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“You know, when we quit our metaverse work I thought that’d be the LAST time I would have to drag you around like dead weight” Goro said, exasperated. If Akira heard him, he didn’t reply. His eyes shifted to the boy using him as a crutch. He was leaning practically all of his body weight on Goro, with his face buried in his shoulder.
He let out a long sigh, this was bound to happen. With four part time jobs along with him running around helping the victim of the week with who knows what, Akira has inevitably run himself ragged and gotten sick in the process. He actually called him right before it happened.
“Hey can you stop by my work when my shift is over?” he’d asked “I need help.”
“And which job is this? Or am I meant to guess?”
“Underground mall. Flower shop.”
The curt answer really should have tipped him off, when he got there Akira was on the floor and the florist was in a panic for what to do.
“Really, I understand having so many jobs when you were aiming to arm your friends” Goro complained to the nearly unconscious boy he was dragging into his apartment building. “But you really shouldn’t bother at this point.”
He got a grunt in response. At least he was still somewhat lucid, better keep talking.
“Why on earth was it your job anyway? Surely they could have pitched in some money for the cause?”
“Not Yusuke” he croaked.
“...Understandable, but you’re telling me Okumura couldn’t have helped?”
That actually got a snicker out of Akira. “We actually did that once. She ended up ordering us actual weapons. Like, real ones.”
Goro paused his search for his keys. “That… that does sound like something she’d do actually…”
Akira continued his wheezy laughter as Goro led him inside the apartment, setting him on the couch. He actually had some trouble dislodging him from his shoulder, Akira did not want to let him go.
Eventually he managed to free himself, leaving Akira to shiver on the couch. He gave Goro a pathetic look. “Don’t look at me like that, you brought this on yourself. I certainly hope you still have those pills that hack doctor gave you.” Apparently Akira had noticed himself getting sick and gotten something from Takemi. She had ALSO told him to rest but big dumb idiot Akira went out anyway, so he got no sympathy from Goro.
“‘S rude…” Akira slurred as he pulled a bottle of medicine out of his pocket.
“Ask me how much I care.”
Suddenly there was frantic knocking on Goro’s door.
“Goro?? Are you in there??” he heard Sumire’s muffled voice.
“I’m coming, I’m coming” he sighed.
He opened the door to see the very worried eyes of their girlfriend. “Is he alright? He told me to meet him after his shift, but when I got there the woman said he’d passed out??”
“He’s fine,” Goro told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “He’s taking some medicine he got from his doctor friend now. Unfortunately, it won’t cure his terminal case of idiocy…” he said, glaring at the boy sprawled on his couch.
“Don’t be mean Goro… he’s sick…” Sumire said as she went over to check on him.
“It’s his own damn fault! He overworked himself!”
His defence fell on deaf ears however, as Sumire was too preoccupied with Akira. If he were well enough, he’d be smirking at Goro right now.
He WAS apparently well enough to pull Sumire down on the couch with him however. She squeaked as he hugged her like a teddy bear.
“Hey! None of that, we don’t need you infecting Sumire!”
Akira’s only response was murmuring “warm…” and snuggling her more.
“Maybe you should get him some blankets?” Sumire tried.
Rolling his eyes, Goro went to get some from his room. When he came back, Sumire had managed to get herself into an upright position, though Akira was still clinging to her like a little heat leech. He was relentless too, as Goro tried to put the blankets around them both, he was attempting to pull Goro down to join them. He gave a look to Sumire, but she just shrugged.
“If I get sick, I’ll kill you…” he said, sitting down on the sick boy’s otherside. At least Akira seemed grateful, he sighed contently at the added warmth.
They sat there in a comfortable silence for a while, Sumire playing with Akira’s hair while Goro flicked through his messages on his phone. After he heard quiet snores coming from the other boy, Goro spoke up again. “We really need to convince him to quit a few of those idiotic part time jobs, he’s going to get himself killed doing all this.”
Sumire’s face saddened. “You have a point… how many does he have again?”
“Four that I know of… five if you include helping at Lablanc, although I’m not certain he gets paid for that actually…”
“So what should we do?”
Goro smirked at her. “Well all you have to do is ask him to quit them honestly.”
Sumire blinked at him, clearly confused. “Didn’t you already tell him to do that?”
“Yes but he likes to give me sass about stuff like this, you know how the two of us get.” Goro admitted. “You however? I swear if you asked him to murder a man in public he’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“Wha??”
“Sumire, you can’t tell me you haven’t noticed,” he gave her a sceptical look. “All you have to do is flash those big adorable eyes of yours and he’ll do anything you say. I’ve seen it happen.”
“O-oh… I um… I c-can’t say that I’ve noticed…” she brought a hand up to her face to hide her flush. “But uh… I’ll give it a try heh… once he feels better anyway”
“Right…” Goro glanced at Akira’s sleeping form between them. “Until then, should we get him something?”
“Oh! Soup would be perfect for him when he wakes up!”
“Alright…” Goro said getting up. “Let’s hope those cooking lessons are paying off.”
“Should I help?” she asked.
“No, I highly doubt you could escape his clutches at the moment.” He said, pointing at Akira’s sleepy death grip on her. “The cuddly bastard will never let go, I had a hell of a time getting him off me.”
“I think it’s cute!”
“Of course you do…”