It was late by the time Hanae and Jun were yawning and ready for bed. Late enough that it was almost time for him to be asleep as well, Sho knew. Late enough that Ayumu’s continued absence was… worrying.

He exchanged looks with his partners as they all rose to their feet. “I’ll see where our Adventurer friend is,” he said softly while putting out the fire.

“We’ll put the kits to bed,” Kiku said with a nod. She adjusted Jun in her arms then turned away to head into the ruin. “I think I saw movement on the roof a while back.”

“Good place to be alone,” Osamu agreed as he walked past. “Good luck, love.”

Sho hummed and poked at the burnt logs, making sure everything was good and extinguished before he left the fire alone. He wasn’t certain how much ‘luck’ he’d need with Ayumu, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.

By the time he was satisfied with the fire, he’d mentally prepared for as many scenarios as he could envision: everything from Ayumu returning to the golem he’d once been to being consumed by emotions he didn’t know how to handle. Sho hoped it wasn’t either of those extremes, but the potential was certainly there.

Finding his way up the building was his next challenge; he’d had practice lately thanks to Hanae and her desire to be up high, but she at least didn’t try to climb multi-story ruins.

Sho circled the building, looking for a route up that might appeal to someone like Ayumu. He hadn’t known Ayumu long enough to really have a feel for the man yet, but that was alright. So long as he got close, he’d be able to hear the man breathing.

A downed tree leaning against the rubble caught his eye; the trunk provided a nearly unbroken path up the ruin, stopping only three floors from the roof. And the way it had fallen left the rubble of the top three floors as a nice, sloped climb.

That was good enough for him.

(No sense in wasting effort, after all.)

He hopped onto the trunk and scrambled up the tree, using ancient, broken branches as stepping stones as he went. The wood creaked beneath his feet, the last, clinging fragments of bark sloughing off as he moved, and he could hear pebbles shaking loose and rattling away. Tiny seedlings swayed as he passed them by, anchored in little pockets of decaying wood trapped by broken stone.

(He wondered if he’d live long enough to see this building engulfed in greenery.)

(Would there still be a building beneath it all like in Akiba, or would it be entirely destroyed?)

Sho shook the meandering thoughts from his mind and leapt from the tree to a stable-looking piece of floor. He was here to find Ayumu, not marvel at the decaying remains of a time long gone.

(Did Adventurers know about the past? Did these buildings hold any meaning to them at all?)

He hopped from point to point, flickering between sections of rubble that looked stable, until he reached the roof and could look around.

Hulking, rusted shapes dotted the rooftop, along with what looked to be some sort of half-collapsed hut, but otherwise it was as flat as any other Ancient roof he’d seen. Grass and weeds grew in corners where debris had collected and moss wended its way across the bare areas, softening the weathered, storm-grey stone.

(The Ancient world must have been so strange, filled with towering buildings made of such a dull material.)

Sho’s ears twitched and he turned, following the sound of rough, uneven breaths until he finally spotted Ayumu.

Ayumu was perched atop a moss-covered block about the height of a man, knees drawn up to his chest and his head tipped back to stare up at the sky. He didn’t even glance at Sho as he approached, just curled tighter and ducked his head to hide his face from view.

“Ayumu-kun?” Sho gently asked, coming to stand in front of the Adventurer. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Ayumu muttered into his knees, one hand lifting to make a shooing gesture. “‘M fine, Sho-san. Just… exhausted.”

Sho made a disbelieving noise and stepped closer, hoisting himself up atop the block to sit at Ayumu’s side. “Want to talk about it?”

“About what?” Ayumu snapped, lifting his head enough to glare at Sho. Moonlight shone off his damp cheeks, and another tear slipped free and slid down as Sho watched. “Everything is wrong! Everything is wrong and I shouldn’t be here and… and I don’t understand! I don’t know what happened or how to get back and I just… I just…” He sniffed and buried his head in his arms again, mumbling, “I just want to go home…”

He reached out, cautious and gentle, to wrap an arm around Ayumu’s body. Ayumu was stiff in his grip, fine tremors wracking his body and the muscles of his back tensed to their limit, but he didn’t try to shake Sho off. Nor did he fight when Sho tugged him closer, pulling the man — boy? Was Ayumu younger than he looked? — against his chest.

Not that Ayumu relaxed at all. The most he did was let his head loll to the side to rest against Sho’s chest, but even that was victory enough.

“Where’s your home?” Sho asked gently, not willing to assume that Ayumu wanted to go back to Akiba. Not after the way he’d so quickly agreed to leave.

(What did Adventurers consider home? Was it the place they incarnated? The place they lived the longest? Somewhere else?)

(How did the transition from being golems affect their associations?)

“You wouldn’t believe me,” Ayumu mumbled.

“You won’t know until you tell me. And I promise I won’t laugh or call you a liar,” Sho said in reassurance, trying to sound as confident as possible. He lifted a hand and threaded his fingers through Ayumu’s hair, trying something that his children liked in the hopes that it would help.

Ayumu made a wounded noised and shook his head, staying silent despite Sho’s words. He didn’t try to pull away though, so Sho didn’t stop combing his fingers through Ayumu’s hair.

They stayed like that for a while, the passing of time marked only by the steady movement of the moon above their heads. They stayed like that until Ayumu’s body slowly relaxed and his breathing evened out, sleep stealing in and bringing a fragile peace with it.

Sho huffed in amusement and gathered the young man up as he dropped back to the rooftop. He’d need to keep a close eye on Ayumu in the coming days, but… best, perhaps, to let him sleep for now.

He seemed like he needed the rest.