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Who: Tooyama and Tachibana
When: Any night. Every night. This is now Tachibana's hell
Where: Tooyama and Tachibana's room
What: Tachibana attempts to get Kin to go to bed
It had only taken Tachibana two nights to realize Tooyama’s habits at night, and for him to plan accordingly. This meant making sure he was done in the bathroom before Kin even entered the room. Dressed in his sleep clothes, Tachibana finished drying his hair, waiting for the hurricane that was his roommate to come in.
Tooyama came barrelling back into his room after a long day of training and doing very important security team things. There was possibly blood and dirt on his face and under his nails, and he cheered as he opened the door and saw his favourite roommate was already there.
“HAY!! Tachibana you finished up SUPER EARLY!!” Tooyama said, hurrying into the room. “I will hurry hurry so you can go to sleep soon okay?” Which meant stripping off clothes to get into pyjamas and get straight into bed because he was super thoughtful like that.
Tachibana gaped at his roommate. Not at the state that he was in, but at the fact that he was trying to just get into his pyjamas and go to sleep. “Hey, no, no, no.” Tachibana went to grab the clothes from Tooyama. “You’re a mess. You need to shower.” There was no way Tachibana was going to try to sleep with the room smelling of blood and sweat.
“But I showered yesterday!” Tooyama complained, stamping his feet. “And you want to sleep!! And it’s disruptive!” He grabbed at Tachibana’s arm to get his pyjamas back, stamping his feet again.. “Give them back to me please please Tachibana, ‘cause I have to get changed.”
“Tooyama-san, you have to shower every day you get this messy.” Tachibana insisted, holding on tight to the clothes. “You showering does not disrupt me at all.” He was surprised the shorter man wasn’t able to get the clothes out of his grip. “In fact, the smell disturbs me more. What did you do today?”
Tooyama didn’t want to rip the pyjamas from his mum, or else he’d just yank them out of Tachibana’s hands. He paused and pulled his collar away from his body to sniff down… it smelled the same as usual? Maybe a little more metallic that he assumed was from the blood.
“I did TRAINING!!” he said, pulling up his shirt to show Tachibana the new collection of bruises. “And helped MOVE THINGS and it was a bit dirty maybe. There is not much security things to do right now.”
Tachibana winced at the sight. Tooyama was always covered in bruises, but he seemed to wear them with pride. “You have blood on you.” He pointed out. “That’s not safe to leave caked all over you.” If he had open wounds they could get infected. If it was something else’s blood, that was just gross. “Please go shower.”
Tooyama looked down and oh yes, definitely blood in amongst the dirt. “It’s not mine though!!!” He stared hard at Tachibana but the man wasn’t going to budge and he eventually made a noise like a dying balloon. “Okay I will go and shower. Don’t steal my pyjamas! You will stretch them ‘cause you’re too big!!”
And then he stomped off to the bathroom.
Tachibana put the pyjamas on Kin’s bed and followed him to the door. “I’m going to time you. You need to actually use soap this time!” He lectured. “You really should know this by now.” It actually worried Tachibana how this supposedly 30 year old military man didn’t know how to shower correctly. “Do you understand?”
Tooyama made more angry balloon noises at Tachibana following him. “Okay okay I will make sure to show you I am using soap too, Soap Policeman Tachibana.”
He stripped off his clothes quickly and hopped into the shower, banging around in the tiny cubicle to avoid the cold water that turned scalding and then back to cold before he could figure out the right setting.
Tachibana buried his face in his hands at the noise. “Look, if you want, I can set the water temperature for you every night.” He sighed. Was this what it was like to have a child? Because that’s what it was feeling like. “I just want you to be healthy, Tooyama-san.”
“NO I have it now!!!” After a bit of fussing anyway.
Tooyama counted seconds as he got all wet and then started to vigorously cover himself in soap. “I am very soapy now, Tachibana!” he said. “I will show you hang on.” He opened the shower door to step out and showed that yes, he was covered in soap front and back. “Is this enough soap???”
