He awoke to someone embracing his back, their arms wrapped tightly around his chest.

Who the hel-

As he prepared to break out  from the hold, he froze as the scent of cedar assailed his nose.

It couldn't be…

Despite the tight hold, he wasn't hurt, and even in darkness, the coarse fur of the arms and that scent....but there was just no way that person was here… he was halfway across the world from them. Was… was this another nightmare? His blood iced over, heart jolting as his warm captor behind leaned forward, brushing their coarser cheek fur against his silkier own, musk now permeating the woody aroma.

But...what if it really isn't another dream…

He buried his face in those familiar arms wrapped around his neck, that heady cedar smell was definitely real enough. It really was *him* in the flesh. He tried to glance back, but found his head whipping back forward every time, frustration and fear soon welling up in his eyes  

            They'd been apart for so damned long, and a measly 30 minute call every 4 days or so due to the lack of infrastructure here had finally exacted its toll on him these past few weeks. And now, with the conflict drawing closer… he tried to turn around, let me hug him, please, just once! and gave a strangled cry as he found himself spinning forward again of his own accord, chest boiling with grief, desperation and rage while the one hugging him tightened their embrace in consolation.

"Don't abandon me again, Yu..."

It was too much. Yu keened, grasping those arms tightly as his tears burst forth and scattered on their fur.but even this his lips denied him. Yu did come to Dawa to fulfill his own dream of helping villages to build infrastructure, and by asking *him* to stay home...no wonder his lover felt abandoned. The rabbit's memories came flooding in, as he wept, shattered memories playing out all at once in the kaleidoscope of his mind, like how the wolf, his wolf, hid his grief at the airport, how he'd beg Yu to take him along, the dreams and nightmares of these past nights too, of waking up in his lover's cedary, warm embrace, only to turn around and find nothingness, or to finally find the wolf hugging him but then waking up alone, or  turning around to find his lover embracing him, yet rotting and dead, or to find him alive, but angry or sad, or both, and once again waking to loneliness.

Why goddammit, why…

Instantly, the tactless, cold voice of reason sliced through his maddened thoughts, icily stabbing his heart.

…but you already know why.

A strange calmness immediately blossomed within and about him, and for once, he leaned back, enjoying the long-awaited embrace. When the doubtful thought came around again, though he felt nagging fear, it rang mostly hollow in his head. It'd gotten somewhat brighter too, he could finally see in the light-blue hues of dawn. 

If I turned around now…

            Seconds streamed into years as he began to turn around, body no longer shackled by doubt . The long night was finally fading away in the golden morning light.

…would Sammy still be there?