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<Fifteen…. Sixteen…. Seventeen… Eighteen…>
It took a lot of focus for Kiyotaka to keep count. The sporadic flickering of the lights above him threatened to throw off his tempo if he was distracted by them for even a second. And tempo was imperative in a scenario like this.
<Twenty five…. Twenty six…. Twenty seven…>
A single frayed wire turned what had started out as a simple errand to the basement into a dire situation. A situation where his best friend’s life was on the line.
<... Thirty—>
He stopped. He moved his hands from Mondo’s sternum, up to his face. One hand gently tilted his head back, the other pinched his nose to prevent any air from escaping. He placed his mouth over his friend’s and breathed out - two large breaths, carefully watching his chest as it rose and fell each time.
He glanced over at his face as he sat up, replacing interlocked hands over his heart.
Some color had returned to his complexion!! It was almost like he would wake up soon-- as unlikely as that was. CPR on its own very rarely worked - but rather it kept someone in a revivable state until help arrived.
<One…. Two… Three….>
The only problem: he had no idea when anyone would be coming. He hadn’t had the chance to call for assistance: neither of them had phones with them, and there was no way he could leave Mondo without air for the time it would take to run upstairs and get somebody’s attention.
So... they were stuck.
Stuck until somebody either happened by or came looking for them. But when would that be?? Their classmates on the upper floor probably had no idea what was happening below their feet ...
<Ten…. eleven…—>
Mondo drew in a harsh breath which broke the heavy silence. Kiyotaka, surprised by the sudden movement, halted the next compression and pulled back to look at him.
This was probably an agonal gasp--- a false alarm. It had happened before. But this was with such force… he ventured to hope. He put a hand on Mondo’s shoulder, calling out to him.
“Mondo— Mondo?? Can you hear me!?”
He leaned close to his friend’s face, listening and watching for even the tiniest response: a twitch, a mumble, even just the slightest change of expression.
Nothing. It was only one isolated breath, but it was still a sign that he was fighting hard, clinging to life.
Trying to remain undiscouraged, Kiyotaka resumed compressions.
He didn’t know how many times he had done this cycle, but before he knew it, he didn’t have to count aloud to keep his place anymore. This was not a good thing, because it left space in his mind to think about what was happening. To think about… what the person on the ground meant to him.
A lump rose in his throat. No… he couldn’t cry right now. It would make his breath too unsteady, rendering him unable to help.
< Twenty… Twenty One… >
Careful to keep the rhythm, Kiyotaka decided to speak to him. Perhaps it was a little silly...after all, there was no way Mondo could hear him. But it was all he could do to not panic and dissolve into a sobbing mess.
“Mondo…keep hanging in there… W-we’ve been gone for a long time…. someone’s bound to-“
He paused and gave two more breaths.
“—someone’s bound to come looking, and they’ll be able to go get help…”
There’s...still hope.
< ...Seven… Eight… >
When he had first fallen, his heart wasn’t by any means beating, but when listening for a pulse Kiyotaka had been able to hear the sound of a quiet flutter from within his chest. This, coupled with his persistent attempts to breathe on his own, was good. Or, at the very least, reassuring.
He might be okay.
A worried pang shot through Kiyotaka’s heart, and the alternative briefly occurred to him. The mental image of an empty chair, a desk with a vase of flowers to signify that the person who used to sit there… would not be returning again.
...No. No, no. He would be okay. He had to be. They couldn’t lose faith in each other, not now.
Mondo stirred and weakly coughed a few times. Nothing even close to the gasp from before, but it was nonetheless another attempt by his body to snap itself out of this state.
“Th...that’s it…! You’ll make it...just keep trying…you’ll pull through…”
< Twenty…. Twenty one… >
“This is...going to be alright…!”
He just had to keep him afloat until--
--Ah!!!! The creaking of footsteps. Someone was coming down the stairs.
He mustered up the strength shout: “Help!!!! Please, I need help!!!!”
“Taka?!?” The responding voice was Chihiro's.
After hearing Kiyotaka’s pleas for assistance, the footsteps increased in speed, and soon they had made it to the basement.
At the bottom of the stairs they looked around, not immediately seeing where their friends were.
“Here… Fuj..Fujisaki!!!” he called out again.
Chihiro spotted them, and quickly ran over.
