Chapter Text
Sakura has been fidgety lately. Nirei noticed he would sometimes breathe out of his nose out loud, maybe bounce his leg a couple of times before he stopped. His face would even scowl at the thought of something, in his own world not paying attention to the animatic conversation in the group.
Suo has taken it upon himself to tease Sakura about his new little quirks like he gets paid for it. This of course encourages the others to poke fun at them as well. Sakura could only glare, and bark back before threatening them that he’ll have them beat up by sundown.
But they all know he doesn’t actually mean it.
So that begs the question. What’s bothering Sakura so much?
Nirei took it upon himself to ask Sakura these past few days, “Sakura-san, if something’s stressing you maybe we can help.” , “What’s gotten so worried, Sakura-san?” and other similar questions.
Sakura would only give a grunt before shouting that there wasn’t anything wrong with him. Nirei would beg to differ otherwise. Why was he anxious all of a sudden? Always having a distant look in his eyes, quiet as if thinking of something that caused all the fidget quirks to suddenly appear.
It didn’t seem like the Sakura everyone has come to know, someone who’s loud,observing his classmate, listening to Kiryuu or Tsugeura talk but not contributing. Sure he was distant but not like this! If anything he was trying to bridge himself closer with everyone here and all of a sudden it’s like he doesn’t. Kinda like at the beginning of the year where he clearly didn’t come here to make friends but to fight and only fight instead…
“At this rate I’m going to go crazy…” The blond muttered sadly to himself, the boy ending patrol with the person causing his frantic thoughts, and Suo. Thinking of tomorrow he thought about spending his morning at Pothos–
!!
Maybe Kotoha will know something! If she does then he most likely has a solution (˃̣̣̥▽˂̣̣̥)!
…
Both fighters look back and wonder what’s gotten their blonde friend so happy all of a sudden.
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Sakura wasn’t stressed. He wasn’t freaking out. Panicking ? Who’s that? Never heard of her.
Definitely not panicking.
Ok maybe he was freaking out a little. But that was mostly the beginning of all this. Now he’s stressed about finding a solution to his problem.
You see, Sakura went downstairs to his apartment where all the mail would be delivered. Why? It was around the time of the month his “family” would so graciously (graciously my ass!) send enough money to pay rent. 3,229.70 yen* more as extra to feed himself. Really? Only that much?.
Nothing was in his mailbox. Empty.
Ok. That’s nothing to worry about, maybe the money would show up later this week. Rent isn’t due until 2 more weeks.
That was almost a week and a half ago.
Now, he has a Dilemma. Sitting on his futon in the night, hugging his knees with his head propped to the side looking at the slide doors to his room.
He has a couple of days before the landlord decides to pay him a visit to collect the money. As far as he knows no sane person is willing to hire a 15 year old kid to work to get actually paid.
He was debating on telling the others about his situation but, as much as he likes-er , as much he appreciates their affection towards him, it can get a little overbearing at times. Maybe it’s because he’s never received it in his life even as much as he yearned it from his parents and family but he can’t fully accept the new, foreign concept.
For fuck’s sake his face feels warm enough to sizzle an egg on it whenever someone, anyone, compliments him.
He thought about asking Kotoha. He really did. She’s usually been a big help to him in the past, but the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that she might tell the others leading Nirei or Suo to offer up some space to stay with them.
The idea makes him feel fuzzy, he doesn’t know what the feeling is. But spending some time with his … friends felt nice. But that feeling is crushed down by immediate guilt. He doesn’t want to overstay. They might feel ok with the idea but about their parents? Won’t they get tired of him at some point if he doesn’t move out quickly. Or worse they send him off again sending money to him and the cycle repeats itself.
ARRGHH HE ONLY HAS A FEW DAYS LEFT.
Sighing into his knees, he thinks about what he can do. He has some money he’s saved from the extra and the loose change he’s found. It’s mostly the reason why he’s able to afford the omurice as often as he does.
An idea forms in his mind. An old memory from when he was a kid trying to feed himself because his family refused to give him more than leftovers.
He remembers he had a hoodie on in the scorching sun, a habit drilled into him by his uncle. He was out on the sidewalk wandering around to distract himself from any sort of pain. He saw a worn out man, in his 40’s or 50’s, clearly homeless by their attire but was carrying around a shopping cart filled with bags of bottles in the middle of the street.
The man had so many bottles that every bump on the road threatened to make one of the bags fall. And fall it did. He vaguely remembers helping the man with his bag, careful to not let his hoodie fall and reveal himself. Both of them lifted it up to the cart, the man asking him if he could accompany him in case the bags fell again. He didn’t have anything else to do so he did.
