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If he hadn't been in the first rows to see Mogari absolutely devouring their latest ghost, Tamon would think he's the one that accidentally swallowed one yesterday. His insides are moving, and moving, and moving, like there's something –not really anymore– living inside them.
It sucks. It really sucks. It's not like he's not used to it, though, so the feeling's inconvenient, but not the catastrophe it could be for someone else.
He’s less used to the facts his eyelids are just this close to developing their own eyelids, though. And he’s also less used to- "Psst, hey? Do you have a pencil? I forgot my spare one and mine just died", Mogari turns towards him, cutting him away from his worries, more than likely just temporarily.
"Yeah, wait, let me just-" The scrambling around his bag doesn't take too long to be successful. "There", he goes.
Mogari pretty much snatches his pencil away. That gets frustration to stab into his heart lightly, for some reason. But it's done with a smile that gets his irritation at the action to whither away instantly, though. "Thanks! You're saving my life," Mogari says, and that’s the end of it.
History classes are more boring than usual, today: usually he'd be captivated, but today the teacher's just retelling a fun fact she's told them before. That could be a nice thing, honestly: an occasion to just do nothing and have fun without feeling guilty at being distracted. For example, Zaki and Mogari are exploiting the occasion to be distracted without Eugene having an excuse to chime in about it. He's letting them drag him into their doodles session, actually.
Watching them draw is pretty distracting but he's still not distracted enough. Or, he's being distracted from his distraction.
The clock's smallest hand hit the twelfth mark. Lunchtime's in 20 minutes. English is in two hours and 20 minutes. His presentation might be in two hours and-
His stomach twists again. He accidentally locks eyes with one student. Fuck. He raises his hand. "Sorry, ma'am, can I...", he manages to squeak out. Somehow. It's a miracle. It's an urgency. It's. He's really, really glad suddenly that he's probably the subject of many discussions in the teachers lounge, because at least Miss Hasebe knows how he gets, and he gets dismissed pretty much immediately.
It's almost not quick enough: the corridor rushes in the corner of his vision as he goes from speed-walking to jogging to running, and he's never been more glad not to see anyone in them. Karma might be real because, for once, there's no one out of classes to take their own impromptu break session, and there's also none of the students council members patrolling them. Thank you, Karma, he has the fleeting thought of.
Karma might also be real and grateful for his politeness because just on time, the familiar sight of porcelain greets him and then he's finally able to safely empty his insides.
Then there's the unwelcome warmth in his throat. He retches once, twice. It's actually over pretty quickly, but the weight in his stomach and chest doesn't go away, so he stays there for who knows how long.
He's not ready to go back out there until he knows he's fully ready. But he doesn't, really doesn't think he'll ever entirely feel ready for facing down a mass of people so soon, though.
The liquid's clear, but he doesn't look at what he just threw up when he flushes the toilet. He closes the door to the stall behind him. There was a time when he used to, in a sort of morbid curiosity that he just had to fulfil. Yeah, that wasn't the smartest. He stopped once he realized it'd make him throw back up a bit too often, though.
He stood up on shaky legs, but he goes through the rest of his routine easily. Spit out the rest of the water he was cleaning his mouth with, wipes off his mouth, goes to take a mint-
Well, he can't do that last part. Because he left his candy container in his bag that's back in the class. Which he only realizes now, obviously. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumbass. The realization almost has him cursing himself out loud, not just mentally.
The door to the bathroom has him freezing before he can do that. It opens. His gaze snap downward.
The tiles is a familiar sight, too, one that he's also well acquainted with.
"Tamon? Are you alright?"
The interruption has him snapping his head back up. Oh, he thinks, and an audible "oh!" leaves his mouth, too.
"Yeah, I'm done now. I'm better”, he says to the newcomer.
Eugene's face is there, and he's able to face it, which is nice, but it sports concern, which is less nice. "Are you sure ? You looked really green, there", his friend tells him.
"Yeah, I'm sure! Got a bit stressed. It all just kind of went crashing down, and all."
"Oh, sorry about that. It's great it's over now, though." Eugene's smile is sympathetic, so much so that it has Tamon feeling kind of flustered. It's not new of his friend or of the three of them to show they care, but he still gets surprised by the lack of judgement that comes from them.
"Hm hm. Hey, how are you here? Are classes done already?"
Because if so, then he managed to miss the bell ringing, which is a wonder in of itself, because it's a, well.
Pretty loud bell. One that does it's job well.
The thought that this rhymed makes him smile, slightly.
