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nightcoreandcaffeine · 15 days ago

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When A Day Starts Wrong

Satoru wakes up late and his morning does not get better from there. Luckily his friends are there to help.

Crossposted to AO3

TW: mildly depicted autistic meltdown

The day started out wrong.

Satoru has always been punctual, with everything, getting up in the morning included. But, despite the alarm on his phone, which was on the shelf behind his head, he somehow didn’t wake up. He only roused himself 20 minutes later by the rhythmic thumping of Daifuku in his cage. Ignoring an alarm was one thing, but ignoring a living being who needs his attention is quite another.

He sits up in his bed, groggy as can be, and fumbles around for his glasses, before shoving them on his face. They feel a bit uncomfortable, but glasses pretty much always do for the first few minutes. He tries to not eat it on the floor as he stands up, gripping what he can of the wall for support. Finally, he makes it over to Daifuku’s cage, opening it for the bunny.

Satoru leans against the wall, running his fingers over the carpeted floor around Daifuku’s cage, watching the bunny walk around, and stretch out the morning sleepiness. The carpeting is a bit rough, but it was better for traction, more like the texture of the outside world. He watches Daifuku for a while, just observing how the bunny moves, before he glances at the clock. A panicked noise escapes his throat as he jolts up, and runs to his closet to get changed for school.

He barely manages to grab his school bag and lunch as he runs out the front door, and dearly hopes that Daifuku had enough food and water left in his dispensers for the day. As he runs down the sidewalks to Wangan Middle School, he starts to get winded, and makes a noise not unlike a whine at it. He’s been keeping up with literal superheroes for over half a year, why does he still have no stamina?

As he makes his way towards the school, he gets surprised by Komugi suddenly popping up in front of him, and Iroha joining shortly thereafter.

“Hey Satoru, why are your glasses upside down?” Komugi asks, with the signature tilt of the head expected of dogs.

He reaches up to feel the frames. Indeed, they were upside down. He readjusts them to be right side up, willing himself to not flush in embarrassment.

“Did you do the homework?” Iroha asks, less as an actual question, Satoru always does his work, and more a change of conversation. She saw the embarrassment and wanted to save him from more questions about it.

“Of course, it was actually pretty simple,” he says, readjusting the glasses a final time to sit straight. Then he remembered he didn’t even bother to look in the mirror when he brushed his teeth, so anxiously started combing out his hair with his fingers, hoping it wasn’t a complete rats nest.

“Toyama-kun, is there something the matter?” Mayu asks, she and Yuki joining the trio. “Do you have something in your hair?”

“Ah, I just…forgot to comb it out this morning. I woke up late, and was more focused on making sure Daifuku would be comfortable for the day.” He finally lets up on the combing, having gotten all the knots out.

“That’s just like you, isn’t it,” Iroha says with a fond chuckle. “More worried about Daifuku-chan than yourself.”

“Of course! If I left him in his cage all day on accident…” Satoru starts to fret over this currently-non-issue, and Yuki decides to cut it short with a sharp tug to his bag.

“Did you pack all your things?” She asks, shifting the conversation yet again, and looking over to Mayu, a slight squint to her expression. Mayu recognized the look as the one Yuki would have when asking Mayu about her anxiety, but this time, aimed at Satoru. He was acting pretty skittish this morning.

“I packed everything last night. It’s all in there,” he assures, patting the bag. “Daifuku even double checked. I think. He’s gotten to the point where he’ll thump at me if I don’t show him all my assignments, completed, before I put them in my bag.”

“Sounds like him,” Komugi and Yuki agreed, the only two who could actively converse with the bun, barring the currently-absent Niko and Mey Mey.

“Anyways, let’s just get to class. I don’t want to be even more late.” Satoru starts walking quicker, passing all four of the girls in his rush to get to class. They all give each other a look, concerned.

“Has Toyama-kun ever been this anxious?” Mayu asks Iroha, looking at the boy as he starts messing with his hair again.

“Not since I’ve known him,” Iroha replies, some of her own anxieties building up as she watches her boyfriend fret. “…well, there’s been a few times he’s gotten closed off, but I think it was just social anxiety, like you have.”

