Reza Mansour (aswritten) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2021-09-29 07:47:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #june 2018, reza, reza x zania, zania |
Who: Zania and Reza
When: night, Monday, June 18th
Where: Mercy, the Castell house
Status: complete
After visiting hours were over and Reza had to leave Shane in that hospital room alone, he walked into the middle of Mercy’s parking lot before remembering that he hadn’t driven himself. They’d taken an ambulance to the ER. The realization made him break down out there amongst the cars, and Reza crouched to lean against the side of a sedan as he pulled his shirt up over his face and just let himself cry for a little while. He’d been holding it all together fairly well all fucking day, and it was something of a relief to purge as much stress and worry and hurt as he could in those few minutes, hidden between the rows of cars. It was a busy night for the ER, that was for damn sure.
Eventually he’d worn himself out enough to stop, and Reza stood up to walk some more as he pulled his phone free. He could probably walk back home if he really wanted to, but that hill up to Overlook was steep as hell, and it was late. Not to mention, he wasn’t sure he wanted to spend the night in that big place all alone. Not after today. He thought about calling Jane, but he felt vulnerable and upset, and that made him want to be with his own kind, so to speak. So his thumb tapped the screen to call Zania instead. Reza put the phone to his ear and hoped fervently that she wasn’t too busy to answer.
It had been a weird day. Zania wasn’t sure what was going on, but she’d sold her entire store stock of weed that day, plus the supply of the O’Reilly’s moonshine that she carried. She’d even sold her more experimental drugs, the magical sort that she only sold to other witches. The sales from Monday alone covered her expected income for the month, so she wasn’t complaining, but it was just damn weird. If there was something going around, she wasn’t feeling it. Gabriel, on the other hand, seemed to have caught the vibe. As far as she could tell, he’d been high all day, lounging about without a care in the world. It was annoying, but Zania suspected it would pass, like most things in Point Pleasant usually did. At least Nic didn’t seem to be affected. Zania didn’t think she could handle the both of them in that kind of a state.
She was just cleaning up after dinner when her phone rang and she blinked in surprise at Reza’s name on the caller ID. Most people texted. Calls were often saved for emergencies. She turned down the music in the kitchen and picked up on the second ring. “Hey, what’s up?”
Reza almost sobbed again when Zania picked up so fast. It was easy to forget just how alone he was up here, only truly close to Shane, and keeping a lot of secrets. Even though it had been for reasons other than social, and it had pissed off his main person, he was so glad that he’d sought out a witch to get acquainted with. Maybe it was foolish to trust her more than the AIR psychics, but it just felt natural to him. “Um ...” he started, then swallowed thickly. “Uh, it’s me, it’s Reza. Shane, uh ... Shane OD’d today. He’s okay, but he’s in the hospital overnight and I rode up here in the ambulance ... can -- could you come pick me up?” He hated how dumb and scared he sounded, but damn if he didn’t feel that way tonight. Reza hesitated on asking if he could stay the night with her, it was probably best to get a read on her mood first.
Zania smiled at first, when he said who it was, because she had his number in her phone, so she knew that part. But then he continued on and her face fell. The day came back to her in a rush, every customer that came in looking for a fix, and it made her glad she didn’t sell anything hard herself. “Oh my god, Reza, of course. I’ll be there in five. Just, um, hang out in the parking lot. Is that okay?” She was already moving as she spoke, pulling on her shoes and grabbing her purse and jacket. She could call Gabriel once she got in the car and let him know what was going on, or better yet, call Nic and see if he could coax her boyfriend to be high upstairs. Even if weed wasn’t Shane’s problem, Reza probably wouldn’t want to be around anyone remotely high if Reza came back to her place. She could always take him straight home, but she knew there was a chance he might need a drink, or at least some tea.
“Yeah, yeah that’s fine,” Reza said, obvious relief in his voice. “I’ll be right outside the ER entrance. Thanks, Zania.” He could hear that she was moving around with a quickness, so he gave a quick goodbye and then hung up. Reza really hoped that she wouldn’t mind keeping him company for a little while instead of taking him straight home, but he didn’t want to ask until after she’d picked him up. Reza walked back to the sidewalk next to the ER doors and sat down on a bench there to wait. He didn’t quite feel better, but it was helping slightly to know that somebody was on their way to support him, like it wouldn’t all be on his shoulders anymore.