"Oh, no, I just asked Miss Hasebe to go check up on you. It's only been fifty minutes, don't worry. You didn't miss much”, Eugene answers him.
"Oh. Okay. Nice." It isn't that nice, actually. Fifteen minutes is a long time, but it also isn't that long, not really.
Definitely not long enough for it to bring him any peace of mind. And even less long enough for him to make his comeback.
"...Hey, would you mind if we, uh. Stayed a little bit more ? There's only 10 minutes left, right? I wouldn't be missing much", he asks.
"Okay, sure. I'll just tell Miss Hasebe you weren't feeling better, she'll understand." Eugene's answer comes with no hesitation and a whole lot of assurance Tamon can't do anything but be impressed by.
"Perks of being an incredibly good student?"
"…Yes. Perks of being an incredibly good student", his friend confirms with a sober nod. "I'll text Zaki to bring us our bags."
"Think he'll see the message ?" Zaki's more of the type to sneak glimpses at a manga in classes than at his phone. Tamon's seen him do it sometimes, but it was pretty rare, and only in situations that really, really required it (say, literature classes, for example).
" He'll see it. He wanted to go check on you pretty much as soon as you got up, actually."
That's a.. very heartwarming thought. Even though he'll likely be pretending otherwise, Zaki cares about him, and them, a whole lot, and Tamon really loves his friends, has he told them that already?
"You don't need to go to the infirmary or anything, right?", Eugene asks him, like he pretty much always does whenever one of the three of them gets visibly and, more importantly, visually unwell.
"Oh, yeah, no, don't worry." He's fine. He's still feeling nauseous, yeah, but he's sure it'll pass, though. Just... In two hours.
“It'll pass in two hours”, he says. It’s a probable truth, too: he’s been getting way better recently, at keeping his anxiety in check and wrestling it down into leaving him alone at least a little bit. It’s just today is unusual, that his brain and stomach defeated him for so little
. “I just don't really feel like getting back and disturbing everyone just to attend 9 minutes of classes, that'd be dumb", he explains to Eugene at his inquisitive expression.
—————————
Lunchtime comes more quickly than what should be considered fair. The bell ring, and him and Eugene are almost too busy to notice it. Only almost though, because as soon as it rings, they're both startling so sharply they end up bursting into laughter at their own fear.
Tamon's snickers slow to a stop when Eugene speaks up though.
"Okay, I told Zaki and Mogari we'd join them at the cafeteria. Do you need to drop by your... locker..." He stops himself there, looking very, very frazzled, and that's almost enough to get Tamon to drop back into laughter.
"You don't have the keys to them. Right. Sorry", Eugene resumes.
"That's fine, don't worry, I'll just go grab my lunchbox after if I'm still hungry.”
He'll probably be. He's often still hungry after eating the cafeteria's lunch portions. Because they're way, way too small: the aliments and food itself are great , and they taste very good, but he's used to eating for two people , so...
"Okay, perfect!", Eugene's saying, and then they're both off to the cafeteria, just like that, just that easily. Tamon’s not minding leaving the familiarity of the restroom that much, with Eugene’s here leading him out of it.
—————————
It's not too busy, yet, which Tamon really is happy about. It makes finding Zaki and Mogari very easy, since almost nobody else is there yet. The hallway are clear enough that the shadows coming from the windows are left untouched.
The pile of bags is probably what’d makes them easy to spot, if there was a crowd, when you ignore all the other boisterous things about them.
Say, one Mogari Shishikuno.
Tamon answers back the slightly-too-enthusiastic waving with a short nod. Eugene... Well, he doesn't really know what Eugene does, given he's looking strictly forward to avoid any involuntary eye-contact with other students also going towards the cafeteria.
"Guys! Tamon, glad to see you survived ! Hey, think I could be the one accompanying you to the toilets next time?"
" You just wanted a reason to leave class because Miss Hasabe went back talking about the Jōmon period", Zaki notes, tone dry.
He offers a nod to Tamon as he does. The action gets a small smile appearing on his face. Tamon can feel it pulling at his mouth.
"What, no! I'd never." Mogari's protest is immediate, and Tamon doesn't really believe it even before Mogari speaks up again. "Okay I would a little . Or. well, partially. But I was still worried! Me and Zaki both thought you got lost or something."
"I didn't." Zaki keeps talking just as sternly, but that tone does go away a little when he picks up Tamon's bag to give it to him. "You're good now?"
"Yeah" 's all Tamon says. He's busy grabbing his bag and slightly scrambling for his mint candy, so Eugene has all the time he wants to intervene.
