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If there was any singular word he would use to describe that unstoppable force of nature known as Ozychlyrus Brouev Tantal, maybe “relentless” would do just fine.
After all that’s been said and done, there was still no place amongst the Aegis’s group for Mikhail. Not like there used to be with the old guard. Times change. People change. Yet he was welcomed with wary glares and uncomfortable silence— and if there was anyone who could understand all that hurt and regret and the facade of nihilism that’d become as thick as concrete and just as real, it was that unstoppable force of nature.
Known as Ozychlyrus Brouev Tantal.
Also known as Zeke.
Mikhail never would’ve thought he’d end up here, of all places, anyway. Figuratively speaking. He meant it when he said he was sorry, though. Really, really sorry, even if a small part of him wasn’t actually sorry and there were a lot of things that still sucked in this world that the kid with the Aegis wanted to save.
So it sort of made sense that of all of them, the one person who had a… similar affliction to him, would understand. The hurt and regret and nihilism. Even if Zeke wasn’t hurting and he didn’t really regret anything and he sure loved people. Not in the way Rex loves people, because that kid would probably invite the likes of Jin and Malos to drinks in spite of everything— Mikhail laughs to himself when he imagines that, the kid striding up to the ever-angry Malos and a very sullen Jin and telling them they should have soda pops together— but Zeke puts a hand on his shoulder and nods.
Then he runs off to do something stupid, like strike a dumb pose or fall off a cliff.
So Mikhail isn’t sure what to call… this, but at least he knows that he has something with Zeke that he hadn’t had with anyone else, not since he was friends with that scrappy Gormotti kid who told him he should keep smiling even when times are rough.
When times are rough, they have no choice but to weather forward, but today they’ve made a stop at Alba Cavanich. Just for a night, probably. The world’s in danger and things are kinda bleak but they can still have at least one night to enjoy themselves at the inn and the adjacent hot springs.
He leans back in the hot water, all sprawled out and soaking in the heat. There’s a lot to think about but it’s nice to not think, for a change of pace.
“Stewing all alone, eh?”
Mikhail leans his head back to look at Zeke upside-down. He’s standing there with his hands on his hips, a small towel the only thing preserving his modesty. Mikhail raises a brow.
“That’s a hand towel, you know that?”
“Well, no wonder it hardly fits! And here I thought it was just my impressive girth.”
“Impressive girth,” he repeats with a derisive snort, and brings his head back up so that he doesn’t have to watch when Zeke yanks the towel off with an unnecessarily grand flourish and flings it aside.
“Hot springs are better enjoyed with company,” Zeke says. “You could’ve asked Rex or Tora to join in.”
“Oh, I did ask… I asked Mòrag. She tried to stab my foot. Then Brighid tried to stab my other foot.” Mikhail sweeps his fingers through his hair, not even bothered. “Ah, the day when we find Patroka’s Core Crystal will be the day I’ll be… complete. But for now, I’ve got to make do.”
Zeke only rolls his eyes and settles into the water a bit away from Mikhail, so that he could splay his limbs with room to spare.
“Can’t you talk about anything other than girls? I’ve got half a mind to doze off every time I try to talk to you, mate.”
“Go ahead, see if I care. Like I’d want to talk about naming swords or coming up with dumb poses.”
Mikhail has his eyes closed, but he swears he can practically hear Zeke’s challenging smirk. Somehow, it doesn’t really bother him, because he knows Zeke knows and that’s somehow oddly comforting even when he thinks Zeke should just piss off.
He just likes his company. It’s as simple as that.
“Harsh words for a flamboyant piece like yourself, Mikhail.”
“Shut it, you don’t even know how to dance.”
“Ha! Admit it, you’re always captivated by the Zekenator’s smooth, sensual—“
“Don’t say it like that, man.”
“—seductive—“
He’s laughing so hard into his palm that it kind of hurts. Good thing they’re the only ones in the hot springs right now. He didn’t say it before, but Tora did come out earlier, waddling across the flagstones. But then he saw that Mikhail was the only one around and Tora stuttered something awkward and stilted in that noponic speech of his, and quickly waddled back away. Tora doesn’t understand, not in the way that Zeke understands.
Zeke doesn’t mind hanging out with him with his guard down. It’s something.
“Stop, stop! I’ll show you how to dance properly sometime, alright? None of that weird flailing you usually do, but actual dancing.”
Zeke is relentless, but Mikhail doesn’t really mind rolling with the punches.
“Flailing?! How dare you call my sweet moves flailing?!”
Zeke is… Zeke.
“Yeah, that’s right. Flailing. What else am I supposed to call those weird shows you put on whenever you use my fans?”
“Graceful! Powerful! Sinuous! I can think of a dozen more words!”
Relentless, more like.
Then— oh, fuck, he’d formed an affinity link without even thinking about it like it was secondhand instinct. That small tether of light extends between his own Core Crystal and to Zeke’s chest. Zeke nearly looks surprised for a moment, but then he just guffaws.
“I knew it!” He’s standing up. Oh, no, he’s actually standing up. Mikhail half-heartedly tries to scramble backwards, away, as Zeke sloshes through the water and walks right towards him, as naked as the day he was born.
“Noooo, nope, nuh uh!”
“Get off your high horse! Don’t make me dance right over your lap!”
“Try it and I’ll toss you off Mor Ardain’s shoulder!”
“Ha, that’s supposed to scare Zeke von Genbu?! I’ve fallen from greater heights!”
He’d fallen back into the water, up to his chin and it bubbles against his mouth when he sputters— Zeke’s standing right over him now. Mikhail growls.
