Chapter Text
Gin trudges toward her and Ryuu’s shared apartment after an exhausting, month-long mission abroad. Her bones are achy and the bags under her eyes are of momentous proportions. It’s only around six in the afternoon but Gin doesn’t think she can stay awake for much longer. She’s never been very good with abroad missions…jetlag can really be a bitch.
Gin knows she’ll have to thank Tachihara for taking on the mission report, but that’s a problem for after she’s well rested.
The door stubbornly remains stuck once Gin inserts her key, causing her to run her shoulder into the door a few times before it opens. Ryuu shouldn’t be home now so Gin isn’t too worried about disturbing him as she takes her frustrations out on their door.
Finally, the door swings open, revealing the brightly lit apartment beyond. Wait…brightly lit? Ryuu wouldn’t forget to shut off the lights…he’s usually the one making sure Gin doesn’t rack up their electricity bill.
Furrowing her brow, Gin kicks off her shoes and drops her heavy overnight bag to the floor, not even bothering to hang it up. She can come collect it once she feels less like death incarnate – preferably after a warm bath and a twelve hour nap.
Gin shuts off the entry-way light as she heads to the kitchen, needing a glass of water before she can continue with the rest of her evening. But, before Gin can enter the kitchen, she stops dead.
Ryuu lies on the living room couch, his head pillowed against the armrest and his body curled up so tightly that his knees practically brush his chin. Gin has to blink a few times in order to process what she’s seeing.
Never – save for the time he had the flu last year – has Gin seen her brother take a nap. Especially on their couch instead of his bed! Besides, shouldn’t he be at work? Gin checks the clock to confirm that she isn’t delusional. Yeah…Ryuu should definitely be at headquarters by now…
“Hey, Ryuu. Wake up.” Gin calls from where she stands, knowing better than to wake her brother within Rashomon’s range. It’s been a while since he lashed out at anyone while half-asleep, but Gin doesn’t trust herself to dodge when she’s practically dead on her feet.
When Ryuu only continues sleeping, Gin furrows her brow. Could something have happened while she was gone? It was a no-contact mission, so obviously she hasn’t spoken to her brother within the past month.
He was planning to go on a mission, right? Gin recalls, still standing on the other side of the living room. With that weretiger boy…Atsushi.
Could something have happened? Suddenly, Gin is on edge. No…I’m getting ahead of myself.
When Ryuu still doesn’t wake after Gin’s continued calling of his name, Gin rolls her eyes and proceeds to the kitchen. She’s too tired for this.
After grabbing her long-awaited glass of water, Gin rummages for the single cookie sheet in the oven drawer. However, the only thing she sees in there is an extremely old non-stick pan that is definitely no longer non-stick. She grabs it, suppressing any feelings of guilt for what she’s about to do.
“Ryuu! This is your last chance!” Gin calls from the kitchen, making sure she’s out of Rashomon’s range. Even though her brother isn’t wearing his regular coat, Gin knows that he can form those tendrils out of almost anything – they’re just not as powerful.
Without another moment of hesitation, Gin slams the pan against the countertop, ducking as she does so. Despite her slight feeling of guilt, Gin is unable to keep the diabolical smile off her face.
The muffled swearing and coughing from the other room is confirmation that Gin’s impromptu alarm was a success.
Only once Gin hears the loud thump of Ryuu falling off the couch does she get to her feet, still unable to keep the evil grin off of her face.
“Gin!” Ryuu is unable to say anything more than that for a while, still hunched over and trying to catch his breath. Gin hardly notices that it takes him longer than normal to do so. “Gin what are you doing here?!”
“Uh, I live here?” Gin says with a smile, returning the pan to its cabinet. She turns around and can’t help but furrow her brow at the sight of her brother. “Are you all right?” she asks, now noticing the nearly purple bags that paint Ryuu’s under eyes, despite him having been sound asleep for who knows how long.
“Why were you sleeping? Don’t you have to get to work?”
At that, Ryuu glares and turns away from Gin, adjusting his tee shirt. He grumbles as he does so, mumbling under his breath. Gin rolls her eyes and takes another sip of her water. “You know I can’t hear you when you mutter.”
“I’m not supposed to be going in this week.”
That catches Gin off guard more than anything has so far.
“Why not?” she asks, more confused than she’s been in a long long while. “And when has that ever stopped you before?”
