Almost two weeks pass. Sadde still has work, even if school's out, but they and Theo hang out a bit more. No new cards appear, and Kero seems to not think that strange, so Sadde themself doesn't care. And one day Theo gets a text in the morning: Happy birthday!
"Oh, okay. I guess that's... okay? We can get some food at my place, too, and clean up. Yeah, okay."
He starts walking in the direction of the hospital exit, walking slowly until Sadde starts to follow.
There isn't really much conversation.
Eventually they get back to Theo's house. Theo's dad hears them come in and goes to greet them, saying how glad he is that Sadde's mum seems to be doing okay, and that he wishes her a speedy recovery.
He's also looking at Theo a bit weirdly, but it's hardly surprising that Theo's acting weirdly after being witness to a stabbing. He's somewhat more worried about Sadde (not by a huge amount – Theo is still his son – but it wasn't Theo's mum who got stabbed yesterday).
Well, that's good, and if there's anything he can do to help, he'd apparently be happy to do so.
Theo suggests that they go upstairs.
So they get into his room, and Theo flops on his bed.
Ungh. He makes a pained sound. Why does it feel like he's been hit over the head with a brick?
Oh, it's because he's tired, and because it turns out that just forcing yourself to continue when you probably shouldn't is typically a bad idea. Who'd've guessed.
Thinking things over, he starts to shake a little. That card was worse than he expected, and seeing Sadde acting psychopathic, trying to attack him and Sadde's mum, was definitely not something he had prepared himself for.
Theo's pretty deep in thought by now, so he doesn't properly respond to that, but it's probably nice anyway.
He goes back over the things that happened, trying to work out what triggered him to start acting weirdly, and decides it was about the point that Sadde's mum got stabbed. He started looking around and thinking rather than continuing in a panic, so it was definitely helpful, now he thinks back on it, but it was a weird change, and he doesn't really understand why it happened. Then he went to the hospital, sat there with Sadde because he was needed instead of actually feeling much of anything, and instead made things worse.
... And now he's having a breakdown, 'processing', forcing Sadde to deal with this on top of his mum. It's not Theo's mum who's in the hospital, so why is he forcing Sadde to deal with this too? He knows he's being a burden, and it just makes him feel worse. Now, he seems to actually notice that Sadde's there, and he hugs him back.
"I'm being stupid, and realising I'm being stupid, and realising I've been stupid, and thinking about how horrible the fight was. And I'm sorry."
"It's alright. I don't know how awful the fight was, I was apparently possessed by a brooch that became a magical sword. And you didn't really do anything wrong, it was just like... you weren't really there, you know? Going through the motions. So I was like... I had no idea what was going on in your head, which I very frequently don't but I don't in a different way."
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know what that was about, because I wasn't really thinking properly." He wipes his eyes. "And I'm pretty sure I'm done now, and that was over so quickly, so I really don't know why I was making such a fuss over it."
"Me neither. Next time you want to have a breakdown... I don't know, did you want me not to be here?"
"I think I was more worried about what I'd think after, if you were around while I had a breakdown. I don't know." He hugs Sadde harder. "I'm glad you're here, though."
"Yeah," he says, smiling. He gets up, grabs a new set of clothes, and goes over to the bathroom.