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Eheeya was lost in thought, the familiar smell of levin-saturated sea spray bringing him a small bit of nostalgic comfort, and he didn't notice the interloper until there was a sudden crunch of gravel and sand next to the boxes he was sitting on.
"H-hey baby! …Oh, it's you." He sighed with more relief than was probably warranted at seeing the stony gaze of the eternal grand champion, the man as usual looking every inch like a vengeful specter from pre-Surge Alexandrian ghost stories. The very Turali style of dress and plain black veil covering his violet hair was new, though.
"It's me."
"Look, don't tell anyone you saw me here getting all misty-eyed, alright?" The discomfort at being spotted by a man with the bearing of an apex predator at a vulnerable moment had Eheeya's mouth moving without thought getting in the way. "My party animal image couldn't survive the blow."
Shayun snorted, unimpressed with the attempt to keep up the persona. "Sustained contact with you would surely be the part that makes it difficult."
Eheeya didn't tell him that he was unique in his ability to crack people open like clams from raw nerves at his presence. "What's with the getup, anyway?"
Shayun looked down at the dress like he'd forgotten it. "Ah. I had been ambushed by some of the women I helped in Tuliyollal. They insisted I take it."
Eheeya waited, but no further context was forthcoming. It was a very finely made dress, stark black with embroidered motifs of the sea in various blues and greens, so the help must have been monumental. "And the veil?"
Shayun grimaced, his ears pinning at the thought. "Apparently some of the remains were from…" He paused, visibly uncertain of how to phrase it. "…Well, their name unfortunately wasn't recorded. Like Veena or Shetona, but from… where Everkeep used to be. And they asked about Veena funerary rites."
Eheeya joined the grimace. It was doubtless well-intentioned, but… Shayun nodded, seeing the understanding passing without words. "I couldn't find an escape, and gave them the bare-bones version, but even that I wasn't comfortable having a bare head for when made to attend."
"…I, uh." He shook his head, and tried again, he voice soft and barely audible against the roar of the sea. "Truth is, I grew up around here."
Shayun's ears flicked toward him, his discomfort momentarily forgotten as Eheeya continued to speak. "When… When I feel overwhelmed, or lost, I come back and think of the old days, when I'd dream up silly dreams while gathering debris…"
"Hm." Shayun looked up at Eheeya over his thick glasses, likely sacrificing his ability to actually see for drama. Eheeya could respect it. "Any family near here, then?"
Exactly the subject he had been trying to avoid. "…I told you about my mother, earlier. She…" Eheeya paused to choose the right words, to not accidentally condemn her. "…fled Heritage Found, when she realized she could see the sun again."
Shayun huffed quietly, resettling his glasses to better inspect Eheeya. He clearly disliked whatever he saw, and his voice lost some of his usual lack of affect. "Without informing her son?"
Eheeya shook his head. "She tried, but… It's difficult, for communication to make it into Everkeep from the outskirts. Her note didn't arrive in my apartment until after the Cruiserweight fights. I found out because she had waited long enough for a visit that she gave up and asked my father to deliver the news."
Shayun's scowl didn't soften, but he didn't continue. Given his open antipathy for Alexandria, he had probably just tossed that on his carefully curated pile of the nation's sins. He also hadn't left, which felt important, and Eheeya's gut reads on people had been right often enough that he went along with it. He offered the smaller man a hand, to help him get a perch of his own on the crates, and he wasn't entirely surprised when Shayun took it, nor when he somehow had the same imposing air to his movement scrabbling up a crate in high heels as he did charging Eheeya in the ring.
It wasn't grace, precisely, and wasn't at all like a dance; more a sense of intent with each shift of his weight. Each motion chosen for deliberate, cold purpose, and given the stories about how he had stalled Zoraal Ja one on one Eheeya was certain he knew why his movement felt that way. The only man he knew who moved even similarly was Tyrant, after all.
Shayun settled beside him and watched the levin-saturated waves in silence. Without the deadly focus aimed in his direction, it was easier to forget that Shayun was a trained killer and just treat him as another Arcadion fighter.
"You said you couldn't stand having your head bare for the funeral… was that implying you should be veiling more, or something?"
Shayun shrugged. "Technically should whenever I'm around Vil—women. Can't stand how they feel, though. Do you mind if I smoke?"
"Go ahead." He'd never had someone ask permission for that before, it tended to just be assumed that Dancing Green wouldn't notice. "Why not take it off, then?"
Shayun snapped his fingers to produce the flame he lit his cigarette (not tobacco, from the smell) with, dismissing the flame and taking a drag before answering. "I'm already at my limit. Removing it will be worse than dealing with it, at least for now."
Eheeya didn't poke further. He was never quite sure how much of Shayun's reticence was habit, just how he spoke, or actively hiding personal information, and he didn't feel close enough to him to ask. After everything that had happened, he had more than earned that bit of privacy.
They settled into silence again. There was a faint pressure Eheeya had long learned to associate with incoming heavy rain from the west, but not so strong that it was due for anything sooner than an hour in the future.
"…Care to share the smokes?"
Shayun silently handed him a cigarette—hand-rolled, from the look of it—and once Eheeya had it firmly in hand, lit it for him with magic he didn't recognize before he could think to grab his lighter. He didn't recognize the taste either, which wasn't a surprise, but any effect it had was mild, which was… He hadn't expected Shayun to be the sort to smoke just for the sensation of it.
That or Shayun was just particularly sensitive to whatever was in the cigarettes; given Eheeya's experience with how he was, he probably tailored the blend to work for him and him alone. It was pleasant enough, at least, and the lightly medicinal aftertaste suited the mood he was in. They sat in silence as the air grew damp and charged with enough levin that every flick of an ear was joined by the crackle of static, and Eheeya sighed as he put out the stub of his cigarette and accepted the end of his time away from things. "Storm's coming in. We should probably find shelter."
"The worst part of this place is you can't even enjoy a good rain," Shayun grumbled, leaving his cigarette in his mouth as he clambered down, offering his hand to Eheeya once he was steady. Eheeya took the assistance, more out of reciprocity than any actual need, and they began the walk back to Everkeep together. The quiet, continuous grumbling to his side was strangely pleasant, and despite the short time Eheeya had known him, he suspected he would miss Shayun when he inevitably swept out with the tide again.
The sky rumbled, sole witness to the thought, over a now-abandoned cliff.