#ehehe yesss
I was instructed by @merchantarthurn to release this little fic in celebration of the trailer, so here ya go! TW for alcohol. Fairly PG otherwise.
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One time Reigen called Serizawa in the middle of Serizawa having a panic attack.
It started like this:
Serizawa was alone in his apartment which was not at all unusual but it had started to get messier recently and it occurred to Serizawa all at once that he was doing something his counselor might refer to as relapsing and that terrified him so deeply that his attempts at cleaning were broken by his hands shaking and his eyes watering up and finally he could only sit on the corner of his bed with his knees pulled up to his chest and stare at his own mess. He’d ruined it. A perfectly good clean apartment, a clean slate, a new chance, and he’d already let it fall into this after only a few months.
He needed to go to the convenience store but he was all at once unsure if he’d remember how to speak right. It was a strange feeling of not deserving. He didn’t deserve to be around other people or have them see him. What if they saw what he really was?
It was spiraling further and further, time passing without him even fully realizing, when all at once his phone rang.
At first, he was not going to answer it. Certainly not if it was his mother. He couldn’t bear to burden her further. But by chance when he glanced over, he saw that the name blinking across his screen was REIGEN and that was his job.
His job. He needed that. To eat and to be here.
The force of necessity made him answer.
“Serizawaaa,” Reigen drawled, in his casual way. The sound of his voice made Serizawa’s shoulders slacken somewhat. He hadn’t even realized he was so tense. “I’m going to be a bit late to the office today. Can you open up?”
Serizawa’s immediate response was panic–opening the office alone. now.–but again necessity made him swallow that fear. He needed this job. It did more for him than just feed him.
“Yes, I can do that,” he said. He was surprised that his voice came out fine, no shaking or anything. He did remember how to talk.
“Do you still have the key I gave you?” Reigen asked.
“Yeah. I do.” His own key to the office.
Reigen trusted him with that. That place meant a lot to Reigen but he trusted Serizawa with it so easily. The sense of necessity unfurling Serizawa and pulling him to his feet now wasn’t so much about financial security anymore. It was for Reigen. Because Spirits and Such meant a lot to Serizawa too. He wanted to do this, so badly, for Reigen and for this place that had saved him. In a way he couldn’t possibly articulate.
I will get on my clothes and put on my shoes and clean my hair and brush my teeth and eat and drink because someone is counting on me.
