Two pieces of a puzzle.

Tsubaki's birthday.

The next morning honestly wasn’t what they were expecting, they were waking up in each other’s arms. At first Ash was confused but pain overtook his senses as he held his head due to the massive migraine he had from the drinking. He couldn’t remember a damn thing. What did he do? Say? Who did he come home with? He was laying in a bed with someone as he could tell, but he hasn’t been in bed with anyone besides Mahiru, so he didn’t know whether to be afraid or shameful. However, what he could tell was that he still had clothes on, so that’s a plus.

Opening his eyes slowly, he spotted his youngest sibling sleeping beside him peacefully. When did this happen? Surely it was last night, did Tsubaki bring him to his apartment? Why would he do such thing?

With a groan, Ash laid back down to squeeze his eyes shut from the pain. He hoped he could find some medicine for the migraine in the side table drawer, but who knows what the other had in there, but he risked it anyways. Blindly pulling the drawer out to search for the small bottle of aleve, which he found it quite quickly. Though, he needed something to drink it down with. “Tsubaki....” Ash mumbles, gently tapping his head (or cheek? He doesn’t know.) to wake him up. “I think I’d like that glass of water now…”

Tsubaki stirs a little at that and slowly gets off the bed. “Alright… I’ll go get it. Feel free to get yourself some aleve from my drawer to help with your migraine. You drank a lot so it’s no surprise that you’ll have a nasty hangover for a while.” he said after pointing at the drawer on Ash’s side of the bed before heading out of the room, not knowing that Ash already had it in his hands.

Ash was going to comment on the last part, but held it back. He wasn’t in any mood to do anything, much less speak for an unnecessary reason. So he attempted to relax instead, still trying to figure out what happened during the moments of his drinking. How much did he really have? He didn’t know, but what he could tell, it was a lot. Grunting at that, he turns to his side, hoping it would soothe his migraine just a bit, but instead, it made it worse. God he made such a horrible mistake, he never wants to drink again. No wonder he never drank before now. “Hurry back...Tsubaki…”

Tsubaki starts pouring a glass of water for Ash immediately, knowing that his brother was feeling like shit from his migraine before heading back to his room and handing it to the cat. “Here you go…”

Ash opens his eyes to take the water, setting it aside to open the aleve to take one out, attempting to sit up to swallow the pill down. But the movement itself proved to be troublesome when he felt his stomach clench in nausea. He didn’t dare to move after that, holding his mouth to make sure he didn’t lose what he had in his stomach. He was already a burden, he didn’t want to waste Tsubaki’s time when he knows that it’s his birthday. If it wasn’t for him being here, he would’ve been out celebrating it by now. It made him feel guilty. “I’m sorry..” Ash told him, he didn’t like to be like this, but it’s been a habit that he didn’t enjoy, but he had nothing else to cope with.

Noticing that, Tsubaki moves the trash bin closer to Ash before sitting down on the bed. “You don’t have to apologize, Nii-san… I know what you’re thinking and I’m telling you it’s okay. I brought you home because I was worried about you and I know we have our differences but that’s all in the past. I didn’t want to be out celebrating when one of my family members is hurting on his own…” Tsubaki reassures as he set his hand on his back to soothe him, he knew he needed help and Tsubaki was willing to be the one that Ash could rely on, even if Ash believes he doesn’t deserve it.

Ash was torn between throwing up right there and then and denying that Tsubaki didn’t need to worry about him, that he’ll be fine. Though, right now...He didn’t have the heart to reject Tsubaki. He wanted help, needed to get back on his feet and move on, but he just couldn’t. With his pride and his heart broken in two, he doesn’t know if he could actually be helped. “But it’s your birthday...you should be out celebrating, I know you don’t want to leave, but at least do it for yourself, I’ll be fine after I feel a bit better, then I’ll leave to be out of your hair. It’ll be fine.” Ash tried to coax his sibling to go out and enjoy himself, even if it’ll be painful to be alone once again. But he didn’t want to see Tsubaki unhappy on this day, he just wished he could do something for compensation for wasting his time on him, however, nothing would be enough to tell him his thanks for taking care of him.