Chapter Text
It was a normal day. Well, normal in the worst way, he supposed. His horoscope had read pretty badly, a suggestion of bad luck to tint the day of someone already struggling with anxiety and paranoia. Days off were supposed to be a blessing, but Tsumugi Aoba could only find anxiety in the aimlessness. The days he couldn't be scheduled either ended up being tense for one reason or another. Today, however, there was a rhyme to the madness.
His parents.
It was always nice at first, letting Tsumugi be lured into that false sense of hope, that maybe, just maybe, something prompted his mother to change… or that maybe he was finally good enough for the eyes of his father. Just maybe. It would always start nice, and almost genuine. From there, well, the ending was predictable. It would end with words that were meant to hurt, painted in gloss but bearing needles on the other side. Terrible and nasty words, dipped in sugary sweetness, enough so to rot teeth out of the skull.
Truly terrible.
Tsumugi brought his hands up to his face, cupping cold water in them before splashing it onto himself. Just pretend it’s the last time you will ever see them, he told himself mentally. That has seemed to work in the past, after all…
Exiting the bathroom, Tsumugi turned into his bedroom, rubbing his eyes and heading to his closet. Before he opened the door to it, however, he ran his fingers across the charm that he had stuck there. One for good luck and miracles… A part of him wondered when one was going to happen. He had thought that running away from those damned parents and working his way up onto his own two feet would have deterred them enough, but… The way they upheld formalities such as seeing him monthly, the way they hit him with words instead of hands, the way they acted like they hadn’t done anything wrong… He hated it, he hated it so much, and it made him feel crushed. Like maybe he was just never destined to win.
Try as he might to push away negative energy, it seemed to swarm onto him like flies to honey. He slowly opened the door, picking out something nice to wear. Putting no effort into this sort of thing would only make himself more upset with his entire life, so… Better to try your hardest and fail, eh? It didn’t take him long to put on a nice pair of pants and a nice shirt, tuck it into his pants, and go out to the kitchen to make something. Tea and sweets would be expected by parents like his, and as much as he wanted to, he could never muster the strength to curse their tea, or maybe make it with as little effort as possible. After all, everything that was untouched would be going back to himself.
He hummed as he started mixing everything together, and after a while he left it to sit on the stove top. It was with a heavy heart he checked his phone, having ignored a few vibrations from it for the last ten minutes. It simply read that they were on their way, and that his father was a little grumpy. Great. His already foul father was going to be even worse today. Just what he needed.
Clearing his throat and taking a deep breath, the blue haired man straightened out and continued working, creating the dough for some plain cookies. Baking wasn’t something that he was the best at, but he wasn’t bad either, and plus it was rather relaxing sometimes. He measured out everything he needed, getting some flour on him as per usual before mixing everything together into a decent dough. Amber eyes sparkled as he started carefully cutting out star shapes. As silly as it was, stars were one of his favorite shapes, not that his parents would quite like it at all.
After the cookies were cut out and put on the sheet, Tsumugi put them in to bake and finished up the tea preparations. Now all there was left to do was to hurry up and wait. Leaning back against the counter, Tsumugi stared absently at the front door. Anxiety was on the low tide right now, but soon it would be coming at him like a sneaker wave.
~~
His heart jumped up into his throat when he heard that knock on his door. They were here, and gods, he didn’t think he would ever be ready for them. He closed his eyes, his hand on the handle of a kettle. As he was about to mutter a prayer of good luck, he heard the door unlock and open. What in the…?!
“Amazing! You must be Tsu-kun’s parents! Welcome! I am your very own Hibiki Wataru!” A loud, foreign voice spoke, and Tsumugi turned around a little too fast to look natural. There stood a long haired individual, with hair as blue as the skies above. Tsumugi had never seen him in his entire life. His mother and father were both surprised as well, to say the least. Who in the HELL was this person, anyways?
“Ah, yeah. Forgive us, we had no idea you were comin’.” A redhead stepped out from around the corner, nearly causing Tsumugi to faint. He was tall, big, and looked like he could snap anyone who pissed him off in half. Tsumugi had never seen this person in his life either. Were these people robbers of some kind? Were they here to take everything he had at gunpoint? Wait, the blue haired one had said his name… Tsu-kun. Tsumugi was sure that he had never seen this person around, ever. Maybe… A stalker? Anxiety started to flood him as he tried to answer the growing questions in his head.
“Tsu-kun, you should have told us! It’s alright if we stay though, right?” The blue haired one came over and threw an arm around him, and Tsumugi was sure he was going to faint... At least he would faint with the scent of flowers and feathers around him. Despite the shock of the situation, he nodded his head. What if they pulled out a fund on him? What if they were totally ready to hurt him? Maybe they had a group of people outside ready to steal him away? Oh god, oh god he was probably going to die today.
“Thanks, Aoba-kun.” The redhead bowed his head to Tsumugi, and then addressed his parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Aoba, You may already know my friend Wataru Hibiki’s name, but my name is Kuro Kiryu.” Tsumugi was desperately trying to remember these two strangers, seeing as if they got in trouble, then the police would know where to go look and such. The look on his parents’ faces were almost as shocked as Tsumugi’s.
