CW: Includes mild discussion of body consciousness, objectification, and purely accidental misg*nd*ring. Also features spoilers for the entirety of LDOD.

The crisp evening air of winter felt like a balm for their souls as they rested together. Nari was propped up against the balcony's railing, facing the party. Yuu was standing in that same direction but didn't use the railing as support, too concerned with getting dirt on his clothes. Chimon was in the wicker hammock, rocking himself gently. For a long while, none of them spoke. They understood that they needed the first ten minutes to be silent, for all of their sakes.

Sayuri's birthday party was being held at Bisque's place, because it was big and luxurious and because he was always extremely generous with his friends. Finding it more interesting, especially since it was nearly Christmas anyway, she'd eagerly turned it into an anonymous gift exchange– basically a Secret Santa in all but name. To her credit, everyone was having fun, but, for varying reasons, these three just needed to escape for a while. Yuu was the first to leave; in spite of their progress working to dim their obsessive thoughts, the fact that some of their friends had yanked the wrapping paper off haphazardly as opposed to the perfect neatness that Yuu preferred had sent them into a tailspin of anxiety. Chimon had decided to "check on" them– which was mostly true, but also partly an excuse to recharge his social battery. Yuu was grateful for Chimon's presence but simultaneously glad that he'd said absolutely nothing. Nari had been going in and out with startling frequency. Even though the house was huge, having so many people around was wearing on her fear of crowds. So this stretch of time was only the most recent one.

Chimon let out a breath, and a white plume escaped his mouth, floating. Aside from his hoodie (and Monterio's jacket), he was swathed in blankets, making up for the fact that he didn't have a heavy coat warm enough to make the winter bearable. Despite having grown since they'd escaped the simulation, he still looked positively tiny in this position.

Nari pulled a baggie out of her backpack— full of baby carrots and a cookie— and began to eat them. Chimon snickered. "You took some of the snacks from the party out here?"

"Why not? I get hungry quickly. Eating outside is better anyway. The open sky is the best seasoning."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Yuu laughed. "For sky-ing out loud." Chimon heckled him for that one.

Nari rolled her eyes with a slight smirk and then began to snack. "Can I have some?" Chimon asked, raising his eyebrows. His verdant green eyes sparkled; he was like a puppy.

It was ineffective against her, since she'd been training to resist doe eyes for over a decade. "Get your own. This is mine."

"I can get you some," Yuu offered hesitantly. They fiddled with their thumbs.

Chimon sighed. "No, stay here. I guess I'll just do it later."

"I get that, but still. Make sure you eat when you're hungry. You're still growing," Nari urged.

He nodded sleepily, settling further into his seat. "I don't have as big of a sweet tooth as you or Sayuri, but it's kind of nice to have dessert more than once or twice a month. I think I'm pretty grateful for them, because they were a luxury for a while."

"Oh! Wait, I do have something for you." Yuu began to dig through their backpack and unearthed a packet of some sort, tossing it to the swaddled boy.

He had to extract one of his arms to examine the packaging. "SOUR CANDY! Damn, you're way too nice to me."

"Considering you ruined my soap bar in the simulation by painting it over with clear nail polish, yes, I might be."

"Yeah, you little bitch, playing favorites," Nari scoffed teasingly.

Chimon felt the need to stand up for Yuu, even though Nari was clearly not actually offended. "Like you said, I'm growing! Candy was almost never in the budget until recently!" In a much softer volume, unsure if he wanted them to hear it, he added, "To be honest, my diet was pretty... minimal."

"Well, sure. You stayed the same height for like, five years in your prime growing time. Pretty sure the only even remotely possible shot of that happening is if you were malnourished." The air hung heavy for a few moments. "Hey. It's not your fault. No need to be embarrassed. You know that, right?"

"Yeah... I know. It's just weird. One of the benefits of not being able to care about people was that I also didn't care what they thought of me. Well. That's not true. But I only wanted people to like me for practical purposes. I couldn't feel actual shame about my financial or family situations. I couldn't feel body consciousness, either, for that matter."

Yuu's brows furrowed. "You're body conscious?" He's met with silence. Chimon pinched his index finger and thumb close together, lips pursed.

"I am, too. Sometimes."

"Same, though probably not for the same reasons," Nari nodded along.

The three shared a moment of quiet solidarity. Chimon elaborated. "It's not that I mind being short and skinny. Not really. What bothers me is when people mistake me for a girl because of it. Or when they imply I'm any less of a man. It reminds me of..." He shrugged, as if to say, "Well, you know."

"Interesting, considering you keep your hair long," Nari pointed out. Her inflection rose upward, so that it sounded more curious and less condescending. "I would've thought you'd cut it once Fujiko hired you."

"I like it shoulder-length. Honestly, why should I have to look any different than I want to just to look more 'boyish?'"

"Right. Your appearance is frankly none of their business. Fucking high school bullies. Can't stand bullies," Yuu snarled.

"It's okay. It seems more ignorant than malicious. If this isn't too personal, were you bullied? Is that part of why you're body conscious?"

Yuu's classic nervous laugh rang out as he avoided Chimon and Nari's gaze. "Maybe? I spent most of high school assuming that everyone was bullying me for everything. Or at least that they wanted to. I think it's just that I wish I were sportier, but can't give enough of a fuck to do anything about it."

