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Even as he hobbles down the stairs from Shujin Academy, Ren feels as miserable as if the day had just started, and if Kamoshida had still shown his ugly face. Such rumblings from Kawakami and the homeroom class were startling. But as wishful as Ren may be, he likes to think that it’s only the first sign of a justice well overdue.
Still, he could have had the last few school days without P.E. obliterating his legs and dehydration banging against his head. Though as far as he can surmise, he could have things be going far worse for him… maybe.
But when it comes down to the risks they took as a team, Ryuji and Ann certainly deserve a week on “vacation”—and actually, make it a real trip to a paradisiacal resort, and this sorry prep academy is forced to pay for all of its expenses—only returning when the slimy abuser they share finally rots the frayed cot of some dusty prison cell.
At least Ryuji was in pluckier spirits today. Not only does he, Ren, and Morgana ever only get closer and stronger in bond (even their “little guy” of a cat stowed away his snappy bickerings this time), but the blond former runner has been seen in-between classes with more of a strut, less of a limp. Not everyone seemed to notice (Ryuji doesn’t seem ready for every one of his peers to gawk at and swoon over him…not for now, at least), but more than a few looked on curiously. His quieter friend, on the other hand, felt a stir of pride and let it brighten his morning before the afternoon sun could finish the job.
But Ann was absent for Ren to draw from her strength, too—her reasoning was far unpleasant to what she really needed right now. Less than twenty-four hours after they’d taken Kamoshida’s Treasure (and they still have about an hour to go until they reached that threshold at last), she wound up sick with a repulsive cold and matching fever. Her texts were brief but unflinching that morning.
So around lunch time, an unknown number sends a tall wall of text to the boys, its obtusely classy voice as palatable as its unspoken concern.
???: Hello, this is Ann Takamaki’s caretaker. I apologize for my informal approach to the both of you—Ryuji Sakamoto and Ren Amamiya—but I wanted to issue the both of you a request. You may decline or even accept for another day, if you would prefer.
Takamaki-san is absent from school today from a severe cold and fever—she had developed the symptoms when I went to check on her after dinner last night. They became worse this morning, but have gradually improved over the last few hours. She was rather adamant about texting the both of you, however, and I helped her give you her message before she became nauseous again.
I am messaging the both of you now to extend an invitation to the apartment complex that she and I live in (the both of us have our own studio apartments here). If you would like to check in on Takamaki-san after school today, I have full confidence that she would be grateful for your support. I will need to be sure that she is comfortable and settled in before you see her, but as long as that is the case, we’ll be happy to have you.
In addition, I would like to ask that you may pay Shiho Suzui a visit in Ann’s stead. You are welcome to decline if it’s too overwhelming—I will gladly have you here regardless. Only if either or both of you are comfortable do I ask that you talk with Suzui-san, even just briefly, and pass along that her friend will return once she recovers. Ann remains adamant about visiting Suzui-san despite her own condition, and while I understand the general circumstances for her being hospitalized, I don’t believe the doctors will allow Ann visitation until her illness has subsided.
Lastly, regardless of how either or both of you feel about the visitation, I also wish to offer you dinner—a meal for the two of you at any certain restaurants should be well in my budget to pay the bill for, or I can prepare tonight’s dinner to accommodate the both of you, and include additional sides and dessert. I am happy to provide either of these options for the both of you.
Of course, if one or the both of you cannot be here after school, please let me know if you would like to instead visit the apartment and have dinner another day. Regardless, I thank you both for being good friends to Ann. In spite of the tragedy that occurred for Suzui-san, and how Ann herself has been considerably depressed and upset by issues at school, she’s been able to bring her head back up, and has even talked about the both of you (and even Amamiya-kun’s pet cat!) in a similar vein to her bringing up her other best friend. I can’t say if she is completely well, or if there is more I can do for her, but I’m grateful that the two of you can be there for her in your own ways—Amamiya-san and Sakamoto-san: with Suzui-san, you seem to have truly made a difference for Ann. Thank you.
