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It was yet another stormy day at Nanbaka. During this season, it always seemed to be raining, the tide crashing against the rocky shoreline in desperate pleas to escape the raging sea.
Uno himself didn’t mind the rainy days. They were laid back and somehow seemed to calm the prisoners and the guards alike down. (Except for at night. Rainy nights were when all of the action happened. At least one inmate would shank another. At least one inmate would try to escape.)
It also meant that they didn’t have to run around outside in the hot beaming sun to exercise.
All of the inmates of thirteen preferred the rain.
Well, aside from Niko. He liked to roll around in the dry grass outside like a little kid. Endearing and annoying at the same time when they had to round him up to go back inside.
And… he also seemed to have a deep dislike for the rain. Or any gloomy weather at all.
Anytime it became remotely turbulent, the youngest seemed to tense, waiting for some unsaid attack to be thrust upon them. He was silent. On edge.
It was always weird to see him like that.
Uno could not say he liked it
“Niko, did you take your meds today?” Uno asked out loud once they returned back from dinner time.
Outside, the storm raged on.
‘A tropical depression’ Hajime had called it, or whatever that was.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, don’t worry about me,” Niko waved him off, but Uno shared a suspicious look with the other two cell mates, who also looked like they didn’t believe him in the least.
“I’m pressing the bullshit button,” Rock mimicked beeping a giant red button, then pointed to Niko, who looked like he had been caught red handed.
“I- I-“
“You would tell us if something was wrong… right?”
Niko looked earnestly up to Uno’s eyes, then looked away in guilt.
“Yeah…”
Oh, he was definitely lying.
From next to him, Jyugo smirked and held up his hands in front of his face to wiggle his fingers. “Oh, I know what’ll make him come clean. The most painful of torture methods out there.”
Rock matched him, popping his knuckles as all three of them closed in on Niko, “oh, I know what you’re talking about.”
Niko audibly gulped, “you- you don’t mean that, do you?”
“Oh, yes we do,” Uno nodded, very seriously. “Rock! Hold him down!”
It didn’t take them long to dog pile on top of Niko and tickle him until he cried.
That night the storm raged and raged and Uno was pissed.
Sure, the occasional rain was nice, but now it was too much.
He twisted and turned. Next to him, Rock stared at the ceiling, not even trying to block out the noise with a pillow like Jyugo was.
“It’s impossible,” Uno groaned, “how are we supposed to get any sleep in these conditions? I’m going to lodge a public complaint.”
“There’s not much Hajime can do about that, Uno,” Rock sighed. Another flash of lightning lit the entire cell up for a moment.
“No, but I’m sure if he just glared at the sky with that ugly mug of his, it’ll stop.”
“He seems to be doing fine,” Jyugo cracked an eye open, and Uno was only half sure he had been listening the entire time. Uno looked to where he was pointing a painted finger, to the sleeping bag between them with green hair poking out.
“Yeah but that’s Niko, he’s always fine. He can sleep through a tornado.”
Rock snorted, “he might have to, with this weather.”
Suddenly, thunder cracked through the sky across the prison and the small light source they had from outside the cell sputtered and shut off completely.
It now sounded silent in the cell, without the sound of the ventilation. Just the rain and thunder.
“Oh man,” Rock groaned, and when Uno gave him a sideways look, he caught sight of a shuffling motion from under Niko’s blankets.
Ah, maybe he was awake.
“Niko?” He asked, reaching an arm out to pat the lump, “the thunder wake you up?”
“N-no,” a soft muffled voice denied from the blanket, though they all knew he was lying.
The blanket continued to… move? Shake?
Uno was now thoroughly concerned.
“Wanna play cards,” he suggested, “distract us from the storm?”
“How are we supposed to see the cards? I can’t even see my hand in front of my face,” Rock complained, then finally twisted over on his side.
Another flash.
Another boom.
