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The sun rose defiant over a battered Tokyo. Everyone’s worry washed away with the pre-dawn, and Lewis heard cheering all around him. In his headset, from the survivors, and from Lulu.
Isami stood at Bravern’s feet, away from everyone else, with his arms crossed over his chest and a relaxed smile on his face. Lewis nearly tripped over himself twice on his jog over.
“Isami!” he called out. And once he had Isami’s full attention, “That was incredible!”
Isami’s eyes grew wide, and his jaw slack. “Oh,” he said. “Thanks.”
When they were close enough, Lewis clapped a hand down on Isami’s shoulder. “Seriously. You saved everyone again. You’re amazing.”
Isami shifted his weight. “It wasn’t just me.”
Lewis snapped. “That’s right!” Then he leaned back and waved up at the big guy. “Bravern! Great job!”
“Thank you, Lewis Smith!” Bravern nodded, and then puffed out his chest. “It is an honor to lend my strong body to the fight!”
But when Lewis returned his attention to Isami, he found him unimpressed. “You know that’s not what I meant,” he muttered. It was quiet enough that Bravern probably couldn’t hear him.
Lewis set his jaw. He knew what he wanted Isami to mean by that, but…he couldn’t be sure. “Humor me?” he asked.
Isami held Lewis’s gaze for a moment before closing his eyes. “Thank you for coming,” he said. “It…grounded me. Having you around.”
It was even better than what Lewis had wanted, somehow. He massaged Isami’s shoulder with his thumb. “I told you that you wouldn’t be alone. I don’t intend to let myself be wrong.”
Isami opened his eyes. He looked up at Lewis for a moment—not quite smiling, but so close to it. He opened his mouth to speak, but after a few seconds, he sighed and closed it again. Whatever words he’d been about to say died on his tongue.
But Lewis really wanted to hear them. “What is it?”
Isami shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
“Not if it’s coming from you.”
But that didn’t help. Instead of encouraging Isami further down whatever path he’d been on, Lewis’s words pushed him off entirely. He frowned, like Lewis had just handed him a puzzle. “Why? Why do you…”
Lewis swallowed. There was no use hiding anything from Isami. And he didn’t really want to, either. “Because I need you,” he said plainly.
Isami blanched. Fair; that was a bold claim to make out of nowhere. But he recovered, and turned his head away. “So does everyone else.”
“Not to protect me.” Then, when Isami gave him a look, he amended, “It’s more than that.”
“Smith…”
Lewis couldn’t stop himself. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Isami and tucked his face into the shoulder of Isami’s pilot suit. The armor plating in the front clocked his chin, but he was closer to the comfort he was begging for. “I need you to be here. And be you.” He held Isami tighter. “You said I grounded you. You do the same for me.”
Lewis paused. He could phrase his next request as a demand—“Please hug me back.”—or a question—“Will you hug me back?”—or maybe something else entirely. He wasn’t sure which one Isami would respond well to, if any.
But Isami saved him from trying altogether. He deflated with a sigh, and threw his arms so forcefully around Lewis’s middle that Lewis was surprised he didn’t pop. “I’m sorry,” Isami whispered. “I’m not good at this.”
But already, Lewis felt better. Physical touch had gotten easier after their boxing match, but he hadn’t yet been held by Isami like this. It felt like all his bones, which had been jittering since landing in Japan, were finally coming to rest. “This is perfect.”
“You made a bad decision when you chose to stick with me.” Isami’s voice was soft. “I never know what you’re thinking or what to do about it. I can’t just…put myself out there like you can. I wish I was more like you. Then I could give you…”
He drew in a shaky breath, but never let it out.
Lewis bit his bottom lip. Isami probably wouldn’t take it well if he laughed. “Well, you can start off by listening to what I say,” he chided. “I don’t need anything else. Just you.”
Isami was quiet for a while. Lewis was happy to let him be.
Then, “But…you deserve…”
“You’re alive, and you’re with me. What more is there?”
Isami didn’t have an answer. Lewis didn’t either.
“Isamiii~!”
Lewis nearly jumped out of his skin. He pulled away from Isami on instinct, but Isami was stronger than him, and kept their bodies pressed together. “What is it, Bravern?” Isami asked.
“Admiral King is hailing us! Is your headset not working?”
“No, I can hear him,” Isami grumbled. He awkwardly maneuvered one hand away from Lewis’s torso to tap at whatever piece of his suit acknowledged King’s hail, and then went back to holding Lewis. “Admiral. This is Brave 1.”
Lewis shut his eyes and let himself feel Isami’s chest reverberate against his own. Isami was fine; Lulu was fine. The rest of Japan would be fine, too.
Lulu rode to the base in Lewis’s TS with him. At least on the inside, he could keep an eye on her more easily. She seemed comfortable, too, despite being stuffed off to the side.
With the danger gone, he quietly flicked his comms off. “Lulu,” he said.
“Smith!”
“Can I ask you to do me a favor?”
She whirled around and frowned at him. “No! Not again! I wanna go with Smith!”
Lewis winced. He always forgot how loud she could be. It wouldn’t matter that he turned off his comms if everyone could hear her through his TS’s metal hull. “Calm down, I’m not leaving you. But I want you to be nicer to Isami.”
Thankfully, she stopped protesting. “Isami?”
“Yeah. Do you think you can be nicer to him? No more heat beams, no more punching or kicking…can you do that?”
Lulu tilted her head to the side. “Isami…he’s strong?”
“Yeah.” Lewis smiled. “The strongest.”
It was the right answer. Lulu giggled and somehow jumped into the air, even within the cramped space. “Alright! Isami! Lulu likes Isami!”
Lewis chucked. He made a mental note to not turn his comms back on until Lulu had left. But in private, he could agree. “Yeah. So do I.”