Chapter Text
When Haiji arrives in Tokyo, he’s at the training field before he’s even dropped off his bags.
He wants to surprise the team at the end of training. Maybe he also wants to see Kakeru leading practice, but mostly he wants to surprise the team.
The fact that he’s in love with Kakeru has nothing to do with it.
Obviously.
The sun sits low in the sky. Soft afternoon turns to mellow evening and crowns the leaves in gold.
The team - so much bigger than it was - is running timed intervals when he gets to the field. Kakeru stands in the center of the track with Hana at his side, notebook and megaphone in hand. The megaphone is new. Honestly kind of genius, now that Haiji thinks about it. Much easier on the voice.
Kakeru is chatting with Hana, his hand resting easy on his hip, while a lanky student with close cropped hair runs shrieking from a girl holding out a stopwatch. The wind trails through the trees leaning against the tall fence surrounding the field. Haiji takes in a deep breath of camphor and sweetgum.
It feels like home.
Kakeru grins at something one of the newer runners says, and it feels like home shifted a little to the left.
Nira, who’d been wholly occupied with chasing after stopwatch girl and stringbean guy, barks and turns tail towards Haiji. He’s so prepared. He drops to a crouch and spreads his arms out, calling out who’s-a-good-girl and come-’ere, look-at-you, who’s-the-best-girl, you-are! until she nearly shoves him to the ground with her paws on his chest. He scratches behind her ears like he hasn’t been able to in years. Her fur is soft and well brushed, and he squeezes her face gently between his hands, cooing.
Nira did a pretty good job of alerting everyone to Haiji’s presence, but Jota steals the megaphone out of Kakeru’s hand anyway.
“Attention, everybody!” Kakeru has his fingers in his ears before Jota even starts shouting. Hana is less fortunate. She is - on the ground. Ouch. “The-man-the-myth-the-legend Kiyose Haiji has arrived!”
Hana, supine on the ground, executes a maneuver that soccer people probably have a name for, but Haiji would at best be able to call “a pretty nifty kick”. It results in Hana holding the megaphone and Jota looking at her with an expression best described as horny awe. Haiji doesn’t want to think about it.
He doesn’t have to, because Kakeru is running towards him, and Haiji barely has time to stand before he's face to face with him. Has he gotten taller? Haiji has to look up to meet his eyes. This is terrible. He’ll never be taken seriously again.
He strikes a pose. "So, what do you think? Godly enough for the first years?"
"If gods were honorary Adidas models, sure."
Haiji is spared the effort of responding by Joji and Jota bowling him over in a hug.
It’s pretty clear practice is over at this point, and a couple guys already peel off to run their way home. One of Haiji's bags is shoved into Hana's bike basket, and the other is taken by a burly second year who introduces himself to Haiji with a gruff "Yoshiharu". He can still feel that handshake in his knuckles.
A shorter guy with spiked blue hair gives him a fistbump. "It's cool to finally meet you, dude! Some of the seniors won't shut up about you." He dodges Kakeru's half-hearted punch and catches up to Yoshiharu. "Happy's the name!"
“And don’t you forget it!” another guy yells.
Kakeru laughs next to him, eyes crinkling at the corners. His laugh had been so rare in the past - now it comes freely, and it lights Kakeru up like a sunrise.
Haiji’s screwed.
Haiji -> Hana
You're the worst
Hana
huh???
me??
Haiji
Yes you
How could you do this to me
Not warning me that Kakeru is all Tall and Confident now
You were the only one left on the team I could trust
Hana
your mistake <3
He only stays at Aotake for the night. There’s no party, which is a shame, but Haiji can’t fault them for being sensible.
The morning they leave for training camp dawns overcast, threatening rain. Haiji seems to be the only one up to see it. His knee aches, dull, as he gets ready.
Haiji starts making breakfast with the few supplies he has. This is very clearly a college dorm without a member that can actually cook, save Kakeru, and he’s glad he made sure that Hana is bringing extra for the training camp.
Tires squeal to a stop outside. The front door slides open much more softly, and Hana pokes her head through the kitchen curtain a moment later, braid swinging down from her shoulder.
"Good morning! Aren't you supposed to be on vacation?" Hana waves a hand at the pots on the stove. Another girl follows Hana in. Haiji recognizes her from yesterday - the one with the stopwatch. She has a streak of blond dyed into her dark hair.
"Old habits," shrugs Haiji. "Want to help?"
