damned_institute | DAY 23: BREAKFAST

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DAY 23: BREAKFAST

That hadn't felt like an entire night.

And his goddamn head hurt. Pounded, even. Enough that he wondered if he was going to end up playing another round of "Christen the nurse" this morning.

Maybe it was because he'd spent so much time and energy trying to find Nowe. That could be the reason behind both those problems. Just the thought of it made his stomach turn, made him want to fucking choke something.

Still, there was shit to do. He forced himself out of bed to put away his pens and the other leftovers from the adventures that didn't happen last night. He'd have to try to talk to Sora today, to see if they could just do tonight what they were going to do last night... and to see if the kid was doing alright.

...he just wished his head would stop hurting. That was probably the result of just how badly he'd overreached himself the previous morning.

The nurse that showed up to get him was cheerful. He grunted at her, listening to her with only half an ear until she mentioned all the excitement, about someone pretending to be a patient, all that crap that Landel had mentioned.

Renji gave her a narrow-eyed look. "Dr. Landel is a goddamn lying coward, and he's lying about that, too," he said. Whether it was true or not, there was only so much good cheer he could take on a shitty morning. "I hope he chokes on a cock." No matter how much venom he put in that statement, it wasn't enough.

Then he had to listen to a lecture about language and gratitude for the rest of the walk to the cafeteria, so maybe it wasn't worth it after all. She dragged him through the breakfast line, and he ended up with granola and toast and tea and a cinnamon roll, because not even a shitty fucking night could ruin his sweet tooth. Though that thing was looking a little too sweet.

The cafeteria was pretty much empty; he had his run of the place. He sat himself about as far from the doors as he could get, and proceeded to stare at his breakfast.

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Despite everything, when Aidou entered the cafeteria alongside yesterday's nurse, it was with a straight back and an easy smile, talking idly about the supposed intruder (and didn't that just add more and more to his list of problems).

Inwardly, it was all he could do to keep the cold fury from showing on the outside. When she introduced him to the cafeteria line - like he was some sort of orphan at a halfway house - his hands closed around a tray and threatened to snap it in two. He was retracing his memory again and again, desperately trying to make sense of the time loss. In the Sun Room, it hadn't quite been early morning. Then he was being woken up back in M52, his original room, at daylight. He'd been about to drag Alucard off, and... and then he was gaining consciousness in other part of the institute. The burn on his shoulder and the wounds on his stomach had both been treated.

Of course, he had insisted his nurse give him a moment to change clothes - adding as many layers as he could considering the inevitable sunlight - before tearing the bandages off and tossing the remains all around the room in silent rage, uncaring of his roommate. Was that how it always was in this hellhole?

The thought was disgusting. Infuriating. How dare they touch him like that. Damn them! Damn those windows! Damn everything! He was going to kill everyone.

Until then, though... Waving cheerfully as his nurse departed, Aidou played up his handsome features by smiling and chatting amicably with any staff that looked his way while he went through the food line. (One of everything, plus a pile of cinnamon rolls.) There was no where to go that wasn't drowned in sunlight, so Aidou made the unanimous decision to amuse himself as best he could.

He made a beeline for Ritsuka. "So you survived the night, too. What did you think?" He slid into the seat beside, propping his elbows on the tabletop. This place didn't deserve the results of his mannered upbringing.

Ritsuka almost jumped when Aidou slid up next to him - almost. He vaguely remembered having had a rather harsh discussion with him on the bulletin board, but that didn't seem to show in his demeanor. He finished his sentence and closed the book, clipping the pen to the front before setting it down next to his tray along with the half-finished glass of milk.

"I see you did, too." He winced inwardly when he realized how cold that sounded and pushed the bacon around on his plate with a fork. "No monsters?"

As for what he thought? He really didn't know. "Last night, Seimei and I went upstairs and this big ball of light came out of the Sun Room and then..."

Ritsuka sighed in frustration at the thought of how little he'd accomplished last night. Cautiously, he poked at the cinnamon roll before deciding against it and leaving it where it was. "Not much really happened. What about you?"

Aidou watched Ritsuka torment his food from around his own towering tray of breakfast. Without blood - and he absolutely refused to pick off scraps like that Alucard - he was going to be in a constant state of hunger. Or at least he thought so; he'd never tried to starve himself before...

