Work Text:
“Kakeru, look on the stack by the Wii console. Volume six is in that pile.” Prince explains to Kakeru on his way out the kitchen. He finished his meal before him and wanted to continue reading a volume of Haik**!! before his first class started.
Kakeru looked behind him as his senior slid his way through the cramped space and out the door and gave him a muffled hum of acknowledgement through the food in his mouth.
The remaining residents of Aotake--Yuki, King, Musa, and the twins-- looked at the brief exchange with mild shock as they were all in various degrees of eating as it occurred.
Yuki, the one with no food in his mouth, spoke up. “I didn’t know you two got along so well after what happened before.” The Confrontation, as they all liked to call it, referred to the night Kakeru told Prince to quit the team if his time didn’t improve. Everyone accepted that it was said in the heat of the moment and no one held any bias towards him or Prince for that moment, but it still happened, and the twins made it clear no one was ignorant of this event.
Kakeru looked down at his bowl, feeling some guilt twinge his heart at the memory. Plenty of things happened since then, and Prince’s time was improving substantially after they fixed his posture, arms, everything, but it was still a sore subject for him. Before he could respond, Musa jumped in to interject. “Ah! Of course, we know things are better now! We just weren’t aware it progressed to this point.”
“He’s letting you in his room! The same guy with a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign on his door!”
“Yeah. And when we asked to borrow a manga he recommended to us, he just told us,” Joji’s voice dropped in mood to poorly imitate Prince’s, “”Go get your own”. Isn’t that right, Jota!”
“Mm-mm!” Jotaro nodded in agreement..
“He’s cooperating with practice and his efforts are finally bearing results. I was the one to help him and asked to read some of his manga. It’s only fair I read his manga in his room.” Kakeru explained, which only garnered more shock for the others.
“Wait wait! You two read together?” Yuki asked. Kakeru nodded.
“In his room?” Nod.
“And he lets it happen?” Nod.
“Isn’t it awkward? You know… It’s all quiet, cramped, and you’re not really talking? You two just sit there and read together?”
“Not necessarily. It’s kinda peaceful. When it’s time for him to run on his treadmill, I’ll hold his manga up for him while he’s running. It does cramp my arm every now and then.” Kakeru didn’t understand what was so strange about it but he didn’t feel the need to explain himself any further. They read together and that was that.
Speaking of, he may have to finish his meal soon and read that volume. The last book left him on a cliffhanger.
—
Shindo and Nico-chan were on a late afternoon jog. They wanted to just get some side practice in since it was their day-off from practice for the week. The pair wore their fanclub recruitment t-shirts because their route was through the shopping district today. It was a good opportunity to make good use of their time and Shindo knew this was a healthy exercise for Nico-chan if he wanted to lose some weight.
Their conversation was either light or sparse; the topic ranged from the website to classes, and they were content with that.
“Oh! It’s the Kansei boys.” A local candy shop owner called out to them from his storefront. He paused his sweeping and waved the boys over. “Keep up the good work boys!”
Shindo noticed him first and made his way to greet him. “Good evening and thank you for your support.” He bowed and Nico-chan, lagging a bit behind, bowed as well.
“It’s my pleasure! You boys are doing great. Wait here, I have something for you and your team.” Before Shindo could politely decline, the shop owner walked back in without hearing a word.
“Don’t mind too much, Shindo.” Nico-chan reassured. He was sure it was probably going to be some candy or some sort of sweet, given their location. He took this as a chance to stretch while waiting for the man to re-emerge from the store until something caught his eye down the road. “Hm? Is that Kakeru?”
Shindo decided to peek over at where Nico-chan’s attention was at and, lo and behold, there stood Kakeru and Prince at Hana’s family flower shop. “Oh it is. I guess he’s picking up groceries for Haiji-san. Let’s go say hi after this.”
Their jog to the vegetable shop was brisk and they were able to catch the pair conversing with Hana.
“Oh. Hello.” Kakeru acknowledged them with a curt greeting, in contrast to Hana’s excited one.
“Oh! Hi! Are you out for a run today?”
“Ah, no. We were just going on a jog on our day off.” Shindo explained.
“That’s great! I was just telling Kurahara-san and Prince how to make my stir-fried cabbage that I made for you all last time!” At the mention of her cooking, Nico-chan and Shindo felt their stomach drop.
“It was good, and we were wondering how to make it.” Prince mentioned, earning a blush from the young girl.
“We could probably learn to make it one day to give Haiji-San a break from cooking.” Kakeru added and Prince merely nodded in agreement. The pair failed to recognized the look of trauma and anguish that struck the faces of their fellow residents.
“Of course! I’d be glad to help you make it too! It makes me so happy to hear that you liked it so much.” Hana cheered, feeling excitement at the thought of helping Aotake out.
“Yes please. Well, we should drop by the convenience store to pick up Jump for Prince and then driver these to Haiji.” Kakeru mentioned, lifting up the bags of groceries in his hands. Prince’s eyes lit up at the mention of Jump, remembering the latest chapter came out recently.
“Ah! Yes! Send him my regards. Stay safe!” And with a final wave, Kakeru and Prince were on their way.
Meanwhile, Nico-Chan get the colour drain from his face again and Shindo’s legs shook so much, he wasn’t sure if they can complete their run.
—
Knock knock.
Haiji knuckles made contact with the door. Kakeru was usually one of the first few people awake with him for morning runs, so it was strange that he didn’t answer his door. Normally, Haiji would have assumed that he went on his own again, but his shoes were still in his shelf at the entrance.
