damned_institute | Night 45: M-A Block Hallway

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Night 45: M-A Block Hallway

[from here]

Junpei found himself a spot not too far from the door leading out to the hallway. Seriously, if Yukari waned the damn Evoker, she needed to run her mini-skirted ass down here to get it since he wasn't going much farther. It was only fair since he'd trucked down to her block last night.

Setting the bag of stuff on the floor, he leaned against the wall after adjusting the Evoker in the waistband of his jeans. He was not happy with having lost the t-shirt he'd had last night, forced to wear the smiley one again, even if it was turned inside out. He sighed and looked down at the square bandage on his arm. Vampire. He'd been bitten by a vampire.

Just to make sure, the junior checked his teeth. No fangs. Good. He probably would have freaked out if he'd found any. Still... curiosity got the better of him and he peeled half the bandage off to look at the bite. Twin puncture wounds with some redness about them. He poked it.

"Ow." Poking it was not a good idea.

[Hey, Yuka-tan... got any garlic?]

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[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/754018.html)]

The hallway was dark and mostly empty though there were definitely other, similarly dressed people wondering around. Cliff stopped soon after he'd turned the corner, shining the flashlight just ahead of himself. It would be easier to stop and ask someone what was going on. For once, he thought he might blend in enough to get away with it. (And anyway, he was pretty sure option #2 of wondering blindly until he got somewhere only really appealed to the leftover testosterone in his system.)

"Alright," He murmured. "Who's it gonna' be..?"

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/756668.html?thread=62209468#t62209468)]

He felt a little guilty for rushing away from Ken, but what he heard... well, Ken could follow him if he wanted to. He supposed that depended on whether 'Andrew' trusted him or not and even then, would trusting him mean following him, or staying safe in his room for the night because he sure as hell couldn't fight in his current condition. Ken could defend himself, 'Andrew' was likely to get slaughtered.

He stuck to the shadows of the corridor, peering through the darkness and watching the person as they moved. And staring because fuck, he knew that stance, that figure. He finally stepped out in front of the man, lips drawn into a harsh line, feeling light-headed and angry and hurt and happy and that emotion made him feel sick too. "What the fuck are you doing back here?" he asked in a low, cold voice. Cliff was Adam now, was supposed to be somewhere safe, living out a perfect normal life.

Dark and unknown hallways weren't exactly the ideal place to let his guard down and relax, and to most people it might look like Cliff was doing exactly that. He wasn't in a hurry to be anywhere just yet but from the looks of it, he was pretty much the only one. Everyone who passed by had been striding somewhere with a definite purpose in mind, and not one of them had been the least bit familiar. He wasn't really surprised, or even disappointed. There was no way things were gonna' be that easy.

And anyway, this wasn't too bad, all things considered. He could handle being lost in his own universe for a while and he didn't doubt the others either. As long as they managed to keep under the radar, there wouldn't be any real trouble. He'd managed to stay under the radar for what? A whole ten seconds? Talk about never catching a break.

He turned to face the blond as he came out of the shadows. It was hard to keep track of everyone who looked at him like that, and damned if he had any idea who this kid was. Cliff shrugged, unsmiling, but his tone was light as ever, "'Could say I found myself in the neighbourhood."

Yohji snorted softly, glare never wavering, even with the light tone that Cliff used. "This isn't the kind of place you just find yourself in, Cliff, or is it Adam still?" he added with a touch of scorn in his voice. It was stupid, but he was angry and hurt and if it was Adam brought here by the Institute to mock him again then he was going to be in a foul mood for the rest of the night, and most of tomorrow as well. Wasn't it enough that Ken had forgotten everything? Did they have to throw Cliff in his face too?

The corner of Cliff's mouth quirked downward just a little, not the first sign of a temper that was beginning to fray. If the man had really been trying to pick a fight with him, he would have gotten it already, but Cliff got the feeling he was after something else. Maybe his liver if he let his guard down long enough.

"So what kinda' place is it?" Hey, any source of information was something right now.

Adam, huh? That one was new even to him. "The name's Cliff. Other than that I've got no clue what you're goin' on about and I'm not spendin' all night playing twenty questions for it. Might as well tell me what your problem is so we can settle this."

