#linkssouls

            he feels his breath hitch when she wraps her arms around him. it’s unprompted, he didn’t see it coming, and feels himself tense up. it’s kiku, it’s okay, it’s just kiku. he repeats it in his mind, trying to keep himself calm. kiku wouldn’t hurt him. no, she would never hurt him. he takes deep breath, hoping his body will stop shaking as he slowly returns the embrace. he hopes she won’t bring attention to this. 

            the hug doesn’t last too long, which he appreciates. takeru feels his nerves settle more as she pulls away. he truly is happy to see her again. she was his only friend back in his hometown. even if she didn’t know a lot about him (he chose not to share about himself), she stuck with him. she worried about him. honestly, it was annoying at times, but deep down it made him happy. someone cared about him... 

           he feels his cheeks flush at her words, “m-me? i’m...doing fine. i’ve been doing better here. i’ve even made some friends.” he couldn’t help but mention yusaku, ai, and kusanagi. he supposed flame fell under that category too. all of them were important to takeru. he didn’t want to say too much, didn’t want to put kiku in danger. “and...i started going to school again. i’m still getting used to it, but it’s not that bad.” 

          he notices her try to reach out and feels himself twitch, ready to jerk away from the contact. but she stops, which he appreciates. he meets her eyes for a moment, before his gaze goes to the side. “you don’t have to thank me.” he figured anyone would have done the same if they were in his shoes. all he did was duel ryujiro and...then what happened? he tried to remember, but he was blanking. it felt like a wall had formed and he couldn’t recall what had happened, though he felt a sense of dread. why was that? 

          he had been at cafe nagi, discussing new plans for retrieving jin’s consciousness when he heard his ringtone start playing. oh, must be his grandparents checking in or something. however, he felt his heart drop when he saw the caller id. kiku. what was he supposed to do? ignore it? no, that would be mean. as if he wasn’t already being mean by ignoring her texts or giving her short responses. it wasn’t that he didn’t want to make friends, it was that he had a hard time doing so. connecting with others was near impossible for him. yusaku was the only one thus far that was able to get past all of that. of course, it was because he was another lost incident victim. the two understood each other’s pain and went through the same hell.