Joker

15. Recovering but not really?

Despite the pain everywhere, Akabane was feeling a lot better. Having Nakul there to comfort him and kiss him did help in that sense. He considered telling him about the panic attack but decided against it. He was out now, he didn't need to make him worry even further. A while passed in sweet times when the door flung open and in poured chaos in the forms of Ayush Kumar and Choi Beomgyu, yelling.

"Shh!" Nakul glared and shushed them "He needs relaxation here! Don't get his heartrate up!"

"Aw calm down Nakul." Aki rolled his eyes and grinned at the two boys "Hey!"

"AKI!" They both screamed and raced towards him. Nakul blocked them "Do not throw yourselves at him. He's currently in a delicate condition. Calm down and go one at a time."

Ayu ran up to Aki, tearing up "AKI!"

"Hey buddy." Aki lifted his arm and ruffled Ayu's hair, ignoring the pain and did the same for Beomgyu on the other side of the bed "How're you Gyu?"

"Aki I missed you! You okay?" Ayu commanded attention and sat next to Aki.

"I'm okay." Aki lied "I'll just need some time to get all better."

"You'll come home?" Ayu asked.

"Yes I will." Aki grinned "Might take a while but I'll be back soon."

"Yay!" Ayu pulled out a card from his bag "I made this for you."

"Aw Ayu. Thank you so much." Aki smiled at the messily drawn card. It was beautiful. I am keeping this forever. The words 'Get Well Soon Aki!' were written in bright blue with yellow and red smiley faces and hearts hovering around. At the bottom were two figures. A small one in yellow and a bigger one in orange. Aki smiled wider and carefully opened it.

Get well soon Aki!

XO Ayu

Aki laughed and smiled as widely as he could at Ayu, ignoring the pain again "I love it! Thank you so much Ayu!"

"I made it myself! Gyu helped me with spellings but I made it for you!" Ayu said proudly.

"It's brilliant." Aki showed it to Nakul, excited "Look what I got!"

"It's awesome, good job champ." Nakul fondly ruffled Ayu's hair.

Aki turned to Gyu, who was silent "You gonna give me the silent treatment like San too?"

"Wh- what? No I just-" Gyu pointed to the tube inserted through Aki's side "I saw that..."

"Ah don't worry about it." Aki said, "It's just for my lung."

Gyu winced "Oh I see... so are you okay? Like in the head?"

"What do you mean?"

"Kidnapping victims usually have trauma and stuff and clearly a lot more than that happened with you." Gyu said "So are you okay?"

Kid this is nothing compared to some of the shit I went through learning with Reaper. Aki simply smiled "I am now that I'm back. I'd appreciate it if you two treated me like I was okay rather than make a pity case out of me."

"Course dude." Gyu smiled back and pulled out his phone "I have updates on the tea you missed."

"Spill it then my good man." Aki said.

"First off my dumbass brothers will be making a return soon." Gyu read from his notes on his phone "You will have to deal with a lot more bullshit and a lot more demands for making your secret ramen."

"Will do." Aki nodded "What are your brothers like?"

"Dumbasses." He said plainly "One's 18, the other is 19. Basically mom and dad had zero chill so wham bam thank you ma'am if you get my drift."