Tachibana gaped and then covered his eyes. Something about seeing Kin naked was just so wrong. “Okay, yes, yep. That’s enough. Didn’t need to see it, but yeah.” Tachibana sighed. “Make sure to get your hair, too. Ah, you don’t need to show me that.” He had seen enough naked Kintarou for a lifetime.
“Oh okay thank you thankyou I will do my hair too.” Tooyama hopped back into the shower and used the shampoo (because he knew how to wash his own hair thank you very much!) to start scrubbing at his hair. “Is that long enough in the shower now, Tachibana?”
“Is all of the soap rinsed off?” Normally, Tachibana would say no. But not everyone needed to take long showers. “Once all the soap is rinsed off, you should be done. I’ll bring you your pyjamas. Please don’t come out naked.” He went to get the clothes to put in the bathroom for Kin.
“NEARLY!” Tooyama scrubbed down his hair and body, squinting a little at the tenderness of the worst of the bruises. “I am getting a towel hang on Tachibana I am naked sorry!!” he shouted out, turning off the water. He grabbed the towel from the rack they’d designated as his, and wrapped himself up in it, hair dripping everywhere. “I am fine now!! Please bring my pyjamas thank thank you!”
Tachibana sighed and brought in Kin’s pyjamas. “Here you do.” He handed them over. He went to go back to the bedroom. At least he had managed to get Tooyama to take a proper shower.
Tooyama was very efficient at drying himself and getting dressed. And he even remembered to brush his teeth (with an electric toothbrush that he just carefully guided around his teeth rather than scrubbed, as he’d been made to use for a very long time) before he went back into the room.
“Hay Tachibana!! What did you do today to finish up so early???” he asked as he bounced back in. “And see see, I even brushed my teeth so you don’t need to make me do that tonight either.” Tooyama bared his teeth and pointed helpfully.
Tachibana chuckled at the childish enthusiasm. "Good job." He praised, thinking about Kin's question. "Right now, I don't have much to do, because we haven't really started the nutrition program…" he sighed. "So I just made sure to get back earlier today."
Tooyama had far too much energy right now to go to bed, too pumped full of adrenaline from training, even after the shower. He proceeded instead to jump up to grab onto the top of the door frame to the bathroom and pull himself up, feet dangling.
“Are you cooking good things in your nutrition program??” Tooyama asked, lowering down to peer at Tachibana under the door frame and then pulled himself back up. “When can you make TAKOYAKI do you think? ‘Cause I tried it in the machine beep beep thing but it was super bad.”
Where did this guy get his energy from? Tachibana just watched the whole thing, utterly baffled. "I'm not cooking much if anything at the moment. My supplies haven't come in…but I've made a simple cake and I'm trying to make some soup stock." He laughed at the thought of food replicator takoyaki. "You can't replicate good takoyaki. I would need fresh octopus for that."
The doorframe wasn’t ideal for for doing pullups on, not enough space for proper gripping besides with his fingertips. But Tooyama was making do and he swung for a bit longer before dropping down.
“CAKE! What about SAVOURY CAKE? With chicken in it?!” Because he knew there were a lot of chickens around, surely they could be added in. Tooyama was still restless though and the room was too small for letting any of that energy out. “Hay Tachibana Tachibana, do you think I could go to the gym and run now?”
Tachibana shook his head. "Those chickens aren't for eating." He said firmly, just to make sure Tooyama didn’t just randomly go kill some of the chickens. "And no, it's time for bed. You've already showered." Seriously, why was this a struggle every night? "You can go running in the morning."
Tooyama heaved a loud sigh. What was the point of chickens if they weren’t for eating? Dumb idea to have them here.
He whined and looked at the clock in the room. “But morning is SO FAR AWAY.” Like hours away. He scuttled forward to grab Tachibana’s arm. “Come on Tachibana please please just a quick run together please?”
