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After fighting Chifuyu in front of the whole Valhalla gang, Baji was returning home with bloody hands and a heavy heart.
Chifuyu, he thought, should be home by now.
After punching him unconscious, he had distracted the whole gang to make him escape without having to fight, but he still felt guilty. And what was worse, he couldn't even go to him because it meant getting caught. It meant he would lose everything he was fighting for, as if he hadn't already lost enough by betraying Mikey.
He decided to go up the stairs to calm down, hoping that his mother hadn't already returned home. He instinctively stopped on the second floor and, while he was frozen there, he didn't even have time to see a glimmer of blond hair before Chifuyu was all over him. He wasn't literally all over him, he was just a couple of steps up and his hair was all over the place, and he was holding him arms locked in front of him, breathing heavily.
"Chifuyu," he said, confused, surprised and a little relieved.
"Is Baji-san okay?" he asked him, looking closely at his bloodied hands, and without waiting for an answer, he raised his head to look into his eyes and only then did Baji notice that his right eye was closed. "I heard your mother come back, Baji-san, she shouldn't see you like that. Do you want to come in?"
"What-" he didn't know what to say.
He had just smashed him in the face and Chifuyu treated him as always.
"You should come in, Baji-san, your hands are dirty," he repeated, and then, seeing that Baji didn't move, he led him into his apartment.
His parents weren't home. It was after 9pm and his parents weren't home. Still, Chifuyu took him to the bathroom and washed his hands thoroughly, then took out the emergency kit, put a cream on his bruised knuckles and wrapped his hands with a bandage. Once satisfied, he smiled as only he could. But then his smile wavered behind an expression of pain that he tried to hide, but Baji saw it anyway. And how could he not have noticed it? It was his fault that he was in pain after all. Therefore, Baji decided it was his turn to take care of the youngest.
"Wash your face," he commanded.
Chifuyu looked at him for a moment, confused, but then did as Baji had ordered him.
"Sit down," he continued afterwards.
Chifuyu did as he was told, without asking questions or complaining. He kept looking at Baji with his eye wide open: he resembled a wounded wildcat and Baji could do nothing but take care of him.
"Where does it hurt?" he asked him, even though it was obvious.
"It doesn't matter, Baji-san," he replied, smiling a little to show he was okay.
"Don't make me repeat myself," he growled.
He felt guilty enough as he was, seeing him force a smile to make him feel better made him feel even worse.
"The eye, the jaw and the lower lip," he finally said, looking down dejected.
"Good boy. I'll fix you up now," he replied warmly, patting his head and then using his rubber band to tie Chifuyu's hair up so they wouldn't get in his way.
His face was a little redder than before, but other than that, he was healing pretty fast. Maybe he would have some bruises left on his cheeks and eye, but his nose was okay. Baji made sure of that, after all. He took another bandage, some band-aids, the disinfectant and some cotton from the emergency kit and began to disinfect his face where his skin had broken, such as on the lip, on the cheeks or near the eye. Chifuyu tried not to show his pain, but Baji could still notice it and felt a pang in his heart.
"I'm sorry, Chifuyu," he finally said and hoped the other would take him seriously.
"Why is Baji-san apologizing? you probably had your reasons for doing such a thing," he smiled with both eyes closed.
"I- having reasons doesn't justify what I did to you," he said firmly, taking the cream that Chifuyu had used earlier for the bruises on his hands to apply it to Chifuyu's face.
"Maybe. But I'm not mad at you, Baji-san," he sighed, relaxing his face.
Baji was silent after that, while his guilt continued to build up and made him feel like shit. If he could, he would have told him everything already, but he didn't want to get him into even more trouble. If Kisaki thought that he and Chifuyu were no longer friends, he probably wouldn't do anything to him, would he?
After the cream, he applied the band-aids to Chifuyu's cheeks and wrapped the bandage over his right eye.
"I'm done," he whispered after looking at him for a couple of seconds too long.
He looked away when Chifuyu opened his eyes to look at him. Then Chifuyu stood up, looked in the mirror and laughed.
"Thanks for fixing me up, Baji-san," he said breathlessly.
Baji just nodded, not knowing how to respond to such a thing.
Chifuyu respected him too much. He had noticed it before, but now it was almost painful. He was just doing what he thought was right, but Chifuyu's complete trust in him destroyed all his worries and then helped him build them taller. He had to worry about Chifuyu's trust on top of everything else. He had to worry that Chifuyu wouldn't act in a way that Kisaki would find suspicious to win against that bastard. And he couldn't risk Chifuyu. He couldn't put him in danger.
"Baji-san, are you hungry?" Chifuyu's voice carried him back to the bathroom.
"Yes, do you have any peyoung yakisoba?" he asked him.
Chifuyu smiled again, in such a blindingly warm way.
According to him, he could use it as a weapon if he wanted to.
"I was just about to offer you half," he laughed and walked out of the bathroom.
Baji followed him after putting away the emergency kit.
"When was the last time we ate it? I think it was two or three days ago? Feels like an eternity," he muttered, opening the fridge as Baji went to sit at the table.
"Yeah, you're right," he replied.
Chifuyu looked at him strangely for a moment, then turned back to the food he was heating.
"How long are you going to be gone? You're going to come back to Mikey's gang, right?" he asked, still not looking at him.
It was better that way, it made it easier for him to lie.
"I don't know," he replied. in the end, he couldn't lie to him anyway, even if they weren't face to face.
"No matter how long it takes," he said, bringing the food to the table and handing him the chopsticks, "I'll wait for you to come back to us. to me."
Baji was taken aback for a second, by the boldness and seriousness of Chifuyu's words, face and voice. But then he smiled. Because of course Chifuyu would say something like this. Of course he would understand the situation. It was Chifuyu he was talking about, after all: his loyal best friend.
"Alright, I'm counting on it, Chifuyu," he said, still smiling, and then began to eat.
Chifuyu smiled again, relieved, and started eating too.