"Th-that's . . . that's so sweet of you, though . . ." Mayako whispered with a wide, happy smile.

Even if he did add that little ending, suggesting that maybe he was a bit subjective about his care for the orphans, it was still extremely kind of him. This sort of thing warmed Mayako's heart. She wasn't overly enthusiastic; in fact, she had so much weighing her mind down that she was somewhat of a pessimist. It was things like this that gave her a bit more hope--it made her happy, got her smiling, and not just pretending to smile, not that facade that an old friend of hers always hated to see. Now, she wanted to deliver Fenix's letter more than ever! The orphans must have been worried sick about him . . .

"A-all right--I'll be right back!" Mayako proclaimed cheerily before backing out of the room and heading down the hallway.

Emma waited until she figured Mayako was far enough away to not hear her. The girl just seemed so enthused, and it was one of the few times Emma couldn't bring herself to be cynical around her.

But alas, Mayako was gone. Emma set her book down. "How does a humanitarian wind up in a place like this? What did ya do . . . orphan some of those kids? Or was it something else that drove you insane?"

Fenix was altogether embarrassed by the praise; what he did wasn't something he really thought of much. But before he could give any kind of reply Mayako was off to deliver his letter to the doctors so that they could mail it out. He knew it would be some time before they got it, especially as someone needed to travel into Algeroth to pick up the mail, but they'd still get it before he could make it up there himself.

Emma was, of course, less than impressed it seemed, but he didn't much care. He could deal with that much easier than people praising him. He wasn't exactly sure what she was asking, but gathered by her tone that she was mostly skeptical about his reasons.

"You know how I wound up in here," he pointed out; she'd seen the whole thing, the only person other than the mysterious duo of Sturm and Usurii that was conscious for the whole event. "And...if you must know, I'm an orphan myself." While it was true that he'd probably never have thought about helping the orphans if they weren't taking refuge in the building he grew up in, it was also true that being an orphan himself played a large part in his desire to help them.

For a moment, Emma just stared at him. She was silent for that time, ambivalent--she didn't seem even remotely annoyed.

"I guess ya just don't understand yet," replied Emma, before lifting her book back up and focusing upon it once again.

Even if Fenix wanted to ask Emma to elaborate, as she had suggested something similar before with little to no explanation, he lost the opportunity just seconds later, as Mayako returned. She lacked the letter and the pen both, having delivered it to one of the two than ran the clinic. Feeling confident that all necessities were taken care of, she collapsed upon the hospital bed to Fenix's left, releasing a content sigh shortly thereafter. Mayako's feet hurt like crazy--she was starting to wonder if she'd even be able to stand and walk around later if she needed to.

"Nhhhh--I'm already ready to sleep," Mayako declared as she stretched out her arms and lounged lazily in the bed.

It was Fenix's turn to stare at Emma, puzzling over her words. I don't understand what? Again, it seemed like she thought he was crazy, which was why he was here. Perhaps in the room itself? But to the best of his knowledge, he was here simply because it was more convenient for Mayako if she could keep an eye on them both. He'd already considered that she and the doctors thought he was potentially crazy, but so long as they gave him the opportunity to recover it didn't really matter if they thought so or not.

Before he could ask if that was the case, Mayako returned, prompting him to keep his thoughts to himself. Technically they hadn't been talking about anything Mayako couldn't know about, but he knew even if he asked she wouldn't answer so long as the other girl was in the room.

Instead, he redirected his focus to Mayako. "Are you going to sleep there?" he asked, wondering if she always slept in the same room as Emma, or if she was just resting and planned to go back to her room later.

"She sleeps here every night," Emma remarked, "I keep tellin' her that she can go sleep in Eld's room where it's comfier or somethin', but . . ."

". . . I . . . I-I don't want to sleep in Eld's room," Mayako interjected sadly.

Mayako didn't comment. She instead reached up to take one pillow from the stack of two upon the bed and laid her head down upon the one pillow, and used the other to hug close to her chest for comfort and security. She liked to have something to cuddle at night.

"I . . . I think if I ever w-worked in a hospital, I'd work in one of those huge ones--like the one that Tsukimono-sama told me about that's in Feiyan. S-some really big place w-with a lot of people working . . . so th-there'd be a little more help during the busy times . . ."

And today had been one hell of a busy day . . .

"That would also mean a lot more patients to take care of, though," Fenix pointed out. He'd never been to the hospital in Feiyan, but he'd been to hospitals before. He was rarely a patient though, since Zach could heal most nominal injuries. Mostly it was him in the hospitals, not Fenix, since he couldn't use his healing magic on himself. In any case, those places were crazy when it was busy, the doctors and nurses were constantly in motion. He was no stranger to activity, but it seemed a bit overwhelming even to him.

