The Foxes Den

"I don't know," Kanade admitted, not fighting as Hokkyo reached out to pull her into a hug. If anything, she seemed grateful for the chance to rest against Hokkyo, awkwardly half perching on their knee, half standing between their legs as they held her close.

"It's been a rough few days," Haruka pointed out, her other hand appearing in Hokkyo's field of vision to play with Kanade's hair. "Anyone would be in bad shape right now. We'll let her sleep, and make sure she's eating," Haruka paused, and then said pointedly, "make sure all of us are eating. As for everything else... we'll just have to love her a little harder for a while. Until she's on steady ground again."

Kanade murmured some sort of agreement, and Hokkyo tightened their grip on her. Mostly to ground themself so they didn't vault from the bed they were sitting on and burst into the 'spare' bedroom like their every nerve and synapse was demanding them do. Mafuyu needed to rest. That was more important than their jittery fear of something happening to her while she was asleep. The hand on their back began to move soothing circles, which caused Hokkyo to realise exactly how tight and tense they were holding themself. But despite noticing, they couldn't stop.

"My love," Haruka spoke lowly, and somewhere beneath the jitters and the fear, Hokkyo wondered if Kanade could even hear it, "you need to relax. I know it's hard for you, but you're going to be little help in this sort of state." Hokkyo knew she was right. There wasn't a whole lot that Haruka was wrong about, most of the time. But knowing and doing were two separate states, and the doing felt so far away from them that it may as well be sitting and having a tea party with their missing memories. "Do you need to leave?" Haruka asked, after a moment of Hokkyo consciously trying to relax what felt like their every muscle. They, just, managed to bite back their first impulse of snapping that no they did not and what they needed was to stay right here where they could be a support for Mafuyu long enough to actually think about the question and the situation.

"Kana-chan, I need your phone," Hokkyo managed to get out, and even through the simple contact of her hand on their back, Hokkyo felt Haruka relax a little. They must be in a worse state than they thought, if their choice to go to a SEKAI brought that much relief in her.

"Are you sure?" Kanade asked, even as she pulled her phone from her pocket.

"I'm sure. I just need... I don't know what I need. But I know I'm not going to get it sitting here and waiting for Fuyu to wake up. And I think... I think if I don't leave, I'm just going to make everything worse. Will you be okay? If I go for a while?" Kanade nodded, passing her phone over. Hokkyo set it to the side for a second, just long enough to pull Kanade into a kiss. "Don't start working. Help Haru make dinner. Or, well, sit in there while she cooks. Just in case Fuyu wakes up before I'm back. She'll need you."

"I know," Kanade nodded, and Hokkyo managed the smallest, tightest smile that had ever graced their face. Turning their head, they kissed Haruka quickly.

"Thank you," they whispered against her lips, before pulling away, picking up Kanade's phone, and vanishing within it as if they were no more than a projection of one of the Virtual Singers.

---

Landing in Empty SEKAI on four paws helped somewhat. It dispelled some of the nervous energy that had been eating up at Hokkyo ever since Kanade had returned from the dinner and told them about the fallout.

It was a quick decision to start running.

Empty SEKAI was endless. It was possible it looped around on itself, but it was equally possible it didn't and just extended out into the forever. Hokkyo didn't really care which was true. What they cared about, in this moment, other than their girls, was the solid floor beneath their paw pads, and how the air whistling past their face drowned out some of their thoughts.

"Hok-!" whomever had been trying to call out to them, their voice was lost to the wind as Hokkyo continued to run. They pushed their body, forcing it into higher speeds than ever before. Forced it into picking up speed as they ran, and ran, and ran, through the burn in their muscles and the ache in their chest, and the cold dredge of fear that they normally only felt when Empty KAITO got into one of his moods.

They pushed, and pushed, until their body itself told them 'No more', not through aches and burning, but through their paws going from beneath them, leaving them sprawling and human again on the cold floor, their chest heaving as they gulped in lungfuls of air.

"Hokkyo!" It was Len that called to them, but three sets of scurrying footsteps that approached, and hands too large to belong to Len that helped them sit up a little. Perhaps the SEKAI looped after all, given how Hokkyo doubted that Len, Miku, and Haoyu would be so far from the usual places they were.

"Are you okay?" Miku's head tilted, one pigtail nearly brushing the floor in her crouched position.

"Fine," Hokkyo lied. That was immediately followed by a wince at the blow to the back of their head.

"Liar." Haoyu flopped to sit next to them, his usually jovial face twisted into a disapproving scowl. "Never seen you run that fast, not even from a backfired prank."

Hokkyo huffed.

"It doesn't matter," they tried instead, and were glad they had recovered at least enough to dodge the second attempted thump to the head that Haoyu aimed for them.

"Haoyu!" Len sounded on the verge of tears. Despite their still heaving chest, and the not so small chance that Haoyu would try and hit them again, Hokkyo opened their arms for him. Len was quick to burrow in, like he was trying to get beneath their clothes and skin, to nestle directly into their ribcage and the warmth therein. "Please no fighting," he said, once he had deemed himself close enough.

