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It’s late in the afternoon when the last customer leaves, and Sojiro is drying the dishes, resigning himself to another slow day at the cafe. Hopefully as the weather gets colder, more people will be coming in for a cup of coffee, but at the moment it’s just him and Futaba.
Sojiro puts away the last glass, and starts flipping through channels when his phone buzzes. He doesn’t recognize the number, but answers it anyway.
“Hello, is this Sojiro Sakura?”
“Who’s asking?”
“I’m calling from Kosei High, Yusuke Kitagawa has a fever and we need you to come pick him up.”
Sojiro blinks. “I’m sorry?”
“Is this not Sojiro Sakura?” The woman on the phone repeats.
“No, it is, I’m just-” Why are you calling me is what Sojiro wants to ask, but obviously the answer to that is there’s no one else to call, so… “Alright, I’ll leave right now.” He hangs up and starts taking off his apron.
Futaba doesn’t look up from her game— it’s a new one Ren got for her, and Sojiro can’t help but smile at that fact. He can barely believe it, but he’s grateful for how well the two of them get along— and it takes him a few tries before he’s got her attention.
“I’ve gotta go pick up that artist kid.” Sojiro says. “Would you be alright here alone or do you want me to walk you back to the house?”
Futaba puts down her game and swivels off the chair. “What’s up with Inari?”
“He’s got a fever, and apparently it’s bad enough that he needs someone to pick him up.” Sojiro pauses. Does he even know where Yusuke’s school is ?
“How bad?” Futaba asks.
Sojiro shrugs. “I’ll see when I get there, I guess.”
“Can I come with you?”
Sojiro strokes his goatee. “I guess, if you’re up for it.”
“Alright, let’s go!” Before Sojiro can say anything Futaba runs out the door and towards Sojiro’s car, and Sojiro sighs.
These kids are going to be the death of him.
Yusuke’s school is even bigger than Shujin, with a wholeass chandelier in the foyer. Sojiro talks to the receptionist at the desk while Futaba looks around. She doesn’t stray too far— she enjoys not getting caught off guard and ending up a panicked mess on the floor— but makes out what looks like a peacock stat- wait it moved. That’s a live peacock. What even is this place?
“Futaba!” Sojiro calls, breaking her from her thoughts. She makes a mental note to look up the laws for keeping peacocks as school mascots. The nurse’s office isn’t that far from the entrance, and Yusuke is lying on one of the cots. Sojiro talks to the nurse while Futaba does the natural thing and pulls a pencil off the nurse’s desk to poke Yusuke in the side.
“Inari? You awake?”
Yusuke opens his eyes and turns towards her. His brow furrows but he doesn’t say anything, just turns back and stares at the ceiling.
“Rude.” Futaba huffs. “We came all this way to pick you up and you won’t even say ‘hi’?”
Yusuke just bats his hand at her and Futaba rolls her eyes. “Come on, don’t make me lug you out of bed. I don’t wanna get your germs on me.” When Yusuke still doesn’t respond, she waves her hand in front of his face as annoyingly as possible to get any sort of reaction out of him. Even this far away she can feel the heat radiating off of him.
“Futaba leave him alone.” Sojiro says.
“He won’t even talk.” Futaba replies. “Is he going to be ok, he should be telling me to stop or something.”
“He’ll be fine.” Sojiro says. He walks over to Yusuke. “Hey, kid, you ready to go?”
Yusuke frowns again, biting his lip, but slowly gets up. He wobbles a little as he tries to stand and Sojiro offers him his shoulder. “Alright, let’s go.” Sojiro says.
As they head back towards the car, Futaba pulls out her phone and texts the group chat
aliBABEba: Inari’s sick and he’s super out of it.
aliBABEba: It’s bad enough that the school had to call someone to pick him up.
Masqueraider Queen: Wait what’s going on?
aliBABEba: Sojiro got a call about him being sick and we went to pick him up and now I’m worried because Idk if he even registered that I was there for like 5 minutes while he was staring at me.
aliBABEba: he’s probably not dying or anything, right?
Caramen Crepes: Futaba it’s alright. Yusuke’ll be fine. He probably just has the flu or something
bull in a china shop: Ann’s right. I got the flu once in middle school and I could barely stay awake, yusuke’s prolly tired
They wait in front of the school for Sojiro to bring the car around, and after about a minute, Yusuke starts shivering.
“Want my coat?” Futaba offers, slipping it off and holding it up to him. She’d offer to put it on him but, well. She’s short, he’s not, and she doesn’t want to tell him to lean down in case he just collapses on the sidewalk.
Yusuke, for his part, manages to take the coat and wrap it around himself like a cloak
“Better?” Futaba asks, but before Yusuke can respond Sojiro pulls up. They get in the back and pull away from the sidewalk into traffic.
aliBABEba: on our way back
Neo Featherman J : good, I’ll see you guys when I get back.
“Ren’s going to meet us when he gets home,” Futaba says, and Yusuke nods (well that might’ve just been the car bumping around making his head move but it doesn’t really matter, does it?)
