[Closed] Clutching My Cure

[demureshift]

Title: Clutching My Cure
Characters: Ninomiya Kazunari, Horikita Maki
Location: The Apartment.
Week: Week 12, Tuesday, November 9th, 8:20pm
Rating: ?
Warnings: Sadness. And woe

Comments

[faysounds]

Nino had called in from work. It was the first time he'd ever called in since he'd started working at Bluebell. Andy had asked if he was in the hospital. Nino wondered if they'd have given him a sedative if he'd gone. It would have stopped him from thinking. Stopped him from feeling. Even if it was only for a few hours, that was all Nino wanted.

His chest felt like it had been ripped apart. His skin felt tight all over, like he might tear it in half if he moved too quickly. Pearl's claw had knicked him in the morning - Nino had felt it like she'd tried to flay him.

And he just felt too much. Everything was raw and open. He could feel everybody in the building, everybody on their block and on the other side of the street, everybody who happened to walk down the sidewalk below. It was too much. It hurt everywhere.

Nino hadn't gone to sleep in his bed. He'd stayed on the couch long after Ohno had left his keys and shut the door behind him. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he also didn't remember anything that might have happened between Ohno leaving and his calling Andy first thing that morning. He hadn't bothered to change today, either, though he'd dropped his jacket at some point.

The buzzer rang, shrill and abrupt. Nino started and nearly fell onto the corner of the coffee table.

Satoshi?

He jumped up, but the brief hope faded as soon as he focused. It was Maki. Satoshi was nowhere to be felt. Nino swallowed. He almost didn't want to let her in. But he'd promised she was always welcome. Nino went to the buzzer and pressed it.

"... Hey, Maki-chan."

[demureshift]

Maki may not have had the most brilliant senses in the world, but she could hear almost instantly that something sounded kind of wrong when Nino's voice answered her through the comm. Was he sick? Maki frowned.

Maybe...she had been interrupting something.

"Nino? Are you..." okay? "...busy? I thought- I'd come by and hang out. I know it's late, I'm sorry." Chewing her lip, Maki waited, feeling kind of stupid now for not calling first.

[faysounds]

"Busy? Oh. No, no," Nino blinked and shook his head and pressed the button to open the door. "Come in, come in."

He waited a bit at the buzzer to make sure Maki could get in the building, sending an absent tendril of magic to open the door. He scrubbed his face with his free hand.

He hadn't even dressed, he remembered only then, but it was too late to do anything about it.

[demureshift]

Maki smiled a little, he still sounded a little strange but the door unlocked for her and Maki shot a little look upwards, as if Nino could see her as she headed through and up the stairs. It didn't take her long at all to make her way up, hopping up them at a fairly quick pace without the hindrance of any kind of heels, or injuries.

She did her best to ignore and tamp down on the nervous twist in her stomach. Really? Even now? Honestly.

The door was open, and Maki nudged through it, sort of naturally kicking off her sneakers and abandoning them and her heavy purse by the door. "Hey," she greeted with a bit of a sigh, and an uncertain smile.

[faysounds]

Nino continued to lean on the wall by the buzzer after he'd released the button and opened the door. Pearl wound anxiously around his feet. Nino watched her without really noticing what she was doing. Maybe she thought Satoshi was coming back. A tiny, tired smile tried to curl up Nino's lips, but his face was too heavy.

He looked at Maki when she came through the door. He tried to smile again, but nothing happened. "Hey. Maki."

[demureshift]

Looking at him, it was just so abundantly obvious. Nino looked pale, and off, and...lost. Maki unthinkingly closed the door behind her, looking down to smile briefly at Pearl, but her attention was firmly on Nino.

She felt awkward, like she should know what to say. What if Nino didn't want her to pry? Her brown furrowed slightly. "Is something wrong? You seem...off. Somehow."

[faysounds]

Nino let out an abrupt, shaking laugh. Pearl startled and mewled, and went right back to twining anxiously around his feet. Nino dropped his face into his hands and scrubbed at his eyes.

He'd wondered, if anybody asked, what he would say. He'd wondered if anybody would actually ask. Andy hadn't. Nino had been grateful for that. He didn't know what to say to his manager.

But this was Maki. Even if Maki didn't understand the exact nature of the bond between himself and Ohno, she knew them. She knew Nino.

Nino shook his head. "Satoshi left. Last night."

[demureshift]

Even Maki startled a bit at the sound of Nino's laugh, because it wasn't like him. It wasn't a real laugh. Her worry ratcheted up all of a sudden, because she hadn't been incorrect, something was wrong.

Nino rubbed at his eyes and Maki took a hesitant step toward him, away from the door, being wary not to step on the nervously winding Pearl. She was confused. "He left? To go where?"

She knew they were close, but for Ohno to have just gone away and Nino to be so- It took a moment for it to even occur to Maki that Ohno hadn't just left for a couple days. Not when Nino said it like that.

