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The washing machine spins silently in the laundry room as Akutagawa sits in front of it on the cold floor. He's tired and has work tomorrow so it’s understandable that he’d rather be doing anything else right now. But he needs to wait for the sheets to wash and then put them in the dryer which will take even more time.
He has to go through this tiring ritual because he wet the bed, again.
It’s not something that happens often but lately it’s been happening more for some reason. This is the third night in a row, and he’s getting tired and frustrated of this. He already showered and changed into clean pyjamas. Now he just has to wait for his sheets to clean, he also had to throw his blanket in because urine soaked through it as well. At least he had the sense to install a mattress protector awhile ago so he doesn’t have to flip it over.
He can’t sleep without a blanket, it’s cold and even with the heater on it’ll be uncomfortable. He already struggles enough to sleep at night, so it makes him angry on the night when he does manage to sleep that he’s woken up because his body couldn’t control itself for some godforsaken reason. This used to happen often when he was younger but he assumed that he outgrew it, clearly not.
Akutagawa yawns before checking his phone for the third time and internally groans when he sees four am written on there, he needs to be up at six. He hates this.
This is ruining his nights enough that he almost considered getting diapers, but that for one was too humiliating even for him and two giving in and buying a pack felt like losing in a way. He’d rather keep the rest of his pride even if it cost him his sleep.
A knock on the door startles him and he looks up to find Gin standing at the open door, her hair is in a messy bun and she must’ve just woken up because she still looks sleepy. She’s wearing a thick woolen pyjama set.
“What are you doing up so late?” He asks her.
“I was thirsty so I got myself a drink.” She says, holding up a half full glass of water. “What are you doing up?”
“Laundry.” He answers shortly, he can’t really lie his way out of this although he’d rather not have her know there really aren’t many reasons someone would be doing laundry this early.
“Couldn’t it wait until morning? Surely you have other sheets.” She says, understanding well enough the reason for it without him having to admit it.
“It… it got on my blanket, I had to throw it in too.” Akutagawa explains with a defeated sigh, he’d really rather not be having this conversation with his sister at four in the morning. When he woke up with the sheets wet he really wanted to dig himself six feet underground but having someone else know is even worse. At least she’s kind enough not to mock him.
“Hmm, why don’t you sleep in my bed then? There’s enough space for the both of us.” She suggests, leaning against the doorframe. “I don’t want you to tire yourself out, Ryuu.”
They used to share the bed a lot when they were younger and occasionally Akutagawa still wakes up to Gin in his bed because she had a nightmare and vice versa. It’s not an odd occurrence.
“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll dirty your bed?” He asks, already blushing in shame at the thought, it’s one thing soiling his own bed but someone else's? He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.
There’s silence for a few moments and she seems to think about it before responding. “Have you ever wet the bed twice in one night?”
The question makes embarrassment coil inside him but at least he can in all honesty say that he hasn’t. “No, never.”
“Then it should be fine! Come on, let’s go back to sleep.” Gin says extending her free hand out to him, when he grabs it she helps pull him up from the ground.
The two of them walk through the halls of the apartment until they reach Gin’s room, she opens the room and lets them both in before closing it behind them. Akutagawa simply watches as she sets her glass of water down onto the nightstand.
Her room is dark, illuminated only by a small nightlight. Her bed is a bit of a mess, it’s filled with stuffed animals and a few seemed to have fallen onto the ground. She picks them up and throws them back on bed. Although they’ll inevitably fall back on the floor during the night.
The two Akutagawas tuck into bed, Gin lays on her stomach While Akutagawa lays on his side, that way they’re facing eachother.
“Are you okay?” Gin asks him, concern clear in her voice. “I mean, this has been going on for a few nights hasn’t it?”
“I didn’t tell you that.” Akutagawa points out with a small frown.
“I hear it when you get up at night to shower, I’m not a very deep sleeper you know.” She explains, mildly amused at his surprised expressions.
“I’m sorry for waking you up.” He apologizes, he didn’t even notice it was waking her up until now.
“It’s okay, I fall back asleep fast, you're not ruining my sleep or anything.” She reassures him. “So, are you okay? Have you been having nightmares or something? You know you can always come to me if you do, even if it’s the middle of the night.”
“I know, but it’s not that. I haven’t been having any which makes this even worse, this has been happening for no reason. This is so embarrassing.” He buries his face onto the pillow for a moment as if that would drown out the feeling.
In an attempt to physically comfort her brother she tenderly rubs his arm “This isn’t your fault either way, you don’t have to be embarrassed Ryuu. It happens to me too sometimes.”
“Really?” He says, looking up at her.
“Yeah, so I get that it sucks. But it’s not the end of the world so stop looking so gloomy!” She says and flicks him on the forehead. “If you hate waking up in the middle of the night because of it that much you could always, you know, wear protection or something.”
“The one thing that could be more humiliating than wetting the bed would be wearing protection to bed.” Akutagawa says with a huff.
“I wear them.” Gin admits without shame. “It’s way more practical than your middle of the night laundry trips.”
“What?” He looks at her in disbelief.
Gin simply sits up a bit and kicks the blanket away before pulling down the band of her sweatpants enough to reveal what’s unmistakably the plastic white of a diaper, or pull-up. Akutagawa doesn’t really know which one it is.
“Oh.” Akutagawa isn’t sure what to say to this revelation, maybe it should put him off but he’s not really bothered.
“Do you think that I’m an embarrassment?” Gin asks him, he can’t really betray any emotions in her tone but assumed that he must’ve upset her with his comments.
“What? No— I mean, of course not! I didn’t say that, I’m sorry I-”
He pauses when his sister starts laughing, clearly not offended in any way like had assumed.
“Oh Ryuu, you worry too much.” She says looking at his dumbfounded expression, she clears her throat. “All I’m saying is that it’s not that big of a deal, so think about it okay? You look more exhausted than usual lately, it could help.”
“Alright, I’ll think about it.” He tells her, his answer must satisfy her worries because she smiles at him.
Soon after he shuts the nightlight off leaving the two in the dark. It’s quiet and peaceful, it’s been awhile since they’ve shared the bed like this and Akutagawa almost forgot that Gin is the only person that he feels safer with in bed, if it were anyone else he wouldn’t be able to let his guard down like this.
Akutagawa isn’t the most physically affectionate person but if at some point during the night he wraps her arm around her and when they wake up the next morning they’re cuddled together? Well, so be it.