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“You’d do well to remember that I’m your partner, not her.”
“I’m your girlfriend, and you’re my boyfriend. You should act like it .”
Akito curls in on himself. They’re both here, Toya who wants to kill him so they can be together, and Fuyune who wants him alive to love her and will make him suffer until he does.
Still though, he tries to crawl towards Toya, because that’s the only choice he’ll ever make. They can die together and Akito will spend an eternity in whatever afterlife awaits them trying to make Toya happy.
Fuyune has other plans though, and a chain appears around Akito’s neck, slowly pulling him towards her.
“No, honey bunny. Remember you promised you’d be good!” Fuyune singsongs.
He tries to reach for Toya but Toya backs away. “I guess your words don’t mean anything then?” Toya says. “You said I was your partner, me and no one else. And yet.”
Akito tries to cry out but he can’t with the chain. “To… ya….”
And then Fuyune has dragged him over to her and Toya disappears, and she cradles Akito’s head. “You really are a bad study, darling. Things would be easier if you just learned your place. But don’t worry, I’m happy to tutor you.”
Akito jerks awake and reaches out, but there’s no one in the bed with him. The first thing he realizes is that his hair is wet and so is the bed. He must have passed out after Fuyune held his head in the bathtub for misbehaving again. But usually after that she sticks around so…
Oh, he was dreaming about Toya. He was probably saying Toya’s name in his sleep again. God damn it, why can’t he just stop that? Now she’ll be extra mad.
The door opens and Fuyune comes in. Quickly, Akito sits up.
“H-hey… partner.”
“Oh, Akito, you're awake!”
Ah shit, she didn’t call him Aki. She’s definitely pissed.
“S-sorry for earlier.” Akito says.
“Oh that wasn’t your fault! Can I get you something to eat?”
“No it was! It was mine, I’m so sorry snowflake, I’m trying to be a better boyfriend!”
“Akito… are you alright?”
“Perfectly happy, dear! What are we doing today?” Maybe she’ll mistake his shaking for the cold from being wet?
Fuyune comes near him. “Where do you think you are right now?”
“Our apartment, I wouldn’t be anywhere else!”
“Oh… ok… just. Give me a second,” Fuyune goes to leave. She is so mad. She’s livid. What’s she going to bring back to punish him with? Not the tub again, she doesn’t like doing the same thing in a row. The closet maybe? Oh god not again. He has to do something… what’ll appease her? What can he do, what can he do…?
“So, how is he?” Tsukasa-senpai asks when Toya comes downstairs.
“I… think he’s having some kind of episode,” Toya says. “He thinks he’s back with Shimizu and he’s really freaked out.”
“What?!” Ena gasps. “W-we have to go snap him out of it!”
They’d been hanging out at the Tenmas for a party to celebrate Leo/need’s first upload getting 100k views, and as a joke Ena had dunked cold water on Akito from Saki’s room. But instead of laughing it off like he normally would, Akito’s eyes got glassy and he started shaking. Kamishiro-senpai had helped carry him up to the guest room, and Toya had left him for a second to go speak to the others when Akito woke up and started talking like Toya was Fuyune.
“That might make it worse,” Tsukasa-senpai says. “We could only upset him more.”
“Obviously he’s pretty damn upset if he thinks he’s back there!” Ena snaps.
“Ena-san, Tsukasa-kun is right, you need to calm down.” Kamishiro-senpai says. “Aoyagi-kun, why don’t you stay with Aki-kun for a bit and see if you can get him to calm down.”
Toya nods. “Right, yeah, I’ll do that.”
Toya goes back upstairs, where Akito snaps to face him.
“Hey, you’re back! So what are we doing?” Akito asks, the fear in his eyes clear. He’s gripping the blanket too, and shaking horribly.
“Aki,” Toya tries, “is it ok if we just lie down for a bit?”
“Sure! No problem!”
Toya climbs into bed with Akito and tries to keep his distance, but Akito grabs his shirt and pulls him closer.
“Is this alright?” Toya asks.
“Of course it is! Why wouldn’t it be? You’re my girlfriend!”
