Chapter Text
It starts as something minor.
Miyano was never bullied harshly in school. The teasing about his appearance always bothered him, but he never really thought people were actively out to hurt his feelings. Most just didn’t understand how he felt and wanted to jump in on the joke.
He thinks he’s pretty good at identifying when someone means harm. Not that he’s had too much experience, but he’s not stupid. He could pick out real bullying.
That is, he doesn’t think anything is going on when he keeps losing his pens and pencils. It’s not a big deal, he has backups, but it seems like every day he loses something from his bag. When it starts progressing in frequency, that’s when he starts suspecting. He checks it for holes just in case, even asks Sasaki to look through his room with him, but the bag is intact, and there’s no evidence of missing items in his room.
Which brought him to the last conclusion, someone was stealing them, but when? He always has his bag with him.
It’s an easy plan to execute, Miyano doesn’t often leave his bag unattended due to its contents (the BL manga and drama cds he brings almost daily) so he assumes it’s by the lockers in the brief periods of time he leaves his bag there.
Gym or lunch are the times that come most to mind. Nothing happens at gym, all his pens and pencils are accounted for so he decides it must be lunch and plants an obvious trap.
It's an easy task to put more alluring items in his bag and leave them obvious from where they sit in the side pockets. He also puts the more plain things that have been taken on display too, just in case. All he does after that is go to another row of lockers and wait.
Footsteps enter the locker room loudly not even twenty minutes after Miyano has placed his trap. He thought he’d have to skip a class or two, but the steps and language coming from the mouths of the group of second years confirm his suspicions immediately. They stop at two lockers before going to Miyano’s and rifling through his bag.
Miyano watches in shock at their boldness, they take several items from the front pockets and start on the main zipper when Miyano finally decides to approach them.
“Excuse me.”
They boys all immediately shuffle the items back into his bag and turn towards him.
“Yes?”
“You’ve been taking stuff from my bag,” he states. Two of the students avert their eyes, looking embarrassed and the group dynamic is immediately recognizable, the one on the left stands out with a cocky attitude. Overall, they look fairly unperturbed at being caught stealing. “I’d like my things back.”
“What are you going to do about it?” The confidant one says with a smirk.
“I’ll request the disciplinary committee be involved. Action will be taken against you. Or you can just return my things.” He says immediately. He doesn’t have time for this pettiness, but he’s sure to keep his bag on him at all times now. If Hanezawa were still the chairman he wonders if students like this would even have the audacity to do this.
The cocky one grumbles. “Tch, you can’t prove we’ve taken anything.”
“Yes I can.” He says, he has a recording on his phone of them going through his locker. He doesn’t mention this. “Also I’m on the council. I’m sure I’m the more likely one to be believed here. I’m not trying to start drama just give me my things and stop stealing, if you need school supplies just ask.”
There’s a grumbled agreement from the two underlyings, but the cocky one looks mad.
“We’ll return them. Sorry Miyano-senpai.” The other two say to him, looking sheepish. The way they seem to crumble under the gaze of their leader makes him feel bad for the two boys almost, the leader is clearly pressuring them.
He nods to them, and the leader gives him a look. He knows he’ll be hearing from that one again.
He tells Sasaki about it later who responds with, “Are you going to take action? Even though you got your things back, what if they steal from someone else?”
“I asked around and no one else seemed to have an issue, the two boys actually spoke to me that the leader just wanted to mess with my stuff I guess, maybe because I’m on the committee?”
Sasaki had an obvious look of discomfort about that. “That’s worse, I don’t like someone targeting you.”
Miyano leans into a reassuring embrace. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”
He forgets about the whole thing for almost a month until things start happening again. This time Kuresawa ends up in the same situation as before, cornered by a group of students. This time Sasaki isn’t here. It’s just Miyano, looking on, knowing he can’t be strong in the same way as his boyfriend, but nonetheless he has to intervene.
“What’s going on here?” Miyano yells, raising his voice to a stern authoritative level.
Kuresawa’s glasses are ajar. “I got it Miyano, don’t worry.”
It’s the same guy, cocky grin that’s all teeth. His hair is plainly cut and his clothes kept neat, so unlike the stereotypes that ran rampant last year for the senior class of ‘bad boys.’
The boy has new underlings, they look less nervous than the last ones. They all share a similar grin of enthusiasm.
The leader closes in on him and Miyano straightens at the confrontation. He is far too close for comfort, but if he’s on the disciplinary committee he needs to be able to be unflinching for something like this.
