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“Come on, Michinari! How long does it take ta pick a bus seat?!” Atsumu whined, then hiked up his leg to dig the toe of his sneaker into Michinari’s left buttcheek. “Here’s your ass! Now plant it somewhere!”
“Ah! Leave me alone, Atsumu!” the libero whined, jumping forward at the unwelcome sensation of Atsumu prodding his behind with his foot. “We’re gonna be on this bus for almost seven hours, you know! I just wanna pick a seat where I’ll be comfortable!” he protested with a pout.
“It’s a charter bus. They’re all equally comfortable or uncomfortable, depending on your feelings about bus seats,” Hitoshi sniffed from behind Atsumu.
“Exactly! Now hurry up and pick a seat, before I put ya in one!” Atsumu cried. He gave Michinari a firm nudge in the rear end.
“Uwahh… Now I’m gonna be uncomfortable regardless, thanks to you bruising my bottom with your big ol’ foot,” Michinari sniffled petulantly while rubbing his rear end. Not eager to face more of Atsumu’s unkind treatment, he hastily clambered into the nearest seat.
“About damn time!” Atsumu huffed, then slammed his foot down hard against the floor of the bus with a resounding thomp!
The loud stomp made the headache pounding behind Rintarō’s right eye throb fiercely, sending white-hot tendrils of pain spiderwebbing across his face. He pressed the heel of his palm into his eye with a scowl, then shot Atsumu a thunderous glare.
“Do you have to be so loud, especially this early in the morning?” he griped. “God, if I’m gonna have to listen to your screaming for the next seven hours, someone just do me a favor and knock me out.”
Rintarō was the furthest thing from a “morning person” as one could get, so waking up at the ungodly hour of six a.m. to catch the bus to Tokyo already had him grumpy. Rintarō had barely managed to drag himself to the entrance of the high school on time; literally everyone else got there before him, and the bus came trundling into the parking lot not three seconds later. Atsumu had taken it upon himself to yell at him for nearly being late, filling the otherwise tranquil early-morning air with his screeching like the world’s most demented rooster. And he hadn’t stopped squawking since.
“Eh? Whuzzat? Ya wanna piece o’ me, Suna-Rin?!” Atsumu bristled, returning Rintarō’s scathing glare with an irritated scowl. Before Rintarō could respond, Atsumu was jumping nearly a foot in the air with a high-pitched yelp.
“Oi. Practice what ya preach. You’re holding up the line,” Osamu deadpanned, completely stone-faced despite the fact he had the toe of his foot buried in his twin’s buttcrack. “I’ve kindly pointed out your ass for you, so stick it somewhere before I shove my foot in a place the sun don’t shine. While you’re at it, quiet down. Like Rintarō says, it’s way too early for yer crap.”
“Uwaaaah… So mean, ‘Samu…” Atsumu whined, but obediently clambered into the nearest seat before his brother could make good on his threat. He winced as he sat down on the seat, and Rintarō couldn’t help but smirk. Every once in a while, the twins’ antics worked out well for him. And poor Michinari had been vindicated, too. Rintarō would call that an all-around win.
“Keep smirkin’ all ya want, but if ya give me attitude, you’ll find yerself in the same boat,” Osamu warned before plopping down into the seat beside him. He slumped into it with a weary sigh.
“Not a morning person, either?”
“Nah, it ain’t that. ‘Tsumu was so excited last night that he couldn’t sleep, and he decided to—” Osamu cut off with a long, drawn-out yawn, then rubbed at his eyes with a sleepy grimace.
“Ugh, sorry. He decided to make it everybody else’s problem. I thought our momma was gonna skin him alive.”
“If he keeps his shit up, I just might,” Rintarō huffed, tipping his head back to squint resentfully at Atsumu over the back of the seat. He was behaving himself for now, having busied himself with a handheld videogame. Rintarō hoped he was playing something he didn’t suck at, else it wouldn’t be long before his angry cursing would be their road trip radio. Any attempt to “change the channel” would likely result in more of Atsumu’s squawking.
“Just do it quietly. I’m taking a nap,” Osamu huffed as he crossed his arms and made himself comfortable in the bus seat.
Rintarō chuckled quietly at the notion of quietly skinning someone alive, but decided not to respond. Osamu was clearly very tired; no sooner than he had tucked his chin against his chest, his breathing began to slow and his body began to grow lax. Sleepy Osamu was grumpy enough; Rintarō didn’t think he wanted to contend with the guy being dragged out of his much-needed sleep. He might end up the one being skinned alive instead, and he would like to keep his skin, thank you very much.
