[ best friend protocol activate. it's easy for doppo to brush aside his own anxiety and negativity in the face of hifumi's distress, and when hifumi wraps his arms around him he does the same without complaint, more fixated on trying to alleviate the source of it, to comfort even when he's entirely confused.

hadn't he just said goodbye to him this morning --

-- i thought i would never see you again. i was so scared. the words ring in his ears, wraps around his heart in a vice grip. he has never seen hifumi like this, not even in the midst of a panic attack.

no, this is different. this is hifumi at his most vulnerable, and doppo only hugs him tighter. ]

No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. [ their bodies flush against each other, doppo's own protectiveness overriding everything else. his hand comes to cradle the back of the other man's head, and doppo feels his heart cracking, just a little. hifumi is so inexplicably sad, and doppo doesn't understand it, even if every cell in him wants to rush to soothe, to reassure. ] I'm here, Hifumi. You don't have to be scared anymore.

[ he turns his head, words buried in the crook of his neck, as if he could brand every syllable into his skin, willing them to reach hifumi's heart. ] I'm here. I'm not going anywhere.