It's Not Like You To Say Sorry [Closed, Complete]

[machitobaye]

Characters: Machi Tobaye, Alphonse Elric
Setting: Pool!
Time: Day 10, Early Afternoon
Summary: Machi and Al meet again while Machi is looking for Anna. Epic awkward.
Warnings: Tiny OP of suck.

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[machitobaye]

Machi stared back impassively, his dark reflective sunglasses reflecting Al's face back at him in unfeeling duplicate, but internally he was torn, struggling to resolve the conflicts of motivation and instinct--several interests were immediately at war.. but he was left without any real choice. He paused, averting his eyes briefly before answering, his heavy accent only partially obscuring the flat lack of feeling.

"... yes. Yes, I... fine." Not a lie--specifically--but what did it matter any more? He could accept what he was. He could live with it. He tilted his head back at a contemptuous angle, managing the illusion of looking down at the older boy beneath the black frames, and a small, thin smile crawled across his features. "...you looking much better now."

[flowing_alchemy]

The wording was awkward, yes, but Alphonse was relieved to hear that answer all the same, and he hoped that Machi meant it. At least the other boy was fine... "I'm glad to hear it." he said, warmly, with a smile and a nod to the blond -

Before he realised what that next statement was, and stopped because of it. "Ah..." he hadn't meant to hesitate, but the implications of what he meant were obvious, and it - along with the smile it came with - was a bit unsettling for him. He tried to recover quickly, though, and just nodded and smiled, before offering an - admittedly awkward - "Yeah...I guess I'm doing a bit better now."

[machitobaye]

Machi stood, listening, silent and unmoving as Alphonse stumbled over his reminder, and the smile lingered, playing faintly across his mouth for another second or two.

"Ah... no worry. I am not here for ah... how to say... make troubles."

This was actually true--he was specifically looking for Anna, and had no time to spend making Alphonse miserable--or anyone else, for that matter. And he was through with that, for the most part. He... was not repetent. But he was done. For now.

He didn't need any more grief, either his or anyone else's.

[flowing_alchemy]

Alphonse was recovering from his momentary stumble fairly quickly, before h just nodded to Machi, though he frowned a bit - though it was replaced with another smile toward the latter end of his reply: "I never said that you were... but thank you."

His reply was sincere and honest as usual. He wasn't sure the best way to do it but... he wanted Machi to be reasonably comfortable, for however long the duration of the conversation would be. They'd clashed before - he hardly wanted that to happen again. No, far from it. He'd much rather work towards repairing what little of a relationship they had.

[machitobaye]

Machi blinked, then frowned, giving Al a peculiar, dubious look, his brow furrowing behind the sunglasses. Had he... forgotten? No, he couldn't have, not when he'd taken that bait a couple of seconds ago, but... Machi was wary. Something wasn't right. And he couldn't understand why Al was being so... nice.

"... no... no thank you." He snapped, although the meaning was distorted slightly. What he meant was 'don't thank me'--it wasn't personal and he was becoming increasingly uncertain about Al's intentions. But he had other priorities, ones that mattered a lot more than Al's weird behaviour.

"...are you seeing... uh, woman... is name Anna?" It was a serious question, and his tone matched it--he needed to find her, preferably sooner rather than later, but he hadn't seen any trace of her in days. He needed to talk to her.

Badly.