A/N: YIPPEEE hopefully now all the festivities are over now and i can write more woohoo...... im hoping the timeline of events isnt too confusing so far, but just to make it clear:

- its been a few months since akito and tsukasa met in the tenma household

- tsukasa isnt fully missing, he just goes to school, avoids his friends, goes back home, cooks for his sister and then locks himself in his room

- at the same time, rui is now FULLY missing--- no one has seen him in days- this is happening after the mizuki desk chapter

if you have questions feel free to ask and ill do my best to clarify!

—

The dog plush slept soundly in KAITO's lap, leaning against his chest.

However, despite how calm it seemed to be, Nene couldn't help but worry for the situation at hand.

Nene should have known ages ago what was happening wasn't just something she and her friends could brush off. However, it is now that she finds herself sitting in front of her whole troupe's unofficial parent, looking disheveled and messy in an almost insane way, that her brain fully processed the situation at hand.

It was almost like time went still at the silence between the two. KAITO's office in the main tent wasn't particularly spacious, but being there still meant they were separated by a whole desk, giving an eerily serious vibe to this meeting they had found themselves in.

The desk was covered in different things that Nene hadn't particularly placed close attention to before this, but looking at them now, she could definitely see the meaning behind them. Drawings from the plushies, scripts for shows, star-shaped stickers, candy, a seemingly broken microphone yet to be fixed, etcetera, and yet, something caught her attention overall.

An hourglass, the sand almost full at the top, though, curiously, it did not seem like sand at all; instead, it reflected a space-like image of a dark blue star-filled background, red strings connecting seemingly invisible things in front of the pretty backdrop. Nene felt almost entranced by the way the sand fell to the bottom of the glass container, though seemingly not under the regular rules of gravity; each grain made a strangely slow descent into the bottom.

And, for some reason, her headache seemed to diminish a little bit when she watched the phenomenon intently.

Nene was dragged out of her daze when KAITO finally started talking, not meeting her gaze.

"So. You may be wondering why I called you here so suddenly." KAITO said, and Nene's headache seemed to suddenly get ten times worse. The pain sliced through her skull, making her struggle to even keep their eyes open as she squinted through her suffering. "I'll be quick. I can see this is affecting you, too."

"Thank you." Nene murmured back, silently urging KAITO to get on with it. He did.

"The feelings that originally formed the Wonderland SEKAI are getting farther and farther away. They're mixing with more negative feelings that either had been repressed so much they weren't even slightly in Tsukasa's memory and therefore couldn't show up in SEKAI or just straight up didn't exist until now, which is unlikely. I've..." KAITO paused.

"Ever since the day you came and it was raining, I've been... monitoring the feelings around here. And... there's just been an all-consuming sorrow taking over what I can identify as Tsukasa's— but it feels so detached from the rest of you guys, and I thought— I thought—"

"For a second there, I thought Tsukasa was getting better, that Rui was getting closer and helping him. But now Rui—" KAITO turned his attention to the hourglass Nene had been observing earlier. No honorifics were used in his talk at all, which Nene found weird— KAITO always treated them like they were his children, using the proper yet casual honorific for them all. "—Rui's been stuck in his own feelings, and I don't think he can make it out on his own. I also don't think he's planning to."

Nene paused, processing KAITO's words for a second.

"...he's not planning to, huh..." She sighed.

Nene didn't see him ever since that day.

Everytime she caught a glimpse of his purple hair in the streets, her mind urged her to get closer, to say hi, to ask what was wrong.

Every time, she also failed to do so.

There was something about the state Rui was in that made her pained. His clearly unkempt hair was a first sign. His even more unkempt outfits and uniform were a second.

And even then...

Nene knew what Rui was like when he set his mind on something, what he was like when he was trying. When he hadn't given up on something.

Whether it was with his ridiculously explosive contraptions or scenes in his scripts that didn't seem to properly flow into each other, when he set his mind to it, Rui never, and she means never, got away without either a new idea or some sort of solution.

Rui wasn't trying. Rui was simply letting life push him along, perhaps not even caring about how it ended.

Rui had accepted what was happening to him.

Nene wouldn't accept it, as his friend, caretaker, honorary sibling, whatever. She hadn't done anything once, and Rui's only salvation had happened through Mizuki.

"Do you know where he is, KAITO?" And there was the decisive question. The one that would state if there was anything Nene could do at all.

And to her relief, she saw KAITO sigh, before giving her a clear answer; the one thing she had been begging for.

"I believe I do. But... it's going to be complicated."

Nene lightly but determinedly slapped her hand on the table, surprising KAITO.

"If it's for Rui's wellbeing, once and for all, I'm willing to do the impossible."

And for the first time that evening, KAITO smiled.

"Good."

—

"Hey, Akito."

He sighed, turning towards his sister, frankly not in the mood to deal with her right now.

"What, Ena?" He responded, crossing his arms. He had just woken up from a long sleep and he was just bubbling with irritation for no specific reason he could pinpoint. But, honestly, he didn't want to take it out on his sister, as much as he made it seem so.

"Mizuki texted me to tell you to get on Nightcord." She informed him. "Said it was important and you weren't responding. I have no clue what's up but I think you should check."

"...right." He sighed, lowering his arms back to his sides. "Thank you, I guess." He said, and promptly walked into his room without waiting for a response.

What could Mizuki possibly want from me now? Akito wondered, laying down on his bed once more. He thought he'd helped their stupid shit and gotten it over with, he hoped she wouldn't call with incoming therapy bills for his upperclassman. That would be embarrassing.

He opened Nightcord, found Mizuki's profile and tapped call, not bothering to read the messages asking him to get online.

[The better Shinonome has started a call - 0:0:12 s ]

"Hello?" Mizuki called, behind the screen. Akito leaned back against his pillows, drumming the fingers of his free hand against his stomach.

"Hey, Mizuki. What's up?"

—

A/N: notice how tsukasa and rui perfectly mirror eachother? they are so traumatized and in love and soulmates istg