“You didn’t say that there was anyone here, Tsumugi…” His father spoke in that tone, one that made his stomach twist into a knot. “Are these people from your work?”
Ah…. Wait, did his father not know these people? Maybe his first thought was wrong, then. They hadn’t set him up… Then why in the hell were these people here? “... Yeah, uh, th-they’re just friends of mine, i-is all… S-Sorry…”
“Oh me, oh my, I didn’t realize that there was going to be someone coming over! I do apologize, but I surely hope that it doesn’t cause any issues or anything, right? Is this just a family get together, or should I go?” The blue haired man was energetic and spoke fast, which threw Tsumugi off. The redhead shook his head and crossed his arms.
“We won’t be in the way or nothin’, but if you want us to leave we will.” The redhead’s voice was so…. Deep, and scary, really. Tsumugi wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer truthfully, or if there was an answer the two of them were expecting… The both of them together did scare Tsumugi a lot though, considering they were both somehow in his home and somehow opened his damn door from the inside. He really didn’t have as much time to think about it as he would have liked before his family stepped in the door and the two stepped out. Tsumugi nodded as their words flew past his ears, and he gently shut the door as he waved goodbye to them.
But, with those strangers gone, he was left only with his mother and father. In his own home. For a split second, he regretted letting those two strangers leave. Were they the blessing that Tsumugi had asked for? Someone to alleviate the anxiety and discomfort that he was feeling at this very moment?
It was too late for that now. Tsumugi led them into his living room, and he brought out the tea and cookies to set on the coffee table. He sat down on the floor, across the table from his parents’ place on his couch.
“That blue one was real wild, wasn’t he?” His mother chirped, an attempt at filling the silence as she scrutinized his house for anything that she could nitpick at. Tsumugi could see it in her eyes as she finally found her prey. “Weird, just like that gaudy collection of lucky cats you have up there. Why do you still have those, anyways? You’ve always been a very unlucky child, no spirit of luck is going to waste their time here.”
Tsumugi’s eye twitched as he poured himself out a cup of tea, and snagged a cookie to boot. His mother let out a quiet yelp as she smacked her husband’s shoulder.
“Why did you pull on my hair like that?”
“I didn’t do anything of the sort!”
The blue haired man furrowed his brows as he forced himself to take a bite of the cookie Shit, was he haunted now? Had those people been GHOSTS? How could they open the door, then, and how in the world were they able to talk and be seen without any equipment…?! Tsumugi clutched his chest, feeling a crystal pendant there and taking a deep breath. He would never go anywhere without that protective stone on…. But he was starting to wonder if maybe these spirits were more malevolent then good.
His mother yet again made a noise, and the band that was keeping her hair up was starting to fall out. Tsumugi watched as the two of them started to bicker again, and the hairband ever so slowly was being cut apart. When all of his mother’s hair came down, his eyes went wide, and his mother went as pale as the supposed ghost.
“Tsumugi… What in the HELL is going on here?” She thankfully had another hair tie on her wrist, and she took it off to start putting her hair back up…. Only for it to break on not even the first tie. Her face turned from a pale white to a flushed and angry red, and she stood up. “Whatever you or those friends of yours are doing, it’s not funny! You should feel ashamed of yourself!”
“M-Mother, n-no one is d-doing anything…” Tsumugi quietly defended himself, but neither of his parents were buying it. His father stood up after his wife had, and stared at Tsumugi hard.
“Fix whatever the hell is going on in here. Now.” Tsumugi almost visibly flinched from the voice, but he bit his lip and shook his head. There was nothing he could do, mainly because he didn’t have a clue what in the hell was going on. His father let out a shout and jerked to the side, rubbing his hip. “What in the FUCK is going on here? Ow!” He was rubbing his other hip now, and he kept exclaiming and rubbing at spots. Tsumugi watched in horror as his mother started doing the same. Eventually, it was so much that his mother grabbed her purse and pointed a finger at her son.
“YOU! I don’t know what sick pleasure you find in this, but when we come back next time, this funny business had better stop, you hear?!” To add onto this, his father gave that signature glare, making Tsumugi go pale and nod his head obediently.
“Y-Yes ma’am, yes sir….” How could he stop something he had no idea how it was happening? He showed them the door, which they slammed shut, and Tsumugi locked it before leaning back against it and sliding down to the floor. He brought his knees to his chest, and rested his face in them. This… Was terrible. He wasn’t sure what had started to happen, what curses those people had brought upon his home, or whatever, but his parents now thought that he was strange and weird and were probably going to spare no quarter the next time they met.
Tsumugi sniffled, shaking his head and wiping his face. Tears were starting to stream down his face now, and he couldn’t help but let out a choked sob.
“Hey, hey, we didn’t wanna make ya cry or nothin’.”
Tsumugi whipped his head up, puffy eyes looking up into yellow-green ones. The…! It was one of the people that were in here earlier! The ones he didn’t know! Tsumugi was about to scream when the blue haired one popped out from behind the redheaded one.
“Indeed, indeed! We were sent from Heaven and Hell to help you, not to make you sad and cry!”
That was the last Tsumugi heard before the world went blank, and he fell over from where he was sitting, passed out.