#no I won’t stop rambling about Kazu

[ary-se]

Mankai with a dog

i was staring at my dog earlier, aggressively barking at a plastic bag. that's all. the rest is history

• at some point taichi just mentioned something along the lines of, "hey, wouldn't it be more fun here if... WE GET A DOG!?"

• whenever an idea spreads around the dorm, whether it's a good idea or an utterly ridiculous one, it's always either taichi or kazunari.

• IT'S ALWAYS EITHER TAICHI OR KAZUNARI (2).

• sakuya is excited about it! he never knew what it feels like to live with a dog, let alone actually grow up with one. this pure bean just wants to experience it, c'mon man...

• muku also agrees!! 100% yes!!! wouldn't it be cute when you get home everyday from school with a dog greeting you? it's like that one shoujo manga...

• tsumugi likes the idea! he also grew up with a dog (gosh dachshunds are so cute... zabi ily with my whole heart) so it wouldn't be too bad to have a dog in the dorm! apparently dogs can help you out a lot when it comes to emotional problems :)

• the moment these three angels literally agreed with the idea, everyone is ABOARD. it would be like taking care of a child except it's 100x times more fun

• actually no scratch that, not everyone is aboard...

• cause there's SAKYO.

• "WHAT'RE YOU GUYS GONNA DO ABOUT THE DOG?? DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF IT??? IT'LL ALSO TAKE MONEY TO BUY FOOD DISPENSER, DOG FOOD, YADDA YADDA YADDA"

• see it's all about money in the end, but sakyo. we know you want it too. god just pls say yes.

• a LOT of pleading - either the boys shoot sakyo puppy eyes whenever they see him, or some of them (by some i only mean taichi and kazu) waits outside sakyo's room and bleed his ears off with saying PLEASE repetitively the moment sakyo goes out of his room

• sakyo murdered everyone who barged into his room but they always, ALWAYS do it anyways. they don't learn their lesson!!

• SAKYO GOT FED UP. begrudgingly, after this has been going on for a month, he says yes

• EVERYONE CHEERS, FREAKING FINALLY!!!

• taichi and kazu, the mankai boys already aborted their plan of holding a funeral for the both of you... before sakyo agreed on getting a dog, he always has this look of wanting to strangle them to death

• after a lot of debating, they decided to settle on a dog that has a friendly disposition. anyways they get a light brown labrador!!!

• the day the dog got in the dorm, everyone got so excited

• everyone is literally ALL OVER THE DOG. THE DOG LIKES THE ATTENTION BUT GIVE IT A BREAK!! JUST PLEASE

• they name the dog koro! it's simple enough

• (i just searched for popular dog names in japan... don't @ me pls sobs)

• that night the dog kept wagging his tail from being so excited with everyone's presence he deadass sprained his tail

• it recovered after a week

• everyone takes turns filling koro's food bowl and water bowl. the duty of walking the dog is also distributed based on when the boys are free. they literally have a calendar dedicated for koro

• tsumugi makes a list of what the dog can and can't eat! it's most likely that everyone will feed koro, so they better not kill him off early...

• everyone follows the list except juza, it seems like he forgot the existence of the list

• one time juza was eating chocolate cupcakes, and koro was giving him puppy eyes

• how could he resist that face!! his inner resolve crumbled so fast, he was literally about to give it to koro

• tsuzuru to the rescue! the moment he saw juza and koro, he yelled "JUZA NO DON'T PLEASE STOP DOGS CAN'T EAT CHOCOLATE"

• juza just looks at tsuzuru, shocked. what do you mean dogs can't eat chocolate?? how do they even live their lives without the goodness of chocolates?? WHAT?

• he fails to understand, but he doesn't give it to koro. the dog whimpers and just goes away,, juza felt so bad and silently apologized to koro, but now he learned his lesson

• omi spoils koro!! every time he has free time, he whips something up for koro. he makes it as balanced as possible, of course.

• everyone to omi: "please don't make the dog fat."

• omi: "haha i won't"

• cue next day koro kinda looks chubbier

• OMI. PLEASE WE KNOW THE DOG IS CUTE BUT PLS CONTROL IT

• no joke, tenma was excited at first but now every time he sees the dog barking he gets scared shitless.

• JUST BECAUSE THE DOG BARKS AT YOU THAT DOESN'T MEAN THE DOG IS MAD AT YOU. IT JUST WANNA BE FRIENDS YOU FREAKING DOLT

• when he got comfortable with koro, he hid from everyone and patted the dog for the first time, and ran away immediately from embarrassment

• that night everybody was questioning why tenma gets beet red every time koro gets near him. but nobody mentioned it.

• on a whim, itaru let koro pull for a limited banner, making his paw tap the button. who knows if this dog is kinda lucky, right? there's no way of knowi-

• HE GETS ALL THE LIMITED CARDS IN ONE 10X PULL

• itaru just gapes at the dog for five minutes. "koro, you are a godsend..."

