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The cold always drew him in. There was something exhilarating about it. About how he’d feel more alive than ever when freezing half to death in the Cold Storage. How that cold would seep through the big coat he always wore.
Maybe that was what drew him to a colder relationship. It wasn’t as though the relationship was cold in an unhappy sense. It was a happy relationship. They loved each other. Rather it was a comforting cold, a relationship that made him feel alive the same way he did when Opelucid was frozen over—when they were the ones who had frozen it over.
For some reason being with Colress just made sense, even if he couldn’t explain how. It made sense, even in a way that didn’t make sense to himself.
That cold was like paradise, that feeling of being truly alive was like paradise. Colress was paradise. The best paradise, his own paradise.
The paradise that only he has the right to. The love that only he has the right to. That paradise—their paradise—was the only thing they needed. Or at least, Zinzolin knew for a fact it was all he needed. He was sure Colress was the exact same.
After all, Colress had made it all worth it. The simple curiosity of standing by Team Plasma after all that happened, the simple factor of having nowhere else to go did he not, it had all led to one place—exactly where he wanted to be, even if he hadn’t realized it: Colress.
The discovery of another something else other than the cold that made him feel alive: this relationship they’d entered. Even if in some ways it was a simple working relationship, it felt different than the other working relationships he’d formed within Plasma. It was different than his relationship with Ghetsis, even if Ghetsis had also made him feel alive. It was certainly different than his relationships with the grunts that worked under them.
What he had with Colress was special. He’d been in relationships in the past, but none had ever quite been like the one he shared with Colress. He wasn’t sure he could have ever had another relationship like this with someone who wasn’t Colress.
It was odd. Even if they actively brought the cold to Opelucid, even if the frigate they spent most of their time together in was cold, even if the relationship felt more on the cold side. There was an odd warmth to being together.
It was like a constant rigor. Being with Colress made him so warm that everything else was freezing.
He supposed it was only natural in a relationship like theirs. A relationship with no regard for wrong or right. A relationship in which they brought suffering to others for the sake of their own success. A relationship where inflicting that suffering on others was a crucial sacrifice for the seeming win or die condition they’d bound themselves to when they decided to get wrapped up in all of this.
And at least in Opelucid, they had been the winners. They had won, they could keep going forward. What they had was stable.
That was all he could wish for. Victory meant more time with Colress and less time spent either dead or rotting away in a prison cell.
“Splendid!” Colress’ eyes were fixed on the DNA Splicers as Zinzolin set them down on the table. “Well done out there.”
“I should be the one saying that to you,” started Zinzolin with a chuckle. Somehow, now that he was inside, he was colder than he was when he was out on the frozen streets of Opelucid. Maybe it was due to Kyurem’s presence, or at least that was the easiest explanation he could give. Even if there was always a similar feeling whenever he and Colress were together. “That cannon of yours certainly worked like a charm.”
“Oh, Zinzolin. When has an invention of mine ever not?” As humble as ever.
He couldn’t help but chuckle in response. He somewhat liked that. It wasn’t unwarranted, he was a talented inventor after all. As long as they were successful, he was sure both of them more than had bragging rights about it. And it was seldom they weren’t—they made for a good combination after all.
Some things just go well together, and they were one of those things. A perfect combination in every way. A perfect strategic combination, the perfect combination for Ghetsis to put in charge of whatever mission Team Plasma was conducting this week. A perfect combination for a relationship, one of...however anyone would describe the nature of what they had.
Their hands fit perfectly in each others, everything about them felt like a perfect fit. Even the way Zinzolin would find himself suddenly shivering when they touched was perfect.
“Your hands are roasting…” Colress mused, removing the glove Zinzolin wore on his hand before placing his own gloved hand against it once more. “No wonder you’re so cold all of the time.”
Though he was fairly sure somehow, the way the temperature in his body rose when he was around Colress wasn’t it’s natural state. It was a specific result of their relationship. It hadn’t always been like that, though it certainly had for a long time now.
And even if how much his temperature rose with Colress made the touch feel cold, there was still a sense of warmth to it. In some ways, it balanced it out. A more metaphorical warmth than a physical one, though at times it did feel physically warm too.
Zinzolin huffed, “I think the reason I’m always cold is less that and more in relation to this.” His free hand drifted to point at the tank Kyurem was encased in.
“Mm…You may be correct.” Colress shrugged, maybe it had gotten a bit colder since they got their hands on Kyurem, though Zinzolin had been complaining about the cold before that. “Well, consider it preparation for the cold of a frozen Unova!”
He wasn’t quite sure anyone could be prepared for the cold of that. This win or die condition seemed to be more of a win and die condition when they would all be dying of hypothermia.
Though it would be their own doing, there wasn’t exactly anyone they could blame when that happened besides themselves. Perhaps they could blame Ghetsis, though they were the ones who had been assisting in bringing this plan to fruition.
Zinzolin found himself leaning into Colress, as though seeking warmth. Not that physical warmth, but the metaphorical warmth of their relationship. At least if he couldn’t have physical warmth, he could have that. And it’d make way to physical warmth at some point if they stayed like that for long enough, it always did.
This was the fate they’d tied themselves to. That fate was Team Plasma, and one another. And despite it all, Zinzolin didn’t want anything else than this, anything else than Colress. Anything else than the suffering of being cold, anything else than this existence.