driftfleet | (no subject)

[ Zaveid doesn't exactly feel when Eizen appears, but there's... Something. Something different about the Huntress, and it's not just that Sorey and Mikleo are back - he knows when Eizen is around. He recognises the other man better than anyone in the world, and there's no point playing off that he hadn't noticed him. Eizen'll bring it up and then Zaveid will be in no end of trouble - it'll never come to an end.

So, he grabs the coat, wraps it in a blanket and makes his way out of his room.

It's almost funny to see him hanging around in a hallway, and when he does all Zaveid can do is laugh, tilting his head. ]

Look a little lost.

[ He knows Zaveid is around, not just because it's his ship but he can sense it. The presence he had started to get familiar with before he was brought to the Fleet, the subtle change in the air around him, signs that the wind seraph is somewhere close by. Much like Sorey he figures eventually Zaveid will come find him, so he doesn't bother hunting him down, keeping to himself as the rest of the ship around him moves.

It's probably why he is hardly surprise when Zaveid appears, though the bundle in his arm is a little odd. ]

I'm not. [ There is a sour note to his tone though he hardly frowns at all. ] I was waiting for you.

Edited 2017-04-23 05:12 (UTC)

[ It's easy to play along and pretend he's not influenced by how Eizen handles himself, by the way the other man seeps into his life - it's not a bad thing, really, but it's something he has to force himself to get used to. Eizen is dead in his mind, a dragon and a gravestone, and seeing him alive in front of him is like whiplash each and every single goddamn time. It hurts, and it aches, and he hates it - but he can't do anything about it, either.

He just has to get used to it, and one of the ways of doing that is hanging around his old friend until they break or they're back to a familiarity that he remembers like breathing. ]

You could've sent me a message. We have devices for that.

[ It bothers him that it's all Zaveid can see, irks him more than he can properly describe, but there is little he can do to change that - it is Zaveid's problem, his inability to reconcile Eizen's eventual demise with the fact he is here, alive and whole. But for all that it bothers him he forces himself to accept it, bare it with gritted teeth.

Eizen shrugs, stuffing his hands into his pockets. ]

You were busy.

[ All he can do now is roll his eyes, leaning against a wall. So, Eizen wants to play it like this, huh? ]

Busy sleeping? You know I've been awake.

[ For a moment, silence, but then he shifts his weight and looks down the hallway. ]

It doesn't matter.

[ All he can do is frown, considering the last of his time was spent with Dezel... But whatever.

He holds out the package. ]

Here.

What's this?

[ He doesn't take it straight away, looking at it almost suspiciously. It's kinda out of the blue, after all, considering they had barely spent any time near one another to renew any sort of camaraderie. ]

Just open it, damnit.

[ Why do you have to make everything so damn hard, Eizen!? ]

Zaveid.

[ It doesn't take much more than that for Eizen to comply, taking the package and opening it, all the while leveling Zaveid with an incredibly suspicious look. That is until he realizes what it is he has in his hands.

He knows this coat.

It's a sharp thing that sensation of loss, of grief thought buried that bubbles up to the surface, like a dagger being thrust into his chest. Fingers close around the fabric and Eizen frowns, trying to will away the lump that is forming in his throat. Aifread. This coat belonged the Aifread. ]

How... Where did you get this?

[ Zaveid just breathes out, and he turns away, given Eizen a moment before he frowns. It was hard enough when he'd taken the coat out of that chest back on the planet, but now... Now he's not even sure how to deal with it or how to handle himself other than just watching and waiting.

He knows the moment Eizen is looking at it, the moment it settles around him, and it hurts him too. Maybe not as much, or at least differently, but it's still hurts.

There's no Sorey and Mikleo to help him fumble through this. He's on his own. ]

There was a planet not too long ago that gave us things from home. I got that.

[ Aifread's death had not been so long ago, if he tried he could still see the man's blood on his gloves. It had to be done, he knew that, there was no other way to stop him; his friend no longer had his mind, was no longer the man Eizen had come to respect so greatly, he had even threatened Laphicet, and yet... The loss had still stung, had shaken the entire crew though they would not have let anyone see it.

It's difficult holding his coat, remembering the man who used to wear it, the man who had changed Eizen's life.

He barely registers Zaveid's answer, hearing little more than there had been a planet, uncertain what to do with the coat. It had been given to Zaveid, right? ]

Why are you giving me this, Zaveid?

[ Zaveid can still remember how he'd reacted to that moment, the horror and the anger that had burned through him. Everything comes back to death, everything comes back to someone else losing their life, and... Zaveid is tired. He's old, and he's worn, and he's tired, tired of all the things that have happened and how little escape he's had from it, from the moment he signed up until now.

Bowing his head, he softens a little, breathing out a quiet noise. ]

It wasn't mine to keep, I guess, and it was just sitting in a chest. I think he'd want you to have it.

[ Zaveid wasn't close to him really. Eizen... Eizen was his crew. His family. Compared to that, Zaveid was nothing. ]

[ Distantly he can hear Aifread's voice, hear him laugh as he calls Eizen' soft, that he shouldn't get worked up about it. You said you wouldn't apologize, right? But there is a stabbing pain in his chest that has become so familiar now, the loss he has endure time and again as people he cared for slipped from his grasp, each just as painful as the last.

He exhales heavily, eyes falling close as his grip on the coat increases. ]

You idiot. [ It's almost too much. ] You could have kept it, he wouldn't care which of us had it. He trusted you, Zaveid. You were more than some malak he saved from the Abbey.

[ The thing is that Zaveid really doesn't want the coat anymore. He doesn't want to look at it and remember a thousand years of pain and hurt and wondering, a thousand years of heartache. What he wants is to move on, to get stronger, to be better, not for himself but for Mikleo and Sorey and Dezel and even Eizen, standing in front of him like the world has been ripped out from under his feet.

All he can do is laugh, a quiet, sad thing. ]

Yeah, I guess. [ He's not sure how much he believes it, but it doesn't matter. Aifread saved him, and that's what counts. ] But I'm giving it to you.

[ The world feels a little less stable than before, but he doesn't crumble, Eizen can't crumble. Even as pain stabs at his chest, sharp and unrelenting, he stands as tall a ever. He will get past this moment, past the reminder of his loss, and come out stronger for it.

He shifts, opening his eyes to look at Zaveid, mouth curved into a faint smile. ]

Thanks, Zaveid.