aerialassault | Appointments

[And Nel wasn't too far after they revealed the truth to her.]

...yeah, that'd be for the best. All that...on top of this? [He apread his arms-- an open gesture. All of this world.] It's alot. But, I'm sure she'll find a way to deal.

It's a lot to take in at once.... but we should probably tell her as soon as possible anyway. She wouldn't be too happy if we kept quiet about it. [They'd lied to her enough before, she didn't deserve them doing that again.]

[As necessary as it was at the time, Cliff admitted that he didn't like leading her on like that. After everything from Kirlsa to Kaddan, it just didn't sit right with him.]

Tomorrow then. We'll grab her early and chat. Maybe get food after, let her ask anything she wants.

How's that sound?

[Fayt hadn't enjoyed it, either. She'd trusted them and risked so much for them.... and they hadn't even told her the truth.]

Works for me. It's going to take long enough, we could probably use lunch after.

Yeah, we could. This'll be interesting, for sure.

[But it was a necessary risk that he was more than willing to take.]

[interesting, huh?] well that's a bit of an understatement.

But it works for this, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does. [Almost too interesting.]

[He smiled, all confidence despite the delicate nature of the situation.]

Don't worry about it. It'll all work out, somehow.

Who says I'm worrying? [Maybe a little. But he knew Nel could handle it. He just wasn't sure how to go about explaining in a way that didn't sound crazy.]

Who said what?

[It was a joke, but the point was there. It was tricky, but he was confident in Fayt's abilities. Nel was a friend and comrade. They survived a Vendeeni attack and a 'negotiation' with a millenia-old dragon. What was a few details about the nature of their reality?]

[He shrugs, shaking his head.] At least this place is crazy enough that the concept of other dimensions shouldn't be that difficult to explain anymore.

[Cliff chuckled in wry amusement.]

Heh. You've got that right...

It's something, right? [It a twisted sense, their current circumstances made the topic a lot easier.]

[After the war to take back the enclosure and after Souji had been changed back to a man with all his memories returned, he did the one thing he always hated about himself. He hid. From his friends, from his roommate, even from his duties as much as he could without completely neglecting them. He needed time to come up with a valid excuse, he told himself. He needed time to find an appropriate way to laugh it all off as another strange experiment and pretend it had never happened. But even after the excuses and the jokes came, he realized he didn't want to see the friends he had made in Luceti; especially the ones who had become family. So he hid further, moving around from place to place and only going home when necessary or when he felt guilty about leaving Kohaku behind. He decided he needed more time; time to shove old aches away into an already overfilled closet and time to simply remember what it was like not to be someone else.

Someone who had been happy.

Souji hated them.

And so, rather than return home to take his usual nap, he found an empty room in community building 2 on a floor far enough up that no one else occupied it and laid down. He was certain no one would find him here, and other than Saizou nipping at his kimono sleeves every so often, he was able to relax. Now, if only he could sleep.]

[Finding someone who didn't want to be found was always a tough job, especially when stealth was a key element in the approach. At his height and with his physique, Cliff had settled with the fact that he was far too conspicuous for covert ops long ago. Leave it to the other men and women-- he had his own methods and talents.

He hadn't gained his notoriety for nothing.

The aftermath of the battle and the return to reality hadn't hit Cliff nearly as hard as it had other residents. It had only given him a taste of...something he didn't know he wanted, but he had no particular rage or ill will against it. He was still himself, after all. Little had changed about his actual person, just his reasons and motives.

It was the details that got to him, but he would address that when the village as a whole had better collected itself. Minds and emotions were too fractured and scattered now-- he could feel it in the air. It was bad mojo for any practical discussion.

Besides, there were more important things. Two people in particular needed his attention in the aftermath, just to see how they were faring. Vegeta, he knew, would make himself known soon enough. It was his pretty 'wife' that'd be the problem.

He spent a few days settling back into his routine. The loss of Florian and Bulla's injuries had put a damper on things, but there were always other things to do. During this time he kept his eyes peeled for a glimpse of that long, black ponytail or a particularly irritable pig.

After it was clear that Souji wouldn't be found by conventional means, Cliff started searching through the deserted homes and apartments. The springs were a no-go. Everyone seemed to be flocking there...and Souji was a nightowl.

