Despair's Insanity - an II x DR fic

TTM - FTE 2

Character Selected: Tissues

Tissues turned to face me, offering me a curt, forced smile. "Hi Lifering... I believe that's you." I felt myself freeze in place, a bead of sweat rolling down my forehead as my vision blurred. This exact scenario failed to cross my mind when Microphone had mentioned his name earlier, and I could feel myself paying for the price now as my body began to shake, and the memories flooded back into my mind. I said nothing, which made him speak up once more.

"Hello?" Tissues put down the bowl of punch he'd been holding, and approached slowly as he waved his hand in front of my eyes. "Hey, can you hear me?"

I couldn't bring myself to move for a moment. I mumbled something completely nonsensical, but said nothing of actual value as Tissues went back to the countertop and sprinkled some extra sugar into the punch.

"If you want, the food's all prepped in the fridge. Nothing hot, so don't worry about your fingers getting burnt."

"Mmhm."

"Aha!" Tissues whipped right around to look at yet again, a sly grin on his face. "He speaks! Sort of. Y'know, you don't have to be scared of me. I might be sick, but I'm not contagious, and I don't cough as much as I used to now that I have health insurance and medicine. I won't give you any major death germs."

"...Tissues, if I did something horrible, would you forgive me?"

Tissues raised a brow at the question, fidgeting slightly with the end of his sweater as he tried to keep eye contact with me. Before he said anything, I elaborated slightly. "Like- it wasn't a full on thing, but it was bad, and I feel like if I don't tell you I'm gonna be haunted by it for the rest of my life?"

"Uhm..." He chuckled awkwardly, but then he seemed to have a bit of a realization as his pupils dilated. "Were you the one who got me the afternoon medicine the other day?"

"...Yeah. I- I tried to-"

"You tried to kill me," he mumbled. It was just quiet enough for only me to possibly hear, but I noticed his voice dropping an octave as he stared right into my eyes. "You spilled it all over the floor, on my feet. Not to mention Fan told me the second I could see and hear again." I could feel my heartbeat start racing as I tried to not think too hard about what to say, but to my surprise, Tissues shook his head, his grin not fading at any point in the conversation. "It's kinda funny- I'm surprised I didn't get targeted first...Soap hates me more than anybody."

"Is that...funny to you?"

"I said kinda. I mean, am I surprised I got this far? Of course, but at the same time, I'm glad I managed to live this long." He paused for a second, inhaling sharply as he prepared for a sneeze. I tried to think fast, but he pulled out a piece of cloth from one of his pants pockets under his sweater and aggressively sneezed into that.

I watched as he folded up the nasty covered bits and groaned softly as he stuffed the cloth back into his pocket, his eyes and nose now much more red than seconds earlier. "There we go again..."

"Please for the love of god himself go wash your hands before you touch the punch again."

"I will, calm your tits." Tissues scoffed and turned back to the sink, the faucet squeaking on as I tried to come up with words to say. Every conversation of mine with other people felt so forced and plain, but I couldn't help myself from just trying to fill in the gaps that were left for unsavory moments.

"So- you like living the way you do?"

"I mean, I'd rather be completely healthy, but I don't mind it. You get used to having a disease when it's been around your entire life. As long as I'm treated like a normal person, I don't care." I forgot about treating Tissues normally for a second. Not as in I would never do such a thing, but treating people completely differently for being sickly had never been something I actively considered. Then again, that must be part of the problem, given how subconsciously I only want to help, not think.