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Who: Cesc, Shepard and Iorek
When: Early morning

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The Garden Party had been pleasant, Cesc decided with a feeling of some relief. There was no hedge maze--neither including zombies nor unicorns nor swinging axes. He had the company of good friends, without awkwardness or drama of any kind, and seen nobody he hadn't expressly missed or wanted to see. He'd managed to keep Aina from being terribly upset, and gotten Vivi a planter of flowers.

Overall, a good party.

"Was Reks there?" Shepard asked as Cesc wrapped two of his fingers together with athletic tape, reading himself for the day's lift. He wore a loose tee, and Shepard a plain tank and athletic shorts. They'd pulled out the lifting bench, and the late-summer day was nice--breezy but warm, with the beach strung with stragglers hoping to enjoy the last of the sun before autumn stole it away.

"He was!" said Cesc, ripping the tape with his teeth. A memory flickered in his brain--Reks with Cruz; Cruz, who looked... strangely upset. And then there was that time before, at Cruz's birthday party, when they kissed... that hadn't been quite right, either. His pleased expression wavered. "Wait, I don't remember where he went, actually. I wanted to say hi but when I came up, he was heading off with someone."

"Going for a snog, eh?" suggested Shep with a smile, pulling out a few extra weights with a grin.

When Reks first arrived, both Shep and Cesc had the same thought: the gargoyle overslept. That's what he looked like--like he'd pulled out of bed, noticed the time, and gone dashing out of his house to make the training session. But, the longer he spoke, the more both realized that wasn't the case.

"Oh--" Cesc came forward to help Reks with the tape, taking the mess and pulling it taut to get rid of the kinks and stuck tangles. He started wrapping it around one of Reks' arms, remembering where he generally liked to have it. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about Aina. She's kind of a crybaby; she's really young. Like a little toddler Frei."

Shepard, for his part, was generally more direct. He looked with narrowed eyes at Reks' general deportment, his dejected expression, the sleepless look. He knew it pretty well.

"What do you mean, 'not exactly?'" he asked pointedly.

"It wasn't you--she actually thought she made you or Cruz upset somehow. She was worried you guys were mad at her," said Cesc. Realization was beginning to dawn on him. Cruz and Iorek had been upset? His voice slowed a tad as he continued, preoccupied. "Like I, ah, said... she's really young."

"What do you mean?" Shep pressed, taking a seat on the weight bench and looking at Iorek with some sternness. He put his hands on his knees, ready to hear what he was all but certain was coming.

Neither Cesc nor Shepard had it in them to look particularly surprised. No, surprised wasn't the word. Cesc's expression fell as Iorek spoke, and his heart fell into his stomach. His eyebrows went up and his jaw loosened, crestfallen. "Oh, Iorek…"

"This person had you on the hook?" Shepard's voice was sharp and concerned, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Like, strung yah along all this time, made you think you were together?"

Cesc shook his head. He couldn't imagine Cruz capable of willfully deceiving anyone. That didn't seem to be his nature! Smiling, cheerful Cruz… and yet…

"But--you kissed at the--" Cesc began, then stopped short. Kisses. Kisses weren't romantic for Cruz… he colored, silent. Was it all some kind of massive misunderstanding? Oh, holy s**t…

"Kissed you? That's not fair--" said Shepard.

Shepard looked at Iorek in disbelief. Had he known that Iorek and Anita's green dude were together? Or that Iorek was--had-- was gay? Or bi or-- any of a lot of options, he guessed. It seemed vaguely familiar but not wholly, and he couldn't quite say one way or another. But it DID make him understand a little better where the wires had crossed. The crocodile ate kisses and didn't seem to do much in the way of explaining things. From what he knew about him, which was little, he liked to kiss whomever would kiss him. Vivi, too, had… eghn, it just made the Aussie uncomfortable to think about it. But Jesus, it sounded like Anita needed to have a chat with her charge.

"What?" Shepard got up, brow furrowed, arms crossed. "Christ, Reks, you're not even mad?"

"That's--certainly to your credit," interjected Cesc quickly, unwilling to let the situation escalate. Considering Reks' problems with emotional control in the past few years, this seemed a certain step up. Unless… "But are you sure you weren't repressing it? It's not good to let that fester, you know…"

Cesc listened with his brow furrowed and his head inclined. Shep, beside him, could hardly do the same. What he was hearing was that Cruz had made his friend feel guilty somehow, enough so that Iorek had shut his own feelings down during the breakup. Maybe he had played the victim. Maybe he had gently assisted Iorek in taking the blame without the gargoyle even knowing it. But either way, the reaction seemed clear to Shep: bottle up and explode.

For Cesc, it didn't feel so simple. Although he could sense that Shepard was getting increasingly annoyed beside him, all he could feel was a deep concern. Cruz wasn't the type, thought Cesc, to have tried to escape the situation by making Iorek have to shut down his emotions. It was all a misunderstanding somehow, he was sure of it. Cruz liked kisses and Iorek associated them with romance, and a one-sided relationship had grown from the misinterpreted affection. Maybe Cruz had been blind, but Iorek, too, had not noticed the crocodile's discomfort during their birthday kiss. It must be on both sides.

And the rage, well… the rage was what Iorek was still struggling to control.

"Iorek…" Cesc's voice was puzzled, worried. "I know how hard this has got to be for you. After all the strides you've been making… maybe you just had a handle on it while you two were talking, and then it overwhelmed you when you got home?"

Shepard stayed silent, his jaw tight. He shrugged as Cesc looked at him.

"Breakups-- they're not easy to… let go of…" Cesc continued, scratching his temple awkwardly. He didn't feel like he should speak, although he did have some romantic rejection to speak FROM. "I know how it is. You just have to…ah… distract yourself."

"Sounds like you got all the rage out in one go," added Shepard, letting out a short sigh. "You shouldn't bottle like that, Reks. It's okay to show Cruz that you were mad. You have a right to be mad."

"--No." Cesc cut in quickly as Iorek began to catastrophize, putting one hand gently on his shoulder. "No, Reks--I'm sure that's not what happened. You've never been through something like this before. Maybe shutting down while you were with Cruz was... you know, just how your mind was trying to cope. Trying to put on a brave face. People do that sometimes. They go numb and their real reaction comes out hours, even days later."

Shepard rose, standing quietly aside with his arms crossed. In his mind, Cruz still had something to do with this. Either he'd done it purposefully or to save himself grief, but somehow, Shep was certain that Cruz had manipulated the situation to his benefit. And to see Iorek like this now...

"Just keep tabs on yourself," he said, matter-of-factly. "If you feel like you're starting to lose yourself, refocus. Like we've talked about. Channel the energy."

Cesc and Shepard exchanged glances. It wasn't the first time Iorek had put on a brave face, but it wasn't anything they could do to convince him to take it off. Pushing now would just make the situation worse.

Cesc knew that firsthand.

"Don't worry about it," said Cesc at last. "Breakups are always a mixed bag-- a mixed bag of awful."

"Hear, hear," muttered Shepard. He took a few steps backward and motioned to the weight bench. "Now, enough with the soft stuff, eh? Time to get a lift in. We'll start with seeing how much Reks can bench."