"Happy birthday, Reeve." It's said quietly, not with the excitement it would have been once, a grand present for him; instead she does not meet his eyes, her words meant yet hollow, grief and despair creeping into the cracks like ivy crawling over a ruin. She reaches out as if to touch his hand, but then doesn't dare; she does not mention the gift left on his desk; crafted with her own two hands, a labour of love. She's drawn his city down to the intricate details, it's full of secrets. - Scar
“Thank you...” Reeve too is demure, downbeat in his typical inoffensive politeness.
“...Zaria.” It was barely a whisper, no deep and warm gaze settling on piercing violet. No look over at what should have been. He frowns deeper, eyes instead affixed to the floor. He doesn’t even know why he just said that, though he suspects the phone call he has just finished to his mother might have something to do with it.
Ruvie still asks after Scarlet. She knows of course that they are no longer together, but that is all. He will never subject his Ma to the near nuclear details of the overload in their relationship.The Weapons Director was not yet on the public broadcasts and the Urb Dev Director hardly shared the intricacies of Shinra’s stranglehold monopoly.
As far as she is concerned Scarlet was still Scarlet and Reeve still Reeve. Two things that could not be further from the bitterest truth.
In the end he does not see (or react to) her reaching hand, nor has he not yet noticed the gift left on the desk. The silence swallows up anything that could possibly be said and, really, what left was there to say? Scarlet moves away. Reeve lets out a shaky breath that he has been holding, fists at his side slowly unfurling as he closes his eyes then opens them and turns to go back to work.
As he spies what is on the desk, one of Scarlet’s minutely intricate cityscape masterpieces, those fists tighten once more as he slams one of them down beside the picture and falls down heavily into his seat, head falling equally as hard into his hands as Reeve curses her, curses the whole bloody lot.
