From Where the Silence Echoes

-9- A Sonata for the Damned

The siren's face fell into an expression of melancholy concern almost instantly. If he was trying to kill Polnareff with his looks before, then this would be flat out murder. The way his fin ears sadly drooped, the slight quiver and pout of his bottom lip, the disheartened look in his eyes; the face of a beast who is grieving.

"So." the siren said flatly, biting his lip. "Noriaki's suffering, and neither you or Avdol thought to tell me? I can't believe this."

"Well, it's not that we didn't purposely not tell you," Polnareff pretended to sigh sadly; if he was going to lie, he may as well make it convincing. "Kakyoin pleaded with us not to. Oh, you should have heard the poor boy. 'Please, please Mr. Avdol! Don't tell my darling, darling siren! He'll be worried sick about me!' It was absolutely heartbreaking—"

"Noriaki doesn't sound like that."

"Well—! You know he's sick, so.. He's kind of... Loopy, at the moment. I'm sure you understand, no?"

The siren side eyed him warily, a frown tugging at the corner of his mouth gently. His icy blue gaze pierced Polnareff's soul, but he stood his ground, for once in his life and stared right back; as if he were challenging him to doubt his story. The siren seemed intimidated by this, as his gaze faltered for just a moment. He chose to rest his eyes at Polnareff's feet, his dark, heavy lashes obscuring any tell of how he was feeling.

"And you're sure that he's getting sicker?" he eventually muttered, whisper quiet. "There's... There's no chance he'll get better?"

"Well, I wouldn't say no chance, but," Polnareff stood and dusted himself off. "By the looks of things, it'll take a while."

He sighed sadly, tugging at Polnareff's heartstrings a bit. The poor thing looked devastated; as if losing his beloved had caused him to lose a piece of himself as well. Needless to say, Polnareff felt bad. Terrible, even. While he usually had no issue lying people to save his own behind, his supposed quicksilver tongue had the unfortunate tendency to get him into more trouble; and from the looks of things that was exactly what was transpiring.

"Hey, hey, there's no need to look so sad, mon ami, I'm sure-"

"No. You don't get it. Not at all. He's... he's suffering because of- well, Noriaki's suffering, and there's nothing I can do about it." the siren cut him off, a heavy waver in his voice. "You don't know what that's like. Almost losing... almost losing someone you care about more than anything in this world... Without him.."

Polnareff's heart sunk once more as the siren angrily cried out and wiped away a few opalescent tears, furrowing his eyebrows and clenching his fists. He bared his razor sharp teeth in a pained snarl, and flitted his eyes back up to Polnareff, still barely holding back his remaining tears.

"Listen, listen, don't get all huffy with me. Noriaki'll be okay. You have my word." he waved the siren off lazily. "Avdol and I will make sure of it."

"Don't call him that, dammit. You've got no right." he growled back. "And don't call me your friend. You're all too calm about this, considering someone's life is on the line, and that's really pissing me off."

"I can tell. But hey, look on the bright side! He's in good, human hands. We're gonna take the best care of him we can."

"What's that supposed to mean, eh? Are you implying that I can't take care of him just as well as you can?"

The siren's ears flared up angrily, and his gaze darkened to a deep and stormy blue. Polnareff gulped nervously and threw up his hands, racking his brain for a plausible answer to his question. He had backed himself into a corner, and there was no chance he could fight his way out; especially when the siren was this upset and all too close to causing him some form of bodily harm.

"I- Well- No, that's not what I meant, I was just saying that-" Polnareff stuttered, his lie falling apart right in front of him.

"So what did you mean? Spit it out already!" the siren spat, his brow furrowing even more. His eyes were still filled with tears, but Polnareff wasn't sure if they were tears of grief or of anger, at this point. "If you have something to say, then say it to my face, you bastard!"

"I'm just saying that you're quite... Limited in your care options, being stuck in the water like that. I didn't-"

"Just because you've got legs doesn't mean you've got shit on me when it comes to caring for my boyfriend. Yeah, I may not be able to leave the water. So the hell what? I still know more about Noriaki than you could ever hope to know."

"I wasn't trying to dispute that, believe me, it's just- Kakyoin's in such a delicate condition, that it'd be unwise-"

"You keep saying that he's 'sickly' and 'in a so-and-so condition'," the siren retorted. "But you've got yet to actually tell me what's wrong with him. I'm starting to think that you're just trying to rile me up on purpose."

"Well, I never!" Polnareff put an fake indignant hand to his chest. "Are you implying that I'd lie about such a sensitive topic?!"

"That's exactly what I'm implying. Thanks for being quick on the uptake."

"I'm not! How dare you!"

The siren rolled his eyes and rolled in the frothy waters of the shore once more, propping himself up on his elbows to get a better look at Polnareff. His gaze was still dark and his brows were still furrowed, but something about his eyes had a bit of a playful air about them. It made Polnareff unbearably uneasy. He couldn't bear to look the siren directly in the eyes, and by the look of the smirk on his face, that's exactly what he wanted. Polnareff absolutely hated it, but there wasn't much he could do; and he'd much rather have to deal with a smug siren than an angry one. He opened his mouth to go on the defensive for himself once more, when a chillingly familiar voice called out for him from the distance.

"Jean? Jean, is that you? What are you doing out here? You're bound to catch cold!"