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Cheerful. Ecstatic. Joyful. Euphoric. Humorous. Effervescent. These are some adjectives for someone unable to stay in the same place for several minutes, to remain quiet for a moment, or to say coherent phrases most of the time. For outsiders, he may be just a peculiar person, even considered bothersome; however, Ryuu is carefree, and those who know him can think of the best words to qualify the boy. For this reason, Saimon, Yohei, and Shiki are habituated to Natsume’s behavior.
Yohei became astonished when Saimon brought the boy and told him about the intention of picking him to take care of. Even so, no matter how peculiar Ryuu could be, Kanbayashi quickly noticed himself found of the white-haired boy. No matter how irritated he could leave Yohei, the former Yakuza member couldn’t avoid being preoccupied. Suddenly, he was doing as much as Saimon; still, always speaking and acting in the relatively rude way that Natsume is commonly calling mistreatment. Nevertheless, Ryuu knows, deep down inside, he always recognized Yohei’s attitude as different from the gentle Naoakira, but warm. While Saimon observed their connection strengthening, in a blink of eyes, the boy asked to learn a few things he observed the man do. Naoakira’s smile was ultimately unavoidable when he was watching how serene Yohei could be teaching. Maybe more calmer when teaching how to play piano than when teaching how to make a cocktail; yet, distinct from other moments of interaction between them.
Then, there is Shiki as well. The boy is the most tranquil person TCW has ever seen, being the entire opposite of Ryuu. Despite that, Shiki was as amiable as the boy Saimon picked before. Yohei liked him since he was immeasurably more reliable in different instances since the beginning. Regardless, it was unavoidable to not be preoccupied with Andou when he was constantly apologizing and evidently blaming himself excessively. There was too much to unpack. Even so, for Ryuu it was irrelevant, he was always bringing chaos, and as he likes to say, he's the one who can tease Shiki. It took some time, but besides their distinct traits, they somehow were able to build their relationship.
In other words, The Cat's Whiskers are a family. It is an unusual and, to a certain extent, troublesome family, but perfect for them in its own way. For this reason, Saimon, Kanbayashi, and Shiki know Ryuu. And for comprehending him, it was a shock when Kanbayashi and Saimon permitted Natsume to drink.
From Naoakira and Yohei's perspective, the boys demand great attention. Taking it into consideration, when Ryuu expressed his curiosity about drinking, which was fair since the boy was almost every day making cocktails, they needed to find a consensus. Whereas they don't know Ryuu's age, they could open an exception as long as the boy was in their care while drunk and was staying inside the bar on an off day. As a result, both men agreed to let Natsume drink next week, during the night when Saimon would be back from university.
"Are you going to stay here with us?", Yohei asked pausing the bar's cleaning to look at Shiki.
"Oh. Yes, I will."
"Curious?" Shiki got embarrassed but didn't answer and Yohei discreetly laughed. "Don't worry, I'm also curious."
"I know there are different types of drunk people…"
"Yeah… It's just intriguing what kind of drunk he is", Kanbayashi proved he was as interested as the high schooler.
The bar's door opened, revealing Saimon after a day of work. "I'm back", he said, even though he was not a resident there.
"Owner!!", Ryuu screamed already starting to run around the professor.
"Good evening, Ryuu", Saimon greeted once more.
"Welcome back", Shiki responded, smiling at Ryuu's excitement. He was hoping for a good time tonight.
"Tick-tack, tick-tack! The clock alerts: it's time to drink!!", Ryuu screams more enthusiastically than ever.
"Ryuu, calm down…", Shiki asked, leaving his cleaning behind to get close to the white-haired; however, before approaching Natsume, he stopped moving to smell the air.
"Shiki's right, Ryuu. We're gonna have our dinner first”, Kanbayashi explained.
"Beep-beep-beep~!”, he honked an invisible car. “Boss brought dinner! The forecast for today is…" He beat invisible drums. "Pizza!"
Saimon laughed. “That’s right. Shall we have it here or upstairs?”
