damned_institute | Day 41: Breakfast

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Day 41: Breakfast

Endrance turned his head to look at the intercom, giving it a look that would wither an entire rose garden in an instant. He would never get used to ending up in his room again from somewhere else in the Institute.

He brushed his bangs out of his eyes, not sitting up just yet. He could tell already that his torso had been heavily bandaged, even more so than it had been the night before. The cuts on his arms were covered with fresh bandages, and the one on his cheek seemed to no longer be there at all.

Endrance had been expecting to wake up in a lot of pain, but even that seemed numbed. "They must have given me something," he murmured quietly, as he slowly sat up.

At that moment, his nurse came to get him, pushing a wheelchair along with her. "Peyton, dear, good morning. I've come to take you to breakfast, so..." He shook his head. "I'm fine. There's no need for that...I can walk perfectly well."

She sighed. Well, if he insisted, she wasn't going to stop him. She motioned for an orderly to take the chair away, and walked him to the cafeteria. Once they had gotten there, she pointed him toward a seat, then set a full tray of pancakes covered with syrup, a bowl of fruit, and a glass of orange juice in front of him. "Now eat all of that, Peyton, or else you won't be strong enough to keep walking like that."

He glared at her back as she walked away, then stopped suddenly. There was that faint pulse he'd felt the night before...it was exactly the same.

And so he completely ignored his food in favor of staring at the cafeteria doors, looking at every patient that came in.

[thread will be closed to Haseo. ♥]

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The cuteness appeal only worked on certain girls, but that was alright. Soma was still really nice, even if she wasn't sure if he was cute or not. It sounded like she was inexperienced with a lot of things really. No movies. No cute things.

"Mm... well... how can I say it," he sighed, clinging to the stuffed rabbit on his lap. "My family trains a lot of soldiers for the military. So um... I used to be really serious about it! But there were a lot of fun and wonderful things I was missing out on too, so I decided to try to change."

He gave her a smile that felt a little more genuine, "Eh heh, you probably think that's strange, right?"

Soma looked down. If she were to be honest with herself, it was something she'd thought about over the past few months. It was true she was fiercely proud of her status as supersoldier and of her admittedly short military career, and it was true that she felt most at home on the battlefield. But the time she'd spent with the colonel before she'd arrived here had begun to affect her. She just didn't know how.

Perhaps everything she'd said to E-0057 two days ago had been true. Perhaps she could change.

"I...don't, actually," she found herself saying, and looked a little surprised and embarrassed for doing so. Opting for a quick change of subject, she added, "It sounds as if you have an interesting family."

A connection? Maybe so. He didn't often talk about his family, but he wasn't afraid to either. It just... rarely came up and being from a family of elite martial artists wasn't really very cute.

"Eheh! I'm glad you don't think so!" he commented. She seemed kind of shy? Embarrassed? by his question. It was sweet, he decided. Soma seemed like a nice girl.

"They're alright," he shrugged. "My father was really strict, but after I beat him, he said it was okay to do what I like, so long as I don't stop training." He looked thoughtful. "I miss my little brother Chika-chan though. I hope he's doing okay. He liked to try sneak attacks back home, it was fun! Except when we made a mess of the Host Club room, Kyo-chan wasn't very happy about that..."

"So your father teaches martial arts?" Soma was intrigued. If Honey had really beaten him - which, to be honest, was difficult to imagine, not to mention believe - then perhaps he could teach her. Anything to gain an edge in this place. "I might like to learn sometime. We were given basic training in physical combat, but mobile suit pilots rarely get a chance to utilize it."

She paused to take a bite of her pancake. "What's the Host Club?"

"Mm, well mostly me or Chika get sent out to teach these days, but I think he still does it sometimes. We're trained in a lot of different combat types." That was why they were called from places all over the world to train soldiers or teach lessons. It'd been a while since he'd had to go though.

"But I can help if you want, I don't mind. We- ah- wait, really, mobile suits?! Like mecha?! Uwaaaaa Soma-chan that's so neat!! It must be so much fun!" Honey exclaimed with excitement. That was the sort of thing he only saw cartoons of or toys! He didn't think they'd really exist someday! It made Host Club seem really pale in comparison.

"I'm in the Host Club with a group of my friends from school. We cater to customers and have tea or sweets and fun activities. It's a lot of fun! And the girls always seem happy to come see us."

"I'd be very thankful if you could tea - " began Soma, but she was quickly interrupted by Honey's exclamation. Clear surprise registered on her face then; nobody else here seemed to even have heard of mobile suits, not even anybody from the twenty-first century.

But the enthusiasm Honey displayed at the mention of them put him quite firmly on her good side. Her eyes lit up for the first time, and the slightest hint of a smile tugged at her mouth. "You've heard of mobile suits? I wouldn't call it fun, but I love piloting. I couldn't dream of doing anything else."

"The Host Club sounds nice," she added hesitantly. Which was to say it sounded very civilian, and yet oddly pleasant despite that - or maybe because of it.

Ah! There it was! An actual smile! Barely there, but Honey hadn't missed it. "It sounds amazing! It's okay if they don't have flying cars in the future if they have real mobile suits! I thought they only existed on television!"

So Soma was a mecha pilot? They really did have people from all different places and times here!

"Well it's not as exciting as real mecha, but I still like it a lot. We get to do all kinds of things together and visit lots of new places."

"Really? What are the mobile suits on television like?" It would be interesting, at the very least, to hear what the fictional predecessors to units like Tierens and Flags were.

"Visiting new places sounds exciting to me." Granted, you could always visit new places as a pilot, but you didn't exactly get a chance to appreciate the scenery. Which was a stupid thing to think - why would that matter? - but it was kind of true nonetheless. "Is that why you went to Germany?"

"Mm, well I don't watch much television, but I've seen lots of the toys. They're always going out and fighting battles in space for the sake of the planet! Things like that!" he nodded.

"Some of them even transform or combine to make even bigger mechas!" Honey usually stuck with the plush animals or other cute toys, but robots could be fun too at times.

"You say it like you don't get to go many places Soma-chan. Do they only let you pilot your mobile suit to special locations?" Maybe they were still top-secret or being tested. That would make sense. The governments didn't always want all the other countries knowing about their latest toys.

"Well, my mama is German, that's why I guess I don't look very Japanese. We go see her family sometimes."

"I guess we've done that a few times, even if our mobile suits don't transform or combine." Soma couldn't hide the small note of pride in her voice. "Well, mostly we fought battles in space for the sake of the Human Reform League, but that amounts to pretty much the same thing. And the last one was for the United Nations taskforce. I think that counts for the sake of the world, doesn't it?"

She shrugged slightly. "My first battle was in space, and I've fought in China and in Africa before, too. But I've never really gone outside of the military bases there. I didn't explore much - I didn't really see a need to." Besides, Commander Kim would probably have been loath to let his precious supersoldier wander off the grounds.

"Mm! So Soma-chan is a big hero then!" he said, practically wiggling in his seat from excitement. Even if Soma's face didn't show a lot of expression, he'd heard enough girls to know when she was feeling good about something. And how could she not if she'd helped save the world? "I think that's great! You must've worked really hard!"

"Mmm," Honey thought for a moment about how strict his father and family had been about his own training and it wasn't hard to understand why Soma might not've gotten out much. "But that's okay. That just means you're dedicated to your work! It's admirable!"

"I - I don't know about that." It wasn't as if they had gotten very much recognition for defeating Celestial Being, and it had never been about fame for her to begin with. But it was a nice thought. One that had never occurred to her - at least not often.

"I was just fulfilling my purpose - doing what I was created to do." She looked down and her voice grew a little quieter. "But now the war with the Gundams is over and I've been discharged. I'm not sure what my purpose is now."

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Day 41: Breakfast

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