Ren woke up when Yusuke kicked him in the calf.

The tent was small enough that they couldn't help but have some level of physical contact. That was why Ren was in the middle; Yusuke wasn't always comfortable with touch, and Ryuji was a bit of a cuddler (he'd made them swear not to tell anyone), so Ren was their human barrier. He was used to feeling Yusuke brush against him, or feeling Ryuji lean against his side. But this hadn't been an accidental brush, this had been a deliberate kick.

Before Ren could think of what to do next, Yusuke let out a sharp gasp and jerked upright. Ren watched him through half-lidded eyes, not sure if he should say something or not. As he watched, Yusuke drew his knees up to his chest and pressed his forehead to them, taking a deep, shuddering breath. Then he slipped out of the tent, as silent as a phantom.

"Think he had a nightmare?" Ryuji mumbled, not bothering to lift his head off of Ren's shoulder.

"Maybe," Ren replied, not particularly surprised that Ryuji had woken up too. It was too hot to sleep deeply. They'd all woken up multiple times through the night since they'd started sleeping in the tent, and they were likely to wake each other up when they did. This was the first time they'd been woken up by something like this, though.

Ryuji hummed and pulled away from Ren. "Guess you should go check on him, then."

"Why me?" Ren asked mildly. He didn't mind doing it, but he also wasn't sure why Ryuji was volunteering him.

"Cause we all know you're Yusuke's favorite," Ryuji replied. "Besides, you're better at comforting people than I am, and the girls won't like it if we go in the van, and Morgana will lose his shit if we wake him up."

Automatically, Ren shot Morgana a quick look and was relieved to see that he was still asleep. His eyes drifted over towards Yusuke's unused pillow, then the tent flap that he hadn't properly secured when he left.

"You're probably right," he agreed. "I'll go after him."

Ryuji yawned. "Good luck. I'll try to cover for you if Mona wakes up."

Ren felt his lips twitch into a small smile as he ducked out of the tent. The smile faded as soon as he saw Yusuke.

Yusuke was expressive; it was easy to read his emotions on his face or posture. Ren thought part of it was because Yusuke felt things so deeply, they couldn't help but be obvious to anyone looking. It could be helpful when he was upset, and this was no exception, but Ren hated to see it, because he didn't think he'd seen Yusuke this despondent since Madarame. Then again, it didn't take a genius to see that Yusuke was especially bothered by Natsume, and it didn't take a genius to see why, so Ren supposed, in a way, Madarame was the cause of Yusuke's upset once again.

Quietly, Ren stepped up to the picnic table where Yusuke sat. "Hey," he called, pitching his voice low enough that it wouldn't wake anyone sleeping around them but still loud enough that Yusuke could hear it. "You okay?"

"Ah, Ren." Yusuke looked up at him, his face drawn. "I hope I did not wake you."

"I wasn't sleeping deeply anyway," Ren replied. "It's too hot."

"Indeed," Yusuke murmured in faint agreement.

Ren sat down next to him on the bench, far enough away that they weren't touching but close enough that they could, if Yusuke wanted to. "Are you okay?" he asked again.

"Merely… thinking."

He still hadn't really answered the question properly, but Ren didn't push, merely sitting in silence. Yusuke would speak when he wanted to.

It didn't take long. Yusuke wasn't one to sit in silence, not unless he was painting. "I have been unable to stop thinking about what we witnessed in Natsume's trauma room," he said slowly. "Or trauma cell, as Futaba now calls it."

"It was rough," Ren said, which he knew was a bit of a non-answer but would hopefully prompt Yusuke to elaborate.

"He worked hard to create his novel," Yusuke said, "and then he found that his success was not achieved by his own merit, but rather because of the name attached to it."

"It wasn't fair," Ren said.

Yusuke looked down at his hands. "Indeed."

"Not to the other authors in the contest," Ren added cautiously, "or to him."

Yusuke let out a long, shaky breath and went silent.

He was quiet for longer than usual; Ren was starting to wonder if he'd need to prompt him to speak more when he quietly began. "When I was back at the atelier, whenever any of our paintings sold, Madarame always said that they would not have gained any success or acclaim if they were not believed to be his. The paintings became popular because the world believed they were a Madarame. They would not have amounted to anything, he told us, if they were known to be, for example, a Nakanohara." His lips twitched into something that could only loosely be called a smile. "Or a Kitagawa."

