute | Day 39: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

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Day 39: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

Yue was all too pleased to leave the cafeteria by the time lunch was over, even if he still wasn't satisfied that Fai was properly taking care of himself. It was clear that Touya hadn't accepted the answers he'd been given and intended to find out just what the guardian wasn't telling him, and being watched so closely was beginning to get uncomfortable.

It was clear that the truth would have to come out at some point, especially if they were going to be spending any amount of time together. Avoiding him was entirely out of the question, but at the same time Yue stubbornly refused to consider the idea of just outright telling him about what had happened in the last week. It was a dilemma indeed, and only served to make him even more irritable than ever.

How could he admit any of it? That he was weak and crippled, betrayed and altered by his creator? That he'd almost broken the promise he'd given in exchange for Touya's power? The latter he couldn't help but be reminded of every time he saw this Touya, who had only just gone through it, and would remember it even more clearly.

Fortunately Yukito was staying silent for the moment, although he could feel his other self's disappointment at being unable to speak to Touya so far, and it didn't make him feel any better.

In the midst of all this Yue was rather dismayed to realize that the nurse wanted to lead him to the music room, of all places: that was the room where he'd met the Sakura-who-wasn't-his-Sakura the week before, and needed neither the reminder nor the inevitable noise in that room. He abruptly halted in his tracks and refused to continue on. The nurse seemed initially disappointed, but finally agreed to let him stay in the Sun Room instead; the guardian found a corner in which to stand, arms folded across his chest and lost in his own ~~brooding~~ thoughts.

[for Sokka]

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Had he said that out loud? He had, hadn't he? Great going, Sokka! Offend someone else, why don't you? What was one person a day?

Sokka wanted to hit his head into the wall, but instead he closed his mouth and held up his hands apologetically. "No, that's all right. You can be what you want!" He straightened, waving his hands as though that would make things better. "Um, I mean... sorry, there's just... you like this... and this girl... and the moon... and and...!" Sokka suddenly halted, knowing that he probably sounded even more insane than he had before, and after dropping his hands he bent over into a very rigid bow, "I'm really, really sorry," he apologized properly, but it might've sounded more like "please don't kill me".

A girl and the moon? What did this boy know about any of that?

Startled, Yue opened his eyes again and frowned at the bowing figure before him. "Girl? What girl?" he demanded, a hint of some undefinable emotion bleeding over into his voice. He wasn't sure whether to be upset, angry, or hopeful at this point. "Do you know Sakura?"

It didn't seem possible, but still - how else would a total stranger have known anything about him?

"Huh?" Sokka lifted his head, peering up with one one eye once again, "Um... yeah, a girl. I don't know any Sakura though..." He slowly came back to a straight position, averting his eyes since the look of the man was pretty intimidating. "See, my girlfriend? Well, she kind of... ..." He started fidgeting with his fingers.

Yeah, all right, so he did sound like a crazy guy sometimes. Well, lots of times, but it wasn't like he was lying!

So...not Sakura, then. Yue supressed a flare of disappointment and started to look away, as though no longer interest. Then the boy continued, though, and his story was just odd enough, just close enough, that the guardian's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"She turned into the moon," he echoed, as though asking for confirmation even though his tone wasn't that of a question. "This girl you're talking about. And somehow...this has to do with me." With him being not a girl?

"Yeah...." Sokka drawled, though honestly couldn't have sounded more convincing if he'd tried, which was sad as he barely sounded convincing in the first place.

His hands fidgeted more until he had one hand rubbing his neck and the other hidden behind his back. "Well, remember how I, y'know, thought you were a girl? It's kind of silly really since she should be the moon and all, but from the back you really do look like you could be her..." Sokka turned a bit and used his hidden hand to thumb at his back.

It was rather difficult for Yue to forget how the boy had thought he was a girl, considering that Yukito was still highly amused by it all. Still, though, the fact that this girlfriend of his who had supposedly turned into the moon somehow looked like him - it was and wasn't surprising.

"I'm not her, though," was his curt reply, as he glanced away to stare off at nothing in particular. After a moment, though, he asked (still not looking back, of course), "How exactly did she "turn into" the moon...?"

Not that he was interested or anything.

Sokka stopped showing his back and both his hands and face dropped a bit. No, this guy wasn't her, but that didn't mean Sokka had forgotten just what had happened up at the North Pole.

"I found out later, after it happened," he started, eyes now staring at the floor, "When she was little, she almost died, but apparently the moon spirit gave her some of its life. A little after I met her... someone killed the moon spirit, and well... she took its place."

He hadn't wanted her to go, but he knew what would have happened had she not. It was really brave what she did. Everyone knew that. Still...

"Her name was Yue," he said finally, then ran an arm across his face before sniffing a bit. No, he had not been crying! He'd just... gotten something in his eye! "Sorry, I didn't mean to mistake you for her."

Yue remained still through the story, reminding himself that the boy was probably from another world. Other worlds would have different rules or laws, different stories. Or legends, as this sounded like, even if he'd supposedly known the girl, this...

At the name the guardian finally moved, turning sharply to regard the boy as his shoulders twitched in an automatic movement that would have spread his wings, if he still had them. "Yue?" he repeated, incredulous.

It probably shouldn't be surprising, considering that he had been named for the moon from which he drew his power and resemblance, and if this girl had also been...still, though, it was more than slightly strange.

"Yeah..." This time Sokka said the acknowledgment with more of a sigh, not needing to convince anyone of anything. He really, truly missed Yue, even if he'd moved on with Suki. Thankfully she'd understood, but still, it was hard to deal with sometimes.