"A prison," Yohji replied flatly. "A prison that masquerades as a hospital during the day. You might have guessed that it's pretty different at night." And there was no spark of recognition in Cliff's eyes, no sign that he knew what Yohji was talking about. No sign that he knew Yohji.

He tensed at the harsh words from Cliff, jaw setting into a hard line. Goddamn it! Why this? Why now? It was so different to their first meeting and things were going to hell and he just felt angry. He was at Cliff in a moment, arm drawn back to punch him. "That's for leaving!" For leaving him alone, for not taking Yohji with him... for things that he couldn't even describe right now.

Yeah. Of course. Prison/hospital by day, giant sleepover by night. Everyone was already decked out in the complimentary smiley-face jammies. Now all they needed was some nail polish and a mass pillow fight (sans pyjamas), and this would make perfect sense.

While Cliff had come around to understanding nothing was too ridiculous to be believed, he couldn't help but wonder if someone was just playing a very elaborate joke on him. Or maybe he was still dreaming and this would all make sense when he woke up back--

The punch landed hard against his open palm, and Cliff was mildly surprised by the force behind it, but his fingers were closed around the man's fist in an instant, twisting his arm up behind him none-too-gently. His flashlight clattered to the floor, forgotten. "Hate to see what you'd give me for staying. Calm down kid. You don't wanna fight me."

Fuck.

Yohji gasped as Cliff caught his hand and twisted his arm up behind his back painfully hard before he could even pull away. "Stupid fucking Klausian strength," he muttered, wincing as his arm was twisted further and he could feel the bones grinding beneath Cliff's fingers. He'd forgotten how goddamn strong Cliff was and he was half thinking that Cliff had been holding back the last time they'd sparred.

He squeezed his eyes shut because damn, he sounded just the same but didn't remember a damn thing and it hurt. "You disappeared, Cliff! You let this place brainwash you the morning after you said you'd stay. How am I supposed to react?" He knew thta it wasn't fair, that this happened to people sometimes. They vanished and then they reappeared, but... but...

Cliff didn't feel all that bad about restraining the man; he'd known who he was, and that he was Klausian and he'd gone ahead with a sloppy punch like that anyway. What did he expect? He caught the other arm in his free hand before he eased his grip a little, holding the man firmly but not painfully while he tried to sort out just what the hell was going on.

"Are you listenin' or what? Calm down."

So alright. Say he believed this guy who'd just tried to attack him out of the blue. This place was a prison that pretended to be a hospital during the day, and he'd been here before... or at least someone who looked like him and had started calling himself Adam. Yet Cliff didn't even have the vaguest sense of deja vu, and he had a hunch this was the kind of place you didn't just forget.

As for the man... Well, Cliff was pretty casual about what he said, but he would never have told anyone he'd stay if he planned to disappear the next day. He wasn't that kinda guy, hadn't been for a long time. From the looks of things, he'd just ended up with a handful of questions instead of answers.

"Make a deal with me, alright? I'll let you go, and you can tell me the whole story - from the beginning."

It had been stupid, utterly stupid to try to fight Cliff but he was so angry right now, so hurt, that rational thought was rather taking a back seat to those emotions. Not like there was anything new there though. He relaxed a little when Cliff's grip loosened on his arms although he still couldn't pull away. Fuck, he'd managed to get himself in a mess hadn't he?

He nodded tightly at the offer. "Fine. Let me go and I'll explain."

Cliff eased his grip a little further, and when the man didn't tense up again he let him go entirely and backed off just a bit, absently pressing his fist into his palm. It was true that some people didn't learn anything the first time around, but sooner or later someone had to cut him some slack tonight.

"Alright, lets hear it."

He pulled away as soon as he was released by Cliff, rubbing his arm where he didn't doubt there was going to be a bruise tomorrow. Fucking alien strength. He moved to lean against the wall, staring at the ground so that he didn't have to meet Cliff's eyes.

