Chapter Text
Shu had quite a keen sense when it came to magic, whatever form it took. He was a sorcerer after all, it came with the job description. It came to him as naturally as breathing. Don’t get him wrong, he had studied and practiced a great deal in his lifetime to obtain the level of proficiency he had currently possessed. What he had been gifted was less about innate power and more instinctual understanding. The child him had known fire meant pain, so when provided the means to access his already existing power, he’d instinctively reached for it in his time of need.
There was one thing that Shu had found in his lifetimes of travel and experience, the one fact he found most crucial to understanding the functionality of magic to begin with.
Everyone had magic in them, every living thing. Beyond that, and to an even lesser degree, elemental processes and other non living matter contained magic in them as well.
The humans in this world are already quite capable of manipulating magic energies, through the use of burning coal or oil, or harnessing wind and air, or water, or the sun. The way they use it may be incredibly limited and downright archaic, but they still understood it and manipulated it as they pleased within their own abilities.
The difference was, all he needed to do to manipulate such energies was a thought. It took skill and practice to be able to concentrate and bend the power of nature to your will, but in the end, it made him capable of practically anything. Just like him the many of the other members of Nijisanji had powers, but none of them had come to understand just how similar they all were. They understood the magic they’d been taught, and little else. Perhaps the intellectual and instinctual understanding of this crucial piece of knowledge had been the most important part of the gift he’d been given that day.
Perhaps the others would never be able to see things they was he did, to see the minor minuscule crackles of magic in every molecule of this world…
…and perhaps that was for the best.
Regardless, he’d learned to cope with the constant overwhelming sense of sensory overload centuries ago. He couldn’t even really remember how the world had truly appeared to him back then, what the world seemed like to eyes unaltered by magic. He was capable of filtering out most of the clutter nowadays, he could focus on the things that truly mattered to him at the moment, he’d long since mastered the ability to compartmentalize his magic and focus. He was fine.
He’d always been asked about his steady and calm demeanor, how he could remain so even-keeled even when the most frustrating things happened on stream.
Well, the truth of the matter is, no obstacle he could ever face in this universe would be able to rival the struggles and pains he’d gone through to be where he was today. No pain, physical or mental could rival the experience of being burned alive as a child who had never felt even the faintest hint of mortal fear in his life. The feeling of your throat raw from the screams involuntarily leaving your mouth, or the feeling of your skin tightening as it began to cook, or the feeling of your blood beginning to heat up and boil from within, or the suffocating scent of your own burning flesh hitting your nose, not able to breathe, move, or think, there is nothing anyone or anything in this world that could rival that sort of pain.
He’d been through the worst thing imaginable so, what cause was there to be upset over a video game, or anything else for that matter.
Of course he couldn’t say that to them, he always brushed off the compliments and laughed. He was glad they couldn’t understand, truly, he’d never put this kind of burden onto even his worst enemy, let alone his newfound family. Nevertheless, the memory of it still made him shiver in disgust, he shook his head to clear his thoughts and focused his attention back on the ramen heating in the microwave.
He blinked, the microwave was blinking, seeming to indicate it was done. He’d only just put it in though, was it really already done? He popped the microwave open and pouted when his hand grazed the side of the container.
“Sheesh, is it already cold? Let’s see….” Shu sighed briefly before pulling his hand out and putting some more time on the microwave, attempting to salvage the meal to the point that it was at least edible.
“You ok over there Shu?”
Shu didn’t jump at the voice, he did turn to see Mysta pulling the fridge open.
“Eyyyyyyy Mysta”. Shu flashed his gen-mate a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just left the ramen sitting in the microwave too long and it got cold. Hehe~”
“Gotcha…” Mysta muttered meekly, he didn’t seem entirely convinced and kept eye contact with Shu. “That doesn’t really seem like you, dude. You sure you’re good?” Mysta asked with a little more gumption, and god the timing for what happened next quite literally couldn’t have been any worse if it’d been planned sabotage.