Mayu nods, gently tapping her fingers against her bag, her gaze becoming distant as they continue to walk. Yuki recognizes this as her thinking, and just helps steer the girl in the correct direction. Komugi has long since caught up with, and passed by, Satoru, greeting their other classmates as they made it to the gate.

They all make it to the classroom without incident, sitting in their back corner seats. Ookuma and Kanie approach the group, wanting to catch up before class starts.

“Ookuma-chan and I are going to a concert this weekend,” Kanie mentions, and digs in her bag for something. “I got some earplugs off of Saruwatari-kun to take. Turns out he’s also a big music fan.” She shows off the foam earplugs, more just to show some evidence of their concert planning than actual interest in the foam plugs.

“Ooh!” Komugi grins at the two, and pokes at the foam in Kanie’s hand. “Never seen these before!” Her eyes light up as she pokes them. “They’re squishy!”

“The earplugs are made out of foam, which can be compressed, and then inflate itself back up. Foam earplugs are considered the ideal solution for blocking out unnecessary levels of volume, as they can be compressed enough to enter the ear canal, and re-inflate to fill the canal fully. They should be inserted to the point that you can only grasp the end outside of the canal for optimal protection, but take caution to not insert them too deeply as to be unable to retrieve them, or damage the eardrum.”

The girls all look over to Satoru as he finishes his explanation, and stare, a bit confused. He barely even looks like he recognized he was speaking, staring at his bag as he waited for class to start. Only after they’re all quiet for a moment does Satoru look back up, blinking rapidly to get himself back online.

“Ah, sorry, didn’t mean to go on a rant.” He looks ashamed that he derailed the conversation so abruptly, and looks back down at his bag.

“No, it’s…that’s fine, Toyama-kun, we’ll make sure to remember that for Saturday,” Ookama tries to placate, looking over at Iroha for help. She didn’t interact with the boy much, but even she knew this behavior was unusual.

Iroha looks conflicted, and ultimately give a defeated shrug. She pats Satoru’s shoulder, and gives him a big smile. “Thanks for telling us about that! Now we know how to use them safely! You’re always looking out for everyone.”

Is she laying it on a little thick considering its just earplugs? Maybe. Does that stop her? No. Iroha will appreciate her friends and what they do with all her heart. And its obvious something is up with Satoru today. What it is though? No one’s quite sure.

The bell rings, so everyone sits in their seats, waiting for Babazono-sensei to begin class. People start taking out their assignments and books. Iroha spares a glance over at Satoru, and is relieved to see he has all his assignments complete for the period. She has a feeling it would not end up well if he was missing them. Her gaze snaps back to the front of the classroom, where the teacher has stood up.

He started talking about whatever book it was they were reading for Modern Japanese, and Komugi groaned behind Iroha, not understanding most of what he was talking about, as usual. When he brought out the attendance sheet to call for a reader, Komugi slid down in her seat to avoid being called on.

Whether by the will of Niko or just regular luck, she wasn’t chosen. Instead, Satoru was. He stood up, and started reading the passage from the book. Komugi understood why Daifuku said he liked to hear him talk. He was clear and concise, properly enunciating and pronouncing every word. Which meant she was surprised when his voice suddenly tapered then cut out. An awkward second later, and he started coughing. Must have just gotten something caught in his throat. He sat down to dig through his bag for his water, and Iroha stood up to finish reading the passage for him.

Mayu watched the boy get slowly more frantic looking for his bottle, before taking out her own and handing it over. He nodded his thanks, opening it to waterfall from the bottle, before resealing and handing it back over with another nod.

Mayu glanced over at Yuki to see what she thought, and the girl was glaring in thought at him. Mayu tapped the edge of Yuki’s desk, and the cat wrote down something and passed it to the girl.

‘That wasn’t a coughing fit. He just couldn’t speak anymore. I can tell when its a real cough.’

Mayu looks at the note in surprise. First, she didn’t know Yuki could do that. Second, that was adding on more and more to the mystery of what was going on with the boy. Mayu surreptitiously passed the note along to Iroha when she sat down, having finished reading the passage. She read over the note, and looked at them both, concerned. She waited for Satoru to be writing something down, before whispering to them both. ‘Bathroom at break?’

The other two nod, agreeing to the meeting place. And Komugi would end up following Iroha anyways.