Zania hurried to the ER, her mind spinning around what she could possibly do to help. Instinct said that magical medicine could cure Shane right up, but she knew that wasn’t the solution. He’d just overloaded his body with a foreign substance, so trusting another probably wasn’t a good idea. What he probably needed more than anything was rest and recovery, something she’d never been great at herself. It was a little bit weird to have a crisis that wasn’t supernatural in nature. That should make it easy, except it wasn’t. Zania pulled into the parking lot, spotting Reza immediately. Rolling down the window, she waved him over. “Reza!”
True to her word, Zania was there quickly, and more relief flooded Reza when she called his name. He got up and jogged over to her car, reaching for the door handle to climb into the passenger seat. “Hey,” he murmured as he settled in. “Thanks for coming.” He was glad that he’d gotten his crying jag out of the way before he called, otherwise he probably would’ve been sobbing again already. How had he let himself get this fucked up over one dude? Feelings were so stupid and exhausting.
“Hey,” Zania said, waiting and watching as Reza climbed in the car. In that brief moment, with the light on, she could see his eyes were puffy, but no longer wet. “How’s Shane? How are you?” Big questions, but probably easier to tackle than what had happened. She wasn’t even sure the details mattered, except to feed her curiosity. She assumed Shane was stable, that Reza would’ve wanted to stay if he wasn’t. She didn’t know how visiting hours worked, but it seemed to her that they should make some exceptions. Then again, Reza probably needed sleep and he wasn’t going to get it there at the hospital.
“He’s stable,” Reza answered, echoing her thoughts without knowing it. “He almost coked himself into a heart attack, but the medics got there in time, and he’s ... he’ll be okay. He just needs to rest while all that shit gets out of his system.” That was how Reza really hoped it would go, at least. The doctor hadn’t seemed concerned that anything major could go wrong overnight, but Reza knew shit was unpredictable sometimes. He’d left his number with the floor nurse and they were supposed to call him if Shane took a turn for the worse while he was gone. “As for me ...” Reza let out a shaky little laugh and rubbed his palms over his face. “I don’t fuckin’ know,” he mumbled into his hands. “Not great.”
That all sounded like the best he could have hoped for, but Zania knew that didn’t make it any less traumatic. An overnight stay in the hospital was probably for the best. Then if they’d missed anything, he was already under their care. She reached out and gave his arm a squeeze of sympathy, offering him a small smile. “Why don’t you come back to my place. You can have some tea. Dinner, if you haven’t eaten. Whatever you need.” She barely knew Reza, but the fact that he’d sought her out endeared him to her and she’d already started thinking of him as one of her people, and Zania took care of her own. There wasn’t a lot she could do for Shane at the moment, but if Reza needed a friend, food, even just an ear to listen, she could give him that.
The fact that she offered without him having to say a damn thing made Reza’s throat feel tight all over again, and he knew that he’d made the right decision for sure. Would Jane have lifted a finger to take care of him? Reza didn’t know, but he felt like the odds were lower. He looked over at her as his eyes started to water again. “Yeah? Are you sure?” he murmured in a small tone. “All I’ve had is vending machine stuff today, and I don’t -- I don’t wanna be alone.” Reza’s voice cracked and he cleared his throat and tried to swallow all the emotion back down. The crisis was over now, Shane was alive and in good hands, Reza just couldn’t seem to get himself back under full control.
“Yeah, it’s not a problem at all,” Zania smiled gently as she started the car towards her home. “I made beef stroganoff, but if you don’t like mushrooms, we’ve got leftover pad thai from the other night. And pizza. I think there’s always pizza in our fridge.” Anything had to be better than vending machine fare, which was probably just chips and candy bars. “You’re welcome to stay the night, if you want,” she said after a moment, his later comment resonating with her. “I don’t have an extra bed, but the couch is comfy. You’re not allergic to anything are you? Cats or dogs?” Could air witches be allergic to something in the air? It wasn’t something she’d ever considered, but it didn’t seem like the right time to ask.
