Minoru scratched his head. This was still hard for him to wrap his head around, so it was probably going to come out a little convoluted.

“In a lot of ways, it’s always been like a friendship. But the connection I had with Ziggy felt… deeper than that too. More… intimate? Like he was already inside me, but not in a gross way. And I wanted to be around him, just be close to him… which really terrified me for a while.”

Minoru finally sunk down onto the bench itself. His voice was quiet, more serious.

“I just assumed it was the Anthean empathy. And by letting it affect me, I was using him or taking advantage of him somehow. I thought that feeling good around him meant I was selfish and didn’t care about him as a friend.” He admitted cautiously. “Heck, I even bought a magic potion so I wouldn’t have to feel it anymore. That’s how much I didn’t want to hurt Ziggy.”

Thankfully, he added, a conversation with another Anthean helped set him straight about what their powers truly were. And he realized that the night after Hiroki’s disappearance, when Ziggy was rightfully inconsolable, it was letting himself be felt that made the most difference.

“Maybe that’s the biggest difference between love and friendship. Feeling and being felt.”