"Did you not see my texts ? I sent a lot of updates." His eyebrows raises a little behind his glasses, Tamon can tell by the inflexion of his tone.
"Nope, actually. Mogari was the one answering near the end", Zaki says, going to stares daggers into said-person.
"You stole his phone?", Eugene asks, sounding genuinely baffled as he bends down to take his bag.
Probably because he didn't distinguish the two when he was talking to them? Tamon didn't either, to be fair. He was fully convinced Zaki was the one answering when 'he' was sending screenshots of animes they ‘should imperatively be watching before they die’.
"He's lying, that's- ...Slander. Slandering my name. The only thing I stole was his pencil", Mogari's saying, turning to push the door open dramatically. The action and the drama has Tamon shuddering slightly, but following still comes easily, surprisingly.
Maybe it's because the only one people will be looking at is obviously going to be Mogari, since he's as brazen as usual, if not more, today. "Ohhh, udon today? Neat!", his friend exclaims.
The weathered piece of paper that announce the weekly menus is saying that.
"...Udon today", Zaki's confirming, also changing the subject.
—————————
The udon smells really, really great. He would have added a bit of shichimi, personally, instead of the slightly too sweet abura-age sitting on top of the noodles, but it doesn't seem that bad.
Too bad it seems so unappetizing to him currently, though. He twirls around a noodle while listening to the current conversation.
They're comparing the shark from Jaws and Godzilla, and that sounds like a fun conversation, but Tamon keeps getting distracted.
His mind keeps getting flooded with the reminder that his demise is officially in less than two hours now. Every time he manages to forget it, he's reminded of the fact by random entirely unrelated things.
" Hear me out though: Bruce will literally be able to creep in on Godzilla, Godzilla can't do that, he's way too graceless for it. He'll definitely be caught of guard by it."
"Why's the shark's name Bruce anyway? Is this a reference to Bachmtman, or?" Eh. Zaki's just as graceless as Godzilla, really, speaking with his mouth full of non-swallowed bites. He complains about Mogari’s lack of manners, but his own spit’s also flying a bit currently.
"Oh, no it's actually based on Spielberg's lawyer" Eugene starts to say. Usually, Tamon would be enthralled by the random trivia Eugene always knows. Today, though... Today his gaze keeps moving around their club room they've moved to, focusing on pretty much nothing of what's in it or the view of the school-yard hiding behind the curtains.
Until it does, on the blackboard. That's where he's gonna have to be standing in front of in less than two hours. In front of a whole entire class and a thousands of gazes. Repeating a text he's not even sure he entirely remembers. Ohhhh that's not a nice thought. Really, really not a nice one. If he freezes because he forgot what he has to say, it'll make his temporary hell even longer and even more awful.
Nope. "Eugene?" He goes suddenly, snapping his head back to his friends. A bit too suddenly maybe because it has Eugene startling, but.
"Uh, yeah?", he says, turning away from their ongoing conversation that Tamon's not even sure was still about the Jaw Vs Godzilla debacle.
"Could you help me rehearse? For the English presentation?"
"Oh. Shit. I forgot about that", Zaki chimes in, tranquilly finishing his juice box anyway. "We have to present an english touristic spot, right?" There's not nearly enough panic in his behavior about that than there would have been in Tamon's.
"Yes", Eugene says with a sigh that's more amused than frustrated. "And yes, no problem Tamon, we can do that."
"I also forgot, fuckk." Mogari's eyes are wide open in panic. "Or, well, I was too tired yesterday, I conked out literally immediately after we got back from the train station."
Makes sense. There were a lot of ghosts there, and they had to move around a lot for Mogari to be able to eat them all. Sleep also tempted Tamon by a lot when they finally all got back to their houses, but he chose to resist its appeal to revise.
Maybe he should have gone to sleep early though, he considers when pushing himself and his chair away from his plate.
Because clearly staying up late didn't do much in preparing him for the presentation, the ever-present nausea in his stomach reminds him.
“We were up at it for at least fourty minutes. I wanted to have a little phone break but then boom, it was late and I blacked out”, Mogari says.
“Doomscrolling session, more like”, Zaki goes. “You brought this onto yourself”
“...That's alright, I'll just die.”
"You say that but you should be fine", Zaki tells Mogari. "Didn't your clan teach you English and all?"
"Yeah, true", Mogari shrugs before he's turning towards Tamon with eyes that can only be qualified as voracious. "Are you gonna eat that?" "You can have it", he says with probably the smallest laugh he's ever laughed, standing up towards his bag. When Mogari asks something like that, saying no would basically be punching a puppy in the face.
