Title: Wake
Fandom: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Rating: G
Length: 928 words
Content notes: AU, takes off just after episode 32, so spoilers if you're even further behind than me and haven't reached that spot
Author notes: Prompts #250 'Promise' and 'Breakfast' from my Bingo card
Summary: Aston wakes up.



Two days after nearly dying, Aston opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was that he wasn’t where he expected to be. He wasn’t in his familiar bed in the barracks, and he wasn’t in the only slightly less familiar bed in the infirmary. He was somewhere else.

The second thing he noticed was Takaki, slumped in a chair next to his bed, fast asleep. That was enough to tell him where he was. He was at Takaki’s house. Judging by the clothes hanging in the closet with military precision and the childish drawings on the wall, he was also in Takaki’s bed. That was strange. How did he get here? What had happened?

He tried to sit up. The pain that tore through him brought everything back. The battle. Takaki’s recklessness. The moment he had known that Takaki was going to die. His own decision. But why wasn’t he dead? This just didn’t make sense.

He lifted the covers and peered down at his midsection. Bandages covered almost his entire torso. He’d been badly wounded, it seemed. That, at least, made sense.

“You’re awake.” At Takaki’s soft voice, he let the covers fall back down.

“I am,” he agreed. “But why am I here?”

“You needed a place to rest and recuperate. I told them to bring you here.”

“I could have rested and recuperated in the infirmary. Like normal.”

Takaki stiffened, just slightly, but Aston knew his body language well enough to notice. “I can have you moved there, if that’s what you would prefer. I just thought it might be nice for you to have someplace more private to recover. And…I was worried about you.”

Aston blinked. Worried? About him?

“You almost died.” Takaki buried his head in his hands. “I was so scared.”

“I’m human debris,” Aston pointed out. He had never expected anything other than death. It was just a question of how soon.

There was a pause. Aston watched as Takaki clenched his hands in his hair, pulling, then let go and raised his head. His face was red, and he was crying. “Don’t you understand?! You’re my friend!” The words were almost a yell, a volume that Aston had never heard from Takaki outside of battle. “You almost died, and it was my fault!”

There were several responses he could make to that. He could talk about fault, and how Takaki hadn’t been the one to hit him. He could reiterate his stance that death was the lot of human debris. Or he could focus on the one thing in those two sentences that surprised him. “Friend?”

Takaki sniffled, trying to get his tears back under control. The sight made Aston want to reach out, but he wasn’t sure what he would do if he did, so he held back. “Yes, friend. What did you think we were?” The question was almost harsh, in a way that Takaki had never been with him, and it made him want to flinch. He held that back too.

“I don’t know how to be a friend. Human debris doesn’t have them.”

Takaki sighed, and Aston could almost see the anger leaching out of him. “I know. I’m sorry. Friendship…Friendship is like a promise. It’s a promise that I like you, and that I want to spend time with you, and that if you need help, I’m going to try my best to help you. That’s why I had them bring you here. I wanted to be able to watch over you and help you as you recover. I thought it might be nicer than being in the infirmary.”

“It is,” Aston agreed. He was still confused by a lot of things, but that was one thing he understood.

There was a knock on the door. It opened slightly and Fuka popped her head in. “I made breakfast,” she said. “Did you guys want some?”

Before Aston could answer, his stomach growled loudly enough that Fuka could hear it across the room. She giggled. “I’ll take that for a yes.” She disappeared for a moment, leaving the door open, and then reappeared with a tray laden with food, from toast to eggs to bacon. She placed it on the bedside table. “Make sure that Nii-chan eats some too,” she told Aston. “He’s hardly eaten since you got hurt, and I have to get to school, or I’m going to be late.”

Aston nodded. “I’ll make sure he eats,” he promised. “That’s what friends do.”

Fuuka beamed, then shocked him entirely by giving him a swift and gentle hug. “I’m so glad that you’re OK, Aston,” she said, before darting out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Aston blinked for a moment, trying to process her reaction.

His stomach grumbled again, and he abandoned the effort in favor of food. He layered some eggs onto a piece of toast, and took a big bite.

“Take some,” he prompted Takaki, around his full mouth. “It’s really good.”

Takaki hesitated, still wiping away tears, then took a piece of bacon. His first bite was slow, but his second came quickly after, and then his third, until he was shoveling food into his mouth.

They ate until the tray was empty and they were both full.

No longer hungry, Aston found his eyes getting heavy. He slid down in the bed, noticing that the sheets were softer than he was used to, and the pillow plumper. It was nice. He closed his eyes, and before he even knew what was happening, he slid back into sleep.