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Natsuki doesn’t get many texts to him personally. Sure he’s in a few group chats (against his will) but those are hardly ever directed to him. Every now and then he’ll get a text from Mafuyu about something his little brother could’ve just walked over and asked him but he doesn’t mind. He doesn’t get a lot of texts, and when he does get one he typically ignores it. He doesn’t ignore this one though.
Lu: Hey its lu we’ve kinda got a situations at sakamoto’s youre gonna wanna come back pls
First off, it’s from Lu, and she’s sworn to never treat him ‘nicely’ or whatever after he kidnapped her that one time (honestly it’s not his fault his boss is an idiot, he tried anyways). Secondly from what he’s heard from Shin she’s not really the type to say please unless a situation is serious, or she really wants something, which begs the question as to why she is texting him. From her phone nonetheless. Before he can type another text asking her why he should come she sends another text. This time seemingly more frantic.
Lu: Its shin pls come somethings wrong
It’s almost pathetic how he doesn’t need anymore information. He sighs looking around his dorm before getting up and grabbing some stuff, sending Lu a text.
Natsuki: What’s going on?
Lu: thank god you picked up omg
Lu: we think theres something wrong with shins mind or head
Lu: he doesnt remember any of us we think its amnesia
Lu: pls come its freaking everyone out and hanas crying and heisuke is trying to make him remember and boss man is freaking out and aoi is sad plsplsplsspslssl come
Natsuki: kk
Lu: thank you so much
Amnesia? What a hassle, he walks two steps out the door before being intercepted by Mafuyu and Toramaru. For once he hopes that Mafuyu will just walk right by him and not notice as he doesn't want his brother freaking out or anything, but of course the one time he wants Mafuyu to keep walking he stops.
“Where are you going?” Mafuyu calls over.
Natsuki stops in his tracks and sighs, mumbling something about Mafuyu being a brat and looking over to his younger brother. “I’m going to visit Shin,”
Toramaru looks at Natsuki, a little concerned. “Is something wrong with him? You look stressed,” she frowns.
Well there’s not really a point in lying (but he could try… nevermind that’s too much work). “Shin’s having memory problems or something, Lu wants me to come over, probably to help sort things out or whatever,” Natsuki explains, turning back to continue walking.
He feels Mafuyu and Toramaru bump into him. “Can I come?” Mafuyu asks.
“Are you gonna stay if I say no?”
“Probably not,”
“Brat,”
Mafuyu rolls his eyes and pushes ahead of Natsuki, it’s going to be a long plane ride.
(STOPPER)
“You’re here!” Lu shouts, rushing over to the three of them and hugging them tightly. She looks back at the shop, there seems to be an almost distant look in her eyes. “Shin… can’t remember much of anything, he knows he’s not an assassin anymore and he keeps reading minds to figure certain things out but he’s having trouble piecing things together. The last thing he remembers is being sent to kill Boss man,” Lu explains.
“Shin was sent to kill Sakamoto?” Natsuki asks, well that was new information.
“Yeah, it was a while back but Moss man forgives him now so it’s all good– just… don’t be pushy or anything, we already talked to Granny Miya and apparently these are just the side effects of his powers and the overuse of them,”
Leave it to Shin to screw himself over, seriously why does he like this guy again? So, Shin won’t remember that they’re dating, that’s interesting and the Shin he’s about to see now is one that he’s never seen before. Okay, that’s interesting.
“Whatever, can we go in now?” Mafuyu asks.
“Yeah! I wanna see Shin!” Toramaru smiles walking towards the shop, Mafuyu follows in after her. Natsuki gives Lu half of an apologetic look and walks in with her.
Currently there’s no one at the register, so they instead go upstairs to Shin’s room where Hana is sitting on Shin’s bed and showing him pictures of Sugar the Bunny and the amusement park. She’s talking about all the rides and facts of the place while Shin’s nodding along and smiling (albeit awkwardly). It’s kinda cute.
“Shin!” Lu shouts, rushing over and giving him (and Hana) a hug. Shin looks more than surprised and tries shoving Lu off of him hissing at her and trying to wiggle out of her grasp, but it seems the redhead is surprisingly strong when she’s upset. Honestly that seems to be a common thing within this store.
“Get off of me!” Shin shouts and soon enough Lu peels herself off of him, sniffling.
“I brought some more friends, do you remember any of them?” she gestures between them all and Shin looks at all of them, Natsuki likes to think that Shin looks at him a little longer but that delusion is cast out of his mind. He has to be realistic here.
“I uh– don’t know,” Shin stutters, his face hardens a little in frustration and he looks over to Hana who looks like she’s about to cry again. The look of sheer panic on Shin’s face is enough to make Natsuki snicker.