• itaru hid the dog's insane luck from banri, but somehow banri caught on

• "THAT'S UNFAIR! WHY WERE YOU HIDING IT FROM ME"

• from that point forward whenever itaru and banri play together, expect koro to be with them. it occurs a lot of times, but koro doesn't seem to mind as long as he gets belly rubs.

• congratulations masumi!! you now have a new alarm clock, but a million times MORE annoying!!

• they trained koro so every time masumi doesn't wake up, koro will just pounce and literally jump on him while barking right on his ear

• masumi hates to admit it, but the dog is goddamn annoying and it's effective at the same time

• hooray to masumi for not being late ever again!

• tasuku just stares at koro dead in the eye while the dog looks at his meal. what if i also train him to..?

• one day during winter troupe's rehearsals, hisoka was actually super duper early and that NEVER HAPPENED.

• "HISOKA WHY ARE YOU SO EARLY?? IS SOMETHING WRONG??"

• turns out TASUKU TRAINED KORO FOR A SOLID MONTH TO FIND HISOKA.

• once tasuku says "koro, where's hisoka?" the dog nyooms to WHERE HISOKA ACTUALLY IS. is he on the tree? in the washing machine? in the long-lost, ever changing storage room? you name it sir

• the days of painfully looking for hisoka are over! tasuku can finally catch a break! this is a big win for winter troupe!!!

• homare just blabs his poems to the poor dog. always.

• it's been going on for five hours and koro is so tired of his shit he just settles on trying to bury his ears on the ground just to not hear him. i am so sorry for your loss.

• homare pets him after he is done with his long ass session so guess that's worth it!

• tsuzuru didn't necessarily train koro to do it, but somehow whenever tsuzuru is in a writing spree the dog just grabs a can of red bull from itaru and brings it to his room.

• tsuzuru doesn't even realize it's the goddamn dog. HE DEADASS JUST TAKES THE CAN AND SAY THANK YOU AND CONTINUE WRITING THE SCRIPT

• everyone just assumed tsuzuru trained koro to actually do that. PLEASE LET THE DOG LEARN NORMAL DOG TRICKS HE ISN'T YOUR MAID

• "I DIDN'T TRAIN KORO!!!"

• Whenever it's misumi's turn to walk the dog, koro joins him in his triangle hunting! koro picked up misumi's habits, so koro picks up triangular objects from time to time and gives it to misumi. d'awwww!

• misumi please don't expect the dog to join you running on walls. please don't. everyone's gonna hunt you down once something happens :)

• citron is super affectionate to the dog! koro is so attached to him and koro listens to citron babbling even tho he understands jackshit

• "back in my country, i am known as the glorious legendary master of dog b-"

• "yes citron. we get it."

• CITRON MAKES A KORO JR. MY HEART MY SOUL I OFFER TO YOU

• it's the dog's fave toy!!! he sleeps with it.

• yuki enjoys making anything for the dog. a dog bed? clothes? accesories? toys? HECK YEAH BRING IT ON SIR

• yuki isn't touchy feely with the dog but that's how he shows his love for koro!! it's okay, the dog understands!!

• koro is literally drowning in all those handmade stuff, spoiled by the only yuki

• whenever it's yuki's turn to walk the dog, he wears matching outfits with the dog as he buys more fabric for the next play (and for the dog but we don't mention that)

• THEYRE KINGS! literally a head turner. everyone just looks at them in awe. yuki wanna show off

• like citron, sakuya is super affectionate to the dog!

• he always gives bear hugs to the dog, especially when he is feeling anxious about something! koro's presence calms sakuya down big time

• please protect these small beans

• muku also loves the dog to death!! every time they arrive at home from school koro just jumps to them and he enjoys it so much

• at times when muku wants company when reading his shoujo manga, or just wants something to hug, koro does the job

• affectionate babies. please protect (2)

• koro is super affectionate when it comes to azuma.

• every after koro gets really excited about something, he gets dead tired so he goes straight to azuma's room.

• do you want to know what azuma does to koro? hmmmm? :---)

• they sleep together! duh

• taichi ALWAYS plays with the dog. it's like two dogs bonding smh

• taichi gets confused whenever they play catch?? whenever koro finally gets the ball, he runs back to taichi but doesn't give him the ball

• "umm, koro? we wouldn't be able to continue playing if you don't give the ball?"

• koro: NO GET ONLY THROW

• kazunari has a lot of aesthetic pics of koro! they're so wholesome, there was a point when his instablam is just full of koro

• ok he does have a lot of funny videos too, that's unavoidable

• best one so far was muku tossing the ball for koro to catch it, but he threw it too far and it hit sakyo's head at the back

• RUN FOR YOUR LIFE MUKU OH MY GOD

• sakyo was about to lose his shit but once he saw muku apologizing and rambling he felt bad.