“Taka!!! Taka, what’s the mat-" their question stopped short when they recognized Mondo laying there, deathly pale. His eyes were unfocused, glassy, and only partially closed. He almost looked…
“No…”
They dropped to their knees next to Kiyotaka, beginning to shake.
“...Wh… what happened ?!” they finally managed out.
“He…”
< Twenty eight… Twenty nine… >
He couldn’t immediately respond. He held up his index finger to indicate this, then turned towards Mondo’s face. Once more, their lips met and Kiyotaka deeply breathed out.
Chihiro watched gripped in a mortified silence as Mondo remained completely unresponsive, even as his chest rose and fell with each dose of oxygen.
Kiyotaka sat back up and prepared to resume chest compressions, explaining the situation as quickly and clearly as he was able to.
“He was shocked… I think there was… must have been a live wire we didn’t see…”
He didn’t need to say anything more. Before he could even finish that first sentence, Chihiro’s phone was out, and they were dialing emergency services.
The call was brief and matter-of-fact, although their voice still had a light tremble to it.
“They’re on their way…!” they announced as soon as they hung up.
“Th... ank you…” He didn’t look up, but he was smiling ever slightly. Now that help was coming, he felt like there was a light at the end of the tunnel. And not a moment too soon-- his strength was quickly depleting.
Kiyotaka’s fatigue didn’t escape Chihiro’s notice, and their heart sank watching him. There had to be something, anything else they could do to help.
They thought for a second to run upstairs and flag someone down for the possibility of more immediate assistance, but then they remembered one of the school’s automatic defibrillators was placed very close to the stairs on the first floor. With a small reassurance that they would be right back, Chihiro took off like a bullet to retrieve it.
< ...Twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty… >
... Another two breaths…
He was beyond tired-- beyond pained. The muscles of his core and arms were burning. What stood between his hands and the heart that they needed to reach was a wall of bone and muscle. Even on a person who wasn’t as built as Mondo was... providing the pressure necessary to perform a single effective compression, let alone several in a quick succession, was a feat of physical strength.
< Five… six… seven… >
‘Oh, please wake up…’
He reminded himself that it wouldn’t likely happen anytime soon. He glanced over at Mondo’s face anyway, hoping for even the slightest of change. Nothing.
The thought occurred to him that his friend might be fading as well...
‘Come on…’
In that moment, it was as though some small miracle had occurred and Mondo was able to sense that Kiyotaka needed encouragement. As if he could somehow sense and respond to his anxieties surrounding his long stretch of inactivity. Because just as Kiyotaka mentally pleaded for any kind of sign, Mondo drew in a strained, hissing breath.
“!!!!”
What ensued from that was a fit of convulsive gasping, peppered with the occasional choke or cough. It was a furious fight to once more breathe on his own. And for awhile, Kiyotaka thought he might rally. He stopped stiff and held his breath, as though any movement by him could affect the outcome negatively.
But the clean inhale and exhale he hoped to hear never came. After a fruitless struggle, his friend fell still and silent.
The sight both formed a pit in his stomach and sent a rush of adrenaline through him.
He placed his palm onto the center of Mondo’s chest and pressed down. Still tired, still hurt, but with the resolve to save that life reignited at full.
< E-eleven… twelve…>
“ I know…” he wheezed sympathetically, “This...must be painful… a-and if you’re aware at all, you’re probably also terrified…”
< Sixteen…>
“I’m… I’m so...sorry… but please…please”
‘ If you can even hear me…’
“...S-stay with me, Mondo...keep hanging on….just a little longer…”
< Twenty nine…>
...and to thirty again. Two breaths. Repeat.
< One…>
Chihiro came running back with a small container in tow and practically skidded to a stop next to them.
“I’m back, I got it—“ they breathlessly explained, already working to unzip the bag and take out the device inside, “These things… it’s supposed to be,...like anybody can use them…”
Kiyotaka realized said thing was a defibrillator, and he was hit with a perfect mix of joy and dread.
< Eight…! Nine…!>
He continued until Chihiro had finished setting up, which turned out to be, thankfully, not long at all.
“Oh…” Chihiro dazedly said, “this could burn him if we stick these on over his shirt…”
They were holding one of the electrode pads in their hands, intently studying the printed instructions on it.
Kiyotaka stopped abruptly, took hold Mondo’s white undershirt at its collar, and ripped it down the middle. The moment he’d done it, he briefly wondered if he should have, but quickly put it out of his mind. That would be something to apologize for later, to Mondo himself.