The scrambled eggs went first, and the sausages soon after. "Oh, plenty of monsters. Fire-breathing lizards in the kitchen, can you believe it?" Aidou had put the single coat over top of a sweater, which was over top of a shirt. He bypassed it all to give Ritsuka a view of the gouges on his stomach. They looked much worse than they actually were, especially to a vampire of his caliber, but if he could scare Ritsuka out of eating the rest of his breakfast, that meant he could have it... "I mean, look at this. Don't you feel sorry for me? It's horrible. I was just minding my own business."

With the sunlight tingling unpleasantly at that back of his neck, he tugged the neckline as far up over his head as he could. "Actually, I was in the Sun Room. Some girl made that ball of light. Probably to better see - after all, there was some crazy child with a gun trying to shoot everybody within range. It was quite an adventure."

Speaking of which, that Hisoka boy seemed perfectly tranquil, from what Aidou could see from over Ritsuka's head. Huh.

"There was a revolting smell coming from the second floor, though. What was that about?"

Sadly for Aidou, the gouges on his stomach weren't enough to scare Ritsuka off his food. Blood and injuries were nothing new to him after all. Inspecting the wounds a little closer, he was relieved to see that they were at least cleaned. Still, if something aggravated the injury it could spell trouble for Aidou. "The lizards did that to you? You should get those taken care of before they get infected. Seimei said that this place patches up your injuries for you. Didn't you have any bandages when you woke up this morning? ...and why are you wearing so much clothing?"

He eyed Aidou curiously as he slowly started to eat his eggs. At least Aidou was being chummy rather than trying to annoy him like yesterday. "I saw the fight in the Sun Room from the second floor, but I couldn't see well enough to tell who was involved. Is everyone okay?"

At the mention of a revolting smell, Ritsuka felt his stomach turn. That memory was still fresh in his mind. Come to think of it, he'd stepped in the blood with his slippers. Casting a glance at his feet, he was relieved to see that the blood was gone. "Something ate part of a giant spider upstairs and it bled everywhere and smelled horrible. I don't know what did it. I never saw any live monsters, but there are those that can't really be seen."

He kept his eye on Hisoka and the man at his side for a moment longer, before scanning the rest of the room; now that more "patients" were being led in, the cafeteria was becoming annoyingly loud. And he'd been one of the first to arrive - how ridiculous was that? Alucard had yet to enter, thankfully. Still, he recognized a few, including the dark-haired woman who had been using the paintbrush. He had to speak with her, as a matter of priority.

... After he finished eating. Food and sheer force of will were about the only things keeping him from losing his composure. "No. The lizards just gave me a few third degree burns. Those were made by another type of slobbering beast." Just the memory of that corpse spewing innards on him enraged him further, although it didn't show. Forget a choice, Aidou should've just killed him then and there!

Pushing his empty cereal bowl away, he propped his chin in his free hand, starting in on one of many cinnamon rolls. "They'll heal on their own, and they won't get infected." Feeding properly would heal flesh wounds instantaneously, of course, but that meant singling out a practical target so as not to be caught. His eyes slid back to the girl, who was wolfing down plateful after plateful. "It's their fault injuries are sustained, but they spend time bandaging them up again? It's stupid. You'd have to be a total idiot to trust anything done in your favour here."

His gaze returned to Ritsuka at the inquiry over his clothes. Aidou almost smirked, before turning into a sweet smile. "I'm just not a morning person. Poor circulation. As for the Sun Room, who knows. A few gunshots aren't that bad. I'm more curious as to why it happened in the first place."

But at Ritsuka's next words, he perked up a little. A giant spider yet, and something that ate part of it. This place was unbelievably revolting. He was willing to settle for second-hand information, if it meant avoiding such things. Gross.

"What do you mean, 'those that can't really been seen'?"

"One of the other patients, then?" Ritsuka raised an eyebrow and took a bite of egg before tapping the fork thoughtfully against his bottom lip. As the cafeteria filled, he watched for his brother, but still saw no trace of him. Tamaki was awake, he'd seem him enter and attach onto a dark haired boy about his same height, so that was good. Still, the absence of his brother was troubling... "Anything done in my favor will be appreciated, regardless of who does it. If they're willing to fix us up afterward, we can at least appreciate that gesture."

