damned_institute | Day 45: Breakfast

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Day 45: Breakfast

Mori woke with a start. He lay on the bed for a moment, staring up at the ceiling and sighed quietly. Another day, another round of shifts and people and-- Wait a minute. Breathing in carefully, Mori's brow knit together as he realized that his ribs were no longer broken. After testing his collarbone, he found that it, too, was healing faster than it should have. Not that he was complaining, but there was something odd about broken bones setting so quickly. Pushing himself up out of bed, the teen shook his head, knowing that he'd have another day or two of the sling and then he'd be free from it.

But more important than that was finding out how Mitsukuni was doing. The last thing he remembered was the bathroom and gathering metal. Since they were together at the end of the night, Mori was certain that Mitsukuni would be fine, but...well, he still liked to confirm such things with his own eyes. With the twins gone and Tamaki still missing, Mori didn't want to take any chances anymore. Especially not with the strange announcements this morning.

As usual, his nurse came to collect him and helped him into his sling. Then he followed her quietly into the cafeteria, taking notice of the unusually empty bulletin board. They really were cracking down on it already. Weird. Even weirder? For once, he was the first into the room. Picking up a tray, he pointed out what he wanted, making sure to take double of the pancakes (asking to keep them away from the sausages for now), double of the strawberry jam and biscuits, and an extra helping of fruit. To top it off? Milk. It'd help his bones mend. Hopefully.

Going to a nearby seat, Mori took a look around the empty room and shivered. Kind of eerie in here without anyone else but the nurses. Someone was certain to come sooner or later though, right? He hoped so at least.

[for Chihaya]

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Franziska's answer was decidedly less friendly than his own had been, but he wouldn't have expected any less. At least she wasn't trying to hit him yet. Did she even have her notebook with her? Kibitoshin chanced a somewhat nervous glance at the table around her tray- empty, but that didn't mean anything. It could just as easily have been in her lap. Well, hopefully if it was there, she wouldn't be able to reach him across the table. Not that it would come to that, of course, because he wasn't going to say anything stupid this time.

... a man could dream, couldn't he?

"Not this time," he corrected. "Healing. A friend of mine had some wounds he wanted me to try and fix." Kibitoshin had never been the arrogant sort- he'd never really had anything to be arrogant about, really- but it was difficult to miss the pride in his voice. After all, he'd done a fair job and maybe, just maybe, he wanted to impress her. Not just her, of course, but he had the distinct feeling that he might have made himself even more incompetent than usual last time the two of them had spoken.

So a fighter and a healer? She supposed that made sense. Somehow. It wasn't like Kibitoshin was a doctor, but then it wasn't like this place ran on anything like normal human rules. People here seemed to be straight out of those ridiculous children's shows that her brother secretly watched, or out of the comic books she sometimes caught her subordinates reading. The patients here had unimaginable power, which made them dangerous normally, but every so often, she ran into talk of people with the ability to heal.

But that tone of voice - she recognized it. Like the little scruffy puppy asking to be praised. While Franziska wasn't above doling out recognition where it was due, she had yet to see the fruits of Kibitoshin's labors with her own eyes. Thus whether he deserved said recognition was still on the table. "I see. Then I hope you didn't just try, but that you did fix them," she responded, cutting her pancakes into perfect little squares to be eaten later. Whether or not she was teasing him was up to debate, but in her head it sounded like it - she was being nicer than usual at least. "If your ability is above average, perhaps you should lend yourself out to one of the organizations here at times. The fools seem to get themselves hurt quite often." Unlike her and her back. But that no longer hurt for some reason.

Was... was that something approaching praise? Kibitoshin hesitated, as if waiting for Franziska to spring some kind of verbal steel trap on him at the last second, but nothing came. He almost glowed with pride. That was almost a kind of compliment, if you squinted! Just so long as he ignored the possibility (the faint possibility, he hurriedly corrected) that she was just making fun of him, this was the best possible start to the day! Ignorance, it seemed, truly was bliss.

"I'm... not really sure," he admitted- still smiling, of course, since he wasn't about to let a little something like fainting get in the way of his own little victory. "We started well but I passed out before I got a chance to check properly."

