vatheon | Choices

Choices

Who: Zelda and Zelos
Where: Their house
When: Backdated late morning, Feb 29th after Zelda absconds from this
Style: first person prose
Status: Closed!

This week really isn't going Zelos' way. His throat hurts, he aches everywhere, and he's pretty sure he's done more sleeping in the past few days than he has the entire time he's been here in Vatheon. At least the massive spa-style bath downstairs helps. The steam from the hot water helps open up his throat even more than the medicine Zelda got for him yesterday, something he thanks his lucky stars wasn't actually poison or something. He does't trust anyone from the clinic, not if they work with that deceptively sexy nurse who took a friendly booty call for an invitation to try and rearrange his internal organs. No thanks!

He sighs and brings a hand to his forehead, making a face at the feel of his own pruned fingers. Maybe he'd been in the bath too long. The Chosen climbs out of the tub and drains it, hitching a towel around his waist before heading out in the hall. Zelda probably wouldn't be home for awhile so why not take advantage of it by not having to dress in the bathroom for once. The 'no wandering around the house shirtless' rule was annoying, but he tended to follow it. Whenever Zelda was actually home at least.

But she's not, so he starts towards the stairs just in the towel, wondering if he's feeling up to going out and getting heat packs for his achy muscles.

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Of course, Zelda comes running (literally) into the house at just that moment. She pauses when she sees Zelos, but his state of undress is hardly at the top of her list of worries. She takes a moment to catch her breath before speaking.

"Zelos." She nods.

Okay, so this is a little awkward after all.

Gah!

Zelos holds the towel with both hands, just to be safe, and looks at Zelda with a brief expression of panic. "I was just going to get clothes on after a bath, I swear! I-"

He stops short in seeing her face, the flush fading from his cheeks. "...hey, you okay?"

The entire situation is pretty comical, so she can't help but smile a bit. Zelda toys with the idea of teasing him about his lack of clothing, but decides against it. If for whatever ungodly reason she ever ends up half undressed around him, she'd prefer that he not tease her.

"Put some clothes on, alright? I'm going to get something to drink."

The princess heads into the kitchen, starting on a pot of tea.

Well that was a little bewildering but if he can get off free without being scolded or having fun poked at him, then he'll take it. He takes the stairs two at a time and throws a pair of sweats and a tank top on before heading back down with a towel around his shoulders to keep his air-drying hair off of them.

His steps slow as he nears the kitchen door and he keeps his breathing quiet as he peeks around the edge of the frame, trying to catch what might be bothering her before she has the chance to bottle it all back up again. Clearly something is wrong.

She's watching the kettle quietly, looking as if she feels a great deal of guilt over something. Unfortunately for Zelos, there's little for her to do while she's waiting for it to boil and she turns, catching his gaze and frowning slightly.

"Why are you sneaking around like that?"

"Mostly trying not to bother you, but also confirming something's up." He steps into the kitchen normally, not that he's been found out. He turns his back to the counter, resting his elbows on it. He's not one for gossip and usually shies away from difficult situations if he can help it, preferring to just float through life as unencumbered as he can, but after what happened the other night with his fever and everything... well, he owes her.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Perhaps. I'm not... sure." She lets out a sigh, leaning against the countertop. Does she want to talk about it? She might as well think out loud, Zelos wasn't going to spread it around or anything like that.

"Sola came back today. He said that... he was told if he killed himself in front of me, that I might realize that I loved him."

Zelos sucks in a breath between his teeth. "Yikes. What kind of ass would tell someone something like that?"

He doesn't ask what kind of person would believe that, though. He knows. He's had some women do some pretty stupid things in the name of love and Sola was just as deluded as any of them, from what little he could gather.

"I'll be dealing with him later." The threat is implicit in her statement, somehow terrifying even though it's coming out of the mouth of a 5'3" extremely delicate woman.

"For now... I need to think of what to do with Sola," she murmurs, tilting her head back. "I don't know. Maybe I should just... do it. Make him happy while I'm here. It is not as if I will be entering into a relationship for love anyway, once I return home I will simply marry the most convenient prince and spawn the required amount of children." Zelda's voice isn't even bitter about the prospect, merely resigned.

Suddenly Zelos' hands are on Zelda's forearms and he's right in her face, heart in his throat with anger, panic, and sympathy all vying for dominance in his expression. "Don't you fucking dare."

He barely breathes the word but somehow they carry more weight than anything he's ever said to her. His arms tremble slightly, barely holding back from shaking her. "Don't you dare do that, Zelda! He won't be happy, not if you're not! That's the worst way to torture someone, is pretend to love them."

His eyes are cold steel and stare directly into hers, driving his point home. "You shouldn't even do it on your world, hang the rules! Do you even realize what it'll do to those kids if you don't have them because you want to?!"

He swallows hard and lets her go, turning away and walking a few steps with his back turned, trying to breathe normally.

She stares up at him blankly as he speaks to her, all the pieces sliding into place. He was talking about himself. As soon as he turns she's behind him with her arms around him tightly, gripping his shirt and hiding her face in his hair.

