Insert one freshly revived asshole

[birdinhand]

First thing in the morning:
Well, that was terrible. Embarrassing, horrible, and stupid. But, he was glad to not have the pain anymore. And he had his face back the way it belonged. Sure he was vain, but even most people might have trouble with what gallons of acid would do to a person.

He knew he had Hina and Eiji to face out there, as well as the woman that caused the problem in the first place. But first, he was going to get everything back to normal. That meant it was time to get his hair back to something resembling presentable. The tournament and being in bed for days hadn't done it any favors. And if he was taking his sweet time, then that was probably on purpose.

He wanted to see Hina, he really did. He had somehow missed her during his self-imposed isolation. That was something he hadn't expected. But, he wasn't sure if he was ready to see her. Not after what had happened yesterday. If she had seen that, then...

Eventually, he ran out of excuses to not leave his room. He stood the collar up of his shirt and headed for the door.

Later, in the library:
That bitch was gonna pay. And so, he was going to lay bait the best way he knew how. He stretched out on top of the bookshelf, as he usually did, to wait for her to decide she had something to say about it. He was pretty sure Hina and Eiji wouldn't let him anywhere near her if he'd said anything, or worse warn her. She deserved to feel every inch of the pain she'd put him in.

Evening, courtyard
Back in his favorite tree, with a popsicle. He's more or less dressed for the weather for once. He needed a plan for the future. If he was going to return to who he used to be, then he had to put certain safeguards in place first. Because he wouldn't be able to protect Hina the same way as before.

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[dreiwuensche]

As soon as her cell door unlocked that morning, Hina rushed out and down to G-block. But she paused outside of Ankh's door. She didn't want to just burst in.

So she stood there uncomfortably, trying to decide whether or not to knock, when the door suddenly opened on its own.

[birdinhand]

He didn't expect to see her down here in G-block. He expected to see her somewhere near the entrance upstairs. He just kind of stopped and stared, a bit surprised. What was she expecting right now?

But despite that, he smiled slightly. He was glad to see her. Glad that she was safe. "What are you doing down here?"

[dreiwuensche]

When she saw that Ankh was alive and well, Hina grinned. "I came to make sure you were all right," she said.

[birdinhand]

He scowled and glanced over to one side. Just do it, moron.

He took a couple steps toward her and brought his arms around her shoulders to pull her against his chest.

[dreiwuensche]

Hina's eyes went wide, but she didn't waste a moment. She wrapped her arms around Ankh and clung tightly.

"Welcome back," she whispered.

[birdinhand]

He held her for a moment. Yeah, this felt pretty good. She was safe, that was important. "Sorry I stayed away so long..."

[dreiwuensche]

"I was worried," she scolded him. "Don't do that again."

[birdinhand]

He just looked over at her. He let go of her, and grabbed her by the elbows to pull her away again. he reached up to stand his collar back up again. "Let's go see that idiot."

[dreiwuensche]

Hina sighed. She reached up and turned his collar back down. "Eiji-san is not..." Well. "...an idiot."

SORRY THIS IS LATE AND I AM SLOW you can guess where this one is.

[whiteas]

[ As predicted, Weiss always made rounds in the library. While she kept generally busy, she always made sure not to fall behind on studying, not trusting the prison school system to be enough to count as all the education she'll need. She's not here forever, she'll get out. Weiss always reminds herself of that to make sure she keeps herself motivated to come every day, even when the interest of staying ahead of the curve seems like it isn't worth it in this god-forsaken hive.

And Ankh knew her well enough that she'd definitely do exactly as he was predicting. She still felt bad about what she'd done, but it wasn't like that made his weird need to perch a good idea. (Maybe she should see about getting some of those bird spikes they put on store roofs..) She sighed, her hand to her forehead, then crossed her arms as she looked up at him. ]

Ankh, I'm not in the mood to argue today.

Re: SORRY THIS IS LATE AND I AM SLOW you can guess where this one is.

[birdinhand]

[He just looked down at her without any affect whatsoever. He almost appeared to look back at what he'd been reading as if she'd never said anything at all.

But alas, she's not going to get off that easy. He just idly curled his fingers out and flames burst furiously from a scratch in his palm. And there was quite a lot of them.]

[whiteas]

[ At the sudden flames, Weiss's initial reaction is surprise. A loud yelp, followed by backing up into one of the library's chairs in a quick withdrawal reaction. That as a mistake though, making certain that she lost a few seconds trying to regain her balance and the flames caught up to her.