He doesn’t wanna be adding to the strain of his stress and his guts anyway.
Eugene follows him into standing up too, since he's pretty much already done eating. "You can have my leftovers too if you want", he tells Mogari before he's fully facing Tamon. "So, do you have your notes ? How do you want to go about it?"
"Uhm. I was thinking you just stare at me like we did for eye-contact-training and I try to say my speech aloud without forgetting anything?"
—————————
Putting words to his emotions as he waits for the current class to be done and the next one, english, to start is impossible. He’s never really been able to describe the dread he feels well.
It just, is, and it’s both nausea and fear and horror and survival reaction and habit in a way he himself can’t even entirely understand.
His stress is something he holds close to his chest, but it’s also not something he can choose to get out in the way he’d want it to.
This isn’t an exception.
The only real way he can describe it is that he really, really would like it to stop, but that he’s still used to it anyway.
He can daydream about being home listening to his playlist. But that's pretty much all he can do to ignore the pang in his stomach. It grew again since yesterday evening. It hasn't left him ever since this morning, actually. And yes he’s used to it: but, still, it’s unusual anyway, today. It’s not usually that bad anymore. It’s not this type of permanent, at least.
This really, really sucks.
—————————
Rehearsing was awful. Rehearsing was awful and hell but at least his only persecutors were Eugene with his strictness and Mogari and Zaki with their occasional interruptions. Waiting for the real deal is the version of hell that's going to be the end of him. Sitting there has his heart clutching itself to his ribs and making them tremble with its jammed beating.
He doesn't know if not knowing the order of who'll speak next is making things better or not. At least if he knew when it'd be his turn he wouldn't be flinching every time the teacher calls out a name, but then he'd know when his demise would come. In every stories, it's not a great thing for people to know the exact date of the day they'll die, right?
Zaki does just well when it's his turn to speak in front of the whole class. He gets there, he talks all dramatically about the Cathedral he picked, and everyone applaud when he's done, since that's what Mr. Wilson wants them to do after a presentation's done. British custom, and all.
His hands gets clammier and clammier every time Tamon’s applauding. They keep sweating bullets when he wait for Mr. Wilson to pick a random name. It's not his that comes up, and he's torn between the immense relief that washes upon him and the churning of his stomach.
The pang doesn't go away while other students presents their buildings and parks and spots. He doesn't exactly know which they're talking about. Too busy staring at the cracks in his table.
Can time move more quickly? Or, actually, no- can it move more slowly? Or stop as a whole, that'd be nice. Would be awesome if it'd freeze.
And freezing he does when his name's finally called. He's stuck to his seat. That's going to be his resting place. Maybe it'd be better if he was throwing up like earlier, actually. He's stuck there for what feels like a hundred of minutes, until Zaki's pushing him out his chair with a whispered “Come on, you've got this".
He does not "have this".
His legs have never been shakier as he march to the black board and his demise. His hands, too, and the paper with his notes as well, and it's like a vicious cycle and if he finishes his speech entirely it's going to be a miracle.
Eugene's advice of using his notes to avoid eye-contact, he follows it to a t, his face almost plastered to the letters. He reads them out loud so quickly it's a wonder he doesn't suffocate himself.
“Good, good. You can sit down”, Mr. Wilson announce his deliverance in english.
Tamon waste no time going to sit down even if he hasn't fully deciphered the words yet.
—————————
He made the mistake of lifting his gaze from the floor. It was dumb. Pretty stupid.
It sucks, too, because he was doing so well recently, handling looking at people in the eyes, but here he goes, throwing back up the few of the udon he ate today. At least he didn't have to throw up too much of the undigested food.
Still. It sucks. The bitter tastes linger in his throat, and his mouth, and it's infiltrating in between his dentition and into his teeth, too.
This time he didn't make it to the restroom too, and he's also used to that, but it doesn't make going to the janitors less humiliating.
At least they're nice, he thinks. They keep insisting for him to let them clean up his mess, but Tamon can be insistent, too.
When he’s outside and he throws up he doesn’t really mind since, well, nature and all —it rains or it decay into the dirt or, ew, stray or wild animals eat it— but otherwise he doesn’t like leaving his own mess behind. Guilts him. Makes him feel really really bad.
He'd also really rather use any excuse he can to spend as much time as he wants out the classroom. There's still a few hours left until classes are over, so he knows he'll have to see people sooner than later: at least this way it's a little less sooner than what he's comfortable with.
He's still mopping up what he threw back up when the door to the classroom opens. He goes freezing again. There’s something about other people that’s petrifying him, something in eyes that only he perceives as gorgon’s. Something about perception, something about acknowledgement, something of fear.