At that, Ryuunosuke flops back onto the couch, all fight rushing out of him at once. Gin raises an eyebrow at his dramatics, but waits for her brother to continue. Ryuu has always needed extra patience when it comes to serious topics – and this seems to be pretty serious if his disheveled and sleepy state is anything to go by.
“I got hurt on a mission.” is his mumbled response. “Nothing too bad, just Mori ordered me to take the week off.”
Gin frowns, grabbing her water and making her way into the living room. Now that she’s looking, Gin can’t help but notice just how haggard Ryuu looks. Her brother has always been thin, but now he seems frail – almost fragile. His skin looks unnaturally pale and the oversized white tee shirt he’s wearing certainly isn’t helping. Gin thinks that whenever Ryuu wears white he looks kind of gray.
She keeps that thought to herself.
“Well, are you okay?” Gin asks, shoving her brother’s legs aside and sitting on the couch beside him. As soon as her body meets the cushion the exhaustion she’s been avoiding for nearly a month catches up all at once. Gin’s eyelids begin to droop before her brother can even begin to answer.
A series of sharp and rather painful sounding coughs snap Gin back to reality. She furrows her brow as she watches her brother attempt to catch his breath. Something sounds…different…
Having lived with Ryuunosuke her entire life, Gin has grown used to the sound of coughing. The gasping breaths of her brother have always been a constant in their small apartment.
Gin has always longed for a day when her brother would be able to breathe normally but she’s grown so accustomed to her Ryuu’s wheezing that she can’t help but grow uneasy after too long without the sound of coughing in their apartment. She supposes that living with someone with chronic lung issues will do that.
But now, Ryuu’s coughs sound painful and wet…well, wetter than normal. Gin winces, watching him hack into his hand, hunched over on himself. She reaches over to rub his back. Gin knows that touch won’t necessarily ease his coughing, but it has always helped ground him during an episode.
Gin’s eyes widen once he pulls his hand away from his mouth, droplets of blood dotting his palm. That usually doesn’t happen unless he’s sick or has been overexerting himself. Obviously, Ryuu hasn’t been overexerting himself, so is he sick? Is he still hurt? What on earth happened while Gin was gone on her mission?
“What’s wrong with you?” Gin asks as soon as her brother manages to catch his breath, handing him a tissue to spit in and clean his hand with.
Ryuu nods in appreciation before tossing the used kleenex into the small trash on the opposite side of the couch. “Nothing’s wrong with me.”
Both of Gin’s eyebrows rise so high they nearly disappear beneath her hair line. “I beg to differ. What happened on your mission? Did you get medical attention?”
With every word that exits Gin’s mouth Ryuu seems to fold further in on himself. Gin refuses to back down. Ryuunosuke has never been very good at taking care of himself, and if Mori ordered him to take the week off, his injuries must have been pretty bad. And what’s more disturbing…Ryuu seems to be obeying those orders.
Usually, she has to fight tooth and nail to get her brother to take a break, let alone an entire day off. Whatever happened must’ve been pretty bad… and if Ryuu won’t tell her, she’ll just have to figure it out for herself.
“Yes, Yosano-san treated me a few days ago.” he says, finally withering under her continuous glare. “I just need a few more days to get back on my feet.”
Gin narrows her eyes, refusing to relent quite yet. After knowing Ryuunosuke for nearly eighteen years, Gin is more than familiar with his tells. His eyes flit back and forth quickly and it seems like he is chewing on the inside of his cheek. Ryuu may be able to keep up his cold and unfeeling facade in the presence of enemies, but he has never been able to lie to Gin.
Regardless, Gin gets up, leaving her brother to stew in his thoughts alone. She’s too tired for this shit.
Obviously, Ryuu is not telling her the whole story, but Gin won’t bother trying to figure out what happened until she has slept for at least ten hours. Then, she’ll interrogate Ryuu until he caves.
But, knowing her brother, he can be impossibly stubborn when he puts his mind to it – especially when it comes to his subpar health. For whatever reason, Ryuu has always been at loathe to admit that he isn’t feeling well or that his lungs are acting up. More than once, this behavior has led to him being hospitalized. Gin refuses to let that happen again.
Ryuunosuke may not be willing to tell Gin about what happened on his recent mission with the agency, but she knows who will be.
Gin just has to convince the weretiger – her brother’s unwilling partner – to spill the beans.