[The walk from the bus station to their house was probably the hardest thing Ichimatsu had done in recent memory. None of them ever really did much in the way of strenuous activity save for Jyushimatsu who had always been energetic and athletic. And so much of the difficulty of that walk hadn't even been that his legs were all but atrophied from disuse. He had Karamatsu to help him along for that-- He'd stopped so many times to lean on a wall, or hold Karamatsu's arm, embarrassed by how out of breath fifteen steps would make him.]
[But the hardest part was turning the corner and recognizing the street. And realizing how long it had been since he'd seen it. And managing to keep walking forward at his stilted, assisted pace, despite the way his vision blurred and he blinked through four rounds of tears he refused to shed in a span of ten minutes. Realizing how easy it would have been, even broke and homeless, to walk over here and say hello. The people at the bath house knew him well enough, he could have come by and gotten cleaned up to pretend he wasn't as bad off as he was. He'd just lost weight. How were you, Osomatsu-niisan? Mom? Dad?]
[He grabs Karamatsu's arm for the millionth time since they got off the bus, pulls him back a step, and presses his face into the back of his shoulder, forcing himself to remember to breathe.]
[It only got worse once they were in the house, and he knew to expect that, but he didn't realize how much of a literal punch to the gut it was going to be to follow Karamatsu through that door and see not nearly enough pairs of shoes. He leaned on the wall for a long time with one hand over his mouth, quelling the vague urge to be sick despite having nothing in his stomach. Again. He steps out of his shoes, placing them neatly by the door, and doesn't call out to see if anyone else is there, because there were only a few discarded pairs of their parents' shoes, he knew no one was here but them. He pads slowly back to the small bathroom, pausing only once to look over his shoulder at Karamatsu.]
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2016-08-20 06:50 am (UTC)[But the hardest part was turning the corner and recognizing the street. And realizing how long it had been since he'd seen it. And managing to keep walking forward at his stilted, assisted pace, despite the way his vision blurred and he blinked through four rounds of tears he refused to shed in a span of ten minutes. Realizing how easy it would have been, even broke and homeless, to walk over here and say hello. The people at the bath house knew him well enough, he could have come by and gotten cleaned up to pretend he wasn't as bad off as he was. He'd just lost weight. How were you, Osomatsu-niisan? Mom? Dad?]
[He grabs Karamatsu's arm for the millionth time since they got off the bus, pulls him back a step, and presses his face into the back of his shoulder, forcing himself to remember to breathe.]
[It only got worse once they were in the house, and he knew to expect that, but he didn't realize how much of a literal punch to the gut it was going to be to follow Karamatsu through that door and see not nearly enough pairs of shoes. He leaned on the wall for a long time with one hand over his mouth, quelling the vague urge to be sick despite having nothing in his stomach. Again. He steps out of his shoes, placing them neatly by the door, and doesn't call out to see if anyone else is there, because there were only a few discarded pairs of their parents' shoes, he knew no one was here but them. He pads slowly back to the small bathroom, pausing only once to look over his shoulder at Karamatsu.]
...can I. Ask a very selfish favor of you.