It was blinding (to him at least), a high frequency shockwave of magical energy, it was a too faint to be seen physically by anyone other than him. However, the mass of power just swept its way through their shared kitchen, and it wasn’t stopping there. He could feel the wave flood past them and through the rest of the building and get fainter as it kept going. It left Shu utterly disoriented, all of his other senses muted entirely for a moment. When he opened his eyes he was leaning on the counter and holding his head, and Mysta was in front of him with a hand on his shoulder and a deeply concerned look on his face. In all honesty the hand lightly squeezing his shoulder was more helpful than Shu knew how to explain, it was useful in grounding him while he processed what just happened.
Shu thoughtlessly muttered a thanks, and Mysta perked up. Mysta’s lips were moving now, but Shu was too preoccupied to comprehend what he was saying. He was already closing his eyes again to feel his way along the path the energy had come from. Immediately he could feel a sense of familiarity in the magic, it was implacable at the moment, but this power was coming from someone he knew. As he expanded his view, stretching his powers over a wider radius, he balked at the sheer coverage of the magic. He could hardly even believe what he was feeling, it spread like an earthquake from an epicenter on the other side of the planet, and washed its way all the way around the globe. The first wave had been sudden and powerful, however there was a faint pulsating of power from its point of origin. As his senses focused on this place, he tried to understand what was happening. It was vague, but because of the sheer amount of energy being dispersed, Shu could almost see silhouettes of figures. One in the center, and four others scattered throughout the rest of the building. There was one person in the same room as the magical being in the center, what else?
Shu could feel the tug on his magic, a small warning that he was stretching his mind too thin like a rubber band about to snap. He couldn’t let this go though, he needed to know what was happening, because at the moment whoever was exerting this much power was one of two things. A danger to others, or a danger to themself.
If someone didn’t intervene someone was getting hurt, or possibly killed, intentionally or unintentionally, it didn’t matter.
He stretched, gently, easing himself into accepting more information and more magic. He could see more, and hear the echo of voices, emotions, movement. The problem with this was, the more information thrown at him, the harder it was to process or make sense of it.
What was relevant and what wasn’t?
Muffled hysterical sobs echoed their way to him, feeling as if they were reaching him from the other side of a vast cave. They sobs were pronounced, loud, terrified, desperate, and forceful. The exertion was clear in their voice, which even as garbled as it was still rang true in his mind as familiar, whoever this was was gentle and precious to him. It frustrated him immensely that he couldn’t put a name to it, it was true magical sense alone is limited with nothing to supplement it but he was usually better than this. It was as if everything in the area was in the eye of a storm of magical energy that muddied his ability to see.
Shu was just about to pull himself out, when he heard a groan echo its way into his mind, it was much clearer, despite the fact that it was whispered, the truth and emotion behind the words was one note and clear as day.
Confusion, uncertainty held for a moment, then raw pained and affectionate panic.
“Uki! Can you hear me?!” A hiss of pain. “UKI.”
Realization slammed into Shu’s mind.
Uki, Uki and Fulgur, his Kouhai, and more than likely the rest of Noctyx as well were directly in the center. Was all that power really coming from Uki alone?!
That’s really not good, he needed to get moving. Possibly too eagerly, he shut himself off from the information. His mind snapped back to his body in a moment, his head bloomed with a headache as he regained his senses one by one.
First it was his sense of touch, he could feel the cold kitchen tile and footsteps as it seemed someone else or possibly multiple people entered the kitchen eagerly. He must have been on the ground? He didn’t have time for this, he should’ve been more careful and eased his way out, he berated himself uselessly. Someone was shaking him, almost certainly Mysta. Shu felt a pang of guilt at the panicked nature of the movement. He’d have to apologize to him later, it wasn’t like him to be this careless. Someone else gently but hurriedly brushed his bangs back to put a hand on his forehead, it was then that his sense of hearing and sight began to fade back in.
“SHU?!” Mysta hiccuped past a sob as he seemed to notice Shu’s eyes flutter open. One glance at the look on Mysta’s face was enough to make his guilt spike, he looked utterly panicked and distraught. “S-s-shuuuu- *hic* I’m sorry….”