As for the clubs... for a moment his features clouded, surprisingly pensive. He was bunking with the History Club leader, after all, it wouldn't exactly be difficult to get in. But there was a reason Homura had told him not to let anyone know they shared a room... "Maybe I should, though there seems to be an awful lot of politics tied up with them. But if you ever need anything, you can just ask." Or order. Which ever was the more likely. "Ah! Speaking of which, how was your night?"

Not sure? If Franziska had even the slightest thought of praising Kibitoshin, the thought vanished as he explained himself. Not only was he not sure if he had actually done the job or not, he had passed out before completing the follow-up check. In an instant, her gaze turned cold and her knife paused in the midst of cutting through the last of her pancakes.

"You're not sure?" Talk of the clubs and how her night had gone - which was something she decidedly did not want to discuss anyway - were forgotten. Right now, she was quietly waiting for him to realize his mistake before she had to find her journal where it was tucked into her waistband. How could this man seriously ever be in charge of the entire universe? Certainly, being in Landel's had to mute his powers (if they existed) to a certain extent, but to not know his own limits and pass out after healing someone? Unforgivable.

Oh, no. No matter how tired he was, even he couldn't fail to miss the sudden change in Franziska's tone. The mercury dropped out of the bottom of thermometers, the sun disappeared behind a cloud and Kibitoshin drooped like a drowning daisy in a thunderstorm.

"I... I guess I'm not," he answered hesitantly, eyes dropping to the table in front of him. So that was where the phrase 'walking on thin ice' came from; it felt as though the floor was going to open up any second. That, or, at the very least, he was going to come away from breakfast with a very nasty bruise indeed. "I didn't even realise until it was too late, and I didn't know how far I could push myself, and... and... you're not going to hit me, are you? I'm checking up on him later, I promise!"

Kibitoshin was blushing by this point, and boy did he ever know it. He'd faced Majin Buu, destroyer of entire solar systems; small young women with notebooks really shouldn't have been that intimidating.

Her lips quirked at his instant change in heart and she picked up her fork again. No, she wouldn't hit him now, but that was only because he'd given his apology and explanation in a quick and appropriate manner. Those who realized their mistakes and were fast to correct them could still be trained and were, therefore, spared the whip until absolutely necessary. And since his fear of her journal was already in him, she needed to use that fear efficiently. "Do so and report back to me."

Not that she cared about whoever it was that was foolish enough to get hurt and require Kibitoshin's care. In fact, she had no idea who it was and didn't really care to know. What mattered was hearing the results of Kibitoshin's powers. Even if Franziska wasn't in the business of going out and getting hurt, she knew some fools who insisted on doing just that and knowing a healer, one who was somewhat terrified of her and willing to help, was a plus in her book.

She took a bite of her breakfast, finishing it off before she raised her eyes to Kibitoshin again. "And now you know your limits. I expect you won't be pushing them again?" Of course, the question sounded more like an order than anything else, but she was certain Kibitoshin would agree with her.

Under the table, Kibitoshin was toeing the floor like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Appropriate enough, considering that right now he felt more like Guardian of the Jungle Gym than Guardian of the Universe. "I'll tr- I mean... yes, ma'am," he answered without looking up, quickly correcting himself. "And I won't, I promise."

This was ridiculous. He really, really shouldn’t have been so ~~scared~~ nervous of her. If his Ancestor had been here, he’d have been lecturing him on standing up for himself and demanding to know where his pride was*- provided he didn’t get distracted and end up leering at Franziska, of course.

The notebook, he noticed out of the corner of his eye, had yet to make an appearance. Perhaps she'd left it in her room? If that was right, then maybe now was the time to speak- to strike while the iron was unarmed, so to speak, only in this case it was less iron and more fifty pages of ring-bound pain. Or something. He’d never been good with metaphors.

Summoning all his courage (what little there was of it, anyway), he raised his head and, in a quiet voice, added, "... you don't have to be such a bully about it, though."

He winced.

