Chapter Text
The sun is barely peeking out behind the mountains and buildings of Amagasaki, Hyogo. Few people are out and about; there were the people who woke up early to tend to their shops, restocking and tidying up for the busy Monday ahead. Farmers in their fields tending to their crops and livestock. There were also the drunks trudging their way back home, swaying in the nonexistent strong winds as they walked.
And then, there was Suna Rintarou, jogging past those few people already out and about at 4 AM in the morning.
Turns out, no one can really say for sure how post-moving from one region to an entirely different one would affect someone.
Everybody’s different that way. Sometimes it’s like the entire earth has been thrown off its axis. Other times, one just realizes the amount of socks they actually own (and how many have lost their pair).
For Suna, it became increasingly obvious how much he slept better when he was living in Aichi.
It’s been less than a year since he moved to Hyogo Prefecture and Suna found out that it had its ups and downs; for example, he got to play for Inarizaki High School’s volleyball team. He also built an annoying sleep schedule that refused to let him sleep in. For some reason, no matter how late he went to sleep, he always woke up at 4 AM in the morning on the dot, way before his alarm. It’s annoying, but his body wouldn’t listen to him no matter what he does. On weekends, he gets a bit of leeway, waking up at 5 or 5:30 AM. But on weekdays, he wakes up at ungodly hours.
Suna woke up at 4:34 AM this morning, less than 2 hours before he needs to be at school for morning practice, which is 10 minutes away. Despite trying to go back to sleep, his circadian rhythm refused to cooperate with him, so he changed into some more running-appropriate clothes and took a jog around his neighborhood, a routine he developed since his first week here.
The surroundings are now more than familiar to him, and he can navigate his way around like the back of his hand now. Today seemed to be a good day, in his opinion; his head didn’t ache despite waking up so early, his running shoes don’t dig into his heels like before, and his stamina doesn’t seem to be draining that quickly.
Probably the most okay day he’s had this week, miraculously.
He begins jogging back to his apartment at 5 AM, a light sheen of sweat already sticking to his skin and running down his temple. The cold air hits his face, allowing him some relief from the heat that starts to build up as he jogs. When he gets back to his apartment complex, he greets the security guard situated by the entrance with a nod. He knows the man, and they’ve never spoken much but they get along just fine. The security guard returns his nod with one of his own as well as a polite “good morning” as Suna makes his way to the stairs, climbing all the way to the 5th floor.
He power walks to his apartment at a steady pace, stopping when he gets to apartment 508 and entering the home. “I’m home,” he calls out, untying his running shoes by the front door and placing them on the shoe rack. The apartment is dead silent, so Suna surmises that his mother and his little sister are still asleep. He makes a beeline for his room and takes a quick shower, changing into his uniform and fixing his things, before heading towards the kitchen to cook a simple breakfast.
The rustle in the kitchen as Suna starts to cook some eggs, ham, and rice wakes his mother up, the latter entering the kitchen with a loud yawn. “Good morning, Rintarou, dear.” She greets him with a wide but tired smile, her sleepier than usual hazel eyes crinkling at the corners. Her brown hair is a mess, and Suna finally realizes that she’s still wearing her nurse uniform from work. Suna frowns at this. Their mother works as a nurse at the local hospital, and she works overtime to make ends meet. She works too much, like a tireless cog in a machine, and she rarely ever comes home before midnight.
“How was your morning jog?”
“It was fine.” Suna replies, flipping the eggs as his mother takes a seat at the dining table, watching him cook.
“I’m glad to hear that. You’ve been doing a lot of those lately, haven’t you?” His mother comments, smiling softly. Suna shrugs and nods.
“Shouldn’t you change out of your work clothes, mom?” Suna asks her, turning his head just enough to see her shake her head as she waves her hand dismissively with a smile, sleepily leaning her chin on her other hand.
“I’ll change later, don’t worry about me, dear. Ah, can you get me a cup of coffee so my brain can wake up a bit more though?” His mother asks and Suna nods, doing as she says as he turns off the stove and pours the coffee into two mugs, handing one to his mother and placing the other on the table before plating the eggs, ham, and rice. “Thank you, Rin,” his mother says to him, exhaling in satisfaction after taking a sip of the coffee, “go wake your sister up now. You both have school today.”
