Day 55: Cafeteria

[mustbethesuit]

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[zack_fair]

The way night had ended could only be called bizarre. While Zack didn't know Lightning that well, the way she'd reacted still seemed abnormal either way. Falling against her like that had been rude of him, but it had also been an accident. Her response had been a little too severe, hadn't it? And after that she'd acted really odd, which might just have been embarrassment or annoyance, but it had seemed like more than that. He was no whiz at reading people, but he just got this sense that there was something else going on

[composers_proxy]

Neku woke, feeling sore and more annoyed with the world than ever. They had used him to attack the other patients of the institute. He'd nearly strangled one, zapped a couple, blasted them...

He threw off the blankets with a quick, annoyed flick and reached for his headphones. Only they weren't on his desk. They weren't in the desk drawer. And when he raced around the room, throwing clothes right and left, they weren't anywhere else either. Where the hell were his headphones?! He could handle this whole brainwashing mess, but to take his headphones? That was simply unforgivable

[zack_fair]

The number of patients who had been put into solitary the day before wasn't as large as he would have guessed. Zack wondered if that was because tossing food didn't count as enough of an offense; he'd gotten violent with the soldiers, after all, so that was probably where the distinction was. On the other hand, there was a chance that some of the other rule-breakers just hadn't woken up yet. There was still no sign of Tifa, for one thing

[composers_proxy]

Neku glanced up just enough to see the grown man's apologetic look. Granted, it wasn't really his fault, it was this damn institute, but it didn't improve his mood either way. What about doing what you want when you want? This was about as far from CAT's motto as he could get.

"This sucks," he said finally, wringing out the dirty rag before sloshing it around and spreading a flood of soapy water around the tiles. The static buzzing in his head only got worse as more patients entered the room and it was only making things worse. Seriously.

"Aren't you supposed to be an adult or something? What were you doing throwing food around?"

[zack_fair]

The kid wasn't exactly eloquent, but it wasn't like Zack cared about things like that. "This sucks" was probably the most concise way to describe what was going on at the moment, and so he only nodded in understanding. It wasn't like his side of things was much easier. Maybe some people would have seen it as dodging a bullet, but he hated that he couldn't pitch in.

The question that the boy asked him wasn't unreasonable, and yet that wasn't exactly how it had been. Zack sighed and then rubbed at the back of his neck. "I didn't throw much food, actually. I think they took more of an issue with the fact that I started throwing punches at the soldiers. I wasn't really willing to let them beat up my friend, though."

He'd just leave out the fact that Tifa had started it. Considering what had been going on, he didn't really think she'd been in the wrong to do such a thing. It sucked that they were being hung out to dry now, and he only hoped that he wouldn't end up with a reputation among the patients after all this.

[composers_proxy]

The stain under his weak washrag was just starting to lighten, despite his best efforts and teenage apathy. The nod he more or less expected, but when the guy said he was one of the ones actually throwing punches around, Neku actually paused long enough to look up at the man, unable to keep a slightly amused expression from his face. Okay, so maybe the guy wasn't so bad after all. Not that Neku was enjoying the punishment, but

[zack_fair]

It was hard to judge what the kid thought just from that half-smirk on his face, but Zack was going to hope that he approved of fighting more than chucking food. He really shouldn't have been promoting violence to someone so young, but the kid looked like he was his teens and that was about when he'd started. He'd turned out okay, hadn't he

[composers_proxy]

Zack? Sounded foreign, but that was pretty common here. And even if the guy seemed kind of weird, at least he seemed to be telling the truth, for whatever that was worth. Promising he'd be working in Neku's place if he could didn't do him much good though.

He wasn't sure how he felt about sharing last night with the other people here. There was the obvious fallout to worry about if someone he'd try to Erase last night ended up being pissed with him (like that psycho with the ballpoint pen for instance) and even if that wasn't reason enough, Neku wasn't so comfortable talking about it. He'd mostly figured the guy would just let it go at hearing the night sucked. Most nights here sucked.

"At least you weren't trying to attack the other patients here," he said, letting the man draw his own conclusions from that.

[zack_fair]

While Zack was mainly focused on his conversation with Neku, that didn't meant that he couldn't let his eyes wander from time to time, and he soon spotted another pair of patients who were in the same position as him, made to stand and watch in shame. More than that, he recognized one of them as Lightning. Even though he was supposed to be on his best behavior at the moment, Zack couldn't resist the urge to wave over at her. So she had thrown some punches at the soldiers too? He had to admit he would have liked to see her in action, but he'd obviously been busy with his own fights

[composers_proxy]

He moved to the next spot on the floor, taking his time and appearing unhurried. The last thing he wanted to do was put actual effort into something like this.

But at least Zack seemed to get what he was saying. Neku wasn't proud of himself, not by any stretch of the imagination, but even if the same thing happened tonight, he couldn't be sure he'd be any better at stopping himself from doing it all again. That was the hard part. He'd been used and then thrown away and left to deal with the consequences.

"Yeah," he agreed blandly. "I thought I'd been flying pretty far under their radar, but last night would prove otherwise. I think I hurt a couple people pretty bad."

[zack_fair]

Zack was pretty sure that everyone felt like they were flying under the radar until it actually happened. It was the sort of thing where you never really expected it to happen to you, even if you were just as likely to be picked as anyone else. If anything, Zack figured he was more of a target. He had put a lot of his time into learning how to fight and even kill when it came down to it, so he'd be a pretty good candidate. Choosing a kid, though? That seemed wrong

[composers_proxy]

Apologize? Probably. Neku spent the next several moments intently scrubbing an invisible stain on the floor. It struck a chord with him and while he wanted to push the blame and say it wasn't his fault, he wasn't the one in control... it just didn't change the fact that he'd hurt them. Even if the sorry was only an I'm sorry you got hurt, there should probably be one. It just- it sucked and he was pissed and there was no one to take it out on except for the dirty floor beneath him.

"Yeah," he said after a few moments, with a slow nod of his head. There was a reason he kind of sucked at being the conversationalist. Usually this was where Shiki or Beat would pop in with a convenient change in subject.

[zack_fair]

Okay, that wasn't the best response he could have hoped for, but all Zack could do was cross his fingers that his words had actually gotten through somehow. Neku was now just staring at the floor and more or less trying to act like he didn't exist, which only made Zack feel worse. No one that young should have to go through something so emotionally damaging. He'd been through his share of terrible situations at a young age, as had Cloud, and while they'd come out okay, they definitely had a few scars. It seemed like Neku was going to have some too, and Zack didn't like having to see it.

"Anyway... let me know if you need anything, okay? I might not be able to offer much, but I'm always willing to lend a hand." Even to a relative stranger. The kid looked like he needed a few people to rely on, and Zack almost had this instinct for taking people under his wing. Neku might not accept his help, but he could at least extend it to him.