The hum of conversation clouding the bus gradually evaporated as everyone settled into their own ways to pass the time. Some took a page from Atsumu’s book and played videogames; others scrolled mindlessly on their phones. He could hear Shinsuke and Aran playing the alphabet game up front, trying to spy words on the passing billboards and cars that began with each letter. A good two-thirds of the group shared Rintarō’s disdain for the early rise; they lounged in their seats in various states of wakefulness, ranging from simply resting with their eyes closed to light catnaps to full-on deep sleep—limbs splayed and liable to fall out of the seat at any moment, in Yūto’s case.
As much as Rintarō would like to join them, he’d never been able to fall asleep just anywhere, especially in moving vehicles. The ambient noise and uncomfortable contortions of his body in a vain effort for comfort were just too distracting to ignore. Thus, he busied himself with watching the scenery roll by; eventually, his brain would be awake enough to entertain himself with his phone or something, but right now, he could only handle the idle stimulation of the moving landscape.
“Hmm hmm hmmmmm… Hmm hmm hmmmm…”
Rintarō wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a sudden but soft humming noise pulled him out of his trance-like appreciation of the moving scenery. His mind had basically shut down, so it took him several seconds to process where it was coming from: right next to him. He looked blearily at Osamu, who was still very much unconscious beside him, and slowly came to the logical conclusion.
He’s singing in his sleep?
“Hmm hmm hmm hmmmmm hmmmm…” Osamu continued to hum quietly under his breath. There was a sleep-laden drawl to the sounds, and they were interrupted by Osamu’s deep, long breaths; the guy was definitely still fast asleep. Rintarō waved a hand in front of the boy’s face to make sure; the guy didn’t even twitch. As Rintarō swiped a hand through his hair, he found his fingertips trembling.
Rintarō had heard of sleep-talking, but sleep-singing was a phenomenon that had his brain spinning—especially because the song Osamu seemed to be humming sounded eerily familiar. Way too familiar. In fact, it should be a song that Osamu could never, ever know, unless—
Could Osamu be my soulmate?
It sure sounded like it. After all, how else would Osamu know the tune of the song that existed only in the depths of Rintarō’s heart—an inherent music that he had known since before he could recognize what music was—unless it existed in his heart, too?
It felt like all the moisture in Rintarō’s mouth had been instantly wicked away, making him nervously swipe his tongue over his bottom lip over and over again. He could only stare uncomfortably at Osamu, and each broken hum made the ball of dread in the pit of Rintarō’s stomach that much heavier. Calm down. He needed to calm down, and think. It was early; he didn’t think clearly when it was early. Maybe it wasn’t his soulmate song; maybe his tired brain was just making it sound like—
“Hmm hmm hmm… Hmm hmmmmm hmmm… ”
Fuck, that was Rintarō’s soulmate song! There was no doubt about it!
As if things couldn’t get any worse, Atsumu decided now was a good time to grow bored of his videogame and thus sought entertainment from elsewhere—namely, Rintarō.
“Heh, I see ya found out that ‘Samu hums in his sleep,” the blond grinned as he popped over the edge of the seat, propping his head on his elbows and looking down at his sleeping twin in amusement. “Ain’t it cute?”
“Tch. Why should I feel any sort of way about it?” Rintarō grumbled evasively. He pulled up a random social media app to both escape Atsumu’s pestering and try to calm his whirling mind, but no amount of mindless scrolling was going to distract him from the undeniable truth:
Osamu Miya was his soulmate. And Rintarō would be sitting next to him for hours.
“Aw, don’t be like that, Suna-Rin!” Atsumu whined. “It’s not just any old song he hums, yanno. It’s his soulmate song!”
Rintarō had surmised that already, but it still felt like the falling of a hammer stroke. He bit down hard on his lip, but thankfully, Atsumu was too busy bothering his brother to notice.
“I keep tellin’ ‘im that he should fall asleep in random places an’ see if his soulmate stumbles along!” Atsumu snickered, batting playfully at Osamu’s bangs. Despite the hair flopping around in his face and eyes, Osamu dozed peacefully on. “Wouldn’t that be funny?”
“Yeah… Funny,” Rintarō muttered distantly. He was too busy trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do about this unexpected revelation to listen to Atsumu ramble.
“I don’t really care much about it, but ‘Samu’s always goin’ on about findin’ his soulmate, yanno. He’s always trollin’ online for tips to findin’ his soulmate, but he gets shy and clams up before he can ever try ‘em out! He’s secretly a romantic at heart, but he’ll never get anywhere if he don’t make a move, I’m always tellin’ him…”
Rintarō liked Osamu well enough. No more than the next guy, he’d thought up until now. But was he subconsciously attracted to Osamu? He liked to hang out with him. He honestly preferred him to most of the other members of the team, not because he disliked everyone else, of course. He just… clicked with Osamu, in a way that he didn’t click with anyone else. But did that mean he liked Osamu? Or were they just close friends? Ugh, it was way too early to be having a relationship crisis!
