Well well well, another conflict (or rather, still the same one, just in a different font). Did it hurt? I bet it did.
Since I tortured my dear readers from back then so much with angst, I felt compelled to give them compensation. Young me was soft, the current me would have inflicted more damage. Alas, I am not allowed to change the plot :D So here's a soft chapter. Meaning, sick fick. Always a sick fick. I am and forever will be a whore for sick fics.
Gakushuu knows that he comes across as overbearing at times, that he rants a lot and has a bad habit of being controlling. He really tries not to do that, to give Karma the freedom he himself has been robbed of. But this - his brother's studies, his future - is something Gakushuu can't compromise on. It's all for Karma's sake, even if he doesn't realize it yet.
He doesn't visit for two days to give the redhead time to calm down. It'd be rather counterproductive to show up and trigger him, so Gakushuu keeps his distance for the time being.
That being said, he doesn't trust that little shit. Two days are enough for the boy to either blow himself or the whole house up and after the stunt he pulled not so long ago, Gakushuu's on edge.
On Saturday, he tells his father he's going out to buy himself some supplies and then study. The chairman doesn't question it, not that he ever does really. As long as Gakushuu stays on top of all his duties and returns before eight in the evening, the chairman pays him no attention. He does stop by the shop though, just not for any studying material. After picking up a few vegetables, eggs, fish and even a packet of sweets to placate his moody teenager of a brother, he heads to Karma's house.
It takes over half an hour to get there. Their houses are rather far away, on the opposite sides of the city and it takes Gakushuu two bus changes and a ten-minute walk. He could probably run or bike there faster, but he doesn't want to risk getting noticed by the residents or accidentally meeting his classmates on the way there. At the very least, he could put on a hoodie and sunglasses on the buses and hide his identity.
He checks the time. It's only ten in the morning and he's already standing in front of the door. Gakushuu rings the bell and waits, though he's fairly sure Karma probably hasn't even woken up yet. Still, he waits. Then rings again, two times, each time longer, and waits. Usually, the second ring would wake the boy up but for some reason, he was taking his damn sweet time today.
Maybe he was out? No, Karma rarely goes out on the weekends. He prefers staying home alone and playing games like the introverted sloth he is.
For once, Gakushuu is grateful for Karma's forgetfulness. The boy often forgot his keys and after a certain incident involving climbing a tree to get in from an open window, he started leaving a spare key in the garden. The strawberry blond wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it, considering that the only thing someone needed to do to rob his house was turn one plant over and grab the key, but it does come in handy right now.
Once he walks in, he notices the shoes still messily tossed by the entrance. Karma must be home, then.
He puts the bag with groceries on the kitchen table and heads up to his younger brother's room.
The door is for some reason still broken from the last time he kicked it down, despite the fact that he already told the boy to fix it countless times.
Ah, whatever. He knocks at the doorframe and calls out: "Karma?"
The lump on the bed doesn't move. Was he really sleeping? Gakushuu rang so many times, how did he not wake up?
He approaches the whirl of blankets and pillows and pushes them aside to reveal Karma's face. He's indeed still sleeping, but what strikes the strawberry blond is how flushed the boy looks.
He gently brushes the hair from his forehead and feels it. Then he feels his cheeks. They're definitely warmer than normal.
Seriously? He was sick? Again?
Gakushuu sighs. This is the second time in the last four months already.
Well, can't help it. He opens the window to get some fresh air in and then leaves to fetch a towel and basin. He fills it with cold water and returns, careful not to spill it on the floor. He proceeds to dip the towel in it and put it on the boy's forehead.
Noticing the icy change, Karma shivers and slightly cracks his eyes open. It takes him quite a while to realize who he's looking at.
"Gakushu?" He winces a few times, fighting off the urge to fall back asleep. "What are you doing here?"
In response, the older boy smiles gently and pats his head: "Came in to check on you, only to find out you're sick again. Incredible how easily you get fevers."
His brother hums in response and closes his eyes again.
Gakushuu ruffles the heap of red tresses for the last time and whispers: "Alright. I'll let you sleep, you big baby."
And not even a minute later, the boy is out cold, peacefully inhaling and exhaling.
What a strange creature, this brother of his. So strong and yet in many ways vulnerable. Aside from the fact that he would probably get ill if the wind blew just a second too long at him, he let himself be affected by too many things. Emotions and people especially. It makes Gakushuu worry like crazy. If Karma doesn't come to terms with the cruelty of this world and its inhabitants, if he doesn't learn to deal with it, he might get himself hurt really badly.
