[He doesn't know what he's anticipating when Niki's hand disappears and comes back, but he braces himself nonetheless — and yet, what he sees is a gem that looks the same as it always has, from the brief glimpses he's ever gotten of it.
The next instinct is to check and verify Niki's claims for himself, test the weight in his own hand... but he resists the urge to reach out and lay his fingers over the stone. It's not something he's been given, and it's therefore not his to touch. HiMERU can only stare on at how it nestles in Niki's hand, so laughingly ignorant of its own fragility.
'We both knew.' Whatever anger had been boiling under his skin fizzles out again as a similar exchanging of hands flickers through his mind, of his own gemstone passed along at a crucial hour. It's terrifying, giving a piece of himself away like that. It must be even more so, holding onto someone else's life, unable to do anything but watch should anything go awry. Only there to cup it in both hands and hope, and wait, and pray, and wait some more.
He owed someone an apology for that. More than what he'd already given. Rinne, too, needs to pay for burdening Niki with this soul-crushing weight that fits within a palm.
... Perhaps this is overstepping. Perhaps Niki will feel it's overstepping. How could he understand where HiMERU comes from, after all, when his memories stop all these months earlier, and they're all those months further apart? Despite everything, it's almost the same as being strangers again. It's not even that HiMERU's been forgotten... There was just nothing to remember in the first place.
But they're not the same strangers as before. They've stood together too many times for that, in that world. And why shouldn't that be the same here as well?
HiMERU reaches out. For once, he reaches out. It's long overdue. If he can be of support, for even a moment...
His hand slides beneath Niki's, cupping the back of it as he pulls it a bit closer, staring hard into Rinne's gemstone all the while... and after some time, he jerks his head up again with a certain finality, meeting Niki's eyes once more. His hand is warm under the other's, with a grip loose enough to let Niki free, should he pull just once.]
Shiina... [He starts, but there's another moment of frowning and furrowed brows before he finds the words.] When you hold this for him, what are you feeling?
[Not criticism... Not problem-solving... No, HiMERU is asking about feelings.]
no subject
The next instinct is to check and verify Niki's claims for himself, test the weight in his own hand... but he resists the urge to reach out and lay his fingers over the stone. It's not something he's been given, and it's therefore not his to touch. HiMERU can only stare on at how it nestles in Niki's hand, so laughingly ignorant of its own fragility.
'We both knew.' Whatever anger had been boiling under his skin fizzles out again as a similar exchanging of hands flickers through his mind, of his own gemstone passed along at a crucial hour. It's terrifying, giving a piece of himself away like that. It must be even more so, holding onto someone else's life, unable to do anything but watch should anything go awry. Only there to cup it in both hands and hope, and wait, and pray, and wait some more.
He owed someone an apology for that. More than what he'd already given. Rinne, too, needs to pay for burdening Niki with this soul-crushing weight that fits within a palm.
... Perhaps this is overstepping. Perhaps Niki will feel it's overstepping. How could he understand where HiMERU comes from, after all, when his memories stop all these months earlier, and they're all those months further apart? Despite everything, it's almost the same as being strangers again. It's not even that HiMERU's been forgotten... There was just nothing to remember in the first place.
But they're not the same strangers as before. They've stood together too many times for that, in that world. And why shouldn't that be the same here as well?
HiMERU reaches out. For once, he reaches out. It's long overdue. If he can be of support, for even a moment...
His hand slides beneath Niki's, cupping the back of it as he pulls it a bit closer, staring hard into Rinne's gemstone all the while... and after some time, he jerks his head up again with a certain finality, meeting Niki's eyes once more. His hand is warm under the other's, with a grip loose enough to let Niki free, should he pull just once.]
Shiina... [He starts, but there's another moment of frowning and furrowed brows before he finds the words.] When you hold this for him, what are you feeling?
[Not criticism... Not problem-solving... No, HiMERU is asking about feelings.]