Xaviers!

Chisaki was just about to start tucking in for the night, finishing up the last of her homework. She yawned widely, partially in boredom and partially because she was tired.

Colette was less than subtle in her entrance, apparently not all that concerned with potentially waking up her roommate. She looked around the room a couple of times before she spoke.

"Chiitan, has Basil been here tonight?" She asked, her voice sounding rather concerned.

Not expecting her room mate to come back, she was dressed down into her Gloomy-bear kigurumi. She reached up to pick up a pair of shades off her nightstand and slipped them on.

"No. Why?"

Colette began to pace back and forth along the center of the room, her attitude obviously that of worry.

"He is in his room no longer. While he was asleep, I left to get somezing to eat, and when I had returned he had disappeared. Not in ze way he usually does, I mean. And he left his mobile in his room so I cannot even send him a text to ask where he is.

"Should I tell ze nursing staff? Could zis be a side effect of his medication?"

Chisaki's expression was just as nervous as Colette's. This could be very bad for her indeed....

"Did the room look disturbed in anyway from when you last left it beyond the fact that he was missing?"

Colette shook her head. "Ozer zan his bedsheets, no. Everyzing was how I left it. At least, nozing seemed out of place." Now she was doubting herself.

Chisaki relaxed a bit.

" If there were no signs of a struggle, he likely just wandered off somewhere. I doubt that is a side effect of his medication, unless he is on hallucinogenic drugs. I would not rush to report him missing just yet either, as unless his vehicle is missing the furthest he may have gotten in the timeline you are describing is Maldon.

Does he have any friends he would visit or homework he needs to turn in?"

"I do not zink Basil is capable of driving in his condition. I certainly would hope he did not, given how drowsy his medication can cause him to become." Colette still appeared worried, though less so.

"Still, I do not understand why he would not mention his intentions to me, or leave a note. Well maybe not a physical note given ze bandages on his hands but he could have sent a spoken text or somezing. Unless... ugh zat rat, he probably did zis on purpose."

"Well I am sure he did, most people do not disappear accidentally.

Actually, that is a good question. Do you know he was not present?"

"I am... fairly certain. Ze room was too quiet and... do you know how one is able to sense when one is not alone? I did not feel his presence zere."

Colette held her chin in thought. "I know zat Basil was upset, but surely he would not be so childish as to actually hide from me, yes?"

"Well... that depends on him... and the level of anger and the situation involved.

It is not childish to want to be alone if you are upset, but the level of upset and what brought it on might better dictate the appropriateness... I think...

What was he upset about?"

Colette let out a deep sigh and sat on her bed. "Well, zere is a lot." And then she began to tell the story, about how Basil felt useless and impotent after his attempt to be a hero, and the bizarre logic he had for not wanting her to assist in his recovery.

"Sooooooo....

He did not want you to take care of him because he thinks an adult male should take care of himself and not rely on an adult female to take care of him and you did not agree with his idea and told him it was misogynistic and got he upset?"

"Zere is a difference between feeling entitled to having a woman look after you and it being her job to do zis, and in having someone who cares about you care for you in a time of need. Were I male, Basil would not have objected to zis treatment."

"How do you know that? Did he say that?"

"Well... yes, in a sense. He made it quite clear zat he objected to being helped because I was female, not ze help itself."

Chisaki shrugged. She saw quite a few holes in her friends logic but it didn't really matter in the grand scheme because priority one was figuring out where the invisible man slunk off to in his depressive state, not the interpersonal relationship problems of a couple. Especially when in a few months, she was likely only going to have to concern herself with the comings and goings with the male half of said couple.

"In any event, none of that really changes the fact of where he is, which is not here.

Which of his male friends would he have gone to for help if he would not have got to a female one?"

Colette furrowed her brow. "I... do not zink Basil has many male friends. Or friends in general.

"Shane?"

"Shane is his room mate, so I would suspect if he was relying on Shane, you would not have been in his room to begin with.

Anyone else?"

Colette shook her head. "No, I cannot zink of any."

"So there are no male friends he would have gone to stay with that he would have trusted to help, so the likelihood of him simply waiting you out elsewhere is low.

What about a responsibility? Would that have gotten him to leave?"

"Ozer zan his schoolwork or family, I cannot zink of any he would have. Surely he would not have gone to ze library in his condition... right?"

"We can head there and see if you like."

