Chapter Text
Nico felt sunlight on his face. Its warmth made him smile and instantly put him in a good mood. He drifted into a strange form of sleep that allowed him to be conscious but felt so damn comfortable, it made him think he could stay like it forever.
He snuggled deeper into his pillow. It wasn't the waking hour. He had no reason to be up yet. Unless Yamato was on his way, he could sleep for a little while longer.
Now that he was somewhere between being awake and asleep, the world around him came back into focus. It was always around this time when he would listen for the breathing of his companions.
It was a subconscious thing he did every single morning. He rarely even realised he was doing it. But when he did, it took him back. Back to when he and Rock and Uno and Juuygo were all together for the first time.
Back to when they had been on the run. When they rolled with the punches and went wherever a kind stranger or running from the cops would take them. When they hitchhiked everywhere, got up to all kinds of mischief to get by and slept in drafty, abandoned buildings where the nights could get pretty cold. They had come up with the idea to sleep next to each other around the same time. The extra warmth had made it a no-brainer but there was also a sort of sense of security in knowing they were so closeby to one another. They were fugitives so obviously, they had to constantly be on the lookout for the authorities. They took turns watching over each other at night and they all had to be prepared to get up and run at any moment.
They had come a long way since then but old habits die hard. For Nico, the sound of peaceful breathing was still a sign that all was well and he had nothing to worry about.
He was listening for the sounds of three people fast asleep but only heard one. He heard breathing coming from right behind him but nowhere else. Meaning it was just him and Rock in the room.
He was a little worried at first but quickly reassured himself with a basic explanation. Juygo must have just gone out already and Uno must have gone with him.
.
He relaxed again the moment the thought popped into his head because, by now, he was used to it happening all the time. Juygo would come and go from the cell whenever he felt like it. Sometimes someone went with him. Sometimes they all went with him. Sometimes he just went by himself. But whenever Jyugo left, the door was always left unlocked so anyone remaining could leave too.
He wondered where they went. Probably to cause mayhem and make Hajime chan question the life choices he made that lead him to becoming their supervisor, as per usual. At the same time, he felt like pouting for being left out and thankful he would be safely out the way when Hajime inevitably caught them. Wherever they were, they'd better hurry back. Or it would just be him and Rock going to the infirmary today, to pick up his meds and see Ishi san and Kaguya chan.
That very thought made him giggle. Who was he kidding? Uno would never miss an opportunity to see Kaguya chan. Even if Ishi San threatened to kill him every time he went near her.
He was thinking of the way Uno's face lit up when he saw her when Rock wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close. Right away, Nico thought this was odd but for a moment he didn't care. Rock didn't particularly have a habit of spooning him but if he was comfortable with anyone, it was him. He guessed this was fine.
He thought that for exactly one second but then he felt something that made his eyes snap open and his entire body freeze over with shock. He knew for sure now that either the person behind him was definitely not Rock or things were about to get really weird. Because spooning him was one thing but he could tell from the feel of, certain things, the person behind him wasn't wearing anything.
Now he and Rock were close but they weren't that fucking close. He was about to shoot straight up out of his futon and ask his friend, "What the actual fuck?" when a kiss was pressed into his neck and someone. Not Rock. Not Uno. Not Jyugo. Not anyone he recognised whatsoever. Right into his ear, said;
"Good morning."
Nico had faced all kinds of horrors in his life. But from that moment on, he would be able to say, forever and always with absolute certainty, that having a naked stranger wrap their arms around you, when you're half asleep, is one of the most terrifying things a person can ever experience.
He. Freaked. Out. He might have screamed. He might have smacked whoever was behind him in the face. He wasn't sure, his mind wasn't focused on such things as being observant right now. All it was focused on was getting away. He was too panicked to think about anything else.
He somehow propelled himself backwards and ended up tumbling out of a bed. He landed awkwardly on the floor and had to do a backwards spider crawl across it in his bid to get as far away from the man as possible.
He had a million questions, and a million demands in addition to his demands to know the answers to said questions, but he couldn't even process them, let alone say them. The only words he could get to come out of his mouth were,
"What the fuck!"
He shrieked it over an over as he backed into the wall.
"What the fuck! What the fuck! What the fuck!"
When his back pressed into the wall and he couldn't go any further, he was forced to actually think about his next move. But to do that, he had to process the situation. Which just made him panic even more.
He had just fallen out of a bed. Why the fuck was he in a normal bed? He was supposed to be in his futon, lined up with all the others.
How did he get here? This wasn't cell 13. Where were his cellmates? His boys would go down for murder if they saw this.
Where were the guards? Surely, they wouldn't let some creepy stranger take him away and bring him here. Would they?
He heard the man say his name. How the fuck did he know his name?!
And Jesus fucking Christ, he didn't even want to know why that man was naked. All he knew was that meant he needed to get out of here fast.
He was in dire need of the things that made a working brain. Instinct, logic, rational thought. Why would they bail on him at a time like this? He desperately searched for something, anything he could use to get him out of this mess.
The first thing he spotted was a lamp. No, a weapon. Yes. He needed a weapon to smash this fucker's face in.
He made a grab for it. He could do this. He could do this. He was from the ghetto for fuck's sake. He knew full well that literally, nobody would guess that by looking at him but fuck it. He was tougher than he looked and he had been through far worse shit than this. He could take this motherfucker. He yanked that lamp so hard, he made its cable snap. The force sending him straight off his feet and back on the floor again.
Before he could get back up he saw the man was already getting way too close. He might not have time to get back up before he got hold of him. Thinking quickly and taking exemplar from his street days, he grabbed the lamp by its neck and smashed the base as though it were a glass bottle. Now with a much more intimidating weapon to defend himself with, he held it up and shouted something incomprehensible to the man as a warning not to come any closer.