“That is if she decides to get her ass out of bed.” Suna grumbles, rolling his eyes. His mother laughs as he walks off towards his little sister’s room down the hall. He raps his fingers on the door, closing his eyes to focus on any signs of movement behind the door. “Oi, Risumi, wake up.”
When he doesn’t hear anything, he sighs and opens the door, revealing the dark room. The blackout curtains block out the sunlight that tries streaming through the window and it takes Suna’s eyes a while to adjust. When they do, he sees a bundle of blankets on the bed and sighs again, much louder this time, before he walks over to the curtains and–with one swift move–pulls them back to let the sunlight in, bathing the room in light within seconds. In response, Risumi groans at the sudden influx of light in the room, and Suna watches as she pulls the covers over her head in annoyance. “Wakey wakey, eggs and–whatever, we’re gonna be late, Risumi.” Suna says to her, poking her side.
Risumi groans again and swats Suna’s hand away, scooting away from him. “Shut up… five more minutes.” She grunts, burying her face further into the pillow. Suna huffs.
“Five minutes is five minutes too many.”
“Don’t care. Leave.”
Suna raises an unimpressed eyebrow at Risumi, crossing his arms. “I’m giving you five to get up, then.”
“Five what?” Risumi grunts, not in the mood for her brother’s antics.
“Five, four, three…” Suna trails off as he grabs hold of Risumi’s blankets and, unceremoniously, tears them away from her, leaving her vulnerable to the brightness of the room.
“RINTAROU!” She screeches, sitting straight up as she stares at Suna with an annoyed expression. Suna just smirks and shrugs, walking off to the door.
“Get dressed, breakfast is ready.” He says.
“Mm. Food.” Risumi grumbles sleepily, finally swinging her legs over the edge of the bed as she stretches.
Suna leaves and goes back to the dining table, Risumi coming out of her room after a few minutes in her middle school uniform and her brown hair in the usual low pigtails. “Good morning, sweetie!” Their mother greets her, smiling brightly.
“Morning, Ma. How’d you sleep?” Risumi asks her, to which their mother chuckles.
“Slept like a baby!” She says, giving her a thumbs up (Risumi frowns). “Come on, come on, let’s eat! It’s so rare that I get to eat breakfast with my babies!”
Suna and Risumi silently eat their breakfast as their mother chatters on, asking them about school and gossiping about her coworkers. The two listen as they finish their meal, the warmth of the food filling their stomachs. When they finish and start standing up, their mother perks up, setting her mug down.
“Ah, stay safe on your way to school, okay? And don’t forget to greet your father before you leave.” She says, smiling gently but the mirth doesn’t exactly meet her eyes.
Despite that, Suna nods at her, him and Risumi making their way to the living room after saying goodbye. In the corner of the living room, a small table sits with a photograph on its tabletop amidst flowers, a man with dark hair and yellowish-gray eyes behind dark-rimmed glasses smiling in the image.
Suna and Risumi kneel down in front of the photograph, bowing. It’s routine; every morning, before they leave for school, they bid their father goodbye.
At the same time, the siblings stand up and Risumi makes a beeline for the door, to which Suna sighs. He pauses and looks back at the photograph of their father before following his little sister out the door.
“Risumi, don’t walk too far ahead of me.”
No matter how much Suna chastises her, Risumi ignores him, continuing to walk ahead of him by seven paces. Shaking his head, Suna sighs, rubbing a hand against his face. It’s not unusual for Risumi to show him attitude; she’s been like this since they moved to Hyogo. Suna would just appreciate it if she would just stop for five seconds before she gets hit by a car.
“Risumi, oi.” Suna calls out again but Risumi keeps a brisk pace ahead of him, hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket. Suna sighs for the nth time today. Is it really normal for 13 year olds to be this bratty? (Then again, thinking back, Suna was the exact same way.)
After a while, they arrive at Kitsuhana Middle School. Suna stays back at the entrance while Risumi marches inside. “Take care, bye.” Suna calls after her, and when Risumi ignores him again, he narrows his eyes at her attitude. “Risumi, goodbye.” He says again, a little louder. "Risumi."
