unpocoloco | Daybreak IC Inbox

That's okay, class is out anyway. And there's something I wanted to ask you in private, if you don't mind! Are you up for a visitor?

not... entirely not in my room. somewhere else? we can go to that study room.

Okay! I'm on my way!

---------------------

[She wants to stop by the cafeteria and get more food for Peter, but honestly, they're probably feeding him fine in the infirmary. Besides, she doesn't want to keep Hector waiting.]

[He probably got to the study room before she did since she was in the academic buildings, so when she arrives, her face is flushed from the cold. She's breathless, but smiling.]

Ole!

[She meant 'hola.' She's got a lot to learn.]

Oh...you really don't look too good. Do you have a fever?

[She'll find him where he's prommised, leaning against the table with his one hand braced on his cane, eyes glassy with distance. He looks up when she arrives.

And winces a little at her butchered Spanish.]

Hola, Orihime.

[It's both a greeting and a correction. He's almost grateful for it, this small moment of mundanity before he breaks her heart.]

No. Just having a bad... time. Lately. I'll be fine.

[Maybe. He heaves a breath.]

You should probably go first. You said you had something to ask?

[Her mouth falls open at the realization of her error. Then she laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. He looks so sad. A little levity can sometimes help, but if played at the wrong time, it can also make things so much worse.]

[This seems like one of those times.]

I do. I'm a little worried it'll stress you out, honestly. And it looks like you're dealing with a lot right now.

[She sinks down into the chair to look up at him.]

So you don't have to answer. And I haven't talked about it with anyone else, so if it's too personal, I'll never mention it again. But...well...

[Orihime looks away for a moment, shifting her jaw, then peeks up at Hector.]

Are you secretly a ghost?

[He'd disagree, tell it helped. It's just this is a hard situation to make better.

That doesn't mean she can't pull off distracting him though, it seems. His eyes widen and his back straightens. He blinks at Orihime.

And then, to his own surprise, he laughs. It's a strained breathy thing but nevertheless.]

Hah. No. Not a ghost. You can touch my arm if you want to be sure. I'm pretty solid.

What, ah... made you think that?

[She studies his reaction. He's laughing it off, so she could be wrong. But... No, she gave her conditions, she should keep them. Whether his denial is false or true, she has to act like she was foolish for ever believing such a thing.]

Little things, really.

[She shrugs her shoulders, but she doesn't touch his arm.]

First it was your powers. You said it was just glowing, then you said it was the ability to see and speak with the dead, then Peter said you could stop blood loss in spite of not having an arm. It kind of conflicts.

[She taps her fingertips lightly together, looking down at her thumbs.]

Peter also said that the undead don't really hold up so well in the sun, and that's why he couldn't talk to his uncle except at night. The few times I saw you when the sun was up, you looked really sick. And when you saw my brother's picture, you said he would have been older than you. It was kind of a strange thing to say, but when I thought about it...it seemed like the sort of thing that a person who died before might mention.

B-but you're right. It's probably just my imagination being weird, because everything at this school is so amazing.

Edited 2019-02-05 06:50 (UTC)

Oh...

[When she said small things he didn't expect such a list. Those things together, collectively? They're not that small. And Peter's excuse for him doesn't help much either but even aside that, there's so much he's let slip himself. Mistake after mistake.

He could laugh it off. He could let her head bow further. Let her think she's got it all wrong.

But he didn't come out here to lie to her.]

I'm not a ghost.

But...

I am dead.

[He watches her, braced.]

...

...

...

Really?

[She looks up at him, lifting her chin, and studies him silently.]

[Then she touches his arm. And squeezes his cheek.]

But you feel really alive! Why is it a secret?

[Orihime pauses.]

...Peter figured it out too, ne? That's why he said it's your power!

[While she could give the credit to Hector and assume that's the excuse he told Peter, she thinks the world of Peter and decides this is the result of his own perceptiveness and intellect.]

Amazing... You're sure you're not just alive and immortal?

[With how sunken his cheeks are, there's not much there at the moment to squeeze, meaning it's really more of a pinch that she's tugging him down into.]

Ay! Ah! Orihime!

[She keeps speaking. It's not the worst reaction he's gotten but he winces all the same between the pinching and just about everything she says. He leans back to the table, unable to move her hands with his singular one holding his cane.]

No! No.

[He waits a beat to be sure she's going to let him be. Then he slumps.]

