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“Oi, Koichi, catch!” Okuyasu barked.
Koichi, who had been anxiously shifting his weight in front of Okuyasu’s door, deftly caught the pair of keys Okuyasu had fished out of his pocket.
“It’s the one with the green cover on it,” said Okuyasu as he adjusted the weight of a bruised, beaten, and barely conscious Josuke, whose arm was draped over his shoulder while the other was dangling loosely.
“Got it.” Koichi found the right key, letting out a soft huff of amusement mixed with affection when the key had not only a green cover but a yen sign drawn on with marker, and quickly unlocked the door. He immediately threw it open and pressed himself against it so Okuyasu could bring Josuke through the door and up the stairs to his room.
The stand fights were getting tougher. And bloodier. While Diamond could fix everyone up afterwards, Josuke’s stand didn’t work on himself. So when things went awry, like tonight, the boys had to do their own doctoring. After all, how could Josuke explain these sorts of things to the emergency staff, night after night?
Okuyasu, with surprising gentleness, set Josuke down on the mattress, more accurately two mattresses stacked one on top of another, on the floor of his room. The room also contained a small TV set, hooked up with a battered game console, arranged close to the bed, a dresser with a few drawers missing, and a closet with some coats and uniforms hanging up. There was a small bookshelf with some manga and several editions of Shonen Jump on it, the bottom shelf containing a few books and a first aid kit. The blinds were open, letting some sun brighten the room.
Koichi retrieved the first aid kit and a thrift store medical textbook from the bookshelf and went to kneel next to Josuke. Okuyasu squatted and placed a stable hand on Josuke’s good shoulder as he wobbled.
“You need to get his jacket off, Okuyasu,” Koichi said. “I need to see what’s wrong with his arm.”
“Right. Okay, Josuke, you heard the man.” Okuyasu began unbuttoning Josuke’s jacket and was met with a small chuckle.
“At least take me to dinner first, bro. Like, Tonio’s, or something,” said Josuke, his voice slow and lilting from stupor. Okuyasu’s ears turned pink at the tips but he continued unbuttoning the jacket, his face now wrinkled in forced concentration.
“Maybe later, Josuke.” Koichi sat down and opened the book in his lap. “Josuke, take your arm out from the jacket. Okay, Okuyasu, you can just pull his other arm out - gently - and just leave the jacket around his waist for now, I guess.”
“Ow,” Josuke muttered as his bad arm was lifted out. Okuyasu made a soft noise in apology and Josuke sluggishly shook the sleeve off of his other arm, the fabric of his jacket falling to his waist in a bunch. Now that his shoulders were uncovered, there was a clear and grotesque protrusion in his shoulder.
“I don’t even need to look at the book. That’s dislocated,” Koichi sighed. Okuyasu turned his head to the smaller boy, the expression of concentration now desperately concerned.
“How do we fix it? Can we do that? Will it hurt him?” Okuyasu said, his words rushed like he wanted to say it all at once.
“Um.” Koichi flipped through the textbook to the index and searched for the relevant pages, speaking as he did. “I know you can re-set dislocated things at home, but I know it’s really not recommended, actually I’m looking and it looks like a bunch of bad stuff can happen if we do it at home, and we’re both amateurs…”
“Should we call Jotaro?” Okuyasu asked, glancing at Josuke.
“No!” Josuke interrupted, suddenly lucid. “Don’t call Jotaro.” The other two stared at him in surprise. “I… I want you guys to do it. I believe in you. And… stuff.” Josuke fell back into whatever stupor he was in, going silent again.
Koichi and Okuyasu looked at each other, Koichi’s eyebrows raised and Okuyasu’s expression now determined.
“We gotta do it.”
“Alright,” said Koichi softly, nodding. He flipped to the page on setting dislocations, staring at the pictures. “Um… Well, you’re gonna have to be the one doing it. It look like you need to be pretty strong to do all of this. Also, it recommends icing it and giving pain medication…”
“We got both. I’ll go get some?” Okuyasu was already standing up despite asking.
“Yeah. I’ll keep reading.” Koichi moved to sit next to Josuke on the mattress. “Josuke, lean on me so you don’t fall over, okay?”
“Okay…” Josuke echoed softly, leaning onto Koichi with his good side with a sigh.
The size and weight difference was a bit of a problem, Josuke had a solid 10 inches on him after all, but Koichi only barely managed to stay upright before Diamond appeared, easily bearing both their weight and letting Koichi sit more comfortably pressed between them. Diamond looked as calm as ever, however they were watching their user with careful eyes. Koichi made a noise of thanks, put his arm around Josuke’s waist firmly for extra support, and maybe a bit of reassurance for himself, and continued reading. It was quiet for a few minutes before Koichi heard Okuyasu coming up the stairs, it always creaked on the step third from the bottom, and walking down the hallway before re-entering.
“So I couldn’t find any actual ice but I hope these frozen vegetables are okay- I got some bottled water and ibuprofen, the taps here are shit-” As he spoke, rambling to try and mask his nervousness, Okuyasu tossed the bag of frozen vegetables and a small towel down beside Josuke and pushed the pills into Josuke’s good hand. “Take ‘em. I was afraid they would be expired ‘cause I don’t use ‘em but I looked at the bottle and they were good.”
Josuke nodded and popped the pills into his mouth, taking the water from Okuyasu and washing them down.
“Koichi… Should we reduce the swelling or just get this done?” Okuyasu scrunched his face up like he did when he was thinking hard about something.
“Um…” Koichi furrowed his brow, looking to the book. “It says to do it as soon as possible. And the swelling is only going to get worse from here, so I think we should do it now.” Okuyasu nodded.
