Night 60: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[roseoverture]

[From here]Looked like she was the first one out this way. Utena stopped just short of the Sun Room, turning her light back to see if anyone she knew was coming up the hall behind her. No one so far

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[requitedfate]

[from here]

So far the halls had been pretty clear tonight, but Shiina still stepped with a little trepidation. With Mike and Niikura around, though, she felt a lot more relaxed than she had on her own. Even with her bat, it was a load off her mind if she had others around to watch her back. But she was determined to be there to watch their backs, too.

"How was your day, Mike-san?" They didn't really need to keep up conversational niceties but Shiina didn't want to move in complete silence if they could help it.

[oneman_onekill]

She seemed pretty insistent about it, and Niikura wasn't about to argue something that was already moot, so he let the issue drop once Mike showed up out of nowhere. He gave the shorter man a brief look of exasperation (Sheesh, it was one thing to show up late; it was another to show up late and then pretend like you'd been there the whole time.) before they finally, finally began moving.

Actually, it had probably only been a couple of minutes, but when you were an impatient teenager, a couple of minutes swiftly became an eternity.

He strolled casually next to Shiina, even though one hand was resting not so casually on the hilt of his sword and, to be honest, he was just a step or so ahead of her, enough so that if he had to, he could jump in front of her. "Food's a lot better now, huh?" Niikura added with a smile as his eyes drifted around the hall, looking for potential sources of trouble.

[hiddenbadass]

"Coulda been better, but the food sure helped," Mike answered with a shrug--he wasn't going to go into details about it. "A lot nicer than the slop we'd be gettin', yeah. Did you stuff your face, Niikura?"

Mike had once been that impatient teenager--but things changed with time. His ability to stand still and wait in ambush had gotten much better since his childhood. (Yet, still, he always had to fidget with stuff on his belt--Mike couldn't help it.)

It was weird to be doing small talk, but Mike had to say, he was getting better at it because of this place. Nothing like meeting new people every day to get you used to talking again. Sure, his throat hurt sometimes, but it was adjusting, just like the rest of him was.

[To here.]