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Right wasn't one to put down other people's ideas, he was someone who liked to embrace new things. Yet even he felt like he was making a mistake here, like this really was a bad idea. Like he should have protested this one, told Glitter that this wasn't something worth doing. Though he wanted to.
After they'd come back from the past, once their younger selves had gone home, Glitter had come over to speak to him. She had told him she had a request and she spoke about it so formally it made him feel weird. It felt awkward, one of the few times he had felt uncomfortable around someone like they weren't his friend even though he'd known Glitter for years. He let her come over and made her tea, hoping she would relax a bit, but instead she asked something that made him understand why she had taken such a tone.
"Please meet with Zett one more time." Right near choked on his drink in shock. She'd barely talked about Zett since they last fought him. She had let them know he was recovering and that he would not bring back the Shadow Line and then she had tried to bring him round after he had supposedly made his recovery.
They hadn't spoken then, Zett didn't stick around long enough to speak. It had been strange to see him so quiet when Right had always held the memories of him being so forward. Maybe beating him had knocked him down a few pegs. It made Right feel bad, that wasn't how he wanted to see Zett. He didn't want to feel like he had crushed Zett after all that had happened. Back then though, he hadn't even wanted to see Zett. well, maybe he would of if he had had a chance to prepare for it, instead of opening his door to the two of them on his door step.
Maybe asking this time was Glitter's way of setting it right. Right sipped his drink, trying to wash away the feeling from choking before. He wanted to see Zett now, as long as he wasn't going to be like that, like some crushed soul and a reminder of what Right was capable of doing to someone. It was unlikely that Zett would have any power to get revenge if he wanted it so it was probably safe. Even if he did, Right's toQchanger was working again now, so he wouldn't have any trouble against him.
"Why?" Right asked, trying his best to not sound mean, because he really didn't mean to be. He just wanted to know her reasons to asking now. Glitter set her mug down on her lap, the cartoonish scribbles mismatched against someone so high classed.
"There are things he has to explain. He wasn't ready before, but I believe that he can be honest now." Right rubbed his chin, trying to appear as though he was in deep thought over the matter as if his mind wasn't already made up. The motion most likely just came across over exaggerated, but it lightened the mood ever so slightly.
"Alright!"
Glitter had seemed a little shocked that he hadn't needed any more persuading, but after 11 years, a lot had changed. He'd changed, some things had stayed the same like his trust in others, but he understood himself better now. Zett was just as capable of change as he was, after all, they were...
Glitter had started making plans, making it sound as if she would be sending Zett to his house, but Right placed a hand over her mouth cutting her off. He quickly looked up an address on his phone, wrote it down, and handed it to her.
"Tell him to meet me at the eating area."
Now he sat in the amusement park's eating area, more nervous than he had ever been in his life. It felt like the weight of the universe hung in the balance, this would be what made or destroyed the world. At any minute, he would hear people screaming, a shadow would turn the corner and the Shadow Line will announce itself reborn, with Zett leading the fire. He would be the only ToQger here to fight them, have to desperately call for the others to save him from dying as a one man "sentai" (though maybe he could just skip over calling himself a sentai if it was just him).
It never happened though. The only screaming came from the roller coasters, the haunted house, the countless other rides. The closest thing he could see to a shadow was the colourful mascot greeting kids. Everything was peaceful. He ordered his food as he waited, getting everything they had to offer and not waiting to start. Eating would surely calm his nerves.
"Yo Right." Right near pulled his neck as he turned to see the owner of the familiar voice. He was a little shocked to see a much plainer looking outfit than he had expected. A plain white hoodie, light jeans, colourful tennis shoes, an outfit he could expect on anyone. If it wasn't for the hair, the earring, the same face, the same hands, maybe he could have mistaken him for someone else. Then again, it wouldn't be Zett if that was the case obviously. Right gestured him over to him, feeling a little put-off but having to actually give Zett permission as opposed to Zett clambering next to him, forcing himself there like he used to. Zett sat down on the chair next to him far too calmly for the image Right wanted to keep of him.
Everyone had been so serious, it wasn't any good. Right pushed some of his half-eaten food over to Zett, seeming to surprise him. For a few minutes, things were silent apart from Right eating. As they kept quiet, Right's eating slowed, allowing the awkwardness to settle in, until they were sitting in an uncomfortable silence. Right tapped his plastic fork on the table a little, stealing glances at Zett. Zett was picking at the food a little, but he could see his eyes occasionally looking at someone above Right's head. It took Right a minute, trying to figure out what Zett could be looking at until he remembered.
"Give me your wrist." Right said, untying the star-shaped balloon from the back of his seat. Zett blinked at him a few times before finally putting his arm out towards Right, allowing Right to tie the ribbon around it. He looked confused at the ribbon round his wrist, holding the balloon to him. "You came here to make things right, right? I figured we should start where it went wrong. Last time, I let it fly away from you, but if I tie it to your wrist even if anything happens to you, it won't fly away."
