Description: Diana wanted to say 'hey' to K'. She did so by carving her name into Frei, Zorro-style. Naturally, the monk feels he should mention this. The resulting conversation reveals some surprising insights on both sides.
It's actually gotten easier to find K' these days, whenever he frequents the YFCC at all, because he's usually only ever in one place within the YFCC: the practice areas. The matter of his sister resolved, a training schedule with Geese Howard set, the only uncertainties that yet plagued his life were all related to NESTS's sudden and recent resurgence. Their interest in Shurui, their predilection for high-profile attacks (something he had never expected from them), the strange girl they'd sent after him the other day...
...well, there was only one way he knew to deal with any of those problems: force. That, and Geese had an uncanny ability to ferret out whenever he'd been lax in his daily training. K' didn't feel like taking any more of Geese's vicious abuse over his slacking.
He's been down in the practice area for hours now, beating his knuckles sore both as a means of strength training-- and as catharsis. Geese said he had to work on focus, after all, and there are few things more zen than battering a hapless punching bag. Breathing hard, he finally lets himself stop for a few minutes, left hand lifting to hook into the battered thing as his stance opens in support. His right arm lifts, swiping roughly across his face, and then lowers to his shirt front to unstick the thin material: fanning it briefly to get some air past his skin.
Eventually he finally straightens fully, pushing away and retreating to lean his back against the nearby wall: taking advantage of its coolness. Briefly, he digs into his jeans pocket, pulling out his cell and checking it restlessly; seeing no crises he has to respond to, he puts it away again and breathes a long sigh. Things were a lot easier, just a few short months ago.
Everyone's had a couple days to get over things, as it were; though he spent most of that night doing a combination of recovering and helping to clean up the mess that got made with his unintended visitor, Frei is no more the worse for wear for it. He took Sunday off to sit home, eat junk food, and watch "America's Next Top Model" reruns on his DVR, but considering his flexible schedule this doesn't provoke comment. The truth, though, is that he also took the time to stew over Diana's words. Normally, he would just let it go; after all, Diana's not the first person with a bone to pick with the YFCC, nor the first person with a bone to pick who beat the hell out of one Frei Tsukitomi-Renard to prove it.
But...
The mystery of K' and Maxima was never really solved, as far as Frei was concerned. Not that he cared; lord knows that everyone else who works at the Center has their own damn problems, and seeing his own brother attempt to kill two people and all but brainwash a third really put that in perspective for him. Something's nagging at him to find out, though, and that something is what's dragging him out of his apartment to walk, leisurely, to his place of work to look for one of the two 'new' (relatively speaking) hires.
When he enters the building, there's a few waves, some smiles and exchanged words, but there's also a couple raised eyebrows and mumbled questions about his health. The monk is dressed in a short hunter green tanktop and oversize canvas slacks; visible on his arms, and poking out from under the bottom of the tank top, are the wrapped bandages he's wearing over the slashes Diana put in his side. There's a moment while he explains this to the girl at the desk, and then he's headed down into the practice area to find his quarry. Espying K' standing against the wall as he rounds the spiral staircase down, Frei gives him a little wave and starts walking in his direction... giving him a chance to respond, or to suddenly develop overdue library books that need returning, a kitten to rescue from being up a tree, or similar emergencies requiring his immediate attention.
If only. Were K' just a little further along in his list of movies to finish watching, he might have taken a hint from one of them and wryly developed some sudden 'videotapes to return.' He hasn't had time lately, however, to really flop down with a movie and watch it start to finish, what with being attacked by ice girls and having to worry about NESTS carrying off or killing everyone else he knows and gives half a shit about. The life of a runaway is hard.
And he can already tell Frei's here to make it just that much harder. His eyes had drifted closed before Frei ever appeared within view, but he heard the other coming; and he cracks open one yellow eye just in time to catch the wave. Predictably he doesn't really essay a response: or at least, he doesn't essay an active, affirmative one. Really, the fact that he doesn't simply shut his eyes again and walk away is already a good enough indication that it's actually safe to approach him.
Frei gets closer, and it's about that time K' notices the bandaging. He stares Frei up and down a few moments, in that pitilessly direct and tactless way he has, before he bothers to comment. "Somebody did a damn number on you," he comments, somewhat hypocritically, because what with the bruising he's got marring his own skin-- all courtesy of Geese and his 'ideas' of what training should be like-- he doesn't look too great himself.
