Bruno wasn't sure when he realized it, but the muted click of a switch flicking on catalyzed him into action even before light flooded the upstairs. With superhuman reflexes, he clamped an eagle-spread hand over Placido's mouth and pushed the Emperor as far into the couch as he could.
A hesitant voice piped up.
"Bruno…? Are you alright down there? I thought I heard noises."
Feigning having just woken up, Bruno rubbed his eyes. "…Yuusei… what's up…?"
"Sorry to wake you. I just thought –" A pause. "– no, I must have been just imaging things."
"Ahh…? Did you have a nightmare?"
"Probably."
A doe-eyed look of concern. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He could feel Placido squirming frantically underneath him.
"Nah, I'm alright. It's nothing big. Thanks for the offer though."
"Okay then. I hope you can sleep now. Good night, Yuusei."
"Thanks. 'night."
The lights turned off.
Darkness and silence flooded the garage for one, two, three… ten seconds, Bruno's brain calculated, before one of the entities were broken by a hushed, angry seethe—
"What the hell were you thinking?" He shoved Bruno off him, who conceded and backed up, giving the Emperor space. Even in the total darkness, Bruno could envision the furious expression Placido was wearing. "Offering to be a therapy pillow? Did your circuits malfunction or did you just decide to come down with a sudden case of idiotic boldness?"
Bruno didn't answer and was rewarded with an awkwardly-placed slap to the side of his head; Placido was probably aiming for his face and missed a few notches. Bruno's reaction was only a wince coupled with a small 'ow'.
"Fool! Did you want Fudou to find out about this?" he continued angrily.
Bruno didn't make a sound, didn't fight back, and when he leveled Placido with an even gaze, there was neither a trace of anger nor sadness in his eyes.
"You don't know the way Yuusei I do," he said quietly, and Placido couldn't argue with that.
He stared at Bruno for a second longer before glancing away, swallowing his anger into something intelligible.
An awkward silence stretched over them.