LOWER FIVE.

Rui is nice.

Aichi ends up thinking that before he even notices. he can’t really bring himself to answer anything, not yet, but it’s nice to…be listened to, he guesses.

it feels a little less alone, like this, talking about cats and going on walks and - (human things. normal things. Rui is a good person.) - nice things, so Aichi nods.

“you’re a nice person,” Aichi ends up echoing, before just nodding and sitting down next to Rui, rustling through his pockets. “I mean, um, thanks. I’d like that. to go and…do that.”

there. the deck hasn’t moved, of course, from when he was gripping onto it earlier like it was the only stable thing in the world, but it’s still nice to have it in his hands again. Aichi places it in the space between them, rifling through a few of the cards to pull out specifics.

“it’s, um, called Cardfight Vanguard. it’s really popular, where…I’m from. these guys are Gold Paladins, and they’re…” and he almost says my friends, but while it’s nice enough to talk about cards, talking about speaking to them is off limits even to the friends back home, so Aichi puts a stop to that line of thought right there and there. “I met a lot of my friends through them,” he settles on. Wingal and Flogal Liberator sit next to the deck, and Aichi lingers as he finds one last card. 

Blaster Blade doesn’t fit with the rest of the deck, so he puts him back in his pocket.

(he misses his friends, a lot, but it’s still probably better to be out of their way. he brought them a  lot of trouble.)

“…it’s…kind of lonely here, huh?”

You’re a nice person, Aichi says, and Rui just – stares. He does contemplate protesting against it, he really does. Rui opens his mouth and holds it like that, just agape, for a second or two, but eventually closes it again and just settles on nodding his head instead. It isn’t like it’s the first time someone’s told him anything along those lines, but it’s not like it becomes easier to hear when he still knows it’s not true.

“I try to be,” he ends up mumbling instead. He really tries to be.

Aichi says, too, that he’d like it if Rui did help show him around. Okay. Little steps. Rui’s doing better at socializing (maybe), which is – nice. It feels good, albeit still so terribly awkward given just how terribly out of his element he is. He’s at least successfully prompted Aichi into talking more, it seems, which feels like a whole strange weight off Rui’s shoulders. Things are going to be alright, maybe?

“Cardfight Vanguard,” he repeats.

Admittedly, the name doesn’t mean much to Rui. He repeats it a second time to commit it to memory, Cardfight Vanguard, before he lets himself get a good look at the cards that Aichi shows off to him. Rui looks at them with much interest – the first two look quite cute, and remind him of Himari in a way, though truthfully there’s little in common between them all other than they’re animals and she’s a cat – and nods from time to time to show he’s still listening.

Aichi met his friends through them, hm? Through playing cards together? That doesn’t seem so unlikely. It’s a terribly normal, human thing to do. Play games together. Make friends. Rui falls silent for a moment, letting his gaze fall to where his hands now sit folded on his lap.

“They look nice. If you want to teach me sometime, or just talk about it, I can listen.” And then... it’s lonely, says Aichi, and all Rui can do is nod. “It is.” Rui – Rui finds himself incredibly luckily. He lost some friends, friends from that city before, but at least Hanako is here. There’s somebody he knows, and Rui appreciates that. If Aichi has no one, though, and all that’s here are trees and a town... maybe there might be more, someday? The town had been sealed off when Rui first arrived. But...

Aichi must be very lonely.

Rui pushes himself sharply to his feet, struck by inspiration. He holds up a finger but doesn’t outright state I’ll be right back or anything along those lines, but does at least try to walk relatively quickly in order to come back with a white cat (with a large, pink, ribboned collar around her neck) held securely in his arms.

the san is oddly comforting, if a little unexpected. something familiar, like the name before it, and Aichi manages to smile in a way that isn’t completely forced.

the lack of last name…probably means nothing, honestly. he shouldn’t pry, except for the fact that they’re balancing around each other and Aichi hasn’t come out and said a single word about the fact that Rui is probably absolutely not human. (it’d be rude. he really wants to ask. he shouldn’t ask. but -)

there’s a cat? 

“oh, I, um, I like cats!” something else familiar. it’s a little warmer. “there’s a cat at the card shop I go to, actually,” and the words are moving quicker now, something he can talk about and pretend he’s not somewhere else entirely.

“she’s Sub-manager. she’s really cute, and I like to pet her, but we’re not supposed to spoil her or she’ll get all clingy and then no one can do any work, you know? but I also like dogs, like Wingal and Flogal, and I can show you them though they’re not really real they’re just -”

ah.

“cards,” Aichi says a little too late for his brain to stop him. “they’re…um. f-from a card game.”

he’s been moving around the house a little as he talked, and the realization makes him take a full step back from Rui, looking down at the floor. it could be some sort of record how badly he’s messed up this conversation. 

after all, they’re not friends. (and probably won’t be, if Aichi continues on like this.)

