It used to be so easy...

[soundfivebitch]

They'd got back late the night before.

It had been a long sojourn out into the world, but not a bad one. They'd been gone for over a month, and hadn't got into too much trouble, considering. Okay, so they'd met the Ryoka berserker and his fiends again, and failed to take them out, again, and Grimmjow had been scarred for his troubles, but that was pretty good going, for them. Technically, they were supposed to be out for Grimmjow's rehabilitation anyway. Grimmjow was only supposed to be getting back to fitness from the injuries he'd received when they'd met the Ryoka with Nel in tow, but he'd acquired another injury to work off. Not that anyone had explained that to Aizen, yet. That was going to be a fun job for Grimmjow and Yylfordt, later.

They'd also caught up with Kadaj, and ironed things out with him, and he'd met up with them a few times since. His hair had got too long, since he'd neglected to get it cut, but it wasn't as long as his bankai made his hair, now, and he'd matured a lot. It was a little bit frightening, really. Kadaj had been gone ever since the Midgar thing, and he'd grown up in that timespan, which at once felt like it had been forever, and like it had been barely weeks ago.

When they'd figured they probably couldn't, or shouldn't, put off going back any longer, they'd told Kadaj over the phone. They couldn't make him come back, but their employers could definitely demand their own returns. Plus they'd left Apache behind, because taking her was pushing it, and Tayuya missed her, even if Yylfordt pretended he didn't.

It had been too late for reunions when they had got back. Tayuya, Grimmjow, and Yylfordt had simply waltzed in, grabbed something to eat, and gone to bed.

It hadn't been early when Tayuya had woken up. She wasn't a morning person anyway, but she'd got up, showered, ended up sleeping for another hour, and then got dressed and made her way to the kitchen.

Now she was paying attention, the Palace felt different. There were new people here, again. They'd known someone was coming to take over the laboratories because Szayel had been told he couldn't have them. Tayuya was interested in who it was, only because they'd taken over her old home.

She hadn't reported to Kuja yet, either. She wasn't in a hurry. He'd know she was back, and the only information she had to give him consisted of 'Met Kadaj, he's okay, needs a haircut when you see him again though'. The important shit, naturally. She'd let Kadaj tell him about his bankai in his own time, and on his own terms. Kuja might want to know about the fights, but Kuja was less invested in the performance of the Ryoka versus Arrancar than Orochimaru had been, so he probably wouldn't want details of power levels and specific movesets employed.

She entered the kitchen looking freshly laundered and grumpy, because she needed caffeine to live, and something to eat. The room wasn't empty, and Tayuya waved at Apache as she schlepped her way to the kettle for caffeine.

Apache must have been so fucking bored, Tayuya thought. She knew she was when the Arrancar all fucked off on missions and she got left behind. At least she had Nel, though.

Comments

[cierva]

Apache looked up and, with a small amount of effort, contained her relief at seeing her friend back in the palace to just a lazy wave and a scowl on her face.

"About time," she said, her voice edged and sullen.

Apache had been bored. She had been so, so bored. She was the newbie in the group and, as such, they had decided not to take her with them when they went out and about on the trip outside the palace. She would never have admitted it, but she had been extremely disappointed that she'd been left behind, especially after having been allowed to accompany Yylfordt's party to Midgar when they had gone.

Being reminded that she wasn't quite one the gang had sucked. Even Nel, who she tended to hang around with when they weren't about, had gone out for weeks on another mission and left her at the palace too. She, at least, had returned more quickly, but she hadn't been in the best of moods for a few days after, probably on account of the company she'd had.

Tayuya and co. had been gone ages and, during their time away, things had ... changed.

They had two new residents, for one. Both suspiciously similar, despite apparently being entirely different. Nel, Ulquiorra and the three resident Ryoka had brought one back and the other... well. He had managed to annoy everybody by smoking in the kitchen and make Nnoitra slightly grouchier than usual, which had not been and still was not fun.

"I thought you'd got lost out there," she said, slightly grumpily.