"This place masquerades as a mental hospital. During the day it'll be all hospital-like. White and sterile and with really fucking annoying nurses who insist that everything you know about your life is a delusion. At night, well, you can see for yourself," he said with a faint smirk as he looked at the filthy walls and floor. "And there are monsters too." That was kind of an important part really. "You were here. Cliff Fittir, member of Quark from some planet I've never even heard of because it's probably so far into the future I'll be long dead by then. We were... friends, I guess. Fought a few things together. And you vanished one night a couple of weeks back. Then you turned up again as a 'visitor', believed the lies that this places told you." He said it as flatly as he could, clinical, like it meant nothing to him because the memory of that visitor shift made him want to hurt things.

Cliff opened his mouth, shut it again, and shook his head. So much for everything making more sense. He briefly entertained the thought of turning around and going right back to bed, but he was nothing if not good on his feet. Accept the facts and move on. There would be time to make sense of it later. That was what he tried to tell himself, anyway. He could at least pretend his thoughts weren't racing.

He shifted again, folding his arms across his chest. Whatever it was, this didn't look like a lie. Not enough in the way of theatrics or neat little explanations. How long had he really been out exactly? And what about the Eternal Sphere? Something uncomfortable knotted in his chest and Cliff firmly ignored it.

"I hate to say this kid, but I don't remember a damn thing about this place." He replied finally. He felt like he should be apologizing for something, but what could he say? Sorry for something he didn't remember and couldn't change anyway? "Looks like you an' me are gonna have to start fresh."

He held out a hand and attempted a smile, "No bruises this time."

He didn't say anything more, gave Cliff a chance to process what had been said and the implications of being here. It had taken a while for Yohji to come to terms with it, and that had been with Cliff's help and with the rest of Weiss and Schuldig. Ah, could he even manage it the other way round? He was no-one's pillar of strength. He had enough trouble dealing with his own issues.

He snorted softly when Cliff said he didn't remember. "Figured. It would be too much to ask for you to remember all this crap." And be able to deal with it as if it was second nature. It was probably cruel to wish for that, but Cliff was here anyway.

He stared at the outstretched hand blankly for a moment before giving a wry little smile and taking it. "Kudoh Yohji."

It was going to take more than a few minutes for Cliff to process what had just been said. A few weeks and a few more explanations would be nice while he was at it, but that would probably be pushing his luck for the night.

"Kudoh, huh? I'll remember that this time." His grip was firm, but nothing more than that. It was something of a peace offering, and it looked like that had been accepted at least. "Are you the only guy here who's gonna greet me like that?"

It kinda stung being called by his family name by Cliff of all people but it could just be an oversight. He had no clue what system of naming Klausians used after all. For all he knew, Cliff Fittir was just some transliteration of some really weird language that he'd never be able to pronounce. "Yohji, call me Yohji. Kudoh is my family name." A family that he hadn't seen in maybe a decade. Ugh, that was kind of depressing to be honest.

He smirked slightly at the question and shrugged. "I dunno. How many other men do you think you promised to take to space with you and then ditched?" It was a poor attempt at humour, and a painful one, but better than nothing, right? Eh, he could at least tell himself that.

Cliff nodded at the first part. Damn communicators were supposed to keep this straight, but he supposed he'd have more to worry about if he came across someone who didn't speak Terran. Come to think of it, it was sort of weird that Kudoh -- that Yohji did.

He couldn't help the spike of irritation at the question. If they weren't being sarcastic about it, the answer was that he had no idea what he'd promised or done in this place, and that was just one thing to worry about among many. Yohji had his reasons for being angry, but Cliff thought he did too.

"Give me a little credit." Cliff replied, kneading the back of his neck absently. "I know I'm stunningly handsome, but I don't leave a string of broken hearts wherever I go."

Yeah, he knew. It was unfair to be like that when Cliff didn't remember anything about what had happened. When he had no clue what had gone on between them and what this place did to him eventually. But damn, it was difficult to remember that when Cliff was there and looked exactly the same as he always had except perhaps a little tireder. He waved it off with one hand, sighing softly. "Sorry," he muttered. "It's not fair to take it out on you when you don't have a fucking clue what happened. It's just difficult seeing you here again."

Cliff nodded, but he didn't push the issue. This might be his fault, it might not be, but he was here right now, so he'd have to deal with it properly, and soon. "I don't know much about whatever's goin' on here, but it sounds to me like it's not your fault any more than it is mine. Just...give me some time to take this all in."

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Night 45: M-A Block Hallway

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