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Traffic sounded behind frail windows; sounds of life. Life uncaring of one’s struggles, pointedly, those of Asaba Harumasa, who was currently disposing his stomach contents and acid via his mouth, drool and tears leaking from his orifices as he gagged and heaved, hands trembling and face as pale as a white sheet.
“Now I can finally take a day off again~” The cheery mask of him hummed in his double-faceted mind as he kneeled over the toilet, leaning on it with both arms. Feeling like garbage was his norm, like a perpetual hangover with a side dish of lung pain and heart arrhythmia that he never could quite guess if it was serious or just the usual stuff .
The other part of him lamented the fact that they had an important Hollows operation today at H.S.O.S.6, one he couldn’t, shouldn’t, afford to miss. Another part wondered if he was going to die on a faster schedule than he thought, body eroding and mind with it. No, just a thought to be brushed off. If he died, he’d die! It is what it is, right? Not like he had anything to lose, except Tsukishiro, Chief Miyabi, sweet lil’ Soukaku, oh Soukaku… – He had a lot to lose, didn’t he?
And then there was Seth, the precious lynx Thiren he’d grown closer with after the incident with Kirishima. Sure, they were acquaintances from before – from the academy – but recently Harumasa had found himself drawn to the man’s radiance: his sense of justice, his stubbornness, the adorable way he flicked his ears when upset or focused, the way he swished his tail when he was happy, like a canine Thiren rather than a feline. Harumasa felt like a Mayfly, flying desperately to find a mate during its short adulthood and promptly dropping dead after.
Even now, he found himself typing a message to Seth while still sitting on the bathroom tiles.
Harumasa: heeyyy officer~ u busy today?
Harumasa lay on his back on the cool tiles and let out a frustrated groan, which turned into a wet and painful coughing fit, having him end up curled on his side on the floor. That message was way too loaded with romantic and/or sexual subtext, wasn’t it? Ugh. He honestly just wanted some company to get his mind off how miserable he felt, nothing more. His feelings for Seth were beside the point.
It was embarrassing, excruciating, really, to ask for help. But he knew Seth would never judge him, never belittle his struggles, and that’s why it was precisely him Harumasa messaged on Knock Knock, and no one else.
The phone’s notification bell went off, and Harumasa opened it with bated breath and a furrowed brow, nervous for some reason. His lock screen was a photo of Soukaku’s drawing; one of the Section Six team – in other words, his family. Come on, the drawing was just too cute not to hang up on the metaphorical fridge door that was his phone lock screen!
Seth: Nope, not after work anyway! Did you want to hang out or something?
Harumasa: I mean yeah! but also i kinda feel terrible today, so I don’t think I can go out
If it’s not too much work, could you maybe bring over some soup or something? I can’t seem to keep food down for some reason
Seth: sljcnecaso#281nhdgiu#sahgnoiauHA!!!2SJ
Seth: Sorry!!! Just dropped my phone on the floor, haha. I’ll be at your apartment after 5PM, okay? Hang in there until then! I gotta go, meeting!!
Harumasa smiled to himself, a wobbly, weak little thing, but something nonetheless.
Harumasa: can’t wait~ thanks, Seth
With that, he closed his phone, even that feeling too heavy to hold at the moment, and slowly slid off the floor. His cat, Yūka, wandered in with loud meows, probably alarmed at the sounds from before. At least, thankfully, Harumasa no longer felt like throwing up, so he clambered on his feet and flushed the toilet, washing his face at the sink, noting the ever-darker purple bags under his eye and his face looking sunken. He had been throwing up a lot lately, not able to eat much, so he had probably lost some weight. He felt weaker too, which wasn’t a great sign. But all he could do was take his prescribed nausea medication (though it barely helped) and take some deep breaths, trying to calm his thoughts that were skittering about and heading to the death and doom sort of direction.
