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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[Thanks for the guilt trip there :<]

Kon yawned hugely, finally dragging himself back to the land of the living and out of the deep - almost to the point of being comatose, though that was nothing new - sleep he'd spent the night in. He was starving and- it was morning? Had he slept through the whole night?

"Awww, geez!" He hadn't realised he'd been that tired coming back to his room last night. He must've missed Kurt entirely. The guy had probably spent the night wandering around under a sheet again. And Bart. Hopefully Bart had met up with the maybe-OK (according to him anyway) version of the Flash and hadn't run head first into anything again. But he'd still wasted all night sleeping when he could've been doing something.

While he was irritated with losing his chance to do anything, Kon still smiled brightly at the nurse who came to fetch him, following her to the cafeteria like he couldn't remember the way. Yeah, it was a prison-experiment thing so he shouldn't expect to be allowed to run loose all the time but it would be a lot less annoying if she didn't talk to him like he was actually a two-year old - or acted like one, instead of being one and not acting it. Whatever.

After loading up a tray with pancakes and syrup, Kon wound his way around the tables, looking for company. He'd been after someone fun to talk to but it was impossible to miss the guy, about his age, sitting there like the world was ending and someone had shot his puppy. No way Superboy could just keep going and ignore someone who was so clearly upset over something.

Quietly placing his tray on the table, Kon took the seat beside the teenager, gently touching his shoulder. "Hey man, what happened?" No point asking if he was alright, that was just a stupid question when the answer was so obviously 'no'.

[Pfft. You only have yourself to blame. >:|]

The touch on his shoulder was unexpected, and the voice was unfamiliar. He startled, head snapping out of his hands.

It was another boy, about his age. Dark hair, movie star face, pierced ears. Maybe Peter had seen him around once or twice, but he wasn't thinking clear enough to be sure. He sniffed and rubbed his eyes clear, returning his gaze to the table.

"I-it's nothing," he croaked hoarsely. The boy had already set his tray down. Peter hoped he'd pick it up and leave. "Just...don't want to talk about it."

[One stars 'n stripes father figure with a shoulder to cry on?]

While his nurse had seemed intent on getting Steve directly to breakfast, he had managed to talk her into letting him take a look at the bulletin board. Steve had only quickly glanced over it, though when he spotted a note addressed to him and the other people he knew here he paused to read it. The news hit with an almost physical impact. Harry was dead. It was a little difficult to believe at first, news like that always was. There was an odd time lapse between reading the news and actually feeling it. After that, Steve didn't even bother with the rest of the board, just giving it a quick glance to make sure there was nothing else important that he needed to see.

Satisfied that there wasn't, Steve went for the cafeteria, his nurse trailing behind him. He quickly located Peter and started to go over to him when his nurse grabbed his arm. "Breakfast first, then you can go sit with your friends," She said. Rather than get in an argument with his nurse over the matter, Steve allowed himself to be taken through the food line, quickly getting his pancakes and then making his way over to Peter.

Someone had arrived here before him, it wasn't anyone Steve recognized, and apparently not anyone Peter knew either. Steve took the remaining open seat next to Peter and put a hand on his shoulder. "Peter," Steve said, trying to get his attention. Everyone handled grief differently, but Peter really didn't seem like the type that could, or would, be able to deal with it well alone.

He was still a kid, even younger than Bucky had been. Peter looked like a mess, like he was falling apart. Peter had just said he didn't want to talk about it, but Steve wasn't sure if it was just that he didn't want to talk to a stranger or if he didn't want to talk about it. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it right now."

OK, this was awkward. Kon got not wanting to talk about stuff that bothered you - not that Superboy ever got bummed out over anything really but if he did he wouldn't want to talk about it either. But not wanting to talk about stuff that had you crying and looking as thoroughly depressed as this guy did wasn't a good idea. Before Kon could say anything, an older man joined them and he apparently knew this guy - Peter - and knew what had happened which meant he was doing better than Kon was.

Still touching Peter and trying to offer some comfort, Kon turned to the new guy to ask, "Should I go? If you two wanna talk..." If they were friends then they might want to talk about whatever had happened in private and Peter definitely needed someone to talk to. Kon wasn't going to butt in and get in the way if that's what they needed. He'd feel a little bad for ditching someone when they were hurting but it would probably be easier for Peter to talk to his friend than a stranger.