Toya can’t help but feel that he’s taking advantage of Akito.
“Why don’t you go back to sleep, Aki?”
She’s testing him. He knows this, she wants him to fall asleep again so he’ll say Toya’s name and then she’ll force him to eat spicy foods until his tongue is numb or skip meals entirely.
“I’m not tired.”
“Akito…”
Wait, shit. He’s not supposed to argue with her. He’s failed. He’s failed and who knows what she’s going to do. Why did he even think there was a way out this time?
“Akito? What’s wrong?”
“Please,” Akito begs, burying his face in her hoodie. “I’m good. I’ll be good, it didn’t mean anything. Please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad.”
She’s lying.
“It doesn’t mean anything when I say his name, you know?” Akito tries. “I only dream about him when he’s trying to kill me. S-so when I say To– I mean Aoyagi’s name, that’s what’s going on. I’m not waiting for him anymore! He’d hate me anyway so you really don’t have to worry. You’re my girlfriend. I know you’re my girlfriend, just please don’t be mad.”
“Akito, breathe,” Fuyune says. “I-I’m not mad, I promise. You’re right, you’re… very good. So just take a nap and calm down.”
“I don’t want the closet again. Or the tub,” he cries. What is he doing? This is arguing with her, she hates that.
“You don’t have to. You’ve been so so good. I promise, I’m very happy with you.”
She’s being so cruel right now. Akito takes a shaky breath. Give in. He's always supposed to just give in. That will make it better.
“Ok.” Akito says, and then he closes his eyes and tries to sleep. He thought he wasn’t tired earlier, but now that he’s trying to, he realizes how exhausted he is.
As Akito goes to sleep, Toya can’t help feeling angry at Shimizu all over again. Akito really did not like reliving the details of what happened with her, and Toya hadn’t been there to rescue him so hadn’t gotten the full view of how terrified he was of her.
Toya pulls out his phone. He still has Akito on him, but even then he wouldn’t leave Akito like this anyway.
Ena
How is he?
Toya
Sleeping. He was really freaked out.
Ena
Did you figure out what set him off?
Toya
He mentioned something about not wanting the tub… and the cold water so…
Rui
Oh god. She waterboarded him
Ena
That bitch. I’m gonna kill her
Toya
Save some for me
Ena
If only I hadn’t done something so stupid
Rui
Don’t blame yourself, he doesn’t like talking about it, and doesn’t like being treated like he’s fragile. You couldn’t have realized.
Ena
I know he freaks out when he hears Distorted+Happiness!
Rui
And being triggered by suddenly being dunked in cold water isn’t something you’d run into casually.
Tsukasa
Rui’s right. The one at fault is Shimizu!
Toya
I agree with the others. I don’t think Akito would blame you either.
Ena
I’m still the worst sister ever.
Akito stirs and sits up. He blinks a couple of times, but already his eyes are clearer and more focused.
“Mmm hey partner? What happened?” He looks around. “This your room?”
“It’s the Tenmas’ guest room.”
“Yeah, that’s your room,” Akito says. “What’s up?” Suddenly Akito stiffens. “Ah shit, I ruined the party by freaking out.”
“No, you didn’t!” Toya insists. “What do you remember, anyway.”
“Just some bad dreams.” Akito says. “Sorry, did I say something in my sleep?”
Ah, he thinks it was all a dream. Toya bites his lip. He hates lying to his partner, but would it upset him more to realize he’d been awake and had mistaken Toya for Shimizu? Akito really really does not like talking about it, and he constantly insists that he knows Toya isn’t Shimizu and vice versa. He’d feel terrible if he knew what exactly happened.
“No, you’re fine. We were just worried you weren’t waking up.” Toya says. He lets Akito climb off of him and quickly sends a text saying not to mention any of this.
“Hey, I’m sorry!” Ena says as soon as Toya comes out with Akito.
“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Akito says with a smirk. “Just don’t wear anything you don’t want getting wet for the next couple of days, got it?”
Ena sticks out her tongue, and then takes Akito from Toya and wheels him back outside.
Toya takes a deep breath. What Akito doesn’t know won’t hurt him.