.... I'm not going to ask you to like him. [He can't and he won't. That's a stupid request, Sousei has always been his own person. And as much as it hurts Tenka to hear someone be cares about so much to be annoyed about being compared to someone else he cares about a lot - it's inevitable.] But he's just as important to me as you are.

[He should continue, he knows, but - that much has to be said. Sousei was and is his partner, he's irreplaceable to the point that not even Kiiko could enter their dynamic. When Sousei left with the rest of the Yamainu, that was it. His only partner left.

Shirasu entered but he's not Tenka's partner. He's family, neatly slotted in with the Cloudy Brothers. Tenka's relationship with either of them is all at once very similar and couldn't be more different.]

Maybe he's not anymore - [which is its own painful thought, one that takes enough of a stab at Tenka's heart that he has to pause and catch his breath] - but he was a good friend and took care of me and my brothers for years. Old habits die hard. Abandoning people doesn't get any easier just because I'm guilty of doing it before, you know.

[If Tenka pulls the edges of his cloak tighter around him, maybe that's just an old habit too.]