6/8: eichi

[randori]

[ He promised nothing would happen. He wouldn't let anything happen. Please don't let anything have happened—- ]

EICHIIIIIIIIIIII!! EICHI!! EICHI EICHI EICHI!!!

[ screams his name up and down the castle trying to find him, leaping up the stairs two or three steps at a time, flinging open bedroom doors at random without a care for privacy, frantically searching everywhere he can for Eichi, one hand cupped at the side of his mouth as he shouts.

There's something else clenched in his other hand, a tight fist that he doesn't relax throughout the entire time. ]

Comments

[finethanks]

[That's fine, because Eichi takes his own hand back so he can cough into it again.]

Your knuckles tell me that you're something of a street thug. [He has one butler formally street thug in fine, he knows fighting fists when he sees them!!]

[randori]

Street thug... [ it's true, but don't say it like that?? ]
It's more respectable than that! It's a gang!

[finethanks]

As we head to the kitchen, why don't you tell me more about this gang of yours?

[It calms him to hear this wild shit]

[randori]

Eh? You really want to hear it...? [ He loves his gang and everything, but it's also... sort of a sad topic that makes him hesitate a little before going forward with it. ]

It was a middle school gang! Did you guys have one? My gang brothers and I would hang out at school every day and make sure nobody messes with our town!

[finethanks]

It was only recently that I was able to properly return to school... Most of my years were spent more in a hospital than anywhere else.

[So, no gang times for him.] Fufu, so you were some sort of protective gang?

[randori]

Yeah! [ no they weren't ]

If anybody not in our gang messes with the people in our town— fighting on the streets or disturbing the peace or something, we go and beat 'em up!

[finethanks]

How noble of you. Like vigilantes, is that it? Fufu, it's far more realistic than your average "hero"...

[He hums, though it turns into a harsh cough, and his free hand has to grab onto a wall even as they're walking.]

[randori]

—Are you dying?! What do you need?!! Water?? Maybe you shouldn't talk?!?

[ WHY IS THERE NO MEDICINE HERE ]

[finethanks]

W-we're on our way to the kitchen, so please don't worry. Let's keep going.

[He wants tea... Give him tea.]

[randori]

[ What if he chokes on a stray tea leaf or something? Tea is now banned.

And Natsuo shrugs Eichi off so he can turn around and lift him into a princess carry- sorry, they'll get there faster this way and every second counts when somebody is actively dying. ]

[finethanks]

Uwah—

[He's clearly startled, clutching onto Natsuo for dear life. HE'S TOO CLOSE TO THE GROUND]

W-what are you doing?! Put me down! You'll drop me like this! You— [cough choke hack]

[randori]

[ Nope. If you can't speak, your complaints are invalid. ]

I'm carrying you! I absolutely don't drop you, so just believe in me!

[ It seems like something he's used to— capable, too, in that his arms don't shake in the slightest, and he keeps his arms loose but close so that Eichi doesn't get shaken very much every time he takes a step. ]

[finethanks]

Beyond just dropping me, then, what if someone were to see us like this...

[He's embarrassed more than anything else. His pride? At least he's too busy coughing to fight much, and he gives in, relaxing, making it easier. It is comfortable, somehow.]

[randori]

What's wrong with it?

[ It's not embarrassing at all. For Natsuo. ]

[finethanks]

[Thanks Natsuo]

Despite my delicate appearance, I am a man, you know, so I'd prefer not to be carried around like luggage. Especially when my legs dangle so close to the ground like this...

[randori]

You're not! It's a princess carry! I'm carrying you like a princess! A princess!!

[ Look at all the care and consideration he puts into carrying Eichi! He'll even go ahead and lift him up just a little higher so that his legs don't dangle so close to the ground?? why is that a concern for him ]

[finethanks]

Please stop shouting it like that.

[He's tall and Natsuo is short and this is hard to deal with, okay!! He also has complicated feelings about being carried in general. He likes it... but he doesn't?? His image...]

[randori]

[ His image means nothing here.

But Natsuo quiets down obediently, holding Eichi a little closer and quickening his pace so they can both get it over with. ]

...It's a friend carry. I said that before, right? Let me carry you so I can ease your burdens, even just a little.

[finethanks]

Very well.

[He grows quiet after that, even letting his eyes close to get rid of the nausea that's not coming from Natsuo's motions, but his own illness. He hates this weak body. Still, after a few moments, he speaks again.]

Natsuo-kun, when you first approached, was there something in your hand? I had tried to look by examining your fingernails, but I wasn't able to grab the right one. [He tried to PEEK]

[randori]

[ Haha... was that a hook to get him to show his hand and it completely went over my head? He did have something in his hands, but it's something he didn't want to keep there if he was going to be touching or carrying Eichi, so he'd slipped it into his pocket. Also a bad idea, considering what it is. ]

Ah- yeah, it was a needle. I put it in my pocket 'cause I didn't want it to poke you.

[ ... ]

[finethanks]

[No, that was my slick cover up because I'm an idiot who forgot I was going to have Eichi ask in a later tag and it took 30 comments for me to remember.]

A... needle? Why a needle? Should that sort of thing be in your pocket, right now?

[randori]

It's so we can stay together. I'll show you once we get to the kitchen- we're almost there!

[ Just hang on for two, three, five more paces and they finally make it to the kitchen and Natsuo lets him down by the counter. He cannot make tea or anything, so it's all Eichi now. ]

[finethanks]

[Finally, he's set down... Thank god no one is in here right now. He was almost afraid Sanji would see. As it is, he can move to find the tea pot, the tea leaves, and go from there, slowly.

Still, he looks expectantly at Natsuo.]

[randori]

[ Right, the needle. Staying together is like this:

He takes the needle out of his pocket and pokes the tip of it halfway through his sleeve, like he's threading it through but there's... no thread... There's no need for a thread because the needle pokes through Eichi's sleeve too and with his other hand, Natsuo bends the needle in half with his bare hands. Effectively, it's a staple. They're stapled together. ]

[finethanks]

[uhhhhhhhh

He pauses from getting his tea stuff.]

What, exactly, are you doing? This makes it difficult to make tea, you know?