Chapter Text
Nanami was running late to training that day. Principal Yaga was bound to give him an earful and his stomach was already heavy with shame. It didn’t matter why he was late, only Gojo’s excuses were good enough for a dismissive shake of their instructor's heads and a reluctant mutter of “don’t do that again.”
He raced through the courtyard, the pathway to the training grounds stretching endlessly like a hotel hallway in a horror movie.
After a few steps, he noticed he didn’t seem to be the only one in a rush to be somewhere. A head of black hair came into view as he rounded the corner, nearly within view of his destination.
Haibara was running in the opposite direction of the training grounds - towards Nanami.
Nanami slowed down, confused. He and Haibara were in the same class.
“Nanami!” Haibara shouted as he approached, his smile wide and cheeks flushed from his sprint across the campus.
“Principal Yaga was called to a conference this morning,” he stopped next to Nanami and rested his hands on his thighs, catching his breath, “we’ll be training with him tomorrow when he gets back.”
As the tension left Nanami's body he realized how badly he wanted to go back to his dorm and sleep in until lunch.
“Guess that’s a good thing, too. Looks like someone was about to be late! Didja oversleep?”
“Um, yeah.” Nanami said to the ground.
“Whoa, that’s new. I thought you set like 15 alarms so that didn’t happen,” Haibara laughed, still half out of breath.
“I forgot to turn them on.”
“Oh! Looks like luck was on your side today. Let’s go back to our rooms. I’m feeling like a nap is in my future.”
Nanami turned and stumbled as another student breezed past the two of them, their ponytail just catching the side of his face. He would have walked straight into them had Haibara not grabbed his hand.
“Looks like you could use a nap, too.” Haibara squeezed Nanami’s hand gently.
Nanami looked at their hands and Haibara muttered an apology, releasing his grip. That was close to the last thing Nanami wanted to happen, but he shoved his hands back into his pockets to keep himself from reaching back out.
“I overslept, I don’t need more sleep.”
“You’re probably right,” Haibara started heading back to the dorms, “walk back with me?”
“Sure.”