Chapter Text
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
There's a fox in Kiyoomi's room.
He woke up in the middle of the night, thinking he needed water maybe but no – the noise woke him up. He blinked in the dark room as he sat up, rubbing his eyes, when he saw the shadow move quickly. He froze for a while, listening carefully ; he was positively sure he saw something. So he lighted up his bedside lamp, fast, and the creature froze too. Soon it looked at him, only his head and eyes moving, as if Kiyoomi's vision was based on movement.
Kiyoomi had frowned, looked to his right – but Motoya's bed was empty.
There shouldn't have been a fox in the room. He was in the middle of Tokyo, attending a training camp for high school promising volleyball players, and there was no forest around, nothing for a fox to spawn from.
Why was Motoya's bed empty anyway ?
Ah, yes – the unauthorized party. Gather teenagers under the same roof and expect them to quietly go to bed at nine.
Kiyoomi did.uh_j
The rest of them? Not so much. He wonders where they went, if they had been caught yet, but the corridor seems silent, so probably not.
That leaves him alone in the room, with the fox who still hasn't moved. He blinks again. What is he supposed to do ?
He slowly gets out of the covers, trying not to scare the animal. The fox watches carefully but doesn't move still, at least until Kiyoomi carefully approaches him with his volleyball jersey. When he's just a few inches away, the fox yelps and dashes through the room. Kiyoomi swallows his stupor and tries to chase it. He's making a ruckus but somehow doesn't knock anything over, and after a while Kiyoomi manages to throw his jersey on the beast and trap him like this. The fox grunts and growls and struggles while Kiyoomi rolls him up inside his jersey like he's some weird kind of spring roll. In the end the fox's paws are completely stuck in the cloth, and only his face sticks out. He cries and growls when Kiyoomi's face gets closer to observe it.
« Hey. Hey. » Kiyoomi gently breathes, trying to appease the animal somehow, petting his butt through the cloth, careful to stay away from its fangs. « It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. Where do you even come from ? »
The low growl settles in the back of the fox's throat as it watches his lips as he speaks.
« Where am I supposed to release you ? »
He cautiously lifts the rolled fox, carrying him and still making sure his mouth isn't anywhere close as he looks around, searching for an idea, a solution.
« How did you even get inside ? »
Sure, they are on the first floor, and the window might have been loose for Motoya to easily come back, but what kind of outside animal gets inside a building like that in the middle of the night ? Except, of course, mosquitoes.
Kiyoomi sighs – he didn't want to slip out and ignored the invitation to the party, so why did he end up in such an unbelievable situation ?
The fox fidgets in his jersey, and whines. He unconsciously pets it more, careful to touch the cloth only. He's never had a pet and isn't sure foxes like to be petted. He simply hopes this one has no fleas, nor any kind of diseased wildlife can carry. It seemed in a good shape, with pretty, shiny fur, but you can never know. His nose scrunches as he climbs through the window. There can't be woods nearby for the fox to live in, but there's a park. It takes Kiyoomi a while to sneak out and avoid the main avenues to reach the park, and it might be one in the morning when he does. He carefully unties the fox-roll and steps back.
« Go, go ! » He whispers as the fox jumps on its feet and dashes through the bushes.
He waits for a little while to be sure it has gone far away, then traces his steps back.
Motoya still hasn't come back when he does. He almost coats himself in sanitizer, knowing he has to wait for morning to access the showers. The thought almost makes him throw up.
It takes him an eternity to fall back asleep.
When morning comes, Motoya wears dark circles under his eyes and a smile on his lips, and Kiyoomi is disoriented by his very, very weird dream.
He forgets about it once he has showered under burning water.
There is a fox in Kiyoomi's room.
It's the second time he attends the camp, and the second time it happens. This year, unfortunately, he wasn't paired with Motoya. He's glad his roommate decided to attend the famous « unauthorized party », getting some space for himself and enjoying the prospect of a clean, tidy room.
That is, until midnight chimes, and a shuffle makes him open his eyes and turn on the bedside lamp.
There's a fox in his room.
Kiyoomi stares at it, and the fox stares back, an impression of déjà vu floating in the room. Except, this time, the fox is sitting, wide honey eyes carefully watching him as he sits. Kiyoomi frowns and rubs his eyes. When he looks back at the creature, the fox wags its tail.
« What the hell ? » Kiyoomi grunts in a whisper.
The fox stands up and trots to the bed, sitting again once he's next to it, and tilts its head at him. Is it the same fox he saw one year prior ? Is he having a similar dream ?
« What do you want ? » He asks, unsure.
People say dreams have a meaning. He should look up what it means to dream about foxes. He sighs when he gets up, looking for his jersey to catch the animal ; but the fox jumps on his bed and stretches. He almost screams in unsanitary pain.
« No ! » He blurts out before whispering again. « No, what do you think you're doing ? Get down ! Ew, gross. »
The fox' ears go down and he gets down, snout almost grazing the floor. It looks sad. Kiyoomi doesn't get it. He frowns again, watching as the fox whines softly before carefully nosing his pajama pants.
« Wait... You want to... Sleep here ? »
He crouches down, and the fox doesn't move. They stare at each other. The fox's fur seems clean and groomed, and he isn't drooling or showing signs of uneasiness. He's probably healthy. Should Kiyoomi let him sleep in the room ? What can he risk if this is a dream ?
