Returns

[buryyourfriends]

Who: Seto and open | Seto and Ren
What: Seto has returned from his canon update. Time to find everyone again.
When: Backdated to the 9th
Where: Around Camp Base
Warnings: Massive spoilers for Fragile Dreams and the epilogue manga. I'll update as needed!


Camp Base - Let's dance to joy division and celebrate the irony

[It feels like a repeat of events that happen whenever he falls asleep: something happens.

Seto fell asleep and dreamed of a school and a time he did not belong to. He fell asleep and Ren went missing, ran away because of him and his reaction to her eventual death. He fell asleep in a world that was composed of silence and bodies of other children.

He falls asleep and--

And he's...back. Blinking at the bright sun, the sound of waves filling his ears as Seto's memories rush to catch up to him. Shiro, Tokyo Tower, Shin's memories and Ren---

He vanished without a word. He has no idea how long it's been. Ren and Crow. They're...

Seto was at the Storyteller's temple but he doesn't stop running until he reaches Camp Base again. He's out of breath but forces himself to keep running until he finds Ren and Crow, calling their names.

Someone can try to stop him, on his run to Camp Base and through it, but they'll need to keep up with his run. Or just tackle him. Either or.]


Locked to Ren - Everything is going wrong but we're so happy

[Once everything has died down and night has come, Seto hasn't quite gone to bed yet. Things keep happening when he sleeps and he's slightly afraid that he'll disappear again if he does.

It's a silly fear, the same kind of fear he had once he had been pulled out of the Water, but he doesn't want to vanish again. It's not so much that he hated his own world - there were a lot of pretty things there despite it being destroyed and he wouldn't have met anyone if he didn't live there - it's just that Seto doesn't want to leave Ren and Crow alone again.

So he goes for a little walk. Just so he could find a good spot for some star-gazing. Unsurprisingly Ren's tagging along and he does not mind it at all. Any time he can spend with her is even more precious now.

Any and all time...all that she has left.

If Seto's gripping Ren's hand a little too hard, he's sorry.]

Comments

[buryyourfriends]

[And there's no hesitation. Just a quiet sort of happiness that Seto can feel even without his powers working. There are some things that abilities like his were not needed to feel something.

Ren's happy here. She's safe and has friends. There's a tent somewhere in a camp that has a hammock in it where two and sometimes three children slept. There hasn't been a day where their bellies weren't full or a thought spared to the next time they were going to eat because it would happen. Even Seto himself was slowly starting to forget what flowers and grass tasted like.

She had a birthday and maybe Ren could have another in the future. It's...not a kind of hope, but it's nice to think of.

But the most important thing here was that Ren was happy on the island of Enso. And that was enough for Seto.]

Okay.

[He hasn't forgotten his promise to that girl on the other end of the phone and once they found a way to send back those who wanted to go home, maybe he could ask if she could come too. Ren could have another friend too.

But for now he's content with that. Seto leans against Ren gentely and looks up at the sky.

Everything is okay.]

[catpiper]

[Somewhere along the way, there was an unasked question she inadvertently answered. That's what it sounds like and she has to wonder what it could've been.

Not that it matters. Because he takes her words to heart-listens and says okay like it's the only thing he needed to hear.

So she smiles, clutches his hand a bit tighter and points up the sky-

Look at all those pretty stars.]

[buryyourfriends]

[Seto knows deep down he should have actually said what he wanted to ask. There were always things that were hard to get across with no words and Seto's powers weren't like Ren's or Shin's. Perhaps if he had asked Ren again to feel each other's feelings together, then maybe it would be easier.

But he doesn't want to upset her either. For however long Ren has left, he's going to help make the rest of her life a happy one.

He looks up at the stars and smiles.]

They're really pretty.

[catpiper]

It makes you happy when you look at them, right? It makes you smile?

[The stars in particular, but it's a roundabout way of confirming what she needs to know. Because at the end of the day, this place is for him and she needs to make sure he's happy.]

[buryyourfriends]

Yup.

[Because Ren and Crow were here. That's what makes things a bit more shinier and food taste better. Because his best friend and dearest person are alive and well here.]

[catpiper]

[It's easy to see with her own two eyes-the way he flits around camp and his conversations with the people who inhabit the island. It would be impossible for a person like him, who spent so much time searching for someone to be with, to not be happy on a sprawling island booming with life.

She has to make sure, somehow, he never gets sent back to the place. That he never disappears because of the island's influence-he has to stay. And if that means holding his hand this tight for the next ten years, then so be it.

And as they quietly watch the stars together, she leans over and rests her head against his shoulder.

He's finally back.]