...No. I'm definitely dead. And I'm definitely not immortal.

[Not even immortal from the undead side of things.]

I can show you but... it might be frightening and I don't want to scare you.

[He doesn't look quite so depressed anymore, so she'll consider this a success. Having been successfully fended off, she sits back down and smiles.]

Even if you barfed up tentacles and grew a thousand eyes and arms, I wouldn't be scared of you. You've been really kind to me since my very first day here!

[Orihime shakes her head slightly.]

You can show me anything you need to. I won't run away.

Wow, alright, well that makes one of us cause I'd be pretty scared of that.

[This kid...

But, he guesses this means it's time to do his thing. His he relaxes on the table as well as he can, eyes closing. Like when he showed her before, his power lights up, illuminating the markings under his skin and each bone too.

In seconds, the flesh is dissolving, floating away in a shining golden dust before it vanishes. What's left behind is a skeleton in clothes too big. The skeleton sighs with an obvious relief, glad to be free of that tiring half form. In dark sockets, his eyes open.]

Like I said. Dead as a doorknob.

[Orihime sits patiently, watching the transformation. He warned her that it would be scary, and internally she braces herself. But it's not scary at all.]

[When he opens his eyes, the smile on her face is sweet and understanding.]

It's pretty.

[She reaches up, very gently brushing her fingers over one of the colorful markings on his bony face. He really doesn't have to worry about this so much.]

I have so many questions. I don't want to cause you any pain by asking something insensitive, but...if you don't mind?

[Pretty. She said that before. He'd understood before. He doesn't understand now. He's so much more used to fear and screaming, or threats. He's not prepared for the way she brushes her fingertips over his markings.

When she speaks, he blinks at her, half dazed when he answers.]

...I don't mind. It's fine.

[Though that could change depending on what she asks.]

[She kind of just wants to hug him, but that seems awfully personal and invasive. Still, she hates that he looks so uncertain and ashamed. He's a good person. Anyone who would reject him for something like this would kick themselves for missing out on a warm and selfless friendship.]

I wanted to ask how it happened. Why you're here.

[She folds her fingers around her fist, shoulders hitching.]

If there's anything I can do to help. Things like that. ...And what your power actually is, since I have no idea anymore!

[He winces as she gets to the end of that.]

Oh, right...

[He looks down.]

I'm sorry. I lied to you. That was bad. And you don't have any reason to trust me but I swear I didn't lie about anything else but this.

[Which doesn't change the fact that he's lied to a kid. Again. His hand tightens around the cane handle.]

This is pretty much my whole power. I can change back and forth from normal to this. And I can do partial. As a skeleton, I can come apart a bit and still control and feel my limbs. And I guess... I can see ghosts too, but I was telling the truth when I said I didn't know I could do that. I guess I can't really tell them apart from the living.

Other than that... really, the main thing is that I get to be here. Dead, but not entirely. That's my power.

[Still not particularly useful in any way for the cause.]

When you say "how it happened", do you mean how I got like this? Or how I died? And by here do you mean at Daybreak? Or here here?

What's bad about that? It would be weird to expect you to introduce yourself to people as dead right from the start!

[She laughs a little as she says it.]

And it's not unusual to want people to know you for more than that. I'm sure you probably had plenty of bad experiences that made you feel like you had to hide that part of yourself. So you don't have to apologize to me. I understand.

[Orihime nods once. And with that said...]

Pretty much all of that! Are you stuck this way permanently, or do you have unfinished business that's keeping you here?

[He laughs a little nervously. It's sweet how she puts it, like it's just him feeling shy and self-conscious. Not like an active fear someone's going to put him down or otherwise get in the way when he tries to get back home.

His cane taps and traces a little on the floor. There's a need to fidget and no means to do so but this.]

Uh... well... I got sick. Really sick, really fast and uh... I didn't make it to the hospital. I kind of wound up in the outlands by accident. I don't know how, but that was where I died.

When I woke up, I was un esqueleto. There's others like me, but not a lot. We're pretty rare. We've talked a lot about why or how but we never really figured it out.

[He shrugs helplessly.]

For whatever reason, we've got a second chance. But it's not permanent. I'm still going to die for good one day. And... technically... no... nothing's actually keeping me here I don't think...

But...

[He falls silent for a moment. When his voice comes back, it's quiet.]

