Day 45: Breakfast

[mukuchi.livejournal.com]

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]

Comments

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

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.

[iwhipthefool.livejournal.com]

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."

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

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.