The Custodes

Chapter 29 - A Mixture Of Emotions

Neo
Neo re-entered the training chamber with a sullen look, only to find six pairs of eyes staring right at him. Knowing that everyone else had heard what had transpired upstairs seemed to only add to the heavy weight on his shoulders, causing him to slump the slightest bit further. It seemed no one quite knew what to say for a few seconds, but then Kelsie suddenly moved towards Neo with a concerned expression, though it wasn't exactly for him. "I'll talk to her." The girl said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder before she headed for the stairs and disappeared from view. With that, Neo started to walk towards one of the designated training areas, not making eye contact with anyone else in the room as he strode meagrely past. He was vaguely aware of Quinn saying a few words to Hector, before she too left the chamber, but he didn't care to look or find out where she was going. "Neo." Noah said as he went quickly to his friend, feeling the need to speak to the boy before he worked himself into a serious funk "Listen, she's not had time to process what you've said. Once her emotions stop getting the better of her, she'll come around. It's not as bad as it seems." "No...sorry Noah, you're wrong. And you know it too." Neo said as he locked eyes with the boy, which seemed to immediately shatter the lie he was trying to sell to him. "It-...it might not be as bad as-" "It's worse! You didn't see her face, she-...I-...you were right about waiting until Kayla came back. Everything came down so much harder-" Neo quietened himself mid sentence as he realised how loud he'd been talking, though it seemed too late. "What about me?" Kayla was already saying as she moved towards the pair, her expression more curious than accusing. Neo considered making something up on the spot, but his motivation quickly ceased and he instead settled on being honest with Kayla. "Noah talked to me about my feelings for Synthia not too long ago. He told me I couldn't put off telling her the truth, and said things would be even worse if you came back into my life before I did. I...see why, now. She thinks I'm ditching her because of you, that I-...that I love you instead of her." Neo couldn't figure out how, but he knew what was coming next after a short hesitation from Kayla. "Do you?" She asked with slight trepidation, though her tone was blunt and plainly curious. "No. She's got it wrong." Neo said, attempting to match Kayla's blatancy by refusing to shy away from something he might usually keep quiet about. Despite this he couldn't quiet meet Kayla's eye, thinking for a split second that she might still hold some feelings for him and be hurt by his comment. But she answered with barely a seconds hesitation "Then we need to make her aware of that." "I don't know if you overheard, but I tried that already." Neo said in a slightly snarky tone, which surprised even him. It seemed he was unknowingly trying to take the attention away from what he'd said about loving Kayla. And yet he couldn't quite get his focus away from the frantic beating of his heart either. How strange. "Alright Miss Pissy, well you could've handled it with a tad bit more decorum." Kayla fired straight back, though her words never held any sort of challenge to them. "Sorry, I just-" Neo rubbed his head, giving Kayla a brief apologetic look before sighing "I'm stressed. I really hurt her guys. Really. I don't have much experience with women-" "You can say that again." Kayla chimed with a quiet snort, only to be silenced by an elbow in the side from Noah "-but even I could see what it did to her." Neo frowned at the floor, looking more downtrodden and defeated by this than anything he had faced with Zuro so far. "Maybe you should try talking to her again." Kayla suggested with a tiny shrug. Having had her fair share of moments where anger got the better of her, she had a decent idea what Synthia was feeling at that point. And she was aware of how quickly that could fade from her system. "Like...right now." "You really think?" Neo asked cautiously, not wanting to make the situation any worse than it was. "I disagree entirely." Noah intervened, shaking his head as he stared thoughtfully at a distant wall "I think she'll still be in the state she was. Give her at least a day." "No! No, that's bad." Kayla said with a rapid shake of her head "He should talk to her before she gets in her crying phase. Although she's probably in that with Kelsie right now already. Trust me, as someone who's been in plenty of fights with Neo, I know how she's gonna react. Things will go a lot smoother if he speaks to her soon, rather than giving her time to do something stupid that might hurt someone. Mainly herself." Noah chewed his cheek, but didn't say anything else to argue his case. Overall, it was Neo's choice, and both looked at him to see what he wanted to do. "Let's-...she'll probably be at Kelsie's right?" Neo asked Noah, who nodded in somewhat confident confirmation "Alright well...I want to give her some time, but I think talking to her today is the way to go. I'll head to Kelsie's after training and hopefully catch her there." "Alright, I'm happy with that." Kayla said with a nod, as Noah gave a "Me too" in return. "In that case." Milo said from behind the pair, looking in Neo with a small smile and ignoring the surprised looks from the other two "Want to de-stress by throwing a few punches at me?" Neo considered the proposition for a second, before shaking his head with the tiniest fraction of a smile "Yeah sure. Lets go."