Prompt fill for an Anon on Tumblr who said- 'For the MizuSei drabble what if they happen to talk about Virus and Trip? Sei defending them while Mizuki tells him how bad they are and how they arent even humans. Sei talk about even if they were cruel they were the only ones who treated him like a human in Oval Tower and no matter what they did to him he didnt hate them'
"But, Sei, they tortured you."
"They didn't."
An exasperated huff of air, "maybe not, but they sat you in the wheelchair, pushed you to the theatre."
"That was their job."
"That doesn't make it okay!" Mizuki was growing increasingly irritated now by Sei's seeming lack of hatred towards the Yakuza duo who had, in the tattooists opinion, made his life a living hell for years. "Look what they did to people, what they did to me! To my team! They're not even human!"
"I understand what you mean, but I just don't hate them." Sei shrugged, serene smile on his face and undeterred by Mizuki's logic. "They were nice to me."
"Because they had to be!"
"No, Mizuki. They didn't." Sei's voice had turned cold, he would not let one of the few acceptable things from his past be sullied by anyone, let alone his boyfriend. "They could have been as cruel as they wanted and Toue wouldn't have cared as long as they didn't damage me."
Mizuki could hear the reluctance as Sei spoke the name of his main torturer and, in a way, father, like it was acid in his mouth.
"They were kind to me, Mizuki, when nobody else was." Thinking about it was painful at best, let alone being practically interrogated, words whirling him back to a time when he was weak, useless, lying defenseless in a hospital bed. "I used to look forward to seeing them. They used to make sure I was okay, try to feed me, buy me presents."
"But Sei-"
"No! I know they didn't really care, I know they can't have felt anything real for me, or they wouldn't have let them experiment on me. But they pretended for me, they were the only good thing I had. You should know what that's like."
And Mizuki did, for years his Rib team had been the only thing he woke up for, what he lived and breathed for, the reason he bothered getting out of bed in the mornings. As much as he hated the Yakuza twins for what they had done to both him and Sei, he could see where his boyfriend was coming from, admitting defeat as he sighed and sank into the sofa cushions wearily. "Let's not talk about it anymore."
"Mm." Sei nodded his agreement, accepting Mizuki's welcoming arm and burrowing into his side, curling his feet up beside him, smell of smoke and alcohol and ink filling his nose. He'd been too numb to feel anything when he was in Oval Tower, days filled with an empty monotony of painful procedures, examinations, and words filtering past his ears, cold and uninteresting. But Virus and Trip, they were different, their words, though sugary and obviously false, were kind and polite. They called him by his name, made him feel at least slightly human. He knew they were just working for Toue all along, they couldn't possibly love him, as they said, or they would help him escape, or at least kill him off and end his eternal suffering.
"I can't forgive them." Mizuki's hand was soft in Sei's hair, the opposite of his words, harsh and biting, tearing at the air between them.
"I know." Sei said, sadness heavy in his heart as he lay in his boyfriends arms, wondering if there would ever be a day where they would be truly free of the past.