It was all so normal, talking about food and allergies, and Reza clung to it as a comfort. He somehow wasn’t surprised that Zania extended the offer to let him spend the night, just dumbly grateful. All he wanted to do was curl up somewhere soft in a blanket and sink into unconsciousness. Reza knew he had to eat first though, and if Zania had some wine he definitely wanted some of that. “I’d love the couch, thank you,” he told her, honest gratitude in his tone. “Not allergic to anything, no. I grew up with cats. And strogonoff sounds perfect.” Reza wasn’t picky about food when he was this hungry. “And I’d love a drink, honestly.” He let out a small shaky laugh and rubbed at one eye a bit.
“We’ve got wine, for sure,” Zania snickered softly. “And beer. A full bar, actually. Whatever you want.” She wouldn’t blame him at all for wanting to drink after what he’d just been through. She’d probably drown herself in a bottle as well. Actually, no, she’d want to set something on fire, but that wasn’t worth mentioning. She wanted to ask more about what happened, but let those questions wait while they drove home. She’d rather get food in front of him first and then he could tell her as much as he was comfortable with. It only took a few minutes to get there and then Zania was pulling into the driveway of her house on Ludlow. It was probably the opposite of what he was used to, staying up in Overlook, but she still took pride in it. It was probably the best house on the street.
Reza certainly wasn’t focused on judging Zania’s house. He hadn’t explored a lot of the residential streets in town, so he wasn’t too familiar with Ludlow, but the place she pulled up to did look nicer than the rest. He couldn’t wait to get inside and get a couple of glasses of wine into himself and take his shoes off. Reza stretched a bit when he got out of the car and walked with Zan up the porch to the front door. When they stepped inside, he immediately felt like it was her place, and Reza smiled faintly. He didn’t know the fire witch well yet, but there was something very homey and cozy about it, and he felt some more tension drain out of his back. This had been the right call to make. “Is uh, anybody else home?” he asked.
Zania slipped her jacket off when she stepped inside, then dropped her purse on a chair as she gestured for him to follow her towards the kitchen. Bastet looked up from her spot on the couch, then made to follow them, curious about their guest. “I shoo’d Gabriel upstairs. He’s been high pretty much all day, so…yeah. I think he’s got whatever’s going around, but it’s just weed in his case, so he’s pretty chill. Nic’s around somewhere. He might be next door,” she said, taking two wine glasses out of the cupboard. “Red or white?” She’d thought not to mention that Gabriel was high, but then decided it might help him understand how these things worked—which was to say, it was random. They had no explanation and it wouldn’t surprise her if it was gone tomorrow.
Reza had already heard from the doctor at the hospital that they’d been having a lot of overdoses and alcohol poisonings and weird indulgence-related injuries coming in all day. The doc couldn’t explain it and neither could Reza, but it was a little reassuring to hear that it was widespread. That was probably backwards, but it at least meant that Shane hadn’t just randomly gone off the deep end. And maybe the shitty things he’d said to Reza had just been a result of ... whatever this bullshit was. “Red, please,” he murmured, frowning vaguely. “So do you have any idea what’s happening? Like people are ... what, under some binge curse or something?”
“Well… not really,” Zania sighed as she selected a bottle of red and began to pour them each a glass. “I don’t think it’s an actual curse, ‘cause I can’t sense anything on him. Not that I know how to detect ‘em all, but my sense is it's just Point Pleasant being a bitch. Which isn’t very comforting, except things like this usually stop just as suddenly as they began.” She’d seen it all before in one variation or another. People acted weird for a twenty-four hour stint and then it passed. The one big exception was the group that had been injured by the fog creatures, but that felt like a special case. “On the plus side, you can usually take it to mean that it wasn’t all Shane you were dealing with. I know that’s not a huge comfort, but it’s something.”
