"Lay off, Jazzy baby." Iz chimed as he poured a round.
Once upon a time, the special emphasis and baritones he said it with would have at least made them smile if not laugh. Everything that seemed to make their friendships thrive before tensions started to choke their bonds off at the roots was tied back to the moment Zory no longer regarded anyone here as warmly as she always had previously. On the rare occasions she was there beside them, she felt like a ghost.
"Drink, then talk." Jazz suggested.
"Do you know where she is?" Ozzy pressed after a sip.
His brother only hummed softly to himself in reply at first.
Iz always knew far more than he ever liked to let on at first and they technically had that in common to a point. Although they certainly didn't look the part as half brothers, they did act it. Iz was graced with his father's looks while the younger man of the duo had wound up resembling their mother.
"Per usual, no." The coy barkeep in question smirked with a shrug as he started wiping down some other glasses. "But I do happen to know where she'll be tonight and I do know for a fact that you're not going to like it."
Ozzy shook his head with open frustration. "I don't care, man… I need to see her for myself right now."
"I know, bud," Iz nodded just once with a sad sort of smile that had failed to reach his eyes for months on end now. "But she still doesn't want to see you more than she has to."
Ozzy knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Zory could fend for herself just fine when she needed to, but he couldn't help but detest how often she put herself in situations to have to. It was more of a fresh knife in his back than added salt to all of the wounds his pride had suffered while she refused to trust him time and time again. He was the best suited zelestial-type in all of Greater Zayin to serve as her protector whether she liked it or not and at some point, something had to give.
"For what it's worth," Jazz inserted rather reluctantly. "It's not like she wants to see us either."
Zory had become quite the recluse outside of all the work she did up in the capital province. Alias after alias had aided her in maintaining lack of appearance since the night she had been officially presumed dead. Ozzy could take the fact that he barely even knew her with a grain of salt, but watching her alienate herself from all of her friends was another story.
"Okay, out with it." Iz sighed. "You're definitely spinning your wheels on something and I deserve to know what."
"Did you tell her it wasn't my fault?" He inquired weakly.
His voice was hoarse, strained with invisible tears he had already decided he wasn't going to let his eyes form let alone shed. He needed to keep perspective and emotion had only served to hinder his judgment when it came to Zory as of late. Every time he had begun to believe that perhaps she was finally willing to talk to him about everything that happened, she would only shut down harder and harder.
In a singular night, Zory had lost more than anyone should ever have to lose and not for the first time either. While he did like to moonlight down here, his day job was what torched her trust in him from the jump. Everything he had ever thought he knew about being a high-ranked member of the Nova Alliance changed the second they blew almost three full constellations out of the eastern skies. It only took one rogue agent randomly opening fire without warning or mercy to slaughter hundreds of mostly unarmed civilians Zory had been helping escort.
The peaceful nomads that had helped Zory find new hope and meaning when all seemed lost before were wiped out without a shred of hesitation nor earnest remorse. Regarding the little Ozzy had managed to deduce about the chaos at the time, the traitor who was the primary perpetrator of that attack and the brigade of mindless puppets who had followed suit had all been gunning for Zory from the very beginning.
"Earth to Ozzball." Jazz drawled out pointedly.
His nearly jet black mane of hair wasn't all that darker than Ozzy's far shorter locks. There was also a curious and almost midnight blue sort of tint on Jazz's curls while most of Ozzy's gentler waves bore subtle, almost brindled tones of auburn. If anything, they were the ones that actually looked related. It did Iz zero favors that their somewhat reserved personalities resonated better together on innate levels to boot.
"She knows it wasn't your fault, Oz." Iz assured a smidge too brightly as Jazz's teal colored eyes flashed him a warning he did not heed. "If I had to guess, I'd say the real reason she's still avoiding you is because she feels like it's her fault."
"But it wasn't!" Ozzy spat through his teeth.
Iz quirked an eyebrow and tilted his head slightly with a haughty sort of scoff at his younger brother's composure still being that fickle. "And some part of her already know that too, but it doesn't make it any easier."
Ozzy scoffed in reply, irritated by the insulation logical conclusions had somehow been overlooked.
"You think I don't know that?" Ozzy ground out.
Iz hummed mostly to himself yet again in thought as he exchanged a brief look with Jazz that hadn't gone unnoticed. They hadn't been friends for all that much longer than Ozzy had been in the equation underground. Many conversations Zory had gone well out of her way to only have with Ozzy absent had certainly shifted dynamics. Common wavelengths she liked to pick up on while getting to know people to help unite them never seemed to fail in the long run.