damned_institute | Dayshift 43: Waiting Room / Lobby 2 [4th Shift]

"Now you just have a seat and wait for your visitor like everyone else."

As the nurse went away from him, Kurogane huffed out some agitation but refused to have a seat. Hearing that he had a visitor had been one of the last things he'd expected. It was always the magician who got one, not him. And who the hell would want to visit him anyway?

During his first protests, the nurse had been telling him to behave since it wasn't nice to be sour to girls, so he knew it had to be a girl that was visiting. There were a few of those Kurogane knew could show up as a "visitor" for him, all of which were annoying. Some were worse than others too. He could probably handle if Sohma showed up, and maybe Amaterasu, but when it came to Tomoyo-hime... she was already hard to handle normally, no matter what world she came from. The Piffle version had been pretty much the same, just raised differently. If he saw her, even a fake her, she would probably be just the same and he'd have to at put up with it no matter what.

Eventually he chose to take a seat, knowing that he would not be leaving any time soon. Of course, he picked the one that was furthest into the corner to avoid unwanted conversations. He would already have to deal with a visitor; he shouldn't have to deal with anything more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He looked to her, staring intently for a few moments, before turning his eyes away.

This was backwards, and he knew it. If anything he should be the one asking if she was all right. Things had to be less dangerous from the Institute where she was - the most dangerous things so far sounded like it happened at school with someone (who wasn't him) was getting hit hard enough to bleed - but that didn't mean there wasn't something else. This was still a world that Landel lived in, and there was too much Kurogane did not know. Whatever she told him, he couldn't trust to be the truth.

Maybe that was why he wasn't the one asking if she was all right.

"I said I'm fine. Stop asking," he ordered, but did not look back.

She didn't know what that stare meant, but it made her nervous. It was actually the lack of showing any temper that made her more nervous than anything else did. If there had been that usual show, she could have smiled, laughed it off, and gone on, but...she wasn't used to that level of seriousness from him. There was one more thing, though, the second item she'd brought with her. Maybe that would defuse it just a little?

Nicole didn't say anything for a moment, looking down at the floor before fishing around in her bag again, this time pulling a black and red bandana with gold accents out of it. "This is from me," she said, quietly. "I sewed it during home ec."

When she went for her bag again, Kurogane braced to see another picture. The first one had been enough, and with all the weird things she'd been telling him about who she thought he was, he had to prepare for the worst.

It wasn't a picture she took out though, so he didn't have a problem with giving it a look back. "What is it?" he asked only moments after seeing it. It looked like cloth, but that could make it anything. There were so many different things in each world he visited, after all...

"It's a bandana I made," she said. "You liked to wear them around your forehead in class sometimes. I remember the black and red ones, so I decided that a combination of the two suited you. I hope it turned out all right." She smiled softly as she held it out to him.

So that's what it was. At least it was something he understood, but that didn't make him any more inclined to actually take the bandana. He just stared at it, considering.

Just as he wasn't good with conversation, or any part of being social, he wasn't good at accepting what amounted to a gift from the girl. Why had she made him something anyway? If the person he was supposed to be was anything like him, then he wouldn't have wanted Shiki making him anything at all.

"I'm not changing my mind," he said after some thought, finding that the only reason behind her wanting to give him something would be in hopes of him moving closer to being "cured". Even if he could be an illusion, it was possible that she was the Shiki he knew, and Kurogane wasn't going to mislead her with that possibility in place. "Got it?"

So, he was just the same as always. Was she going to have to get up and tie the thing on him? She hoped it wouldn't come to that, but hadn't ruled it out as a possibility, either. After all, this was her - the girl who had, with a little help, managed to get a full third of the boys in her class to wear dresses one day. Persistence should have been her middle name.

"You're always so persistent," she said, with a half-smile. "I shouldn't expect less from you, though."

Snorting, Kurogane turned his head away like a kid who didn't want to eat his vegetables. He didn't like feeling that he was being talked down to, but at least that was one thing that hadn't changed about the girl. She was pretty stubborn herself, just like all the girls he had to deal with.

"They probably won't let me keep it," he said, trying to find a reason not to take it that wouldn't upset her. He didn't really want to take it - he already had his clothes back somehow - and again, he wasn't going to mislead her about anything, so he wouldn't take it just because she wanted him too.

Dayshift 43: Waiting Room / Lobby 2 [4th Shift]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject