[closed thread]

[waywardwings]

WHO: Zidane and Kuja.
WHAT: Brotherly reunion! (Sorta.)
WHERE: The docks.
WHEN: Shortly after Kuja's arrival.

Comments

[de_novo_xiii]

"What? Oh." Kuja blinked, following the gesture to look at his journal. He wrinkled his nose. "When someone replied to what I wrote, I thought it absurd. When you replied, I thought, 'well could it get any weirder than my brother wondering if I'm dead?'"

He could feel the heat of his body so close to him. He was real, not the trappings of a frenzied mind trying to fabricate something to cling to. His fingertips twitched and he edged his hand ever so slightly to the left. His pinky lightly bumped Zidane's hand.

Inside, the knot of anxiety slowly unwound itself. Safe.

"So," Kuja smiled weakly, "what's a genome got to do around here before he gets a decent shower and some clothes?"

[waywardwings]

If Zidane minded the contact, he didn't show it. He'd been alone for so long in a place of unfamiliar faces, frantically trying to find a way back. But now he suddenly had someone... even if that someone was supposed to be dead, and it would make being stuck here so much more easier. Bearable.

Being alone really was a horrible feeling.

"Nothing, actually," he replied, looking a little more at ease and leaning back on the bench. "The Queen of this place told all the locals to hand out stuff for free. You can just go in a shop and help yourself, pretty much, and there are empty houses around you can just walk in and take."

[de_novo_xiii]

"Well that's...odd." Kuja blinked, tilting his head. "Surely someone's protested against such charity?" He gave a little laugh, shaking his head.

"I'm hardly in a position to test the boundaries of such charity anyway, so don't answer that." He took a cue from him, leaning back against the bench before tilting his head to gaze up at the sky.

"This place. Everything is so foreign. Everything just happened so fast." He looked at his brother. "How long were you here for before I came?"

He had forgotten everything else for the moment- no split ends or broken nails or tattered clothing. Kuja was next to his brother. That was all that mattered, despite the thousands of questions he fumbled desperately to answer.

[waywardwings]

"The people here are... weird," Zidane decided to answer anyway, absently mussing his blond hair with a gloved hand, watching people pass by. "They love their Queen, and they'd happily do anything she says."

He had to think for a moment at Kuja's second question. "Over a week." He wasn't too sure about the exact number of days, since things had become so normal and routine, but he had a vague idea. "I've been trying to find a way out with other people, but not much luck so far."

[de_novo_xiii]

"You haven't changed at all." He teased, shedding the last threads of anxiety, "Ever the thief seeking an escape route."

He turned his eyes to the horizon, wondering if new ships would dock with new puzzled shipmates.
"Always more to see, always more to discover." A little smirk. "and to steal of course."

"You sound as if it's all turned a little bland around here. Not enough excitement, little brother?" Kuja narrowed his eyes playfully. "Don't make me have to gather an army and kidnap a few comrades of yours."

[waywardwings]

"I have my reasons for wanting to get home," Zidane said, trying to look indignant but instead forming a grin. And for once, stealing and adventuring was not amongst those. At first, before anything had ever happened and he was still in Tantalus, that might've been his motive. He did hate being confined here, true, but most of all it was his friends he hated being seperated from. Dagger.

But now... Kuja was a complication in the plan. He was the last person he'd expected to see again, yet there he was, sat right beside him like it was the most normal thing in the world, holding a - relatively - normal conversation. This Child-Queen really did like to toy with her new citizens.

"Maybe if I had comrades for you to kidnap. Everyone else is back home," Zidane's smile looked slightly more forced, then. "Besides, would you want to be stuck in a place like this

[de_novo_xiii]

Stuck in a place like this?

The question made him laugh suddenly. He moved his hand, resting it back atop his journal and clenching his hands into fists.

Home

That's right, wasn't it? Zidane had been plucked out of his story mid-chapter; unlike Kuja, Zidane hadn't reached the end of his story just yet. Zidane had been taken from his friends, his comrades and his beloved.

The sun was setting, blazing the sky with a watercolor palette of oranges and pinks. He marveled at the sunset. He couldn't bring himself to meet his brother's eyes.

"It's alright sweetheart," Kuja shook his head with a hollow laugh, "it isn't as if I've got anywhere else to be."

[waywardwings]

Zidane suddenly stood as if wanting to bring about an abrupt end to the conversation. There was still friction in the air, even now. It wasn't that Zidane begrudged Kuja for anything that had happened, all the hardships, but... It was going to be hard to adjust. Kuja was a changed man.

"We should get to the shops before they close," he said, not quite able to look at him either, and instead settled for looking at his tattered clothes, smirking slightly. "Unless you want to sleep in those tonight?"