Auther's Note: FFVII: Core Metallicity is a sequel to FFVII: No Regrets ( s/12653858/1/FFVII-No-Regrets) Part 1 of the FFVII: Fan Compilation series. So I'd recommend giving No Regrets a look at, to get more out of Core Metallicity.
Before I go and let you get on with it, a big thank you to anyone who dose give ether fic a read!
Content Warning: Torture, injury, abuse, abduction, crashes, explosives, sex (explicit consent and soft detail), overt affection, food.
Following the directions that Kunsel's aunt Trader had mailed to em, Kunsel and Zax navigated the buggy down the paved roads of Condor town. They had found the recently established town, to be an appreciable collection of practical buildings designed to home many, each with their own communal kitchen and bathroom block. There were also sanctuaries dedicated to several faiths, parks, and spaces set aside for the production of food as well as the ingredients needed for medicine. Murals decorated most outer walls, and there were banners and string lights crossing above the roads. The murals and banners offered messages of welcome, anti ShinRa resistance, or directions to free shelter food and health care.
Next to Zax, Kunsel thought aloud, drawing his attention.
"There's the forge, so that must be…" Kunsel squinted at the building next to the forge, from behind the buggys steering wheel. "...yup, she said it had a mural of birds on the front." Ee pointed out the building. It's facade painted with a clear blue sky as well as an assortment of birds, including condors, ravens, chocobo at ground level, and even a phoenix in all it's colorful glory.
It was december month, soon they would be welcoming in the new year, e? 0013. And this was the first time Kunsel had visited ees family, rather than the other way around, since Zax had first gone missing. It also marked the first time Zax would be meeting ees family in person at all.
The lights were on in the building. Several people sat on its front steps around some candles, talking and laughing, a few of them had instruments which they were playing.
Zax gave Kunsel an excited look, once they had parked up across the road. "I hope your aunt and her partner like me." He confessed. He felt nervous, but as Kunsel had said, things could only go so wrong.
"Try to keep the charm at a manageable level ay?" Kunsel teased him, while ee unfastened ees seatbelt and stepped from the buggy.
"We'll see." Zax meshed his fingers and pushed ees palms outward in a stretch.
When Kunsel had circled around the buggy, they crossed the road together.
One among the group outside of the housing building, sat up straighter upon their approach.
"Kunsel, Zax!" She greeted them with enthusiasm. "Trader said you'd be arriving tonight. She and Swayer are in the kitchen."
Zax recognized the woman clasping Kunsel's hand, as Chelsea Cliff. The girl who with her father had run the forge in Midgar, that had been a cover for AVALANCHE. She was in her thirties now, an attractive grown woman.
Chelsea's friends welcomed them also, with a wave and a smile or a word. "So Traders elusive goddesschild does exist." One of them said. Another added in equally jesting tones. "We were beginning to think you were made up Kunsel."
"Ee was a spy after all." Chelsea admonish them unseriously. "Ee wouldn't have been right for the job if ee was easy to to pin down." Then Under her breath, in more grave tones she told Kunsel. "I warned my father to keep out of your way, after what he did."
Kunsel gave her hand another pat. "I've said I don't blame you, he lied to you, you couldn't have done anything without knowing the truth."
She sighed out some old weariness, bestowed a grateful smile on Kunsel. Then allowed ee and Zax past.
"Should I ask what Cliff did?" Zax spoke up, once they had stepped into the coat room, and the door was closed behind them.
"Cliff abandoned the shop while you were on that assignment in Nibelheim, so I couldn't ask him to contact Avalanche for me." Kunsel started, as if answering on autopilot. "If I'd been able to get ahold of Felecia, she might have been able to stop Sephiroth. You, her, and Cloud together could have taken him. Or at least she could have got you and Cloud out of ShinRa mansion much sooner…Anyway, Chelsea doesn't know about the last part. She blames herself already, but it wasn't her fault. I didn't tell her about what happened to you, because I didn't want to worsen her sense of guilt. And because it was to hard to talk about most of the time." Ee stopped speaking, ees lips pressed together in an expression of frustration.
Zax gently nudged ee's shoulder, and they carried on to find the kitchen. But while they passed through the common lounge, with its crackling fireplace, and assortment of couches all occupied. Zax's thoughts lingered on what Kunsel had said, he considered that Kunsel had had far too many years to go back and forth over what could have been. The way ee had talked just before made it seem like the thing was scared into ees mind, and it would probably be some time before that scar faded, if it faded at all.
