spira_rp | Make my way back home

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Make my way back home

Their foray into the Vile Peaks had been fruitful and frustrating at the same time. Yylfordt had got the time the day after their encounter with the stupidly overpowered-for-what-it-was Hollow to go and mooch among the old ruins left there. He'd wanted to bring back a lot more than he'd been able to, in the end, partly because of the bulk of things. He'd got some very flat looks when he'd suggested just leaving some people behind so there was more room on the Ragnarok; fortunately, they'd known he was joking.

Or had thought he was, anyway.

They'd brought back what they could, and Even and his scary Aeon level ice powers had gone off to his laboratory, and Nel had gone back to doing whatever she did all day, and Yylfordt, Apache, Tayuya, Kadaj, and Grimmjow had been left to their usual devices again.

They'd got bored after two days, and Yylfordt had got round to wiring up their coffee machine. He'd been tempted to just steal it and wire it up in his workshop and then lord it over Szayel that he had one, but he hadn't wanted to annoy Apache and Grimmjow any more than he usually did by existing, so he was working on connecting in to the Palace's electrics, and running a cable to the Sunhouse.

Which was about when he'd decided he could really do with some more insulated wire, and connector pins, and another socket adapter wouldn't go amiss, really. He had things, of course, he was Al Bhed, he'd never not have things. But that was why he needed more things, because if he used these things then he'd be running low, and something about machina and the associated gidgets and gadgets brought out the hoarder in him. He could never allow himself to get down to his last thing, because then what if he needed to use that, and ended up with no things?

He'd got some funny looks when he'd tried to explain his reasoning for wanting to trip into Rabanastre, just to pick up some basics, even though he already had the basics. It was only Rabanastre, and it would only be a day. They'd proven they could go out and come back without getting in trouble. Anyway Nel had apparently told Aizen she'd been impressed with Grimmjow's leadership ability while she was out with them.

They'd been allowed to go to Rabanastre. It was only a short hop of a journey, a shorter hop than Nel usually made to get groceries, which was probably some of the reason they'd been allowed to make it. The Arrancar overall were being given that little bit more freedom, one outing at a time.

The girls had come, because Tayuya and Apache jumped at any chance to get out. Yylfordt had, if he was honest, taken a bit of pride in showing Apache around the Al Bhed quarter. Then he'd burned with jealousy when he'd seen Kadaj give an absently friendly wave to a cute Al Bhed girl in folded down dungarees and a bra, working in the Rockbell repair shop, and getting it returned cheerily. He'd been even more jealous when Kadaj, after being asked, had said simply that she was Winry, which caused a minor meltdown on Yylfordt's part.

He'd not been allowed to backtrack and talk to her, though, as much as he'd wanted to. Kadaj had refused to take him back and introduce him, too, on the grounds that they weren't here for long enough for Yylfordt to fanboy the Rockbells.

"Bro, can't we just--?" He asked again, as they were leaving. The intention was to get something to eat, but Rabanastre Al Bhed food was a little too authentic for some. You had to go to the peripheries if you wanted something everyone found palatable, funny as it would be to try and get Kadaj or Apache to try Desert Oysters.

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Saix raised an eyebrow as he looked at Grimmjow. The dark expression and tone made it sound strangely ominous.

"Really?" He asked, wondering now what they might actually be. If it sounded like seafood, and wasn't seafood, it was probably some form of offal. That seemed to be a trend. Whenever the name of a food was misleading, it was almost always something of questionable palatability. "Dare I ask?"

Fang heard Yylfordt mention a familiar name and raised her eyebrows. It couldn't be a common name, surely.

"Did you say Halibel?" She asked, moving from the small group she was standing with to closer to the pair having the argument.

Apache had narrowed her eyes and was about to snap back at Yylfordt when Fang drifted over. She didn't know her, but she was apparently part of Saix's group.

She blinked at her, questioning.

"I wouldn't," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Not unless you're into exotic parts."

He looked over when the tall woman drifted over to Apache and Yylfordt. He didn't recognise her, so she'd never been with Saix's group when they'd met in the past. Either she was a new recruit, or she'd been lucky enough to avoid all of the altercations they'd had in the past.

He raised his eyebrows when she mentioned Halibel's name.

Definitely some variety of offal, then, Saix thought. They'd had such things in Radiant Garden, but Isa had been raised with a somewhat pickier culinary selection. Now, well, he'd try such things if he was in an adventurous mood, but a lot of Spiran cuisine was adventurous in some way anyway, for someone that wasn't native. If even the natives considered some foodstuff adventurously ethnic, he was less inclined to go out of his way.

"Thanks for the warning," he said.

His attention was subsequently caught by Fang coming over to intervene in the ongoing argument. Saix was of a mind to point out that he hardly picked up girls by going up to them and telling them precisely who and what he was, so it wasn't Apache's fault she didn't know, but Apache was more than capable of holding her own.

Aerith laughed into her hand again. "I wouldn't charge a loyal customer too much," she said, giving Kadaj a wink and a grin.

She watched Fang head over to Apache with a curious expression. She seemed to recognise that name, somehow.

Kadaj made a noise. It was an awkward little noise, and it was accompanied by him turning away from Aerith self consciously. He hoped to hell he wasn't blushing. With the things he'd seen and done he should be beyond blushing.

But something about a pretty girl that was nice to him winking at him made him feel unusually awkward.

He took the excuse to watch Fang instead. It was easier than trying to come up with a response to Aerith right then.

Yylfordt looked the new chick up and down. She was tall, for a girl, probably about Nel's height, and she had the same kind of 'I can fuck you up' confidence about her. She probably could, he decided, fuck him up. Especially given who her present company were.