"Then what should I do? Should I teach him to hate me instead? I can't watch him hurting like this, I can't!"

She doesn't even attempt to address the issue of what will happen when she goes home. That part is not a choice.

His shoulders sag a bit as her arms wrap around his torso and he's quiet for a long moment before placing his hands over hers. "There isn't anything you should do. You can't make him hate you, no matter how hard you try, and he has to learn he can't make you love him either. Not how he wants. No one can make someone else feel a certain way."

He closes his eyes. "He's got other people, right? The Troll guy you told me about? You don't have to do anything, you don't even have to see him. He's taken care of, just... let him be. He's young. He'll learn. You don't have to be the one to teach him."

His hands tighten involuntarily over Zelda's and he swallows silently, realizing how hypocritical he sounds in telling her not to put on an act, just as affected as the last time, but still believing no one should be anything like him. And it doesn't always work, anyway. The people who really care... they'll see through it, and then where are you? Back to square one, feeling naked and vulnerable and hating yourself.

He curls his fingers a little more, slipping them between Zelda's gingerly.

"I don't know what I'll do if he does it again." Though she's trying not to, she sounds like she might cry again. It's pathetic, really. She's cried more since coming to Vatheon than she has in the past seven years. After taking a shaky breath, she lifts her head again.

"I just want to forget about it."

Zelda knows she can't forget, but the desire is there. If she could forget the sight of Sola splattered across the pavement, she might be able to handle this with just a little more composure.

"C'mere." He turns around in her arms and puts his around her in turn, cradling the back of her head in his palm and rubbing her back with his other hand. "I doubt he'll do it again. He's tried it once and it didn't work, so he won't. Dying's scary, anyhow."

He lets her rest her head on his shoulder and plants a gentle, chaste kiss on the top of her head, suddenly glad this vantage doesn't allow her a view of his face because he's not sure what possessed him to do that.

The gesture startles her out of her morose mood. What was it with people in this city and being so physically affectionate? Impa was never so cuddly. Still, it's not unpleasant. It's nice, to be held and coddled by someone and to do it in return. She smiles, glad that he can't see her face either because she's certain her expression would embarrass him.

"You're sweet, Zelos." Her voice is tender, loving even - but not the sort of love that Zelos would be used to having directed his way.

His arms go rigid and he holds her head in place, not painfully, but just so she has no chance of seeing his face. The mood he's in, what they'd just been talking about, there's no way he can pass it off as some sexist joke. None even come to mind.

"Shut up, no I'm not." He's aware he sounds like a child, obviously pouty and embarrassed, but it's better than her seeing just how much it means that she doesn't simply hop him for comfort, that she took care of him and didn't run the other way when he was delusional the other night. That, only moments ago, even in the midst of her own worries, she hugged him because she knew he was distressed. It's frightening that she might know him so well, even after knowing each other for so short a time, but it's also comforting. He can trust her, and she trusts him, and they understand each other.

Figures he'd have to go to another planet to find someone like that.

The screeching of the tea kettle causes Zelda to attempt to turn her head. She's vaguely amused when she finds that Zelos is holding her head still, opting to stay still for a few moments or allow him to go turn off the heat himself when he's found his composure again.

He lets her go get the insistent kettle after another moment, having mastered himself once more, and follows her into the kitchen. "You made enough for me too, right~♥?"

If he were honest, he wanted to get out of the house. Maybe find some lonely hunny or a bottle of booze with his name on it since the past few days had been more emotional that he was usually willing to deal with in the span of several years, but even more than not wanting to spread his little illness to anyone else, he wants to make sure Zelda will be alright. He's not quite ready to leave her alone.

"I highly doubt that I can finish the entire pot!" She smiles at him gently, turning off the heat and pouring out two cups, taking them to the smaller kitchen table.

"Are you feeling any better today, by the way? I don't mind running out to get something if you need it. But no panacea bottles, that just sounds like a scam."

"It's not a scam, they totally work!" He plunks himself down in a chair and takes the offered mug, wrapping his hands around it with no heed to the temperature. "I've used them before. They cure poison, paralysis, all sorts of things!"

"Zelos? You're going to burn your hands, stop that!" Zelda swats at his hands, trying to get him to put the cup back down onto the plate. It needs time to cool, is he crazy?

Oh whoops! And he's usually so careful! He places the mug down hurriedly with a sheepish laugh. "Guess the fever's messing with me."

Any protests he might be making are ignored as she moves over to look at his hands. Sure enough, there are slight blisters beginning to form. She heals them easily, then looks at him with undisguised curiosity.

"Did you not feel that?"

That is a slightly scary face, Zelda. "Uhh, like I said, the fever..."

Yeah she's not gonna buy that.

"A fever tends to make a person more sensitive, you know." She's advancing on him now. Zelda has wanted to know about what causes Zelos's mana to feel so strange from day one, and now seems like a perfect opportunity to distract herself with it. She calls some magic to her hand, then places it on his cheek.

"Is my hand hot or cold?"

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