“I guess we can eat here”, Yohei replied. “We can leave the rest of the deep cleaning for another day”, he completed looking at Shiki who was already having unnecessary thoughts about the incomplete cleaning.
“Ah, yes!”, Shiki abruptly says.
The boys sat on the bar’s table customer side while the adults sat on the bartender side. Simultaneously to their meal, Naoakira tried a few dialogues by asking how each day was. Shiki rarely speaks about his school daily life, but today he chose to mention how he saw Hokusai bringing a cat inside the building and how a teacher scolded him for it, bringing a grin to Kanbayashi’s face and a genuine laugh to Saimon. Meanwhile, Ryuu was constantly making his typical statements.
“Ryuu will drink now!”, he announced already going to get his cocktail shaker.
“Hey!”, Kanbayashi protested.
“Leave it, Yohei”, Naoakira voiced. “He already ate, let him have fun.”
“Boss is so gentle~... Master is always bullying Ryuu~!”
“You…”, Yohei said irritated, but not truly irritated while Saimon smiled. He likes this sort of interaction between them.
Subsequently, Ryuu started preparing the drinks he wanted and drank one after another. From Piña Colada to a Bloody Mary; from a Margarita to a Screw Driver; unstoppably tasted the different drinks he always makes for customers in order to satisfy his curiosity. “Will Ryuu be fine?”, Shiki inquired worried.
“You think he’s drinking too much?”, Saimon questions.
“Yeah…”
“It’s okay, Shiki. As long as we are here it’s okay.”, Shiki opened a beautiful smile that Kanbayashi wished he could see with more frequency.
Thereupon, contrary to everything the three of them expected to see in a drunk Ryuu, the final result of reality was wildly surprising and scary. In view of the fact that it was Natsume’s first time drinking since he was living upstairs at Bar 4/7, he rapidly became inebriated. Unfortunately, breaking their expectations, the white-haired was not talkative anymore. Actually, he was now catatonic. It had been a slow process, but it had finally reached its peak.
Ryuu was now completely speechless.
“Ryuu?”, Shiki was the first to call him, bothered by the silence that had been filling the room for more than five minutes. And for their distress, Natsume was still wordless. In truth, he didn’t seem to be hearing his surroundings, because he was looking at the floor, far distant from reality.
Numbed and unreachable.
“Oi, Ryu!”, Yohei scolded, the anxiety starting to fill his body, and grabbed the boy’s arm.
No reaction.
“Ryuu? Can you hear us?”, Saimon tried a connection at the same time he was making his efforts to keep calm.
Nothing.
Then, he stood up and went close to Natsume. Yohei chose to let go of Natsume’s arm and Saimon picked the boy in his arms.
“Should we stay here?”, Yohei asked and Naoakira shook his head in negation.
“Let’s go upstairs. We’ll stay in Shiki and Ryuu’s room tonight.”
Shiki felt his heart throbbing faster than it should. What was happening? Why was Ryuu not responding? Wasn’t tonight supposed to be fun? A moment when they would clear their heads? Why was it happening? Andou started feeling he was reaching the edge.
A hand on his shoulder woke him up.
“Shiki”, Yohei called and he got pulled back to the real world. He began to breathe again. “Breath with me, okay?”, the man initiated the process of guiding the adolescent through a support technique to keep him on track, which took a few minutes, but eventually Shiki relaxed. “Don’t apologize”, Kanbayashi said before Shiki could say anything. “How are you feeling now?”
“... I’m better…”, Shiki took his time to answer. “Thank you.” Kuro suddenly approached them and meowed. Shiki got the cat to put it close to his chest.
“Do you want to go see Ryuu and maybe help him?”, Yohei offered a choice.
“Yes.”
The hurried reply took an almost imperceptible smile from the man. “Then let’s go”, he stated and messed up Shiki’s hair a little.
Ah… Yohei wanted to smoke… But he couldn’t. Not now when he needed to check his other child's condition.
“Oh, they arrived”, Saimon commented when both appeared at the room’s door.
“How’s the situation?”, Yohei inquired and Naoakira negated again.
