Chapter Text
4:00 am. Seiji Katayama woke up before the first buzz of his alarm had ended. His feet met the floor, toes reflexively curling against the wooden planks. His body was so used to the schedule that he didn’t have to think twice about what he needed to do next. Get up. Make his bed. Go to the gym. Get breakfast. The same objectives, the same results. The only variance in the routine was discovering what disgusting article belonging to his roommate, Nicholas Cox, had managed to make its way to Seiji’s side of the room. This morning it was a pair of black sweatpants. Seiji grimaced as he bent down to pick up the offending object. His hands itched to fold the dastardly leisurewear.
Why is it so hard for this idiot to be respectful of his and other people’s property? Why should we keep the garish shower curtain up if Nicholas is just going to throw his shit wherever he pleases anyways?
The yellow rubber ducks rippled as Seiji roughly tossed the sweatpants to the foot of Nicholas’s bed. If he wasn’t going to treat his own possessions as valuable, Seiji certainly wasn’t going to either. Seiji sighed, annoyed at himself. His thoughts had been running over and over this same groove lately; impatience with Nicholas the first thing in the morning. It was frustrating and unhelpful. As Seiji unbuttoned his matching striped pajama set, he steadfastly refused to look at Nicholas’s sleeping form. Last month, he wound up being a few minutes behind schedule surveying his unconscious roommate. He had yet to forgive himself for that unusual incident.
His posture is terrible even in his sleep. It will lead to unnecessary back pain in the future.
Seiji was always thinking ahead, planning next steps, pondering the logical progression of things. From the very first time he met Nicholas, he knew that other boy did not share his mentality. Nicholas was a creature of the moment. Always reacting to the present. It made no sense to Seiji.
Couldn’t Nicholas see that with some intentionality -- Seiji stopped himself, pulling on a coordinating black and white trainer set.
Nicholas is the one fencer I misjudged. He has surpassed my expectations of him in every way. Fencing him...makes me excited about fencing again. In a way I hadn’t felt in years. How do I reconcile that Nicholas with the one who is an inconsiderate slob?
Seiji grabbed his gym bag and headed out the door. He shut the door, being careful not to make any noise. He made his way briskly through campus.The sky was clear out here, with almost no artificial light to fade the stars. Seiji did not enjoy taking in the natural beauty of his surroundings. He liked keeping his mind to tasks at hand, repeating this morning’s to-do list on autopilot. Up ahead, he could see that the lights of the weight room were already on. Seiji checked his phone. 4:07.
Sandra is not usually here until 4:30. It could be Sandra, here earlier than usual…
Seiji had no more time to speculate, as he had arrived to the door. He opened it and saw Bobby Rodriguez stretching his legs on the blue mat that covered half of the floor. Both boys were equally taken aback by the other’s presence.
“Oh, Seiji! Good morning!” Bobby sprang up from his bow pose, clearly pleased to see his fencing comrade. The same could not be said for Seiji.
“Good morning,” Seiji replied coolly, his eyes sliding away from the shorter boy to the bench where he always kept his bag. Bobby had his bag on the bench. Sure, it wasn’t the only bench. And there was plenty of room to put both boy’s bags on the bench. Seiji held on to his bag as he made his way to the opposite side of the mat. He gingerly placed his bag at his feet and began stretching.
Bobby nervously touched his braid crown as he tried to think of something to say to the fencing god currently pretending he didn’t exist. He had never been alone with Seiji.
“I would have guessed you used the weight room in Castello,” Bobby said as he sat back down to resume his stretching routine.
Seiji shook his head. “It has inferior equipment.”
Bobby murmured in agreement, pretending not to be focused on the muscles rippling through the fabric of Seiji’s sleek black jacket. “I’m in Velona, and the gym there is already full with soccer players.”
Inferior - that's a word that brings up more than a few things. The last time I tried to talk to someone, how badly it went...
Seiji was quiet for a few moments. He wanted to choose his words wisely. He knew sometimes the words he said were disagreeable to people, but he didn’t always know why. Bobby, finished with his warm up, was headed over to the free weights.
