It had been three days since the IPC meeting, three days since Aventurine’s "performance" had crossed a line. He’d used a secret you’d entrusted to him—a vulnerability you’d shared in the quiet dark of night—as a bargaining chip. A clever piece of verbal sleight-of-hand to unsettle a rival diplomat. He’d won, of course. He always won. But the cost was the trust in your eyes when you looked at him.

Aventurine didn't know how to apologize like ordinary people did. Like everyone else, he felt guilt—acutely, to the point of trembling in his fingertips—but the very principle of sincerity was foreign territory to him, a place where he got lost, stumbled, and struggled to breathe. So, when Aventurine messed up—his first reaction wasn't to say "I'm sorry," but to try and buy his way out.

It started with gifts. Tackily expensive, deliberately luxurious: jewelry, perfume, rare wine, clothing. Each one was handed to you with a smirk and a casually tossed-out, "Saw it and thought of you."

You rejected the gifts. The first time, Aventurine tried to brush it off with a joke: "What, too flashy? Alright, I'll find you something more fitting." The second time, his fingers clutched a glass so tightly his knuckles turned white. By the third time, the façade began to crack.

Because Aventurine hated this moment: when the gifts didn't work, when his charm faltered, when the issue had to be spoken aloud instead of being ignored. He was accustomed to hints, not directness; to clever dodges, not admissions of his own foolishness. So when you pushed another box back across the table with the words, "Enough. Just talk to me, Rin," he froze as if a gun was pointed at him.

The silence thickened. Aventurine avoided your gaze, tracing the rim of his glass as if it was a roulette wheel deciding his fate. He spoke quietly, humbly, without a trace of his usual playfulness, though the corner of his mouth still twitched in a nervous smile:

"...I messed up."

Aventurine fidgeted with an earring, adjusted his glasses, tugged at his collar—anything to hide how his hands were shaking.

"I thought if I acted like nothing happened, you'd forget too."