A/N: Finally cleared my head enough to resume this fic XD
"Ace? Wake up..."
Ace slowly opened his eyes to see that the sun was already up... and Sara was sitting by the bedside. The older lady just smiled at him.
"The sun is up already, Ace. Let's have some late breakfast."
Ace obediently sat up on the bed as Sara affectionately straighten out some of Ace's hair that had become tousled up. Ace glanced at Keiwa's alarm clock to see that it was already almost noon. He turned his head towards Sara.
"Are you not going to work, Sara-san?" he asked as Sara shook her head.
"No, I applied for emergency leave. With Keiwa at the hospital right now, I wouldn't have been able to focus at work anyway. Plus—" she spoke again before patting Ace's head fondly. "I need to take care of you."
Sara grinned at him. "You seemed even more depressed than me over Keiwa's situation."
Ace smiled weakly at her, without saying anything else.
Of course he'd be the most depressed person over Keiwa's situation. Because he was the main reason why Keiwa ended up in the hospital. Him. The one and only, Ukiyo Ace.
Of course he'd be the one most miserable.
But it's not like Ace to be telling Sara all of that.
xxx
He let Sara lead him out of Keiwa's room... and he saw his own sister and Neon waiting for him, standing in front of the dining table. Ah, that reminds him...
Last night when Sara-san had offered to let him continue to stay in their apartment, his sister also asked to also stay with them temporarily. And then, because it was already late, Neon also decided to join them.
As he got closer to the table, Ace could see several different sizes of onigiri put together on one plate, though it didn't look like it was enough for four people to eat together. Sara ushered Ace to sit down as the others follow suit. Sara gave him an apologetic look.
"Sorry about this. Compared to Keiwa, I'm not really that good at cooking. And I could only do so much..."
Ace picked up one onigiri and took a small bite from it. He smiled weakly.
"It's good...", said Ace slowly as he glanced up at Sara, Neon and Tsumuri. "I'm okay... you guys don't have to worry about me."
He quietly finished his onigiri as Sara pushed the plate with the remaining onigiri towards Ace.
"Have some more..." said Sara gently.
Ace cocked his head at her. "Aren't you eating any?" he asked as Sara shrugged.
"We've already eaten earlier!" Neon answered his question instead. "It was fun making all those onigiri earlier and eating together."
"So Ace..." Ace glanced up at his sister as Tsumuri smiled at him. "Please eat some more."
"You didn't even eat anything last night..." said Sara as she started sounding a bit concerned.
"Or have you even eaten anything, the whole day yesterday?" exclaimed Neon worriedly.
Ace shrugged.
"I ate a bit... yesterday morning with Keiwa—"
"Ace—!"
Ace lowered his head, not looking at any of them.
"I'm not hungry."
xxx
Michinaga and Win arrived at the apartment afterwards, as Sara cleared the living room and moved the couch around so that the six of them could sit together on the floor in the middle of the room. Win sighed, somehow elected to be the leader of the group in an unspoken agreement.
He glanced up towards Ace before taking a long breath.
"So Ace," he started to say, "can you now explain to us what happened yesterday? Why you suddenly panicked when Michi mentioned that you grew out another tail... and why you didn't want to go with Keiwa-kun when he asked you to go home with him?"
Win sighed again. "Also what did you mean that it's your fault that Keiwa was in a coma and what did Keiwa-kun mean when he said something terrible would—!"
"PunkJack, stop—!" Ace suddenly exclaimed in alarm before looking at Sara anxiously. Sara reached out her hand to hold Ace's before squeezing it tightly.
"It's all right, Ace," said Sara as she reassured him. "I've already caught up with everything... and I'm sure that you wouldn't consciously hurt Keiwa."
She cocked her head at Ace. "So can you tell us? What was it that you and my brother had been keeping secret from everyone?"
Ace hastily wiped away a stray tear that suddenly flowed down to his cheek after he heard Sara's words to him.
.
"I just realised it. The reason why my second tail grew out," explained Ace as the other five listened attentively.
"At first, we were just teasing each other... because Keiwa suddenly had an amusing thought and I wanted to find out what amused him so much."
Ace suddenly felt his lips becoming dry as he idly licked his lips. "We started playing around... and kept teasing each other... and then, we just got a bit too intimate..." He immediately avoided looking at anyone's eyes as Ace stared down at his feet.
"I suppose that's when it... happened." Ace felt his cheeks burning hot as he clenched his fist.
"After the last time when we came over to talk about the second tail, Keiwa and I figured out the reason why my tail grew out. And since then I've tried my best not to be too close when playing with Keiwa."
Ace bit his lips as Sara noticed his hesitation to continue talking. She squeezed Ace's hand again to encourage him. He nodded his head at her gratefully. "I began to notice... that Keiwa had started to tire even more easily." He swallowed hard. "At first I thought it was just because he was still recovering from his last surgery. But then the occurrences of Keiwa's passing out during work kept getting more frequent... that it worried me."
"I thought Keiwa hadn't been aware of these things happening to him... but he actually knew about it for quite a while."
Michinaga frowned. "What do you mean that Tycoon knows? What did he even find out exactly?"
Ace glanced up at them. "Keiwa figured out the real reason why my second tail popped out... and why he started running out of energy so easily nowadays..."