Work Text:
00:38
Shidou
oi underlashes
open the door
come oooooon
don’t make me break through a window
Sae stared at the text notifications popping up on his phone, one right after another. He sighed at the text before walking through his halls to the front door—the demon’s threats were anything but empty, and he didn’t feel like paying to replace a window anytime soon.
Before he even reached the threshold, Sae could hear a light rhythmic tapping, along with humming to some song he recognized somewhere in the back of his mind. He unlocked the door, opening it to reveal, who else, but Shidou Ryuusei himself. A very bloody and battered Shidou, but Shidou nonetheless.
The sudden movement of the door sent the blonde stumbling, but he quickly regained his balance and leaned onto the now-exposed doorframe. “You come here often?” he asked Sae, who responded with a scowl.
“It’s past midnight and I’m tired, let’s make this quick.” Sae responded, motioning Shidou inside despite the evident exasperation in his voice.
Shidou stumbled his way in, saying “Aye aye, sir,” with a tiny salute, and began walking towards the bathroom. Sae closed and locked the door before following him, grabbing a dark washcloth out of his linen closet on the way.
As Sae entered the bathroom, he saw Shidou rummaging through his cabinet, though before he could reprimand him, he saw the boy’s face light up—an expression that would be strange on such a beat up face, if it were anyone other than Shidou—as he pulled out a few boxes and the first aid kit.
Sae hummed lightly in approval as he pushed Shidou towards the edge of the tub, the latter immediately sitting down. If he was going to come around to Sae’s house at ungodly hours of the night, he could at least pull some weight.
“Use the bandages I pulled out,” Shidou said, not quite asking but not quite demanding. “I bought them after the last time, remember?”
“I do indeed,” Sae responded, opening the first aid kit. Who else would have bought the Chainsaw Man-themed kids band-aids currently sitting on his counter? Because it certainly was not Sae himself.
The two had done this dance together before. Shidou would show up to Sae’s house, bruised and broken, asking for Sae to clean his wounds. And Sae always did, no matter how much he complained about it.
“What happened this time?” Sae asked. He totally wasn’t concerned about Shidou, no. He just wanted to make sure he wouldn’t have to deal with the cops. Absolutely. That was it. He turned around to face the other boy—who had removed his shirt, giving Sae a clear view of the extent of his injuries—giving him the washcloth which he had doused in cold water, rubbing alcohol and cotton pads in hand.
Shidou gladly accepted the cloth, helping to clean the blood and grime off his face. “Would you believe me,” He began—which was how Sae knew he would absolutely not believe him, “if I told you that I fell down a flight of stairs?”
“Must have been some particularly aggressive stairs,” Sae deadpanned, pouring the rubbing alcohol onto one of the pads. He observed Shidou’s face. He had various cuts around his face and arms, mostly shallow, presumably from pavement or rocks or something of the sort. Worse were the bruises littered mostly around his torso, save for one particularly nasty one right by his lip. There was little Sae could do for those, but he made a mental note to grab some ice later.
“Truly, they were—” Shidou’s words were cut off with a hiss as Sae began to clean one of the many cuts on his face. “Hey, warn a guy next time!” he whined.
“Don’t lie to me, demon,” Sae murmured, focused on his task.
“‘Kay, fine,” Shidou responded, face still but eyes averted from Sae’s face. “I ran into some people I knew in school. Before Blue Lock and everything.”
Sae turned to throw out his cotton pad and grabbed another, before turning to look directly into Shidou’s eyes. “And?” he asked.
“...And they said some shit about me.” Shidou responded. He then mumbled, almost too quiet for Sae to hear, “And it’s a stupid ass idea to fight three guys on my own, despite how many times I keep doing it.” Sae didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to say anything. Nothing he would have reprimanded Shidou for was something he didn’t already know, so there was truly no point.
Still, he found a frown crossing his face. Despite all efforts otherwise, it really did bother Sae when Shidou came to him like this. He knew him, well enough to know that nothing would get him to stop fighting the way he did, to stop getting hurt. But well…he wouldn’t be Shidou if he did. So Sae endured. He could deal with seeing Shidou bloodied and beaten if it was him that he returned to, if it meant that his demon was still fighting back.
“You shouldn’t listen to them,” Sae said quietly as he turned away from Shidou. “They don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“It’s not that easy,” Shidou’s voice said from behind him, equally as quiet. “When they’re the only ones you hear, it’s easy to forget they’re wrong.” And in a truly rare moment, Shidou Ryuusei sounded soft. He sounded small.
“Then clearly you haven’t been hearing me,” Sae said, turning back around with the boxes of band-aids.
“Oh my, is Sae-chan giving a compliment?” Shidou said, a grin breaking across his face. Sae proceeded to prod Shidou in the chest, “accidentally” pressing directly into one of his bruises. “Ah, fuck!” Shidou yelled. Sae simply continued his work.
The room was quiet, for once, as Sae placed the band-aids onto most of the small cuts that Shidou had gathered. Soon enough, the blonde’s arms were littered in small orange strips of adhesive and cotton, covering the lacerations he had gathered. The bruises were still there, many already a painful shade of purple or black, but at least there was no more blood.
Sae gathered the first aid supplies in his hands and began to return them to his cabinets, as Shidou rose to his feet. “You should stay the night,” Sae suggested almost absentmindedly. “You still need to ice those bruises.”
“Mmm,” Shidou responded wordlessly. Sae felt arms wrapping around his torso and a weight press down onto his back. He froze, only for a moment, before slowly reaching back and upwards, ruffling Shidou’s hair. “Anyone ever tell you you’re soft and warm, Sae-chan?”
Sae pried Shidou off of him and began walking out of the bathroom. “You’re just delirious,” he said, though he felt quite warm himself.
“Yeah, sure,” Shidou said, trailing after Sae, sticking close to the redhead. “Whatever you say.”