Chapter Text
When Denji first moved in with Aki, the thing he was most looking forward to was sleeping in at the weekends. In his old life, he was up at the crack of dawn almost every morning; the Yakuza were never the patient type. So, after getting settled, he was excited to be introduced to yet another luxury previously thought unattainable. It turned out, though, that this was the one luxury he never managed to attain.
Aki was not the type to sleep in for any reason, and Denji learned this quickly. Being woken up each Saturday and Sunday with the sound of dishes clanking, water boiling and cupboards opening had grated on him at first, but he quickly learned to live with it. After all, it was either that or foraging through dumpsters for food again, and Denji knew which he’d rather choose.
So, when one Saturday morning, Denji woke with a start at his usual 9AM, he expected the typical noises that would’ve woken him at that time. Instead, he was greeted with something that had never happened before… total silence.
Denji closed his eyes again, a small smirk on his face, and decided to go back to sleep.
By the time he woke up again, it was 11AM. He heaved his eyelids open, squinting at the cloudless sunlight now aggressively beaming through onto his face, and listened for the sounds of Aki in the kitchen. Still nothing. Ok, now this was weird. Did he die in his sleep or something? Aki would literally rather throw himself off a bridge than be so lazy, regardless of if it was the weekend or not. Intrigued, Denji dragged himself into the kitchen to investigate.
As he had presumed, it was still the exact same as it was last night. Dishes piled in the sink from their dinner last night, as Aki usually preferred to deal with them the morning after. Denji shivered slightly; in his tunnel-visioned curiosity, he hadn’t realised how cold it still was in the apartment. He wrapped his grey sweatshirt tightly over himself, and decided he should probably go wake Aki up.
Denji threw the door to Aki’s room open and flung himself inside, his lack of manners not even registering mentally. Aki groaned loudly, and shut his eyes tightly, as if refusing to look at Denji would make him disappear. He was lying on top of his blanket, in a less-than-flattering starfish position, wearing nothing but his underwear. Denji looked away quickly, and let out a laugh.
‘Dude, gross! Put some clothes on!’ Denji shouted, a mischievious grin plastered across his face.
‘Just get out!’ Aki tried to force his voice into a bark, instead it came out like a pathetically croaky whisper. Denji, using his hand to cover the bottom of his vision, noticed that Aki was sweating profusely, despite the horribly low temperature that had him wrapping blankets around himself all night. Denji could literally see frost forming on the window behind Aki, for crying out loud. His face was weirdly red and flushed, considering he hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet.
‘What the hell’s wrong with you? You sick or something?’ He asked, still covering half his vision.
Aki shook his head, and the room spun as he did. If there was one thing he despised, maybe even more than devils, it was being sick. The thought of sitting around being useless while everyone else ran around after him made his stomach churn. Or actually, maybe it was just churning because he was about to throw up.
Yeah, that was it.
Denji let out a disgusted yelp as Aki rolled over onto his side, and released his dinner all over the bedroom floor.
‘Ew! What the fuck, Aki?!’ He screamed out, and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Well, that was one way to get rid of him, at least. Maybe the smell brought up a few memories from his first kiss; Aki would’ve laughed at that if he had the energy.
Denji was still stood in the hallway, disgusted look on his face, when Power finally emerged from her room.
‘Curses, must you be so loud?’ Power hissed, rubbing her eyes. Usually, on a day like this, she would be awake at around 4PM.
‘Aki just puked all over the floor!’ Denji grimaced, ‘I swear, if he tries to get me to clean it up…’
‘You humans amuse me with your fragile sensibilities.’
‘Okay, you go clean it up then!’
‘Absolutely not! ‘Tis a man’s responsibility to take care of himself, I shall play no part.’
Denji rolled his eyes exagerratedly at Power, who payed him no mind.
‘I’ll clean it.’ A hoarse voice stated from beyond the bedroom door, and Denji sighed in relief.
After sticking to his word and mopping his room, Aki soon found himself completely exhausted. He knew there was a flu going around the HQ, and while he had tried to avoid it, maybe he should’ve tried harder; he had no idea it would knock him out this hard. After cleaning up, all he could muster the energy for before retreating back to his bed was explaining what Denji and Power needed to do for the day, chores that would normally be completed by him.
‘All you need to do is the laundry and cooking. You know where the dirty clothes basket is, and there’s a shop down the road in case you’re missing ingredients.’ He instructed, his voice gravelly and weary.
‘Oh, and don’t make too much noise.’ He added as he staggered back to his room. He couldn’t say he had confidence in either of them to complete those tasks, but he had no choice.