It's one of the things that Gakushuu knows for sure.
Another thing that he's a hundred percent positive about is that Karma's laziness will be the death of him.
Just one look into the fridge is enough of a proof. Most of the things they bought together a few days ago are gone and the idiot hasn't gone groceries since. Besides a few lemons, an apple and a single egg, there was a bag of something dark. Something black. What is that even?
He reaches for its contents.
And drops them the moment he realizes what he just touched.
That was a carrot. A mouldy, moist carrot. Black. The spores. The spores were on his hands.
Pieces of the rotten carrot crumble like ash and land on his socks.
Someone's going to die.
Turns out, Gakushuu didn't have to do the killing. Karma took care of that himself.
"What the hell are you trying to do?" the strawberry blond asks, eye twitching at the sight.
He's been peacefully cooking for an hour and when he finished and brought the food to his younger brother's room, he found the dumbass hanging from his bed, legs tangled in a blanket and his face high-fiving the floor. He guesses Karma tried to get up but got stuck in the covers and fell. Probably hurt like bitch and Gakushuu should help, but it provides for an amusing show, so he looks on.
"I need to pee," The teen half hisses, half whines, trying to straighten up but failing pathetically. His hands tremble like a leaf and he tries another time before he plops down on the ground, giving up.
"Gakushuu..." the redhead pleads, whimpering like a baby, and the older boy starts to feel bad. He should really help, shouldn't he?
He sighs and walks to the big baby on the floor. "There we go." he picks the kid bridal-style, with absolutely no shame (unlike Karma himself, as if he wasn't flushed enough already) and carries him all the way to the restroom. Gakushuu has been training his strength, plus Karma didn't weigh much to begin with, so it wasn't that difficult.
Right before the doors to the toilet, he drops him like a sack of potatoes. The boy lands on his butt and groans and Gakushuu has to laugh. Karma pierces him with the most disgusted and hateful glare he can pull, stands up and slams the doors before his face.
Gakushuu cackles even more.
When he walks out of the bathroom, the first thing Karma does is keep Gakushuu an arm's length away and declare very adamantly that he's going to walk on his own. The strawberry blond stifles a laugh and moreover holds back from picking the boy again, just to tease him. It would provide for an amusing sight, but the last thing he wants is for the redhead's fever to peak out of embarrassment.
The teen returns to his bed, ready to make another trip to Dreamland. Unfortunately for him, Gakushuu stops him.
"Here's breakfast." He hands him the plate.
Karma doesn't look very interested but he sits up anyway, too tired to argue. When he gets a glimpse of the meal, his eyes widen in disbelief.
"You call this breakfast?" He turns at his brother. Looking at the size of it, Karma would call this the last-meal-before-being-stranded-for-a-month rather than breakfast.
Gakushuu shrugs. "Call it whatever you want, breakfast, brunch, means-to-make-you-gain-some-weight-coz-you-are-skinny. I don't care,"
"I'm not skinny," the boy objected with a frown. He didn't like having this issue pulled up again but Gakushuu just couldn't help it. Not when the entirety of Karma's diet consisted of strawberry milk and an occasional gummy bear. Or whatever it was that he snacked on.
"You're light for your height," he responds.
"I'm 60 kilos and have grown since I last got measured so if I were to estimate, I'd be around 175 centimetres. Which means that if I divide 60 by 1,75 squared in meters, I get my BMI which is about... 19,6. And the last time I checked, that's within the healthy range."
"Body mass index is misleading and does in no way say precisely whether you are healthy or not. Two people of the same height and weight can be completely different - one might be muscular, the second one just obese. Your argument is invalid and bringing it up is stupid."
"Bringing this whole subject is stupid. What are you? Ah, sorry, I forgot. You are a mother hen."
"Mind your tongue if you don't want that mother hen to spank you." Gakushuu grins coldly, daring him to say anything more. "Now eat it and go sleep like a good boy."
The redhead mumbles something under his breath but digs into the food. Meanwhile, Gakushuu paces around the room, inspecting the state of it. It's so messy. It looks like a hurricane flew by it and decided to sweep every single thing with it. He wouldn't be surprised if something died in there and Karma caught the plague from it.
"Seriously, I only left you on your own for two days. How did you get sick in two days?!" He rubs his temples in exasperation.
The kid pouts and stuffs his mouth with porridge.
"Your cooking skills got a lot worse, mom," Karma huffs despite already finishing half the bowl.