Tachibana looked at Tooyama for a moment before pulling him closer and then turning him to put him in a headlock. "I said no. You'll just get sweaty again and then you'll need another shower!"
Ahhh!!! Too sneaky!! Tooyama could probably have easily gotten out of it, maybe thrown Tachibana onto the ground and wrestled him, but Tachibana was a civilian and not military and not an enemy so therefore he couldn’t be treated roughly.
He did still smack Tachibana on the leg though, in resignation. “Fine no running,” he sulked and deflated. “Tachibana is no fun at night.”
Tachibana sighed and let Tooyama go. "Okay, let's make a deal. You put on deodorant and you can go for a quick run." Then he remembered Tooyama has said together. "...I'll do the same. Just a lap, okay?"
OH!! “Oh yes yes just one lap!!” Tachibana was so good to him!! Tooyama scuttled off to the bathroom to apply the deodorant that Tachibana had forced on him after their first night together. “I will run it super fast okay ‘cause then I won’t have time to get sweaty!” Tooyama grabbed onto the doorframe again to dangle from it while he waited for Tachibana.
Tachibana couldn't help but laugh as he went to go apply his own deodorant. He couldn't very well force Tooyama to do it and not do it himself. "Please be careful, or you might break the doorframe." He wasn't sure if that was actually possible, but better safe than sorry. "Are you ready?"
“Maybe we should ask engineering if they can install a PROPER BAR for it on our door!” Tooyama said, dropping down and looking up. Yeah that would be so convenient, so he could do proper pull ups as well if it was there. He wiggled his toes and thought about putting on shoes. Nah, he ran better barefoot. “Yes!!! Yes yes!! I am ready!!” He grabbed onto Tachibana’s arm and hauled him forward towards the door. “I bet I can run SO MUCH FASTER than you can, Tachibana!!”
Even if they were still in their pyjamas.
Honesty, a proper bar in the door would probably help with Tooyama’s boundless energy. He didn't even have time to pull on shoes as he was dragged out the door. "I have no doubt you can, Tooyama-san. You're an Able Spaceman, after all." Still, it wouldn't be fair to the guy to not at least give it his all. "But you have to promise to go to sleep after this, okay?"
“Oh!! Oh yes! I have been an able spaceman for so long I am SUPER EXPERIENCED at it you know,” Tooyama said, mindless of the other rooms nearby as he chattered loudly to Tachibana and bodily pulled him towards the gym.
“I will, I will, I promise! I will sleep super well and you won’t be able to wake me up at all I promise.” Tooyama kicked open the door to the gym with a cheer and hurried towards the treadmills.
Tachibana winced as the door flew open. "Oh, you wanted to use the treadmills…" How would they measure who was faster on those? He headed over, smiling. "And I know you will keep your promise. After all, people who break promises don't get visits from Santa."
Tooyama froze on the way to the treadmill and turned to look at Tachibana with a stricken expression. “Santa?!” he whispered, tightening his fingers on Tachibana’s arm. “NO I PROMISE!!! I won’t break it!!! I always get visited by Santa no matter where I am!!!!”
Tachibana nodded. “Good. Then I’m sure Santa will visit.” He ruffled Tooyama’s hair. “So, how are we going to race if we are on treadmills?” He would be willing to play along if it meant sleep.
Tooyama visibly relaxed in relief and then continued to drag Tachibana over to the treadmills. “‘Cause!! You can do laps on these too I found ‘cause I can’t run enough here there’s not enough ROOM.” Tooyama hopped onto one treadmill and started jabbing at the screen, pulling at Tachibana’s arm to show him. “See, see??? You can see the track and run around it yes???? But I will give you a handicap ‘cause you aren’t used to it okay.” And Tooyama set his incline up super high.
Tachibana nodded. “Okay.” So that’s how they were going to do it.” He got on his treadmill and started setting it up. “Alright, when you say go, we’ll go.” Now that he was actually on the treadmill, Tachibana was eager to run.
