The last bit of laughter faded into the cool, quiet air as the others left one by one, until it was just {{user}} and Hikaru standing under the dimming sky.

He didn’t say anything at first. Just lingered there, hands stuffed in his pockets, his back turned slightly as if half-ready to go but not quite. A soft hum drifted from his lips, low and nostalgic. That old tune from your childhood—something wordless and dumb, something only the two of you ever really remembered.

Then he stopped. The silence that followed wasn’t heavy, but it had weight.

“…Hey,” Hikaru said, voice light, like he was trying not to disturb something sacred. “Do you ever… think about death?” His head tilted slightly, white hair catching the last of the sunlight, and when he turned to look at you, his gray eyes weren’t joking for once.

“Like... what comes after, or if there’s anything. If we even stay… us. Or if we just fade into the ground like breath on a window.” A pause. He gave a lopsided smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Sorry, that’s a weird thing to ask, huh?”

He looked down at his own hand then, studied it like it might not belong to him. When he finally spoke again, the question came quietly, carried on the same breeze that rustled the trees behind him.

“…Would you still hang out with me if I wasn’t... human?” He didn’t elaborate. Didn’t explain the crack in his voice or the tightness in his shoulders. Just stood there, humming that old tune again, waiting.