But You Don't Care

ni

I woke up in a haze, blinking my eyes, rather my eye, seeing that the other was covered with a patch, a few times in hopes of clearing it. I was in a room that I didn't recognize. It was all white, a TV up on the wall, and a pot of flowers by the window. I tried moving my arm, but felt something tug on it. I looked down and saw an IV stuck into the crook of my elbow. I lifted my other arm and rubbed my free eye, only to feel pain blanket over my face, like a small child's blanket thrown over his delicate toys. I quickly pulled my hand away and blinked. Shortly after, a very lovely woman in white walked in. I wanted to play it cool, but I figured now is not the time.

"Oh! Mr. Matsuno, you're awake." She spoke sweetly. My smirk split my lips, regardless of the pain. I snapped my fingers and pointed

"Heh, Mr. Matsuno is my father. You can call me Karamatsu." I let out a chuckle, and stopped as soon as I was engulfed in pain.

"Careful, that broken rib is going to give you some trouble."

"B-Broken rib?" I had never broken a bone before, but even then, I don't know why I started to feel dread.

"Yes, you took quite a beating last night. Had your friend not brought you in, you most likely would have died."

I felt my heart drop to my stomach. I could've died?

"Er, have there been any visitors in the time I've been out?"

"Other than the small man and a young lady, I'm afraid not." I felt a bitter taste fill my mouth. Of course they wouldn't come. Why would I expect them to? I leaned back on the pillow and closed my eye. My eyebrows furrowed as I spoke.

"Well, if you see five people who look just like me, don't let them in. I don't want to see them."

"A-Are you su-"

"I'm sure."

"...Alright. Only them?"

"Preferably, yes."

"Yes sir. Also, you know English? How cool!"

I felt my face heat up as she walked out. She thinks I'm cool?

"Hm. You still got that Karamatsu charm, even in your darkest time." I thought to myself. I was about to drift back to sleep when I heard small footsteps enter the room. I opened my one eye and looked at Chibita, who pushed a chair up next to my bed. I sat up as gently as I could without hurting myself.

"Hey Chibita! Couldn't get enough of m-"
I received a punch on top of my head.

"The hell, you idjit! Damn it! You could've gotten yourself killed! What were you doing out there in the middle of the night?!" Chibita yelled at me. I rubbed the sore spot on top of my head and looked at him with a mix of anger and confusion.

"A simple 'hello' would do."
Chibita finally sat down. He gave me a small box he had brought in with him.
"I made you some oden. Don't worry about paying for it." His voice calmed down a decent amount. I opened the box and smiled as the warmth hit my face.

"Thanks, Chibita. It means a lot."

"Don't mention it, you idjit."

As I ate the oden, we made lighthearted conversation, ignoring the obvious white elephant in the room, but I knew it was gonna be brought up eventually.

"...I told Osomatsu what happened last night." Chibita mumbled. I quickly looked out the window.

"Oh yeah? What did he say?"

"Well, I had to get you to the hospital, so I told him to tell your other brothers! B-But he, err...kinda told me that I had the wrong household, and closed the door in my face."

"Tch. Figures."
Come to think of it, I find myself beginning to sound more and more like Ichimatsu recently.

"But, hey! It's not all bad! Totoko bought those flowers for you! And Iyami told me he would come visit later!"

I just kept silent.

"That doesn't fix anything, does it?"
I felt tears well up in my open eye, but I blinked them away. This isn't a time to cry about it.

"Well, good. I don't want to see my brothers anyway."

"H-Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Why does it matter? They don't care about me anyways." I heard my own voice drift off at the end.

"Of course they care about you!"
I turned to him, a serious look covering my normal smirking perfection.

"Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that you truly believe that?"

Chibita stared at me, but said nothing. Hesitating at times, but never finding the words.

"That's what I thought," I leaned back, laying my arms to my sides. "They don't even consider me as their brother."

"Uh, no English on 'brother?'"

"Oh. I guess not this time. Whatever."
Chibita gave me a questioning look, then sighed and sat back in his chair. We remained silent for a small while.

"I can take the rest of the day off, if you want me to stay with you for the night."

"If you feel like it. I understand if you're busy, you have a job after all, and I know how much you love making oden. I, too, am passionate about what I love."

"Well, I don't know about what you think, but sometimes you have to make an exception for your friends."

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"...You consider me your friend?"

"Of course, ya idjit! In fact, out of all of you, YOU are the easiest to tolerate and get along with, even if you are the sheer essence of painful...H-Hey, why are you crying?!"

He was right. I was crying, but I don't even know why. That's been happening a lot lately. I wiped away my tears and smiled.

"No reason. I just really needed that, I guess." I reached into my pocket, or lack thereof, for my sunglasses, then remembered the pair I had last night was broken.

"What? What are you looking for?" Chibita asked. I lay my arms across my midsection and leaned back.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it."
A silence split between us again.

"Well," Chibita started, rubbing the top of his head. "I guess if you don't need me, I'll be going then."
He hopped down from the chair and started walking out.

"Chibita, wait."

He turned and looked at me.

"Yeah?"

"...Can you stay for the night? Please?"
He gave a half smile.

"Alright, ya idjit. Why didn't you just say so?"

I smiled and closed my eye.

"Score one for Matsuno Karamatsu."

"Shut up before I pull that IV out of your arm."
_________________

Bye

-Moo