“No holding onto the bars, ‘cause that’s cheating,” Tooyama said and bounced a couple of times on the deck of his treadmill once it hit the full incline.
He did one last check that yes, Tachibana was definitely not cheating and “THREE TWO GO!!!” Tooyama smacked his hand on the go button and highest speed and took off, sprinting (and screaming) along his little virtual track on the screen.
Tachibana almost fell off his treadmill at the screaming, but he caught himself and started running. Yeah, there was no way he was beating this beast, even with a handicap. Still, he ran, because he told Tooyama he would. “Are you okay?” He called out.
“YES I AM FINE THANK YOU TACHIBANA FOR CHECKING YOU ARE VERY KIND!!!” Tooyama shouted, still sprinting along. It wasn’t quite as fast as when he went powering after the sandworms, but it was up quite a hill and there was a bit of a burn.
He slammed his hand on the stop button as soon as he crossed the 400 metres first lap (because he was GOOD and kept promises so Santa would appear). “I AM DONE TACHIBANA TACHIBANA, I BET I BEAT YOU!!!!”
Tachibana laughed as he was still running his 400 metres. “Yes, you definitely beat me.” He hit the stop as soon as he made it to his goalpost. He stopped, smiling at Kin. “Do you feel better now, Tooyama-san?” Please, for the love of the universe be ready to sleep, Tachibana’s voice seemed to say.
He could have probably run another lap while waiting for Tachibana to finish running his first one. Tooyama bounced up and down in the meantime, swinging on the handles of his treadmill and the other equipment was right there he could probably go and do some weight– oh but Tachibana was finished!
“I still wanna exercise more,” Tooyama said but let out a long suffering loud sigh and pulled on Tachibana’s arm to get him off the treadmill. “BUT!! I have to go to sleep now ‘cause I promised.”
Tachibana let himself be pulled. “Why don’t we wake up early tomorrow and we can exercise some more?” He offered. “I know getting to sleep can be hard, but it’s good for you.” He smiled down at Tooyama. “If you want, I can tell you a story?”
Wait, shit, Kippei. This guy was supposed to be like 30 years old. Surely even he would be offended at the offer of a bedtime story!
Tooyama pulled Tachibana back through the gym towards their room, bouncing as he went to try and chase off some more of the jittery energy before he had to lie in bed and sleep. “How many hours sleep is EARLY?” he asked.
He was silent for a long time at the offer of a story and finally let out a sigh. “No story tonight ‘cause I did exercise. Maybe tomorrow night ‘cause it might break my promise to Santa if we do it tonight.”
“If you need one, it’s okay.” Tachibana promised. “The promise was about exercise, not stories.” Tachibana felt like he was being fooled. Surely, this was not a 30 year old man. Unless he really was feral? “But let’s have you lay down and see if you need it first.”
Tooyama was still bouncing when they got back to the room, but he did at least climb into bed and sulkily lie down. He thought for a crazy moment about getting up to run around after Tachibana fell asleep, but… he stared at Tachibana’s forehead for a long moment …
“I wanna run again with you in the morning,” he said pulling the blankets up to his chin. “EARLY! ‘Cause you promised to. And more than one lap!”
Tachibana frowned for a moment at the extended gaze on his forehead before patting down Tooyama’s blankets. “I did promise. Four am early enough?” It was really early, but Tachibana could always squeeze in a nap while Tooyama was out doing… whatever it was he did during the day. “And yes, we can do more than one lap.”
He went to lay in his own bed. “Good night, Tooyama-san.” He sighed, knowing he had already sealed his fate for another long day tomorrow.
Four hours. That was… not that many hours away. “Yes that is early enough thank you thank you.” Tooyama stared at Tachibana as he hopped into bed and then closed his eyes. Need to sleep for Santa. “Shhh Tachibana, I am trying to sleep now.”
