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“What are you doing?”
Akito starts, fumbling with the pill bottle he was inspecting. He looks up from the bag he’s stuffing with medicine, only to see An’s silhouette in the doorframe, backlit by the hallway lights. Great, just what he needs right now. He was trying to be discreet to avoid having to deal with anyone telling him off for whatever the hell they thought he was doing, but oh well. He’s caught. He can play it off like it’s nothing.
She’s got her arms folded, but rather than looking like she’s about to scold him like a mother would her child, she looks more… concerned. He knows what she’s thinking; he’s not stupid, he knows An cares about him like she would family. The fact they grew up together in such an environment practically cements the fact.
“I’m fine,” he immediately reassures, and she narrows her eyes at him just as quickly. They stare at each other for a bit before he shakes his head. “Whatever you’re thinking, that’s not what happened. I didn’t run off and get myself injured or anything.”
An huffs, turning the lights in the infirmary on before kneeling beside him. He glares at her, and she glares back. “Then what the hell are you doing?” Akito rolls his eyes. She’s not stupid either, and, to be fair, his response wasn’t that strong. Doesn’t mean he can’t save it, though.
While he’s thinking that, the bottle gets snatched from his hands. “Seriously? You need medicine and ice packs when you’re ‘fine’?” An points an accusing finger at him, the worry in her expression growing ten-fold. “Let me see your arms—”
“Wha— hey! I said it’s nothing like that!” He hisses, trying to keep his voice down, even as the loud girl beside him tries to inspect him for nonexistent injury. “Toya’s sick, okay!? Get off’a me!”
An’s expression snaps from concern to horror. “What?” Finally, she’s keeping her own voice down. “Toya? Who are you even — are you talking about that kid we — he told you his name!?”
“Yeah,” he huffs. “Honestly, I’m surprised he shared, too. I just… it didn’t feel right calling him a number, you know? That’s dehumanizing. He’s our enemy, but he’s still a person.”
She blinks at him, gawking in disbelief. “He almost killed you,” she supplies unhelpfully, as if that’d change anything. “Twice.”
“And?” Akito growls, snatching the bottle back and shoving it in the bag. “I don’t know everything about his background, An, and I’ve certainly gotten to know him a lot better than you have. Maybe he didn’t want to grow up to be a ruthless machine. Maybe his goal in life is to frolic in a field of fucking flowers one day.”
“Okay, okay, fine. Geez.” An concedes, getting up from his side to start reorganizing the cabinets.
He grins at that. Despite her protests, she always knows that he won’t back down when it comes to something he wants. The two of them are quite stubborn, but they both know when to relent. It’s their way of showing they care about each other without directly saying it, he supposes. He’s grateful.
“There,” she huffs, planting her hands on her hips. “Now it doesn’t look like a rat blew through the place.”
“Shaddup,” he playfully punches her shoulder, which she gladly reciprocates. “…Thanks.”
An smiles, clapping him on the back. “Don’t mention it! …Literally! But you’re welcome! Don’t get your head bitten off trying to give him medicine or whatever, ‘kay?”
He nods and waves her off. She accepts that and quickly bounds away, probably because she doesn’t want to be caught with him in the off-chance Ken rolls in here and scolds him for going through medicine without permission when they have such a limited supply.
(… Speaking of, he’s not entirely sure why An let him off the hook so easily. He should probably do something for her as a proper thanks. Later, though.)
A long, drawn out sigh leaves him once she’s gone, and he’s left to stare at all he’s collected for his… acquaintance, he’ll say. Toya’s weird, okay? One second, he’s talking to him excitedly about things Akito’s experienced that he hasn’t, wanting to learn everything there is to know, and the next, he’s scowling at him from the corner and spiking up like a cat the moment he tries to come near him.
Hopefully today he’ll decide he wants to be nice. He’s not entirely sure how Toya acts when he’s sick; he only knew he wasn’t feeling well at all because he was about to visit him and heard the worst cough imaginable. It was honestly a little impressive how horrible he sounded. A bad sort of impressive, but whatever.
