Work Text:
Hey Neku, r u excited 4 Hachiko later this week?
"Not quite, Shiki." Neku said softly as his fingers hovered with uncertainty over his phone's keyboard as he lay in bed on his stomach.
Thank goodness the text wasn't the Mission Mail he used to get in the Reaper's Game. Shiki's text had made his heart speed up, his palms start to sweat, and his head become heavy. It felt like something was sitting on it.
Sitting up and swinging his legs so that he sat on the side of his bed, he put down his phone and wiped his hands on his shorts. Then he absentmindly reached up to his head and yelped when he felt spiky needles and fur.
Running to the bathroom, he turned on the light and went to the sink, looking in a mirror above it. At first, he didn't see anything. Then, he closed his eyes, focusing on his head as if he was scanning for Noise. Slowly opening his eyes, he gasped when he saw a small purple spiky hedgehog sitting on his head.
How?
Turning around, he closed the lid of the toilet and sat down to think. His head had started feeling heavy when he saw Shiki's text message. Was it the text itself or having to answer it that bothered him?
Ugh, it's both.
The Noise on his head must be related to the negative thoughts he was feeling. The question was, what was he feeling?
Neku suddenly flinched as he heard his phone ring on his bed. He looked at the phone like it was a snarling wolf as it kept ringing. Did he have to answer it?
The heavy sensation on his head increased, even as the phone stopped ringing and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Getting up to look in the mirror again, he saw that the purple hedgehog had gotten bigger.
Ugh, why me? I just came back to life for fuck's sake. Maybe the internet has answers.
Going back to his phone, he sat on his bed and typed in, "scared to answer texts" in a search engine. All of the results mentioned anxiety. He got similar results looking up, "scared to answer the phone", with a particular emphasis on social anxiety.
Well, fuck.
He didn't feel like doing more internet searching but he also didn't want to do anything with his phone yet either. For about fifteen minutes, he lay back on his bed looking at nothing as he felt the hedgehog 's quills enlarge themselves. He touched his hair absently, feeling how tangled it was.
Man, noise was bad enough when it was just people. At least my headphones could... that's it!
He had forgotten about the large purple headphones and white MP3 player around his neck. Maybe some music and drawing would help.
Putting the headphones on, he grabbed his sketchbook and a black color pencil before clicking play on his MP3 player. The song that came on was called Three Minutes Clapping.
When the song ended, he saw he had did a quick sketch of his head with chicken nuggets pouring into his mouth. He chuckled, remembering how decent the food at Shibuku Stationside was. Hachiko wasn't his favorite spot, but eating food at Shibuku with Shiki and Beat had been nice.
Maybe meeting up at Hachiko won't be too bad.
Suddenly, he felt the pressure on his head lessen a bit. Was the Noise shrinking?
Sighing, Neku finally picked up his phone and looked at it. He had one missed call from Shiki.
Hitting the call back button on the dialpad, he waited two rings until someone picked up on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Um hi. Is this, uh, Shiki speaking?"
"Yes Neku, it's me. I called and texted earlier. Are you okay?"
"I'm hanging in there. Just a bit tired. Anyway, about Hachiko...."
Neku took a deep breath.
"I'm looking forward to meeting you and others. Let's get a bite at Sunshine, k?"
"Ooh yes! I love the Tasumi burgers! See you there! And Neku... take care of yourself. I hope you feel better soon."
"Thanks, Shiki."
As Neku hung up, he felt the Noise shrink to nothing and the pressure on his head was gone.