Though the kitchen off of the lounge was spacious, it's terracotta ceiling and white plastered walls helped it to feel cozy, and it even had it's own flatbread oven. There were odd cups dishes and jars in abundance, many of the latter filled with tomatoes or jam, and a tempting aroma of food greeted them. Seated at a small breakfast table by the flatbread oven were it was warmest, they found Trader and Swayer just like they had been told they would. On seeing the two women, who were waving them over, Zax's thoughts turned for the time to making their acquaintance.
"You made it here so fast! How was your trip babe?" Kunsel's auntie greeted em with a one armed hug, the other arm she kept on her crutch.
Swayer seemed to draw breath as if to add to her partners words, but stopped when she caught sight of Zax over Kunsel's shoulder, and got her first good look at him.
For his part, Zax felt like he had been zapped with a paralysis spell from a gem ring like the one Kunsel carried.
The change in Swayer drew Traders attention to him also.
Zax gave a little wave, then stepped up beside Kunsel when ee motioned him over.
"I've seen your photo." Trader's eyes traced the scar crossing his jaw, an obvious identifying mark. "You're Zax aren't you? How…" She didn't appear to know how to ask the question, and it remained unvoiced.
"It's a long story." Kunsel told the two women, not quit managing to suppress the smile that dimpled the corners of ees lips.
"It's good to finally meet you both." Zax offered his hand.
Trader bypassed the outstretched hand, to hug Zax like she had hugged Kunsel. At first Zax was surprised, but he quickly overcame this. Returning the hug in kind, he threw inhibition aside and squeezing her like she was his own family. After all, she had known of his relation to her goddesschild since before his return from the lifestream to the surface. He had been able to keep an eye out for her from the beyond.
Swayer had just done giving Kunsel a hug, when trader released Zax. So as a group they migrated to the warmth of the flatbread oven. Trader saying. "It might be a long story, but you're staying the night aren't you? Humor me." She added hastily. "If you can talk about it that is, no obligations."
"Ah well…" Zax looked to Kunsel, feeling Kunsel could explain in more eloquent terms. But Kunsel only nodded his way, encouraging Zax to tell the thing in his own words. Zax returned his attention to Trader and Swayer. "...for the sake of others involved, I'll be vague about some details. But the short of it is, this body is a copy of my original."
"Like the Genesis copies, or Sephiroth copies that Kunsel told us about?" Trader asked. Blinking in astonishment.
"Just like that yeah." Zax confirmed. "This isn't my original body. But hey, it's a perfect fit. It has a modification as a result of a human experiment, that allowed me to bridge over from the lifestream. And we'll here I am today, thanks to Kunsel, and our other friends helping to put me back together again."
Swayer let out a long exhale between her lips. "All I can say is I'm impressed." She told him, upon handing him a platter stacked with flatbread and toppings.
Trader similarly passed Kunsel a plate stacked just as high. Saying to Zax while she did. "However you managed it exactly, we're glad you're back hun."
"It's great to be meeting you." Swayer agreed with her partner.
At this Zax elbowed Kunsel, who was tucking in to ees first bite of flatbread. "I think they like me." He joked.
Kunsel snorted, but ees mouth was to full for em to make any further comment.
"So can I ask what the lifestream was like?" Trader next quarried, tentative in doing so. "Again if it's an uncomfortable topic…"
"Nah, it's cool." Zax shrugged. "You both have a background related to mining right?"
"That's right." Swayer agreed.
"We'll." Zax went on. "If you've ever come in to contact with mako, or seen cases of mako poisoning, it's a bit like that. Like being half awake and unable to fully surface."
"Mako is the liquid form of the lifestream after all." Kunsel offered when ee could manage the words. "So it makes sense that it would have a similar effect on a living person, to the effects of the lifestream on someone who's returned to the planet."
"Wait!" Zax's cut in. "Is that why materia is called materia, coz it's the solid form?"
"That's right." Swayer laughed at his sudden realization. "Materia is actually the Kalmish word for both 'Matter' and 'subject', though actually lifestream in all of its phases is matter."
"I have heard people say that mako poisoning is like recovering from a sedative, or that its a bit like being drunk?" Trader returned them to the original query.
