revenance_rpg | A Heart to Heart

Entry tags:

A Heart to Heart

Who: Ienzo and North
Content: North and Ienzo bond over North's dealing with the ridiculously complicated RvB feels bomb.
Location: Traverse Town, Fourth District, Ienzo/Aeleus/Namine's apartment
Time of Day: ~~Evening~~ Right after lunchtime, the day after this log takes place.
Warnings: None

Ienzo had straightened the apartment - not that any of them were particularly messy people, but it was only right to make sure things were perfect before company came. He had drinks ready - tea and/or coffee as the mood struck - and both savory and sweet scones, which were still quite warm. He supposed they'd either end up at the kotatsu or the other table; the kotatsu was comfortable if one was used to it but he wasn't sure whether North would arrive in his armor, which might restrict his movement slightly.

Everything appeared to be in order, and so he could go down and wait for his guest to arrive. At least Aeleus would be pleased that he had found a new friend.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Theta looked at North nervously. North was supposed to be the one in control, and Theta didn't like seeing him nervous or worried. That was his job.

"Are you okay, North?"

"I'm fine, Theta. Just a little nervous." Okay, that might have been a lie. Perhaps he was a lot nervous, but he did need to talk to someone about what was happening. And Wash and York would probably go cagey on him if he tried to say anything to them. Especially Wash.

"Ienzo seems pretty trustworthy. I don't think he'll say anything.

"You're right about that. But remember, this means that you can't say anything either. Not even to Delta or Epsilon."

"I know, I can keep a secret," Theta said with a nod, although North could hear the uncertainty in his voice. He'd just have to help the AI out.

He reached out and knocked on the door.

Ienzo opened the door and nodded politely to North and Theta, then stepped back to let them in. "Good afternoon, North, Theta. Please come in."

The apartment was mostly open space; that made it easy to see that there were probably more rugs and piles of pillows than the space actually warranted.

"Hey," North replied with a wave. He hadn't worn his armour, considering they were just going to talk, but he had brought his rifle with him just in case, as well as a few friends.

"Hi Ienzo!"

"It's alright if Cactus and Winnie came along to, right? I didn't really want to leave them at home unless we were attacked by nightmares on the way over."

The Kooma Panda and pricklemane stood out in the hall.

"Nice place."

"Of course your dream eaters are welcome."

Lea poked his head around Ienzo's legs and barked a friendly greeting to Cactus and Winnie. They could have fun today!

"We can sit at either table." There was the regular table and the kotatsu. "I wasn't sure if you'd be hungry; there are scones." It was...odd, hosting someone. He'd never actually done it before, now that he came to think on it.

North smiled, motioning for his dream eaters to follow, and giving a small warning glance to Winnie not to get too exciting. They were inside after all. Cactus responded to the bark with a pounce.

"Wow, thanks. You didn't really need to go all out, but I guess the regular table's fine," North said, running his head through his hair. He sat down, taking a scone.

"You should feed guests," Ienzo said. "Something to drink?" He knew that well enough; you fed guests because it was the right and proper thing to do. That was just the way it was.

Lea rolled onto his back and flailed a bit before getting up and flopping on a pile of pillows.

That just made North laugh.

"Well it's not like I'm saying no," He said, picking up one of the scones. They did look good and he was glad to have food that wasn't made by him or a restaurant.

"I guess water's alright."

"I don't invite people over often." Ever, for that matter, but that was currently unimportant. Ienzo headed over to get North a glass of water, retrieving tea for himself at the same time.

"Fair enough. I haven't been a guest for a while either."

And really most of the visiting he did had been more of the arriving uninvited kind.

"Still, you've got a nice place. It's better than my room at the hotel."

"We have room upstairs, but no one's shown interest in it," Ienzo admitted. He wasn't sure who he would trust to live above them in any case.

"So you have roommates?" The apartment did seem a little big for one person, and North should have figured that was the case.

"That must be fun."

"Yes, Namine and I obtained this space together and Aeleus is staying here as well. It works for the three of us." Ienzo frowned faintly. "I don't believe that your friend Agent Washington approves of my being friends with Namine."

"Aeleus? I don't think I've met him."

At least not yet anyway. Traverse Town wasn't that big after all. He sighed when Ienzo brought up Wash.

"What gives you that impression?"

