damned_institute | Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant

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Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant

Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows confirmed what she'd been talking about with Sam earlier; no dates, no explicitly mentioned locations outside of the town itself… how weird was that? Even the most insular of towns back on Gaia would've coughed up some kind of connection with the outside world.

It was almost like a living ghost town.

Well, maybe she was just thinking too hard. Maybe she was throwing shuriken too hard at the wrong target. Back home, she had a concrete frame of reference. Here, she couldn't take anything for granted; she had no local or international knowledge whatsoever. All she could try to do was get a profile of the immediate area and build it up and out from there. Theories were already budding, popping up like weeds hit by Quadra-Haste, but without facts to back them up, theories were like sand in a desert.

Not that she didn't want to share those theories, sand or not. She did. A lot.

Once she'd developed a viable mental map of the place (as viable as she was gonna get given the time constraints), Yuffie swung back around and jogged back to North Street. From there, she took the alley; a quick right turn; slow to a trot, and there. Her cheeks were tinged pink from the cold winter air, and they stung as she poked her head in through the door.

Okay, so maybe she was a little early after all. That was cool. Very cool. She had some time to set things up, to pretend that she wasn't hideously under prepared for this lunch date. Stepping into the warmth, Yuffie surreptitiously cased the place out as she headed to a table. Homey, in a way that almost reminded her of some of the up-and-coming rural towns. Automatically seeking out one of the more strategic seats--one with a good view of the rest of the restaurant, and one that didn't leave her totally vulnerable to mutant chairs or murderous sandwiches--she made herself comfortable, whipped out a few crumpled pieces of paper and a pen, and began to jot down her findings.

[Closed to Edgeworth.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's what usually happens in this sort of situation anyway. You don't plan to get into fights, but you can plan for how to deal with them. I don't want anyone getting unnecessarily hurt. And it's going to be quite a while until anyone attempts an assault, but people working non-combat support positions will probably still be needed." It felt odd to be discussing this in the middle of a restaurant that was so obviously within the Institute's control, with the nurses within view, but there wasn't really any place that things could be discussed without it likely being overheard or monitored somehow.

"If there's a place for that, then I want it." He looked back down at his hands, still nervously twisting the napkin. With a sigh, Armand thought they may need to change the subject. "On another note, I think I had that steak thing when I was here before. It's breaded and fried. I don't remember much else."

It was easier to talk to TK than almost anyone else at the Institute, except perhaps Bridget. He didn't feel the need to censor every thing he said so much, although he still kept away from politics. "I hope you like it. I'm sure you'll be able to have at least half of mine."

622 was more than happy to talk about food. "I don't know what 'breaded' is, but it still sounds good." It wasn't like he knew how to cook beyond making sure whatever it was wouldn't make him sick.

"I definitely will. And don't give me any if you want it. All this food is spoiling me." He needed to make sure to keep doing daily exercises when he got the time to do it. He didn't want let himself get out of shape just because the military structure wasn't here.

"I'm never very hungry. I'll be fine." He smiled, trying to make himself sound convincing. He knew he was telling the truth, but that may not get past his friend's overprotective intentions. "I can decide how much I want to eat on my own," he added.

"I just don't want to take anything that you might need, especially after that training session." It hadn't been a hard one by any definition he knew, but maybe that was just him. He couldn't help but feel protective for some reason.

Armand bit his lip. "I am smaller than you. I simply don't need to eat as much, even when I've been exercising." He reached across the table, planning on patting the back of the soldier's hand. "Please don't worry so much for me. If I need it, I'll eat it."

622 nodded, looking down at the table in front of him. "Alright. I just wanted to make sure." Because he did care for his friend, and wanted him to have the best chance to remain fit and unhurt.

"I--" Armand drew his hand back, unsure now whether he should touch his friend. "Thank you for your concern." Their hot chocolate arrived, and Armand welcomed the distraction to savor what he had in his cup. It was both sweeter and thinner than he expected it to be, but it was chocolate. Even at the Institute, Armand hadn't seen much of it in his life.

He wasn't certain what to say now.