Zett pulled the balloon down by the ribbon, tracing his hands over it, seemingly being as gentle as he possibly could. He seemed happy which helped settle Right's stomach. He had been surprised that he'd managed to find such a similar one after all this time. Zett let it go but kept his hand close to the ribbon, as if scared it would somehow still get away from him. The balloon only got as far as it was meant to and bopped about there before settling to sway in the wind, completely safe from leaving Zett this time.
"Thank you." Right was a little taken a back to hear him actually thank him. Maybe he hadn't done enough to relax him. He tried to cover his anxiousness by going back to eating, waving it away as if it was nothing. He could feel Zett's eyes on him now as he ate, then they drifted to the food Right had given him, finally deciding to try some of the fried chicken. Right could see the way his face lit up from the first bite. Then, as if possessed by Right's own spirit, he matched his enthusiasm in eating. Right tried his best not to laugh. This was the Emperor of Darkness, he couldn't laugh, but that was exactly why it was so funny. Though, Zett wasn't the Emperor of Darkness now. He was just regular Zett. Regular Zett, who stared at everything with the same wide eyes, a sparkle in them that Right didn't want to bring attention to of fear it would die the second he did as it used to. He wondered when the last time he saw Zett look like that was.
The hand sneaking towards Right's chips almost went completely unnoticed, but no one got Right's food without him noticing.
"HEY!" He shouted trying to stop him, but the chip was gone, and Zett was smiling and laughing, as big and as bright as when they'd first met. "That's rude, you know!"
"I can buy you more." Zett smiled between bites of his food, that Right was now regretting giving to him so willingly.
"That's not the point! Don't steal my food!" Right grabbed a handful of chips, stuffing them into his mouth like a squirrel, effectively preventing Zett from taking them. He could see Zett was struggling not to laugh at him as he struggled to chew all the food.
"Glitter said you had stuff you wanted to explain?" Right asked, finally managing to swallow all of the chips. Zetts face suddenly changed, no longer the happiness, no longer the awkwardness, but back to the far too familiar sadness that it had held for far too long. Maybe not as intense but it was there. Maybe he should of let them relax more before bringing up important stuff. Zett poked his food around on the tray, seemingly thinking without giving away much. It was too late to back out of it now though, they needed to do this if they wanted to move on.
"I'm sorry." Zett eventually said. It wasn't an explanation, but Right had to appreciate the attempt to apologise, even though it was several years late and he had never expected there to be one.
"It's okay, just don't do it again." Right tried to sound like a parent telling off a child who had made an easy mistake, as opposed to a human guy talking to the emperor of darkness about that time he tried to cover the world in darkness. Zett didn't look up from his food, instead opting to pull on the ribbon of his balloon, pulling it closer to the level of his face as if he could hide behind it. As the Emperor of Darkness, he probably never had to give anyone a real apology, or properly explain his actions with something besides his sword. Apologising alone was probably a lot more for him than it would be for the average person.
After a while, it became clear that he wasn't going to start. Maybe he just needed help to know where.
"Hey, when I was ToQ1 of Darkness, you were way stronger than you had been before. How was that?" Zett suddenly went stiff. The question had weighed on Right's mind for years. Every other fight, Zett hadn't been anywhere near as strong as he had that time. On top of that, that fight hadn't been long after Christmas, when there was a supposed lack of darkness to power him, he should have still been recovering from that during their fight. Zett chewed his lip so hard it seemed as if he wanted for it to bleed. His mouth would open, then close without the words escaping, seeming to have gotten caught along the way.
"I... I thought I'd ruined you. I thought that was it, something I had done had finally killed your sparkle, and it was all my fault. I thought you'd become like me, filled with darkness. Unable to hold a sparkle like you once had." He looked at him as if there was something he wanted to say, but he wouldn't. "I got mad at myself, and part of me didn't want you to live like I had to. I wanted to be rid of the mistake I made. Even then I don't think I could truly bring myself to do it properly." Right was a little surprised to hear him open so much, to give him what seemed to be such defining honesty.
But Zett had said that he couldn't bring himself to do it properly, which nicked at Right's mind. The way the palace back then had spewed darkness, rapidly covering everything in seconds, filled with power, and yet Right had still survived. He lasted longer than those who were meant to be there on Zett's side. He lasted against Zett longer than Schwarz had, and hadn't Schwarz been stronger than him, stronger than him even with his friends. Was it possible that, even at that point, Zett was holding back against him? What if he hadn't? How long would Right have survived? Or would he have just been dead before he could register what was happening?
