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Fifteen months. It had been fifteen months since the day Saburo had been kidnapped by Ichiro’s ex-partner, Samejima. It had been fourteen months since Saburo had been rescued by his older brothers. It had been twelve months since Saburo began to travel around Ikebukuro on a wheelchair, and it had been five months since Saburo began to use a walking cane to help him get around, the damage done to his legs; having been shattered and stabbed brutally by his captor and unable to even stand for over a month, making getting around rather difficult.
Oh, and it had been twenty three months since Saburo last saw snow.
When winter came, Saburo knew that he wasn’t going to have fun for the next few months, as the previous year, when the winter came, it caused his legs- his right leg, mostly, to be really achy and pained. Thankfully, though, with lots of bundling up and painkillers, Saburo was able to get lots of rest, and he hadn’t had to strain himself, given he’d been wheelchair bound.
But now?
Saburo didn’t have that luxury. He woke up in the morning to his alarm that he always woke up to before school, and the very moment his brain began to function, it instantly slammed his senses with pain. He knew at that moment that it was going to be a long winter.
Slowly, he rolled out of bed, sitting up with a grunt of both pain and sleepiness. He reached over, grabbing his walking cane that was propped up against his wall beside his bed, and heaved himself to his feet. He staggered, his eyes shooting open wide at the pain that flared up his right tibia.
The moment hit him like lightning. For a moment, he was back in that basement, begging for his life as Samejima cruelly stabbed his leg, shattered his knee, and broke his arm so that he had no hope of escape.
With a sharp gasp, Saburo staggered back, the back of his legs hitting his bed, his walking cane slipping from his fingers and clattering noisily to the ground.
In, and out…in, and out…
Saburo’s quickened breath slowed as he began to gather his bearings. He was in his room, and he had to get ready for school.
Slowly, he leaned down and picked his cane up, slowly hobbling to his closet and grabbing his usual yellow hoodie and his middle school uniform, slowly getting dressed before brushing his hair with his comb, and walking slowly to the bathroom, shaking slightly.
When he walked inside the bathroom, he flicked the lights on and cringed a bit at the sudden bright light, and met his gaze in the mirror.
He was paler than he usually was, and while he did look quite tired, having spent another near sleepless night watching over security, his blue and green eyes were wide and glassy, almost as if he were trying to hold back tears as the pain in his leg continued to dance about. He noticed that he had gotten thinner since his kidnapping; which, yes, at first, it made sense, since he was malnourished at the time. But he struggled to eat sometimes afterwards as well, even though he was able to eat fine on some days.
Saburo slowly propped his cane against the wall and grabbed his yellow toothbrush, squirting his minty toothpaste on it before beginning his usual routine. When he finished, he rinsed his mouth and looked back up at him.
It was kind of sad; even with a minty fresh smile, he still felt so dirty and disgusting. He wondered if that basement scent latched onto him permanently.
Before he could dwell on that, however, there was a sharp knock on the door.
“Oii! Saburo! You’ve been in there for ten minutes! Lemme in already!” Jiro called out in lazy annoyance.
“So impatient…” Saburo muttered to himself, grabbing his cane and opening the door.
“Jeez! It’s about time! You really should-” Jiro paused, his eyebrows furrowing as he stopped his own tirade. “Saburo?”
“What? You wanted to get in, didn’t you? Move,” Saburo grumbled.
Jiro did not move. He leaned down a bit, tilting his head to the side to look at Saburo’s face more clearly. Saburo, annoyed by the sudden concerned intrusion, turned his face away from his big brother, only for Jiro to mutter quietly.
“For fucks sake- hold still!” He- gently, Saburo thought belatedly, grabbed Saburo’s chin and jerked his face back towards him, letting go when Saburo was facing him again.
Saburo, after a minute of just standing there (when he could be sitting down, stupid Jiro!), blew into Jiro’s face, his minty breath blowing Jiro’s unbrushed messy black hair back a bit.
“Okay, Inspector Dumbass. Are you done? I need to finish getting ready for school.”
“Yeah…” Jiro slowly stepped back, still watching him with that stupid look on his face. As Saburo slowly walked out of the bathroom to head to the kitchen to eat whatever breakfast Ichiro was making, Jiro spoke up again. “Saburo.”
The younger paused. “What?”
“Are you okay?”
“Perfectly fine. Is your head okay?” Saburo snapped, continuing on. As he did, his mind began to scold him in a voice that sounded a lot like Ichiro’s.
He’s only worried about you. You were missing for a month last year and you should have stopped using that walking cane a month ago. But you’ve been using it again and your brothers are obviously noticing. Stop being prideful and just ask for some painkillers!