A lot of things flashed through her mind, rejection of the idea, and disbelief. She shook her head bewilderedly. "You don't mean he- left...left." It wasn't really a question because she really had trouble imagining it to be true. "No, why would he?"

[faysounds]

"To go home," Nino choked out.

His voice sounded like he was being strangled. He couldn't even look up to see Maki's face. It hurt too much to move.

"He's... he's in a hotel. Somewhere. Then he's going. Leaving with his mother. Going to Okinawa. Taking over his clan. Not coming back."

It all sounded to trite. So ridiculous for him to be so broken up for it. But Nino couldn't help it. It hurt, and it was never going to stop. Not when he could feel his soul getting fainter.

[demureshift]

Maki's heart...broke for Nino, because she could hear him broken in the sound of his voice having to- explain. She instantly felt bad for asking, even knowing perfectly well she couldn't have gone on not knowing.

It just didn't make sense... until Nino said mother, and clan, and Maki thought of Ohno, who came from the ocean but was a dancer, and she understood that Ohno hadn't wanted to go. He'd had to go.

She may not have known him so very long but she had been under the strong impression that Ohno would never having willingly walked away from Nino. Right? It was truly awful. Not coming back.

Shaken herself, Maki reached out to him, laying a hand at his shoulder with barely any pressure at all, a light touch. She didn't realize it but her other hand was covering her mouth, somewhat muffling her words until her last sentence. "He's- Oh god, I'm so sorry. I- there's...nothing I can do is there?" The realization hit her just then. There really wasn't anything she could do. She missed Ohno, because he was the only one who could do something.

[faysounds]

Nino hadn't cried. He didn't remember much of what he'd done today, but crying hadn't been among his rotine. Now Maki put her hand on his shoulder, and Nino felt them gather, stinging harshly. He slid down to the floor, his legs buckling, and buried his face in his knees. One shaking arm reached for Maki.

"Just... Just catch me?" he whispered, broken. There was nothing else. He was lost.

And hey. If Maki caught his tears they'd turn into flowers. They always did fo the pure. If they landed on the floor, she could take away a small fortune in gems.

[demureshift]

Maki had been afraid to get close to him when he looked so fragile, but to see him literally crumple to the floor left her with with no other right choice in her heart. She was down there with him in an instant, sliding to his side and curling her arms around his shoulders to pull him closer.

He didn't need to ask her for that. She couldn't just leave him to fall alone. "I'm here, of course I'm here. I know that's not enough." The longer the idea of settled into her the more wrongness Maki felt. Like it or not, the two of them had accepted her, somehow linked her to them, but now Ohno was missing, and Nino...was devastated, and nothing could be right about that.

[faysounds]

Maki was warm, solid, and the only thing that felt remotely right in the world. With her so near, Nino could forget being stretched. He could stop feeling all their neighborhood's emotions and the hustle of happenings. Nino pressed his face into the crook of Maki's neck. His body shuddered as he struggled to find air, to keep the tears from falling.

"It's close," he croaked.

He started to say thank you, but a broken sob came out instead. And then the tears were sliding down his face, completely wetting his skin. Nino wrapped his arms around Maki, holding her tightly - she was the one thing tethering him to earth.

[demureshift]

Maki sighed, feeling how tense his shoulders were, what he was holding back. His sob met her ears and Maki's breath hitched, fighting back her own tears now. She managed, but only by steeling herself to keep it together for Nino's sake.

She soothed back Nino's hair from his face, letting him hold on and not loosening her hold on him in the slightest. She wouldn't tell him it was okay. Maki knew it wasn't okay, but she could...breath with him. She could hang on while Nino attempted to cope.

Nuzzling into the top of his head, Maki hushed Nino softly, and her thumb slid unthinkingly across his cheek, pushing away some of the damp of tears. Ohno had left last night...had Nino been like this all this time? Alone? Maki squeezed him tighter to her. She felt awful, but she didn't think it could compare with how Nino felt. Maki was prepared stay right where she was as long as he needed her to.

[faysounds]

Maki's touch was light and gentle, comforting without being oppressive in sympathy. She knew what was going on without having to know everything, and she wasn't trying to fill the air with meaningless words about it being okay. Nino found more comfort in that than anything else.

Nino curled into her and breathed her in, taking what he could from just her presence, from her touch. Maki pulled him in even tighter and Nino went. He needed to feel her more than anything right now. He continued to cry, though the harsh sobbing went away little by little.

It left him with only tiredness.

[demureshift]

Maki didn't know if Nino had cried before this or not, but she let him get as much of it out as he needed to. Sometimes, crying was all you could do. Sometimes...it made you feel better afterward. Maki was fairly sure this wouldn't be one of those times, however.

Pressing a comforting kiss to the top of Nino's head, Maki rubbed her palm a bit at his side as some of the harder sobs started to abate. She was still trying to absorb what it all meant, her own gaze a little lost over the top of his head. Ohno was really gone? For...good?

"Kazu," she said quietly, and even then it sounded loud between them. "Do you want to lie down? Can I get you anything at all?"