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“Kanade? Where are Mizuki and Mafuyu?”
It was already 1:20 and only Kanade and now Ena were online with the other half of their group still nowhere to be seen. Before she could worry about it too much Kanade turned on her mic,
“Oh yeah, Mafuyu got on earlier, she said she had to study for a test, tomorrow. I think Mizuki already went to bed, since we just finished our last song there isn't much for her to do anyways.” Ena could feel Kanade's soft smile even behind the screen. She also sounded out of breath but then again she always sounded that way. “You can go to sleep too, then. There isn't much you can do till this is finished.”
Ena just sighed. There wasn't much for her to do either, with their last song finished and with Kanade still working on the first draft for the new song. Maybe she should just go to bed as well? But she didn't want to leave Kanade on Nightcord by herself; she may want to show her the draft later, or maybe she will just need something. Plus, if Kanade is still working, then Ena may as well practice her drawing. Kanade's music deserves some equally new art to compliment it, and she wouldn't want to fall behind and deliver some lackluster piece when she’s needed.
“Nah it's fine, I'll just be here drawing. Tell me if you need anything.” Ena told her as she dug through her drawers and pulled out her art supplies—a sketch book and some pencils—and began to draw. The two of them worked in relative silence, aside from Kanade's occasional ramblings. It seems she forgot to turn off her mic. Not that Ena cared, though, she was just doing rough sketches of things in her room. It quickly hit 2am, and Ena was honestly tired, but had managed to draw a few decent sketches. She quickly put her stuff away and changed into her pajamas. Fixing her bangs, she pulled out her phone to take a before-bed selfie. The picture was cute and—oops she still had her ear bud in. Actually, now that she thinks about it, she hasn't heard from Kanade in a while, maybe she just turned her mic off?
“Kanade?”
“Mh? Need anything?” Ena's browns furrowed a bit, Kanade sounded tired. Even more so than usual she could have started her words even slurred a bit.
“Well, I'm going to bed,” She announced as she leaned over her computer preparing to log off, “You should probably head to bed too…” she suggested, and waited for a second for Kanade's reply before logging off.
“Hm, oh yeah I’ll finish up soon and then I’ll—” and then Ena heard a loud crash from Kanade's mic, for a moment she expected Kanade to come back on the line, but after a few seconds of nothing, her gut started to twist.
“Kanade?” She asked but she was only answered by a long stretch of silence, “Kanade?! Kanade, are you there? This isn't funny, please talk to me! Kanade!” She was basically yelling at her computer. Has she passed out? Ena knew it happened occasionally, but thankfully Mafuyu had been there the past few times to take care of her. But Mafuyu had moved back in with her parents a few weeks ago, meaning Kanade's house was empty aside from her. But maybe she would be fine. Like she said, it had happened before and she was always fine afterwards. But what if it wasn't ok? What if she needed medical help? What if she ended up like her father? Ena didn't know all that much about Kanade's father, but she knew that he ended up in the hospital for years after collapsing from overworking himself. What would happen to Nightcord if Kanade couldn't compose? What about Mizuki and Mafuyu, who she had been helping to save and support? What about her? If she couldn't make art for Kanade’s music, then how would her drawing be useful to anyone? How would she be useful to anyone? Ena shook her head and scrambled for her phone. Mafuyu may not live with Kanade anymore, but she still lived closer to her and was more likely to be awake than Mizuki.
“Pick up, pick up…” she pleaded with the phone as she watched it ring, pacing around her room and biting her nails that Mizuki had just painted just 2 days earlier, they would have to redo them. Her face lit up as she thought Mafuyu picked up, but before she could explain, ‘you have reached—’ Mafuyu's voicemail… she quickly hung up and tried again only to be sent to voicemail again after another minute of ringing.
“The one time we actually need you, and you're not even—agh!”
That was fine, she could still call Mizuki, but would they even be up? Ena quickly called them, only to be sent straight to voicemail as well, at least she didn't have to wait this time. With both other members of their band unavailable, and already knowing the Vocaloids can't actually do anything to help her, Ena knows what she has to do. She runs out the door to her bedroom frantically looking for Kanade's address; she could have sworn that Kanade had sent it to her at some point. She slams open the door and before she can even turn the corner…
“Ena could you shut the hell up? I—”
She ran right into Akito and almost knocked herself to the floor. What was he doing up so late? Nevermind, she couldn’t care less why he was up. She scrambled up and flew down the stairs, finally having found the address as she scrambled to put the directions into her phone. She could hear Akito saying something behind her as she threw the door open and ran out the front door. If Akito was up he could lock the door, she had already wasted too much time.