“I’m here just talking to him. Do you wanna join?” The professor’s voice was soft. So soft that Shiki felt slightly more comfortable with the situation.
The three of them engaged in a new dialogue while trying to conquer any kind of reaction from Natsume. For their despair, it took a long time. They talked for around an hour, when Ryuu finally looked at them.
“Ryuu? Can you hear us?”, Shiki was the first to try a contact again.
“My arm hurts”, Ryuu mentioned. At this moment, they realized his eyes were looking at them but were not focusing; instead, it was far away from realness. “I don’t want more injections.”
The three of them looked at each other. “Don’t tell me-”, Yohei started, but he was cut off by Ryuu’s scream and Kuro escaped from Shiki’s arms, running away from the room.
“No!”, he yelled the word. “I don’t want it!” He sat up. “Stop it!” He was ready to stand up when Saimon sat on the bed as well to be able to hug him.
“It’s… It’s just like a trap reaction…”, Shiki said horrified. He remembered when Natsume told him he wished he could have trap reactions to be just like the rest of TCW. And now he wished he could enter the white-haired’s mind to erase his terrible memories.
A new scream echoed and filled the room.
“Ryuu, can you hear us? It’s me, Naoakira Saimon. You’re in your room, you divide this room with Shiki, remember?”, Naoakira pulled Natsume’s head to his shoulder and started to caress the white hair.
“That’s right, Ryuu. You’re not wearing your favorite dinosaur kigurumi , actually, today you spilled cocoa milk on it and I think today you will need to wear the dragon’s one…”, Shiki tried his best to say something. Anything.
“Yeah, you love drinking good cocoa milk, don’t you?”, Yohei continued. “By the way, I think it’s over, we should go buy more.”
Yohei and Shiki noticed Natsume’s eyes finally focusing on something. On someone.
“Hm? Master is being gentle?” They couldn’t distinguish if it was a genuine question or a provocation, but they all smiled in relief. He was back!
“Huh? I don’t know what you talking about.” Shiki and Saimon laughed and Ryuu smiled.
“Ryuu is tired…” Those were his last words before falling into a dreamless sleep.
“He… He slept…”, Saimon murmured in disbelief when he noticed Natsume’s change of pace on his respiration.
Yohei sighed in fatigue. “Never”, he started. “Never ever, do you hear me?”, he continued. “I’m letting him drink again.”
“I think you’re right”, Saimon agreed and began to try to put Ryuu to properly lay down again to sleep. “Sorry, Shiki. I think you lost your bed for today.”
“It’s okay. I’ll stay here on the ground waiting if he will not wake up again.”
Saimon and Yohei looked at each other. “Yeah, I’ll do the same”, Yohei settled.
“I guess that’s our fate for tonight”, Naoakira thought out loud while sitting on the floor again.
“Oi, Saimon. You should sleep . You still have to go to work in a few hours.”
“As if I could”, Naoakira weakly laughed. “Actually, Shiki also needs to go to school in a few hours, but It’s not like I could put Shiki to sleep too.”
“That’s right”, Shiki imposed and both men looked at him impressed.
Both thought how they wished Andou could take the liberty to freely talk as now at any time. However, one step at a time. For now, they had a rough episode and all they wanted was a peaceful end of night. So, for the moment everything was fine on the way it was. And slowly they ended up falling asleep since it was still the middle of the week.
“Huh?”, Natsume asked when he woke up and noticed he was on Shiki’s bed and that the other TCW members were sleeping on the floor. “Ryuu also wants to sleep with everyone on the floor!”, he protested, waking everyone up, but then he realized his headache and stood up to run.
Running wasn’t enough because the vomit was now close to the door.
“Of course now there’s the hangover”, Kanbayashi complained.
“Ryu, how are you feeling?”, Andou asked worriedly.
“What happened?”, he asked curiously.
“You don’t remember?”
“JI-ji-ji. Ryuu remembers trying all he always wanted.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
Shiki looked at the adults still sitting on the floor. In a silent accord, they knew it was better to take care of Natsume and leave last night as their secret.
Yeah. They could live with that as long as Ryuu was not suffering.