Day 44: breakfast

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

Yuffie had died.

No, really. Seriously. She had actually died. Bleeding all over the place, making a horrid, sticky mess and scaring the hell out of Suzaku; she remembered it clearly. Kind of. Sort of. Through the blood loss, the pain, and the visions. Through Aerith's voice whispering in her ear, Cloud's stricken eyes, and her own panic. As bad nights went, it had been Bad, capital B and all the trimmings, and oh, god. She sat, trembling on the edge of her bed, eyes closed and hands pressed hard over her racing heart. The by-play between Landel—Landel!—and Lydia barely even sunk in. There was nothing in the whole world, any world, that could prepare you for something like…

Had it all been some kind of hallucination?

Had she imagined the whole thing?

No… She didn't think so. Nightmarish or not, Yuffie knew reality. But if it had been real, how was she alive now? That kind of pain wasn't something you could just cook up, was it? She thought about it all the way to the cafeteria, drifting behind her nurse without focus or intent. Maybe if she tried to stay clinical, tried to step back… But she'd never been good at that when things got personal. And every time she closed her eyes or blinked, she swore that the scenes played back to her, like an overused commercial on a crappy channel on a crappy TV, in a run-down dump of an inn that smelled like mothballs and yesterday's breakfast.

The scent of blood and damp, rotted wood clogged her nose. Disgusted, Yuffie shoved her bowl of cereal—handed to her by a clucking Plucky—off to the side so that she could melt into her chair, palm heels scrubbing against her eyes. Too much. This was… Too much. She couldn't even paste a plastic smile on her face to make herself feel better. Her usual shield, the white noise of inane babble that could filter out almost any crisis, was in tatters all around her. Five minutes, she gave herself.

Five minutes (not) to think, five minutes to get her act together, because there was no way she could let herself shatter here. No way…

[Closed to Sheena]

Comments

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Alright, so it was hard to be mad or abrasive when the guy was so damn cute. He just looked pathetic in a way that made a person want to look out for him. And it wasn't like he wasn't kind too. He'd been polite from the first time she'd met him.

"Don't feel bad," she assured him, watching as he took a few sips of the juice. "We all come from different worlds. What's difficult for some is easy for others and the other way around."

She fiddled with her own water glass for a moment, hoping she could say something to make him feel better. "I used to feel that way all the time, believe it or not. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out the things you can do."

[slipperymagic.livejournal.com]

"I'm beginning to form an idea of what my limitations are," said Howl, although there was a very quiet tremor in his voice. Normally, he would have been able to sound as flippant as ever about the serious subject, but the drugs were leaving him stripped. Not only that, but he could scarcely find the energy to care.

Here he was, separated from Calcifer, heartless and forcibly sedated, with scarcely enough magic to fix his hair permanently. Had someone forcibly broken their contract when he was sent here? Had Calcifer simply fizzled out, leaving Howl to slowly wither away..? He missed Calcifer dearly all of the sudden.

"Which world do you come from? Not anywhere like this place, you said so the other day," Howl thought aloud to himself. It helped him keep his thoughts somewhat solid. When he held them all in his head, they dissolved too quickly. "I don't suppose you've ever heard of a country called Ingary? Strangia, perhaps? Rashput..?"

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Any other girl probably would've known exactly what to do in this kind of situation. But Sakura's nurturing skills were more than a little lacking. She might be a medic, but matters of the heart was a different story.

"We all have them here," she said, patting his shoulder gently. "Back home I could run on water or punch through thirty feet of rock or even heal a wound in only a few seconds. If we had access to all we used to be able to do, we'd have kicked this place's sorry ass a long time ago. So... maybe it'll take a little longer without those things, but it doesn't mean we can't still do it." At least, that was what she kept telling herself. She had to believe it too, for the sake of her own mental stability. For her, it was never a question of whether or not they'd get out, but a question of when.

Though it was a little hard to keep up with the flow of Howell's thoughts, she tried, and considered his question for a moment.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know any of those places. I'm from a place called Konoha, which was a hidden ninja village, but there were other villages too. Usually there's a village leader, called the Kage, and a Daimyo, who's like, the leader of the whole country around it. There's the Fire country, Water, Sound, things like that."

[slipperymagic.livejournal.com]

Howl laughed deliriously at his own poor luck. The wildly foreign names didn't ring a single bell. A great deal of that world had yet to be explored, being just on the edge of colonialism, so it was still possible they were talking about the same place. But somehow, looking at this strange girl, Howl knew she was something else.

"I've never heard of your home either," he admitted. "Alas. There's no harm in asking, I suppose."

The juice was thankfully making his head a bit clearer, and sitting up so he could look at Sakura was no longer such a chore. "Wait," he muttered, as something occurred to him. "Punching through walls and running on water? Are you a witch?"

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Howell looked like he was doing a little better, but it was hard to tell. The poor guy seemed so fragile. She hoped Sai got her that sample of the sedative soon, so she could start working on antidotes. Being sedated could hardly be considered productive, after all.

Something seemed to click, though when he said it, she had to wonder if he was still in a daze. Then again, it could be another translation error. Those seemed to be happening a lot. The same words held different meanings depending on what world you were in. "Am I which what?" she asked, scratching her head. "I um... I'm a ninja, well, a kunoichi if you want to be specific."