When: Any night. Every night. This is now Tachibana's hell
Where: Tooyama and Tachibana's room
What: Tachibana attempts to get Kin to go to bed
It had only taken Tachibana two nights to realize Tooyama’s habits at night, and for him to plan accordingly. This meant making sure he was done in the bathroom before Kin even entered the room. Dressed in his sleep clothes, Tachibana finished drying his hair, waiting for the hurricane that was his roommate to come in.
Tooyama came barrelling back into his room after a long day of training and doing very important security team things. There was possibly blood and dirt on his face and under his nails, and he cheered as he opened the door and saw his favourite roommate was already there.
“HAY!! Tachibana you finished up SUPER EARLY!!” Tooyama said, hurrying into the room. “I will hurry hurry so you can go to sleep soon okay?” Which meant stripping off clothes to get into pyjamas and get straight into bed because he was super thoughtful like that.
Tachibana gaped at his roommate. Not at the state that he was in, but at the fact that he was trying to just get into his pyjamas and go to sleep. “Hey, no, no, no.” Tachibana went to grab the clothes from Tooyama. “You’re a mess. You need to shower.” There was no way Tachibana was going to try to sleep with the room smelling of blood and sweat.
“But I showered yesterday!” Tooyama complained, stamping his feet. “And you want to sleep!! And it’s disruptive!” He grabbed at Tachibana’s arm to get his pyjamas back, stamping his feet again.. “Give them back to me please please Tachibana, ‘cause I have to get changed.”
“Tooyama-san, you have to shower every day you get this messy.” Tachibana insisted, holding on tight to the clothes. “You showering does not disrupt me at all.” He was surprised the shorter man wasn’t able to get the clothes out of his grip. “In fact, the smell disturbs me more. What did you do today?”
Tooyama didn’t want to rip the pyjamas from his mum, or else he’d just yank them out of Tachibana’s hands. He paused and pulled his collar away from his body to sniff down… it smelled the same as usual? Maybe a little more metallic that he assumed was from the blood.
“I did TRAINING!!” he said, pulling up his shirt to show Tachibana the new collection of bruises. “And helped MOVE THINGS and it was a bit dirty maybe. There is not much security things to do right now.”
Tachibana winced at the sight. Tooyama was always covered in bruises, but he seemed to wear them with pride. “You have blood on you.” He pointed out. “That’s not safe to leave caked all over you.” If he had open wounds they could get infected. If it was something else’s blood, that was just gross. “Please go shower.”
Tooyama looked down and oh yes, definitely blood in amongst the dirt. “It’s not mine though!!!” He stared hard at Tachibana but the man wasn’t going to budge and he eventually made a noise like a dying balloon. “Okay I will go and shower. Don’t steal my pyjamas! You will stretch them ‘cause you’re too big!!”
And then he stomped off to the bathroom.
Tachibana put the pyjamas on Kin’s bed and followed him to the door. “I’m going to time you. You need to actually use soap this time!” He lectured. “You really should know this by now.” It actually worried Tachibana how this supposedly 30 year old military man didn’t know how to shower correctly. “Do you understand?”
Tooyama made more angry balloon noises at Tachibana following him. “Okay okay I will make sure to show you I am using soap too, Soap Policeman Tachibana.”
He stripped off his clothes quickly and hopped into the shower, banging around in the tiny cubicle to avoid the cold water that turned scalding and then back to cold before he could figure out the right setting.
Tachibana buried his face in his hands at the noise. “Look, if you want, I can set the water temperature for you every night.” He sighed. Was this what it was like to have a child? Because that’s what it was feeling like. “I just want you to be healthy, Tooyama-san.”
“NO I have it now!!!” After a bit of fussing anyway.
Tooyama counted seconds as he got all wet and then started to vigorously cover himself in soap. “I am very soapy now, Tachibana!” he said. “I will show you hang on.” He opened the shower door to step out and showed that yes, he was covered in soap front and back. “Is this enough soap???”
Tachibana gaped and then covered his eyes. Something about seeing Kin naked was just so wrong. “Okay, yes, yep. That’s enough. Didn’t need to see it, but yeah.” Tachibana sighed. “Make sure to get your hair, too. Ah, you don’t need to show me that.” He had seen enough naked Kintarou for a lifetime.
“Oh okay thank you thankyou I will do my hair too.” Tooyama hopped back into the shower and used the shampoo (because he knew how to wash his own hair thank you very much!) to start scrubbing at his hair. “Is that long enough in the shower now, Tachibana?”
“Is all of the soap rinsed off?” Normally, Tachibana would say no. But not everyone needed to take long showers. “Once all the soap is rinsed off, you should be done. I’ll bring you your pyjamas. Please don’t come out naked.” He went to get the clothes to put in the bathroom for Kin.
“NEARLY!” Tooyama scrubbed down his hair and body, squinting a little at the tenderness of the worst of the bruises. “I am getting a towel hang on Tachibana I am naked sorry!!” he shouted out, turning off the water. He grabbed the towel from the rack they’d designated as his, and wrapped himself up in it, hair dripping everywhere. “I am fine now!! Please bring my pyjamas thank thank you!”
Tachibana sighed and brought in Kin’s pyjamas. “Here you do.” He handed them over. He went to go back to the bedroom. At least he had managed to get Tooyama to take a proper shower.
Tooyama was very efficient at drying himself and getting dressed. And he even remembered to brush his teeth (with an electric toothbrush that he just carefully guided around his teeth rather than scrubbed, as he’d been made to use for a very long time) before he went back into the room.
“Hay Tachibana!! What did you do today to finish up so early???” he asked as he bounced back in. “And see see, I even brushed my teeth so you don’t need to make me do that tonight either.” Tooyama bared his teeth and pointed helpfully.
Tachibana chuckled at the childish enthusiasm. "Good job." He praised, thinking about Kin's question. "Right now, I don't have much to do, because we haven't really started the nutrition program…" he sighed. "So I just made sure to get back earlier today."
Tooyama had far too much energy right now to go to bed, too pumped full of adrenaline from training, even after the shower. He proceeded instead to jump up to grab onto the top of the door frame to the bathroom and pull himself up, feet dangling.
“Are you cooking good things in your nutrition program??” Tooyama asked, lowering down to peer at Tachibana under the door frame and then pulled himself back up. “When can you make TAKOYAKI do you think? ‘Cause I tried it in the machine beep beep thing but it was super bad.”
Where did this guy get his energy from? Tachibana just watched the whole thing, utterly baffled. "I'm not cooking much if anything at the moment. My supplies haven't come in…but I've made a simple cake and I'm trying to make some soup stock." He laughed at the thought of food replicator takoyaki. "You can't replicate good takoyaki. I would need fresh octopus for that."
The doorframe wasn’t ideal for for doing pullups on, not enough space for proper gripping besides with his fingertips. But Tooyama was making do and he swung for a bit longer before dropping down.
“CAKE! What about SAVOURY CAKE? With chicken in it?!” Because he knew there were a lot of chickens around, surely they could be added in. Tooyama was still restless though and the room was too small for letting any of that energy out. “Hay Tachibana Tachibana, do you think I could go to the gym and run now?”
Tachibana shook his head. "Those chickens aren't for eating." He said firmly, just to make sure Tooyama didn’t just randomly go kill some of the chickens. "And no, it's time for bed. You've already showered." Seriously, why was this a struggle every night? "You can go running in the morning."
Tooyama heaved a loud sigh. What was the point of chickens if they weren’t for eating? Dumb idea to have them here.
He whined and looked at the clock in the room. “But morning is SO FAR AWAY.” Like hours away. He scuttled forward to grab Tachibana’s arm. “Come on Tachibana please please just a quick run together please?”
