all of a sudden you're a hostage to things you thought you wanted

[closely]

( open for messages, action, overflow. )

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[closely]

( for a while, four drifts, not wholly asleep and not really awake either. he doesn't know how to answer that. even if he says yes, then what? the call doesn't end, because it doesn't occur to him to do so, screen of his handbook still lit up, nier's name flashing across its center. )

[extirpator]

[ the silence is telling -- it's an answer, one that affirms his worst fears. he stays there, quiet, listening as elan breathes.

after a long while-- ]

Do you want me to stay with you?

[closely]

( no one's ever offered that. four doesn't know how to process it even now that nier says it so earnestly, as he does with everything. a far cry from someone like four who sounds like nothing matters even if everything does. but maybe, right now, he sounds...a little less...empty. or maybe a little 'more' present.

he sighs. )

No need. Good night, Nier.

( his first attempt to end the call fails, shaking too badly. the second time he succeeds, barely. falling asleep so fast his hand stays limp across the darkened screen.

he'd wanted to accept. it's something he'll realize while with peil this time, quietly running the gamut of tests and wondering what it means to have someone offer the things nier does. what it means...to want them. )