Lying on his bed at the house Hitoshi stared up at the ceiling.
He truly didn't know what to do with himself in the lead up to the raid. What was there to do? Every second they wasted waiting was another second Eri had to spend in that prison being tortured. The thought made him sick to his stomach.
Hitoshi hadn't been able to eat for the last few days. Hizashi had tried everything but he just couldn't keep food down with every mealtime spent with him leant over the toilet. His throat was wrecked and his stomach throbbed. If he wasn't managing to keep water down he was sure his parents would have him checked in at the hospital. He knew he needed to eat something though otherwise they were never in a million years going to let him take part in the raid, not if he was at risk of passing out from malnutrition and he wouldn't blame them.
There was a knock at his door.
"Hey, Tosh?"
"Come in."
Hizashi nudged the door open with his elbow before walking over to the bed. He smiled softly before taking a seat next to him.
"Here."
He handed over a bowl of noodles.
"I thought maybe the broth might be what's turning your stomach so maybe you could try these? I cooked them with soy sauce so they hopefully won't be too plain but maybe you might be able to keep these down?"
It was sad how tearful he felt every time he heard the concern and love in his parent's voices, they truly cared and the lengths they were willing to go to show him just how much he meant to them left him speechless.
"Hey…"
Clearly Hizashi had noticed though.
"It's just some noodles."
Hitoshi shook his head with a small smile.
"It's not."
He picked up his chopsticks and gathered a clump of noodles. They tasted so good.
"Mmm."
"Eat slowly remember."
Hitoshi nodded, noticing where his Papa's gaze lay, his hand coming out to gently rest on his cheek to angle his face towards him.
"How's your eye, still sore?"
"Yeah, Recovery Girl said she couldn't heal the after pain from it so I can expect it to last for about a week and a half to two weeks."
Hizashi pulled a face.
"Well that sucks."
Hitoshi smirked.
"I know!"
"You know, you could have just left it as it was, there was nothing wrong with how it looked."
He sighed.
"I just… I don't know, I hated that everyone stared at me for it so I won't miss that, but I'm also sad that I got rid of it because, you know…"
"Dad?"
Hitoshi nodded.
"Shouta won't mind at all he would rather you be happy and comfortable. I wish Nighteye had been a little more considerate rather than just telling you to get it fixed."
"It was just cloudy, I'm sure most villains wouldn't even have noticed it in a fight."
He ate another few strands of noodles.
Papa shuffled back to rest against the headboard before ruffling Hitoshi's hair.
"What are we going to do with you, eh?" He teased.
"Sorry."
"Hey… that's not what I meant." He reassured softly. "It's not your fault you don't feel well." Zashi pressed a kiss to Hitoshi's crown. "You look tired, Tosh."
"I haven't been sleeping much." He admitted.
Papa looked to the now half-empty bowl.
"Hey you ate half of them, that's good!"
He took the bowl and chopsticks and placed them on the sidetable.
Hitoshi took the opportunity to huddle closer to his Papa; Zashi raised his arm to allow him to rest against his side.
"Don't stay awake on my account."
He felt like he could barely keep his eyes open as he nodded.
"Get some sleep, Tosh; I'll be here when you wake up."
And Hitoshi didn't need to be told twice.
Four Hours Later
They had originally planned to have Mitsuki, Masaru, Inko, and the boys over for dinner but with Hitoshi being under the weather with stress, and potentially a bug that had been going around, they instead cancelled. After school had finished for the day Shouta had left his classroom to find Zuku waiting for him in the hallway.
"I know Hitoshi hasn't been feeling well but I thought maybe he could do with some company, I haven't seen him since the meeting and I guess I kinda' just want to see if he's okay."
Shouta smirked.
"Take a breath, Zuzu."
Zuku chuckled at the old nickname.
"Sorry."
"Come on then."
Heading out of the main campus building Shouta's thoughts took him to the question of how his little brother, who he saw every single day in homeroom, could possibly have this much conversation in him.
"So I uhh, I was talking to Mirio and we wanna' say sorry."
He furrowed an eyebrow.
"Why?"
"We didn't help Toshi back when we ran into Chisaki and Eri, we both just kinda-."
"Zuku I know what happened, there's nothing to be sorry about for how the two of you reacted. Like Nighteye said, you each had your own logic in how you were approaching the situation, and anyway, Toshi's plan of running down the alleyway without any back-up was not sensible, but just because he did the most to try and help Eri doesn't mean you did something wrong."
"It feels like we did because Eri is still with that monster."
"Even with the three of you working together you had no chance of securing Eri right then and there, one or all of you could have gotten seriously hurt or even killed if you even put a step wrong so it's probably for the best that you didn't." He exhaled. "I'll be honest, this whole situation is a mess and the last thing I want is for you kids to be involved in it but… you could also be the best chance we have."
"I'm ready." Zuku stated determinedly.
"Good."
Reaching the house Shouta unlocked the door to silence. He furrowed an eyebrow.
"Maybe they're upstairs?"
Zuku ran off up the staircase, Shouta heard him stop on the second floor before heading back across.
"No luck?"
"No."
As the two of them reached the third floor a light sound could be heard coming from the bedroom.
Zuku reached the door first before an 'aww' followed.
"What?"
"Hitoshi's curled up with Zashi asleep."
Shouta smiled, reaching out to take the door handle before quietly pulling it closed.
"Then we'll just leave them too it and start on dinner, you fancy helping me out?"
"Sure, Shouza."