Sighing softly, Saburo stopped walking when he reached the dining table.
“Morning, Saburo,” Ichiro gave him a warm smile.
“Morning, Ichi-nii.” Saburo hesitated. “Um…Ichi-nii? Where are we keeping the kampo that Jinguji-sensei prescribed me?”
At once, Ichiro paused in his cooking, looking up at Saburo with his eyes crinkling in concern. “Your pain medication? You haven’t used it in months. Is it your legs?”
“Yeah…just a bit,” Saburo admitted, “I’ll be okay, though. I promise. I just need one dose today.”
“Okay…” Ichiro washed his hands, stepping out from around the counter. He was in his usual red hoodie and a white apron, his sleeves pushed up to his elbows. “I can go grab you a few pills. There’s some apple juice at the table already.”
Saburo only nodded mildly as Ichiro walked into another room. He lowered himself into his seat, sighing as the pain dulled slightly. He really needed to rest as much as possible today.
Just get through today, Saburo…it’s Friday. You can sit down for the entire weekend after today. Just make it through today… Saburo silently chanted to himself. Moments later, Ichiro reemerged from the other room, pills in hand. Saburo held his hand out, letting Ichiro drop the two pills into his cold hand. He popped them into his mouth and swallowed them down with his juice, sighing softly. All he had to do now was wait for the medicine to kick in. Which, it would…by the time he got to school.
“I’ll call the pharmacy today,” Ichiro commented, “you’re running really low on your medication, and I heard that there’s going to be a bad blizzard later today. The sooner we can get more, the sooner we won’t have to worry about whether you'll have enough or not.”
A blizzard? Saburo gulped. He’d knew that extremely cold weather was a pain in his leg, and just this morning, he was in a lot of pain. If he had to walk in that blizzard…
His eyes flickered to the time. “Ichi-nii, I’m going to head to school now.”
“Huh? What about breakfast?” Ichiro looked concerned. “Saburo, is everything okay?”
“See, I knew it wasn’t just me!” Jiro’s voice carried through the kitchen as the idiot himself came out in his usual clothes, having already graduated from high school back in March. His clothes, however, had clearly been thrown on haphazardly. “You’re in a lot of pain, aren’t you, Saburo?”
“I just need a bit of my medicine, that’s all,” Saburo insisted. “Once it kicks in, I’ll be good to go.”
“But you want to go to school early?” Jiro asked skeptically. “Don’t tell me you’re wanting to beat the blizzard. You won’t. It’s already snowing out- it’s just going to get worse today.”
“What?!” Saburo stood up. “I’ll see you guys later. I…I need to go.”
“Saburo,” Ichiro spoke in a tone more gentle than Jiro’s. “If you’re worried about the snow, you don’t have to go to school today. You’ve had a perfect attendance since school started up again in April. Surely they won’t mind you missing one day.”
“Yeah! Plus it’ll warm up by Monday and the snow’ll be all melted by then! So you can rest up throughout the weekend!”
“No,” Saburo swallowed a heavy lump in his throat. “I’m okay. I’ll be okay. It doesn’t even hurt that much. So you guys don’t have to worry, okay?” With that, he quickly- or, as quickly as he could, walked out the door, slipping his shoes on while still gripping his walking cane.
“Saburo, wait!” Ichiro hurried after him, followed by Jiro, who was probably planning on walking him to school.
Saburo didn’t stop, not wanting to risk falling down the steps with his cane in hand. When he got to the shop, he made his way to the front door and opened it just as his brothers made it down the stairs and came after him.
“Saburo, you forgot your bento-” Ichiro was saying.
“Oh…sorry, Ichi-nii. Thanks.” Saburo paused just outside the odd jobs shop, the snow already covering several centimeters of the ground. He accepted the bento, shrugging his bag off of his shoulders to shove it in.
However, as he stood there, slipping the bento in his school bag, a cool, winter wind blew harshly towards them, and the little weight that Saburo was putting on his right leg suddenly became way too much. His vision went white and his ears began ringing.
“-uro…Saburo!” Firm hands gently shook his shoulders, and Saburo blinked.
He was suddenly on the ground, his knees crumpled in a freezing heap beneath him, and Ichiro held him in a way that helped him sit up. Jiro was kneeling down beside them, holding Saburo’s walking cane that had a few flecks of powdery snow on it.
Oh…he’d fainted for a moment.
“Okay,” Ichiro said decisively, “you’re not going to school today.”
“What? But Ichi-nii..!”
