[attr="class","dec2"]
Welp. I don't know what will happen with Nero just yet xD

The book was lifted from his fingers by nothing but the buzz of a strange magic he could never understand. Nero felt the weight of it leave him, and watched eagerly as Kuja began to take in the gift. There was a long, silent pause as the mage observed the ancient book, carefully sifting through it with his nimble fingers. The Sable felt a foreign sense of pride in the look on Kuja’s face; satisfaction, perhaps. His hard fought for gift seemed to have made a positive impact.

Thank god. He’d been worrying over this moment for so lo--

”The situation has...changed. Since you left.”

Nero’s gaze flickered between the Vivi and Kuja, feeling an icy grip tighten around his heart, his stomach bottoming out in a pit. His eyes widened, lips tightening in a line as he listened to Kuja’s story. The mage’s body language was certainly different. Where was his proud stance, the hungry look in his eyes as he eagerly searched to do more and experience more? Before, the fair man had a thirst for power, for knowledge, enough to cause chaos if need be.

Why, then, did he seem so … so tamed? The Tsviet felt his hands trembling as Kuja rambled about learning something about his past, implying it to be so important one moment, then near useless the next. Icy claws sank into Nero’s heart. Kuja was not the man he’d thought he was. Kuja was not like Weiss, at all. Even when Weiss had three days to live, he did not budge from his dreams, from his goals. He stayed strong and carried out his will, even as the clock ticked his life away overhead. He did not give up on their dream of paradise, even as the Restrictors beat them down and tore them away from each other. He never weakened -- he only got stronger.

But Kuja. Kuja had become … soft. Confused.

Kuja was more like Nero.

”My apologies if I’ve disappointed you. You’re free to leave as you’d like, of course, or stay if you’d so prefer. My plans have been put on hold. With recent revelations taken into account.”

Nero turned his gaze away from Kuja, his expression unreadable as he chewed the swirling mass of confusing thoughts in his mind. This was … not what he had expected, for his return. Getting yelled at, sure. Attacked, perhaps. But this? He had no idea how to react. Few times in his life had the Sable been disappointed by someone he looked up to. Someone he admired. The fire he carried in his heart for Kuja was dimming with each passing, fluttering thought.

“I’m glad you like the gift,” he muttered, his voice near lifeless as the more angry thoughts began to bubble to the surface, You … You weak, weak willed man, I trusted you -- I -- I cared for you like I did HIM, and you -- You turned your back on everything -- You --- YOU--.

The Tsviet took a sudden, deep breath, shaking his head furiously. He sank one hand into his dark locks and pulled, creating a painful distraction as he looked for a temporary escape to digest his broken feelings and thoughts. His glowing eyes landed on the little puppet, the Vivi, and for a moment, he flashed back to a time long, long ago. When he found comfort in childish things that were rare in Deepground, one of the few things that kept the dark thoughts at bay when Weiss couldn’t be by his side.

Nero turned on heel and quickly swooped the little puppet into his hands, carrying the Vivi beneath its arms at a semi-awkward distance -- like a child holding a stray animal. He made sure the little thing was still holding the book it had brought earlier as Nero slowly walked away, muttering to Vivi, “I want to hear your story. Read it to me.”

He needed a distraction. A sufficiently interesting distraction, or he would lose what little grip of sanity he had left. All the work he’d gone through to study this planet’s magic, to find something worthwhile for the man who had saved his life, and for it to turn out like this, he …

The Sable bit his own lip nearly hard enough to draw blood. He couldn’t think about it. He couldn’t, he couldn’t, he couldn’t.