The arrival of the drinks was a happy distraction. 622 took a careful sip of the hot liquid, surprised at how good it tasted. The only stuff he'd had before had tasted a lot more like water than whatever chocolate was supposed to taste like. "I didn't realize this planet had chocolate." It was pretty rare. There were only a few planets that produced it, if he remembered correctly.

"I think it is from Earth, but I cannot be certain of that. Your universe could another place entirely or simply far distant in time one way or another." He took another sip and decided to save the rest for his meal. The hot cup had finished banishing his chill.

"You've had it before then?" he asked.

"I think there's only a few planets that produce it. It's pretty rare." He took another sip, enjoying it slowly (for once).

"I have. Or at least something that might have been it. Or just supposed to be it. I didn't exactly have any way to tell." It wasn't something he'd really thought about all that much.

"It's from a bean, the cocoa plant." Armand felt proud he remembered that. "I haven't had it often. It's forbiddingly expensive in Europe."

He enjoyed seeing TK savoring the chocolate. Just watching his friend in a happy moment uncurled a tense worried feeling in Armand's own gut. Now he might be able to relax a bit better himself. He leaned his elbows on the table. "I am glad to see you relaxing. You need to get a chance to do that more often. I can't imagine it's good for you to be so tense and ready for attack all the time."

He hadn't even realized he'd seemed tense. "It's just how things go. I do know how to relax, I just probably don't show it well." Relaxing to him usually meant sleeping, anyway. Or just thinking, when there wasn't anything serious to be thinking about.

"Well, I declare that you must relax some today. I demand it!" He smiled, now realizing that it was okay to do so, and wagged his finger at TK. "It would ease my heart to know that you were able to do so," he explained.

622 chuckled into his mug of hot chocolate. "Yes sir." He was doing his best, he really was. He didn't want to be tense when he didn't need to be. Hopefully that would become evident as it apparently hadn't been before.

Armand blinked at being called 'sir' and then laughed. "You don't have to be as formal as all that," he murmured, blushing a little. Just tipping his chin lower and sitting back let him hide behind his hair until his cheeks cooled. "Am I not allowed to worry about you as well?"

"It wasn't said seriously," 622 explained, putting down his mug. "And apparently I'm not very good at getting that across either." He sat back, relaxing just slightly from his normal perfect posture. "You can, I'd just like to be able to assure you that things are fine."

"I do care," Armand insisted. "I don't mean to insult my other friends, but you are my best adult friend. We must never give up on getting out of here and protecting ourselves, but I also think we should live the best we can while we're here." He bit his lip. In some ways, he thought that idea may come across as radical.

"Sounds like a solid idea to me. I just never had much beyond food and a safe place to sleep to enjoy myself with," sometimes. "So that's the threshold of what I consider 'living well'." Except that also included being surrounded by other troopers and having a clear, known direction beyond a vague overall goal.

Armand leaned against the table again, eyes wide. "Is that all you want then?" He couldn't quite understand that, but he'd never lived what TK had lived. He had to sit back as their food arrived.

"It's all that I know to want. I know there's other things out there, but I don't know what they are." He then made a valiant attempt to not get completely distracted by the arrival of food. This looked good, and smelled even better. Now if only he could keep himself from downing it all in five minutes...

"Friendship is something people value. Leisure and the pursuits one can have if there is leisure." He studiously cut the steak in half and put part of it to the side until he'd eaten the rest, to save it for TK if he only ate as much as he wanted to eat.

"I didn't know to look for it. It just happened before because Commander Akobi and I saved each other's lives so many times," 622 said, remembering to swallow what food he had in his mouth before speaking. The stuff tasted just as good as it smelled. Akobi had likely been a lot better at that sort of thing than 622 was. But he tried not to think about that while he was enjoying food, even though he almost wanted to think about it. The Commander was someone who shouldn't be forgotten.

"Do you think my wanting to be your friend takes away from what you had with your commander?" Armand took both his hands from the table and hid them as well as dropped his chin.

"No. What happened with Commander Akobi was just... different. I can't explain it well." Well, this subject seemed to always kill everything else right quick. "I won't forget him or what happened to him, but I'm trying not to get preoccupied with thinking about him, because that won't help and he wouldn't want it."

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