[He stumbles back just one step before bracing himself, too used to summoning not to handle the recoil. Minato wraps his arms around Ken (his friend? his teammate? ... his ward? Why does he need a word, anyway?) and closes his eyes, still silent.
It's not that Minato was truly devastated by Ken being gone for ten days. He's used to that, to losing people, although he's not as used to it as he is to not having anyone in the first place. But it's not so different a thing to return to, and he had other people. He'd known Ken was alive and would continue being alive, somewhere if not here in front of him. No, Minato had known he would be fine, maybe not immediately but eventually; he'd accept Ken's absence and move forward, embracing what he did have as best as he was able.
But this moment... loss and return...
It feels like the counterpoint to the moment of his death, when he'd held up his finger and realized he would never have that warmth for himself again. And he was okay with that, if it meant that they didn't have to bear that, too.
Yet here he is-- with what he'd been expecting to be deprived of forever returned to him. It's representative of so much more. All the potential that being here represents, that not just Ken might come back to him but everyone else, too, Yukari and Junpei and Mitsuru and maybe even his social links that weren't SEES. Minato might not have to have lost them, any of them, at all, not if he stays here long enough.
It's such a wild hope. He doesn't want to credit it.
Lightly squeezing Ken to him, uncaring of the sight they make from the street as they stand there in the doorway, Minato feels the first real breath of that hope whisper through him, tentative and young.]
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It's not that Minato was truly devastated by Ken being gone for ten days. He's used to that, to losing people, although he's not as used to it as he is to not having anyone in the first place. But it's not so different a thing to return to, and he had other people. He'd known Ken was alive and would continue being alive, somewhere if not here in front of him. No, Minato had known he would be fine, maybe not immediately but eventually; he'd accept Ken's absence and move forward, embracing what he did have as best as he was able.
But this moment... loss and return...
It feels like the counterpoint to the moment of his death, when he'd held up his finger and realized he would never have that warmth for himself again. And he was okay with that, if it meant that they didn't have to bear that, too.
Yet here he is-- with what he'd been expecting to be deprived of forever returned to him. It's representative of so much more. All the potential that being here represents, that not just Ken might come back to him but everyone else, too, Yukari and Junpei and Mitsuru and maybe even his social links that weren't SEES. Minato might not have to have lost them, any of them, at all, not if he stays here long enough.
It's such a wild hope. He doesn't want to credit it.
Lightly squeezing Ken to him, uncaring of the sight they make from the street as they stand there in the doorway, Minato feels the first real breath of that hope whisper through him, tentative and young.]