Chapter Text
Tsukki watched Akaashi stumble down the gravelly trail leading up to the Kobayashi Manor with blank eyes. He watched carefully as he unlocked the door, orange light from the foyer spilling out into the evening like a gaping mouth searching to swallow the dark. He continued to watch as Akaashi looked over his shoulder, then left, then right, then over his shoulder once more before finally stepping into the mansion and closing the door behind him. The blond sighed through his nose and rubbed his temples.
His friend was in tune enough with Tsukki's stress levels and what they meant that he didn't even have to utter the words "come on, let's go home," before Yamaguchi was taking his hand and leading him back to their shared more-of-a-over-glorified-shed-than-a-house abode.
"We haven't had dinner yet," Yamaguchi mumbled, trying to think of a way to take Tsukki's mind off its troubles. "How about I cook some ramen and you can lie down while I get some medication? It looks like you have a migraine coming on."
Tsukki sighed again, nodding in passive agreement as they finally arrived at their place. Yamaguchi unlocked the door for him, quietly ushering a new sense of peace and comfort into the place as he stepped in before Tsukki. On his way to his room, Tsukki stopped in front of the shrine underneath the staircase. He squinted at the blond in the photo, smiling so wide his eyes scrunched up and his teeth shown. One of his front ones was chipped. Tsukki remember how Akaashi had mentioned that Yukito has punched him this morning, full-on knocking out a tooth and snarled at the memory of Akiteru coming home with a bloody nose and a near-lifeless Akaashi hanging from his arm. Fuckin' Kobayashi kids.
The first few times of interference his brother had come out with things like the chipped tooth in the photo - little, little things. A broken finger nail. A scratch on his neck. A patch of hair missing behind his ear from a brief fist fight.
But little things had soon turned into big things - a broken finger, then hand, then arm. Scratches turned into gashes. Missing hair turned into missing teeth. And missing teeth turned into...well...
Tsukki slapped his cheeks, hard, making his skull ring with splitting pain. But it was splitting pain enough to draw him away from his dissociation. Teeth. Akaashi had lost a tooth at the hands of Yukito today. Tsukki wondered whose tooth Kobayashi-san was going to replace it with, or if she had found some way to grow her bones completely from scratch. He entertained a fleeting thought that he might be able to see part of his brother sometime in the near future - even if it was mere a tooth of him.
This was why he stood next to this Akaashi. It was the closest and only vessel he could get to seeing Akiteru again - and who knows, perhaps in time it'll be an Akiteru sporting one of Akaashi's teeth if Tsukki could just get close enough to Kobayashi-san's work. If he could just get close enough to kick her off the pedestal she occupied, one step below God.
Of course, Akiteru would never be losing teeth in the first place. He would be once again surrounded by people who loved him and cherished him.
Unlike this Akaashi - or any Akaashi, really. Besides the first.
/That's why you can't be playing God, Kei, you fucking idiot./ Tsukki squinted harder at the photo of his brother as he lit a stick of incense. /Fuck. Stop thinking these things again. If I brought back Onii-san I'd be no better than Kobayashi and her stupid kids. What's done is done./
--
"Throw me in the landfill/don't think about the consequences./Throw me in the dirt pit/don't think about the choices that you make./Leave me in the rain/wait until my clothes cling to my skin/wipe away my tearstains/I thought you said you didn't feel pain."
The record picked up right where it left off with Akaashi's music. This was a fairly new disc, one that Tsukki had loaned him last week. It was burned with a wide variety of artists this time - Die Prinzen, a German pop band, some songs from Hong Kong's top twenty list, part of the new Baby Metal album, and an American band called Daughter whose music had a soft ebb and flow to it, a sort of sound that made the listener feel happy in a sad kind of way, and sad in a happy kind of way. Akaashi couldn't quite describe it, but he had been listening to their song "Landfill" nonstop.
His fingers wandered to the bloody, fleshy spot in his mouth where his tooth had been knocked out. It hurt like hell, but no tears came to the boy's eyes. He pushed hard on the gap under his gums. Blood oozed onto his fingers and rolled down his forearm like the first drop of rain down a car window.
Akaashi thought of Kuroo and Bokuto from earlier today. It was kind of them to reach out to him and help - Akaashi really didn't have any friends besides Tsukki and Yamaguchi. Sometimes people around town acted like they knew him although he could've sworn he'd never spoken to them in his life. However, he found it fairly easy to nod and agree with everything an old couple or the like would say about the community barbecue he attended last year to sponsor the local cat shelter, or even Oikawa's nephew asking him if he remembered incredibly specific jokes they shared from bonfires he never recalled going to.
His mind wandered back to Kuroo and Bokuto once again as he passed by the hallway outside his room. The house was quiet, he noticed - Kiki-chan was probably still at one of his night classes and Kobayashi-san was most likely away at her lab. Onpu and Tula might be wandering around the manor at this hour though. That didn't bother him too much - perhaps he could enlist one of the girls' help.
