(no subject)

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[There's a young Snake roaming around, seemingly looking for someone. He has a concerned, fleeting look on his face. Despite his training to mask his emotions, he can't help the frown currently furrowing his brows.]

[He's lost someone important. He can't find her anywhere. No matter where he searched, Dr. Clark was no where to be seen.]

[He picked up his pace, moving from a stride, to a jog, to a sprint. His bandanna zipped about behind him, flying around his head. He panted, trying so desperately to find his carer, but when he eventually reached the lobby from searching the hallways of the entire building, he collapsed on a bench in exhaustion, panting hard.]

[Sweat dripped down David's face as he hunched over, trying his best to prevent his frustration from surfacing, but the obvious grimace on his face remained permenantly fixed.]

_Damnit...

Comments

[stoicism.livejournal.com]

[Although he is without a care-giver, there is one thing David should learn to get used to having -- a shadow. A shadow that slips in behind him, moving every which way he does; following him through the halls, lingering against the walls, going largely unseen by the boy and passersby.]

[A shadow named Frank Jaeger.]

[How long this shadow has been following him on his hunt for Doctor Clark is unknown; maybe he'd caught up with him a few halls back, perhaps in the last infirmary he'd checked. It could even be only now that the boy has caught up with the other young soldier -- he won't say. He'll simply linger nearby, allowing his boots to click against the floor as he approaches David from behind.]

...You're tired.

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[Whether or not it was something they had agreed to mutually, the relationship that David and Frank had went deeper than the two of them could have imagined. It would only come to realization when they were mature.]

[David can hear the echoing sound bounding off the walls. He doesn't immediately raise his head. Only when he hears the familiar voice does his chin turn, wearily gazing at Frank.]

Yeah? What of it?

[stoicism.livejournal.com]

If you are fatigued, you are not training hard enough.

Why?

[All Null recognizes is that David was running, possibly with the intent of looking for something. He doesn't grasp the idea of an emotional component behind the act -- something mentally exhausting in addition to the way he exerted himself to examine every visible hallway of the Nexus.]

[ltrstono-one.livejournal.com]

[Sees the bandanna and-] Snake? You're- [A child. It's obviously Snake as a child.] Hey, are you okay?

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[Oh no, it was that creepy man from before. Granted, they all looked the same to him.]

[David wipes his face with his hand.] I'm not Snake. I'm David.

[ltrstono-one.livejournal.com]

David. I'm Hal. Come on, sit down. [Starts leading him over to a seat]

[kare-no-okaasan.livejournal.com]

[Ume comes across the young David while on her way to lunch, a smile on her face until she gets close enough to see the state he's in.]

David...? Are you all right?

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[David rubs his face when he is spoken to. His shoulders are hunched so far up around his ears, so much so that his spine is starting to hurt. He breathed out wetly.]

... _{I don't know.}

[kare-no-okaasan.livejournal.com]

[Oh no, this doesn't look good at all. Ume walks over and carefully takes a seat next to him on the bench.]

Did something happen?

[old-papa-john.livejournal.com]

[He tempts fate, but his angst shield is up just in case.]

Have you lost something?

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

...

[Things had not gone so well the last time he had spoken to a Big Boss. The man had foolishly revealed everything to him. His existance, his family, the fact he was a clone.]

[He went rigid with that voice, staring up with wide eyes.]

[old-papa-john.livejournal.com]

[Oh, man. He didn't want to scare the boy.]

...Was it something I said?

[He chooses to not close the space between them because the child seems timid around him. He's worried that one of his other selves got to him first, and he hopes that it wasn't a meaner one.]

[dominantviper.livejournal.com]

[Just what Liquid needed, to run into a Snake. A tiny one, at that. But the frustrated look was interesting, in a way--he wondered what could have caused it.]

...the bloody hell's wrong with you?

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[David clutched his hands into his knees, attempting to steady his breathing down. When he realized he was being spoken to, he raised his head disconcertantly.]

[He wasn't sure who this man was, but he felt a shiver run down his spine. Not the good kind of shiver either. There was something very familiar about this man... Unsettling.]

[dominantviper.livejournal.com]

[Liquid, bastard that he was, had standards. He didn't kill kids, not even Snake.

...That didn't mean he liked the little twit.]

You look like hell. Just what's going on?

[bringsuffering.livejournal.com]

Need some help, kid?

[Pain leans against the wall, arms crossed. He suspects he recognizes that lost look on the boy's face--his own when he found himself without hornets, or without a daughter. Lost. And--

He's always had a soft spot for children. Hornets value their larvae, and the Cobras have always honored family above all else. The Unit is loyal. The Unit stays together. The Unit is one, and it is all, and it is everything, and one is nothing without the Unit. He can sympathize.

Besides, the Unit always has room for one more.]

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

No. I don't need help.

[He didn't look up at the man. He wasn't ready to meet so many new faces in one day. He wondered if they were perhaps taking pity on him. Did his future self end up so pathetic that he constantly needed assistance?]

[notapiratesrsly.livejournal.com]

[Hey, look, it's that version of your dad you tried to beat up before.]

...David? There you are. Are you alright? I haven't seen you in awhile.

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[That rigidity appears once more when he is faced with John. He pants quietly, breathing out through his nose when he sees the old man. His apparant father. Himself.]

[He recoiled against the bench.]

What do you want?

[liquidfatale.livejournal.com]

[You're taking up her bench, bitch >:|]

[Nah, she doesn't really care. She just blinks when the boy collapses upon it.]

Eh? Kid, what's up with you?

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[By this point, with the amount of people that he has seen today, he feels a pang in his chest that aches. His head hurts. He just wants to get out of this place.]

[He hides his face. He misses his box.]

[shota-boy-unit.livejournal.com]

[But did it rain on the day you were born?]

[I DONT THINK SO.]

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[Stfu you get a bitchin' wife in the future. I GET OLD. OOOOLD.]

Late to the party?

[jailbait-guilt.livejournal.com]

[Hal hasn't seen many children in the Nexus, and definitively not many teenagers, so you kind of stand out.]

H-hi? Are you lost?

No worries~

[clonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[The only person near to his own age he has met here was Frank. So similarly, being countered by Hal was a little unnerving.]

[He breathed out through his nose.]

No. I'm not lost. [Responded with a bit of a grunt, but it wasn't quite as domineering as it would be one day. More of a tired noise, frustrated.]