Less formally but more cheerily (Ryuji playing no small part in it), the two agreed to every offer. In retrospect, Ren wishes that they specified that they would love to try some cooking from “Nana Takamaki.”
So Ren finally winds up at the bottom of the brick stairs. The relief of another school day behind him and their adversary taking leave with it (however finite it may be) has yet to sink in. Thus, his sour headspace never wavers as he recalibrates his posture.
As his head hums with another ache, a distinctly “spiky fluff” of golden hair catches his eyes before anything else.
“You okay, dude?” Ryuji pokes quietly, even for how organic his louder volumes are and as the spring breeze begins to dash through them.
As his friend approaches gingerly, the soreness in Ren’s legs finally simmers down. His head still reverberates with the same dull burn, but maybe his relief has just partially started to take root in him.
Even though no one could help him if it took full root and blossomed, just for Kamoshida to return worse than before.
He really hopes that his friends are safe at last.
“Thirsty,” he says without thinking.
He snaps back to reality as Ryuji scrutinizes Ren’s face and the pale hand on his own forehead.
Ryuji shakes his head. “C’mon, man, you can’t skip out on water like that. How long has it been?”
Ren pushes his headspace back in time. His second half of the day—even with accursed P.E. after lunch—recalled no stopping at the fountains or buying himself a bottle. He didn’t have one with lunch, or for his classes from the first bell to lunch, and—
Ryuji pulls an unopened plastic bottle from the side of his bag, wordlessly twisting it open and handing it to his friend.
“Drink that on our way to Ann’s,” he orders, though a familiar puppy-like grin creeps across his tan visage. “Maybe her nana has some painkillers if your head still sucks when we get there.”
Morgana’s ears tickle Ren’s shoulder as his head pokes up. “You really are a lifesaver, Ryuji,” he gawks. “Our leader’s been miserable since his P.E. class ended!”
Ren’s jaws burn with flush as he takes the plastic into his fist. “We’re still on school grounds,” he growls quietly.
Ryuji snorts softly, nudging his knuckles against the bottle in Ren’s hand. “‘S fine. Take some ‘lil’ sips while we walk to the station. It’s gonna feel like shit if you chug it, so go slow.”
“Thanks,” says Ren.
“Very considerate of you, Ryuji,” says Morgana.
Ryuji doesn’t even retort at whatever Morgana could have (or couldn’t have) implied there. He just wraps an arm behind and around their necks, nudging the former along to the train station. Morgana squirms his way out to rest atop the wrist of Ryuji’s arm.
Ren finally takes his first sip of water for the day, and realizes just how fuzzy and warm his chest feels, and even how the pain in his body slowly dissolves.
It started the second that Ryuji started talking—
“Would you please extend that same courtesy to ‘Lady Ann’ and her maid?” Morgana snootily interrogates.
“Shuddup.” Ryuji sounds like he’s taking extra care to keep his voice just above the wind. “That ain’t a tough act to follow. And a nanny ain’t the same as some random-ass maid.”
He almost raises his volume again right there—but Ren is already preoccupied by how Ryuji’s company is presently calming as it is usually invigorating.
“Can you keep quiet while Ann’s nana is here?” Ren pleads to Morgana while it’s not too late. “She knows we brought you along, too, so don’t make a scene.”
“You’re preaching to the choir there, Joker,” sneers the cat, packed still and snug in his bag.
It only takes seconds after Ryuji knocks for the apartment doorknob to twist and the frame to glide backwards. A very pretty woman—petite and healthily plump, possibly somewhere in her forties—peers through the generous opening.
Her smile brightens. “Sakamoto-san,” she says faintly above a whisper, “it’s been a while since I’d heard about you! And you must be Amamiya-san?”
The boys nod. Ryuji’s cheeks are dusted with a pale pink that only Ren seems to notice. He keeps his eyes on Ann’s nanny, anyway, so as to not make it worse for his friend.
“It’s good to meet you,” Ren politely answers from the complex hallway.
“I dunno why Ann was talkin’ about me in middle school,” Ryuji mumbles yet slowly perks up, “but it’s good to actually meetcha!”