And they gave him back Seimei.

"Mm, mornings suck." He pushed a sausage off his plate and attempted the cinnamon roll again, poking it with his finger to test it. He didn't know if he liked these or not, but he was cautious to try it. "You know more about the Sun Room incident than I do, but I heard asking a guy named 'Hughes' would help clarify things. Seimei told me that sometimes the doctors do things to you. Maybe that's what happened."

Unconsciously, one hand brushed through his hair, grazing the spot where his ears should have been. It still felt strange and he figured it would stay that way for awhile. When Aidou asked about the unseen monsters, he poked the cinnamon roll again, tasting his finger and deciding it wasn't that bad. "I mean I didn't see whatever it was that attacked me. It must be small though, because it was hidden inside a locker."

He definitely didn't like the way Ritsuka arched a brow at him, like he was secretly been made fun off. He glowered childishly, some of his true mood peeking through. "Well that's where your naivety overpowers your judgement. You can't rely on anyone who puts you in a place like this. Especially when they let creatures that shouldn't even exist chew on you. The fact that they're probably still somewhere in the building doesn't bother you in the slightest?"

The fact that there may be... experimentation had occurred to him, but he hadn't considered manipulation in that form. There wasn't a point to giving "patients" their weapons back and inciting them, just mindless fighting. Unless, of course, Ritsuka was right, and it was exactly what they wanted. Instigate feuding, compile information, and heal the prisoners' injuries to have them go at it again. Aidou frowned. "Science experiments, huh? How grand. So we're just rats in a labyrinth..." he trailed off, in thought. If he thought about it that way, it made sense.

Even as a powerful noble like he was, Aidou was apt to agree. Mornings did suck. A lot. Damn this place. That decided it: he was going to have loads of fun disembowelling this Martin Landel and how many other "doctors" there were. Getting his hands dirty was worth it.

Ritsuka didn't seem to have any injuries - part of the reason why Aidou was willing to sit near him - but apparently monsters came in all shapes and forms at Landel's twisted little mental institute. If a creature couldn't take down a scrawny little kid like Ritsuka, it had to be weak. That suited him just fine.

"Just eat it already," Aidou huffed, finishing off the last of his one. Watching the kid poke it around like it wasn't worth the effort only made him want to eat it himself.

That thought soured immediately when his eyes drifted to the door. Spitting out a curse, he ducked his head until it almost touched the tabletop. No! The bastard was grinning - didn't the sunlight bother him at all!? He didn't want to do this so early in the damned morning...

"Don't look, he hissed at Ritsuka. "Don't even move! He might not notice me."

Alucard had no idea how he ended up in bed, nicely curled up under his sheets as if he had been sleeping away the whole night. He was about to ~~dismember~~ follow Aidou off into a deserted room too! In fact, he couldn't remember just what happened after the other 'vampire' had spoken. Like his nightshift was just some dream. Which he knew it wasn't, of course. Because his body still smelt faintly of Necrit-pus.

It didn't stop him from zeroing in on Aidou though. He saw the boy quickly duck under a table, and that alone made him chuckle. Still grinning, he slunk over. After all, he could still smell the boy. Maybe they would get to finish what they started tonight...even with a stranger -an even smaller boy- sitting down next to Aidou.

A potential meal, maybe?

"Good morning!" he spoke in an absurdly cheerful tone, taking a seat, razor sharp teeth still exposed in his grin.

Ritsuka shrugged and tested the cinnamon roll again, nibbling at it. "I'm trying not to think about it. Wherever they go during the day, I don't have to deal with it. And you didn't answer the question."

"We're pretending to be patients - all mental patients are lab rats anyway." It was strange how calm he was despite the idea of being under medical and otherworldly scrutiny, but there wasn't anything he could do right now. He just had to play the part of the model patient and maybe he'd learn something that would help them later.

Ritsuka was surprised at how sweet the roll was, but managed to eat a bit of it. "I am eating it. I just didn't want to stick it in my mouth if I wasn't going to like it."

