Work Text:
Tei was utterly fucking exhausted.
That was not an overstatement, after the 2nd trial, watching Ogura get blown up because she wanted to SAVE people. It was sick, she wanted to do what was best in her mind. And that was to kill and save her group.
To whatever god is up there, the part-timer would gladly give them the finger. Actually, he would go up there and beat it's ass! But Tei couldn't do that, yet.
Actually, he couldn't focus on that since Ikeda regressed and was still stuck in the mindset during the execution and after, the short artist covering his eyes during the execution while Yokoi held him, her own gaze averted from the death taking place. Tei saw the trembling of her bottom lip though.
After the execution, Tei took Ikeda and tried his best to not get mad at the boy, especially since he didn't even know what he did. In Ikeda's mind, he's a kid again, not a member of the bleeding. Not someone who helped to a murder.
The two were in Tei's room, the artist was laying on the bed, tucked in with a few blankets. Tei was sitting at his desk, trying to not just scream and cry. He wanted to drive the same pocket knife used on Isoda into his damn skull.
"... Tei..?"
Tei perked up at his name, looking to the maroon haired boy laying on the floor. Something obvious was the shaking of Ikeda's hands.
"Huh? What's wrong bud?" Tei asked, turning to look at where Ikeda was laid so Ikeda didn't have to move to see him. It was something weird Tei had noticed, Ikeda would either cling to someone or just stare at them when he was like.. this.
"I wanna do something... Please.." Ikeda spoke quietly, like he was afraid of being too loud, his eyes were half lidded, but not in a way where it appeared tired. Tei sighed, getting up and going to take the blankets off of Ikeda. "Alright, what do you wanna do?" The part-timer questioned the other.
Ikeda got up from the bed, the boy looking around before speaking. ".. Blonde girl. Can I draw with her..?" Tei paused, blonde girl, blonde girl—Denden! Right! He would have to go see how she was feeling after the whole trial. Especially with her being in the bleeding and crying during the trial. Multiple times.
"Let's see how she's feeling, okay? C'mon bud." Tei took Ikeda's hand with a form of gentleness before leaving the dorm, locking it behind the 2 and starting the search for Denden.
Tei was going to go to go to the Medbay first. One would usually check the dorm first, but Tei had a feeling Denden didn't want to be alone as of right now. And she would most likely stay with Hirose for a form of comfort.
So the two boys went to the medbay and checked in, to no one's surprise, both Hirose and Denden were there. The surgeon turned back to look at the two from where he talked with Denden and Isoda. "Tei, Ikeda, can I help you?"
Tei sighed, squeezing Ikeda's hand subconsciously before speaking. "Uh.. Can I talk to Denden real quick? .. By I, I mean me and Ikeda."
Hirose looked towards the short male, sighing as he seemed to recognize what was going on. "I guess. Just... Please don't try anything." He spoke to Tei before turning to Denden who looked confused, red still lingering at the corners of her eyes. "What..? Did I do something wrong, Doctor?"
Hirose shook his head no in response to Denden's worried words. "No, Denden. Look. Do you want to go hang out with Ikeda and Tei? Ikeda will be nice to you, don't worry." Denden tilted her head in confusion at that but hummed in thought before giving a smile and speaking "Okay!"
Despite the previous situation, Denden tried to cheer herself back up and walked over to the two with a slight bounce in her step. Ikeda hid behind Tei before receiving a squeeze in reassurance.
"Alright, let's head to Ikeda's dorm then." Tei murmured, being the one in front as Denden trailed next to Ikeda with a dumb smile. "Oooh what are we doing? Wait, wait! Are we drawing?" "Yes, Denden." Tei replied, just tired at this point.
"Yay!" The bubbly girl cheered as they kept walking, eventually making it to Ikeda's room. Ikeda himself fiddled in his pocket, struggling to find the keys that Tei had told him about before. But he managed to pull them out and Tei took them, unlocking the door and the 3 entered.
Ikeda went to the desk, having enough consciousness to find where some blank paper was in the drawers, and a few random markers. He dropped the markers on the floor and sat down before putting the papers nearby. He looked up to Denden, expecting.
The girl with the warm clothes noticed the look and sat down. She took a dark blue marker and Ikeda passed her a paper. Meanwhile the artist took an orange marker and started doodling on the paper. The two weirdly enough, drew in silence, Denden still having a delighted smile on her face from being able to draw with the nice Ikeda. Meanwhile Ikeda seemed focused on whatever his mind told him to.
Tei watched fondly, sitting on Ikeda's bed as he looked between the two. His eyes would linger on Ikeda though, making sure he was doing alright. ".. What are you two drawing?" He asked, getting up to look at what they were doing.
"I'm drawing my yuki usagi!" Denden told him, still drawing the rabbit plush on her paper in simple lines. Ikeda looked up at Tei before just pointing at him, this confused Tei and he looked to Ikeda's paper.
Tei could've sworn he almost started crying right then and there. Ikeda actually drew him while in his regressed state, and Tei could not have been happier. ".. It looks amazing, Daiki." Ikeda perked up, giving a smile to Tei before continuing to draw.
Tei wished it could stay like this forever. But if he thought rationally, he knew it would never happen. He would savor the moment as long as he could.
