"I know, I know," Tohru laughed, "The weird-ass commissioners tipped the best though, in my experience. Like I said, money is money. I hardly had a stable income myself. I did art commissions, and I worked as a bartender part time, plus I was in college. I'm the only kid whose education my parents refused to pay for, so I was on my own in terms of bearing that good old student debt."
He frowned a bit.
"I'm sorry about all that, though. Must've sucked. And well, now we're here. But uh… sure! I could give you some pointers sometime, maybe. I've never really tried to teach anyone before."
Lis gave a sad smile. She had never seen Mori smile to begin with.
"Yeah. There will be a day, though. I promise."
(Back from the realm of the dead)
Earl looked at Mori. He couldn't help but feel guilty. He was full of it at the moment.
The first time he met Mori, he scared the poor kid.
Now that he thought about it, Mori was always scared. He never wasn't.
Described a lot of people right now…
Rachel picked up a bag of chips, crunching away with a hanger. It had been a minute or two since she had had some…at least, this bag of off-brand Lays.
"Status check. Who's hurt, and who's not. Kas, don't answer that, I know you're hurt."
Kas stuck his tongue out a bit and shoved another handful of chips in his mouth. "I'm not that hurt. It's just my stupid knee. See?" He put a bit of weight on his knee and inhaled sharply, quickly lifting it up again from the pain. "I'm f-fine." Mori stirred a bit and whimpered, holding tighter to Lilac. He clearly wasn't doing well after everything that had happened. He was only seven, after all, and he wasn't prepared to handle these kinds of traumatic events.
"What did you study in college? I didn't get to go, my parents wouldn't pay either." Levi smiled, "At least you don't have to pay the debts now." He shrugged, "Wasn't too great but I wasn't the only one going through stuff."
"I'm sure you'll be a great teacher, it's not like you're teaching rocket science." He looked down at Tohru's hand, he kind of wanted to hold it but wasn't sure if Tohru would want him to, so he held himself back.
"I did pursue art in college," Tohru replied, "Graphic design and illustration. That's why they wouldn't pay. They were upset I wasn't going to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer or some shit. They paid for all of my other siblings gladly, though. They just never approved of my, uh, my lifestyle, so they weren't going to 'enable' it or whatever."
He scowled a bit at the thought, then shrugged. Upon the mention of debt, a smile crept up his face.
"That's right, no more debt."
He flexed his hand a little, his gaze also falling to Levi's hand. But he didn't want to do anything too awkward, not to mention he was still getting over a lot concerning Noah's death.
(HOLD HANDS ALREADY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)
Luka crossed his arms. "You shouldn't do that again," he told Kas, sighing. Lilac nodded, holding Mori close. She took off her hoodie, as she had a t-shirt underneath, and covered herself and Mori with it. She stayed quiet as she tried to comfort the kid.
"I- uh-" Levi stuttered, forgetting what he wanted to say. He swallowed and gave himself a moment to collect his thoughts. "How many siblings did you have? It was just me and Mori's mother." He paused. "I miss her."
"I was the youngest of five," Tohru said, "On the one hand, I wish I could say the same. That I missed them. But… I'm not so sure that's the case. I was the only one who ended up being- well… a 'problem child,' I guess they would've said. Not that I ever did much of anything wrong. At least I never felt like I had to go searching for my family in this hellscape."
Tohru ran his hand back through his hair and took it down from its bun, letting it fall freely over his shoulders.
"I never thought about my parents after this started. And Lorelai was already gone. I guess I thought Mori was gone as well." Levi admitted, rubbing his eyes with one hand. He froze and stared for a second when Tohru undid his hair. He shook himself out of it rather aggressively and looked away.
(Levi internally: I might be just a little bit gay-)
(Omg relatable content)
Tohru brushed out a few tangles with his hands, but left his hair down, as it was more comfortable that way. He let out a heavy sigh. Talking about his parents actually made him kind of sad. It was hard knowing that being himself made him basically unwanted in their eyes. And it was hard knowing that he sort of abandoned them. They had called for help at the beginning of the pandemic, but he ignored all their messages. His mouth went a little dry, but he chose to share it anyway. It would probably feel good to get it off his chest. Especially if it was to Levi.
"A-actually, I wasn't completely truthful there. They asked me to help them, and I refused," he whispered, "I hadn't heard from any of my siblings, as they all moved away. But my parents… I feel like a traitor. I feel really bad about it sometimes. But I don't feel like they really loved me except when I served them some purpose."