[soundfivebitch]

"It fucking felt like it," Tayuya answered, flicking the kettle on and dropping into a seat next to Apache while it boiled. "Man is there a lot to catch you up on," she said, resting her chin on one hand.

Kadaj was slightly less significant to Apache than the boys getting beaten up, and Tayuya not being able to take down a fucking fire elemental with Bismarck. She still wasn't sure if that last one should scare her more than it annoyed her, but back in the safety of the Palace, it was infuriating more than anything else. But it all boiled down to one simple thing as far as Tayuya was concerned; "We should have brought you, maybe then we'd have been able to finish the Ryoka."

She shrugged. It was past now, but they'd know for next time not to go leaving one of their party behind. There was no way they were leaving Apache behind again anyway, not least because being stuck in a tin can with the boys for too long had made Tayuya want to throttle at least one of them. She'd realised along the way that boys and their habits could get on your nerves eventually, and the Sound Five and Skite were too much of a fucking sausagefest. She needed some female company next time they went somewhere.

Still, there was all day for her to catch Apache up on what they'd got up to. Right now, she knew there were new reiatsu signatures in the Palace, and that had caught her interest.

"Anything fun happen while we were gone?" She asked, grinning, "Lilinette ain't one upped everyone and offed Aizen while we were away, right?"

It was a joke, but with the way things had gone lately you never knew what crazy shit might have happened.

[cierva]

The Ryoka? Again? Their usual friends, she wondered?

She thought back to the meeting where Ulquiorra had pulled his eye out and shown them the fight. Her memory of it was hazy, but she vaguely recalled a couple of Selkie-looking Ryoka. One of them had turned into a giant dog thing. He had blue hair... or was it grey..? The other, she remembered, had been a Fire Elemental. He had been the primary focus of the replay, given that Ulquiorra had fought him, and had been able to set the battlefield on fire. There was also a girl, but she didn't remember much more than that. It had been ages ago, and there had been no sound.

She was about to ask when Tayuya spoke again.

"Not much," she said, giving a shrug and pushing her cup across the table to Tayuya. If she was making herself a coffee, she could make her one, too.

She thought about it. It hadn't been a very exciting time to be stuck in the palace at all.

"Nel abandoned me for a few weeks while you were away. Fucked off on some recruitment mission with Ulquiorra and the Ryoka." She said, shrugging again. "We also had some old scientist guy called Hojo turn up. He got the labs that Szayel wanted. He's a twat. Szayel tried to fanboy him by knowing all about his research, but he seemed more interested in Nnoitra."

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya took Apache's cup with one narrowed eye and then, figuring she probably owed Apache one anyway, got up again to turn to the kettle and make them both a coffee.

Hojo wasn't a name that rang any bells for her. There were a lot of scientists in Khamja, and clearly he was one, but Tayuya wasn't familiar with the name. She had a hard time suppressing a smirk at Szayel getting snubbed by him, though. "Bet Szayel loved that," she said, and then added, "bet Nnoitra did, too."

And Nel had been away too? Apache must have been going out of her mind with boredom, then. "So who the fuck is he?" She asked, stirring the coffee in the mugs before she turned back and pushed Apache's cup in front of her once more, this time steaming away with the smell of delicious caffeine. "He's gotta be hot shit to get the labs instead of Szayel." It meant he'd got them ahead of Aizen, after all.

[cierva]

Apache grinned as Tayuya took her cup. She hadn't been sure she would.

"Apparently," she said, half turning in her chair as Tayuya got up, "he's some ex-Shinra scientist. Used to be some famous hotshot, sort of like their Kurotsuchi, or something. Nnoitra said he was supposed to be dead."

She sat there in silence for a moment, and considered something Hojo had said as Tayuya put her cup, now full, down in front of her.

"He said that he'd 'been away for too long'," she told her, turning back around. "I don't think it's the first time he's been here. He knows his way around, too. Did from the off. Either way, he's a monumental prick." Her lip curled. "Calls us 'specimens'."