Along the trail, hidden mismatched eyes would keep an eye on the cart as the homeless man dug through dumpsters, garbage bags, ripping them apart and taking the bottles out and tossing them into a new bag. By the time he knew it the cart grew bigger and they had made it to a site where other people also bought organized bottles.
Both of them placed each bag down, some heavier than others, others not so much. Each bag went onto a scale with someone taking note how much they each weighed before giving them the paper and sending them to another person.
Said person reviewed the weight and the type of bottles each bag bag, writing something new onto the sheet of paper before handing it back with some freshly new cash. Golden and silver eyes sparkled. Can you really get money doing something like this?
He can’t remember the man’s face at all but he remembers the joyus laugh from him as he shared his gratitude with him. Them sitting outside the site on the curb enjoying a popsicle bought with rightly earned money. He listened to the older one ramble to him how each bottle is organized, before he knew it a warm atmosphere had begun to develop. A weird relationship.
Every now and then he would spot the same man carrying multiple bags and accompany him to the site. The memories are all fuzzy, like some static TV. He swears he saw the old geezer almost completely fall down a dumpster head first, Sakura yelling at him.
An old man oblivious that he was hanging out with a demon child like him. But it felt nice to not be hated immediately. Of course nothing goes well for Sakura, will it ever? He doesn’t know how it happened, doesn’t remember where they were at, what they were doing, but a rough hand came to ruffle his hair, making the hood fall back, revealing his colors. The face the elder made must've been terrified because he certainly remembers booking it, running far, far, far away.
I wonder what he’s doing now.
Pushing the thought aside, Sakura now has a plan. No need for anyone else to worry, he’s handled everything by himself, he can handle this. He can thank the geezer for explaining everything to him in the afterlife but now he’s going bottle hunting.
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Nirei went directly to Pothos the moment he woke up. He might’ve been the first customer of the day, considering the cafe was empty. No Sakura in sight. What a rare sight. Perfect.
“Ah Nirei!” Turning her body around slightly, stopping her hand from wiping the counter to look at the boy standing in the doorway. “Good morning Kotoha-san!”
The brunette nodded in response. “What are you doing here so early and without Sakura or Sou?” The blond took a seat in front of the counter as he thought about his question.
“Say Kotoha-san” Said girl placed a glass of water in front of the boy. “Have you noticed anything strange about Sakura-san these past few days?”
“You mean how he keeps sighing like a grumpy old man?” ”Exactly that!”
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything that could have had that effect on him?” Please say you do!!
“Not really.” Ah there goes his one hope. “He keeps his mouth shut and stuff with food to avoid the question when I try to pester him,” An slightly annoyed expression takes on her face. “ He also runs out the door when there’s nothing to save him. Even Granny Satou has tried to pry him but he won’t budge.” A chuckle rings out of Kotoha, remembering the methods Granny Satou used just to get a reaction from him. A dejected sigh escapes both of their mouths.
Nirei decides to take a sip from his glass. If Kotoha or Granny Satou couldn’t get anything out of him then he might strangle Sakura out of an answer at this point.
“But,” Ears perked up, eyes looking at the back of Kotoha as she took a couple of dishes out to wipe before turning back to him. “I have heard him muttering some things.” “What did he say?”
Kotoha looks up for a moment to think, placing down the dish before grabbing another. “I think I heard him mutter “maybe out of town” , “it’s been a week now” , “give up” , “dead for good”.
When the brunette looks down she finds Nirei’s faced with his eyes wide, popping out of his skull, mouth agape down to the counter. The blonde jumps with both arms coming onto the counter with a loud bang as he leans forward to a startled Kotoha.
“KOTOHA-SAN DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT JUST SOUNDED LIKE?!!” Arms coming onto the air, waving fanatically as their owners starts to sweat profusely. “ IT SOUNDS LIKE SOME SUCIDE CONFESSION!!-” A hand comes to deliver a harsh chop to the fanatic’s forehead.
“Owie…”
“Nirei…” An exasperated look comes over Kotoha’s face before morphing into a more pensive look. Soft hands ball into fists onto the counter, the items they were once holding forgotten on the side of the counter. “ I understand your concern but this is Sakura we’re talking about. There’s no way he’d actually decide to end it, he’s strong willed like that. And if he does decide to kick the bucket…” A determined look overcomes the young girl's face as she looks head on, staring into chocolate brown eyes. “I won’t let him.”
… I feel a little stupid now.
