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[terriblepurpose]

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[terriblepurpose]

[The news never comes easily. It's foolish of him, Paul knows, to think so swiftly - after Shōyō's bright smile, his eagerness and ready joy, the quiet but warm thing between him and Lazarus - what will Koz do without him?]

Lazarus.

I'm sorry. I'll miss him, too.

[hearthebell]

It's the way of things here. He's moved on and might find true happiness for having done so.

I celebrate it, for having been his friend, and you should, too.

[terriblepurpose]

I know. I'm glad that it was the easy way.

I'll still miss him. He helped teach me how to be less inside my own head. He was friendly to me when I didn't know how to be friendly back.

[hearthebell]

It's the same. I feel the same.

I'm glad that you know.

[terriblepurpose]

I'd like you to come by more often for a while.

We have research to work on, anyway, for the new Archives.

[hearthebell]

Yes, we do have research. I promise not to slack off or let my normal standards slip.

[terriblepurpose]

I'd never sink so low as to accuse you of that.

[hearthebell]

If it was deserved, I would insist on it. The insult would be to lie to spare my feelings, in such a case.

[terriblepurpose]

Please don't take offense.

It's only that if you were slipping below your standards for yourself, I think I would be preoccupied with taking you to the hospital or attempting to expel a curse before I'd be criticizing your work.

[hearthebell]

I suppose that's a fair point.

That first time I really tested the limits of dreamwalking and got into trouble, Shoyo did that for me, you know. He took me to the hospital.

[terriblepurpose]

He's good that way.

[Present tense, not past. He's gone from here, but he isn't gone, out there in the wild multiplicity of the universe.]

He was always like that with people, but you especially. He never hesitated to help anyone the whole time I knew him.

[hearthebell]

He is.

[Though it aches, L gamely reciprocates the present tense for Shoyo. It's not untrue, he thinks; he's just in the sea.]

He never stopped trying, in all matters. That's probably why connected, the day we first arrived. I'm glad I'm not the only one who will remember him that way.

[terriblepurpose]

You're not.

We'll keep trying for him. It's what he'd want.