There's someone back back home. In Santa Cecelia. I miss her. So much. I've been trying to make it to her since before I died, but it's been hard. All I really want... is to see her again before my time runs out. I came to Daybreak because they got me out of a tight spot, wanted to study my blight, and I thought, if nothing else is working, maybe I could learn something here that would help me get home. So, here I am. I'm not really looking for a way to pass on. I want to see my girl.

[She folds her fingers over her mouth and furrows her brow in thought as she listens. That's definitely a strange experience! It sounds like he didn't suffer for very long at least, but that probably matters little.]

[Right now, she's thinking hard about what she can do. And an idea is starting to rapidly take root.]

How far is it? I'll fly you there.

[She lowers her hand to lay it over the other.]

They teach students to fly planes and helicopters, and I definitely plan to sign up for that! Once I'm good enough, I can practice by flying to your home. It's probably not the fastest solution, but...I'd be happy to do it, and I'll dedicate extra time to studying so they'll go 'Wow she's a natural!'

[She's happy. Excited. Offering to learn to fly a plane and take him there. Dios, he's almost selfish enough to take it, but he can't take the twisting illness in his guts, the guilt curling up in his rib cage. He can't take her offering him anything good when...

His eyes squeeze shut and his head bows. Had he any flesh over his knuckles right now, they would've gone pale.]

Orihime.

[It's a plea. A small one for her to stop and wait a second. She's distracted him enough. If he lets this go on he's going to lose nerve he's not even sure he has as is.]

We need to talk about your brother.

Onii-chan?

[She blinks, but...looking at his face, and the obvious discomfort he's in, and the grim tone of his voice...there's a sudden pit of absolute dread in her stomach.]

What...what about him...?

[She's still smiling, but it's a hollow smile ~~IRONY~~ that doesn't match the fear in her eyes.]

He's not laying low, Orihime. He, uh... I was out the other day. And I heard him, so I went, and--

[Try as he might, he can't keep his voice steady. He can't even keep his hand steady, trembling as it is with the memory.]

That monster has... a lot more working for it. I didn't get there in time. I couldn't do anything. They got him and... I thought they'd killed him. But when I looked, he'd changed. They did something to him to break him and he changed.

I don't think he's okay, Orihime.

...you...you saw it...?

[Her voice is barely a squeak above a whisper. Sora is...but they...there was no time, they didn't even get to prepare! And they were supposed to meet, they were going to...!]

[A shaking hand covers her mouth as a choked sound mewls in her throat. Her body is rigid.]

Ah...awuh...!

[Her tears are hot, burning her eyes as she slowly stands, then turns away, her shoulders hunched. There are two quick wheezing breaths before she swallows a sound of grief and goes quiet.]

[A million emotions race through her head. Sorrow. Fear. Regret. Anger. Behind all of it, it's the anger that burns most, and it's getting stronger. She can fix this, she knows what her powers can do. But knowing that monster did this to him...! And it hurt Peter. It destroyed Hector's arm. It turned Tokidoki's beloved sister against him.]

...I...I can't forgive that thing..I'll never forgive it!!!

[He doesn't answer when she asks if he saw it. The press of his mouth, the difficulty in looking at her, it's all telling enough. He can still see it vividly. Even as a skeleton he can feel it churn his absent insides.

Her tears starts and his own eyes close, wishing so bad to undo this moment and every bit that led up to it. He lets her turn away. It's the least he can do, to let her have that moment.]

I'm sorry, Orihime. I'm so sorry.

[It's when she goes quiet that his attention goes back to her. He doesn't know what she means, that she'll never forgive it. He's not sure how she thought she was going to in the first place.

But after that shout, it's a long moment before he tries to speak again. He wants to offer comfort, but he doesn't know if she can get it from him. Not when he's the one to break this news. He can't just go without saying this though.]

Orihime... I don't want you and Peter to go after this thing. I don't want to see it hurt you two any more than it has.

Nnnngh...!

[Her head shakes a little as her shoulders hunch in anger and grief. She hears what he's saying. And she agrees with half of it -- Peter is in no condition to fight beside her right now. She places her palms against the door, then leans her head forward with a light bump.]

I have to... I have to...

[She murmurs, shutting her eyes tightly.]

It's the only way to save him. My powers can reverse it, so I can't just wait for it to go after me.

[Her tears dribble from her jaw. Orihime isn't a pretty crier; her eyes swell up and her nose runs.]

A-and if I can't stop it, it'll keep doing this...over and over...it'll eat him. Eat you. And me, too.

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