“Ah the snitch again, you gonna tattle tale on me like a little girl?”
The comment doesn’t phase him at all. “You’re clearly hurting my friend, of course I won’t let you get away with that for free.”
The boy shoves him hard and Miyano stumbles back, but manages to remain upright. His fists clench. A rare and venomous anger rears its head beneath its skin.
He manages to remain still thanks to the awareness in the back of his mind that he’s an upperclassman and if he got caught hitting people he’d likely no longer be on the council, also Sasaki would worry.
“What started this?”
“I..they just started insulting me… and my girlfriend and I...” Kuresawa says, and pauses, “wrong place wrong time.”
“So you’re not gonna let us get away for free?” The leader says again, Miyano is going to make a point to find out his name this time. “What exactly, so you’re going to tell someone, nothing happened last time.”
“You weren’t hurting my friends last time.” He retorts. He takes a deep breath,knowing anything he says at this point isn’t going to deescalate the situation. “Please stop this immature behavior, what even is the point you are trying to get across?”
“Oh, nothing really.” The second years approach slowly, “Just trying to establish who you shouldn’t mess with around here.”
“Mess with? No one is going to mess with you anyway, so leave others alone and everyone will be fine.” Miyano says, completely baffled by the logic. “You must have some ego issues if you think beating up others around here is going to put you on some sort of hierarchy order. That kind of thing will get you no respect at this school.”
His voice is heated, he can’t the last time he was this angry. He’s not the type to confront others like this. He’s going to grab Kuresawa and get to the head of the discipline committee.
The bullies are still wearing their confidant stances and smiles, none of them looking phased by his tirade. Sighing, Miyano moves to stand between them and Kuresawa.
“Do you need help walking at all?” Miyano asks him.
Kuresawa shakes his head and moves to stand. The bullies take that moment to close their small gap, and the leader sucker punches Miyano in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. He can tell it’s not full force, but it still hurts bad enough he wants to throw up.
“Don’t mention this to anyone, or I’ll start doing that on the daily. They won’t expel me right away, I’ll have plenty of time.” He says, his voice low and threatening. If Miyano wasn’t in pain he would laugh at the threat, it’s exactly the kind of thing he’s read in manga before.
Kuresawa moves towards the bully, but Miyano grabs him just in time and shakes his head.
Miyano can’t speak, trying to focus on inhaling and exhaling.
“You alright?” Kuresawa has a hand on his back.
“Yeah.” He wheezes. “First punch I've ever taken. Doesn’t feel great.”
“No… no it doesn’t.” Kuresawa smiles then. “Thanks for the help. You know those guys?”
“Caught them stealing out of my bag a month ago. Well the one was with different guys then.” Another wheeze, his stomach clenches in pain and he feels a crawling sensation in his throat. “Let’s go to the nurse.”
Kurosawa nods, “Do you mean Rokuro? He’s the one who just transferred here.”
“Yeah the one with that menacing grin. He’s like a high school manga villain.”
Kuresawa laughs at that. “He really is. Probably had something happen at his last school. Sorry you got hit. Sasaki is going to be livid.”
The comment strikes an emotion in him like a clap of lightning. He doesn’t want Sasaki to think he has to take care of him or worry about his last year here. He’s already so busy with exams.
“Can you do me a favor and not tell him?” Miyano surprises himself when he blurts it out.
Kuresawa looks confused. “You probably should. He’s gonna notice your hurt.”
“I know I know. Not for long I just know he has a big exam coming up and it’s going to consume his thoughts if he thinks I’m being bullied.” Miyano says. He can picture it now. Sasaki would not be able to focus, especially since he can’t just come see him anytime he wants like he used to. They usually have to plan these days.
“Well hopefully this is a one time thing. Are you going to the disciplinary committee?”
“Of course, I don’t want any other students going through that, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, they just roughed me around a bit. You took the real hit. Sasaki rubbed off on you I see.”
“I wish I was just as strong as him. I'm getting taller now, finally.”
Kuresawa laughs. Miyano manages to as well, but his chest hurts with the effort.
After they get to the nurse and are checked over, Miyano reports the incident to the disciplinary committee and they take over reporting it to the school.
The other students from the committee sound shocked, there isn’t a ton of drama at this school and most students Miyano’s known have always gotten along. It’s rare that most of the student body is predominantly without harsh conflict, but it was a reason Miyano was so glad to find this school.
