PROTIP: Akira only got sick because he overworked his body with the Kamoshida incident. He was scolded from both Yuuen as well as his teammates about taking better care of his body.
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The boy groaned as he rolled over once more, unwilling to lift his head from the covers.
He could already tell that it was already late morning yet he felt so tired and unwilling to get up.
"Kurusu! Wake up you lazy brat!" Sojiro scolded strutting up to the attic of his cafe to see the black-haired boy unmoving from his covers.
"It's already 11:30! I need you to work this weekend!" Sojiro hissed as the boy forced his body to sit up, feeling his head reel in the process.
"Coming..." Akira groaned his voice scratchy and deep as he held his head to ease the migraine he just developed.
Sojiro just watched with a scowl on his face as the boy put his feet on the ground and tried to stand up only to fall back onto the floor, dragging the blanket down with him.
His eyes widened as the boy fell and he immediately dropped his glare to help the uncoordinated boy.
"Kid! Are you ok? What's gotten into you?" Sojiro panicked slightly helping Akira up.
"I-I'm fine... it's just a headache." Akira groaned as Sojiro felt for his temperature.
"Goddamnit, of course, you're fucking sick." Sojiro sighed as Akira raised his brow, "Your forehead is burning up."
"Go back to bed, I'll get you some ibuprofen." Sojiro sighed not willing to put up a tough guy act for a sick Akira.
"B-but... I'm not sick. It's just a migraine, I can work." Akira said forcing himself to stand up with the help of his bed.
"Like hell, you can. Go back to bed or you'll get my customers sick too." Sojiro glared making Akira sit down on his bed, knowing not to disobey Sojiro when he is given that face. "Then I'll really have no business.
"If you say so." Akira sighed laying back down on his bed feeling his migraine ease a bit.
"I'll be right back, just lay down for a bit." Sojiro said walking down the stairs.
Akira wanted to wait until Sojiro came back with ibuprofen before falling back to sleep, but between his splitting migraine and how nice his pillow felt in the moment, he could barely keep his eyes open.
It wasn't long until he dozed off, passing out on his bed without covers or anything.
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Akira groaned as he felt something cold touch his forehead.
It felt nice, instantly soothing the headache that the boy had.
He forced his eyes open and tilted his head to see who was there, only to jolt up in shock.
"Yuuen?! What are you doing here?" Akira sat up making his head reel in the process.
"Jeez! Don't do that! You're going to make your headache worse!" Yuuen lectured pushing him back down onto the bed. "Sojiro told me you were sick so I got some stuff and came over." She explained wringing out the cloth that was thrown onto the floor and dipping it back into a cold water basin before placing it back onto his head.
"You're the only one here?" Akira said but his throat was scratchy and sore.
"As if! We're here too!" A voice said as Akira looked over to the couch to notice both Ryuji and Ann.
"You guys too?!" Akira said shocked, "Why are you all here?"
"We couldn't just go prancing around as our brave and fearless leader was lying in bed sick now can we?" Ryuji smirked as Ann gave one of her genuine model smiles.
"What kind of friend leaves their friend while they're sick?" Ann smiled making Akira feel slightly warm at how friendly they were being.
"Besides, I can't go anywhere with you bedridden all day." Morgana sighed licking his paw.
"Morgana?! You're here too?" Akira said shocked at the cat who was beside him.
"You just noticed?! I live here dummy!" Morgana hissed offended, then walking over to Ann to sit on her lap.
Yuuen chuckled a bit as she handed Akira a glass of water and some pills.
He gave her a questioning look as he accepted them.
"It's ibuprofen, take it. It'll make your fever go down." She explained as Akira threw the pills into his mouth, washing it down with water.
"You guys shouldn't waste your weekend helping me." Akira groaned his throat sore and icky.
"It's not a waste." Yuuen smiled taking a seat at the chair she pulled up by his makeshift bedside table, "You're our friend, it's not fun hanging out without you." Her smile grew and showed her pearly white teeth making Akira feel just a little warmer then he did before.
"Yeah! And if you can't leave your bed because your sick all day, then we'll just have to take the party to you!" Ryuji gave one of his infamous smiles making Ann shake her head.
"What?" Ryuji questioned looking over at the blonde.
"It's just... I've never seen you act so nice before." Ann smiled looking back down at the magazine she was reading.
"What?! I'm always nice!" Ryuji retorted looking to start a fight causing a chuckle from Yuuen.
Akira smiled at his friends and whispered quietly to himself.
"What was that?" Yuuen questioned as Ryuji and Ann started bickering again.
Akira looked away for a minute, somewhat embarrassed at what he said.
Yuuen furrowed her brows slightly confused.
"I said I'm blessed to have such great friends," Akira admitted looking away shyly.
Yuuen smile grew as Ryuji and Ann paused their fighting and looked away slightly embarrassed.
"Y-yeah...no problem." Ryuji scratched the back of his head.
"You sure are," Yuuen said looking over to Ryuji and Ann with a warm smile on her face.
Akira hummed once more, feeling the drowsy effects of the medicine hit him like a whirlwind.
He couldn't help it but left himself drift off to sleep once more.
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The boy groaned as he felt himself stir for the third time today.
He slowly pushed his eyelids open and sat up, feeling much better than he did in the morning.
He noticed how the sun was already setting and both Ann, Ryuji and Yuuen had left leaving him alone in his cluttered and dusty room.
The light flickered a bit, and he finally realized how dark it really was in his bedroom.
Whenever his friends were around it was like his world blew up into colors, making anything and everything more vibrant and bursting with life.
Now that they were gone it was like the life had been drained from the room and he went back to being outcast, misunderstood, Akira who had no friends and no future.
He sighed.
He at least wanted to thank his friends for coming over, even if he was asleep through the majority of it.
"Oh! I'm sorry Sakura-san! I just left my keys upstairs!" A familiar voice was muffled by the walls of the house, allowing Akira to just barely make out what the voice had said.
Soon a familiar blue-haired girl made it to the top of the stairs only to make direct eye contact with Akira's curious ones.
Her piercing blue eyes looked directly into Akira's cold gray ones as she stopped what she was doing. It was like time stopped itself as they found themselves lost in each other's gaze.
Akira felt his heart pick up a bit and warmth rose onto his cheeks.
Then he heard a cough, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"S-So...y-you're awake?" She coughed awkwardly looking away hiding the small blush on her face.
Akira hummed instantly looking down feeling jitters of embarrassment flow down his back giving him goosebumps and making it hard to swallow.
"S-Sorry... I just left my keys." She said awkwardly grabbing her keys and hurrying out of the room.
The moment she left Akira let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
He grabbed his hair in frustration as he flopped back on his head, red in the face. He just couldn't believe he just stared at her for like five minutes.
That was incredibly awkward.
He cursed to himself quietly as he hid his face with his hands.
He probably made her feel so uncomfortable.
But he couldn't help it. It was like without intention Akira just couldn't focus on anything else in the room; as if everything else just faded away and it was only her in the room.
What the hell is he saying,
He flipped back over and curled up into a ball, wanting to go back to sleep but too embarrassed to do so.
What he didn't know is that the same bluenette girl was having a very similar reaction not too far away, sitting outside the door of the Cafe Leblanc with her head in her hands and her heart racing at top speeds.
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They're both oblivious.
(SENDING OUT TWO CHAPTERS BECAUSE IT'S BEEN A WHILE)