“…it’s okay,” he finally adds. “you don’t - you don’t have to do that. I don’t want to…impose.”

Admittedly, the series of rambling that follows Rui’s announcement about his cat is kind of nice. It feels considerably less like the awkward and uncomfortable situation that it so clearly is; almost like they’re friends already. He listens intently, giving a nod here and there when he thinks it’s appropriate, and –

– oh, he’s gotten nervous again, hasn’t he?

“Ah.”

“You’re fine, you know. I don’t mind if you talk a lot.” Rui does better that way, but he doesn’t really want to lay himself bare that much – or at all, really. Hanako talks a lot, too. Rui isn’t very good with words, so he has no problems with having to listen. He runs through everything Aichi just said in his head again, trying to make a point to reply to what he can, no matter how awful Rui himself might be with words.

“You can spoil Himari. I don’t mind. She’ll get clingy, too, but I figure I may as well let her live her happiest life. She likes salmon, if you ever want to give her a treat. I’d...” Aichi’s staring at the ground; Rui doesn’t do anything to impose himself very much. If anything, he just takes a step backwards. It seems like Aichi might get a little less jumpy if Rui keeps some more space between them...?

“I’d like to see them. Even if they’re cards. I don’t care about that, either. If you like cards, I think that’s interesting. I like – going for walks. That’s boring, isn’t it? So we can be even, now, in sharing something embarrassing about ourselves.”

He lets himself take a seat on the sofa, giving Aichi a glance before distracting himself by looking around the cabin. Himari’s probably napping, he thinks; it might be a smart idea to call for her to diffuse whatever situation is happening, but he doesn’t want to wake her up. “I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t have the time for it. You aren’t imposing – I told you myself. I can show you around sometime. That isn’t you imposing, it’s me. So it’s alright.”

A little stiffly, Rui pats the spot on the sofa beside him.

there sure is a whole lot of not talking going on.

the thing is, actually - Aichi knows how to deal with loud people. people who drag him into things and won’t take no for an answer.

something a bit more like himself, though…he doesn’t know whether to take it at face value. the words he hears are slow and halting, and Aichi feels his stomach drop a little, like there’s tension he’s completely missed. 

he tries to nod along (Rui, it’s a nice name. Aichi didn’t expect an almost familiar name, like someone he could have known back at school) but his eyes drop back down to his feet without even a conscious effort.

“I’m, um…” he’s going to mess this up. he’s going to mess this up, and Aichi feels kinda desperate to stay out of sight.

“I-I’m Aichi.” that’s all he needs to say, probably, but Aichi hates feeling like this and doesn’t want to just stand there and say nothing like he hasn’t changed at all, so his mouth keeps moving without his input. “um, Sendou Aichi, I don’t know if we’re doing last names or not. do they matter? I mean, um, I guess they don’t. I’m a - a first year at Miyaji Academy, though I guess that’s not here either, and um, I, uh…”  

Aichi trails off before he mentions the deck of cards he’s still holding onto like a lifeline, as if the person he can be when cardfighting will somehow take his place. he nods again, then a second time - though not like he’s really agreeing to anything - and steps a little further inside.

“t-thanks,” he mumbles. “it’s…nice to meet you, Rui…kun.”

Aichi. Okay. Rui can keep that in mind; it’s a Japanese name too, so he knows it’ll stick in his mind easier. It’s a lot more difficult when the name is made of sounds Rui isn’t used to, but Aichi is something familiar.

(It’s almost funny that they’re both thinking that. Or would have been, maybe, if either one had said it out loud instead of just staring at each other and failing to socialize properly for absolutely too long.)

“Oh,” Rui continues. He hadn’t – thought of that. Of last names. He doesn’t ever give his when he introduces himself, because he doesn’t feel like he’s been Rui Ayaki in a long time. Not since he was human. “Sendou-san.” He tries it out loud, and it sounds... fine, so he’ll probably stick to it. Rui’s not the most polite person, though admittedly remembering his human life did instill some of that back into him, but Aichi-san sounds too familiar. More than he’s comfortable with.

“... we...”

“... can? Do last names. It’s just that I don’t – I’m just Rui.” Which isn’t the whole truth, but it isn’t anything he needs to go explaining. He’s in school... Rui, obviously, isn’t, so he can’t give his school, either, which just adds to the heavy layer of awkwardness in the air. At least Aichi’s stepped inside, even if Rui has to glance around in the hopes of alleviating some of the inability to hold a conversation. It doesn’t work, to nobody’s surprise.

