Welcome to Gaia! ::

Axinite sat at his desk and watched Taenite talk. Listened to him, but mostly watched him, because it seemed like he was just talking so much to stall Axinite from getting anything out.

Taenite looked nervous.

Naturally, he suspected he was talking so much to either hide something, or avoid getting to the point. Or he liked to hear himself talk, it really could have been anything.

He doubted he actually wanted an answer for most of his questions. Axinite was shrewd enough not to forget why he’d called him here in the first place.

“You seem like you have a lot on your mind, Taenite. Why don’t you take a seat, make yourself comfortable.”

Maybe he should let him squirm for a minute, for all the trouble he’d given him.

He lifted his mug and took a sip of his tea but his eyes never left Taenite’s. He lowered the cup but didn’t put it down as he leaned back in his chair.

“I didn’t call you here to reprimand you. So you can relax. Do you want some tea or for me to get to the point?”

Axinite gave him a look, like he was pleading with him to be serious for just a moment. He didn’t speak it out loud so it wasn’t important enough to ask, but he straightened himself and finally set down his tea.

“You give me no opportunity for a poetic lead in, so I suppose I’ll just be blunt. You’ve been working with me for a while, and it’s given me great opportunity to observe you firsthand. You’ve grown in many ways since you first joined the Negaverse. You generally seem to have good initiative, and I do believe that you have the best intentions at heart. I was wondering if you thought you were ready for a promotion.”

He suspected Taenite thought himself ready to be a General, or perhaps to share the responsibilities that he himself had as a General King, but he watched him and waited for his answer instead.

Axinite opened his mouth to correct Taenite but seemed to realize that Taenite must have been teasing. He was a Senshi, he knew he wouldn’t give a weapon. Though, he was honestly surprised that Taenite’s sticky fingers hadn’t wound up borrowing his axe already.

At least he managed to rein it in a bit in the end.

“You’ll be able to teleport,” Axinite said; he rose shortly after Taenite did. He couldn't do the promotion from behind his desk, so he smoothed off his uniform and made his way over.

“If you’d really like to train, we can, but I hope you don’t think I’ll go easy on you.” Taenite liked to push his buttons and tease him too much, maybe it would do him good to see what Axinite could do. Of course, it was playing with fire. He wasn’t quite sure he wanted to put himself on the receiving end of his Senshi magic.

“But those are big plans for someone who hasn’t made it through their promotion yet. It’s uncomfortable, Taenite. It will hurt. You might want to sit down, first. I’ll go as easy as I can on you, but I won’t lie to you, it’s not going to be pleasant. I’ve got snacks for afterwards, though. You’ll be taken care of.”

Axinite was once again visibly exasperated by Taenite’s teasing, but maybe he just wasn’t used to such brazen playfulness when it related to serious matters. He opened his mouth to say something and then promptly closed it.

Maybe Taenite was just nervous. Maybe it was his way of trying to play off being scared.

He didn’t chastise him.

Instead, he placed one hand on Taenite’s arm to stabilize him, or catch him. Just in case.

His other hand went to his chest. He didn’t look up, just in case Taenite was making some goofy face or was readying himself to say something else to rile him up. “Breathe,” he instructed, waited until Taenite did so, and then pushed his hand into his chest.

Axinite was always gentle. This was traumatic and painful enough without him rushing through it, without him trying to just get it over with. He could have moved faster, could have just let the pain knock him out. Instead, he made it as bearable as possible.

It wasn’t too bad until after he wrapped his hand around the starseed and began to push the Chaos in.

He’d done this enough times that nothing really felt new to him. The chaos moved from him into the Senshi, and he could feel the shifting energy signature. He could see the uniform change.

“Almost there,” he reassured. It was only when he was pulling his hand back out that he let himself look up at Taenite to make sure he was doing all right.

Axinite immediately exhaled, but he was glad that Taenite was at least okay enough to keep up that attitude. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and shook his head like he just didn’t know what to do with the senshi.

He kept a hand on his shoulder to make sure he was stabilized, and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket so he could dab at the sweat on his brow.

“You’d think you’d be grateful to have an outfit that keeps you cool when you’ve got magic like yours. If you don’t like it, you can put on a coat.

“Do you really think you’re in a good condition to be planning on teleporting? It takes a lot of energy, and you’re already spent. Come on, humor me. Sit down for a minute, have something to eat. I’ll get you a drink. If you want me to teach you to teleport, I suppose I could give you some lessons. But if you’re only asking to get me out of my office, you don’t have to do that. I get out plenty. I’m not getting rusty.”

Axinite sighed, heavily. Partly exasperated, because Taenite just had that effect on him. He was so much. It wasn’t a bad thing, even if Axinite seemed to work himself in circles trying to figure out how to respond to him. He knew Taenite enjoyed ruffling feathers. Even with that honeyed sweet talking.

He wasn’t really good with praise, so instead of huffing or fussing, he just hurried behind his desk to retrieve an energy drink. He picked through his cookies to pick out a few special, and an orange, and brought them all over to Taenite.

“Hm. I’m not certain all this strain hasn’t made you a little loopy. Here, eat up. You know I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I wasn’t working. I’ve reduced my shifts outside of the Negaverse,” he reminded. Though, he’d simply used his free time to work more here.

“You’re young, you should be spending your money on–well, I suppose whatever makes you happy. I’m not good at letting go. Structure–rigidity–” he gestured vaguely to his perfectly organized office, “keeps me focused. Work is good for me. But I appreciate the gesture. I suppose I don’t know what I would do with any free time. Find a way to feel guilty about it, probably.”

It didn’t matter if Axinite knew he was only a few months older than Taenite, he smiled politely all the same. Better than letting Taenite see him getting flustered.

“One day you’ll find someone far more interesting to lavish all of this attention on and you’ll be much happier for it. Although, I suppose I would miss your company. You’re a hard worker, Taenite.” For as much as he liked to play around, especially.

At the very least, he was glad that Taenite was replenishing his energy and taking it easy.

“Persistent, too. I respect your enthusiasm. And I know it was a good decision to bring you into the Negaverse. You’ve always been a little…” he contemplated for a moment before settling on “extra. But I think we’re going to need that in the future. And I’m looking forward to the future you help create.”