• should it be mentioned that cleaning sessions are more of a pain than before?

• the dog sheds a LOT MORE than they expected. the fur is literally fucking everywhere

• how does one dog have this much hair??

• those ppl with big sisters (cough itaru and banri) SWEARS this dog's shedding is a hundred times worse than their sisters' hairfall

• speaking of shedding everywhere, everyone's clothes have fur ALL OVER their clothes

• most especially sakyo because he wears all black. poor old dude

• after a month of deliberation from sakyo, they decided to buy more lint rollers and all that stuff that are supposedly effective

• every time the students are late to school, the dorms get chaotic

• unfortunately for everyone the dog joins in adding more noise pollution

• THE DOG DRAMATICALLY BARKS WHENEVER EVERYONE IS PANICKING. IT FEELS LIKE WAR

• cue sakyo's very angry "KORO, SHUT UP!"

• koro didn't bark for a solid week... just pure whimpering. everyone was looking at sakyo like, "you better apologize, he doesn't deserve it..."

• when it was sakyo's turn to walk him, koro looks like he was about to shit. everyone was pretty concerned, but they wanted to see how it went

• the moment they came home, koro was all over him and sakyo is hiding a smile

• SOMETHING DEFINITELY HAPPENED.

• but what happened? nobody knew a thing. and it will stay that way.

• EVERYONE IS SOFT FOR HIM. not taking no for an answer

[absolute-sakuya-stan]

Could you do headcanons please for a drunk Kazunari, over-tired Taichi and Tenma, behaving extra blushy/lovesick around their crush (reader/you if you can) sfw but if you are comfortable, a little nsfw also, thank you!

I hope these are something like what you had in mind! Kazu’s has some nsfw!

drunk kazunari

okay, so this boy goes through a couple different stages when he’s drunk.

first is just him being a little extra giggly. like if he has a little to drink, he’s going to laugh at small things.

second is the phase where he’s going to be hitting on you. not everyone, just you.

he’ll definitely try to ask you out, to which you remind him that you’re already dating.

his words are slurred as he responds with, “that’s hella lit!”

third stage is where he gets more clingy and probably a little horny.

he’s for sure going to be throwing himself on you and giving you sloppy kisses. “you’re just sooo pretty, babe! like super hot!” he continues to slur his words.

he’s going to keep this up until he probably whines into your ear, “babe, pleeaase, i really need you now.”

from his begging tone and the way he playfully nips at your ear, you can tell what he means by it.

you take him back to your place (you definitely don’t want muku to be around for what’s going to happen). and oh boy, does he get excited. the second you’re in your room, he’s going to push you down on your bed and be kissing you with a lot of passion. you can feel him getting excited by the minute.

sex with him, while he’s drunk, is contrasting to his regular fucking. drunk sex with him is definitely faster and rougher, but still has tons of passion because in the end he really does love you. he’s definitely going to leave a few love bites along your collar bone

the next morning he’s going to be decently hungover, but the second he sees you next to him, he figures out what happened last night when he sees the marks he left.

he doesn’t have a whole lot of memory of what happened, but now he’s worried if he hurt you.

he shakes your shoulder to wake you up. “hey, babe?” he whispers.

“mhmm,” you turn and look at him.

“i, uh, didn’t hurt you last night, right?” he says nervously. you can tell he’s really concerned, “because i don’t really remember what happens and i’m really sorry if i did and—“ he was just rambling at this point.

you press a finger up to his lips, “shhh, kazu, it’s barely even morning yet, just stay here and sleep for a bit longer m’kay?” you say as you lay on top of his bare chest.

kazu wraps his arm around and kisses your head as he lays his own head on top of yours.

over-tired taichi

when taichi gets over-tired, it’s probably due to a lot of homework coinciding with theater practice.

taichi probably acts almost the equivalent of drunk when he gets severely sleep-deprived.

he’s probably going to be giggly or crying, there’s really no in-between.

pulling him away from his work is going to be pretty hard. he doesn’t want to sacrifice his grades and he’s not going to cut down on practice time.

he knows it’s irrational to think, but he won’t cut practice because he’s afraid of not being good enough and having mankai to be cut from autumn troupe.

the only way to get him to get to sleep is you need to pull him away from work and ask him for snuggles.

he’ll never say no to snuggles. so get him to lay down and pull him into your chest. just stroke his hair to get him to fall asleep within minutes.

he’s going to cling to you for quite a while so clear your schedule because he’s going to sleep for hours.

make sure you stay with him, his sleep deprivation makes him really prone to nightmares. he won’t wake up but just kiss his forehead and run your fingers through his hair until his whimpering stops.

when he wakes up, he’s going to be worried that he needs to work. he’s just going to ramble until you shut him up.

place your finger to his lips and he’ll quiet down.

