Insert one freshly revived asshole

[birdinhand]

First thing in the morning:
Well, that was terrible. Embarrassing, horrible, and stupid. But, he was glad to not have the pain anymore. And he had his face back the way it belonged. Sure he was vain, but even most people might have trouble with what gallons of acid would do to a person.

He knew he had Hina and Eiji to face out there, as well as the woman that caused the problem in the first place. But first, he was going to get everything back to normal. That meant it was time to get his hair back to something resembling presentable. The tournament and being in bed for days hadn't done it any favors. And if he was taking his sweet time, then that was probably on purpose.

He wanted to see Hina, he really did. He had somehow missed her during his self-imposed isolation. That was something he hadn't expected. But, he wasn't sure if he was ready to see her. Not after what had happened yesterday. If she had seen that, then...

Eventually, he ran out of excuses to not leave his room. He stood the collar up of his shirt and headed for the door.

Later, in the library:
That bitch was gonna pay. And so, he was going to lay bait the best way he knew how. He stretched out on top of the bookshelf, as he usually did, to wait for her to decide she had something to say about it. He was pretty sure Hina and Eiji wouldn't let him anywhere near her if he'd said anything, or worse warn her. She deserved to feel every inch of the pain she'd put him in.

Evening, courtyard
Back in his favorite tree, with a popsicle. He's more or less dressed for the weather for once. He needed a plan for the future. If he was going to return to who he used to be, then he had to put certain safeguards in place first. Because he wouldn't be able to protect Hina the same way as before.

Comments

[birdinhand]

He scowled and glanced over to one side. Just do it, moron.

He took a couple steps toward her and brought his arms around her shoulders to pull her against his chest.

[dreiwuensche]

Hina's eyes went wide, but she didn't waste a moment. She wrapped her arms around Ankh and clung tightly.

"Welcome back," she whispered.

[birdinhand]

He held her for a moment. Yeah, this felt pretty good. She was safe, that was important. "Sorry I stayed away so long..."

[dreiwuensche]

"I was worried," she scolded him. "Don't do that again."

[birdinhand]

He just looked over at her. He let go of her, and grabbed her by the elbows to pull her away again. he reached up to stand his collar back up again. "Let's go see that idiot."

[dreiwuensche]

Hina sighed. She reached up and turned his collar back down. "Eiji-san is not..." Well. "...an idiot."

[birdinhand]

"Tche," was his only response. He turned and headed for Eiji's room, and let himself in without knocking. Or saying anything, really. As soon as he came in, he started digging through Eiji's drawers in search of the rest of the prize candy, and wasn't worried about making a mess in the process.

[yokubo]

Unusually, Eiji was still in bed. He didn't have to work until later, so sleeping in a little wouldn't really hurt, would it? Not that he was doing much sleeping, though. Mostly worrying. Hina would be upset if he overdid it, but if he slacked off things would be bad too. As far as Ankh was concerned, he had a feeling that he'd show up eventually anyw --

... and there he was. It took him a second to register just what he was marching into his room over, but it became obvious pretty quick.

"A-Ankh, cut it out!" He flailed in attempt to get out of bed, but instead he just got his legs tangled in the sheets and fell off the side. "Mouuuuu!"

[dreiwuensche]

"Ankh!" Hina exclaimed. Who just dug around in people's drawers? Rude. She grabbed him by his ear and pulled him away.

"Sorry about that, Eiji-san..."

[birdinhand]

"Owowowowow!" he flailed off in the direction Hina had dragged him. Honestly, it was for all of their own good. Who was the rude one here?

But he looked down at Eiji and made another click of the tongue. He bent down and grabbed him by the upper arm to drag him up off the floor. "Moron..."

[yokubo]

He was sort of surprised to see Hina do that. No one else would ever get away with it, that was for sure.

"Eh?!" The only thing that surprised him more was Ankh hauling him up from the floor. "Um, thanks...?"

Eiji turned to Hina, like he didn't know what to say or think. This was really weird already.

[dreiwuensche]

"Ah... how are you feeling, Eiji-san? Ankh and I were worried." That's the only reason she can think of for Ankh wanting to come see him right away, anyway.

[birdinhand]

No, what he was worried was the candy stash. He knew this guy was durable enough to deal with whatever it was he'd had taken off. "So what did you get cut off?" Such delicacy.

[yokubo]

He kind of doubted that Ankh was worried...

"Toenails." He frowned at Ankh. It probably didn't sound like that big of a deal, especially when compared to what had happened to a lot of other people, but it really did hurt. "But I feel better than yesterday at least. Um, thanks for asking about me."

[dreiwuensche]

At least Ankh was all healed. Eiji had to live with that pain. Hina couldn't imagine it.

She finally let go of Ankh's ear. "No problem! You are our friend, after all."

[birdinhand]

Hearing how Eiji had been injured, he just humphed. He shoved him backward so he'd topple back into a sitting position on the bed. "Don't do anything stupid."

Once he was free, he went right back to what he had been doing. Ah, there they were. The antidote candies. "I'm hanging on to these. If you keep them you'll give them all away and there won't be any for us when we need them."

[yokubo]

He smiled at Hina, but the second Ankh pushed him back down he was frowning again. As for finding his candy... he didn't know if he was more upset that he'd taken it or that he was doing through his stuff.

"What kind of person goes through someone else's underwear drawer?!" He reached across the bed and tried to grab at Ankh. "This is totally unfair!"

[dreiwuensche]

"Wait, wait, wait." Hina also grabbed at Ankh. "You can't do that. He won those fair and square, Ankh."

[birdinhand]

He dodged and sidestepped both of them. "These are for us if we get screwed over on money again. If I leave them with him he'll give them away to any asshole who asks."

[yokubo]

"So what if I do? We aren't the only people who might need help, Ankh. I already gave you guys most of them anyway!" He reached so far across the bed that he fell off. Again.

[dreiwuensche]

"Eiji-san!" Hina rushed over to help him up. "Look, I agree with Ankh that you should keep some of those for yourself, but this is not the way to go about this." She glared at Ankh. "Put them back."

[birdinhand]

"Hell no. Besides, that's a shitty hiding spot. I'll find something better." He was not going to back down on this. He was not going to end up dead because of this moron's idealism. "And stop falling out of bed, you're only going to hurt yourself worse." Yeah, that was some semblance of showing concern for someone else.

Well, since he was somewhat incapacitated, he supposed he ought to return the favor from the previous days. "When's the last time you changed those bandages anyway?"

[yokubo]

Eiji gave Ankh an irritable glance, but it wasn't like he could do anything to stop him. He crawled back into bed and crossed his arms. At least Ankh couldn't take his CP away. No matter what he was still going give someone candy if they needed it, even if that meant paying for it himself.

That small bit of concern was surprising, though, and made him let go of some of his frustration.

"Last night, but I can take care of myself." Okay, so he was still grumpy about it.

[dreiwuensche]

Hina sighed and sat down beside Eiji. "Do you have any spare bandages? I'll go get some if you don't."

[birdinhand]

"There's probably some left in my room," Ankh answered and turned to leave, completely avoiding eye contact on the way out.

And while he was in his room, he was going to find a better hiding spot for the candy.