That was the right response - obedient and quick. Franziska felt a little better and continued with her meal. She didn't seem to notice Kibitoshin's silence or his nervousness anymore. If anything, now their interaction reminded her far more of the type she was accustomed to at her office. Her subordinates listened carefully to her every word, the office moved efficiently, she gained her victories, the other prosecutors kept out of her way - it was the way the world was supposed to be.

Although...things had been different once. When she'd visited America. Seeing how that place worked, how everything was still (if inefficiently) moving along, she had wondered (albeit briefly) if she could try that method as well. But no, that was not the von Karma method and even if she'd been leaning that way prior to coming here, with her father alive and watching her, she couldn't afford to slip and show--

"...what did you just say to me?" Did he just chide her? "If you have something to say, Kibitoshin, please speak up and try again."

The fact that Franziska had seemed to drop the scary authority figure front just as he has started to speak was apparently the only thing that Kibitoshin noticed. The warning signs failed to register; alarm bells didn't ring; he continued down the path to his own destruction with increasingly careless abandon, effortlessly, elegantly oblivious.

"You don't have to be such a bully about it," he repeated in a firmer voice, giving her a rueful look that this time was addressed to her face rather than his plate. Emboldened by the sound of his own voice, he continued. "All you ever do is tell me what to do and what not to do. It's like you're my boss rather than my frie- acquaint- friend, and I don't like it."

Hopefully that little stumble at the end hadn't done his speech too much harm- that was easily one of the longest things he'd ever said to her and he couldn't help but congratulate himself for his guts in saying it out loud.

Oh, so he was going to continue this little show of defiance, was he? Well, let him. Franziska set her fork down and reached behind her, carefully moving the journal out of her waistband and into her lap. Oh, yes, keep talking, Kibitoshin. Keep making it nice and easy for her to beat you black and blue. As he kept talking, Franziska felt her anger rising word by careless word.

And there. He was finished. Franziska took a deep breath, organized her thoughts, and then opened her eyes (when had she closed them? Probably in her anger) and...smiled. "First, let me commend you on your bravery, Kibitoshin."

A beat.

She was up in a moment and the journal whipped forward to smash down onto the top of his head. "But if you expect me to go soft just because of this infernal Institute, then you are a greater fool than I ever expected! I am Franziska von Karma, the heir of the von Karma legal legacy! I am not so weak as to require friends unlike some fools in this foolish place!" She pulled her hand back and stabbed an accusatory finger at Kibitoshin, trying to melt the message into his mind with the power of her pure rage. "I tell you what to do because you insist upon doing foolish things such as getting yourself hurt and passing out at night!" And here she held her hand out, palm up with a sharp smile. "And about being a 'bully'? Spare the rod and spoil the child - a little pain and punishment causes the lesson to stick."

Ha. She bowed and finished her speech with a simple, "Case closed."

Kibitoshin realised too late what he was in for as Franziska opened her eyes. That… that wasn’t the look that said I understand. That was the look that said You have to the count of one to grovel.

As it turned out, he didn’t even get that long.

He didn’t even see the notebook coming. The blow caught him straight on the crown of his head and his vision flashed brilliant white. Somewhere along the lines he must have fallen down in his chair, because the next thing he noticed was that he was halfway under the table. Still got a good arm, then…

Dizzily he clutched at the table and tried to right himself. Most of Franziska’s actual words were lost in transit while his thoughts frantically tried to arrange themselves back into some sort of order, but he still caught the message loud and clear- the sheer anger in her voice was enough for them to carry through into his head even while he was recovering. ‘Case closed’ was right. There really was no arguing with her, huh?

As she took her bow (he’d have hated to see an encore), Kibitoshin’s shoulders buckled. Rubbing his head, he dropped his eyes along with his point and stared into his lap instead. And even if he was trying to hide his expression by bowing his head, as well as defeated he looked just a little hurt, too. “Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll stop.”

Thank goodness for the intercom. Kibitoshin leapt to his feet the second the Head Doctor started speaking and made for the exit as quickly as- well. As quickly as someone with a potential concussion could move.

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Day 45: Breakfast

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