damned_institute | Nightshift 39: M31-40 Hallway

Entry tags:

Nightshift 39: M31-40 Hallway

Along with giving him an idea for a good cover story, Scourge's conversation with the soldier-human on the bulletin board had made the tracker stop and think about his place in the Decepticon hierarchy. More specifically, the fact that he didn't have one. Galvatron wasn't here anymore, there was no one who he was obligated to by virtue of creation. He was a free agent for the first time in his life, and it wasn't as scary as he thought it'd be.

Lugnut and Blitzwing probably wouldn't be too happy with him thinking like this, but who cared? They were both crazy, Blitzwing random and Lugnut stubborn, and without a stabilizing Cyclonus-like influence Scourge suspected they wouldn't get very far. Better to get himself a better footing with someone saner and just give lip service to "mighty Megatron" when it was convenient.

In the meantime, Scourge had to see a Superboy about a virginity. What exactly that would entail he wasn't really sure, but it sounded a lot more fun than raiding the kitchen with pointless idiots who seemed to be liking him less and less as things went on.

The tracker took out the wooden cooking spoon he'd found last night, set it on the floor with his foot on the scoop end, and yanked upwards. The spoon cracked and left him with a long rod with a dangerously pointy and splintered end that would probably at least distract anything with a squishy place to stick it in. Better than nothing. The makeshift wooden shiv went in one pocket, the flashlight in the other--with his eyes he wouldn't need it for anything but small details and it would be easier to hide in the dark. The handle of the pan went in his hand and the tracker cautiously went out into the hallway. Let him be a force to be reckoned with.

Or at least one that made the other guy look like a tastier option.

[To here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. Right. Him.

Touya's expression darkened as he was reminded of THAT kid. If he was here, who was making sure that snot-nosed-brat wasn't giving Sakura trouble? Damn kid better not be harassing her, otherwise Touya was going to kick that kid's ass to the train station and back.

But he totally didn't care. Of course not. Stupid monster.

"What was the play?" he asked, clearly looking like he was going to bore holes in the wall with his eyes.

Poor Syaoran. Clearly the path ahead of him was going to be a difficult one, with Touya keeping a watchful eye on Sakura all the time. "I think she said one of the girls in her class wrote it," Yukito replied, somehow managing not to laugh even though it was quite obvious he wanted to. "A prince and princess of warring kingdoms met at a masquerade ball and fell in love, not realizing who the other was..."

It really had been quite cute, even if Touya's expression while watching it had been much the same as it was now. "They did a good job with it, all things considered. Sakura-chan made a very nice princess." He paused a moment, lifting a hand to tap at his chin thoughtfully. "Syaoran-kun did a good job as the prince, too."

Touya's poor wall was subjected to the Death Stare times three hundred. Prince... and Princess. Falling in love. He needed to break something. As it was, the sheet was groaning in protest.

"How... cute," Touya said, though his tone suggested his true opinion on the whole matter.

"It really was," Yukito replied, pretending to be oblivious to Touya's reaction to the whole thing even though the amusement in his expression made it clear he noticed. Someone most certainly did have a sister complex, even if he refused to admit it.

Yukito reached over to pat Touya's hand lightly, giving him a cheerful smile. "Although he was just in town for a few days, as I understand it. He moved back to Hong Kong after the school year ended, after all."

"Good," he said. Hong Kong was far away enough--there was an ocean. Kid couldn't swim over an ocean. No doubt Sakura would be upset because of some friendship-type-thing or whatever, but Touya just didn't care. Kid had earned it by picking on his little sister and flirting with his-- best friend.

"Can we talk about something else besides him?"

Considering the way that Sakura and Syaoran had been looking at each other lately, Yukito was fairly certain Touya would have to deal with them soon. And not in a way that involved bodily injury to the poor boy, as much as Touya might like that idea. Still, though, Yukito just grinned and shook his head slightly. "Sakura-chan is fortunate to have a brother who's so protective of her," he said, as though just making an idle observation.

He hesitated a moment, remembering a particular conversation he'd once had with Sakura himself, then drew his hand back again and glanced up at nothing in particular up on the ceiling. "I am glad you're here. And I'm sure Yue-san is, too. Even if he's...he has his reasons to not show it."

And the kid was reeeally unlucky that the monster had a brother who wouldn't stand around and let him flirt-- harass Sakura. But Yuki expertly changed the subject so he didn't have to keep boring holes in his wall with his eyes.

"He seems like the kind of guy who doesn't feel anything," Touya admitted. "He can hear us talking, right?"

"Doesn't feel anything?" Yukito blinked a couple of times, then shook his head slowly. "Oh, no. That's definitely not true. He just doesn't--"

And there he suddenly cut off, focus turning inward for a brief moment before his smile turned a bit rueful. "And yes, he can hear." And make his opinion of the conversation quite clear, and Yukito wasn't about to upset Yue by talking about things that made him uncomfortable. "Right now he's tired, though, and not paying much attention. Except when we talk about him."