Gakushuu's pride is seriously compromised by that statement so he immediately defends himself: "Don't blame me. Usually I use broth to enrich the taste but as I was quite in a hurry today and broth takes really long to make, so I had to use just water. Also, I could have made something better if you took proper care of your produce instead of letting the little left there spoil."
Then he remembers the carrots he had been violated by and grows even more irritated: "Seriously! How the hell can you leave a whole bag of carrots to rot there for who knows how long?! If you notice it's gone bad then get rid of it, you dipshit. Mould can cause infection and asthma! Because of you, I had to scrub the floor where it fell, the fridge itself to make sure it wouldn't affect the food I bought today by the way, so don't you fucking dare let it go bad too, and then disinfect my hands because-"
"AAH STOP!" Karma yelps, covering his ears. "You're talking too much, it hurts my head! I get it, okay? I get it, now shut up!"
Oh. He went abroad. It happened a lot that he got so consumed by voicing out all of the complaints and everything Karma should or shouldn't have done. Maybe the mother-hen thing wasn't so far from true. Not that he'd ever admit it.
He feels sheepish enough to let Karma's insolency slip and sits down on a chair. His brother has finished the food by then and put it on the nightstand, returning back to being a ball of blankets.
Gakushuu guesses Karma's gone to sleep so he pulls out some of the textbooks he brought with him. Mostly Math and science assignments and then notes from literature. He needed to keep honing his skills and expand his knowledge if he wanted to remain at the top.
'Don't grow too complacent, Asano-kun' his father told him when he came back home last time with top score exams. He didn't expect praise, never does anymore, but this time his father made it a point to remind him that he's nowhere near perfect. So many things he still doesn't know, areas where he's lacking. He can't calculate in his head fast enough, he doesn't fully understand technological advances, he can't run long enough. He lost one point in home ecs., he needs to work on ethics. Ethics is the cornerstone of society, Asano-kun. How do you expect to control crowds when you can't even master that?
He's not even reading anything at this point, just glaring at the study material.
Always something. Always lacking in one way or another. There was no satisfying the man and Gakushuu sometimes feels like there's no point to his efforts, so why keep going?
"You should try relaxing once in a while," Karma suddenly declares, interrupting the flow of his resentful thoughts. He visibly flinches in surprise and when he turns around, his brother observes him with serious eyes.
"I do relax, don't worry about me," Gakushuu answers. "Weren't you sleeping?" He raises an eyebrow.
"No. And I strongly doubt that, judging from the bags under your eyes. Did you pull another all-nighter?"
He was correct. There wasn't much time for him to sleep in the first place, but the constant tension between him and Karma really affected his focus lately and he ended up working on his assignments longer than usual. It's not such a strange occurrence either - his long nights spent studying - especially on Fridays. Since they didn't have school the next day, he didn't need to be vigilant at all times or worry about ruining his reputation, so all-nighter it was.
"Put that damn book down and chill out, it's not good for your health," says Karma after a while.
The strawberry blond snorts at the irony: "You giving me a lecture about health? You who gets sick like at least ten times a year? Are you serious?"
The latter makes a sour face: "My stupid immune system is not within my control. It's not like I can choose how often I get sick, it sucks."
"Maybe if you wore your uniform which has more layers to keep yourself warm or if you didn't pick fights left and right, or if you ate balanced bentos instead of pure sugar, then you'd be spending less time bedridden." He rolls his eyes.
Karma doesn't relent though: "Still better than overexerting myself like you do. I can actually imagine you collapsing from exhaustion one day. So put that book down and take it easy."
"Impossi-"
"I am being worried about you here so would you please listen to me for once?"
Dirty.
Karma's playing dirty. He is pulling that card out. Those puppy eyes. The genuinely concerned face. That urgent voice of his that always manages to make Gakushuu's heart sink. And it's so hard for him to fight. Karma is the only one that he cares about to this level and that devil is well aware of it.
"Fine," he gives up, closing the thick text. His brother smiles victoriously, which would have normally triggered the older boy, but this time he doesn't mind.
The redhead motions for him to come closer, so he does. Then, Karma scooches over and pats the mattress: "What about you take a nap?"
"Are you stupid?"
At some point, Gakushuu really falls asleep without knowing when, where, why and how. He especially wants to know how. The last thing he remembers is sitting by the desk, watching videos on his phone.
But when he wakes up, he finds himself in Karma's bed, pinned down the boy's arms. His younger brother was asleep as well, oblivious of the fact that he was just a breath away from his face and hugging him really, really fucking tight. This will bruise, Gakushuu muses.
Damn, such a pain.
And yet he's grinning like an idiot.