“So uh, how you feeling? Tired or anything? You gonna puke?” Futaba asks.
Yusuke doesn’t say anything.
“Ok, still not up to talking.” Futaba says. “Hey, Sojiro, do we have a bag in case he pukes in the car? He gets motion sick sometimes.”
The car comes to a stop and Sojiro reaches into the glove compartment and starts looking for something.
Sojiro fishes out a plastic bag from the glove compartment and hands it to the back, where Futaba passes it along to Yusuke.
“Thanks.” Yusuke mutters as traffic starts again.
Caramen Crepes : so should we stop over after school to see how he's doing?
Neo Featherman J : i don't think we want to crowd him.
Haru (funny contact name pending) : we could make him a get well basket and bring it over tomorrow if he's better.
Caramen Crepes : ooh nice! You could even by a whole bunch of fancy chocolates for him
bull in a china shop: i don't think chocolate is good for someone who's sick. You want, like subtler foods.
Caramen Crepes: white chocolate
bull in a china shop : well that's not good for anyone, sick or not.
Caramen Crepes: blasphemy
Neo Featherman J : whit chocolate itself is blasphemous
Caramen Crepes: o_o
Caramen Crepes: ren how can you SAY that
Caramen Crepes : I thought we were friends
Neo Featherman J : Morgana says he likes white chocolate
Caramen Crepes: THANK YOU
bull in a china shop: cats can't even eat chocolate
Neo Featherman J : he's also never eaten chocolate before, so I don't know how much that counts
Caramen Crepes : SHUT UP
“The others’re talking about getting you a get well basket or something. Want anything?” Futaba says.
“No.”
“You sure? Cause if you don’t say anything, Ann’s going to fill it with white chocolate to prove a point.”
“I-” Suddenly, Yusuke doubles over and pukes into the bag.
“You alright?” Sojiro asks.
“Y-yeah.” Yusuke says, before doing it again. “T-there’s not much, don’t worry.” He heaves one more time, then lies back with a groan.
“I’ll get us back as soon as possible.” Sojiro says.
Yusuke just closes his eyes again and leans back.
Sojiro, for his part, makes good on that promise and Futaba’s pretty sure they broke a few laws getting back to their house in record time. Sojiro helps Yusuke out of the car and up the stairs, Futaba following behind them, stopping to grab a bucket out of the closet.
When Yusuke wakes up, the first thing he registers is that he’s on an actual bed. He sits up, but the movement is slow and unpracticed.
He vaguely remembers being in class and having trouble focusing on the lecture, and then… he’d gotten sick hadn’t he? Then he was sent to the nurse’s office, and they’d called-
“Sakura-san?” Yusuke calls shakily. Yusuke can hear the sound of footsteps and sure enough, Sojiro comes in.
“Hey kid, how’re you feeling?”
“Better,” Yusuke replies.
“Good, you’ve been out for a couple of days. Can I get you something to eat?”
“Just water would be fine.”
Sojiro nods and comes back with a glass, Yusuke takes a sip and, upon realizing that his throat was screaming for more, proceeds to down the whole glass.
“So, is this your house?” Yusuke asks, setting the glass aside.
“Yeah, well I couldn’t exactly let you in the cafe. You had a nasty flu there.”
“I should thank you for looking after me then,” Yusuke says. “I should probably also apologize for inconveniencing you.”
“Wait, what are you apologizing for?”
Yusuke winces. “I had listed you as an emergency contact when I returned to the dorms, but never asked for your permission. I never planned on you actually having to pick me up.”
Sojiro laughs. “Geez, kid, you’re too polite. It’s fine, I’m just glad you had someone to pick you up anyway, don’t worry about it.”
“If you say so,” Yusuke replies. Hm. Maybe Sojiro and Ren are related somehow, if they’re both this kind. “But I must insist you let me repay you somehow. For my own peace of mind.”
“Well, if you’re going to insist, I’d be happy to show you how to brew a cup of coffee, I do hear that latte art is very popular,” Sojiro says, “but only after you’ve rested for a few more days.”
Yusuke smiles. “Thank you.”
“You want to go downstairs? Futaba’s watching TV, and she’s been worried about you.”
Yusuke nods and slowly gets out of bed. He wobbles a bit, but stands up straight and follows Sojiro down the steps.
“You’re alive!” Futaba shouts when she sees Yusuke.
“It appears so. May I join you?”
“Heck yeah!” Futaba says, patting the couch that she’s sitting in front of.
“What are we watching?”
“Masqueraider Ouga! There’s a special marathon on today because they’re bringing back Doctor Schraube from Raiga, so now’s actually the best time to get caught up.”
“Alright then,” Yusuke says, taking the seat behind Futaba.
“If you guys are all settled, I’m going to get some groceries for dinner,” Sojiro says. “Call if anything happens.”
“Goodbye.”
“See ya!”
Before grabbing his coat, Sojiro makes sure to shoot Ren a text, and goes to get ingredients to make dinner for four.