Most of the class passed without incident. Satoru didn’t raise his hand to answer any questions, completely out of character for him. Once the bell rang, all four of the girls headed to the bathroom on the floor to discuss.

Iroha leaned against the wall with a sigh, Komugi standing next to her. Yuki and Mayu took up residence by the sinks across from them.

“Something’s wrong.” Iroha starts, and the cat duo nod.

“That coughing fit was a cover up for something. His voice just…stopped working it seems,” Yuki says, tapping on the sink’s edge.

“Not to mention he didn’t answer any questions afterwards. He usually fills all the awkward lulls when no one else knows the answer,” Mayu adds, tapping her own arm in a nervous habit.

“He put his glasses on upside down, and he was running to school.” Komugi hums, thinking. “He said he was taking care of Daifuku, but Daifuku has told me they get up early to get everything ready before school. Did he not set an alarm?”

“I don’t think we know enough to do anything yet,” Iroha relents with a sigh. “I’m worried, though.”

“We all are, Iroha-chan, and we’ll figure it out. Promise.” Mayu gently rubs Iroha’s shoulder, said girl offering up a smile.

The warning bell rings, so they head back to the classroom. But while all of them glance over at Satoru to check on him, only Mayu notices something dire.

“…Yuki,” she whispers to her cat, urgency in her voice. “I recognize that look. He’s about to have a panic attack.”

Yuki’s eyes widen, but she agrees with the girl. However, there’s not much they can do in the two minutes before class. Mayu has an idea though, and goes to where Shou and Saruwatari are sitting.

“Shou-kun, Saruwatari-kun, I need a favor. Toyama-kun isn’t feeling well. Can one of you take him to the nurse’s office?”

Shou stands up, and Saruwatari acknowledges the other boy will take care of it, nodding to Mayu, and turning back to the front of the room. Shou walks over to the boy, gently tapping his shoulder.

Satoru looks up, but not before rubbing his eyes to get rid of the few tears that gathered up. “D- do you need something?”

Shou looks at him for a moment, thinking, before he makes up a reasonable excuse. “My, uh, ankle got sprained at practice yesterday, and I need to go to the nurse for pain meds, but I’m afraid I might hurt myself on the stairs. Could you, uh, go with me? Since you can probably afford to miss class, y’know with how smart you are.”

It’s a bit fumbled, but it seems to do the trick, and Satoru stands up. The two go to get permission from the teacher, and leave the room.

As they walk down the hallways, Shou fidgeted with his bag. He thought he might as well work on something in the nurse’s office when they’d inevitably had to wait. But, before they could even make it to the stairwell, Satoru stopped in his tracks.

Shou glanced up, and his eyes widened when he saw the other boy starting to cry. He whipped his head around, not wanting anyone else to see and ask questions about why Satoru was crying in the middle of a hallway, and decided to just shove both of them into the nearest boy’s bathroom.

“…Toyama, dude, you not feeling okay?” Shou asked, just confused as all get out. Mayu had said he was feeling bad, and Shou assumed she meant ill, not…crying.

“…bad day…” is all Satoru makes out, rubbing his eyes harshly, before sitting down against an empty wall. Shou joins him, looking at him with concern.

“What happened to make it bad?”

“…woke up late…’nd I forgot to feed Daifuku, and I had to run to school and I have no stamina…and I put on my glasses wrong, and my voice stopped working…and I forgot my homework for this class…” He starts rubbing at his eyes again, and Shou grabs his wrists to make him stop. This seems to be the wrong decision though, as Satoru rips away his hands like he was burned.

Shou doesn’t respond badly, just backing off. “Okay, no touchy, got it. Just…don’t hurt yourself, alright?” He moves back a little to give the other boy space.

“Well…you can’t fix that you woke up late, so don’t worry about that. And you always take care of Daifuku, so he’ll probably understand it was a one time thing. As for running…uh, maybe I can help you with that later. Stamina takes a while to develop. Your…your glasses look fine now so I think you fixed that problem. And you could talk so your voice isn’t, like, randomly gone. Uh, homework…” Shou tapped his bag, before getting an idea. He took out his own homework for the class, and erased his name at the top.

“Here.”

