Chapter 11: And everybody's hurting, Everybody's going through it

Somehow Juudai managed to knock his head open on the edge of the little bedside table that Jun had taken the effort to paint black a few years back, but there was only a minor amount of blood. Jun dragged him into the bathroom to patch him up, letting Juudai do the same to the scratch he’d opened up on his collarbone as well after some pestering. It made Jun roll his eyes, as it wasn’t the first time. His collarbone and neck tended to look like that more often than not these days.

 

They didn’t talk about what had almost happened before the cat interrupted, but Jun could feel his face heat up any time he caught a glimpse of Juudai, which made breakfast quite awkward. It subsided once he started telling the other about the day before at work, and how he needed to get out of the apartment pretty soon now that he had no income. He’d be going back with Juudai anyway, and they decided to get started right away.

 

If he wanted him coming to Tokyo to be as subtle as possible, he couldn’t bring a lot of stuff, so he made a list of everything he was going to keep (mostly cat things, some clothes, and the odd bits and bobs), and decided to sell everything else.

 

“So we’re having a garage sale?” Juudai asked as he dried off the last of the dishes from their breakfast while Jun pulled the plug to the sink.

 

“Not like I have a garage, but yeah. I guess the easiest thing would be to just put up notes and then move everything to the yard. If we put a low enough price on it we should be able to get rid of most of it.” For once he was thankful to be living on the first floor. His body would not be able to handle carrying the furniture down any flights of stairs. He went to the gym a few times a week, but by no means was he buff. Not like Juudai had apparently decided to become. Honestly, moving the bed or table outside on his own would have been hard either way. Heavy weights were a bitch most days. “I need to go to the laundromat anyway, we can put notes in there, some on the streets and grocery stores. I want it gone as soon as possible.”

 

“How soon? You know you don’t have to be stressed out about it, I’m sure we can help you out with the rent if you wanna stay longer.”

 

Jun appreciated the sentiment, but still shook his head. “I don’t wanna borrow money from you. It’s enough that you keep buying me food. Which is, uh, you’re good at cooking but you know you don’t have to, right?”

 

“Sure. But I like cooking! I wanna cook for you all the time.”

 

The line made Jun’s face heat up again, but he ignored it in favour of pulling out some paper and a few markers. “My rent is paid til the end of the month, which is just, you know, two days away, and I can’t afford to pay another month with no job, so we’ve pretty much just got today and tomorrow.”

 

Juudai grabbed a paper of his own, uncapping a marker. “Holy crap, we better get started then!”

 

-

 

When Asuka got a phone call from Juudai during the evening, she didn’t expect things to have unfolded so fast. They were going to reunite with Jun in just two days or so, and she had a lot of things to plan.

 

She was sitting on her bed, legs crossed and her laptop on her lap, compiling all the information she’d gathered the last couple of days. She kept coming back to the photos Juudai had sent her, with Jun’s scars on full display.

 

They were several years old now, but they still looked gruesome, obviously never getting the chance to heal right. It was no wonder that they hadn’t, with how she knew that Jun had been forced to get the bullets out and stitch the holes up all on his own. She knew now that the one in his leg had gotten infected, and he’d been unsure if he would survive it, but he’d managed to recover from it in the end.

 

When Fubuki had seen them he’d started crying, and was on the verge of throwing up. Sho had looked green around the edges as well, but had held himself together rather well. Fubuki was by far the one who’d taken the whole discovery the worst, as he had been closer to Jun than the rest of them. Ryo had held him in his arms, while Asuka handed him a box of tissues that were soon demolished.

 

Now, looking at them for what felt like the millionth time, she felt a cold rage aimed toward the older Manjoume brothers. They’d gotten away scot free for almost a decade, after doing something like that to their youngest brother. She’d obsessively researched their current affairs, even on the verge of downloading the Tor browser, but had enough sense to not go down that route, mostly due to the fact that she didn’t know how to navigate something like the dark web.

 

She felt the mattress next to her dip, and she looked up from the article about Manjoume Shouji’s recent deal with an oil tycoon that was about to lead her into researching said tycoon. “You need to shut that off or you’ll never fall asleep.”

 

A hand pushed Asuka’s hair behind her ear, while another gently plucked the computer out of her lap.

 

“Mizuchi… I just can’t stop thinking about it. He’s coming to Tokyo in less than two days, I have so much to prepare. I don’t even know where he should stay once he gets here.” She knew that Fubuki would want him to stay with him and Ryo, but she also knew that the man wouldn’t be able to let Jun out of his sight, and with him and Ryo being newlyweds, it would feel awkward enough for Jun to stay there.

 

Her girlfriend shut the laptop and put it on the bedside table next to them, before shifting so she was fully on the bed, pulling the covers over both of them to wrap her arms around Asuka. “Misawa-san still hasn’t found a new roommate since you moved in with me, right? What about your old room? I’m sure it’d work even if it’s just temporarily.”

 

Asuka reached for her phone. “I hadn’t thought about that… Yeah, sure, I’ll ask him-”

 

“In the morning. Sweetie, it’s almost midnight, he’s probably asleep.” And if he wasn’t, he would be engulfed in a math equation and most likely unresponsive to the world. He’d be at work in the morning regardless, so she could talk to him there.

 

“Yeah, you’re right. Right.” She turned around in Mizuchi’s arms, nuzzling her nose into the raven’s chest until the woman was giving a warm laugh. “I love you.”

 

Mizuchi kissed the crown of her hair and turned off the lights. “I love you too. Good night.”

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