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Yuu does not remember how the world ended.
He's spent hours lying in bed, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. They don't match any constellation he knows. He rubs the soft dinosaur comforter between his thumb and finger—the same motion, over and over, like he's done it a thousand times before. But every time he reaches for a memory, it slips away like water through his fingers. All he can hold onto is waking up.
Waking up curled in a lap, flowers all around. A man asking—begging—him to open his eyes in a voice that sounded like it'd been screaming or crying or both. Dandelions brushing his fingers as he'd brought them up to wipe tears. His tongue too heavy to form words, but his body moving on instinct, caught in a marrow-deep urge to comfort.
And then Yuu had fallen back asleep. Tired. So tired.
For the next few weeks, he'd drifted in and out. To warmth that was never too hot or too cold. To hands that untangled his hair with perfect patience. To soup that tasted exactly like he needed it to. To something soft and sweet being coaxed into him with a voice that never wavered, never tired, never stopped.
Then the moments between sleeping had grown further apart. Yuu learned to eat without dropping his chopsticks, to steer the wheelchair so it didn't crush the sunflowers lining the path, to walk without falling. The man's hands always there, guiding his.
—The man had told him he was his Father. The world has ended. Nearly everyone has died.
Including Yuu
There's a knock at his door, interrupting his thoughts. The door creaks as it opens, the hallway light casting a penumbra around the silhouette of his father.
"I can hear you thinking all the way from the living room."
(He can. He always can.)
The bed dips where his father settles next to him. A finger boops his nose, making it scrunch. "What's got your brain cooking so hard?"
Yuu feels the tension leave his muscles. His nervous system recognizes that there is no threat around—or that if there is, it won't get past his father. He buries his face in the comforter, breathing in the jasmine scent.
"N'thing."
A hand presses lightly over his sternum, feeling the scar tissue underneath. Beneath it, his heartbeat is steady. It always is. "Is it hurting again?"
A muffled, "No."
Fingers drift up, hover over his hair, unsure, and Yuu closes the distance, headbutting them lightly, earning a fond chuckle. The fingers start working through the tangles. "It doesn't sound like nothing."
A lock of hair is brushed behind his ear. "Anything coming back? You been writing it down?"
Yuu's face warms. "Y— yes, of course!"
The hand does not pause. "Lie."
Yuu makes an offended sound. His father huffs fondly, but doesn't press. Fingernails scratch at a spot behind his ear, and Yuu nuzzles into the warmth like a content cat.
"Dad, what was the world like before?"
A pause. Just a heartbeat too long.
"Loud. Messy. You couldn't walk in the city without stepping on someone's toes. The sky was always clouded by smoke and light. You couldn't see the stars. But it was...... alive."
Yuu waits for grief to surface in his chest. Instead, there's only a distant ache, like oversensitive scar tissue.
He doesn't know what possesses him when he asks: "Where were you when the monster took over?"
He's never asked that before.
His father goes still. Statuesque. Guilt kicks Yuu in the ribs—he's making his father relive something painful.
"I was with you. And then I wasn't."
A pause.
"I looked away. Just for a moment. Thought there was something worth chasing."
His voice goes flat. "It wasn't. When I turned back, you were gone."
A warm palm cups his face. Yuu leans into it.
"I found you at last. And the world was made whole."
Yuu knows his father isn't telling him something. But whatever it is distresses him, so Yuu doesn't ask for more. He doesn't even tease Dad this time for talking funny, and wriggles out of the covers to put his head in his father's lap instead, trying to comfort him.
"Thank you for finding me, Dad."
A rasped chuckle. A hand starts carding through his hair. His father starts humming, and soon Yuu is drifting. He feels his father press a kiss to his forehead just as he falls asleep.
The king of curses sits next to the only soul on the planet through the night, unblinking.