Roenan noticed he had actually drifted off only when he was shaken awake. He was startled for a second until he saw Drakke standing over him, with a finger over his own lips, wanting him to keep quiet. He sat down on the other bed and bent to unzip a bag at his feet. He pulled out a uniform that looked exactly like the one he was always wearing. The suit was a dark navy color, with tan boarders on the pockets. There was also a thick tan dress shirt with a collar, and a pair of really expensive-looking shiny black shoes. There was a set of tan gloves and a navy military hat that Drakke set back in the bag. While his hand was still in the bag, he pulled out a pair of tan dress socks. He set everything on top of each other and handed them to Roenan.
"This is yours," He whispered while shaking the bag a little. "I was supposed to give this to you tomorrow, but go put that on now." Drakke pointed his chin at the pile he just handed Roenan.
"Wait, am I going to the University's office now?" Roenan asked, horror on his face.
"No, no. Just go change." Drakke said with a smile.
Roenan narrowed his eyes at him, but got up to go to the bathroom and change. The bright light in the bathroom was on at all hours, just like the light in the hospital room. Roenan had worried a few weeks in that he'd probably never be able to see in the dark again once he got out of this place. He also thought that it was probably some weird tactic to throw himself and Saive off from know the time of day, but he was able to figure that out a little bit with Drakke's visits and schedule.
He began to undress. He looked up in the mirror when he was standing only in his breifs, the bandaging wrapped around his chest. He definitely had lost some weight and his usually toned body was looking less muscular. He was looking almost as pale as a Vernajjian at this point. When he spent enough time in the sun, he always looked more Jaedan. But he hadn't been outdoors in a little over a month now. Roenan promised himself that he would work on getting stronger again, preferably outdoors, once he was out of the hospital. Though, he had a sinking feeling he wouldn't have to make that promise for it to happen. He was dreading the boot camps.
Roenan tore his eyes from the mirror before he could get upset about his appearance any longer and bent down to grab his clothes. He changed into the uniform as quickly as he could. The fabric felt so foreign on his body after being in hospital clothes for so long. It was almost stiff and uncomfortable.
He tied his last shoe and moved to stand in front of the mirror again. His eyebrows rose when he saw himself. He didn't look half bad. The uniform was really dapper and it brought out the silver spotting in his eyes. He liked that the Vernajjian uniform brought out that Jaedan aspect in him.
There was a huge University Emblom on the right breast of suit jacket, opposite of the pocket on the left. The crest, in the shape of an arc, was split into four images. One was the blue, tan, and brown Vernajjian flag, shaped to look like it was blowing in wind. The second had the symbol of the country's communist party. It was a pale hand holding the world and the world had a crown resting halfway around it. It represented the country's sole religion, its one god, and the communist monarchy's rule on the world. As if the higher power approved of it. Roenan's nose crinkled at the image. The third part had a small grey building with a bell tower, probably representing the University. Finally, the forth part had the symbol of a caramel brown eye, the humanly feature most often associated with a Vernajjian. The same kind of color his silver eyes faded out to. The same color eyes that Drakke had.
Roenan grabbed his hospital clothes off of the floor and headed for the door. He closed the door quietly behind him once he exited and went to set his hospital clothes at the end of his bed before sitting down on the edge of it to face Drakke.
"Not bad, Jaeda," Drakke whispered as he nodded, an impressed expression on his face. "I just thought it'd help you blend in more. There are actually cameras in the hall."
There was silence for a moment as Drakke looked Roenan up and down. "So are you just going to enjoy the show or do we have some sort of game plan here?" Roenan asked quietly.
Drakke snickered. "Oh there's a game plan, alright. Let's get you out of this room for a couple of hours. Consider it my many thanks for the tutoring lessons." Roenan was glaring at Drakke. He had pin-pointed something that wasn't right, but he wanted to wait until they were at their destination to call Drakke out on it. He was tired of having to whisper.
Drakke stood up and beckoned for Roenan to follow. He had his own bag around his shoulder as they exited the room into a bright hallway that went either left or right. Drakke made sure the door was shut and locked behind them before he turned left and began walking.