The machine was powered on, and it was already giving audio and visual instructions on how to operate it.
“Okay, okay… “ Chihiro said, scooting closer to Mondo, but keeping their eyes on the screen. “Okay…!”
Quickly, carefully, and with quivering hands, they placed each pad on his chest in the exact positions indicated by the graphics. They double, triple, quadruple checked to ensure it was correct.
The screen changed, and Chihiro swallowed hard, jaw clenched. “Taka…. i-it’s time to get back.”
The two nervously moved a small but sufficient distance away from the fallen Mondo who, poor man, was about to be shocked again . Kiyotaka averted his gaze. After everything, this was the one part he couldn’t stand to watch.
...
There sounded the noise of the administered shock, and then a few moments later came a deep, rattly inhale.
This prompted Kiyotaka to look up, and see his friend finally, finally breathing. Gasping, desperate breathing, but breathing nonetheless.
He and Chihiro, faces bright with hope, quickly exchanged a glance. But neither of them spoke...there was a confirmation that still needed to be made.
Completely forgetting that vitals would be displayed on the screen of the AED, Kiyotaka ran over to Mondo’s uninjured hand, carefully took it into his and pressed his thumb against the wrist.
He let out a happy, relieved sob when he felt it— a steady pulse. A heartbeat.
“Is he okay?!?! Did it work??”
“Yes…!! Yes … oh...Mondo, thank God … ”
Kiyotaka almost felt dizzy as the tension left him, and he finally, finally gave in to the need to cry. It began as a few silent tears, and before he knew it he was bawling.
Chihiro walked over and sank to their knees next to him, putting a hand on his back, still too dazed to know what to even say.
Wordlessly, the two watched their friend start to recover. Gradually his breathing slowed to a normal pace, his skin regained a healthy color, and the stiffness left his expression. His hand, still in Kiyotaka’s, was warming up from its deathly chill. Soon, it almost appeared as though he were merely sleeping.
“C-Chihiro…” Kiyotaka finally managed to say between sobs, “Thank you...so much…”
Chihiro, in the midst of their own bout of post-stress crying, was unable to form a verbal reply. They instead tightened their hold of his shoulder and brought him into a small side hug.
The three stayed like that until help arrived.
——-
He loved Kiyotaka. He really did. He was, consistently, one of the best parts of any given school day. But sometimes it seemed like he enjoyed being inconvenienced. So of course when the projector light bulb burned out, he immediately volunteered to go into the giant creepy school basement. Apparently it was too giant and too creepy for one person to go, and when the teacher asked for someone to accompany him, Mondo found himself raising his own hand.
That’s how they ended up in the basement. It was pitch black when they came to the bottom of the staircase. Kiyotaka flipped on the light switch, and it... really didn't do much. The fluorescents were very dim, and many of them blinked as rapidly as a strobe that had, like... gone batshit or something.
“I don’t believe it. This was reported months ago and nothing’s been done at all,” Kiyotaka exasperatedly grumbled, “It’s a serious safety hazard!!!”
“Yeah…” Mondo squinted, “it’s real fuckin’ irritating, too…”
His eyes adjusting a little bit to the flickers of visibility, he was able to make out an expanse of shelves that laid before them.
“... Ugh. Let’s grab this thing and get outta here.”
“Right…!”
The two of them wandered the rows of shelves, at first looking for where the the bulbs, or... anything vaguely relating to lighting was kept.
All that was discovered after what must’ve been ten minutes of fruitless frustration was that there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to where things were. Those damn bulbs could be anywhere.
They changed tactics. They would start at the back of the room and tediously check each and every shelf until they found them. They did find them.
….at the front of the room, on the shelf that was against the wall and right next to the entrance to the stairs. If they had only known to start there ...
...It was all Mondo could do to refrain from picking up the shelf and punting it straight through the ceiling and into orbit. He laughed exasperatedly through gritted teeth, “Of course.”
“At the very least... now we can get back…” Kiyotaka sighed, standing on the tips of his toes to reach the wooden box on the top row. He could only brush the tips of his fingers against it. And all that accomplished was pushing it way back against the wall.
“Gah… sorry…”
“Nah, I got it.”
Mondo, taller by far, could easily reach. Simple.
...Or it would’ve been, had the safety hazard comment Kiyotaka made earlier not suddenly become very relevant.