"I'd say that captures the bulk of the experience. But there were rare occasions when I was more lucid, and I could still affect my surroundings or anything linked to stagnant lifestream."
"Actually, he protected me during meteor fall that way. By used the measure of control he had within the lifestream, to save my life. If it wasn't for Zax I would have developed geostigma, no question about it." Kunsel mentioned, with a warm glance in Zax's direction.
Traders brows shot up, and her eyes darted to Zax, looking him over anew.
"Then K turned right around and wrestled me back from death. So if we were keeping count, I reckon we would break about even, as far as saving each others butt goes." He didn't mention it, what he and Kunsel had shared was already a lot to take in. But ee had also been something of a solid core for Zax, keeping him from compleat erosion by the planet. He wanted to thank Kunsel for protecting him as well. But held off, prefering to bring it up when they had a private moment.
Once the four of them had finished their dinner. Zax volunteered to help trader wash the dishes, so that Kunsel wouldn't have to remove ees gloves, and explain ees missing fingers if ee didn't want to. While Zax and Trader scrubbed, wrinced, dried and stacked. Kunsel and Swayer took the half dozen pieces of flatbread out into the communal living area, to offer the other residence.
"I really appreciate what you did, protecting em from becoming sick with geostigma." Trader told Zax in personal tones. "For ees sake, as well as mine, and ees mothers. I promised to look after em you know, if anything happened to her."
Elbows deep in foamy water, Zax listened. Trader seemed content to carry the conversation, and he wasn't sure what he could add without it coming out wrong. Modesty would only seem belittling, nor did he want to apear puffed up.
Swayer and Kunsel returned eventually, reporting that the flatbread had been much appreciated.
"That base is still the best I've ever tasted." Swayer told them.
"Family recipe, you'll have to marry me to get a hold of it." Trader goaded her long time partner. Putting down her tea towel, she used her crutch to get to her feet.
"Is that so?" Zax wondered, while he dried his hands off. "Cos that was some really good eats...Hey K, wanna get married?" Zax called over his shoulder with a laugh.
"Sure." Kunsel returned in an overly casual menner. From where ee was busy stacking away the last of the dishes.
They all together laughed at this, but Zax felt his whole body grow light at the recollection of the agreement Kunsel and he had made. They might not be getting married any time soon, their affection for one another might not be the traditional kind, but it was a fit for them. The second chance they had been given, offered the opportunity to share many more years with one another, like Trader and Swayer. He couldn't help a triumphant smile taking charge of his face, upon considering the number of times they had both defied death, to be alive here tonight.
"Let's show them their room." Trader next suggested to Swayer. Then addressing Kunsel and Zax. "I'm sure you could both do with a rest, it is getting late. We'll catch up tomorrow, after you've slept." She waved for them to follow after her.
The room was cozy. A reverse painted lamp giving of a soft moody light, stood on a reclaimed wooden filing cabinet. The cabinet in turn sat on a Nibelheim rug, between two trundle beds. Each bed was laden with a thick mattress, duvet and crochet throw, as well as cushions and pillows. The room had one wide short window in it's exposed brick wall, over which a blind hung. Completing the bedroom, a chair sood to one side of the door, a trunk occupied the other.
"We hope you'll be comfortable." Trader told them.
"This will more then do." Kunsel thanked her.
Zax thought so too, nodding in emphasis of Kunsel's words.
At last they bayed the two women a good night. Trader expressing. "It's so good to have you both here at last, don't wait so long next time."
"It's great to be here." Zax told her genuinely.
When they were left alone, the door closing behind the retreating Swayer. Zax eyes met Kunsel's, and he and Kunsel immediately broke in to a wrestling match, with Zax struggling towards the bed that had been made up with the chocobo printed duvet cover. While Kunsel hauled him back, one boot braced against the bed frame, ees arms encircling Zax's middle. Zax laughed, unused to inhabiting a body he found ee was more susceptible to the tickles, even unintentional tickles. But despite his laughter Zax managed to twist from Kunsel's hold, only to have Kunsel vault ahead landing on the bed.
Unwilling to admit defeat so soon, Zax declared. "You asked for it!" Launching himself at Kunsel and the bed, Zax called. "Meteor shot!" Landing crosswise over his companion.
"Ooof, heavy as a duelhorn!" Kunsel complained. "Traitor, using the limit I taught you against your old fellow, no fair!"