Blinking a bit in surprise, the monk nevertheless lets out a helpless laugh at that and nods. "A little bit. It's actually not as bad as it looks," he explains, and that much is true; although he doesn't have Mizuki's ability to heal others, he does have supernatural recovery skills even by fighters' standards. Considering the 'number' Diana did on him, someone without those abilities might not be up and around at the moment. If it's bothering him, though, Frei doesn't show it; his face is the same generally pleasant expression he always wears.
For a second, he glances over at the punching bag K' was working on, battered with recent use, and raises an eyebrow in spite of himself. "I dunno who's worse off, you or the bag," he adds, though his tone is more sympathetic than sarcastic. He might have questions for the NESTS runaway, but he doesn't necessarily wish him ill.
Of course, one might wonder why Frei's sense gets awkward after the preliminaries are delivered.
Turning to the side somewhat, he brings up a hand and runs it through unruly red hair, fixing his stare at some undefined point down and to the left on the wall K' is leaning against. "Actually, I'm glad I ran into you," he adds, pursing his lips afterwards and taking a breath through his nose. "The 'number' somebody did on me was supposed to be a message for you, and your big friend."
A noncommittal grunt is all the response Frei receives for his observation of K''s state, the boy's head dipping as his stance droops moodily. He lifts his right hand, inspecting the metal of his own glove, fingers flexing idly with audible cracks of his knuckles. He loses interest in it eventually, hand dropping to his side and holstering in a pocket. But despite his negligent appearance, he -is- listening.
And that much becomes obvious at how quickly K''s attention focuses when Frei gets to the point. A visible change tightens invisible lines strung through the boy's lean frame, straightening his slouched figure to its proper height and sharpening his gaze. His head actually lifts to a more aggressive, assertive tilt, chin lifting, yellow eyes narrowing perceptibly. K''s very appearance and attitude might seem to be one big rebellion against authority, but when the mood takes him he can be pretty forcefully authoritative himself. Usually when he's telling people never to come near him again.
Just another way in which the young man's a hypocrite. Fortunately, his hypocrisy tends to be more charming than it is strictly harmful.
"What message?" Frei probably has not seen K' like this before: alert, suspicious with an intensity that borders on paranoia, and almost shrewdly abrupt. Usually the boy is just... lazy. Lazy, sulky, and negligent. "Who brought it?"
It does register, rather obviously so; Frei's head turns from the distant point he was watching, feeling nervous about bringing this up, to meeting K''s gaze head on. He seems more curious than intimidated, though he does let his back foot slide a bit, taken aback not by the effect of the change but its abruptness and, perhaps, ferocity. The last time these two met, the refugee was exactly as he described himself: lazy and unconcerned. That he responds this way at least seems to confirm to the monk that he did the right thing in not letting it blow past as just another nutjob with a grudge, but actually bringing it up.
Smiling almost wryly, Frei points a finger at his stomach, and particularly the wrapped layer of bandages where Diana's blade sunk in deepest: right in the center of his torso as he struggled to get in range of her guard, to disastrous results. "I'm the message... or rather, how banged up I am is supposed to be the message, for the most part." He pauses, then crosses his arms over his chest, looking thoughtful. "Come to think of it, she didn't give me her name, either. A tall woman in blue, carrying a rapier... she knows how to use it, too."
There's a pause, before Frei shakes his head and then shrugs. "I don't really mind the beating up. There were kids here when she came in and I stepped in to protect them. Blood and skin grow back eventually. But she said a lot of things that confused me... and I admit I'm a little worried now." Considering how alien a word like 'worry' is for Frei, this is a much more serious statement than his lack of gravitas suggests.
That woman. The one who accompanied Igniz. The one who accompanied Kula. K''s eyes narrow, unfocusing and drifting away from Frei's in clear thought. What the hell is beating up YFCC people supposed to accomplish as a message? All it really says is 'hey, we've got it out for you, and we're not going to hesitate at hurting innocents to get at you,' and K' was already well-aware of that.
K' pushes abruptly away from the wall, something hard and angry about his demeanor. He's annoyed with himself not having been here. Behind the fixed coldness of his expression, his direct mind is already identifying two concrete choices he has at this juncture: spend all his time at the YFCC to defend it properly, or leave it entirely and see if that'll draw NESTS's attention away from it.
Of course, there will be a -definite- problem with leaving the YFCC if NESTS has some interest in it beyond K''s mere presence there. Which is quite feasible; the place is a veritable farm of young and promising talent...
"What else did she say?" K' interrogates impatiently, clearly not about to let Frei get away with vagaries or delayed revelations. There are some things he needs to know in order to decide appropriately. "Was she interested in this place beyond the fact we're here?"