Hana and the girl - Yukiko, Hana tells him, a trainee manager - put out cutlery and plates. They sit at the head of the table, eating as the others filter in. The first is Kakeru, who sits next to Haiji, which means their shoulders brush with every movement.
Haiji stands and fills Kakeru’s plate for him. Hana smirks and opens her mouth, but she’s interrupted by Yoshiharu’s gruff “good morning” as he ducks under the curtain.
"Morning!" Hana says. "Where's Happy?"
"Slept through his alarm. He forgot his phone in my room."
"So his alarm woke you up?" Yukiko joins.
"Yeah."
"And you're not going to wake him."
"Yeah."
"Nice. To the table of dishonor he goes!" Yukiko hands Yoshiharu the eggs.
Yoshiharu finishes eating first. He puts his plate in the sink, pours a coffee into a bright blue mug that he places on the lower table, and leaves. A few minutes later, Happy stumbles into the kitchen and slides onto the floor at the late table. He blindly grabs the blue mug and downs it in one go.
It’s still overcast when they pile into the van. It might be drizzling - the air feels wet.
Kakeru insists on carrying Haiji's bags, even though it's only a couple steps to the van. Meanwhile, Jota ushers Haiji to the passenger seat - as if he was going to drive anyway, he's on vacation - and shuts the door in his face with a wink and a sing-song, "have a nice drive!" Jota joins Joji, Hana and Yukiko in Hana's car and the rest of Aotake piles into the van.
When Kakeru finally introduces him to the Aotake residents - it takes some reminding that Haiji isn’t actually omniscient, despite all outward appearances - Haiji is able to put faces to the names he’s heard from Kakeru and the twins over the years.
The lanky third year Yukiko chased around the field yesterday, the one with the close-cut hair, is Hinai. Everyone calls him Percy. He’s pointing to something on his phone, angled so the freckled second year sitting next to him - Yako - can see it. Yako looks from the phone screen to Percy and back like he’s been waiting for a punchline to hit for several days now. Eiji, the one that apparently got Percy and Yako to join the team, is out cold in the next row, curly black hair staticked to the window.
Yoshiharu and Happy are sitting next to each other behind Kakeru. Yoshiharu is holding up a mirror so that Happy can see what he’s doing while he styles his blue hair into spikes. Yoshiharu's arm droops, and Happy pokes it back into place.
"This is what you get for not waking me, dude, hold it higher- to the right- no, the other right, oh my god."
Sleeping behind them, undisturbed, is a mousy-haired first year. The team apparently calls him Gouke, though his name is Sebastian and no one knows where the nickname came from. He'd transferred from Germany that year with a passion for running but only a loose grip on spoken Japanese. Kakeru had adopted him immediately.
Next to Gouke sits another first year Haiji doesn't know much about - Kakeru tells him he joined the team only recently - called Susumu. He looks a bit like he's trying to become incorporeal to avoid experiencing the van ride, though he isn't half as pale as Prince would get. More green, maybe.
Haiji gives Susumu a piece of gum he tells him is filled with anti-motion sickness medicine, and it seems to help the color, though when Eiji asks if Susumu wants to join their game of Uno two hours into the drive, he still declines.
Hana, Jota and Nira are waiting outside for them when they pull up at Lake Shirakaba. The lodge is bigger than the one from three years ago to accommodate the growing team. A wooden balcony spans the front of the house, facing towards the lake.
Joji is apparently inside making sure the futons are in order, and Yukiko is goodness knows where, but Hana helps them carry their bags in while Jota hands out candy that he found in Hana's car door. Nira trots over to Haiji and he sneaks her a treat from his pocket.
Joji runs out of the house and grinds to a halt when he sees the rest of Aotake standing next to the van.
"Guys, I think we messed up," Joji says.
"Oh no," whispers Percy, turning to Yako and grabbing his arm in a death grip, "last time they messed up I had to shave all my hair."
Yako pats Percy's hand, then pries it off his arm.
Joji narrows his eyes at them. "No, we just," he turns back to the van, "I swear we double and triple checked, but there's not enough futons for everyone. I think we forgot about Haiji coming with us when we were counting...." Haiji stands up slowly. Nira whines at his feet.
Hana meanders over to Haiji and a bemused Kakeru. "Looks like two people,” she puts her hands on their shoulders and forces them to turn to look at her, “will have to share!"
