#tnkntwrites

[lost-tanuki-tales]

Overworked

Prompts: Exhaustion, Collapse. Cast: Unfair Lives (Jin and Reg) Word count: 2.2k

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"Jin."

The teenager didn't move, head resting on top of his crossed arms over the keyboard of his computer. A string of f's was still growing across the screen because he'd fallen asleep while working and Reg hadn't had the heart to wake him earlier. Jin was usually so alert that it surprised Reg when he obtained no reaction from speaking aloud. Not a single strand of black hair moved and there wasn't even a tiny little twitch that indicated he was rousing.

"Jin, wake up..."

Still nothing. Unsure, the older man fruitlessly looked around before his gaze settled back on the sleeping shape and he cautiously reached out to nudge its thin shoulder. Jin immediately sprang back to life.

"I'm awake, fuck off," he snapped in Reg's general direction before his dark eyes had even come completely into focus.

Reg wasn't surprised by his instantaneous anger but he hastily retrieved his big hand and took a step back. "Sorry, you told me to wake you up if I had to."

Jin scowled at him and rubbed at his face and mussed-up hair. "I know what I said, you can still fuck off. God, I haven't slept in days. Do you even know what that's like?"

His words were blurred together which really wasn't like him at all. Jin's diction was supposed to be simultaneously sharp and easy, and even his voice which usually held the soft quality of velvet was a bit scratchy. Reg was worried. The boy really looked much too tired to go to the meeting he'd planned in an hour.

Jin glared at him and rolled his sunken eyes. "Of course you wouldn't, staying home all day and all."

Reg shrugged.

"Fait chier," groaned Jin.

He only reverted to his language when he was upset, which gave Reg a fair indication of how much Jin was done with all of this. The boy pushed himself up and wavered for just a second, features suddenly going slack and face paling. He blinked rapidly a few times and clenched the edge of the table to ground himself, and then finally stepped away from the table completely. Reg stood close in case he stumbled but didn't dare say or do anything that would annoy Jin even further when he was already so worked up.

Jin's steps were heavy instead of nimble. They'd become that way over the last week; his awareness and caution were waning under the weight of fatigue. Jin hadn't been sleeping enough and hadn't taken a single break ever since the prospects had started flooding in. Lack of rest wasn't the only thing wrong with him either judging from the way he held his stomach, but he hadn't spoken about that out loud and Reg knew not to pry when Jin wasn't willing to share. Reg watched him trudge across the room to get his things in another and thought again that it really was uncanny for Jin to have been so difficult to wake. Obviously his brain hadn't completely shut off for the nap since he'd woken up sparking like a live wire, but the needs of his body had definitely pulled him deeper into sleep than it usually did. Jin's arm suddenly shot out as he was about to walk through the door and he leaned against the frame. He was breathing fast and shallow.

"...Jin?" softly questioned Reg.

"Shut up," he muttered. "Spinning."

Reg decided he definitely couldn't just let Jin go to work like this and walked up to him, slowly enough that he wouldn't get hit for trying to tower over the boy. "Jin, I don't think you should go."

"I don't give a fuck what you think," retorted Jin, and he quickly pulled himself back together before walking off.

Reg hesitated, and then followed Jin around the house. "But you're really tired."

"You think I don't know that?"

Jin’s lithe frame was swaying. It was light and almost unnoticeable which meant it was probably pretty bad for him to be unable to hide it completely. He took a few steps down the hall on his own before he reached out for support again and held himself up against the wall.

"You can't even walk on your own, you know you can't show up like that," reasoned Reg. "They'll eat you alive."

"This is important," hissed Jin without looking at him, and when he turned to his right to enter the bedroom Reg saw that his fine features were taut. He knew Jin was perfectly aware of his limits and that as such he was also perfectly aware that he was really pushing them.

"I know, but you look like you might pass out."

"I do not."

"You do."

"Oh shut up, you big oaf. I've got to meet this Nicole girl and I've gotta meet her today-" Jin broke off mid-sentence to stifle a yawn- "or someone else will snatch her instead."

"Nikos," quietly said Reg.

"What?" snapped Jin.

"Her name is Nikos. Not Nicole."

Black eyes flickered towards him, gauging to see if the man was serious or not, and then Jin let out a short, dry snicker. "Where the fuck did I get Nicole from?"

"You're exhausted, Jin."

"It's fine, just make me coffee or something."

"You..." Reg frowned. "You don't drink coffee."

"Yeah, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It's at the top of the cupboard on the very left, trust me, it should still be there. It's the same as tea, just boil the water and add one dose."

Reg hesitated, but he ended up complying. He was always hesitating and complying. Hesitating because he cared for Jin and found that the boy often made unreasonable choices for his health. Complying because their relationship was very close to that of pet and master, and Reg didn't mind that hewas expected to obey the person he owed his life to. Reg went to prepare coffee the way Jin had instructed him to. There were a lot of things Jin had to tell him how to do because he'd either forgotten or never known them but although he'd shown annoyance about it, he'd never reproached it to Reg. The man tried to listen for the noises Jin was making while he rummaged in the cupboard for the rumored coffee but it was difficult to do over the sound of the water boiling, and his senses only told him what he already knew: that Jin was weary, dimmed, a flame that was flickering instead of blazing. It was very concerning.