“I’ll call the school. It’s fine, I promise,” Ichiro smiled at him a bit tightly. “You weren’t even two steps out the front door and already fainted. You’re coming inside and you’re going to keep warm.”
“...Okay…”
“Do you need me to do anything, aniki?” Jiro asked. “Keep the shop opened? Make some hot cocoa?”
“Yeah. If you can make Saburo some hot cocoa, that would be great. Thanks Jiro,” Ichiro smiled at him, his hand that had gripped Saburo’s shoulder slipped free and slid underneath Saburo’s knees, and with ease, Ichiro picked his youngest brother up. “Come on, Saburo. Back to bed for you.”
“S-sure…” Saburo muttered, his hands instinctively gripping his brother’s hoodie so that he wouldn’t lose balance, despite knowing his brother wouldn’t drop him. He was too strong and too reliable to do that.
Ichiro slowly carried Saburo back inside, with Jiro shutting the door behind them and following them back upstairs to their home. Ichiro carried Saburo to his bedroom after tossing his shoes off at the entrance, setting him down on the bed. Saburo instantly shifted so he wasn’t sitting on his blankets, throwing the covers over his legs. It didn’t provide a whole lot of warmth, but it was something.
“I’ll go ahead and call your school, okay?” Ichiro ruffled Saburo’s hair with a small, affectionate smile, before heading out.
Jiro replaced him a few minutes later, carrying in his walking cane and a cup of hot cocoa. “Alright! Here you go! Made just how ya like it!” He proclaimed, handing him the cocoa.
Saburo accepted it meekly. He wanted to thank his brothers for looking out for him. He wanted to thank Jiro for going out of his way to make him cocoa to try to keep his body warm. Of course, he knew what Jiro would say in response…and he could tell that Jiro was worried about him. So, obviously, the best thing to do was to pretend nothing was going on, right?
“I don’t like marshmallows anymore,” Saburo said simply.
“Oi! You do too! I saw you drinking cocoa with them the other day!” Jiro accused, pointing his finger at him in disbelief.
“Maybe that cup made me change my mind,” Saburo shrugged.
“You little-!” Jiro growled.
“Oi! Jiro, relax,” Ichiro used a rolled up magazine to bop Jiro’s head, much like he would a dog. “He’s only teasing you.”
Saburo couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in his throat.
“O-Oh. I mean, I knew that!” Jiro huffed, crossing his arms with a pout that very clearly stated that he had completely fallen for Saburo’s bait and was unhappy about it.
“Here,” Ichiro set the magazine on Saburo’s bed. “You were going to read it this weekend, right? No time like the present. Of course, I can also get you my favorite Magical Girl novel when you’re done with that.” His eyes sparkled at the idea of Saburo spending his day reading his recommendations while he was bed bound. Saburo let out an awkward laugh.
“Uh…sure. Maybe.”
“Sweet! Maybe on the weekend we can binge the anime for it! It’s not as good as the novel, but they still managed to capture some of the more emotional moments really well!” Ichiro said excitedly.
“Oh, you mean that one,” Jiro clutched his chest. “That one scene with the girl Minori…”
“Best girl…” Ichiro put a hand on his chest, as though pledging to the fictional magical girl.
“Ahaha…yeah. If we can squeeze time in…” Saburo laughed nervously. He sometimes checked out anime that his brothers recommended, but he didn’t understand how they could geek out over it so easily. Oh well. It made his brothers happy, and they were taking care of him today. It was the least he could do.
“Oh!” Ichiro snapped back into his Big Brother mode, blinking. “I’ll make some soup for you too.”
“I’m not sick, Ichi-nii. It’s fine, really,” Saburo gave him a small, exasperated smile.
“No,” Ichiro agreed, “but soup and cocoa are good at warming you up internally, right? So they should help you at least a little.”
“I guess so…thanks, Ichi-nii,” Saburo sighed, looking up at his brothers.
Ichiro gave him a small grin and headed out.
“Call one of us if you need anything!” Jiro said, giving Saburo a small wave as he stepped out.
As if… Saburo laughed quietly to himself. He had a laptop and his books in his room. He could easily entertain himself, and he could already feel his pain medicine starting to kick in.
An hour into reading his magazine, the heating unit shut off.
_____
“I-Ichi-nii..? Jiro..?” Saburo called after the heating unit hadn’t come back on after another hour. He turned his body to peek outside his window, catching sight of the snow falling at a rapid pace. It was growing cold in his room. Quite cold, actually. The blanket wasn’t doing much at all anymore, and his leg was starting to throb painfully.
Jiro peered into his room. “What’s- oh shit, your room too? It’s freezing in here!” He walked in quickly. “Are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah. But…what’s going on?” Saburo asked him.
