Oh yep. Yep. Here it is yep. He steps inside then immediately turns his face away and covers his eyes. "I, I, I," he swallows, "I'm g-going to c-cry for a little b-bit here but y-you can a-ask s-stuff."

"I've got all day. I told Ren I needed a mental health day and the notes say you've got all my assignments anyway."

"I d-do. I don't kn-know what the n-notes s-say, th-though."

"Lots. I haven't read them all, just the shortest layer of summary. I'll read more while you're, uh. Collecting yourself and confirming that I'm alive. I guess." He sits at the kitchen table with his empty toast plate.

"O-okay."

He sits down and rests his head on his hands and sobs quietly.

Haru's notebook situation is kind of a monstrosity, a great big nested-index pile of stuff all collected in a three-ring binder and full of extra paper stapled or paperclipped in. He pages through it. He skips around a fair bit. Eventually: "Yutaka? Do you want breakfast?"

"I'm f-fine but th-thank you."

Read read flip flip read.

"Do you need a hug?"

"S-so m-much. I'm sorry, I kn-know you d-don't—but—if you'd b-be o-okay with—th-then yeah."

Haru scoots his chair closer and hugs him.

Yutaka hugs back, tight, and sobs harder. "I love you. I l-love you so much. I kn-know you d-don't, b-but—I l-love you. I will always love y-you, f-forever, n-no matter what. I w-will a-always be y-yours."

...pat pat??

Yutaka squeezes Haru tighter and doesn't say anything more. He just sobs.

Haru is not going to attempt to dislodge him for like at least a couple minutes.

He is going to take more than a couple of minutes to calm down.

"Did I turn into a witch or did I just die and somebody else -"

"You d-died once and th-then turned into a witch at the e-end when we had all run out of s-seeds and you g-gave me th-the rest of your m-magic so I'd have enough j-juice to go b-back."

"Oh."

"I'm s-sorry. Just f-five more m-minutes." That won't be enough for him to calm all the way down but sue him he's selfish. He knows the Haru that loves him would want him to be selfish this way.

He just kind of wishes the Haru that loves him had frontloaded the love in the notebooks somehow. It feels a lot more like an imposition like this.

"Okay. It's okay. I'm all right."

"Y-you are." This time.

"If this is going to keep happening we need to figure out some way I can read and be hugged at the same time."

"I, s-sorry," he says, pulling away and sniffling. "Sorry. I'll g-get out of your w-way."

"You don't have to, it's just that clearly we have two urgent tasks at the start of each loop and it would be neat if they could happen at the same time? Or does that make the hug worse if I'm also reading, I - I only have the summaries -"

"No, i-it wouldn't make it worse. I l-like it that you're g-getting your m-memories back. I could h-hug from b-behind and not look if th-that's not uncomfortable?"