Placing his hand over his breastbone palm-down, Frei looks off to the side as he tries to remember exact details of the night. The woman hadn't exactly seemed... rational... when she'd made her entrance. Interrupting the 'poetry slam', throwing a glass of orange juice in his face. Full of bravado and energy... but all directed at Frei as the adult representative, and not the kids themselves. "I don't... think so," Frei says at last, slowly, as if working it out. "She didn't seem interested in the kids that were here... actually, if anything it was exactly the opposite."
Letting his hand fall to his side, the monk's fingers on that hand reflexively curl in and out as he continues to replay the events in his head. However, the more he does, the more certain his conclusions become on the subject K' asked about. "No, in fact I'm certain of it. She was disdainful, for sure... and I think if she really wanted to drive the proverbial point home, she could have hurt one of them, but she didn't... she focused on me entirely." Of course, that was an outcome Frei was already predisposed to liking... Mizuki's question about the potential of his brother Kataki hurting the kids at the center continues to haunt him, coloring his opinion of the situation.
His hand comes up again, one finger resting on the tip of his nose as Frei recalls more. "But she said some very strange things toward the end. That she wasn't interested, unless we knew a girl named Shurui... the one that we were both in that SNF with, I think, right here in this center, come to think of it," he continues, thinking aloud as much as anything else. "That, and she kept referring to some girl, but she never said her name... just 'she' and 'her'." He pauses, then holds his finger up in the air. "Oh! And she said that even though she was in NESTS, she was being taken care of. I think that's everything."
K' frowns, leaning back slightly: seeming rather visibly surprised by the fact this NESTS representative didn't give the kids so much as a glance. For a few moments, he says nothing. He hadn't expected that particular answer.
He knew already that NESTS was searching for Shurui. The fact that he had asked the girl to stay away from the YFCC, apparently, did not stop them looking for her here at least once. He doesn't think they'll come back here because of Shurui, after ascertaining she isn't even here; but he can't guarantee they won't come back because of him. And Frei's statements-- that this operative wasn't even interested in the center-- just encourage him to opt to quietly leave.
"She wasn't interested in anybody here but me?" K' leans forward into a swift walk, cutting towards the door with a sudden abruptness. He seizes his leather jacket off the back of the chair he'd left it on, slinging it over a shoulder. "Then I shouldn't be here, and shouldn't come back." There's some flaws with that logic, of course... namely, the fact that the YFCC is -already- on NESTS radar, and could become a target sometime in the future when K' isn't around to protect it. But K' doesn't think about that. All he sees is that his presence is drawing people who wouldn't bother coming otherwise.
Frei's last words are enough to stop his sudden exodus, however. K' pauses, his mind flicking immediately back towards the strange girl that he'd felt such a sick kinship with. "...It doesn't meant shit to you, since you don't have a clue what NESTS is," he starts, back still turned. Eventually, he slants an eye over his shoulder, regarding Frei quietly. His expression stays controlled, but there's something deeply personal about his demeanor and words, nonetheless. "But nobody there gets 'taken care of.'"
"You're right," Frei concedes, with a slight nod of the head, "that it doesn't mean anything to me." That was, the monk reflects, the whole POINT. None of this made sense when it happened, and now even with K' confirming (or at least not denying) some of the things he was thinking, it STILL doesn't make any sense. "I don't know what NESTS is, and though I admit I'm curious, it's only because I think I want the same thing you want: to make sure nobody here gets hurt." There's a pause, as Frei lets his green-eyed gaze turn to K''s face for confirmation that he's not crazy, and that he IS reading the man right.
Sighing with something either akin to frustration or exasperation, the monk crosses his arms over his chest and looks away from K', out onto not only the rest of the practice floor but the center in general. His voice is surprisingly low, as if he doesn't want it to carry, and given what he says it's not surprising why. "There's a lot about you and the things that happen to you I don't undderstand. That flame, for one... and your friend, who was included in the woman's intended recipients. Did I mention that?" He turns back to K', raising an eyebrow, and elaborates. "She all but called him a kidnapper, I believe. Never mind that I've fought that guy before, myself, and there's something... unidentifiable," Frei says at last. Je ne sais quoi. But it was *weird*, whatever it was.
There's a second while the monk pinches the bridge of his nose, then shakes his head. "Look, you don't have to tell me your secrets if you don't want to, and I'm guessing you don't. You might like me or you might hate me, but... as long as you're part of this... I guess I want to say 'crew'," he adds, making fingerquotes as appropriate, "then I'm going to stand up for you. Nobody who works here does so by accident. Say what you want about Alma, but he's a pretty good judge of character. So if he trusts you, I do too."
