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

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

After checking the bulletin, it looked like all bets were off on a certain boy being an Uchiha heir in her future. (Not that she was giving up or anything. This changed nothing! Hell yeah!) It was disappointing, but at least it gave her attention a new focus. They were bringing people from the past as well as the future. Time was getting seriously messed up.

She didn't know if it was a good thing Obito had been lost in a mission before the massacre or not. Even if he'd survived that, the massacre would've done him in soon after. A grim thought, but one she'd let Kakashi deal with. He'd insisted and she wasn't feeling much obliged to stop him. Especially after he'd used her forehead like a giant memo-pad. Classy. At least the redness was dying down.

It wasn't long before she found herself in front of the bulletin board again, perusing the posts and other happenings and getting a feel for just how much the nurses were planning to censor them.

[Shikamaru]

[toobothersome.livejournal.com]

The conversation with Momo left Shikamaru deep in thought, mostly about her problem, though a very, very small part of him was considering his own experiences to make sure they weren't coloring his perception of what she'd told him. So, when he took a place at the bulletin beside Sakura, he was silent, which wasn't out of the ordinary, though the effort of pensiveness without the effort of highly focused thought probably was. It only took a second to push everything involving Momo into the back of his mind once he saw the lingering slight pinkness of her forehead. It was almost gone, but an infantile part of himself couldn't help but be amused as he tried to hide his smirk.

A less infantile part of him, concerned with his own well-being, was most definitely not going to admit to being present for the event.

He hadn't read much of the bulletin yet that morning, which was unusual. He skimmed it quickly, making note of everything he read, some of which was perplexing and warranted further thought. When it came down to it, Shikamaru didn't know much about Kakashi beyond the fact that he was the leader of Team Seven, loyal to them and anyone else from Konoha, intelligent, and generally a good and trustworthy human being. So, the whole thing about the new kid wasn't really of interest to him. It looked like Kakashi insisted on dealing with it by himself, which was perfectly fine with Shikamaru. Less work for the rest of them.

"They're becoming less strict," he said, tapping a smiling sticker, "but I doubt it's laziness. They want us to keep talking. Cuts down on the likelihood that they can read our minds, unless it's a misdirection." Shikamaru wouldn't put it past them; the patients were clearly dealing with an intelligent foe.

Business finished (though Sakura had probably figured out all of that herself, and he was more confirming her probable conclusions than offering new ones), he leaned against the wall beside the bulletin to better look at her, folding his arms and this time allowing the smirk. "So I take it you're feeling better. You were a real pain in the ass that way, you know." He'd only played that game against her, discussed her situation with the others, and worried about their ability to keep her safe, but that had been enough. In his book, worry was one of the more troublesome emotions.

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Even if Shikamaru's observation should have been easy to see, once he mentioned it, she was quick to kick herself for not seeing it first. Not that she was going to admit it.

"We should try some alternate forms of communication then. Test the theory. We cold also ask if anyone's noticed that their plans fall through when they post them publicly as opposed to being secretive about it," she shrugged. Gathering something as simple as that, or making sure to pass notes or use whatever alternate means of communicating they had to should be enough to test the validity.

And then Shikamaru had to go and bring up yesterday. For a smart guy, he could sure be a dumbass sometimes. As if it wasn't already obvious she was annoyed about the whole thing. She punched his arm, pulling it only slightly as she still felt guilty about being entirely unsympathetic to his recent surgery the other day. There was a lot she didn't know about what they'd done, but it didn't help that she'd been a selfish bitch yesterday.

"Trust me, I couldn't stand myself like that," she said, turning slightly and crossing her arms. As much as she didn't want to think about it, there was no way to stop these people if they wanted to do the same thing again, pretty much anytime they wanted. It wasn't a comforting thought.

"So... what about you? Feeling any different since... then?" she was quick to change the subject and hoped it wasn't too abrupt. Her social mannerisms were decent, but at times she could be far too blunt. Well, at least she was practically a saint compared to Sai when it came to bluntness, but... that wasn't saying much.