Hajime had welcomed the expansion into theatre.
Everyone had been proud when the middle pairs had been cast in Yumemigusa - Hajime in particular as Arata had learned to work with his natural stoicism, and Shun had strutted like a peacock at the praise You and Yoru had received.
And then the world had shifted and there had been swords and fighting and blood and sickness and death and Mikaduki-san who wasn't Mikaduki-san.
Shun had managed to work his magic to save both You and Arata (and why did Hajime have overlapping memories of both) but the effects had been far-reaching.
Gravi and Procella had given up their tickets to stay with their actors backstage. Hajime had lost count of the times he had comforted a silently crying Aoi, or seen Shun holding a panicking Yoru, walked in on Kai talking to a pale, quiet You, or Haru gripping a deathly blank Arata. He had seen Shun's guilt over treating the incident so lightly at the beginning, and Arata and You flinch every time they'd seen a hospital for months.
Both groups had slept in one common room or the other until the nightmares stopped.
Rabbit's Kingdom had been… strange. Hajime and Shun had decided to keep the existence of the book private until they saw how everyone reacted to the play, and the other members had been both surprised and relieved to learn why they were suddenly unwilling to let their leaders out of sight.
Hajime had been unable to sleep for weeks, both after Shun's reading of the novel and the performances, haunted by visions of black- and white-gloved hands wrapped around Shun's throat, Shun's peaceful expression as he waited - expected - to die (by Hajime's hand, or by his own when that failed). Shun's despair and loneliness given form and murdering everyone - no matter that that part had only been a vision.
The sound of Shun's soft call as he and his other self lay dying.
All of it had seen him on nearly nightly walks around the dorms, and sleeping in his counterpart's room more often than not.
(The filming of Tsukino Empire had gone smoothly enough, except for the scene in the centre of the world, where Shun was prepared for Hajime to kill him. Again.
Shun had stuck close with an apologetic look and quiet reminders that it was his character, not him, and that this universe wasn't one they had visited.
Hajime still hadn't slept.
"Please stop asking me to kill you.")
Zanshin had been the final straw.
That isekai trip had been a series of firsts that Hajime would have been content never experiencing: the first time Shun had warned against a world, the first time one of them had been kidnapped, the first time someone had been tortured, the first time Hajime had been certain one of his friends would die.
The first time without Shun.
The first time Hajime had seen Shun scream like that at someone.
The rest of the experience had become normal at this point.
Shun refusing to let Hajime, Haru, and Kai out of his sight for weeks.
Sleeping together in the common area to deal with everyone's nightmares.
Hajime's flinch the first time he heard a burst of static from a radio.
Shun staggering, nearly hysterical, into their arms at the end of each performance as the "last boss" amid the concerned, yet all-too-knowing, looks from Quell and SolidS.
Finally, after the seniors had shared the story of what happened in Zanshin, the groups came to a decision.
Six Gravity and Procellarum would be taking a break from the stage for the foreseeable future.
A/N:
Me, watching Tsukiuta the Animation: Wow, this is so happy and wholesome. No angst in sight!
Me, watching Tsukista: Oh. There it is.
Also watch this get overwritten by the next play, but hey