[ closed to hina ]

[yokubo]

After the Carnival Corpse, Eiji was in a daze. He was with it enough to know that he should probably stay in bed, but laying there and thinking of what had happened was way too much. More than that, he needed to be there for Hina-chan. Seeing Ankh like that must have felt like a nightmare.

So he used some extra bandages on his feet and headed toward the G-Block stairs. It turned out having no toenails hurt more than he'd imagined, but if by nothing other than pure determination he would reach her cell. He could worry about the return trip later.

By the time he was almost there, he could barely take it. Blood was seeping through the bandages, and he was having a hard time guising the grimace on his face. No one would mind if he sat down in the hall for a minute, would they?

Comments

[dreiwuensche]

Hina, coincidentally, was heading back to her cell from work. Or she was until she came across Eiji sitting on the floor, his feet bleeding. She shrieked and rushed the last few feet over to him, crouching down next to him.

"Eiji-san, what happened?" She knew what his punishment had consisted of, but why would he be here instead of in his cell?

[yokubo]

He couldn't help but jump involuntarily when she shrieked, but he was kind of glad she was there even if he wasn't sure if it was good or bad fortune that she'd found him. He felt pretty guilty, so maybe it was bad.

"Sorry to worry you, Hina-chan." He looked downward. "I thought I could make it to your room."

[dreiwuensche]

"You idiot, you're hurt! You shouldn't be out of bed!" She worried at her lower lip, eyeing his feet. "Can you stand? I'll help you the rest of the way."

[yokubo]

He nodded in response to her question, mumbling a few more apologies as he stood up. It really had been idiotic to think he could walk that whole way, but it wasn't like he had the option of lounging around. He still had things he needed to do. He had enough candy to last a little while, but he didn't want to miss any more work if he could help it. Not saving up all the CP he could was pretty stupid too, wasn't it?

"You really don't have to help. I just needed a break is all." He tried to reassure her with a smile, but it wasn't bright and cheerful like it usually was.

[dreiwuensche]

And she wasn't buying it.

"If you were going to see me, it's only right that I help you," she pointed out. "Besides, you can't do everything on your own."

[yokubo]

He opened his mouth to protest, but was quick to shut it again. Arguing against Hina was fighting a battle you couldn't win.

"I'm glad you're here to help me out, then." He smiled meekly. It was hard to give in and accept help, but this time it seemed like he didn't have a choice.

[dreiwuensche]

She looped his arm over her shoulders and her arm around his waist, then helped him to his feet.

"I'm glad you're okay, though," she said as she led the way to her cell. "That was... all of that was awful."

[yokubo]

"Yeah." Eiji nodded. Honestly, he was feeling some guilt over Ankh. He kept telling Hina he would take care of things but he never could. He still wasn't strong enough.

"I'm sorry about... well, if you had to see anything." He wanted to say he was sorry about Ankh, but he wasn't sure that he should even bring it up if she didn't first.

[dreiwuensche]

She was quiet for a moment.

"I tried not to watch very much. But really... watching it couldn't have been as bad as experiencing it."

[yokubo]

"I would have been there with you if I could have... you weren't alone, were you?" He worried about her being alone a lot.

[dreiwuensche]

She shook her head. "Hidari-san was there too. I just wish I could have helped him out more." It had been hellish for both of them.

[yokubo]

That was one good thing at least. Eiji knew that Shotaro was someone it was okay to trust.

"I'm sure you did you best, Hina-chan. I bet you helped him more than you think." He tried to reassure her, but he didn't know if it was working or not.

[dreiwuensche]

"I hope so." Shotaro had just seemed like he was feeling guilty. Survivor's guilt, is that what that was called? "Anyway... here we are." She led him into her cell and sat him down on the lower bunk.

[yokubo]

Once he was actually sitting in her room, he didn't entirely know what to do. He'd been so busy thinking of how to get there he'd sort of forgotten to come up with what to do once he had. Eiji knew that she had to be hurt and scared because of what had happened to Ankh, but how could he even bring that up? It just might make things worse.

"How..." He started talking before he could stop himself. "Um, how are you doing, Hina-chan?"

[dreiwuensche]

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear awkwardly. "I'm fine... You really don't need to worry."

[yokubo]

"If you're sure." Maybe she didn't want to talk to him. Had he made a mistake in coming? "But I know you go through a lot so I just... wanted to be here if you needed someone."

[dreiwuensche]

Maybe Eiji just wanted someone to talk to, and was playing up that it was for Hina's benefit? If that was so then she didn't want to point it out. So she smiled and took a seat beside him. "That's really nice of you. You can definitely stay if you want, I don't mind. There's not much to do around here, though..." She gestured to the rest of her drab cell.

[yokubo]

His primary concern was her, but in a lot of ways he wanted to talk about what had happened too. He just didn't feel okay about anything. All that had happened to Ankh was a big thing on his mind, and he was scared of just how much worse things could get. He wanted to protect his friends but he was failing again and again. He didn't have the power to do anything, and his conversation with Hidari had only made him feel that void of weakness even more.

"Hina-chan," he spoke up, almost like he hadn't heard what she had said, "do you ever feel like we should be doing more than we are now?"

[dreiwuensche]

She looked down at her lap. "...yeah," she said after a pause. "I wanted to go down to G-block and stop them from taking you and Ankh, but you were already gone by the time I got there. I feel so completely useless!"

[yokubo]

That snapped him out of his daze, at least in part.

"You really would have done that for us?" He felt conflicted. That was the kind of stuff they should be doing if they wanted to change things, but he couldn't stand the idea of her being hurt. "... thanks."

It was all he could think to say.

[dreiwuensche]

"Of course! You're my friend and Ankh is, well." She didn't want to say it in an exposed location like this.

She shook her head, though. "I didn't actually get to do anything."

[yokubo]

"You were brave enough to try, though. I don't know if a lot of people would have done that." Eiji seemed to settle into his thoughts for a moment before speaking again. "I'm not very good at coming up with plans on changing things. Every time I've tried before it hasn't worked."

[dreiwuensche]

Plans? Oh. Having a plan besides "Go down there and stop the guards somehow" would probably be useful. Hina twirled her hair in her finger in embarrassment.

"Maybe if we work together we can come up with something," she offered.

[yokubo]

"Like when we decided to hit Ankh on the head?" A smile was hard to hold back when thinking of all of that in hindsight. It was pretty funny.

[dreiwuensche]

She covered her mouth and giggled. "Maybe a little more well-thought-out than that."

[yokubo]

"He probably doesn't think it's as funny as we do, huh?" He laughed too. Sometimes small moments like this were the most important ones.

[dreiwuensche]

"He hasn't brought it up. I doubt he's still too upset about it." She hoped, anyway.

[yokubo]

"That's probably only because he finds new reasons to be mad at me so often that he forgot about the old ones." He chuckled to himself.

[dreiwuensche]

Hina sighed and shook her head, but she was still smiling slightly. "He does seem to be getting better, at least."

[yokubo]

"I'm glad things are starting to work out." It was especially assuring to hear her say it herself. "I'm really happy for both of you!"

[dreiwuensche]

She nodded firmly. "It probably would have turned out different if you weren't here, Eiji-san."

[yokubo]

"Oh, um... do you think so?" He wasn't totally sure what to think of that. He looked confused, then a bit flustered. "I really didn't do that much."

[dreiwuensche]

"Yeah! I haven't been able to be down in G-Block with him, so I'm glad he has a good friend like you with him."

[yokubo]

"Ah, well... you're welcome?" He looked down, not sure if that was the proper response or not. "It's just that I made a promise to you before, remember? I'm trying to do what I can to keep it."