[catchall] Caelus

[sixillusions]

This doesn't fit Kanda at all but I saw it while I was scrolling and I had to

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Re: 2/2

[sixillusions]

[He can have a flare of irritation in return; Kanda can deal with him feeling hurt, but when it gets in the way of important, potentially life-saving information, his patience is much lower. It's the anxiety that stops him from being too harsh in response, since even Kanda isn't dumb enough to not understand the importance of secrecy here.]

It's on your shoulders then.

[Caelus, he thinks, is the guilty type; if something bad happens because he chose to put his own feelings over everything else, it'll eat him alive. Kanda doesn't need to waste his breath trying to teach him a lesson he so clearly doesn't want to learn.

He tucks the paper in his pocket, wincing slightly at the brief pain of moving; the tree blood helped, but not much.]

But at least tell one person, in case you wind up dead or afflicted. Don't punish the rest of them just because you're mad I won't give you what you want.

[Kanda can live with it if Caelus doesn't want to trust him; he probably wouldn't return the favor if he had anything for Caelus anyway. But his focus is right where it's always been: taking down the cult and getting out of here with as few casualties as possible. He's a destroyer, not a savior--but he has no desire to abandon the group to their fates. He doesn't think Caelus does either.]

[trashprince]

I like you, Kanda.

[ sounds almost like an insult the way he's saying the words now. perhaps because he's more aware they aren't what the other man wants to hear. ]

But you aren't the first person I told and you won't be the last. I told Daan and Yuffie and they'll pass it along, too.

[ what hurts the most are the assumptions he's not putting full effort into everything. he told kanda he could do it all. it's not about picking to save everyone or forging connections. caelus has always been able to do both and carry on through the pain that comes alongside it. ]

It's not the only clue people are uncovering, either. You know, you learn more when people trust you and feel like they can talk to you without the sword coming out.

[ and other than kanda, who doesn't trust caelus at least a little bit? ]

[sixillusions]

[Well, he'd meant sharing where he got the information from rather than the information itself, but Kanda isn't in the habit of clarifying or correcting himself, so he simply looks at Caelus as he speaks--expression neutral and emotions muted, save for the soul-deep weariness he can't ever fully shut away.

There are a lot of things he could say in response to Caelus's words. But he isn't one to defend himself, either, nor is he particularly interested in parading around the people he talks to just to prove a point. And asking why the hell do you like me when I've done nothing to encourage you would just invite a conversation he doesn't want to have with a conclusion they've already reached. So, he simply waits for Caelus to finish, then turns to resume leaving the area.

He has more than enough of his own heartache. He doesn't want to wallow in someone else's.

But Caelus did ask one thing of him that he can give, so:]

I'll show Lavi.