Xander and Yuuta’s footsteps echo across the empty hall. Despite their previous misadventure, the coast seems to be clear—at least, for now.

“How’s your injury?” Xander asks, as they try to navigate throughout the darkness with the help of a single flashlight.

Yuuta tilts his head. “Huh?”

“Your ankle,” Xander says. “Do you want me to have a look? I have a few things that could be used to treat it in my bag if you—”

“Don’t.” Yuuta’s shoulder hits a pipe. He grunts and swears under his breath. “It’s fine…” he mutters. “But more importantly, I really wish I could use my light so that I could stop running into these fucking pipes.”

Xander pauses to make sure Yuuta is okay. However, once Yuuta regains his side, they slip back into their previous pace as if they had never stopped in the first place. “You know we can’t do that,” Xander tells him. “We need to save whatever we can for the time being.”

“Yeah…” Yuuta sighs. “I know, I was just complaining.”

As they take another turn, Xander chuckles. “So honest today,” he says.

Yuuta gazes up to him, pouts, and mumbles, “Well… I might as well be if we’re going to be stuck here for a while…”

His statement catches Xander’s attention as his comrade’s gaze meets his halfway.

For a brief moment, Yuuta wonders if Xander is going to comment and tell him he’s being unrealistic for thinking they are going to get out. But soon, Xander turns back to the darkness of the hallway, and the space between them goes silent again.

Despite his apprehension of what it would feel like to be next to him without speaking, his fear of things growing awkward, Yuuta finds himself to be quite comfortable and can only hope the same stands for Xander as they continue to explore the station, following the holographic map, taking turn after turn, Xander’s heart skipping a beat each time they are faced with the beginning of a newfound corridor.

It is only once they pause again to take a breather, that Yuuta notices the throbbing in his leg has returned.

“You all right?” Xander asks him, just like he had back at the entrance; except this time his voice is a little more hollow, his tone brought down by his fatigue.

Yuuta purses his lips together. He is glad that Xander has not shone the faint, yellow light on him, for it is a certitude in his mind that he must be feverish, and that it would be visible with just one look at his face.

A part of him wants to tell Xander the truth, but he also knows that they probably aren’t safe here, and that he’d be putting both of them in danger—especially Xander—if they were to stop for more than a minute.

“We’re almost there,” he says, because he can’t bring himself to fully lie to his best friend, and because it’s true—they are almost at the first cabin indicated on the map glowing before their eyes. “It’s better if we talk once we arrive.”

There is a weight in Yuuta’s chest. He is afraid—more than of the void they face, more than anything else—that Xander will ask him to stay, to see his injury. It would take the worth out of switching places with Diane, he thinks, if he were to put Xander at risk like that; and Yuuta very much hopes it won’t have to come to this.

The heavy feeling that had begun to choke Yuuta dissipates once Xander snickers and gives his shoulder a friendly pat. “Spoken like a true soldier,” he coos as he illuminates the path before them and steps towards the thick door—made up of the strongest metals—which will supposedly lead them to a place of temporarily respite. “For once,” Xander adds with a smug grin.

Yuuta punches his shoulder. “Just open the god damned door already,” he snaps.

However, another noise of a fist being slammed against metal rings throughout the room, causing them to pause.