“We have another housemate, my b–” – no he can’t say that. He’d get embarrassed. “Er, so Hanako’ll be around, at some point. There’s... uh... my cat, Himari, if you like cats... and... some food, in the kitchen. You can – go to the store? If you need to go to the store.”

Conversational skills? Ten out of ten.

“... I’ve... been here for. A little bit. I suppose if you need someone to show you around – not... not around the house, around – in general. I... could. At some point.”

@cutwarmth​

maybe it’s bad for Aichi to flinch when he enters the cabin numbered the same as his key. maybe it’s bad to hold the cards in his jacket pocket tightly, like a lifeline, to make sure he’s where he seems to be. (he doesn’t feel out of the ordinary. he’s here, wherever here is.)

there’s someone else in the cabin. that shouldn’t be…abnormal. of course there would be other people. he’s not isolated.

it’s - just -

the greeting is caught in his throat. (maybe he’s scared.) 

“um -”

it’s not exactly a word. Aichi wavers there. there’s a small part of him that really, really wants to run away.

you’re not human. he doesn’t say that, because it’s the first person he’s met and he won’t say that and maybe he’s the only human here! maybe it’s another world entirely. but he thinks it, and then follows that thought with they look pretty, which is easier to prove true than the first statement but something he’s not even slightly going to say.

…they’re about the same height. he’s not going to bring that up, either. 

Aichi’s been standing here saying nothing for quite some time now, so he should either run or actually try and say something, and because bravery is still a foreign concept but one he can finally touch, he clutches the key to his chest and says -

“who are you…?”

which, still, isn’t a start. (the key isn’t bravery, after all.)

Rui has had – some level of experience, kind of, with having to socialize. Being thrust into two entirely separate instances of ending up in a world that isn’t your own (regardless, when you should be dead) will apparently give you at least some semblance of how to communicate with other people.

Of course, every time Rui thinks something along these lines he ends up immediately making a complete and total fool of himself.

For instance, instead of saying his name Rui promptly freezes and just stares for what is absolutely a moment uncomfortably too long.

“... er...”

“Your... housemate... I presume?”

That – probably isn’t what the boy had meant, though, is it? Rui hadn’t expected a new housemate already, is all, so an unfamiliar face walking into the cabin has caught him more than a little off-guard. A pale-white boy staring at you and barely answering your question probably isn’t very comfortable, though. Rui purses his lips in thought for a second, and then tries again.

“Uh. My name is Rui,” and that’s – so far, so good, isn’t it? That’s how normal people who are definitely one-hundred percent human introduce themselves, right? As if guided by Hanako’s unfortunately-ever-present hand, Rui gives a nod. Like he’s proud of himself, or something. “I, uh, live here. I guess you do now, too. Or else all the keys to all the cabins are the same.”

Which would probably be worrisome, and also something Rui would have to make sure Hanako doesn’t ever figure out. He sighs and raises a hand to run it through his hair before adding on,

“You can come further inside? I’m not going to eat you. It’s your house.”

Even if he does look like... this. And does eat... well, people. At least he has manners.

a mixed history of night haunts; a shovel taken to dirt in the stillness, the low creak of rotting wood beneath old worn boots. moon long hidden behind clouds as the distant sound of chanting that once reverberated in his sternum. there wasn’t a fear in the night   (   the things that bite   &   hiss   &   melt away into shadows   ).   no, that had been long trained out in his youth    —    between the sweat slick grip of a knife   &   the sharp snap of a gun. this fog   ?   oh, it was reminiscent of many a childhood memory; many an adult memory. it was not hesitancy in his actions but known caution to how flimsy a humans senses were against those who called such conditions home. 

then, of course, was the familiar face of the   (   not kid, a reminder   )   perched on the precipice as well. eyes glinting in the dark, the hunter releasing a soft sigh    —    the bitter scent of blood in a flash of memory.     ❝     I was at least going to see. where’s the harm in trying at this point   ?   it’s either do it or sit around   &   lord knows I’ve never been to good at just twiddling my thumbs.     ❞

taking a step closer    —    fingers itching for the thrum of bone carefully tucked far away    —    peering past with a tilt of the head.     ❝     did you plan to   ?   rui, wasn’t it.     ❞

Where’s the harm in trying? is a question Rui thinks he might have disagreed with, once upon a time. A demon was exactly that – is. A demon is the harm in trying. A demon is a terrible thing that can, will, must rip you to shreds – destroy you. Rui knows there was a time when he wasn’t any better than those things in the mists. He knows, too, that that time might come again someday.

“As long as you know,” Rui muses idly. It isn’t really his business.

And he plans to leave it there. He does. Rui doesn’t know how ready he is to deal with the thought of his parents being out there in the fog again. There’s no reason to say any more than that, so he doesn’t – not until he hears his name. Rui finally turns to look, his lips parted just slightly; the shock in his system feels a lot greater than he lets his face display.

