Disclaimer - I don't own PSO2. This was written for the first Froday regular challenge where the prompt was coffee.
No Coffee, No...
"I want a divorce."
The muttering came out of nowhere, unheard by the other person in the relationship, as she continued talking about how he didn't need his morning coffee, that it was terrible for him, and that ARKS made a substitute that worked just fine.
Zeno let out a sigh, realizing this was yet another time that Echo hadn 't listened to him, and hadn 't paid attention to the fact he wasn't happy in their marriage with her controlling everything.
"So, you're giving up coffee," she said, finishing her lecture about how coffee wasn't good for him, not paying attention to the frown on his face or the slight twitch on his face.
"No, I'm not."
Echo stared, eyes wide as if he'd grown a second head before saying, "Yes, you are."
"And this isn't working."
"Of course, it isn't working," Echo rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to give in on this."
"Or anything, for that matter," Zeno said, wanting to shake his head, yet remembering how he'd shaken his head in the past, which hadn't made her take him seriously.
"That's because you don't know what's good for you."
"And that's not how marriages are supposed to work."
"What do you mean that's not how marriages are supposed to work?" Echo said.
"Where the wife makes all the decisions, telling the husband they don't…."
"My mother did for my father," Echo said.
Zeno's eyes narrowed, then he stood up and headed for the door. He said nothing, simply choosing to leave, to walk out, to leave the home that was his in the first place before they married.
"Where are you going?"
"I think I'll stay with Huey for a bit."
"You'll do nothing of the sort!" Echo said. "You'll stay right here so we can work things out, Zeno."
"And what?" Zeno said, stopping at the door. "Do the exact same thing we've been doing, of you making all the decisions? Of you controlling my life just like your mother controlled your dad? I can't believe you actually think there wasn't nothing wrong with how your mother treated your dad, or did you not notice how miserable he was?"
"Don't!" Echo said. "My dad didn't know how to take care of himself, so he eventually killed over from a heart attack. Which is far different than…."
"What?" Zeno turned his head, letting out a sigh. "It's far different from what? Me losing both my parents at a young age because they were ARKS, whereas your parents weren't? I'd much rather die as an ARKS than die because my wife killed my spirit."
"Don't trivialize my dad's death like that, Zeno!"
Zeno turned, frowning, his hands clenching. "How? By insinuating that his heart attack had nothing to do with not having a healthy lifestyle because he did. He did have a healthy lifestyle."
"Says the person who's unwilling to give up their morning coffee," Echo muttered.
"Says the person whose only reason for making me give it up is because she decided it's not healthy for me, yet Filia says I'm fine."
"You trust her over your own wife?"
Zeno let an eyebrow go up. "Did you really ask that question?"
"Of course I did. Why are you trusting the opinion of another woman?"
"Yeah. Because it has nothing to do with Filia's experience actually involving monitoring the health of ARKS operatives which isn't yours?" Zeno shook his head. "You really need to listen to yourself, but it's not you decide I need to give up coffee. It's that you decided you could make every decision for me using the excuse that you know better than me on everything. I didn't marry you so that you could do that to me, but as I said. I'll be at Huey's place."
And he left.
He left the place that belonged to him before the marriage, that belonged to his parents before they died. Walking away was a difficult thing to do.