Ryuuki walked slowly but deliberately to the elevator, his eyes glued to the red carpet as he walked "How could I-" he winced at the thought of what he said to Delai. He heard the familiar ping of the elevator ahead of him and walked fast to catch up, "I have to talk to her, somehow" he screamed in thought. He got to the elevator, but it was already closed, he looked at the number 3, displayed above the elevator door. Now he was sure of where she was going, he raced down the stairs with his enhancement, hoping he'll get there fast enough.
The elevator doors slid open to reveal Delai, she leaned on the inner wall of the elevator for some moments, as if she wasn't ready to leave the confines of the elevator yet. She craned her neck backwards, staring at the bright light on the elevator roof, muttered some inaudible words and with a sigh, she finally left the elevator with a weak smile, walking towards her room.
Ryuuki saw this, all of it from the corner across the hall, when he was still memorizing what to tell her. He hated this part of her, the part that had to pretend that she was ironed in and out, the part that didn't allow for weakness. He wanted to scold her like he usually did, only he knew this part of her after all, but he couldn't, he wasn't in the position to, after all, he did say that.
Delai caught sight of him before entering her room "Hey man! What are you peeking there for?" Delai said with her usual smile.
Ryuuki stiffened, his shoulders seemed to rise above his head, he knew that smile too well, "Delai can we talk, please?" He said, almost in a whisper.
Delai frowned "If it's about the Tammy thing, don't worry, it doesn't- I'm okay," she said in an unreadable tone.
"Please Delai?" Ryuuki added with a pleading tone.
"Okay then, come in," Delai said with a wave of her hand, entering her room.
Ryuuki followed after her, closing the door behind him. Delai's room was just as it always was- neat. Unlike the rest of the creed, Delai did her best to customize her room the way she wanted, she changed the floors to wooden ones, with a threshold at the door for shoe removal, and she framed her 2 best paintings on either side of a poster of chaos on one wall. The paintings and poster were all perfectly straight as if she used a leveller to measure them. She arranged her gun and katana collection beside the space for her futon, and she carefully hid the closet at the further end of the room. The rooms were all the same size, but she seemed to have way more space because she arranged everything just right. There were even rumours among the Guardians that she was seen using a ruler to accurately measure the positions of objects in her room.
"Ryuuki, please sit on the chair, I have to remove my contacts" Delai yelled from the bathroom.
Ryuuki yelled back "Okay" He frowned at the seat in front of him, "no legs" he muttered. After some deliberation, he finally sat down, crossing his legs. Ryuuki was obviously east Minervan, he was taken from an orphanage there after all, yet Delai was always more east minervan than him, even though she came from North Minerva, she even learnt the East Minervan native language before him! Ryuuki fiddled with his hands, and stretched his legs, trying to feel more comfortable, but he was growing more nervous. He stared at the Chaos poster, to distract himself.
"Sorry I took too long" Delai suddenly said behind him, jerking him out of his thoughts. Delai's bright green eyes flashed, as she towelled her black silky hair at the threshold of her bathroom. Her eyes had always been the most beautiful of the squad, they were fiercely green, like emeralds, and they shone the brightest too. However, she always wore contacts, even when she was in the creed.
Delai frowned "Why are you staring at me like that?" You've never seen a girl drying her hair or what?
"Tch you wish. It's just been a long since I saw your eyes, that's all" Ryuuki said dismissively.
"Oh-" suddenly she looked irritated "Dammit Ryuuki, did you touch the poster?" She asked, carefully readjusting the chaos poster.
Ryuuki sighed "Nahhh, I know better than to mess with your stuff," Ryuuki said flatly. She didn't reply.
She carefully pulled another legless chair from beside the table, to sit across from Ryuuki. "So what's up Ryuuki?"
Ryuuki, fiddled with his thumbs even more, so much that they got warm "I wanted to apologize, Delai I'm-" he started.
"I already told you, man, it's cool," she said dismissively, a bit aggressively.
"No, it's not, I-"
"I already said it's okay!" Delai yelled, in frustration.
"So why are you crying?" Ryuuki said softly.
Delai lightly touched her cheek, where she felt warm streaks of moisture "Crying?" she whispered. She quickly dried her eyes with her sleeves, and then she looked up at Ryuuki "See? I'm not crying" She said with a smile, but Ryuuki's face was blurry. She couldn't stop the tears.
"Delai-" Ryuuki muttered, his voice husky.
"Look! I'm not crying! It's just the contacts, they irritated my eyes!" Delai said firmly.
"It's just me and you now D, you don't need to pretend here," Ryuuki said softly, his maroon-red pupils, twinkling as he shifted his head.
