Day 58: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of

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[dreadofthegrave]

.... So, it was morning. It may have been early, and he had slept well enough, but Battler certainly couldn't say that he felt all that refreshed. To tell the truth, part of him just wanted to stay in bed. But he couldn't do that, right? In fact, he should have never slept at all. .... He didn't have the time to be sleeping here. He had to gather information

[rocksthecourt]

As per usual, Klavier was up before his escort had come to the room to collect him for the day. Though it had been several days now, he couldn't say he was adjusting to this whole military shift very easily. The nurses had been a little irritating at times, true, but he would much rather be greeted with a smiling face in the morning than this new stern one. The contrast somehow seemed more apparent with the jarringly upbeat morning announcement by someone he didn't even recognize. Klavier almost had to wonder if he'd woken up in some parallel dimension by mistake. Who the heck was this now? Just how many people were in charge here? And how many were in on this whole mess

[dreadofthegrave]

.... Oh, great. This guy. Not that Battler had a problem with him, exactly, but right now, he would rather just have been left alone than try to figure out what exactly went when on in this person's head. Of course, with so many people around, he wouldn't really be granted the luxury of telling him to go away. Even if he did, someone else would just end up taking his spot, and at least in this case, he had a vague idea of what to expect. .... That kind of irritating comment was one of them.

"A pain in the ass guy like you? How could I forget," he provided sarcastically. He probably sounded a little frustrated, in part because of what he'd been thinking about, and in part because he'd been interrupted from it, but a part of him was glad to have something else to focus on for the time being.

And speaking of distractions, "... By the way, I heard you left out some things from when we first met."

[rocksthecourt]

The response was quick. Surprisingly so. It was enough to get Klavier laughing a bit despite the slightly irritated tone used. Well, someone was certainly awake this morning, weren't they? Good. He would take that as a sign that things were just fine. Possibly not in the best of moods, but fine nonetheless. If anything were really wrong, he'd expect the guy to be a bit more distressed looking.

Rather than continuing along with the usual small talk, however, Red suddenly said that. His eyebrows lifted a little, surprised and curious at once. It wasn't at all what he was expecting, he had to admit

[dreadofthegrave]

"Gossiping? .... Not really. I just mentioned I'd heard a little about it," Battler shrugged. It was a pretty flat response for him, admittedly, but at the moment, he honestly didn't have the energy to be screwing around. The contrast was kind of off-putting, actually, but he didn't feel pointing out that he wasn't in the mood and drawing attention to himself. So instead, he continued the conversation.

"Like a giant scorpion? You don't think something like that is weird enough to point out?" He wasn't quite sure what to make of that bit of information, to be honest.

[rocksthecourt]

...Yes, needless to say, Battler really wasn't in much of a playful mood today. That was a shame. He wondered if it was due to anything in particular or if he was simply not a morning person. It could have been either, honestly. Not that Klavier was going to let that ruin anything for himself. This was the first time in a very long while he was in a relatively good mood after waking up here. So he wasn't going to let it be shattered too easily. No, this just meant he'd be a little reserved with his own banter. To a point, anyhow

[dreadofthegrave]

The way Klavier openly admitted he'd left things out without changing tone or expression, as if this were perfectly natural, gave Battler some pause. "... What the heck, what a shameless guy," he muttered to himself. "If it's so important, then shouldn't you be saying that right away instead of in such a vague way

[rocksthecourt]

Perhaps his deduction was correct. It didn't seem Red was terribly happy about certain items being excluded, though Klavier himself didn't see what the issue was. It would have been a problem had Battler asked for a description of that night. But he hadn't. And it wasn't like he'd excluded it entirely. What they were attacked by changed little in the context of the story. Was that really what Red was thrown off by?

"Ah. My apologies. I would have included it had I known you would consider such a thing so important." He didn't look very apologetic. Actually, he looked like he was trying not to laugh at someone being needlessly nitpicky. Which was only partially the case. "If I recall correctly, you had simply asked how it was that we met. I didn't think that every single little detail of that night was necessary to establish that. ...Especially since I was throwing a lot at you in one sitting as it was. I remember what it's like to sit down and have all of this mess thrown into one's lap, after all. It's a lot to take in. Even before

[dreadofthegrave]

...... Incredible. Just ... incredible. Battler had thought to himself a few times things like 'What is wrong with this guy?', but had kept it to himself, thinking it the product of a bizarre first meeting. Right now, however, he was already frustrated, and hearing this, and seeing the nonchalance that came with it, didn't help at all. And, without anywhere direct the stress from the real source of his tension, it was only natural that something like this would cause him to release those feelings in another from

[rocksthecourt]

The silence that followed actually wasn't the least bit jarring as far as Klavier was concerned. He'd already figured Battler was annoyed or irritated anyway, so the reaction didn't cause much of a second thought. That is, until Battler actually spoke