Gene has been something close to manic for the past few days.
He allowed himself the remainder of the awful day - and only the remainder - to wallow in his depression and his anger. He'd fallen asleep sitting up at the table, unwilling to sleep in the bed that they had shared; he had a mild superstition that it might doom the pair of them once and for all, that his presence in the bed alone might sully their relationship beyond repair.
The next morning, he still felt like hot garbage, but he carefully tamped down all of his remaining emotions and locked them away, because he had work to do.
He'd been lobbying the family heads - except for Zanru. He'd kept well away from Stark Industries and the Metal Sector in general. He didn't want to see Tony, and he didn't want Tony to see him and get the wrong idea about why he was there.
It hurt too much, if he let himself think about it. So he didn't, and continued attempting to draft a solution for what to do with the Palace. The fact that he missed meals and didn't see much of a need to sleep until his body forced him to was entirely irrelevant.
And it is like this that Tony will find him when he finally returns - seemingly very busy and engrossed in his papers, but looking tired and haunted for all that.
February 7, evening
He allowed himself the remainder of the awful day - and only the remainder - to wallow in his depression and his anger. He'd fallen asleep sitting up at the table, unwilling to sleep in the bed that they had shared; he had a mild superstition that it might doom the pair of them once and for all, that his presence in the bed alone might sully their relationship beyond repair.
The next morning, he still felt like hot garbage, but he carefully tamped down all of his remaining emotions and locked them away, because he had work to do.
He'd been lobbying the family heads - except for Zanru. He'd kept well away from Stark Industries and the Metal Sector in general. He didn't want to see Tony, and he didn't want Tony to see him and get the wrong idea about why he was there.
It hurt too much, if he let himself think about it. So he didn't, and continued attempting to draft a solution for what to do with the Palace. The fact that he missed meals and didn't see much of a need to sleep until his body forced him to was entirely irrelevant.
And it is like this that Tony will find him when he finally returns - seemingly very busy and engrossed in his papers, but looking tired and haunted for all that.