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya frowned as she scoured her memory. She certainly didn't remember meeting anyone who was that much of a raging fucktard, or at least, not in quite that way, but had Orochimaru mentioned something? She couldn't really remember; she'd been younger, and tended to tune out the scientific bullshit. She just did as she was told; she didn't have to understand it, and Orochimaru didn't talk much about scientists unless he'd had a face to face encounter with them lately.

"Must have been before I came," she said, with a frown that became a scowl. "He sounds like a dickhead, though, he's gonna fit right in." Calling people 'specimens' meant he probably wouldn't have long to live. Eventually he'd say that to the wrong person and lose his face.

"Who was the lucky fuck to get recruited?" She asked, with a slight sneer. If they'd sent Nel, Ulquiorra, and the Ryoka, it was someone that was getting the choice of 'join or die', and a group like that was being sent to watch each other.

[cierva]

Apache shrugged again. She was still considered the newbie, and had absolutely zero fucks to give about scouring some old list of Khamja members to see if she was right, if one was even available, so she had no idea who he was. She'd never even heard of him, so she didn't care.

As for Tayuya's question...

"Dunno," she shook her head, wrapping her hands around her hot cup. "Another scientist, I heard, because apparently it's harvest time for them or something. Doesn't tend to show his face much. He's some Ryoka." Because there was obviously a lot of those going spare as well.

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya snorted. Harvest time was fucking right. "How many fucking scientists does this clan fucking need?" She asked, her nose wrinkled.

A Ryoka scientist though.... That would be why the other Ryoka had gone to recruit them. She couldn't think who it might be, though. Hopefully not one they'd already met, that would be awkward.

"Bet Szayel was all over him, too." Ryoka and a scientist meant Szayel probably wanted to prod him every which way. Eugh.

"Well," she said, with a mean grin, "guess we have to get another pool running on who smacks him one first."

[cierva]

"They must be trying to start a collection," Apache remarked, sipping her too-hot coffee.

The Ryoka one wasn't as obnoxious as Professor Hojo, but neither of them showed their faces much, both preferring to hide in their respective laboratories. As far as Apache knew, the Ryoka scientist had gotten himself settled in some far corner of the palace, well away from everybody else, including both Szayel and Hojo, and Hojo had taken over Orochimaru's old digs. Szayel, as ever, occupied the infirmary and adjoining rooms.

"Neither of them seem very fighty," she said, disappointed, and glanced up at the clock. "Did Grimmjow and Yylfordt die on the way, or are they taking the piss with lie-ins?"

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt was the class of 'not a morning person' that ran into 'barely an afternoon person' at the best of times. Today he was up early for his usual self because it felt weird to sleep in a building again. It sounded wrong, it moved wrong, and there were too many other people in it.

He'd showered and dressed when he'd figured more sleep wasn't going to happen. Then he'd decided that coffee and some grub were in order before he set to the task of avoiding the shit out of Aizen. He did a quick check to make sure Gin wasn't mooching about before he ventured out into the corridor. Gin's wasn't a face you wanted to meet, whether it be in dark alleys, shortly after waking up, just before you went to sleep, or at any other time of day. That shit could give a bro nightmares.

With the coast clear of familiar reiatsu, Yylfordt left his room and headed towards the kitchen.

There was an unfamiliar reiatsu signature along the way. Ice, he noticed, a rare one. It felt like he should know it, but he couldn't think why. Maybe it was because Szayel's Hollow was the same element. It was a new reiatsu in the Palace, anyway.

Maybe it was the new scientist dude, he thought to himself. Szayel had been pissier than a city centre lamp post since getting refused the labs down in the basements. They'd been given to someone else already, he'd said. Must be this guy.

He smirked to himself when he saw exited the servant's corridors and saw a tall man with long blond hair and green eyes. It was about time they got more Al Bhed in the place; the Palace was a real rainbow ranch of Selkies, with a few Humes thrown in for seasoning. Kuja probably collected them to match the decor.

[thechillyacademic]

Even, unlike some of the palace's many denizens, had been up for hours.

He had been woken early, far earlier than usual, by a feeling of unease. Something, he couldn't work out what, made the hair on the back of his neck prickle. It was an uncomfortable feeling, like he had forgotten something, something important, and once he had awoken it had played on his mind until he gave up on the notion of sleep and got out of bed.