The lady softly snorts in response, the somewhat drawn visage drowning under her perky smile and her twinkling eyes that squeeze shut as she collects herself.
“You’d be surprised when exactly the girl’s memory is extra sharp.” She pulls the door further open and steps back, bringing a finger to her lips with a faint hush. “Keep your voices down for a bit. But please, come inside and take your shoes off.”
Ryuji doesn’t move, instead patting Ren’s back to prod him in first. Ann’s caretaker raises a hand to finger-wave cheerily at Morgana, who stares calmly yet politely at her from his seat in-between Ren’s schoolwork folders and utensil cases.
“Do you have any extra painkillers?” Ryuji asks as soon as Ren steps in and slides his feet out of his loafers.
The dark-haired second-year snaps his head up as Ryuji shuffles in and slips his tennis shoes off.
“Oh, absolutely,” says Ann’s nanny. “May I bring you some water with that?”
“It’s actually for his head,” whispers Ryuji, gesturing his thumb towards Ren while ignoring the flushed face glaring back at him. “He had some water on our way here, but it ain’t enough after how long he’s gone without any.”
For the first time since they had met, Ren is raring to pounce on Ryuji’s audacious ass—
But “Nana Takamaki” chuckles, never minding the embarrassment plastered under Ren’s ebony mop of hair.
“Is it safe to assume that athletes can be good nurses, after all?” she muses, tightly closing and locking the door before sneaking past the boys. “Here, Amamiya-san, it’s really no issue. Just mind Ann around the corner here while I fetch you that.”
Ren usually isn’t one for even the most well-meaning stereotypes. If the sports players or track and gymnastics stars could have personnel on-hand to keep their bodies acheless and pain-free, he would go on the record to say that at least half of Shujin’s athletic roster would sign themselves up for the privilege. But when the school wouldn’t really go the mile to take care of their student body—not unless it would pacify predatory faculty or it would help avoid the ire of the public—maybe the athletes alone are really the closest they will ever get to “sports medics.”
And for all of his current huffing and fussing, the gnawing in his head is calmer than it was when the last bell rang and Ryuji had just shoved a bottle of cold water in his hands.
So, Ren’s angry embarrassment wipes itself clean off his face as Ryuji walks up and thoughtfully surveys his portrait. His tiny eyebrows furrow, his pretty oak-brown eyes sparkle, his lips clamp tightly together.
Oh come on, Ren quietly snarks, there’s not that much thinking going on in his head.
Still, Ren feels much better with him around. Through one means or another, Ryuji has always had that effect since they first met.
“Ryuji? Ren? Guys?”
Ann sounds like she has seen better days—and sure enough, yes and no are correct at once.
When the boys break up their huddle and look ahead, they first eye an array of cluttered, half-organized clothes hung along long racks and stuffed into shelves. Only when they turn to their right do they find Ann in bed.
As if by instinct, Ren and Ryuji smile. Even with her face drawn, her breath congested, and her hair down in faintly greasy waves, Ann musters a wistful beam in return.
The echoes of Ann’s raspy and quiet voice still rang in Ren’s head.
“The whole time Ryuji was playing nurse there, you kept staring at him.”
Their initial stop to visit Ann and Michiru Mizuno (her nanny’s actual name, much to the embarrassment of the boys to hastily forget “Nana Takamaki”) just had to end with a short exchange between the two as Ryuji helped Michiru with something in the apartment bathroom.
“He was going on about how a light blanket actually helps more than my heavy bed sheets, and you wouldn’t stop staring. Michiru asked him about any home remedies he knew of, and… again, you were fixated on him.”
In hindsight, it didn’t help him to pout silently as she smiled warmly, her body writhing under earnest attempts to giggle without coughing up anymore guck.
“Hey, don’t have that look, Ren…sorry if I made it sound like a bad thing.”
Visiting Shiho in the ICU was enough to distract him. As Morgana stalked the perimeters through the bushes, Ren and Ryuji did their best to uphold a quiet but light-hearted atmosphere in her room. It was one thing for Ann to say whatever and feel however beside her treasured friend, but even Ryuji felt it prudent of them to not let the conversation get too silly or too downtrodden.