"Right. Why did you become... that?" Right blinked for a second, registering what Zett was asking. He didn't know? "Was it because of what I did to Subarugahama? Was it because of what happened with Schwarz, or Glitter, or something else I had done? What was the final straw to do that to you?"
It was rare that words would catch in Right's throat but he just couldn't force them out. He knew the reason fine well, but could he really tell Zett the truth? Yes, it was something you had done, but not what you think, not in the way you think. He couldn't change the subject now, he knew it would either just upset Zett or Zett just flat-out wouldn't let him. He couldn't leave now and he couldn't risk Zett leaving when there were still things he needed to hear. Maybe he should have picked somewhere quieter. Somewhere it was easier to talk. Somewhere that wasn't just due to a weird nostalgia. It wasn't easy to say something like this here, but he had to.
"Side dish said that, because we'd been so close I just kind of... took on your darkness or something like that. I guess cause we had hung out a few times and then it was always basically just us fighting each other, I had more contact with you than any of the others. You'd even put me on the Shadow Line at the start, I was the one with the most exposure to darkness. That day in... in Subarugahama. It was because I wanted to see you so bad then, because every had tried to stop me, and something just... tipped it over the edge." Zett looked just as hurt and horrified as Right had expected him to. It wasn't something either of them had meant to happen. It was just something that had happened. Something that happened because they were close. Something neither of them could expect. They probably shouldn't have been that close. They had been enemies then. Despite that, even when Right had sworn to take him down, sworn he hated what Zett was doing, he wanted to be close to him. He wanted him to be the person he'd met at the amusement park. He wanted to be close to him. Wanted it more than anything.
The time when Zett had managed to board as ToQ6, there had been times that Right would happen to come in when it was him, not Glitter. He seemed so harmless, just playing with the Christmas decorations, amazed by them like a kid would be. If anyone else came in, Glitter would be back, but with just them, he'd sit and talk excitedly about all the decorations. Back then, Right figured he was too far gone to really mean it, and he'd been uncomfortable, but still wanted to listen. The conversations felt like they mattered like they were the few times he had got to see Zett so happy. Like he was meant to treasure them. He constantly wanted more of them, so he kept going back to hear more. It wasn't till later that Right would learn that everyone knew they'd been talking and spending all that time together and that Right's jacket had been coated in Zett's darkness.
They really had just been far too close.
"Mork always complained about it, I was sick of hearing from her. She never stopped complaining, 'Your majesty, you're too light on them', 'Your majesty, your obsession with sparkles is because of that damned ToQ1', it was insufferable." He didn't finish the thought, still unwilling or maybe just not ready to believe that Mork may have had a point. Right barely noticed it though, stuck on the fact that even Mork thought Zett was going easy on him. That she blamed him for Zett's obsession, rather than all of the ToQgers, after all, he'd seen them all together back then. It confirmed his fear though, that really was nothing compared to the power Zett should have had. He should have been dead. Yet, Zett would barely leave a scratch on him, never going as far as to cause a serious injury. Why did Zett always leave them before doing real damage if Mork was nagging him like that? Why was he so against doing real damage to them back then?
"Why didn't you just kill us?" There was no point to him holding it back, he had to ask if he ever truly wanted an answer to it. Only Zett would know the real reason for why he acted how he did. Zett gave him a sad smile as he leaned back in his chair, eating what was left of the food in his hand as if needing time to think. Right almost felt like it was him being eaten with the anticipation but that... brought back some of the more unpleasant memories.
"I liked you."
"You liked me?" Right looked down confused, trying to make sense of it. "Oh, you liked how I sparkled, didn't you?" It didn't seem like much of a reason after all Zett had been interested in seeing what could destroy Right's sparkle. It made a little sense if he'd just got bored of the idea of losing it.
"That was one thing." Zett kicked himself rather dramatically back to sitting properly, resting his chin in his hand and elbow on the table looking at Right. "Your sparkle is something amazing, but it wasn't the only thing." He came across as confident as ever, but maybe it was the lingering connection between then that let Right feel his hesitation. He was lost either looking for the right words or not knowing how to get them out of his mouth.
"I liked you. I liked how determined you were, and how you kept fighting, I liked knowing that I would get to see you sparkle. I liked how you seemed to actually understand, and not just try to use me like everyone on the Shadow Line. I thought that since you had trusted someone like Zaram, maybe when I finally got away you would be willing to at least give me a chance. I liked the thought of going with you, finally bringing about the sparkling age." Right flinched a little at the reminder of Zett's previous dream, but let it slide this time. It felt as though he was missing something, something vital to what Zett was telling him, but his brain wouldn't let him figure it out, desperately waiting for Zett to just say it.
"I wanted to be with you because I was in love with you, Right."