What happened to Eld? He wanted to ask, recognizing the name as one of the other two kids (the male, presumably) that had been in Galaens that day, but to Mayako's knowledge he shouldn't have even known who that was. So he kept his mouth shut, making a note to ask Emma about it when he got a chance.

"Is it busy here?" he asked instead. Emma was the only other patient he'd interacted with, so it was difficult for him to gauge.

"Super busy . . ." replied Mayako.

There were several factors that added onto this, and she was going to go over every single one of them--not necessarily out of frustration, though. No matter how frustrating this job should have been, it didn't get to her. In fact, she loved it here--it was just way too busy for her tastes.

"B-because we do more th-than just run a clinic. S-see . . . T-Tsukimono Rebbecca-sama and Tsukimono Urikuse-sama also live here, a-and they don't have enough time to keep everything tidy. S-so . . . I-I have a lot of chores to do around the house, as well as cooking for the patients, a-and taking care of them as best I can. U-usually n-nothing too big, e-excepting you. I-I've give shots a-and all of that, b-but nothing like a long observation period . . ."

Not that it was a bad thing. It was just more time consuming that she was used to. Mayako certainly didn't seem bothered by it, either.

"All the more reason I need to get back on my feet as soon as I can," Fenix observed. Regardless of whether or not she saw anything wrong with it, he was still increasing her workload quite a bit. The worst of it (to him) was that it wasn't anything a hospital should really need to do; the type of care he needed could be provided easily from home. The problem was that his home was (to the best of his knowledge) nowhere near here, so he was stuck at the hospital until he recovered enough strength to travel. Being able to walk was just the first part of the process--he needed to regain the stamina for long days of walking, and for fighting if need be.

That's when something occurred to him, a solution that would help everyone. "I could help out around here once I'm able to walk again," he stated. It wasn't that he felt that he owed them something--his expenses were taken care of, they said--but he'd go crazy if he was forced to sit in bed all day as he recovered. It was necessary now, but once he was able to walk it was not something he was willing to put up with. Preferably he could do something that would let him get outside, or even allow him to go to Galaens if it wasn't too far.

I've had plenty of being confined to a single building for one lifetime.

"M-maybe . . ." Mayako whispered.

She didn't know if Rebbecca or Urikuse would let him help out--that she'd have to ask, but it was a subject that would have to be dealt with at a much later time. Until he was able to get up and move around without any weakness or need for frequent rest, he wouldn't be any help to anyone, and would do nothing more than hurt himself trying. Mayako didn't want that, and the two doctors running the clinic certainly didn't, either.

"I-I'll talk to them about it a little later," Mayako added.

Maybe tomorrow, after I sleep for a little while . . .

Still with a pillow hugged to her chest, Mayako felt much more relaxed now that she had been laying down for more than a few seconds. Exhausted as she was, there was actually a fair chance that she'd fall asleep on her own if no one talked to her. She needed it--or, at the very least, she deserved it.

Tomorrow should be a better day . . .

"Alright."

Fenix didn't have much else to talk about, and it seemed like Mayako wasn't going to last much longer anyway. He remained silent, either lost in his thoughts or not thinking much at all--it was difficult to tell with him. Short of something else interrupting them, Mayako would get the quiet she needed to fall into a well deserved sleep.

He wondered how deeply she slept...could he talk to Emma without waking her? He was curious about why she was so sure he was crazy. He knew he was out of the ordinary, but he didn't think he'd done anything thus far that warranted his sanity being questioned. But he decided not to risk it--he suspected that part of the reason Mayako slept here was that if Emma made much noise she'd wake up, and his question wasn't so important that he was going to risk interrupting her rest and likely earn even more ire from his fellow patient.

Unless Emma broke the silence herself, Fenix would simply lay still, eventually drifting off to his own light sleep...

((Suck post is suck and rushed. Oh well . . . ))

When Fenix next woke, he was treated to a fairly decent breakfast: eggs, toast, and sausage, all cooked by Mayako herself, with the same skill in the kitchen that she always demonstrated. There were no two ways about it: she was an excellent cook. It was unfortunate, she deduced, that it had taken her thought long to understand such a feminine wile as a fair replacement for her obvious lack of physical development past the age of eleven or so, as she'd have tried to get to someone's heart through his stomach before it was too late, and she had lost the opportunity. That was all in the past, though--and she figured enough that she was over it.

Mayako eventually left, stating sweetly that she was going to be taking Fenix outside for a walk--him in a wheelchair, of course--and had also invited Emma, who declined silently. As with every time Emma showed signs of defiance or blatant depression (always, it seemed), Mayako felt extremely bad about it, and with a sullen glance to the floor, acknowledged Emma's wishes and left for the time being, suggesting that she'd be back within the hour.