The heavy clomp of his boots echoing through the open halls of community building 2 made his presence well known to anyone in the area. He couldn't hide, so he didn't even bother to try. Every few paces he would stop near a wall or a door and press his ear to it, as if listening for some movement within. If someone was heard he would knock and ask a few questions. If no one was around, he would open the door and take a peek himself, just to see what he could find.]

[He hadn't been asleep for long when he heard someone walking in the hallway. Seeing how this floor was abandoned, he knew it wasn't someone coming home and immediately pushed himself up from his place on the floor. Saizou snorted and started pulling and biting at his kimono again, forcing Souji to pick him up to stop the pig's incessant badgering.

When the knock came on the door outside the common room, Souji slipped away into the furthest room from the door. On this floor there was no easy way to get to the bottom floor that didn't involve breaking his legs. And since he didn't want to leave Saizou behind, that meant he either had to climb or he had to face whoever was looking around on this floor. Closing the bedroom door, he turned and settled his back against it as he heard the outside door open. Heavy footsteps, long stride - he knew who was coming and looked down at Saizou in his arms. He knew it was inevitable that they had to talk, but he wished it wasn't so soon. At the very least he could make it on his terms, without having to look Cliff in the face.]

It's unusual to hear you walking through this part of town, Cliff-san.

And it's unusual to see you hiding all the way over here.

[His tone was light as he leaned against the doorway with all of the casual grace of a person who just wanted to relax, but the look in his eyes made it clear that chilling in the sun wasn't on his agenda for the afternoon. The complications and broken minds that came in the wake of the invasion was the exact reason why Cliff had made it a point to seek Souji out, even if the odds were high that the other man would be reluctant to address it.

They needed to debrief. The entire town needed to debrief, but Cliff's relationship with Souji was a strange and complicated one. Although he had ideas about how to address the issue with the rest of the town, it could wait. Souji was more important.

He tossed Souji a bottle of water-- it was hot-- and settled himself cross legged on the ground. The difference in their relative height was too great. He wanted to keep the conversation level, in all terms.]

Yanno. There are better places to go off to and disappear. Isn't there a cabin down by one of the lakes?

[The bottle of water was caught, but summarily put to the side. He wasn't interested in drinking anything at the moment since it was nothing more than a distraction. After a moment, he picked the bottle back up and handed it to Saizou, who was sitting in his lap. The pig sniffed and started chewing on the bottle cap, and Souji turned his attention to that instead of the Klausian sitting nearby.

He had so many reasons for not going home, but none which he wanted to tell Cliff about. Saizou continued to chew on the bottle lid and Souji kept silent, watching him. The cabin by the lake was a good place to hide for other people, but Cliff knew of that place and thus it had been ruled out as a place for him. Too easy to find, too much of a risk.

Not that it mattered since Cliff had still found him.]

Saizou isn't much of a swimmer. [The pig grunted in protest and let go of the bottle. Souji moved it so it was in front of his face again, concentrating his gaze on his pet instead of his friend. Try as he might to sound cheerful, he knew that he was barely managing the subdued tone he had, and it would only get worse if he looked the Klausian in the face.]

Is there something I can help you with, Cliff-san?

['Is there something I can help you with?'

If only the answer to that was so easy to find. Cliff watched Saizou work on the bottle with his usual irritable fervor while he contemplated those words, patiently regarding Souji not with the eyes of a husband looking at his wife in concern, but like one warrior regarding another.

It was just second nature for Cliff to settle into the mentality of who and what he actually was. A damn fine interplanetary negotiator. However, Souji's entirely military basis and emotionality made this hard. Very hard.

The simple approach always worked best.]

I was actually wondering how you were holding up. You disappeared on us pretty quick after the dust settled.

["I'm fine."

Any of his friends from home would know that he wasn't fine. Even Cliff, who he'd known only a few months, knew he wasn't fine. His friends from home, however, had always left Souji to his own devices after something rattled him, knowing that the captain would eventually rejoin them when he was ready. Here, it was harder. Here, when bad things happened and when he felt his identity twisted into shapes, it only served to remind him that everyone he knew was dead or gone. He was twenty-five now. If time were flowing back home, they were all dead and so was he. He had died unmarried, without children. The idea of it made him sick.

