She Knows - The Fourteenth and Fifteen Promise

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June 19th, 2017

Emma and Hina got back from their honeymoon last night, and oh so conveniently, today was a Wednesday, his day off. When he awoke that morning with a splitting headache and body pains, he found that he was not alone in his apartment. Emma was in his shitty kitchen cooking up a healthy energy filled breakfast while Hina tidied the remininents of his recent depressive episode. Hina saw him first, he tried to ignore the flash of disappointment in her eyes as she held several empty bottles of alcohol. It wasn't long though, until Emma noticed his presence and immediately latched onto him.

"Takemichi-kun! Oh...just let me hold you for a bit, yeah?" She murmured into his shoulder.

"...Yeah."

He wasn't sure how long they stood there, but he does know that it didn't take long for Emma to begin breaking down in his arms. He couldn't stop looking at Hina as she cleaned up his mess, guilt overwhelmed him as he eyed the empty bottles of alcohol. He couldn't believe he had actually drunk so much in just the past week, he hated himself for it. He swore to his younger self that he'd never turn to alcohol when he had problems because he knew what it did to his mother...look at him now.

Even after Kazutora came to comfort him that night a week ago, he just couldn't stop the surging feeling within him. It had been quite difficult to hide from Ran and Rindou at work, he mostly just stayed in the kitchen or his office so people wouldn't be able to smell his hangover. He kept drinking, and it was making him feel like shit. He had half the decency to stop taking some of his medications or he might have just actually died from mixing them with so much alcohol.

"-michi-kun...Takemichi!" Hina's voice snapped him out of whatever daze he was unknowingly in.

"Huh?"

"Well...whatever, I don't have to hide my concern for you anymore. What the fuck has been going on? Are you taking your medication?" Hina asked.

"I...most of the time," he muttered.

"You know how dangerous it is to drink large amounts of alcohol with your medication, it could kill you before the cancer does!"

"Hina..." Emma said softly, "I think we should keep this calm."

"Calm? You have been bawling your eyes out everyday since you found out."

"Maybe there is a reason why he has been drinking, shouldn't you be asking about that instead of lecturing him?"

"Please don't fight, I just feel like shit to say it simply. And I hate myself for turning to alcohol for it but that's just what happened. I knew the risks and did it anyway because maybe, just maybe I want to just die suddenly so I don't have to see the reaction of anyone else," he confessed.

Emma and Hina stared at him, their lips trembling and eyes filling with tears.

"People can find out whenever they want, I don't give a shit, but I refuse to be the one to tell anyone and I know damn well neither of you have the guts to. So please, can I just spend my last bit of my shortened life pretending that nothing is wrong?"

Hina pulled him close, her body was shaking as she tried to hold in her sobs but he could feel how wet his shirt was becoming from her tears, "I love you Takemichi, you know that. And I just want you to be happy."

"You can be happy too Hina."

"When I know that you are resting peacefully, without all the struggles you're facing right now...then I'll be happy."

"Emma-chan?" He said.

Emma lifted her head, her eyes red and puffy and her lips quivering, "I want you to take care of Hina for me."

"Takemichi-"

"I want you to make sure she is happy and I want you to love her forever unconditionally. Can you promise me? Because I know she will ignore her own needs to make sure everyone else is okay."

Emma nodded, :I-I promise. But you need to promise me something too. You need to promise me that you won't keep doing anything that will endanger your health even more. Please no more drinking."

"I promise."

Hina pulled away from him sobbing and Emma replaced her spot, wrapping her arms tight around him, she leant close and whispered something to him so Hina couldn't hear.

"I know about the smoking, growing up with Shin I can detect it. Please try to stop that too."

"I will try my best, I promise."

.

Baji watched as Kazutora continued to fumble the box of cat collars before he finally dropped them. For the past week he had just been off, constantly mumbling to himself and when he was at work he was simply unfocused. Chifuyu told him that Kazutora had gone to see Takemichi one night a week ago, and ever since, he's been like this and it just makes him wonder what the hell happened. He had been meaning to pop over to the bakery to ask Takemichi about it but he just hadn't had the time after a bunch of new strays came in.

"Tora, come over here," he called out, gesturing for his fiance to join him at the register, the store was currently empty aside from themselves and Chifuyu had just gone out on his lunch break.

"Uh yeah? Didn't mean to drop the box, butter fingers I guess."

"Has anything triggered you lately?"

Kazutora's eyes widened, "What are you talking about?"

"You've been so unfocused the past week, did something happen when you went to see Takemichi?"

Kazutora tensed and looked away from Baji's concerned gaze, "Nothing happened, we just talked."

"What was so important that he needed to tell you at 2 in the morning?"

"Are you implying something Keisuke? Do you think I cheated on you or something?!" Kazutora exclaimed defensively.

"What? No! I'd never think that of you, I'm just worried, so is Fuyu," Baji reassured.

Kazutora was in fact very worried about Takemichi, he tried not to overthink some of the things he had said in his drunken state. But then again, drunken words are sober thoughts. He didn't want to invade Takemichi's privacy, he had been doing a damn good job of keeping his special conversations with Takemichi a secret for almost ten years. But this was his friend's life he was thinking about, that affected everyone.

He sighed shakily before meeting his fiance's eyes once again, "I think Takemichi might be suicidal."



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At the end, Kazutora is worried about Takemichi telling him he was going to die when he was drunk in the previous chapter in case you forgot. I don't usually have such big gaps between chapters I'm sorry.

Also if you haven't already, go check out my new story Clover! It's TakeHina focused with all the female characters being badass girl bosses. It's an idea I've had for months and I finally started it, the first few chapters are out :)

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