Chapter Text
The day seemed to stretch out as my head pulsed again, my migraine seeming to push against my eyes and temples. Mashita had been acting strange the whole day. His eyes were kinder, they didn’t have the sharp personality they usually had. He was looking at me. I could feel it, like pins in the back of my head. The frustration built up until I couldn’t hold it back anymore, “What?” The word came out harsh as I turned around in my chair to look at him, “Can I help you in any way? Why have you been staring at me?”
He quickly shifted his eyes, his words grumbled, “You seem like you’re in pain. I was going to offer to see if I could help… but…” he sighed and shook his head, “nevermind.” The report he was reading came back to cover his face, shielding me from him. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was sulking. He did want to help, I knew it.
“I’m sorry,” I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “This migraine has been slowly killing me all day. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. If you still want to help, I should have some migraine pills in the cabinet next to the fridge.” The kitchen was just the next room over, I could’ve easily gotten up and grabbed them.
His eyes peered over his report.
The computer in front of me was calling my name, so I turned back around and started typing again, trying to find information about a case that was a possible job, but I wasn’t good with any of this techy stuff. That was Eita’s job. The process was slow going, as my fingers moved lethargically across the keyboard, and the blue light from the screen encouraging my migraine to continue to grow.
A quiet clunk and rattle rang out when the bottle of pills and a glass of water was sat down in front of me. Mashita disappeared into the kitchen again. Must be going to get himself something to drink, too. The thought crossed my mind before I twisted off the cap of the bottle of pills. Swiftly, I popped two in my mouth and washed them down with water. A grimace emerged on my face; I hated the tablets, but they worked quicker than the capsules did, even if they left a disgusting taste in my mouth.
Mashita walked back in, with a snack cake in one hand, and a protein bar in the other. He pulled back his hand and started to raise it, before he stopped himself, and decided to set down the protein bar next to me. “Figured you didn’t eat much before we got here and haven’t seen you leave but maybe one time. And I’m pretty sure you just went to piss. You should really eat with your meds, but I’m not gonna force you to eat if you don’t want to.”
A smile flickered on my face, “Thanks, Mashita.” It took me a few minutes to stomach it, even a small bite made my stomach roll. Eventually, it was all gone. A few more minutes went by, and I got a call from Ai, asking if we had wanted to go out to eat.
“I don’t know about that Ai, I have a headache and don’t know I can leave right now.”
“Aww, please Mr. Yashiki? Who knows, it might just make you feel better~” Her voice was always sweet, almost sickeningly so.
Mashita spoke up from behind me, “Yeah, Ai we can definitely come, just give us a few minutes to get ready.”
“Wait, is that Mr. Mashita? What is he doing there at this hour, shouldn’t he be-” click.
The end call screen flashed on my phone for a moment after he pressed the button. He had a smug grin on his face. “You can at least try. If you still don’t feel good, then you can go to sleep in the car, and I can drive us home.” He convinced me.
We headed towards the garage after putting our coats and shoes on. As my hand touched the handle of my car, I paused. Something didn’t feel right. My stomach had dropped for some reason, and I whipped my head around, looking for spirits or an entity in my garage. It wasn’t easy for Mashita to ignore me.
“Hey, Yashiki, you okay?”
My gaze turned back to him, he had the door opened but hadn’t stepped into the car yet. He glanced around as well, but seeing nothing, he focused on me again. “Yashiki?”
The second call of my name snapped me back, and the feeling in my stomach dissipated. Instead, a fuzzy feeling filled my head and my eyes went blurry like I’d taken off my glasses. I shook my head, trying to get rid of it. Surprisingly, it did, but not before Mashita noticed.
He cautiously made his way around the car, and stood face to face with me. “Yo, Yashiki, what’s going on, man. Talk to me. Is it your head?” He put a hand on my shoulder, which steadied my body that I didn’t notice was swaying.
Blinking my eyes to fully rid myself of the blurry, fuzzy feeling, I replied, “Sorry, I’m okay, just felt weird for a second, probably just the migraine. Makes me feel weird sometimes. I could’ve warned you.” He still held on to me.
“Maybe I should drive…?” He caught my gaze again, checking with as few words as he could to make sure I was stable enough to drive.
“No, no, I’m fine, Mashita, I’m sorry.” My shoulder felt empty when his hand left. He gave me one last, hard look before he made his way back to the passengers side of the car.