Lu grabs Hana and leads her out of the room, Mafuyu and Toramaru follow (Mafuyu has to drag her though) leaving Natsuki and Shin in the room alone.
For a second neither of them say anything, this is more than awkward from Shin’s perspective and Natsuki is debating on walking out of the room as well, but he doesn’t. Instead he rolls his eyes, sits down on Shin’s bed, and sighs.
“You’ve really messed up this time, haven’t you?” Natsuki muses, he knows his voice is monotone but part of him hopes that Shin can pick up on any underlying concern.
Shin’s face goes red out of either anger or embarrassment. “Hey! What do you know? It’s not like I knew this would happen– who even are you,” Shin emphasizes, with a stutter.
“Nobody,”
“I know that’s a lie,”
“Do you? How’s your mind reading holding up?” Natsuki asks, although he feels as if he already knows the answer from Shin’s guilty look.
“It’s none of your business,”
“Can you read my mind right now?”
God this guy really is an idiot–
“I heard that!” Shin shouts, there’s triumph in it and Natsuki hides his laughter, either way there was a delay in Shin’s response, so he’s likely having trouble reading minds right now despite his ability to do so.
“Are you having trouble reading minds right now–? Don’t lie, you’re a shit liar,” Natsuki should know with the amount of times Shin’s hidden injuries from him (or tried to at that), honestly he’s getting a little offended at this point.
“I’m not a bad liar,” Shin glares at him, Natsuki knows that’s a lie but whatever makes Shin happy apparently. “I heard that!” Shin shouts again.
“Wow, you want a medal or something?”
He tries not to laugh when he sees Shin’s seem to consider it for a moment, it’d be kinda funny if the situation weren’t so depressing. Instead Shin turns around and lays down in his bed, forming some sort of cocoon away from Natsuki. So, naturally Natsuki pokes at Shin’s cocoon with a smile.
“Come on, are you having a hard time or not?”
“If you know everything, why are you even asking?” Shin mutters. “This is fucking stupid,”
“What, you overusing your ability or you not wanting to say when you’re hurt?”
Shin doesn’t respond and instead mutters something that Natsuki has to strain to hear, and even then he doesn’t get all of it.
“What was that?” Natsuki asks.
He thinks Shin wants to kill him right now but honestly he’d like to see Shin try. “I said I don't even know how I overused my abilities, it’s not like reading minds takes that much work… I must be getting weaker in the future,” Shin mutters.
Weaker? Getting stronger was the problem for Shin, it was a problem because getting stronger meant taking more hits and getting into harder and more lethal fights, it was a problem because Shin didn’t want to tell anyone jack shit.
Natsuki lets out a small breath he didn’t know he had been holding and looks away. “You’re not weaker, you’re stronger, a lot stronger. You’re just shit at it,”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Shin turns to him, body still in the cocoon but head poked out. It’s really cute.
“I mean it does when you take into consideration that you’re an idiot,” Natsuki quips, he feels Shin punch his arm before retreating back with a frown.
“Doesn’t make sense,” he mutters again. Natsuki looks at Shin, he wants Shin to remember something so fucking badly. He doesn’t even know who he is and he’d really like to get his boyfriend back sometime this week, especially because it’s not much fun dating a stranger. He keeps staring and Shin stares back, just as defiant.
“What’s your name?” Shin asks, after a beat.
“Natsuki,”
“Isn’t that a first name?” Shin asks, Natsuki rolls his eyes, wow real smart, but Shin doesn’t seem to hear him.
“Yeah, but so is Shin and everyone calls you that, so it’s not like it really matters, does it?”
Shin looks like he wants to argue, but he always looks like he wants to argue. “I guess… are we close, Natsuki?”
Natsuki can’t stop his stomach twisting when Shin says his name. “Yeah, I guess we are,”
“Are we friends?”
“Kinda, yeah,”
A little more than that but Natsuki makes a point to not think of the word when Shin’s obviously trying to pry through his mind.
“Do you… think I’ll get my memories back soon?” Shin asks, he seems unsure. He better not be unsure, or else Natsuki might just have a breakdown (not that he’ll ever admit it).
“Yeah, I think so,”
Shin doesn’t seem convinced in the slightest. But he doesn’t argue, instead only closing his eyes and sighing. He seems tired all of the sudden and Natsuki leaves him to his slumber. He walks out of the room and into the kitchen where the others are. Toramaru looks concerned, and Mafuyu is just hiding it better.
“How is he?” Mafuyu asks.
“He doesn’t remember anything,” Natsuki replies.
No one says anything and that says enough for Natsuki.
He hopes Shin gets his memories back soon.