A small squeak from Niko, laid between Rock and Uno, sounded. Not quite hidden from the sound of the torrential downpour outside.
The three went silent.
“…Niko, you need to take a piss or something?”
Jyugo glared flatly at Rock, then, “you’re gonna suffocate yourself under the blanket.”
Uno tried for the softer approach, “hey… Niko? Can you please push your blanket down a little? Just for us?”
Heavy breathing.
A choked sob.
Niko was definitely not okay.
“Hey,” Rock took on a calmer tone, reaching a heavy arm to pluck the edge of the blanket between his fingers and tug it down.
And there Niko was, curled into a little ball, clutching onto his hair and tugging tugging tugging, then cupping hands over his ears to block out the outside world.
And that explained it.
Why Niko acted so strangely during the storms.
Why he was currently curled into a ball and sobbing lightly.
He was scared of storms.
The thunder crackled across the sky, like earth moving. Tectonic plates shifting.
Niko jumped even more.
So more specifically, he was scared of Thunder.
The others seemed to have come to the same conclusion, because upon realization, Rock rubbed his shoulder to try and get the boy's attention.
It didn’t work.
Uno sat up with a stretch, popping the bones in his finger. “You guys suck, watch a real pro at work.”
Rock shot him a nasty look as he carefully took either side of Niko’s shoulders, maneuvering him into a seated position so that it would be easier to breathe, collecting him into his lap.
It took a while, but eventually, Niko leaned into him, resting his face into the crook of his neck.
The sniffling was repetitive, his breaths short and Staccato as his chest rose and fell against Uno’s own. Uno’s sleep clothes were tear stained, but that didn’t matter.
What mattered now was Niko, plastered and letting out whimpering noises like a wounded animal everytime thunder rumbled. What mattered was the two sets of eyes watching from the darkness calmly.
“I have an idea,” Uno caressed Niko’s hair between his fingers, “you with me Niko?”
A nod.
He still refused to take his head away from his chest.
That was okay, Uno decided.
Apparently, he was the only emotional available one in cell thirteen anyway.
“Let’s play a game.”
That seemed to gain Niko’s interest, because if there was anything to be said about him, it was that he always enjoyed a fun game.
“Okay. Okay, good. What we’re going to do, is we’re going to take turns counting the thunder you hear. All four of us,” he shot the other two a withering look that said ‘you will be playing.’
“You understand?”
A nod.
Thunder.
“One,” Uno started
Bam.
“Two,” Rock chimed in.
Crackle
“Three,” Jyugo said, albeit a little flatly.
“F-four,” Niko hesitated. He still twitched uncomfortably at every sound from outside, but he was no longer making those same heartbreaking sounds he had been earlier. No longer crying.
The game went on until eventually all of their eyes fell heavy, and Niko failed to count the fiftieth strike.
“Niko?” He asked, and when he looked down, Niko was an unmoving deadweight in his arms. Drooling on his shoulders.
“He’s out,” Rock announced fondly.
Distantly, the power in Nanba prison hummed back to life. Good. Uno was starting to get a bit hot.
“Let’s get you back to bed,” he hefted Niko in his arms before laying him back down into his own comforter, but was shortly met with a dilemma. Niko had a death grip on him, and refused to let go.
“Looks like you’ve got yourself a bit of a predicament,” Jyugo teased.
“Oh shut the hell up, I don’t see you nurturing anyone. The only thing you nurture here is my desire to get the hell out.”
“Nu-uh!”
“Uh-uh!”
Niko shifted in his arms, and Uno immediately shut his mouth.
“Looks like we'll have to lie down with him. I’d feel pretty bad if we didn’t.” Rock sighed, then got settled as Uno shifted Niko to be in between them, back to Rock’s stomach as he curled up and clutched onto Uno like a newborn.
Jyugo, not one for touch, simply reached over and patted Niko’s head for a moment before retreating back to his sleeping bag.
Outside, the storm raged on, but inside, everything was calm and safe.