We drove for probably about 15 minutes, just about to the edge of town, when I felt a familiar feeling. As I pulled the car over to the side of the road, I unbuckled myself, holding my hand over my mouth as my stomach rolled once again. I was barely out of the car before I was dry heaving, coughing up spittle and bile onto the grass next to the road. A firm couple pats on the back were followed by Mashita’s voice.
“Fine, huh? This doesn’t look very fine to me.” He pulled out his phone, and pressed a couple buttons before, “Hey, Ai? It’s Mashita. I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to make it tonight, Yashiki’s really sick right now. Yeah, we’ll see you at some other time, try to have a good night.” He closed his phone, rubbing my back again.
It felt so nice, I just wanted to… fall…. asleep…
.
.
.
.
.
“Yashiki?” A firm grasp on my shoulder, “Oi, this is no place to be sleeping. We should try to get back home first.” His words rung in my head like bells, echoing around, hitting different parts of my brain.
It felt weird again, like fuzzy, blurry, slow. Everything was slowed… I could feel every single blade of grass beneath me, prickling at my skin. It made my skin crawl. It twitched, trying to get away from the grass blades.
“…Yashiki..?” He asked again.
“The grass.” The words didn’t leave me very clearly, although I didn’t know it at the time, it felt normal to me. “Itching my legs.”
Mashita spoke up again, but I couldn’t hear what he said over the sound of crashing waves. One more thing rang out in my ears before the darkness overtook my vision.
“Kazuo!”
-Mashita POV-
He was acting weird all night, I don’t know if it was just the migraine or if something else was bothering him. I thought after the medicine that he’d be okay, that would be it. But when he suddenly stopped at the car, his gaze darting around the garage, I second guessed myself.
“Hey, Yashiki, you okay?” He looked at me from the corner of his eye, before looking around once more. I looked around as well , but didn’t see anything out of the norm, so I focused back on him. “Yashiki?”
He shook his head, as if he just got the shivers. Something about it felt off to me. I felt my gut tell me something bad was going to happen to Yashiki. I carefully, but swiftly made my way around the car, so that I was right next to him, “Hey, Yashiki, what’s going on man, come on, talk to me. Is your head still bothering you?” I put a hand on his shoulder when he still didn’t respond. I felt him swaying slightly under my grip.
His eyes blinked slowly, “Yeah…” his words were slurred ever so slightly. “Sorry, just felt weird for a second.” He paused, “The migraine, makes me feel like this sometimes. Should’ve told you.”
I didn’t let go of him, “Do you need me to drive?”
“No, no I’m okay Mashita, really.” He shrugged my hand off.
I stayed for a moment, just looking at him before I nodded at him and went back around to my side of the car. When did it start being my side? I wonder to myself a few minutes after the car gets going on the street. What doesn’t even feel like 3 minutes later, Yashiki pulls the car over hurriedly, struggling to unbuckle himself, with one of his hands over his mouth. Oh, man I knew it. He was still feeling the migraine.
He crashes his way out of the car, dry heaving onto the grass. Nothing comes up except some spit and a little bit of bile. I crouch beside him, rubbing his back as he sputters onto the green grass.
“Yeah, Yashiki, you look perfectly fine to me. Let me call Ai.” I give her a vague breakdown, not really saying much except “Sorry, Yashki’s sick we can’t make it tonight, rain check?” After I closed my phone, I continued rubbing his back. He drifted into me, leaning his body’s weight onto me.
“Yashiki? Hey, this is no place to be taking a nap. We should really get back home first.” I gently shook his shoulder, but he basically collapsed into me. I kneeled, letting him lay on my lap. His legs were twitching, starting to spasm. “Yashiki?”
“‘S the grass… itching my legs…” his pants were long, and thick enough I didn’t think he could feel the grass through them.
I tried to point that out to him, but he started to shake on my lap, his head jerking down towards his chest. His arms twitched towards his body, his legs kicked out like he was been hit with something. This definitely wasn’t normal… but it didn’t feel supernatural. This was…. A seizure.
“Kazuo!”
His body jerked up, his head slamming down onto my thighs. “Shit, shit, shit! I’m not meant to deal with this type of shit, this is Daimon’s domain!” I pulled out my phone, and quickly called Daimon, putting it on speaker.