… Actually, now that he thinks about it, he should probably bring some water with him. A lot of water.
With all of that out of the way, he treks down the hallway as quietly as possible, making his way to the pris— no, uh. Prison is kind of a harsh word, he feels. Akito hates the connotation associated with it. So maybe… interrogation room? No, that makes it sound like they’re slamming down evidence in people’s faces and traumatizing them. No, no, it’s more like… a bedroom. A private bedroom, but like… locked n’ shit. (Shut up, he’s not that great at describing places.) It’s just got a bed, a table, and a couch. They’re not heartless here.
Especially not towards Toya, who seems to have a lack of social awareness or general understanding. He doesn’t want to put someone so troubled in a cold, dark room to fester further. The mere thought makes him shudder.
… He’ll just call it his room until he thinks of a better name.
Akito takes the key to his room out of his pocket, unlocking it and stepping into the, uh… the room before the room. Kinda like an extra precaution? Whatever. He goes in there (he’s definitely not supposed to go in with Toya, or anyone for that matter, but that hasn’t stopped him before), then he knocks on the door that actually acts as the barrier between Toya and the rest of the rebellion.
No answer. Alright, that’s nothing new. Akito did feel a bit bad about the times he knocked and entered without a response — he knew that if anyone entered his own room without permission, he’d angrily kick them out — but Toya didn’t seem to care. Maybe he was used to it, which was a thought that just made him feel even worse about it.
“To~ya,” Akito calls as he opens the door, peeking into the dark room. There’s some shuffling from the bed, probably Toya silently telling him to fuck off. He’d feel bad if he left him in such a bad state, though, so he’ll just have to deal with him at least until he offers. Wouldn’t wanna push too hard if he’s trying to befriend the guy, y’know? “You awake? I brought’cha somethin’.”
The sound of a grunt, followed by awful coughing, is all the confirmation he needs.
He’s able to navigate through the dark to the small table in the corner, back to the bed and Toya as he sets his bag of goodies down and sorts through it. He has the water ready, all he needs now is two of these pills, and—
He yelps suddenly, having abruptly been attacked from behind. There are arms around him, Toya’s arms — he’s pulling on him as if trying to throw him aside so he can make an escape.
… But there’s barely any strength behind his efforts, and eventually he just gives up. It feels as if Toya’s on the verge of collapsing or passing out, actually, based on the sudden shift in how much of his weight he’s literally holding on his back, and Akito does not like that. If he fucking coughed right now, he’d probably explode and rush out to shower. He’s gonna do that anyway when he’s done, but he takes pride in his cleanliness in such a gross environment, thank you very much.
He thinks he’d be embarrassed by the action if it wasn’t for the fact that this is uncomfortable as hell, because this idiot refuses to take off that damn mask of his, and now said mask is digging into his upper back. All he can do is sigh and attempt to shove Toya off of him with as little force as possible. Wouldn’t want to hurt the guy.
“You can’t get in a good attack if you’re in bad shape, you know,” he teases, hearing Toya promptly huff in frustration behind him. He bites down a smile. “Go back to bed before you get me sick, idiot.”
Toya’s stubbornness — which Akito would even dare call idiocy on occasion — shows through when he tries to throw him aside again, only to be met with nothing. After an awkward moment of silence, Toya finally lets go and trudges back to bed, where he gracelessly collapses onto it.
There’s something funny about the way the other bounced a little when he landed. Back when he was first trying not to get his head chopped off, he’d have never imagined being in this position to witness such a thing.
But here he is, regardless. “Here, let’s make a deal,” Akito has to fight not to laugh. Toya was quite something. “You cooperate for a few minutes and let me help you get you back into shape, and you can hug me all you want another time when you’re not hacking up a lung.”
He sees a single silver eye glare at him from under the absolute mess that is his hair. He can’t help but snicker then.
