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 young mage felt more tired after last night than he had after any of his previous attempts at alchemy. Perhaps it was because he'd created something slightly larger... or that he'd actually succeeded for once.

Leon had woken up with some difficulty to find the short sword lying next to him on the bed. He'd managed to tuck it away before the nurse arrived, and he was too filled with pride to complain about his weariness as the woman led him to the cafeteria. She was saying something about 'anemia' as she filled his tray and added two glasses of water and some juice. He didn't protest.

It was a good thing the nurse was holding his food, as he suffered a couple small dizzy spells just finding a seat. He just needed to sit down and eat something. When he caught sight of Claude, he pointed the woman in that direction and she led him over. He didn't recognize the boy he was with, but hopefully they wouldn't mind the intrusion.

"Morning, Big Brother," he greeted with a weary smile.

"No, of course not." While it might not have looked like it, it took a lot of willpower for the God-General not to burst out laughing. Really, it was a good thing he couldn't read minds, or else he wouldn't think twice about laughing right in Claude's face.

As long as he dragged them all down, then it didn't matter if he 'paid' for everything he'd done.

It didn't take long for Sync to follow Claude's lead and slide himself into the seat across from the blond. Yet, unlike the latter, he was considerably calmer when he cut into his own pile of pancakes, taking the time to take a few bites while thinking of a response.

Yet the God-General had to refrain from scoffing and rolling his eyes when someone butted in, and from the looks of it they seemed to know Claude as well. Yet that didn’t deter Sync one bit, and he merely glanced up in interest before smiling sheepishly.

"Hello," He began. "You're Claude's brother?"

No, of course not, he wanted to mockingly echo, high pitch and all. Claude was about to open his mouth to do just that when someone sat down beside them. And not just anyone, either.

"Leon!" he exclaimed before he could stop himself, almost choking on his juice. He wasn't completely sure of all the implications behind Leon and Sync actually meeting each other, but he knew he didn't like it. And he knew he was stuck right in the middle.

Part of him wanted to tell the boy that he needed to find someone else to sit with, that behind this mask of Sync's was some psycho that he'd really be better off not talking to at all. But he hadn't forgotten Sync's warning from the night he'd attacked him and Guy. It didn't take a genius to figure out an outburst like that would probably do more harm than good.

He should have told Leon about all this sooner. But between not having the opportunity to pull him aside privately and getting distracted by his father's presence, it just...hadn't happened.

Claude's stomach churned.

"What's...going on?" he asked after a moment, and he tried not to sound as stiff as he felt.

Smiling at Sync, and still unaware of Claude's dilemma, Leon shook his head. "Well, not by blood." Had he seen this other boy around before? He looked vaguely familiar - like someone he'd seen Claude speaking with at another time. If they were friends and they had business to deal with he'd try not to interrupt their conversation too much. He was hungry, anyway.

But with the way his friend was acting... somehow he didn't feel as welcome as he'd expected to be when he sat down. Had he interrupted something really important? "I just... thought I'd stop by... I can leave if you want me to, Claude." He looked rather disheartened even as he said it. With the way others kept disappearing in this place, he liked being able to know his best friend was safe. He supposed he could still do that from a distance.

"Oh?" This time Sync was genuinely curious about the kid's relationship with Claude, but before he could inquire further he was quickly cut off by the blond in question.

Really, given how angry Claude was only minutes ago it was somewhat surprising that the latter held his tongue in front of this newcomer. Of course, that certainly made things easier for him; after all, he wasn't really in the mood to snap any necks over breakfast. This was why the teen merely played along, giving 'Leon' a sincere smile while he cut into his pancakes.

"I don't see why you can't stay," Sync replied. "I wouldn't want you going through all the trouble of finding another spot when the cafeteria's pretty full."

"N-no, it's not like that!" Claude quickly responded to Leon's suggestion to move elsewhere. It was just...augh, how did he explain something like this? How could he? Dammit, he really didn't want to have to expose Leon to this...

In the end, though, he knew he couldn't just chase Leon off, either. It would likely hurt his feelings, and he couldn't bear the thought of doing something like that to his friend. No, it was probably better to play along with this, and then fill Leon in later when he could. The damage here had already been done.

"This is Sync, Leon," he said under the pretense of introducing him. He supposed that, technically, he was. Claude couldn't help but feel disgusted by the whole ordeal, but he did his best to mask his feelings. "He's..." A brief pause. "An acquaintance." He might not have been able to say he was an enemy just then, but he sure as hell wasn't going to call him a friend.

