[ Maruki listens to him so, so intently. Every reassuring word another tether anchoring his panicked mind and beleaguered heart back to reality – or whatever poor excuse for a reality they're in now. The gratitude probably wears openly on his face. He doesn't know. He's not aware of anything he's doing for a moment.
Your strength of will ensures it's never lost.
What he won't admit, not to Akechi, not to anyone: Half of the time he's been in Somnius so far, he really has thought he's simply in the throes of another breakdown. It all aligned too perfectly. The voice made tangible in front of him, threading their souls together and aligning them perfectly with the collective unconscious, giving him the power he'd worked his whole life toward. And then nothing: A wish, a contract, in a strange new reality, when in his own his wish had already been fulfilled and his contract already signed.
He really had begun to convince himself that it couldn't have actually happened. That it was tied up in whatever manipulation done to his cognition to bring him here in the first place.
Akechi dispels those notions at once.
He doesn't know what to say. Doesn't say anything for a long while, only focuses on securing the gauze over the wound before wrapping Akechi's arm. The flickering barely-there light of the drink shelf. The chaos outside, far, but not far enough. His own heartbeat rattling through his ribs.
When he finishes, he takes a step back. Tries to form words. Fails. Pushes his glasses up into his hair and presses the heel of one palm to a closed eye. Laughs, not at himself, not at the ridiculousness of their situation, just at the way the universe works. ]
Sorry, I'm usually better with my words than this. Shit. Ah, I–
[ Deep inhale through the nose. Hold it. Exhale through the mouth, slow, deliberate. He drops his hand, straightens his glasses back onto his nose, and looks at Akechi in a whole new light. ]
Thank you. For understanding, and for showing me– that it's real. It can be real.
[ When they get out of this fucking labyrinth, he knows exactly where he's going. ]
I'm grateful to have you as an ally too. More grateful than ever.
[ He's already indebted to Akechi for protecting his life here, and now this. How Maruki will ever begin to repay him, he doesn't know.
No, he does. They just need to make it back to their reality intact.
His head is beginning to ache, right at the base of his skull, where it always used to. Too many thoughts. One thing at a time.
He grabs the kit and hands it to Akechi before lowering himself to the ground, leaning heavily against the opposite shelf. ]
Sit. Wrap your ankle. I can see you're favoring the good one. And– I'll have a thousand questions later, once my own abilities have been returned to me, but if I can ask one now... This power. These things. Why us?
no subject
Your strength of will ensures it's never lost.
What he won't admit, not to Akechi, not to anyone: Half of the time he's been in Somnius so far, he really has thought he's simply in the throes of another breakdown. It all aligned too perfectly. The voice made tangible in front of him, threading their souls together and aligning them perfectly with the collective unconscious, giving him the power he'd worked his whole life toward. And then nothing: A wish, a contract, in a strange new reality, when in his own his wish had already been fulfilled and his contract already signed.
He really had begun to convince himself that it couldn't have actually happened. That it was tied up in whatever manipulation done to his cognition to bring him here in the first place.
Akechi dispels those notions at once.
He doesn't know what to say. Doesn't say anything for a long while, only focuses on securing the gauze over the wound before wrapping Akechi's arm. The flickering barely-there light of the drink shelf. The chaos outside, far, but not far enough. His own heartbeat rattling through his ribs.
When he finishes, he takes a step back. Tries to form words. Fails. Pushes his glasses up into his hair and presses the heel of one palm to a closed eye. Laughs, not at himself, not at the ridiculousness of their situation, just at the way the universe works. ]
Sorry, I'm usually better with my words than this. Shit. Ah, I–
[ Deep inhale through the nose. Hold it. Exhale through the mouth, slow, deliberate. He drops his hand, straightens his glasses back onto his nose, and looks at Akechi in a whole new light. ]
Thank you. For understanding, and for showing me– that it's real. It can be real.
[ When they get out of this fucking labyrinth, he knows exactly where he's going. ]
I'm grateful to have you as an ally too. More grateful than ever.
[ He's already indebted to Akechi for protecting his life here, and now this. How Maruki will ever begin to repay him, he doesn't know.
No, he does. They just need to make it back to their reality intact.
His head is beginning to ache, right at the base of his skull, where it always used to. Too many thoughts. One thing at a time.
He grabs the kit and hands it to Akechi before lowering himself to the ground, leaning heavily against the opposite shelf. ]
Sit. Wrap your ankle. I can see you're favoring the good one. And– I'll have a thousand questions later, once my own abilities have been returned to me, but if I can ask one now... This power. These things. Why us?
[ Maruki knows full well why him.
He wants to know why Akechi. Why them. ]