“I think it’s cute. I don’t even blame you. Ryuji’s not a hopeless idiot, but even I didn’t know he was good at basic health and medicine…or whatever you call it.”
But when their time with Shiho ended—a solemn but hopeful note clinging to the air—Ann’s aside and his subsequent reflections came rushing to the front of his mind again.
“I just can’t help but wonder how you two feel as best friends—I’ve never even felt left out with you two. I doubt Morgana would feel that way, either.”
Ms. Mizuno never had time to cook dinner, let alone for more than two people, so she insisted that the boys pick up sushi she had ordered for the four of them (though Ann only asked for so little compared to the rest of them, as an otherwise exquisite meal would be a waste for her—for once, the poor girl’s stomach seemed to repulse the idea of her satiating any semblance of hunger). Morgana and the boys could walk the short distance from the hospital to the restaurant—a popular Shibuya joint that was still just quiet enough to avoid wait times for most of their patrons dining in—and she would meet them in her car to take them back.
Even so, that walk leaves enough to force Ren to think.
“If I’m honest, when we started making our way through Kamoshida’s Palace, you two were really getting along. It’s not bad at all—I was just reminded of some anime couples when you guys were testing the hookshot for me and Mona. Or when you had to take off his jacket to treat his wounds. You two got really close while he was shirtless, and your faces were burning just because of it.”
But even if Ann is starting to puzzle them out too, there’s no way…except—
“Or when he said something about your head ramming his ass in the vents? Twice while we were crawling through just that first shaft.”
That one just made him loathe having a clear memory bank.
“Bad example. Actually, when I was teasing him for one-shotting that sexy succubus Shadow? I still remember your face, and I don’t think you were jealous of him, ‘Ren-Ren.’”
She wasn’t wrong…also yes, Morgana was the one jealous of Ryuji.
“I should let you go before Ryuji and Michiru get confused. All I’m saying is that it’s fine if you’re just good friends. But if you’re feeling like that’s starting to become an understatement, I would clear the air with him before you two have said nothing for too long.”
Ren couldn’t stand the thought of unsettling Ryuji and how he felt around them. He also hated that there were probably a few ways to just try without ruining their friendship in the worst case.
He was also scared that the “worst case” encompassed even the most gracious and uplifting of rejections.
“Are you still doin’ okay?” The worry in Ryuji’s voice is front and center now.
They got their order in Ryuji’s hand. All that’s left is to wait for Mizuno to swing by. Not much longer now…except—
Contrary to what seems to concern Ryuji right now, Ren is faithful his immune system will clear out any contagion from Ann. If he still wakes up tomorrow with a fever, he knows it won’t take long to break and return to school after.
What Ren doesn’t have faith in is confessing to Ryuji without tarnishing everything they have been through. It hasn’t even been a whole month yet! Surely, he can settle down and let the rest of a “whole month” fly by first.
Excuses again. Or is it just a reasonable doubt?
His mind races through hours’ worth of thinking in a few seconds—so he’s already gone quiet for too many seconds.
He exhales sharply, and looks around them. From Untouchable to their sight’s range of Central Street, anyone and everyone else who could see them couldn’t care less if he took his shot now.
He turns back to Ryuji, taking a deep, laser-focused look into his eyes. They’re dark and warm, like a healthy oak tree, like dark chocolate laced with honey.
They’re as protective as they are trusting. It suits him well enough.
“Ryuji?” His voice is already shaky. “Tell me if I make you uncomfortable, okay? I’ll stop.”
The look on his face silently questions, but still trusts him.
As soon as he nods, Ren takes Ryuji’s left hand in his right.
He slots their fingers together. Thumb to thumb—
What is this supposed to do?
—index meets pointer…or yeah, pointer meets index—
This doesn’t prove anything.
