He didn't like to be by himself sometimes. His thoughts caught up with him, surrounded him and made him remember that time. He was broken when they found him, and he wasn't sure he was fixed now. He wasn't sure he'd ever really be fixed. It made him angry, that those people, the enemy, would do something like that to him. It frightened him, to know
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Here. She's in the Earth Palace that has so many conflicting memories of trauma and of peace for her. She knows it from the graceful lines of the architecture to the rich fabrics and furnishings. By instinct she reaches for her teletia-S... only to discover she's already caught.
"Jadeite..." Mercury finds herself staring at the youngest shitennou. Caught off-guard, her expression looks almost uncertain.
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Jadeite turns immediately, expression a little severe. "Mercury," he acknowledges her, and his voice is somewhat tight. He knows which Mercury too, by the fuku and her apparent age. She better have a good explanation for this. But maybe it was the nexus. His hands relax by his sides, but his shoulders are still tense, as if he isn't quite comfortable with such an encounter--and he's really not.
There's the tiniest twitch of his head, as if to shake it. Maybe to remind himself to be cordial, this is someone to whom he owes a great deal of thanks, even if he resents it, just a little.
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And mostly it's Kunzite. And she thinks of him immediately, like the fool she can still be. "I didn't come to see Kunzite!" she insists at the same time, assuming he'll assume she is, and disapprove (the disapproval, she takes for granted).
"It was the nexus."
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He glances away. "It doesn't matter anyway. You wouldn't show up in my room if you came to see him right now." Unless she'd lost her touch, but it's a jab he doesn't feel like making, not right now. He doesn't hate her.
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In a fit of kindness, she also doesn't point out that she could always go down the halls to Kunzite's chambers now.
"Your room looked too quiet," she says instead. "I thought I'd make a little noise."
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And it doesn't matter if she goes, does it? The eldest shitennou has been different since she came, but maybe she helps Kunzite, too. She helped him, after all. Nephrite only sees what's right in front of his face, maybe that's why he hates her after all. Jadeite has learned, since then.
And maybe he is a little grateful. But just a little. And he won't admit it. She's not a distraction he would have chosen on a list, to be sure.
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She is, quite simply, jealous. And it's really a horrible and twisted thing, to find something to be jealous of in that. But the sighs, and the evening of quiet thought sorting through that emotion, will come later.
"If you're not sleeping anyway, we should do something a little more fun," she decides, ignoring his crack about gratitude.
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"Did you have something in mind?"
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"It's your castle," Mercury points out. "I wouldn't know. What do you like?"
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"It's a little late," he points out in return. "So shouldn't you be mindful of that?" And while he can manage a good game of chess once in a while, he's heard of Mercury's chess-playing abilities (even though she still can't beat Kunzite, Jadeite's sure), he doesn't want to go against them right now.
"Besides, you made the suggestion."
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"I can't help what the nexus does," Mercury says with smug innocence. It's not the first time she's used excuses like that to do what she wants anyway.
"What about outside? It's barely Spring, right? The water might still be frozen." Or could be in short order. "We can go sliding on it." She'd say skating, but that'd take a bit of effort.
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She could try, anyway.
It's a flat out weird suggestion, and the look on Jadeite's face says he thinks just that. But maybe...
"I'll try it," he answers smoothly. "But don't cry if you fall in."
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Jadeite, Mercury will actually spend an evening taking their minds off things with. She can't help another prick of that resentment at the fact his world still treats her coldly, but he's also Jadeite, whose become one of her closest few people in her world.
"Let's go then!" And she makes to hurry from the room before he can change his mind.
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Jadeite follows her, and he moves to catch up. Once beside her, he glances at her from the corner of his eye skeptically. "Do you really know the way?" He wasn't sure exactly how much time she had spent here. Well, spent here outside of those rooms.
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"I know it," she tells him. She's been here in the past life, and the present. The golden palace of her world even resembles it quite a bit, and she has a good head for directions. She heads unerringly towards informal doors leading outside.
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