It wasn’t the first time Reza had heard something like that -- some strange occurrence blamed on the town itself -- but no one had ever been so specific. He trusted it coming from Zania much more than just some randos in the supermarket, too. She knew what she was talking about. Reza mentally chewed on that for a moment, then murmured a thanks as he took the wine glass once it was full. He took a drink and nodded a bit. “That’s good,” he muttered. “Because he turned into a giant douchebag. ... so shit like this just kind of happens around here?” Reza believed in a lot of things, but he’d always thought the concept of a small town plagued by the paranormal was just a cheesy setting for a novel or a TV show.
“Yeah, kinda. It comes and goes,” Zania explained. “I don’t know what started it. Could be the witch trials from the sixteen-hundreds. Or maybe there was something magical about this land that drew them there in the first place. If we feed on it, then it’s also feeding on us. Or maybe we’re like Sunnydale and built over a Hellmouth.” She laughed, not sure if he’d get the reference, though sometimes it felt like the most logical conclusion. “The whole thing with AIR seems unrelated, except in some ways it doesn’t. It makes you wonder why they picked Point Pleasant of all places to set up shop. Not once, but twice. I wish there was some way to prepare, but sometimes all the wards we put up aren’t powerful enough to deal with what it throws at us. Has anyone told you about the fog we had last fall?” Maybe she should stop because some of this was enough to scare anyone off, but if Reza was going to stick around then it was better he be prepared than in the dark.
Reza got the Buffy reference, but he wasn’t sure how amusing it was, if it made people do things like overdose on all the drugs they could get their hands on. From what the doctor said it hadn’t just been drugs though -- there was the one guy who’d eaten so much his stomach had burst. So a plague of overindulgence? Reza didn’t know. Feeling like he needed to sit down for whatever the fog story was, he walked to Zania’s kitchen table and plopped down into one of the chairs. “I think, just ... it was related to why Vex disappeared, right? And then he came back? I dunno, nobody really told me details, I just picked up a couple of references here and there.” He took a bigger swallow of wine.
Zania probably shouldn’t be amused by any of it, but she’d lived in Point Pleasant her whole life and it was easier for her to laugh about it than cry. Nothing was normal except for things being weird. It only bothered her when the people she was close to got hurt and now that included Reza. If there was anything she could do to fix this for him, she would have, but since she couldn’t, she could just help him to understand what it meant to stay there. Then he could be better prepared for next time. “Yeah, I’m not sure how many people know the whole thing. I only know it second hand, and I won’t make you sit through the whole story, but… there was a fog that came through last fall. Everyone experienced it. It was impossible to drive. You couldn’t even see five feet in front of you. It lasted three days, I think. Sometime during the second day these… these monsters appeared. They stayed in the fog, but some people died. Some people got hurt. Most of us survived. When the fog lifted, there was a day or two of chaos and clean up, but then it passed. People went back to their lives, acting like nothing happened. That wasn’t the end of it, but it’s just an example of the kind of thing that happens around here. And for some reason, people put up with it. They act like it’s normal when it’s anything but.”
His brow furrowed further as he listened, and Reza pushed back the natural urge to dismiss it all as just some crazy story. It sounded like a bad movie. Monsters? Fuck. Even though the rational part of him wanted to write it off as nonsense, Reza believed Zania. He didn’t think she was crazy, and if it was something that had affected a lot of people -- some of them to death -- then there had to be others to corroborate it. “That’s ... I don’t even know what to say to that,” Reza murmured when she was done. He knew Shane had been worried about his safety because of AIR, but sounded like there was a lot more shit to worry about around here. “Is it like, some kind of collective amnesia? How does anyone still live here, if things like that happen all the time?” It was pretty baffling from the outside, and made Reza think there was some magic involved somehow. Likely not from the modern witches who lived here, but something older and more subtle.
As soon as she paused, Zania began to feel bad for telling him about the fog. It was one of the absolute worst things that had ever happened, at least that she was aware of, and maybe it was too drastic an example. But she also felt like Reza couldn’t prepare for the worst if he didn’t have a clear picture of what that might look like. His best chance for survival, and for protecting Shane, was knowing what living in Point Pleasant was really like. “It’s usually not things that big and bad,” Zania said. “Sometimes it’s a day like today, where only the people affected really notice it. I don’t think it’s collective amnesia so much as the ability to reconcile what happened with what they think is real. You’re coming into this knowing magic exists, that witches are a thing, that there are psychics and werewolves and whatnot out there. But a good part of this town doesn’t know that, and in their ignorance, I think they only search for answers that make sense to their version of reality.”
