Yuma woke up in the middle of the night with a desperate need to pee. Rolling clumsily off of his hammock bed, eyes half-closed, he began a single-minded shuffle to the bathroom.

As he slowly made his way down the ladder from his attic room, he mumbled vaguely, "...wish I was like you, Astral... then I could float down..."

"If you were like me," Astral responded, voice cool and flowing like water, "you would not be able to interact with most of the solid objects in your world. I doubt you would like that much, Yuma, even if you did gain the ability to fly."

"Astraaaal," Yuma droned, reaching the floor below at last, "you talk too many words."

"Is that so?" he replied, a smile in his voice.

"Very yes," came the response. "Lots very yes."

Astral hummed thoughtfully. "Observation number twenty-three: a human's grammatical ability directly corresponds to the time of day."

Yuma muttered something incomprehensible, then went silent as he continued his half-blind shuffle, a lazy little smile growing on his face. Astral's presence, though not very physical, was a comfort to Yuma – he'd grown rather used to, and indeed, fond of having a friendly someone just to be there withhim at all times, to the point at which it would feel stranger to be alone.

Upon arriving at the bathroom, Yuma reminded Astral that he was not allowed to accompany him inside.

"I'll be right here," Astral assured him as he shut the door.

Yuma relieved his poor bladder, washed his hands, and splashed some cold water on his face in an attempt to relieve the heaviness of his eyelids. He grabbed a hand towel to dry off his face and glanced at himself in the mirror.

Huh... weird, he thought, poking at the pink, puffy skin under his eyes and wondering if he was sick. The more he pondered it, the more uneasy he felt, so he wrenched his gaze away from the mirror and pushed those thoughts aside.

He shrugged and left the bathroom, feeling considerably more awake, but still very ready to crawl back into bed.

"Hey, Astral," he said, looking around for his friend, but seeing him nowhere.

"I'll be right here," echoed Astral's words in Yuma's head.

Astral doesn't lie, Yuma thought, confused. "Astral? Astral, where are you? And," he added, suddenly remembering the day Astral learned what hide-and-seek was, "don't you dare pop out of nowhere because I'll definitely yell really loud and then Akari will get mad at me – "

"Yuma?" came a cautious voice that was not Astral. "What are you doing up?"

Yuma squinted through the darkness, recognizing the figure approaching him as... "Shark? I didn't know you were here..."

"I, um."

"WAIT!" Yuma exclaimed, procuring a "shhh" from Ryouga, "Does this mean we're having a sleepover?"

"Um. I... guess?"

"AWESOME!" He fist-pumped the air. "Hey, so did you see where Astral went? I think he's hiding, that jerk."

Ryouga went very stiff and very quiet. Not that that was much different from usual, but...

"Hey, hey, don't get nervous, Astral probably will only scare me!"

Still no response.

"Wait... don't tell me you two teamed up against me? Do you know where he's hiding?"

Ryouga's fists were both clenched.

"Come ooooon Shark, just tell me!"

Ryouga's breaths became audible and shaky. This finally draws Yuma's concern.

"...Shark? Are you okay?"

Ryouga stepped closer to him, close enough that Yuma could see pain in his eyes.

"Shark, what – "

"Do you remember what happened yesterday, Yuma?" His voice was quiet, with thinly veiled emotion running beneath each carefully controlled word.

Confusion. "I – " A sudden rush of images and sounds and feelings, vivid enough to be memories, memories that brought tears burning to the corners of his eyes, memories that could not possibly be real, there was just no way... "Shark... Shark, where is Astral?" he asked, looking around frantically, the answer somewhere just on the edge of his mind but refusing to be found –

"He's – Astral's gone, Yuma."

And suddenly the wound was fresh again.

A/N: So... Zexal has kind of grabbed me by the heart and is refusing to let go. Expect more Zexal fics from me in the future! (Also btw this is totally payback for all the the hallucination!Toolshipping fics I've ever read. *shakes fist angrily* *cries*)