—middle-to-middle, ring and ring, pinky meets pinky…
…Yeah, that’s it. Nothing but Ren’s own heartbeat running itself out over—
“Ren?” Ryuji doesn’t even squeal or shout his name. It’s hushed, for better or for worse.
Pink brushes the sun-kissed skin of his face.
Ren can feel a flush rising to the surface of his own.
Ann gingerly sets her plastic tray and cups in the recycling bin.
“I wish I could’ve wanted more than just one roll,” she mewls, shuffling back to her bed where Michiru, Morgana, and the boys sit beside. “Maybe next time.”
“That-a girl, Ann,” her nanny soothes. “We’ll have sushi again when it’s not going to upset your tummy. Was that still good, though?”
She nods quietly, settling back into her light blanket and returning to Ryuji’s portable game console. “Thanks for letting me play on this, Ryuji.”
He nods. “They’re new, but they ain’t too expensive.” He closes his empty first box to open his only other one. “If you’re only into so many games coming out for it, you shouldn’t go broke over it.”
“What’s the one you’ve been teaching her?” Mizuno asks after swallowing a piece of salmon nigiri.
“The new Zelda where he wears blue and you can go almost anywhere,” says Ann. “It’s kinda hard right now, but I’m getting better.”
“I didn’t think they could make it more open-world,” Ren muses. “It used to be that anything goes outside of the dungeon order.”
“When you put it like that, yeah,” Ryuji replies. “Now, once you’re paragliding’ off this startin’ area, you can go anywhere you want. There aren’t any big dungeons, even. Just big story quests with a medium-length dungeon at the end of ‘em.”
Ann hums. “I’ve barely ever played Zelda,” she admits, “but the ones I played had a few ways you could screw around before they start to push you onto the main story. This is just not wanting to hold my hand. The old guy just tells me to hit up these three little shrines and that’s it.” She abruptly holds out the console with one hand, wrapping the other arm around her face as she coughs into it.
As soon as she turns back around, she offers Ryuji his console back. “Can you or Ren play some of this for me? It’s fun, but my brain’s going to melt if I keep up where I’ve been stuck.”
“Yeah, actually,” he eagerly looks between her and Ren, “I got an idea. If you’re done eating, Ren, could ya scooch in between me and Ann?”
Ren nods. “You want me to try it?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Both of his blonde friends already resituate themselves, Ryuji spinning Ren’s chair around as soon as he stands up from it. “I’ll show you the ropes, but it ain’t gonna bite.”
Ren can’t help the snort that erupts from his throat. How cheeky.
“I ain’t gonna lie, man,” Ryuji gulped, “you have your shit together more than me, so I thought there was no way you’d…”
He trailed off, and it was his turn to dart his head every-which-way between the airsoft shop and what they could still see of Central Street. Any minute soon, Mizuno would walk down to look for them and bring them back to her car.
“Yes and no,” Ren murmured in disbelief. “We’re both picking up each other’s slack, aren’t we?”
“Y-yeah.” Ryuji shuddered, and Ren finally figured that he could pull them out graciously, and tomorrow would go on like this detour never happened.
“I-I-I totally get if you don’t feel the same way,” the dark-haired boy said through chattering teeth. “So, um…it wouldn’t be too hard for me to put it on the back-burner and let us stay frien—”
“Shit, dude!” Ryuji piped up. “Are you cold?”
Ren surmised that he wasn’t too good at hiding the clattering inside his mouth, or the long-gone shiver that still petrified his rigid body.
“Hold up,” Ryuji added before Ren could get a word in. “Let’s get inside ‘til Mizuno-san shows up. And—”
He raised their interwoven hands so they stood proudly in the center of the small distance between their hammering chests.
“We can talk about it more later,” he giggled, “but I don’t bite when it comes to this.”
He finally let go—only to have closed the distance between their bodies.
“Actually, I’ve been feelin’ the same way for a bit. Dunno what did it for you about me, but I’m not gonna act like I don’t swing that way, too.”
Well, the mini-nursing was the tip of the iceberg for me, Ren wanted to say. Instead, he shut himself up with the warmth that emanated as Ryuji hugged him tight.