The moment his hand made contact with the back wall, he heard a loud snap, and a searing hot pain tore its way through his body. He screamed-- mostly from surprise.
“Bro?!” Kiyotaka’s worried call.
As he stumbled back, a wave of dizziness washed over him. He managed to weakly, woozily mutter, “ Shit…“ before losing his balance completely and falling to the ground.
Suddenly he couldn’t talk. He couldn’t breathe. He felt like he was going to throw up. His vision was blurring; everything looked, felt, and sounded like it was underwater.
His friend’s response to his collapse was immediate.
“Mondo?!?!” He barely heard it. He saw the faint outline of Kiyotaka run towards him, and fall to his knees by his side.
“What’s happened—? ...Are you able to talk to me…??”
His cries were so distant, as if they were being shouted a mile away from him. Fuck. This was really bad.
Mondo was beginning to panic. He looked up at his friend, opening his mouth in attempt to respond— to tell him that he didn’t know what was happening to him...that he needed help. But no sound would come out. Fuck!!! This was really, really bad.
“ Mondo— !!”
That was the last thing he could hear, before everything faded out into dark.
…
He didn’t fully realize he’d passed out at first. It was so instantaneous, that the moments of him fading and waking up connected together seamlessly.
The truth occurred to him when he realized just how sore he was.
Son of a bitch , his whole chest hurt. Even just breathing was uncomfortable.
< Damn…. >
Gradually, his senses returned, and things began to come into focus. He noticed he didn’t seem to be laying on the hard ground anymore, which made sense. If he passed out from… whatever the hell it was back there, then he was probably in the infirmary. Well… maybe not. He noticed a quiet, steady beeping noise in the background. Maybe his alarm clock? Was he in his dorm? Ah!! Was it just a weirdass dream?? ... No, because he was awake and still feeling like he lost a fight with a lawn mower. Well, then fuck. What was going on?!
Sheer frustration willed him to open his eyes. His vision was initially blurry, and it took a few rapid blinks to clear it back up, but he was able soon enough to look around... and he had no idea still. He was waking up in a room he had never seen before in his life.
‘What the fuck?!?’
For a moment he panicked. He tried for a bit to sit upright, and stopped when he caught sight of the railing on either side of the bed he was in. And then his right hand, wrapped in layers of bandaging. An IV tube was a little farther up his arm- wait. What?
‘Uhh…’
It was at precisely that moment that he realized the beeping noise was coming from a heart monitor.
Oh. Okay!! He was in a hospital…. This fact calmed him significantly- while this probably wasn’t good , it wasn’t the worst place to find himself waking up.
He knew where he was and thus came the question of when he was. He looked around the room a little more. Was there a window? Yes!! It showed a pitch black, dead of night sky. Crap!!! He’d been out for at least a day. ...Maybe he had been out for multiple days. Oh God, maybe weeks.
‘Hey!! Get your shit together!!’
Surely there was a calendar somewhere in the room, or a whiteboard with the date written on it. He started scanning the room for one, and nearly fell out of the bed when his eyes landed upon… a guy. Some other person who had been in there with him the whole time. He did a double take and realized that the guy was Kiyotaka. He was slumped over asleep in a chair at his bedside.
... Oh, right.
The memory of the moments leading up to his loss of consciousness came back to him. He’d been laying there paralyzed, unable to even respond to cries of his name. He remembered looking at Kiyotaka and seeing his own panic reflected in his eyes. In fact, said eyes were the last thing he remembered looking at before…
...he went unconscious for several hours. Oh Jesus, he probably scared the shit out of him. And knowing Kiyotaka...he’d probably been waiting in that chair the whole time.
He had to wake him up and let him know he was okay.
“H-hey... Taka…? Taka…!” This was the first time he attempted to speak since waking up and he found that not only did it hurt, but it was impossible to get any significant volume.
He could try tapping or lightly shaking him... but he couldn’t reach Kiyotaka from where he was laying. He could , however, reach the nightstand and the ballpoint pen that was on it. Perfect . He took hold of said pen, and tossed it at him.
He’d honestly meant for it to land on his knee or something, but because he had to throw with his nondominant hand, he overshot it and the pen ended up smacking him directly in the face.
Mondo winced.
“Oh fuck.”
Kiyotaka jolted awake. The pen, stalled by the bridge of his nose, fell towards his lap as soon as he moved. He managed to catch it, his alarm morphing into confusion.