"What?!" Right near fell jumping from his seat, slamming his hands on the table, but Zett was unphased by it. Not moving from his position, eyes barely moving to look at Right, seeming unable to truly face him. Right stood like that for a few moments, waiting for Zett to answer, but he never did. He finally calmed enough to sit back down. "What do you mean you 'were in love with me'? You sent shadows after me, you fought me, you hurt people, you hurt my friends... you tried... you tried to steal my sparkle." Right resisted the urge to rub at his chest where he'd expected it to be. Zett's eyes widened as if desperate to defend himself but his mouth slowly closed as he looked back down at the table.
"I did. That's what I have to apologize for. I was wrong to try and take the sparkles of others, I know that now. I have my own. No one can steal that from me." Zett did press his fingers to his chest, rubbing the same spot where Right had wanted to on his own chest. When Zett did it, it almost seemed as though he could feel it through the flesh.
"Why did you do it? If you loved me, why would you do things to hurt me like that?" Right squeezed his nails into his palms, trying to keep himself from shaking with anger.
"When you fought, you sparkled. You sparkled so brightly I couldn't take my eyes off you. I was allowed to watch from the Castle Terminal. Mostly everyone else would send shadows, but I let them. If you won, you sparkled so brightly, and I figured if you lost at least they'd stop complaining about it, and I would get to see if you still sparkled then. I'd get to see how strong that sparkle of yours really was. I wanted to know. I fought you so that I would get to see it too, to see you, so I could take it for myself. So I could take you and keep you with me, shining bright inside of me, never being separated from you. I let them hurt your friends for the same reason, you'd sparkle even more when you had someone to protect." Zett looked at him with a sad half smile, corner of his mouth twitching to keep it up. "It's not a good reason." Right nodded, thinking, giving himself a chance to understand what he was hearing. He loosened his fists, with a small sigh as the tiny pinches disappeared.
"You were an incredibly selfish person, Zett." Zett nodded and there was a silence between them for a moment. It didn't seem like Zett expected anything more here, he could see him looking ready to leave. But Right didn't want him to go yet.
"You've changed though, that's what this is about, isn't it?"
"Would you believe me if I said I had, Right?"
"Yes." Right stared him directly in the eye, a smile quickly spreading across his face. He felt as though he could finally properly imagine something new for Zett, something better than what had been. "The Shadow Line is gone. You're not the emperor now, and most importantly, I can see it. I can see that sparkle of yours right now." Zett's hand instinctively moved to touch the same spot on his chest again. "Before, when I looked into your eyes, all the light would disappear, whatever had been there would be gone in an instant. Now I can look into them, and they just sparkle even more. It's not being destroyed how it used to be. That's how I know you must have changed. Someone who has a sparkle like that, can't be the same Zett I knew back then, right? I think, maybe this Zett is someone I can like even more than the last."
Zett put his hand on the table, making a motion like he was about to get up, but suddenly he stopped himself. He sat back down, smiling and not noticing the food sneaking away from his plate into Right's mouth.
"I used to draw you in my notebooks, you know. I used to spend all day wondering what happened after Glitter grabbed you. I knew she wasn't okay with any more people dying, so I knew she would have saved you. I used to think maybe one day you would come back, and we'd fight again. As a kid, I was kind of excited about fighting you again. Then as I got older, I just wanted to see you again. Hikari would complain, saying that if we couldn't see the rainbow line, then there was no point in holding on to something like that." He swallowed, trying not to get sad at the thought. "I was... pretty upset that he had said that. I cried and refused to talk to him. Kagura and Mio ended up having to trick us into meeting up, and then our parents were panicking thinking that we'd gone missing. When we finally made up, Hikari said to me that... he said that he didn't realize how much you meant to me. He felt bad that none of them had ever really talked to me about it, but I hadn't really realized it either till then. I was terrified thinking that I might have actually lost you forever." He knew what he really wanted to say, but the words felt as if they would catch endlessly in his throat. Maybe now wasn't the time for them. They'd just met again, he needed to get used to this new Zett first. This wasn't the time. The time would come and he could finally say it.
But he could see the smile on Zett's face, and it seemed as though he understood without Right having to say it. Right could feel himself starting to panic that Zett knew, even though there was no reason to fear him knowing, but all the reason to fear what would come next. Zett had said he loved him, he'd used past tense, it had been in the past, but so had he. He'd used past tense too. Maybe they still had a chance to laugh it off as a silly old crush they'd gotten over, to just move on with their lives, to be friends, nothing more. Or it could be the start of their chance to... not right now but their chance to start thinking about it, to start getting to know each other with the full intention of it going further.
He was getting himself so worked up, but Zett was just smiling.
"Yo, Right." The sparkle was clear in Zett's eyes, somehow brighter than it had been the whole time they'd been speaking. "Would you like to get lunch sometime?"
"Yeah, I'd like that."