They both directed their eyes to Nari, beckoning an explanation. She shuddered. "People look at and objectify me. They talk about me like I'm a doll to be admired, or competition to be jealous of, not a person who'd clearly rather be left alone. Everyone needs to get it in their heads that unwanted positive attention is still rude. I just want to be average, but my damn metabolism's a bitch." As if to spite her own body, she crunched violently on a carrot.

"It's not bad all the time, at least! I like my body, and it's served me well. I'm not strong, but I'm quick, and I've always been able to fit in places that not everyone else can."

"Ah, um, yeah... Azumi once accidentally said something that made me feel a lot better about myself. It was simple and dumb, but for some reason, it clicked in my head perfectly. She called me 'lithe.' I'd always called myself lanky or scrawny, but just the slight difference helped me reframe stuff."

"That was during the cursed times, wasn't it?" Nari prodded, having that memory from Hibiki.

"Mhm. The hallucinations hadn't even gone away yet, and I wasn't eating very much, so I was at my skinniest. But she still didn't treat me like I was ugly."

"What does lithe even mean, anyway?"

"Same basic concept. But, like... skinny in a graceful way. Just a generally more positive spin on it," Chimon explained.

"Mmm... makes sense. Count on Azumi to not only know shit like that, but also to build someone's self-esteem without even trying." This assessment brought a fond smile to Yuu's face. Nari made a sound of displeasure, which made the other two tilt their heads in concern. "I wish I had literally any of you at school with me. You guys are so fucking wild that you'd steal all my attention away, and it'd be great."

"I'll start a game of tag in the halls whenever anyone looks too close at you," the short boy affirmed with a giggle.

"If only."

Yuu wrung their hands a little, but then immediately stopped. Their hands were so dry and cracked that they stung. He mentally added 'apply lotion again,' to his checklist. He really wanted to wash again. He hadn't touched anything, as far as he knew, but still...

"Yuu? You're zoning out."

"OH! Um, sorry. I had something to say to you, though. I-I was thinking, uh... you can probably find someone who's willing to do crap like that at your school. I don't know, if we managed to meet people like Sayuri, Ren, and the literal pirate Wakumi, I'm sure people like them are out there."

"How convenient that you chose almost all of the homeschoolers," she snipped. They flinched. "Ah, sorry. That was mean of me."

"Well, hey. Yuu's point stands. Bisque would happily draw people's attention away. So would people like Kana. And people like Fujiko would honestly do it by accident. What we're trying to get at here is, we know you don't always like going out of your way to make new friends, but if you connect with the right people, they'll do everything in their power to keep you feeling comfortable. Cause for you... it was never really about your body, huh?"

She let this settle on her shoulders with a stoic expression. Then... "Hey, little punk, come over here for a minute."

"Kay." He stretched and laboriously peeled himself out of the hammock. He was like a house cat being summoned away from a sunny windowsill.

She took a couple of hair ties from her bag and proceeded to put his hair in pigtails. He initially pulled back a little, but convinced himself not to move. It was Nari— she wasn't going to do anything to hurt him. Afterward, she leaned back to inspect him. "See. Even like this, you're definitely a guy. Setting aside your Adam's apple, your nose shape and the thinness of your lips indicates that, even with a more childlike face. Same for your body shape. You may be slight, but your shoulders are the broadest part of you. As long as that's what you want to go by, you could wear your hair like this every single day and we'd still call you a guy."

After a few moments of feeling sincerely touched and being unable to respond, he laughed so hard he nearly stopped being able to breathe. "Maybe this—" he wheezed. "Maybe this is a good look for me!" He was mostly kidding, but his friends continued to hype him up. "Oh, God, I'm fucking crying! We need pictures. C'mon, Yuu!"

Yuu had nearly started to let himself fall into the background and was caught off-guard by getting drawn in again. "Uh— I'm not very photogenic. I can take pictures of you and Nari. They'd come out better that way."

"Aw, c'mon, please! You look so good today! I mean, honestly, you always look good. And we basically never get any pictures with you, which sucks!"

An anxious chuckle. "Okay, sure. If that's really what you want." They beckoned Chimon over as Nari retrieved her phone. Chimon bounced up and down cheerfully, pigtails flopping around as he bounded toward his companion. Nari got into position.

"Yuu, relax your smile and your stance. You look like you're being held hostage. Shit, bad wording. You get what I mean."

The tense grin fell into a grimace. "I told you, I'm not photogenic. Pictures are awkward."

Chimon got a sly look in his eyes, which Nari smirked at. "Psst. Yuu."

"What?"

"You're looking super lithe and lovely right now. Since you look so graceful, you may as well pose that way." He barely made it through the first sentence before Yuu started cracking up. Nari snapped several pictures of this, and didn't stop when Yuu shifted to look more model-esque.

"Perfect. Come check them." They complied.

"See? You look more than okay in these! Not photogenic my ass."

"Oh, but we should get some with Nari, too. As long as you're okay with that?"

She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "If it's just for our group, yeah, that's fine."

Chimon's eyes brightened further, which the other two would've sworn was impossible. "I'll go get Monterio to take some!"

And in this moment, like it always was, they were beautiful. And in this moment, like they always should be, they were proud in their own skin.