“The heating system shut off…aniki’s checking the circuit breaker right now. I didn’t think it would affect your room too. Are you in pain right now?” Jiro asked him, his eyes searching Saburo’s face for any hints of a lie.
“Just…a bit…” Saburo gulped. He picked his phone up and checked the weather app. “It’s going to get colder soon…will the heating be fixed soon..?”
Jiro seemed to understand instantly what his worries were. “I dunno, but if it’s aniki, he should definitely be able to fix it!” He offered Saburo a grin.
However, mere moments after he said this, Ichiro came in, face grim.
“The blizzard blew a fuse in our circuit breaker. The heating system’s wiring is all messed up- I’d need to replace the heating system completely, but…”
“You…don’t know how to do that, do you?” Jiro asked faintly.
Ichiro grimaced. “No. I’m used to hard labor jobs, not this sort of thing. I’ll need to call a technician to get it replaced and fixed. But no technician will be willing to come out until the blizzard lets up…and that won’t be until tomorrow morning.”
Saburo sat there, his eyes wide as he listened to his brother, his heart dropping.
The heating was down. His brother couldn’t fix it, and his leg was starting to hurt a lot more. It felt almost suffocating.
“Saburo?” Ichiro urged, “hey, are you okay?”
“It hurts,” Saburo whispers. “My leg…c-could I have more medicine?”
“You just took some not long ago. You need to wait a few more hours,” Ichiro looked pained. “What do you need, Saburo? Name it.”
“I don’t know,” Saburo choked out. “Um…Jiro? Do you still have those heating pads that you had when you were in soccer last year?”
Jiro looked guilty. “No. I got rid of them when I graduated.”
“...Okay,” Ichiro took a deep breath. “Jiro. Go boil some water and pour it in some water bottles. That’ll have to do for now.”
“We don’t have any bottles…” Jiro cringed.
“Then start boiling some water,” Ichiro briskly walked out of the room, causing alarm spike in both younger brothers.
“Aniki? Where are you going?” Jiro asked, following him.
“I’m going to head out and buy a space heater and some bottles.”
“What?!” Saburo heard his own voice over whatever Jiro said, throwing himself out of bed and grabbing his walking cane. He hauled himself out of his room, ignoring the blinding white pain that flared up his leg the moment he put weight on it. He watched helplessly as Ichiro slipped an extra coat on, zipping and buttoning it up.
“Ichi-nii, you don’t need to go out in that!”
“Saburo, go back to bed, okay?” Ichiro gave Saburo a reassuring smile. “I can tell you’re in a lot of pain. I’ll be back soon with a heater for you. Jiro will handle whatever you need too until I get back.”
“It’s not safe…”
“He’s right, aniki…I mean, we can figure something out, okay?” Jiro looked between his brothers, clearly torn as to what he should do.
“We don’t exactly own anything that will help him, Jiro. It’s fine. I’ll be back within an hour,” Ichiro rushed to the front door. “Stay warm. Saburo, please go huddle up, okay? You should be resting.”
“Okay, Ichi-nii…stay safe…” Saburo whispered as Ichiro flashed him a smile, before leaving quickly.
“Alright…” Jiro muttered, turning to Saburo. “Come on. Back to bed with you.”
“Okay…”
Saburo slowly spun on his heel and took two steps forward, and his leg instantly got worse, the pain becoming so distressingly awful that it became a struggle to suppress a sharp cry.
He must not have done a good job, though, as Jiro shot forward, gripping his shoulder and guiding him back to his room.
“It’s fine, you’re fine…” Jiro chanted, though he seemed to be trying to calm himself down moreso than Saburo. Once Saburo was back in bed, Jiro sat by Saburo’s bedside as Saburo gently gasped, trembling as his scar began to throb. It felt like he was getting stabbed all over again, that knife digging into his skin and piercing several layers of his skin until it almost reached his bone. He’d lost so much blood at that time, and it was by sheer dumb luck that he hadn’t bled to death.
“It hurts, Jiro…” Saburo garbled out, squeezing his eyes shut so he could try to steady his breathing.
“I know, I know…shh…aniki will be back with a heater for ya, okay? Sit tight. I’ll go boil some water for you and finish the soup that aniki was making.” And with that, Jiro was rushing out of Saburo’s bedroom.
Saburo slowly curled up in a fetal position in his bed, pulling his covers over his body and grasping his leg in his cold, clammy hands as he rubbed fruitlessly at it, hoping the friction helped him somewhat.
It did not. Touching it only hurt him more.
