Ameliorate - [Tokyo Revengers Various] X Reader

•39• the dragon's mirage

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The sickeningly strong smell of disinfectant and sanitizer rises up the nose of an exhausted boy sitting alone in the waiting area. Kokonoi's lips curls in distaste, arms tightening across his chest. His eyes roll venomously toward a nurse in light blue who walks past with a robotic smile plastered over her face.

As if a kid isn't dying in some room here.

Kokonoi exhales deep and lets his head press against the wall behind. He knows he probably will never get over his hatred for hospitals — in his life, they stand only for a memory too painful to ever completely digest. His gaze shifts and settles on the burn scar on his hand. The doctor says it is soon to heal, but Kokonoi doesn't really mind it staying longer. He feels this is only just fair to him after everything that happened.

Karma, as they call it: he wasn't capable enough to protect her back then, it only makes sense he suffers the same fate she did. Fires haunt Kokonoi. They serve as a terrifying reminder of the worst moments of his life. Though he has learned to stay calm and poised on the surface, the memories and thoughts spiraling back to a single deep pit cannot be avoided.

He shifts, turning his neck to peek towards the door at the end of the hallway behind which another young boy, scarred permanently by these fires, sits.

Kokonoi sighs.

Inui has been sitting inside ever since he reached the hospital despite how exhausted he probably is, having searched two days restlessly for you. Of course, that means Kokonoi has to be on the move beside him, too. There's no way he'd leave the boy out, especially considering how much easier things like these get when you have a good brain cell — which Inui sadly lacks.

Many times, he has actually considered walking through the door and joining Inui and the two brothers seated around your hospital bed. Knowing what you could have possibly have undergone does creep him out — he may be rather raspy, but that doesn't mean Kokonoi would ever wish such horrors on anyone.

He is aware he'd feel disgusted towards life and some amount of legit pity towards you if he does enter. To avoid confrontation with these emotions, he opts to sit out.

The creak of the chair beside snaps the boy out of his clouds of thought. Kokonoi finds Max sitting adjacent to him, clutching a file of medical reports as if his life depended on it.

Max sits stiff, as though each muscle of his body has been frozen to ice. There rests a glisten of horror within his eyes, though his face sports a blank expression.

At first, Kokonoi decides to ignore him. He has already reached the peak of the tiny triangle of fucks he can give about this family and he does not want to push beyond with small conversations. If anything, he only desires to go home and roll up into a ball in his blankets.

The hollow silence between them gets unbearably awkward way too soon, though. It is Max who breaks the silence with an uncertain, shaky voice.

"Thank you. You can... uh... go home now. I'll... I'll compensate you soon."

Kokonoi pauses, the memory of him paying the hospital bills as everyone rushed into your ward replaying before his eyes. Though he truly is shaken about the whole situation, the default mode set to his life is an obsession with money. Without even thinking much about it, he'd stepped forward to pay the bills knowing he'd be able to get more compensated from your brothers as "gratitude."

"How is she?" He doesn't even know why the question leaves his mouth.

The blank expression on Max's face twists. It goes from empty to something of confusion before his lips tug upwards and an exasperated smile settles on his face. His tone, however, remains just as low and shaky.