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After all is said and done, Partitio seeks out Hikari.
Castti and Ochette have made camp, the latter already cooking up dinner. Partitio makes his polite excuses, ignoring Castti's teasing, and wanders off to find their wayward warrior.
He finds Hikari, as expected, secluded next to their newly solen cache of weapons. He sits cross-legged in the grass. His eyes are closed, long lashes fanning across his cheekbones.
Not asleep, though. Just meditiating. Partitio knows because he's asked already, and the question got a laugh out of Hikari.
Partitio announces his presence before gently clapping him on the shoulder.
"Hey, partner." He says.
Hikari's eyes flutter open, and he tilts his head up to Partitio. His ponytail swishes to the side at the movement. When he registers who exactly interrupted his meditation, he relaxes minutely. He offers the other man a slight smile.
"Partitio." Hikari acknowledges.
"Mind some company?" Partitio asks, gesturing to the ground next to Hikari.
"Be my guest."
Partitio settles in the grass beside Hikari with a grunt. His legs are sore from the distance their group covered earlier that day, his thighs aching with strain. Such is the life of a traveler, he supposes.
The night is quiet and still around them. No longer do the sound of clashing weapons and hushed, illicit trades blanket this grove of forest. Instead, the only sounds to be heard are the gentle buzz of fireflies, and the distant crackle of Ochette cooking over the campfire.
The Ku soldiers are gone. They had threatened and blustered and been so assured they would win - yet, Hikari bested them, and let them live regardless.
Still, a curiosity lurks in the back of Partitio's mind. A little buzzing, annoyonce of a feeling. A feeling that there's something he's missing in all this.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The thinking can be done later, he decides. Partitio wants some answers first.
"Listen, I was wonderin'," he says, breaking the silence, "do you mind if I ask you somethin'?"
"Go ahead." Hikari allows, still relaxed as he ever is around his companions.
Partitio almost hesitates to break that companionable atmosphere, but he really wants to know.
"Them fellers back there, you knew 'em, didn't you?"
Immediately, Hikari's demenor shifts. His gentle, open expression closes off into uncertainty. Pain lingers in his eyes, brows furrowed. Even had he not answered the question, Partitio would know the truth by his reaction alone. He knew those people, and they were important to him.
Mighty nasty of them to up and try to kill Hikari, when he clearly felt for them so.
"I did." Hikari answers. "General Rou served my father faithfully for many years. I have known him my entire life."
Partitio has mostly already gathered that from their words during the fight. It's the second man, moreso, that perplexes him.
"And the other one?" He asks.
Hikari hesitates. He crosses his arms, and raises an eyebrow.
"Why do you ask?" He says defensively.
Partitio immediately feels guilty. He rubs the back of his neck and laughs, a bit self-depreciating.
"Don't mean nothin' by it." Partitio assures him. "You know me, always stickin' my nose where it don't belong."
Hikari still looks unsure, but his lips twitch upward at Partitio's comment. Partitio is going to take that as a win.
"He just looked at ya funny, that's all." Partitio admits. "Kinda riled me up."
There was hatred in the man's eyes, most certainly. An intensity Partitio had rarely seen in another human being. He had tracked Hikari's movements like a cornered animal, his fixation almost feral.
It had reminded him of Osvald, a little, in that guard barracks in Conning Creek, eyes alight with fire as he set the the room ablaze. Frightening as he could be, though, Partitio understands Osvald's anger. He has no idea what Hikari could have possibly done to provoke that level of malice in a once-friend.
"Looked at me funny?" Hikari asks, voice off in a way Partitio can't quite pinpoint. "What do you mean?"
"I don't rightly know how to describe it. It was just... cruel. Looked at ya like he hated you."
Hikari flinches, just barely. Partitio internally curses up a storm. His utter lack of tact always comes back to bite him.
He just wants to know what was going on, so maybe he can help his friend. He would never want to hurt Hikari.
Hikari is silent for a moment. He stares up into the night sky, contemplative. The defensive air shifts into meloncholy, dragging Hikari's mood even further down.
"He probably does." Hikari admits ruefully. His eyes flick back to Partitio, smiling a little, as if it's a little joke.
Partitio blinks, and or a moment, he sees that Hikari from before. That half-dead foreign warrior who stumbled his way into Oresrush. The man whose eyes were hollow, yet determined to survive. Those eyes that had met Partitio's in blank confusion when he had readily offered to travel together.
That Hikari had disappeared, slowly, as they picked up more companions, but Partitio remembers. He does not like that one conversation with Ritsu brings Hikari right back there, instantly.
"Hikari..." Partitio trails off, uncertain and angry on behalf of his friend.
He doesn't know how to put it into words. He doesn't know how to tell Hikari he is so fundamentally good that it's inconcievable for him to be hated so.
"We were friends, as children." Hikari says softly.
He tilts his head, as if assessing Partitio. As if deciding right then and there whether or not Partitio could be trusted with any more. He hopes he doesn't find him lacking.
"I considered him one of the people closest to my heart."
Partitio whistles lowly. "Shucks, Hikari, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
Hikari smiles and waves his hand through the air, as if dispelling the very notion.
"You didn't, Partitio. We may be on different paths now, but those memories are still among my most cherished."
A man ready to kill Hikari at the first opportunity still holds a place in his heart? Partitio is simotaneously impressed at his capacity for forgiveness, and incensed on his behalf. Ritsu ain't worth a fraction of a man like Hikari.
"You're too good, Hikari." Partitio grumbles, still feeling that tide of protective anger. "You don't deserve to be treated like that."
Hikari chuckles.
"You're good, too, Partitio." He says, amused. "Thank you for listening."
Partitio perks up, pleased that the tense air has passed. Hikari doesn't need Partitio adding to his burdens. He has enough of those already.
(And maybe, just maybe, Partitio can lighten them some.)
"Anytime, partner. You know you can tell me anything."