It would be made very quickly apparent that she wasn't afraid to scream for help, especially since she had no weapon, no way to defend herself, and some of her clothing was already on fire in various places. She quickly backed up, trying to snuff it out by beating it, then quickly dropping to the ground to try to roll it out.

She'd never honestly thought that those lessons from elementary school with the stop drop and roll were going to be useful. ]

Ankh, you-!

[birdinhand]

[He still looks completely unaffected. He hops down off the bookshelf.] I thought you ought to get an idea what it felt like to have every inch of your skin burning.

[And he's going in for another dose.]

i forgot about this, mega sorry!

[vaframenti]

[ Loki heard the commotion rather quickly. The library was large for a prison, but small enough that it was hard to miss anything out of place going on. With the type Ankh was he had certainly expected a retaliation, but that it was in the library was perhaps something he hadn't considered as heavily. If Adam wasn't around to take care of the girl he seemed to care so much about, he supposed he would have to do it himself. ]

Putting on a magic show, Ankh? I'm insulted that I wasn't invited.

[ He had stepped out from behind a bookshelf at Ankh's back. If he was lucky perhaps the distraction would give Weiss a window barely large enough to leave. ]

[whiteas]

[ Weiss was fairly capable of taking care of herself- in most circumstances. A guy with blood that catches on fire isn't one of those circumstances. But she knew when to run too, and the second Loki came in after the first bout of flames was out, she scrambled to get up and tried to dash behind Loki to escape. At the very least there'd be a body in the way that Ankh wasn't intent on buring to a crisp.

She'd have to thank him later, whether Ankh chased her or not. ]

[birdinhand]

[And he starts charging after her, through Loki if he must.] Get back here you icy little bitch!

[vaframenti]

[ A predictable response, and one he scoffed at. Loki was more than willing to bet his reflexes were just as good as Ankh's if not better, so at his movement he swiftly moved to block his advance. Even if Ankh was a Deadman, he didn't fear him. Even monsters have a price. ]

I think we can deal with this in a much more efficient manner than violence.

[dreiwuensche]

After the two of them left Eiji's room, Hina reached out to her side and took Ankh's hand. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

[birdinhand]

He shook his head. "Not yet." He tolerated the hand holding for now. Let's see how long that lasts.

[dreiwuensche]

She was glad for that. It was the small things that counted, sometimes.

"Then let's fix that."

[birdinhand]

He still felt miserable about leaving her alone and then dying in that kind of spectacle. But he'd already said what he had to say about that. He was sure she had done everything she could to avoid seeing it, but he didn't have the guts to ask. He just had to move on.

His continued silence was as good as assent to her suggestion, anyway. His grip on her hand tightened a bit before he finally let go as they emerged into the prison proper. He held a finger up for her to wait so he could check the hall to make sure no one saw her coming out. When the coast was clear, he waved her on.

[dreiwuensche]

Hina followed Ankh out into the upper halls of the prison, and then led the way to the cafeteria. There must be some nice delicious cold breakfast food for him to eat.

"So..." she started, but she didn't actually have anything to say. This was a little awkward.

[birdinhand]

He inspected some of the cereal choices. He eventually settles on something bright, colorful and quite Grown Up. And iced coffee. Maybe he does have options aside from subsisting on popsicles.

"Have you been able to work on any clothing lately?" Taking his mind off his worries was probably a better idea for now. Maybe not in the long run, but he wanted to enjoy his time with Hina right now.

[dreiwuensche]

She couldn't judge him for that, she also chose something bright, colorful, and extremely grown up.

"No..." she said wistfully, shaking her head. "I've just been trying to save up enough money to get candy." Since Eiji had helped her out recently, though, maybe...

[birdinhand]

He frowned. That wasn't right. Would it be weird for him to give her some drawing supplies? He racked his memory a bit to try to remember the things she preferred to use. He smiled slightly at some of the memories that started to come back. Those that he had tried to push away while he was gone. They were kind of nice, now. Strangers would be the wrong way to put it, but things were definitely different between them than it had them. And he wanted to change that. But the changes he'd made were going to do all they could to get in the way of that.

"That's a shame. I might have to help fix that." Let's see what she says about that. Even if he thought he knew what her response might be, he was still worried that it wouldn't be something she'd accept from the person he'd become.