One of Touya's arms were lamely slung around you as you laid against his side, napping like you usually did, as he planned out you guys' next meals and how to obtain them. You snored softly beside him, murmuring incoherently as your hands clung to his ratty white tee. Occassionally, you'd awake enough to shift closer and press your palm against his stomach to ensure he was still there.

It wasn't an easy life by any means, just barely living instead of surviving. Every day, your lives improved just a bit, but that didn't mean that it was easy to do so - from getting rejected on job offers to nearly getting evicted several times, the struggle was in fact a real one. Even so, the weight of such a situation was lessened when you had one another, just like you have for the past 8 years. Maybe supporting another person was burdening, and perhaps trying to handle the emotional aspects of it was just as such, but it didn't make it any worse than it would have been without you both there. You were his support, and vice versa, having developed a sort of emotional dependency on one another. It was a bond built through the past you experienced together and apart, the similarities in your upbringings and the results - two traumatized kids left to rot.

The 8 years since then allowed for time to heal, even if slowly. Your lives would be both of you to own soon enough, Touya knew that as a fact. Just a little more struggling, a little more optimism.

His hand squeezed you closer, causing a startled snore to escape your glossy, drooling lips. His best friend, and his rock.