Though Frei may look for some confirmation in K''s expression, he isn't likely to get it. The boy's expression remains cold and measured. But then, that isn't really surprising; much of what makes K' who he is is the very fact that he is eminently unreassuring-- even intimidating-- to be around. He just never gives any cues or hints before he acts; and given how he usually behaves (violently), not knowing what he's going to do is actually pretty scary.
For a while, he just watches Frei as the other talks. At the mention of Maxima, he lifts a lean shoulder in a shrug, eyes drifting closed. "If they called him a kidnapper, it's only 'cause he tried to help somebody being used by them. Same way he helped me." And that's all K' will say on the subject. He is rather defensive when it comes to the cyborg, who was the first person to ever show the white-haired weapon some kindness.
But he drifts back into a sort of forbidding quiet as Frei continues on. He doesn't let on whether he's pleased or offended at those words. He doesn't even let on whether or not he really does want to see the kids here safe. He just stares a while, struck silent, at the way Frei simply puts his trust in him and offers his solidarity. To the paranoid, self-serving K', this behavior is entirely foreign; and at first, he doesn't even know how to take it. He never thought he would ever be worth someone's trust, or that he would ever be enough of a person that someone else would find him worth standing up for. It, along with the discovery of his sister, actually makes him feel like more of a human and less like a disposable, rootless thing NESTS generated out of nowhere. It makes him feel like he has a real life, something outside NESTS, some existence with some kind of value outside of how big a body count he can rack up.
Some of that might be visible in the way he pauses an unusually long time, looking-- for the first time-- marginally uncertain. That moment of hesitation is quick to wipe away, but it's there. "I'm not interested in bringing trouble here," he finally starts, trying to reclaim his usual harshness but falling a little short, "or forcing anybody to fight just cause I stuck around someplace I shouldn't. No kid here is growing up the way I had to."
In response Frei's posture takes on a moment of sudden physical instability, as if his actual IMPULSE is to step forward and hug K', while perhaps his reptilian hindbrain, which is a little more survival-focused than his typically open personality, screams warnings that won't even let his *face* move, let alone important things like arms and legs. It's awkward, even comical, as his posture vibrates between moving to comfort and running for the hills. Eventually, however, the two urges find some sort of equilibrium and the monk brings his arms up, linking fingers and stretching the arch of his arms over his head. Enough of a release of muscle tension to keep him from going nuts, but self-contained enough not to leave him extra crispy on the floor.
"If it's not you," Frei says evenly, suddenly sounding more like the 26 year old adult he is, than the 19 year old he appears to be, "then it'll be someone else. You know? Whoever she was, she's not the first person who had some... issues she needed to take out. That... I forget his name. French guy with the amazing hair," the monk adds, giving some indication of just how his memory works, "beat the living daylights out of me and broke the reception desk in half to boot. Just 'cause." Not a happy memory, but again... if it bothers Frei, it doesn't show on his face. He's not breaking out in a crazed smile, but he seems peaceful and reflective about the whole thing.
"And anyhow, nobody forced me to fight. I could have let her do whatever she wanted. I *chose* to step in because I wanted to. I guess you could say I paid the price for it too," he adds, flexing one arm and pointing to a bandage on it with a goofy smile. "But I know how you feel. I have a... well, it's my brother. Out there, somewhere, being all bishounen and sociopathic," Frei adds, voice becoming surprisingly sardonic for a moment, one eyebrow going up in wry amusement. "He hurt Mizuki and Tran and... Hotaru. Pretty bad, just to get at me. They don't blame me for it, so why would I blame you for... whatever?"
Any motion to comfort or hug would indeed not be taken well. That K' hesitated at all was already a shocking enough concession from the boy, given his usual range of expressive emotionality. Then again, what Frei just told him -is- pretty shocking, in his book.
And as Frei starts to act a little more like his age... well, K' starts to act a little more like his own. And it's certainly not the nineteen his physical form is; nor is it the adult shrewdness which he typically puts on. His memory a wasteland, his emotional development horribly stunted, his actual maturity and ability to cope with stress is that of a child. And it kind of shows. His shoulders lose a lot of their strength, that eternal weight that burdens him finally manifesting visibly in the slope of his back. The bewildered tiredness of somebody who hurts for reasons he can't control or fix settles in his demeanor.