He was sure that he had been up since before dawn, but he wasn't quite certain. The sky, he had discovered early on, was not to be trusted. By the time everybody else got up, he had already made one trip the kitchen to prepare himself a flask of coffee and holed up in his future laboratory. He vastly preferred tea, but when he wanted to stay awake to work long hours without lost sleep catching up on him, sacrifices had to be made.

The laboratory wasn't yet complete, but he had, at least, decided on a location for it and started the process of procuring what he needed to make it suitable. So far, he had managed to get the walls tiled, some areas in metal and some in white ceramic, with the help of Ienzo's Alchemist ability. Given what he had forced Even to give up to get here, he felt he at least owed him that much. Ienzo, mercifully, had not complained.

Up until he had rediscovered it, a feat he had achieved by breaking in from the gardens and working his way back on the inside, the entire area of the palace that his rooms of choice stood in had been derelict, untouched and undiscovered since the entire building had sank into the desert however long ago. Sorting through all of the very old things in the room had taken up a significant amount of his time, but now the rubbish had been separated from items of historical significance and he had begun the first room's transformation. The tiles were just the beginning.

He was in the process of trying to get clearance to route a water and electrical supply down there, but it was slow going. In the meantime, a flask and a magicite-powered desk lamp would have to do. Unfortunately, his coffee supply had run out hours ago so, after putting it off for long enough, he finally started to make his way back to the kitchen.

The way from his laboratory to the kitchen was longer than he would like and, it had to be said, he would never have found the location from the inside, so it didn't surprise him that nobody else had done so before him.

The corridor spat him out of a concealed door some distance from, but in the same general region as where the servant's quarters joined the main corridor up to the hall. Unless you knew where to look, there was not a door there at all. He would install tighter security measures later, but it was low on his list of priorities for the moment. He could hardly keep the location semi-secret forever.

Closing the door behind him, he made his way towards the main hall. There, he saw an Al Bhed man. He seemed vaguely familiar, but Even had lived, at least some of the time, in Rabanastre for long enough to shake off the feeling of possibly misplaced familiarity. Whoever he was, he was new. Or, at least, he had not been in the palace until recently.

[palehornedprince]

"Rao," Yylfordt said, with a casual hand gesture that was half of a lazy wave. "You the new scientist?" He asked. He spoke politely; the guy was obviously a clan member, and Yylfordt was just an underling, so it paid to be respectful. Still, he was friendly about it, and intended to stay that way until this guy gave him a reason not to be.

He could turn out to be another Gin, or another Orochimaru. This was Khamja. They collected freaks and monsters like pogs, but Yylfordt wasn't going to jump to conclusions. There were also a few reasonable people about, although admittedly, most of them were some nutter's underling.

He was tall, Yylfordt noticed. A bit taller than himself, and he walked like someone used to being hunched over something while he worked. Yylfordt could relate; he spent half his own working life with his face in an engine, which wasn't a bad way to spend his time to his point of view. Not that young, though, but not really old, either. He was probably around Aizen's age at a guess, although whether that was the age Aizen looked to be, or the age he actually was would be a bigger guess.

[thechillyacademic]

"Rammu," Even replied, giving a nod as a greeting.

He had attained near-fluency in Al Bhed, minus all of the slang and regional dialects, but he didn't speak with the sort of accent that one from a high-Al Bhed area would use. He spoke it well enough to converse, but he sounded different to those from Home.

"One of them," he said, switching to the common tongue. His accent was similarly off. It wasn't a Dalmascan accent, nor was it Archadian or Bancouri. He certainly didn't sound like he was from Landis. It was something else. There was the lilt of the upper-class and the well-spoken, but it was difficult to place. "You have just arrived?"

He was beginning to pick the different chakra signatures out from the bunch, providing they were recognisable. It wasn't easy, what with both the considerable number of people present and those who spent enough time in the vicinity to leave an imprint even in their absence, but he was getting there.