Yoshiharu raises his hand. "Happy and I can-" Happy cuts him off with a hand over his mouth.
Haiji schools his expression into a generic smile. "Don't make a fuss because of me. The seats in the van lean back. I'll sleep in there!" He does not want to sleep in there, but Kakeru's looking more and more constipated by the second. There’s no need to force anyone to share.
Hana's hand tightens almost painfully on his shoulder, and judging by his wince, on Kakeru’s shoulder as well. But Haiji knows that Hana is kind. Hana wouldn't throw Haiji under the bus.
"Why don't you two share?" Hana is evil. Hana threw him under the bus, got into the driver's seat, and is now doing sick figure eights over his prone corpse. Her evil little eyes gleam with self satisfaction.
"What a good idea!" he says, instead of challenging Hana to a duel on the spot like he wants to. He’d probably lose anyway.
Kakeru pries Hana’s hand off his shoulder. “I’m fine with it, but are you sure, Haiji? The futon’s aren’t that big.”
“It’ll be fine!” Fake it til you make it, emotions edition. “As long as there’s still enough blankets, it’s perfectly alright.”
“We’re one blanket short, too,” Joji adds. This is wonderful! What a lovely start to Haiji’s vacation. “We do have enough pillows, at least.”
“Great! There’s no problem then,” Kakeru says to the sky, looking forlorn.
"It's decided!" Hana pats them on the back, hard. Kakeru’s head whips down to glare at Hana. "Kakeru and Haiji will share. In we get, everyone, we have to make sure we're set up before the rest of the team gets here. First come, first serve!"
Happy cheers and drags a miffed looking Yoshiharu behind him up the stairs. Haiji follows them in while Kakeru and Hana organize paperwork on the roof of the car.
There's two floors to the lodge, each with their own main room and - thank goodness - their own bathroom. Upstairs, the futons are already laid out in uneven rows, split equally between the two large rooms that border either side of the staircase. The view from the balcony upstairs is breathtaking and comforting all at once, and Haiji chooses the futon closest to the window. He can deal with the extra stairs for a week.
Kakeru joins him on the balcony after a while, and they stare out at the lake in silence. The lodge is much closer to it this year - their notoriety from several successful years at the Hakone Ekiden must be great for funds. Below them, Percy and Yako argue over who should be carrying more bags, while Eiji and Gouke lug the food cooler from the trunk of Hana's car to the kitchen.
The lake shimmers sleet grey, the clouds dense and heavy, but, well. It's his vacation. The futon thing is unfortunate, but surely he can survive this new Confident Kakeru for a week! It may have been a mistake to join the team on their training camp after three years away, but he will be so normal about this.
Yelling picks up downstairs and Kakeru straightens, on alert. Knowing how college teams work without supervision…
CRASH. There it is. Kakeru whips around to glare into the lodge, throws a glance at Haiji, then races inside and down the stairs.
Haiji sighs and props his chin on the railing. If something can go wrong at training camp, it will. He just didn't expect it to be so soon.
"Attention Kansei University Track," Kakeru's voice garbles moments later, unnaturally loud. Of course the twins brought the megaphone. "There will be no more piggy-back jousting, or offenders will be running penalty sprints. Oi, Percy, put Happy down, no more piggy-back jousting-" he cuts off-
"-inside! Heyo!" Joji yells through the megaphone.
From the balcony, Haiji has the perfect view of the jousting tournament that unfolds on the dirt driveway. Susumu bows out of competing, saying he doesn't need more motion sickness in his day, and is coerced into keeping score with Yukiko. The lake is a green-grey mass in the background, interrupted only by stripes of white birch trees. Haiji takes a picture with Kakeru’s phone and sends it to himself - Kakeru’s camera is better, and his password is still the same as it was years ago.
The weary jousters of Aotake are soon replaced by the rest of the team arriving in the second van.
Things deescalate quickly enough for dinner when the clouds decide they've had enough of lying in wait all day and let loose. Some of the jousters are unfortunate enough to get caught in the downpour. Haiji dumps a pile of blankets on them when they get inside.
The ground floor of the lodge is split roughly in two, with an open kitchen and several long tables to the left, a sort of living room walled in to the right. In it, a dark brown couch that’s gone flat in its years of use sits in front of a squat black wood burner. Kakeru spends five minutes trying to light it, until Susumu unfurls from the fetal position he’d taken up on the couch and does it for him.
