[when you have as many scars as I do everything is a sore spot, you don't need to worry about that]

He loved them, and he misses them, and like he told Morgan that one time that's part of loving them, and he wears these mementos because they make him happy, and even if thinking about how much he misses them itself hurts it still hurts because of a good thing, so she shouldn't apologise. It's the same as Vernon's car, to her. There's sweetness in the bittersweet.

[I should share memories of them with you sometime. they would've loved to meet you. both of them were sort of like my moms and both of them would've been thrilled that I found someone like you—though I imagine Rem would've been pretty concerned what with how she only met kid-me] Can she imagine, tiny one-year-old Zash going "Hey Rem I'm married!!" [but sill.]

"Anyway, it'll all work out fine. You'll see. We'll make Jeneora thrive."

"We will!" she agrees, brightly.

She wishes she could have met them, too. They seem wonderful. ... He can still meet her parents, though. As far as she's aware, they're both fine and safely in December.

Like he said before: that sounds terrifying.

Anywho let's grab some supplies.

Fortunately for Zash's desire to avoid meeting her parents, they have in fact arrived. Yvette can get to filling up her car with more stuff, and Zash can assist with this or get started moving towards Jeneora with the heavy stuff.

... except he might want to hold off on that second part, for at least a little while.

Because while Yvette is transferring supplies to her car, she stumbles and nearly drops them.

He's both fast and strong (even if he hasn't entirely healed yet) so he can catch her and stabilise the supplies. "Love?" he asks and though his voice is stable his thoughts are suddenly very very worried.

"Um. I'm weirdly exhausted? And on reflection kind of hungry." She winces. "This might be the result of being away from Nai, actually."

"...but it hasn't been that long, has it? Even if you were just human, that is."

"It really hasn't!! This is faster than I'd be tired or hungry if I were just human." But despite that, she will be a sensible person and sit down in the car's backseat, and have something to eat and drink. Even though it feels kind of wasteful with how these supplies are meant for starving people, but, but. She will not be self sacrificing and stupid, okay, she's seen this sort of thing enough in Zash to recognize the same pattern in herself.

Come on, he was hoping he'd be able to catch her being a hypocrite so he could take care of her, why is she being sensible! Grump. He guesses he will only take care of her a normal amount rather than a self-sacrificing plant amount.

[...but, uh, I'm somewhat concerned. please let me know if you feel any worse so I can kidnap you back to February] Before she dies or something. Conrad didn't even when Nai was away from him but Conrad was a lot more human than Yvette is and less reliant on Nai's gate.

[I am also concerned. This is concerning.]

But in the meantime she's just going to eat until she doesn't feel hungry anymore! ... This involves eating three times the number of ration bars for an adult of her size??? Maybe she should have asked Morgan for pointers, because she's seeing a resemblance.

So long as she doesn't age rapidly and then dies because he will in fact drag Conrad back from the dead to make him fix her if anything like that looks even a little bit like it's going on. It'll be bad enough to lose Morgan to it if they can't fix her, he is not losing Yvette, not after everything.

"I'll be good," agrees Yvette. "There will be no dying, I am going to be so responsible."

Good. No dying. They're meant to be forever, she even has a ring to prove it.

"Yes, dear. I put the ring on and everything, it's official, you're stuck with me."

Okay, she has scarfed down more than her fair share in calories, and no longer feels hungry and weak. She can even demonstrably take a few steps to show how balanced and coordinated she is. Is she cleared to drive a car, husband dearest?

Yes, but only because he has good enough reflexes he could literally take over from her in a second if needed.

(lovelovelovelove)

(worry)

Back to Jeneora?

Yeah. Back to Jeneora.

Where someone they recognize is already waiting for them.

"Heeeeeeeeeey," she says, sounding awkward.

"No. No, no, no. No. Go away." He's still limping a little bit and he definitely looks like he's just been shot a bunch. "You're not making me break my word again."

"Yeah, uh, funny story. Too late. I mean I guess that depends on what you promised but, uh. Yeah. Sorry. Kinda hard to make a trap without bait."

"Couldn't you have gotten us to be bait elsewhere? Away from these people??"

"Would another set of people that you didn't know somehow be better? Because, no, not really. You being present and invested in something is actually kind of important, the fucker wants to hit you where it hurts, not in a deserted open space at high noon six paces apart! And with the Zazi network it really actually has to be true!"

"Had really hoped our Zazi would've been able to eat the other Zazi." Sigh. "Fine. Alright. How much time do we have?"

"You're asking me like I know! I don't, sorry. Not the mind reader here. If I knew where he was, I'd have just thrown Knives at him like a sensible person. But I do know even with the Zazi network he's got a range limit, and I can't help but notice that we have the high ground and a hell of a lot of open space around. This place is hella defensible, it's why I agreed to let Zazi tell him about it."

Sigh. "Okay. I guess we prepare, then. ...and tell the Jeneorans to stay the hell out of it because I'm not losing any more of them and this is not a fight for unaugmented humans."