“Wh... what in the—?!“
“Sorry…!”
The moment he heard his friend speak, he looked up with wide eyes, and broke into a grin when he saw him.
“You’ve woken up!!”
“Yeah… I’m here…” he replied with a light, tired smile.
“Welcome back…” Kiyotaka released a deep breath, then gently patted Mondo on the shoulder, “It is... such a relief to see you awake and talking!”
He chuckled a little, scratching the back of his neck, “Thanks... I’m sorry if I freaked you out. I wasn’t out too long was I?”
“ A few…. hours. B-but—!” he quickly reassured him, “You needed the rest. You’ve… been through a lot today…”
“Yeah, I feel like I took a meteor to the chest.”
Mondo noticed Kiyotaka briefly grimace as he said this, and he was immediately sorry he did.
“Ha… it was… well, something like that,” he bit his lip and averted eye contact. His voice quieted, “several of your ribs were broken, unfortunately…”
Broken ribs?? That explained the pain he was in but how the hell did it happen? He thought he remembered the cause of his unconsciousness… maybe there was a gap in his memory? Maybe one of those shelves tipped over on him after he fell?
“Jesus… did I get crushed or something??”
Kiyotaka, still avoiding eye contact, just shook his head.
After a tense pause, he rubbed the back of his neck and gave a labored laugh, “I’m sorry… I’m finding it difficult to tell you…”
< Maybe I shouldn’t have insisted Chihiro go home…they could probably explain this with less hesitation…>
He continued, in a matter-of-fact, toneless voice, “... There was an exposed wire on the wall behind the shelf. So when you touched it, you suffered a severe electric shock. Your hand took the brunt of the damage.”
Mondo gazed down at his bandaged hand, starting to worry. Was he about to find out he’d lost function in it? That it wouldn’t recover? Was that...where this was going…?
Kiyotaka seemed to pick up on his concern, and he paused his explanation to address it, “But!!! They told me they are expecting it to heal completely…! Actually…” he reached into one of the side pockets on his jacket, pulled out a small notepad, and set it down on the nightstand. “I wrote down what the doctor told me…! I’ll leave it here for you to look at later.”
Mondo couldn’t help but grin at that— even in a situation like this, he’d still taken notes for him.
“Heh, you really did…” he laughed softly in attempt to not push his ribs too much, “Thanks for thinking of it.”
And for a moment, Taka beamed, glad that he had been a help. But it was only for a moment. As he prepared to resume his account of the events, his face fell again.
“....In addition to... your hand being injured… the shock threw your heart off of its rhythm… and it wasn’t able to circulate blood effectively.”
“...what…?”
Kiyotaka’s expression turned grave, “It ceased to-- it stopped…”
“--beating?” Holy shit. He repeated to clarify, “My heart... Stopped. Beating??? ”
“That’s it…”
He knew he’d been more messed up than he initially thought but... Christ!!! Fuckin’... cardiac arrest... he had no idea. He didn’t feel like someone who’d almost just died.
There wasn’t a tunnel of light or anything... there was supposed to be, right?? From his point of view, it had just been a blink. One moment, the giant creepy basement… the next, he was in a hospital. This needed to sink in for a minute...
They both sat in an eerie quiet for awhile before Mondo softly inquired, “So…. what ended up bringing me back…? Did they have to zap me with those…”
< Shoot, what were they called...>
“...heart-restarting things?”
< Eh. Good enough. >
“Yes. That is what finally did it.”
What finally did it…?
Mondo was about to ask what had been attempted before, but stopped when he saw Taka furiously biting his lip, clenching his hands together so hard that he was trembling. This wasn’t worth making him cry… Besides, all of this stuff was probably in the notepad.
“Hey…” Mondo began, “Look, I know enough. You don’t need to put yourself through hell-”
“It was me.”
“... h-huh?”
“I… broke... your ribs while doing chest compressions. There was... no way I could avoid it. I-in order to have the needed effect, I had to press down... very hard...” his voice trembled so much he almost couldn't finish the sentence, words tapering off into a sigh. Tears squeezed out of his clenched eyes, and he gave a small, shivering laugh, “I guess I’m… feeling a little guilty for hurting you… I’m...very s-sor…”
The moment he tried to apologize, his shake became so severe that he was rendered unable to speak: losing his words to ragged sobs.
Watching Kiyotaka struggle in vain to keep his composure from breaking was too much. Mondo quickly took his hand.