“Get your dick out of my face, man.”
“Hold on.”
Zeke kneels and that’s that. Or it should be that, but he’s still too damn close and their ether link is still glowing. Damnit. Architect knows how many times he’d tried to form an affinity link with Mòrag, or Nia, but it was like trying to dig through solid rocks with his fingers because neither of them would allow it. It was just impossible. But the way his ether flows to Zeke is so easy it’s unsettling. Something warm pulses through his crystal, and he realizes that glow is now tethered to the shard embedded in Zeke’s chest.
Oh, that’s what he’s kneeling for. It's going from core to core. Even when Cressidus was around, it never happened in this way.
“Well, would you look at that.” Zeke’s wearing a little smile now, looking down at the water. It's only faintly lit up by the ether. “I didn’t even know I could do this with Pandy’s piece of the core.”
His scars… look like his own. That disfigured skin around the crystal that’d been forcibly embedded into his body. Just like his own. The scars are almost identical, but Zeke's look neater, somehow, the angles more geometric and neat. Probably because Amalthus had fine-tuned that process over the course of five hundred years, or whatever. Mikhail straightens up a bit so that his Core Crystal is out of the water, and they can both better see that link of energy flowing between them.
He takes a deep breath. Zeke’s not a full Blade Eater like he is, his piece is only half of a Blade’s, so he can’t manifest his own weapons. But he could still do… this, apparently.
“Yeah, so? Any Blade can do it.”
“Neither of us are actual Blades, mate.”
“I know that.”
Zeke suddenly grabs him by the shoulders. He’s still wearing that stupid eyepatch, Mikhail realizes, even when he's out in the hot springs. He stares at Zeke’s one uncovered eye, his own expression no doubt twisted into a weird mix of confusion and amusement and just the mildest of disgust, and Zeke leans in…
And practically falls on top of Mikhail, trying to bump that shard in his chest against the whole crystal in Mikhail’s chest.
“What’re you—?!”
“Just trying to get more ether flowing! Nothing to worry about!”
“Quit rubbing your nipple on me, asshole!!”
He wildly splashes as Zeke continues to shout and hold onto him and their affinity link bursts golden, and Mikhail is also shouting, wondering where things went so wrong that he’s got this man all over him instead of a beautiful girl with soft curves. Zeke doesn’t have any soft curves. He’s just a big block of muscle. Idiot.
A truly relentless idiot.
“Can’t you feel it too, Mikhail?!”
Somehow, he’s managing to keep his head above water. “Feeling what?!”
“You know! The bond!”
“What?!”
“I’m really feeling it!”
“You’re not making any damn sense!”
But he knows it, and Zeke knows he knows it.
This is what it’s like… to have a Driver.
That’s what it is. Right?!
Gradually he calms down, and Zeke sort of does too even though he’s still trying to keep their Core Crystals as close as possible together. With a loud, exaggerated sigh of defeat, Mikhail slaps his wet hands on Zeke’s back and simply lets him stay there, kneeling over him.
Zeke seems pleased as punch. Idiot.
“You… are a real piece of work, Zeke von Genbu.”
“That makes two of us, then! No, wait, that’s not right…”
“But seriously, I’ll show you some real dance moves later. Even Nia should get a kick outta them. It’s about feeling the beat of the rhythm, y’know? Flowing along with things, in a current of sensation and feeling… ahh, that’s the real deal! That's what dancing is supposed to be.”
Slowly, Zeke slides off of him and sits there with one leg pressing heavily over Mikhail’s lap, an arm slung around his shoulders. “Bunch of nonsense, that’s what it sounds like.”
“Like you’re one to talk, you big oaf. Spewing nonsense. Don't you do enough of that on an hourly basis?”
He laughs. When was the last time he could do anything like this? Not even with the people who was his family, nor with the other people who he thought was family. Ozychlyrus Brouev Tantal is in an entire league of his own, relentless in his empathy and spirit. The perfect man to learn from how to be a better man. Maybe the whole redemption thing wouldn’t be so impossible to achieve, after all.
If he could be just as relentless as Zeke, then maybe.
Just maybe.
A cough startles both of them. Mikhail is taken aback at being caught, but Zeke casually waves at Rex, holding onto Mikhail so that he can't squirm away. “Chum! Here to soak in the spring as well? About time!”
Rex stares at both of them, and at the way Zeke is half-draped on Mikhail. Their affinity link is still glowing strong. “Uh… if I’m interrupting something…”
“Yeah, kid, you might wanna get lost—“
“Oh! You’ve got a piece of a Core Crystal, too!” Zeke snaps his fingers. “Chum! You could try—”
Mikhail hurriedly pushes Zeke’s head under the water. “Run while you have the chance, Rex!”
Rex exits back into the bathhouse without question nor hesitation, leaving Zeke and Mikhail noisily grappling and splashing each other.
Being relentless isn't the worst thing one could be, in the face of unforgivable crimes. Zeke might say something to that extent, or maybe he wouldn't, but at least he knows it's not just about forgiving and forgetting. Mikhail knows that, too, which is why he's having a hell of a time wrestling with him and making a general spectacle even though no one else is around (thankfully) to witness. Zeke heartedly laughs as he roughly presses his palm to Mikhail's Core Crystal, and there's a split second where Mikhail flinches, but then he grabs Zeke's core in return. It's warm. Zeke flexes beneath his touch.
"Ooh, yeah, like what you feel?"
"I should be asking you that question, you bastard," Mikhail shoots back with a sharp grin, though he knows he would've asked that first, word for word, if he were as half as relentless as Zeke.