Risumi sighs in exasperation. “Yeah, yeah, bye.” She throws over her shoulder, not even properly turning her head to look at Suna properly.
Suna stands there for a couple of seconds before digging into his backpack with a straight face, feeling around until he finds his phone. It doesn't take long for him to find the one video he needs and he plays it at max volume.
Soon enough, the sounds of 5 year old Risumi crying "Daycare is scary!" and "I want to stay with Rintarou!!" fill the air and Risumi stops in her tracks, her face morphing into mortification as she slowly turns around to face her menace of a brother.
A couple of her schoolmates have stopped to see what's going on (some of them commenting on Suna's tall height and good looks). Risumi flushes red with both embarrassment and anger, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as the video continues to play in Suna's hand.
"Rintarou. Please stop the video." She says, stomping her foot.
"Nope."
"Rin!"
"Not until you say 'Bye-bye, Rin-Rin'." Suna shoots back in a baby voice, waving his hand as if saying bye-bye. If there's one thing that everyone knows about Suna, it's that he would rather buy more storage with his own allowance than to delete any of the embarrassing videos he has of the people he knows, whether that be Risumi or the Miya twins. He could easily make a "Top 50 Miya Twins Fight" compilation, or even upload "Unreleased Footage of Miya Twin Brawl circa last week" if he found the motivation to.
Risumi groans and clenches her fist. "B—bye-bye, Rin-Rin." She grumbles, gritting her teeth.
"Can't hear you."
"Bye-bye, Rin-Rin, now stop the video!" Risumi shouts, stomping her feet once more as even the tips of her ears turn red from humiliation. "And delete it, you ass!"
"Nope, don't think I will." Suna says but he stops the video anyway, pocketing his phone again. "Love ya, sis!"
"Shut!"
When Suna got to Inarizaki’s school grounds, the almost zero amount of students already there didn’t really surprise him. It’s not a common sight to see the school look borderline deserted (if it weren’t for the janitors and staff already there) and it feels eerie at first, but at this point, Suna is used to this environment. Hey, at least it’s quiet.
“Rinnie~!”
He should have suspected something when it was beginning to get too quiet. Suna grunts when something– someone –collides with his side with enough force to not tackle him to the ground but just enough to make him stumble a bit. Long thin arms wrap around his waist as a soft cheek nuzzles against his shoulder. Suna closes his eyes for a second, not really in the mood to deal with this so early in the morning but looks over at the figure anyway.
“Yer so mean to me.” The girl whines at him, staring up at Suna with a pout on her pink lips. “I didn’t hear from ya fer the entire weekend!” It is none other than Mamura Erika, a second year highschooler from class 2-4; considered as one of the prettiest girls in Inarizaki. And really, who wouldn't? Long blonde hair and amicable green eyes, a kind yet bubbly personality. Not to mention the fact that since she is not in any club, she helps out in every way she can.
Not to mention the other fact that she’s also Suna’s girlfriend of almost two weeks. It was a spontaneous relationship, after Erika confessed to Suna after one of their practice matches. In all honesty, he just accepted her confession on a whim; he was bored. He doesn’t think of himself entirely as an asshole, but sometimes, he’s just a dick.
“I’m sorry, I was busy with practice and uh–homework.” Suna says, peeling Erika off of him and holding her shoulders as he tilts his chin down at her. Erika just pouts up at him, raising an eyebrow. A pretty face and an adorable pout enough to make any guy at school bend backwards to satisfy her whims but to Suna, it just makes him sigh. If she’s hurt by him abruptly pulling her away from him, she doesn’t let it show on her face.
“Ya always say yer busy!” She says, placing her hands on her hips as she furrowed her eyebrows at the taller boy, green eyes narrowing with irritation. “Ya practice so much on school days that the weekend is the only time I can speak to ya–at minimum!”
It’s true, to be honest.
“I’m sorry,” Suna sighs, running a hand through his dark hair, “I’ll make it up to you, okay? I’m just busy with practice with Interhigh coming up. I can take you out on a date after..”