It’s awful. It’s terrible.
“Hey”, Zaki says.
Oh. That's fine, then.
“Hi”, he looks up. Out of the tree of them, he excepted Mogari to be the one joining him, honestly. He says so out loud.
“He wanted to but Mr Wilson wouldn't let him until it was his turn ”, Zaki shrugs. There's a frown on his face, one that's a.. bit different from his usual resting face. “Honestly, that dude sucks. He could have let you send him a voice memo or something.”
“Eh. Substitutes usually don't let me do that”, Tampon says, finishing mopping.
“It’s dumb.”
He shrugs. “I'm used to it. Today was actually better than usual.”
It's true, too. He's not saying that just to reassure his friend. All his life, as far as he can remember going to school, he's been overcome with anxiety at the thought of presentations or answering questions out loud. Honestly, what he did today was close to a miracle, so even if it annoys him he still ended up throwing up again, he can only be grateful he managed to speak earlier, as quick and full of mistakes as it probably was.
“You did manage to say all your parts. I forgot some of mine”, Zaki tells him. “Hey, how many do you bet Mogari will forget ?”
“Hm, i don't know. Maybe only one? He was listening when Eugene was helping me rehearse.”
“I'd say two. He was too distracted devouring your leftovers to listen at the beginning”, Zaki tells him. “Where's the janitors room already?”
The question has a smile appearing Tamon's lips. It implies Zaki's coming too, and not leaving him a choice about whether they’re staying together or not, and that's a fact Tamon can only accept is his new normal.
The pang in his stomach’s still there, though. That's definitely not normal. Usually he's fine-ish, when he's surrounded by no strangers, even after crisis, and Zaki definitely doesn't count as a stranger anymore now.
But his guts are still sitting heavily within his body right now, not his usual nausea.
—————————
Classes are going to be over really, really soon- Tamsin can't wait for the bell to ring and for the four of them to be able to go to their club room again.
Mogari's beginning to get stir-crazy, but to be fair, he also is. Those classes are way better than English, and he’s able to focus a little more, but it really isn’t by a lot. For some reason, his attention keeps wandering away from the lesson and exercises he’s meant to be doing. He keeps having to blink his eyes manually for them to feel less dry. It’s not even that he’s dozing off, or anything: the presence of the classmates that aren’t his friends wouldn’t let him fall asleep, even if he wanted to.
He’s… a bit tired, but he doesn’t think he’ll be taking a nap when they’ll get to their club room. Technically, he could, and the couch is nothing but uninviting. But he doesn’t feel up to sleeping anyway. The adrenaline from two hours ago and his english presentation is still buzzing through his veins, and his guts, on top of inside his very brain, it feels like. It probably still will be when they’ll be at the club. But at least there he has more chances at being able to relax.
Even if he's able to talk to other people and hold eye contact better now, their abandoned class is still a haven on days like those, with, say, oral presentations. There’s barely anyone that goes there, except for the occasional student and their ghost-related problems.
Most of the time, they’ll just be chilling in there, playing or talking or asking Eugene for help on insurmountable piles of homework's. Some other times, they’ll just be scrolling on their phone or reading or listening to music. Less often, they’ll be considering the best way to exorcise ghosts or how to travel to the spots they’re haunting, but even then it’s not that stressful.
He really, really can’t wait to be there. The moment the bell will ring, they’ll go: any minute, now.
—————————
When he gets up from his seat, he feels like the classroom is lighter than it’s meant to be for just an instant.
“We have no homeworks due tomorrow, right?”, Zaki's asking him, and he nods while putting his cap on, finally, now that classes are over for the day.
“Yeah”, he says. “That was it for the week.”
“You sure?”, Zaki says, and he’s raising an eyebrow, and that… has Tamon almost snapping, for some reason?
“Yeah. Dude, don’t ask me if you’re gonna be questioning my answer.”
“Yeah, dude”, Mogari echoes, leaving the conversation he was having with Eugene.
“… Do you even have any clue what you were agreeing to?”, Zaki asks Mogari, eyebrow still up but at him this time. Eugene’s are distinctly down. Tamon’s, too. He doesn’t know what’s up with him today, but it really is frustrating Tamon, how all over the place his emotions are being. But, well. At least club time will makes it all better, if they won’t be trying to fulfill Mogari’s quota today.
He hopes they won’t have to. He doesn’t have cramps from all the running and circling and stalking up around they had to do yesterday, but his body sure is feeling the loss of all the energy he had to spend and hasn’t managed to gain back yet. But the club room is getting closer, and they’ll be there soon, and Tamon will finally, finally gets to get his rest, now that all the stakes of school are off his shoulder.