Crap.
I think I messed up, I really should have said something to reassure him before I tried this…. Knowing Mysta, he’s probably finding some way to place blame on his own shoulders…….
Another face appeared in his line of sight, and it made sense. It was Vox, he was the second person he’d felt earlier. The older voice demon looked concerned; his brow furrowed and his jaw set, but he remained relatively composed, carding his hands through Shu’s hair gently, almost paternally. Shu could feel his cheeks lightly flush at the affection, he wasn’t at all used to being treated so tenderly. After he’d gotten his powers he was far more used to being relied upon than taken care of, of course Luxiem was different. They relied on him a little but they just as often went out of their way to help him even in the smallest ways possible. It’d been months already and he still wasn’t entirely accustomed to it.
He mentally kicked himself, he needed to focus. He tried to sit up and Mysta startled backwards, Vox however quickly and firmly placed his other hand on his chest to push him back down and hold him there.
“Hold on there, if you think you’re moving one inch after fainting in the middle of the kitchen you’re sorely mistaken, Shu.” Vox’s voice was an degree lower than even his natural deep voice, clearly adding an edge of warning to his voice. Shu mentally groaned and he could feel the sense of muted urgency looming over his thoughts.
He wasn’t panicked, no. Everything was fine, and would be fine as soon as he could get a teleportation spell off, and he was with Uki figuring out how to fix whatever was happening over at the Noctyx house. He was just eager to take care of the problem, not a panicked or concerned bone in his body. He was fine.
“Vox, Mysta, I am absolutely fine. I’ll explain everything later, but right now I’ve really got to go.” Shu said levelly, and tried to sit up again, only to be held back by Vox with more force than the first time. Shu knew that he would never win a strength battle against the voice demon, he wasn’t stupid. “Vox, please. ” Shu urged.
All that got him was a frustrated and exasperated frown out of Vox. “Whatever it is can wai-“
“Vox it really can’t! So, will you trust me for just one second and let me GO!” Shu was even a little surprised by his own overwhelming frustration and raised voice. As much as he loved these two and his other gen-mates, they were currently safe and healthy and not screaming in pain and confusion like his kohai. Something about the whole situation was genuinely disturbing him to his very core. No, he knew why, he knew exactly why. Uki was just a kid in his eyes, only just gained his powers, and was crying in pain, disoriented and overwhelmed by a power that was supposed to be his.
Shu was intimately familiar with the feeling, and he couldn’t stand that Uki was dealing with it alone when he could be there helping. He may not have had anyone to do the same for him, but Uki sure as hell did.
Both Vox and Mysta looked at him in surprise and just before Vox could counter, he got a loud notification about a message. Vox paused, blinked and pulled his phone out of his pocket with a huff. The moment registered and read the message his expression morphed to one of genuine concern once again.
“Vox, if that is Fulgur texting you in a panic about Uki losing control then I swear-” Shu’s own brow furrowed with repressed frustration.
Shu didn’t need to ask who it was, he knew it was Fulgur. Probably just as panicked and concerned as Shu himself, if not more. It made sense that he’d reach out to Vox. Shu took this as his opportunity to prove that he knew what he was doing, though a slightly bitter part of himself unhelpfully supplied him with the thought that he shouldn’t have had to prove himself to begin with. He knew it was petty, and he definitely didn’t believe it, but he thought it anyway.
Any residual bitterness melted immediately away as Vox’s head snapped to look at him after his little outburst. The shock turned to understanding, then resolution in less than a second. “Take me with you.” Vox’s tone didn’t allow for argument, and to be honest they really didn’t have the time to argue over it. So Shu just nodded and stood up entirely unhindered this time, Vox wordlessly stood next to him as he began to cast. Mysta was even more confused and concerned than before, and Shu silently apologized for keeping him in the dark for so long, and promised to take as much time as it took to reassure him that everything was fine after everything was taken care of. He truly did feel bad. Shu knew how self critical Mysta was, and most likely he’d spend the entire time they were gone distraught and wondering what he’d missed.
