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sickficideas · 10 months

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psychic lover || suegiku sickfic

ao3! please refer to the tags in the link for content + warnings! sicktember 2023, alt 3: pounding headache

“Jouno? Are you in here?”

Tecchou pokes his head into the restroom, and at first, he’s only met with an echo. Normally, that would be enough evidence for him to continue his search for his colleague elsewhere, but he’s spent the past half hour looking around their headquarters for him with no luck.

So he decides to hang around for just a few more seconds. He knows he can’t outsmart Jouno. If he is in here, he’ll know Tecchou hasn’t left, and he can’t fake footsteps in the other direction, either.

Tecchou leans against the wall in the hallway entrance to the restroom and waits.

“You really piss me off,” the voice finally says. Hoarse and generally sounding unwell. Tecchou had a feeling something wasn’t right with him. He’s been much less hostile today. Honestly, he thinks this is the first rude comment he’s gotten from him all morning. “Don’t you have better things to do than to stalk me, Tecchou?”

Tecchou almost tells him that no, he actually doesn’t have anything better to do, but before he can, he hears Jouno retch so hard that it sounds painful. Tecchou tenses up at the sound of it, and almost expects more comments to follow, but he just ends up breathing heavily for the next few seconds before Tecchou walks further into the bathroom, quickly locating the stall that Jouno is curled up in. His cape and hat are on the floor near the entrance, like he was in a rush to take them off.

“Are you sick?” Tecchou asks, tilting his head at the door.

“Get out of here before I make you leave, Tecchou,” Jouno grumbles, his voice trembling and softer than before, but the threat he’s making is very real.

“I was just asking,” Tecchou defends with a pout. Jouno seems to think Tecchou has some ulterior motives to being a decent human being sometimes. He really doesn’t. He just wants to know what’s going on. “You sound sick.”

“I’m not sick. Go mind your own business,” Jouno huffs. Tecchou sees him shift under the door.

“Did you not just -”

“It’s a headache. And you’re making it worse. So get. Out,” Jouno hisses, injecting far more venom into his tone with that than anything else he’s said today so far.

It’s all starting to make a lot more sense.

Tecchou isn’t sure he would call them simple headaches. What Jouno suffers from must be something closer to migraines, because they really severely debilitate him. Throwing up like this isn’t uncommon for him at all, and voices or sounds of any kind seem to make him feel much, much worse because of those heightened senses he has.

Tecchou understands what he needs to do. Fix everything on the outside, and then go help Jouno.

“I’ll be right back,” Tecchou says, as quietly as he can muster, because he knows Jouno will hear him regardless. He hears Jouno grumble something back, but Tecchou’s already on his way out of the restroom.

Thankfully, he catches sight of another Hunting Dog just as soon as he turns the corner. Tachihara’s a bit late as usual, but on time for him, considering his infiltration job. They had a meeting earlier this morning, and Jouno was the one who offered to pass along that information to Tachihara.

"Tachihara."

"Uh…yeah, Tecchou? What's up?" Tachihara says, looking a bit on edge. Tecchou isn’t sure why. Maybe he should have given him a normal greeting first, but Jouno is his priority right now.

"Tell Fukuchi that Jouno won't be able to finish today. He doesn't feel well," Tecchou says.

"Oh, is…is he okay?" Tachihara asks, his tense expression softening a bit.

“He has a bad headache,” Tecchou explains. He’s almost certain that Jouno can hear him and he’s almost expecting Jouno to suddenly appear between the two of them with a sword jabbed in Tecchou’s foot, but he never does. “Ask Fukuchi or Teruko to relay the information you missed this morning.”

“Oh - yeah, okay,” Tachihara nods. He doesn’t leave right away, interestingly enough. He looks like he wants to, but he stops, and eyes Tecchou again. “Is there - can I do something to help? Should I get one of the nurses?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Tecchou says. He briefly considered that, but Jouno hates receiving medical treatment of any kind. He always says he simply doesn’t need it, but he thinks it’s a very overwhelming process for him.

That’s the worst part of the headaches, Tecchou thinks. Jouno’s senses are so enhanced, and headaches would cause a person with standard senses enough pain as it is, but it’s so much worse for Jouno. He’s able to keep his head high most of the time, but Tecchou knows that everyone has a breaking point, and he’s hit it already. Tecchou thinks he knows what he can do.

“Can you ask the receptionists to clear the top two floors?” Tecchou asks. It’s a reasonable request, he thinks, but Tachihara’s eyes go wide.

“Clear them? Like, everybody out?” Tachihara asks. Tecchou nods back at him. The top two floors aren’t too densely populated, most of the people working up there have the ability to relocate to lower offices, he’s sure.