Saburo let go with a frustrated cry.
He couldn’t have any medicine now, and he was alone and in pain.
All he could do…he supposed…was try to sleep it off.
_____
Saburo wasn’t sure how long he was going in and out of consciousness, but he knew that it wasn’t long at all.
Jiro was back in his room with some hot cocoa and soup, but the warmth of the delicious liquids, predictably, did absolutely nothing for his leg.
“It hurts…” Saburo was choking out, tears beginning to roll down his face.
It felt worse than the initial stabs. His entire leg felt as though it could fall off at any second, with the root of the pain being his scar. “When will Ichi-nii be back..? How long has he been gone..?”
“Over an hour,” Jiro chewed on his lip, sitting on the edge of Saburo’s bed. “I got water boiling on low heat right now. When aniki gets back, we’ll fill those bottles and press them against your leg, okay?”
Saburo let out a sound that could have been a sob or a laugh, tears falling freely down his face as he writhed in bed.
The entire time, Jiro didn’t leave.
The two just waited on Ichiro. Saburo, in his pain filled state, could only wonder what was taking Ichiro so long. Jiro, meanwhile, could only hope he didn’t succumb to the blizzard that was raging outside, but he didn’t dare go check in fear of what would happen to Saburo.
But if it’s Ichiro’s life, then surely that would warrant checking up on him?!
Thankfully for both brothers, the front door slammed open, and both heard Ichiro’s breathy, yet still loud call of “I’m back!”.
Saburo watched tearfully as Jiro bolted out of his room. He’d go too, if he thought he wouldn’t faint for longer than a few moments.
Moments later, Ichiro came rushing into his room, still in his large coat. It had snowflakes splattered all over it and all in his hair. His lips were tinted blue slightly, and his face was bright red. His hands were blistered bright red, and his body was shaking pretty badly.
His brother was going to get frostbite at this rate…and Saburo was useless to help.
Ichiro plugged in a medium sized black object- his new space heater, and aimed the heater at Saburo, turning it on full blast as Ichiro stood behind it and out of the way.
The air turned hot quickly, and it did make his leg feel…a bit better. Not a whole lot though.
“I-Ichi-nii…come here,” Saburo hiccuped, “you look freezing…”
“I am, but you need the warmth right now, Sa-” Ichiro began.
“Please. I d-don’t want you getting frostbite.”
Ichiro hesitated, before slipping out of his large coat and walking over, joining Saburo on his bed. Saburo cringed slightly- even from a few inches away, he could feel the freezing air emitting from Ichiro, and it was making him feel colder. But…at least it was just his upper half. He made sure to stay away from Saburo’s legs.
“Jeez…” Jiro panted as he rushed back in, propping some hot water bottles on Saburo’s bed by his leg. The heat wasn’t an instant cure or anything, but it did provide him relief that he hadn’t thought he’d feel. “You’re both insane..!” Jiro spun around and ran out of the room again.
When he returned, he had a cup of coffee in his hands, and a fresh cup of cocoa as well. Both the older and younger took their respective cups, with Ichiro quickly, yet carefully sipping his coffee.
Jiro sat on the other side of Ichiro, with Saburo in the middle. He grasped onto Ichiro’s hands, shaking his head.
“Thanks, Jiro,” Ichiro smiled a bit at him.
“Yeah, yeah…don’t you dare scare us like that again. And go take a shower before you keel over,” Jiro grumbled in distress.
Ichiro gave him a lopsided smile before slowly standing up and shuffling out.
Jiro flopped down on his back with a loud sigh.
“Man…that was intense…” He complained. “I feel like I’m the oldest right now…”
Saburo didn’t grace that with a response, only breathing in and out, focusing on the warmth that the heater and the water bottles provided him.
When Ichiro returned from his shower over half an hour later, he looked more normal. He sat with his two brothers on the bed.
“Sorry I was gone for so long…I guess school was let out early today, and lots of kids were taking buses and taxis. The streets were a bit busy.”
“It’s fine, Ichi-nii…just don’t do that again…” Saburo mumbled.
“The oldest gotta take care of the youngest,” Ichiro calmly said with a smile.
“And the middle has to take care of the oldest, apparently,” Jiro grumbled, still miffed by the whole situation.
“Sorry, Jiro,” Ichiro laughed softly, bringing both of his brothers in for a hug. Jiro only sighed and returned the hug. Saburo settled between them, content on just attempting to nap everything off again while keeping his brothers safe and warm close by.
As the winter winds extended throughout the night, the brothers would eventually fall asleep piled up on Saburo’s bed, with the one and only space heater keeping them warm.