Chapter Text
Had Mei not been standing there, wide eyed and pale skinned Kou wouldn’t have believed she’d drunken so much bleach. She’s a smart girl, good grades, incredible art and good friends. Most of the time people who couldn’t handle her didn’t stick around, and people who could became her friend.
Sometimes, though Mei wasn’t so smart. Sometimes Mei didn’t have her glasses and she’d get confused about things. Her roommate, a girl named Sumire who had an odd boyfriend, was an animal science major. Something from a project had her freezing bleach in the fridge. Mei had gotten confused and ate her cereal with bleach, and after Sumire promptly screamed and scared the crap out of Mei she decided to make Kou drive her. Unfortunately this was the case because Sumire was currently not able to drive.
So that’s why Mei stood in front of Kou’s door, looking rabid. She didn’t say a word when he dragged her into his car, Mitsuba following behind and asking a million questions, and she didn’t say a word when he started driving to the nearest hospital.
It was all white noise, almost silence as she watched the world move around her. For the first time in her life she felt clean, and feeling clean felt odd. It hurt, for sure, and it felt weird, but she felt really clean. She didn’t feel clean when she threw up on Mitsuba, and she didn’t feel clean when the hospital people put her in a bed and began running around. Maybe she felt so different because she was missing her glasses, too.
Kou and Mitsuba stood by her side, watching, unsure of what the actual fuck was going on. There was absolutely no way Mei was this stupid, at least in their minds.
“Kou I want to go home.”
”We have to stay here with her.”
”No we don’t. We did our part and delivered her here. Now they call her family, not us.”
”Her family disowned her Mitsuba.”
.
.
.
.
“I want to go home.”
”Let’s go home then.”
The ride home was silent, it smelled like shit from the remains of bleach and cereal on Mitsuba. They were told Mei’s aunt would be contacted, a woman who taught at the college. To everyone’s relief she’d be ok, with no serious injury.
In Mitsuba’s mind Mei was always just a painter. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but that’s all he’d known her as. Some girl who paints and is across the hall from him, and they happened to be distant cousins or something.
In Kou’s mind Mei had always been strong. Always been an amazing painter even if she was delayed in other subjects, because he could never know how she kept painting after being disowned. He could only think back to one conversation, real short that would give any information.
”Mei, why do you paint?”
”Because I have to.”
”Why do you have to?”
”Because nothing else in the world will ever suit me like painting, and that means I have to do it.”
”What about your family?”
”They’re not my problem anymore, they’re not my problem to deal with because they love me conditionally.”
And Kou sat there, thinking about what he’d do if his family loved him conditionally while Mitsuba showered.
What would he do if he was loved conditionally?