Just as Aidou hissed out the warning, a tall - a very tall - man with a very sharp smile appeared at the table. Ritsuka jumped and gazed up at him, eyes wide with shock and with awe at how he towered over them both. That and this guy made Aidou cower against the table - he had to be someone important. The cinnamon roll still in his small hands, Ritsuka managed an equally small but polite bow to the new guy. "G-Good morning."

Aidou didn't raise his head for a long moment; the table was cool against his forehead. He had another headache.

"That," he finally muttered, "is your answer." The way Ritsuka stuttered only annoyed him further. Just because he hadn't advertised himself, it didn't mean Aidou was any less intimidating as Alucard. He was a hundred times as powerful! He deserved more respect! "And he isn't entitled to attention."

He didn't turn his eyes away from the half-eaten cinnamon roll in Ritsuka's hands. "And you, don't even consider it," he said unwaveringly, answering Alucard's unspoken question. Hungry E classes always had the same grin.

Alucard even gave a little bow before he even sat down.

Yes, he pretty much dwarfed everyone else. Being a little over two metres had its own advantages, he could pretty much loom over any of his adversaries. Save Anderson of course...but he digressed. "I can't help it if I draw attention to myself. After all, I know my height alone is quite the imposing thing," he spoke again, that mirthful quality never leaving his voice, shark-toothed grin still plastered over his lean face.

"Consider what? And if I did, how do you plan to stop me?" he replied haughtily, leaning in close to stare Aidou in the eye. Because if the boy got in the way, Alucard wouldn't hesitate to feed off him as well. Hell, he had it coming too.

So this was the guy that gave Aidou those injuries? Certainly, Aidou didn't make friends easily here, but that didn't warrant the rather nasty looking slashes. Still, the way Aidou and the stranger were bantering back and forth made him seem the interloper in a rather slow burning but deadly war. It didn't help that Ritsuka had no clue what they were inferring with the warnings not to do something and the challenge of that same thing.

Despite all that, he couldn't help but give the taller man his attention! Those teeth and the height were intimidating. Dropping his gaze to the cinnamon roll, he started eating it again and mumbled an apology for staring.

Alucard's audacity really was astonishing; feeding off humans in the way he was was one thing. It was mere senseless behaviour. Attacking nobles - and in Aidou's case, showering him in a necrit's bodily fluids - was suicidal. But threatening to lay into an oblivious boy right in front of him?

His hand hit the table hard enough to rattle the dishes. He was out of his chair the next moment, at a point where he now bore down on Alucard. It would have been a tenuous morning no matter how uneventful - after all, there was only so much Aidou Hanabusa could take before erupting - but this was too much even on a good day. And there were no Night Class members to cool his temper.

"You have no right to play games, you filth! If you raise a single hand to him, I will rip it off along with your stupid wagging tongue!"

Aidou had only scorn for someone who'd hide behind nothing more than a human infant, just to force him into a corner. It was weak. It was disgusting! Even he couldn't stand that.

He didn't break eye contact with Alucard, but dropped his voice long enough to say, "Beat it, little boy. Just go away."

Alucard didn't even blink, still smiling like the Chesire cat, his eyes still glowing as fiercely as they did in the night. He couldn't understand just what was making Aidou so angry. It wasn't like he killed the ones he fed from. In fact, he owed them favours just because they let him drink from them! It was a sad thing for Alucard to be indebted to someone else, he hated it, but it was necessary.

The vampire had the gall to yawn when Aidou started to threaten him. Pffft.

"Oh, getting protective are we? No fear, I won't steal him from you, if that's the case." he spoke blandly in return. Those cinnamon rolls looked quite delectable. "I could simply ask from someone else anyway."

"And if you starve to death, you'll just have yourself to blame."

Ritsuka stared at Aidou in shock. Was this guy protecting him? And from what? The taller man talked about stealing him and starving to death? What the hell was going on?! It didn't help that the two men were talking about him like he wasn't even there. That really pissed him off.

Setting the cinnamon roll down, he stood and picked the tray and his notebook up. "It looks like you two could use some privacy for whatever is going on. I'll see you around, Aidou. Don't do anything too brash."