Saizou crunched on the bottle cap and Souji pulled it away, uncapping it finally to hold it out for his pig to suck the water out.]

The battle was over.

[Simple military assessment made things easier.]

Fayt-kun seemed to be fine. As did you. I was relatively unharmed. I saw no need to stay when more qualified people were tending to the wounded on the field.

[Souji could deflect, hide, and lie all he wanted, but Cliff wasn't going to let this go with a proper debriefing for the both of them. The Shift had thrown them into a curious position beyond just their friendship, and it had given them something that neither would have in their own worlds. For Cliff, it was something that he didn't even know that he wanted. He was thirty-seven himself, but had never entertained the idea of having a wife or children as even being a possibility. The ire of an intergalactic organization was enough incentive for him to avoid the very thought of it.

Cliff set his own bottle aside as well. It was just a quiet show of camaraderie, nothing more. The bottle itself meant nothing. The emotions were far heavier in comparison.

Souji's military demeanor meant nothing to Cliff. He saw through it and was more than willing to call him on it.]

I wasn't talking physically.

[And of course, there it was: a necessary talk that Souji wanted to avoid at all costs. They were friends, nothing more than that - it could be nothing more than that - and he just wanted to bury everything that had happened so far into his subconscious that he never thought of it again. He was used to doing such things and it no longer bothered him unless he actually paid attention to what he was doing.

The plastic crinkled in his hand and Saizou snorted as the water gushed a bit harder out of the bottle than he had expected. He watched the surface tension waver at the edge and then slowly relaxed, causing it to recede back. He'd spent more than enough time thinking up excuses and deflections and he knew he had to use them now, even if he wasn't exactly ready for it.]

There isn't really anything to talk about, is there? The enemy twisted the entire village into a falsehood. People will move on soon enough.

[Souji set the water bottle down and patted Saizou off his lap, climbing to his feet.]

I should get going. I'm fairly certain it's time for Tammy's afternoon feeding.

Shaddup, Souji. I hate it when you lie to me.

[He didn't move an inch, but his gaze sharpened the moment he saw Souji rise to his feet. This was a conversation that needed to happen, regardless of Souji's desires. Something this big left a mark on everyone, and Cliff didn't need to take any guesses about how hard it hit Souji.

The kinks that remained in the plastic bottle made the information loud and clear.

Cliff continued, aiming to just state the facts as he saw them and nothing more.]

Listen. I know it hurts, but this isn't something that will just go away if you ignore it. It'll get bigger, until it smacks you something hard like it did on TERRACE.

...No one likes to see their friends get hurt. That includes you, in all ways.

[If Cliff meant to hit Souji hard, then he hit his mark straight on. Rather than flinch or bite back at him, however, the swordsman went completely quiet, staring down at his friend dispassionately. TERRACE was a memory he wanted to forget, even if it was one that eventually saved his life. Remembering TERRACE made him remember home and the last time he spent time with Hijikata alone, when he was alive and well and not trapped in this place that kept ripping him away again. Right after the raid, when Souji was too weak to walk on his own, blood still on his lips as he tried to reassure his friend that he wasn't dying.

No one liked it when they were lied to, but sometimes the lies were the only things that kept them going.

Still he didn't want to hurt Cliff either, and most of the responses that were flying to the forefront of his mind would do just that. "You can talk to me about how much it hurts when you see a future you can never have because you and everyone you loved is already dead" was the main one. That wouldn't do anything but make Cliff angry and so he held his tongue and waited as his rationality caught up to him. It was clear that Cliff was dealing with everything far better than Souji was, and the last thing the swordsman wanted was to be a burden. He'd been told before that if he lost his usefulness, he'd be left behind.

He'd always wondered if that was why all his friends had left him.]

If you hate being lied to, you shouldn't be friends with me.

[He gave the man a small, tired smile and leaned down to pick up the water bottle - his constant distraction from everything else.]

I'm not hurt, Cliff-san. No more than you are. And the things we could talk about are things I doubt could ever be changed. I've come to accept that over the years.

Appointments

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August 19, afternoon

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