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Sometimes, Maekawa just...wouldn't listen to what Shishikura said to her.
And it wasn't a big deal at all! Everyone has their own faults, and Shishikura himself was guilty of far worse things, but after the fifth or sixth time of him politely asking her not to call him Buttons and Maekawa still ignored his discomfort, it was...grating, to say the least.
It was okay, though - really. Habits are hard to break sometimes. When he started rooming with Maekawa he did a lot of stuff she didn't like, like leave too much stuff on the floor, or turn off all the power sockets so her prosthetics ended up not charging. A nickname isn't that bad in comparison...
"Come on, Buttons. I'm sick of sitting around here..."
...well, it shouldn't be that bad, but the sound of it immediately worsens his already bad mood. One word shouldn't mess with his head like this - and to her credit Maekawa does try. She tries to be considerate and tries not to ask too many questions about his medical history. And usually she does an okay job, and where she doesn't he can remind himself of the truth that he had habits that she didn't like, either.
But his main issue with Maekawa, he thinks, is that her habit of ignoring Shishikura when he says no should never have been formed in the first place.
Because when he quietly reminds her again not to call him that Maekawa barely reacts, pulling him along with her to walk around. And Shishikura thinks this time that he really ought to say something, not anything mean or anything rude but just be a little firmer like the way he was when Shishikura walked out of the shower that one time with nothing but a towel around his waist and Maekawa was just standing in his room. And maybe if he projects his voice a little more and looks her in the eye she won't just ruffle his hair and call him cute and more or less completely ignore what he says after a few hours - like he's some kind of brainless, voiceless toddler forced to follow her around. And a toddler called Buttons. A constant reminder of his unnecessary surgeries...like he's some kind of abomination. A hastily put-together pile of scars and skin grafts and metal bones. Not a seventeen year old boy who just wants to be seen as normal.
He knows Maekawa of all people wouldn't be judging him in that way, but the name stings. Braces not so much, because she doesn't know about the fake teeth and he does like the red bands. But Buttons is the one that bothers him the most.
It's just as he's wondering what he's meant to say to her that Tei and Yaitabashi arrive out of nowhere - frazzled, out of breath, and when Tei spots Shishikura he races towards him.
"Shishikura! Shishikura, great, we found you," he says, with an unusual amount of relief. "Can you come with us? Please?"
"It's important." Yaitabashi stresses, unsmiling.
And if Shishikura wasn't already concerned, he was even more so when Tei insisted that Shishikura should be fast. Maekawa steps up next to him, shielding him protectively, asking more questions, and although this is meant to be a reassuring gesture all this does is give him that feeling like he's a little toddler again. So Shishikura, stepping out from behind her, insists he can go with them. Alone.
If he's being completely truthful it's because he's still a little cross with her. Maekawa relents and says she'll be nearby if anything happens, so Shishikura leaves with Yaitabashi and Tei. Leaves fast, because in his haste Yaitabashi walks very quickly and him and Tei struggle to keep up. They find themselves stopping in front of Ikeda's room, of all places. Which is strange, because Shishikura doesn't think either of them have spoken...ever? Only one time sticks out to him - when he had brought Maekawa to apologise for what happened in the Voter Game and Ikeda had been surprisingly...mellow towards him. But it was less Ikeda being nice and more Ikeda being drugged up on pain meds and kind of recognising that Shishikura was one of the few people that never voted for him, so he had no excuse to be rude.
Now, though, as he walks inside, he sees that the room is ransacked. Yokoi hovers around nervously, keeping an eye on Ikeda, who sits on a chair. Not pulling his eyes off the floor. And even when Shishikura asks what's going on, Ikeda doesn't move a muscle.
"Tell him what you did, Ikeda." From the time between Tei approaching him and now, his frazzled demeanour has hardened into something more stern. He folds his arms. "And apologise."
Ikeda isn't quick about it. He fiddles with something in his free hand, glances at Yokoi, who gives her head a quick shake, and then back at the floor. Shishikura can feel Yaitabashi grow more and more tense by his side. It's...frightening, how serious the atmosphere has become.