Emma, too, was awake, but reading--paying very little attention to Fenix, refusing to start conversation if he did not, and if her attitude remained the same as before, she'd likely end conversation just as quick as it started, but if he had questions, it was almost a perfect time to ask them. Mayako wasn't in the room, no one was sleeping, and they weren't going to be bothered by any other clinic staff (all three of them) for at least an hour, when Fenix was going to inevitably be taken outside with the wheelchair, escorted by Mayako.

Even with the short time he'd spent with them, Fenix already figured that Mayako would be turned down for the walk by Emma. The silent treatment seemed to affect her more than he guessed a simple refusal would...it made another question bubble to the surface of his mind.

He might even have the chance to ask it, as Mayako left to make preparations and left the two of them of them alone for the time being. Lacking anything else to do and figuring it was a good opportunity, he decided to say what was on his mind the previous night.

"Why do you think I'm crazy?" he asked without preamble. He was pretty certain he wasn't, and he wasn't sure just what he was doing that made her think that.

Emma didn't seem upset by the question in the slightest, contrary to a prior assumption of Fenix Black's. She remained staring at her book for a moment, though, and after a minute, it seemed as if she wasn't even going to respond--but such an assumption, too, was false.

"Because . . . this is the nuthouse. Don't tell me you didn't suspect it," replied Emma stoically, her eyes unmoving from the page.

After that statement, though, she looked away from the page--finally. Her eyes trailed across to the bed beside of her, to Fenix Black, to his eyes, and for the first time since their meeting, she locked eyes with him. Her features held no rage, not for him or anyone else; she was blank. While watching her before, Fenix was able to conclude that she was much like other orphans, bitter and angry at the world, but upon looking her in the eyes, with her looking right back into his with no emotions clouding her judgment, he might find something different: not a broken psyche, but a broken human being. Someone who was going to find difficulty being human again--just like soldiers of war, unable to distinguish war from peace, unable to feel like anything more than a hairpin trigger.

With all the scars, bandages, and attitude, it was easy for anyone to conclude that something was off about her, but here, at this moment, during a state of pure stoicism, hateful to no one, loving to no one . . . all she needed was a pleasant smile to hide it all away . . .

But she could not manage that. With each word, she trailed her eyes further and further away from Fenix. "Hillcrest. You're in Hillcrest, and you'll be lucky if you leave it. You only leave when you get better, even if that takes dying. That's why . . . Remmy, Sarah, Eld, Etsu, Noah, and Davis . . . are gone. Because they got better enough to leave . . . because they weren't fucked up in the head--like the rest of us--anymore."

Fenix shrugged at the idea that he should've expected the place to be full of craziness. He'd seen little of it, and nothing seemed particularly crazy about it...even Emma, who was undoubtedly at least disturbed, didn't come off as crazy, at least not what he considered crazy. He couldn't exactly pass judgment on Hillcrest, though; so far he'd only seen the inside of a single building.

When Emma finally looked at him, his reaction might surprise her in his sheer lack of it. Unlike the doctors or Mayako, he wasn't perturbed by her lack of emotion--his only change at all was furrowing his brow.

"I was worried about you at first, y'know...you never reacted to anything...you'd just stare at me with cold, empty eyes..."

It was something he'd have to think on later, but now he was talking to Emma and didn't have the luxury.

Unfortunately, he also didn't have the luxury of preventing himself from asking questions he probably shouldn't, such as, "Do you really mean leave the village...or do you mean leave you?"

"It's the same, isn't it?"

She was in the village--and they left. Were they leaving the village, or were they leaving her? Did it even matter? Emma didn't know; it was a concept she couldn't grasp--it was something she had a hard time picturing. No, none of them left her intentionally; it was her fault that she couldn't join them--because she was inherently crazy, and until she could leave, they would leave her behind. That was it--they left her behind and advanced into life, or death, beyond that which she could muster.

How lonely it was to feel useless when there was no one around for which to be useless.

"Not that it matters," Emma shook her head, "You'll be like everyone else, probably. You'll stay here, you'll make babies here, and you'll die here--and your children and wife and friends will be just as fucked up as you are. It's a good time to tell you now, then: Welcome to Hillcrest."

And she went silent, choosing to pay more attention to her book than she was Fenix. Today, she didn't address him with anger, and there was a fair chance that she wasn't going to again. That response was just the initial one, followed in part by apathy--a true lack of care for this man's life, regardless of the fact that she remembered it, and knew what that life had done for all of them . . .