TAKE YOUR HEART

“Wait, are you quoting...?”

“Mraaww! (I don’t need a trimming! My claws need to be sharp!)”

“The only thing you’re attacking with those things are my sheets, buddy.”

“I don’t think so? Captain Kidd’s cool as hell and while pirates existed long ago, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve been on one or not. Because you’re still cool in my eyes, Ryuji.” Yeah, that totally made sense.

Oh jeez, he’s being all earnest again. Ryuji never knows how to deal with that.

                         “ hehe,  don’t worry!  i’d rather stay as cute and pretty and non - threatening as i am right now! ”

                           the bear - turned - boy giggles cheerfully,  folding his hands in front of him and thinking for a moment with a hum.  “ well,  i like to think that there’s a  NATURAL GLOW  about me,  but physically speaking i’m about the same as any other person in this world!  i just like my style.  and i don’t have any bones. ”

“The balance lies in your hands, Teddie-kun. Guard it wisely.” She says in her best wizened mentor voice.

“I see, so it must base itself on self-cognition...wait, you don’t have bones?” She’s quiet for a second. Thinking.

If he could describe juvie as anything, it would be “boring”. Maybe that would change if the appeals didn’t work, if he reached his birthday and moved up to actual jail, but for now, it’s just boring. He’s trying his best to be grateful for that.

Most of the time he was in solitary, an attempt to make him more “cooperative” with the police. Funnily enough, he actually was cooperating, but nobody wanted a testimony that involved going into other worlds. He didn’t have much of a problem with that, though; he wasn’t here to make friends, and they allowed him to have books in there, at the very least. He could keep up with school, too. It was nice to know he could graduate the same time as everyone else, if he could get out of here.

If, if, if. The thought bounces around his skull like a pendulum. 

The worst part is the double-set of memories. Part of him has been here for months, another part just got here, and both parts felt completely alone.

Good old reality, huh?

Despite his desire for contact, he can’t help but dread visiting hours. Another meeting with Nijima dangling hope on a string, another pitiful glance hidden in Sojiro’s eye, another stretch of silence with his mother.

When he sees that it’s none of the three, he doesn’t know how to feel. A horrible feeling twists inside his chest, constricting his lungs.