Petting Yūka helped a little. Too bad the bugger wouldn’t sit still for even half a minute, already off to the kitchen to beg for food. Because apparently Harumasa throwing up his food meant more food for the cat. Obviously.
It was almost her food time anyway, so he went ahead and filled her food bowl with wet food now that he still had the strength to do so. After finishing that task, exhausted, he made a pathetic lump of himself on the sofa, shivering under a blanket and watching-but-not-watching TV. It was mostly heinously long ads, not that he could focus on anything even if it was something better.
Oh, right. Leave request. He quickly typed a short message for Tsukishiro, feeling a lump of shame in his throat and chest when he sent it, even though he had good reason to. He’d just been absent too much lately, even for his standards, but he could only hope that it was just a long flare-up with new symptoms, and not a sign of his imminent deterioration. He still had life left to daydream about, didn’t he? Of windy days at Port Elpis, maybe with the Proxies or Seth, his team…
Just thinking about it made him feel tired, and he must have dozed off, since the next thing he knew was the doorbell ringing. Was it already past 5PM? He must have slept, what, two hours? And now he felt even worse after having slept in a weird position, lungs squeezing uncomfortably. Goddamnit. Stupid fucking comforting thoughts and the ambient droning of the TV. Yūka had nestled on his arm, which was numb now, but he couldn’t be mad at her. She seemed annoyed at Harumasa moving, but he really had no choice.
“Sorry, kitty, gotta open the door for the other kitty,” He apologized, at least hoping that it really was Seth and not some door-to-door salesperson or a weirdo trying to recruit people into whatever cult.
Opening the door, Harumasa leaned on a wall, trying to seem cool about it and not like he could barely stand.
“Hey, glad you could make it~” He willed a smile to curl his lips.
Seth put down the bags he was carrying to take off his shoes, knowing Harumasa never wore shoes in his apartment.
“Hey, uh, you… You don’t look too good,” Seth frowned, scanning the black-haired man who was still trying to maintain a casual, totally-fine façade. Unprompted, he took his hand to Harumasa’s forehead. “Gosh, you’re burning hot, Harumasa. You gotta go back to bed! I’ll handle the unpacking, okay?”
“Oh, come on, don’t treat me like I’m some frail… thing,” Harumasa started with an attitude, but trailed off as vertigo made his vision swim when he tried to not lean on something for a second. “Okay, maybe you’re right. But I’ll go to the couch, just for a sec! Join me when you’re able, mm?”
“Whatever you say, Agent Asaba,” Seth said with a flick of his ear and went to unpack his purchases. Some chicken and dumplings soup for Harumasa, and a mild noodle soup bowl with meat for Seth. Waterfall Soup was close to his workplace at Lumina Square, so it had been easy to acquire. He just felt bad for Harumasa, but tried not to pity him, knowing Harumasa hated it. But of course it felt bad, he really cared about Harumasa, and it ached seeing him sick, knowing what he now knows about Ether Aptitude Regression Syndrome. Seth really just wished he could take it all away, but he knew that wasn’t possible, at least not for him. He wasn’t a doctor or a scientist, he was just a low-ranking officer at Pubsec. What could he possibly do, besides bring Harumasa soup when he asked?
So he did what he could; unpacking groceries and getting chopsticks and spoons for the food, bringing them to the living room coffee table. His tail swished, seeing Harumasa all cuddled up with his cat on the sofa under a blanket. Carefully, Seth nudged him and told him the food was ready.
“Thank you, Seth, I really appreciate you doing this,” Harumasa mumbled, and Seth was taken aback by the sincerity, which was a somewhat rare thing for the agent, who mostly hid behind snide remarks and jokes. Yūka seemed to share his sentiment, since she left Harumasa’s side to push her face against Seth’s hand and legs, which earned a mock hurt scoff from Harumasa and a small laugh, which morphed into a strained cough, even though Harumasa clearly tried to suppress it. For what? It’s not like Seth didn’t already know of his condition, and he had asked Seth to come here to help, so Seth saw no point in trying to act tough, not when he was here to help; to keep Harumasa company. And it wasn’t like Seth was doing it out of pity. He had grown fond of Harumasa, especially after he let some of his walls of sarcasm down.
