Work Text:
Ritsu was sick.
He didn’t quite understand what he was sick with, he only knew of ‘cold’ and ‘flu’. He didn’t understand all these words the doctors were telling his mother as they were in the hospital room after the boy had suddenly collapsed while out at the park with his brother.
They arrived there at noon, and it was around 7 pm when his mother had finally showed up. Rei seemed upset by this, but Ritsu didn’t care, not that he really knew what was happening anyway.
The poor boy had simply woken up in a hospital bed, a weird clear mask connected to tubes over his mouth. He was scared, but it wasn’t too bad since he had Rei with him.
As he laid there he tried to listen in on his mother’s conversation with the doctor, but all he got out of it was that he was sick with something that might not go away. He didn’t really catch anything else as he drifted in and out of consciousness. Before he knew it he was out cold again.
——/^/——
From then on, it seemed like his mother was out of the house a lot more than she already was, Rei said she was out at work but Ritsu didn’t fully believe that.
Those around him also started treating him different, they treated him as if he was some kind of fragile pretty painting of a boy that would shatter at any minute if they held him too tight. well, not Mao, his Mao always treated him the same even when he was feeling his worst.
He didnt have to go to the hospital much anymore, though he still fainted. But now he had started to pay more attention, being able to tell sometimes wether he was able to fall over or not. This made him gain the habit of getting down onto the ground or a chair when he felt as if he might collapse. Either that or he would lean onto someone, sometimes even onto strangers, which caused quite a lot of startled reactions.
After a while, Ritsu started to feel hatred towards himself for this sickness, he knew it wasn’t his fault, at least that’s what Rei had told him, but he stilled hated it.
He hated the weird looks people gave him when he got down on the ground or latched onto the closest person
He hated being made fun of by the black haired girl at his daycare
He hated not being able to play in the sun for a long time like other kids
He hated this
He hated himself
He felt big arms wrap around him and pull him into a hug, the young boy hadn’t even realized the flow of tears falling from his face. Ah, he had gotten lost in his thoughts again.
“Everything’s gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay, kiddo” Rei stroked his head gently, trying to bring as much comfort to his distressed brother as he could.