He had hoped when he woke up, the pain in his stomach would be gone. But from the extreme pain covering his entire middle torso he could tell that he woke up to early to miss it. His eyes were clenched and he couldn't stop the groan of pain. It felt like his stomach was being rearranged and every time he moved a flash of pain would start from his navel to his toes.
As he slowly came back to consciousness he noticed several things.
First off, he was covered in sweat but was freezing. His stomach continued to feel like someone was stabbing him with a hot knife and was fucking twisting it for their own pleasure. He also realized that he was now on a bed. From the soft material his face was lying on he could make a pretty good guess that he was in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
He would never tell anyone but he really hated being upstairs.
Before he could focus too much on his hate, more pain erupted in his stomach. His breathing began to come out in pants and he swore under his breath. He gently placed his hand on his stomach and began to search for a wound. But with no injury and no blood on his hand, his mind swirled in confusion as he tried to link his pain.
What the hell did he do last night? He remembered spending the day with the damn monkey. Then he left because he needed to go home. No there was another reason why he had to leave. Something was bothering him when he left Saruhiko's apartment. But what the fuck was it?
Before he could wrack his mind too hard to supply the lost memories, the room door was slammed open. Though the action had force behind it, the one behind it looked calm and had a small smile on his face. These were the two traits that Yata had learned to fear, especially when together.
He watched in fear as Izumo closed the door behind him. The older male stared at him, the smile never leaving his face. Flicking out a cigarette he lit it and inhaled the toxic smoke, his eyes never straying away from the redhead.
Blowing out the smoke he asked, "Where were you before I found you passed out on the couch?" Yata stood silent and found that he couldn't answer. From leaving to his house till waking up at the bar was all one black blur. His silence seemed to anger the bartender because the other continued now with venom in his tone. "I don't go back on my word Yata. I'm a giving man but you only have one chance. The moment you screw up, you're out of here."
Yata knew by now it was best to keep quiet when Izumo talked about this topic. The silence that suffocated the room was thankfully cut off by a knock on the door.
"Come in Anna."
The pain in his stomach took a backseat when he saw the child walk through the door. She didn't glance at the bartender and instead pushed herself onto the bed so she was sitting next to the skateboarder. He caught her glancing at his arms before she looked away.
Shame ran through him and he looked at the blonde and pleaded. "Kusanagi-san I swear-" Before he could continue he was cut off. "Tell me where you were before I get really angry."
"I was at the monkey's house and then I was going home…and" He stopped and tried to remember what the hell happened afterwards. Pressing his palm against his forehead he tried to remember anything that happened.
His nerves were starting to be shaken as he felt the heavy stare and glare from Izumo and Anna. He glanced quickly at the child and saw her studying him through her red marble pinched between her fingers. Both men waited for her answer and the air tensed even further with every minute.
Though the child was silent through the procedure, Yata noticed that the marble was beginning to shake in its owner's fingers. He thought for a moment the marble's form would break but Anna quickly pocketed the marble and said quietly to Izumo.
"He's telling the truth. He ate something….expired and stupid. He fell…skidded. Hit his head." Soft cold hands brushed his knuckles which he barely realized were bruised. Looking down at his knees he saw that they were in the same state.
Izumo nodded at Anna and the child recognized that it was time for her to leave the room. Without another word to the bartender she left the room, but not before taking one last look at Yata before closing the door.
The two males in the room stood quiet and though Yata was found innocent, he still couldn't look at the other in the eye. The silence was finally broken when Izumo sighed and said in a tired voice, "I don't feel the need to apologize for the way I acted. Considering how similar the scene of finding you unconscious was to me, my train of thought is excusable."
Yata didn't say anything at first and instead just stared at the bed spread. When the silence lengthened he realized that the bartender wanted a response. So with careful choice of words he replied. "I haven't done any of that shit since that day. I gave you a promise and I'm standing by it." The last part he looked up to look at Izumo in the eyes.
The bartender nodded at him and pulled out a cigarette and his new lighter. "That's what I like to hear." Nothing more to say to the redhead, he left the room to smoke outside. Though he acted cold to Yata, he was heavily relieved that the other had not done anything regretful.
The day Yata ruined his sole chance of redemption was the day he would have to kick and ban Yata from Homra. And Yata knew the consequence which was why he became clean the moment Izumo told him at the hospital what he would do if he ever fucked up.