He honestly hoped that Wash hadn't gone too far. From what he'd seen of his changed friend, Washington seemed a little less worried about stepping on the wrong toes.

"He just made it clear in nonverbal, nonspecific ways that if I cause Namine pain he will not tolerate it. Since I feel similarly protective of Namine, I can hardly take offense at that. She's like...a younger sister, I suppose." He hadn't quite thought of it in those terms before, but he did want to make sure she was safe. That was interesting.

"Wash is protective in his own way. If he gets too overbearing, let me know and I'll try and talk to him. I'm an older brother myself so I know the feeling."

Although having gone weeks without seeing his sister, North was understandably a little worried. He hadn't been away from his sister for this long before.

Ienzo seemed to pick up on that thought. "You must miss your sister, in that case. What is she like?" Maybe this would be a good way to work into his talking about what he needed to express.

"I do yeah. She's a bit of a loose cannon sometimes, quick to anger and a bit of a handful. We're twins, so we've always been compared to one another, but we work well as a team, and I'm glad to have her watching my back."

When it comes down to it, South is the only family North has right now, with their parents being so far away. They've always been together, and it's weird being apart from one another. He hadn't even had a chance to talk to her about what had happened on the Mother of Invention.

Ienzo nodded. "You have your friends here, but that is never the same as family. I would think they would support you, even so." Except that there was clearly something going on there. He had no idea what it was, other than that it was creating a rift between North and his friends.

"I have no doubt about that, honestly. Wash and York are some of the best friends I've had, and they still are. But, they're from a different time than I am, and so stuff has happened to them that hasn't to me, and they've changed."

The more he thought about, the harder it was to ignore. He'd honestly tried to put himself in their shoes, but he didn't want to imagine what they'd gone through, and he was worried that doing so would only upset Theta. He rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to get the AI to relax.

"There are people here from different times who I've interacted with, but it seems as if most of us are from roughly the same point." Ienzo sighed. "And yet, people are still holding onto some secrets. But if they're your friends, I'm sure they just want to protect you. ...can you be friends with who they are now?"

Not that wanting to protect one's friends made hiding the truth the right thing. Aeleus was the only person who Ienzo would share everything with, but everything meant everything, all of his knowledge of a situation.

"That's the thing. I'm not so sure anymore. It's mostly Wash. He's not the guy I knew, and I know it and he knows it, and I guess I don't really know where to go from that. It's like there's all of a sudden a huge gap between us that I can't even begin to try crossing."

It was scary to think of a life without Wash and York, and he didn't want that to happen. But how did you communicate with someone who'd been through so much?

"And you can't talk with him, because he tries not to inflict it on you, and that just makes it worse. Because you can tell he isn't being honest with you, and that's even more painful than dealing with his trauma." Ienzo spread his hands and sighed. "You were - are - a soldier, correct? You've seen things that would destroy other people, and seen death?"

"That's pretty much it."

A difficult situation no matter how you looked at it. North nodded in response to Ienzo's next question. He'd been in a war, it was to be expected. North figured he was taking it alright, and he hadn't heard anything otherwise.

"I wasn't involved in a lot of the big battles of the war, but I've seen enough action."

"I've seen the dissolution of whole worlds. The loss of many, many hearts," Ienzo said. "I don't doubt that you and your friends have seen similar things. And yet what's most likely to shatter someone's heart is betrayal by the people they look up to." Ienzo paused for a long moment. It hadn't shattered his heart then, but knowing what he does now about Xemnas and Xigbar is...difficult.

"I don't know; perhaps I'm reading too much of my own experience into it. Whatever shattered Agent Washington, however, is...something he's going to have to come to terms with on his own. You can't be responsible for his mental health. What you can do is accept that he isn't the man he was. I know you want to be his friend, but until he stops hiding himself from you, I don't know if that's possible. It isn't your fault, and given what happened to him, it isn't his. But that's your situation as it stands."

While they might not have been the words North would have used, what Ienzo was describing hit close to home. Entire planets had been glassed in the war, and many lives lost. While he hadn't been fighting the Covenant, he knew enough about it to still be worried.

North thought for a moment.

"You're right, I don't want to stop being his friend. While he's changed, there's still times when he's the Wash I remember. And I guess I'm scared that if I stop being around he'll fall apart. I'm already scared that he's going to. Him and York."

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