"Like I said, ether is everywhere. The whole of the world is made up of it, and blades regulate it as well, so it's not like it's a limited resource." Zelos hums, taps twice at his core crystal. Keeps his expression guarded and neutral as the sound of footsteps coming closer registers in his hears, continues staring into the fire. "A blade's ether output power depends exactly on their ether input ability. It's part of what separates regular blades from Aegises, too."

And that's all he's willing to say on the subject tonight, because as soon as the rest of their party members get close enough to the camp to start talking, for Zelos to hear their words, the Aegis shuts his mouth, constructs a mask of smiling friendliness and tries to pretend everything is fine. He smiles when he's looked at, laughs when he's addressed, sits somewhere he won't bother anyone else, and makes himself useful by keeping the fire alive. And slowly, as he pushes his shame to the back burner and allows it to snuff itself out on the leftover fires of his rage, he starts to let go of the emotional bleed, easily fabricating calm and boredom for his driver to feel.

No one mentions what just happened. Everyone chats low, gets ready for bed. Slowly but surely things simmer down to something close and similar to normality.

But overlooking an issue does not mean it's forgotten.

Of course it's not that easy. There's still a shaky, taut tension in the air that Zelos can feel permeate the scene, an unfortunate reminder of what just went down that everyone messily attempts to leave behind, stretched silences, discomfort. It feels bad. All the guilt in Zelos' gut evaporates and leaves him in a puff of shaky annoyance through his mouth, an emotion directed at everyone else, at the situation, and at himself.

Really, can't they just leave it all behind, he thinks. Can't they all learn to pretend like he can? All this unease is putting him on edge.

He deserves the unease, of course, but.

Still.

Zelos sighs.

Despite it all, the rest of the night is thankfully mostly uneventful and low-key. Stubborn as they may be humans still need to sleep, so it doesn't take too long before Anna and Sheena have already conked out, Malos following suit of his driver. With the majority of their group asleep Zelos allows the fire to die down a little, its crackling gentle in the overpowering silence of the night. Sighing, he lifts his gaze up to the skies, watching the stars as they move and dance across the darkness, seeking comfort in the only thing he couldn't possibly reach or break. He keeps his senses sharp, though, watching for any changes in ambient ether, highly on guard.

He said he would keep watch, after all. The least he can do after his fuckup is keep that promise and keep these people safe.

Except it's a little distracting when the third other human in this group is fidgeting and causing ripples in the ambient ether every now and then, still stubbornly awake, apparently.

It makes Zelos groan.

Tearing his eyes off the sky and looking down to where Lloyd has settled himself for tonight feels like he's being interrupted, so Zelos lets himself be annoyed, even if he's totally doing this out of his free will, glaring at the boy from a distance. Lit up by the low fire, the red of Lloyd's jacket is hard to miss against the darkness of the night, the moons' light bright in the skies along with their stars. His eyes are very, very obviously open. Zelos is pretty sure that humans need their eyes closed to sleep.

He cocks his head, hums. Watches. Everyone else has the right idea. Is he not going to sleep, or what?