Kas rolled his eyes and looked away, quietly massaging his injured leg. "I'm fine." He insisted. "It's just been a lot today. I'm sure I'll be fine in the morning." Mori stirred a bit more and opened his eyes, looking around blearily.
Luka sighed again. "Hopefully…" he leaned back. He was obviously upset about this whole situation. He just didn't understand why he was as upset as he was. Lilac smiled sadly. "Hey, kiddo. Sleep well?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood.
Mori cowered a bit, looking up at Lilac meekly. He shrugged, not properly responding. He still wasn't really in the mood to talk, and he wasn't quite awake just yet.
Lilac sighed as she sat up a bit more. "Guess that's a no…" she looked away after ruffling his hair.
Mori closed his eyes, burying his face in Lilac's shoulder. Kas looked around with a soft sigh, leaning back on the stairs. "Ugh… I'm so bored. What time is it, even? Might as well sleep to pass the time if I'm not allowed to do anything else… you guys won't let me do anything with my leg hurt."
Lilac held Mori close to her, sighing. "I've got you…" she muttered. Luka nodded. "Yeah…sure…" he whispered. He was exhausted.
"Where are we even supposed to sleep?" Kas asked, not-so-carefully dragging himself to his feet and clinging to the rail so he wouldn't fall. Mori sighed shakily, holding tighter to Lilac.
Aspen spoke up after being completely silent
"there's a room with hospital beds in it"
she rubbed her temples
"to the left down the hallway" she added.
"Great, we'll sleep in there then. You guys can go to bed whenever, really. We're not on much of a schedule, and I know some of you could use the rest," Lis said, shifting her gaze back to Mori once again, "It seems pretty safe here."
Tohru took off his sweatshirt, which now had tears in the sleeves from where zombie claws had slashed through. The bandages he had used to cover his wounds were messily bound over his shirt sleeves. He started to unravel them a bit, wanting to more thoroughly clean the injuries and wrap the bandages beneath all of his clothes.
As he worked to remove them, he scowled in pain a bit. He'd done a pretty rough job earlier, and he was having trouble removing some of it.
Tohru realized those wounds had bled a lot more than he thought, and now they were caked up with dried blood where he hadn't had time to clean up, only to stop the bleeding.
Aspen scooted over to where Tohru was, and began unraveling the bandages he couldn't reach, or couldn't get off.
"don't say anything, I know you probably hate this, but you obviously need help so here I am" she said quietly, opening her bag, and pulling out gauze, baby wipes and bandages, along with one bandage clip.
She began gently wiping away the dried blood around Tohru's wound, and when it was as clean she could get it, she then poured a little water on gauze, and stuck them over the wound, quickly wrapping the bandage around his arm, tightly but not to tightly, and then clipped it with a bandage clip.
"I'll head over there, then. I'm tired…" Kas started towards the room and tripped on the stairs. His heart lurched and his breathing hitched as he stumbled, swearing and grumbling at the pain. Thankfully, he'd fallen up, so he didn't fall far. He pushed himself up on his hands, holding his injured leg a few inches off of the ground so it wouldn't hurt as much.
Aspen stood up and looked up as she heard the impact of kas' hands on the marble stairs, she quickly rushed over to him, grabbing under his shoulders to help him fully upright.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, her grip strong and firm.
"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine…" Kas would've normally tried to shrug her hands off, not liking to be held or touched, but he was honestly a bit uneasy about the prospect of falling again. "I'm fine." He insisted.
"N-no," Tohru whispered, tensing up in pain, "It's alright. I appreciate the help, really."
He looked at the sweatshirt sitting in his lap and frowned.
"It's probably about time to see if I can find some more clothes, huh? This poor thing's about had it."
He stared at the wall, his mouth going dry as he thought about everything that had just happened again. Tohru brought his knees up to his chest and let out a sharp exhale.
Aspen gave a soft smile to Kas, and turned to Tohru, still holding Kas' underarms
"there might be spare clothes in the rooms up here, you know… the ones they put in the plastic bags after you change into the hospital gowns" she said "you can come with us, if you want" she added,
patiently waiting for Kas to get both feet on the stair ahead of them, before moving to the next herself.
Kas carefully made his way up the stairs with Aspen's help and leaned against the wall for support as he limped down the hall. He found the room with hospital beds in it and flopped down on one, panting softly from the exertion. Mori didn't seem to have much interest in anything at the moment. He didn't want to move, eat, or speak at all, and he was just clinging to Lilac quietly.
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