Didn’t that just sound like what humans always did with everything? Maybe this place was an extreme sort of case, but everybody justified stuff to themselves one way or another. It all made Reza glad that he and Shane would be leaving once all of this shit with AIR was over. If it went well and they came out of it alive, at least. Reza tsked and muttered an ‘Allah’ and put his wine down to rub at his face. “Like we needed more shit to worry about,” he groaned. Reza knew that he ought to try to ward the house now, to at least protect the space they were in the most often, but he’d never been good at that kind of magic. “Well now I understand why Overlook is warded out the ass,” he said as he let his hands drop and gave Zan a humorless smirk. “I felt it as soon as we drove into the neighborhood.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s pretty intense. But then, you’ve got the D’Onofrios, the Kellys, the McCarthys, and my parents all packed in there, so it’s not a huge shock,” Zania said with a little smile as she began to get dinner out of the refrigerator. “What address are you staying at?” It would be good to know exactly who his neighbors were if something big went down. And if it was another witch, they were likely to feel his magic if he got the place all warded up. She wondered if he could feel it here, stepping onto the Ludlow property, which had been warded for so many generations that the ground practically resonated with it. It was older magic, strong through all the repetitions, but probably not as loud being just one property.
Reza’s brows lifted at all the names. He’d had some of those people pointed out to him at the country club party, but it seemed like a lot of witch families all concentrated in one place. Though Overlook was the fanciest neighborhood in the town, and it made sense for witches to be well-to-do. Even Zania’s house was the best on this street. And Reza could definitely feel the old magic there, like a low hum in the background. “It’s uh, number 7, on Wisteria ... we’re right next to the McCarthys,” he said, then chuckled faintly. “Shane has this morning jog dick waving contest with the husband ... like they race to be out there exercising first. It’s so stupid.” Reza’s tone was fond though, and the emotion made his nose sting all over again. “I can’t believe he just OD’d right in front of me. I should’ve taken that stupid fucking bag away from him,” he muttered, rubbing at his eyes.
Zania would have laughed and pointed out that sounded just like James McCarthy, but as Reza’s thoughts moved back onto Shane she decided to keep her mouth shut. Now wasn’t the time. “At least you were there and could get him help,” she said gently. “Does he use often?” It was hard for her to tell how out of the blue this was. That he had the drugs on him was maybe telling enough. People didn’t casually have coke on them, did they? It wasn’t a drug she’d ever had an interest in, preferring the magical sort when she indulged. It was something she might’ve suggested to Reza as an alternative, but after all he’d been through it would probably be better if Shane stayed away from drugs completely.
That was one good point -- if he hadn’t been there for whatever reason, Shane probably would’ve died. If this compulsion was going to affect him one way or another. Or maybe he would’ve been out somewhere with someone else, since he’d been so hell bent on having some entertainment. Shane’s words echoed again in his mind, and he reminded himself that Zania said not all of that had been Shane. “Not often, not like every day or anything,” he told her, his brow furrowed. “Only when he really wants to party. He still had a mix of stuff from when we went to Boston, that was what he was dipping into. ... you’re right though, I’m glad I was there.” Reza sighed. “He was pissed I was being boring and not letting him snort lines off my ass. He told me again that I’m just here to entertain him while he goes through this AIR shit ... so I’m really hoping that was the coke talking.”
“It better be the coke talking,” Zania said darkly. She liked Shane, he seemed like a lot of fun, but if that was how he normally treated Reza then they were going to have words. More than words. Just hearing that made her want to hex his ass. “He should probably stay away from anything that can kill him here. It’d be better not to have it in his possession. If he really needs to party, I can find him something that’s safer and won’t make you want to smack him.” Again, she thought of Shayna Mae and her wonderful, feel good drugs. It was hard to picture those doing any harm. “You can always drag him down to Dragonfly. Nate’s got that place so amped up you feel high just from being there,” she said as she put the food in the microwave to warm it back up. She turned back to Reza, arms crossed over her chest. “He normally treats you good, right?”
