Sam Winchester (
boyking) wrote in
damned_institute2010-04-28 03:18 am
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Day 49: Early Afternoon - Black Rock Inn
So much for not ending up drowned.
In retrospect, Sam probably should've escaped to a diner or something and stayed dry since it wasn't as if his walking about had yielded anything remotely useful. But he'd wanted to actually do something. He hadn't expected it to go from pouring to dumping buckets, either, but there it was.
At least he'd managed to talk to Dean this morning. Really talk, that was. Yeah, he still had no idea how the hell he was gonna pull any of this off—figuring out this date crap, saving Dean, the list kinda went on—but he'd gotten Dean on board and somehow that was...important, in and of itself. They hadn't been on the same page in awhile. Maybe they still weren't, but it felt that way for now. Sam couldn't ask for more.
Though God knew how long it'd last. Probably not very. You grow up around someone and after awhile, it got easy to predict how things usually went between the two of you.
Shaking rain-soaked bangs out of his eyes, he slipped into the nearest place he could find. Which happened to be—actually, it happened to be a pretty nice place. Nicer than some of the little shops around here and definitely way nicer than the run-down motels he tended to crash in. It made him feel twice as awkward, considering he was already dripping wet on top of everything else, but honestly he didn't even care. They already figured he was crazy so it wasn't like they could think any less of him. Right now, he was more interested in avoiding pneumonia than making friends.
He did keep off the couches, though. No point in leaving them wet for anyone else coming in. He ducked down near the fireplace instead. It was a real fireplace, not one of those fake ones that half of the places had these days. You didn't see those a lot anymore. With any luck, the whole psychiatric patient gig would keep most people away while he made his futile attempt to dry off.
Man. He wondered where Dean was. A part of him kinda hoped Dean was just as soaked as he was. It'd only be fair.
[his new best friends Lelouch and Nunnally]
In retrospect, Sam probably should've escaped to a diner or something and stayed dry since it wasn't as if his walking about had yielded anything remotely useful. But he'd wanted to actually do something. He hadn't expected it to go from pouring to dumping buckets, either, but there it was.
At least he'd managed to talk to Dean this morning. Really talk, that was. Yeah, he still had no idea how the hell he was gonna pull any of this off—figuring out this date crap, saving Dean, the list kinda went on—but he'd gotten Dean on board and somehow that was...important, in and of itself. They hadn't been on the same page in awhile. Maybe they still weren't, but it felt that way for now. Sam couldn't ask for more.
Though God knew how long it'd last. Probably not very. You grow up around someone and after awhile, it got easy to predict how things usually went between the two of you.
Shaking rain-soaked bangs out of his eyes, he slipped into the nearest place he could find. Which happened to be—actually, it happened to be a pretty nice place. Nicer than some of the little shops around here and definitely way nicer than the run-down motels he tended to crash in. It made him feel twice as awkward, considering he was already dripping wet on top of everything else, but honestly he didn't even care. They already figured he was crazy so it wasn't like they could think any less of him. Right now, he was more interested in avoiding pneumonia than making friends.
He did keep off the couches, though. No point in leaving them wet for anyone else coming in. He ducked down near the fireplace instead. It was a real fireplace, not one of those fake ones that half of the places had these days. You didn't see those a lot anymore. With any luck, the whole psychiatric patient gig would keep most people away while he made his futile attempt to dry off.
Man. He wondered where Dean was. A part of him kinda hoped Dean was just as soaked as he was. It'd only be fair.
[
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At least their destination had been fairly close. Lelouch didn't even want to think what might have happened if they'd had to make the journey back from the Twin Pines Restaurant instead, and with a small, worried glance down at Nunnally, he shook off his hood and began pushing her chair toward the fireplace. The sooner they could get her out of that damp coat, the better. He would have preferred it if they could head straight back to the institute so that she could get a fresh change of clothes instead, but with the day only halfway over...
Completely ignoring the other person by the fire, he drew to a halt near the warmest, most comfortable-looking couch and stepped around the wheelchair. "Are you all right?" he asked softly, offering her his hand. As he'd expected, she was worse off than him, but since they were inside-- "Here, let me take your coat. I'll dry it off for you." Hang it by the fire and let that do the work, actually, but now wasn't the time to dwell on particulars.