Yata watched the bartender leave and just sat still as the tension and stress slowly left his body. After a few minutes of just sitting there, he laid himself back down and cursed himself and his damn stomach which was still causing him pain. Burying his face into the pillow he made a promise to himself that he wouldn't fuck up anymore.
He also would also check expiration dates before he ate anything. Before he fell asleep his last thought was that he was sure that he didn't anything last night.
Over the next month, he tried his best to never step on Izumo's toes. He stayed away from fights, didn't hurt his precious fucking bar counter, and when he needed something delivered he already had his skateboard in hand. The tension between him and the bartender was slowly but surely vanishing. He was glad all this no violent shit was working because by the end of the month he was feeling like shit.
He was hoping by the start of the new month he would be feeling better, but he just got worse. He felt like he never got enough sleep anymore and was constantly napping throughout the day. The days he spent with Saruhiko were majority spent sleeping, which the monkey constantly smacked his lips at. His sex drive had plummeted and was buried under constant tiredness.
On top of his sleepiness, it seemed like he spent more time in the bathroom where he was either peeing or throwing up than with his lover or Homra. His stomach never stopped feeling funny and when he began to throw up on a daily basis the others, and he admittedly , began to worry. By the end of second week both parties were pushing him to go to the doctor to get checked out. He tried to ignore them but their stares and worried glances he received when he emerged out of the bathroom or waking up from a nap he didn't remember falling into, were quickly driving him crazy.
Though the constant bathroom trips and sleeping were bothersome, the most annoying new thing in his life did not come from him. Instead the sole female of Homra seemed to make it her life goal to make sure he never got any sleep when he did fall into a nap.
Since he was young he slept on his stomach. He was never able to sleep on his side or his back. So with nineteen years of sleeping in only one position it was a pain in his ass when Anna came one day when he was napping and began to turn him to his side.
He would wake up momentarily and try to go back to his stomach but Anna would sit on what little space of the couch that was left, and make herself a wall. And she would never move and never fail to ruin his nap.
"Anna leave me alone!" He one day snapped at her before stomping off and going upstairs. When he fell face first into the mattress and got into a comfortable position, did it hit him that he actually snapped at Anna. Thankfully Eric and Izumo were the only ones at the bar at the time and did not see the act. He still felt incredibly guilty for yelling at a girl and when he woke up from his nap he would make it up to Anna.
He was on the bed for only a minute before he fell asleep. But it felt like he was sleeping for a minute before he was again woken up by someone pushing him on his side. Groaning he opened his eyes and looked at the intruder of the room. The curse he was about to yell died at his lips when he saw that it was Anna.
The child looked sad, no doubt from his earlier actions, but kept her hand on his hip. With a determined face she sat down on the bed and glared at him. He covered his eyes in annoyance and groaned. "Anna." The hand on his hip moved to his stomach and with a steady tone she declared, "It's better to sleep this way."
He didn't reply and instead gave in to the child. He buried his face into the bed and waited for sleep to rescue him from this horrible reality.
He was lounging at Homra with Kamamoto and Eric and was trying to not fall asleep. With advice from his friends he had been trying to get more exercise by becoming the delivery boy for everyone. It was a nice idea but there were two faults.
The first being that after his 'exercise trips' he would end up knocking out the moment he sat down and would feel even more tired the next day. The other problem was that somebody kept hiding his skateboard. The others would laugh and claim he had forgotten where he placed it, but he knew he placed it right beside the door so Izumo wouldn't nag to him about scratching up the wooden floor. It would be missing up until the moment he had to leave for home or Saruhiko's, where it would magically reappear by the door.
It was also getting annoying that Saruhiko was constantly nagging at him to go to the doctors. He honestly felt like everyone was over reacting with this. He was only throwing up and having trouble staying awake…which on Friday would make it three weeks straight.
Fuck. He couldn't even lie to himself about this.
Before he could think too much about how his life went to shit, Kamamoto appeared in front of him with a cup filled with coffee. He pushed the cup into the other's hands until the redhead accepted it. "Eric said this will help you with trying to stay awake."
The blonde emerged from the back with his own cup and was looking at the redhead hesitantly.
