Between Rounds...(After Tournament Round 1)

[Kazuki Akimoto]

ooc: For those of you stupid enough to think otherwise...Yes, all control here was approved by Kira. Yes, this is CLOSED. Thank you, have a nice day.

ic:

-After the first round-

He'd thought about where he could go after leaving the arena, he'd questioned just what to do, and he knew one thing for certain.

He was NOT going back to the club. Rene seeing him in this state? She'd tie him to a chair to stop him getting into the next round...As such, he'd roughly used a few sheets of tissue paper to wad the cut under his eye as he walked back through the streets. His arm had been aching badly, the shoulder painful as he clenched his fist instinctively to ensure it wasn't broken...He knew that for a fact, but the fact he still had mobility in it meant it wasn't dislocated either.

It probably meant that he'd only partially dislocated it...When Adam had slammed him into the ground, the limb must have been dislodged from its socket briefly, slipping back in awkwardly afterward when the pressure of the impact had subsided and causing the pain he was in at this moment. It was good news, because it meant he'd be capable to compete in the next round...However, it would still require some care, and that cut under his eye wasn't going to be fixed with a band-aid.

He wasn't sure how long it was until he managed to hail a cab down, slipping into the vehicle with a grunt before muttering an address to him, slumping down against the seat on his right side as he closed his eyes. The drive would take around fifteen, twenty minutes, easily. The short nap would be good...It would be...good.....His eyes were heavy at the moment, his body aching all over, and as he closed his eyes, he drifted off for the duration of the cab-ride.

A prod or two stirred the young man as his eyes winced at the premature awakening, glancing up at the driver.

"Wake up, we're here..."

"Thanks..What do I owe you...?"

"Call it forty dollars, even. Now get the hell out of my cab..."

Sighing, reluctantly pushing himself up as his muscles screamed at him, he fished into his wallet, pulling out a few bills and pushing them toward the older man before staggering away from the cab, cursing to himself as he grabbed at a lamp-post for support a moment. Thankfully, his legs weren't injured, just groggy from the awakening. Glancing at his watch, however, he was thankful at the time he saw. It meant she would be awake...

He'd spent long enough killing time before now, and as he pulled out his cellphone, he rang her number in hopes of her being awake to answer...He almost fell to his knees in thanks when she picked up, chuckling quietly at her own slightly groggy voice. Explaining that he was downstairs, and asking her to unlock the security door, he continued to walk toward the door to the building. The buzz as the button on her end was depressed was cue for him to push it open with a grunt of his injured arm, the pain stabbing through his limb as he stepped inside. Stopping in front of the elevator, he asked her to wait for him as he stepped inside, closing over the phone...

The ride up was short enough, his body slumped against the back wall of the elevator before the doors opened. She was in front of him, and the instant he was visible her own brief moment of worry quickly took over as he stepped out.

"I'd ask, but I don't want to know. Come on..."

"Thanks, I appreciate it..."

-Later-

Shirtless, sitting atop of a stool in the small kitchenette, he winced quietly as she fastened up the bandages holding his shoulder in place for the time being, effectively binding the limb whilst leaving him some movement in it. During this time, to a slightly confused look, he'd turned on a ring on the stove before bringing the burner to its maximum heat. Setting down one of her butter knives, blade end into the heat, he left it as it was for around ten, fifteen minutes as she helped him with his bandages. Sighing as he stood up, he walked toward the stove before glancing back at her with a slow shrug...

"You...might want to turn away. This isn't going to be a pretty sight..."

The shake of her head as her arms crossed over her chest was enough for him to sigh...There was no point trying to convince her otherwise at the moment, and as he picked up the glowing red blade by its handle, his palm wrapped in a dishcloth, he shrugged before he spoke once more...

"I warned you...", he muttered before biting down on the sleeve of his coat...

With a quick inhalation of breath, he pressed the flat side of the blade against the cut under his eye, the sizzling of the skin enough to bring the young mans eyes to bulge at the pain, his free palm gripping against the corner of the counter-top so harshly his nails left marks against it...His own, loud growl of pain had been mostly muffled by his coat, but as he removed the blade, throwing it somewhat angrily into the sink, he closed his eyes and slowly breathed...For the next few minutes, that's all he did. Breathe quietly, breathe slowly, and as he raised up his head again, the cut that had been slowly seeping, refusing to close up of its own accord, was dealt with. Cauterized, to be more precise. By effectively scorching the flesh as he had, the blood wouldn't be a hindrance again for him, at least not as it had been before....

"Hey, I did warn ya....", he said, smiling lightly and, after the sudden intense pain, feeling very much more awake than he had been before...As she quipped back at him quietly, she turned and poured a small glass of water for him, setting it down against the counter before sitting on a stool opposite him.

"I think you took one too many hits to the head..."

"Nah, but I took one too many to the eye, as you could tell...Listen, I couldn't press you for a couple of Tylenol, no...?", he grinned, raising an eyebrow and sticking his tongue out at her before she smirked, rising from her stool and picking a small bottle from atop the refrigerator, underhanding it to him with a shrug.

"They'll probably do you more good than Tylenol right now, Kazuki..."

