damned_institute | Dayshift 42: Bus 2

Before anyone could come to any decisions for their next move, the room suddenly filled with a thick fog. Faster than he could realize what was happening, it had filled up the entire room and swallowed every single one of his friends. Then there was that undeniable stench of iron, blood and... he last remembered taking a step back and feeling that slippery skid and the realization of what that was. By the time he yelled, he was sitting straight up in his bed like he'd bolted awake. Like it'd been nothing more than a bad dream. ...What the hell just happened?!

"Oh! Good morning!" The nearby voice made him yelp with a half squeak-like noise. Oh, for hell's sake. It was one of those freaking nurses again. She was beaming at him like nothing had happened at all. Before he could so much as ask one question, the hag started blathering real fast about some field trip and buses and getting changed and hurrying up before everyone left without him and... OH MY GOD, WHAT WAS SHE DOING?! She was grabbing at his shirt like she was about to start helping him get dressed (or undressed in this case).

He flailed in a desperate attempt to get away from her and yelled his consent to go along if she would get out and let him change HIMSELF. What was the matter with her?! Thankfully, she left but told him to hurry. Hell if he knew what she'd do if he took too long. So for the sake of not getting freaking stripped, he quickly changed into the clothes she'd left on the bed. Clothes being the ugliest looking white-and-black track pants he'd ever seen and a bright blue sweatshirt with a cute little penguin design on the front. This was some kind of joke, right? ...Not to say the penguin wasn't cute or anything but there was no way, no way, he was wearing something like this in public.

But the nurse had burst right in again, and before Kanji could offer much protest, he was being pulled down the hallways and through the doors of the bus. He'd yelled some things her way, but she totally wasn't listening at all. By the time they stopped, he was standing at the front of the bus with a paper bag and the nurse had run off to cart another poor sap along. Frickin' PERFECT. For the sake of not standing up there like some kind of zoo animal for everyone to stare at, he plopped himself into one of the seats by the front and sighed in complete exasperation.

[Free. No limit.]

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"Uh-huh," Reno said, unconcerned because it was too hard to be anything else. "That's what I do, Elena. Why's this suddenly news to you, that I fuck with everyone?"

He paused, shrugged. "Figuratively speaking, in this case."

'Cause really, if she was gonna get touchy about a little teasing innuendo, he was starting to think that was her shit to sort out. Which was what he used to think, anyway, until she'd stopped having as much of a problem with it. Except now it was apparently a problem again and Jesus, it was all too complicated to give a damn when he wasn't the one who started this whole thing in the first place. He'd never actively hit on Elena, mocking flirting aside. There'd been a reason for that.

And Christ, now it was his hair? Reno didn't think about it too much, mostly since anything to get her to stop being such a twelve year old was fine by him. He slouched in his seat, propped one foot up against the backrest of the seat ahead of him (paying no mind to whatever poor bastard might be getting a slight poke in the back) and let her do whatever the hell she was going on about with his hair.

"Just don't cut anything, yeah? I will break your fingers."

In theory, she knew it wasn't worth staying mad at him. It wasn't going to change anything, or make anything easier, and it'd only work herself up while Reno would shrug it off and continue being, well, Reno.

"You just wish you could," Elena remarked, most of her sudden anger leaving with it. It wasn't the first time he'd gotten to her, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

But apparently she could get away with this one little thing. She took out his hair tie and wrapped it around her wrist, getting the weirdest feeling of deja vu from it. Not that it was anything special; she used to own tons of the things when her hair was longer. Shrugging it off, she kept herself busy with separating the strands into three equal sections, all the while silently daring Reno to try and stop her.

"How could I cut anything? With my teeth? 'Cause there's no way. No idea what kind of germs I'd get from that, and just eww. It just needs fixing..."

"I damn well can," Reno replied airily, waving a hand.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, spotted the hair tie, and it wasn't like he couldn't feel what she was doing to his hair and the only thing that stopped him from bitching her out was because he knew she was expecting him to do that. Like hell he was gonna give her the satisfaction.

