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With how much of a lawsuit culture the U.S. had become, even to the point of needing 'Good Samaritan Insurance' for just helping others in trouble lest a body be sued, Titan had been left alone in his gloom. It wasn't particularly near one of the walking paths, but his chosen tree that overlooked one of the West Park's ponds was visible from one of the bike paths.

Not that any powered individual needed to look with eyes to feel there was a captain in the park. A captain in the park who had been for a good while. The satchel of energy balls he had had so far been enough to stay powered over more than the count of a day. Occasional trips to the diner off the edge of the park he'd first met Kurma at had been his only other movements.

He'd sat, knees up and arms crossed over them to put his head down on. The autumnal cold had seeped in over the night, aching his muscles and joints in spite of his usual metabolism. It was numbing, so it was welcome. He marked without lifting his face that a Knight's signature came to the park. Came nearer than that.

The sound of the voice itself, not one he expected to hear, finally drew his face up from curl to rest the back of his head against the tree. There were bull emblems in the dim light of falling dark again and shortening days. His mouth was thick from mourning many hours old. It sounded too hoarse in speech, "Attack if you wish, Bull. I won't fight. "

'What happened'

Titan's eyes widened for a half second, lips shifting first as if to speak. Then the expression changed in a wave of grief to a bitten grimace, tears as big as the man's size promised rolling down cheeks before any sound could make it out. He turned his face back into his forearms, shoulders shivering.

Unwanted. Unwelcome. And my own lord traitor as much, leaving the throne's service without asking leave. 'My lord broke my vow as sure as sword over his knee.' How can I say it? To an enemy. To anyone at all. To the Bull, even. The moisture of tears felt like daggers across his eyes too tired already with the task. Words came half mangled on sobs, "*Mitt løfte er brutt. He's gone. He went and I cannot follow."

The hand-weight registered as comfort, instead of an enemy attack on contact, through the ugly cry. It took some minutes to get through it before he could manage speech again, a hoarse and downangled question into his lap without raising his head, "Do you have napkin or kleenex?"

I'm dripping again. There is no dignity in this. No, I didn't have any left to me, cut away. I feel ill. Too long without food and just coffee, too long without sleep and just grieving. Even without the crying, he was shivering a little with the autumn and the complete absence of proper blood sugar. "Could you move closer? You're warm."

The napkin was accepted quietly into the ring of arms for a moment, a brief pause of consideration of the crumpled Taco King logo against facts from some before time that the man liked tacos, before there were the tell tale sounds of sniffings and shifting of wiping. It was the usual problem of too much gross and not enough napkin, so he soon had to set it aside damp-flattened and slightly translucent the way cheap single ply got.

As the armor and arm settled hot against the black of his shirt, Titan huffed out a sigh. Instinctually, the captain leaned a little into the other, not minding the press and angles of leather or metal. It was all just pressure to the numb muscle, but the heat and gesture were comfort to the soul. "Some days. It blends. Sometimes I go to the diner over that way. They are open all hours, and don't care about uniforms. Coffee mostly. I met a man who could fly there, once. Mostly here, at this tree. "

"Thank you for the napkin." He sniffed again, lifting face finally, one hand dropping from knees to take the tattered corner of crumpled red on the grass and pull the Knight's cape up around the front of the man a little, since he was worried of being cold himself. If the other man didn't look offended.

"A leather skirt is not so warm. You might be cold soon. "

"He was very odd. He wasn't a Senshi. He never really said what he was. He knew about senshi and the Negaverse and the Cosmos. That was nearly two years ago. " Excepting having written himself notes about it, having reported parts of it to the databases, and for the pure bizarreness of the encounter over burgers, fries and the floating-glowy-starballs he probably would have forgotten it like so many other things in the twenty-ish months since.

"Its the Steak N' Shake that way, " Titan lifted a shakey paw, waving it vaguely in the correct direction. "Usual layout - tile floor, stools, sculptures of fake ice cream on display with people in paper hats and everything in white, red and black and its open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. "

There were a bunch of branches all over the city, though he'd never tried walking into any others while still in uniform. Being dispersed, though, probably meant even a guy from Mars would know what the steak and shake brand looked like to be able to find it. "

"They don't sell tacos, I don't think. "

"What are you doing here?" It was asked softly, like it was something wondered and returned to between any other thought. Some was obvious- he was certainly being warm and strangely nice. And to an enemy that wasn't on neutral ground.

It was the sort of question that never translated well. The man was answering a different 'why'. Why was the Bull of Mars trying to buy an enemy a burger. Not the 'Why are you here' that was actually asking why he cared at all. Was it just a game of numbers and wanting another conversion? Was it something else? It was a puzzle, and one that twisted more in Titan's gut than in his head. It cut to the problem of his lord, to the mission surrounding Realgar/Kairatos himself, and to what he was planning himself to do about all that.

Solutions which seemed all so far out of reach as to be stars in the sky beside all the scouts on their foreign worlds. Everything inside was screaming that he should avoid the man and his kindnesses. Everything that wasn't just Bjorn, beyond tired and too far into grief to really think much out beyond desperation for something warm and kind crashing up from his heart with suddenness at the presence of anyone near and willing.

Visions of Van's tears and bloody knees came to mind, and how it hadn't mattered all the 'whys'. Couldn't this be like that? What was the bristling? The tears started again, but his eyes were wide and he didn't look away. "Kairatos, I don't understand."

"I'm afraid."

"I believe you that this is just....kindness. But there's this feeling that I shouldn't go with you. That it's traitorous. That you're dangerous. "

"But I want to. I'm so cold. I don't know what to do right now."

Titanlåvenite gave a disappointed noise like 'mrrrr' as a rumble in his throat when the Knight moved away to stand. The shifting of leather and loss of heat again registered to mind as permanent and leaving, so it took longer than it should have otherwise for him to look up from Kairatos' feet to even notice that the man was holding hand out.

When he did notice it, Titan slow-spooked like a sleepy draft horse- not actually getting far in moving anywhere away from the 'dangerous' hand given the seated position or tree at his back. The eating worry couldn't get much further in processing than the panic it was already inflicting - he was just too tired. Heart felt too heavy to care much further, with a hand extended and a voice warm to the ears. It didn't compare to the offer of a concrete decision that sounded wise and with some authority.


"No...nono...don't oath anything...not on my need. Not by me. Save oaths for oathworthy. "

It is cruel to throw some hope of guidance on the first human to come by that cares. On an enemy. On the Bull. It is cruel to expect anyone to want to direct me. Lead me. To have use for me. It asks a lot of them. Asking someone to be lead is so much.
He is kind to offer it.

He took the hand in his own, using it to get up maybe more than Kairatos would have expected- his joints were well chilled and still, every muscle half numb. More surprising, maybe, he didn't let the hand go. The hold was loose, no force in it, but not relinquished just the same. "Ja."

"Okay....I ....It works. You don't...have to buy. But I'll come."