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 Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:10 pm
It had been well over a day since the sleepovers have ended and he still seemed absolutely seething for some reason. They had been friends the day before and now suddenly... he's locked himself in. Refusing to come out and face her. She couldn't even figure out why. That whole night had been a rushed blur of cake and chaos. Had she said something cruel to him? She didn't even remember why the night had been a blur or why she saved him such a large piece of cake.
Rin glanced over at the plate of cake on her nightstand, loosely draped with plastic wrap. The word "Rep" crudely scrawled across one of the bare prismatic sides with icing. She was clearly unwell when she wrote it. Still, it was important enough that she had written it. With her finger no less.
She gave a rather irritable sigh and grabbed the plate. Drawing it close to her chest protectively before she left her room with it. She knocked on his door to no reply.
"I have cake for you?" Her voice concerned.
Her concern was met with silence. He was apparently still mad. So she bent down and placed it on the floor.
"Fine, be that way. I've left it on the floor out here so don't step on it like a dumb a**." No one rose to her snide remark. It was rather depressing really. She almost missed arguing with the man.
She headed on, deciding it was better she went to go have breakfast and socialize a bit.
----
She had been out that entire morning, when she finally returned to that lonesome hallway it had been well past noon and the cake... well, much to her delight the cake was gone. Seeing it as a mild forgiveness she rushed to his door.
"Rep. Rep. You took the cake so I know you're in there."
She was met with silence still.
"You aren't allowed to ignore me anymore. Quit being a ******** tool." She scolded bitterly as she turned his nob for the umpteenth time since that night. Instead of being met with the usual locked door though... it was open. She stared unblinkingly into his empty room. Aside from the usual disarray of his room... there was the cake. Only a single bite missing. It looked as though whoever lived there was in a rush to leave.
She held up her phone and quickly checked her messages. No mission was announced. Strange. Why else would he have been in such a hurry? She went over to make sure the cake was safely wrapped before leaving and closing his door.
Where the hell was he?
----
What came next could be best described as a rather frantic live-action game of where's waldo, only instead of a guy in red stripes she was hunting down a guy in red hair. Which was a lot harder than one might think.
When he couldn't be found in the dorms anywhere, her heart began to sink. Even deeper once she left to the main building. Imploring anyone to cross her path for information only to be met with baffled shrugging at every turn. It was almost as if... as if he were erased...
Were his concerns true? Was his avoidance of late nothing to do with her? Was he given a death warrant? Was he avoiding her to keep her from possibly being taken out like trash as well? There were just so many what ifs. She could barely stand it. So she kept on looking. The beach, the giant hole in the kitchen, sparring ground after sparring ground.
One by one she was running out of places to look. It took her hours and suddenly the last place to look was right before her eyes - the Life Labs.
Frowning to herself she went in and approached the front desk. She looked around idly before leeeaning in to ask the person manning it, "Is William Reid here?"
She had been expecting a no or perhaps being told he was out on a mission.. not.
"Oh yes, he's in the infirmary. Room six to be exact."
Her jaw dropped. She could barely string a sentence together, "Wuh... wuh happ... why is..."
The answer an idle eye roll accompanied by a rather snarky comment, "He's recovering from a mission, now if you don't mind..."
She did mind. She minded a lot. More and more as she stiffly wandered down the infirmary halls like a zombie. Thoughts teetering back and forth between no he's fine, he's a tough b*****d and what if he's dying. She could barely stand it anymore by the time she finally reached his room and turned the nob.
Pushing the door open just a few inches, just enough to peek in. It was dark. He must have been resting. She pushed the door further open. Enough to give her dull light as she approached his body. Staring down at him. He looked so broken like this. She couldn't believe it was him. She had to ask.
"....R... Rep?" Her voice hesitant, she was almost afraid that they would answer. That they would confirm an undeniable truth.
That he wasn't invincible.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:29 pm
Painkillers and drugs were about the only reason Rep had managed to sleep at all in the interim between first regaining conciousness and the present moment. He ached all over, more than he could remember, a lot of the pains from being tied up however long they had been, from the fight he'd thought was to the death, and the various stitches he had as a result.
His dreams, when they came were fitful and unpleasant, riddled with nightmares, old nightmares blending into the new.
Rin's voice at first was part of his dreams, familiar bossy neighbour and friend. Out of place in the endless stream of misery. Jarringly enough that he opened his eyes with a sound of irritation, looking over, only to blink.
"Oh. You. Have you come to gloat?" He'd always made such a big deal about bragging about his successful missions and how easy they were. He assumed that was why she'd come, to rub it in to him the one major time he'd slipped up. Probably in jest, but still. He was in no mood to joke.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:39 pm
"No. Of course not." She frowned deeply. This moment was almost surreal. It was actually him she was looking at. She was honestly... taken aback. She could barely believe it was actually him in that bed looking as mangled as he was.
"What... what happened? Why are you here?" It was fairly apparent she was worried. But she was trying so hard to hide it. Worry was a weakness and Rep generally sought out weaknesses to stomp on them. She didn't think she could take one more blow right now without crying like a hysterical lunatic.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:15 pm
He tried to sit up a little with a hiss of pain, pulling himself up on the pillow to eye her levelly. His pride was hurt badly and his first instinct was to lash out in defence. Pretend nothing had even happened.
"It was a mission. s**t went wrong. That was it."
Seemed like he wasn't going to give over anything willingly. "Classified too." That was a lie, but it made his life easier. "I'll survive."
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:20 pm
Rin frowned very deeply.