"And as you can see," he said, turning to Sync with an intense gaze, "this is Leon."

"Good morning, Sync," Leon greeted, relieved. Claude had said acquaintance, not friend, so it was likely they were just working together for some mutual benefit. Claude was far better at making alliances than he was.

He stuck a large fork-full of pancake into his mouth without adding any syrup. (He didn't like the way it got all mushy afterward.) Not outright inhaling his meal in front of the other two might be difficult at this point, but he'd try to hold himself back. He didn't want to make an embarrassing mess, after all.

Sync didn't appear to be too much older than he was. Perhaps once he and Claude were done with their discussion, he could speak with him alone. Get to know his friend's acquaintance.

Sync had to laugh when Claude carefully worded his introduction. He almost wished the blond had said 'friend' just so he could see the latter’s reaction.

"I guess 'acquaintance' really is the best word right now, but maybe that'll change with enough time." The God-General replied before turning towards the newcomer with a grin.

"It's nice to meet you, Leon." Right now, the most important thing was to keep up appearances with the blond's 'brother'. Maybe, if he was lucky enough, he could get to Leon before Claude could and squeeze some information out of him while the kid was still oblivious. Of course, asking right now would've been nothing short of stupid, and so he contented himself by eating a few more pieces of his pancake.

"So what were you saying about last night, Claude?"

Yeah, more like change to arch enemies. Not that they already weren't, but he'd tell Leon about all this shit soon enough, and then Sync wouldn't be able to take advantage of him.

In the meantime, that didn't do much to make him feel better, but he'd have to hold out until the end of breakfast either way.

When Sync brought up last night, as if they had been having some kind of meaningful discussion beyond "it's none of your damn business", Claude was at a loss of what to say for a moment.

"I was just saying," he answered deliberately, "that it would be great if people could travel around without having to worry about the monsters and deranged captives, but I guess that's what swords and spells are for." It was a veiled threat for Sync to pick up on, even if he doubted it would rattle him much. Still, he wasn't about to take all this lying down! Especially now that Leon was involved.

Edited 2009-05-13 03:40 (UTC)

That would be great, but Landel wasn't about to go that easy on them. Leon sighed, or would have if he wasn't so absorbed in his food at the moment. In fact, it was that which kept him from realizing how aggravated Claude was. He wasn't wearing his emotions out on his sleeves right now, of course, but Leon had spent enough time around the young man to be able to pick certain things out.

"Do you need help with anything?" The question was asked off-hand, something he felt he needed to ask just to be polite. In reality, the moment he mentioned on the board that he could start taking weapons requests he'd probably be up to his ears in that task. Still, anything Claude needed came first.

'Deranged'? That was definitely an interesting choice on Claude's part, but Sync merely nodded, as if completely agreeing with what the latter had to say.

"I agree. It's already hard enough to get anything done with this place's warped sense of time; having those kinds of obstacles around makes even the simplest tasks pretty daunting."

Of course, that was something he was certainly aiming for, but he figured the blond was smart enough to already know that.

For now Sync merely contented himself by trying to finish his meal, letting the two go on about their conversation while he quietly listened.

"I'm sure you're awfully busy," Claude said in response to Sync with a small frown. He speared a small pancake square onto his fork before stuffing it into his mouth. Claude knew he needed to keep himself from blurting too much right then.

When Leon asked him if he needed anything, he couldn't help but regard his friend with a curious expression. Aside from getting his father properly armed, Claude couldn't think of anything he really needed that he couldn't tend to himself.

"I don't suppose you know what kind of materials someone would need for, say, a bow to shoot arrows with, do you?" he asked after a moment. It was something he felt like he could ask in front of Sync, at least, provided he didn't launch into too many details about why he'd want such a thing.

And he did appreciate Leon's willingness to help him, even if he was probably doing it partly to be nice. But that was what friends did for each other, right?

Leon frowned, giving Claude's question some thought. He hadn't done any practicing in alchemy with anything besides metal so far, so he wasn't sure how successful he'd be in trying to craft a bow. Not to mention he hadn't worked with many bows in the past to begin with. "It depends on what kind of bow they want?" he began with some hesitation. "The string would probably be the hardest part to get a hold of in this place, and you might need some resin... If you can get the bow and arrows crafted yourself I might be able to help out with the string." It couldn't be that difficult, right? Alchemy could be used to get the right consistency for firing, and hopefully it wouldn't take as much out of him as a sword or something larger.

