Work Text:
Yamaguchi is high. Well—maybe that’s an unfair way to put it. Kei rephrases: Yamaguchi is bawling in the back seat of Kei’s mother’s car.
“Tsukki,” he sobs, though the gauze in his mouth distorts his speech. “Stop the car.”
Kei looks pointedly at his mother, and she shakes her head. “I’m not stopping,” she says.
When Kei leans back to look at Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi reaches to seize Kei’s shoulder, his seat belt pulling taut. “Please stop the car,” he pleads, and then sniffs. Drool drips from his mouth and down his chin, and Kei grimaces.
“Why do you want to stop the car?” he asks while forcing a napkin into Yamaguchi’s hand, directing it up to the drool on his chin.
“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi cries, staring down at the napkin in his hand but not registering it, “Please. Please stop the car. I saw a dog.”
Kei blinks. “A dog,” he repeats.
“A dog,” Yamaguchi affirms, wiping absently at his mouth. Suddenly, he freezes. “What’s in my mouth?”
Kei sighs—he’s already asked this four times. “Gauze,” Kei answers. “You got your wisdom teeth out, Yamaguchi.”
“Oh,” Yamaguchi says, as if it’s a great epiphany. He leans back into his seat, gazing almost longingly out the window. His tears have now dried, and he pokes absentmindedly at the gauze that sticks partially out of his mouth. (Kei just prays they don’t pass another dog.)
And right as Kei turns back around to face forward again, Yamaguchi inquires: “Where’s my mom?”
It’s the third time he’s asked this. “She had to work, so my mom picked you up at the dentist.”
“And you came, too, Tsukki?”
Kei hums his affirmation.
“Oh, you’re so nice,” Yamaguchi comments, and Kei sees his mother smile out of the corner of his eye. “So nice, Tsukki.”
“Sure, Yamaguchi,” Kei gives, and he just slightly shakes his head. Yamaguchi hums from the back of car, though the tune is unrecognizable.
They’re turning into the Tsukishima house’s driveway before Yamaguchi has time to make another scene, and after Kei’s mother puts the car into park, she gets out and moves to help Yamaguchi out of the car, too.
“Oh, thank you, Tsukishima-san,” Yamaguchi says, staring wide-eyed at where Kei’s mother holds onto his bicep, steadying him as he clambers out of the vehicle.
“Of course,” she says, smiling.
“Tsukishima-san?” he asks, then, when his feet are planted firmly on the pavement. “Do I still have a tongue?”
Kei snorts, but covers his mouth so that Yamaguchi won’t see. Kei’s mother tosses a mischievous glance back at Kei, and he thinks oh, no.
“No,” she answers after she’s turned her attention back to Yamaguchi. “They stole it, remember?”
Yamaguchi’s jaw hangs slack, and he reaches a hand up to poke into his mouth. “You’re right,” he says, awe-struck. “They took my tongue.”
Kei has to turn away and start making his way into the house so that Yamaguchi won’t realize that he’s laughing at him.
“Why would they do that? That’s so mean,” Yamaguchi stresses, and Kei’s mother grabs hold of Yamaguchi’s wrist to guide his hand away from his mouth.
“You’re right,” she nods, leading Yamaguchi to the door.
Kei holds it open for them, and Yamaguchi attempts to smile in thanks, but his mouth just stretches around the gauze and spit slips out. Kei forces a smile back at Yamaguchi, but he’s sure that it comes off more as a grimace. Yamaguchi doesn’t seem to notice or care.
After Kei’s mother drops Yamaguchi off at the kitchen table, she bids both of the boys farewell.
“I have to go help Akiteru move into his new apartment,” she explains, mostly to Yamaguchi. Kei’s already known about this, and he’s somewhat glad that he’s been nominated to take care of Yamaguchi, so that he doesn’t have to do any physical labor for his brother. “Kei’s father is already there, so Kei will take care of you.”
Yamaguchi looks curiously over to Kei, and so Kei nods back at him.
“Kei, get him an ice pack. I’ll see you boys later!”
“Have a safe trip!” Yamaguchi calls, distorted, out to Kei’s mom as she walks away. As the front door clicks shut, Kei forces the freshly retrieved ice pack into Yamaguchi’s hands.
“Kei is taking care of me,” Yamaguchi comments, soft, and looks down at the ice pack. “What do I do with this, Kei?”
Kei hesitates at the mention of his given name, but quickly shakes it off. It's just the dentist administered drugs speaking. “Press it to your cheek, like…” Kei takes Yamaguchi’s hand and raises it to his face. “like that.”
Yamaguchi shivers. “Cold,” he says. “Your hands are cold, Tsukki.”
Kei lets out an amused huff. “That’s the ice pack.”
“Oh.” Yamaguchi pauses, trying to look at the ice pack that he holds against his cheek. “Did you hear what your mom said?”
“Hm?” Kei hums, pulling out a chair to sit next to Yamaguchi at the table.
“They stole my tongue.” He opens his mouth as if to showcase so, and Kei makes a face. The gauze is bloodied and Yamaguchi’s tongue is very much there.