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Still, though, she was grateful that their goal was only a short distance away, and that it included a warm fire. "I'm fine," Nunnally insisted, hesitating for just an instant before taking his hand and carefully rising from the wheelchair. "It's only water...I won't melt, don't worry." Somehow her tone was both fond, teasing, and wistful at once; she'd missed their easy conversation more than she was able to put into words, and sometimes it still surprised her that he was here to fuss over her as he once did.
As she unbuttoned her coat, though, she noticed the man taking advantage of the fire's warmth and smiled in friendly greeting. It was hardly a surprise to find another patient taking refuge here from the cold and wet outside -- it was more surprising that more of them weren't.
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Figures.
He glanced over sideways, blinked. Lelouch, he wasn't surprised to see; the girl, not so much. Who was...? Last he remembered, Lelouch had only pointed out Suzaku as the one person he knew, but these two clearly knew each other well. Girlfriend? Maybe. People didn't always filter in all at once so it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary (out of the ordinary for here, anyway) for someone from Lelouch's world to come along.
He hadn't anticipated making more contact than necessary since—honestly, Lelouch, that just wasn't someone he was willing to deal with at the moment, but the girl had acknowledged him and yeah, he couldn't ignore either of them after that.
He flashed a brief smile in return. It was curious, he had to admit, to see Lelouch actually...doing something other than standing there taking advantage of people.
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He carefully folded the coat, took her hat, and went to drape both over the side of one of the other couches near the fire, his eyes drifting toward Sam. They seemed to have his attention, which was far from being a good thing, but as long as he didn't tried anything overt-- damn, and even if he did, there was no way Lelouch could use Geass on him now, was there? Nunnally was watching, so unless he led him away in order to do so and could find a way to keep his sister from asking too many questions about it-- better to stay with his original plan and behave as naturally as possible.
He removed his own coat next, trying and failing not to feel too self-conscious as that revealed the atrocity that was his T-shirt. Maybe Sam wouldn't notice, or better yet, maybe he would spontaneously go blind, trip, and fall into the fireplace he was currently monopolizing. "Good afternoon," Lelouch greeted sedately, setting his coat down next to Nunnally's and returning to her side to move the wheelchair. He wondered vaguely if the innkeeper would lend him a towel to dry it if he asked, but eventually, he decided that it wasn't worth leaving the pair of them long enough to find out. Sam might try something.
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"You should sit down, Brother," she said, glancing up at Lelouch again as he shifted the wheelchair. "You were walking through the rain as well, and the fire is nice and warm." She turned a little to include the stranger in her smile and tilted her head to one side slightly. "Not the nicest day for a trip to town, is it?"
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Sam couldn't help but glance at Lelouch, intrigued now. Yeah, they were siblings, all right. He tipped his head and quirked an eyebrow when his gaze drifted over Lelouch's shirt—seriously, Sam was just glad his nurse didn't hate him the way a few of the others seemed to hate their charge—but he made no remark beyond that.
In truth, he wasn't sure just yet what to make of this new piece of information. He hadn't given Lelouch much thought outside of what the kid could do and what he was. Sure, the awareness was always there, but more than that? Hell, Sam barely had time to concentrate his efforts into the things he did need to take care of. Vitally needed to take care of. Lelouch was on the periphery.
But it seemed Lelouch was playing civil—either for the sake of his sister or for the sake of not creating a scene in general—and Sam had no problems going along with it. This was the one part they were both on the same page about, even if Sam had a feeling Lelouch was more invested than he was in the don't ask, don't tell aspect. It'd be the only thing Lelouch had ever asked about the one time they'd spoken alone.
Which wasn't necessarily to Sam's disadvantage. Nor his sister striking up conversation, in a way. As much as he preferred to sidestep stuff when it came to Lelouch, well. He couldn't deny there was a lot he wanted to know there and more than that, he wondered how much Lelouch's sister even knew. About his nighttime activities, that was. Somehow, he doubted very much. And in any case—either Lelouch was gonna have to keep up his acting skills or Sam was gonna find out the answer to this question pretty soon.