“Oh,” is all he manages, at first, and then he manages to gather his thoughts to continue. “Er – yes, it’s Rui. Dean-san, right?” So, he does remember him. That’s – more of a relief than Rui would have assumed. Being caught, wounded, mid-meal tends to bond you with someone better than you’d think, apparently.

he can hear it, the way rui’s voice shakes. hanako didn’t believe that he deserved to be that happy either, but… he knew that it would end, because things like hanako don’t deserve happy endings, and one day hanako has to move on from his afterlife to the next, anyway. but he still likes hearing rui laugh, and whatever hanako feels about not deserving this or that, he’s just glad that he has rui with him again. he wishes he didn’t forget about him at all when he returned, but there’s nothing he can really do.

“I thought that… I was going to be alone here. I still don’t feel great, but I really thought that you and Yashiro and everyone else I know would just be gone. I’m glad that you’re not, because—back there, it would’ve just been me and Aoi-chan, you see. The train would have taken us to the Far Shore, and I’d be there for good.”

maybe he was saved.

and hanako doesn’t see how rui’s looking at him, because he’s still focused on himari. because it’s nice that she’s here, too, and it’s little things like this that make it a little more concrete that it’s real. he still feels like his head is in a bubble, a little cloudy, but he does feel better.

“Yeah! I know what you mean. It’s a good thing we checked.” he’s not sure if they have bowls for food and water for her, but they can probably get some, somehow. and when rui holds his hand out for hanako to take it, he does. he also stares up at the roof, when they’re outside, then to the ground and along the wall from what he can see from standing where he is.

“Yeah, alright. Maybe there’s a ladder somewhere… it’s too high up for me to just float up, it looks like.” hanako ends up laughing, though, at the thought of being thrown. “Well, you could try! It might be fun. But you’d still need to find a way up, too. Unless you could just jump.”

and, yes, they are mostly under the trees. from what he can tell, at least. that’s likely another good thing, and he’s trying so hard to just focus on the good.

“Might be hard to see ‘em… the stars, I mean. Maybe there’s a break in the trees somewhere, but I guess we could find it eventually. One problem at a time!” so he lets go of rui’s hand, and wanders around the right side of the cabin, looking around all the while. he doesn’t see any easy ways up, but one alternative is that it could be easiest to climb a tree and drop from a branch onto the cabin? he’s not sure rui would go for that, but hanako could. maybe.

on his side, he doesn’t see any sort of ladder. he just stands at the back, furrowing his brow together while he tries to think of alternative ways up. he snaps out of this when he sees rui come up, though.

“Hmm, no luck. There’s a shovel back here, though. I don’t think that’ll be useful for getting on the roof. Did you find anything?”

It is too high for Hanako to float, then. Rui had assumed as much; still, he takes a few more moments to stare up at the roof in thought before continuing on in their joint attempts to figure out how to get up there. He does hope there’s an easy way to view the stars... maybe if not on the roof, then somewhere, but Rui thinks he’d much rather stick to the routine the two of them had grown used to rather than – he doesn’t know. Sit in a tree? Something about the thought of Hanako in a tree feels... dangerous?

They split up.

Rui wanders around on his own side, examining the exterior of the cabin as best as he can; he can’t find an easy way up, either. When he bumps into Hanako again around the back of the cabin he has a finger resting on his chin in thought, but it isn’t exactly helping him find any solutions.

“Oh, a shovel,” he deadpans, in acknowledgement of it. His hand remains on his chin for a beat longer – until he claps his hands together in a mock revelation, as if he’s just come up with the greatest idea ever (he hasn’t). Unsurprisingly, he feels as if Hanako may just think this is the best thing he’s ever heard in his life.

“Why don’t,” he starts, “you stand on the spade part of the shovel. Then, I jump onto the handle, which sends you shooting up into the air and onto the roof.”

It’s entirely deadpan. There’s not any world in any reality where Rui is being a single bit serious right now. Not even remotely. Still, it is Hanako he’s talking to. Rui’s been his boyfriend for long enough to know that the H in Hanako stands for Hohgodpleasedon’tthinki’mserious, so he follows up with an equally deadpan, “I’m joking.”

“Hmm...”

Rui doesn’t know the ins and outs of the forest yet – after leaving the Grove, he just headed directly here. Why would he explore around when the safe time for him to do just that was so terribly limited? Maybe there’s something they can use, or find, somewhere else in these woods, though.

“We should probably look around instead, once we’ve settled in.”

Certainly, he shouldn’t be expecting a child to be of much help; though not completely unkind, he cannot profess having the greatest experience in handling them—or so Shakespeare has written.

