richesse | AQUA

[ She’ll help him out of the crypt, if he needs the assistance. ]

Aqua… you seemed out of it back there. Is everything really alright?

[ as she’s helping him back to their room, she’ll finally ask: ]

You really want to know why I’m being so nice?

[While Aqua doesn't exactly book it back to Room 1 after confirming Maomao's condition in the greenhouse--he's still not really in any condition to book it anywhere, let alone up the stairs--it's definitely as speedy a retreat as he can make it.

His knees give out just before he makes it back to his bunk, and he ends up folded over it, clinging to it like a life raft, fingers bunched in the fabric.

The small figure. The unmoving chest. The smile--

No. No. It's happening again. If it's just going to happen again, then why?

Why is he even here?]

[ she goes looking for him.

Mostly because she couldn’t not see his face while he was examining the body. She was in the damn room.

She’s got Ranma’s Gekkaja in her arms as she tries to smoke him out. Where you at, boyfriendo. ]

[ once the trial and the horrible execution of an innocent girl is done, Lortel will lead them away, if Aqua lets her. She takes them to…

… the sitting room, where she meanders over to the chair Ranma was found in. All clean now. ]

It doesn’t feel real. [ … ] Thank you, for helping with Anemone. I was going to lose my temper if I stayed any longer.

[It didn't take long for these two, with their combined smarts and the particularities of their situationship, to figure out that physical contact keeps the hallucinations at bay. Aqua's found it something of a relief, even, to have more justification to stay close.

When they're alone like they now are in Room 1, with Luis and Leon having moved out, boundaries--or rather, where boundaries should be--feel murkier. Aqua lies on his back in his bed, gazing at the bunk above as he tunes out the lyrics to STAR☆T☆RAIN.

'Taisetsu na koto wa sou mienai no.
Important things are invisible like that.']

Lortel?

[He finally asks softly, though he doesn't think she's asleep.]

When you woke up this morning, was it still to a bad hallucination?

[ You. Come with me, she told him.

And now she’s leading him out of the crypt by the wrist. She hasn’t said anything else. Is she mad? The set of her shoulders is pretty stiff. ]

WEEK ZERO | SATURDAY

WEEK ZERO | POST-AFTERPARTY

WEEK ONE, WEDNESDAY, POST-MAOMAO

WEEK TWO | FRIDAY

WEEK TWO | SATURDAY, POST-TRIAL