"Rep. You don't need to play tough guy." She paused to eye him over.
"You're already tough. I know. That's why..." She looked down, her hair falling down into her face as she forced a creepy false smile.
"... that's why I'm pretty much expecting to wake up at any minute." She couldn't really believe she confessed that. It was still the truth at least.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:19 am
Rep narrowed his eyes, a gesture that was nowhere near as potent as it normally might have been given his predicament. He was defensive, he couldn't help it, he was so used to throwing insults her way all the time, able to pretend he was an invincible tough guy, but right now he was incapable of pretending anything.
"Well I wasn't ******** tough enough for this right?" he snorted.
He wanted to turn his back to her, wanted to try and shut her out. "Maybe you should ******** go wake up then. Because its real, I ******** up."
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:47 am
"I'm not attacking you Rep." She idly scolded. Her false smile twisting into a terrible toothy frown as her teeth clenched.
"I'm not the enemy." She wasn't sure why that needed to be said but.. well... apparently it did. She didn't know what the hell happened to him or why he was shoving her away. Yet. If he insisted, who was she to deny him that right?
The look on her face seemed to soften notably as if she accepted this as an unavoidable fact. He didn't want her around. It stung, it stung so much. Can't let him see though. Can't reward him for it with the tears she decided on her own that he longed for.
"But I'll go away if you insist." Her voice quiet and monotone. Avoiding any emotion at all.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:17 am
Normally it was satisfying to have an impact on people, to feel the power words had to hurt, to drive them away. But with Rin that wasn't the case, the more he seemed to hurt her the more wretched he felt. He was suspicious, always suspicious, more so now than before. Paranoid, guilty and tired. It was just so much easier to be a p***k than to even begin to confide the s**t he'd seen, things he was still trying vehemently to deny, somehow determined in that pretending it hadn't happened, he could forget.
"I'm not attacking you." he snorted. "Don't make this about you. I wasn't expecting spectators to my ******** failure okay?"
He sagged back against the pillow. He couldn't afford to lose friends though when he needed them most of all, even if right now it seemed easier to lash out. He didn't tell her not to leave.
"Thanks for the cake."
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:33 am
Rin.. gave a feeble little smile. At least that sounded like Rep. She went over graving a small chair and dragged it to his bedside where she sat herself.
"You didn't fail you know." She resisted the strong urge to grab his hand instead choosing to stare at said hand idly.
"Not in my eyes anyway. You came back alive." She nodded slowly.
"That in itself is a pretty big victory when clearly..." She cringed at some of the bandages already with blood seeping through.
"Clearly what you were up against wanted you deader than dead." She forced a more proper smile to the fore.
"And they had failed to do so." Much to her quiet relief.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:50 am
He shrugged again, wincing as he did so as his injuries protested. He couldn't help the uncomfortable frown as he found her nearby, not because of her specifically but the fact he couldn't even move away if he wanted to. Fiercely independent at the best of times, he couldn't stand even this minor infringement on his freedom.
"Coming back alive was luck more than success and at ******** Caelius' mercy no less."
He dimly eyed the injuries. "Came pretty ******** close though. I wasn't even the worst off. It was a ..you should see the other guy sort of mission."
He didn't even know if Eva and Reine had survived, he was too terrified to ask.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:06 pm
Rin smiled far more properly now. Yes. That was Rep. Proud, stubborn, and still going down with an edge of comedic sarcasm. She almost wanted to laugh. But it would likely irritate him. Make him think he was being laughed at rather than the relieved chuckle that was intended.
"Did they say when you were going to be up and pissing people off again?" She sounded notably more upbeat now. As if a small weight had been lifted.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:16 pm
"As soon as ******** possible. I can't stand lying here. Its boring, more boring than lying in my dorm. At least in my ******** dorm I don't need to deal with difficult nurses and s**t. If I had my ******** way I'd be /out/." Particularly since the more he lay here the more he was forced to relive the mission. He couldn't deny it, couldn't ignore it when he was trapped with it and its consequences.
"Realistically? Probably a few ******** days. Apparently we heal faster than normal people. Just not fast /enough/. You better not ******** eat my cake between then and now. I'll still eat it even if its all furry when I get out."
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:36 pm
Okay, Rin couldn't fight it anymore. She let out that chuckle she'd been fighting.
"Oh no, Rep, I wouldn't dream of it. Your name is on it after all. ********. I'd bring you it if I wasn't so certain the people here might confiscate it from me." She grunted irritably.
"Still, at least you'll be up and fighting soon enough? Just need to take it easy until then. ********. Maybe I can finally get one of these guys to fix your iPod for you? Give you something to listen to." She gave him a thoughtful nod.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:18 pm
He nodded. "Yeah I mean.. its stolen cake. It'd probably land you in trouble just for sneaking off from the party with it." It felt good to have someone normal to talk to. A chance to take his mind off of how much he'd been running himself into a spiral laying there in the bed alone. He seemed to perk up a bit though still couldn't hide just how tired he looked.
"I ******** hate taking it easy. I get so ******** bored just SITTING." he interrupted himself and raised a brow at her. "You can like... do that? That'd be..pretty awesome actually." It'd help keep him awake too.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:31 pm
"No promises but I'll certainly try." She smiled over at him. Genuine but subtly.
"All you need to do in return is not go stir crazy until then. you're crazy enough without the stir." A playful wink sealed the fact she was more... at ease again. Yep. He was going to be fine and on his feet again the moment they need straps to keep him off them.
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