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Echo had been acting weird for a few days. Deemo had first noticed when the two were alone in the piano room. Nowadays whenever Deemo played the piano, Echo was right by his side chatting away about whatever topics interested her for the day. But Echo was strangely quiet. Since then, Deemo had been keeping a more keen eye on her. In the days that followed it seemed that some of the other residents of central station had noticed Echos' off behavior, walking through the lobby you could hear at least one person mentioning Echo’s off behavior.
“Echo’s been really quiet lately, hasn’t she”
“I wonder if everything okay”
“She’s starting to look like a racoon”
As the days went on Echo’s behavior had become concerning. Several times she walked into walls, benches, pillars, etc. along with zoning out constantly. A few times Echo was shaking so bad that Deemo had to place a hand on her shoulder for fear of her falling over. It all came to a head when Echo fell from the railing in the statue room. It had all happened so fast, one moment she had been looking over the railing and the next she was in a free fall towards the ground, luckily Deemo had been on the ground and was able to catch her.
Setting Echo on the ground gently, Deemo lightly tapped her on the cheek. Yep, out cold. Looking around he managed to catch the gaze of Ai. They both seemed to have the same thought as Ai ran out of the room, mostly likely off to fetch Lorf. Taking a moment, Deemo took a chance to really look at Echo. Her hair was all disheveled and he now understood why one of the residents compared her to a raccoon, the eyebags under her eyes were so dark that it almost looked like the mask pattern on a raccoon's face.
Deemos thoughts were cut off when he heard two footsteps from behind him. As predicted Ai had indeed gone to fetch Lorf who quickly hurried to Echo’s side. “What happened” Deemo didn’t know how to respond to that, due to the fact he didn’t have a mouth, but Ai quickly offered up that information “Echo fell from the railing, Deemo caught her” Lorf gave him a look that he couldn’t really decipher. Lorf gave Echo a checkup, checking her pulse and other things. She gave a low sign “It appears Echo here is suffering from Sleep Deprivation” A new look passed on Lorf’s face but it was a look the Deemo could actually decipher, annoyance. “You have been around Echo more than anyone else, why didn’t you come and bring her to me when she first started getting like this.” Even if Deemo did have a mouth, he wouldn’t have responded anyway, he didn’t even know why he didn’t get Lorf.
Following Lorf’s orders, Deemo picked up Echo and followed her into the composer's room, one of the only rooms in Central Station that had a bed. Setting Echo on the bed he turned to face Lorf. “If she wakes up, come and get me”. Then with that, Lorf exited the room, muttering annoyedly as she left the room. Now alone Deemo pulled the chair that was in front of the desk to the bed and took a seat. Deemo was lost in thought. Surely a better friend would've done more to help her. While contemplating, he missed as Echo sat up in bed.
The now awake Echo was fairly confused. The last thing she remembered was looking over the railing in the statue room but now she was laying on the bed in the composers room. Sitting up, Echo looked to her right. Sitting in a chair next to a bed was Deemo, he didn’t seem to notice her yet. “Deemo?” god her voice sounded horse, but his head shot up at her voice. Now Deemo was never one for physical affection, sure there was the occasional head pat but that was it. So it caught Echo off guard when Deemo wrapped her in the tightest hug she had ever had.
The hug only lasted for a few seconds before he pulled away. After he pulled away his concerned gaze turned to a stern one. Deemo pointed to her eyes- correction her eyebags and then gave her a puzzled look, his way of asking her about the lack of sleep she had been receiving. Echo looked away "I’ve been sleeping just fine Deemo, no need to worry”. Deemo raised an eyebrow or did the best he could for a being with no eyebrows. Realizing that this was going nowhere, Echo sighed “I- I haven’t been sleeping well because I’ve been having nightmares” Now that interested Deemo, doing his best he asked Echo whether or not she wanted to talk about it. Echo seemed to understand though because she shook her head “No I don’t really want to”.
Falling into a peaceful silence, it only took a few minutes for Echo to fall back asleep. Deemo decided to wait until she woke up again to get Lorf, let her enjoy a few moments of rest before a long lecture about personal health.