He shifted his attention back to the girl. "I would've liked something a little dryer," he said. He turned around a bit where he sat, facing her. "I'm Sam."
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"I've created a monster," he lamented, finally finishing with the chair. It seemed unlikely that anyone else would join their little group, but he felt better knowing it was in a more appropriate location anyway. From there, returning to Nunnally's side and taking his seat was a simple matter, even if he had to restrain himself from automatically taking her hand or something similar. Sam didn't need to see that.
Lelouch fell silent after that, watching the conversation in much the same way he'd observed Mihai and Nunnally earlier instead. She's always been the more open and friendly of the two, and much as he wished to intervene and at least take over the introductions, it would be a little too awkward to do so now. Besides, he was more interested in seeing if he could glean something of Sam's intentions from what verbal and nonverbal cues he could pick up.
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"I'm Nunnally," she replied, pleased that the man seemed polite enough. So many of the people she'd met so far here did, though, despite her brother's warnings about some of the patients being potentially hostile. Maybe it was just a very small percentage of them, and she just hadn't met the wrong ones yet? "And this is my brother, Lelouch." Who seemed more interested in watching the conversation than participating in it, but that wasn't too unusual. He'd done so just a while ago, when she was talking to Mihai.
She lifted a hand to her hair to brush some of the clinging raindrops away and wrinkled her nose a little as her smile quirked into a grin. "I've never visited the town before," she observed, sounding mildly disappointed. "I would have liked to get a better look at it, instead of having to duck under cover to escape the rain." There wasn't much point in even leaving the Institute, really, since they didn't have a chance to get out and enjoy the fresh air anyway.
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For a teenager, Nunally seemed particularly poised, like if they'd been sitting at a diner instead of a nice hotel, she might actually look a bit out of place. Hard to place a precise finger on what it was, but it was something to file away.
She was certainly far more sociable than Lelouch had ever been, though, even compared to that time they'd met before they'd moved onto the exchange-of-death-threats stage.
He propped an arm on his knee, feeling no less wet, but a little warmer at least. This was slightly awkward, talking to Nunnally when Lelouch was looking on like that because Sam had a feeling Lelouch wasn't just observing for the hell of it, but if anyone was good at pretending everything was just fine, it was Sam. He'd practiced on Dean a lot.
"Yeah, it's too bad the weather decided to put away the sun. You'll get to see it again soon, though, they bring us down every week." He cast another brief look at Lelouch. "I never realized he had a sister," he said, casual enough. "But we didn't get the chance to talk much that time."
He wasn't sure if he could nudge the conversation topic towards Lelouch, but it was worth a try. He wanted to see if he could get something out of Nunnally about her brother. It was one thing to learn about a person through direct interaction, but getting what someone else thought about them was just as useful.
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"You never asked," Lelouch said, shrugging a little and glancing at Nunnally again. The temptation to ask for a towel was coming back, this time so that he could help her dry off her hair, but again, there was no way he was leaving the two alone. Another option would be to take off the pink shirt he had on and use that, but given the setting, the fact that Nunnally would probably object, and that it would be far less suspicious to just ask for the damn towel and get it over with... damn it.
"Nunnally? I'm going to see if I can borrow a towel. I'll be right back." He finally sought out her hand then, and after giving it a small squeeze, he let go, rose to his feet, and began walking toward the front desk. This was a stupid, pointless risk, but hopefully he'd be able to keep an eye on the conversation and finish his task in a timely enough manner that it wouldn't impact anything.
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"I only just arrived a couple of days ago," she replied, giving a small shrug as she folded her hands in her lap once more. She paused as her brother mentioned getting a towel and nodded in acknowledgement, adding a small smile. "I'll stay right here, don't worry." He didn't need to worry so much, but it wasn't something that was likely to change. Not knowing Lelouch.
After he'd left Nunnally still watched him for a moment longer, then glanced back at Sam as her smile faded slightly. "I'm sure that he hoped I wouldn't join him here," she added, quietly. "I doubt that anyone here would want to see their friends and family become captives as well."