The fact that he was playing chicken with Elena over braiding his hair was maybe a little fucked up, but whatever. It was the principle of the matter, okay?

"Just sayin'. In case you had plans to, I dunno. Transplant my hair into Rude to help the sonofabitch out."

For a while Elena didn't say anything. In fact, she keep her mouth completely shut until her impromptu braid was completed, with the exception of a few giggles that escaped at the thought of Rude with Reno's hair. Carefully putting the tie back on the end to hold it in place, she finally looked at him.

"Oh yeah? Prove it."

It wasn't that she particularly wanted anything out of it. It wasn't that she even thought it through before acting, a mistake she was guilty of on occasion. It was just that she was tired of Reno always having his way, and for once she was going to do something about it.

The kiss she gave him was longer than planned, more awkward than it should have been. But damn it, she was determined to get Reno back for all the teasing, everything else.

It was usually pretty rare that Reno was taken surprise by a move because he was often the one who made the first damn move, but it happened and Reno honestly wasn't that surprised. If he thought about it, he was kind of expecting it to have come, oh.

However long ago. Counting was hard.

Anyway, whatever. Elena had braided his hair (like he couldn't tell) and now she was kissing him on a freaking school bus, of all places, and this was just weird not because she was kissing him, but because they were both totally sober. Seriously, what the hell?

Reno pulled away first, aware of a watching nurse out of the corner of his eye. He didn't wanna bother with playing nice should she come over, so maybe to not get her over at all.

He cocked an eyebrow at Elena, casual as ever. How else was he supposed to be? Sure as hell wasn't gonna flail around.

"You're supposed to give me the chance to prove it, not take it for me, y'know. S'not how that works."

Elena shook her head slightly, almost unconsciously. Could nothing phase Reno at all?

"Yeah, well, you were taking way too long," she snapped back, playing with a loose strand of hair that had fell in her eyes.

So now that she'd had her way... sort of, it should be easy to just forget things, right? Hopefully that would be the case. It was bad enough that they were stuck in that building day and night, this trip being the exception. Well, she'd heard of others sort of getting out, but apparently it wasn't enough to actually escape and...

And she was trying hard not to think about the fact that she'd just kissed Reno. Her attention went down to her breakfast bag, trying to see if there was anything else interesting inside.

"And I guess I figured you never would," she added, her voice much softer than usual.

Reno rolled his eyes, and turned away, hands tucked behind his head. He could feel the braid there, but he was too lazy to undo it now and it wasn't like there was anyone around he cared about who saw him, anyway.

"Y'know, if you're expecting things from me, don't," he said bluntly, flicking a stray lock of hair out of his vision. "You never did before. No one does. Nothing good ever comes out of it when people expect stuff from me unless it's about getting a job done right."

He was probably being an asshole, but Christ, it wasn't like she should be expecting him to be different about that, either. He'd never pretended to be anything different with either Rude or Elena; it was a take it or leave it deal. He had that mutual agreement with Rude. In return, Rude could punch him or put explosives outside his door whenever he wanted. Reno had kinda thought he had the same arrangement from Elena, but apparently punching and explosives translated to fucking in Elena's world.

It was hard not to be disappointed. As for why, she couldn't really quite say, just that the whole thing was frustrating. Arms crossed over her lap and kept very much to herself, Elena leaned her head on Reno's shoulder, determined to get at least something out of the deal. She wasn't particularly tired at the moment; just tired of one stressful thing after another.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure not to make that mistake again," she insisted. "Although I might tell Rude to go blow your door up next time."

Her hand moved to unconsciously trace her finger along her chest where she knew there was a scar line from being cut open underneath her clothes. In a way, it meant that she'd never be able to forget this place, even long after they escaped... although she was starting to doubt that would happen more and more.

"...I really miss my gun, you know? I'd love to shoot something about now. You'd be a good start."

Dayshift 42: Bus 2

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