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Contrary to popular belief, Akito is aware he has a problem when it comes to practicing. He’s trying, it’s just really hard to ignore that little nagging voice in his head telling him he’ll fall behind if he even lets up a little bit.
He’s improved somewhat, he’s at the very least stopped practicing until his voice is hoarse and no matter how short on time he is he never skips warm ups, he just can’t stand sitting still and sitting still is what most people would call a “healthy work-life balance.”
Doesn’t mean Toya has to be mean to him about it.
After the last time Akito nearly collapsed during practice, Toya had said he wouldn’t see Akito if Akito didn't take a week off, and he’s been coordinating with all their friends and the Virtual Singers to make sure of it. Toya even got Shota in on it.
Toya’s so unfair, and going along with it probably just means he’ll do it again, but also:
Akito wants to kiss his boyfriend damn it.
So he took the week off like a good boy, caught up on some sleep (not that he needed it), played some games, and generally didn’t practice at all and just rested, no matter how much it made him want to explode.
But whatever, the week is up, Toya’s promised to reward him at Weekend Garage, and then he can get back to their regular practice schedule.
Akito’s so excited to see Toya again, he listens to Mirai and strolls over the bridge to Vivid Street. There’s a flash of purple and he gets excited, but it’s quickly shattered when he realizes it’s Toya’s parents.
They’re shouting at each other over something, so Akito turns up the music and keeps his head down because that is weapons-grade not his problem.
Unfortunately, they decide to make it his problem.
The second they see him they stop fighting and start yelling at him, and he can’t even really hear it over the dulcet tones of Toya singing Mirai.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Akito mutters, trying to push past them.
He pretty gently pushes them, and they push back, hard .
Hard enough to send him over the railing and into the river.
~
God, this was the worst thing Toya’s ever done. Staying away from Akito was so hard. Hopefully for both their sakes Akito’s finally gotten it into his head that doing nothing but school/work/singing practice is enough because Toya can’t avoid him for another week.
Honestly he would have caved sooner if he hadn’t begged Tsukasa-senpai and the others to help keep them apart, and Tsukasa-senpai would have caved as soon as Toya seemed upset if not for everyone else.
Toya doesn’t want another scare like Akito fainting again, but he also doesn’t want to ever spend the week not seeing him again.
Toya’s gonna kiss him stupid when he sees him again.
He practically jumps out of the booth when Akito comes into WEEKEND GARAGE, and…
“Wow, you look like shit,” An says.
“T-took a s-swim,” Akito says, teeth chattering. His clothes are wet and his lips are blue.
“What? Why?” An asks.
Akito looks at Toya, like he’s deciding whether or not to say anything. “Y-your p-parents m-might’ve p-pushed me?”
“WHAT?!” Everyone gasps, but none louder than Toya. What does he mean his parents pushed him? Toya’s parents are awful but they wouldn’t even attempt that!
“Wait, hold on,” Okazaki says. “Are you wearing any cotton?”
“Y-yeah?” Akito says. “M-my under shirt a-and hoodie.”
“Take those off now!” Akamine says, “cotton saps heat. Aoyagi, check his pulse?”
“I f-feel f-fine,” Akito pouts. “T-toya promised we c-could…”
Toya’s certainly read enough about hypothermia to know that the symptoms set in gradually and can include confusion, so this isn’t the result of Akito’s existing disregard for his own health. This is his own thought, if he hadn’t been avoiding Akito he never would have been on his own.
Toya pulls Akito into the bathroom and takes off his wet shirt hoodies and shirt. Then Toya wraps his own hoodie around Akito.
“Ok, come on,” Okazaki says, we’re getting him to the hospital.
Okazaki drives them with the heater on full blast, and they rush Akito to Emergency Care. The nurse takes their names and then Akito is taken to another room to get warmed up.
A doctor with messy green hair and a disheveled look comes up to Toya. “Oh, wow. I was gonna ask if you were related to the Aoyagis who just came in, but uh… clearly you are,” he says. “I’m Dr. Fumio Tada, your parents arrived here a bit before you.”
Toya’s eye twitches. “Why? Shouldn’t they be arrested for shoving my boyfriend into the river in the middle of October?”
“Oh, good, you found him,” Dr. Tada says. “Uh, I mean-- ok so your parents are going to have to stay here for a few days. You’ve heard of the Psychotic Breakdowns?”
“...yes,” Toya asks, confused. People acting uncharacteristically and making scenes, causing accidents ranging anywhere from turning over food tables to crashing a train.
“Well, it seems your parents have come down with something similar but the symptoms last longer. Usually a psychotic breakdown is acute, unlike a mental shutdown which is longer lasting but victims aren’t a risk to others, this condition, which we’re calling Persistent Psychotic Breakdown Syndrome is like both, making people aggressive and lose control of themselves, and being long-term as far as we can tell.”
Toya blinks. “So my parents nearly killed my boyfriend because they’re sick?”
“Yeah. Current policy is if people showing symptoms have caused harm to someone else, we bring them here so they can be observed, but we don’t know when they’ll be ready to be released, so I need to make sure you have arrangements or a place to stay or something.”
Toya just stares at him, and Dr. Tada scratches his head awkwardly.
“I-I’m sorry, I--”
“No, thank you for telling me,” Toya says. Kamui-oniichan and Hatsuaki-oniichan are supposed to be coming home today, he should tell them. And the Tenmas.
Toya feels like the room’s spinning, and he wanders over to Souma-san’s room. Too much is happening today, he needs someone to talk to.
But when he gets there, Souma-san is yelling at Tono-san, and saying some horrible things Souma-san would never say. Is this that Persistent Psychotic Breakdown thing? If it turned Souma into this, and his parents so angry they’d cause physical harm to Akito, then it must be serious.
Toya bumps into a friend of a friend who asks him what’s going on, and he explains as best as he can what he knows.
Then he goes and tries to convince Tono-san that Souma-san isn’t actually angry at him.
With all that done, Toya’s in a daze until he gets to the room Akito’s supposed to be in.
Akito’s covered in heated blankets and drinking hot chocolate, and lights up when he sees Toya.
“Partner!”
Toya doesn’t say anything, just crawling into bed with Akito.
“H-hey, what’s wrong?”
“My parents are sick,” Toya mutters into Akito’s shoulder. “I don’t know what’s wrong with them but apparently there’s something going around making people insane and it’s why my parents nearly killed you and now Souma-san’s sick too and what if they never get better?”
Toya’s barely ready to process never seeing his parents again, he can’t handle not getting to see Souma anymore, and what if this spreads to other people, like Tsukasa-senpai, or Akito?
“Hey, hey, breathe with me,” Akito says.
“I’m sorry, if I hadn’t been avoiding you then—”
“You just said they’re sick right? So it literally had nothing to do with you.”
Toya sniffs. “I’m never ignoring you again. Who knows what could happen…”
“You have no idea how much I love hearing you say that,” Akito says, “not I hate that you’re this sad.”
Toya sighs and wraps himself around Akito like a noodle. “I’m done. I’m not leaving until they drag me out of here.”
“You know I won’t have to stay overnight,” Akito says. “They’re just warming me up and then kicking me out.”
“Good, then you can carry me out and we can cuddle in your bed.”
Akito laughs. “I couldn’t ask for anything better, partner. And who knows, maybe things will be better in the morning.”