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[flaredo]

"Heeey, you've reached Yang! Well, actually, you didn't reach far enough, 'cause I'm not here right now! But don't yang up! Just leave a message on this baby, and I'll get back to you soon enough, okay?"

[ Please specify VOICEMAIL, TEXT or CALL. ]

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[flaredo]

... [ She'll just join him in shell-cracking then, glancing over at his face after a few minutes of companionable silence. ]

So, are you gonna tell me what's wrong?

[masakados]

[Oh good, they can get this done together. Naoki, while he seems focused on the task at hand, is actually paying more attention to her. Specifically, he's just feeling... her, alive at his side. He can still feel the echo of emotions, what it had been like to experience them fading. Into nothing.]

...

[He's silent, but that's not a no.] It was... I couldn't... [He stops. He'll try again in a moment, he's just going to... break some more shell first.]

[flaredo]

[ It's fine if it takes him some time to figure out how to word it, or if he's still just trying to word it at all. Yang keeps her head tilted expectantly towards him, silent and waiting. ]

[masakados]

[There's no good way to word it after all, he realises after several minutes of silence.

Naoki's fingers slip on shell and he stares down at the damp skin of his fingertips. Then, slowly, one hand raises up until the heel of it pushes against his forehead, fingers coiling in his short hair.]

Quatre was... right there, and I was there, and I... couldn't save him. He still died.

[flaredo]

[ Oh.

And then, on a sharper intake of breath, oh. Yang has yet to meet Quatre, but she's heard plenty of him. Naoki's empathetic friend.

She wipes her damp fingers on her shorts, before extending an arm to wrap around him. ]

[masakados]

[Naoki doesn't lean into her so much as shrink, his shoulders curving, bending his body as she wraps her arm around him. He's still staring down at the hand in his lap, then the other as he drops it from his face.]

I wasn't in time. A bunch of those creatures surrounded us, got in the way. But I... wasn't that far from him.

[His fingers curl.] He didn't even-- he asked me if I was okay. [There's incredulity, bitterness there. Directed at himself.]

[flaredo]

Knowing you, I'm definitely sure you did everything you could have done.

[ Which never makes anyone feel better, she knows, because the question that follows tends to be then why wasn't it enough, and no one's ever really been able to answer that. So Yang pulls him close, wrapping him into a full embrace. ]

He wouldn't have asked you, otherwise.

[masakados]

[He wipes his fingers off on his pants... before he turns his body so that he can return her embrace. His hands move around to her back, gripping at her tightly, and he shakes his head. Not in denial, just-- it hurts, it's so heavy, it's been so long since this happened.

Like this? It's never been exactly like this. Why? Why this?]

...I felt it all. As he was... [He's never been close enough to, before, never had the chance to kneel with them right there, desperately using any healing energy he could even if it was too late.]

[flaredo]

I'm sorry. [ For someone like Naoki, who could feel what others were feeling, she can only imagine how it must have felt to take in the emotions of a dying person. It makes Yang tighten her grip around him, almost fierce. Times like this, she almost wishes she could share the pain, instead of just try to help him shoulder through it. ]

[masakados]

[Naoki falls silent then, burying his face against her, his eyes shutting tightly. He doesn't cry. He can feel it, a tickle in his throat, a prickling at his eyes, but resists it for now.]

...They come back, don't they? [after minutes, he asks it in a small voice.] He'll come back.

[flaredo]

Yeah, they do. That's what happened to the last few people I've seen die.

[ Not that it makes it any easier, and she turns her head to kiss his head. ]

[masakados]

...It doesn't feel that way right now.

[He admits it in a quiet voice. It feels like... it's not going to happen. How is he going to face him? He knows even now that there's no way that Quatre blames him for what happened, but he...

Ahh. What will he say? He can still feel his blood on his hands.]

[flaredo]

I know... it never does. But trust me, you'll see him again. And you can talk over whatever you need to with him, then.

[ He's going to apologize, probably, so she hopes Quatre shuts him down fast. ]

[masakados]

[She knows him all too well. That's the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks about seeing him again. But he still can't reconcile that thought with the image of Quatre laying still and silent.]

Yeah... [He chews the inside of his cheek.]

[flaredo]

And then after that, we can go beat up CERES, because this is all probably their fault anyway.

[ Nothing like violence as a comfort method... even as she squeezes him tightly. ]

[masakados]

[Finally, Naoki manages to smile. It's a thin smile, but it's there and lingers before it disappears. But! He did smile.]

Sounds good.

[flaredo]

[ Ha! She knew that'd help, at least a little. ]

And I'll be by your side the rest of this time... it'll be okay.

[masakados]

[The thought of beating something up or Yang beating something up helps, yes.]

Don't go far from me. [That's all he says. If something happens to her while they're here, he's not sure he'll be able to hold himself together.]

[flaredo]

Wouldn't dream of it.

[ He's gonna have to deal with a ton of hand-holding and hugging and sleeping curled into his side-- so like, nothing entirely different. ]

[masakados]

[Naoki nods, his expression softening slightly. Now, he straightens up slowly, looking back down at the monster crab they've still got to break shell off of.]

...Now, you're hungry, right? Let's get this cleaned up.

[flaredo]

I'm too hungryyyyyy to move.

[ Even as she reaches out to help crack more shell, yep. ]

[masakados]

Aaaand no shellfish allergies?

[Clearly. But he asks just because.]

[flaredo]

[ GIVING HIM THE FLATTEST STARE RIGHT NOW. ]

[masakados]

[Naoki's lips twitch and he actually chuckles.]

Okay. None, got it. [Aaand he's refocusing.] Because we're probably going to be eating this for... however long we're stuck here.

[flaredo]

I wonder how long that'll be... Zwei can feed himself, but I don't think any of us want to be taking week-long vacations down here.

[ SHE MISSES SUNLIGHT. ]