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Not that it made much of a difference in the long run, not when it came to demons. Nor here, either. There were a few who knew, and that was enough, in truth, especially when one of them included Lelouch. But a cover was a cover. It'd feel wrong to start dropping it.
"No, I suppose not," he agreed. That, at least, he could relate to. On an entirely differently level, of course. His reasons for preferring if Dean had never shown up were slightly more complicated. "Sometimes it helps to have a familiar face around, though."
Sometimes.
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Once there, he noticed that things seemed a little more somber than they'd been when he'd left and, predictably, laid the blame on Sam's shoulders without even thinking about it. What had they been talking about? "I'm back," he announced, smiling warmly at his sister as he returned to his seat. It was even more unnecessary to tell her now that she could see him as well as identify his footsteps, but two and a half days wasn't long enough to break a habit he'd had for eight years.
He hesitated before actually beginning to dry her hair, though, his eyes lingering on Sam. There was little point in holding back when he'd been openly affectionate with her all day and would likely continue during her entire stay at the institute, but it felt rather careless all the same. At worst, it could be interpreted as a taunt, and the last thing he wanted was for Sam to do so with Nunnally in the room. At the same time, however, Lelouch wouldn't be able to avoid answering for long if she noticed he was on edge and decided to ask him about it.
Delicately, he took a section of her hair and began toweling it off, his eyes lowered again. Maybe if he pretended that Sam was nothing more than annoying, disembodied voice, he'd be able to get through this conversation without ordering the man off a cliff.
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The sound of Lelouch's footsteps was still familiar enough that she recognized his approach well before he spoke up, and Nunnally turned to smile up at him with part of her attention still on her new acquaintance. Something about him had caught her attention; perhaps it was the way that he'd mentioned meeting Lelouch previously and yet the two of them didn't seem particularly friendly. She didn't expect Lelouch to be open and cheerful, but something about it felt just a little bit off, somehow.
Her brother seemed uninterested in anything but fussing with her hair, though, so she just returned her full attention to Sam again. "Do you have family here as well?"
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But then, whoever—whatever—was orchestrating this seemed just as interested in playing mind games as they were in getting the patients to lose a limb or two every couple nights, if not more so. There was no better way to screw with someone's head than to bring family into the equation. Whatever Lelouch might've been play-acting at or hiding, he was at least genuine around his sister. That much, Sam could tell.
What this said was something he'd have to piece together later.
"Yeah." He gave a nod at the question, shifting so that he was sitting cross-legged. "Yeah, I do, actually. Older brother, as well." No reason to lie about it. Lelouch already knew and Lelouch was the only one Sam was concerned about. "He tends to get into trouble, though."
The last was a wry comment, but innocent enough at the same time. He didn't catch Lelouch's gaze, as much as the thought crossed his mind. While he had no issues flipping Lelouch's playing field right over, the presence of Lelouch's sister changed everything. Sam would rather just leave it. It didn't feel right when she had nothing to do with that night or any of their subsequent run-ins.
Besides, this hadn't started out personal; not on Lelouch's end—he hadn't even known who Dean was, after all—and Sam wanted to avoid making it so on his end, too. Even if it'd be way easy to turn it personal for the both of them under the current circumstances. Not to mention tempting, maybe because Lelouch was so much more readily accessible as an outlet than Lilith—but that was all the more reason to not go down that road. He didn't need the distraction and Dean sure as hell didn't need the risk.
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Nunnally smiled at the mention of Sam's brother and his affinity for getting into trouble, but it wasn't quite as cheerful as before. She doubted that the unnamed brother's level of "trouble" was quite the same as what her older brother had done, but -- even if she'd started to become accustomed to Lelouch's presence here, the memories were still far too recent to easily forget. So many things could remind her of that, startle her out of the calm almost-acceptance into which she'd fallen simply because she had been so glad to see him again.
If she wasn't careful, though, he might notice that something had distressed her, so she calmly directed the subject somewhere else. "You've been here for a while, then?" Nunnally asked, allowing the new topic to excuse her small frown. "You were here in town last week? I've been told that people were stranded in town, come nightfall."
