Time After Time - an Ikemen Sengoku fanfiction

Chapter 3

After the first day spending time together, we both came back exhausted. Or at least, that was how I felt. We took several short breaks during the day because my feet gave up on walking. Hideyoshi was considerate enough to offer me a piggy-back ride, to which I politely declined, saying that he already had to carry shopping bags on his hands, so I wouldn't want to trouble him with my burden. He had this look on his face that said he could have even lifted another five hundred pounds, but kept silent for my sake.

We reached my apartment late afternoon. In summer, even after 6 pm, it was still as bright as 3pm of a winter day. We could have wandered around the streets a bit more – I was simply dead tired, to the point that I realized my hands and feet were shaking out of hunger, out of my own neglection, and out of the after-effects that excitement left me, having lost in Hideyoshi's stories for so long. Not only he told me about Nobunaga, he also complained about Mitsuhide – though I thought it was more out of concern than just complaints, about Masamune, Mitsunari, Ieyasu, and literally everyone else in Azuchi palace. He did sound like a mom, but his stories were all interesting and funny that I couldn't stop myself from listening to them wholeheartedly.

My body did not agree with my heart, of course. We passed lunch time without even noticing, as the clear and sunny sky didn't fail to shine through all day. When I looked at my watch, it was already 3:30pm.

"Would instant noodles do?" I asked quietly, opening the cabinet. Hideyoshi was setting the bags on the counter. The kitchen was small enough for my voice to echo through the whole room even without much effort.

Hearing my question, he walked towards me and peaked into the cabinet.

"No, that wouldn't do. Noodle doesn't give you that much nutrition to begin with. Don't you have something else? Oh, I saw some dried shiitake. Canned vegetables? Not sure what that is, but it's still vegetable."

I was too tired to even push him away. "Hideyoshi, pleas-"

"I know that you don't seem to care much for cooking. But even so, you need to eat properly. When I see one, I know it. You neglect your meals, cook whatever you find, or sometimes, you might not even cook at all. Am I right? You're just like some certain idiots back in Azuchi. And they even have attendants caring for them. How can you live like this??"

Hideyoshi was still going on about his lecture on what to eat for dinner tonight. I got it, it was the Hidemama side of him started to slip out. Even so, my body just really, really wanted something to digest...

I grabbed his shirt, feeling my legs completely gave out as I shifted my body weight onto him.

"Oi, Arisu? Are you alright?" He stopped his lecture to turn to me, and his horrified expression told me that I must have looked terrible at that moment.

I could feel my hands shaking, probably out of hunger. I didn't know, nor did I care to find out. It had always been like this, just random symptoms of exhaustion, and I found it easier to simply ignore them and carry on with life. I'm twenty, my body should be strong enough to regenerate energy out of all the tummy fat that had been building inside me, right? So starving a little shouldn't be a problem.

My feet were left off the ground, and my body suddenly became light. I could even feel his warmth touching me as my eyes refused to open. His strong and muscular arms wrapped around me, secured my body against his, as he murmured some angry words. I couldn't make out what they were, but I could feel him running up the stairs, and I could hear his heartbeats. They were all jumbled up though, these vague motions that my brain picked up through distorted senses. I could feel them, but they could also be a dream. They could have come in different orders, or they might just have been my imagination flying again. Eventually, my brain gave up deciphering hints, and my consciousness slipped into total darkness.