Akito comes and sits near — but respectably far away enough from — Toya and offers the pills in his one hand. “What’cha wanna do is swallow, not chew, two of these, and you’ll feel better faster.”
“How do I—” Toya promptly interrupts himself with another hacking fit, making Akito instinctively turn away. “How do I know you’re not trying to poison me?”
Ah. He didn’t even consider that.
“I — well — huh. I guess you don’t.” Akito stares at his hand where the pills sit, then to his other hand where he holds the water.
“Why should I trust you?” Toya hisses, making Akito frown. “Why wouldn’t you be trying to get rid of me? The opportunity is perfect. It just makes sense. There’s no way I’m taking anything from you now.”
Akito narrows his eyes at him. What he’s saying makes perfect sense, in retrospect, but he can’t help but feel a little offended after all the effort he went through to get this shit for him. Not like he’d say that, though, he doesn’t need to know.
“…You took the pancakes, didn’t you?” is the best retort he can come up with, but it seems like it was a fine enough one that Toya can’t figure out how to reply. “Those could’ve been just as poisoned, but you ate them like a wild animal that hadn’t eaten in days.”
“No, I did not, and you ate part of it in front of me.”
“I could’ve eaten the part that wasn’t poisoned.”
“That’s not—”
“—How it works?” Akito snickers, already knowing he’s winning this battle. Sure, it’s kinda petty, but sue him, he’ll get competitive over making someone sick take medicine so they feel better. “Come on, Toya, I’ve brought you all your food up until now, I’ve had plenty of chances. What reason do I have to do it now? That’s kinda low, don’t you think? If I wanted to take you out, I’d want it to be on equal terms. Not much of a victory if you’re already at a disadvantage, yeah?”
Toya stares at him. He stares back.
Akito isn’t quite sure if that’ll work or not. One thing’s for sure, he is not going to take some of the medicine himself to prove it’s fine because, again, they have quite the limited supply of medical shit. Also, he’s pretty sure it’s kinda bad to take medicine when you don’t need it? He’s not gonna hurt himself to heal someone else, especially not someone who — actually, he isn’t even sure what Toya thinks of him anymore. Whatever, he made his point.
“I know you don’t like taking off your mask around people,” Akito starts again after some silence between them, tone softer. “So… I can leave you with these, and it’ll be your choice if you want to take them or not. Remember — swallow, don’t chew. It’ll taste horrible if you chew it. Hey, wait — do you want a cold compress? It’ll lessen your headache.”
“How did you know I—”
“It’s a common cold thing, I just assumed, nothing to freak out about,” Akito quickly interrupts, getting up to have access to his bag again. He places the two pills and water on the table to leave them with Toya so he could choose to use them or not before pulling out the compress. “Here, take it — it’s basically just ice.”
Toya, again, stares at him. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
“You lay it across your forehead,” Akito gestures across his own, “like that. You’ll probably have to move your hair for a moment, but yeah. Pretty simple.” He offers it towards him, and, to his surprise, Toya actually takes it.
He inspects it for a bit, before his eye flicks up to bore holes into Akito’s skull. “And it’s just ice?”
Akito scoffs, packing up already since he knows Toya isn’t going to want to do shit while he’s around. “Yes, it’s just ice. What, you afraid of a little ice?”
“I’m not afraid of ice,” Toya very helpfully corrects, pulling a laugh out of Akito. He glares at him through coughs. “What are — you laughing at?”
“Oh, nothing,” Akito baits quite obviously, and it works, because Toya simply looks angrier in response. “Anyway, I gotta go to bed soon. It is late, and I got shit to do tomorrow other than take care of you. So I’ll see you later, yeah?”
“…Whatever you say,” Toya replies coldly, and he takes that as his cue to leave.
Akito picks up his bag and keys, leaving Toya to his devices in his room. As he’s walking back though, he takes a look through the one-sided window, and…
… He sees Toya, facing away, drinking from the water bottle.