The water finished boiling, Reg prepared a mug and dumped a dose inside, watched the powder dissolve with deep fascination and then supposed that it would probably be a good idea to mix it with a spoon before he went back out of the kitchen to give the drink to Jin. The boy had sat down on the bed with his head in his hands and was immobile again. Reg walked up to him.

"I have your coffee."

Jin just reached out a hand without a word. Reg went to give the mug but then stopped in his tracks when he saw the tremors on the thin fingers.

"You're shaking."

"Wow, Reg, thank you so much for sharing your incredible observation skills with me," snarkily said Jin. "Give me the damn coffee."

Reg didn't obey right away but he did, eventually, and Jin brought the mug to his pale lips with trembling hands. Reg crouched in front of him and insisted: "You can't go."

"Big guy, look, I like you, I do, but you're really getting on my last nerve and I don't have a lot of it to spare because as you so justly pointed out multiple times, I am tired. Get off my ass."

Reg watched Jin take another swig of coffee. He didn't know if he'd dare say what was on his mind, trepidation was rising inside of him, but if he made the right point maybe Jin would see reason.

"Would you even be able to defend yourself in your state?" he said in a whisper, daring but not quite.

Too late. The words were out in the air between them and Jin had a very sharp sense of hearing.

The boy's slanted eyes flashed and he warningly ground over the edge of his mug: "What."

Reg felt a shudder course along his spine but didn't back down. "You can't fight like this. You can't even hold a mug, how do you intend to hold a weapon?"

Jin's fingers tightened around the ear of the mug so hard that his knuckles whitened. His voice was deathly soft. "Are you implying that I'm weak, Reg?"

"You're human."

"Answer the question."

“Like this..." Reg cautiously nodded. "You are."

The black irises flashed like glittering onyx. Jin slowly lowered the steaming mug to the ground and then straightened again, and in a very even voice said: "Of all the things you'd have the balls to call me, Reg, weak is very high on the list of things that can get you fucked up."

"You need to acknowledge it," Reg insisted. "There's no way you can make it there safely, much less lead the-"

Jin moved in a blur. He'd always been fast and although Reg knew no one else but the boy he could tell that this speed was way above average. Even tired as Jin was his movement was too quick for Reg to dodge or block and the edge of the boy's slender hand caught the older man in the throat. Reg's trachea seized up and he doubled over to hack and wheeze.

"Weak, really?" smugly said Jin. "You know that would have easily killed you if I'd wanted it to."

Reg looked up at him through teary eyes. "You- You know that's not what I meant."

Jin raised a foot and shoved Reg’s shoulder, throwing him to the ground. "I think that's exactly what you meant, you ungrateful mutt."

"No," Reg managed between coughs as he pushed himself back up.

"Shut up. You're lucky I like you," muttered Jin. They both knew he'd killed for much less.

Having cleared the way in front of him, Jin picked up his mug and stood up to leave. Again, he wavered and paled at the change of position. Without warning, the mug slipped out of his fingers and crashed to the floor and Jin's knees buckled. Reg was still trying to breathe properly but he saw the fuzzy quality that overtook Jin's shape and he was up to his knees in a second to catch the falling body, heedless of the hot liquid that his pants soaked up at the knees. The boy was limp in his arms and his eyes were wide open.

"Jin? Jin," Reg quickly said, snapping his fingers over the white face.

Jin slowly blinked after a few seconds of utter stillness and squinted at Reg. "...Why the fuck are we on the floor?"

"You just fainted," bluntly stated Reg. Now he was feeling annoyed, not just concerned. "I know you hate listening to people but right now your ability to make decisions is definitely impaired so you should probably listen to me when I say you really need to sleep."

"I can't-"

Reg lowered a hand on top of his narrow chest to stop him from getting up. "Jin, no. You just fainted. You know you can't go like this, not when you could faint again."

Jin let his head fall back in the crook of Reg's elbow and muttered: "What the hell do I do, then?"

"Call it off. Say something came up."

Jin's lips pressed together in a tight line and his eyes narrowed. Reg stared back sternly. Then, exasperated, the teenager groaned: "Fine!"

He fished his phone out of his pocket and quickly looked through his most recent calls to quickly expedite a message to the recruit he'd had his eye on and then let his arm and the phone fall back to the ground.

"Done."

Reg nodded in approval. "Okay, let's get you to bed."

"Reg."

"Yes?"

Jin let go of his phone and grabbed the man's white shirt as he rolled over, pushing his face up against Reg's bicep. "I'm so fucking tired."

Reg smiled, taking advantage of the fact that Jin couldn't see him doing so and consequently couldn't snark him for it. "I can see that."

He gathered the slender body in his arms and turned far around enough to pull back the sheets on the bed behind him while disturbing Jin a minimal amount, and then he lifted up the boy and lowered him on the wide mattress. He almost pulled the blanket over Jin's shape but a thin hand sluggishly batted at his gray hair to make him go away, and so he let Jin do it himself. Reg kneeled next to the bed instead and asked: "Should I stay?"

"I'm cold," said Jin. "Get up here, big guy."

Reg diligently nodded. It wasn't that often Jin accepted his presence for comfort and he was more than happy to provide. The man walked around the bed and climbed over the sheets from the other side before lying down and settling curled around Jin's blanketed shape. Reg didn't reach out to hug him, wouldn't ever dare to allow physical contact between them that Jin hadn't asked for, but just laid next to him and waited for the warmth of his body to ebb towards the inside of the cotton coccoon. Jin was asleep in seconds.