Glancing at the bottle, he nodded and opened the cap, tipping it down onto the counter and dropping two of the tablets down before closing it again, tossing it back at her with a nod. He swallowed them dry before tipping back the water, washing them down with a grunt as he leaned against the counter, closing his eyes a moment and sighing to himself...

"Sorry, Kira..."

"Hey, I've dealt with worse than this. Remember, I dragged Leons sorry ass out of a fountain twice...Not once, twice...."

"Still, I'm sorry if I worried you..."

"It's alright. Just...Keep yourself intact alright? You still owe me burgers and a movie..."

His quiet laughter would linger a moment as he sighed, nodding at the remark in assent before he drifted off, dozing in silence as he succumbed to the sleep which had begun to chase him...

Again, he was woken up with another nudge, this time to his forehead with a swift prod as he blinked, opening his eyes...Kira stood directly in front of him, a mildly exasperated expression on her face...

"Come on, get up....."

Standing with a weary nod, he strode with her guidance through to the couch before settling down against it, ensuring he kept to his right side as Kira spoke again, a mild sarcasm in her tone along with a smile, draping a light blanket over him...

"I'd offer my bed, but we've only had one date. On top of that, God knows what my room-mate would think if he happened to see you there...I'll wake you before the next match is due, give you time to prepare, or something...."

Smiling, the only answer he would be capable of offering came in the upturned thumb he stuck out from under the blanket as his eyes finally dropped closed once more, this time the sleep coming to him undisturbed.

[Darren Blayne]

Voices tugged at the School Captain's consciousness, waking him from a dreamless sleep. One eye opened sleepily, then the other. Darren's brow furrowed in confusion. He'd been awakened from rather sound sleeps before, always having to school with enforcing school law in one way or another. However, those awakenings always occured very suddenly and sharply, either his cell phone going off or walkie blaring orders or information his way. This time, however, was different. Darren, always alert, always ready, could be easily awakened, but this time he was only slowly roused. Quieted voices, heating metal, and a muffled cry of pain finally brought Darren to his feet, clad in only a pair of blue and white plaid pajama pants. He cracked his neck and rolled his arms about their sockets, attempting to limber himself up. He had no idea what was happening, but for someone to have assaulted his very dorm room this way was quite the offense.

And if they saw fit the harm the girl he was rooming with, there'd be even more trouble to pay.

Grabbing his glasses from the nearby nightstand, Darren did not bother dressing himself much more. Slowly, he opened the door connecting his room to the main area, somehow, this time not expecting Tiao wanting to play his video games. His suspicion was met with an affirmation, but not nearly as hostile a one as he had worried about. Standing over the couch was his roommate, Kira Karyuudo, looking down upon a bruised and battered Taiku Akimoto.

Darren simply stood there, quietly, observing the situation for a moment. He assumed that Taiku had been a member of the night's tournaments, something the Captain was more than aware of. Not only did one of his Pillars run the show, Tiao himself had decided to join in this time around. Darren wondered a few things at the time, namely whether Taiku had been the one to face Tiao and get into this position, and, more generally, how his Pillar was faring thus far.

Darren had little time or patience for the tournaments. In truth, he depended not on his fighting skills as much as Tiao, and did not go straight to throwing fists or feet for every problem. Plus, with Kurtz's penchant for mixing things up, Darren found the general chaos and unconstance of the whole thing fairly unappealing. Seeing how hurt the older male on his couch was only reinforced this idea.

Finally deciding to stride in, Darren made his presence much more vividly known, standing up straight and speaking to Kira in his usual, not-so-conversational tone.

"Just what exactly is this one doing here... on my couch?"

[Kira Karyuudo, Hikari]

Looking at Kazuki as he fell asleep on the couch, Kira shook her head slowly, merely watching him for a few minutes. When he'd called, he'd sounded groggy, but then, she did too. And while he didn't catch her asleep, he caught her lazing in bed reading a book. She'd woken up two hours earlier from sleep, and couldn't fall back again.

It was a regular occurrence for her. And while back home with her parents it was a concern, there didn't seem to be much to do about it; Kira was adamantly against taking sleeping pills. Later, in Varron, she could move about her small apartment with peace of mind that she wouldn't wake anyone up, but here in San Francisco, she didn't risk moving about the small space... The last thing she wanted to do was wake Darren and have a grump on her hands because she woke him.

Crossing her arms, she thought to just a few minutes ago, as he cauterized his own wound. With a slight shudder, she shook her head. It definitely wasn't something she figured she would ever see done in front of her own eyes, and the odour from it still lurked in the small space.

The light tappa tappa of feet against the kitchen floor alerted her to the fact that she would most likely have a rather grumpy roommate on her hands. The girl who was still clad in naught more than a pair of shorts and a tank-top twisted slightly to look back at Darren after he spoke, finally shifting her body towards him with a small, exasperated sigh.

"Let me know if it truly bothers you, and I'll buy you a new damned couch, Darren." She quipped, her tone mirroring his save for the hint of sarcasm. "Otherwise, he's just crashing until we head over to the school. I'll wake him and make sure he's out of here in good time if you happened to be worried about it..."

