recitings | IC Contact [City of Ariel]

[[ He's out running errands, when he hears about Zack and Sephiroth's departure.

And along with that comes a terrible panic of abandonment. What if they'd all made plans to leave together? Angeal and Genesis too, without any parting words or explanations...

Surely that's foolish, but some reckless plan to catch up with them, try to change their minds, wouldn't be completely out of the question.

So his first instinct, after seeing the network, is to check in with Genesis, wherever he might be this time of day.]

Genesis? Are you busy? Please get in touch.

I just saw the message, about Masamune.

About Sephiroth and Zack Fair. I don't know what they've told you, or if they've told you anything, about leaving but... I... I just wanted to make sure we're still on the same page?

And what's going on with Maya, for that matter- No, No never mind, that's only of secondary importance, are you all right?

[It takes a while before Genesis replies. He's sullen about the whole thing. He still hates that he hadn't been told a thing about this. But he's constantly reminding himself that he had his present and future in Ariel, not out in the wastelands.]

If you're worried about me leaving too, I can assure you that I'm not going anywhere. You know how I feel about the city. I am not letting anything change that.

[Every minute he waits fuels his restlessness, and the morning's only improved by word from his counselor with good news about his standing...

When the question comes round, what he needs, he's tempted to ask for a listening ear, to unload his thoughts on someone, all the while hoping he'll get a reply from Genesis.

Instead, some notion of permits for hanging gardens come up, and he takes them up half-thinking. Good. That's something to distract him, to add to their home, still hoping all the while that it's their home.

When Genesis finally responds, it's an enormous relief.]

Well what was I supposed to assure myself with, other than hearing it from you?

Xehanort and Xemnas and Xigbar all left this place without so much as forewarning either. I've wondered what 'left' even means.

This was all so out-of-the-blue... not Sephiroth, but maybe Zack might've told me what was going on? I thought Sephiroth had made his position clear. Was secured as anyone could hope to be in this city. [You know, for being sort of an unstable megalomaniac.] They're not down at Re-Ed, for any kind of extended- I checked.

[Zack had been kind to him, generous with help, when he'd first arrived here. If there's even the slightest sting of abandonment for a Nobody, he can't imagine where Genesis's head's at, right now.]

...Is Angeal leaving? [He asks softly] I was worried the two of you would try to search for some trail of where they'd gone to.

[Genesis is a little tempted to step out of the office, fly straight to wherever Zexion was and just... hold him. Genesis was a very tactile kind of person, the kind who felt most assured with touch more than words. But his best friend is also looking for someone to lay his shoulder on. And Genesis knows so very well how that man could be so easily eaten up by his feelings. He might look strong on the outside, but he's a man who needs a lot of care. He had to stay and wait for him.]

I thought Sephiroth made himself clear, too.

[And that was precisely where his anger and frustration had stemmed from.]

I don't know if Angeal would. Knowing him, he might try.

[He almost lets out that Angeal did precisely that when he deserted Shinra, but he holds himself back from doing so.]

But I've accepted that if he wanted to go out there together with Zack, then it's none of my business. They don't hold my reason for living. My place is here in Club Rapier, with you and with Aiichiro, here in this city.

[He might sound very cool and composed over the network, but the truth was that he was a whole mess of emotions inside. But he's doing well with keeping them in check.]

Darkness is volatile, it carries its own unpredictable whims.

[Zexion murmurs, sighing heavily, thinking about black wings and their itch to be used, the green madness in Sephiroth's eyes. Elena called him toxic, once, and perhaps in the long run the city's better off...

But Zack Fair is a very kind, very decent sort of person. It's strange how the two go side-by-side, presumably even now, somewhere beyond the horizon of the city walls, if they've left by those means, or...

Maybe there is some kind of arrangements than can be bargained for, to leave this world. Sephiroth could have proven too dangerous for Ariel to want to keep. So many serious questions are churning, and somewhere amid them he turns his focus back to Genesis.

Who has every right to feel a wellspring of mixed emotions. Zexion isn't sure how to best serve them.]