"Hey! Wow!" The man cried out and utterly terrified Nico as he disarmed him in an instant.
Nico tried to hit him with his free hand. Not the best idea because Nico barely weighed a hundred pounds but right now, he wasn't sure of anything and that included the last time he had taken his medicine. Maybe. Just maybe, his medicine had worn off enough for his strength to come back and that would save his ass.
But that went about as well as attempting to arm himself had gone. The man blocked it effortlessly.
"Hey! That's enough." The man's voice became stern but at the same time so full of emotion, it caught Nico off guard. The thing surprising him the most being, out of all that emotion, there wasn't an ounce of anger, "Nico, it's only me. Come here."
Nico didn't want to be anywhere near him but when his arms went around him, he wasn't given much of a choice.
He was a second away from biting him, as that was the only option he had left. But as soon as Nico felt this man's embrace, he stopped fighting. He stopped trying to flee. He just stayed there.
He actually listened to what he had to say. When he felt his fingers stroke his hair, he wasn't terrified or disgusted like he should have been.
His words washed over him
"You've never done this before." he said, "Oh, Nico. This one must be really bad. It's alright. Nothings going to hurt you. You know I would never let that happen. It's alright. It's alright."
This felt familiar somehow. Like he had been through it a million times. Like it was a part of his life.
And then Nico realised, this was a part of his life. This was exactly what his friends did when he had nightmares.
Nico hadn't always had a good life. At some point, some terrible people took him away and did things to him that really messed him up. And sometimes, those things came back to haunt his dreams.
But he was lucky. The people he lived with were the best friends he could have ever found. They were always there to help him through it. They said things like this, they did things like this, they held him like this. Whatever it took to get Nico out of the horrible places his dreams could take him, they did it again and again. They all knew what to do by now. They were used to it.
It felt like this man was used to it too.
The man holding him seemed to sense he was calming down, Nico heard him breathe out a sigh of relief. But then Nico suddenly remembered still had no idea what was happening and his breathing became rapid again.
He felt the strange man tense up. He spoke with a soft voice now, seemingly to calm both of them down.
"Ah ah. Nico, there's no need to be frightened. Look at me."
A gentle hand cupped Nico's face and the man pulled back enough so that he could see him. This whole time Nico had either been blinded by pure panic or searching for a way out. For the first time, he looked at this man in the eyes. For the first time, he got a good look at his face.
He had blue hair, black eyes and skin literally as white as snow. But what stood out to Nico the most was a red swirl on each cheek.
The more he looked, the more it freaked Nico out. Because he recognized every one of these features but they did not belong on this grown man's face.
What was he looking at? Why, for all the world, did this man look like;
"Upa?"
He hadn't realised he had said it out loud until he saw the man react. His face flooded with relief. He smiled as he stroked Nico's cheek.
"Yes, that's right. It's me. Upa." He said before pulling him close again, "It's alright now. I'm here."
Nico just sat there frozen and dumbfounded. he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to think, but what was happening at the moment made him calm down a little. It didn't look like anyone was going to hurt him but that had only been one of his worries.
What in the Massaaka Yuasa on acid mind fuck was going on?
This wasn't Upa. Upa was a chibi, tsundere superbadass, whose sheer awesomeness could not be contained within his pint-sized body. Not this chiselled, obvious adult who was as tall as he was, had somewhere between Uno and Rock's level of muscle and actually gave hugs.
This was not where Nico was supposed to be. Where even was he?
He finally calmed down enough to take in his surroundings. Obviously, this wasn't cell 13, but looking around made it blatant this wasn't even building 13.
There were no bars on the windows. The door wasn't made of steel. Everything else wasn't made of concrete. It didn't look anything like any prison he'd been in.
It actually looked quite nice. Spacious, yet cosy and strangely familiar. Even though Nico could sware he had never been here before in his life. It was nicely decorated too. At first glance, it looked like a showroom but flakes of personality could be seen everywhere when you looked. On one wall, there was a painting of a calm sea meeting a clear blue sky on the horizon. To another, a few stands had been fixed to hold up a couple of instruments Nico didn't quite recognise. To Nico, they looked like some kind of pan flute. An awesome looking dragon incense holder stood proudly on one of the shelves. A box of incense next to it, ready to be lit. There were a few framed photos and some of Nico's chibi anime figures on the desk.
How did they get there?
He found himself pulling himself out of the weird-not-Upa's embrace and rising to his feet. He was drawn to those little figures like a moth to a flame. He ignored everything else as he made his way towards them. The lost soul he was seeking answers in the only thing he recognised.
When he got closer, it dawned on him that these were no ordinary figures. These weren't the mass-produced plastic figurines he had a ton of. They were made of wood. Nico knew this without even having to pick them up because, after one look, he knew they were one of a kind.
When he got sent to prison, he discovered how good he was at sculpting and fell in love with it. Even before Nanba, his favourite work station had always been the woodwork station. He used to steal scraps of wood from the ones in his other prisons and take their carving tools with him when he escaped. He couldn't do those things anymore, not with Hajime around but that didn't matter. The guy running his favourite station at Namba was awsome. No more having to make do with whatever scraps he could get, this guy actually gave Nico proper material to work with and encouraged him to practice whenever he got the chance.
Recently, inspired by Seitarous's plushies, he'd taken to making Chibi figures of himself and all his friends. And right now, some of them were staring at him in the face.
Namely, the chibi Upa. And the chibi Liang and Qi and Samon and the chibi Nico too.
There was no mistaking these figures were his because these ones he had made.
Nico scooped up his tiny doppelganger and held it in his hand. He was looking at the figure, looking at the others on the desk, looking at everything. Trying to comprehend how any of it was possible and that was when he caught a glimpse of the photographs.
"What the fuck."