“hey, shh, tai, calm down. it’s okay.”

hold his face and stroke him behind his ears, he’s like a big puppy and he’ll calm down.

“hey, it’s okay. you didn’t miss anything, you needed sleep. i was worried about you.”

“oh, sorry for worrying you...” taichi will tell you as he pulls you into a hug.

try to make sure he gets plenty of sleep so he doesn’t get over-tired again.

blushy, lovesick tenma

100% denies he’s blushing. even if his face is as red as sakuya’s hair and he can barely stutter out words.

nearly anytime he interacts with you, he can not keep himself together.

he spends some time mentally kicking himself after talking to you (well attempted talking to you). why is it so hard? he says way more flirty and romantic lines for tv, so why was trying to simply say “good morning” so hard.

he definitely tries to practice what he wants to say to you, it all goes out the window as soon as he sees your face.

“agh! why is y/n so cute!” he’ll think as he hopelessly tries to stutter out words.

he may be good at acting out feelings, but actually expressing his own is a whole other thing.

he also gets flustered if he’s caught staring at you lovingly.

“tenten! you’re totally checking y/n out!”

“wh-what!? no! i was just...!”

if you want to interact with this absolute blushy tsundere of an actor, just be patient with him. even though it might take him a minute or two for him to figure out how to speak, he’ll be thankful if you take the patience to listen to him.

he will absolutely refuse to confess how he feels, so if you reciprocate his feelings, you’re going to have to tell him.

if you do confess, tenma.exe has stopped working. he’s super flustered, super red, and super happy.

he’s honestly just going to be so overwhelmed with joy he’s not going to know how to react.

“you... like me? and i... uh... like you...”

“yes, dummy, i like you,” you tell him.

“c-could we... would you... do you mind if we—“

oh boy, he’s scarlet red as he tries to attempt to ask if he can kiss you.

you get what he’s trying to say so just cut him off with a short kiss.

“yes, we can kiss, tenma.”

now he’s tenma.exe is no longer responding. just stay with this blushing idiot until he comes to his senses.

[kazziesangel-moved]

I may have art block and my blog may already but full of Kazzie stuff, but I’m still gonna kiss the shark boyo regardless. It my shark husband and I get to love him all I want >:3

[pesky33]

Something I’m experimenting with

So, I love reportage style stories and books, and I try to include some aspect of that every time I write something. I started writing Teurshima as a YouTube gamer, and it’s turned into an excuse to replay my favourite games. I’ll stick the first bit under a cut.

The idea is, each part will start with a transcript of one of his videos, and then there’ll be some exposition I suppose is the best way to describe it. Dialogue is my absolute favourite thing to write, and Terushima talks non-stop, so I thought it made sense to do this? Let me know what you think.

So far it includes two of my favourite ever games and ASMR. It’s basically just me enjoying myself.

Welcome to the Playground

[excerpt of transcription of video: “Psychonauts Playthrough – It's Not His Vault He's Psychic”]

“Hello, bonjour and konichiwa to The Playground! You're all most welcome, as always.

Today I'm playing 'Psychonauts' which is, urm, over ten years old! But, I just got it on PS4 because it was way cheap. It's taking a while to boot up, so I'll tell you a bit about it while it does. Oh, originally PS2, look at that! I was too young to play this first time (whispering) if I'd heard of it when I was ten, which I hadn't.

(usual volume) So it's developed by Double Fine. If you haven't heard of them, it's Tim Schaefer, and if you haven't heard of him, then I assume...I dunno what to tell you. It's TIM. FUCKING. SCHAEFER. Dude. You need to get out more.

Nah, nah, just kidding. Okay, so he's well known for Grim Fandango, but he's like, the king of indie games, 'specially point and click. We all know how impatient I get with those, right? But! This is a platformer! So we should be good to go. Running and jumping, yeah? I can do that. With my eyes closed! In fact I did. If you're interested, you can see me complete Super Mario 2 with my eyes closed by clicking on the pop-up I hope Kazu puts in the video. Let's have a graphic of Mario right *waves hand to one side* here please. Click on here to watch.

Oh shit! It's finished loading. Oh my god, this is so 90s already, I LOVE IT. And it wasn't even out in the 90s! 2005? So I...what? Walk around on this brain? This is...oh! Wait, there's a door. I'll just jump in there.

Okay, so this is a platform game. Jumping, running, collecting stuff. Looking online, there's a fuck ton of collectibles, which I don't normally give a shit about, but apparently that's how you level up, so looks like I'm gonna be trying to collect a bunch of crap. I. HATE. COLLECTIBLES.

At least it has analog stick compatibility. You know what I always say – life is too short for games without analog stick compatibility. If you port a PS2 game to PS4, give me my fucking analog stick, or it's not happening. Hmm, the movement is pretty smooth, though! Good job, urm, whoever did this. I've forgotten already. I literally just looked it up before we started streaming.

