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“I’d appreciate if you would hear me out,” Kuai says, low and intense in the Fire Garden.
The wind causes the leaves on the ground to float pass their ankles. He’s feeling colder than usual in his chest. Like a lost soul squirming around his heart, and through his lungs. It almost hurts.
This Scorpion only stares at Kuai, eyes white and foggy, the young man looking tense, and ready to fight at any moment. He nods his head once, the hood on his head not even moving an inch. The cryomancer only wishes it wasn’t like this.
“I am hearing you out,” Scorpion huffs out, muffled against his mask, and not at all the warmth as his Hanzo’s voice was. Kuai must resist holding a hand out for the man, a gentle gesture to express his care and concern. This isn’t the man he fell in love with.
Instead, he clears his throat, “I’ve said that Hanzo and I have had a different relationship than you think. And I am pulling you aside now, to tell you of our relationship.” It aches harder than he thought it would, but he hasn’t had much time to mourn, or even think about the word “gone.”
He can almost see Scorpion’s expression change, but he isn’t sure into what. Kuai gestures a hand to the pyromancer as he begins to walk inside, outside isn’t the right place for this conversation. They both need to take a seat for this. The summer weather this evening isn’t too hot, the air cooling down dramatically from the earlier heat.
Kaui assumes Scorpion doesn’t care much.
Once inside, Kuai’s eyes scan the beautiful architecture, his heart stuttering at the memories of him and Hanzo in this room. He tries to shrug off the pain, finding a seat in the far side of the room, a bench of sorts, with a deep red cushion on top for comfortable seating. The wall behind it is filled with a gorgeous mural, colors of orange, yellow, and red detailing it.
When the young Scorpion finds the seat next to Kuai, with a moment of hesitation, and slightly farther away than Sub-Zero expected, Kuai lets out a chilled breath. No matter the extremes he’s gone through in his life, he somehow didn’t expect something like this happen. Kuai supposes he can’t blame this young and clouded man for feeling hesitant about him.
“So,” Scorpion begins, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes drift from Sub-Zero to the room, eyeing the area and what is, now, all his. “At this point in my time, I should be killing you where you sit.” He finishes, eyes now back onto Kuai. Scorpion tilts his head up a little, now looking over the cryomancer. Almost greying, tired, but less tense.
Kuai watches him look over his appearance, and he can’t help but shiver in his own chill. He’s right. In the past, that’s all they had done. Fight and fight and kill. And they grew from that, but now it seems they must do it again.
“We were,” Kuai clenches his teeth and he can feel his fist grow colder as it closes around his palm. He decides to prolong it a little more. “You’re right. That is something I cannot deny. We were enemies, anger raging through the both of us. Only in the past five years, it’s changed.”
Scorpion only listens, an eyebrow lifting at the ending. Kuai continues, “While right now you are probably still, understandably, hurt and aching from your wife and daughter-” And he sees Scorpion shift in his place, fire beginning to curl around a bicep as they go slack on his chest.
“Don’t you dare,” The pyromancer grits out, but his flames puff out, keeping his tense posture, his eyes now glaring at Kuai. The latter holding out his hand to stop Scorpion from doing something rash. He should’ve known he wouldn’t take easy to his sworn enemy bringing up his family.
“I am sorry,” Kuai apologizes sincerely, “But it is necessary for me to continue,” He looks up into Scorpion’s empty eyes, for reassurance to continue, and with a curt, but aggravated nod, he does.
Kuai shifts in his seat a little. “Whatever you think of me now is not the truth. Yes, I have done many horrible things to you, and to many others, for which I am forgiving myself for, I did not hurt you, or your family.” Scorpion doesn’t speak, only watches. “Within the past five years, we reconciled. Became friends. It wasn’t easy, not at all.”
He pauses to give himself some breath, his fingers come up to trace along the paintings on the wall, remembering how Hanzo first introduced him to this beautiful creation. Scorpion watches, his head tilting at Kuai’s actions. “You..” He says, his mask muffling. Kuai turns, looks at the younger man as he fumbles with his mask and hood, pulling it down and off.
The young Hanzo was something else. His skin less wrinkled and tired, his brown hair not as long as it is now, in bun that slides out as soon as the hood goes down. He’s clean shaven, and his eyes are still clouded over. Kuai has to look away from him. He speaks again, more clearly without the mask. “Sub-Zero, what is our relationship?” He questions, almost angered. It seems he already assumes, but he wants to know for sure.
Kuai takes a second to breathe in and out, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment. When he opens them to see Scorpion, he can only give him a weak smile. “Hanzo Hasashi and I were, husbands.” He admits out loud, the air stilling around the two of them. He stumbles over his words for a second, “Well, not legally I suppose, we-” He clenches his jaw, “We didn’t get to do that yet.”
Scorpion only looks at his sworn enemy in shock, and confusion. He stays this way for a moment, and several moments before shaking his head and blinking rapidly. He looks away from Kuai. “How?” He speaks up, finally, after minutes of silence. He doesn’t seem to know what to do now that their relationship is revealed, especially with the memories of his wife and child still lingering in his mind.
Sub-Zero looks away from him as well, can only hold his own hands in his lap and fiddle with some ice forming on his fingers. “We talked.” He explains, a smile growing on his face. “Obviously it took a while, and arguments were frequent in the beginning, but..then something happened. It’s hard to explain, especially to someone who should know, but it is the truth.”
The young one finally looks back to Kuai, letting out a hot breath, “I see.” He says, almost weak, softer and quiet. Kuai looks at him to catch his expression, but only sees restraint in it. “I am afraid I cannot be your Hanzo.”
And Kuai knew it wouldn’t be easy, or happen at all frankly, but it still burns when he says it, deep inside his heart, and he can only nod, the cryomancer grateful for a conversation free of fighting is still a win.
He speaks up again,
“Maybe one day,” Scorpion mutters, as he reaches to put his hair back into his tight bun, hood raising above it. “In the future, however long from here, but not now, Sub-Zero.” His mask is placed back on his face. “You’ve grown, and I see what your Hanzo saw in you, but that is not me, not at this point.”
He stands, and by default, so does Kuai, surprised that Scorpion even said something like that. “You do not need to say that for me,” Kuai speaks, leading them out of the building and outside. “But this is yours,” He gestures to the area. “I should be going.”
Before Sub-Zero has a chance of walking further outside, Scorpion grabs his wrist and stops him. Their eyes meet.
“I mean it, Kuai Liang. Don’t forget about him.”
And Kuai leaves.