This was something Yusuke had been struggling with, Ren knew, alongside Nakanohara and some of Madarame's other former students. Their paintings hung in museums, in private galleries, in wealthy people's collections, all under the wrong name. Madarame had admitted to his plagiarism, so the original artists were trying to have their works recognized as their own. Some of the owners no longer wanted the paintings now that they knew their true origins, and Ren couldn't imagine how that must ache, to know that someone no longer appreciated your work because they discovered it was yours.

It was no wonder that Natsume's specific case was resonating with Yusuke so deeply.

"You've had success since then, though," Ren countered gently.

"I have," Yusuke allowed, "but I am also well-known in the art community as the last pupil of Madarame. Even if my success comes under my own name, is it due to my own merits, or merely due to my circumstances?"

Ren could understand why it would upset anyone to think that they weren't being recognized for their own work, but he knew that Yusuke felt it deeper than he did. He wasn't sure if it was because Yusuke cared so deeply for his art or if it was because Yusuke was so terrified of turning out like Madarame. Either way, he knew he had to find the right words to comfort him.

"I know this worries you," he said quietly, "but I don't think you can fixate on it. It'll drive you crazy."

Yusuke looked over at him wryly. "Drive me into a Jail?"

"No," Ren said firmly. "You wouldn't do that. You wouldn't force people to appreciate your work. That's the difference between you and Natsume."

"I would not wish to," Yusuke agreed, "but that is, in part, due to you. Natsume appears to be alone. If I did not have support from those around me, what would I have become?"

"We all have the potential to become something darker than we are now," Ren said. "But we choose not to. You might worry that you'd have turned out like Natsume if you were alone, but I don't think you would. I think you would have kept to your morals."

"Sometimes, doing so is difficult."

"I know." Ren did know; he had been tempted so many times to do things he knew were wrong, especially in the past year. But he had made choices he could stand by instead, and he knew Yusuke had done the same. "But even if it's hard, we can still do it. And if we mess up, we can come back."

"Do you think so? Do you believe that someone like Natsume can reach redemption?"

"That's his choice, not mine. There's a reason we don't kill people's Shadows. You know that. We give them a chance to fix things themselves."

"We do," Yusuke agreed. "And some things are beyond fixing, but this... I do not believe that Natsume is. If he can come to the realization that this artificial validation is not what he truly needs, I believe he can grow beyond it."

"I think so too," Ren agreed. "And that's what we're going to make him see, and that's how we're going to help him. All of us, together."

He held out his hand. Yusuke looked at it for a long moment, then he took it.

"All of us, together," he repeated quietly. "I like the sound of that."

"Good," Ren said, "because that's how we do things. We're not leaving you alone."

"Is that a promise or a threat?" Yusuke asked, a thread of amusement in his voice.

Maybe Ren had said it a bit too forcefully. "Both," he said, deciding to stick with it.

"I must say, it is perhaps the most agreeable threat I have ever received," Yusuke said, the amusement growing. "Certainly more agreeable than the nonsense that Shadows spew."

"Well, good, because I mean it," Ren said firmly. "You're not alone, Yusuke. And you won't turn out like Natsume. We won't let you."

"I hope someone can be there to help him as well," Yusuke said quietly. "He does not deserve to be alone either."

It was true. Ren wasn't sure what to do about it. They couldn't save everyone in the entire world, as much as they may have wanted to.

"We'll do everything we can for Natsume," he promised Yusuke. "Starting with saving him from himself tomorrow, when we fight his Shadow."

"Indeed," Yusuke agreed. "I suppose we ought to go back to sleep, so we can be well-rested for the fight."

Ren looked over at Yusuke for a moment, then he leaned back on the bench and looked up at the night sky. There were more stars in Sendai than in Tokyo.

Yusuke didn't look ready to go back into the tent quite yet, and to be honest, Ren wasn't sure he was either.

"In a minute," he replied. "Let's watch the stars."

Yusuke looked at him for a moment, eyes wide, then he relaxed and looked up at the sky. "I would love to."

"Do you know any stories about the stars?"

"I do," Yusuke agreed. "Madarame made sure we were all well-versed in folklore, both Japanese and foreign. Do you wish for me to tell you one?"

"Tell me one that has a happy ending."

Yusuke was quiet for a few moments. "Their ending is perhaps more bittersweet than happy, and you may well know the story already, but… As we are in Sendai for Tanabata, would you like to hear the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi?"

Ren closed his eyes and leaned back. "That sounds perfect."

Yusuke was a good storyteller, and if he told the story in a way that gave Orihime and Hikoboshi a slightly happier ending than Ren had heard before, neither of them mentioned it.

After all, everyone deserved a happy ending.