Before taking off, he gave Alucard another bow, extremely well mannered, but a little more guarded than before. He couldn't leave without at least introducing himself though - it just didn't seem right somehow. "My name is Aoyagi Ritsuka. Please have a pleasant day."

With that, he was off for someplace that didn't involve quarreling people.

It was safe to say that in the most basic of ways, Aidou was not adapting well to Landel's Institute. The bloodshed, the monsters, the aims of the institute itself - he could tailor himself to it. He was a vampire, after all. But it was dealing with all these people. How long had it been since he'd had to cope with all the nuances of the human world by himself?

'Never' seemed a fair answer.

Fortunately, the kid look more bemused than anything as he picked up and left. Aidou just forced himself to remember how to breath in such a way that his eyes didn't flare up with a hint of crimson. There went his plan of acting nice - he should've reconsidered sitting with that kid in the first place. For a split second - and just for a split second - he wished he was more like his taciturn cousin. That, or fit in so well with humans he could practically be one of them, like Ichijou.

Augh, but he hated hated hated being here. Especially with Alucard, the one large thorn continually jabbing him in the side. His ideas of unfettered feeding were to blame - stupid ex-humans could never follow protocol.

That was right, though. Protocol. He was bound by it. His journal was still tucked within his clothes, and he pulled it out as returned to his seat. And because of his duties, he'd have to consider things carefully. If he thought of what Kaname-sama would do... Turning his back on Alucard, he uncapped the pen.

"Prove you're Dracula," he said, impassive.

"Nice to have met. Good day to you as well," he replied curtly before Ritsuka quickly left the table. A smart move, after all it was dangerous to be caught in a crossfire. It was espcially perilous if Alucard was involved, because the vampire had a habit to ignore the welfare of those around him. He simply smiled when Aidou didn't say anything, it was to be expected.

Nothing but a whole lot of hot gas, like he assumed.

His crimson eyes watched as the boy forced himself to turn away, taking breathes -how cute, really- to try and calm down. Alucard draped himself across the table like the Cheshire cat, watching as Aidou started to write in his journal. Not that he cared about what was being written.

In fact, the vampire decided to go write too. Or draw. Whatever. Aidou was not being fun anymore. Alucard sorely wished he could call upon his demons, imagining them treating the so-called 'vampire' like a beloved chewtoy kept him smiling though.

"First off, I'm dead. As I have been for five hundred years. I can also rattle off my life's story, but I don't think you'd want to hear it. Lastly, I could beat you blind in under a minute."

"No, you couldn't," Aidou lightly quipped back. But he didn't pursue the who-could-beat-up who debate any further than that, because as long as he was awake, it was back to business. He shifted around in his chair so he was back to partially facing Alucard, tapping the pen against the top of the notebook. Who could say what was now going on under his exterior.

"I'm assuming your age can't be proven. The only reason I've given pause to disposing of you is because you appear to be dead. Like a zombie. You'll have to enlighten me as to how that happened."

It was a bizarre conversation to be initiating, but Aidou didn't show it. What made the myth of Dracula so fantastical in the first place was that he hadn't been bitten by a pure blood, had instead made the transformation independently, through some weird ritual magic. Or something like that. It wasn't like Aidou had taken a keen interest in learning this stuff. But even if he believed Alucard was lying, it didn't change the fact he had no heartbeat.

There. Alucard put aside his journal and pen once he was done writing, lazily going to lay his head down on his arms. Things were passing much slower than he would've liked. Maybe he would try those cinnamon rolls after all. So during the ceasefire, he quickly walked over to the counter to get a tray of his own.

The vampire had already popped one of those sweet confectionary treats into his mouth. Nothing fantastic, and he preferred meat over sugar. "Hmm."

"Didn't I tell that to Sasuke yesterday? Or weren't you listening? At all?" came the rather snippish reply. It looked like he had to repeat himself then. "I can't say exactly when I changed...but if it is of any help, I woke again a few days after they had executed me."

"They put my head on a goddamn spear."

Watching Alucard eat cinnamon rolls stirred an odd sort of irritation. It might have been petty jealously. After all, the desperate mongrel had already ingested plenty of blood, from more than one person - he shouldn't have to eat anymore.