“Alright. So, what do I do, boss?” Okuyasu stood up straight, now looking determined.
“Well. Josuke needs to be lying down, first,” Koichi said. Josuke, almost robotically, moved away from Koichi and laid down, Diamond fading away from Koichi’s other side. “Um… Okay. We gotta pad his armpit…” Koichi glanced around but Okuyasu quickly grabbed the towel he brought with the frozen vegetables and rolled it up, putting it in the appropriate place. “Sorry, Josuke, this is gonna hurt.”
“Hurts already,” Josuke mumbled before letting out a low groan as Okuyasu adjusted his arm. “Just get it over with.”
“Okay. Okuyasu, you’re gonna pull, and not too hard, on Josuke’s arm until it goes back into place. It should make a noise when it goes back, so we’ll know when to stop…” Koichi took a deep breath, his stomach churning with anxiety now that it was time to fix Josuke’s shoulder.
“That’s it?” Okuyasu kneeled down, tucking his legs underneath himself. He looked shaken as well, plain as day.
“That’s it,” confirmed Koichi, swallowing.
“Let’s do it,” Josuke said, his voice clear and somehow confident.
Okuyasu gripped onto Josuke’s wrist and slowly started to pull, until- it wasn’t so much something you heard as something you felt.
A small pop.
Josuke screamed.
The three boys were huddled in front of the TV now, Josuke on the left, Koichi in the middle, and Okuyasu on the right. Okuyasu had moved the TV and console to rest in front of the mattress. The sounds of Star Fox seemed tinny coming from Okuyasu’s TV as Koichi took his turn trying to beat a level. That was the rule at Okuyasu’s house, and in general whenever there was only one controller, that whenever someone died in a game, the next person got to try.
This level was kicking their collective ass and Koichi was slouching, a blanket draped over his shoulders as he focused, tuning out the sound of Slippy the Frog signalling his departure from the fray with “I’m monkey food if I don’t leave!”
“What is ‘monkey food’ even supposed to mean?” Okuyasu muttered, folding his arms and scowling at the small picture of Slippy next to the text box.
“Who even cares? At least we don’t have to hear his voice anymore this mission,” responded Josuke, leaning back against the wall and splaying his legs out, hand automatically reaching to steady the arm in a makeshift sling. Koichi’s shoulders hunched in focus as a bunch of enemies came onto the screen, shooting at the Arwing in an impossible spray of lasers.
“Shit, shit, shit- aww,” Koichi groaned, leaning back and tossing the controller down onto the mattress in defeat as the Arwing exploded.
“Well, you got further than Okuyasu did, at least,” Josuke supplied, Okuyasu nodding in agreement.
“I guess. I’m getting tired of this, when does the next episode of our anime come on?” Koichi asked, stretching.
“Uh.” Okuyasu leaned to check the digital clock that was on the floor, “10 minutes. You can change to the channel and we’ll just watch the end of whatever was on before.”
“Alright.” Koichi leaned forward again to start fiddling with the TV, the remote having been permanently displaced since before they knew Okuyasu.
Koichi put it on the right channel and everyone was silent, watching as a plot they missed three quarters of wrapped itself up and the heroes won the day. The villain was carted away to jail and the credits rolled. Koichi pulled the blanket he had closer around himself and Okuyasu let out a small yawn, Josuke still leaning back against the wall.
“You know,” Josuke piped up, “I wouldn’t have blamed you guys.” Koichi and Okuyasu both turned to look to him, Koichi’s knuckles white clutching the blanket around his shoulders and Okuyasu’s eyebrows raised as high as they could go. “If things fucked up with my shoulder, I mean. You guys have gotten pretty good at this by now, and I trust you both with my life.” Josuke laughed softly. “Literally.”
“That’s… Well… It’s not like it’s really hard. We’ve never had to do anything really complicated, tonight was the worst…” Koichi replied, “It’s just…” He trailed off, biting his lip.
“Scary,” Okuyasu completed the sentence and Koichi nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. It’s scary,” Josuke agreed, shifting against the wall and looking away now. “I’m always afraid that, one day, I won’t be able to fix you guys. That it’ll be like the first time I fought, that it will be like when…” Josuke went quiet and the silence hung between the three, Koichi and Okuyasu looking at each other before back at Josuke.
“That won’t happen again,” Okuyasu said confidently. “I trust you, too. I trust you to be able to heal us.”
“Me too, Josuke,” Koichi murmured, “I trust in our strength to get us through all this. And you get better with Diamond every time. You both are pretty close now.”
“We’ll save Morioh!” Okuyasu grinned. “Us, and our stands, and you, Josuke, and Diamond. Nobody’s gonna be able to beat us, ever.”
“Ever,” Koichi echoed, smiling as well. Josuke looked to them again, his eyes clearly wet in the shifting light from TV.
“Yeah. We’ll save Morioh,” Josuke repeated, nodding and wiping at his eyes with his good hand.
Okuyasu paused a moment before he grabbed Koichi and Josuke into a hug, squishing them tight.
“Ow! Careful!” Josuke yelped and Okuyasu loosened his grip.
“Sorry.”
Koichi laughed softly and hugged them both back and Josuke wrapped his good arm around both their necks, pulling himself close enough that he could press his forehead against both of theirs in a small triangle.
“We’ll take care of each other,” Koichi murmured, Josuke and Okuyasu letting out grunts of agreement.
After a few moments, they all settled in a small cuddled heap, Okuyasu and Josuke both back against the wall, Josuke leaning against him on his good side, and Koichi nestled between them, all wrapped in a blanket, comfortable and content as the opening theme of the next show began.