“That way I can take him up there and he can rest properly,” Tecchou explains. Tachihara seems to be figuring out the reason himself - Jouno wouldn’t be able to rest properly with a headache when there are people around, even on the floor below him. Tachihara is on his way soon enough, albeit hesitantly, and with him informing the rest of the team, all Tecchou needs to do now is get Jouno upstairs.

He walks back into the restrooms, as quietly as he can, but he’s sure in the end it makes no difference to Jouno. He’s quiet again for a few moments, focusing on Jouno’s heavy breathing. One breath ends in a pained groan before he decides to speak again.

“I can just go home, you know,” Jouno mumbles. Tecchou had considered that, but he’s sure it’s more of a last resort option than preferred - Jouno gets terrible motion sickness, and he doesn’t live close to their headquarters at all. That drive would just make him so much more miserable.

Tecchou brandishes his blade and extends it to travel over the door and unlock the stall with ease before placing it back in its sheath. He opens the door, which, to his surprise, makes an awful, high-pitched squeak, even loud for himself - Jouno, who has tucked himself in between the wall and the toilet, brings his hands up to his ears and almost whimpers. Tecchou isn’t used to hearing sounds like that from him.

“I’ll make sure they fix that,” Tecchou says in a whisper as he kneels down in front of Jouno. He studies his face for a moment. He’s incredibly pale, something he’d already taken note of earlier. There’s so much tension around his eyes, his face is so twisted up from the pain he’s feeling.

“I don’t get you,” Jouno barely manages. It almost sounds like he’s about to start crying, with the way his voice breaks at the end there.

Tecchou doesn’t entertain his taunts.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Tecchou says, reaching his hand out to graze Jouno’s as an offer to help him up, but Jouno only uses that hand to swat him away.

“I don’t need your help. Go find something better to do. Watch some ants or something,” Jouno groans as he uses the bar on the wall to help himself stand, but the way his legs are shaking is proof enough that he won’t make it very far. Tecchou lets him try, though, maybe he’ll prove him wrong - he backs up as Jouno leaves the stall, and he briefly slides in to flush the toilet. He’s concerned with how little he's actually thrown up. His guess is that he’s been dealing with this all morning and hasn’t eaten anything as a result.

Tecchou wishes he had noticed sooner. Jouno’s very good at hiding when he’s in pain.

Jouno kneels down to pick up his hat and cape with a shaky hand, but Tecchou’s faster than him, he takes both off of the floor and starts to neatly fold the cape. Jouno has this way of glaring at Tecchou without using his eyes. Scary.

“At least let me do this,” Tecchou says.

“You’ve done enough already. Stop bothering me,” Jouno grumbles as he tries to stand himself up, but evidently, he does it far too quickly - his expression relaxes and Tecchou thinks he’s fainted, just for a second, so he takes his arm into a firm grip to steady him.

“Are you alright?” Tecchou asks. Jouno hasn’t completely gone limp, he’s still standing against Tecchou, so thankfully he didn’t completely pass out. “Did you stand too fast?”

“Just take me upstairs,” Jouno mumbles, and Tecchou does as he’s asked. That was his plan anyway, he’s just glad Jouno has realized he can’t fight him on it anymore. Tecchou lays the back of his wrist over Jouno’s forehead just to make sure he isn’t running a temperature. It’s warm, but not any warmer than it should be.

The elevator is just down the hallway, but Tecchou doesn’t rush him. He has Jouno’s arm securely hooked within his. He’s slower than normal. He must still be in pain. Tecchou wonders if the act of walking is what’s painful, and for a second, he thinks about carrying him there instead.

“I’m not letting you carry me here,” Jouno huffs as they make it to the elevator. Tecchou presses the button. Tecchou doesn’t think Jouno can actually read minds. He’s just really good at making assumptions.

“Here? So you’d let me do it elsewhere?” Tecchou asks, purely out of curiosity, before they enter the elevator.

Jouno groans. “I really can't stand you, Tecchou."

That's not a no.

Once they’re inside, Jouno inadvertently answers Tecchou’s question and lays his head on Tecchou’s shoulder with a quiet, shaky sigh. He wraps his other arm around Tecchou’s for just a second before the elevator slows to their floor, and he slides his arm out as the doors open. Tecchou could feel his cheeks getting warm.

Tecchou still walks with him down to the end of the hallway. There’s a room with bunk beds they often use to rest in case they can’t go home for any reason. Tecchou wonders why he didn’t go here in the first place, so he could at least lay down - maybe he really couldn’t make it there by himself.

