Zei sporfles and looks out at Azym from the corners of his eyes. "You're insatiable. Maybe I should invite Jassu with us just to get you down for a while longer."

"I knew he was into dudes. —wait, you're allowed to flirt with him?"

"I'm not on the team even not-technically-officially. Besides, we were raised together, there have been off-season months here and there, you know!"

"That is so unfair I would never forbid my teammates from flirting—"

—but his brain is lagging behind his mouth and he's thinking of all the times he did flirt with his team, with the way Yama just went along with it for the free dinners and never actually went any further than that and it was a lot of fun anyway, with the way Inochi melted under his fingers when they got alone in one of their bedrooms, with the way Hitomi would yell at them to get a room whenever he made Inochi blush but the three of them also had so much fun together, and with the way he matchmade Yama and Sayu, and how he met Hitomi's wife Yua one time and the two of them spent a whole night making sure Azym regretted meeting them very much (he loved every second of it)—

He went to Hitomi's wedding, two years ago. She was so happy, he had never seen her wear such a radiant smile, not before, not since. He understood the word 'radiant' as a descriptor of people then, the idea that someone could look so joyous they shone like the sun.

He recorded Yama's proposal to Sayu, six months ago. At Yama's request. Sayu went red as a tomato and took nearly a minute of stammering her "I do" but it's not like anyone doubted she was going to say yes. And when she did the whole team jumped out of where they were hiding to applaud and congratulate them and she meeped and she was crying and she kept punching Azym on the arm but she was jubilant, she was so happy that her chosen family was there to share this joy with them.

And Hideo, who was extremely ace, and who watched all of this in such amusement and exasperation. All the times he pulled Azym and Inochi by the ear from the locker room so they wouldn't be late for practice, all the times he flirted just to be a little shit, all the times he made Inochi and Sayu blush and laughed at their expense. He was a bit mean, and Azym would not have traded him for anything in the world.

Azym couldn't stop the tears, this time, they came unbidden and overflowed with no respect for his image or his dignity, with no respect for where he was or whom he was with. He turned around so Zei wouldn't see it, but damnit Zei was going to know, and, and was going to pity him or, or, damnit—

Zei—falls silent, and politely looks away anyway. "We can talk about that later," he murmurs, grabbing his clothes to run the magic water through them and rub them together to get rid of the accumulated grime that the laundry spell was not quite able to get rid of.

Azym wants to, wants to, wants to say something, but everything he can think to say is stupid and useless and pure lies like "I'm fine" or "You shouldn't worry about me" or, or whatever. And he's not sure he can even bring himself to actually say any words, so instead he just nods because actually he does need a bit to recenter.

Zei's shower sphere runs out, its water vanishing into pyreflies leaving him and his clothes perfectly dry. He steps into them and walks over to the door and says, "Take all the time you need. We'll wait for you downstairs." And downstairs he goes.

Damn it.

Damn it.

He takes another ten minutes to feel properly presentable. He's still not in the best of moods but he thinks he'll be able to catch it if something triggers him again. At least for now. He's sure he'll lower his guard at some point later and then be overwhelmed by feelings because that's very entertaining for the audience but for now he's... mostly fine.

Zei, Wakka, and Lulu are seated at the table talking about nothing in particular, and no one comments on his tardiness. Zei smiles pleasantly at him and gestures at the food on the table still in the process of being eaten then returns to discussing the finer points of setting things on fire with Lulu.

—oh, of course the people from the world with the rampaging kaiju know how to deal with grief. That makes a lot of sense. He'd honestly expected Wakka to get on his case but it seems he'd underestimated him.

Azym wonders idly what exactly Zei told them, and decides to ask later. For now, putting food inside himself is probably a good idea; they have a long day ahead.

That they do.

Once they're done with breakfast, they rejoin the blitzball players and make their way north towards the village gates. Kimahri joins them at some point, though he wasn't inside the inn when they were having breakfast.

Hmm.

Azym hangs back until he's next to the ronso. "Do you not hang out with the others much?"

Kimahri looks down at him with... some sort of a facial expression. Then he looks ahead again. "No."

"Why not?"

"I do not want to."

Azym should probably not draw any generalised conclusions about ronso based on this one guy.

"I'm curious about how you ended up here. Wakka and Lulu are from Besaid, right, but you seem to not be?"

"I am not."

...he needs a crash course in ronso body language. This looks like he's being stonewalled but as far as he knows this may be friendly.

He doesn't think so, but he'll try not to make many assumptions.

"You are one of Zei's guardians, yes?"

"Yes."

"So how'd you meet?"

"I took him from Bevelle to Besaid."

Zei is from Bevelle? Interesting.

"Ten years ago?" Azym guesses. "When his father killed Sin?"

Kimahri remains silent.