Two in a Week

Frederick did not get visitors. Of all the parts of being on the islets, that was by far his least favorite. In Halcyon, it would have been unthinkable, but here?

He was a pariah. He recognized that, and he hated every second. News of what had happened with Godfrey had spread to those who'd come over from Halcyon, and since his sentencing he'd had no one.

Or almost no one. The younger Genovese had come to visit, much to his surprise, earlier that week. It was unexpected, but not entirely unpleasant, even if he'd wished for better company.

Getting a second visit in a week made him intensely suspicious, but he was in no position to deny a visit.

The visiting center was not the one he'd imagined from movies. It was a large room with a number of tables, with visitors and those they were visiting milling about largely freely. There were no handcuffs, although all the prisoners wore bracelets to nullify their powers, and it was distinctly obvious which was which. All the prisoners wore similar drab colors, while their visitors tended to be spots of color.

Frederick had taken a seat at one of the tables, and was spending his time wondering if it was going to be a Genovese again. Maybe the older one? That would be infuriating, but at least Basilio made for good conversation.

Miss Del Bosque. Frederick didn't even try and hide his surprise, his eyebrows raising as he spotted her. She looked... largely the same. Him, on the other hand? He looked different. Less together. A bit scruffier, the lightest hint of facial hair on his face, largely hidden by the sheer virtue of being blond.

He eyed the package immediately.

"Of course," he said, gesturing to the seat. "I'm here at your pleasure, after all."

Not entirely true. He could have denied her visit, but he had no reason to. He'd take whatever visit he could get, realistically speaking.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

A gift. She'd brought him a gift. A very kind, very generous present. He eyed it warily for a moment before reaching out, placing a hand on it, and sliding it back towards him.

A part of him was worried she'd leave with it if she got angry, and it would be significantly harder for her to do if she stormed out while it was on his side of the table.

"As well as can be expected, under the circumstances," he said. "Few visitors. I saw the younger Genovese earlier this week, and I'm having a hard time believing that your two visits aren't connected."

No, he couldn't be convinced of that by anything.

"What's the occasion? How have you been?"

He hadn't realized he was so desperate for conversation. He felt the need to be more guarded around Angelo, convinced that anything he said would be going back to Basilio, but there was no major concern of that with Zora.

Frederick wasn't sure if he believed that it was really just a coincidence. It didn't feel like one. It felt like there was something going on. But when she mentioned that he'd mentioned it, things made more sense. So he'd spurred it on by mentioning it to her.

And she wanted smalltalk. Actual, genuine smalltalk. Some tension that Frederick hadn't known he was carrying in his shoulder eased out a bit, and he relaxed a bit.

"I'd have a hard time lasting more than a few minutes talking about my time here. I have little to do with my time, truthfully. I'm allowed to work out and stay in shape. I have mandatory therapy. That's it, more or less."

"There are activities," Frederick admitted, "just not terribly interesting ones." Never mind that half the people in there with him were... unnerving at best. "It's dull. I didn't think it would bother me so much, but now it just wears me down. I suppose it's the lack of options once I'm out, but that's common enough."

He leaned back a bit on the bench, shifting position just to keep his legs from falling asleep. He hated sitting still - he'd move where he could get it.

"Common enough for people here." It wasn't as if he was alone in that.