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Himiko is autistic, but she has never met another autistic person. She isn’t ashamed to be autistic (in fact, she thinks her autistic brain is why she’s so good at magic), but she just doesn’t tell anyone about it. To be honest, she doesn’t consider it their business. It is nothing special, just the way Himiko’s brain works.
Still, sometimes she wishes she had an autistic companion. She loves to stim (mainly by playing with the fidget spinner she carries in her pocket or putting heavy books on her lap), and, although she needs to do it so she doesn’t have a shutdown, it’s sometimes a bit of a pain. If she had someone to stim with, they could help her with it.
But she needs this person to be autistic, because just like non-magical people don’t understand mages, neurotypical people, even when they try their best, just can’t understand what it is like to need to stim.
She needs an autistic friend. But if she didn’t find one before, how will she find an autistic person among the fifteen other people trapped in this place with her?
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Gonta is autistic, but he has never met another autistic person. His forest family didn’t know about autism, but he was very comfortable with them. When he got back into human civilisation, however, he found it hard to be the only autistic person around.
So when he sees Himiko playing with something in the entrance hall one day, his chest relaxes. She looks so content as she fiddles with the plastic thing, spinning it and watching it spin in her grip, and Gonta wonders if she is stimming. So does that mean she is autistic?
Because Gonta is a gentleman, he decides to wait until she has stopped stimming to ask her, knowing it is impolite to interrupt people. After a few minutes, Himiko puts the red plastic thing in her pocket and stands up.
“Ah, Himiko,” Gonta says, and she turns around.
“Nyeh, what do you want?” she mumbles, looking like she might fall asleep.
“Gonta want ask Himiko question. Uh… what was thing you playing with?”
Himiko stares down at the floor. “It’s called a fidget spinner. They’re everywhere.”
“Was Himiko… stimming?” he asks.
Now Himiko looks up. Neither of them attempts to make eye contact with the other (she must find it uncomfortable too), but he sees her mouth gape.
“How do you know that word?”
“Um… Gonta autistic,” he says. “It autism word.”
“You’re autistic?” Himiko says, looking as focused as when she was playing with the fidget spinner.
“Yes.”
“I…” Himiko smiles, something Gonta has not seen before. “I am too.”
So Gonta was correct.
“That good!” Gonta says, grinning. “Gonta always want meet other autistic person.” He tries to think of the right phrasing, and remembers how Kaito embarrassed Maki and Shuichi the other day by calling them Workout Buddies, something Gonta found sweet. “We can be Stim Buddies.”
Himiko stares at him, and makes a sound he thinks is a lazy laugh. “That sounds stupid. But… also… cool. I like that. Can you help me stim so it’s not such a pain?”
“Um, of course! Gonta gentleman. Gentlemen always help people.” He grins. “Gonta so happy about this.”
Even though she looks like her normal lethargic self, Himiko sounds sincere as she says, “Me too. would… would you like to borrow my fidget spinner?”
Gonta’s eyes widen. Stim toys are quite personal items, so she must trust him. “Gonta would… like that. thank you.”
She hands him the piece of fabric that looked large in her hand but small in his own. Gonta presses his finger and thumb tips against the middle of the spinner and flicks one of the three protrusions, sending it spinning. It makes a whirring sound as the image blurs, and Gonta smiles. This is nice, like when he goes running and the world seems to blur past him.
When it slows to a stop, Gonta holds it back out to Himiko. “Thank you. It very nice.”
“Nyeh, we can share it,” Himiko says. “You keep it for now. I can’t be bothered to use it.”
Gonta smiles and slips it into his pocket. “Thank you, Himiko. Gonta enjoy being Stim Buddies with you.”
Himiko puts her hand on the brim of her hat, clearly thinking hard. “Hey, can you help me stim, Gonta?”
“Of course. what Himiko want Gonta to do?”
“I like… pressure. Like, I wrap myself real tight in my blankets at night and I put books on my lap when I’m sitting down for long amounts of time. You know, that kind of thing.” Himiko blushes slightly. “So… could you maybe pick me up and hug me real tight? You’re so strong it should be perfect and I won’t have to do anything that uses energy.”
Gonta finds his face red, but smiles and nods. “Okay. Gonta can do that. Ready?”
As Himiko nods, Gonta lifts her up and cradles her in his arms. Gonta hugs her tightly, hugging until Himiko says it’s hard enough, and she rests her head against his shoulder. And as Gonta helps her stim by giving her a hug, Himiko relaxes so much she manages to fall asleep.
And she doesn’t wake up even when Gonta has to run to escape Tenko, who brims with jealousy over him hugging Himiko. No, Himiko just slumps against him, a totally relaxed and content Stim Buddy, and Gonta smiles.