—————————
Someone knocked on the door. Usually, people just get in on their own, but maybe the person waiting behind the door is apprehensive? It can be stressful to have to open a door when you don't know whether you're supposed to get in, or knock again, or wait, or wait to get in, or-
The others aren't getting up: Zaki's still reading his manga and Eugene and Mogari are too busy doing who knows what to react, so.
"You're literally closer to the door than me", he snarks at them.
It comes out more as a mumble than anything sharp, though. He stands up fully from the couch, and he’s turning towards the door,
and then.
Tamon's being asked something like all the possible variations of "Are you okay?", he's pretty sure.
He'll answer soon. At some point.
There’s a warmth on his forehead. There's prodding that's being repeated again and again and that he's, like, 90% sure is Mogari tapping on his cheek. The rhythm's so fucked up. He really needs it to stop. He doesn't want his poor ears ringing any more, please.
"Tamon? Hello? Tamon?"
"Don't pull a Mogari!"
"Hey!!"
"Guys, shut. Tamon? Can you hear me?"
He groans. Five more minutes away from the nausea, please. He's fine down there with his eyes closed for a few more minutes. And- Light forcibly hits his eyeballs. Without his approval. That rhymes- but he's a bit too busy having his eyelids pried opened by a dumbass to marvel at his accidental rhyme.
"Wha- Hey!", it's his turn to protest this time, fighting off the unwelcomed hands. They retreat. Tamon looks up a little, on his own accord this time.
"Dude , Mogari, that's definitely not how you deal with someone that just conked out" Tamon has maybe 3 wholes millisecondes to register it's Zaki that said that before Mogari's onto him and he has to spit black hair out his mouth.
"He's not even sitting up, you need to let him collect himself-" It's Eugene that's saying that. "He scared me!", Mogari's defending himself. Straight into his ear, pretty much. "Dude, you scared me. Your eyes went all white, it was awful"
"Uhm. ...Sorry?", he's saying before he can figure out anything further. Things around him aren't blurry and all wacky like he thought passing out would make them to be : he can see very clearly that's he's still in the middle of the club round. He can also very visibly see –excluding Mogari's since said head is currently right into his shoulder– the concern on his friends' heads.
"Dude. I thought you died. And I am NOT ever eating you, no thanks you.", Mogari's head into his shoulder says. The words are a bit too humid but honestly, Tamon doesn't mind. Tamon's arms are wrapping back around Mogari before he can really think about it. Or before Mogari can be done talking. Because, don't blame him, but that was scary. He's gotten nauseous and dizzy plenty before, but he's never gotten to the whole "dead body on the floor" part.
"How is that the first thing you even think of? Just after you had to see your friend drop dead to the floor?", Zaki asks. "I swear, I'm surrounded by walking and breathing stomachs.” That part he mumbles.
So Tamon really dropped straight to the floor? Not even, like, a little sliding down less dramatically. Apparently. Or is that just Zaki being his usual drama-queen and exaggerating things? But his cap’s not on his head anymore. So. Chances he actually dived to the floor are high.
“Hey, at least I didn’t shriek that loud”, Mogari answers Zaki:
Usually that'd be the part where Eugene would join in on the banter: but when Tamon looks up at him, there's a frown of his face.
"Tamon. Did you eat today?", he asks.
"Oh, no, I was too stressed about the presentation so I..." His voice trails off and. Oh. Ohhhhhh. Oh. The realization smacks him right into the head and leaves him spiritually sprawled out on the ground. Like how he was before and still is. The pit in his stomach is almost never hunger anymore. It's always fear, terror, unnecessary anxiety, that come twirling into his head then resting back down into nausea, until he's throwing it all back up. And there was that today, yes, but.
"You didn't??", Mogari's asking. He didn't. " I didn't", he confirms.
The epiphany is pretty much collective. Judging by the gasps of realization he’s hearing and his own thought process.
All day long, he's been a bit tired, yes, but he's also thrown up more times than his usual. As in: more than he had been doing recently, but pretty much equal than how many time a day he used to throw up before. And the pang in his stomach was hunger, and that much throwing up on an almost empty stomach definitely didn’t help.
"Ohhhh", Mogari's saying now, still clutching onto him. They probably make a ridiculous sight. Tamon pretty much doesn't care at all. "Were you not hungry, or?" "No, I was. I just. Didn’t feel like eating, I guess?”