Satoru looked at Shou, then the paper, then back to Shou. “But…but you also need to turn in the work?”

“I can afford to miss one assignment-”

“By that logic I can too-”

“Hey! Like I was trying to say, one missed assignment won’t get me kicked off the soccer team. And you are a lot more emotionally invested in getting everything turned in on time.” He moved the paper towards Satoru, and handed him a pencil. “I’ll be fine, Toyama.”

“…why are you helping me?”

Shou laughs, as if it’s a hilarious question. “Dude, we’re classmates, and I’d at least consider us friends. Plus, now you owe me a favor, and can make Komugi play against me again. She’s been too busy with…something to have any time for a friendly soccer match.”

Satoru looked at the ground, and finally nodded. He shakily wrote his name on the paper, and started reading through all the answers, fixing anything that was wrong.

Shou leaned back against the wall, determining they’d be missing pretty much all of that particular class. Once Satoru stopped writing, he looked over to the boy. He seemed to be lost in thought, so Shou just let him keep thinking. Better than the panic attack at least.

“…you good?”

“…better. Thank you, Ikari-kun.”

“Call me Shou, everyone does.”

“…Thank you, Shou-kun.”

Shou laughs at that. “Honorifics still, dude? Just said you can call me Shou, plain and simple. I mean, I call you Toyama, no honorifics attached.”

“That’s also my last name, so it’s still a bit different…” Satoru fiddles with his fingers. “…how are you so comfortable with people calling you by your first name?”

Shou tilts his head. “Huh? Uh, I guess I never really thought about it. Well, everyone in our class knows each other, so I don’t see any reason they can’t…you not comfortable with stuff like that?”

“…names are very…special. To me at least. And calling someone their first name when I haven’t…earned their trust…it scares me.”

“…dude, you are quite literally the most trustworthy guy in class. Does everyone not go to you for questions about their pets?”

“Well yes, but-”

“But nothing! People like you, Toyama. Do you not think that?”

Satoru freezes up. “I- it’s not that, I know people like me, it’s just…nerve-wracking. To call people by their name.”

Shou spies the blush forming on the boy’s face. “…is this about you calling Inukai ‘Iroha-chan’ now?”

Satoru flusters, and Shou laughs. “It is that! That’s awesome. Honestly, how it took you so long is beyond me. Also, why does her cousin get to call you plain Satoru before Inukai could?”

“Komugi calls everyone by their first names. I’m not sure she even understands how honorifics work,” Satoru relents.

“Yeah that’s fair. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was Inukai’s dog turned into a person. They even have the same name! Did Inukai name her dog after her cousin or something?”

Satoru mumbled something, and Shou didn’t pay it much mind when he trailed off again.

“…is this the first time you’ve had a panic attack?” Shou decides to just bite the bullet. Might as well.

“Unfortunately no. And… and it’s not a panic attack. It was a meltdown.”

“…what’s the difference?” Shou wasn’t trying to be rude, but the fact he could even guess at a word for what happened to Satoru was something.

“Panic attacks are associated with people with anxiety disorders. Meltdowns are associated with those on neurodivergent spectrums, particularly those with ASD.”

Shou looks at Satoru like he grew a second head, so Satoru tries to rephrase it. “Anxiety leads to panic attacks. Being things like autistic leads to meltdowns.” It wasn’t quite accurate but he was already having to simply his vocabulary, so it would suffice.

“So you’re…autistic then? Because you said you had a meltdown, not a panic attack.”

“Correct.”

Shou didn’t respond for a while, just thinking. Satoru was mentally preparing for some demeaning, if well-meant, words. Instead…

“Does Daifuku usually help you when you have a meltdown?”

That’s not what he expected. But, he likes that Shou is just rolling with it. “Yes. He serves as a grounding tool. He’s…he’s warm, and soft, and just heavy enough to feel grounding without being suffocating.” Even just talking about his bunny was helping him relax. The school bell ringing signaled to the two that they should probably get a move on.

“…Thank you, Shou-kun.”

“Of course Toyama! We’re friends. Oh, uh, do I need to keep the autism thing secret? Or was I just out of the loop?”

“I don’t mind much either way. It’s a part of me that I have to accept, since it’s not going away. And I think our classmates will be kind.”