It's a much better port than Primal. Jesus, dudes, do you lot remember Primal? What an annoying slow piece of garbage that was. Ah, memories. I broke my controller that day. RIP Jemima the controller. We hardly knew ye.

These character designs are crazy, seriously. Have you seen this guy's afro? I really want some goggles and a flying helmet now though. Raz, you are one sick looking motherfucker but you have some smooth aviator style going on there. If anyone wants to tell me where to get freaky goggles like this, comment and tell me! I want some for my playthrough videos.

Also, I would TOTALLY wear that shirt of his.

Okay, so while I'm finding whatever it is I'm looking for, I wasn't really listening...anyway, while I'm titting about showing you the game, let me catch you up on what's been going on. So, you may remember last week I had to take Agro to the vet. Thank you all for your lovely comments, by the way. You're all so lovely to me, even though I'm such a prick.

Anyway, luckily, it's not serious! I was so worried, cause coughing can mean so many things in dogs, but apparently, he's just got a cold. I mean...way to worry me, man, I thought you had kennel cough or something. You big mutt, I love ya.

What else...oh look at that! I think we're getting into the game properly, I'll stop rambling, and do an actual livestream of this gameplay. If you miss this live, don't worry, as always we'll be putting an edit of it up later on. Let's do this!”

-

Yuuji sat back after watching the video Kazu put together. He'd added in the Mario graphic, as requested, even adding a pair of dark glasses. Nice little touch, thought Yuuji, as he scrolled down to see the comments.

People seemed to enjoy the playthrough, although almost every comment was thankful that Agro was doing better. Yuuji swore that dog was more popular than him some days.

One other comment caught his eye. “You should whisper more! OMG you have an amazing whisper, it set off tingles in my head! Please do an ASMR playthrough of something.”

“Hey, Haru! You know what ASMR is?” he shouted through into the living room.

“What?”

“ASMR? You heard of it?”

There was a loud sigh, sounds of shuffling against leather, and then Haru appeared in the doorway to his office. “What are you talking about?”

“Someone said I should do an ASMR playthrough. Never heard of it. Is it a game?”

“Show me.”

Yuuji pointed out the comment on screen, while Haru peered at it. “She says 'ASMR playthrough of something' so I don't think it's a game. Search it.”

He opened another window alongside the YouTube one, and started looking for ASMR. Comments continued to appear below the original one, Haru reading them out as they did.

“'Can you imagine him trying to whisper? Through a whole video,' this one says. They have a point. I bet you couldn't whisper for a minute, let alone an hour.”

“I could whisper that long!”

Kazu wandered in to see where the other two and got to. “You couldn't. I could hear every word you said from in the lounge.”

“Hey!” Yuuji shouted, as if to prove a point. “I'm offended! I'm not always loud. I can be quiet if I have to be!”

“You think? Well, then maybe we should try it. There's plenty of people who seem interested.”

“Is that all it is?” Yuuji carried on scrolling through the results. “Whispering? I could whisper! Are there other gamers who do this ASMR thing?”

They spent the rest of the afternoon researching online, watching videos, and brainstorming games which could be whispered through. Yuuji still wasn't convinced, but with over 400 likes on the comment, many agreeing he had a nice whisper (a compliment he never thought he'd ever hear), they all thought it was probably worth trying.

“There's a few gamers whispering over videos,” Kazu said, leaning over and scrolling through his history. “Mostly girls though. I could only find one bloke. I really think you should give it a go.”

“Things like Minecraft seem popular...”

“I'm not playing Minecraft. I'd rather boil my fingers.”

Haru tutted. “Well, there's plenty of those anyway. I meant, maybe play something similar. Something which won't get you over-excited so you accidentally shout.”

“You know what would be good?” Kazu said, looking up with wide eyes.

“I know exactly what you're thinking,” Haru joined in, both turning to Yuuji. “Come on, it's so obvious!”

Yuuji jumped to his feet and started scanning his shelf full of games, before finding the box he was searching for and holding it in the air triumphantly. “Journey!”

[sickdaysofficial]

I Have Some Regrets

Sickdays 3, Day 6: I Have Some Regrets

Fandom: My (@lickstynine’s) OCs

Characters: Minato and Kazu

T/W: self-harm

Minato was sitting on the couch, holding a spoon and a half-empty gallon of ice cream. He sniffled quietly, shoving another spoonful in his mouth as the sappy romance on TV rambled on. Ever since he’d returned home from the hospital, he’d been miserable. Kazu had cleared all the flour, sugar, and other related ingredients out of the house, so Min couldn’t bake even if he tried.

Instead, he’d spent the past week stress-eating and crying on and off. He’d managed to make himself sick overeating sweets three times already, and he’d been spending ridiculous amounts of money buying more treats every day. Right now, he had ice cream in his lap, and a big bag of sandwich cookies sitting next to him. They were delicious, but it wasn’t the same as eating stuff he’d baked himself. It lacked a certain satisfaction and level of craftsmanship.

