TBHK Oneshots!

Early Morning Conversations

[A/N: This is a part of a very vague au, questions will probably be answered]

Akane emerges from the bathroom, the warmth of the apartment seeps into his skin immediately.

"Akane-kun, where the fuck is your shirt?"

Yashiro's voice doesn't welcome him, not that it surprises him. They had known each other for too long, had run into situations just like now too many times, for her to pretend to be even slightly pissed at him.

"Yashiro, my shirt's a bloody mess."

He clutches his side, which was messily covered in gauzes, and waves his bandaged hand. Yashiro turns on her side, pushing herself up on the couch arm with her hand. Her face morphs into annoyance, before falling into a softer look of concern.

"Akane.  1, I don't care, 2 how dare you be shirtless in front of my child." Dramatically she covers the eyes of a small hamster in her free hand. He appreciates her playful tone, if she wasn't so quick to joke around he would've worried about being in deep shit.

"Yeah, yeah, what even happened anyways?" Akane grabs his jacket off the bathroom doorknob, trying to warm himself more in Nene's unheated apartment. (Damn winter, making all his scars and cuts sting.)

"I dunno. Lemon spammed me about you not answering him, and then went on about you going drinking with some of your coworkers. If I had to guess, some apparition found your tired drunk self and took the opportunity."

"Do you really think that my alcohol tolerance is that low?"

"No, but you sure as hell acted like that. You were spacing out like hell."

Though the two had lived through the severance in high school, there was an unusual uprising in the number of apparitions appearing.

(It wasn't like there was a specific lack of Minamotos to deal with it. Even if Teru had dropped off the face of the earth, and Kou couldn't decide on what he was doing, and Tiara was too young to be given that responsibility.)

Akane drops the topic, it wasn't like he was about to face the grim reaper with the injuries he had sustained.

I̶̶̶n̶̶̶ ̶a̶̶̶ ̶f̶̶̶l̶̶̶e̶̶̶e̶̶̶t̶̶̶i̶̶̶n̶̶̶g̶̶̶,̶ ̶p̶̶̶a̶̶̶s̶̶̶s̶̶̶i̶̶̶n̶̶̶g̶̶̶ ̶m̶̶̶o̶̶̶m̶̶̶e̶̶̶n̶̶̶t̶̶̶ ̶h̶̶̶e̶̶̶ ̶r̶̶̶e̶̶̶m̶̶̶e̶̶̶m̶̶̶b̶̶̶e̶̶̶r̶̶̶s̶̶̶ ̶w̶̶̶a̶̶̶t̶̶̶e̶̶̶r̶̶̶ ̶l̶̶̶a̶̶̶p̶̶̶p̶̶̶i̶̶̶n̶̶̶g̶̶̶ ̶o̶̶̶v̶̶̶e̶̶̶r̶̶̶ ̶h̶̶̶i̶̶̶s̶̶̶ ̶f̶̶̶e̶̶̶e̶̶̶t̶̶̶ ̶a̶̶̶n̶̶̶d̶̶̶ ̶a̶̶̶ ̶g̶̶̶e̶̶̶n̶̶̶t̶̶̶l̶̶̶e̶̶̶ ̶h̶̶̶a̶̶̶n̶̶̶d̶̶̶ ̶w̶̶̶r̶̶̶a̶̶̶p̶̶̶p̶̶̶i̶̶̶n̶̶̶g̶̶̶ ̶h̶̶̶i̶̶̶s̶̶̶ ̶w̶̶̶o̶̶̶u̶̶̶n̶̶̶d̶̶̶

"Do you even have anything that fits me? I can't show up in an oversized hoodie and sweatpants to work you know."

Yashiro sighs. She places the hamster back into her cage and gets up to look for spare clothes. Yashiro is always, somehow, overprepared. She could afford to have a bin of spare clothes for guests to use at any time, though nothing was organized and at least half of it was from failed shopping trips.

The woman comes out of her room with a scratched-up white bin, dropping it on the floor with a startling thud.

"More formal stuff is at the bottom, have fun."

-

A good half hour of searching later, Akane finds something that works with his bandages and passes as something appropriate to wear to work.

Nene offers him leftovers and a promise of washing his clothes and returning them on his doorstep. He takes it graciously, it was two things less that he needs to worry about. In his last minute before he takes off to work the two exchange news. Drama, coworkers, family, Yashiro's adorable new hamster, rumors, and anything else that came to mind before their final goodbyes.

He's one foot out the door, waving to the girl, before she shouts out, "Akane, go easy on your students today! I think both you and them would appreciate it!" He can hear her snicker even after he tells her that he can't make any promises about that.

He's two steps out of her apartment room and he notices the biting chill of winter. He could already hear students complaining through their jackets and winter uniforms, people begging their friends for a sweater when they forgot their own. He can hear it over his footsteps and over the numb pain of his cuts.

He can imagine the conversations of his coworkers about new staff and transfer students. It barely drowns out the worrying ache of past memories, of lost friendships and dead friends.

Aoi Akane starts the familiar path to Kamome Gakuen, one that he had walked for six agonizing years and would be walking for many more.