The way she was immediately defensive of him made Reza smile a little. It was nice to have someone solidly on his side, even if Zania barely knew him. Not that Reza felt like there needed to be sides in his relationship at this point, but still. If it even still was a relationship. Reza wanted it to be. Given Shane’s issues and what he was involved in, he knew it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing, but Reza still cared enough about him to keep trying. He just needed to know that Shane cared about him too. “Yeah, he does,” Reza told her with a half-smile. “I mean ... for the kind of guy he is. I don’t think he’s ever actually had a real relationship, so he’s kind of an idiot about it sometimes, and he said similar shit to me in the past when he was angry ... but I don’t think he means it. I know that sounds like some battered-woman shit.” He shrugged. “I went into it knowing he was a mess. I feel like he cares about me ninety-nine percent of the time.” He made a mental note of Zania’s offer for safer drugs -- they would probably take her up on that sometime. Reza definitely didn’t want Shane doing any more coke.
“Well, I hope he gets his shit together because you deserve it,” Zania told him. “And if he ever does more than talk, just remember, there’s no fire without air.” She didn’t know how well versed Reza was with his magic, but it wouldn’t take much for him to snuff out Shane’s flame if he wanted to. Or he could just suck the air right out of his lungs, but that sounded like a much bigger threat and she was more interested in Reza being able to protect himself, if necessary. She didn’t like hearing that Shane ever talked to him like that, but she could handle it better than physical harm. Taking a deep breath, she turned to retrieve his food from the microwave, then set it on the table before him before taking the seat next to him. “He seems like a party boy, which can be fun. Everyone likes to party. I still do.” But she’d always wanted real, meaningful relationships. It meant she’d gotten hurt a number of times, but she didn’t regret it. She’d rather be a little bit broken than numb.
“Oh I’m well aware,” Reza said with a chuckle. He knew he could stop Shane’s flames if he needed to, he just hoped he never did. Shane had never been threatening toward him, or they would have much bigger problems than they did. Reza was very understanding up to a point, but he wasn’t going to tolerate that kind of shit. He may not have been a master of all things Air, but he knew some defensive magic. Reza’s stomach rumbled as Zania put food in front of him and he didn’t hesitate to dig in, glancing over at her. “I do too,” he agreed around bites of food. “And everybody needs an escape now and then, but ... I just think Shane’s trying to escape everything, all the time. I feel for him, I do, I know his life has been super fucked up. It just hurts when he turns it on me, you know? I’m trying to be here for him and help.”
“It’s probably a defense mechanism, to keep everyone on the outside. Not that that makes it okay, but if this really is a new thing for him, I could see him not handling it properly,” Zania said, taking a sip of her wine. She wondered if it would be worth pointing out that everyone she knew was super fucked up on some level. Most of them hadn’t been held captive and tortured as kids, but there was no lack of trauma in her circle. Then again, there weren’t a ton of super healthy relationships either. She’d just found Gabriel and for the first time in her life she felt like she’d finally gotten it right. “I feel like it should be obvious, but you might need to tell him that—that you’re trying to be there for him and it hurts when he turns on you. Get it out in the open. Make him face it.”
Reza nodded his emphatic agreement to the first thing Zania said. Shane was definitely full of defense mechanisms, and knowing what he knew now, Reza couldn’t exactly blame him. He’d had a lot he had to defend against. The revelation about his prostitution history came back to Reza and he felt that burning empathy again. It was part of what kept him from booking a flight back to Chicago. Even if he didn’t know it or acknowledge it, Shane needed someone in his corner, to really be there for him through all of this, and Reza was it. He’d fallen for the guy, for better or worse, and he kept thinking that he wouldn’t really know if they could have a full relationship until after all this AIR bullshit was over. So he wanted to stick it out until then. “Oh we’re definitely gonna talk about it,” he assured Zania. “I don’t keep my mouth shut about shit like that. I’ve had enough shitty boyfriends in my life.” Reza was willing to bet she could relate. He chuckled a bit. “Speaking of boyfriends, enough about our shit ... how are things with you and Gabriel?”
