Summary: Aoba wakes up to singing.

Contains Aoba/Clear. Alternative interpretation of the good ending. Sort of?

Spoilers for Clear's good ending.

Wake Up

By Dark Ice Dragon

Aoba wakes up to singing and someone far bigger than Ren sitting on his bed beside him. He listens to the familiar lyrics, the soft voice almost pulling him under again.

The song ends though, and Aoba hums, stretching slightly under the covers as he opens his eyes.

"Ah, did I wake you?" Clear asks, smiling down at him.

Aoba snorts, shaking his head. "No." He doesn't think so anyway. "It was nice to wake up to."

Clear's smile brightens and Aoba's about to return it when Clear's expression fades, his gaze going distant as he tugs a little on Aoba's cover. "I worry," Clear says. "About you not waking up."

And then Aoba isn't sleepy anymore, his breath catching in his throat as he stares up at Clear. Was he finally…? Aoba works his mouth, opening and closing it a few times before he croaks out, "Do you know why?"

Clear is quiet for a few seconds before he shakes his head.

Sighing, Aoba takes Clear's hand and kisses his knuckles. Clear's skin is warm under his lips.

Granny has told him about the damage Clear inflicted on himself, why, after a month, he hadn't managed to make any progress repairing Clear (Aoba's eyes had hurt from all the time spent in front of his pc; his fingers were covered in wounds from Clear's sharp edges, the times he'd been careless from lack of sleep because he'd wanted Clear back, he'd wanted to hear Clear's voice, to hear him sing again; he could barely think during that time, his world shrinking so his entire focus was on repairing the body in front of him). Aoba didn't care about the amount of damage, because Clear was there and that was all that mattered.

It was the day after Clear had come back that Clear told him that he could only remember the jellyfish song, Aoba's name, and that he was important to him. Everything else was gone.

"I'm worrying you again," Clear says, starting to bite his lip.

Aoba smiles at him in response. "You're not." Clear's memories will return; he knows it. All he has to do is wait.

This did originally end with them kissing, but it didn't fit so it got cut.