“No… no, Taka— ...c’mere…”
With a strength unexpected of a man who had just been electrocuted, he pulled Kiyotaka up out of his seat and slowly towards him— until their foreheads were pressed together. It was as much of a comforting hug as he could give right now, but it seemed to calm him down a little all the same.
“Dammit. Only you could save a guy’s life and still feel like you did somethin’ wrong…” he laid his palm flat against Kiyotaka’s, and interlocked his fingers with his. Then he gently added, “... but you didn’t. So you don’t got anything to apologize for, alright?”
Still unable to speak, he emitted a vocalization that was a blend of a hum of affirmation and a whimper, then threaded his free arm gently across the back of Mondo’s neck, and held his hand a little tighter.
It was an awkward, half hug, half hand hold, especially given one of them was laying down and the other bent over from a stand. Nonetheless, it was an embrace they maintained for some time: until Kiyotaka’s shoulders stopped heaving, and his breath was steady once more.
When they finally parted to continue their conversation, Mondo’s hair, which had long since lost its styled shape, came loose from being tucked behind his ear and fell directly in front of his eyes.
“...”
“Oh…! Hold on a moment…”
Kiyotaka pulled a single bobby pin out of his breast pocket, and moved to brush the curls away from his face.
“Here…”
Mondo could now see Kiyotaka’s intensely focused, albeit still teary eyes as he pinned his hair back into place.
His expression relaxed then, and he fell back into his chair with a calm and rather satisfied smile.
“Okay…! That’s better, isn’t it…?”
“Yeah, I can actually see,” Mondo stifled a chuckle, “I’m kinda surprised you’d have one of those on you.”
Kiyotaka’s hair was hardly long enough to comb, let alone pin.
“Of course!! I keep a whole set on my person,” while he said this, he pulled out the aforementioned set just enough to be visible, “I have so many long haired classmates. So I carry them, should they find themselves in need of one!”
He explained it all like it was a common practice, like anyone and everyone did it. Of course. Of course Kiyotaka carried bobby pins in his pocket all the time for everyone else’s sake. It was so endearingly sweet that it struck him funny.
Both of them stared at each other for a brief moment of blank-faced eye contact, before bursting into laughter.
It had been such a delightfully mundane interaction, even with their current situation. And despite the pain in his ribs, it felt pretty good to just laugh at something. Kiyotaka must’ve held a similar sentiment, because when they finally started to settle down, he had to catch his breath and wipe a few tears away.
“Ha… Sorry about that…”
“Hey, you’re good…! … we’re both good…”
In that moment of calm was when the things he had been told finally began to fully process, and what had happened while he was unconscious really set in.
He’d very nearly died … no, he basically did die... But he was in a hospital bed instead of a body bag right now, because he had been fortunate enough to be with someone who knew what to do.
He glanced over at his friend who he… now owed his life to.
Owed his life to. God, that sounded so surreal. He was just... laying there casually chatting with the guy who’d resuscitated him that very morning. Which, now that he thought about it… must’ve been fucking terrifying. Holy shit. How long had they been down there before someone found them?? How long was Kiyotaka alone, trying desperately to revive him…? How nerve-wracking had it been to even just… give him that first breath or compression?
Like… damn.
Realizing the severity of what they’d both been through brought waves of apologetic gratitude over him, and for probably the first time ever, he wasn’t really sure what to say to his best friend. But after everything... something needed to be said.
So he spoke.
“Oi, Taka…”
“!!! Yes?” Kiyotaka snapped to attention, seemingly jolted out of his own state of deep thought.
...somehow, looking at his bright face… sent a swarm of frantic butterflies straight through Mondo’s gut, so much that his face flushed, and he almost started laughing again.
“...Thank you. For being such a quick thinker back there…and y’know…” how should he put this, “...for not giving up on me.”
Both of their faces were red now.
Kiyotaka was stunned silent. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but no words ever came.
After some thought, he smiled quietly, and said in a voice full of relief, “...You’re… definitely welcome…”
Another, smaller pause, and he slowly reached for Mondo’s hand again. The other, seeing this, gladly took it into his.
“... I’m really glad you’re here.”
With those words, Mondo felt the butterflies move to his chest, though they were helluva lot calmer and there seemed to be less of them now.
A warm smile, a small hand squeeze, and a tenderly spoken reply:
“Yeah, me too.”