Basil had returned Haley to her room, forced her to drink quite a bit of water and some kind of over the counter medication she was unfamiliar with. When he felt she was 'ok' he went to clean off the vomit but would return to check in on her about ten or so minutes later.

He had manged to wash off and change with his injured hands (thank God it didn't get in his hair). He knew Haley's roommate had been out for awhile so he made himself comfortable on Miriam's bed to settle in to watch after her for a bit.

45 minutes later he realized he had accidentally fallen asleep, the vodka he chugged had gotten the better of him too.

Eventually he was assured that she seemed to be breathing fine as she laid there, so he let her be. He left her a bucket by the bed, in case her body decided to expel again.

Wandering into the hallway he began to sing to no one but himself.

"You've got to take your mind off him
But not with aspirins
You won't, You won't let your family in
Like smoke your body comes
Through the gaps in the urban slums
You try, You try to speak American
When you don't know what you want
You end up finding that you haunt your own, Your own life
You're the daylight ghost that creeps
You're the empty city streets
And I, and I see you- "

Unfortunately for the inebriate, he was singing loud enough for the pair trying detective out his location to hear him.

Colette was in the middle of fretting when she caught a familiar voice bellowing in the hallways. She stopped mid sentence and held up a hand in a gesture of silence, and listened more intently.

"Do you hear zat?"

"Yes." She replied, unsure of what it was because Basil never sang for her.

Colette opened the door to the dorm room and poked her head out into the hallway, only to find her should-be-resting boyfriend singing as he took a stroll.

"Basil! Zere you are!"

Well if he didn't worry about being quiet why should she?

"Hiiiiiii..." He replied. To Colette, he was visible, drunk, and missing his bandages.

To Chisaki, he wasn't there.

To all appearances Colette was having some sort of mental breakdown as she hurried into the hallway and placed her hands upon the cheeks of someone who simply wasn't there.

"Oh Basil, I was so worried about you. I zought perhaps somezing horrible had transpired. I..." She wrinkled her nose.

"Have... have you been drinking?"

Colette would also notice his bandages were missing.

"Yeeeaaaaaahhh.

Haley ripped up her boyfriend's mind accidentally on purpose and she feels bad and got real drunk over it. I went to check on her and she vommed on me.

She didn't seem to want to stop and I could tell she was in a bad way so I drank some from the bottle so it was lighter to throw it out of her reach and not pop a stitch but it's hitting me reeeaaal haaard. I forgot I hadn't eaten much.

But I'll be fine."

"Oh my goodness, yes Haley must feel awful. And zat poor boy.

Colette tried not to get too mad at Basil for his rather foolish, to her at least, method of assisting Haley with her drinking problem. If anything it was just so ridiculous she had to try not to laugh as well. "Yes, you have not eaten. AND you are on painkillers. It is a wonder zat you are even still conscious. And your bandages are gone, and you had me so worried! I zought perhaps you had wandered off or somezing."

"I had to take them off cuzza the vomit washing... They got wet in the shower.

Why did you think I wandered off? Where would I go?"

"Well you did not leave a note or take your phone wiz you, so I zought perhaps your medication had rendered you... well, much as you are now. Honestly, ze only place zat we could zink of was ze library.

"But speaking of washing, we should get you cleaned up and rebandaged. You do not want to get infected and wind up like Slingshot, non?"

"Who?" Basil asked, scrunching up his face in complete confusion.

"Oh, we learned about her in my Sociology class when we were focusing on dealing wiz ze stigma of disability, specifically among mutants and meta-humans. Ze point is zat she has robot hands. Or had, razer."

Basil furrowed his brow.

"Isn't the point of such classes so that people don't go around saying stuff like that?

ALso, why had? DId her original arms grow back?"

"Part of acceptance is knowing what one can joke about and when. Many students have accepted my form, but would not wish to be ze same as me eizer." She bit her bottom lip a little bit.

"Ehm, no, anozer reason for referring to her in ze past tense I am afraid."

"Oh, so we're joking about a dead person.

Capital."

Colette's smile had shifted from relieved to awkward, and now had faded from her face. "You are not a very likable person right now, Basil Benson.

"You should go visit the infirmary and have zem see to your bandages. Goodnight." The young woman turned on her heels and returned to her dorm room, taking great care not to slam it; she didn't feel he deserved the sort of smug satisfaction that might result. There she stood with her back to the door, waiting to hear footsteps.