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"Syrus."

The name causes Zane to freeze up as if his body has just turned to stone. Alexis is surprisingly grateful that he has back turned so that she doesn't see his face. Although it does mean that she doesn't know if it's anger, or pain which courses through him. After a few seconds, he begins moving again, going about his business as if she hasn't said anything.

"How long have you been sitting on that?" He asks eventually.
"A while." It's all that she has it in her to answer.

She lets Zane breathe, and gives him some room. He could snap at her, and she's not entirely sure that she could blame him. He's such a private person after all. She knows that she might just have gone too far. She's gotten used to him over the course of the past few weeks, and gotten a bit more of a feeling for what makes him tick. If there's one thing, one subject which might change that though, it's that of his little brother.

Not once has Zane mentioned him, not even in passing. She's given him a few opportunities, spaces which could be equated to hints, to bring him up, but he never does. So, it follows that for whatever reason, the elder of the Truesdale brothers doesn't want to talk about it. It's not something that Alexis feels that they can avoid forever though. Not if they're going to be spending any real amount of time together.

"What's he to you, anyhow?"
"Your brother..."

Zane looks over his shoulder. It's so difficult to read him. He carries a handful of plates over towards the sink and dumps them without ceremony into the waters. She silently congratulates him for the cleaning, it's more than he would have done this time last month. Although his little apartment still remains far from clean. For a short while, he stubbornly distracts himself with anything other than her question.

She lets him. Distracted by the water which pools around the base of the tap every time that it's turned on. She still wonders how he can live like this? He's too proud for it. She blames the sickness, slowly eating away at his body, and his soul. She tells herself it isn't too late. There's still something to salvage.

"What about him?"
"Zane… Don't play dumb."

He lets out a heavy sigh. The dishes aren't quite done yet, and he isn't about to stop. She waits again. This will take time. She's aware of that much.

"I don't want him knowing about me, especially that I'm sick."
"He doesn't know? At all?"

It seemed impossible. Surely, Syrus must have wondered about his brother. They had been dueling together after all, and had formed a formidable duo. Zane had vanished. She knew her old friend's younger brother well enough to be certain that he wouldn't have just accepted it. The younger Truesdale wouldn't have allowed his sibling to just vanish. He must have driven himself mad. The thought makes Alexis feel a little guilty. After all, she's here with him now.

"He doesn't know, because, I don't want him to know." Zane speaks firmly, making it clear that it isn't open for debate. "The last thing he needs is me getting in his way."
"You're his brother. You'd never be in his way."
"I'm dying Alexis. Slowly, but I am." He shakes his head, as if trying to rid such thoughts from his mind. "I can't stand up some days. How could I possibly saddle him with that?"
"You could work things out. We can help. It's not like you're-" She catches herself before she says 'helpless'. "Sick, all the time."
"I'd get in his way. He's a duelist, a good one. How could he possibly go into a duel, if he's worrying about me rotting away on this couch?"

She wants to speak. To tell him that his beloved brother would never view him as a burden. Syrus would want to know that his sibling was at the very least still alive. Even if Zane was ill, he would be happier know that he was safe, and that there was still something that could be done, if only to make his life easier to bare. She understands why Zane would be reticent. He's such a secretive, and proud soul.

"Don't you think he has the right to worry about you?"
"It isn't fair to him. He's soft… Seeing me like this." Zane pauses. "It would break him. He doesn't deserve to suffer because I make some shitty decisions when I was a kid."

Alexis isn't too sure that she's ever heard Zane swear before. He's usually above such vulgarity. It's a strange slip-up, and one which she doesn't immediately know how to respond to. For a few moments, there was something about him which changed. That cool, and emotionless exterior of his seems to crack. It isn't much. Just a very brief glimpse of a mortal man who hides beneath a failing heart of ice.

So she takes a risk. The woman moves a little closer to her old friend. She reaches out carefully, and places a hand on the back of his. He tenses up. Zane looks at her with wide eyes. It's almost as if he hasn't ever seen her before, or had forgotten that she was there with him. He doesn't pull away though.

"Okay. I understand..." She tells him softly.
"Don't bring him up again…" He pauses, another word hanging on his tongue. "Please."
"I won't."

He continues to stare at her. She wonders if he doesn't believe her. It's so hard to tell with Zane. His gaze comes to rest on her hand. For a second, she assumes that he's going to pull away. At least not as quickly as she'd been expecting him to. Alexis finds herself wondering when was the last time that her old friend had actually experienced any real human contact that wasn't involved with either picking him up off of the floor, or some form of medical procedure. His life must be a lonely one.

She suddenly realizes that they've been like this a bit too long. So she pulls away, ignoring Zane's stare as she moves. The heat is rising to her cheeks as she does so. Frantically, she looked for something, anything else which might potentially serve to distract them. She finds it easily enough:

"You thought about fixing that tap? This place is going to flood one of these days."
"I'll get around to it."
"I can pay-" She begins to offer.
"It's my mess, I'll fix it Lexi." He's gentle, but firm with his refusal.

Alexis smiles softly. It's about all that she can try to do to reassure him. He must think her a pain, or a pest. To her surprise though, as she turns back around, she finds no hostility, or resentment. Either he isn't angry, or he's grown very good at concealing his displeasure. Not that he's ever done so in the past.

The mood would be lighter, but it's hard not to think of Syrus. He must wonder about his brother, a man who had erased himself from the surface of the planet. Knowing his sibling, he'll have worried himself sick. Maybe he thinks him dead, or assumes that Zane no longer cares about him. Alexis doesn't know which one would be better. She wishes that the elder of the brothers was more honest, more open. Even although when it comes to his own weakness, that's never been a forte of his.

With a shake of her head, she banishes any negative thoughts from her head. Instead, she opts to come to stand next to her old friend. She finds a dish towel which looks to be moderately clean.

"How about I stop bothering you, and actually lend a hand?"
"That would be nice..." Zane hesitates a moment, before adding. "-But you're never a bother Lexi."

It's a kindness that she wasn't expecting it from him, but she takes it. They could all do with a bit more if it in their lives.