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He'd been a little worried that she'd get back too soon and he'd only be half prepared, but then, he really probably shouldn't have. Zia had been going out of her way to be the invisible woman practically, until there were times when he actually had to question if she still lived there, or if she just dropped in to dart around avoiding eye contact.

He'd been debating for a bit now if he should let it slide, the earmarks were there for some of her more... self destructive behaviors... but this time he had the feeling that he was in some way to blame. She'd been shaken up when she'd seen the drivers license in his pocket the night he'd purified, and while he couldn't think of anything he could do to change that, he was pretty sure that the shaking it had given her might have damaged her already shaken roots.

It was getting kind of out of hand at this point though, so he'd finally decided to do something about it. Mostly that meant confronting her, but he reasoned it was probably best to do so with food as a shield. Rough conversations with Zia, in his experience, went a bit better with food, which was why things smelled like Barbeque sauce, vinegar, and savory spices, from the pork he'd been cooking all day, an was breaking up with forks while he waited for her to get in.

All three of the cats were sitting in a semi circle as close behind him as they dared, totally willing to risk being accidentally stepped on (or pretending to be stepped on) to get a taste, or an opportunity to help themselves.

"Still pretty sure this isn't good for you guys, back it up."

"Right this second? Breaking up some pork roast to give you something to chew on that's not me when I get on your case for avoiding me." He noted, gazing at her from beneath his eyebrows, barely lifting his chin as he worked on the food. "...Because you've totally been avoiding me."

He figured he wasn't the brightest bulb in the light fixture, but he wasn't burned out either.

He almost corrected her to 'Kairatos', but decided against it. He thought that might just kill the conversation before it started. Besides, he needed to get used to Xanthus. Or Xan. Xan was fine.

"So... let's talk."

"It's less 'new hairstyle' and more 'Hey I'm too lazy and bored with playing normal to get a hair cut from someone who I don't want to make small talk with." He pointed out. "Sit down, tell me if you want a beer, and if I need to go get some new pillows without teeth marks and then we can chat about this life and death stuff, ok?"

He gestured at a place to sit, raising an eyebrow to show he was serious. He didn't, apparently, plan to let this slide.

"So this is what we're down to now? You have to 'deal' with me?" He added, which had just a touch less pep and joke to it, and just a hint of something sour. "...I need to know if there's a problem, Zee. I don't have to be here. I don't have to be in your hair."

He didn't want to be a problem.

"...Zee I would have made the same choice once I found out about it, no matter what." He explained, quietly, shoulders drooping slightly as he regretted the touch of bitterness. "Sorry. I mean... " He paused, stabbing a fork into the shredded meat so aggressively it clunked against the dish it was in. "... Zee you didn't do anything wrong. I made a choice based on the information I had. I figured I could risk loosing an unknown chunk of my memories... or I could probably end up dead to make one of Zinkente's pets look better. I had medals you know. They gave out... shiny stupid s**t little metals for this and that... killing people. Following orders. I had them. I wasn't half bad at what I was doing. I was angry and it made me want to hurt everyone in my path, including myself... so I did. I did everything I was told, I jumped all the hoops, and all I ever heard was that I wasn't jumping quite high enough. Couldn't. I could have ripped my own star seed out and handed it to him, and he'd have stood over my comatose body and asked why I was too rude and stupid to gift wrap it."

He let it hang for a few seconds and started to shovel meat onto buns.

"If you want to blame anyone for Falco Marks, don't blame yourself, turn around and pin that shiny little medal onto Zinkenite and Me. If he's gone it's just between the two of us."

Another pause and he added. "How many buns you want to start? There's plenty, by the way."

"...Are we talking about the same guy who had you stitched up and lying on the couch the time I popped up here and scared the s**t out of you?" He glanced and raised an eyebrow, finishing the plates and walking over to set one in front over. "I'm getting you a beer. It will probably be followed by several more, at least one of which is for me while you explain to me what he came to you for and why you agreed to it. And why you didn't tell me about it so I could come along and make sure he didn't gut you like a fish."

"And I ripped star seeds out of two kids for tying a firecracker to a cat." Xanthus pointed out, crisply. "Getting killed isn't going to undo what either of us did." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, wondering what sort of games she was playing that involved the Negaverse, but the whole thing about flipping the bird to ZInk... hm. Shame they probably couldn't convince Wolf to change sides. "...Nice to know I'm not the only one who has a problem with Zinkenite, but that was still... what the hell?"

He knew a star seed when he saw one... normally... but this? This was something just...

It almost looked like an imitation starseed, and he curled a lip and leaned forward to examine the thing.

"...What the everloving ********? And What the hell did Bishofite do to Zircon? Goddamn..."

He remembered Zircon, she was another older agent, and he kinda liked her a bit, and hell... he wasn't sure what she and Wolframite had discovered, but they'd clearly opened one hell of a Pandora's Box.

"...If I thought someone on the other end of the phone would understand what I was talking about I might just call an intervention hotline on your cute little a**." Xanthus snarled, glancing up from the starseed and fixing her intently with his stare. "But before I try and talk some sense into you and point out that for all your insistence that you're doing the world a favor, people will actually miss you. Me included.... I suppose I should ask what the hell they want you to do."

He felt like someone had just punched him in the gut. No... not the guts. The emotions. The brain? He felt like someone had punched him in the brain. He sort of thought that things had gotten better after that night he'd chased off the young rowdy with pills, and maybe she had, but now it sounded like things had been spiraling downward into a spectacularly creative arc of self destruction since he'd purified. She blamed herself for Rota, but if she destroyed herself over the loss of Falco Marks, he'd blame himself.

"Son of a ******** b***h." He snarled again, tearing his eyes away and glaring furiously at the mirrored star seed. "...Off the charts weird. Who else knows about this?"

He almost sounded like Realgar again, almost felt that way again, he was angry at the universe and angry at himself for not knowing what to do, angry because it was unfair that someone he cared about hurt so much she was thinking about destroying herself and those that shaped her like a stack of mirrors thrown off a building.

He hesitated for half a second, then moved over to throw an arm around her only a litle roughly and holding her in a way that suggested he wanted to both squeeze her until she was breathless and hold her as though she would break.

"Goddamn it. What Am I going to do with you?" He sighed.

She smelled like an fire, but he couldn't spot a burn, which wasn't bad, it was at least one good thing in an storm of things that sucked.

"You want me to run you a bath? I promise the only invader will be Jo, who likes to give people a running commentary about how she feels about your choice of bubble bath and the superiority of strawberry fizz bath bombs over lavender."

He planned, mind you, to hide anything remotely dangerous that he could think of, but he thought it might help. Something other than fire and hurting and madness.