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In the canteen
Jun. 4th, 2014 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
komui_leeThough Komui had been back on Liebe Delta for a fortnight, it still didn't feel real.
He remembered when he'd first arrived, bursting with a desire to prove himself an equal to his peers. The older students had seemed so mature, adults he'd never catch up to, and the entire station had felt so huge he didn't believe that he'd ever be able to memorise his way through the hallways.
Now it felt claustrophobic. No longer was he a child surrounded by people quickly becoming adults, but an adult surrounded by people so childish he had trouble believing he'd used to be one of them. This perception wasn't helped by the fact that he'd grown half a foot since his seventeenth birthday so that he towered even over most of the instructors, nor by the fact that he desperately needed a cup of coffee while sitting in the busiest part of the station a week before Dive Break, pretending to eat his lunch. All the chattering voices were going right through his pounding skull.
He flopped his head into his hands and groaned. How was he supposed to work without caffeine?! Whoever designed the nutritional requirements was an unfeeling monster. He'd spent nearly nine months living off of constant cups of coffee and small bowls of rice so he could make sure Lenalee got everything a growing girl could need, but now that he'd been classed 'severely underweight' and 'caffeine addicted' he'd been forced to cope with one cup of weak coffee in the morning accompanied by a stomach-turning amount of food. It was dampening his ability to tap into the well of nervous energy that fuelled his greatest bouts of studying.
He massaged his temples and tried to think. it would have been easier to do somewhere quieter, but if he left his lunch again he'd be hounded by the stewards and the medical team for failing to look after his health. He just needed some coffee, real black, strong coffee, and he'd be able to dive straight back to work.
Maybe he could find someone who'd want his dessert in exchange for their drink? He shook his head dolefully as soon as the idea came, since that would just get the stewards on his back again. Going down on the Dive Break was completely out of the question, because he needed every second he had on the Liebe Delta to figure out how to insinuate himself into researching the Vaia. Maybe he could bribe someone going home to bring him some coffee back?
But why just one person? His mouth curled up in a small grin as the thought coalesced. Why not several? There were dozens of struggling students surrounding him who'd be grateful for the help of a Zwei member. If he targeted the first years, he wouldn't need more than an hour to walk them through even the toughest of their little bits of homework. Three hours a day for a week would get him twenty-one suppliers, or more if he tutored them in groups!
God, he was a genius at times. He could even use a little network of grateful students to listen out for rumours and opportunities for him! With that plan in mind, he looked up and grinned at the passers by, eyes peeled for anyone particularly short and stressed.
He remembered when he'd first arrived, bursting with a desire to prove himself an equal to his peers. The older students had seemed so mature, adults he'd never catch up to, and the entire station had felt so huge he didn't believe that he'd ever be able to memorise his way through the hallways.
Now it felt claustrophobic. No longer was he a child surrounded by people quickly becoming adults, but an adult surrounded by people so childish he had trouble believing he'd used to be one of them. This perception wasn't helped by the fact that he'd grown half a foot since his seventeenth birthday so that he towered even over most of the instructors, nor by the fact that he desperately needed a cup of coffee while sitting in the busiest part of the station a week before Dive Break, pretending to eat his lunch. All the chattering voices were going right through his pounding skull.
He flopped his head into his hands and groaned. How was he supposed to work without caffeine?! Whoever designed the nutritional requirements was an unfeeling monster. He'd spent nearly nine months living off of constant cups of coffee and small bowls of rice so he could make sure Lenalee got everything a growing girl could need, but now that he'd been classed 'severely underweight' and 'caffeine addicted' he'd been forced to cope with one cup of weak coffee in the morning accompanied by a stomach-turning amount of food. It was dampening his ability to tap into the well of nervous energy that fuelled his greatest bouts of studying.
He massaged his temples and tried to think. it would have been easier to do somewhere quieter, but if he left his lunch again he'd be hounded by the stewards and the medical team for failing to look after his health. He just needed some coffee, real black, strong coffee, and he'd be able to dive straight back to work.
Maybe he could find someone who'd want his dessert in exchange for their drink? He shook his head dolefully as soon as the idea came, since that would just get the stewards on his back again. Going down on the Dive Break was completely out of the question, because he needed every second he had on the Liebe Delta to figure out how to insinuate himself into researching the Vaia. Maybe he could bribe someone going home to bring him some coffee back?
But why just one person? His mouth curled up in a small grin as the thought coalesced. Why not several? There were dozens of struggling students surrounding him who'd be grateful for the help of a Zwei member. If he targeted the first years, he wouldn't need more than an hour to walk them through even the toughest of their little bits of homework. Three hours a day for a week would get him twenty-one suppliers, or more if he tutored them in groups!
God, he was a genius at times. He could even use a little network of grateful students to listen out for rumours and opportunities for him! With that plan in mind, he looked up and grinned at the passers by, eyes peeled for anyone particularly short and stressed.
