Stellar Evolution/credits to "orphan_account?" on ao3

Part 9

2:00 AM, maybe.

Tsukasa hadn't slept at all. His mind wouldn't let him. The conversation with KAITO hadn't really helped him. In fact, it only seemed to make it worse. Memories and sensations he tried so hard to restrain were now uncomfortably abundant in his thoughts. He hated it. Hated—the silence of his room, accompanied by nothing but his brain's restless activity, at an ungodly hour of the morning.

Complete emptiness.

Nothing but him and his thoughts.

He stands up from his bed and immediately regrets it. The headache sets in so quickly and painfully that his vision feels blurry. He has to hold onto his bedside table until he can walk without needing to stop and let the headache try and resolve itself. If he kept walking, his vision would get worse and he might pass out again. Usually, bad headaches like this meant he just hadn't eaten or had anything to drink in the past few days.

Cautiously, he walks downstairs to the kitchen. It's almost completely pitch black in the Tenma household, at this time of morning. No one was awake, except for him. Tsukasa takes out a glass from the cabinet and pours himself some water—maybe it'd help, maybe it wouldn't. He wasn't sure until he tried. He set the glass on the table and glanced out the window. The streetlights had been turned off and no houses were illuminated. It was weird seeing his neighborhood like this.

Tomorrow would be—something, for sure. He was less nervous about the performance itself, instead more focused on how his individual ability would be. He didn't have the energy to practice again, of course—but he still felt extremely unprepared. Like he should practice. He had a lead role, after all.

It'd be pretty disappointing for him to mess it up.

Tsukasa grabbed the glass of water and walks back upstairs to his room. He can barely even stay awake, at this point. At any moment, he feels like he could fall over.

Was anyone awake? That he could talk to?

Emu was definitely asleep by now, she had a curfew. Although, maybe it was better that way. Tsukasa couldn't even begin to imagine the possibilities of what antics could occur if she was up late. Nene was most likely asleep as well. She stayed up pretty late occasionally, but she was probably going to bed early so she could rest for the show.

Rui, on the other hand—was different. Rui had talked about his sleep schedule before—he would, on most days, stay up for the entire night working on projects for shows. Tsukasa couldn't help but think some of his ideas were ridiculous, but he recognized that Rui was dedicated to his work.

Still—it felt wrong to call him, even if he was awake. Tsukasa held his cellphone in his hand, unsteadily. Simply staring at the empty screen, as if waiting for something to happen.

No. You'd only be bothering him. He's probably busy anyway.

Tsukasa sets his phone down and climbs back into the mess of blankets stretched across his mattress. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, but he figured he should probably let his body rest a bit. He lets his eyes shut slowly, and he drifts off to sleep.

"Tsukasa! Tsukasaaaaa !"

Tsukasa blinks awake. All of his friends stand in front of him. Emu waves to him and helps him up off the ground.

"Tsukasa! Come on! We've gotta go—" Emu says, dragging him by his hand. A bit uncertainly, Tsukasa follows.

"Emu, where are we going?"

"You'll see~"

She leads him across a seemingly endless arrangement of the Wonderland SEKAI's scenery. He doesn't ask any questions. His mind is blank, for the most part. He trusts Emu, anyway—she wouldn't intentionally put them in harm's way.