Chapter Text
“You’re surprised.”
The woman seated before him smiled in amusement, as though they were discussing something as trivial as lunch plans.
“… You can tell?”
Jade chuckled. “But of course, being able to read even the most stoic of faces is essential for any businesswoman.”
Ratio grunted faintly in acknowledgement, but he wasn’t exactly impressed. Anyone with half a brain cell ought to have reached the same conclusion through simple logic.
After all, their discussion wasn’t trivial, nor light. It was about the death of an IPC executive.
The life of a Stoneheart in exchange for a mere chance at bargaining… hardly sounded like an equivalent trade.
“So?” Jade gazed at him with a confident smile. “Do we have your cooperation, Doctor?”
“You want me to be the butler at a man’s last supper,” Ratio said grimly. “I can’t say I’m ecstatic.”
“But you’ll accept the task.”
“… It’s not as if either of us have a choice.”
“Contrary,” Jade mused. “Both of you have plenty of options. Should you decline, someone else will simply take your place. As for him… it’s nothing he hasn’t done before.”
Her voice seemed airy, but that pause… had not been ‘nothing’.
Ratio’s brows furrowed in an unconscious frown.
“You have my verbal confirmation.” He sighed. “I will see this task through.”
“Very good,” Jade said warmly. “You’ll receive notice of your departure flight shortly. As for the details… he’ll handle that. Ah –”
She called out to him, sounding surprised that he was trying to leave already.
“Aren’t you even going to ask his name?”
Ratio paused, but didn’t look back.
“Why would I? He’s nothing more than a doomed Sigonian thrall, sentenced to die by the IPC.”
“… There’s no reason for us to get acquainted.”
That was how it was supposed to go.
“Aventurine.”
Jade’s smug voice followed him out of the room.
“His name is Aventurine.”
“… Take good care of him, Doctor.”
~
“… Aventurine…”
The murmur slid out almost unconsciously as Ratio slid their intertwined fingers closer to his face. Even thick with exhaustion as it was, he could hear the tension in his voice, heavy with pain and pity and regret.
… Nothing more than a doomed Sigonian thrall, sentenced to die by the IPC.
The thought still ran through his mind, even now, and Ratio almost laughed at the absurdity of it all.
Nothing more…?
He was that… and so much more…
Ratio had resisted, of course – the entire time.
It gave him no benefit to become companions with someone destined to die in mere days. To spare them both the unnecessary emotional discomfort, Ratio had kept his distance with all his might. And when mere distance hadn’t been enough, he had overcompensated with blatant disdain.
As far as he was concerned, the man was just a ‘gambler’. There was no name attached, no personality beyond that. He’d leave abruptly as soon as business was done, never making any unnecessary conversation or lingering where unneeded.
… And yet, he had still failed.
When had it begun?
Was it when they’d travelled through Dewlight Pavilion, forced to be in each other’s company? While he’d naturally lapsed into conversation with the man, returning his painfully cheerful jabber, answering his surprisingly innocent questions… watching him scurry around, the size of a thumb in that little sandbox, while struggling to hide his own smile?
Was it during their investigation, when Ratio would arrive at their meeting location only to find him asleep on the bar counter, passed out from the pain and exhaustion that he hid so well while awake?
Or was it even earlier… in the moment they’d first met? When he’d gazed into those beautiful eyes and heard that cheeky blithe voice, rudely calling out to him as though they were already close friends.
“And you must be Ratio! Haha, they didn’t tell me you’d be so handsome.” Stepping close, completely ignoring the way Ratio tensed as he leaned in and grinned against his stone bust.
“Better not show me your real face now, Doctor… if it’s any more handsome than this, I’ll end up dying with regrets.”
This was the sacrifice?
Ratio remembered the incredulity that had ran through his mind.
This radiant… resilient… beautiful young man?
“… Aventurine…”
Unable to keep his eyes open any longer, Ratio sighed heavily and let his head droop onto the mattress. A fresh wave of grief, thick and choking, followed him into the shadows as he drifted off into an uneasy slumber.
“Wake up already… you damned gambler…”