Which was why his initial response of an aggressive, "Yeah," was tempered by a more muted and calmer, "why?" He looked her over again. How the fuck would she know Halibel?

"Don't mention it," he said, looking curiously at Yylfordt.

The involvement of the stranger had stopped him snapping as viciously as he had been at Apache. Apache was scary, but this woman looked very much like she wasn't the sort of person you'd be smart to mess with.

"Tall, dark-skinned Al Bhed woman?" She asked, her voice full of both curiosity and amusement.

So, when she and Saix had gone to that bar, they'd both met associates of somebody who was apparently his biggest rival. That was a turn out for the books. Bit of a fun coincidence.

"We've met," she told him, flashing him a grin. "Tell her Fang says hello. She won't have forgotten."

Apache caught on.

Nel and Tayuya, as far as she was aware, hadn't had much luck when they went out for a night on the town, but she and Halibel had. Halibel hadn't given away any information about who she'd been with, but Apache did vaguely recall seeing her with a Hume woman. She'd been nowhere to be seen the following morning, but then again, neither had Saix.

"Ohhhh," she said. "That was you."

Lea had almost no idea what was going on.

It seemed the two groups, known best for being enemies of each other, knew members of the other side in more ways than just battlefield opponents. Even Fang, the newest addition, wasn't left out.

"Everything got really complicated all of a sudden," he said quietly.

Tayuya stared. Halibel had kept her exploits that night under her hat, except to confirm that she had spent the night with someone. Halibel wasn't exactly Szayel, but she also wasn't secretive about her preferences.

Tayuya looked Fang over before asking, loudly, "Are you fucking serious?" This was her, was it?

Was there some rule written into the fabric of universe somewhere that declared that their respective parties couldn't meet without either fighting, or fucking?

Saix looked at Fang, and tried to mentally pair her with a tall, dark-skinned Al Bhed woman. Then he cleared his throat. Some things were best not considered too deeply. At least not while you had company.

Instead he opted to look over at Lea and give him a taunting smirk. "Do you have any confessions? We appear to be collecting them."

Saix doubted it, but that was what made it amusing. This was Lea. He wasn't even sure if Lea had got around to formally asking Aerith on a date yet, but he suspected he hadn't.

Yylfordt stared at Fang.

He stared a little longer, unsure of what to say. Part of his brain had short circuited at the idea of Halibel and this chick together, and it was happily, and stubbornly, staying there.

"Right," he said, distantly, forcing himself back to the land of coherent thought, however reluctantly. "Uh," he looked back at Apache, who seemed to know about this development, at least in part. Tayuya did, too.

He'd completely lost where he was up to in his berating of his underling.

"No," Lea said, too surprised to laugh. "I feel kind of left out."

Well, everybody else seemed to be doing things with the opposite group. He'd been spending time with Aerith instead. He didn't want her to join the Arrancar, but he was starting to think it might be necessary if he wanted to maintain anything with her.

"Today just got really fuckin' weird," Grimmjow said, looking around at everybody, his own team and the one they now held a tentative truce with alike.

"Bit of a funny coincidence, wouldn't you say?" Fang grinned, not missing the mental blue-screen that Yylfordt seemed to be suffering.

He had gone awfully blank looking.

Apache grinned at Yylfordt, a mean glint in her mismatched eyes. He'd spent too long berating her about sleeping with Saix, almost entirely because Saix was The Enemy™.

Now, it turned out that she wasn't the only one with that charge on her hands and Halibel was a hell of a lot higher up than Yylfordt was.

"Make sure you run it by Halibel before you go tattling to the boss," she said, smirking.

Yylfordt snapped out of his blue screen to look back at Apache. He was still heavily wrongfooted, and it showed.

"So both of you are irresponsible," he said, trying to rally. But his heart wasn't in it anymore, not least because his brain kept trying to go back to the image of Fang with Halibel. "She's higher ranked than you."

And than him, which seemed moot at this moment. Halibel's antics were Aizen's issue.

Tayuya eyed Lea when he claimed to feel left out. She looked him up and down before she declared, "Well, don't look at me." Lea was way too much of a long streak of piss for her tastes. "I'd rather have the berserker."

He'd got a good review, too. That always counted in his favour.

Then she gave Lea a sideways glance. "I guess you two aren't actually fucking, after all?" Not judging by the way Lea had utterly failed to react to Saix's flirting with Apache, anyway. Unless they had a really casual thing going, but Saix's responses to Lea in danger hadn't been very casual.

Aerith found the whole situation amusing.

It was especially amusing when Tayuya posited that Lea and Saix were a thing. She covered her mouth one hand, trying really hard not to burst out laughing, but her giggles were obvious anyway.

They loved each other dearly, she knew, although Saix would eat his own tongue before he said that, but unless she was very, very wrong, Lea had never been like that with anyone.

"This is an unexpected turn of events, certainly," Saix agreed, glancing briefly at Grimmjow as he looked around at the rest of them.

It was going to be hard to fight them again, should the need arise, he realised. They had more in common than they'd expected.

Lea blinked, looking at Tayuya and scowling, wondering if he'd heard right. Did she just imply that she thought that he and Saix were a thing? Like a thing thing?

"Wha..? Me and Saix?" He asked, staring at her. "No way."

The idea was ridiculous. They were best friends! They'd known each other since they were kids. He wasn't going to casually strike up a relationship with him of all people. That would be way too weird.

"Yeah," Apache said, giving a shrug. "But if it's okay with somebody higher ranked, it's fine by me."

She liked Fang. She'd decided that. She'd come forward and effectively killed Yylfordt's grounds for an argument with an artful mixture of lesbianism and information he hadn't been aware of. He wasn't about to go and call Halibel a slut, because she'd stove his head in, so he could just shut up when it came to her.

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