"That's dumb, though. "
"I didn't mean to. Didn't even notice I was feeling bad."
And he's also been too nauseous with stress to keep his lunch down. He didn’t eat any breakfast, too. So okay, before he knew it, it’s been... what, 18hours? 18 hours since he’s really digesting anything, and, well. Needless to say his body didn't enjoy that, apparently. And. And. His stomach churned. Like, bad, all day long, but he had just assumed it was, well.. his usual anxiety. Except worsened maybe by something adrenaline-related ? Yesterday evening's ghost was a pretty tough one to exorcise.
“Zaki, can you-”, Eugene says.
“Yes, yes. On it”, his friend’s saying, scrambling a little to get away from him. Tamon only realizes now he really had previously been crowded by all his friends. He had thought Zaki was further away, for some reason.
“Can he what?”, he asks, a little dazedly: a little dizzily. Had he been feeling dizzy previously? He doesn’t think he was. Not before he blacked out, at least. He was feeling mostly fine, honestly. He’s not sick, that’s for sure: when he comes down with a cold, he comes down. He’d be shivering and sweating and dying right now if he was sick.
“Bring you some water and at least half a dozen snacks”, Eugene answers, slowly bringing his feet down from the place on the couch they were resting on. Huh.
“Huh. Yeah. That makes sense”, he says, straightening up a little, as much as the arms around him let him. ” Sorry if I scared you. I really didn’t mean to.”
“That’s fine, just don’t do it again. Think you can sit?”, Eugene asks. “Mogari, can you-”
“Uhm. Yes, I think so”, Tamon’s saying at the same time Mogari goes “Can I what?”.
“Let him sit up, please. I really don’t think you’re supposed to be plastered to someone that just passed out. Even if it wasn’t for that long.” Eugene seems really serious. Definitely serious compared to his more silly expressions, but even when compared to his usual them-shenanigans-related seriousness. There’s also a whole great deal of lingering worry there, one that has Tamon feeling all warm with embarrassment.
“Oh, sorry!”, Mogari exclaims. Right into his ear. “Sorry”, he says again, this time directly to him, letting go of him.
“It’s okay. I didn’t mind”, he says, the honesty leaving his mouth easily while he sits up properly, propping himself up against the side of the couch. He’s able to look up at the door properly too, now, and- “Hey, wait, where did they go?”
“… Who? Zaki? He’s at the vending machine”, Eugene asks, perplexed, like he’s wondering if Tamon’s fall impacted his intelligence somehow. He didn’t eat his head or anything, though.
“No, I meant the student that knocked on the door.”
The concern on both Mogari and Eugene’s face is not really fun. It makes Tamon thinks he hallucinated, honestly. And.
“Nobody knocked on any door.”, Mogari tells him with his incredible lack of gentleness, just as Eugene’s asking him “Did you hear anything?”.
“Nope”, Mogari answers him immediately.
That’s. Well. Tamon suddenly understand their worries a little more, imagining the scene.
“Oh. So I hallucinated and fainted for no valuable reason? Argh. Not neat.”
“Yeah, ‘not neat’”, Eugene answers with a firm expression and an even firmer nod.
“I’m pretty sure I saw a ghost close in the corridor, actually” Zaki’s informs them, entering the door frame. He’s holding at least three snack bars, and one others snack Tamon can’t identify yet, but also a can of soda.
That’s a bit overboard.
“That’s definitely not enough,” Mogari goes, standing up so suddenly Tamon can’t help but think about his blood sugar level. …Probably because his own likely dropped when he did that earlier.
Before he can protest, Mogari’s already rummaging through his backpack, coming up with a “Haha!” and two others bars.
“No, really, you don’t need to-”
“Can you return to the “there’s a ghost in the corridor” bit?” Eugene interrupts.
“Oh, yeah, I saw someone running away when I got out. They ran into a wall, and all, so they were definitely a ghost,” Zaki answers, wholly uncaring and unbothered about Tamon’s flustered state. Flustration? Is that how that’s said? He basically gets the snacks thrown into his face, though, so he can’t really focus on it for too long.
“You’d be the worst nurse ever,” Zaki snarks at Mogari.
“Hey, I’m feeding the starving patient!”
“That’s literally the bare minimum,” Zaki says, offering Tamon the snacks he brought— and likely bought with his own money— way more carefully than Mogari did, if still a little abruptly.
He takes them, adding them to the two bars already lying on his lap, and that’s when he realizes those ones were Mogari’s. As in Mogari’s, as in the ones he always bring to school to snack on. Oh. He’s going Oh a lot, today.