“Kakeru are you alright?” He called out. The others began to gather by the entryway, concern emerging on their expressions. Kakeru was slow but at least he was diligent and punctual about running. Prince wasn’t with them too, which wasn’t entirely unusual. It would take Haiji going to his room to drag him out.
Haiji, having felt he waited long enough, opened the door to take a peek in and see if Kakeru was okay.
Before him, he saw Kakeru asleep on the floor on his back with a book (likely manga) resting on his face, as if it fell but the impact didn’t shake him awake. On his side, with back facing him, Prince slept in a curled position, clutching a magazine (again, likely manga) to his chest. They weren’t touching one another physically, but Haiji felt like this was an overall endearing moment between the two that seemed worlds apart but were more similar than anyone would have thought.
He almost didn’t want to ruin this moment.
Almost.
Taking in a deep breath, hands on his hips and legs spread in a steady stance at the doorway, Haiji gave them the most pleasant wakeup call he could muster.
“Good morning!”
The loudness and the suddenness of the wake up jostled Kakeru awake, his arms flailing and hitting Prince on the head.
“Heeee-- Wha--!”
“Good morning! Time for our run!”
Prince was less excited about his run than usual that morning.
—
“Is that Kakeru’s jacket?” Yuki noticed as he arrived home and walked into the hallway to see Prince walking out of his room, wearing a track jacket that was noticeably bigger than his body. He recognized that colour anywhere, the teal was a dead giveaway of the original owner.
Prince held up a sleeve and glanced at it for a second before looking back at Yuki and nodding before walking to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Yuki shook himself out of his shock before pulling out his phone and sending a mass text.
(23:38) : Do you have any idea why Prince is wearing Kakeru’s dirty track suit???
It was late. He didn’t know why he sent that at such an unreasonable hour when most of the residents probably already went to sleep, especially those honour stude-
Buzz.
Nico-chan
(23:40) I’m surprised you just noticed
Joutaro
(23:40) r they sleeping in th esame room????
Musa
(23:41) It’s almost midnight, please rest
King
(23:42) : Right?! It’s like those two are trying to rub it in our faces that they’re dating!
Yuki stared at the last text the longest. Prince and Kakeru were dating ?
Before he could feel a mental shutdown and the not-so-sudden revelation, Prince arose from the kitchen, fully hydrated and prepared to go to bed, and Yuki saw this as his opportunity to probe for questions.
“Wait! Prince!”
“Hm?”
“Er… uh…” He mentally cursed himself at the way words were caught in his throat. ‘Come on Yuki! You passed the bar exam on your first try, you can ask probing questions,, can’t you? ’ “Did Kakeru lend you his jacket?” ‘Nailed it. ’
“Oh, not really.” Prince answered, nonchalantly. If he were to feel bashful about anything, now would be the time. “He just left it in my room when we were reading one day and there’s a draft in my room at night so this keeps me warm.”
“Isn’t it gross?”
“He washes it regularly and it actually doesn’t smell like sweat, surprisingly.”
‘That's not what I meant.’ Yuki wanted to rub his forehead. He wanted answers for confirmation purposes but didn’t know how to ask. Before he could collect his thoughts and manage words to form proper sentences, Prince slipped passed Yuki and walked up the stairs. He wanted to finish a volume in his manga before bed.
—
He couldn’t move.
Prince felt like his body was heavy, heavier than the morning after his first run with the rest of Aotake. He felt dizzy and he couldn’t breathe through his nose. The awful draft in the house coupled with the changing temperature and cold rain made him sick. Great.
When he wakes up and reaches over to his phone to check the time and date, he knew it was the day the latest volume of Jump would be in the convenience stores and the chapter was finally going to wrap up the last cliffhanger. He had to read it.
With as much energy as his body allowed, Prince hauled his groggy body out of bed and to his closet. He needed something warm underneath his poncho if he wanted to stay warm. It wouldn’t do him any favours to worsen his condition. However, he can still read manga from the comfort of his bed.
He can afford to go out for a few minutes. Upon reaching the door, he noticed a sign on the front:
Rest! Get well soon! You’re on the second floor so don’t even think about trying to escape!
-Joji and Jota
‘They didn’t… ’ Prince reached out and turned the doorknob and pushed to no avail. His door was blocked. ‘Those demon twins… ’ Prince thought to himself, mentally prepared to search for a spell or curse in his manga and test it on those two.
With the little energy he had left, Prince did his best to push the door open. It was futile, the door hardly budged and he felt himself growing weaker and weaker. Feeling defeated, Prince leaned his back against the wood of the door and slid down, facing a cleared out shelf. His careful arrangement was tampered with (probably by the terrible two) to make room for a strange African mask (probably Musa) and a covered bowl of food (probably Haiji). Something caught his eye that was unfamiliar, however. Sitting below the mask, almost like it was propping the mask up, Prince noticed a magazine.
Getting up from his spot on the ground, Prince walked over through his cluttered room to check out the magazine. It was the latest issue of Jump that he wanted to read. In his excitement, he snatched the book off the shelf (causing the mask to lose it’s balance, but he luckily caught it in time) and a small note to fall out of the magazine. At first, he brushed it off as another survey the publishers like to slip into every volume, but upon closer inspection, there was a small message.
It was a good chapter. Get better soon.
-Kurahara
He felt his expression soften despite his difficulty breathing through his nose. The magazine showed signs of drying from the rain and the binding was bent enough to indicate that someone had read it recently.
Any complaints about being locked in his room were gone from that point on, a pleasant warmth making its presence in his chest as Haiji’s cooking filled his stomach and he comfortably read his chapter in bed, cold nearly forgotten.