He felt lonely. Kazu had gone out running ‘errands’ earlier. Min knew it wasn’t anything good, or legal, because his husband had left the car behind. Kazu only went out on foot if he didn’t want his car to be recognized. Worried about what his husband might be up to, and stressed about being deprived of his favourite hobby, Minato looked longingly into the kitchen. Mischievous thoughts started to stir in his head.

One batch of cupcakes couldn’t do any harm, right?

If I finish before Kazu-chan gets back, he never has to know.

I bet if I hurry, nobody would ever be the wiser.

Hopping to his feet, Minato slipped on his shoes and grabbed the car keys. He crept into the garage and climbed into the car, scooting up the seat about a mile since Kazu had been driving it last. Once his tiny legs could actually reach the pedals, he started the car, adjusted the mirrors, and hurried off to the store.

Flour. Sugar. Eggs. Butter. The routine trip around the store was muscle memory, grabbing all the usual ingredients second nature. Minato felt so much more relaxed embracing his old habits. Maybe this was how he could stay sane. Sneaking in a baking day every now and then when Kazu wasn’t home. Doing it once in a while wouldn’t hurt anything.

Once he’d bought all his ingredients, Minato hurried back out to the car. He was bouncing in his seat with excitement the whole drive home, and quickly ran inside to preheat the oven and start mixing batter. As soon as he opened the bag of flour, he had to pause and stifle a cough. No big deal, he told himself. It’s just cause the powder gets everywhere when you first open it.

Two and a quarter cups of sugar, two cups of butter, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a coughing fit. Sift together a cup and three-quarters of flour, a teaspoon of baking soda, and a pinch of salt, and a pause to try and calm the stitch in his chest. Slowly pour the flour mixture into the creamed butter and sugar, stirring constantly, and pause again because he’s coughing even harder now.

Minato ended up setting down his spoon, abandoning his half-mixed batter to lean against the counter and fight for breath. Maybe this hadn’t been his best idea. He coughed again, grimacing at the tightness in his chest. Trying and failing to draw a deep breath, he sunk to his knees, now panicking a little.

He reached in his pocket, hoping to find his cell phone so he could text Kazu for help. To his dismay, he realized it was sitting on the arm of the couch, still left there from when he’d been moping and watching TV. He was feeling lightheaded, but tried to get up and get the phone anyway. All that that accomplished was him collapsing back to the floor, this time smacking his forehead on the counter on the way down.

————————————————

When Kazu walked in the front door, he was sore, tired, and hoping to spend the rest of his evening drinking in peace. When he walked in, he was surprised to not see Minato on the couch; that had been his tiny husband’s new home since he was banned from baking. Whatever, Kazu thought, he probably just went to bed early. Minato was an early sleeper and an early riser, much the opposite of his husband. On bad days, Min would wake up before Kazu even went to bed.

Yawning and kicking off his shoes, Kazu walked into the kitchen, hoping there was still vodka in the fridge. He couldn’t remember if he’d drank it all the night before. His jaw nearly smacked into the floor when he walked in and saw Minato sprawled on the ground, unconscious.

“Shit! Babe…” Kazu hastily scooped the tiny blond off the floor, his eyes widening in horror as he saw the blood dripping down Min’s forehead. He didn’t need to ask what had happened; Minato’s hands were covered in flour, and a bowl of cake batter was sitting on the counter. Kazu sighed, struggling to keep his calm as he carried his husband to the car. Back to the emergency room they went.

The receptionist, the same bored middle-aged lady from last time, sighed deeply as they walked in the door. “You again? What happened now?”

“Just gimme the papers, bitch.” Kazu had even less patience for her than last time, snatching the paperwork up to fill out as quickly as possible.

Luckily for him, the emergency room was much less busy than last time, and before long, a familiar voice called out, “Mr. Kurosawa?”

Kazu hopped up and hurried over to the doctor. “Hey doc, long time no see.” His sarcastic tone barely hid the stress tearing him apart.

“Did his symptoms not relax after you got everything out of the house?” The doctor asked as they walked back to an examination room.

“No, it ain’t that…” Kazu grumbled, “He was bakin’ while I wasn’t home…”

The doctor sighed deeply. “I told you, he cannot bake anymore. It’s not saf -”

“I fuckin’ know that, man! I wouldn’t’a let him do it if I’d been home!” The lanky giant was way too freaked out to be patient with the doctor.

“Okay, okay. Just… relax. I’ll take care of it.” The doctor had Minato placed in a hospital bed, quickly going to work checking his vitals and cleaning the blood off of him. “I promise, we’ve got everything under control, Mr… Yokota, right?”

“Mmhm…” Kazu nodded slightly. He dropped into a nearby chair, reaching into his jacket to grab a flask, since he knew he’d get kicked out for smoking in the room.