"Thanks." Yata nodded at him and saw that other visibly relaxed at the acceptance of the drink. He took a small drink to taste the black liquid and found it to be quite bitter. The warmth of the cup helped him more than the taste. Kamamoto laughed at the face he made while Eric muttered under his breath with a small smile. "Like a child."
A little louder he commented "There's hundreds of these in America. In every corner there's a store that sells nothing but coffee. Lines around the corner, people waiting to for a cup of coffee."
This led to Kamamoto asking more about these shops and their conversation became a background buzz to Yata. His eyelids began to feel heavy and he tried to fight them to stay open. He heard the conversation die and felt their eyes on him. Taking a deep breath he rubbed his eyes and took a drink of the bitter liquid in an attempt to wake himself up.
Their stares didn't lift and Kamamoto looked at the younger male and sighed. Knowing the other would never admit to not feeling well he decided to just avoid the conversation. "Hey Yata-san I have a date this Friday. Do you mind taking and picking up Anna from school."
He scoffed in reply but after a moment he assured his friend that he would drop and pick up Anna. Now with plans for tomorrow, his plans for today now had to be reorganized. He wondered if Saruhiko would mind him bailing out for tonight. He wouldn't be able to go to both his job and the damn monkey's house tonight. And he needed his job for the money, despite how much he knew it would disappoint everyone with what his job was.
But the job was safe and relatively easy. In a way he was simply a delivery boy, which got paid a large amount for delivering such products.
With his plans now changed he downed the bitter drink and headed out. He had a busy night ahead of him.
He made it back to his shitty apartment a quarter after one. He made sure to set his alarm early so he could have time to hang out at the bar before taking Anna to school. Placing the alarm's volume on the highest level he quickly fell asleep.
And he quickly woke up a moment later. Though he felt like he had only closed his eyes for a moment he noticed several things. Sunlight was streaming through his sole window and to his horror he could hear horns and the sounds of the morning rush.
His eyes darted to his alarm and saw that he only had fifteen minutes to get to Homra and drop off Anna. His moves were frantic and he was thankful that he slept in his shorts. Grabbing a shirt and his skateboard he was out of his apartment and gave himself a running start.
He hit the pavement and to his horror saw how packed the streets and sidewalks were. Filled with school brats and bastards in suits he quickly took the alley routes. He was busting his ass to get to Homra but when he passed one particular alley he stopped for a moment to stare. Something in the back of his mind was screaming at him to remember this alley. But nothing came up.
Now frustrated he pushed the skateboarder ever faster.
When he finally reached the bar, he ran into the door and scanned for Anna. When she was nowhere in sight he panicked for a second and thought she went to school by herself. Thankfully though Bando who was sitting on the couch watching the scene informed him. "Kamamoto took her."
That's all he needed to hear before he was once again on the sidewalk. He pushed himself through the morning crowd and when he caught the sight of a frilly dark dress, he skidded to a stop and yelled out. "Oi Kamamoto!"
The tall man didn't turn to him and instead merely escorted Anna out of the stream of the morning crowd. Now on the side he waited for the skateboarder, the entire time his face in a somber expression. Yata nodded at the older man and gestured for Anna to start walking again. "Sorry for the lateness." He muttered to Kamamoto before setting off with Anna.
However a hand grabbed his arm stopped him and also halted Anna in her tracks. Yata looked up at the older man and felt his stomach twist when he saw the angry expression on the other's face.
"You look like shit Yata-san." He shot at him. Yata could count how many times he had seen Kamamoto look truly angry on one hand. But he could sense the anger from the other in an instant.
"Well fuck you too." He grumbled weakly before looking at Anna. He always forgot not to curse in front of her. Rubbing his neck nervously he apologized again. "Hey I'm sorry I'm late, I must have slept in.
"You set a doctor appointment yet?" Kamamoto questioned.
"I'm going to be late." Anna suddenly piped in. She grabbed the skateboarder's arm and pulled him back into the morning crowd. Kamamoto sighed but waved them off.
Yata sighed in a mixture of frustration and relief. He walked Anna to school in silence, but the hold on his arm was strong and made him keep up the pace. When he finally reached the gates of the most prestigious school in the district he bid the child a goodbye and double checked the time he needed to pick her up.
He went back to the bar in order to make sure he didn't let time get away from him. Thankfully both Izumo and Kamamoto were not there. He lounged at the bar and sipped through two glasses of water. He wondered if he should get some food but when Bando brought pizza, any thoughts about food were strayed from his mind.
