eiahmon | Missing Scenes #7

Title: The Price: Rejection: Pensieve
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: When hell freezes over maybe...
A/N: So this was born of a Skype chat between myself and Lita of the Dancing Flames. We were talking about The Price, and she inadvertently mashed Discovery and Rejection together. That spawned an idea in which Ansem is a jerk to Xehanort and then later realizes his mistake, (I'll write that one sooner or later.) and I was wondering what would make him realize his mistake, and Lita replied: "I would say pensieve, but that's Harry Potter." I then typed out the first five sentences of this right there in Skype.

#7
Pensieve

Even let him up, and Ansem gasped and sputtered for a moment. Once he'd caught his breath, the blond asked him:

"Have you figured it out yet?"

"Even, what is the meaning of this!" Ansem spat as he tried to push Even's hand off the back of his neck.

Even shook his head, "Apparently not." and shoved him back under. He held the old man down under the silvery liquid a bit longer this time before letting him up. Ansem's hands and arms flailed about, trying to get a hold of him, he supposed, but he was easily able to step away without relinquishing his grip on the back of his neck.

When he next allowed Ansem to raise his head, the anger in his eyes had dimmed a bit, but that didn't stop him from practically snarling at his Senior Apprentice: "I'll throw you out of the castle if you do not cease this -" That was as far as he got as Even shoved him back into stone bowl on the desk. As he held him under the silvery strands, he took a moment to admire the bowl itself – a pensieve the dark haired teenager had called it. The rough hewn stone bowl was etched with several strange looking figures that the teenager had called runes, and those runes glowed with their own faint light. As appearances go, it wasn't much to look at, but as soon as it's function had been explained to him, Even had realized immediately how he could put it to use. The scientific value of such an object was immeasurable, but first, he wanted to use it to right a terrible wrong.

It had taken a bit to get Xehanort to focus on the memories he needed – doing so had left him a sobbing mess – but soon the bowl was full and ready for its intended victim. Even had soothed Xehanort to sleep, and after leaving him under Aeleus' watchful eye, he had taken the pensieve to Ansem's office. He had set the bowl down on the desk in front of Ansem, who had stood up from his chair to get a better look at the strange object. Even had been told that simply touching the memory strands would drag one into them, but he had also been told that dunking the person's head in also worked with the added bonus of not being able to leave the pensieve until the person holding them down let go. Once Ansem had been distracted by the pensieve, it had been simple to grab him by the back of his neck and shove him down into the memories that were swirling within.

Even glanced at his watch and realized that he had been holding Ansem under for over ten minutes, so he let him up.

The man came up spitting and swearing - "Xehanort is just a whore -!" - so Even shoved him back under again.

This time he held him under for nearly 20 minutes, and when he let him back up, most of Ansem's anger seemed to have drained away, but he was still being stubborn about it. "Xehanort could have said no." And down he went a fifth time. For someone who was said to be so wise, Ansem apparently was quite the idiot when dealing with the obvious.

Even sighed and checked his watch. With the assistance of the offworld boy that had given him the pensieve, he had put hours of Xehanort's memories in, so he could keep Ansem dunked all night if he needed to. Yet, as he let Ansem up only to hear "It takes two people to have sex, Even." which resulted in Ansem's head going right back into the bowl, he realized that doing so would get tiring quickly.

Still, it needed to be done, and since Even had placed copies of practically every sexual encounter that Xehanort had had with Braig in the bowl, hopefully the man would get the picture sooner or later. And there were a lot of encounters, everything from the agreement – information in exchange for sex – to that night they had been caught in bed together, and to the time that led to Even finding Xehanort curled up in his bed, crying and bleeding. He had even thrown in Ansem's rejection, in the hopes that seeing it from Xehanort's eyes would drive home how much pain it had caused.

He held Ansem's head down in Xehanort's memories for over an hour before he let him up, and when Ansem stood upright and looked at him, the man's eyes looked haunted and were red and puffy like he'd been crying for hours. "I'm sorry, Even. I am so sorry." He then burst into tears and bawled like Xehanort had so many times.

Even quietly stood by and watched the man cry, and once he had began to calm down, he held out a handkerchief and said softly; "I'm not the one you need to apologize to."

Ansem took the handkerchief and wiped at his streaming eyes and dripping nose. "Yes, yes, you're right of course, but... how can he ever accept any apology after the way I've treated him?"

"You won't find out until you ask, and there's no time like the present."

Ansem glanced over at the wall clock. "But it is so late. I'm sure that he's asleep now," Even reached for his neck again, which caused him to jump back and add hastily: "but I'm sure he won't mind being woken up for a long overdue apology."

"You know where he is then, so I suggest that you get moving." Ansem nodded and left the room just below a run, while Even took a few minutes to press the rune of the side of the pensieve that caused a small shield to shimmer into being over the top of the bowl. This was to prevent the memories within from spilling out, which would then cause them to rush back to their origin – Xehanort – if he was close enough. And that, Even had been firmly warned, would not be good at all.

Once the shield was in place, Even carefully picked up the bowl and walked out of the office, heading back to his rooms and back to Xehanort.

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