Chapter Text
"Maybe that wasn't the best plan."
"Dude, the safety net wasn't supposed to hold both of our weight, you know."
"Didn't have a lot of choice."
Kazuki swayed, reaching out to grab Rei's shoulder as everything went wobbly, holding his head with his other hand. "Still your fault I hit my head."
Rei grunted, grudgingly offering him support as they got back to the car.
"Give me the keys," Rei said, holding out his hand.
"Like I'm letting you drive," Kazuki snorted. "You'll kill us."
"So you'll drive with a concussion and not kill us?"
"Don't have a concussion, just hit my head," Kazuki protested, even as his head started to feel worse and worse by the second. Everything blurring and shifting, making him sick to his stomach. He would, of course let Rei drive, but he wasn't about to go down without a fight.
However…
Rei snagged the keys out of his limp fingers and went to unlock the car. "I'm driving," he said decisively.
Kazuki swayed, pressing a hand to his forehead. The sun felt incredibly hot, pelting him mercilessly.
"Kazuki?"
An embarrassingly weak moan escaped his throat as he finally keeled over, collapsing limply on the ground.
XXX
"Papa! Are you awake? Wake up, wake up!"
Kazuki cringed, head splitting at Miri's shrill voice. Had he gotten super drunk the night before, or…
No, nothing nearly so fun considering his last memory was jumping out of a window with Rei toward a poorly thought-out safety net.
He moaned and cracked his eyes open, everything blurring around him, including the small face that appeared hovering over him.
"How many fingers am I holding up, Papa?" Miri asked, waving a hand in front of his face so quickly that he felt sick.
"Ugh…fifty," he muttered, raising a hand to his head.
Miri turned around. "Rei-Papa, he can't count my fingers!"
"He's concussed," Rei's voice replied as he came over and pressed something extremely cold to the side of Kazuki's head where the aching was concentrated.
He hissed in pain. "Geez, that's cold!"
"What's concussed?" Miri asked.
"It means he hit his head badly and needs to rest and not try to get up." Slightly accusatory.
Kazuki wrinkled his nose, but if he were being honest, the idea of getting up was not an enjoyable one to him at the moment. In fact, he was pretty sure that if he were to move more than an inch, he might either pass out or throw up—maybe both, and hopefully not in that order.
"Does he need a band-aid?" Miri asked.
"That might help," Rei replied.
Miri ran off and Rei crouched beside what seemed to be the couch where Kazuki was laying.
"You don't seem to be confused, so that's good," Rei commented. "Can you take some pain pills?"
Kazuki groaned, but nodded once before he realized that was a bad idea.
Rei got him some and helped raise his head up and hold a glass of water for him so he could take the medicine.
Miri came back with a box of band-aids. "I got the Morio Kart band-aids!" she cheered and dutifully opened one.
"Ah…hold on…" Kazuki tried to protest as Miri stuck it in his hair over the lump on his head. Yeah, he was not looking forward to getting that out later.
"There, does it feel better, Papa?" Miri asked.
"A little."
"When will he be better?" Miri asked.
"Hopefully soon," Rei told her. "And it will be your job to watch him so that he doesn't get up. He'll just swoon again."
Kazuki gritted his teeth. "I do not swoon! I just passed out."
"It looked like a swoon to me," Rei replied blandly.
"What's swoon?" Miri asked.
"Like a princess," Rei said.
Miri giggled. "Kazuki-Papa is a princess!"
"Am not," Kazuki grunted.
"Shh," Miri told him, pressing her finger to his lips. "You need to rest. But don't worry, Papa, I'll watch over you."
Kazuki couldn't help but feel a little warm and fuzzy inside at that. He smiled and shut his eyes again, reaching up to hold the ice pack more firmly against his skull. "I know you will, Miri. I appreciate it."
"Get some rest," Rei told him. "I…suppose Miri and I will make dinner tonight."
Kazuki's eyes flew back open, all the warm and fuzzies gone. He really had to recover soon or everything in the apartment, including his precious kitchen, might be destroyed.