"You imbecile." Aidou didn't have a much of a reason for say that this time - unless it was for the poor and unconvincing explanation - but it made him feel better. "I don't care if they displayed your head on a parade float. It'd be more then you deserved, Kazikli Bey," he mocked, crossing his arms.

The pen in his hand began to twirl between his fingers as Aidou voiced his thoughts out loud. "You do realize you'll have to come up with a better tall tale if you want to fool me. It's impossible to turn a human without the aid of a pure blood, and if I were to humour your sad story... Then I'd have to say you were a liar. You obviously did something." Aidou watched him, cocking his head. "Licked blood off the gallows, maybe? Renounced a higher power?"

Everyone knew the stories.

"Feh. I would've appreciated it if they at least put it back, when they were done," he hissed. Really now. He had to go running about looking for a missing head. One final indignity towards him, it would've seemed. At least the sight of a walking headless corpse drove most people away in terror.

His lips lifted into a cruel smile when Aidou spoke though. "They wanted to take my kingdom from me. Of course I fought back in earnest. And as for the transformation itself, yes...I licked the shed blood off the chopping block , as I finally renounced the Christian God and cursed Him. He left me to rot, so I saw fit to do the same," Alucard spoke languidly, fingers elegantly folded on each other.

"I knew exactly what I was doing that day. That I'd rise from the grave to exact my revenge."

It was practically a parody of Hio Shizuka, their Madly Blooming Princess. Although technically she was Aidou's Mistress and he had to respect her memory as such, she had still lost hold of her sanity, blinded by vengeance. But it was an insult to compare them. There were no true similarities. Although it was odd that this one seemed so lucid - E classes that lost their minds rarely escaped their bloodlust - he was still obviously off his rocker.

Dismembered corpses? Kingdoms? Religious faith? Come on. Soon it was going to be Mina and holy water and stakes through the heart.

The more Aidou listened, the more disappointed he became, in a twisted sort of way. Now Aidou couldn't even rightfully condemn him for all his insolence - Alucard was insane! If his rightful name was even Alucard. And with all the talk, he'd been expecting something... else. More, perhaps. What a joke. Aidou was a little embarrassed with himself.

After a long pause, he spoke.

"I'm surprised the council itself hasn't ordered your death long before now. You're nothing more than a lunatic ex-human." Then Aidou narrowed his eyes. "I should've expected this from the beginning. You're not a legitimate vampire. Dead flesh... Give me a break. Just what the hell are you, really? Where did you come from, and who's been handling you up until now?"

This was getting nowhere. And Alucard was getting awfully, awfully bored. It would've been much more exciting if Aidou suddenly decided to try stabbing him in the chest with a fork. Anything other than just talking. It wasn't like Alucard needed a recount of his rather horrible past anyway.

He also had no idea of what Aidou was thinking, and thus no way to goad him further. Of course when he started to speak again...

"I have no idea what council you're talking about, and even if there was a vampire council, I would crush them for trying to oppose me. Lots of talk coming from a child such as yourself, really...you barely know what you are!"

Which was true, vampires were supposed to be dead, period. They weren't supposed to be expelling hot air -literally and figuratively speaking- which each little speech.

"I've already told you where I've come from and you already know. So unless you are an utter and complete retard, with an intelligence which is on par with the average ghoul, I'm not going to repeat myself again."

"You really are mad!" Aidou snarled back. It quickly turned into a sneer, voice equally purring and patronizing. "But of course you are. ‘Even if there was a vampire council,’ you say. What a crazy moron you are! I don‘t need to lay claim to a five hundred year old legend that holds nothing but corrupted blood - I was born as a I am, and you... you‘re just a despicable E class.”

Then Aidou's normally blue eyes flickered an ethereal shade of crimson. It was a sincere warning. “Now take your leave. I don't want to consort with you any longer!"

He didn't know what the hell an E-class was either, but it surely meant something insulting and demeaning for sure. Alucard wasn't one to just stand there and do nothing at being so rudely slandered though. "I have no idea about your so-called 'Council' or what an E class really is."

The vampire's hand lashed out, to deliver a powerful slap to Aidou's face. Claws included. Blows to the face were the must humiliating, as it would disfigure the victim.

"I won't stand for such insolence either, fool."

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