Erika grows quiet at that, her shoulders stiffening for a split second. Surprisingly, two weeks is enough to know at least a little bit about a person. And Suna can be observant when he wants to, to take notice of the way Erika's gaze became slightly downcast for a split second, the way she bit the inside of her cheek, and the way her feet shuffled beneath her, all as if pensive.
But before Suna could say anything more, Erika smiles up at him, scratching her cheek with her index finger. "Ah, right, okay. But, uhm, can we meet up at lunch?" She asks, wringing her hands.
Suna raises an eyebrow at this. It's not that unusual for Erika to ask to spend time with him. However, she had never asked to meet up at lunch before (her go-to is bouncing up to him at the front of classroom 2-1 with her bento box in her hands).
He doesn't comment on it, however, and just shrugs at her. "Sure."
Erika smiles and hugs his arm lovingly. "Thanks, darlin'!" She says, green eyes twinkling.
It would have been an annoying moment turned peaceful if it weren't for a certain set of twins deciding to interrupt.
"Ew. Lovebirds, it's too early fer PDA!"
Suna turns to see Atsumu cringing in faux disgust as he walks over to the two of them, Osamu following close behind.
"I think it's good for a relationship. Healthy bonding." Erika retorts, hugging Suna's arm tighter as she turns her nose up at Atsumu.
"Sure, blondie, but don't do it where anyone can see the two of ya!" Atsumu shoots back and Osamu rolls his eyes.
"Ya idiot, ya do know the P in PDA means public, right?" Osamu interjects, giving Atsumu an unimpressed look.
On cue, the blond's face turns a deep shade of red and he puffs out his chest in a way that is highly familiar to anyone who knows him.
"Yes, I do know what it means!" Atsumu shrieks indignantly at Osamu, who rolls his eyes to the sky once again. "Stop callin' me an idiot when yer a bigger idiot than me!"
"Still an idiot."
"YA SHUT YER TRAP!"
Suna whips out his phone in record speed, immediately filming the bickering match that evolves into a borderline brawl between the two twins. Erika watches with narrow eyes, her gaze flitting between her boyfriend and the Miya twins, before laughing nervously. "Well, I'll see ya at lunch then, darlin'." She says to Suna.
"Hm? Yeah, sure."
Erika frowns but doesn't say anything else, quietly slipping away.
Suna doesn’t notice but Osamu does, partially loosening his chokehold on Atsumu when he realizes that the other blonde is gone. “Oi, Suna, aren’t ya gonna walk yer girlfriend to her homeroom?” He asks Suna, and Atsumu stops his struggling to look around as well.
“Huh, Mamura didn’t even say bye to us.” Atsumu says, looking around and Osamu tightens his chokehold again, hitting the top of the former’s head with his fist.
“That’s because she doesn’t like yer ugly face.”
“We share the same face, ya scrub!”
“Can you, like, adjust a bit? I can’t get your faces in the same angle.”
Lunch comes around and so does Erika, bounding up to Suna with a smile and a sway to her hips. Her blonde hair is in a ponytail this time, swaying from side to side behind her. “Rinnie~! Did ya miss me?” She asks, hugging Suna’s arm once again. Osamu snickers as Suna's face flushes with slight embarrassment at the nickname and the former waves them off.
"See ya at lunch, 'Rinnie'."
"I'm going to hit you with a volleyball later."
Erika frowns, pursing her lips as her grip loosens on his arm. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Suna asks Erika, looking down at her with his usual bored expression. The blonde flinches but tries to hide it with a smile as she gently grabs Suna's hand.
"Can we go somewhere more private?"
Suna raises an eyebrow at first but lets Erika lead him to the back of the school anyway, the afternoon sun beating down on the both of them. They can still hear the chatter of students from outside and inside the building, but other than that, it's quiet. Not a single soul nearby.
It's confusing why Erika would want to suddenly talk in an inconspicuous spot like this, but Suna waits for her to talk first, hands shoved into his pockets as he keeps quiet.
He eyes her up and down, watching her behavior change to how she was earlier; shoulders tense, head down, feet shuffling under her—
“Suna,” Erika says, wringing her hands, her shoulders tense, her gaze downcast, “I don’t think this is going to work anymore.”