Chapter Text
Sakusa unlocked the door to his parents’ apartment, exhausted from the crowded commute back to Tokyo. It was quiet.
Sakusa slipped off his duffle bags and took off his shoes. After removing his mask, he scrunched his brows. There was a sweet yet unfamiliar smell. Perhaps Mom was given a new perfume. Sakusa looked around the living room and peeked into the kitchen.
Mom must be out.
Her birthday was yesterday but Sakusa wasn’t free until the weekend. He had wanted to come visit, especially since his father had been scheduled to do some flights over these few days. Mom was used to it, being married to him all these years.
Sakusa wished someone would be there for her when his dad wasn’t around.
With his eyes on his phone, he walked to his bedroom. The last time he was here it was still filled with clothes he didn’t wear anymore, stacks of notes from college, and a few things his siblings had left behind.
He held the phone to his ear, hearing it ring, waiting for his mom to pick up. He should tell her he’s here.
Sakusa opened the door to his bedroom.
He almost dropped his phone.
You laid on your stomach, sprawled on his bed which was now decorated with bright linens. Wearing headphones, you nodded your head to the music with your laptop out, typing away at whatever it was you were working on.
When you finally looked up and saw him, not hearing him enter, you quickly sat up straight on his bed.
“Hello?” Sakusa’s mom answered the line.
After squinting your eyes, studying Sakusa’s face, you gasped. You exclaimed with a wide smile, “Oh! You must be Ki–” You covered your mouth. “Should I be calling you Sakusa-san too?” you said. Your pronunciation revealed you recently learned Japanese.
“Mom, who’s this girl in my room?” Sakusa asked as he looked down at you, eyebrow twitching.
“You mean Y/n?” she replied from the other end of the phone. “I thought I told you about her.”
Sakusa lowered his phone, checking that he did indeed miss a message from Mom weeks ago.
Your college had an exchange program with the University of Tokyo. Unfortunately, the plans for your original host family fell through and his mom had learned about your situation from the gossiping neighbours on their floor. Being the sweet woman she was, she wanted to help you as much as she could. Sakusa’s father was hesitant at first, but after she persuaded him, he took the necessary precautions to make sure everything went smoothly.
Everything except their son coming home.
“Mom, where are you?” he said in a low voice.
“I’m at the grocery store,” she replied. Sakusa could hear the beeps from the item scanner through the phone. “I’ll be there soon.”
Sakusa bit the bottom of his lip. He wanted to kick you out.
You didn’t let him.
He found himself sitting at the kitchen table, watching you grabbing a bowl and chopsticks, setting them in front of him. You mumbled a few things to yourself, counting with your fingers as you organized your thoughts.
“The oldest liked shrimp tempura I think,” you muttered to yourself. “The daughter liked miso soup… Oh!” You grabbed a container from one of the upper kitchen cabinets, opening the lid and placing it in front of him. “You liked umeboshi, right?” you asked with a huge grin on your face.
Sakusa could only nod, caught too off guard to say anything else as you hurried away to wash the dishes.
There was a click from the front door. Mom pulled in a cart of groceries.
“I’m so sorry Kiyoomi!” his mom told him. “I would have prepared if I knew you were coming!”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise then Mom,” he muttered, hands in pockets and slouched in his seat, before giving her a gentle smile.
Sakusa started to get up from his seat, but you beat him to it.
“Here! I can do it,” you told her, your eyes forming into crescents, moving the bags of food onto the kitchen counter. You placed the box of tea bags in the cabinet to the right of the fridge before putting the milk away. After the rest of the food was organized into their place, you even changed their water filter with a new one.
Sakusa couldn’t help but stare at how comfortable you felt in his parents’ home as if it were your own.
“I’ll go clean up my –I mean– Sakusa-san’s room and take out all of my stuff,” you said, already heading down the hallway. “I can also sleep on the couch tonight.”
“Are you sure?” Mom called after you as you entered his room.
“Of course! I wouldn’t want your son to feel uncomfortable in his own home,” you told her, popping your head back into the hallway. “Besides, I sleep on my friends’ couches all the time when I visit them.”
Sakusa bit his lip. Surely there was some other solution. But before he could think of anything, you were already making your way back to the living room with a backpack and a couple of duffle bags on hand. Then you rushed back to get your laptop and pack the rest of your clothes into your suitcase.
He resigned into a sigh. You had already made up your mind. He scratched his head, thinking that he should be taking care of his body anyway. Sleeping in his own bed would help. However, when he looked into his room, knowing that a stranger had been using it, he did not want to sleep in there right now.
You grabbed the vacuum and a mask, fixing your hair and headed into his room, ready to clean. Sakusa’s lips had a slight uptick in the corners before putting on his own mask and gloves. As he helped you wipe down the furniture while you vacuumed the floors, he snuck a glance at you every so often.
When Mom came into the room, Sakusa stood up a little straighter, shifting his eyes away from you. However, his mom went straight for his bed to pull off the blanket and bed sheets.
“No, let us do it!” you insisted, moving your way to the bed.
“Oh it’s alright,” she told you, gently using her arm to block you from getting to the sheets. “Let me do this for my son. I don’t do as much for him now that he’s all grown up.”
“But he’s here for your birthday.”
“Oh that’s alright. I am also quite happy to do this for him,” she said smiling at you.
Normally Sakusa would allow his mom to have her way with these things. She could be fairly persistent at times.
”How about this?“ You rubbed your chin. "You can pick out a drama we can watch together and prepare some snacks for us. How does that sound? Hm?”
Sakusa saw a glint in his mother’s eye. She shook her finger at you, knowing you were trying to stop her from doing any more work. “Only one episode,” she reasoned. “You still need to study.”
You grinned and went back to the bed sheets, helping Sakusa remove them before placing them in a basket. He started to carry the laundry basket out of his room, but he paused after taking a step towards the door. He’d have to use the elevator again. He groaned. The stairs weren’t much better.
You tapped Sakusa’s shoulder. “Would you like me to bring it down to the laundry room?”
Sakusa blinked a few times, cheeks slightly red, before handing you the laundry basket. You took the access card from the shelf in the hallway and placed it into your pocket. “I’ll be right back.”
A while later, Sakusa opened the bathroom door with his mouth still tasting like a bit of mint. He saw you huddled beside his mom on the couch, munching on some sliced apples and crackers while watching the TV screen.
While leaning on the door frame of the bathroom, a smile formed on his lips. You glanced at him; his eyes grew then blinked a couple of times. Sakusa cleared his throat when you raised your eyebrow at him before heading back to his room.
Relaxing his shoulders, Sakusa eased onto his bed. His room was set back to how he had left it. The bed sheets were now in his favorite navy plaid, the pillow fitted with a matching colour. He brought that pillow on all of his travels with his rambunctious teammates.
For some odd reason, his mind went back to something Bokuto had said, something he thought was ridiculous.
“When I first met her, I knew I had to marry her!”
Sakusa covered his face with both palms before finally leaning back and falling onto his bed. He let out a prolonged sigh, not knowing where it came from.
Bokuto’s words suddenly didn’t seem so ridiculous anymore.