So he attempts to lighten it, somewhat. "Did something happen, Ikeda...? Are you alright?"
"He's fine, Shishikura," Yaitabashi says flatly, still radiating annoyance, "I bet he's just fine-"
"I'm not the Bleeding, okay?! You don't have to act like I've - I've killed someone, or something!" Ikeda bursts out, unable to take the tension.
"So you stole his medication for no reason, is that it?" Yaitabashi accuses.
Ikeda's eyes widen, and for the first time he properly looks at Shishikura, who's still in shock. But then Shishikura registers the word medication, remembers his utter terror the day he'd found his bathroom ransacked, the pain eating away at his bones, the constant nausea, the paralysing fear with every step he took to the medbay...
"Medication...?" Shishikura whispers, utterly horrified. And he realises, in Ikeda's free hand, is a pill bottle. One of his pill bottles. "Ikeda-"
"You don't even have proof! So what, you found it in my room - so...s-so what? How do you know Yokoi didn't just plant it there?!" Ikeda argues, turning to glare at Tei.
"Don't be ridiculous, she came in after I found it, Ikeda," Tei says wearily. "Apologise. You shouldn't have stolen it and you know you shouldn't have."
Ikeda scoffs. "S-So what if I did? He's been fine, anyway. And if he was dumb enough to leave it lying out in his bathroom then he was practically asking-"
"Why?" Shishikura can't help but ask. "What did I do? Why did you steal from me?"
"Like I said, you just left your goodies lying around," Ikeda says, but his nonchalance is forced. "Should have been more careful. In fact, you're lucky you were able to find them again-"
"Were you trying to kill me...?" Once the thought appears in his mind, he can't think of anything else. "Did you want me dead, Ikeda?"
"Maybe he was acting on the Bleeding's orders." Yaitabashi's still furious. "If we lock him up in the calm room-"
"I wasn't going to kill him! Stop making things up to make me look worse! If I wanted him dead, he already would be. I would have stabbed him or when Maekawa wasn't around and he was in his room alone. Or when he was puking one of those times and Maekawa was getting him water...really, once Maekawa's gone, he's a pretty easy target, so-"
"Answer my question." Shishikura demands. "And give them back. they're not yours."
This time around, Ikeda doesn't pause for too long. "I...I needed to know, alright?"
When he doesn't elaborate, Shishikura presses him. "Know what?"
"Know what your deal was with those medications. It's shady. I mean, nobody's on that many medications for no reason." Ikeda explains. "And, well, you're fine now. So maybe you don't really need them as much as you think-"
"It's none of your business."
His fists clench, the blood boiling in his veins. The beginning of tears well in his eyes, but he is angrier than he has been in a long time.
"T-The medicine I take is none of your business, Ikeda!" Shishikura says, voice loud. He finds himself walking towards him, furious, and Yokoi from her position in the corner of the room interrupts for the first time.
"O-Okay, how about we calm down a little-"
"It's my medicine, and I-I don't owe you any kind of explanation about my health o-or why I take anything!"
"I get it, I get it." But Ikeda looks more bored than repentant, continuing to fiddle with the pill bottle. "I don't know why you're getting in my face - Yaitabashi has most of them, so go bother him instead-"
"Apologise." Shishikura glares at him.
"Yeah, whatever. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. But you're fine now, so it wasn't that big of a deal, was it?"
Ikeda looks at Shishikura, whose face is red, eyes teary, trembling slightly...and looks more bored than anything. Even amused, at his attempts of anger, and suddenly all Shishikura can think of is the demeaning way Maekawa would pat him on the head or completely brush off his complaints - treat him like a little kid to be spoken over, or coddled, and in the haze of his rage he hones in on the pill bottle in Ikeda's hands - ondansetron, he makes out between Ikeda's fingers, and remembers throwing up in a bucket, utterly exhausted, terrified-
-and he lunges forwards for the pill bottle in Ikeda's hand, grabs onto it, and pulls.
