#45 "You're acting weird" with Reigen and Ritsu, if you're up for it!!
Thanks for the prompt Aeru!! I love Reigen and Ritsu’s dynamic but I haven’t written much of it yet so this is good practice!
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Ritsu doesn’t pretend like he knows Reigen all that well, but even he can tell that something is wrong when he walks through the door of Spirits & Such and finds it suspiciously empty.
While it’s not necessarily unusual for the office to be devoid of clients--Ritsu can’t fathom how anyone could be daft enough to fall for such an obvious scheme in the first place, and yet Reigen still managed to attract enough paying customers to keep his lights on, somehow--the fact that Reigen is the only one sitting behind his desk is rather hard to come by these days. At the very least, Serizawa was hanging around, the only other permanent employee Reigen has on hand and also the only permanent employee with any real psychic power at all, but he’s inexplicably absent today, it would seem.
Reigen looks out of it, sitting with his head propped up on his hand and staring blankly at his computer screen without so much as a twitch of the finger. For a man who almost never sits still, it’s weird to see him to oddly quiet. “Uh, Reigen?” he calls uncertainly, brow furrowed as he tries to figure out exactly what this game is that his brother’s self-proclaimed master is playing. “Shige is busy today studying for entrance exams, so he sent me over to make sure everything’s alright. Where’s Serizawa? Doesn’t he usually handle things now that Shige’s so busy?”
Reigen finally seems to notice Ritsu’s presence when he speaks up, despite the not-at-all quiet way the door opens and closes to announce his arrival. “Oh, Ritsu! Didn’t see you come in,” he says, stifling a yawn behind his hand. The way he moves is sluggish, lacking his usual energy and dramatic flair, and Ritsu’s scrutinous gaze picks up on it immediately. “Serizawa’s out sick, he’s been sick for a few days now. Anyway, I got a job that I need some help with, so I appreciate you filling in for Mob,” he continues, attempting to pretend like today is business as usual, but Ritsu can see the way his eyes glass over and his face is a little more flushed than usual. He’s sweating, too, though that isn’t really out of the ordinary for him, Ritsu thinks with a hint of disgust.
“Sure… are you sure you’re up to it, though?” Ritsu asks hesitantly.
Reigen casts him a glance as he’s retrieving his keys and wallet, raising a brow at him. “Of course, I’m always up to it,” he assures, but it’s hard for him to sound convincing when he can hardly put any energy into his words at all.
“You’re acting weird, are you sick?” Ritsu presses. He’d offered to do this for his brother, to give him a break from Reigen’s near-constant pestering, but he really, really doesn’t want to have to deal with a half-lucid Reigen on top of whatever bizarre and sure to be mentally exhausting job he’s scheduled for them. “If Serizawa got you sick, you should rest, or you’ll just make it worse,” he adds matter-of-factly.
Reigen stands up abruptly from his desk, so quickly that his office chair goes skidding backward and collides with the wall behind it. Ritsu winces at the crash it makes, but Reigen ignores it entirely. “A little sickness is nothing,” he insists. He takes a total of three steps on his own before he has to brace himself on his desk again, and a second later he pitches forward, his legs nearly buckling beneath him.
Ritsu squawks in alarm and snaps out a hand before he can think, and before Reigen can hit the ground and break his nose, or chip a tooth, or do something else that will certainly require a trip to the emergency room, his aura encircles him and halts his fall. “Jesus, Reigen!” he snaps once he’s managed to calm his racing heartbeat a tad, hurrying to Reigen’s side and grabbing him by one arm. “You walked to work like this? Just take a day off, you tryhard!”
Reigen groans softly. “I’m alright, I just got a little dizzy,” he says, and does seem a little steadier on his feet once the dizzy spell has passed. Still, Ritsu doesn’t release his iron grip on Reigen’s arm until he’s sitting down again, in one of Reigen’s plush chairs, the ones he usually reserves for clients and lunch breaks.
“You’re not alright, you nearly blacked out,” Ritsu chides, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his brother’s phone. Shigeo had lent it to him in case he’d wound up needing to contact Reigen while out on the job, but Ritsu scrolls past his contact now. “Sit still and try not to faint again, I’m gonna call my parents.”
Reigen looks up in alarm. He’s only met Ritsu and Shigeo’s parents a handful of times in the years he and Shigeo have been working together, but it’s not as though they’re close friends. “Wait, what do you need your parents for?” he asks indignantly.
Ritsu gives him a look that dares him to argue. “They always know what to do when Shige and I get sick,” he replies, as though the answer is completely obvious. “They also have a car, so they can probably drive you home.”
“No, wait, don’t do that,” Reigen insists, sounding slightly panicked, but Ritsu’s already pulling up his mother’s contact. “I’m fine, really. I can walk myself home.”
“You almost just broke your nose on your office floor, I think you’ve lost your right to argue,” Ritsu replies stubbornly, holding up the phone to his ear.
Reigen lets out a sigh, and after a moment his shoulders slump in defeat. He looks tired, really tired. “Yeah, okay, you win, kid,” he relents, reaching up to run his fingers through his hair. “My clients will be annoyed that I cancelled on them, though.”
Ritsu shrugs. “Just tell them the truth, I bet they’ll enjoy the change of pace,” he snarks unabashedly, “and don’t call me kid, it’s condescending.”
Reigen stifles a snort of laughter with his sleeve, disguising it as a cough. “Sure, whatever you say,” he replies in amusement. “Thanks, Ritsu.”