Tachibana looked at Tooyama for a moment before pulling him closer and then turning him to put him in a headlock. "I said no. You'll just get sweaty again and then you'll need another shower!"
Ahhh!!! Too sneaky!! Tooyama could probably have easily gotten out of it, maybe thrown Tachibana onto the ground and wrestled him, but Tachibana was a civilian and not military and not an enemy so therefore he couldn’t be treated roughly.
He did still smack Tachibana on the leg though, in resignation. “Fine no running,” he sulked and deflated. “Tachibana is no fun at night.”
Tachibana sighed and let Tooyama go. "Okay, let's make a deal. You put on deodorant and you can go for a quick run." Then he remembered Tooyama has said together. "...I'll do the same. Just a lap, okay?"
OH!! “Oh yes yes just one lap!!” Tachibana was so good to him!! Tooyama scuttled off to the bathroom to apply the deodorant that Tachibana had forced on him after their first night together. “I will run it super fast okay ‘cause then I won’t have time to get sweaty!” Tooyama grabbed onto the doorframe again to dangle from it while he waited for Tachibana.
Tachibana couldn't help but laugh as he went to go apply his own deodorant. He couldn't very well force Tooyama to do it and not do it himself. "Please be careful, or you might break the doorframe." He wasn't sure if that was actually possible, but better safe than sorry. "Are you ready?"
“Maybe we should ask engineering if they can install a PROPER BAR for it on our door!” Tooyama said, dropping down and looking up. Yeah that would be so convenient, so he could do proper pull ups as well if it was there. He wiggled his toes and thought about putting on shoes. Nah, he ran better barefoot. “Yes!!! Yes yes!! I am ready!!” He grabbed onto Tachibana’s arm and hauled him forward towards the door. “I bet I can run SO MUCH FASTER than you can, Tachibana!!”
Even if they were still in their pyjamas.
Honesty, a proper bar in the door would probably help with Tooyama’s boundless energy. He didn't even have time to pull on shoes as he was dragged out the door. "I have no doubt you can, Tooyama-san. You're an Able Spaceman, after all." Still, it wouldn't be fair to the guy to not at least give it his all. "But you have to promise to go to sleep after this, okay?"
“Oh!! Oh yes! I have been an able spaceman for so long I am SUPER EXPERIENCED at it you know,” Tooyama said, mindless of the other rooms nearby as he chattered loudly to Tachibana and bodily pulled him towards the gym.
“I will, I will, I promise! I will sleep super well and you won’t be able to wake me up at all I promise.” Tooyama kicked open the door to the gym with a cheer and hurried towards the treadmills.
Tachibana winced as the door flew open. "Oh, you wanted to use the treadmills…" How would they measure who was faster on those? He headed over, smiling. "And I know you will keep your promise. After all, people who break promises don't get visits from Santa."
Tooyama froze on the way to the treadmill and turned to look at Tachibana with a stricken expression. “Santa?!” he whispered, tightening his fingers on Tachibana’s arm. “NO I PROMISE!!! I won’t break it!!! I always get visited by Santa no matter where I am!!!!”
Tachibana nodded. “Good. Then I’m sure Santa will visit.” He ruffled Tooyama’s hair. “So, how are we going to race if we are on treadmills?” He would be willing to play along if it meant sleep.
Tooyama visibly relaxed in relief and then continued to drag Tachibana over to the treadmills. “‘Cause!! You can do laps on these too I found ‘cause I can’t run enough here there’s not enough ROOM.” Tooyama hopped onto one treadmill and started jabbing at the screen, pulling at Tachibana’s arm to show him. “See, see??? You can see the track and run around it yes???? But I will give you a handicap ‘cause you aren’t used to it okay.” And Tooyama set his incline up super high.
Tachibana nodded. “Okay.” So that’s how they were going to do it.” He got on his treadmill and started setting it up. “Alright, when you say go, we’ll go.” Now that he was actually on the treadmill, Tachibana was eager to run.
