damned_institute | Day 22: Brunch

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Day 22: Brunch

Cid usually liked sleeping in, especially in a place as messed up and uninviting as this, but this happened to be one situation where he really wished he hadn't.

Right there, on the bulletin board. The Head Doctor and he'd fucking missed it? Some part of him wished he'd been there to take his eye out and another part of him knew he wouldn't have been able to. No man that powerful who hid for so long went to dangerous places without some kind of entourage.

Brunch sounded like it'd be filling, at least, though he nearly stopped in his tracks when the bastard announced TEA. TEA. It'd been a damn long while since he'd had some fucking tea, though with all the stress this place had found fit to rain down on his fucking head, it hadn't really been the first priority on his mind. Kinda nice, even if Cid was sure this was just some game the mother fucker was playing to get them all stuck neck-deep in Stockholm Syndrome.

He scanned the mostly-empty room for any sign of a familiar face once he'd piled waffles and sausages and syrup on his plate, though the person he really wanted to talk to was that Reynolds guy. "Spaceship" was the last word he remembered clearly before waking up in his bed, and dammit if he wasn't going to keep it stuck like glue in his mind.

He found a table where he could watch people come into the cafeteria and grabbed for his mug. The steam rising from his drink and the bag of herbs in it was nearly enough to make him grin despite it all, and it was with marked leisure and a little relief that he drank his goddamn tea.

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"It certainly wasn't fate I met him," Snake responded calmly, slightly impressed at Axel's stunning moodswing - from choking distaste to easy interest in less than a second. There was evidently more of the kid in him than he'd initially thought. "It was all arranged."

No, he had to be less vague than that. He sounded like Fox. Or Mantis.

"I don't know if the same thing happened in your 'timeline'," he began, "but in mine there was a crisis, off the shore of Manhattan. A cleanup facility got taken over, by terrorists. My friend...he was the soldier who'd been sent in to sort out the mess, and I was in there, cleaning it up of my own accord. Or so it seemed. I don't want to talk about the details, but he was being used." There was a concept he resented. "And I was, too. But in a way so indirect I only realised it when I was told. That's my legacy - I'm always the tool someone else uses to get the job done."

He'd already said more than he intended to. It was hearing the kid's voice again - had to be. Even from a different face...

"And no need to be shy," he added. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with your hips. They're..." he thought of the right word, came up with 'androgynous', and decided not to risk it, "...honest."

Axel and Snake's conversation was going over Honey's head, and it was with great relief that he turned to Roxas. Cake was a topic he could talk about all day long.

"I love all sorts of sweet things, but strawberries and cake are my very favorite things, and the combination of them is even better! I was really surprised to see that they had it here, because my friends Hikaru and Kaoru - they're twins! - said that they didn't have many sweet things most of the time."

He smiled widely and continued. "It's not quite the same as the cake they have at school, or the cakes we get delivered to the Host Club, but it's pretty good!"

Oh! This would be a good time bring up the Club, he thought, even though it wasn't something he was terribly good at advertising. "Speaking of the Host Club, having a Club meeting this afternoon. I told Axel-san about it before! You're welcome to come too, and you can bring your friend Naminé if you want."

Axel was glad that Roxas decided to talk to Mitsukuni, too busy immersed in Snake's explanation about his own world. This talk of terrorists and soldiers on secret missions was fascinating, but compared to his own empty world everything else seemed like an adventure.

"So you were both being used by the higher ups? I wouldn't want to be in your shoes" It certainly sounded familiar on some of his own context, especially his best friend's perspective. But Axel always managed to flip the sides of power in the end, so the thought of being powerless to stop it would really drive a thorn deep into his side.

And speaking of hips...

"Why are you so interested in them? Do they bother you that much? If you want a closer look, all you have to do is ask." The Nobody snorted before giving the man a casual grin. However, hearing Mitsukuni's words he glanced at Roxas and added his own 2 cents.

"You should go, it's not like you have anything better to do. And besides," He took a sip of his tea. "I bet Sora's going to be there too."

Roxas was half paying attention to Honey, half paying attention to the conversation between Axel and Snake. It was something of an oddity being directly between something so cheerful and something not-so, so he was finding it difficult what to concentrate on. Especially in the case of Snake, where the words were hitting a little closer to home than he would have liked. Arranged, used, tool - they were all words he was familiar with.

The rest of the conversation between the two men fell on deaf ears. Roxas wasn't fond of the direction his thoughts were taking him, so he did his best to ignore it. What was past was past, and it was better not to worry about. It was too late to change what had already happened.

"I'm not really sure what a Host Club is," he responded to Mitsukuni with a shrug. "But I guess I could give it a try." In a place like Landel's, distractions were always a good thing to have, after all. He made a glance to Axel upon hearing his comment on the issue, but didn't make much of an effort to respond.

Sora, huh?

"I'll hold you to that," Snake smirked. He honestly hadn't intended for his words to be taken that way, but was willing to play along with it. After all, it was at least friendly contact, and Otacon had suggested befriending as many patients as possible.