“Yeah…” Reaching the glass of water, bringing it onto his lips, and chugging everything down. Placing the glass down, the same determined face came onto his face. Both faces mirroring each other, the same goal to protect their friend from enduring anymore unnecessary hardship alone. “I won’t let him either.”
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Patrol was over, which means Sakura is free to do whatever he wants now. Today he wasn’t paired up with either of his vice captains, so he won’t be dragged anywhere that could waste time.
Time to start his plan.
An hour later, he had 3 grocery bags filled with plastic bottles and 1 filled with soda cans. He was currently in a nicer neighborhood than where he lived, rummaging through people’s trash without gloves. He was hoping he’d find some in a dumpster but he quickly realized it'd be useless since they’d be dirtier than his whole apartment.
He should’ve bought a trash bag roller from a convenience store but he wasn’t going to risk losing any money today. He didn’t even go to Pothos today. Maybe next month if he got lucky.
His white shirt stained from whatever sticky substances of food the trash held. It irked him but at least he was smart enough to not bring his Furin jacket on with him. Ah whatever he’s got money to (hopefully) get if he wants to live dammit!
The whole night was spent finding bottles, filling up bags. At some point he found a dirty normal size trash bag that was empty and he dumped all plastic bottles into it. Made it easier to carry and he’s got a decent size.
Before he knew it, he was dragging another filled bag of plastic bottles behind him, throwing it on the brick wall that was in front of the apartment complex. There were at least 5 plastic bags this time and one full of cans, the grocery bags were disposed of and were replaced with smaller trash bags filled with color coded glass bottles.
Turning around he wondered if there really was a person living under him with that many beer bottles lying outside the door. Maybe it’s the landlord, before he scratched the thought. The guy probably lived somewhere nicer and not runned down.
It was close to midnight from what he could tell. As much as he wants to go upstairs and shower he needs to locate a recycling site in this town before that. He can’t look it up either because his hands are all slippery and gooey. He wouldn’t be surprised if he got sick the next day because of the amount of garbage he went through. He even stood on a pile of it by climbing into a dumpster.
So he set off to find a site. If there wasn’t any then there’s luck there might be out of town. That thought didn’t sound too appealing.
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“ mm, Sakura-chan seems more worn out today.” Kiryu commented, looking away from their conversation with the group.
“ Good morning, Sakura-kun.”
Said boy just arrived at school, close to noon, as he plopped down on his chair and hit his head, face down onto his desk.
“Sakura-san?!”
“ Having trouble staying awake? If you’re ill again I can whip up a protein shake!” Tsugeura shouts as he pulls out a bag of powdered protein from his desk.
“No seriously, isn’t this a different desk, why’s that there? Do you actually just carry it around?”
“Nothing a little protein can’t fix!”
“Don’t ignore the question Tsuge-chan.”
Sakura just grumbles as he brings his arms to create a makeshift pillow for his head, nestling into it.
“Sakura-san?”
No reply. Sakura has fallen dead asleep.
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Sakura did find a recycling site after wandering aimlessly for 30 minutes. Turns out it wasn’t far from his apartment either. So he did what any sane person would do.
Wake up at the crack ass of dawn.
And he dragged. Every. Single . bag. To the site.
It didn’t matter the concerned looks he got from the workers there because he managed to collect 12,922 yen!!* Sakura could explode from happiness if he wasn’t so fucking tired. Too bad since he had to go to school. Maybe he could nap there. Yeah that works.
He’ll need to do this again tonight. It isn’t enough. He’s got 2 more days, he’s gonna make this work.
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“Yup, looks like this month’s rent has been paid! Thanks Sakura.”
“Mm” God he can barely keep his eyes open.
“You look a little worn out, try to catch some sleep okay? I’ll see you next time.”
The moment he turned away from Sakura, he let his head hit the door frame as he heard footsteps slowly fade as they descended down the stairs.
Mission success. For now. He definitely isn’t going to do that again.
It’d have been hard for him to go through various neighborhoods constantly to find new bags to rip apart and bring them back to the apartment where he would then drag them again to the recycle site.
There wasn’t enough time that he was allowed to have with patrol and school. Not to mention the shit ton of sleep he lost these couple of days. If he was causing small concerns for his friends then they’re rolling in their grave currently from seeing Sakura act all zombie-like. Not what he wanted.
He could do it again and slowly save up to pay this month’s rent as well but he doesn’t know how long it’ll take for the same neighborhoods to replenish bottle filled trash bags for him and he can’t keep going through far away neighborhoods since it wastes time.
So he’ll look for a real job. But for now he needs sleep. Lots of it.