[palehornedprince]

So far so good, Yylfordt thought, the dude didn't seem to be a frothing lunatic. His accent was weird, though. He sounded more like an Al Bhed that had been living in Archades, except his accent wasn't quite Archadian.

Definitely not a Home boy, anyway. Probably best to stick to formal Al Bhed anyway; full flow Home dialect tended to be lost on anyone that wasn't from there.

"Got back last night," he said. "The name's Yylfordt," he hesitated, considering where they were and the fact that if this guy had been in the building for more than two hours he would have invariably met Szayel, and just as invariably been hit on by Szayel. "Yylfordt Granz," he added, waiting for any flicker of recognition at the surname.

[thechillyacademic]

"Ah," he said.

That would explain the familiarity. It wasn't just the racial similarity to many of the other blond-haired and green-eyed Al Bhed he'd seen and met in Rabanastre, it was due to the fact that he was very like the other Granz he'd met. He should have caught on to the family resemblance faster, different hair colours and distinctive eyewear aside.

"You are Szayel Apollo's half-brother," he said, politely managing to keep most of the disdain from both his face and his voice.

He should have known. He and Szayel had briefly discussed Yylfordt, the fact that he was part of Grimmjow's usual group and that he was, at the time, out of the palace with him, during their conversation in the kitchen.

With that in mind, the source of his earlier unease became alarmingly apparent. It was the new chakra signatures. It had to be. They had merged with the background noise, but the addition of a sensation that Even, even on a subconscious level, associated with a dangerous enemy, had been enough to put him on edge.

It seemed, however, that Yylfordt Granz did not, in fact, recognise him.

[palehornedprince]

Yep, he'd met Szayel. He was doing his damndest not to look like he'd just trodden in something, but it wasn't wholly successful.

Yylfordt sighed, "I get that a lot." He really did, too Variations on the theme of 'eww, you're related to him?' had been common throughout Yylfordt's life. First when Szayel had just been the speccy Selkie kid, and then when he'd grown up to become the speccy Selkie Home velocycle. "We're nothing alike," he said, reassuringly, a slight grimace on his face, "honest."

Yylfordt wasn't a raging pervert with a death wish, for one. Szayel, on the other hand, had an uncanny knack of hitting on the most inappropriate people possible, and ignoring requests to stop being a weirdo that were more subtle than a punch to the face.

[thechillyacademic]

The two didn't get on at all, then. Well, with Szayel for a brother, who could be surprised? That said, Yylfordt did have a flair for hanging around with the wrong crowd, so he supposed that the embarrassment must be mutual.

"I would hope not," he said, shaking his head. "That said, Neliel was kind enough to forewarn me about him and he didn't quite live up to it." He hadn't yet, at least.

In truth, Even was rather more concerned about this brother than the other one. Szayel was a bit of a creep, well, a lot of a creep, and he did have a lot of unfortunate habits when it came to expressions and phrasing, but, disturbing though he was, he had nothing on the team mate of Grimmjow, not with his history with that particular party.

Even turned his attention back to the direction of the kitchen. Useful though it was to familiarise himself with the other residents, even ones such as these, he did rather need a refill.

[thechillyacademic]

"Yes," Even said, perhaps a little too sharply. Wincing, he added: "please," rather more calmly.

He put his flask down in the sink and rubbed his cold hands together, knocking sparkling flecks of frost from his skin.

It had been a difficult morning. A night of poor sleep, the reason for which he had now discovered, and feeling on edge since had been bad enough, but walking into the kitchen to that, for an argument with her was not how he'd have liked to have started the afternoon.

It was understandable, on her part. On some level, Even knew that. They had exchanged blows often enough and Saix and Grimmjow were more than happy to start a fight when they met each other, so their enmity, party-wide, ran deeper than just the two blue-haired idiots. If she had entered the Sandsea, he suspected that the reaction would have been the same then, too.

Even so, it didn't make her threats and comments any less irritating.

[declaregamuza]

Nel smiled at the way Even corrected his tone. He was tense, she could feel that anyway, but he was trying not to take it out on people, which earned him a lot of leeway with her right now.