Only, Ikeda's grip is tighter than he thought and instead of letting go immediately Ikeda's instead pulled out of his seat. Shishikura makes it one or two steps backwards until he's forced to dig his heels in the ground, Ikeda putting up some resistance, and Tei's only centimetres away from Shishikura when he finally manages to wrench it from his hands.
"Give them back, Ikeda-" Shishikura's cut off when Tei physically puts himself between them, gently but firmly pushing him back. Yokoi, similarly, flies to Ikeda's side, steadying him when he stumbles backwards.
"D-Did you just attack me?!" Ikeda's completely stunned.
"Shishikura, calm down!" Tei's got his hands on Shishikura's shoulders, but even though Tei tries to calm him Shishikura's still shaking with adrenaline. "We have most of your medicine, we just need to find the last one-"
"Y-You think I'm giving them back to you after this?! You grabbed me out of nowhere, I-"
"They're mine! You don't get to take what belongs to me just because of some morbid curiosity!"
"Maybe I should get the others...we might need some more help here." Yokoi takes the opportunity to leave quickly, slipping between them and out the door.
"It's just one more we need." Yaitabashi says to himself, checking his pockets. "I have five, Shishikura has one...and there's seven in total. I'll do another search of the room."
Ikeda scoffs. "H-How are you going to search the room when you're-"
"Shut up." Yaitabashi spits the words as though they're made of pure venom, and it manages to shake Shishikura out of his anger a little. "You're the one we caught stealing from Shishikura. You're the one who might be working with the Bleeding! I don't want to hear another word out of your mouth."
Ikeda, incredulous, looks over at Tei, but he is silent. Not coming to his defence, for once. And he seems to...deflate, a little. His bravado starting to fade away.
By then Shishikura's calmed down a little so Tei lets go of him standing by his side. Yokoi appears with Hirose, Nishiguchi, Matthias and Maekawa, explaining the situation, and even Matthias's sunny demeanour dims when he realises what's going on. Still wary of his temper, Tei says Shishikura had better go somewhere else and they'll handle it instead, so after giving Ikeda a mouthful Maekawa leaves with him. And despite him wanting to have his medication back now, Shishikura's head is still foggy and his blood still boils, so even he can recognise that he shouldn't be around Ikeda right now.
"So you just...grabbed it out of his hands?" Maekawa asks incredulously, when Shishikura fills her in. "Buttons, that's really-"
"Don't call me that."
His voice comes out wrong, jaw clenched, and it takes him a moment to realise the words have come out of his mouth. Turning around, he sees that Maekawa looks dumbfounded. "...What?"
Shishikura sighs. "I really, really don't like that nickname, Maekawa."
"Come on, it's not that bad!"
"No." he insists. "Stop calling me that. I've told you so many times to stop, but you don't listen. Y-You don't listen when I ask you to stop calling me Buttons, and you don't listen when I tell you not to look when I'm changing-"
"That only happened, like, twice! And I apologised-"
"It shouldn't have happened more than once! It shouldn't be a habit for you to ignore me when I ask you not to do something, Maekawa. Why do you always do that?"
"I..."
Maekawa's expression softens, seeing the hurt look on his face. "You're...really bothered about this, aren't you."
He frowns, eyebrows furrowing. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."
"I wasn't trying to make you mad, I just...I don't know. I just didn't think about what I was doing," she says, trying to explain herself. "I was just joking around, I..."
Even though Maekawa struggles to vocalise what she means, Shishikura thinks he understands. She never wanted to hurt him - even so, it still happened.
"It's fine," he finds himself saying, hugging his stomach. Just wanting this whole conversation over with. "Let's just go-"
"I'm really sorry." she interrupts quietly. "And it's not fine - look, I'll try really hard to make sure I don't mess up again, okay?"
"...Okay."
Everything isn't quite fine again, but Shishikura doesn't think that's something that can be changed by anything else Maekawa says - only by what she does, now. But looking at the determined expression on her face, he thinks that maybe he'll have nothing to worry about in the future.