“Mashita? Why are you calling me? It’s getting late, I’m not gonna be able to help you on-”
“Daimon! It’s Yashiki!”
He was quiet for a moment. “What's going on?” His voice quickly changed to a serious tone.
“I don’t know we were going out to dinner, and…”
“What is happening, right now?”
A question to try and ground me. “A-A seizure, I think. He had a migraine all day, we were driving, he pulled over, threw up, and now he’s…” I shake my head, as if in disbelief, “shaking, spasming, twitching. Seizing.”
“Okay, Mashita, I know this can be scary, but you’ve got me, okay? I’m gonna walk you through what to do. First of all, is he on the ground?”
“Yeah, we’re in the grass on the side of the road. He collapsed into me, so I kneeled down so I could lay his head on my lap.”
“Good, that’s good Mashita,” Some frantic rustling was heard, then the sound of a door closing from over the phone. “Where are you? I’m making my way to you two.”
“We’re barely a few minutes from Kujou Mansion. We had started heading towards the city to go eat with Ai. We just took the main road,” I looked at the road, which seemed eerily empty for this time of night. Usually people would be going to dinner or coming home from work at this time, but we hadn’t seen anyone for a while.
“Got it, I’ll be there in about 10 minutes. How long has he been seizing?”
I looked at my watch, which I’m glad I still wore even though I didn’t need it most of the time. I could barely read the time, “2 minutes or so? Since I’ve been calling you plus a few seconds.”
“Alright, if he doesn’t stop in 3 minutes, no matter what, call an ambulance. That’s known as status epilepticus, where his brain has something seriously wrong, and the seizing could cut off his oxygen supply. You aren’t holding him down or put anything in his mouth, right?”
I didn’t even think about either to be honest, I voice this to Daimon, when then replies to me again.
“No, no, that’s good, you don’t want to do either. Holding them down could lead to broken bones and putting something in their mouth could just lead to them choking. Are you able to get him onto his side?”
Easy enough, I guide his body onto its side, and some foamy spit leaks onto my overcoat. I grimace, and tell Daimon what was happening.
“Yeah that’s why I wanted you to do that. People who are seizing can choke on their saliva. How’s his breathing, Mashita?”
Wheezy, but he was still breathing.
“How’s he looking? It’s been 4 minutes.”
Even though his limbs were still contorting, it had slowed down considerably. I let out a breath I barely knew I was holding, “It looks like it’s stopping.”
“Good, that’s good. When it completely stops, you can get up from underneath him, just keep your coat or something under his head in case he starts again. Make sure he’s on his side, put one leg straight, the other bent at the knee, over the other one. It’ll prevent him from rolling over.”
I do as Daimon asks, and get up from where Yashiki was on the ground. What doesn’t even feel like a few seconds later, but what’s probably a few minutes, Daimon pulls up, and makes his way as quickly as he can to Yashiki.
He pulls out a penlight, and pulling back Yashiki’s eyelids, flicks it in and out of his vision. He does this with both eyes, and then says out loud, “Pupillary response seems normal. You did a good job keeping his head safe, Mashita. He won’t have a concussion, but that migraine probably won’t be any better.”
The weight of what was happening suddenly seemed to hit me, and I felt sick to my stomach as well. The car bounces when I put my weight on it, taking a deep breath, and letting it go shakily.
“Mashita? You alright over there?” Daimon’s focus was still on Yashiki, but he could tell that something was with me too.
“Yeah, sorry, sorry,” I mimic the action Yashiki did earlier, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Just had a second to breathe and it hit me. Everything that’s going on right now.”
“You’re alright,” Daimon reassures, “you kept him safe, that was your job. Now I can do mine.” He was gently rubbing Yashiki’s shoulder. After a few more minutes, he glanced at his watch again, “he should be coming to soon.”
I nodded, not really knowing what to say.
Sure enough, after another few minutes, Yashiki started to stir. He readjusted himself, pushing his head into my jacket which was still underneath him.
-Yashiki POV-
The smell of cigarettes and whiskey fill my nostrils as I wake up. It smelled familiar, and I tried to push myself into it, trying to remember what it was. My body felt sore, incredibly sore, like I had run a marathon that I hadn’t prepared for. Why was I so sore? Nothing like that happened that I can remember, but my memory did feel fuzzy.