For now though, his concern was Uki. He finished the spell with a flourish and in the next second they were there. The first thing they heard was a continuous rush of wind, Shu hadn’t been wrong when he’d compared the shifting magical energy to a storm. It was thick, physically and magically so. The energy was concerned to the point of being opaque, like a fog that had been thrown into a hurricane, or a sandstorm in the desert. Regardless, vision was limited and so was sound, little could be heard over the howling movement of the wind.
“Where are they?!” Vox yelled over the wind, looking to Shu. Truth be told he wasn’t entirely sure, if it had been a regular storm he’d use his magic to hone in on their location, but it was a magical storm, he was just as blind as Vox at the moment. Shu was about to say as much when the wind carried a sound their way. It was Uki’s confused sob, and hearing it so clearly without the garbled filtration through the magic made his heart ache.
“Stay here Vox, or try to find Fulgur!” Shu yelled to him and Vox gave an indignant ‘huh?!’ in response. Shu didn’t give him the chance to respond. He was already running as quickly as he could towards Uki’s voice.
Shu had never felt so blind in his life, he couldn’t sense anything outside of the dark storm cloud of magical energy around them. Worse still, what he could sense was limited at best, Shu himself might be inclined to call it utterly useless. Nevertheless, it was something, and something was always better than nothing.
Shu was starting to feel the weight of the situation start to effect him, the stress eating away at his patience. So far he’d managed to remain relatively composed, other than his one outburst at Vox he’d stayed in control. He’d kept all the internal worries and strife at bay, but much more of this and Shu wasn’t sure what he’d do. Nothing violent that’s for sure, but reckless and stupid was more than just a possibility.
Shu slowed, had he passed Uki? There was no way he could’ve been running for that long and still not reached him…
This is bad…
This is really bad…
Shu kept walking, now entirely unsure of which way was which.
How did Uki even have this much magical power to begin with?! Shu surely would’ve noticed the potential danger in it the last time he’d seen him. Where did it all come from?!
What was he supposed to do?
It was overwhelming, completely and entirely overwhelming. It wasn’t just his own baggage about his own experiences or the pressure of the danger they were all in, it wasn’t even just that he couldn’t begin to know how to find Uki in all of this. It was all of it at once, and more. Shu hadn’t been this close to having a meltdown in nearly a decade. The magical senses he so naturally relied on to give him the necessary information or hints to make good choices was gone, deafened. His normally level and steady emotions were all over the place, his focus was so divided he couldn’t even gather the strength to try and calm himself down or do something productive with it.
He was overwhelmed, completely and utterly overwhelmed and he didn’t know what to do.
He always knew what to do, he always had some idea. Now he didn’t, it was too much.
Shu could feel his eyes sting with unshead tears and he determinedly sniffed and shook himself.
Calm.
Calm……
Worse still, if Shu himself was this unstable, he could only imagine the state Uki or Fulgur or the other Noctyx members were in rn.
Shu couldn’t stop them this time.
He sniffed, just letting the tears roll down his cheeks, refusing to acknowledge them right now.
“…..please, I….. please……I don’t want to……” it was soft weak, but it was him Uki. He sounded so tired, and dear lord Shu’s heart has never sunken faster than it did in that moment.
“Uki!” Shu shouted, running to where he’d heard it, it was closer now. Soon he was close enough to hear the soft whimpers and cries and sniffled of the young man.
Just another few steps and there he was, Uki Violeta. One hand covering his wide open mouth, the other wrapped around himself and tightly grasped his other arm. His eyes were squeezed shut.
“…..I won’t….I refuse…….it’s my power I’m not using it to hurt anyone else…..go away….dammit just stop……please……”. Uki was trembling, curled up on the ground in a fetal position, and each time a sob escaped his mouth his whole body jolted with it.
Shu looked blearily up at his parents and siblings as another jolt of power left him and it burned a hole in the wall. Shu gasped, terrified, and the others looked just as afraid if not more of him. His vision went blurry, as he looked to his parents for help, for comfort, for anything at all to assure him that he’d make it out of this alive. Neither of them moved, neither said a thing, not for a long moment. Finally his father spoke.
