Work Text:
Todomatsu woke up to Karamatsu screaming in the middle of the night, who was still battered from their fight on the school rooftop.
"Oi, keep it down." Someone snapped. Todomatsu wasn't sure who. All their voices changed when they separated two years ago, at this point the only voice he could tell apart from the others was Choromatsu's.
"S-Sorry!" Karamatsu squeaked out, before running around the room and rummaging through his things. At this point, the rest of them were already sitting up. Todomatsu rubbed his eyes and yawned. What was causing him to be so worked up? Well, he was clearly looking for something, Todomatsu just didn't know what.
"Karamatsu," Ichimatsu said calmly, his lips pursed, "Whatever you're doing, can't it wait until tomorrow?"
Karamatsu was trembling and looking around. It looked a little pitiful to Todomatsu, especially when his meek older brother was all bruised and scraped, just like the rest of them. Maybe he felt bad for him a little, who was just as quiet and helpless as Todomatsu, but didn't have someone like Choromatsu who helped him out all the time.
"Okay." He agreed reluctantly, before going back to the futon. Osomatsu groaned out a quiet 'fucking finally' before he gracelessly fell back to bed. Todomatsu followed after him and soon the room was filled with the quiet sounds of their blanket rustling.
Todomatsu closed his eyes.
Oh no.
His eyes snapped open and he looked at the ceiling in worry. He needed to pee.
Todomatsu looked to Choromatsu. His older brother's face was bandaged near his eyes from where his glasses cut him when it broke. His left cheek was swollen too.
Todomatsu gulped. He couldn't ask him for help now. Not with the big fight they had earlier. Stupid brothers. Meeting up at the rooftop was so unnecessary. All Todomatsu had ever needed was his Choromatsu-niisan.
He took a deep breath. He needed to do this alone.
Todomatsu slipped out of the futon and quietly opened the door. The darkness that greeted him made him whimper.
He started shaking as he took a step forward. What if someone was there? What if someone grabbed him? He clenched his jaw and slowly walked, grabbing at the wall nearby.
His eyes studied everything else, and maybe he was still tired from the lack of sleep, but something was moving at the corner of his eye.
Panicked, Todomatsu pressed his back against the wall. He waited for a minute. Nothing. Was... Was he just imagining it?
Maybe if he closed his eyes, he wouldn't be scared?
He did so.
Oh. It was worse.
All at once, it felt as if all the air was being squeezed out of his lungs as he tried to breath. This is too scary, it's too scary! He felt hot tears rolling down his cheeks.
Todomatsu kept his eyes closed as he couldn't gather the courage to open them. He kept walking and walking, sniffling and crying uncontrollably. It felt as if something's going to grab him at any moment. Everything else became a blur as he felt his breathing getting shallower and shallower, being drowned away by his panic.
Was he going to die? It felt like it. He didn't want to die! He harshly bit his lip to cover up his sobs, his eyes hurting from how hard to clenched them shut.
"Todomatsu?" He knew that voice more than anything, more than anyone else's. There was no doubt.
Slowly, Todomatsu opened his eyes. A wave of relief crashed down on him at the sight of his brother standing there, looking as tired as he was earlier. His brother walked up to him and kneeled down in front of him.
"Choromatsu-niisan..." Todomatsu belatedly realized that he started crouching in the middle of his panicking.
Choromatsu frowned and raised a hand to adjust his glasses, only to realize they weren't there. He sighed instead, his eyebrows knitted together.
He seemed to be conflicted about something.
Todomatsu stared at him, teary-eyed and confused. "I... I need to go to the bathroom." He mumbled eventually.
Choromatsu opened his mouth to say something—but stopped. He just took Todomatsu's trembling hand stood up again, walking to the direction of the bathroom. And whether or not he squeezed Todomatsu's hand a little bit, that was between the two of them.
Choromatsu never talked to him much when they were together. In reality, he seemed to be just as eager as the others to be away from the whole sextuplets thing. The fact that he was still willing to look after the youngest meant the world to Todomatsu, though.
Years after, he becomes more independent compared to the others. His main reason was that he wanted to change from his old self, he wanted to be better. But a smaller part of him decided that night that he would rather walk beside Choromatsu than just follow after him.