Jouno breaks off from him once they make it inside the room. He lays Jouno’s hat and cape on the desk as Jouno takes off his boots and crawls into the bed, not caring to remove the rest of his uniform. Tecchou doesn’t blame him. He takes off his own hat and cape before he disappears to the adjacent kitchenette to take something from the freezer.

Once he’s back in the room with Jouno, he shuts the lights off and sits at the edge of the bed, silent for a moment, just in case Jouno has already miraculously fallen asleep.

“Tecchou, please,” Jouno murmurs.

“This should help. Try it,” Tecchou says.

Jouno turns over to face Tecchou. “I’m not trying anything you’ve made -”

“It’s not edible. It’s an ice pack. You should put it on the back of your neck, it should help your headache,” Tecchou tells him, as convincing as he can sound. He hasn’t personally tried this, but he’s gotten icepacks for this purpose at Fukuchi’s request before.

Jouno almost looks like he’s about to turn back around, but Tecchou decides he’s just going to gently slide a hand under Jouno’s head to place the ice pack under his neck. Jouno, surprisingly, sinks into it without any fight back from Tecchou.

Jouno sighs and lays a hand over his forehead with a heavy sigh.

“I can’t believe you told Tachihara to evacuate the top two floors,” Jouno mumbles.

“Did he?” Tecchou asks. He didn’t think he could get it done that quickly, but Tachihara is very reliable when it comes to following orders.

“I don’t hear anyone.” Jouno confirms quietly. “Still, downstairs, but…it’s not nearly as loud.”

“Good,” Tecchou says. Even if that’s all that could be done, he’s glad they did it.

“It does feel a little better,” Jouno barely manages. Tecchou thinks he’s starting to get tired, which he believes must be a good sign. It’s not bothering him as much as before, he’s feeling okay enough to get tired. He didn’t think the ice pack would help that quickly, but maybe it’s a combination of everything. The quiet of the space, the comfort of the bed.

“I can get one for your forehead too,” Tecchou says.

“That’d...be good.”

Tecchou is swift in his strides back to the kitchenette to take another ice pack from the freezer, since even though it’s indirect, Jouno is finally accepting his help. He’s back at his side in no time at all to lay the ice pack on Jouno’s forehead. At first, he flinches at the sudden cold, but Tecchou watches his expression quickly relax. It’s good to know for the future that this is something that helps him.

“Do you have your cell phone on you?” Tecchou asks him. Jouno nods. “Okay. You can text me if you need something. I’ll be around.”

To his surprise, Jouno has nothing to say to that. He just grunts in acknowledgment, and with that, Tecchou stands up, and heads for the door.

Just before his hand touches the doorknob, he hears Jouno’s voice.

“Wait,” he murmurs. Tecchou freezes. “All of a sudden…you have something better to do?”

Tecchou lowers his hand. “No, not really.”

“Then stay,” Jouno says. This response is even more surprising than him saying nothing at all.

So, Tecchou does as Jouno asks of him. He takes off his boots and crawls onto the twin-sized mattress beside Jouno, who doesn’t make a single objection, no attempts to take back his request. Tecchou won’t lie, this is an opportunity he’ll gladly take after he didn’t get much sleep last night, but he’s sort of glad to be beside Jouno, too.

“You’re an idiot for going out of your way for me,” Jouno murmurs.

“It wasn’t out of my way,” Tecchou whispers. “I don’t want to see you miserable.”

Jouno huffs and turns his head, just enough to face Tecchou and to not move his ice packs too much. Tecchou turns so he’s laying on his side to face Jouno. His expression has relaxed considerably since the last time he studied his face like this.

Jouno’s hand reaches out to cradle the side of Tecchou’s face. He doesn’t say anything, but his hand is ice cold, just like his hands always are. Tecchou’s hands are often too warm for Jouno’s liking. Tecchou wonders sometimes if there’s any meaning behind that.

Tecchou lays his own hand on top of Jouno’s.

It’s not long before Jouno slides his hand away, and Tecchou wonders why he tried in the first place, up until Jouno catches Tecchou’s hand to squeeze it and lay between the two of them. It’s still so cold. Tecchou’s hands are bigger than Jouno’s, they’re rather dainty and delicate. Tecchou’s hand wraps around Jouno’s easily, and he squeezes it, just for a few moments before he relaxes again.

Tecchou wants to say something, but any ideas he has are dead on his tongue. Jouno is a very confusing person. One moment he’s yelling in Tecchou’s face and the next he’s lying beside him and squeezing his hand like his life depends on it. Tecchou’s cheeks get hot and pink like he’s embarrassed but he doesn’t know why.

“I like you too,” Jouno mumbles just as he starts to fall asleep.

Apparently, Jouno knows why.

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