A hand on my shoulder rubbed again, I don’t know if they were trying to get my attention or trying to comfort me in a way. They were speaking. The words came across like gibberish, although I knew they were speaking a language I understood. After a few more seconds, I finally interpreted what they said.
“Can you open your eyes for us?”
Of course I can. My eyelids didn’t want to seem to open, but I forced them open to see a familiar face over me, and another one standing a few feet away. Their names eluded me for the moment. A few long blinks later, the one directly over me spoke again.
“Good, that’s good. Are you able to speak yet? It’s okay if you can’t, but I want to see where you are.”
Trying to speak felt like chewing on an overdone steak. It felt weird and unpleasant in my mouth, but I forced out a word. A name.
“‘Shita?”
The man standing a few feet away got closer. He said something too, but like the man with the lab coat, his words barely reached my ears. He talked to the other man, and their words exchanged for a few moments before the lab coat man spoke directly to me again.
“Alright, that’s a start. Can you say your name?” He continued to rub my shoulder. The motion was comforting.
My name. That’s right, what was my name? The name I said wasn’t mine, but it was the only one that came to mind. The whiskey and cigarette smell correlated to the name, so I turned into it more. “‘Shita…”
The man who was standing dropped down to a crouch. “Hey, I’m right here, okay? You’re safe, I promise.” Mashita said, as he took the other man’s action and rubbed my arm for a second. “It’s okay, just take your time.”
The man in the lab coat, Daimon, his name finally returned to me, tried his question again, “Tell us your name, please.” He was looking a little bit worried.
“Kujou. Kazuo.”
“Do you mean Yashiki Kazuo?”
“Maybe?” It didn’t quite sound right but I said yes anyway. “What happened? Hurts…”
The men exchanged a look, before Daimon spoke, “You had a seizure, Yashiki.”
That sounded bad. “Why?”
Daimon let out a snicker, “I don’t know why, Yashiki. You just had it, and we’re on the side of the road. I have no way to determine why you had a seizure. Mashita said you had a migraine earlier, sometimes migraines can be auras for seizures. Have you had any before?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t remember at least.” Even with how much work I do, I can’t ever remember waking up this sore, this confusion was new to me. It only took a few minutes for me to reorient myself but still those few minutes right after I woke up were terrible.
“It could just be a one off, it’s actually more common than you might think.” He put his hand to my forehead, “You don’t feel hot, and febrile seizures in adults are very uncommon anyway. Assuming that this isn’t something supernatural, I’m not too concerned about it, to be honest. As long as you can get home, just rest for a few days and hopefully you’ll be back to normal. If it happens again, either come into the hospital or call me and I’ll get you set up for some scans and tests.” He stood up, and nodded at Mashita, “I’ll be taking my leave now. You’ll need to drive him home, and preferably stay with him for a couple days if you’re able.”
Mashita looked like he wanted to protest, but held his tongue when he glanced at me, still on the ground. He only nodded, no words left his mouth to say goodbye to Daimon. Once Daimon left, Mashita asked if I could stand, but before I could answer, he extended his hand.
As he was helping me up, I grabbed his jacket from off the ground. “Sorry about getting your jacket dirty.” The ground suddenly seemed very interesting to me, I kicked a small rock away from my foot.
He took his jacket back, but didn’t put it on. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve been looking for an excuse to clean it, but my lazy ass didn’t want to.”
It was a quiet ride home, Mashita occasionally gripped the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles turned white. His jaw was tense, and the dark circles around his eyes seemed more prominent today.
When we got back to the house, Mashita followed me up to my room because, “Daimon told me to take care of you, I’m gonna make sure you don’t have another one while you’re asleep.” He glanced around the room before deciding to take a seat on the chair next to my desk.
“I have a perfectly good bed, it’s big enough for both of us to have our own room. Why don’t you come up here with me? It’s more comfortable than the chair, I promise.”
He refused, “No, I’ll be fine here, thank you though.”
“At least take a blanket?” It was a pretty nice blanket, fuzzy, but not too heavy.
He rolled his eyes, sighed, and took it. After he settled in, as comfortable as he could be in that battered, old chair, he pulled the purple, fuzzy blanket up over his shoulders. His gaze settled to me and it softened.
He was supposed to be watching me as I slept, but as soon as the lights went out, he was out. A smile slipped its way onto my face. I’m glad he’s my friend and cares so much about me. “Goodnight, Mashita.”