He didn't ask his friend what the bow was for. It was easy enough to guess that he had an ally that used one.

"Should I wait to, you know, advertise?" He gave a bit of a grin. "I don't want to end up too busy when you need a hand."

'I'd be more busy if you and Guy stopped fooling around and actually did what you were supposed to do,' Sync wanted to say, but he wasn't stupid enough to voice that out. Instead he merely nodded, though Claude's next question caught him off guard.

A bow? The blond didn't really look like the kind of person that would use one. Granted, maybe he just wanted to go the coward's way out and knock down his opponents from a distance. Tch.

Still, the God-General tried not to look too intrigued while the other two talked, idly smearing a piece of pancake into the puddle of leftover syrup on his plate before finishing that off. Yet he didn't keep quiet for long, and Sync looked up once more to glance curiously over at Leon.

"'Advertise'?"

So Leon thought he was far enough along in his studies to open up shop, huh? Even if the circumstances of their conversation were less than ideal, he couldn't help but regard his friend with a warm smile that had a hint of pride to it. He'd had faith in Leon's abilities, and it was pretty awesome to see the boy learn a thing or two from other worlds. If anyone could do it, it was definitely him.

"Would you mind if I talked to someone first?" he asked. "They've been waiting for help a lot longer than Dias or I ever had to, and they might need a hand." Actually, if Sync weren't around, he would have come out and explained that it was for Guy, but...well, he'd have time to tell him soon enough. Along with everything else, he inwardly sighed.

"If it's okay with you, anyway," he added. "I mean, if you'd rather go ahead with things, I wouldn't want to stop you."

When Sync asked Leon for clarification, Claude tensed a little. He really would rather him not find out about this, even though it might have been inevitable in the long run. After all, he didn't want to risk putting Leon in a bad position. But what could he do?

Making a split decision, he suddenly knocked his juice over, splashing it onto the table and toward where Sync was sitting next to him. "Oh, damn!" he shouted as he reached for his napkins. He made sure to be as distracting as possible as he did so. "I'm so sorry, man! Let me clean that up for you."

Edited 2009-05-15 03:46 (UTC)

"I don't mind at all." Leon grinned and shook his head. Claude came first, and by extension that included anyone his friend considered important. If he knew someone that needed a weapon, he had the right to ask. He'd missed the opportunity to make Claude's sword himself, after all.

When the juice was knocked over, he jumped, moving back out of the way automatically so that nothing got on him (though it looked like he was in the clear from the start). His book was tucked into his pants as usual and he really didn't want to risk ruining any of its pages.

"Are you all right, Claude?" He gave his friend a concerned look. That movement had been rather sudden, as though something had shocked him. Had he seen someone or something he didn't want to?

While it was sudden enough to make Sync stiffen slightly, he was hardly as animated as the other two when Claude knocked his glass over. Instead of reeling back the God-General just watched as juice splashed on his clothes, making it quite obvious that he didn't really care. After all, it wasn't like it was anything harmful, and if the stickiness really bothered him he could just wash it off.

Really, what interested him more was Claude's damn good timing.

"Are you this clumsy all the time?" Sync asked with a light grin as the blond scrambled to get his napkins. Already he reached for his own under his plate, idly wiping off any juice that hadn't soaked into his clothes while scooting his chair back to prevent any more from getting on him.

((lol late response is late. Hope no one minds if I just end the thread?))

"I-I'm fine, Leon," he told the boy, doing his best to sound reassuring. Man, he felt terrible that he had to resort to all of this just to keep Sync from learning too much about his friend. In the end, he wasn't sure how much good it would do, but he would have to do his best.

As he moved to soak up what juice he could off from the table, he made sure to give a careful, friendly smile. "Nah, just some of the time," he replied. "Guess I should be careful in the future. Sorry about all this."

He had to admit, as childish as it sounded, spilling juice all over Sync felt pretty damn good. Too bad it didn't seem to bother him that much.

It was at that moment the intercom sounded, and nurses began to lead some of the other captives out of the cafeteria. Claude sighed to himself. Crisis averted -- for the moment, anyway. He turned to Leon, apologetic. "Looks like breakfast's over. But we'll talk again really soon, okay, Leon?"

Claude didn't spare Sync a glance as he gathered his things and stood up from his seat. "And I guess I'll be seeing you again sooner or later." But that didn't mean he was going to let Sync push him or his friends around. Not if he could help it, anyway.

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Day 41: Breakfast

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