After a moment's pause Yue relaxed again, resuming his previous disinterested pose with arms folded across his chest. He remained silent for a little bit longer, then finally breathed out a faint sigh and observed, "My name is Yue."

Hopefully this wouldn't give the boy any more strange ideas, though. Maybe they looked similar, were associated with the moon, and were named for it - but that didn't mean he was a girl. Or in any way related.

"Huh?" Sokka looked up then, confused at first, but his face soon turned sour and just a little ticked off. "That's not funny," he scowled. Hey, so maybe his explanations wouldn't make sense to some people, but that didn't mean they had to go making fun of him!

"I know it isn't. But it's true." And indeed, Yue didn't look terribly pleased about the whole thing, as he cast a sidelong glance back toward the other. "My name is Yue. It means "moon" in my--in another language, and I was named for it."

Sokka was skeptical and his expression showed it. "But... Yue is a girl's name. Giiiiiiirrrruuuuuulllll..." he lengthened it, just in case this guy didn't exactly understand what that meant.

All right, now this was just starting to get irritating. Yue's eyes narrowed, lips pressing together into a thin line as he told himself that he wasn't going to get annoyed at a young idiot

It didn't help, of course, that Yukito was still incredibly amused, plus slightly sympathetic toward the boy. "Yue is my name," he replied, coldly. "And I am not a girl." Clearly, it was thus proven.

"Hmmm..." Sokka still didn't see it. Yue was, well Yue, and she was definitely a girl so logically that meant Yue was a girl's name. He folded his arms a moment, considered, then raised an index finger. "You're sure?"

"That I'm not a girl?" Yue closed his eyes again, looking mildly pained. That wasn't exactly something one could be unclear on, but he was starting to get the idea that this person wasn't the brightest one around. "Quite."

"Well, that, and your name too. You sure it's not Yue... o or something just a little more manly...?"

... whoops, he'd said that out loud too, hadn't he?

I could always give him my name, if you'd like, Yukito suggested, half teasing and half serious. He was starting to grow somewhat tired of just watching everything and Yue not letting him actually do something, but at the same time understood the reasoning behind it. Even if he didn't like it.

Yue breathed out a rather irritated-sounding sigh and opened his eyes again, glancing upward as though imploring the heavens themselves for patience. "Isn't there someone else you could make rather annoying and insulting comments at?" he suggested. "That is my name, and I suspect that I have had it for much longer than even you have been alive."

"Hey, I'm just sayin'..." Sokka was a little more relaxed that he probably should have been, but he did hold up his hands just to prove his point. "So, fine, Yuuuue," he tried calling the man by name, but it really didn't work. He tried looking intently at the other, and again made to call him by name, "Yu.. Yuuuu... you wouldn't have a problem if I called you something else, would ya?"

It wasn't Sokka's fault that he'd had a girlfriend with the same name as this guy, but calling someone else who sort of kind of looked like her, but was a guy was really just too weird.

"You know... girlfriend and all..."

"Yes, I would." That was his name, after all, given to him by his creator, and Yue wasn't going to let some random stranger rename him for no good reason.

Although if that truly had been Clow, maybe he had no more reason to feel loyal to the man. After all, what reason was there to honor something given him by a betrayer?

Yue shook his head slightly, more to clear his mind of that train of thought, and continued. "It's rather impolite to demand that I change simply because you don't like my name. Especially since I don't even know you." Or have a reason to care, really.

"It's not that I don't like it. Actually, I love it! But..." he tried to figure out a better way of explaining it, and the moment he got an idea, his eyes lighted, "Here, I'll give you an example. Say you had a girlfriend named Sokka, not that you probably would have a girlfriend named that since it's a boy's name, but just go with me on this, ok? Now!"

Sokka pressed his palms together. "Say you somehow lost that girlfriend in a tragic accident, or maybe not an accident, but definitely something tragic and that you'll never forget so long as you live. Then you met me!" His hands turned inward and he pressed his palms to his chest. "Oh, and by the way, my name's Sokka," he added as an aside, "And you thought of your girlfriend every time you heard my name?"

The hands came away so that Sokka could raise his index finger like an expert or something "Now a nice guy would understand something like that and wouldn't mind getting called something else by just that one person. See... me?" His finger pointed to him, "I'm a nice guy." Modest too. "So you know, if calling me Sokka made you think about something you didn't want to, then you could call me something. Boomerang guy, ponytail guy, idea guy... the list is endless, believe me." If he'd needed, he could even use his Fire Nation name.

"So the question now is... are you a nice guy?" With that last question, Sokka put on his most convincing pitiful boy face possible. "Huh, Yuuuuuue?"

Yue's attention drifted slowly back toward Sokka again as the boy spoke, though his expression didn't change in the slightest the entire time. He was trying to do his best to ignore the silent sympathy from his false self, who was still offering the use of his name.

That wasn't an option, in his mind, and was as bad as or even worse than simply letting Yukito take over and speak. He was Yue and he had his pride in abundance, he wasn't going to just give that up so easily.

His eyes narrowed slightly at the final question, displeasure clear to be seen as he replied with just one word: "No."

Sokka's face broke, and he nearly twitched. "You don't have many friends, do you?"

This guy... he was kind of like Zuko.

"I don't see how that's any of your business." Even if it was correct, it wasn't as though Yue particularly wanted any friends. They weren't at all necessary, after all, no matter what Yukito seemed to think.

He sniffed disdainfully and looked away again. "I also don't know why you would find reason to need to speak to me anyway, so my name shouldn't be a problem."

Yeah, lots like Zuko. Kind of had an attitude like Toph though, only colder.

Wasn't that just a great combination...?

"You know, you could try being a little nicer," Sokka suggested.

Day 39: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

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