“Ena what are you doing?! It's two in the morning!" He called after her. “No time to explain, I'll be back later!” she yelled back, keeping her eyes on her phone screen. It was a 37 minute walk, it surely wouldn't take that much time to run there. Admittedly she wasn't as athletic as someone like Mafuyu but she was better then Kanade. Even so, after only 5 minutes, her legs and lungs were burning and her head ached, she guessed that her sprinting out the door and down 2 blocks probably wasn't the smartest idea, but she had places to be!
By the time she finally got to Kanade's house, her vision had darkened at the edges, her body burned, and she felt like she was going to throw up on her friend's front step. Thankfully, Kanade did have a hidden spare key under the front mat, so she quickly got in the house and locked the door. She placed the spare key on the kitchen counter and dragged herself to the door with the blue light shining from under it. Kanade's room is a mess, she knew this, but it seemed worse than what she pictured. There were boxes and papers all over the floor, empty ramen cups piled up and spilled over on the table in the room, some empty energy drink cans scattered around her desk, and on the floor right next to her seat, was Kanade. She was curled up on the floor, headphones fallen off to the side. Her hair was a knotted mess, her nose was scrunched up, her brow was furrowed, and her breathing was heavy. Ena was sure she probably looked about the same as she did; same messy hair, same expression as she tried to catch her breath. She walked to Kanade’s side and used one hand to support the back of her neck and the other around her abdomen to keep her steady as she checked her.
Kanade slowly opened her eyes and saw, Ena? Why was Ena at her house? she looked terrible and distressed, what happened?
“Ena why are you—?”
“You passed out, I just came over to make sure you weren't dead… or something.”
“Oh. Sorry for worrying you.”
“It's ok. Glad you're awake.” Ena sounded so tired. Kanade tried to push herself up, but before she could even get her arms securely under her to push herself up, Ena picked her up. The unexpected movement made Kanade jump. “Sorry.” Murmured Ena. She placed her down on the bed and watched her for a second before walking out of the room without a word. ‘What an odd dream’ Kanade thought. Ena lived way too far to actually have shown up.
Ena walked back into the kitchen. Kanade needed food, water, and probably a hair brush before she could sleep; all things she had clearly forgotten to do. Maybe if it wasn't 2:30am, Ena would have made some tea, but without the fear of something happening to Kanade, she finally felt the fatigue hit her. Tap water would do, not like Kanade would complain. She then rummaged through all the kitchen cabinets, most of them were empty. She guessed all she ate when Mafuyu wasn't here was ramen.
“Really? What an idiot, I’ll need to buy you real food tomorrow." she groaned.
She managed to find a half empty box of crackers. It would be fine, Kanade probably needed something light anyways. Her last stop was to the bathroom for a hair brush. Ena tried hard to ignore herself in the mirror, she looked like she herself was half dead, she was never going to run like that again if it made her look like this.
As she walked back into the room, she found Kanade in the same place as before, staring blankly at her lap. Ena took Kanade's hands and placed the cup of water in them, and the box of crackers in her lap as she crawled behind her with the hair brush.
“Try to eat and drink something, would you?” She admittedly may have been too harsh but she was tired, she would apologize in the morning for her tone. Kanade watched her as she crawled behind her and Ena began to brush her hair gently, slowly working the tangles in her hair out. Kanade slowly drank the water provided and tried to take some small bites of cracker. They were a bit stale, but she didn't really notice. The tangles in Kanade's hair took a good 30 minutes to brush out, even then the brush didn't go through as smoothly as she wanted it to. ‘Whatever’ Ena thought, it was good enough and now Ena's main priority was making sure that Kanade slept. Once Kanade was done with her crackers and an extra glass of water, Ena gently pushed her down onto the bed and placed the blanket over her.
“Goodnight Ena.” Murmured Kanade.
“Night.” she replied, she watched Kanade for a second to make sure she was actually asleep. For a moment, she contemplated going home, but by now it was past 3 and she hardly felt like dragging herself on the 40 minute walk home. Hell, she hardly felt like getting up to sleep in the spare room. She sighed, Kanade wouldn't mind that much, right? “Screw it…” she murmured and laid down on the bed next to Kanade. The moment her head hit the mattress she was out.
