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Su is no stranger to losing people. Friends to war, family to Catastrophes, patients to Oripathy, newer friends to all of the above. He’s not a stranger to ghosts either, haunting his dreams and the edge of his vision as he works and works to lessen the number of regrets.
Reunions between past loves should be easier, but foreign, inexplicably worse pain seizes Su’s heart when Mei slides into the seat across him, the Rhine Labs logo embroidered across her heart. It’s a mirror of where the tag that reads RHODES ISLAND hangs on his own coat.
“Why did you refuse my offer?” Is Mei’s choice of an opening move, swiftly countered in turn.
“Why did you send it in the first place? You’re well aware of what stance I take on this .”
This , Su says. This is Oripathy. This is Rhine Labs’ methodology. This was every memory they once shared, reaching between them like a lifeline, stretched taut in the silence.
Su looked at Mei, looked at her calculate her next move. Her glasses got thicker in their time apart, he noted. Her form was rigid as it had been when she first came to Shenzhou, though she had filled out the space of her body with a self-assured imperturbability. It suited her, Su thought fondly.
Su was watching her eyes still, when they involuntarily flicked to band around his wrist.
“We can offer better treatment,” She offers.
Su was watching her eyes still, the same way Mei was watching his own, and he saw the precise moment she knew she had lost.
Su’s chair screeches as he pushes it back, a horrific break in the silence of the room. It’s soon joined by Mei’s own chair.
“Su, wait-”
“Mei,” he rolls the words on his tongue. “I’m glad that even after so long, you remain the same.”
He can’t tell if he’s being sincere, or sarcastic.
The door opens with a hiss. “Goodbye, Director Raiden.”
Su passes through three doors without incident, and he must give credit where credit is due as Kevin slips into the elevator after him- the Draco knew at exactly which point Su would have his guard down.
Su punched in his floor number, closed his eyes, and counted to ten. “I must assure you, Director Kaslana, that the Security division of Rhine Labs would not find anything interesting on Rhodes Island’s living quarters.”
Kevin has always had what Mei’s rationality and Su’s politeness have not- the bullheadedness to cut through pretences.
“It’s a lot harder for you to escape a lift, Su.”
When Su looks over his shoulder, he sees a crack of smile, and the warmth that floods his chest at the sight threaten to buckle his knees, the same way seeing Mei spot him the first time Rhine and Rhodes crossed paths had. (A memory, of the way her mouth dropped open by a margin for a split second.)
He turns away and watches the lift pass by three floors before he can breathe with confidence again.
“I’m glad to see you again, both of you.” Su swallows. “I’m… happy that the both of you survived.”
“I can’t tell if you’ll believe me, but we’re happy you survived too.”
There is a rawness in Kevin’s voice, that prompts Su to turn and face him properly. He’d always been tall, with all the lankiness of a basketball player, but Su find it unsurprising that the man had found a way to still grow taller. He’d filled out, in the same way non-tangible way Mei had, and the formal attire he’d been required to wear in his visit as a director of Rhine Labs did a poor job of hiding his impressive physique. And in the same way Mei had, hooked on Kevin’s belt was a carefully preserved green-grey feather.
“We looked for you,” Kevin continued. “When we couldn’t find you after months, we thought…”
Su shifts on his feet. “I… sorry, I wasn’t really- I was… in a bad state, after Shenzhou crashed.”
Kevin’s eyes drop to the band around his wrist, and Su folds his arms behind his back. He will not endure pity. He cannot allow himself to.
“I didn’t look for you and Mei,” he confesses, heart beating wildly, shifting the conversation away. Su can feel bile at the back of his throat. “I was… afraid. To find out.”
A cool hand comes to rest on his cheek, comforting. Familiar. “It’s okay. I get it.”
The elevator shudders to a stop, doors creaking open. It takes a herculean effort for Su to muster the will to push Kevin’s hand away, to not cry when Kevin’s face falls and to speak when Kevin attempts to follow him out the elevator.
“Director Kaslana, it would improper of you to be found in the personal living quarters of Rhodes Island, esteemed guest as you are.”
A pause, as Kevin searches Su’s face for something beyond the half smile the Liberi has mustered, and then he is stepping back, an equally forced smile on his face.
“You’re right, Doctor. That would be rude of me.”
The elevator doors close between them.