The Kids Get Sick

Masaru is sick, Kotoko and Nagisa take care of him

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Kotoko was just about done with these boys.

She had taken care of every single one of Masaru's whines without complaint, cleaning puke and changing the blankets and checking on the others EVEN MORE then she already had been because he HAD to know how they were doing every second of every day. For being their brave and strong leader (Something she would never doubt again, he was brave enough to protect them even now and strong enough to fight against everything), he sure was such a whiny little kid when given the chance. She couldn't tell if she was proud of him being able to show such weakness or just annoyed with it all.

Then there was Nagisa, who had the opposite issue, refusing to ask for anything besides a glass of water and constantly trying to make his was over to retrieving a text book. Honestly, any Demon that had labeled Nagisa the pure angel that did no wrong and followed the rules always could eat shit because he was as sneaky as a fox, he just happened to be as quiet as a mouse and that made his as annoying as a parrot. His refusal to request anything made her want to rip her hair out from the sheer lack of doing anything for him when she was supposed to be.

Finally there was Jataro, beautiful Jataro who had literally SCREAMED when she took his mask so he wouldn't puke all over it and she had to calm him down by doing a bit of that makeup she had offered before, not enough to make him actually look different, but he was in no condition to check a mirror, so he begrudgingly took her word. She almost felt bad, she knew he Hated lying, but it is how it is. after that, he had watched her care for the others while he knitted and switched between mimicking Masaru and mimicking Nagisa's manner, depending on whom she looked more willing to strangle. Whatever it took to make her hate him even more.

On the bright side, she had collapsed from pure exhaustion eventually and had the only well night of sleep she can recall having since ever, simply because her mind was too tired to produce a nightmare. However, that small victorious bliss was ripped away from her as only a couple of hours later she was jolted awake from her beauty sleep by the sound of Masaru whining again. She let out a long suffering groan at the noise and rose to her feet, just about ready to smother him with his own pillow, when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Kotoko, calm down. It is a nightmare, see?" A calm voice spoke behind her. It lacked the sleepy undertone of someone who had just woken up and she had half a mind to yell at the boy for not sleeping AGAIN, but she stopped herself to listen.

The whine she had heard was, in fact, not a request of her, or of anything specifiaclly really. It was more of a pleading then a whine at all, she realized, and she could all but feel her heart shatter as she realized what it was exactly.

He was begging for mercy, or forgiveness, or even death. He wanted whatever he thought was happening to stop. And they both knew exactly what his dream was.

As she had said to herself (but never out loud), she hated seeing the boys (Her Boys) upset. So, even if this was no where near the first time she had heard this exact thing from this exact redhead, she still felt as heartbroken as the first time she heard it.

Good thing she was an actress, then, as she let out a scoff that (if it had been anyone but the scholar behind her) came across as uncaring and annoyed as she crossed her arms and stomped over to the nightmare ridden boy, Nagisa behind her.

They approached his cot, all previous malice vanished as they looked over the shivering and whimpering boy, curled into a ball tighter then most people would recognize as possible. They both knew better then to touch Masaru. Feeling physical contact was NEVER a goo idea for him. While it woke Kotoko up and used shock to snap her from her horrors, it only reinforced whatever the Hero's perception of reality was and plunged him further into his mind.