Persona - Mask of Origins

"Calm down you two. What's done is done."

 

Zero smiled and Callen punched him in the face. "The best thing to do is hope Zain's human instincts will keep him away from Ari in that way." "Hmph, not unless a certain sister pushes them together enough. A human's resistance is nothing compared to the desires of a shadow."

 

Yuki yawned and went to her room.

 

Zero dropped back into sleep and Callen waited for Zain and Ari to return.

Ari dragged Zain home after a while with armfulls of groceries. Zain still had a pained look in his eyes but his mouth moved freely about all the recepies he would create with the new food, just like old times.

 

Yuki walked out and helped put up the groceries.

 

Zain smiled at his sister and took a deep breath before Ari nuzzled Zain's shoulder. He turned and hugged her, "Thanks for coming with me, Ari. I'm gonna go take a shower." Letting him go, Ari watched him walk away. She sat next to Zero and Callen studied her. "You know what's happening, don't you." Ari simply nodded, "Ari will not change Ari's behavior just for Zain's new behavior. Ari wants to find Nicholi and so does Zain. That is the first priority."

 

"That's good." Yuki said as she stretched.

 

Is Ari even allowed that kind of actions?" Callen said no the exact time Zero said yes. They glared at eachother.

 

"That's all up to you, Ari." Yuki said.

 

Ari nodded and wandered up to her room. Instead she sat on Zain's bed. His scent was comforting and she wanted to talk to him, like they did today.

Callen growled and Zero snarled back, "It's her decision if she wants the gift we've given her or not." "Whatever, we should pick Zain's brain for where Nicholi is. I'm worried about him." Zero regretably nodded, "I shouldn't have helped him remake mom. I just...he promised me she'd be the same and I just wanted to see her smile again." "I know...I'd like to see that smile again too."

 

Yuki went back to her room and got lost in a book.

 

Zain pulled himself from the warmth of his shower and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Ari on his bed. She'd curled up with a magazine and he didn't even have a shirt on. "Um...Ari, what are you doing in here?" She looked up, "Ari wanted to talk more." "Oh..." he sighed in relief and sat next to her, towling his white hair. "Y'know, I remember my hair being purple. You think I should dye it?" Ari shook her head, "Yuki likes it this way and Ari doesn't mind."

 

Yuki continued reading, trying to figure out how they would find Nicholi.

 

Zain sighed again, "Ari, can I tell you something?" She nodded and he sucked in a deep breath, "Ari, I really like you, not that that's unnatural but I know it's not what the old Zain felt for you because I remember it, I really wanted to tell you I liked you from the start but I though you'd hate me and Yuki told me to follow my heart but I'm not sure what it wants after all, I was created rather than born and I'm kinda afraid of how you'll react since I don't want to loose you like this." He panted having not stopped for a breath in between his words and closed his eyes.

The phone rang briefly and Callen carried it up to Yuki's room. "Yuki...it's Nicholi again. He wants to talk to you."

 

Yuki took the phone from him.

"Yuki here."

 

Ari stared at him for a moment before she smiled and lightly kissed him.

"There's an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town. It was all the further I could make it. My experiment has died and failed. I fear the worst of my injuries. I figured you were the most reasonable to pick me up. Being Toji, but only him and yourself. I don't need Zero and Callen or Zain getting in the way. Bring matches and probably some gauze."

 

"Okay, I'll be there in a few." Yuki said before hanging up. She grabbed what Nicholi told her to bring and went to the farmhouse with Toji.

 

Nicholi lie in a pile of hay clutching a rotting lump of meat he called his experiment. "You made it....good. It was all going to go according to plan until they showed up. Difficult to work when your lab has been destroyed." he managed a weak, fanged smile. The blood dripping from his eyes had stopped and now leaked from a thousand wounds on his body. Staining his clothes a black fluid. "Right. First, matches please."

 

Yuki tossed him the matches.

 

Nicholi lit a match and held his breath as he touched the flame to the wounds he could reach. After each one went out, he lit another, until he couldn't reach the other wounds. "I hope one of you has nerves of steel enough to seal the rest with the matches." his voice was tight with pain and though the wounds bled more, they did look closed and he wrapped them in gauze afterwards.