“Honey, we should leave until this is over, there’s nothing we can do to help…. I know it hurts but he has to learn how to control it himself and us being here only makes it likely he’ll hurt us on accident…..”
Dad?! W-what, no no please?! I don’t know what to do please?! Shu could only sob in response, his body on fire and trembling with the exertion of controlling his magic, keeping it in.
His mother stared at Shu for a long moment, Shu could hear her crying through the pain. “Alright,” she said quietly, guiltily. “Shu, honey I’m so so sorry. I can’t help you but, when you learn how to control this power of yours, come find us…… ok?”
Shu couldn’t respond, he bit back a sob and tried to speak but he only ended up biting his tongue when another jolt of magic tried to escape him but he held it in.
He just watched wordlessly as his parents and siblings walked away, and was filled with an all encompassing emptiness that comes with the knowledge you’ve been abandoned.
No one was coming to help him.
He was alone.
Shu had finally found Uki, and all he could do was stare in shock. The memory came to him clear as the day it’d happened. Centuries ago now, those early days of his magic were often so fuzzy to him, because it was so long ago and so many of those days had been immensely painful, both mentally and physically. He hadn’t remembered the faces of his parents this clearly in the longest time.
All he could think now though, as he watched Uki squirming and trembling with pain and exertion, sobbing wholeheartedly. All he could think was…
Did I look like this that day? Is this what they saw?
How then, how were they able to just walk away?
How could anyone just walk away from someone in this much pain?
Shu’d had enough, he stumbled the last few steps to Uki and pulled the kid into a tight hug. Uki stiffened, even tried to weakly shove him away, his eyes wide but seeing nothing, utterly panicked.
“NONonoNO….no…please…p-please….I can’t……c-can’t……”. Uki’s breath hitched, and he kept sobbing and protesting louder and more desperately. He pushed at Shu with all his strength but he was so weak at the moment it barely felt like anything at all.
Shu was crying too, tears silently running down his cheeks. His voice was shaky and rough but he did his best to try and speak clearly. “Heeeeey, there Uki.” Shu took a shaky breath as Uki kept struggling and shaking. “I need you to breathe for me ok, just breathe….”
Uki heard him at least, he may not recognize who Shu was at the moment but he heard him. Uki insistently shook his head, but his struggling pushes were getting weaker and weaker and it started to scare Shu.
This needed to end, now.
“…..I…I don’t………”. Uki weakly hiccuped. “…I don’t want to hurt you…………”. Uki stopped fighting, opting to save his energy to hold his power in check. It was an improvement at least, even if it meant he was getting weaker.
“You won’t hurt me I promise.” Shu reassured him. Shu had very little experience with being reassured or reassuring someone else. At least not a crying distraught person. Even when Mysta or one of the Noctyx boys had these sorts of problems Ike or Vox stepped in long before Shu ever would have needed to. Luckily, he was a fast learner.
He thought back not just to today but farther, how he’d seen Vox, Ike, Nina and all his other friends have consoled him. Mysta grounding him with a gentle squeeze, Vox gently running his hands through his hair, Ike and Vox humming a gentle tune in unison, Luca playfully swinging an arm over his shoulder and cornering him when he saw he was tired, Nina staying up with him late into the night talking until he fell asleep on her shoulder giving him a kiss on the forehead. Vox forcing Shu to eat healthy meals and Ike doubling down and making sure he ate all of it.
The way Mysta held his hair back and rubbed gentle circles into his back when Shu got carsick after a long night of drinks.
The way Ike gently lead him by the wrist to the couch when he had a fever and brought him medicine and wrapped the softest blanked in the world around him, and watched old movies and retro anime to help him get to sleep. How when he woke up his head was in Ike’s lap and Ike hadn’t moved all night.
He’d never truly known how to process any of these kind actions before. He’d always gotten flushed and flustered but now, right now he understood how they’d felt.
Now that he’d felt the overwhelming urge to hug and squeeze and do whatever it took to make this pain of his go away, he suddenly found himself so incredibly grateful to have the friends he did.