Roenan followed until Drakke stopped before a door not too far down from the hospital. He pulled a card out of the breast pocket on his uniform and slid it into an identification device to the side of the door, before pulling it back out and scanning his finger over a bright green light on the same device. Roenan heard a small beep in the door and the sound of it unlocking. Drakke opened the door and beckoned Roenan in before him. It was completely dark in the room and Roenan could hardly make out what was in front of him.
"Wait..." He said to Drakke when he went to switch on the lights. "Don't turn that on yet. Close the door really quick." Drakke raised an eyebrow and closed the door until they were surrounded in completely blackness.
He took a deep breath, scanning around the room, admiring the darkness. "It's been a while since I've seen the dark." Roenan said quietly.
Drakke snorted. "You're probably the only person I've ever met who's been excited to be in a small dark room. As for me, I'm turning this on before I have a panic attack." Drakke hit the switch to the light.
He hadn't been lying, it was a very small room. It was big enough to house a dark wooden oval table and six chairs. There were a few filing cabinets against the wall to the right and a marker board hung in the center of the plain wall across from the door. "The medics use this for brief private meetings. There wouldn't be any cameras in here."
"What about the cameras in the hall? Won't they see you enter into the hospital room by yourself, shouldering two bags, and then exit with one less bag and a human in uniform?" Roenan asked.
"I like that you're observant. But I'm not too worried. Rumor's already gone around that you're starting at the university tomorrow. I'll tell them I was giving you a bit of an orientation. Plus, it's just good to make sure your uniform fits since you'll be wearing it most days," Drakke set the bag on the table and dropped heavily onto one of the rolling chairs. It slid back slightly from the motion. "Also, there are only certain rooms that have actual people watching for twenty-four hour surveillance. A lot of these cameras only record and you would have to attain the footage for viewing and I doubt they check those unless somethings big has happened. Like a medic being murdered by someone's bare hands." He added, smiling cheekily.
"Okay, cut the shit. What happened to your appalling accent and sentence structure?" Roenan asked.
Drakke's smile widened until his dimples showed. He laughed and threw his hands up in surrender. "You caught me," he said. "I figured if we'd be drinking together, you'd probably find out anyway. I can only put that act on for so long." He reached forward and started unzipping the bag. Roenan still glared at him, expectantly. Drakke looked up too meet his stare.
"I'm fluent." He said.
"Fuck off...," Roenan shot back, irritated. "Why did you waste my time like that?"
Drakke looked at him with an uncaring expression and gave a shrug. "Come on, you would have been so bored in there and so would I. It gave us both something to do while you recovered and while I was on duty. Although, I always did stay an extra hour," He added with a wink, pulling the bottle and two glasses out of the bag and setting them on the table. "Also, I was gauging to see if I could land you a teaching or tutoring job at the university."
Roenan flared with anger and reach forward to grab him roughly by his collar. Drakke let it happen without fighting back and lolled his head back and to the side to glare at Roenan from underneath his eyelashes. "Are you going to hit me?" He asked.
"I should!" Roenan shouted as he pulled Drakke's collar toward himself before slamming him back down against the back of his chair. The table scooted a little across the linoleum floor as the back of the chair hit it, and the chair rolled slightly. "You've pissed me off."
Roenan took a deep, shaky breath to calm himself, his grip loosed on Drakke's collar. He realized he'd become short-tempered and reactionary since being stuck in a room for months. Saive was irritable too and he believed that's why they were so quick to go fisticuffs when they got especially annoyed with one another.
"So, what... you're my personal guard or something?" Roenan asked before taking another deep breath. Drakke continue to stare at him, motionlessly.
"I told you I'm not interested in assisting the Vernajjian's with their cause. You made me an offer and I took it, but I had something to gain and we were even. If I'm going out there teaching loads of Vernajjian militarists how to speak Jaedan I deserved to be imprisoned as a traitor when I get back to Jaeda." Roenan looked down toward the floor. He found it hard to look Drakke in the eyes at the moment. How could this guy deceive him for so long and how was he so dumb that he began to trust him? Saive had been right in warning him not to be fooled so easily.
