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Of Light, Shadow and Love: Volume 2 Chapter 1 Going Evasive
Lightsider
got up early, took a shower, and tried a little harder than usual to make
himself presentable. After twenty minutes, he finally found a comb. After
another fifteen minutes, he gave his hair up as a lost cause and searched his
apartment for a decently pressed shirt instead. That
didn’t go much better. Anna
Miller’s was always open for breakfast, and it didn’t have food that bit
back, so Lightsider stopped there. After looking at the menu, and realizing
he had no idea what to order, he got what he thought would be a decent
selection: A cheese omelet, some fruit salad, waffles, toast, bacon, sausage,
and eggs, scrambled and sunny side-up. He also got four kinds of juice.
Somehow, the cute waitresses got all that into a single, large carryout bag. It was a
bit of a distance to the Hospital, but Lightsider decided to walk instead of
taking the subway. There was an unaccustomed spring in his step as he walked.
He contemplated that he hadn’t felt this happy since . . . well, for a long
time, anyway. Even the memories of the previous night’s nightmare failed to
bring his mood down. Being with Tohru just felt . . . right, like it was
always meant to be. They had difficulties ahead of them, to be sure, but
Lightsider knew they’d be able to work through them. Optimism
was such a novel feeling that he just couldn’t stop smiling. The
doctor was only a half a block away from the UFL when he realized something.
If IntelliAyanami saw him within a mile of the hospital without a darn good
reason, the food would get cold before she’d stop lecturing him. Flying up to
Tohru’s window was also out, for lots of reasons. Once again, he used Sight
to scope out the place. Just his
luck. Intelli and several Rei nurses were right in the front lobby.
Lightsider frowned, then shrugged. There was no help for it. It wouldn’t be
the first time he’d used his abilities for a slightly selfish reason,
certainly. Besides, he grinned to himself, this is going to make their day. Thirty
seconds later, a shirtless, but disappointingly pants-wearing In the
commotion, no one noticed a white-coated figure slip into one of the lobby
elevators. Intelli
was not the last among the nurses chasing after Largo
disappeared in a little “p0|>” and a flash of light. Illusion! IntelliAyanami
snarled. “Fan out and search!” she ordered the bewildered fan-nurse mob.
“Find Dr. Lightsider, and bring him to me alive!” After
about 27 seconds, she composed herself and called off the search. There was
no need. You clever devil, she smiled to herself. Lightsider
pressed the button that corresponded to Tohru’s floor. It didn’t light up,
and the good doctor grimaced. That was right. The housing portion of the
hospital was keyed access only. Still, there were ways around that.
Lightsider cupped his hands and cast his memory backwards to the previous
evening, when Tohru used her key to unlock the residential floors. An
Illusion of the key swirled into existence between his palms. It was
immaterial though, and was therefore useless. Lightsider
allowed himself a grin. At least as it
is now. The
doctor formed a Shield that fitted tightly around the Illusion, giving it a
measure of substance. He plucked it out of the air, and fitted it into the
proper slot in the elevator’s control panel. It turned smoothly, then faded
from sight. Lightsider
carefully looked out the elevator in both directions before stepping out.
Luckily, the hallway was deserted. The doctor hurried the few feet to Tohru’s
door and knocked. Tohru
Mizuno opened her door, rubbing her long blue hair with a towel, and
Lightsider became acutely aware of something. It was a sudden realization
that knocking on a lady’s door, early in the morning and unannounced, in
essentially a restricted women’s dormitory was a Bad Idea. This realization
was probably inspired by the fact that Tohru was wearing a rather loosely
tied short terrycloth robe and precious little else. He was wearing his
glasses, true, but glasses or no, there wasn’t a man on earth that could have
looked upon one of the UFL’s cutest nurses when she was dressed like that and remained composed. “Ah . .
. oh . . . um . . . ,” he stuttered. Tohru
stared at the unexpected appearance of the doctor. “What . . . ?” Suddenly,
she grabbed him by the lapel and hauled him into her room. The door shut
behind him with a barely audible click. A Rei
walked sleepily down the hall a minute later. She never suspected a thing.
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