...I'm glad you will stay with me. [Is all he says, quietly, knowing there are so many emotions that ought to come swelling over into those words, but the Nobody is restrained in the same way that Genesis feels forcibly wooden right now.] We have so much here, you and I, I don't know if could have with anybody else.

Let me know, please, if there's anything out of the ordinary you need done that I can be of help with.

[Genesis smiles when he hears those cool words spoken without much feeling. He knows Zexion well by now. He knows that he's sincere. It's not like before when he felt something lacking in the things his lover would tell him over the network. Now, he knows better than that. Even without a heart, Genesis could still grasp sentiment in his words.]

I will be all right as long as I have you to come home to.

I'll be with you in your bed tonight. [He promises solemnly, nodding, then with a sly smile, adds,] I'll pick us up some magazines to look at. Give you a good rub down. Anything you'd like.

[Love me.

The request hangs at the back of his mind when Zexion tells him "anything you'd like", but he knows better than that. He knows by now that despite how often and how much he speaks, the Nobody always preferred to show affection through little favors, actions. And this, he'd be happy to take.]

Want to debate the artistic merit of a magazine photo shoot again? It will be nice to do with you under the covers, skin against skin.

I'll try to find us something truly nonsensical, this time.

[He smiles, a little mischievous. Zexion liked finding dubiously absurd pinups, especially when it actually left you wondering what sort of fetishist actually enjoyed it.

But he'd snag a few nice issues, too. Evocative pictures that featured lots of texture, and interesting shadowplay. Or maybe he'd take out that book of photography that he'd found at Echoes, all black and white close-ups of naked bodies.]

I'd like that. Skin on skin. I'll leave my pajamas out of it, tonight.

Nothing like sharing scathing commentary over some choice shots while we're cozied up against each other, hm? I'm looking forward to it.

I will be late, though, if that's okay. Angeal sent me a message. He isn't coping well with the news either. He's asking for my time.

Ah, what a true romantic you've found in me! [He's grinning, a gently self-effacing so-sorry-not-sorry apology for failing to come up with a better suggestion.

Rose petal trails scattered on the way to the bedroom are for other kinds of lovers.

But perhaps he'll mix some of that leftover glittering sleeping water he's bottled up in the fridge with a little split of champagne and put it in an ice bucket to chill near the bedside... so that the end of the night can wink off a little more mercifully for his partner. Spray some of the lavender-vanilla water from Lavish's spring collection on the pillows, and hope Genesis's nose is not so dead from his own cologne that he'll appreciate it.

He'll kiss a little more generously than his usual, and-

Zexion derails his planning for the second half of the message to catch up with him, blinking.]

Oh. [Poor Angeal. He lost Zack, too.]

Well... You could bring him home too, if you want?

[Genesis shakes his head.]

Angeal and I... we have our own ways of coping with loss. Making him stay with me, though, is not one of those ways.

When I come home, I want to focus on you and you alone. Though the past has made me what I am now, it's no use holding on to it when I want to move forward. Bringing him home with me will be like carrying that past with me. I don't want to do that right now.

He is my best friend and always will be. I care for him, but I have a new set of priorities.

(If he wanted to, I wouldn't take offense.)

But you're probably right. [Zexion agrees, and it's probably one of the better times that Genesis has thrown his passion in a constructive, optimistic, wise direction... one that scoops him up along with it.]

And Maya will probably need the extra support from him, too.

Just don't be too late. [He warns fondly] Or you might have to peel me off your pillows and wake me up.

Maybe next time, I'll invite him over. But tonight, I want it to just be you and me.

Maya will need him, too. You're right about that.

[And then he chuckles.]

If you fall asleep, I might take advantage of that and try to wake you with a kiss.

Like a hundred fairy tales, in the flesh!

[Zexion sing-songed, rolling his eyes. Never mind that some of them about sleeping princesses were in fact true, in some worlds.] Alright, my handsome prince. We have a date.

Good. I'll see you, then.

[What would Zexion be if he was a prince? Definitely not the princess. Perhaps... yes. Zexion was the sorceror in his employ, a young one far more enchanting than any other princess would be.

With that image in mind, he returns to work a little more cheered up and able to muscle through the pain of loss.]

IC Contact [City of Ariel]

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