While she was serious, there was a hint of good-nature in her voice, just a small slice of it. She found it amusing that he came out, aside from apparently being woken up. If she'd mentioned the fact that it must have been because there were noises and that he might have been concerned about her, he'd probably just sniff and shrug it off with some sort of remark that he'd been worried about his things...or whatnot.

"Otherwise, Darren, I don't know exactly what he got himself in to... Though, by all the gossip going around, there's a tournament?" She questioned, her tone mildly dry, though it was overshadowed by her curiosity on the subject. Quirking na eyebrow, she had the oddest thought skim through her mind: 'Could it be we just might have a whole conversation, here..?'

[Darren Blayne]

Darren listened to the girl explain the situation, still wondering, slightly, in the back of his mind, just how the girl had ended up living in the same dorm room as he did in the first place. Pushing it farther back for now, Darren opted instead to focus on what exactly she was saying.

"Yes, O'Neill's fondness for money and the typical adrenaline-fueled teenager's fondness for violence go hand-in-hand once every few months. It keeps the both of them content, and as long as they're content, they continue to listen to me."

Darren spoke of the tournaments, not directly mentioning them, but knowing Kira to be smart enough to gather what he meant from his words, if the simple fact that he had, indeed, started by agreeing with her question.

"As far as this one goes," Darren said, raising an eyebrow in Taiku's sleeping direction, "as long as he's no trouble, he can stay here until the next round, as far as I'm concerned. Only, next time, if you can, I'd like to be warned if we're having visitors. Perhaps then I'd have a chance to... wear something decent?"

Darren let out a small, almost derisive snort, barely a laugh, barely anything but a quick exhale, but the joke was there all the same. As he did, he looked down once more upon the sleeping Taiku, sniffing the air as he did so. The scent of burning flesh still lingered somewhat in the room. The School Captain casually brushed past Kira, his arm accidentally grazing hers as he did so, as he moved towards the kitchen. The knife Taiku used to seal his wound was still warm, and had a few specks of blood and skin on it, taken off from the intense heat. Darren looked upon with it with little visual indication of disgust, horror, or anything of the sort. Rather, he simply opened the tap and plugged the stopper, filling the sink with cool water, and dropped the knife in, letting the sudden change of temperature bring about a hiss of steam.

"A clever method, if not a bit savage," Darren remarked, mostly to himself, but loudly enough for Kira to overhear. Moving back into the living room, Darren leaned upon the frame that divided the kitchen from the living room.

"You care about him, don't you?" he spoke again, finally to her, asking about Taiku. Darren was curious, in honesty. It seemed strange to him, how wildly different that first impression of this girl was to the one he now saw before him.

Perhaps he had been too hasty in writing of all of the Varron transfers as the same...?

[Kira Karyuudo, Hikari]

Kira offered a nod at his own explanation, though he didn't directly reference the 'tournament', it was apparent that was what he had meant. As he turned to look down at the man upon the couch, Kira could only raise an eyebrow, half-expecting some snide remark, yet pleasantly surprised at his words. Her lips turning up slightly, Kira could only mentally shake her head.

"I didn't plan on him phoning, much less needing to be here to crash...but he'll be no trouble at all. And as for giving you warning, I didn't want to wake you... I don't fancy having a grumpy room mate first thing in the morning. Not that you're 'indecent' in what you just happen to be sauntering around in now. Not much more than what any other guy would sleep in." Her lips quirked higher, becoming a slight smile before it faded as he walked past, lightly brushing against her by accident.

She shrugged slightly, leaning against the high edge of the couch, watching Kazuki a moment before her attention was diverted by a plop and a loud hisssssss as Darren dropped the knife into the water she'd neglected to hear him put into the sink. She caught his comment, but took no offence to it.

"True," She murmured, almost, almost shocking herself at her agreement with the School Captain, but quirking an eyebrow instead. "But, sometimes you just have to make-do with what you have on hand, no? Besides, chances of him getting into the hospital in decent time to get it treated would be a miracle."

In those few moments of silence, Kira sighed quietly, leaning further against the couch, closing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose softly. Slumping slightly, she sat on the edge of the arm, looking over at Darren through her bangs at his question.

For a moment, she thought of joking and brushing it off at first, but it didn't seem like a wise idea to do that straight-off. Best be honest, at least. "Yeah, I care for him...a great deal, at least." On a sigh, she shook her head, offering a slight, now joking, smile. "Wouldn't be letting him in here to slump on your couch otherwise..."

Smothering a mild yawn, she sighed again, a mere expulsion of soft breath, hardly audible. 'I'd give nearly anything for a good night's sleep...right now.' Of course, it wasn't about to happen. Slowly stretching, she got up off the couch, intent on making coffee, or tea, at least. Something with sugar and caffeine to boost her system to life.

"Coffee, tea, while I'm up and about in here?" She called softly over her shoulder, putting a kettle on the stove. They had instant coffee, by the looks of things... It would do, anyways. She hadn't seen a coffee maker in her time here, and so it seemed instant was the way of choice. At times like this, Kira found it didn't matter. Keep herself busy, maybe then she'd stay awake too.