🏥 hospital pt.2 🏥

Night in the hospital was too quiet.

Sae sat in the chair again, arms folded, pretending he didn't keep checking Shidou's breathing every two minutes like some worried mother pigeon.

Shidou had fallen asleep again, half-turned toward Sae, fingers curled just slightly — as if he'd been reaching for him even unconscious.

Pathetic. Annoying. ...weirdly cute.

Sae hated this.

He stood to stretch, but Shidou shifted and let out a low pained sound.

Sae froze. "Ryusei?"

Shidou didn't wake — just winced, curling in on himself like he was bracing for something that wasn't coming.

Sae's chest tightened. Annoying. Disgustingly human reaction.

He sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.

Just for a second. Just until Shidou's breathing steadied.

Shidou relaxed almost immediately, his body instinctively leaning toward Sae like he was gravity.

"Ridiculous," Sae whispered.

He told himself he wouldn't stay.

He told himself he was just monitoring him.

He told himself he definitely, absolutely, would not get comfortable.

So when he lay back beside Shidou "just until his muscles stop aching," when Shidou's head naturally found his shoulder, and when Sae's hand somehow ended up resting on Shidou's chest —

it was all purely medical necessity.

Obviously.

Then Sae blinked —

and woke up to the morning sun, one leg tangled with Shidou's, Shidou's arm around his waist like they were in a romance drama, and a nurse quietly shutting the door with a knowing look.

Sae's soul left his body.

Shidou blinked awake, voice sleepy and soft.

"...morning, princess."

"I'm leaving."

Sae attempted to sit up. Shidou did not let go.

"You cuddled me."

"I did not."

"You literally used my chest as a pillow."

"You were unconscious. It was strategic positioning."

"Strategic spooning."

Sae considered smothering him with the pillow again.

Shidou nuzzled into his shoulder.

"It was nice."

"...shut up."

He did not move away.

And Sae — traitor to himself — did not push him off.

Shidou was discharged three days later.

Sae arrived to pick him up like it was a business transaction, not a shameful devotion ritual.

"I could walk home alone," Shidou teased.

"You'd get hit by a car."

"...kinda hot way to go."

"Get in the car."

They exited the hospital doors — and fate struck.

Rin stood outside with a bag of fruit and a pamphlet. The moment he saw them together, his brain blue-screened.

He stared.

Sae stared back, face blank, posture immaculate, hand hovering near Shidou's back like instinct but caught in time.

Shidou waved wildly with his good arm.

"Yo, lil Itoshi!"

Rin: visibly processing trauma and confusion

"...why... are you two... together?"

Sae answered first. Cold. Sharp. Perfectly controlled.

"I'm supervising him."

"Like a child," Shidou added proudly. "I'm his problem."

Rin looked between them. Shidou slouching smug and clingy. Sae looking like a kidnapped hostage of his own emotions.

"You look—" Rin squinted, brain imploding, "—domestically tense."

Sae: "...walk away."

Rin: "Are you DATING—"

Sae: "Leave."

Shidou: "We kissed a little—"

Sae clamped his hand over Shidou's mouth so fast it was supernatural. Rin made a noise like a printer jamming and walked into a trash can.

Sae closed his eyes.

He was never living this down.

Shidou lay dramatically on the couch, one hand on his forehead like a Victorian wife whose husband went to war.

Sae stood over him, unimpressed.

"You are fully cleared to walk."

"I'm in pain."

"You're eating chips."

"It's emotional pain."

Sae pinched the bridge of his nose.

Then Shidou reached one arm out, weakly, like a dying anime character.

"...hold me."

"No."

"I won't make it."

"You are actively breathing on me."

Shidou whimpered pathetically, big eyes shimmering, lower lip trembling like a kicked puppy.

Sae looked away fast.

"Stop making that face."

"What face?"

"That."

Shidou inched closer, blanket dragging behind him like a cape. Sae backed up.

"Ryusei."

"Yes, dear?"

"Do not call me—"

Shidou leaned his head on Sae's shoulder before he could finish that sentence.

Sae tensed like someone pointed emotional intimacy at him like a weapon.

"Just five minutes," Shidou mumbled. "It hurts less when you're here."

Sae's heartbeat betrayed him like the treacherous organ it was.

"...fine."

He sat. Shidou immediately collapsed against him like a happy, chaotic weighted blanket.

Five minutes turned into forty-five.

Sae didn't move. Would never admit he liked the warmth.

Shidou fell asleep on him again. Of course.

Sae whispered into his hair:

"Annoying. Absolutely unbearable."

He adjusted the blanket over him anyway.

Sae showed up the next day with food.

Healthy. Balanced. Real nutrition. Not Shidou's usual "monster energy & chaos" diet.

Shidou lit up instantly, sitting up with the enthusiasm of a dog hearing keys jingle.

"You cooked for me?"

"I... prepared sustenance."

"So you cooked for me."

"It was efficient."

Shidou leaned in close, eyes soft, voice warm.

"You're my favorite."

Sae froze.

Not the cute blush-freeze. The full soul malfunction freeze.

"...don't call me that."

"But it's true."

Sae opened his mouth to issue a cutting, emotion-destroying, ice-blade reply.

Only a whisper came out:

"You shouldn't say things like that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to—"

Sae stopped. Bit his tongue. Looked away.

Shidou gently tapped his forehead to Sae's.

"You don't wanna what?"

Sae's voice was barely audible.

"...lose focus."

Shidou smiled slow and real.

"Then I'll be your focus too."

Sae's breath hitched. Shidou caught it. Held it.

Silence. Fierce. Soft. Intimate.

Then Shidou ruined it, softly:

"...also I like when you bring me food."

Sae shoved his face away lightly.

"Idiot."

Shidou laughed. Sae didn't. But his eyes did. Barely. A fraction. Enough.

Sae sat beside him. Shidou leaned against him. And Sae let him.

Not because Shidou needed it.

Because he did.

art credit: https://www.tumblr.com/mo85os/792628666821705728