She took over at the kettle, retrieving two cups and setting up two cups ready for pouring. She reboiled the water, too. It hadn't long since boiled, but Even had inadvertently made the area chilly, and it was better to do it and make sure it was boiling hot than risk finding it cooler than was palatable.

She didn't say a word until she'd finished the cups of tea and put Even's down on the table for him.

"You don't have to tell me anything," she said, then, turning to retrieve her own tea, "but if you need a sounding board, even if it's just someone to make tea and agree with you while you call him a bastard, I'm here." She didn't even really know what kind of relationship they'd had, simply that they'd had one, one close enough for the berserker to react like Grimmjow when one of his cadre of miscreants was hurt, that had ended badly.

It had to have ended badly because Even had holed himself up in the armpit of nowhere, and Saix was now roaming the world with someone who had betrayed them all as if they were best friends.

And Saix had lost it when she'd hurt the fire elemental. Even had been the start of a rivalry with Grimmjow, Luppi had nearly died for going to hurt the girl they travelled with now, but when she'd skewered the fire elemental... He'd lost his temper in a way that was entirely different to a berserk state. That was when she'd known he wasn't trying to kill Grimmjow, because he hadn't fought Grimmjow as hard as when he was trying to go through him to get at her.

[thechillyacademic]

While Neliel made the tea, Even moved away from the sink and sat down in the chair that the Fire Elemental girl had recently vacated. The room was cold. He didn't really notice it, being so used to coldness himself, but even he couldn't miss the way that his breath spiralled up in front of his eyes when he exhaled.

He gave Neliel a thin smile when she put his cup of tea before him and sighed.

"We were married," he said shortly, unhappily. "There seems to be a bit of rumour and a certain lack of clarity when it comes to the type of relationship Saix and I had, but that's the truth of the matter."

He looked down into the cup, watching the glittering light on the tea's surface. It sounded ridiculous to him, in hindsight, and part of him wondered whether it had been that all along.

"It was a poor decision," he admitted. "We ended up here, with emotions we hadn't had in a long time, and got caught up in all of that nonsense enough to go ahead with that. It worked well enough for a while, but it became apparent very quickly that doing it had been in error."

Nothing matched up, Even thought. Tastes, interests, drive, age ... nothing. It had caused problems, mostly on his side. He didn't look up from the teacup, apparently lost in thought.

[declaregamuza]

Married? Nel nearly repeated in surprise. They'd guessed at more than simply travel companions but all the way to marriage? The Saix she'd met hadn't seemed the type, brief as their encounter had been. Even didn't seem the type either, somehow. He was a little prissy, more than a little acerbic. He was the sort of person that would probably get on your nerves with prolonged exposure. Certainly not someone that someone who looked like Saix, and she had to admit, that one was young and prettier than a man had any right to be, would choose to hook up with for life.

The surprise still showed on her face as she sat down, swallowing her incredulity.

Emotions they hadn't had in a long time. She wondered at that, too. Marluxia had mentioned something, when he'd been new to the clan, something to Aizen, about the price of reaching other worlds. He'd made it sound like a warning, like the price was too high, that it had stripped them of something inherent.

"So you split up?" She asked, instead. There would be time for those questions later, right now Even had things he probably needed to get off his chest. It sounded like he'd been holding onto it for a long time.

[thechillyacademic]

"No," he said, looking up, roused from his thoughts by the question.

Well, yes, but also... it was more complicated than that. Not a lot more, to begin with, but complicated enough.

"We argued a lot, as married people tend to do, but ... I started to resent him." He brought his tea to his lips and sipped it, ignoring the heat. "I was happier when he was away and when he wasn't, we spent our time arguing, on eggshells or ... vaguely attempting to make things work. As you can imagine, I am not the easiest person to live with, so I doubt the resentment was one-sided, not that he showed it as much as I did."

He put his cup down, smiling ruefully as he finished that sentence.

"Then it got worse..." he sighed. "I found out about something that had happened a long time ago, with Saix as the cause. It isn't worth going into, but let's just say that it was enough to get Ienzo to defect. You can imagine what sort of strain that added."