So that was what he did, he followed his instincts and showed Uki the same love he’d received from all of his precious friends.
“You won’t hurt me, and I promise I won’t let your power hurt any of the others either…”. Shu whispered, resting his face on Uki’s head, giving him a gentle peck on the head. He stayed there holding Uki and just feeling him there in his arms, he was still trembling but he was less tense he wasn’t fighting anymore not at all.
He was letting Shu in…
“Just breathe, take a deep breath. Just let your power go, don’t force it out but don’t hold it in either. The longer you hold it in and panic the less control you have over where it goes. You won’t hurt anyone, I promise.” Shu repeated the same words over and over, calmly, quietly, evenly, but also tenderly. Just as Vox had earlier, Shu gently threaded his fingers into Uki’s silky soft hair and rhythmically combed through his hair.
Uki was still shaking but his breathing was slowly but surely regulating, he was still holding his power back but if Shu just kept repeating the words he’d hear it, he’d hear it eventually. Shu swayed Uki slowly back and forth, in a way Shu vaguely remembered his mother doing when she was still around. There had been so much love there and then, Shu didn’t have the heart to ask himself why he was remembering this now, he just kept moving forward. He wasn’t even sure it mattered now.
He loved his parents and his family and he knew there was a time that they did too, and maybe they never really stopped loving him or maybe they did stop loving him. It didn’t matter though. They would’ve been dead six times over now at least, it was a moot point. It did nothing for him now, he’d work it out later.
Shu could feel the waves of energy pulsating from Uki slow. For the first time Uki seemed to move consciously and tentatively wrapped his arms around Shu, and grabbing onto him for dear life.
“Can you hear me Uki?” Shu asked gently, pausing his repeated message to see if he responded.
Uki nodded into his chest, and croaked out a choked sounding “…shu…s-senpai……”.
Shu took a deep unsteady breath and sighed shakily. His heart leapt a little and couldn’t help the tears that landed on Uki’s head, it was ok, they’d be ok.
“Eyyyy there kiddo, you know what I need you to do right? I promise I won’t let you hurt anyone, but it’s dangerous trying to hold back your power like this. Can you let it go for me?” Shu tried not to sound too desperate with his request but he failed to cover his fear up entirely.
Uki let out a tired breathy chuckle. “‘Kiddo’ really…?”
“Hey I’m over 600 years old, you look like an infant to me.” Shu countered.
“Guess that means I get to call you gramps when this is over right?” Uki joked, his voice still wobbly but regaining some of his usual spunk. Honestly, hearing even a ghost of normal Uki sass lifted Shu’s spirit significantly.
“Tell you what, you can call me whatever you want for the next month if you trust blindly for the next ten minutes, deal?” Shu reassured, and Uki nodded into his chest again, clearing his throat.
“I hope you know what you’re doing Shu, but I do trust you. Plus, I don’t think I can keep this up much longer anyway, so it’s happening one way or another.” Uki muttered it was a grim and sarcastic joke, but Shu chuckled nonetheless.
“Whenever you’re ready, Uki.” Shu gave him a gentle squeeze and Uki swallowed hard, clearly not comfortable at all with how he was about to release his power.
Shu readied himself and the moment he felt Uki’s power ramp up, Shu crafted a magical barrier in a conical shape pointing upward, and shielded the floor below them so it wouldn’t collapse under them. It all happened in a split second. Like the first wave of energy Shu had felt, it rushed past him and up and out dispersing outward until it would disperse in the vast emptiness of space. It had been just as Shu had thought, without any negative intentions or a target unassigned magical energy has no target. Whatever sparked this breakdown probably caused Uki to want to push away whatever was near him, it was logical and made sense. That’s why it stuck low to the earth. When Shu directed the unassigned energy upwards and outward, the energy simply dispersed without purpose.
Uki kept releasing, not forcing the energy from his body and, Shu could feel the pulsating energy fade to absolutely nothing. The moment Uki ran out of magical energy he collapsed entirely into Shu’s arms with a slight smile of relief. Shu only got a moment to observe it in peace before he was practically tackled by Fulgur while Vox watched and laughed.
