"I'm counting on you not reading them whatever physical configuration I do that in," Haru says, shrugging a little uncomfortably, and he shifts around as suggested.

Okay. Good. Cool. So he can. Hug. And continue to cry on Haru's shoulder, though at least the sobbing has mostly subsided by now.

Haru turns pages back and forth and makes occasional small noises or breathing irregularities and occasionally pats Yutaka's hand.

Yeah. Yutaka will just. Be here. And hug. It'll take about twenty more minutes for the crying to completely subside but he won't release the hug even after that.

Haru has a lot to read and he is now multitasking-enabled, so the hug can continue. A couple times he starts to ask a question but then, apparently, finds it in his notes.

He kind of dozes off after a while. Doesn't actually fall asleep or anything, just enters a sort of half-awake state in which he's not aware of anything but Haru's breathing and the warmth of Haru's body against his.

After a while Haru starts adding to the notes. Soft pen scratch noises. "I want to splice in the note you left about the telepathy, I need a stapler -"

He twitches awake then reprocesses Haru's words. He's still in his magical boy outfit so here's a stapler.

"Thanks."

Staple staple. Write write.

"I copied a whole stationery shop last loop, if there's anything else you want."

"...good to know." Sigh. Write write.

Back to waiting.

"Okay," Haru says, closing the notebook-monstrosity. "What do you need?"

"To save Tokyo. To stop the creepy little doll from turning more people into horrible monsters."

Then, in a very, very small voice:

"You."

"But nothing urgently. Although, I..."

"...don't think this is the loop. For what it's worth."

"I don't think so either. I also didn't think last one was at the time."

"Yeah. I... didn't, either. Not really. But I didn't want to—look at it—because I needed the motivation. I needed a reason to try, so that I'd see—what'd fail."

"Your mental health was already obviously the limiting factor and that does not get any less true if your mental health collapsing could turn you into a witch. Is... the process where you get me to fall in love with you and then I am for the rest of the loop... still a good plan, if we are doing this... many times."

"Yes," he says, vehemently. "I—you're my reason. To keep going. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I know that's—a lot—but it's you. It'll always be you. I'm not a good person, I'm not that good, I'm not good enough to, to, to do this, to keep doing this, for—for as long as it'll take—not just for Tokyo. I'm just not. I can't, I don't, I don't have the strength. I'm sorry. I wish it was you here and not me. You'd do this better. But I'm the one stuck here, and I—need—I need you."

"I - I'm not sure you understood the question, that's not what I meant. I'm not going anywhere, except in, uh, all the senses that's not true. But I could imagine finding the Fifty First Dates thing - I haven't even seen that movie, but - I could imagine finding it more painful than sustaining, having to do it over and over? And I can be here to help you and give you advice and try to come up with ideas and stuff without fifty first dates, it that would be better. But maybe it wouldn't, maybe that would suck, I don't know."

"I don't—I don't need your help—or, I do, I do need and want your help with—ideas—but I need you. I need to—be yours—and I need you to be mine. I'm sorry. I am—banking a little on the fact that you like to be the most important thing in someone's life, I'd be a lot more reluctant to say this—but I need you to love me. I need you to love me and only me. I need to be your one and only, and I need your love. Just yours, and no one else's, never anyone else's."

"I am not flinching about the - how shall I put it - the intensity, here, that's fine, it's sweet, my question was a different thing, but, sounds like that's - my answer, I guess." He squeezes Yutaka's hand. "And there's, uh, proof of concept. If what you want to do, what you need, is - this over and over."

"Yeah. ...did you not already have a way to put it in your notes?"