Delai, tried desperately to dry her tears, to make herself stop crying "Think happy! Think happy! Think happy!" she screamed in her thoughts, but the tears kept coming, they increased even now. All her happy thoughts seemed so... distant.
Ryuuki stood, and removed the seat from beneath him, to kneel on the floor beside her "I'm sorry Delai, I shouldn't have said- I shouldn't have said what I said, I'm so sorry!" Ryuuki said with a cry. He kept his eyes on the wooden floor, he couldn't bear to look at her, not when she looked like that, not when he was the one that caused it. And soon, the wooden floor was also blurry for Ryuuki, he cleaned his eyes with the cuff of his shirt.
"Ryuuki? Are you crying?" Delai said with a whimper, turning to look at Ryuuki, his pupils seemed to almost blend with the white of his eye. Ryuuki frantically tried to dry his eyes with his sleeves, "No I'm not, something entered my eye" Ryuuki said with a whimper. "I'm just so sorry Delai! I'm terribly sorry, I shouldn't have, I can't believe I did, I'm so sorry!" Ryuuki said loudly, his gaze glued to the floor.
"It's okay Ryuuki, It's okay really, It's just- I- just remembered a-and"
Ryuuki buried his face in his palms, and his voice got louder "And it's my fault"
"No, it isn't, anyone could have said it, at one point or the other, I'm glad you did, I j-just" Delai stammered, as her chest tightened and her breath seized as she spoke.
"It's okay, just let it out" Ryuuki gently said, rubbing her shoulder. Delai curled herself, with her knee to her chest, laying her head on Ryuuki's lap. She struggled to say something, but she couldn't, the tightening pain in her chest seemed to arrest her voice too. So she cried louder, slammed her hands against the floor, and screamed into Ryuuki's lap to dampen her voice. Something about now felt safe to her, she felt like she could do whatever she wanted to, feel however. It was like an old untreated wound just opened again, but now she had a first aid kit.
Soon the clenching in her chest lessened and she cleaned the last of her tears. She turned to lie down, her head still on Ryuuki's lap, she looked up at him, and he stared straight ahead with a straight face, but his eyes told otherwise. Kimi always said Ryuuki's eyes sold him out, and now they did, they showed the sadness behind them even more "Ryuuki? Are you okay?" Delai said in a weak voice, she almost didn't recognize it to be hers.
"I am, I'm just-" he broke off.
"It's okay man, really, it's okay," Delai said with a weak smile. She had known for the longest time that the only person in the world that had an idea about how she felt was Ryuuki, he was always cold and distant from the other children in the institute, and it had gotten worse when the serum killed his little sister, even worse when the serum worked on him, and finally, he broke when the person he saw as a big sister, Kiwa died. Yet he always tried to hide it, he always maintained his carefree demeanour, but he couldn't hide it from Delai, not that she could hide anything from him herself.
"Okay, thank you. I promise it won't happen again" Ryuuki said with a weak smile, wiping the last of his tears.
The two remained there, with the same posture, it seemed most comfortable like that anyway. Neither dared to speak, they didn't want anything to ruin the moment. At this moment, nothing that they were scared of, nothing that had frightened them mattered much, it was peaceful.
"D, I want you to know it's not weak to feel sad or cry. It's human, and no one would think less of you" Ryuuki finally spoke. "You're already the most badass person I know, you could just kick their asses if they say anything" Ryuuki added with a hearty laugh.
"I know, but it's not what people say that troubles me, it's what they think," Delai said absentmindedly, pulling a lock of Ryuuki's curly hair. "I have to be strong Ryuu, I have to keep it together, a lot of people look up to me" she added.
"But that doesn't mean you have to face everything alone D," Ryuuki said softly.
Delai shook her head "But you already-"
"Have enough problems? For some reason it doesn't seem to matter now" Ryuuki said, with an assuring smile.
"Okay then, but I'll warn you I'm a magnet for problems" Delai muttered shyly.
Ryuuki grinned, almost like what Delai said was the most amusing thing he had heard "Me too Delai, but two superhumans are better than one" he added with an assuring smile.
"Hmph. Okay" Delai said sleepily
It was after an hour that Ryuuki's knees began to hurt. He wanted to stand, and stretch his legs- he could hardly feel his toes now. But Delai was already asleep, and now she seemed peaceful, the most peaceful he had seen in a long time. "I guess I can't ruin this" Ryuuki muttered, lightly stroking her hair. The room was filled only with the rhythmic sound of Delai's breath, till someone knocked on the door so lightly that Ryuuki thought it was from another room.
"Uhhh... Sorry to disturb Delai, it's Michael! Vivian wants you to come to the lab quick" a timid muffled voice sounded from behind the door.
"Of course, he had to ruin this" Ryuuki muttered under his breath.
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