Damn cats. He needed to find that bell.


    He had nearly pissed himself when the girl had squeaked right behind him. After he had got her to bed and settled in himself, he had rested as best he could without fully going to sleep. He figured it was a better option and his schedule was moving towards a double sleep schedule anyways. The lack of a daily cycle had pushed his body to simply do what it needed regardless of what time it was and the low calories had pushed him more towards resting a lot. He had trouble staying asleep for a full ‘night’, so he generally got up for a couple hours to work on his notes and then fell back asleep.


    It worked out this time as he could keep an eye open for the girl, who had seemed to be in a deep sleep. He had either spooked her when he got up for the bathroom or she wasn’t as asleep as he had thought. With how quiet she was it was hard to say. He certainly hadn’t heard her come up behind him when he opened the door.


    She was lucky that he hadn’t been fully asleep, a scare like that would have brought out a bigger response if his mind had still been waking up. Still, it was a good thing the girl had learned the meaning of ‘eye searing’ here rather than scare him out in the corridors. He knew the room well and hadn’t found any secret passages to worry about, but out in the corridors and other rooms he would not have been so passive if he got snuck up on. Though at this point it was more the girls’ actions driving his paranoia than anything concrete he could point to.


    He trudged down the hall, letting the girl battle the demon that was fluorescent lighting. Maybe. He wasn’t really sure what kind of lights they were, but they were bright enough he was desperate to find a dimmer switch. It was possible they were attempting to mimic sunlight, since this was clearly somewhere without it, but if so he needed to find an alternative or make a pair of sunglasses.


    He knew that he would need sunlight at some point. Unlikely as that was, it would be easier to find than vitamin D pills. He wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, but he was pretty confident that the heat from sunlight was part of that production chain. Unless these future lights had managed to skip that part and still work anyways, or he was completely wrong on how it worked in the first place, he didn’t feel any heat on his skin from the lights, so they were unlikely to be what they needed.


    Great to avoid skin cancer though. If they lived that long.


    Finishing his business and getting startled again before he realized that the girl had followed him all the way here, he had to contemplate if he wanted to try a shower again. On the one hand, the girl was already here and seemingly following his lead. On the other, he couldn’t let the water run this time. It was one thing to bathe a semi-conscious person and not talk about it after. It was entirely another when said person was fully focused on everything he was doing and would probably run away covered in soap if he tried again.


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    Washing his hands at the sink didn’t give him enough time to come up with a plan, so he put it off longer and headed to the mess hall. At the very least he couldn’t think of a good reason not to do food now.


    With his new shadow and very much in need of something to eat, he started on the ‘batter’, if it could even be called that, and tried to come up with a better plan for the showers. He supposed that he could simply take one himself and let the girl watch. It wasn’t really a hobby he wanted the girl to get used to, but it would at least make sure she didn’t bolt halfway through.


    If the corridors weren’t made out of metal he might not care so much. Let the girl bolt and find out that soap was quite uncomfortable after it dried. Since they were metal though, the chance the girl would run away and slip was pretty high. If she took a bad fall while she was all soaped-up things would go down hill fast. Blocking the door also wasn’t a good option for similar reasons. At least the halls were mostly flat, if she got spooked and tried to escape in the bathroom she could run into any number of things that were bad for the body.


    His contemplating was sadly interrupted again when the girl chirped at him. Distracted as he was, he wasn’t really sure what she was worked up enough about this time to know what she wanted. Considering the dilemma-jacks were done and cooling off a bit, he watched her to see what she wanted. Kicking himself after realizing that this was a great opportunity to teach her words again and seeing that she wasn’t looking at him, he chose to see what she would do.


    “Kitty”


    Not really the best word considering she didn’t have her stuffed cat with her at the moment, but it was the one he started with so best to keep on course. It got her to shift her attention towards him at least, though she seemed averse to looking him in the eyes.


    Seeing as how the girl was now quiet and watching him, he guessed they had entered a kind of stalemate. After checking the food to see if it had cooled down enough, he said the word again and took a bite. He also grabbed another and gave her a pointed look. The look was comically ineffective since she wasn’t looking at his face, but a second round of speaking and taking a bite seemed to spark something.


    She rumbled at him and while it didn’t really fit, it was as close to kitty as the food was to tasteful so he handed it over. She seemed to think long and hard about that for some reason but eventually ate it. As he got a glass down to get a drink, he noticed her attention shift wholly to the sink. Figuring she could use a drink as well, he tried again and got another rumble, this one closer and at least legible.


    Was legible the right word for something spoken?


    Eh, it was the blind leading the blind around here, it was close enough for him. Best not to try anything too complex though. Giving the girl her glass of water, he got a surprise when she held up the drained glass and rumbled again. It was about the same as last time, barely a word, but it showed she was quick on the uptake. He refilled the glass and handed it back.


    ‘Hm, if she could pick things up that fast maybe teaching her to shower wasn’t out of the question.’