“For sure!” Shou assures, taking Satoru’s bag as they walk back to class. Once they make it in, he turns in the assignment sheet, informing their teacher that Satoru didn’t get it out before he took Shou to the infirmary. The teacher accepted the paper with no notes about it being considered late, so Shou shot Satoru a thumbs-up, and went back to his desk.

Meanwhile, in the corner, the girls were still concerned, but their worries were a bit alleviated by Satoru being visually better.

“Doing okay, Satoru-kun?” Iroha asked.

“Yes. Thank you, Iroha-chan.” Satoru smiled, and it relieved them all. Seems like the morning crisis was leveling out. He’d be back to normal soon.

#wonderful precure #my fics #toyama satoru #daifuku toyama #komugi inukai #inukai iroha #yuki nekoyashiki #mayu nekoyashiki #ikari shou #autistic toyama satoru #he's canonly autistic to me

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weeb-polls-with-pip · 1 year ago

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Autistic Anime Boys Prelims - Propaganda Division - Group 8

Propaganda:

Itsuki -

"Does things in ways the protagonist sees as strange and talks in a very formal and roundabout way. He also talks with his hands a lot. He has admitted to faking his personality to be more to Haruhi Suzumiya's liking in both the main timeline and the timeline where he's an ordinary human."

Akira -

"Akira cares deeply for animals maybe even more than other people, he’s completely oblivious to the fact both his best friends are in love with him and when he fuses with a demon to become a demon hunter he calls himself Devilman because he’s a demon and a man at the same time."

Yukiteru -

"Yuki is incredibly socially awkward but also has a knack for befriending odd people, he writes everything he sees in his diary and is super dedicated to keeping the format exactly the same every time oh and did I mention his ‘imaginary friend’ is a science themed god?"

Haru -

"He's really into the patterns of storytelling, and his goal in life is to be a "protagonist". Once he becomes an Appli Driver, he places a lot of his self-worth in being a protagonist and the role he fulfills (which, in my opinion, is a type of script-following) and he winds up in a bad place when he realizes him being a protagonist was built on a lie. He spends all of his free time reading & sometimes gets so invested in reading that he skips out on social activities (and lets his 2ft monster (Gatchmon) go trick-or-treating in broad daylight all on their own). He always has the same pair of goggles on his head but wears them maybe once. His buddy Appmon (digimon partners are often reflections of their human partners) is basically the personification of a search engine and will go on tangents about whatever they've looked up."

Mio -

"Has special interests in ancient medicines and photography. Abstract thoughts and oblivious to social norms. Resists change (example: reacted negatively to the schools curry being unavailable since that is his possible safe food). Other characters notes him as being strange. Poor reasoning (example: Thinks it more efficient to just take supplements instead of eating). Ignores other in pursuit of his interests."

Akira Agarkar -

"A 25 year old man who works for a government agency named D.U.C.K., where flamboyant/eccentric people investigate aliens, and goes undercover as a highschooler to gain information about Haru; doing a poor job of trying to blend in. He is a quirky silly man and his best friend is a duck named Tapioca who he talks to. He also has a special interest in fishing and gets so excited by it that he sometimes yells "FIIIIIIISHH" in English when he reels them in. Bad puns upset him so much that he is physically incapacitated and lies on the floor. What else can I say, I love him."

Kaiji -

"Can't tell when he's being tricked by other characters, and sees human connection as pointless because of how isolated he feels. Says that other see him as weird and that 'being difficult' is easier for him than acting like someone he isn't."

Shou -

"His special interest is math. He uses math terms in regular conversations and calls people yoctograms/zeptograms which earned him monikers such as "math man" and "pi-face". Speaking of Pi, he once shouted 155 consecutive digits of it through a megaphone just because he could. He's so normal."

Saguru -

"high school detective who shows up to crime scenes in full sherlock holmes cosplay because this is totally a normal thing one does, right?"

Souji -

"this lonely genius used to be a computer-like man, now he's a (tragic) villain. the bisexual who swings both ways and misses both times, he's associated with insects/butterflies, flowers/black roses, anachronism, beautiful memories, elevators, and coffins- but who in SKU isn't, really? oh, and fire. he's also voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru at his raspy best."

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