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He felt empty, stressed, upset, and hopeful all at once, and it remained in a weird mire of emotions in his gut as he considered the reality he was facing. As he considered the reality Faustite was facing.

Faustite, of all people, whom he would have never pictured himself in the position of saying he may purify. Faustite, of all people, who even just a few hours ago Encke was convinced would never leave. Faustite, of all people, who had tried to kill Nectaris. Faustite, of all people, who would have killed Basiluzzo. Faustite, of all people.

Faustite.

His head spun for the reality of the last few hours and for the depths of their discussion. He knew this wasn't Faustite's first attempt at leaving. He knew being a half-youma was destroying him so much he was desperate enough to reach out to Order--any Order, enough that he was good enough. He knew of Elex Yorke now.

Elex.

Encke held that close to his heart as he pondered how he was going to tell Basiluzzo just what he had agreed to. He had said that if Faustite left, Encke would give him a place to go. And he would. That hadn't been a lie. That fell right in line with the conversation he, Basiluzzo, Stromboli, and Safira had several months ago, years ago at this point. But had no point did Encke take that invitation and use it to invite one of their would-be murderers within their house walls. Aliens, sure. Recent purifications, sure. Alien senshi even, sure. Former generals even, sure.

Former half-youma generals with a penchant for starseeds and murder, including the murder of several of their own? No. Not even a little.

Knowing he would have to find a way to word this carefully, Encke figured he could ease that by making the scene Richard walked into comfortable. Ignacio wasn't intending intimate vibes, but he did dim the lights of their bedroom and turned on some soothing music. To help break the imagery of Ignacio intending for other conversation, he also intentionally brought up a bowl of bananas. Make sure his dancer of a husband was doing well on his potassium intake...

He realized in retrospect that maybe bananas weren't the best choice as he waited. Maybe he should just let Luz in the room instead--

Ignacio did, at least, have a warning when his husband had finally arrived.

A ping on his device informed him that, Richard is home! which meant he probably only had a few minutes before he needed to have this conversation. The conversation. The conversation of Hi, might've promised your would-be murderer a place to live. What was wrong with him? Why was he like this?

Ignacio ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his neck. How did he word this? Were the bananas good enough to ease or should he pick something else real quick? Maybe he should let Luz into the room, because they only did that when they weren't necessarily expecting other things to happen. He approached the door, focusing on mundane things in an attempt to stop himself from spiraling with anxiety of this going badly.

Of course, as he opened it, not only did Luz run into the bedroom, Richard asked if he was home.

Aw hell--

"I'm in the bedroom, Arra!" Ignacio just left the door open at that point, figuring that Richard would close it behind him once he came in. Judging by how tired Richard probably was and his usual speed with coming up the stairs, Ignacio probably had a minute to formulate his thoughts in a good order and not just a slurry of nonsense punctuated with want a banana?

Yeah, this was going to go swell.

Ignacio knew that of all people that Richard had the biggest problem with on the other side, Faustite Elex ranked close to the top of the list. He had to hope that Richard's policy that they would help whoever would leave extended even to his murderers.

Ignacio swore, if Luz could rumble purrs like Viatrix, she would. He watched as the long-haired golden retriever wound around his legs, occasionally barking out her happiness and generally being a tripping hazard. She was a distraction, at least, helping ease him out of the worst of the anxiety as he focused instead on her and not on the steps up the stairs that he could definitely hear now with the door open--

(Because while their room was soundproofed to let them have a space of privacy where no one could hear them, it also meant that they really couldn't hear many of the noises from the outside either. The house was actually surprisingly quiet for the time of day. A blessing in disguise, he supposed.)

Ignacio looked away from their dog to the door when Richard's steps neared, and then stopped, and Ignacio realized as Richard was trying to calculate what was happening that...

Aw s**t--

"Not that I'd mind," Ignacio coughed in an attempt to cover his embarrassment--not right now, not right now--and walked over to the bowl of very suspicious bananas. "Was just trying to get you something to get your potassium up. And make this room more relaxing."

It looked like he was trying to set up a two-by-four to the head of seduction.

He reached out with one of the said bananas.

"Want one?" His smile seemed strained. "Also, you can lie down, but I recommend not sleeping yet."

He wasn't sure that fixed anything about this messily put-together scene.

Ignacio couldn't help a strained chortle at the concept of getting anyone pregnant--

"Unless I understand your anatomy a lot less than I think I do--"

Okay, that was a bad joke. He shimmied his shoulders and set down the bowl of bananas on the dresser closest to Richard, figuring he'd just take one of them if he wanted to. He supposed his only saving grace here was that Richard could read through the fact that Ignacio was generally pretty good at seduction, so something about this two-by-four of a scene was ... off.

At least it gave him a good spot to lead in with.

"You're right, something's up. I would still recommend sitting down or laying down if that's what you want." Ignacio wrung his hands, glancing to the side. Did he keep beating around the bush or should he just get to the damn point? His attempts to sidestep around the bush clearly had gone haywire.

Luz happily barked at Richard, a record scratch to his uneven song of thoughts that brought Ignacio back into the present. "It's magic s**t. Involves someone who might be looking to leave. Make sure the door's closed well before you sit, eh?"

"Because of who it is."

Luz was an easy distraction from the topic in question, considering she was always adorable. Ignacio had briefly hoped that perhaps Richard would sit with her and just pet her. Perhaps being near a fluffy golden retriever mix that just wanted to relax and be friendly would help lessen the absolute punch to the gut of the news he was about to deliver. What the hell was he going to say to Richard? Had he overstepped his own bounds by doing anything that he had done?

Safira was going to be livid if she made the connection of who Faustite was. Twice. Twice Faustite nearly killed Richard. He was why Encke had been unable to sleep, calling the phone that rang dead in Richard's pocket, ringing, ringing, ringing--

He could still hear that machine in his head and feel his heart rate escalating.

He was stalling. Richard had done that incredulous gesture at the room to him. The gesture at the room and the uneaten bananas from his terrible attempt to just ease Richard before they talked about--

"It's Faustite."