The doctor briefly glanced at Kazu, slightly impressed that the dark-haired hellion had somehow managed to get even trashier since they last met.

Kazu drained the flask in one go, putting it back in his pocket and wrapping his arms tightly around himself. He took a shaky breath, troubling thoughts rattling around in his head. Can I not trust Minato to be home alone? What do I do if I have to go out? What if the reaction was worse this time? What if Minato takes longer to recover? Or never fully recovers? Or doesn’t recover at all? How hard did he hit his head? Could it have already been too late when I found him?

He could feel his breaths faltering, and his throat tightened as his heart started to race. He wasn’t sure if he could keep dealing with this much stress. He stuck his hands in his pockets, trying to remember if he’d taken everything out when he got home. Thank god, he hadn’t. There was still a wickedly long knife in one pocket, and a lighter and cigarettes in the other. Mumbling something about stopping by the cafeteria, he practically bolted out of the room, making a beeline for the same shady back exit he’d hidden outside before.Hands shaking, Kazu pulled off his jacket, glancing at the half-healed cuts covering his arms. Without hesitation, he dug his knife out of his pocket, unfolding it with a soft sigh.

The back parking lot was completely empty and eerily quiet, the only noise being the subtle sshk of metal slicing flesh. Every so often, the knife would switch hands, Kazu’s deft ambidexterity wreaking havoc equally on both arms. With every cut, he could feel his heartbeat steadying, the pain numbing his mind to all the horrible thoughts tormenting him.

He kept going even once his mind had settled some, drawing the blade over barley-sealed wounds from last time and slicing through old scars just the same. He didn’t stop until his knife hit resistance. He looked down as it make a chk noise, blinking in dull surprise as he realized the blade had hit bone. By now, blood was pouring down his arms and into his lap; these cuts were deep, and judging by the difficulty he was having moving his left hand, he was pretty sure he’d nicked a tendon in his wrist. Thank fuck that wasn’t his drawing hand.

Kazu was drained, both mentally and physically. He could feel his strength fading as blood continued to cascade onto his lap and the pavement around him. The last thing he wanted was to move at all, much less stand up and walk, but the voices in his head were starting to return.

You abandoned Minato. Again. He’s sick, and he’s hurt, and you left him alone in a strange place. When he wakes up, no, IF he wakes up, he’ll be alone, and he’ll be miserable, and he’ll know you abandoned him. You left because you were too fucking weak to take care of him. You had to go hide like a little bitch, instead of taking care of your husband. What a piece of shit. Maybe it’s a good thing you left Minato. He doesn’t need you. He deserves better. He -

“Okay, I get it, shut UP!” Kazu’s voice cracked as he screamed at no one. Tears dripped down his face as he forced himself to his feet. He teetered, having lost a good bit of blood by now, but managed to drag himself back in the hospital door. “I’m going. I’m going. I’ll take care of him…” He mumbled under his breath, “I won’t abandon him. I can’t.”

He was quite the sight by now - a disheveled, dark-haired giant, shaking from nerves and misery, deranged desperation in his eerily pale eyes. Tears poured down his cheeks, and blood down his arms, and he nearly gave a passing nurse a heart attack as he shoved her out of the way to get where he was going. The poor girl looked like she’d just been dumped headfirst into a horror movie, scampering off to get someone of higher authority to deal with the demon in the hallway.

The doctor walked back into Minato’s hospital room to check on him around midnight. To his shock and confusion, the pristine white cubicle now looked like a scene from a slasher film. Blood was covering the floor and most of the furniture, and it didn’t take the doctor long at all to find the source. Draped across the hospital bed, like he’d collapsed while standing next to it, was a very pale and cut-up Kazu. Cursing under his breath, the doctor hastily called in a few nurses to help him deal with the lanky disaster bleeding out on his patient.

————————————–

The first thing Kazu registered when he woke up was the pain in his arms - it didn’t feel right. He was used to the ache of self-inflicted cuts, but this was different. There was tension, like the edges of the wounds were pulled together, there was gauze, like they had been bandaged up, and there was… a needle in his arm? That wasn’t a sensation he had felt in a long time, and he definitely wasn’t used to waking up like that. As he scanned his surroundings, he realized he was in a hospital bed. The needle in his arm was actually only a tube carrying saline, an attempt to rehydrate him after having lost so much blood.

Not giving a single shit about hospital procedure, or his own well-being for that matter, Kazu yanked the IV out of his arm and stood up. The sudden change in position caused his vision to go black for a second, and he stumbled backwards, falling onto his ass on the bed.

“Fuuuuuuuuck.” He groaned, giving his body a minute to adjust before he bothered trying to stand up again. His head was spinning, his body was aching, and there was a familiar sick feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. He needed a drink. More importantly, though, he needed to find Minato.

