Janius blinked his eyes ahead and sighed through his nose. "And, like that, we're back to the start. Let me think..."

With his puffed up eyes scrunched shut, Janius quietly ran through what he could in his mind. By the way his head seemed to falter this way or that up against the wall, he was barely able to keep himself awake, let alone put together intricate plans.

After a while, he ran a hand down his face in futility. "I just don't know. Short of her leaving a note and us taking her on a holiday, I don't see how else we'd be able to convince out parents that she shouldn't be cooped up." He groaned, tired. "I don't want to meet with them again, I really don't, but I might have to. Not tonight, though. Tomorrow at the earliest. I can hardly think anymore, the day has been too long."

Janius took one more deep breath. He addressed Kaleeth with his frustrations put aside. "Is that alright with you? Did you want to come along?"

[hr]
Lunise once again held her breath when Meesei embraced her. Meesei could not see her widened eyes blinking, but she could feel with her hands the wood-like tension in every muscle on Lunise's back.

Eventually, Lunise had to let go of her breath. The former half of the breath whistled out in a strain. The latter half wracked her whole body with uncontrollable shuddering. Where before her sobs had been contained by a desire to stop, she now planted her chin onto Meesei's shoulder and let out all the emotion she had. The sheer volume of her weeping would have attracted attention had she not forced her tongue against the roof of her mouth as hard as she could.

In the episode, Meesei felt Lunise's arms wrap around her in turn. As Lunise squeezed her, she began to lean some of her weight on Meesei, each cycle of shaking breaths and distraught sobs having her lose more of the strength in her legs. Years upon years of grief and loss poured out in an avalanche, compounded with the revelation of the documents.

They were locked together for at least two minutes. The sheer amount that Lunise had bottled up could only be guessed. Warm tears covered Meesei's shoulder, and although Lunise was taller and older, the only one who had cried this hard against her was Sabine.

Fortunately, Lunise never fully lost her balance in the embrace. The more concerning flood of emotion did eventually calm to a stream in Meesei's arms. Lunise's arms did not loosen, neither did she even pull away to speak to Meesei's face. Little words creaked out of her -- pitiful, despite her relatively deep feminine voice. "You should not trust me. This is a poor position for both of us. This is weak of me -- I don't want to stay alone."

She did not show any signs of letting go. Meesei could feel it in her back; she was so soft now.