❝Say, you there. You wouldn’t have happened to come across a fox scampering about, have you? About yea big? White fur?❞ He gestures the rough dimensions of the rumored fox spotted to have been wandering about these parts, seemingly arriving with the mists pooling around their feet. Therein exists a certain suspicion in the back of his mind, pausing from ( half-heartedly ) aiding in the effort to clear the cave of its statues to consider the end result, the circumstances which resolve this curious shift. ❝Of course, if you haven’t, then that’s perfectly fine as well!❞

Oberon flashes a bright smile, getting up from the tree stump he decided to make his makeshift throne.

@cutwarmth

He’s been doing the best that he can – all things considered, helping still feels terribly outside of Rui’s range of emotions (like his whole body wants to rebel against it, even though he isn’t here to control Rui, to tell him what to do) – to aid in destroying the statues. Rui wants to help, he does; he just feels like he isn’t allowed to, even after all of this time he’s spent... doing what? Repenting? That’s not it, and yet –

Rui stares out at the fog, eyes half-unfocused.

“I haven’t,” he admits, primarily because it isn’t as if being wild and uncontrolled isn’t particularly Rui’s whole schtick. “But I’ve heard talk of it. Are you searching for it?”

It seems... helpful, doesn’t it? The whispers have mentioned this or that about being saved by it – he’s heard that much. But maybe it’s a little too good to be true. With everything else going on, are the Gods even to be trusted? Rui shakes his head to himself.

  despite all the awkwardness from rui, nene offers a smile in return. “ it’s nice to properly meet you too, rui! ” she returns. it feels like far too kind of a gesture to give food to a near stranger, but if rui (and his housemates?) have made enough of them that he’s willing, then she wouldn’t say no to lending a hand and gaining some delicious donuts out of it.

  nene follows behind rui, making sure her steps don’t overtake his own. there’s plenty of… less than “normal” encounters that she’s had, but it’s the nature of rui’s words and stance that make her feel a bit more safe than she normally would. entering a boundary when danger was afoot is one risk, but here in a new world with a face that comes off as even remotely familiar eases her nerves enough to go along with him without much concern.

  the cat, of all creatures, does manage to jump scare her solely from how fast himari approaches her. nene visibly flinches, but calms down instantly with all the loving purrs and nudges against her legs. 

  “ ohhh, you’re so sweet! you’re a good kitty, aren’t you??? ” nene coos, crouching down to pet himari with both hands. she’s… going to be distracted for a hot minute playing with your cat. donuts can wait!

Rui notices her flinching, and it makes him flinch, in turn – he isn’t usually someone so easy to startle, not at all, but he feels. Almost as if there’s some need to perform, one that’s balanced terribly on top of his shoulders right now. Some part of him feels like if anything happens to Nene, right now, because of Rui – whether negligence or scaring her to death or whatever else – then he feels like Hanako might just have his head.

Because she’s important to him, isn’t she?

... but she seems to calm down immediately when she realizes Himari isn’t a threat, and is terribly affectionate on top of it all, and Rui heaves a sigh of relief that he’s sure Nene’ll probably have picked up on. Granted, she does seem to be entirely lost in the euphoria of cat right now.

“She’s lovely, isn’t she?” So, not being a bother then. Good.

Rui steps over to where the donuts have been stored and selects a couple of them, setting them on a plate for whenever Nene’s finished with her kitty euphoria. He’s chosen some galaxy-decorated ones; Hanako’s partial to the plain ones, so those are nearly gone while the iced ones still remain aplenty.

he doesn’t sound good, and hanako notices, but he doesn’t want to ask why. he’s drained, unsure whether he even has the energy to try. and it’s not that he doesn’t want to know, but—maybe rui will bring it up to him later, or maybe he won’t. he doesn’t entirely want to push for him to, anyway.

rui says they can look for his room, so he doesn’t imagine that will take very long. they probably won’t even spend very long there, maybe, unless hanako decides he doesn’t want to go to the roof and instead just lay down for now.

and at least rui follows. the support is nice, when hanako feels so, so heavy. like he could collapse under gravity, weighed down by more than just that. he doesn’t, though.

he’s still a little spacey, too, but hearing the meow takes him out of it a bit. well - that and rui squeezing his hand a little too hard, it kind of hurts, but he tries not to react to it. he does, however, mutter out himari’s name. he’s… glad that she’s safe, somehow. he’s glad that she’s here.

hanako lets rui lead him, sitting on the bed next, and watching as rui scoops himari up in his arms. he looks back away after that; hanako’s mouth feels a little less dry than before, so he imagines seeing both her and rui helped in that regard. he’s still anxious, but at least he can more or less ignore it now.

time doesn’t usually matter to hanako. in the sense that, he falls so intrinsically outside of it that he’s stuck in a circle of never aging, because he’s dead, fixed in a position of never moving on either. it doesn’t usually matter. but he feels a pit worse than before sink in his stomach over the fact that.. it’s november, which means he lost a lot more time with rui than he’d thought. he presses his lips together, still stuck in thought, but rui continues.

and it does snap him out a bit, hanako looks back over, head tilted, and his gaze drops to himari cradled in rui’s arms before he looks to rui next. if it’s their anniversary, then.. they really lost so much together. hanako knows it’s not his fault, but he still somehow feels like he should have done more to bring them back together again sooner. he’s not even the reason they were brought back together; he realizes how little power he actually holds.

