Summary spoilers/theories so help me I love this idea don't touch me

He waits.

It's not as if there's really much else to do, but deep down he knows even if there was, he'd still probably wait.

Cross-legged just to the side of the entrance, a good view of all the constant stream of new employees streaming through, waiting to take their place in the carnival that was their new home was what greeted him now that he no longer needed sleep to give solace to the burdens he faced. Though he wonders after a while if he can still call them burdens when he's come to accept them, and even think fondly of them.

He sees familiar faces constantly, though many are far too unaware of their current status to notice him; he leaves them be, it's something he knows they have to work out on their own.

[it's something he should have worked out on his own, but he doesn't want to take his place just yet, so when she comes around and mocks him and asks if he knows why he's here, he lies through his teeth and says he doesn't.]

[The lies will accumulate to his total, but he smiles, knowing that it'll be closer to his soon enough anyway]

There's no sense of time in a place where everything is continuously moving; no rest for the weak, he reminds himself as he watches people he knew, or people he thought he knew – they look so similar, but so different at the same time; older, wiser.

[He hasn't seen either one of them yet, so is the battle still progressing? Are these people just collateral damage, like himself?]

It's strange when he finally sees one of them appear, a taller boy with wild black hair and obnoxious red bangs holding his side as he stumbles through, only to turn and raise an eyebrow, finally understanding. He's never expecting the Thomas? To fall from his lips as he hobbles over; he guesses that in the time passed he's learnt of the name he cherishes more than the number and to see such a smile one someone sporting serious battle damage is something that confuses Thomas beyond belief.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, letting Yuma sit and nurse his injuries. He still can't believe it; can't believe he lost after everything he did, but he notices that the strange key that was never left Yuma's side is no longer there along with his tattered and torn clothing, and he wonders if in the end, Nasch decided to take it as a prize.

Yuma laughs. "It had to happen to me eventually. I should have been more careful with that damn rope, maybe I wouldn't have fallen…"

"What?" Thomas interrupts.

Yuma grimaces. "I was abseiling when my rope snapped. I thought it would be nostalgic to go to the same areas as my dad did, see the world like he did, y'know? But I never expected the equipment to be faulty." He laughs in spite of himself.

It seems an odd way to die in a war, and Thomas can't keep the confused look from his eyes. "And the key?" he questions, gesturing to his empty chest.

"Oh, right!" Yuma laughs. "Astral took it with him when he went home after the war."

"After?" Thomas repeats to himself before turning back to Yuma, holding his arms out. "Want to fill me in? It's obviously been a while. How old even are you now?"

"twenty-three." Yuma affirms without hesitation.

[Ten years. He'd been sitting in hell waiting for ten years.]

"Where's Shark?" Yuma asks suddenly. "He was supposed to meet me here." '

"Ryouga?" Thomas asks, sitting next to him, feeling the most lost he had in ten years. "Wasn't it either you or him?"

"Well, yeah." Yuma confirms skeptically. "Thomas, surely someone's told you right? We won. A while ago, now. I always assumed seeing as I broke the cycle that he would just come here…" he trails off, holding his chin. "It's where he said he was going anyway. Maybe they decided to give him one last chance."

"What the hell are you on about?" he repeats with a grimace. Ryouga wasn't here, and Yuma was. But Yuma had won. The dots wouldn't connect for him as much as he tried so badly for them to.

"well, I dunno there was something super weird about Shark's reincarnation process where he would cycle from human to barian, but I thought I broke that during our duel, but I guess you have to be human to enter hell?" he laughs nervously.

Thomas laughs from sheer confusion. "I've waited ten years apparently, can't hurt to wait a bit more, right?"

Yuma stays with him, and he finds it reassuring to have someone there with him, to keep him company when his thoughts were beginning to get to be too much as he knows that it could be days, months, decades, until he finds his solace again.

So when she passes through and sees them, there's a regained sense of hope in the two of them that Yuma was right. She throws herself into their arms, ignoring the injuries that tears through her skin, and laughs as she holds Thomas at arm's length.

"You're still waiting." She breathes as she tries to catch her breath. "He'll be so happy."

He doesn't know what to say when she embraces him a second time so he goes for sorry and he doesn't realize it but he's repeating it over and over until he hears her laughter against his shoulder and she pulls away, grinning and exclaiming there's no need, that feels like lifetimes ago, not caring about the truth of her words or not.

She waits with them, and fills them in on what they've both missed; turns out Yuma was right and they had one last chance, only for the both of them to fuck it up almost instantly. She didn't care, and her recklessness was the reason she was here, and he can't help but laugh as she explains her situation – froze to death on a mountain in winter, it seemed so typical of her, even more so when she threw her hands up and laughed, exclaiming there was no way I was falling from the side of that mountain!

It's almost complete, and a simple conversation between the three is interrupted when a man walks through, standing out from the crowd that despite his injuries, he gives a sigh of relief and slumps, knowing that its finally over. Staring to the side, he can't help but smile as he sees the people awaiting him, and as soon as the royal blue eyes meet with three sets of red, he closes his eyes and smirks, proclaiming I have had enough of looking after people for four fucking lifetimes, and they laugh as he braces for the impact of Yuma colliding into his chest and Rio seconds later, and he stares at now the youngest of them all, rolling his eyes as he smirks.

"This whole time?" he asks, not needing to fulfil the context to know he's gotten his message across. Thomas nods, smirking as Ryouga gestures his head towards him, and Rio and Yuma pull themselves together and move to the side to give him room, and suddenly Ryouga's three biggest influences are back by his side but in the best way, and he decides that he doesn't mind hell at all, can actually enjoy it, now that they're all back by his side.