“The early bird gets the worm, Suna-Rin~” Atsumu trilled suddenly, snapping Rintarō out of his spiralling thoughts. He glanced up just in time to see the boy duck back behind the bus seat, snickering to himself. It was all so cryptic and surreal that Rintarō momentarily wondered if he’d ended up falling asleep and just dreamed the bizarre exchange.
He didn’t have much time to ponder it, because Osamu began to stir.
“Damn ‘Tsumu and his loud mouth,” Osamu grumbled as he rolled his head up and cracked a bleary eye open. He rubbed at the other with the heel of his palm. “I was catching such a good nap, too… He had to go and ruin it with all his yapping…” He yawned, then sat up while stretching his arms above his head. He glanced at Osamu, presumably to say something, but he stopped short to instead ask, “Hey, are you okay? You look kinda…” Not sure quite what word to use, he just gestured vaguely at Rintarō.
The early bird gets the worm, Suna-Rin! Atsumu’s words rang hollowly in Rintarō’s head. Ah. The truth must have shown on his face, and that made the entire conversation make more sense now. Damn Atsumu. He was always meddling in people’s love lives like this. But, given that his twin brother was involved in this little early morning drama, Rintarō supposed that he could give Atsumu a pass just this once.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t irritated. Atsumu was playing nice and giving him a graced period, but there was no doubt that the entire team would know that Osamu and Rintarō were soulmates before they arrived in Tokyo. Rintarō should spare himself an awkward situation and just rip off the band-aid.
Besides, all he was doing was telling Osamu they were soulmates. They didn’t have to decide anything right now. That thought steeled his resolve a little bit; he took a deep breath to steady himself, then murmured clumsily, “So… You… You hum in your sleep?”
“Tch. Is that what that was all about?” Osamu grumbled with a reproachful glare at the bus seat in front of them, behind which Atsumu was probably curled up, snickering to himself as he eavesdropped. “It’s not like I keep it a secret, but Atsumu already told ya, so why deny it? Yeah, I sing my soulmate song in my sleep. I’ve done it since I was a baby, apparently.”
“I, uh… I hum mine in the shower.” Rintarō cringed at how painfully dumb that sounded, then cringed again when Osamu turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He’d never been the most eloquent person, but this would probably go on the record for the most awkward conversation that Rintarō had ever had. And it was a pretty darn important one, he reckoned, which made it so much worse. Osamu could no doubt sense Rintarō’s discomfort, and he prayed that the guy would just figure it out instead of making him suffer through the agony of trying to spit it out.
Thank God one of the Miyas got the brain cells. Rintarō could literally see the realization dawn on him, and he fleetingly wondered if that’s what Atsumu had seen happen on his face because it would definitely be obvious enough to prompt Atsumu’s gleeful interloping. Osamu’s eyes blew wide, his mouth fell open, and his cheeks flushed pink. He stared at Rintarō for what was probably only a couple of seconds, but it felt like millenia to Rintarō, who could only squirm uncomfortably and wait for Osamu to speak.
After a dreadfully long time, Osamu finally managed to regain his wits. He clamped his mouth shut to clear his throat, then meekly asked, “Are you saying that, uh, you’re—we’re—”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.” It wasn’t an unhappy “oh.” Maybe Rintarō was kidding himself, but he daresay it actually sounded a little happy, rather. It was definitely warranted; this wasn’t like all the stories, where two strangers discovered they were soulmates in some marvelous meet-cute worthy of a movie. Apparently, no one had much advice on what to do when you found out one of your good friends was your soulmate instead. Rintarō was at least relieved to see that Osamu was just as discomfited by it as he was. But it definitely couldn’t go on like this. Tension, Rintarō needed to break the tension.
“So, uh… I can’t really sleep in moving vehicles,” he started awkwardly, and Osamu finally stopped averting his gaze to cock a brow at him. “N-now that you're awake… I have a pair of earbuds. Wanna, uh… Listen to music or watch videos or something?”
It was a lame offer. Osamu had his own cellphone, and probably his own earbuds, too. But that wasn’t the point. Osamu knew that, and as he smiled softly, it pulled an equally gentle one onto Rintarō’s face. Osamu nodded, then scooched closer to Rintarō while the latter fished his earbuds out of his pocket. Osamu reached for the one he offered, and their fingertips brushed, just barely.
The early bird gets the worm, eh? Rintarō thought, his smile widening. He’d always hated getting up early, but… just this once, he was a little grateful for it. There was just that much more time to spend with Osamu now… that much more time to enjoy with his soulmate.