Day 46: Sun Room

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that...

After that, Zach had jumped in front of him like some kind of martyr, like the exact opposite of everything Sylar stood for, to take the next hit for him. It got pretty fuzzy after that, so night must have ended right around then.

The man let out a pained grunt as he straightened himself up in bed. For some reason, he got the feeling that he'd slept in. There was no way for him to really tell without a window in the room, but he just knew. The fact that Sam's bed looked long since vacated was another clue.

Sam, but was he Sam again? Had the brainwashing worn off, as he and Roland had hoped, or was he going to have to go through this nightmare for even longer? He didn't know how long he could handle "Zach" and "Harrison" before he started going batty himself.

Pulling himself out of bed, Peter lifted his shirt and saw that he was tightly bandaged. The scratch most likely wasn't nearly as bad as the bite that "Zach" had received, but it still smarted. He let his shirt fall and then had to deal with a nurse chiding him for sleeping through the morning announcements. Not that Peter really cared at the moment. He was too busy thinking about last night and the fact that in a way, he now owed something to Sylar. Except it hadn't been Sylar. That was something he was sure of now.

Lost in his thoughts, Peter reached the Sun Room right as the rest of the patient populace was trickling in from breakfast. Sighing to himself, he headed over to the bulletin board and then saw a note written in familiar yet unpleasant handwriting. Holding his pen in a vice grip, Peter scribbled out a reply and then stalked over to an armchair and fell into it with a huff.

While Sylar was maddeningly frustrating, there was one good thing about the fact that he was himself again. It meant that Nathan was too.

[For Spock!]

Comments

[zack-fair.livejournal.com]

When it was put that way, a quiz didn't sound so bad. Zack figured it might work if they just found people who actually wanted to have their own contest. That might be kind of tough to do, but maybe that was just part of the fun. There had to be a few egocentric people around here who wanted to show off their knowledge, right?

Still, it seemed like it might be more work than it was worth, especially since Zack knew he had ten thousand other things that he had to worry about. He didn't mind having a little fun, of course, but when it was his own freedom on the line things became more complicated.

Luckily, Axel was the easy-going sort and so he wasn't going to demand a commitment right this second. The soldier smiled over at the redhead appreciatively.

"How about this? Both of us can start looking for potential candidates, but we can decide whether or not we want to actually go through with it some other time." That seemed like a fair enough compromise to him. He didn't know where he'd be by the time the day was over, so taking a rain check seemed like the best option.

[quidproquo.livejournal.com]

In the end, Zack's proposition made sense. There were plenty of other people in this place, so it wouldn't have been smart to stick with each other for so long. The man seemed like a pretty social person, and he himself enjoyed jumping from one group to another. Really, he wasn't in that much of a rush to learn everything about this place. It'd be good to do it as some kind of side project.

"That sounds good to me. I'm not in much of a hurry anyway." So that settled it. Chances were good that he'd be able to find some interesting candidates, so he wasn't all too worried about the competition in general.

By then the intercom came to life. Axel blinked as he listened in before he caught sight of his nurse approaching him from the corner of his eye. Was it finally time to eat?

"Well I guess that's that," The Nobody responded with a grin, standing from his seat. He wasn't done yet, however, and quickly turned around and offered his hand out to Zack.

"May the best man win," His grin grew wider. "You'll know where to find me when you've made your choice."

[zack-fair.livejournal.com]

As expected, Axel didn't put up a fight when it came to Zack's compromise. That made it a lot more low-key, which was probably what they both needed when they were going to have a whole lot of other things to deal with during their time here.

How was it that Zack always ended up in these sorts of situations, he wondered? He got caught up doing side projects no matter how important his main goals were. Maybe he just had a hard time telling people no, especially when they seemed to be generally nice guys who just wanted to lighten up a pretty bleak situation. There was nothing wrong with that, really.

Zack stood up only a second or two after Axel did, grasping the other's hand and grinning back.

"I'll keep an eye out," he agreed with a nod. "Good luck with your end of things." It probably wasn't the most orthodox thing to be wishing an opponent luck, but that was just how Zack was. He waved to the redhead and then went off to meet a nurse.