“They’re good,” Zania said, a smile naturally blossoming across her face at the mention of her beau. “We’ve been together maybe seven months now? He’s from New Orleans and I think we met right after he moved up here, back in November. He moved in in April and things just feel really good for once. Like maybe I’m doing something right this time. I keep expecting to fuck it up, but so far, so good. He’s stuck with me through some really insane shit, so I haven’t exactly made it easy on him.” But he was still there. He’d had every chance to run, but he hadn’t. He was the most steadfast boyfriend she’d ever had and she loved him for it, among other things. Seven months didn’t sound like a long time in the grand scheme of things, but they’d grown closer instead of farther apart, and it was hard for her to imagine an end to their relationship. In fact, she didn’t want to. It was the kind of thing she wanted to last forever.
Reza found himself smiling as Zania gushed. It was good to hear somebody who actually sounded happy about the person they were with. He knew that the two of them didn’t know each other super well, so Zania might not volunteer a lot of information on problems they were having, but still. He found himself genuinely happy for her, partly because she looked so happy. “Well congratulations,” he murmured, still smiling before he sipped from his wine glass. “Why so sure you’ll fuck it up, though? Bad relationship history?” Reza could relate to that a bit, and he understood how it could make someone doubt themselves a lot. But not everybody was made for everybody, so maybe Zania had just finally found the right person.
“Yeah, something like that,” Zania said with a mirthless little laugh. “There’s always some reason why things don’t work out, but it seems like I attract guys that either don’t want to commit or can’t handle me when things get difficult—when I get difficult. Or that’s what I’ve been told.” She didn’t always think that was the case, but she knew she could be stubborn and rarely backed down from a fight. Zania had always been passionate in her relationships and sometimes came on stronger than the guy was ready to handle. And sometimes they had great chemistry in bed, but beyond that bickered about everything. There always seemed to be something, but with Gabriel things had just clicked, but she couldn’t help but wait for the other shoe to drop. She didn’t want it to, but that had always been the case.
He couldn’t help but smile a bit, even though he was sure it had been a big source of pain in Zania’s life. “It’s that fire in you,” Reza murmured. He’d known a lot of fire-people, whether they were witches or not. No relationship was always easy, but if someone wasn’t suited to handling that type of passion, it was easy for things to burn out fast. Shane was fiery too, and Reza hoped he was up to the task of keeping himself together in the face of it. “So let me ask you ... I know you’re different people, of course, but Shane’s full of fire too ... so when you are being difficult, or you’re just really caught up in your emotions or what-have-you ... what do you need from Gabriel? Or anyone, I guess. Do you tend to want to argue, or just vent, or sympathy, distraction, something else?”
Zania sat back and sipped her wine as she thought about that for a second. “I dunno. Gabriel and I haven’t had a lot of those moments, but I tend to need to burn myself out. Arguing with me makes it worse, gets me more riled up, feeds the fire, but letting me vent sometimes helps. If that’s not enough, a distraction that uses the same sort of frantic energy usually works.” She couldn’t go take a nice, relaxing bath when she was all worked up. She needed to destroy something, set it on fire, or fuck it out of her. There was very little that could easily douse her to a state of calm. She wasn’t the most logical person when she was all worked up, so talking her down didn’t usually work. “I’ve never successfully dated another fire witch. It’s like we’re combustible.”
Reza listened, genuinely interested in how other people handled conflict, especially since Zania might have some things in common with Shane. He wasn’t too surprised by the “sometimes” and “usually” she used ... every situation was different. His lips quirked faintly at the mention of frantic energy, very able to guess that sex was probably on that list. Reza didn’t know that he could wrestle his own mood in a sexy direction if he was in the middle of a fight with Shane, but distraction was something to keep in mind for the future. “I can imagine,” Reza murmured with a soft chuckle. “I’ve never actually dated another witch at all, but ... I dunno, I want to balance him out as much as I can. Even if he doesn’t have magic, that fire in him is strong.” He finished eating what was on the plate and sat back to sip some more wine, the food making him feel a little more grounded and calm.