"Onpu-chan?" he called, stepping out onto the plush red carpet. There was no sound from her room acroos the hall. If she wasn't there, she would probably be in the home theater, watching movies with Tula, so that's where Akaashi headed.
--
"Onpu-chan?" Akaashi knocked on the door of the theatre before pushing it open gently, door creaking muffled by the funky theme song of a brightly colored cartoon playing across the screen. "Is Tula-san here as well? I may need your help with something."
Tula looked up from her place on the floor with Onpu in front of all the theatre chairs. "Ah, Akaashi-kun. What is it?" She smiled, dimples showing. Onpu was resting in her lap, out like a lamp. A toy bird was still clutched in one of her hands and building blocks were spread out around both of them. Tula appeared to have been dissociating at the screen for some time before Akaashi woke her out of her trance.
"Where is Kiki-chan and Kobayashi-san? If they aren't home, I - uh, I need to maybe ask your help with something."
"Yukito-kun is at his night class and Kobayashi-san is in her lab on the other side of town. What is it, sweetie?"
"That's what I thought. I knew that you'd know for sure though, so thank you Tula-san." Akaashi cleared his throat before turning down the volume of the cartoon. He left it on, as it was the only light in the room that illuminated Tula's tall, reedy frame and Onpu's messy ebony locks. "I need help with a gift."
"A gift? For Yukito-kun I bet? Oh, he'll like that a lot! It'll definitely make up for this morning."
"No, it's...not for him. It's for two new people I met today. They're boys from the training camp - Kuroo Tetsurou and Bokuto Koutaro. They...helped me when they saw I was injured." Tula frowned and opened her mouth to protest this foolish decision of Akaashi's, but he cut her off. "I know this is a bad idea. But something wouldn't sit right with me if they didn't know that I was very grateful for their help."
Tula considered his words for a long moment, carding her fingers through Onpu's hair. After a full minute went by, Akaashi was afraid that she had lost touch with reality in lieu of dissociation and her own psychosis-crafted world, but Tula finally spoke up after eternity.
"Ah, Akaashi-kun. What is it?" she looked back up at him as if seeing him for the first time since he entered the room. Akaashi sighed softly and willed himself to be patient. Perhaps he could use her memory gaps to his advantage.
"I...I want to find a gift for Kiki-chan. What do you think he would like?"
Tula's face lit up at this. "Oh, coming from you, I'm sure anything would make him happy, Akaashi-kun! But hm...let's see. Why not make it personal? Didn't you mention the other day that you found a fully intact skull in the woods? Those are ones that you really value right? Maybe you could gift it to him after bleaching it and...hm, maybe add some personality to it? Like glitter?"
Akaashi paused for a moment. Would Kuroo and Bokuto really get the same idea as Kiki-chan or Tula or even Tsukki would get by him presenting them an animal skull?
"You're having trouble deciding what skull to give him, aren't you?" Tula said, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Um...a-a little..."
"I think the new cat one would be perfect."
Akaashi felt his heart sink a little. Perhaps a decorated cat skull would make a really, really cool gift, but intact cat skulls were hard to find. He only had two - it's not like a cat gets run over in town /every/ day.
But technically this was for Kuroo and Bokuto, not Kiki-chan. So maybe something like a glittery cat skull would do the trick at conveying "thank you" like nothing else. Akaashi smiled and nodded to himself. "Good idea."
Onpu began to stir in Tula's lap, rubbing her eyes and slowly sitting up. "Keiji-kun? What time is it? Do you want to finish this episode with me and Tula-san?" she murmured.
"No, I'm not going to watch an episode with you tonight, Onpu. Maybe tomorrow if your onii-chan has another night class. But right now I've got to work on a project - it involves glitter and bones. Do you want to help?" Akaashi said. Onpu nodded sleepily before trudging over to Akaashi and hugging him around the waist.
"Ye. Let's go make things pretty with glitter."
"Ah, Akaashi-kun, what is it?" Tula stood up and stretched, then turned to Akaashi as if seeing him for the first time that night. Akaashi faltered in his response. Sometimes Tula's mental incoherence could throw him off guard if he wasn't prepared for it, but he recovered quickly.
"Onpu-chan and I are going to make a project. And - it's pretty late out. You should probably call your brother to take you home." /It's about that time of night where the babysitter becomes the babysat/, Akaashi added internally, sighing.
Tula nodded, smiling softly. "If you think you've got everything under control for the rest of the night, then sure. Yukito-kun is at his night class and Kobayashi-san is at her lab across town."
Akaashi smiled tightly. "Right. We'll be okay until they come back later, but you seem tired. Go call Oikawa then you can help us make the project until he comes."
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