Shu swatted at the child’s head a few times before commented. “Fulgur you need to be careful, Uki just went through quite the ordeal.”
Fulgur blinked and backed off a step before kneeling and taking a good look at Uki’s face before he sighed shakily and looked at the floor, looking sufficiently cowed.
“Fulgur don’t take it personally, I just don’t want to let Uki go just yet that’s all. He’s pretty much exhausted his magic to the point of nothingness, and that’s pretty dangerous. He’s fine at the moment but I want to be here to feed him energy if he needs.” Shu explained.
Fulgur blinked and stuttered, “I-I had no idea.”.
Shu chucked and smiled broadly, truth be told Shu hadn’t even thought about that until the moment it came out of his mouth. It’s not like what he said wasn’t true, but his first instinct when Fulgur had come to Uki was to keep the kid to himself. Shu almost gawked at the mischievous and selfish action, but in the end it had only been for a moment. He deserved to have a selfish moment every once and a while, so he shrugged the response off. “I wouldn’t expect you to, it’s ok. Just slow down a bit, Uki will be just fine, and you can give him all the love and hugs you want in a little bit. Or heck even after he wakes up, I doubt he’d complain.”
Fulgur flushed at the comment and wrung his hands together nervously. The kid was definitely fidgety, and Shu felt guilty, again.
Shu stared at the cyborg nervously fidgeting and sighed. “Fulgur.” Shu called, the cyborg immediately met his gaze. “Get in here.” Fulgur didn’t hesitate, he sat next to the two of them and wrapped an arm around them both, Shu felt a tiny childish part of his heart flutter at the contact. Shu’s jaw dropped a moment when he heard Fulgur start to cry, and while Shu should have expected it, he’d never known Fulgur to get this emotional, he was a sweet boy but also a punk that liked so keep others at a distance.
The fact that he without hesitation let himself cry in front of Shu warmed his heart.
He pulled his hand away from Uki’s head and used it to hug Fulgur back.
“It’s ok Fulgur, Uki will be fine. I made sure of that.” Shu patted Fulgur’s back affectionately, “in fact he was even talking back to me with his typical sass before he collapsed. He’ll be back to his old self as soon as he’s had a nice rest. “
Shu heard multiple sets of footsteps approaching them from behind. However he recognized at least the deep voice he heard.
“Oh thank god, you three are all okay.” Vox sighed in relief.
“Uki! Fu-chan!” That was Sonny. “W-What happened?! Are you ok?! Do I need to arrest someone?! Who did this?!” Sonny was actually freaking out a bit, yet another mental breakdown to try and handle. It made sense, this wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience for everyone involved. Shu was going to try and explain when Fulgur spoke up first.
His voice was still strained as he lifted his head to adress his gen mates. “Nobody did this, it just happened. We’re ok though, thanks to Shu, don’t worry.”
Shu was impressed, Fulgur really had taken the older brother position in Noctyx it seemed, even when crumbling to pieces himself he held himself together for the sake of his Kyoudai.
He was a great deal more mature than he let on.
Sonny didn’t seem to know how to react staring blankly at Fulgur and Uki. Uncharacteristically, Alban had been standing to Sonny’s side silently. “Sonny let’s just go sit down for a sec, ok?” Sonny shook his head, not meeting Alban’s eyes. “Sonny….”
Yugo stood behind the group shaking and staring intently at the ground with his sound cancelling headphones over his ears, he was holding himself and muttering something.
Vox looked at all of them with such empathy it radiated from him in waves, he couldn’t decide who needed attention first, because the entirety of Noctyx had been so thoroughly shaken that none of them seemed alright at the moment. Shu turned his attention to Uki one more time, seeing the kid’s peaceful expression made it all worth it, all of it.
“Let’s take you all back to our place, after all, there happens to be a big hole in your ceiling.” Shu suggested. Vox nodded. “Yeah, that’d be ideal I think.”
The others all muttered assent, and Shu started the spell. It was over.