Zania liked dating other witches; she liked feeling their magic intertwine when they were intimate and didn’t find sex with a normal human near as satisfying. But that wasn’t worth saying when she knew Reza was mostly happy in a relationship with Shane, wanting to make it work even when things were hard. That kind of attitude, that kind of care, mattered a lot more than a magical spark during sex. “I don’t know him very well, but you seem good for him,” Zania said. “That you’re making an effort to balance him, to know how to handle him when he’s volatile, matters more than if you get it right the first time. Or the second. Hell, Nic and I used to shout at each other, scream to the point where I wanted to throw fire at him, and now he just… I dunno, it rolls off him. We still fight, but it doesn’t become a bonfire. I think you’ll get there if you stick around long enough.”
He knew these kinds of things took trial and error, time and patience on both sides, and he honestly hoped that he and Shane would get there. Reza was committed to him and Them and seeing this whole thing through. They had incredible chemistry together, Reza couldn’t imagine their sex getting any better than it already was, and he loved who Shane was inside, all reasons to stick it out and see where it went. He just didn’t like these times when it felt like something in Shane still wanted to push him away. “Thank you,” Reza told Zania with a faint smile. “I try to be good for him. I just feel like ... he’s kept everyone at arm’s length for so long, it’s hard for him to understand that I want to know him fully, and everything I know now hasn’t sent me running for the hills. I don’t wanna sound like I’m sucking my own dick, but I feel like he needs somebody steady and loyal. Especially through all this bullshit that’s been ... stirring up his trauma, you know?” Reza gestured with one hand and sighed. “Why is it always the really pretty ones that are so messy?”
“Because nothing good is ever easy,” Zania smiled with sympathy. “I’m not gonna say that this was a good thing, because that’s definitely not the case, but maybe he’ll see that you’re gonna stick with him now. All you can do is keep showing him you’ll be there for him. At some point, he’s gotta be the one to take the next step.” As someone who liked to make things happen, she knew how much that had to suck, but she didn’t think this was something Reza could force on his end. Shane had to make the decision to let him in. It was her opinion that he’d be an idiot not to, but no one could make him. Hopefully this would be the wake up call that Shane needed because Zania was pretty sure anything stronger might actually kill him.
Reza instinctively understood the layers to what she meant, and he agreed. He couldn’t make Shane do anything he wasn’t ready and willing to do, no matter how bad Reza might want it. Reza could love him intensely until his dying day and Shane didn’t have to return an ounce of that emotion or effort. Reza just wasn’t sure that he knew when he should walk away anymore. Shane had said he didn’t trust him ... but he’d been coked out of his mind and on the brink of an overdose, so that could’ve just been paranoid nonsense. He supposed they would just have to talk about it more, once Shane was able to come home. “Yeah, you’re right,” he murmured as an answer, nodding slowly. “So I’m gonna ... be there tomorrow morning to pick him up, and just ... go from there. If you don’t mind driving me back to our place to get the car, that is. I can Uber if it’s too early, of course.”
“Don’t take an Uber. I can drag my ass out of bed for you,” Zania smiled. She wasn’t much of a morning person, but had come to understand that, as an adult, sometimes she had to do things she didn’t like. And when it came to her friends, she’d rather be there for them than get an extra hour of sleep. “Let me give you a little tour, show you where everything is, and then I’ll get you a blanket and a pillow. I’m sorry I don’t have an actual guest room, but I swear the couch is super comfy.” There were a number of extra rooms in the house, but they’d been turned into work rooms for herself and Nic. They almost never had houseguests, even though all were welcome.
Reza already knew he would feel bad for waking Zania up, but he did want to be at the hospital as early as he could to get Shane. He had to keep showing up for him, like they’d said, and this time would be a big deal. He gave Zania a grateful smile. “The couch is totally fine. Feel like I could sleep outside on the lawn right now, I’m so wiped,” Reza said. He stood up and took his plate to the sink, then downed the rest of the wine in his glass before setting that aside too. He turned back to Zan with a little smile. “Ready.” Whether he actually slept well or not, Reza was so appreciative to have someone here to call on when he needed them, and he hoped that one day he got to repay the favor to her.