“…”

hanako doesn’t want to just start crying again, he’s tired of that, but he does move a bit closer so he can lean up and press a gentle kiss to rui’s lips. it — admittedly, makes him feel a bit better. so he kisses him again, and again, and then leans back again.

“Happy anniversary.” he reaches a hand over to pet himari, scratching beneath her chin then the top of her head, behind her ears, and she’s just purring away. it makes him smile a bit, because he is happy to see her again, happy that she’s here, still. so he’s glad, ultimately, that they both checked the room first. he wants to stay here for as long as they can before moving to the roof, because he doesn’t want to pull rui away from himari just so that he can. it’s comfortable in the room, at least. the roof may be a comfort for him, but rui is, too.

“Even if we can’t get those months back, I’m.. glad that we’re both together again. I kinda knew that we were going to leave, it just felt like — like that’s just how it was going to be. I didn’t think so abruptly, though, so I wasn’t prepared for that, but. I guess we’re here, now.”

hanako moves his hand away so he can kiss the top of himari’s head, and she headbumps into his lips. this makes hanako laugh before pulling away again, and… yeah, he does feel better.

“We can stay here longer, if you wanna.”

Rui doesn't expect the kiss. He doesn't, and it's something so decidedly normal that it catches him off guard; he almost forgets to kiss Hanako in return, almost, but collects himself in time. Rui knows Hanako has to be as much in his head about this all as Rui himself is – because their anniversary means they lost more time than they'd had, and Rui doesn't know where it all went. It should have been a year without pause, and instead it wasn't.

It wasn't, and Hanako remembers things that he hadn't before. Hanako's hurting because of it, but he... he remembers Rui. Rui has to take the little victories, but he's almost not sure he wants to. If Hanako had forgotten Rui again, would his memories have stayed at the point they were at? Rui would rather himself hurt than having to watch Hanako hurt.

Oh, he'd rather it so terribly.

“... I'm grateful, too,” Rui mumbles after a beat, but he's not sure he can trust his own voice. It's a miracle when it doesn't come out shaking. “I didn't want to leave. I knew I didn't deserve to be as happy as I was, but I didn't think – I didn't think that after so long, I'd –”

And his voice does shake there, but he lets himself get distracted with Himari headbutting against Hanako in retaliation for kissing her, and Rui interrupts himself with a laugh. Things still feel kind of... wrong, but they feel... better. They feel better, at least, because somehow Hanako's here and remembers him, and Himari's here, too.

Rui has to take the little victories, for as wrong as everything else feels.

“... it's okay.”

Rui can tell how soft his gaze is. He always looks at Hanako a certain way, and now is no exception, even as he lets Himari loose so that she can hop to the ground again. She gives a stretch and heads happily back to Rui's bed in order to curl up once more on top of the pillow. Rui wants to get permission from whoever the third member of the household must be before he lets Himari roam loose, so he motions to Hanako to follow him out and shuts the door behind them both.

“We can come back to her later. It's – calming, just knowing she's here.” If that makes sense. Rui's certain Hanako will understand, one way or another. Offering out his hand for Hanako to take, Rui leads him outside the house, and stares up at the roof.

Rui’s – admittedly, gotten a little lucky with familiar faces. Hanako being his Hanako had been luck only, Rui thinks, and he’d pushed it by assuming Nene was the same one he knew (even if she was). Rui had... Rui had been forgotten before, so even though he recognizes Dean, he makes no attempt to insinuate that he does.

It’s easier that way, admittedly, in case Rui has been forgotten about again. While he hadn't been particularly attached, it's less than... ideal, to know someone else doesn't know who he is anymore. He knew how badly it had hurt him once upon a time when Hanako didn't know who he was.

So as he gazes out at the fog, one hand flexing out at his side to resist the instinctive want to play with his threads even if there's no threat at hand, Rui doesn't admit that he knows the face nearby.

"Are you meaning to take care of some of the statues yourself?"

Rui glances over his shoulder; the attempt to repress his threads doesn't work very well, because after only a few more seconds his hands have both raised, and he stretches a web idly out in front of him.

