damned_institute | Nightshift 23: M11-M20 Hall

Gin sat quietly on the edge his bed, hands folded in his lap as the doors unlocked. The knives were still beneath his pillow, where he'd stuffed them before Naoe came in for dinner. He'd prefer the man didn't know he had them, but if Ran arrived before Naoe left, well, it wasn't that important.

He still didn't know if she was going to show up at all. He'd wait a few minutes, check and see if her spirit thread was getting any closer, if not... there were plenty of other things he could do tonight. Jack was reliable if nothing else and wouldn't be too difficult to find. The disembodied voice of the announcer was right though. It was possible, terribly likely in fact, that he was not on the grounds. That he was somewhere else entirely. It would help if he knew a little more about how their announcement system worked. Obviously the Head Doctor wasn't the only one who could use it.

Regardless, he had to focus his thoughts on the here and now and then proceed forward. He sat patiently, for now at least, waiting for his visitor.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, well, that's dramatic," Rukia said, turning to regard Sora. "Certainly a meeting you won't forget, huh?" Though she supposed dashing out of nowhere and kicking the man who had been chasing Renji and their friends was an equally dramatic entrance. So many years later, she couldn't even remember why she had done that, except that it had seemed like a good idea at the time. In any case, she was glad she had.

Rukia folded her arms, shifting her weight. "Must have been nice living on the beach. I've only ever seen the ocean a few times."

"Never!" That had been the start of their little trio, and bonds had been formed between the three of them that he hadn't seen mirrored among many others. Sora was almost proud of just how attached he was to Riku and Kairi. Some would have seen it as a weakness, something that could be used against him, but he had always gathered his strength from his friends.

"Really?!" While Nowe had said something similar about never seeing the ocean, each time Sora heard it he could barely believe it. "I grew up right by the water. We went down there to play and lounge around every day... It was great!"

Did that mean Renji hadn't seen the ocean many times, either? Oh, he'd have to take them!

Rukia smiled at Sora. His sweet disposition was growing on her already. She felt suddenly sad that she had never met Nowe. If Renji and Sora had both gotten so close to the missing boy so quickly, he must have been worth knowing.

"Renji and I used to play in streams and ponds all the time." She thought for a moment. "I'm not even sure we knew what an ocean was, back then."

"Wow... I can't even imagine that!" Now that he thought of it, there was a good chance that a lot of the people he had met during his journeys had never seen the ocean before. He wasn't even sure if some of the worlds he'd been to had oceans. That was so sad! Someday, he would have to show the sea to as many of his friends as he could.

"So has he ever seen the ocean?" he asked. He wondered secretly if the two had seen it for the first time together - that would have been pretty romantic, huh?

Rukia thought for a moment. "Hm, I imagine he has. We get sent to places all over Japan for our missions, and many of the cities are on the coast." She didn't know if Sora even knew what Japan was, given that everyone seemed to be from different worlds and times, but Renji had probably at least mentioned it. She shrugged. "Although, I suppose he may never have had the chance. We didn't..." She paused, not sure of how to phrase it. "We didn't see each other for a long time, so I don't know."

Rukia cringed inwardly. She hoped maybe Sora wouldn't ask about that. Searching for something to ask him, she said, "Kairi's here. What about your other friend, Riku?" The name was ambiguous; Rukia didn't know if the person was male or female.

[From Gin's thread]

Rangiku took a breath once outsde the door, steadying herself because Gin always managed to leave her off balance and she couldn't afford to be at the moment. She headed quickly back over to Rukia and Sora and bowed slightly to them both in apology. "Sorry for the delay."

While Sora didn't know much about Japan, he had heard the other patients talking about it. He was accustomed to the idea of there being many different worlds, so he wasn't that surprised to hear of other ones. "I guess I'll have to ask him," he said, smiling. And he understood what it was like to be separated from friends for a long time. However, it had only been a year or so that he had been apart from Riku and Kairi, while Rukia and Renji hadn't seen each other for centuries. He didn't know that, though.

Distracted by her next question, he sighed and his eyes found the floor. "He was here, but then he disappeared... He came back, though! But he didn't remember anything. Then he disappeared again, and... came here as a visitor." Sora didn't want to think about what sort of things his friend had been put through.

Luckily, Rangiku chose to return then. "Took you long enough," he teased.

Rukia felt bad for having asked the question, given what had happened to Sora's friend. She couldn't imagine what she would do if that happened with Renji, or Ichigo. Coming and going, and not remembering anything... Dealing with that once was enough. She wanted to ask him more about the visitors some people had mentioned, but then Rangiku made her way toward them.

"Oh, it's okay," she said, not quite meeting the other Shinigami's eyes.

That look on Sora's face was too adorable. And he really did remind her of Hitsugaya. It was really too much to resist, even if she'd wanted to. She grinned widely and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close and speaking cheerfully. "Ah, I couldn't stay away from you for so long! You're so like my Captain!" Except less grumpy.

She let him go after a moment, rather more cheerful now than she had been a moment ago. She noticed Rukia avoiding looking at her and sighed inwardly, but there was nothing that she could do about it now. "We should find the closest stairs," she said, slightly more quietly.

While Sora might have noticed the slight amount of awkwardness between the two women, he was distracted by Rangiku suddenly reaching for him and yanking him into a hug. While he was slowly getting used to the idea of hugging (first Tron had taught him, then he'd tried it with Roxas and Renji), this had been so sudden!

And this was different from hugging another guy - for one thing, his face was suddenly cushioned by something very soft. His arms flailed until she let go of him and he backed away, red as a tomato. And, and... she was acting like nothing was wrong!

Normally, he would have boasted about how he knew where the stairs were and could lead the way, but he was too shocked and embarrassed at the moment to say much of anything.

Rukia bit back a snort of laughter when Rangiku pulled an unwilling Sora into a hug. She had been around the Vice Captain and Captain Hitsugaya before, and had seen similar displays on several occasions. Except Sora wasn't launching curses at Rangiku; rather, he had turned a delightful shade of red and looked a bit shell-shocked.

Refraining from commenting, Rukia instead asked, "You know where they are, right Sora?" He had said he'd been on the second floor not all that long ago...

It was probably very bad that she found his reaction so adorable. There was a certain age when boys had absolutely no idea how to react to that and had very little interest, and she couldn't help but find it extremely fun to tease them. Yeah, she was sadistic on occasion, it was too difficult to resist.

She nodded at Rukia's question. "It's easier if someone knows where to find them rather than stumbling around in the dark."

It seemed that both Rukia and Rangiku brushed off what had just happened without a second word. Sora figured that was probably for the best, and slowly his blush started to fade.

There were more important matters at hand, after all. Grabbing for his flashlight, he turned it on. "Yep, I know where I'm going. Just follow me." He a confident smirk flashed in their direction, he turned and headed out of the block.

[ To here. ]

Nightshift 23: M11-M20 Hall

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject