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Onoda is halfway through a relaxing shower when the bathroom door bursts open (why doesn’t it have a lock?) and Midousuji comes barrelling into the room. He’s used to his partner acting weird, but this…
“Akira?” he says, sliding the steamy shower door open slightly.
He peers out of the shower cubical and finds Midousuji hunched up in a ball in the corner, lanky legs hugged to his chest as he rocks back and forth. Midousuji only acts like this when he’s really scared or something has overloaded his senses and sent him into a shutdown. Either way, this isn’t good news.
Onoda turns off the shower and sticks his head out. “Akira? Are you okay?”
Midousuji looks up, avoiding eye contact like always, and rocks faster. “Gross, gross, gross.”
He climbs out of the shower, conscious of the shampoo still in his hair, and wraps a towel around his waist. He crouches in front of Midousuji, desperate to learn what is freaking him out.
“What’s wrong?” Onoda asks.
But Midousuji seems to be struggling to communicate verbally, something that often happens to him. So all he manages to mumble is, “Gross,” and “kitchen,” and “safe here.”
Still, that’s enough for him to get the gist. “Let me go and sort it out for you, okay?”
Midousuji nods. “Okay. Shut door.”
Nodding back, Onoda rushes out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He hurries into their kitchen, where he finds a huge moth on the ceiling.
Ah, now it makes sense. Midousuji is terrified of moths.
Even though he thinks they’re pretty gross too, Onoda gets it out of the window and goes back to the bathroom, the place Midousuji has chosen as some kind of shelter.
“It’s gone,” he says.
Midousuji manages a smile, nodding his thanks.