Lost & Found

Ch.6 - To trigger and heal

The group will learn about a new concern about their beloved Aoba; triggers. As it is expected, victims of trauma will have triggers, a word, sound or object to upset them due to the relation to the incident. The first trigger was Clear’s cake. The moment Aoba saw the sweet pastry, his eyes widened, his heart beat racing to the point the machine monitoring his heartbeat started to sound the alarm to come check on the patient. He jumped straight from the bed, dragging over the IVs and needles with him as he headed straight for the window. Mink and Koujaku were quick enough to grab Aoba before he jumped out. Ren held Clear by the shoulders as he stared in utter shock at the reaction, at the verge of tears. The nurses quickly came in to calm the patient down once more, their ears ringing as all that could be heard down the hallway was Aoba’s cries that yelled, “Not the cake! I’m not hungry! Please not the cake! Please not the cake! I beg of you!”

After once again calming Aoba down, and assuring the crying Clear that it wasn’t his fault for upsetting Aoba, the doctor explained to the group that from now on they all would make a list of triggers that would affect Aoba, beginning the list with cake. She also explained that they would have to start re-exposing Aoba to different things to figure out the different triggers, and find a way to un-trigger it, if possible later on.  And so like this it went. Every day someone different would come and visit Aoba, sometimes only one of the boys, sometimes more than one, everyone taking turns for the others to keep working on their daily lives at the same time. They originally didn’t know what else could be a trigger, since cake was a rather unusual thing to be a trigger, as there wasn’t exactly much evil with cake as far as they knew. They always braced themselves, but as time passed they were able to note down certain specifics that matched with the scene they had found before, and they were able to narrow it down. After the cake they tried to expose Aoba to any other type of sweets. Aoba would reject all sweets outright, except for some reason, donuts. The next trigger they found were the sound of clanking metal, which they related to the chains they had found Aoba in. Even accidental clanking made the young man coward in despair. Next trigger was alcohol, or better to say the smell of alcohol. This was discovered when Koujaku came to visit after having a small drink on the way over. The moment Aoba smelled him, he trembled and curled into his usual corner, muttering something about “No more wine please”. Since then Koujaku has stopped drinking completely. The next trigger was even more frightening than the cake reaction. The doctor suggested for the boys to start exposing Aoba outside, starting with the Hospital grounds and gardens. One day in the elevator, the elevator seemingly seemed to get stuck, and the lights flickered out. In total darkness, Aoba started to scream while pounding on all four walls around him, screaming to be let out, that he would be good but begging to be out. What seemed like hours was merely a minute until the elevator randomly started back up again and continued its route. From then on the group agreed on escalators if possible.

But with triggers, also came the healing process. Not just physically, but mentally. Reintroducing Aoba to sights, sounds and things he had been deprived of for an entire year. With permission and a curfew, the group were allowed to take Aoba outside the hospital around the city. Though he was still too weak to enjoy everything to its full extent, Aoba’s reactions alone were enough to warm the hearts of the boys. They brought Aoba over to Mizuki’s shop, where Aoba nervously looked at the tattoo designs, and even made a comment that he really liked the flow of one of them, which made the group even more inspired to go to more places. Aoba was reintroduced to the members of Dry Juice and Benishigure, who they welcomed back warmly, to have Aoba even recognize some of them. As they walked along the streets, Aoba would cling to one of not two of the boys’ arms at the same time as he heard different sounds and still adjusted to the fact of so many people around him. Worse part of the outside, and only, would be Koujaku’s fangirls, to which their squeals made Aoba jump into the arms of the closest boy available. That or hide in the closest hiding place he could find. The most memorable moments of their small fieldtrips outside of the hospital would be when they brought Aoba to the beach, the same one right by the church. The scent of sea-salt brought Aoba calm, and he quickly recognized the church, pointing at it and muttering out memories. “I remember I used to sit by the stairs and watch the sunset with the other kids.” Aoba mentioned once or twice. He was even about to jump into the water, until the group stopped him, telling him that he had to heal up first, and that when they came again then he could be allowed to swim. It took a few minutes for Aoba to understand, but he did. It actually hurt the guys to deny him such pleasure, they wanted to give everything to him, but his health came first. One thing Aoba did do, independently, was to take off his shoes and let his feet feel the sand, and the cold sea water. A small smile could be seen on his features, even if it was just for a second. This gave the guys hope. Aoba would recover. He had to. This went on for an entire month. Just as suddenly, the news they had been waiting for arrived in the shape of the doctor calling them over after a full day of visiting Aoba.

“Aoba has made enough progress to be released from the hospital. If released in your care, he may go back home tomorrow morning.”