He liked flirting. It certainly wasn't a gift of his - it'd never come naturally to him. Why would it? He wasn't trained for people skills after all.

But it was satisfying. It showcased intelligence, quickness, and tension. And it had the useful side-effect of throwing people off-guard.

He started it, he assured himself.

"Mind telling me your room number?" he asked. "You never know when I might need to call you up on that proposal. I'm in M51."

Honey had been conveniently ignoring the conversation between Snake and Axel. The Host Club conversation was something he was much more comfortable in, and as such, he continued it inbetween bites of the quickly diminishing pile of cake.

"We told Sora-chan about the club meeting this morning! I think he's coming...and I'm sure Tamaki is telling his new friends over there about it," he said, gesturing in the Lord's direction. It was funny...they didn't seem too happy. Maybe they hadn't liked the idea?

Axel seemed to be doing a lot of snorting around this man, but he was far more amused about the situation than he should've been. Every person he'd met had been refreshing in some way or another, and Snake was no different. But Axel felt that he could act more casual around him than the others, though it wasn't certain if that was an entirely good idea.

Still, Brunch with two other people besides themselves wasn't exactly the perfect place to be exchanging flirtatious comments, as awfully tempting as it was anyway.

"I'm in M12, but there seems to be another bed in my room besides my own. So if you don't mind an audience then you're welcome to drop by." And with that the redhead casually smirked before finishing up his mug of tea and setting it down beside him. Green eyes glanced to the clock, its hands revealing that the next shift was coming soon.

"Though I want to know more about your world, so do your best to come. I'll even go to yours if it's too much of a stretch for you."

"Well, my room-mate doesn't seem to have appeared yet," Snake responded, "so if privacy's a concern, you're probably better off heading my way. There's no point both of us trying to meet up - too dangerous, and we'll never find each other in the corridors, even with that red hair of yours."

He'd often told himself he had no interest in other people's lives, but, even so, he felt curious about this world of 'darkness and skyscrapers' - and Axel himself. It was sickening how a little nostalgia for something that only happened about a week ago could completely colour his behaviour, he realised.

He felt Axel's glance scrape the clock (how?) and looked up himself. This shift was nearly over.

"It's the Visitor shift soon," Snake pointed out. "I'm curious about it, although they don't have anyone to send me." He took another drink of tea. "Besides, it's not as if they can do much worse to me, anyway. I've already lost one eye, and they're not about to blind me completely."

The intercom announcement rang out, and Honey frowned. He realized that if they were calling him "Bobby Wright", they had to be calling his friends other names, too. He wondered if any of them were friends of his, but he wasn't sure.

Honey stood and looked around the cafeteria once more. He couldn't see any of them, not with the blur of activity and nurses pulling patients in every direction.

"I'm sorry, all of you. I should probably go and find everyone, and I need to get ready for the Host Club meeting...wherever Tama-chan decided it was going to be!"

A moment later, a nurse came up, "Mr. Wright?" Honey nodded to her and let her lead him out. He could figure out where he was going soon, he thought.

"That's the thing, mine hasn't either but the bed surely looked like it was used." So this 'room mate' thing was widespread after all. Whether that proved to be an advantage or not was something the redhead would find out soon enough, but for now it was best to just continue doing what he originally planned.

The intercom went off soon after, and it wasn't long before Mitsukuni was escorted off with his nurse. The Nobody said his goodbyes rather 'light-heartedly', knowing he'd see the blond in just a few minutes at that 'Host Club'.

"So your room number is M57? That's a bit of a stretch but I'll see what I can do." It wasn't impossible really, and running was always a welcoming option. When Snake referred to his missing eye Axel snuck a glance at the eye patch the man had been wearing the entire time. He almost didn't notice it, having been so used to Xigbar's that the redhead thought nothing of it.

He was about to continue when his own Nurse came by to escort him out in which he followed with no qualms. Axel gave the two men on the table a quick grin before he was out of the Cafeteria all together.

Snake sat in silence, feeling the heat of the people moving around him - like shadows, shapes. Their gazes coloured the walls and floor, and his skin prickled with a sickly sweat.

It was the injection. He was hallucinating again.

He snarled, slammed his hands down on the table, yellowish cold running up his arms as he touched the desk, and squeezed his eyes - eye - shut, the empty socket screaming in phantom pain as muscles that were no longer there tried to move, and the heat carried on behind his eyes. He could feel them. Hot hearts and brains and cool eyes and hair and skin, their shapes, the hot food and the cold floor and the cold tools with which they served the food and -

- was there an empty space in Axel's chest, a blank black nothingness the size of a fist, as he headed away, or -

- no, this was a hallucination, it didn't mean anything, it wasn't real -

He brought his forehead down to touch the table - cool, greens and yellows - and felt the nurse approach, felt her gaze upon him, even before she touched his shoulder and led him away.

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Day 22: Brunch

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