“I haven’t seen you here before,” Seiji said, thinking it perfectly neutral. Bobby turned around and smiled warmly at the other boy. He picked up two ten pound weights and headed back to one of the weight benches not fraught with emotional turmoil.
“Well someone I really respect told me to train hard and get better. So I am trying a new workout regimen!”
“I see.” Seiji was flattered despite himself. He remembered his words to the younger fencer. Bobby began his bicep curls, and seemed content to enter into companionable silence. Seiji was unfamiliar with companionable silence.
Don’t worry about him. Get focused. Do what you came to do.
Seiji was too rattled to complete a full fifteen minute warm up stretch so he decided to tack on the allotted minutes to his cool down later. He was experiencing increased adrenaline so he began his core and strength exercises. The mechanics of motion gradually took over his waking mind. The dull hum of counting gradually took over. When he wasn’t counting and stray thoughts started to creep in, Seiji repeated the names of all the exercises that remained.
Bobby was also in his own little world. He had felt that rush of adrenaline too, for different reasons. He was sharing a small space with someone he hoped to become closer to. Seiji was fascinating, as people of exceptional skill and talent usually are. Bobby had no doubt he was currently thirty feet from a future Olympian, and a handsome one at that. He also knew Seiji was uncomfortable around other people, particularly his peers. Bobby tried to keep his mind focused on the work out by reminding himself that he was invisible to Seiji. That didn’t mean Bobby wouldn’t try to finish his work out at exactly the same time so that they boys could head out together.
As it turns out, Bobby didn’t have to strategize very hard. He and Seiji naturally began to gather their things in unison. Quietly, they headed out the door. Seiji, his black hair sticking to his forehead with sweat now, held the door open for Bobby. Bobby smiled up at the taller boy.
“Thank you,” Bobby said. He and Seiji walked alongside one other back to the main hall of campus.
“What is the next part of your routine?” Seiji inquired.
“I’m going for a six mile run around the track,” Bobby said, pumping his fists and miming running cartoonishly. He was trying to make Seiji laugh. Seiji, on the contrary, looked concerned.
“You’re not going to do drills?” Seiji asked. His shapely eye brows were knit together tightly
“I’m doing two hours of drills in the afternoons,” Bobby said, suddenly unsure if that was the correct way to go about his training.
“I see. I’m going to do drills now,” Seiji said, looking at Bobby expectantly. Bobby was at a loss. “Ah,” was all he could muster.
Bobby and Seiji were both quiet for a moment as they walked. Bobby was enjoying the unprecedented amount of words coming out of the stoic teenager beside him. Seiji was trying, once again, to think of the words he wanted to say.
“I..” Seiji began, but seemingly lost heart.
Bobby turned to him, his circular face open and ready to listen. Seiji, seeing that friendliness, was encouraged.
“If you wanted to do drills together, I could give you some pointers...since you seem truly serious about training harder. Because you didn’t make the varsity team this year.”
Bobby gasped. Seiji’s heart sank.
Why did I mention that thing about the team? Does he think I pity him? I’ve insulted him to his very core and he will never, ever forgive me. Seiji’s mind started whirling downward with intense negativity.
Bobby, on the other hand, was no longer in this earthly realm. He was filled with golden light. He was floating.
“I would LOVE that! I don’t want to get in the way or anything, I know you have training to do too, so it’s totally up to you, but OF COURSE yes oh my gosh!” Bobby only needed one breath to get all of that out, so Seiji had time to feel both relief and take notice of the boy’s lung capacity.
Seiji rubbed the back of his head awkwardly with his left hand, embarrassed by his brief dark spiral of self-doubt. Of course Bobby would be flattered! Seiji dropped his hand down and cleared his throat.
“I mean, I’m not a trained coach or anything. So, you should take my suggestions for just that - suggestions.”
Bobby looked up at Seiji, suddenly serious.
“You’re ranked number two nationally. You’re a freshman on our varsity team. I would be a fool not to consider your suggestions. You know what you’re talking about.”
Seiji nodded in polite agreement to these simple facts. When Bobby turned to face forward, he missed Seiji’s pleased smile.