"So we obviously need a codeword," Touya said with a devious smile. "Like cuddlewings, or the snugglemuffin."

Okay, so maybe that was a little overboard, and purposefully ribbing Yue. But he had a serious problem, he supposed. How was he supposed to talk to Yukito with Yue listening in on everything he said? He'd thought that maybe... in such a life-threatening situation he could bring that thing up and just... see what happened. Or had he already brought it up in the months that separated them? Damn it, this was way to hard--he hadn't asked for all this magical stuff to interfere with ~~his love life~~ his relationship to his best friend.

But despite the fact that Yukito was insistent that Yue felt something, he had a feeling the guardian wouldn't put up with Touya spilling his innermost feelings. He felt them strongly, of course, and he normally didn't give a damn what other people thought. But Yue was a part of Yukito. And if Yue didn't like him, issues were bound to arise.

"Well, whatever his deal is, he's really hard to figure out," Touya said, crossing his arms. His shoulder pulled a little--oh right, he'd been injured. "He hides things from me, he's upset about things he won't talk about, and no matter how much I insist that I'm here for you two, it seems like he doesn't believe that I can do any good. It's frustrating."

'Cuddlewings'?

The strength of Yue's reaction to that nickname was enough to make Yukito flinch slightly, and he gave Touya a somewhat pained smile. "Teasing him isn't going to make it any better, Touya," he replied, his tone gently chiding as he reached out to rest a hand lightly on his friend's arm.

He didn't like having to be the go-between with the two of them, especially since it had seemed like they got along all right at home. Things that had happened here had upset the guardian more than he wanted to admit, but Yukito couldn't help but feel it would be somewhat rude to explain why Yue was acting as he was - it was Yue's business first of all, not to mention the fact that it would be like talking about someone while he was sitting in the room. Figuratively.

At least Yue had subsided again after that outburst, pulling as far away as he could in their shared mind to return to his brooding. Yukito shook his head slightly and sighed, apologizing silently to his other self before speaking. "I'm sorry, it's just...a lot of things were going on in the last few weeks, and then being here and things have happened, and..." He hesitated, gaze lowering for a second before he looked up again to meet Touya's eyes. "Sometimes Yue-san is too proud to admit if he's wrong. It doesn't mean he doesn't care." Or that he didn't.

"I know," Touya said with a sigh. He didn't mean to make things harder for Yukito, but it seemed he was doing just that. Yuki was in the middle of a silent battle between Touya and Yue--two people he obviously cared about. But it was hard talking at a wall of ice, seriously. And Touya's friendly and easy relationship with Yuki, he surmised, wouldn't help matters.

"It's not your fault. Or his," Touya admitted. "I just wish he would talk to me. He's been watching me, and I knew about him for a while, so it isn't like I'm something dangerous or someone who needs to have secrets kept from him. If he does care, it's really hard to tell."

"One of the reasons he doesn't want to talk is because he does care what you think." This was starting to get into areas that Yukito didn't really want to talk about. Yue's reaction to the "sleep study" and the so-called visitors and the reasons behind it was his business, and would have stayed that way before. At the same time, though, he didn't want to see the two closest to him upset because of lack of communication.

He absently removed his glasses and polished them, removing a nonexistent speck of dust as he considered. Yue was pretending not to listen right now, so maybe he could at least say something. "He...thinks he hasn't kept his promise, to keep us safe. Because we've been hurt."

Touya wasn't exactly sure how to react to that. On the one hand, Yuki being hurt didn't thrill him. On the other hand, if Yue had been keeping it from him, the only reason would be because he felt some sort of shame over it. If he'd come right out and said it without feeling any remorse, Touya would have hauled off and hit him.

"I'm sure he did his best," Touya said after a long silence.

Yukito had been almost expecting Yue to be upset or angry at the admission, but instead what he sensed from his other self seemed almost relieved: relieved and worried about how Touya would take it, even if he didn't know the entirety of what Yue perceived as neglect, even a willfull disregard of the promise he'd made. Of course Yukito had forgiven him for what had happened; that was just how he was, and he had the added benefit of knowing just why Yue had acted as he did.

Distracted by the guardian's worries enough that he started to physically mimic them, with eyes downcast and shoulders hunching slightly, Yukito continued to polish the glasses on the tail of his shirt well past the point any dirt could still survive. And then Touya broke the silence at last, and Yukito glanced up again, looking momentarily startled before an almost shy grin turned up the corners of his mouth. "I told him that, too."

"He... didn't do it on purpose. If he had, I would have considered hitting him--and if he thinks of doing that while I'm here, God help him," Touya said, covering his bases. "I didn't intend to get hurt, and it happened, so I can't fault him for that. But you're alive and... okay, for the most part. That's all I can ask for."

Touya gently put a hand on the side of Yuki's head and gently drew his friend towards him. He was safe, he was okay. That was all that mattered.

