Oh God, this is so humiliating. Akutagawa was practically fuming, forehead wrinkled, with his teeth grit tightly together.

There is absolutely no fucking way. He hung his head, but didn't dare say a word of what he was thinking.

Atsushi stood awkwardly, examining the facts a few steps behind Akutagawa. The apartment building's elevator was out of order. There was only one shaft due to the age of the building. His new acquaintance was standing at the front of the entrance to the fire escape stairway, head in his palm, and he was sure he could hear his teeth rubbing together. Atsushi rocked back and forth on his heels for a second or two before a light snapped on in his head. He took a small step forward and put a hand on Akutagawa's shoulder, clearing his throat just a bit so he sounded sure of himself, "I don't mind carrying you up the stairs." Atsushi put a forced grin on his face as Akutagawa turned his head slowly to meet his gaze. It was obvious he wore a look mixed between anger and hatred. Akutagawa pressed his lips together, puffed his cheeks full of air, and slowly released the breath.

"I want to make one thing clear, Atsushi..." and he grit his teeth again, speaking through them this time, "Don't tell anyone about this." Akutagawa was too proud to admit he needed help, but he wasn't dense. He knew he was too weak to make it up the stairs alone, and he couldn't give his sister any reason to worry about him. If he could just make it to his room and text her, he could figure out what to do from there.

"Of course." Atsushi relaxed and his smile changed so it no longer looked forced. He cleared his throat and turned around, crouching a little, to hint for Akutagawa to get on his back. Akutagawa reluctantly put one leg up around Atsushi's waist, then leveraged the other up when some of the weight was removed.

"This is so humiliating." He let his head flop on to the back of Atsushi's neck.

Atsushi felt a rush of heat and he startled a bit, "I'm sure you have a fever, Akutagawa. You need to lay down when we get upstairs."

Atsushi pushed the door to the fire escape open, and slowly made the ascent, carefully holding onto the wall.

"Do you have the bags ok?"

Akutagawa shook his hands a bit to rattle the packages, "They're good."

He did feel a little feverish now that he had the chance to think about it. His face was flush, but he was still cold from being outside. He shivered, and let out a dry cough. There was another sensation also, something pleasant. The feeling of getting carried, weightless, up the stairs.

Have I ever felt this before? Maybe when I was a baby, but I don't remember.

He could smell Atsushi's hair, and he actually thought it smelled nice, comforting even.

My fever must be pretty high.

He tried to count the stairs as they walked to the third floor, but he only got to 12 before he was being woken.

"Do you have a key?" Atsushi was already attempting to set Akutagawa down, which startled him awake.

Drowsy and confused, he put a hand to his back pocket before saying, "It's open."

Atsushi turned the knob, and sure enough it swung forward. He furrowed his eyebrows "Is that safe?"

Akutagawa stepped around Atsushi and walked over the threshold, "I lost it 3 years ago and never got a new key from the landlord. I'm not worried about it, I keep a knife under my mattress." And he nodded his head toward the right of the room where his bed stood in the back corner. Atsushi sighed. I guess it's none of my business.

He wasn't invited in, but Atsushi wanted to make sure Akutagawa was alright before he left, so he entered the room and eased the door shut behind him. He took a moment to survey the room. A small studio apartment, minimally decorated, but clean and practical. He cleared his throat and threw his jacket (that had never left his shoulder) onto the couch that sat a little to his left, "Want me to make you some dinner?"

Akutagawa had already walked the length of his tiny apartment, sat a bottle of cough syrup on the nightstand to the right of his bed, and was fumbling around on the floor. Atsushi heard a thump, then Akutagawa's head peeked just over the mattress. "You have got to be kidding me. There is no way in hell you could make something even remotely edible." He flicked his cell phone onto the mattress, pulled out another bottle of cough syrup, opened it and took a long drag on the bottle.

Atsushi brushed off his offense, "I will have you know, I had to learn to cook for myself at a young age. I've not had any complaints." He didn't want to let this guy know he was starting to get to him. Hadn't he done nothing but help him today?

Akutagawa practically snorted and nodded his head toward the kitchen. "Don't make me laugh. There's curry in the fridge, why don't you get some bowls and warm it up. Also, don't get the wrong idea. I would have asked you to leave already, but I'm considering this my thanks for you getting me home." He took another drink of medicine, cleared his throat, and fell hard on the bed. Atsushi had decided not to argue. He was opening cabinets to look for some bowls when he heard a cell phone ring that wasn't his. In a voice he didn't recognize as Akutagawa's (but it had to be), he heard "Hey sis!"