It almost felt like he was being ripped apart, the stress of the seal almost too much to bear. Today was a bad day. The fog wasn't helping, settling thick on their faces, masking the other inhabitants from view. So it was just the two of them, sitting on Akinari's usual bench, bearing the weight of the seal together in the usual silence.

They sat there for a while, time not being measurable where they lingered, until a faint squeaking sound reached his ears. Next to him, his sister opened bloodshot eyes and squinted off into the fog. He leaned forward and peered at her eyes, giving her a reprimanding look. She had been eying the twists of the future again; it wasn't good for their mental state.

The squeaking intensified, and he followed his sister's gaze to see a short, dark shape waddling toward them. He attempted to focus his eyes – he hadn't been using them much lately – and eventually he saw a white and red bear, head ducked and absolutely bawling into his stubby paws.

"Hey," he croaked, his voice scratchy from so much disuse. The bear peeked up at him just over its paws, letting out a great sniff. "You look lost."

Next to him, his sister shifted, eying the bear curiously. They knew all that passed through, whether because of the Seal or just because of where they were, they weren't sure. But they didn't know this bear, hadn't even felt it enter, although he got the feeling the bear wasn't just a bear.

His words seemed to cause the bear pause. It looked around, as if it hadn't ever before, but he didn't seem disconcerted by the soupy fog, like he'd seen it all before. The bear rubbed its eyes and turned back to them.

"I-I am. But it's not a bad thing." The bear let out a great sniff and rubbed its eyes again. "Nana-chan died because I couldn't save her. It's all my fault."

He screwed up his eyes and reached a hand into the twisting chasm of the bear. He saw a young girl, brown hair up in pigtails, lying in a hospital bed. There was also an ominous feeling, one that, after a delay, he recognized as similar to the Tower of Demise. It wasn't just coming from the girl, but from the bear itself. The bear was a Shadow.

With a wrench to pull himself back to the present, he blinked at the bear and patted the seat to his left on the bench; the bear plopped down unhappily and scrunched into itself. "How is it your fault that she died? From what I see, it wasn't anything of the sort."

The bear turned damp, wide eyes on him. "H-how do you know?"

He smiled at the bear. "I've been here a while. I can tell. She didn't die because of you; she died because of the others, of the darkness of them. I can feel an extraordinary amount of light coming from you, much more than any of the others." He smiled at him. "What's you name, Fuzzy?"

"Teddie." The bear sniffed and wiped its eyes once more. "Although, Fuzzy does sound pretty nice." Then it finally smiled, teeth gleaming. "What are you names?" It poked a paw past him toward her.

It took a few seconds, but he finally grasped their names again. They hadn't been using them much either. "Minato, and this is my sister Minako. We're fraternal twins."

Teddie blinked at them. "You look familiar, Minato. Like," he prodded him with a paw, "Nao-chan."

That was a name he hadn't heard in a while. He smiled, and the motion felt like it was going to make his face split into two. So this bear knew his cousin. It was so tempting to reach again into the void to look for Nao, but he resisted, wanting to keep himself grounded. He could lose himself later. "Tell her I said hi."

For a moment, Teddie blinked large doe eyes up at him, paws pressed against his mouth as if he couldn't believed this stranger actually knew Naoto. But he just smiled down at the bear, and after a moment, Teddie rubbed his face with his paws and beamed brightly.

"So why are you two here?" Teddie asked, kicking his feet against the pale ground.

He was about to reply, but his sister beat him to it, having pulled herself out of the void. She'd stayed longer than he had sifting through the bear's memories. "It's a long story," she said with a smile that looked easier than his. "There's no time to tell it all, your ride's here."

The two of them blinked at her for a second before his tired ears picked up the sound of a purring engine. He turned, glimpsed what it was a beat before he saw it, and smiled at the familiar blue glow emanating from the dark limousine.

"You have friends in high places, Fuzzy," he croaked, smiling brokenly again. "Don't worry, they'll take excellent care of you."

Wide-eyed, Teddie turned to them, but neither twin was paying him any attention. The front window of the limo had rolled down, and a young man with white-blonde hair was smiling warmly at them. His sister's face lifted considerably, and he himself gave the man a nod. It was nice to see him again, even if the sibling he had connected with had separated from them and was who-knows-where.

"Go on," he said, nudging the bear slightly. Teddie slid from the bench, shuffled his feet for a few seconds, then smiled at them with a bright thank you.

With that, he trotted off to the limousine which opened for him. Right before the door closed, Teddie turned back and gave a wave, looking markedly happier than he had when he'd first arrived.

Then the door closed and the limo was gone, taking the bear and old memories with it. Both twins stared wistfully at the place where the limousine had been, before he finally sighed and leaned forward on the bench, hands cupping his face.

"I've seen a lot of strange things," he said quietly, smiling nostalgically at the brief flashes of memory in his mind, "but even Ryoji wasn't like that."

His sister smiled in agreement, and for a moment, a familiar laugh brushed his ears, Ryoji chuckling at his own expense.

But then it was gone, and the twins were lost to silence once more.

For a friend's birthday. Hope you enjoy, Joshua!