But once again, he can’t really focus on his revelation, because his stomach rolls so suddenly he’s almost scared he’ll be throwing up for the umpteenth time today.
Right. Approximatively 18 hours since he last ate anything. Right.
Eugene comes back from the window he had gone to. He’s opened it, apparently. That’s… probably something you’re meant to do for someone that passed out? Maybe. That sounds like something he would know to do, so Tamon’s just going to assume that’s why Eugene did it.
His friend sits next to him, a bit ungracefully, joining him in leaning against the couch.
“So.” He’s staring at Tamon’s hands. Tamon looks back down, and he stares at the granola bears. Looks back up. Looks back down, when he sees that Eugene’s still looking down.
He unwraps the bar, and he bites into it, and- Yeah, okay, maybe Mogari was right. Maybe what Zaki brought would have not been enough. And, he’s starving, he really is, and now that the stress and adrenaline is entirely gone, he can really, really feels it.
“Are you sure you haven’t been feeling sort of bad all day long?” Eugene asks, and when Tamon looks back up he can see Zaki and Mogari are sitting close. His gaze drifts behind them.
There's his balloon two-feet away from the corner it’s usually in. Tamon wonders if his body bounced around when he went down.
“I mean, I’ve been stressed, and nauseous, but those are usually very close to each other for me.”
“Okay. And you haven’t been feeling too warm or too cold, or your throat or anything hurting, right?”
“Nope. I think it was all just the presentation and the hunger”, he says, unwrapping his second bar. “…Oh, also, haven’t slept too much b’cause of the exorcism and revising and all of that,” he says between two bites. The bar probably tastes really good. Too bad his stomach begging for more isn’t allowing him to eat more slowly.
… He can see Eugene and his spine visibly unwinding, going all straight all of the sudden.
“I’m fine, really. It happens. Or, well- that doesn’t happen usually, it was actually the first time, but it’s not the first time I got so anxious it kept me from eating or stuff like that ,” he scrambles to explain.
“Okay, nice, because if you were telling me it happened often that'd be scary”, Mogari interrupts.
When Tamon looks at him, his eyebrows are twisted down almost comically. Tamon doesn’t exactly feel like laughing about it, though. He’s not feeling like throwing back up or running away from the interaction, either, and that’s a thought that Tamon’s made even more aware of, with his friends around him like they’re a package deal. He feels like the fragile pottery thing that needs wrapping currently, but it’s not something he especially minds right at the moment.
“No, really, I’m fine.”
“Well. Good thing your anxiety isn’t that bad”, Zaki tells, and it sounds and is snarky, but there’s also a sort of carefulness to his expression that makes it more than just the sarcastic comment it is.
There’s also a bit on Eugene’s and Mogari’s concern, on it.
“You’re eating more than just that, by the way”, the latter announces, features expressively resolute. “And we’re waiting until at least one hour before we’re leaving. Oh, and. In the future-”
Oh. The ever-present pit living in his body isn’t going to be leaving any day soon, but it sure sounds like his friend will be throwing all they can into it to at least appease it.
His friends as a whole, actually- When he looks, there’s definitely resolve in all their expressions, and it looks like it’s going to be pooling out of their bodies and eyes, a bit. That’d be horrifying of a vision, if that happened to any ghosts. The mental image isn’t especially disgusting him, or anything. It’s actually heart-warming, kinda.
Definitely is.
“
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… you really pulled a Mogari”, Zaki says, when they're walking him back home, later.
… He did, too, with the hunger and not dealing with it until it was too late. He also randomly dropped down in front of his friends, too. He pulled a Mogari.
“Oh. Oh wait, I did”, he goes, almost dropping his box of take-out at the revelation and the giggle it draws from him “So.. Who do you think is next ? You or Eugene ?”
“Does the beach possession exhaustion not count? Because if so I'm saying Eugene's next”
“… No way. No thanks you”, his friend says, and he's looking very frazzled, and that's enough to put a grin to Tamon's face, the first official one of his no-good-very-bad day.
“Yes way. Sorry, it's officially a rite of passage, apparently.”
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“Hey, Tamon?"
"Yeah?"
"I’m finding a way to get you out of english presentations, next time.”
“By being a very much incredible student?”
“Nah. I’m getting either Mr Noir or Mogari to intimidate the teachers.”
“Oh. Uh. Thanks?”
“You’re welcome”, Eugene says, face drawn into a serious expression. He pushes his glasses a little higher on his face. “Very least I can do to help my friend.
“…Thanks”, Tamon repeats himself, instead of staying wordless. And he is grateful, really.
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