With forty minutes left till Anna was out, he decided to head out and maybe get something from a vendor. He also couldn't handle the smell of that greasy ass pizza. Even though he hadn't eaten anything all day, his stomach turned a blind eye towards the usual delicious food. While everyone else started eating he quietly slipped away.
He hoped he could find a vendor on his way to the school but before he was even a third way to the school his stomach rolled and the familiar feeling of nausea hit him. He barely made it to an alley before he threw up his stomach's contents. The hot bile burned his throat and made his eyes water. He groaned and wrapped his arms around his still protesting stomach.
When he was sure he was done throwing up, he went back to the streets and tried to get back on his skateboard. But after only going down one street and having to jump off his skateboard to run back into another alley, he quickly chose walking over his skateboard. The usual fifteen minutes it took for him to skateboard was doubled over having to stop several times to dry heave and spit out bile. The vendors on the street didn't help either as every smell made his stomach roll and caused him to throw up.
He glanced at his watch and saw to his horror that he only had five minutes till Anna's school was released. Cursing he picked up his skateboard and tried to jog but that quickly ended when he started to feel lightheaded.
Growing even more frustrated he thought to himself 'Stop acting like a fucking pussy. Get on your skateboard and hurry the fuck up'. At the last mile he powered through it by skating through the crowd and sometimes through the streets. When he finally reached the school grounds he quickly scanned for Anna. He unfortunately saw that most of the school grounds were deserted.
When he finally saw the child standing next to her teacher outside the gates his heart sank when he saw that she was the last child to be picked up in her class. Pushing himself faster, he shortened the distance quickly but unsteadily. When he reached the curb and tried to jump it, but the jump turned into a fall which made the two angry faced females suddenly pale.
Thankfully he caught himself and only his left knee got scraped. He quickly up righted himself and he could feel his face heating up. With a quick bow to Anna's teacher he sputtered out. "Sorry about the lateness. It won't happen again."
The teacher stared at him for a few seconds before she sighed and turned to Anna. "Have a good weekend Anna-chan." With nothing more to say to the strange duo, she returned to her classroom.
Now alone with Anna he turned to her and winced when she quickly walked in the direction of Homra. Walking after her he pleaded to her.
"Anna! I'm sorry!" Her pace did not falter. "Anna please I'm sorry. Please don't be mad. I tried to get here as fast as I could." His breathing was labored and his hand was clutching his stomach, which was starting to feel uneasy. He stopped walking and for a moment he thought he was going to throw up once again but thankfully it was just nausea.
Anna stopped now and looked at him. She saw that his face was filled with dread, no doubt thinking she would tell Izumo about the incident and his obvious discomfort. She sighed and walked back to the side of the redhead.
She reached out her hand and with a determined expression she demanded. "Your skateboard."
Yata blinked for a few moments and hesitantly asked. "Do you want to want ride it?" Anna simply responded by glaring at him and grabbed the skateboard. He watched in silence as she tucked it under her arm and when she pushed her bag to him, he took it without a word.
Still holding the board she walked ahead of the redhead and mumbled. "No more riding this. You'll get hurt."
The redhead cursed under his breath but simply walked beside the child.
After a few moments of silence Anna declared. "No need to tell Izumo about this." The smile that came to the skateboarder's face was face splitting and Anna made a mental note to tell Izumo to ease off Yata a bit. This entire month, it seemed Izumo saw Yata as a ticking time bomb. But the bartender didn't know what she knew. And she had made it her personal goal to protect Yata.
She glanced at the redhead and saw the tiredness in his eyes and body. And though he was tired the redhead tried to make conversation. "So what do you want to do when we get to Homra." He asked in hopes he could redeem himself.
"What does it matter you're going to fall asleep." The child replied simply.
Yata scoffed. "You've been spending too much time with Kusanagi-san."
The laugh that escaped Anna's mouth thankfully went unnoticed.
Thanks guys for following, alerting and of course reviewing this story! I'll see you next time.
Man this chapter was a struggle to format. As you can tell some chapters are going to have a lot of Saruhiko while others you're going to have a lot of Homra, but in later chapters there will be a balance. It's just the beginning. And I'm so glad everyone loved the strain idea :D
*Thank you Mesden for telling me about the wrong character! I can't believe I did that. Totally went over my head! Lol