Conversation.
T: A little pointless character exploration. Set after the conclusion of GS4 and thus there will be spoilers. Angst, OOC, slash hints, het. I own only the plot bunny, everything else belongs to Capcom.
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"You look terrible."
Smiling despite himself, he turns towards the source of the remark and responds,
"Hello, Maya."
The current Master of Kurain channelling technique squashes herself into the tiny space at his side and, running a hand across his chin, she enquires,
"Seriously, Nick, would it kill you to shave at least once in a while?"
"To what to I owe the pleasure of your company, Maya?" He enquires as he gently pushes her fingers to one side.
"Can't a girl drop in on an old friend without an ulterior motive?"
"No."
Her face falls into a pout and for a brief instant she looks precisely as she had seven years previous, then her face twists into a more adult expression and he is looking again at a stranger.
"I wanted to make sure you were coping…you sounded odd when you called last week and it frightened me."
"Last week was…" He trails as he finds himself unable to place a shape around the mire of emotions that the events of the previous week had invoked within his heart and, feeling a little frustrated, he runs his fingers down the piano keys.
"You should start taking lessons." There is a question hidden well in the remark and, as his fingers settle in to the familiar stride of his infamous 'one song', he informs her,
"I'm still deciding if that's what I want."
They are pressed close enough that he can feel the minute tensing of her muscles and thus he is little fooled by the calm manner in which she enquires,
"Could you honestly go back after everything that's happened these last seven years?"
"Not as I was." There is more to that answer than he had intended to give her and yet he is not truly surprised by that fact...she is one of the few people that he trusts implicitly, after all.
There is a long instant where the only sounds are the gentle rhythm of the melody, the soft thump of his foot on the peddle, and the rush of their breath. Then, eyes fixated on the movement of his fingers, she enquires,
"Does he know about this yet?"
Cheeks flushing a little both for embarrassment and for the rush of pleasure that catches at him, he responds,
"I didn't think it was a sensible idea to talk to him until I'd made my mind up. Not because I'm frightened of disappointing him, or of him influencing my choice, but because I've this foolish want to show him that I'm still capable of making my own decisions…that I'm still as strong as I was seven years ago."
"You understand that you don't have to prove yourself, right Nick? That we all love you as much now as we did seven years ago?"
"Of course…"
"But you're going to carry on regardless, right?"
"I'm afraid so."
She lets out a tiny breath of frustration, enquires, "What am I going to do with you?" under her breath and, after a moments silence, begins to fill him in on a weeks worth of Kurain village gossip.
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T: Written because I wanted to get into Hobohodo's head just a little and because I felt the need for a bit of interaction between our favourite ex attorney and his glamorous assistant. Review??