[declaregamuza]

Nel murmured wordlessly. It sounded like the relationship had grown toxic even without the added stress of whatever Saix had done in the past.

Not worth going into, Even said, but enough to get Ienzo to defect. She suspected that was code for 'something I don't want to discuss, but it was bad'. Whether Even realised that was the code was another matter.

"It sounds like you were heading for a divorce anyway," she said, quietly. Whatever it was Saix had done, it had made things worse in an already failing relationship.

But Even was qualifying everything as if he was the bigger culprit for the relationship's failure. Saix didn't show the resentment, as much, Even isn't the easiest person to live with... She half wanted to tell Even that he's allowed to consider Saix a bastard.

"You were just prolonging the inevitable." Not even putting it off, she thought; they were making it last longer, instead of cutting their losses, and splitting while there was still something worth salvaging between them. They let the bad feeling fester until Even at least couldn't stand to be around Saix.

[thechillyacademic]

He nodded, sighing.

"Things improved a little," he admitted. "And then... Axel joined the Order."

Even looked at once both disappointed and angry, but the expression faded to almost sad disappointment quickly enough. It was no secret that Ienzo hated Axel, he'd made that much clear, and he'd heard that Marluxia had put forward the not incorrect notion that Axel could not be trusted, ever, but Even's hatred of him was personal.

"They used to be allies, at the very start, and they were friends before that," he sighed, fully aware that he was probably giving this Arrancar intel on the Ryoka as a group, but he didn't care much. It didn't benefit them, not really, and for all he knew they were already aware of it. "Axel betrayed Saix, between bouts of betraying everybody else, so when he came back nobody expected good things, least of all me."

It was the reason they had argued so badly, after all. Finding out that Saix, not Axel, had been behind the goings on at Castle Oblivion that Marluxia hadn't orchestrated was bad enough, but him coming back? It wouldn't have been foolish to put money on him being taken out by one of their number the moment he entered Rabanastre. Not even Luxord would suggest that it was a stupid bet.

"Astoundingly, they reconciled their differences, which Saix was aware I wasn't happy with," he said, scowling. "I asked Saix not to go on whatever foolish excursion he'd got into his head," he did not mention Midgar, "but he did, on Axel's encouragement, despite knowing my feelings on the matter."

He sipped his tea. It was cooler now, but not chilled. He had managed to get a lid on the sometimes unintentional environment changes he tended to cause when he got angry or upset.

"As far as I was concerned, he had chosen that traitor over me," he shrugged, aware it probably sounded exceptionally petty, "so I left, not intending to go back."

It hadn't just been Saix he'd walked away from, it had been everything. The Order, the Order's allies, his home and, ultimately, his safety. Leaving Saix was one thing, but he hadn't informed any of them as to his reasons for leaving, or his intentions. As far as they were likely concerned, he'd gone rogue.

"Like Ienzo, I didn't trust those who remained if they were happy to take a known traitor back into their midst and sweep everything under the carpet," he said, quietly. "I should have gone when he did."

[declaregamuza]

Nel nodded, circling her hands around her own cup of tea, which was still too hot to contemplate drinking. It sounded like it had become an awful, bitter, tense situation for Even. Ienzo had got out earlier, and Even had tried to tough it out because....

Because why? Because he'd been married? Because some part of him was still trying to make the relationship work, against all reason and sense, from the sound of things.

She sighed. "You should have," she agreed. She wondered why the others had been content to take a traitor back. Was Axel, or Saix, that powerful and important to them? Were there other reasons Even couldn't comprehend?

"But it's hard to walk away from someone you've built a life with, especially when you've built it somewhere strange, so he's part of all you know about living there," she said, quietly, and gently.

She couldn't guess at why Saix had reconciled with Axel, but it had gone deeper than mere reconciliation from what she'd seen. Maybe the rift hadn't been that deep for them, or, more likely, the friendship before it had just been that strong.

"You're allowed to be hurt and angry, Even," she told him, with a faint, sorrowful smile. "You're even allowed to be bitter. You stayed there much longer than was good for you."