He heads home early with Kuresawa, the nurse recommending they both take it easy but there doesn’t appear to be any serious damage. They did say his lower side would hurt a great deal the next few days and to take pain killers.
Miyano accepts that nervously, knowing Sasaki will inevitably notice. He’ll try to keep it together until his exams are over. It’s only one week or so, but Sasaki will know right away if they spend any alone time together.
He blushes at the thought. Their relationship still feels new in a lot of ways. But he never wants to be a burden on Sasaki if he can avoid it, he wants their relationship to be a positive influence, especially now when everytime they talk it sounds like he will fall asleep near instantly.
They are supposed to meet up tomorrow for a date. He’ll figure it out.
…
Sasaki can’t help the grin that spreads across his face as Miyano approaches.
“Hey,” Miyano says, smiling.
“Mya-Chan.” He replies, unable to keep the affection out of his voice.
Their hands brush, a sign of affection. They don’t touch a lot in public, sustained by small touches and tokens of affection. But they make a point to stand close, shoulder brushing shoulder and hands brushing hands.
They stand outside a local cafe they’ve been frequenting when they don’t have enough time. They have two hours, and Sasaki plans to make the most of it by getting every update he can on how his Miyano is doing.
He misses seeing him everyday, but thankfully they almost always get more time on the weekends. Saturday is their next full day together and he already can’t wait.
They sit and order drinks and food. Miyano seems a little tense in the set of his shoulders. He places his hands on Miyano’s shoulders, gently guiding him into a seat.
“Did you have a long walk Mya-chan? You don’t look too comfortable, sit.”
“Sorry. You can read me pretty well.” Miyano’s face is red. His shoulders don’t lose their stiffness.
Sasaki smiles in reassurance, hoping to see Miyano’s ease into comfort as he always does when they finally talk.. “Of course.”
Their names are called for their items and when Miyano moves to get up Sasaki gently pushes him back into his seat and goes to bring their things over. Miyano’s discomfort doesn’t seem to wane and he winces slightly when he sits back down.
“Are you okay?” Sasaki says in concern. He feels uneasy, Miyano rarely looks so out of it.
“Yeah don’t worry I’m okay!” The smile that fills Miyano’s face is fake, that much is obvious. He nearly calls it out, but he knows they’ll talk when he’s ready. He goes to get their things and sits across from Miyano.
Miyano smiles again, shy this time, slightly more genuine.. “How is college? How are the classes?”
“They’re fine. Interesting, it’s different from high school. The work makes more sense and is… more practical. Well more practical except for the one professor.”
Miyano nods, he’s heard it before about this professor, “That makes sense. It’s the same professor giving you early tests right? Think you’re ready for exams?”
He groans theatrically, “Not at all, my professor is the kind who wants to grade solely on the results of a few tests a year, I need to study soon.”
“I can help you study when we are together this weekend, if you want.” Miyano offers. His shoulders relax slightly and the motion settles his own nervousness.
Sasaki leans forward, voice going low, “Of course. Though I’d rather we spend time on other things this weekend.”
Miyano splutters in embarrassment and Sasaki can’t help but laugh. He wants to reach across the table and ruffle Miyano’s hair, but he stops himself, reminding himself they are in public.
“I’m sad I haven’t been able to spend as much time with you, I heard there’s an anime now for the manga you lent me last month if you want to watch that together,” Sasaki says, knowing that Miyano’s passion for his hobby will cancel any embarrassment he feels.
“That…” Miyano starts. “That does sound nice. But I would be okay if we had a little alone time, it has been awhile since we’ve gotten to spend time together like that.”
Miyano’s surprised him, and he knows his own face must be red from warmth. He bows his head into the table to hide his expression.
“Uhh Shuumei?”
His first name still catches him off guard. He looks up, embarrassed to find those eyes looking at him in a way that spreads warmth through his chest.
He lifts his head and breathes. Hugging Miyano right now would be the ideal option, but he settles with a look of fondness instead.
“It’s a date,” He says with what he hopes is a confident tone.
“I look forward to it!”
They share a warm silence, and he wonders what they must look like as food is delivered to the table. Their gazes have been held for a while now, a knowing look that Sasaki doesn’t doubt others would identify easily.
He wants to hold Miyano’s hand, there’s no problem if he does so now. But they both still decide not to, whether he’s afraid of burdening Miyano or afraid of public reaction he’s not sure. Maybe a little of both. Maybe neither and he just hesitates because he wants to ask first.
