#Yata had some growing to do too but ultimately I think the series agrees that Fushimi needs to speak up

[ridiasfangirlings]

Fushimi: If it is important to a person, he will understand (without words on my part); Yata: If a person needs it, he will tell; Here he is the true conflict sarumi * throws the microphone on the floor * what do you say about it?

Honestly I lean more towards Yata's end of things here, sometimes it's impossible to know if something's wrong with a person if that person won't actually speak up and say it. The conflict at the heart of things here though seems to be more the assumption on both their parts that they're on the same wavelength, Fushimi thinking Yata should know what's wrong even though he's aware Yata isn't the brightest and Yata assuming Fushimi will tell him if something's wrong even though he knows that Fushimi sucks a honest emotional communication. On Fushimi's end of things, clearly he's not good at communicating his own needs and wants, and he's so afraid of being abandoned that he seems to assume that if he and Yata aren't thinking the same way this is a sign that Yata doesn't care. It never really seems to occur to him to actually tell Yata what he feels – Fushimi thinks that well, it was never a problem before in middle school, he never needed to say anything then and it made things easier because Fushimi didn't have to take the step of putting his feelings out there and opening himself to the possibility of rejection. I don't know if Fushimi necessarily thought that if Yata really considered him important Yata would read his mind and know what was wrong, I think it's more like he feels that Yata's changed so much due to Homra that Yata would have once felt the same as Fushimi about everything and now he doesn't, to Fushimi Yata's mind is so full of Homra and Mikoto that he stopped understanding Fushimi and because Yata isn't doing things that please Fushimi and that Fushimi finds interesting this is clearly a sign of Yata leaving him behind.

On Yata's end, he's obviously assuming everything is fine because Fushimi isn't saying otherwise. I think this is pretty understandable from his perspective honestly, like yes he should probably know that Fushimi sucks at being honest but at the same time you can't expect Yata to be Fushimi's emotional self esteem crutch forever when Fushimi's not even giving him the smallest of hints. I think there are plenty of points in the story where it's clear that if Fushimi would just be honest Yata would be willing to listen and befriend him again (the MOR cellar chapter for example, at the end), and Fushimi refuses to do so because he's just clinging to this idea that if he has to say it that means Yata doesn't care. We do see that Yata's maybe not entirely painted as being blameless in the way things went between them, like in Side Red when Totsuka kinda tries to give him a nudge at the amusement park and Yata totally misses what he's trying to say, and I think Yata did kinda stop understanding Fushimi in the sense that he forgets how Fushimi is and that Fushimi doesn't always understand things that other people find easy. At the same time though just with the way things go in Lost Small World at least Fushimi gives Yata precious little to work with, like there are so many points where I think if he had just asked for help Yata would have been willing to listen (and of course Fushimi's pride gets in the way here too, because if he admitted what was going on with the hallucinations Yata would immediately want to get the rest of Homra involved, assuming that it's even better if everyone's helping right, while Fushimi very specifically doesn't want to tell all of Homra and seem weak and be pitied). Ultimately I think the series comes down on Yata's side too – while there are some things Yata needs to understand in order to get to this point, in the end his final reconcilement with Fushimi is pretty clear: “Say things in a way I can understand. Keep saying it until I understand.”

#sarumi #Talking K #this may just be the neurodivergence talking #but I really dislike the idea of 'if I'm important to you you'll understand without me saying' #like it kinda puts the other person in an impossible situation? #sometimes you just don't know what someone else is thinking? #and Fushimi knows Yata isn't the brightest so it's pretty unfair to him #Yata had some growing to do too but ultimately I think the series agrees that Fushimi needs to speak up #and finally just be honest