"Joshua?"

Rhyme shook the body on the couch. It was 2 in the afternoon, and the ash-blonde hadn't woken up yet that day. The younger Bito was getting worried.

"Josh?" she called softly, shaking him again. No response. Rhyme began to panic.

"Rhyme." A tired voice from the stairs yawned "Leave him alone. He needs his sleep. He worked hard yesterday."

"He's so still." She leaned in and brushed his hair out of his face "I don't know Neku...something doesn't feel right. Something's wrong. I...I don't know what it is...but this isn't normal."

Neku walked over and leaned down.

"He does look kind of pale. He also didn't eat much after the session yesterday, wich is weird because it was Shio."

"Neku..." Rhyme swiped a hand over Joshua's cheek, showing the teen her discovery.

"He's crying."

The proxy narrowed his eyes "I'm calling Mister H. Stay with him."

"Like you have to ask?" she shook her head with a smile.

As Neku talked in a hushed tone on his phone, Rhyme grabbed the limp, cold hand of the Composer, rubbing the back soothingly with her thumb. Softly, she began humming a song she'd heard him sing during his rehersals for music class, her voice straining to reach him wherever he'd gone to that morning.

She took in a breath as she realized with horror that thin lines of static were running down Josh's legs

"NEKU!"

The Proxy bolted to them, and saw too.

"No...NO! Josh wake up...you gotta WAKE UP!"

"Neku...wait." Rhyme said, kneeling down and putting her mouth right to the fading Composer's ear.

"Yoshiya Kiryu you listen to me. Listen! Shibuya needs you. Neku needs you...I need you. I need you, Joshua! Don't go away...please..." She threw her arms around his too-thin frame. "Please don't leave me!"

She lay her head on his chest "Please..."

Ever so slowly, a pale arm came and rested on her back. The static began to recede, and the mouth slowly spread in a small grin.

Neku observed all this with a wry smile and a shake of his head.

"Don't tell me this isn't love." He whispered to the figure that had just appeared moments ago.

"Maybe on her part." Hanekoma said just as softly. "He cares for her, that fact was obvious a while ago. But Phones...he can't just—"

"Mister H...just look at them! Look at that right now and tell me he doesn't at least have a sliver of what was stolen from him. I know it's cliché, what I'm hoping for, but someone once told me...that he may not be able to get back exactly what he's lost...but that doesn't mean he can't get something new in return."

Sanae took another look at the figures cuddled on the couch. Was Phones right? Did the Composer finally find love in some very, very small amount? As he watched his son slowly bring his other arm across the girl's small frame, drawing her closer to him in a gesture of comfort and reassurance, the barista began to strongly hope that a bit of warmth had touched the ash-blond as well.

That after all these decades...Yoshiya Kiryu was getting back the ability to love, and to be able to feel love in return. To finally understand that sacred, powerful bond that some folks shared, that his own proxy shared with his girl.

Neku was right, Josh might not be able to get back that part of him that had been stolen by a cruel, malicious madman...But there was nothing that said he couldn't build something new to replace what he'd lost. What had been literally ripped from his very soul.

"You know Phones...J might get his happy ending after all..."