[Fai is all too aware that he wouldn't have survived without the pokémon by his side. With his typing, how could he possibly have survived the hardships of winter, if Mr Sunshine hadn't kept him warm, if Sweetie Pie hadn't shaped the snow around him to protect him from the wind, if Babycakes hadn't woven a protective tangle to keep out wild pokémon, if Dotty hadn't risked flying to find new places to stay, if Blossom hadn't found roots and frozen berries under the snow? He's just a human, and one woefully ignorant when it came to surviving such extremities at first.

And without their company, would he have been able to regain his mind enough to come back again?

It's a chilling, terrifying thought, and even more so now that he can take it what his disappearance had done to Feliks. He's so exhausted, so worn down, as if he's been running on nothing but stubborn will alone for a long time. Fai remembers how he can be, and now he wonders how he could ever have deluded himself into thinking that Feliks would ever give up on him completely. Wasn't Feliks the person who he was sure would never give up? Wasn't that what Fai had fallen in love with so helplessly?

In love... Savior protect his foolish heart, but he still is, isn't he? Even after all this time, he's still in love with this boy and his fire, his eye for the dramatic, his cocksure vanity, his unwavering loyalty. Fai feels his cheeks heat slightly even as he gently rubs Feliks back, trying to work away some of the tension there, and hums quietly in an attempt to comfort him. He doesn't quite know what to do with that feeling, it seems selfish and naive, so he tries to put it away for now. But that doesn't change the warmth and affection in his life as he replies.]

I missed you too. Every single day. I tried not to think about it because it made me feel bad, but... I did. All the time.