Inwardly Yue flinched and drew closer in on himself, doing his best not to listen to the conversation any longer. He hadn't entirely been injured on purpose, but he certainly hadn't been doing his best to not be at one point, but that was definitely not necessary to admit right now, nor was it going to happen again.

Now that Yue was feeling at least a little bit better, that the rift between the pair of them seemed somewhat less daunting, Yukito slid his glasses back into place with a quiet and relieved-sounding sigh. Now that headache wasn't threatening any more - for the time being, considering how touchy Yue could be. "He heard that, and what's more, I think he even listened. And...I'm fine, Touya. Really."

He leaned in to the touch without thinking, allowing himself to be pulled closer. He'd missed this closeness, the way he felt almost...more whole, around Touya. More comfortable, certainly, with tension he hadn't even realized he'd been carrying finally fading away.

Touya really had no idea what was in store for him. But if it was half as bad as what Yue and Yukito had gone through--so bad that Yuki was repeatedly saying he was okay--it was going to be a rough road ahead.

He wanted to protect him. But Yue would call it a failure on his part, probably. Seriously, it was so much easier when Touya hadn't known that Yukito had a guardian inside of him. At least then, he could carry Yuki to the nurse's office without someone angsting all over the place. Now he was very confused as to what his role was.

"I just don't know what to do anymore," he said, stroking Yukito's hair. "Let him protect you and me, or risk upsetting him." He sighed. "He just seems so different from anyone I've ever dealt with. And I can't just ignore him."

"You said it yourself, though. The two of us aren't that different." Yukito lifted a hand to rest gently on Touya's arm, trying to project reassurance and just how much he cared about his friend, how grateful he was to have Touya there even if Yue was being...Yue. "I'm not that hard to understand, am I?"

Somehow, it would all work out. Yukito was certain of it, even if he didn't know how or why or when. Even if he and Yue were still trying to find a balance between the two of them now, even if the guardian had his own stubborn mindset and problems of his own. It just would.

Touya sighed, eyebrow raised. "Yeah, but I hadn't exactly talked to him much, back then. In certain aspects, you're still exactly the same. But in other ways...

"Well," he shrugged. "Neither of you can lie to me, so that's good." He smiled, poking Yukito's cheek. "That makes it really easy to understand the parts that you try to keep secret. You're just faster to admit it. I should work on that with him."

Yukito laughed quietly, even as he wrinkled his nose at the treatment of his poor face. "I don't want to make you worry, Touya," he replied, serious even if his tone was light. "Especially when there's no reason to. I --"

He hesitated there, momentarily uncertain, but shook himself from the brief reverie with a return of his bright smile. "He's not as grouchy as he likes everyone to think. You two always seemed to get along all right at home, so I'm sure once he's decided you aren't upset with him or going to just suddenly disappear..."

Touya's eyebrows came together a little. "Disappear? I'm not planning on hiding or anything--and the building isn't exactly someplace I could hide from you two in."

He wanted to go on about how he'd always worry about Yuki no matter what the situation, but he didn't think that would be helpful. "I'm not upset with with him, if he's worried about that. Grouchy I'll give him, I can't see him being anything else. But... what did you mean by disappearing suddenly?"

"People do that here. Just as suddenly as they arrive, they're just...gone. Nobody knows where they go. Or why. Some of them return as visitors, but others are never seen again." Like the other-Sakura. Or Shiki, who had just been there last night.

Without thinking about it, Yukito reached up to take Touya's hand in his own, as though seeking reassurance that he was real. Yue wasn't the only one worried about people leaving him behind - after finding out the truth about himself, and how false his memories really were, Touya had been Yukito's link to reality. The appearance of the false visitors had shaken both Yukito and Yue more than they would say.

Touya's eyes flicked down to their joined hands and Touya gave Yukito's hand a small squeeze. He could guess what Yukito was thinking now, and he wished he couldn't.

"Hey," Touya nudged Yukito with his shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere, not while you're still here. Okay? I won't let myself disappear."

Though the guardian didn't put it into any words, Yue's immediate emotional response to that comment was that everyone left - everyone betrayed him, whether by dying or leaving or giving him into the hands of sadistic doctors. When he realized that his thoughts were strong enough for Yukito to sense, though, he drew back on himself, irritably rejecting his other form's immediate sympathy.

As he was distracted by that, there was just the barest hint of hesitation before Yukito nodded, glancing down at his hand as though mildly surprised that he was holding Touya's before he gave it a light squeeze in return. "I won't leave you, either," he promised, quietly. "Ever."

Touya frowned a little at Yukito's hesitation. Was Yue saying something or doing something? Or was it another unfortunate memory of something that had happened here? Whatever it was, Touya didn't want to push it here. If Yue had problems, Touya would just have to show him that he was perfectly capable of keeping his promises.

"Good," Touya said, smiling down at Yuki. "Because if you leave me, I'll hunt you down and pull your cheeks until you beg me for mercy."

Nightshift 39: M31-40 Hallway

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36

Re: M36