Complete and utter crack.

::..::

His first chance was when Fornax tried to burn the house down and he really should have said it then. But they'd just been reunited…all of them, and it would be almost cruel to make this about him and not about Shun. So that didn't count at all.

His second chance was the Perseus incident, but by then Shiryu had gone blind and it was a horrible time to bring it up. Plus almost immediately afterwards the bastard had up and disappeared, so he couldn't have said it. So that didn't count either.

He could have said it during the sanctuary takeover…but no one was really up for chitchat at the time. Fighting for your life tended to do that. That also didn't count.

He could have said it in the hospital, but by then he didn't remember. How could he have? Besides, the person who needed to hear it wouldn't have heard, defeating the purpose of the whole thing. It was hardly his fault.

And then there was Poseidon….dear god Poseidon. He was still fuming mad enough to kill at that retard ditto…no calm down. He's dead, there's no use destroying property over it.

For some reason, they just never seemed to run into each other after Atlantis. He saw almost every other member of their little group sometimes just on accident. And it wasn't like neither of them went to Sanctuary either, but for some reason, they just never met….until Elysium and by then, there was no way…just no. The timing was awful, the place was awful, and there were way way way more important things to worry about. Even so it ached when what he thought was his last chance slipped cruelly from his fingers.

Until of course it didn't, but after the revival Saori went on this crazy monopolizing streak that was to bad it made Jabu curl up in the corner questioning his life choices. He knows…he'd seen the poor schmook. Besides, while it's not like he couldn't have said it in front of anyone…he really REALLY didn't did feel like it. So nope.

And then Kouga came and then they NEVER met anymore because one of them was stuck babysitting and the other 3 much preferred not to deal with Mommy!Shun. No one blamed anyone because to frank, it scared them all juuuuust a little.

And then Mars happened…and again one of those last chances cut him to quick. But Seiya had bested a good once, he can do again, so everyone retreated to wait it out.

14 years later, they fight Pallas…some dippy shit little goddess with equally as dippy little warriors.

And now his patience was fucking gone. So whoopdeedoo, screw proper timing. The moment he caught the stupid bastard alone he shoved him into a convenient abandoned building whether the idiot liked it or not.

"Oi, listen."

"Na…na?"

"I…never did thank you for knocking sense into me."

"Wait...when?"

"Back then...in the begining."

It took him a bit, like the wasn't quite sure what ikki was talkign about but then understanding dawned. And then fucking Seiya had the audacity to laugh, clear and strong and way too happy for his own damn good. The 40-year-old gold saint clutched at his stomach and doubled over for 2 minutes...5 minutes...10.

Annoyed Ikki turned heel and left.

"Wa~ wait...Ikki..hehehe." He stopped to throw an annoyed look over his shoulder. "Wow just...hehe...you're welcome...27 years ago."

And the laughter sprang anew.

That'll teach him to be nice to anyone ever again.