  “ rui… ”

  a soft repeat, one that nene nods to and decidedly commits to memory. it wouldn’t do to forget someone she’s known before in a situation like this. in fact, it makes for a comforting feeling despite how little she truly knows of him. a familiar face is hardly anything to scoff at though and by god will nene not look a gift horse in the mouth!

  the offer comes as a bit of a surprise to nene. rui’s politeness comes off as… awkward more than an intentional way of speaking and it provides a bit more light-heartedness to all the confusion here. he’s trying and that’s what matters the most.

  … oh. donuts.

  those sound… really nice, actually. nene can’t quite read what rui could possibly be making that expression about, but it does draw a small laugh out of her. which turns into a hand slapping against her mouth and an apologetic look.

  “ fresh donuts…! i haven’t had one in forever, so… if you’re okay with sharing, then i want some!!! ”

“You’re...” Rui trails off for a moment to try to gather his thoughts again, because he still feels terribly out of his element. He’s tempted to prompt that he’s sorry, but Hanako’s only ever called her Yashiro, but her first name doesn’t matter one way or another because Rui’s certain he’ll just call her Yashiro-san one way or another. So he shakes his head, and opts to not finish that sentence the way he’d planned. “... it’s nice to properly meet you, Yashiro-san.”

She... probably doesn’t even know about Rui’s closeness to Hanako. Right? Why would she? So Rui stays silent about it.

“... mm. We made... too many. So I’m alright with sharing.”

“Follow me.” Rui’s aware it probably seems – well, he’s less than friendly-looking, but she either seems alright with that or trusts him anyway, so Rui won’t comment on that, either. He does lift a hand to motion for her to follow him and awkwardly first leads her to his cabin and then lets them both in. Himari immediately books it not for Rui but for Nene, rubbing against her legs and purring all the while as she learns all about whoever this new friend Rui’s brought over is.

Rui’s lost track of what time of day it is, due to the fog. It’s thick enough that he can’t see the sun – both a sort of blessing and a curse, in that he doesn’t feel he needs to worry about it, but he’d rather know – and in the process of investigating the other side of the mountain, well... he lost any sort of spatial awareness. The fog all blends everything together – the time, the scenery, the spirits.

They’re the worst part of all, whatever they are. Whyever they’re here.

Rui has enough strength that shattering one of the statues was no issue at all. The fog had cleared slightly, but not enough to disclose the time or weather, but it had fully exposed a spectre looming in the distance. A spectre with a shape all too familiar to Rui, someone he hadn’t seen in much, much too long, and –

– Rui’d heard the whispering. About the Deep Woods. About what the spectres here were, too.

So he turns and runs.

Rui doesn’t often run. It feels wrong, even now that he’s no longer just a sick, weak human. But running is better than handling a father-that-isn’t-his-father, than having to face that spectre head on, so he goes until he’s back at the mouth of the cave.

Only then does he process that somebody else is there. Rui doesn’t look at them when he speaks; he just gazes out into the fog, trying to see if the spectre’s still out there.

“... were you heading out there?”

it does help. rui touching him always helps. whether by holding his hands or rubbing his arm or even just leaning next to him, it helps. hanako uses a free hand to wipe away some of the tears staining his cheeks, returning them to where they are in his lap. he just keeps crying, though. he just wants to stop.

so rui talking helps, too. even if nothing else happened with him. there’s nothing for rui to catch hanako up on, and that’s okay. he can’t imagine there’d be much else for rui if… where he was meant to go next was hell. hanako’s sure that’s where he would’ve been headed too, were he not doing the whole hanako-san thing.

“Me too.” hanako squeezes rui’s hand a bit, but he doesn’t really look away from him. the tears have slowed, at least, and with anyone else he probably wouldn’t be so terribly vulnerable. he’d brush it off, say this or that about how it’s no big deal, nothing happened, but he can with rui. he does feel somewhat better, ultimately. crying made it easier, rui being here made it easier.

“If she’s not that might be for the better. I want to see her again, but not by putting her in the same situation as me. She’s still alive, so—I dunno. I don’t know if I feel saved. I’m still processing a lot of it.” and hanako knows that it’s not fine, getting pulled back somewhere else that’s not kamome, or the far shore. he still has a lot to do there, but.. he guesses that there’s no real point to be anywhere else. the far shore doesn’t have yashiro, even if it has other supernaturals he knows. she’s his friend, and he is attached to her, he wouldn’t deny that.