He forced himself to look up anyway, right into those cunning eyes. "I'm just trying to go with the program here so I can survive this shit and get home. I have no training. I'm a normal person, not a soldier. I don't stand a chance here if I don't go with the motions," Roenan gritted his teeth. "You should jot down in that stupid little notepad of yours that it's my full intention to get back to Jaeda, and to get back there alive - with my pride intact."
They stared at each other in silence for a moment. Drakke brought his hands up and gently wrapped them around Roenan's fists clenching his collar. He moved his fingers up and down patting them consolingly. "I'm sorry Roenan. I am. I've been trying to, I guess, protect you from the other types of jobs they'd probably sign you up for. Everyone has to have a job while at the university. It's part of the whole ordeal. Some are just much more... unsavory than others..." Drakke swallowed loudly and went quiet for a moment. "I've already informed the uppers that you're good at tutoring and that you'd fit well in the role of a campus tutor. Can you please just trust me?"
Roenan released his grip on Drakke's shirt and straightened up to look down at him. "To be quiet honest, Drakke, I'm not sure that I can. I really want to. I really want to be able to trust someone here to help me get through this smoothly. But your record of honesty has just proved itself to be pretty shit these past couple of minutes," He responded before adding, "And I never asked for your protection."
"That's something I want to give by my own choice," Drakke responded immediately. He ran his hand across his face in exhaustion and began to straighten his collar out. "Let's just drop this for now and have some drinks. This is supposed to be a good time before you leave."
Roenan stared down at him for a couple more seconds, but Drakke wouldn't meet his eyes. He turned and pulled out the nearest chair before sitting down on it, dejectedly. Drakke cleared his throat and reached in his bag again. He pulled out a deck of cards.
"I thought we could play a little game." He said with a small smile.
Roenan was sulking with his arms crossed over his chest, slouched in his chair, and looking to the whiteboard as if the secret to his escape was written up there. Drakke shuffled the cards and began to deal them.
"Don't be like that." He said as he switched between flicking cards facedown into Roenan's pile and his own. Roenan's eyes flashed at him angrily before looking back toward the board.
"What do you want me to do? Do you want me to get down on my knees and beg for your forgiveness?" Drakke asked, looking up at Roenan as he dealt the last card with another cocky smile playing across his face. "I could do that if you really-"
Before He could react, Roenan was up and placing his left knee between Drakke's thighs on the chair to bend over him. He grabbed his face in both of his hands and pulled him into a hard kiss. It all happened so fast that Roenan could still feel the chair rolling back slightly from the movement.
Drakke made a noise in his throat as he pushed at him. When Roenan didn't budge and returned the shove with a nip at his lip, Drakke made another noise and Roenan felt him use his knee unbuckle the back of his supporting leg and simultaneously pushed him hard in the chest, right where his wound was. It sent Roenan to the floor on his back. Before he could gasp back the breath that escaped him on impact, Drakke was on top of him dragging him up by his shirt and bringing his fist down to hit Roenan hard under the eye.
"What the fuck do you think you're playing at?!" He yelled dragging Roenan back up again to get in his face. Drakke tossed him down to the floor before he stood up and tore away to hide his face. He brought the back of his hand up to his mouth and pressed.
Roenan was staring dazedly at his back as little black dots flickered in his sight. Drakke's head was lowered and he was breathing hard, frozen where he stood. Ronean could see the backs of his fingers limply floating by his mouth, until they disappeared as he wiped his hand across his lips.
"Shit." Drakke whispered, shifting where he stood.
Roenan was loudly struggling for breaths which were coming up short, since having the wind knocked out of him.
"I wanted to test," he gasped for a breath, "if I could trust you." He gasped again and laid his head against the cool linoleum and closed his eyes. He felt blood trickling down his face toward his ear and his cheek was already warm and swelling. He wiped at the blood and opened his eyes again.
Drakke was still facing the other way with his head down. He didn't say anything.
Roenan's breathing was finally smoothing. "I figured... if this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass, then maybe you aren't reporting everything I say and do."
Drakke glanced over his shoulder to look at Roenan. "Is that what this is all about - about you not trusting me?" He looked back away. "Now I'm the one who's pissed off."