« Fine. But you don't get to be under the covers. Take it or leave it. »
He must sound crazy, talking to a fox like that, but since this is a dream, he can't bring himself to care. The fox seems to understand – of course, dreams are easy like that – and jumps back on the bed. It waits for Kiyoomi to settle back, burying himself under the covers and turning off the lamp. Then it rolls up over the blanket, head resting on Kiyoomi's hip. It takes a deep, pleasured inhale, and soon his breathing evens.
Kiyoomi isn't surprised when he wakes up and the fox is nowhere to be seen. His roommate doesn't mention it either.
He needs to look up what it means to dream about foxes.
It's his third year of high school, and third time attending the youth camp. And there's a fox in Kiyoomi's room.
He's not even surprised this time, when the rustling near the window wakes him up. In the shadow of the night, he sees the silhouette of the fox jumping down. Except the fox staggers when it lands. Kiyoomi turns on the light, worried. The animal seems to be limping when it trots to his bed.
Kiyoomi quickly leaves the warmth of his covers and kneels next to it.
« What happened ? » He asks, as if the fox was gonna answer him.
He looks to the bed on the other side of the room. His roommate of the year, Miya, is nowhere to be seen. Of course. He must have attended the (now traditional) party, as insufferable as he can be (Kiyoomi must admit he's surprised he got invited – well, surprised both of them were, actually). He focuses back on the fox, who is definitely limping, ears flat on its head as it lays down and places its head upon Kiyoomi's knee. It sighs, the end of its tail waving weakly, and closes its eyes.
« Hey, no. You're not sleeping like this. » Kiyoomi mumbles.
He picks up the fox – its fur is smooth as silk, he notices since it's the first time he actually touches it directly – and goes back to the bed with it.
« Let me see. »
The fox watches him but lets him manipulate it as he grabs the limping paw and checks on it. There's a patch of dirty fur, right at the junction of its waist and thigh, and Kiyoomi can notice droplets of dried blood here and there around. He carefully brushes a finger over it and the fox yelps and kicks in response.
« Sorry. Sorry. It's not deep. How did you get hurt ? » The brunet asks, meeting the fox's gaze.
Of course he doesn't get any answer. He leaves the bed and shuffles through his travel bag, finding a clean towel, antiseptic and bandages along with saline solution. Is it safe for animals ? He knows saline is, but what about antiseptic ?
He picks the fox up once again, and curiously the animal doesn't struggle. It tries to find a more comfortable position in his arms, and stop fidgeting when he gets to rest his snout along Kiyoomi's shoulder, his long whiskers tickling his neck. Kiyoomi opens the door and checks for any noise or silhouette in the corridor. When he's sure no one is here, he quietly strolls to the nearest bathroom, constantly listening in case someone walks up on him. He doesn't need to get caught like this, be it by an adult or another teenager.
He places the fox in one of the basins and starts cautiously cleaning the dried blood and dirty fur, the fox occasionally whining when he taps on the bruised skin.
« Sorry. » Kiyoomi apologizes with a soft voice every time it happens.
He disinfects the wound then, earning a new kick and a yelp followed by tiny whines, but the fox remains still under his care.
« I know. It won't sting for long, I promise. »
At last Kiyoomi dresses the wound as best he can – he's used to tapping fingers or body parts, not fox's paws. Once he's done, he smiles at the tired fox and pets its head before he's even thinking about what he's doing.
« You did great. All done now. It should get better soon. Let's go back to sleep, shall we ? »
The fox nudges his hand and happily waves its tail, and Kiyoomi realizes he might have liked getting a pet, though he always said he never saw the appeal of it.
He shakes his head to let the thought go, and lifts up the fox, quietly leaving the bathroom, careful of his surroundings to go back to his room in silence.
He pushes the door open – Miya hasn't made it back yet, luckily – and puts back his stuff in his bag before slipping inside his bed, the fox coiled up against his chest.
When he wakes up, Miya is snoring in his bed on the other side of the room, limbs displayed all across the covers like some kind of sea star, and the fox is nowhere to be seen.
Still, Kiyoomi feels like it felt too real to be a dream.
Kiyoomi goes to college, as surprising as it might sound knowing he already had quite a number of propositions in the professional volleyball world. But his parents are... Worried he might not get very far in life without a degree, so he does.
As his college years pass, he doesn't dream (?) about the fox anymore.
He is not disappointed. It was to expect. He looked it up, and most dreams about foxes are interpreted as danger or something like having enemies close by. It just means he did the right thing choosing college over going pro immediately. It might mean he didn't feel like he belonged with his old team. It might mean he felt like being trapped during youth camp, where his dreams about the fox happened.
He is not disappointed.
College life goes smoothly – as smoothly as a college life can be. Kiyoomi is sleep-deprived, sagging under the weight of his dues assignments, having trouble maintaining a healthy life when he gives so much of his energy to volleyball because he doesn't want his classes and homework to affect volleyball.
Fuck « smoothly ». Kiyoomi has had enough of it and only wants out.
He still goes all the way and graduates. The reward ? Most of Japan's best V1 teams scouting him – so many, actually, he doesn't know which one to choose.
He is tired and has to make his choice before he even gets to rest after three long years of boring studies and on-going burnout.
Fuck his life.
He flips a coin – MSBY it is.