For dub watchers: The two guys in this story will make sense if you've seen up to episodes 41 and 42. Do they have names?

"I am so useless," he sniffles, and it's so uncharacteristic of Kyou that for a moment both of his teammates are stunned into silence.

Neither wants to approach him - that seems like a bad idea, considering how short and violently tempered Kyou can get. But leaving him alone might be even worse, because he's still just a kid, several years younger than the two of them. Kyou runs the show, but once he finally wears himself out with being angry all of the time, yelling and over-reacting and obsessing, he's left with.. this.

Perhaps he'd just feel guilty if he left Kyou alone and something happened to him or he did something to himself, or perhaps he's genuinely come to care for the kid, but one of the other, older, boys finally steps forward after a long minute. It's still with caution, unsure of how Kyou will respond, that he rests a hand on his shoulder and insists, "You're not useless", and he's almost relieved to find that Kyou doesn't actually react much, if at all.

Almost, because the way Kyou's voice strains to be silent and stop quivering, and the way Kyou's shoulder trembles beneath his hand, makes him wish the boy had started yelling at him like normal instead.

After this, he isn't so sure what to be doing. It's awkward, having to deal with a kid who's normally so sure of himself and bossy breaking down, and he isn't sure what to do next besides wait. When he signed up for this Team Avengers gig, he hadn't been accounting for this.

Once their other teammate recovers from his own stun, he's encouraged to chime in, "Yeah, Kyou, you've been a great leader so far! Whatever is gettin' you down, don't let it bother you." The quality of Kyou's leadership might be debatable. On the other hand, they'd both already decided they would follow Kyou to the ends of the earth if he asked them to - so he can't be doing too bad of a job.

There's a long pause where they both lapse into silence, because apparently it's as awkward for one of them as it is for the other and neither is certain what to say next. It's several minutes before anyone says something, and it's actually Kyou who speaks. Barely audible, he mutters, "Thanks, guys," and Kyou doesn't sound like he's certain he believes them but it's a start.

I dreamed this, but I don't think it's an unlikely scenario... He's probably 13-15 for starters, and while Kyou's usually quick to recover on his own, it's impossible to live without hating yourself at least once.

Stealthy pun for episode 77, which proves they really are friends and marks the beginning of so much potential character development for Kyou! I wasn't expecting to see all of "Team Avenger" again...