“It’s really no problem. Waterfall soup is right next to my workplace anyway,” Seth replied, trying not to frown at Harumasa’s coughing, “Besides, I like being with you. Unless you would rather I just go, of course. I’m sorry if I misunderstood that you wanted to–”
“Woah, woah,” Harumasa chuckled and waved his hands, “Easy there, kitty. I wanted you to stay. It’s nice to have company besides Yūka.”
Seth pouted. “Don’t call me kitty, please. I have a name.”
Harumasa put his arms up in surrender. “Alright, alright. Seth~ ”
Well, now he was just playing with Seth’s feelings, wasn’t he? Seth’s cheeks flushed red and he looked away, pointedly ignoring Harumasa and focusing on his meal instead. Harumasa, still, didn’t seem interested in the food much at all, looking queasy while glancing at the soup brought to him.
After Seth had almost eaten, he decided to speak up: “Are you still feeling nauseous? You’ve barely touched your food.”
“Mm, yeah,” Harumasa swallowed, absently picking at bits in his soup. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Seth replied easily, giving an earnest smile. “You can heat up the rest later, when you’re feeling a bit better.”
“Aren’t you worried you’ll catch something from me?” Harumasa asked curiously.
Seth scratched Yūka under the chin, before watching her jump off the couch and find elsewhere to sit. Seemed she wanted her own space for the moment. “No, not really. I’ve got a strong immune system, so I’m not really worried. All the colds and such I catch always pass fast for me, if I catch them.”
“Haa, I’m jealous,” Harumasa sighed with a small smile, and a shiver ran through his body. He held onto his own arms, absently watching yet another ad break on TV. They were advertising some new Bangboos with flashing, saturated colors and earworm type of tunes.
“Yeah,” Seth replied, somehow guilty. He found himself looking into Harumasa’s golden eyes and the specks of blue in them, entranced, but ripped himself away to take their food away and boil some water for Harumasa. At least he should take some medicine and drink something if he can’t eat.
Putting the rest of Harumasa’s food into a container, filling the kettle and flicking it on, he wondered why he found himself going through so much trouble for Harumasa. Well, no matter. He was just happy Harumasa had messaged him and asked him to come over, instead of suffering by himself.
Tail swishing near the floor, Seth poured the hot water into a cat mug and grabbed some paracetamol from the counter to go. Then, Seth came back to the couch to find a barely conscious Harumasa with hair sticking to a sweaty forehead, shivering and coughing.
“Have some hot water. I brought you some medicine, too,” Seth nudged Harumasa, who groggily sat up and sipped the hot water, somehow gulping down the pills with barely any water. Seth didn’t know if he should have been terrified or impressed.
“Thank you, k–... Seth,” Harumasa mumbled, and his head somehow found its place on Seth’s lap.
Deciding that there was no other choice, Seth carefully started petting Harumasa’s head, carding through the tousled black hair with his fingers. It seemed to calm Harumasa down, his breathing becoming more even, yellow eyes closed.
“It’s okay, Harumasa, I’m not going anywhere,” Seth quietly said, though he didn’t know if Harumasa was even still awake. He got a soft ‘mm’ in response, whatever that meant. It made Seth’s lips turn to a soft smile, his own mind calming too.
“You’re… warm,” Harumasa mumbled, curling even closer and getting into a more comfortable position.
Soon enough, his breathing indicated that he had fallen asleep, and Seth was stuck, his friend and crush sleeping in a feverish haze, head in his lap. Seth didn’t stop stroking Harumasa’s head even then, and he hoped, hoped that this would last a while longer. And traffic still sounded outside, uncaring but steady, ambient noise for a fragile, warm moment.