#zaveizen

 Zaveid arrives at the cave late in the evening. He stands in the rain with the slope of the mountain at his back and stares at it for a while. 

It is a deep, dark cave. The perfect place for a local monster to hide and terrorise the village that stands at the foot of the mountain. He can understand their fear, their quick conclusions. He can understand it all. It still sucks. 

His shoes click on the stone floor as he enters. As he walks, he brushes his hands through his hair, then over his pants. They dry unnaturally quickly, leaving only fading wet footsteps leading inside. His footsteps echo in the small space. 

It does not take long for the sound to mingle with something else. He has better hearing than most, but it is not far into the cave, still. There is a faint sound of ragged breathing, followed by the shifting of clothing and the clatter of pebbles on stone. 

Zaveid steels himself and keeps walking. A dark form takes shape before him, huddled on the ground like a man injured. 

He stops there, some distance away. He reaches out a hand and lights a flash of magic. Just a brief flare of green, but it tells him all he needs to know. 

Eizen lies on the ground before him, curled up and shivering. His clothing is worn and torn, a far cry from when Zaveid last saw him. His hair is a matted mess, his face gaunt and pale. 

Zaveid focuses on his face, and in the next brief flash of magic, he sees the beginnings of dark scales forming on his cheeks. One of Eizen's eyes is spotted with sickly yellow, the pupil a slit like that of a cat. 

But the most shocking thing about him is the pair of black leathery wings which have torn through the back of his coat. They curl close to him as he shifts uncomfortably, as though he is trying to make them smaller. Zaveid sucks in air through his teeth. 

"You look like hell," he says. 

Despite everything, Eizen manages a dry chuckle through wet lungs.

"Thanks."

There is little more he can say than that about what is happening. Were they different people, he might have been frightened, panicked, even. As it is, he simply reaches into the pack at his hip and pulls out a thick and neatly folded blanket. A girl in the village gave it to him after he healed her little brother. They were the only ones for miles with any good resonance. 

Eizen makes a sound that may be a growl as the blanket is draped over him. Zaveid sits down next to him, reaches into his bag, and lights a small torch which he sets up between two rocks. The light flickers and draws their shadows out over the floor of the cave. 

There is a moment in which Eizen shifts and visibly considers throwing the blanket off, but then he settles in beneath it with a weak sigh. 

"You shouldn't be here," he says. 

Zaveid leans against the cave wall and shrugs. "There are many places I shouldn't be."

Eizen shakes his head, and even that seems to hurt judging by how he cringes. 

"You know what I mean. The malevolence will get to you."

Zaveid huffs, nonchalant. "Please. I eat malevolence for breakfast."

There is some truth to what he means, at least. He stayed so long with Theodora that he must be practically inoculated at this point. Either way, he will not leave. 

"If you get corrupted before you can fulfil your promise," Eizen says slowly, "I swear I will eat you."

"Fair enough," Zaveid says, instead of the many jokes that come to mind. 

Silence falls over them then, and the sound of the rain begins to seep into it. Were it not for the convulsing wings on Eizen's back, it may have been soothing. 

"How did you find me?" Eizen asks quietly. 

Zaveid looks out towards the rain in the distance. 

"The village thinks you're going to eat them," he says. "Some of them saw you getting here."

"Oh." 

"Don't worry," Zaveid says lightly. "I told them you only eat naughty children."

"Fuck you," Eizen hisses softly, but when Zaveid looks at him, he can see a hint of a smile. 

"Nah. You don't seem up to it right now."

He could move closer, could settle on the ground just next to Eizen, but something tells him he would not be welcome to do so. Eizen looks feverish and clammy, and Zaveid hopes that the blanket will warm up him soon. 

"I went to see Edna," he says. To his surprise, Eizen actually moves to look up at him. 

"How is she?" he asks. 

"She's fine," Zaveid says quickly. "Still at the mountain and safe. Missing you, though."

Eizen's eyes fog, and with his eyelids close to closing, his yellow eye almost looks normal in a certain light. 

"I regret very few things," he says. 

"I know," Zaveid says before he can continue that particular train of thought. Eizen relents on it quickly. 

"Take care of her?" 

Zaveid looks him in the eyes and says "She won't let me."

Eizen smirks. 

"Fair enough. Stay close?"

He nods. "That I can do."

It will not occur to him until much later that Eizen may not have meant staying close to Edna. Perhaps he meant both, but it is not something Zaveid understands right now. He has no time to think on it, because Eizen continues. 

"And speaking of, can I ask you to do something else?"

Zaveid looks away from him then. He knows already what this is going to be. 

"Can we just not talk about that for one night? We never just hang out anymore."

Eizen shakes his head softly. "You know what I mean, Zaveid. You promised, and I think this is far enough to be proof that it's not going to change."

"Velvet went much further than this and still restored the world's balance," Zaveid says casually. "I told you we'll figure something out."

"You promised me you'd kill me first. Are you going back on that?"

Zaveid bristles. 

"I'm not. Can we just have one night of not talking about it?"

Eizen stares at him. Zaveid sighs. 

"Look. If it helps anything, I can kill you in the morning. Deal?"

Eizen stares for a moment more before before adding, "Deal."

They glare at each other for a bit, and now Zaveid is unsure of how to continue the conversation. Grudgingly, he reaches out and pulls the blanket a little further up Eizen's shoulders. 

"Dick," he mutters.

"Douche," Eizen mutters back and curls up a little more. 

They stay like that for some time. At first, that seems to be it. There is a long pause in which neither of them know quite what to say. Zaveid is almost swallowed up by his own sad thoughts, looking out at the gentle rain. 

Then Eizen coughs and groans pitifully, and he reminds himself just why he is here in the first place. He did not come for the two of them to sit in a cave and break each other's hearts more. 

He looks at the gangly wings. One of them is unfolding, stretching piece by piece towards the wall as though Eizen is working out a cramp in it. Eizen looks less than happy to do this. 

Zaveid knows that this hurts him. He knows that Eizen is heartbroken that he will be a danger to others, but there is nothing Zaveid can say to make that better. He knows what his place is, and he cannot go through what he went through with Theodora again. He draws in a deep breath. 

"So," he says lightly, carefully, "can you fly with those or...?"

It has the desired effect. Despite everything, Eizen still has it in him to give a weak laugh. 

"You are such an asshole," he says. Zaveid shrugs, smirking. 

He can do nothing more than this, just being here, but perhaps that is enough for the moment.

So he stays there, sitting on an uncomfortable rock and refusing to shut up, until Eizen is finally able to fall asleep. 

***

Eizen wakes from a nightmare to a searing pain in his back. He stretches the wings awkwardly, and warm blood runs down to seep into his shirt.

The world blurs a bit as he opens his eyes. The first thing he sees is a sliver of sunlight. Then he opens them fully and looks out at the mouth of the cave. The sun is already up. It is long into the morning. 

He has not slept like this for a long time, and for the first time in a long while now, he actually feels a little better. Annoying as he is, anything, including Zaveid's presence, would have been soothing in the hell that was last night. 

Eizen sits up, keeping the blanket carefully wrapped around him and looks at the green sunlit glade outside. He does not have to look beside him to know that there is no one there. He knows that. He knew that it would be so when he fell asleep. It still makes him angry, but he is too tired.