“That’s too bad,” he says, humoring his mother.
“I know,” Yamaguchi attempts a frown, but doesn’t manage to close his mouth. “Why would they do that?”
“They’re going to sell it,” Kei states, deadpan.
“Sell it?” Yamaguchi gapes.
“On the black market.”
“Mm,” he hums, like that makes sense. “They should cut me some of the profit.”
Kei wonders how much of this Yamaguchi will remember.
“They should,” he agrees. “It’s your tongue, after all.”
Suddenly, Yamaguchi scowls. “It was my tongue, until they stole it.” He pushes his chair back, and sets the ice pack down on the table so that he can press his palms flat to the surface as leverage to stand. “I have to get it back!”
Kei reaches over to seize Yamaguchi’s wrist, keeping him from going anywhere. “Maybe tomorrow,” he says, urging Yamaguchi to sit back down. The ice pack doesn’t seem to be working, as Yamaguchi’s attention span doesn’t last long enough to remember to hold it to his jaw. “Do you want ice cream?”
Yamaguchi’s eyes light up. “You have strawberry, don’t you, Tsukki? Because you love strawberry.”
“I think so,” Kei answers, beginning to stand. “You want some?”
When Yamaguchi nods enthusiastically, drool drips from his mouth and onto the table. He stares down at it, seemingly mesmerized. Kei resists the urge to gag when Yamaguchi begins to reach a finger to poke at it. He acts quickly, however, ripping paper towel off of a roll and laying it down on the table in front of Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi presses his palm to the paper towel, and Kei leaves him be to get ice cream from the freezer.
He grabs two little containers, swinging the freezer door shut afterwards and heading to the drawer full of utensils. He takes out two spoons, and then hands one to Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi stares at his reflection in the spoon, and he barks out a laugh. “Tsukki, look at me,” he says, “I’m upside down!”
“Funny,” Kei replies as he peels the tops off of the ice cream containers. He sets Yamaguchi’s on top of the paper towel, and takes the spoon from Yamaguchi’s hand to shove it into the ice cream. “There you go,” he says.
Yamaguchi stares dubiously down at it. “How do I eat this without a tongue?”
Though in an offhand way, Yamaguchi brings up a valid point. Somehow, Kei’s going to have to get that gauze out of Yamaguchi’s mouth, and then put in new gauze once he’s done.
Perhaps helping his brother move would’ve been the better option, here.
“Can I borrow yours?” Yamaguchi asks, staring at Kei with wide eyes.
“What?”
“Your tongue.”
Kei stares at Yamaguchi. “No,” he finally says. “You can’t borrow it, it’s mine.”
“Are you sure, Tsukki?” Yamaguchi pleads, looking down at his ice cream and then back at Kei again. “Not even for a little while?”
“No,” Kei repeats. He really wonders how much of this Yamaguchi will remember.
Yamaguchi crosses his arms over his chest, pouting. Kei takes the opportunity to mention—
“You should take that gauze out of your mouth.”
Yamaguchi blinks at him. “The what?”
“The stuff in your mouth,” Kei tries. “Take it out.”
“Uh,” Yamaguchi attempts to puff out his cheeks with air, but they’re already puffed out with gauze. He reaches up and touches his lip, inching his way to the gauze. Kei watches him, mostly to make sure he doesn’t do something stupid, like gag himself with the spoon.
Surprisingly, Yamaguchi manages to take out the gauze and begin eating his ice cream with little incident.
“It’s cute that you like strawberry stuff so much, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi says as he finishes off the last bit of the ice cream. Kei’s been done for some time, the empty container sitting on the table in front of him.
“Hm,” Kei hums, contemplating Yamaguchi’s choice of words. The tips of his ears feel a little hot. “Cute?”
“Yeah,” Yamaguchi chirps. “Well, unexpected. But also, cute.”
Kei opens his mouth to respond, but Yamaguchi speaks again before he gets any words out. “I’m really tired, Tsukki.”
Kei lets out a breath of relief. If Yamaguchi sleeps, Kei won’t have to deal with him until later, when he’s slept off his high. “Sure, Yamaguchi. Let’s take a nap.”
Soon—though not soon enough, Kei thinks as he regrettably flashes back to minutes ago, when Yamaguchi had bitten his finger while he tried to force the fresh gauze into his mouth—Yamaguchi’s all tucked in on the couch, a knitted blanket pulled up to his chin. “Thanks for taking care of me, Kei,” he says, his eyes already drifting shut.
“Sure,” Kei answers.
“So nice,” Yamaguchi says blearily, “You're so nice, Tsukki.”
“Sure,” Kei repeats, though a slightly amused smile creeps onto his lips as he watches Yamaguchi wiggle a little further under the blanket.
“You still wanna borrow this?” Kei asks, sticking out his tongue at Yamaguchi, who’s just woken from his nap on Kei’s couch. He points up to his tongue teasingly.
Yamaguchi just flushes, pulling the blanket up over his head. “Shut up.”