First order of business, get dressed. His bloody jeans and t-shirt weren’t ideal, but he was far too tall for a skimpy hospital gown, and he wasn’t particularly fond of the breeze he was currently feeling on his balls. Luckily, his clothes were sitting, neatly folded, on one of the chairs. It took a bit of struggling to get them on, since his left hand was only about half as useful as normal, but it happened eventually.

Stumbling into the hallway, Kazu scanned the room number on his door. 237. That would mean Minato was down the hall to the… left. He glanced into every room as he went, too paranoid to let anyone in the vicinity go unobserved. There was, of course, nothing odd to see besides Kazu himself, and he made it to Minato’s room without event. The tiny blond was sitting up in bed, currently checking to see if the hospital had any Pokéstops.

“Hey, babe.” Kazu’s voice was so hoarse it almost hurt to hear. “How ya feelin’?”

Minato immediately looked up from his phone, his face glowing with a huge smile. “Kazu-chan!” He held out his arms for a hug, looking extra tiny with just a thin hospital gown instead of his typical bulky sweater.

Kazu sat on the edge of the bed, wrapping his arms around Minato and carefully pulling the tiny blond into his lap. Minato buried his face in the crook of his husband’s neck, cozy and content. After his initial wave of happiness dissipated, however, he noticed the bandages on Kazu’s arms and the blood-soaked clothes.

“What happened to you? Are you okay?” Min’s eyes were wide with horror as he looked over Kazu’s battered form.

The dark-haired man shook his head dismissively. “S’nothin’. ‘M fine, babe.” He kissed the top of Minato’s head and changed the subject to distract his tiny husband. “How ‘bout you? How’re ya doin’?”

“I’m feeling a little better…” Minato mused. “My oxygen levels still aren’t where the doctor wants them, though… He wants to keep me another night to be safe.”

Kazu sighed but nodded. “Makes sense. Ya learned your lesson ‘bout bakin’ now?”

Minato pouted, “Yes…” He was truly crestfallen that his secret cupcake plan had fallen through so spectacularly. He suddenly paused, making a confused face at the strange sensation on his forehead. It took quite a bit of experimental face movement before he realized the bandage on his forehead was scrunching up when he furrowed his brows. “That feels so weird…”

“You’re weird.” Kazu chuckled, giving Min’s hair a gentle ruffle.

Minato huffed indignantly but smiled in response, cozying up against Kazu with a yawn. “Mm… you’re warm.”

“Yeah, I know. Get some more rest, babe. Ya need it.”

——————————–

It ended up being two days later when Minato was finally released from the hospital. Kazu had stayed with him the whole time, minus a trip to the liquor store, and the lanky troublemaker was clearly glad to be outside of the restrictive, sterile walls of the hospital. On the way home, after much begging, they ended up stopping at a grocery store, where Minato piled the cart high with cakes, cookies, and candy. Kazu grimaced at the price when they finally checked out, but he didn’t dare tell Minato to put anything back - the poor thing had been through enough, it would be cruel and unnecessary to deprive him of his sweets.

The next few weeks were spent much as most of the previous week had been. Minato sitting on the couch, crying at sappy romances and eating ridiculous amounts of sweets. He had managed to make himself sick once or twice more, but Kazu hadn’t given him shit for it. Instead, the dark-haired chaos monster simply did his best to take care of his sad, tiny husband as best he could.

It was a Tuesday night when Kazu finally dared look at the bills. Minato had dozed off on the couch about an hour ago, and Kazu had put him to bed, so he was finally free to deal with something other than his miserable husband. He opened up his laptop to check the credit card bill first.

“Fuck.” He hissed.

The numbers were much higher than he anticipated, and he knew it would be a struggle to make even the minimum payment. Where the fuck had all those charges come from? He looked back through the purchase history to figure out what had sucked up so much of his money. To his distress and frustration, Kazu realized the extra expenses were coming from all the snacks and candy Minato had been buying. He decided just deal with that later, and check the other major bills he had to worry about.

The electric bill had actually lowered a bit now that Minato wasn’t constantly using the stove, oven, and mixer, so that was nice. The phone bill hadn’t mysteriously conjured any shitty charges, thank god. The hospital bill - holy fucking shit. How much does it cost to visit the damn emergency room? Kazu scowled at the screen, stress building in his head. He grabbed the bottle of vodka sitting next to him and finished it off. That only helped so, much, though, and he could still feel his anxiety spiking.

He needed more money. He needed to find a better way to help Minato. He needed a break from all this chaotic shit.

He needed a fix.

Kazu snapped the laptop shut and climbed to his feet. Not bothering to grab anything but his wallet, he put on the boots he’d left sitting in the entryway and slipped out the front door. The weather looked abysmal - a thin, grey rain was starting to pour, making the sky even darker than usual. He didn’t care, though. He had things to do.

For more, or to tell me I suck, go check out @lickstynine.