Day 46: Lunch

The mere fact that she'd been susceptible to whatever hold the Institute had had on her yesterday was sufficient to leave Ayumu both upset and angry - no, not angry, downright furious, both at herself and whoever was responsible for that. But there was also the fact that because of it, she'd lost out on an entire day of work, and in several ways had ruined some of what she'd done already. That little conversation with Himura the day before, for instance, was something she'd sincerely prefer not to remember if she'd had any choice in the matter.

Unless the man was a complete moron, which, unfortunately, was one thing she couldn't believe of him, he had to have realized just who her brother was. After all the effort to keep that fact quiet (not exactly a secret, but certainly not advertised; half the Shinsengumi probably never even realized it because there was no reason to) she'd gone and chatted about it with him. Told him all about it, practically painted a bright target around a weakness that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

She'd spent the shift in the Sun Room pretending to sleep, while in truth forcing herself into calm. After years of practice she could shunt away the useless and distracting emotions, focusing only on what was important and needed to be at the forefront of her mind, and by the time the intercom signaled the lunch period she was feeling considerably calmer. The time to silently observe others had, as well, alerted her to something she probably should have noticed earlier: Mello was back. Would her previous objective be reinstated now? He seemed to have far less of a bulletin presence this time, so perhaps not. Still, though, it bore investigating.

None of her thoughts were visible, of course, as she moved through the line, examining the lunch selection somewhat dubiously. Now with the benefit of Yuuko's memories she might recognize the food, but she certainly didn't share the enthusiasm for it that her imaginary self apparently had. Ayumu skipped past that part and settled for the salad bar and some bread, then positioned herself in a place where she could watch both the door and the rest of the room, setting her journal open in front of herself as though planning to write something. There was far too much that she'd missed, too much work to do now.

[for Okita]
lighthearted: gesture, smile, down (listless)

[personal profile] lighthearted 2009-12-23 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Sora nodded at Hitsugaya's opinion about the whole brainwashing disaster. He was better, and while the memories of his fake life were still weirdly vivid, he was doing a decent job of phasing them out of his mind. Sooner or later, they would start to fade and he could just pretend that whole day had never happened. It had just been so bizarre...

Even if Hitsugaya's comment on the job he'd done two nights ago was so short that he could have easily missed it, Sora was still glad to hear it. Every now and then, it was nice to be appreciated. Not that Sora required that, but it certainly didn't hurt. He smiled and nodded. Really, he was happy to help. It was for the good of all of them, after all.

As for distributing the knives, Sora already knew he didn't need one for himself. He got the feeling Tsubaki wouldn't either, if she could summon that scythe out of her hair or... whatever it was. Hokuto he should probably ask, but the first step was figuring out where the goods had ended up in the first place. "I'll do that," he agreed, "and let you know if there are any leftovers."