Youth

#61 - I Want You to Tell Me

This was not going to work — he'd told himself over and over again, but for some reason he continued to walk down the halls with two teacups, a teapot filled with rosewater and a pair of saucers.  Was he mad?  Probably.  Actually, scratch probably, he was absolutely mad.  Seishin's words echoed in his mind as he walked, buzzing around like a migraine that wouldn't go away.  He let out a long sigh.

"Draka, what are you doing?" Jay, who was clearly busy doing some marshal duty or another as he chatted to several soldiers in the corridor, looked over at Draka with a confused expression.  Draka stopped walking, turning his head to look at Jay. 

"I'm not sure," Draka confessed, "but I'd like to try a different approach to something that hasn't seemed to work thus far," he said cryptically.  He understood that if Jay were to actually ask him to explain he would be obligated to, but the man seemed to respect his privacy and dipped his head, continuing on his way and allowing Draka to do the same. 

Eventually, the boy wound up at Nyais' apartment, pushing open the door and making his way down the short corridor to the basement.

"Wake up," he said dully, placing the teapot, cups and saucers down and walking over to Nyais, untying one of his arms (though his body was still tied to the chair).  Nyais came back to consciousness as Draka untied his left wrist, reeling back in confusion before spluttering, his body aching from the neglect it had received over the past week.  Draka was clearly not sympathetic, but he also wasn't happy about the whole thing.  He had a lot more respect for Nyais than any of the other boys, despite still hating his guts.  He knew that Nyais could kill them easily if he so pleased, but he never did.  That makes him better than them, does it not?  Well, he didn't really know everything, and he didn't care to either.  He had one simple question he needed answering today, and Nyais was the only one he knew who could help them right now, as much as he hated to admit it.

    Draka poured the rosewater into both teacups, carefully passing one of them over to a rather sceptical looking Nyais. Draka took the first sip.

    "It's not poisoned," he said, and Nyais nodded, though still didn't make a move to drink. He looked down at the rosewater, thoughtful.

    "Draka," Nyais sighed, "what do you want?" Draka's red eyes pierced into Nyais for a moment, his gaze unwavering, before he looked away and took another sip of his rosewater.  Nyais watched him for a moment, lowering his head.  "[Y/n]," he said quietly, "is... is she—"

"She's fine," Draka growled out, impatience flowing through his words, though not at Nyais, nor at [Y/n].  It was the others that were the source of his irritation.  Seishin... he'd show Seishin just how much he underestimated him.  Mitzu would stop laughing, and Kori would stop giving him disparaging looks.  Laion wouldn't pity him and Aytsa wouldn't use him as a punchline anymore.  They'd all see. 

"You're angry," Nyais observed, watching Draka's knuckles turn white against the teacup handle.  "I don't think that's proper drinking etiquette," Nyais mocked.  Draka's grip got suddenly tenser still; the teacup handle shattered in his grip, and Draka had to dart to catch the falling cup before it, too, could smash.  Now with no handle, Draka simply cupped the piece of ceramic in his hands, letting out a sigh.

"Don't mock me," Draka muttered, a long pause following his words.  Nyais watched him, waiting for the reason he was here to drop.  And it would.  "I want you to tell me..." he tailed off, placing the cup down and watching as Nyais eyed his movements like a hawk.  "I may hate you, but I know you're much stronger than us... you went from nothing to the top, so tell me..." he got quieter once again, before drawing in a deep breath.  He knew his next words could get him killed if heard by the wrong ears, but he had to ask anyway.