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Good to know the desire to ignore was mutual, then. One thing they had in common.
Or maybe more than one thing now, but Sam wasn't that interested in making a T-chart with Lelouch.
He studied her for a second or two, but nodded again. "I was here when everything broke down that night. It got a little crazy. Mind if I ask what you heard about it?"
He could just tell her, obviously, but it was weird launching straight into oh yeah, we were stranded with zombies and stuff, I think a bunch of people even got bit and tried to eat their friends. Wacky, huh. Though honestly, he didn't even know why it still made him hesitate, given where they were and all, but, well. Habit and all.
Anyway, might as well save himself from having to go into some exposition if he could. He'd covered the topic of zombies a few times already, even before arriving here, and he had to admit, as far as supernatural entities went, the walking dead were far from his favorite.
At least the ones raised during that night hadn't walked and talked like a real human being.
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He glanced up at Sam, then back down at his sister's head. He could either stay silent and allow the conversation to progress, speak up and attempt to derail it, or speak up and actually contribute. The last option appeared the most attractive, in fact, because if he were to say something that gave him control over what was and wasn't discussed, he could at least insure that the level of exposure Nunnally had to this topic wasn't unnecessarily high while still instructing her about it. It wasn't exactly ideal, but as much as he wished it, he couldn't keep her entirely in the dark about their last visit here.
"That it was dangerous, many people were injured, and to expect this place to transform the same way the institute does," Lelouch answered for her, brow furrowing a little as he resumed his work. "I intend to move her somewhere safe before it becomes an issue, assuming it can at all. You needn't worry." He set the towel down and began, very gently, to comb her hair back into place with his fingers. He was beginning to regret returning the nurse's brush; tending to Nunnally's hair was exactly the sort of calming activity he needed right now.
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The fall of rain stopped any further musings in her wanderings, and herded inside a building, she lightly shook her head, drops of water falling from the strands. The plaid dress she was wearing had been mostly saved from wetness, though the jacket differed. She shrugged it off, moving near the fireplace in hopes of drying the material. Close, she stopped, eyes glancing familiarity. Ikari was curled nearby resting. There was a beat of pause, and then she quietly sat down next to his sleeping form; carefully, in the hopes of letting him continue to rest.
[Shinji]
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"A-Ayanami? When did you...? Where did...?"
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She glanced to him, blinked. He had had someone with him then? "A few minutes ago," she said in response to the one directed at her. As for the other, she couldn't say.
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Before she'd been killed.
"...how are you?"
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"Fine," she answered perfunctorily. A beat, and she rethought it, wondered instead. She glanced at Ikari, gaze slightly unsure. "The place we're staying at. It has something to do with military experiments?" She didn't so much as doubt the words of her seatmate earlier, but would rather confirmation.
Agh, I totally thought I replied to this. Sorry!
"Maybe it is the military. I don't know."
no problem.~
"Someone I spoke to seemed to believe that," she answered. "They were adamant."
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He sighed. "I don't know what to think."
His shoulders slumped and he stared down at his hands, trying to think of something to say.
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Military experiments, tests. With those items in front of her, she could believe as much. But she did not know. And without that knowledge, it was meaningless. Her eyes slid back to Ikari, watching carefully. "Do you know," she started quietly, "what they did to him?"
To the Fifth Child, she meant. To the one who had introduced himself as Kaworu Nagisa. One similar. If one didn't look too deep to find opposites.
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He had nothing more to say. He couldn't help Kaworu. He could barely help himself. He was pathetic and alone again - he knew nothing and again he'd let a friend suffer while he stood by helplessly. It was just like before. Just like with Toji or Asuka or Rei. He always failed.
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She could not offer that either, but she could understand that touch could be a comfort. Rei leaned to the side slightly, shoulder brushing Ikari's. Strange. It felt. Strange. But not necessarily bad. "He'll tell us. More than likely."
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He hoped so, anyway. Shinji hated worrying. Then again, there were a lot of things Shinji didn't like.