He can’t wait for the weekend. When he can hold him unburdened. Sasaki thrives off of affection, physical touch puts him at ease in a certain way, often feeling anxious without that reassurance and knowledge Miyano accepts him.
It’s irrational, and he tries to suppress the urge to touch often, but it rears its head always in the unexpected times. Instead of grabbing Miyano’s hand, he settles for settling his leg against Miyano’s beneath the table, where no one would likely see or notice.
Miyano jumps but leans his leg into the touch as well, smiling as he does so. They eat their food comfortably after that, and Sasaki feels more at ease.
Sasaki asks about his recent manga finds, and he’s surprised when Miyano’s face doesn’t light up like normal. He’s still excited, having picked up something this week, but it’s the first time he notices that Miyano sounds slightly off.
“Are you okay, Mya-chan? I know I asked before but…”
Miyano looks like he’s been caught red handed, and Sasaki knows then he was right to ask.
“I’m okay.”
Sasaki isn’t the best read of people, but he knows it’s a lie. Miyano isn’t a good liar, but he understands the need to keep some stress to oneself, at least until it’s processed.
Adjusting his expression to convey he knows he’s lying is easy enough and Miyano starts to look nervous. “Really, I am okay. Just some stress, I had to go to the disciplinary committee this week.”
“Is everything okay? Why’d you have to do that?”
“There’s been some bullying, Kuresawa got outnumbered again but he’s fine.”
His eyes widen. Bullying, he’s grateful it was rarely an issue when he was in school.
“Did he start the fight again?” He asks, picturing Kuresawa’s monologue about his girlfriend.
“He started that last fight?”
Sasaki can’t help but laugh a little. “Sort of.”
“Yeah, sorry it was a little distracting.”
The tense set in his voice seems to leave with that. “No it’s okay don’t be sorry, that sounds unnerving to deal with. I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”
Now he can’t help it, he steals a touch, a quick brush of their fingers as he leans his hands forward. “If you need anything, I can be there, you know. Are you sure you are okay?”
“I know. Don’t worry, I’m fine. Kuresawa is fine too, it's just…unexpected.”
“That is stressful, if you need me-”
He’s cut off by a firm shake of the head, “No, I promise it's passed. I’m okay.”
“If you’re sure…” Sasaki says skeptically. There’s a knot of worry in his chest at the picture in his head, but he trusts Miyano, it's already passed. Maybe Kuresawa got on about his girlfriend again? “Can I buy you a manga on the way back?”
“You don’t have to do that!” Miyano’s voice goes up an octave. It's cute how flustered he is. Sasaki tilts his head at him, knowing there is a besotted grin on his face that he can’t seem to hold back.
“I want to, my treat.”
…
Miyano resumes the week with relatively no issue. The discipline committee chairman replies that they’ve received several complaints and the school is contemplating action, but nothing concrete yet. The news keeps Miyano on edge, he can’t focus on the manga he brings to school.
He doesn’t want to get punched again or end up in a fight. But it looks like It could easily go that way if he’s not careful. He gets threatening notes and looks in the halls. Kuresawa has encouraged them to buddy up, but they can’t buddy up all the time.
Rokuro, still the bully leader it seems, is furious, obviously seething in the halls anytime Miyano spots him.
There’s been three complaints against him so far from the disciplinary committee. So it’s not just him and Kuresawa, someone from Rokuro’s class has also come forward. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of the people with him when he was stealing.
The first day back goes mostly fine, nothing too unusual happens. Tuesday is filled with intimidating looks and stares. He’s nervous when he comes in on Wednesday and the first incident happens when someone corners Kuresawa outside while getting equipment for the Phys Ed. Thankfully there was a group of students nearby and he managed to escape with them.
They try the buddy system as best they can, even buddying with Tashiro when they can, but it doesn’t last long and as things get closer to the end of the day, they all realize they’ll have to split up.
Miyano is unfortunately alone when the school day ends and they break up for their club activities. He sits in the classroom for as long as possible, waiting as long as possible, knowing he will be late for club. If he’s gone long enough, they will go home, thinking they missed him.
He hopes Rokuro just goes home, but he realizes how unlucky he is when he walks down the hall and finds Rokuro and his buddies there to cut him off.
Making his footsteps as quiet as possible, he tries to go unnoticed. His stomach drops when they immediately start sprinting for him.
Miyano turns to go the other way, nearing a run, but Rokuro reaches him quickly.
“I told you, didn’t I?”