"It's not fighting," Haoyu defended, "It's percussive maintanence on their clearly defective brain!" Hokkyo didn't say anything to that. Mostly because it was true. Even discounting the missing memories, there was something deeply defective about their brain. The way it saw the world so differently to everyone else. The way it balked at KAITO's anger, and only his.

The way it practically shut down the one and only time they'd come face to face with Mafuyu's mother.

"Hokkyo?" Quickly shaking themself free of their thoughts, Hokkyo looked to Miku, but couldn't quite bring themself to smile.

"I couldn't help her..." they hadn't meant to speak, but once those words were out, a practical deluge followed, "Not now, not back then either. I act all big and tough, like I'm her knight in shining armour or something. More like a loser in damn tinfoil! I failed her a thousand times already, but this one feels the worst! I couldn't help, because I couldn't go to that house now! I couldn't go, knowing I'd be known! Knowing that woman might try and speak to me and I'd freeze up again. And because I was too fucking scared of that happening, I wasn't there to protect her! And now-" Hokkyo's words were cut off by a sob that felt like they were spitting up glass. It tore it's way out of their throat, and they gave up on speech, instead drawing themself up small, trapping Len between their chest and their knees, gripped in a hug that must have been hurting him.

They gave no reaction to first Miku wrapping around them from one side, and then Haoyu from the other. They just pressed their face harder into Len's soft hair, and wept. Wept for Mafuyu, wept for their failure, and wept for a feeling they had no context or memories for.

They didn't know how long they'd been crying. It felt like multiple hours, but they doubted that. Kanade would have come to fetch them, if it truly had been that long.

"Mm'okay now," their voice was hoarse, as they slowly uncurled, their muscles protesting at the movement after how they'd abused them earlier with their running. To their surprise, Len didn't move. He stayed pressed to them, his own arms locked tight around their middle.

"Here," Haoyu produced a handkerchief from... somewhere, and held it out. Leaving one arm around Len, Hokkyo used the other to accept the material and wipe at their face and eyes, trying to clear the evidence of their tears.

"Do you think that's what she wants?" Miku asked, once Hokkyo was done wiping their face.

"What?"

"Mafuyu. Do you think she wants you to protect her?" The question had never really occured to Hokkyo before. Mafuyu was in trouble, so of course they had to protect her. They loved her, that was the thing that was done, right?

"I don't know," they finally said, suddenly feeling very small and unsure.

"I think she just wants you there," Len piped up, finally lifting his head from Hokkyo's collarbone. "The only times I see her really smile are when she's with you, or Kanade, or Haruka." Hokkyo gave him a gentle squeeze, trying to quell the uncertainty in their stomach from the revelation that they hadn't asked Mafuyu if she wanted their protection.

"Thanks, everyone," Hokkyo settled on, vowing to ask Mafuyu. At a later point, where she was feeling better, of course.

"It's what we're here for~!" Haoyu answered flippantly, but his fingers were warm and affectionate as they scritched the good spot behind Hokkyo's ear.

---

Hokkyo was careful, as they clambered free of Mafuyu's phone. They'd checked first, made sure she was awake, but they didn't want Kanade or Haruka to come bustling in straight away.

Once fully free, they moved to sit next to her on the bed, reaching out and brushing her fringe from her face.

"I love you," they said, their voice practically aching from the sincerity of those three words.

"You're warm," Mafuyu responded. Old code, from when her emotions had been even further out of reach. Hokkyo smiled, ignoring the tears that pricked at their eyes again. Careful not to make the bedsprings squeak much, Hokkyo shifted, adjusting until they were laying next to Mafuyu, the two of them facing each other, and then taking her hand. Neither of them moved, once they'd settled into that position, although Hokkyo had been secretly hoping that Mafuyu would shuffle over to be held.

"I have a song for you," Hokkyo admitted, after a few heartbeats of silence. "Not for right now. For a little while away. I wrote it for you, while you were away."

"Okay," Mafuyu nodded minutely against the pillow, before her eyes closed again. "I think I'm going to sleep some more."

"Can I stay?" Hokkyo asked. And only then did Mafuyu move. Her body still fit to theirs, which made sense since it had only been a few weeks, and her nails dug harsh into their middle back. To someone that didn't know better, it would look like she was trying to hurt them.

But Hokkyo knew better.

"I won't leave," they assured her, tail lifting to flop over Mafuyu's side. They pressed their face into her hair, and breathed in gently, finding comfort in the sameness of her scent. "You're home safe now, Mafuyu. Rest easy."

Credit to @/saradika-graphics for the dividers

So, that story, huh? My fucking soul ached the entire time I was reading because I could see exactly what was coming and I couldn't stop a second of it. Anyway, 'Home to Me' is now definitely one of my Mafukkyo songs, 100%.

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