The team gathers on the couch and floor around the wood burner, waiting for the dinner Gouke and Yukiko are making for them. If Haiji had a say in the matter, they wouldn't be eating pasta with pesto, but Hana and Jota keep him from entering the kitchen entirely. Kakeru’s no help, sitting on the armrest of the couch and laughing at Haiji every time he’s turned back.
“Who’s side are you even on?” Haiji asks while he pushes Kakeru off of the armrest.
"Don't feel too bad," says Percy, who's sitting on the floor next to Yako and leaning back on Eiji's legs, "They won't let me into the kitchen either. Joji says it's because 'they don't need another Hana' but I don't get it, to be honest."
"They don't want to be overshadowed by your cooking skills," Yako grunts. "It'd be too embarrassing for them."
"Thanks?" Percy looks up at Eiji with furrowed brows.
Eiji shakes his head, and Percy punches Yako in the arm.
Hana and Yukiko eventually disappear into the small room that branches off from the living room, threatening the rest of them with cold baths for the week if they aren’t quiet. Other team members start peeling off to go to sleep too, but Kakeru stays downstairs, so Haiji stays too. He’s content where he is. He’s lying on the couch with his legs in Kakeru's lap, and Kakeru has his hands resting over Haiji's knees, absent-mindedly playing with the outer seam of his track pants. Haiji fights the urge to drift off.
He catches Yoshiharu staring at them. He's too out of it to do anything but stare back - does he have a problem with them? Is he also just tired? But when Yoshiharu sees Haiji watching him, he quickly turns away. This dislodges Happy, who'd been dozing on his shoulder. He makes an unhappy sound at being disturbed.
Haiji removes his legs from Kakeru's lap with a sigh and stands.
"Time to get to bed, everyone, you don't want to run on empty batteries tomorrow!"
"Okay, mom," says Kakeru, already getting up.
"Hey,” Haiji says to him while helping Percy and Yako stand up, “you're captain, why am I the one telling your team to go to bed?"
Jota, who's already halfway up the stairs, leans over the railing. "The mother hen instinct never dies! It's just buried deep, deep down, until the opportunity to bully college runners brings it back up again." He disappears into one of the rooms before Haiji can reach the bottom of the stairs.
"Dang kids these days." Haiji yells up at him.
"C'mon, grandma, I'll help you up the stairs," Kakeru says with a hand at the small of his back. Haiji shivers. It’s not even that cold. Haiji is weak. Kakeru huffs when Haiji grabs his left shoulder and leans all his weight onto it, but he muscles Haiji up the stairs anyway.
They get to their futon, next to the balcony. Kakeru shifts them around, hand briefly tightening on Haiji's waist, before Haiji drops to the futon, because Kakeru pushed him onto his left side, even as he laughs at him.
Kakeru is framed by the balcony light and the stars, radiant. Haiji's stomach is in freefall. He honestly can't feel his arms, a little bit.
Haiji rolls into the middle of the futon so he doesn't have to look at Kakeru, but he shifts over quickly when Kakeru starts poking him in the stomach with his toes. Kakeru closes the curtains first, then makes his way back to their futon in the dark. It really is too small, and there’s no way to position themselves under the blanket so that they’re not touching.
It takes a long time for Haiji to fall asleep, that night.
He’s briefly woken up by a clunk and some muffled cursing outside, but when he checks the hallway, it's just Jota.
"Sorry, man, I forgot my phone light, did I wake you up?" Jota keeps throwing glances over his shoulder into the stairwell. It's pitch black, so Haiji gets it. Spooky, or whatever.
"No, no. Do you want my phone?"
"No way, don't worry, just go back to sleep!" Jota's making little shooing motions with his hands, so Haiji smiles at him and slides the door back shut. It's cute how he still treats him like his overworked captain. Haiji's U10 team doesn't treat him with nearly the same amount of respect.
Haiji -> Senior Squad
[Picture of Lake Shirakaba. College runners jousting, just cut off by the lower frame.]
Yuki
For someone who studied art, you’re not very good at taking pictures.
Haiji
I studied literature, Yuki, show some respect
Yuki
Tomato, potato.
Haiji
Anyway,
We’ve arrived
The twins lost a futon somehow
Nico
??????
Yuki
I…
Nico
don’t question it.
make sure to send nira pictures
yuki’s been deprived.
Yuki
Shut the fuck
But yes, Nira photos.
Nico
*please
Yuki
Die.