He must have seen the note already. Peter had guessed that nobody would get to it until after breakfast, but he should have known someone as militant as Steve wouldn't bother waiting to get at the board.

The attention from both sides had him feeling claustrophobic and yet somehow safe, and Peter wasn't sure if he shouldn't get up and leave. Just ask his nurse to stay in his room, so he won't have to deal with people feeling sorry for him. Practical strangers coming out of the blue. Steve hadn't even said more than two words to him before he came here. He wasn't ready to deal with this.

However, the shaking had stopped with the hands on his shoulders. There was something about it that, while not enough to put him at ease, helped him to steady himself. Enough to get him talking at least.

Peter turned to the dark-haired boy, hoping to offer him some kind of an explanation. He was only trying to help, even if Peter didn't want him to. "I'm sorry. I, uh, didn't mean to be rude." He hiccuped, then hid his face in embarrassment. "It's just like - like it just happened five minutes ago, cause of the night to day thing and I - I'm still not-" His breath rattled and he hiccuped again, squeezing bandaged bite on his arm. "I'm...he was fine just five minutes ago..."

For the moment, Steve would let peter decide if he wanted any additional company or not. He glanced around for a moment, noting where the staff was and how many of them were paying attention. None of them showed signs of keeping more than a casual eye on the situation, despite how upset Peter was.

There was no way he could just tell Peter it would be okay. "I know it hurts, Peter," It was never easy to deal with loss, and with the way it switched from night and day, it really could have been just minutes ago. It was probably for the best, if Peter had been a mess like this last night he could have been in much worse shape. Peter had trailed off, but he seemed like he might keep talking, so Steve didn't say anything else for the moment, giving Peter space and time to keep talking.

He shouldn't have let Peter and Harry go alone last night, if Steve hadn't insisted he go to the clinic this wouldn't have happened. Steve clenched his jaw, and put an arm around Peter.

Oh. Oh no. Kon wanted to think that maybe whoever Peter's friend was, he might just have been hurt, or taken for experiments, or something (and when had that become the better choice?) but there was no way he could get that idea from what Peter said. And he was apologising to Kon for being rude? Guy was broken up about a friend of his dying and he thought he was being rude? It would almost be funny, except- yeah.

Kon forced a smile, squeezing Peter's shoulder as he said, "Don't apologise, I-" There wasn't much Kon could say there. He was sorry? Like that would help anything. He understood? Except he didn't, not really. Sure he'd lost Tana and Roxy and all his friends when they'd moved on after he'd gone missing but they were still out there, still alive and hadn't died right in front of him.

Face it Kid, you have no idea how to deal with this. Of course, Peter's friend didn't seem to be able to do much more either. What could anyone say, really? You couldn't make it stop hurting and you couldn't bring people back from the dead. Superman might have come back but Kon wasn't stupid enough to think that was anything less than a miracle. Most of the time people died and were gone for good.

At a loss for what else to do he said, "You sure you don't want to talk about it?" Talking was supposed to help, right? The least he could do was offer.

The next thing he knew, there was a heavy weight draped around his shoulders. Peter went stiff under Steve's arm. He almost bowed out of it instantly, shrinking even further into a hunch until he remembered that this Steve was friends with the other him, was on the same team - the Avengers, right? He probably knew the other one well enough to do something like this. Maybe he thought Peter knew him too.

The other boy was squeezing his shoulder, still trying to help him. But Peter couldn't talk about it. He could barely find the words. How do you tell somebody that you saw your best friend with his neck torn to shreds? That you saw him go limp, saw the blood still pulsing out after he'd gone? It was impossible to understand. Just that moment where you're stunned, that you know he's gone, but you can't fit two and two together and figure out how it was possible in the first place. Like he was supposed to be immune to pain and injury, to death, because it was impossible for him to not be there. Like he was immortal, just because he was your friend.

He was so stupid. Of all the people in the world, Peter should have known better. It wasn't the first time he'd seen Harry die. There were no second chances, not even in a place like this.

Squeezing his eyes shut did nothing to keep the tears in. They all slipped out, sliding down the same two wet lines on either cheek. He fought for his voice, nodding his head. "Yeah..." The sound came out warbled anyway. "Thanks."

He gave up on resisting the arm around his shoulders, quietly leaning against Steve and falling silent. It wasn't anywhere near the same as being held by Aunt May, but it was enough.

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Day 41: Breakfast

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