———
Ena was woken up by a knock on Kanade's door. Who the hell was here at eight in the morning? She slowly got out of bed, taking extra care to not wake Kanade. Easier said than done, her entire body felt like it got hit by a train. And she thought last night was bad. ‘ I’m never going to run like that again,’ she thought as she walked to the front door. For a moment she thought about fixing her hair, but honestly besides Mafuyu or Mizuki, she wasn't sure who would be here, so it didn't matter what she looked like. But upon opening the door, she felt her blood run cold for a second; Honami was the one standing at the door, how could Ena have forgotten? Kanade had her come to the house to help her and now she was face-to-face with someone she had only met once looking probably terrible. Honami was carrying some brown paper bags filled with groceries and had a warm smile on her face.
“Ah, Shinnome, right? Is Ms. Yoisaki home?” She asked with a smile.
Ena laughed awkwardly. “Haha yeah, she is still sleeping though, but uh—please, come in!” She quickly moved herself out of the way and tried to brush out her hair with her fingers. Honami walked in and started to put away groceries, except for some flowers, eggs, milk, and some strawberries. Ena leaned against Kanade's counter and watched her, wondering if maybe she needed help.
“So how is Ms. Yoisaki?” Honami asked as she finished putting groceries away. Ena glanced back at Kanade's door, should she tell her? No, probably not, she knew Kanade, but Ena didn't want to overstep if Kanade didn’t want her to know. “Yeah. She is ok, we just had a sleepover and stayed up a bit late.”
“Well, that's nice. I'm going to make some pancakes for when she wakes up. Do you want to help me?”
“Oh um, sure! That would be nice.” Ena quickly walked over and started to help make three small stacks of strawberry pancakes for all of them. When they were about done they heard Kanade's door open. She walked out, leaning against the wall. For a second, she looked at Ena before her mouth made a little ‘o’ as she had her little lightbulb moment.
“Good morning.” She greeted as she sat down, they served the pancakes and Kanade and Honami talked. Ena was too tired to say or do much but an occasional hum or a nod. At least the pancakes were good, Kanade seemed to enjoy them, too. Honami quickly left to do… whatever she did in her free time, and Kanade and Ena sat in silence. Ena was staring down at her plate, how could Kanade act so normal right after passing out like that? She had a normal conversation and acted fine, like Ena hadn't found her on the floor of her room last night. Whatever, it didn't matter. Kanade was fine, she was fed, and she got some sleep, and now all Ena wanted to do was get home and sleep all day. She placed her food in the sink, took her phone out of her pajama pocket and put her address into directions as she headed for the door. Before she could leave, she heard Kanade’s voice, it sounded small, tired.
“I'm sorry for making you come all the way here. I never meant to pass out, I just—I just...” She murmured as she buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. And for a moment, all Ena could do was stare at her, and then she sighed and crossed her arms, leaning against the door frame.
“You just wanted to finish the song, right?”
“Mhm…”
Ena sighed and looked at the floor. She had never seen Kanade cry in person, it was hard to watch and it made her heart twist in a way that made her feel sick.
“I’m not mad at you Kanade, I'm sorry if I sound that way, you really scared me. I thought something might happen to you and now you are acting like it's fine!” She took a deep breath as she realized she was getting a bit too loud. “I just—we all just worry about you. You need to take care of yourself, Kanade…”
There was a stretch of silence only broken by Kanades' stifled sobs. Ena walked back over to Kanade and grabbed her shoulders and forced her to her feet, though slowly. She didn't want her to pass out again, and then she wrapped her arms around Kanade.
“Kanade, if you ever need anything, you can call me, or Mizuki, or Mafuyu, or even Hoanmi. We all just want to help you, and I'm sure they all would drop everything to help you out. I know I would. Just call us, or at least go into the Sekai so the Vocaloids can help you and get to us easier.” Ena pulled back and wiped her tears away with a napkin. “Ok—”
Kanade quickly pulled her back into the hug and nodded into her jacket. “You do the same. And don't tell Mizuki or Mafuyu, ok? I promise I’ll call one of you next time, just please don't tell them.”
Ena thought about it for a moment before she patted her head, “Ok, I promise.”
Ena helped her clean up her plate and throw a few of her empty ramen cups away before deciding she should probably get home.
———
Ena didn't even get 10 seconds of peace in her own house before she heard Akito’s annoying voice.
“And where the hell were you? Why did you run out in the middle of the night? You could have gotten kidnapped, and you didn’t answer any of my texts or calls!” He snapped as he leaned against the counter with slight eye bags under his eyes. Huh, had those been there before?
“A friend needed help, it’s all good. Sorry for freaking you out or whatever. Now I’m going to go take a nap… see you later.” she said flatly as she climbed the stairs
“Did you even eat?!” He shouted up the stairs.
“Yeah, yeah, I ate, now good day.” She waved him off and entered her room, passing out again when she hit the mattress, now able to rest easier that she knew Kanade was ok.