“Thanks, uh… I haven’t checked to see if there’s any easy way to get up on the roof, but I wanna head there, I think. Let’s check out your room first. I’m not in a hurry to go anywhere, so…”

hanako’s still kind of out of it, admittedly. he squeezes rui’s hand again, and just stays sitting for a bit. he lets go, eventually, getting back up to his feet. even if he feels a little more clear-headed, there’s still some part of him that’s spacey. he stretches his arms out to try to limber himself back up, moving again to take one of rui’s hands. he uses his free hand to wipe away the rest of the residual tears in the meanwhile. he’s stopped crying, finally.

“My room’s on the second floor, so I think yours is down here somewhere. I didn’t go looking very hard.”

I don’t know if I feel saved is a hard truth that Rui hasn’t thought about confronting yet. He struggled with it a lot, before, in that other place – struggled with the fact he hadn’t been allowed to stay with his parents, even if that meant in Hell. He hadn’t felt saved, either, waking up here. But Rui had slowly come to terms with still being alive once, and while he was certain for a moment that Hanako would have forgotten him again – that this was another cruel joke, since Rui wasn’t ever meant to be happy after everything he’d done – he...

He thinks he might feel something closer to saved, now.

“I understand,” is all Rui can bring himself to reply. He won’t force Hanako to do anything more than he’s comfortable with, even if that means the two of them just have to sit here for some time while Hanako gathers his thoughts. Rui can only imagine what Hanako’s going through; he stays silent, now. It – kind of makes him feel like a burden, like this is his fault somehow. That Hanako’s only here because Rui’s here, and if Hanako has things to do back home, then... all Rui’s doing is weighing him down.

But Rui wants him here, so, so badly. He’s always been a selfish thing.

“... okay.” His voice wavers a little when he speaks back up, trying though he is to suppress all the awful thoughts, but Rui’s... doing his best, or at least something adjacent to it. “We can look for my room, and then we can see if we can make it to the roof.” Rui – feels stronger than he remembers, though, which causes a pit of foreboding to gnaw at his stomach, like if he gets any stronger he’ll lose himself to the strength of Muzan’s blood running through him. He’s been weakened for so long that he doesn’t know if he safely... can ever return to his full self. If it’s even possible, he’s...

He’s scared.

But Hanako gets to his feet, and Rui follows shortly thereafter, keeping a firm grip on Hanako’s hand and resting the other hand on his shoulder to try and support Hanako as best as he can. It isn’t a difficult or particularly long walk to the rooms, at least, and Rui glances from one door to the other. One’s closed, and the other’s open, so it’s worth giving that one a try, and–

There’s an excited meow as they step inside; Rui all but squeezes Hanako’s hand infinitely too hard out of the surprise and realization that that’s Himari. She leaps off his pillow, purring up a storm, in order to rub against first Rui’s legs and then Hanako’s. Rui does his best to guide Hanako to the bed so that he can sit again, and once his hands are freed he first wipes at his eyes (his vision’s blurred) and next scoops Himari up.

With her still in his arms, Rui gives his room a quick bit of exploring, though his mind’s mostly focused on wanting to sit beside Hanako again. He finds his phone somewhere in his searching, or what he assumes is his phone, and feels his heart sink as he turns it on and realizes exactly how much time has passed.

“It’s November.” So, they definitely lost months in there somewhere. Rui purses his lips for a moment, but then gasps when he realizes exactly what day it is. Very barely – the clock’s only just hit midnight – but with it comes the date rolling over to the 23rd. Himari’s still purring in his arms, and Rui turns around a little hesitantly. Maybe he shouldn’t say it? Hanako’s in some sort of state, and Rui’s not sure if this would... well, make it worse. “... and... it’s...”

The difference between existing in one world versus another was not very significant for Rosalina… the worst part would always be having to exist without her Lumas, but she’s been without them before and they’ve been without her before, and she was confident that they would be fine. They have plenty of themselves to keep each other company, after all.

Besides, this place was… cozy. It was nice. She felt at ease here… didn’t even mind that she was leaving her room with a decent case of bedhead.

“Hello,” she replied, far too softly at first, “No, I do not mind cats.”

“Himari. Are they yours?”

She doesn’t mind cats. Rui lets out a breath he didn’t fully realize he was holding. Being somewhere new means he can’t exactly pinpoint what to expect; the thought of needing to keep Himari in his room wasn’t upsetting, but he would rather she be able to explore the entire house at her leisure.

“She is,” and he’s rather enjoying holding her at the moment, so while he easily could have let her down to investigate now, the both of them seem to be alright enough with the way things are. “I... wanted –” Rui hesitates for a moment to get the words together. “... I wanted to make sure it was alright for her to roam the house.”

“... ah – I’m Rui.”

Himari finally tires of her situation and wriggles free of Rui’s grip, only to make her way over to Rosalina and start investigating the hem of her dress, tail swishing away. Rui turns his attention away from Himari, finally, and luckily doesn’t pay much attention to Rosalina’s bedhead.