“No holding onto the bars, ‘cause that’s cheating,” Tooyama said and bounced a couple of times on the deck of his treadmill once it hit the full incline.
He did one last check that yes, Tachibana was definitely not cheating and “THREE TWO GO!!!” Tooyama smacked his hand on the go button and highest speed and took off, sprinting (and screaming) along his little virtual track on the screen.
Tachibana almost fell off his treadmill at the screaming, but he caught himself and started running. Yeah, there was no way he was beating this beast, even with a handicap. Still, he ran, because he told Tooyama he would. “Are you okay?” He called out.
“YES I AM FINE THANK YOU TACHIBANA FOR CHECKING YOU ARE VERY KIND!!!” Tooyama shouted, still sprinting along. It wasn’t quite as fast as when he went powering after the sandworms, but it was up quite a hill and there was a bit of a burn.
He slammed his hand on the stop button as soon as he crossed the 400 metres first lap (because he was GOOD and kept promises so Santa would appear). “I AM DONE TACHIBANA TACHIBANA, I BET I BEAT YOU!!!!”
Tachibana laughed as he was still running his 400 metres. “Yes, you definitely beat me.” He hit the stop as soon as he made it to his goalpost. He stopped, smiling at Kin. “Do you feel better now, Tooyama-san?” Please, for the love of the universe be ready to sleep, Tachibana’s voice seemed to say.
He could have probably run another lap while waiting for Tachibana to finish running his first one. Tooyama bounced up and down in the meantime, swinging on the handles of his treadmill and the other equipment was right there he could probably go and do some weight– oh but Tachibana was finished!
“I still wanna exercise more,” Tooyama said but let out a long suffering loud sigh and pulled on Tachibana’s arm to get him off the treadmill. “BUT!! I have to go to sleep now ‘cause I promised.”
Tachibana let himself be pulled. “Why don’t we wake up early tomorrow and we can exercise some more?” He offered. “I know getting to sleep can be hard, but it’s good for you.” He smiled down at Tooyama. “If you want, I can tell you a story?”
Wait, shit, Kippei. This guy was supposed to be like 30 years old. Surely even he would be offended at the offer of a bedtime story!
Tooyama pulled Tachibana back through the gym towards their room, bouncing as he went to try and chase off some more of the jittery energy before he had to lie in bed and sleep. “How many hours sleep is EARLY?” he asked.
He was silent for a long time at the offer of a story and finally let out a sigh. “No story tonight ‘cause I did exercise. Maybe tomorrow night ‘cause it might break my promise to Santa if we do it tonight.”
“If you need one, it’s okay.” Tachibana promised. “The promise was about exercise, not stories.” Tachibana felt like he was being fooled. Surely, this was not a 30 year old man. Unless he really was feral? “But let’s have you lay down and see if you need it first.”
Tooyama was still bouncing when they got back to the room, but he did at least climb into bed and sulkily lie down. He thought for a crazy moment about getting up to run around after Tachibana fell asleep, but… he stared at Tachibana’s forehead for a long moment …
“I wanna run again with you in the morning,” he said pulling the blankets up to his chin. “EARLY! ‘Cause you promised to. And more than one lap!”
Tachibana frowned for a moment at the extended gaze on his forehead before patting down Tooyama’s blankets. “I did promise. Four am early enough?” It was really early, but Tachibana could always squeeze in a nap while Tooyama was out doing… whatever it was he did during the day. “And yes, we can do more than one lap.”
He went to lay in his own bed. “Good night, Tooyama-san.” He sighed, knowing he had already sealed his fate for another long day tomorrow.
Four hours. That was… not that many hours away. “Yes that is early enough thank you thank you.” Tooyama stared at Tachibana as he hopped into bed and then closed his eyes. Need to sleep for Santa. “Shhh Tachibana, I am trying to sleep now.”
