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Hina doesn’t think they actually have anywhere in particular to be after the battle, besides “somewhere with cell range to call Shingo and Chiyoko” and “wherever Goto and Date went since they had been “killed” as well”. She doesn’t fully know why she said they did not really, except…
Well, okay. That’s a lie. She knows why. She had been… Not scared or worried, those were words for when people are in danger, not people already seemingly killed before her eyes, and it wasn’t grieving, either. She’s found that it takes a day or two for that to settle in, both when her parents had died as a girl and when…
When Ankh had died.
(In her mind’s eye, she can still see the crystallized vision of his smile, when he died.)
…Anyways, the first order of business is absolutely locating Goto and Date. She had… she’d been hurt knowing they were dead, as well. Not quite as much as Eiji, but definitely upset by it.
They actually manage to catch up with the other pair before getting into town, however, as both groups had been hoping to reach the same Ridevender on the edge of town, and it’s not until then that Hina realizes she’s been holding Eiji’s hand since they reunited after the battle. She still doesn’t feel like letting go.
“Maybe we should’ve hitched a ride with someone,” Date jokes. “I forgot how far out we were.”
“It’s not that far,” Goto says. Date laughs.
“I know,” he says. “I’ve walked longer for pleasure and necessity.”
Hina laughs and almost squeezes Eiji’s hand too hard. Eiji’s laughing too, and it feels so incredibly nice to have him home after this most recent mess.
It’s still a habit after all this time to go to Couscousier after a battle, so that’s where they all end up. Hina had called Shingo beforehand, at least, who was as worried as she’d expected.
(“I’m sorry, you were a part of this?” He’d asked. “Are you okay? Is everyone okay?”
“It’s… no one really died,” Hina had replied. “I’m fine, no one else seems more injured than a couple minor bruises. There was another Rider who helped protect me.”
She hadn’t said any more about Daiki, though. Obviously there’s more with his relationship with Decade than she knows. She had, however, given Shingo the rest of the simplified summary.)
(“Are you okay, though?” Shingo had asked once again, at the end, and Hina… hadn’t been able to answer that one.)
Everyone shows up, even Satonaka who delivers a cake from Kougami which reads “happy birthday friendship between Riders and Sentai”.
Again Hina gives the simplified summary, this time with the others’ help. They’d come just at closing time, luckily.
It doesn’t actually become easier to do. For the others, she supposes, it was just another fight. They’d seemingly died in quick succession and learned just as quickly that it was fake. Hina had spent a day thinking they were dead and working with heroes from other worlds to figure out why they had been killed.
She gives the bare details for a reason, and she thinks her friends know something’s wrong, but no one asks.
How do you say “a part of me is still grieving you even though you never really died?”
She doesn’t know, so she doesn’t say.
Eiji has a feeling the events of the Super Hero War are hurting Hina more than they do Date or Goto or himself. He has a feeling he knows why, too. He’s seen death, before, and Hina…
He thinks about all the heroes who had joined him in Decade’s pocket dimension before the trick was revealed. How many of them had she watched die?
The thing is, he doesn’t really know how to… ask her about this, so he just doesn’t acknowledge the fact that her hand keeps ending up in his.
Eventually, however, Date and Goto are making to leave, as well. Eiji of course offers to help clean up, then, because of course he does.
He’s really glad Couscousier is back up and running after that incident with the time travel. It’s the only place he’s ever lived in that really feels like a home to Eiji.
(His hand habitually goes to the pocket where the two halves of Ankh’s broken Medal lay, at the thought.)
“I’ll help too,” Hina says. “I’m not quite ready to go home, yet, since Onii-chan is still out of town.”
That… that also brings things into focus, doesn’t it? Eiji had been too caught up in the end of the world to think about it at the time, but that fight… Ankh… in some way it had been a choice of who she got back
Chiyoko smiles.
“That’s fine, Hina honey,” she says, smiling. “The three of us cleaning up together, that hasn’t happened in… a while.”
(The pause which follows is just long enough to acknowledge the being who is no longer present.)
Hina hovers in the doorway after the cleaning is done, and it’s kind of obvious she doesn’t want to go just yet, so Eiji does what he always tries to do.
“Hina,” he says. “Can I walk you home?”
Hina still looks hesitant, but she smiles.
“Sure,” she says, and then, after a pause. “Thank you.”
Chiyoko looks between them and says nothing at all except “you guys go on. Eiji, you have your key, right?”
It’s Hina herself that starts the conversation, pausing on an empty street.
“Eiji,” she says. “I… I thought you were dead. I… I watched…”
“Hina—” Eiji starts, but by the time the word leaves his lips Hina is hugging him just to the wrong side of too tightly for the second time since the fight and also crying .
“I thought you were dead,” she says. “And Date-san and Goto-san. I thought you were all dead. I watched you all…”
Eiji freezes for only a moment, however, since Hina obviously needed him. So he hugs Hina back, and he comforts.
“I know,” he says. “But it wasn’t true. We’re okay; I’m okay, Hina.”
And then Hina says the only thing that Eiji doesn’t even have a basic reply for.
“I miss him,” she says, barely above a whisper. “I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
“I’m sorry,” Eiji offers. He doesn’t quite know what else to say, or what he’s apologizing for.
I’m sorry you’re hurting.
I’m sorry I’m no closer to reviving him than I was.
“I miss him too.”
Hina pulls back.
“Eiji,” she says. “I know you’re bad with romance, but can I tell you something?”
Eiji blinks. What…
“Of course you can.”
“I love you.”
Oh…
Hina laughs, awkwardly.
“You don’t have to say it back, don’t worry,” she says. “I just… I was thinking about it, after everything that happened, and… and I think it’s true. I love you.”
“…Oh,” Eiji says, and the next words leave his moth before he thinks. “I love you too.”
“Eiji…”
“No, Hina,” Eiji says. “I really mean it. I guess I just… didn’t think about it, either. You matter a lot to me. I… there’s a reason I’ve been calling you the most.”
“Oh,” Hina says. “That’s… that’s great.”
And the thing is, it is true, isn’t it? Eiji… he loves Hina, but something about this moment rings as off, in the very air.
Eiji takes his underwear from his pocket, unwraps it to see Ankh’s broken Medal. Hina takes one half from him without thinking.
“He should be here, shouldn’t he?” Hina asks. Eiji nods.
“It was always the three of us,” he says. “Like the Medals in the OOO Driver.”
Neither say it, but Eiji has a feeling they both know. I love him, too.
Hina starts crying again, and this time Eiji feels himself joining her. He hasn’t cried in so long a time, not even when it happened, except when waking up from a nightmare.
And they hold school other on this empty street, and then they’re kissing until they’re both out of breath and tears, but their hands are still in each other’s, and the hands which had been holding Ankh’s Medal join together to hold it between them.
Blinking, Eiji says “I still need to walk you home.”
Hina nods.
“Actually, Eiji…” she says. “I was wondering if you could stay the night. Nothing forward, just… I want to keep holding your hand.”
Eiji smiles.
“Okay,” he says. “I’d like that too.”
(Between their hands sit the broken soul of the one who should be with them, and he watches as they go home and go to sleep, the ghostly form of a red and green and golden talon placing itself on top of their own still-clasped hands.
Ankh huffs.
“About time,” he says. “Both of you are mine, after all.”
If his full form could be seen, however, he would have been smiling, softly.
Because he loves them, too)