Chapter Text
Shinji sits in his chair. He looks around the now empty room. Everyone has left, the school council meeting has ended, yet he lingers here. Tokugawa went to go try and deal with the former Telepathy Club members, though he's mostly dealing with Tome, the rest of them don't bother him as much, but Tome. Man, Tome just knows how to get on his nerves.
Usually, Shinji would follow, and serve as support, but today he didn't feel like it. No, today he was choosing to stay in the classroom for who knows how long. Part of it was not wanting to go home. Part of it was the nice feeling he tended to have when in the classroom. Part of it was just his sleepiness. He felt so tired, like he could just pass out, right here, right now. He gave in to this feeling a tad by laying his head down. He wondered where Ritsu was.
Most likely doing either homework or some crazy psychic stuff, Shinji thinks. Man, psychic powers, how fun those must been. Not like they're particularly necessary or anything, just a fascinating skill, really. I wonder if he's with that phony psychic he always complains about. The one scamming his older brother...
When Shinji starts thinking of older brothers, his own own older brother comes to mind. It makes him clam up a little, and shudder. He tries to think of something else. He thinks about plans for the next student council meeting, and about the upcoming play. As he does he feels his thoughts become fuzzy, he feels his hands go numb, and he drifts off to sleep.
Tokugawa returns from the class, his hand clenched into a fist and an anger to his walk. He hates talking to Tome, he hates being around her, he hates trying to tell her how she needs to try harder in class. If she just applied herself-! he starts to think, but then he finally enters the student council room and sees Shinji asleep.
Shinji tends to fall asleep a lot. Tokugawa tries to be near him a lot, especially in class, to wake him up, but right now his sleeping is harmless. He doesn't want to leave Shinji there either though, so he decides to just carry him to his house. Shinji isn't heavy, in fact he's, both short and rather lightweight.
...He's kind of adorable when he's asleep...Tokugawa thinks to himself, and then immediately is embarrassed at his own thoughts, proceeding to speed-walk with shinji over his shoulder.
Shinji opens his eyes, and looks around, confused about where he is, till he looks to the side and sees Tokugawa's hair. "Huh-? D-Did i fall asleep again?"
"Yes Shinji, you really need to get a more consistent sleep schedule, sigh it's not good to be constantly passing out at school." Tokugawa replies, setting Shinji down and continuing to walk with him. Shinji trails behind a little bit, dragging his feet.
"I know, I know, it's just-I also need to study and shit..." he half-mumbles, realizing they're almost to his house.
Tokugawa stops at the gate, as Shinji catches up after a few seconds, he turns around to face Shinji. "Yes studying is important, but you need to have a good balance Shinji, it's unhealthy to not rest enough. I can get calendar or agenda and schedule everything out fo-" Tokugawa says, though it's subtle his eyes do light up a bit when he mentions helping with scheduling. He enjoys helping others, helping them improve themselves, and helping them learn concepts in school.
"Tokugawa I've told you no a ton of times, seriously, I'm not trying to be rude here but it just-I-I-I don't do well with that stuff okay?!? I've tried it and it just never works." Shinji interrupts, and before Tokugawa can continue talking to him. He always gets defensive with that stuff and he knows it. It's hard for him. He's perfectly fine with how things are right now, change is terrifying, he doesn't know how to adapt well. He doesn't want to change a thing, even if there are a lot of things that make him upset or make him sad.
Shinji takes a deep breath, in and out, after he enters the house. He takes a couple more deep breaths, till he feels a bit more calm. Then he starts to head towards the room. he firts heads up the stairs, hoping not to run into-
"Shinji, you're finally home. What took you so long?" Takuya, Shinji's brother, says to him, he's standing at the top of the stair case. His voice is condescending, and filled with arrogance. he feels above everyone, especially Shinji, and he makes it clear.
Shinji continues up the stairs, and starts to walk past Takuya, his hands feeling clammy and his throat feeling hoarse. He stammers back, "W-Well-I-I just-um-f-fell asleep in t-the-um-the student council meeting room..." He sounds weak and tiny, like a bug, and Takuya is the boot, crushing him under the weight.
"HAHA! Fell asleep in the classroom?!? And you call yourself the president! Man Shinji, you're so fucking pathetic." Crunch. The boot slams on the bug, Takuya's words slicing through Shinji.
His confidence depleted, he turns around and looks at Takuya. He tears up and yells, "SHUTUP!" He shakes a little as he yells, and for a moment he feels an immense catharsis. Finally he yelled back, finally he-
Takuya grabs Shinji's wrist, hard as shit. Shinji's arm hurts Takuya's holding it so tight. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME?!?" He yells back, his face red, and almost distorted looking due to his pure rage.
"I-I-" Shinji stammers out, his throat feeling like it's clothing and his head hurting like hell. He's shaking, shaking a lot.
"YKNOW WHAT, YOU SHUTUP!" Takuya yells. Clearly no answer would've made Takuya happy. He was too enraged, having what he perceived as almost his little toy, trying to fight back. The little puppy he kicked trying to bit him.
Shinji was frozen at this point, he knew what was coming.
SMACK! SMACK!
Takuya smacks him across the face twice, then lets him go. "There, now you won't talk back..." Takuya walks off, most likely heading to his room, but Shinji barely notices, he barely cares. His face hurts, it hurts a lot. He can feel his face stinging, and he knows there's two large marks on his cheek now. He still feels half frozen, but moves his arm and looks at his wrist. It's all red and still hurts. His head throbs as he slowly moves, heading to his room and shutting his door.
He sits next to his bed, the one starting to accumulate trash again. He sits and covers his ears. He just wants to drown everything out. He shakes as his mind races. Fuck my brother, fuck school, fuck classes, fuck life, fuck all of this, I hate it here. I hate it so much, I hate it all! He yells it all in his brain, but all it does is make him tear up, which slowly turns to crying.
Once he stops crying and his head feels a little better, he stands up. His throat feels like a dessert but he doesn't want to go downstairs, see his mom, or his brother, all just for water. He'll probably just wait till midnight like always, sneak down and grab some of his energy drinks and some water.
This thought causes him to remember his homework, so he grabs his backpack, and pulls out his work, starting on it. It makes him feel tired to work but he keeps going, occasionally fidgeting with his pen. After a little while, he feels himself starting to drift off again...