There will be attacks on the YFCC whether you're here or not, Frei implies. And for a moment, K' considers that. Does he even care? Should he care that the YFCC is attacked, as long as it isn't NESTS? Why should it be his business, as long as that cartel isn't involved? He leaves, NESTS follows him, and the YFCC gets left out of it entirely.
And he says as much. "What they do is worse than just 'hurting.' And they might not come if I weren't here," he starts. His inability to express what he's thinking-- his inability to even hold a nonconfrontational conversation, for that matter-- is rather clearly hampering him. "It'd be easier if I just took this somewhere else. You dealt with problems fine before I got here." Clearly, he's forgetting that people like Bison like to regularly crash the YFCC; people who literally no one in the center but him can stand up to.
Probably to his discredit, Frei adopts a knowing expression, closing his eyes and letting out a breath. He figured that's what K' would say... because when the threat of Kataki loomed, that's exactly what Frei *did*: made himself scarce and presumably took everyone out of the line of fire. The gesture could come across as dismissive, depending, but the monk's expression brightens somewhat afterwards; not a big cheery smile, but a pleasant one. His hand seems to move a little forward and then instantly stops, as he forces himself to remember his every instinct about K''s opinions on personal space.
With a faint shrug, he pulls his arms back over his chest, attempting to look 'serious' but also keeping his hands to himself, a useful two birds with one stone scenario. "Well, that's how it might play out," Frei admits, with a note of concession in his voice, as if it's a point he's acknowledging but not really happy about. "They don't sound like friendly types, whatever they are." Raising his shoulders in a not-quite-shrug, Frei adopts a 'what can you do?' expression. "I don't really know what the future's like. If I did, I'd probably be fantastically wealthy playing Nostradamus to the stars or something."
Bending down a bit, Frei dusts off the knees of his pants and then stretches again, tapping the toe of a sneaker against the floor... restless motions, but also indicators that he'll leave K' in peace now that he's said what he came to say. "I think it's up to you. I'm hoping the fact that I didn't blow in here like a thunderstorm with a list of questions a mile long will prove my intentions to you. In the end, you have to decide what you want to do. But..." There's a weighty pause, and then Frei opens his mouth to speak and then shuts it. "Sorry. Somebody yelled at me for telling her 'it's your choice' once. I guess what I mean is, make the decision you want. If this is the place you want to be, then stay. We can handle it, provided you're honest with us. If it's not, then go, I guess."
Mildly irritated by the knowing expression, K' has, by the time Frei starts talking, already turned his back again; though with him, talking to his back doesn't always mean you aren't being listened to. K' turns his back just as much when he feels emotionally threatened or uncertain by something as he does just to be a dick and ignore people. Standing there, halfway to the door, he slowly lifts a hand and braces it against the near wall, letting out a long breath as he dips his head a little and tries to think.
Is this really the place he wants to be? Does he feel any attachment to this place? Does he feel responsibility towards it? He should have been able to answer those questions quickly with a cold 'no,' but for whatever reason, it's just not as easy as that. For all he's a murderous, moralless creature engineered and programmed to kill, for all he's distrustful and suspicious of all around him, even he can respond a little to common kindness. And this place has shown him no shortage of that.
It's really not any conception of right or wrong; K' doesn't have enough conscience to think of things in moral terms. It's more the grudging loyalty of a kicked dog who finally got shown a little decency. K' treats well those things and people that treat him well. Simple as that.
"Yeah," he finally agrees, his head lifting. His shoulders pull back into their customary squared strength, though by now it should be obvious how much of a facade that is. He spares Frei one glance, gauging him briefly, and then he turns around and starts to slowly leave. "It's my decision." A simple phrase, to anybody else; but for somebody who spent most of his life unable to choose, it carries quite a bit of weight.
Many who meet Frei think of his placid demeanor as something other than nice; Tran thinks it makes Frei insufferably arrogant, for example, because nothing bothering the monk means he's either above it all or, as some others have claimed, simply too stupid to tell. Ask Frei himself, he'd probably say a little both and a healthy pinch of neither. His attitude emotionally is as consistent as his attitude *physically*: everything heals, in time, except death.
Frei, for the record, plans to live forever.
He doesn't say anything as K' goes, being able to sense that the NESTS refugee wants to get some space and think things through. Speaking might be seen as an attempt to get him to stay, so he stays silent. But once K' is out of earshot, the monk draws in a deep breath, then lets it out with a nod. That went alright.
"Hopefully," he adds, sotto voce, "it's the right one."
Log created on 20:54:14 05/12/2008 by Frei, and last modified on 22:42:44 05/15/2008.