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Sugishita truly believed in everything Umemiya said.
If Umemiya wanted him to do something, Sugishita would do it. Whatever Umemiya said was doctrine.
That did not mean Sugishita couldn’t be pissed off about it.
Umemiya was well aware that Sugishita hated Sakura. He knew that Sugishita could barely stand to be around that bastard in a group, much less this. Patrol. Alone. Just the two of them.
For once, Sugishita wished he’d told Umemiya no.
Sakura walked a few steps ahead of him, and Sugishita glared at the back of his head. The omega’s shoulders were nearly up to his ears, and his scent occasionally caught Sugishita’s nose. And that was why Sugishita was particularly irritated with this situation.
Patrol was hell.
Not because of any trouble. No, he and Sakura had dealt with that quickly—some stupid bastards who apparently couldn’t read the warning and tried causing trouble on their turf. But during the fight, one of the guys made a huge mistake. He tried to use his alpha voice on Sakura.
Sugishita didn’t often pay much attention to Sakura, and certainly wasn’t worried about him in a fight. He had vaguely heard one of the guys saying shit, but when the alpha voice came out, instinct made Sugishita’s head whip around towards Sakura. And it’s not like this was even the first time Sugishita had seen it happen. Stupid alphas thinking they were better than omegas, and it always got them knocked out twice as hard.
But something was off this time. Sakura had this look on his face, and Sugishita could only assume the guy had said shit before he commanded Sakura to go to him. And go to him he did, Sakura slamming the guy’s head into the ground before he even knew what was happening. Sugishita then watched Sakura launch himself at the next guy, and Sugishita had to focus on his own fight. He heard it, though, saw glimpses out of the corner of his eye as Sakura used more force than necessary, taking guys out in more brutal ways than usual.
They’d ended the fight quickly, but ever since then, Sakura had been weird. Weirder than usual. Sugishita hated that he was so aware of the omega, but his scent was sour and his body tense. He looked smaller than usual, almost like he was curling in on himself, pulling his jacket tighter.
Sugishita shouldn’t have cared. He didn’t even like Sakura, didn’t care about him. But his body was getting more and more tense until he was just like Sakura, shoulders raised, and he was starting to get a headache from how hard he was scowling at the back of that stupid head.
If anyone else were here, they would have gone to Sakura as soon as the fight was over. Nirei running to him to ask if he was okay, Suo scenting him, guys laughing about alphas thinking they could control Sakura like that. If they hadn’t, someone would certainly be at his side now, with the way he was clearly upset by whatever the hell was said to him. Sakura wasn’t exactly good at hiding his emotions, and the scent of an upset omega was only getting stronger.
Sugishita wanted nothing more than to ignore it. Finish out their patrol and go home. But something was nagging at him. In their pack, Umemiya expected everyone to take care of each other, and that meant comforting whoever needed it. That job usually fell on anyone else, but now, because Umemiya insisted he patrol with Sakura, he was the only one around.
Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, frustrated, Sugishita fought a mental battle. He didn’t want to do shit for Sakura, but what if Umemiya found out Sakura was this upset and he didn’t help? Umemiya would undoubtedly be disappointed, which was far worse than scolding, in Sugishita’s opinion. He could already picture the look on Umemiya’s face, and it caused him to shudder and quickly shake the image out of his mind. He looked at Sakura again, trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do to fix this.
He hated that the only thing that came to mind was scenting.
That’s probably what half of his class would do right now, and it’s definitely what Umemiya would do before saying just the right thing to make Sakura open up.
No. Sugishita was not about to do any of that. But they were coming up on where he and Sakura would finally part ways, and Sugishita couldn’t bear the thought of Umemiya being upset with him for not doing something to help.
So, he dragged his fingers through his hair and tugged with a groan before yanking his jacket off like it was on fire.
Sakura finally acknowledged him again, turning to look at him, probably to say something stupid that would piss Sugishita off. Sakura opened his mouth, only to flinch in surprise when he was hit in the face with Sugishita’s jacket. Sakura caught the fabric, looking down at it in bewilderment and then back up to Sugishita. They stared at each other for an awkward moment, Sugishita scowling but not quite meeting Sakura’s eyes.
Yet, he couldn’t fully look away either, because Sakura was relaxing. His nose twitched as it was filled with the alpha’s scent, and the tension in his body was melting away. His scent sharpened suddenly, the usual floral scent coming back. Not that Sugishita paid attention to the way he smelled like cherry blossoms.
Then, Sakura was scowling, now in a way that seemed so normal, and Sugishita was fully expecting it when Sakura lunged for him.
“You bastard! What’s wrong with you?!”
The two devolving into a fight might’ve happened earlier in patrol had Sakura not been all weird, but now things are back to normal. Umemiya might scold him for fighting with Sakura, but Sugishita was no longer worried about Umemiya being disappointed in him.
When they finally parted ways, both more bruised up from each other than any trouble they had stopped around town, Sakura took the jacket with him.
Sugishita didn’t ask for it back.
The next morning, Sugishita went to the roof to help Umemiya with the plants like he usually did. He’d hoped Umemiya wouldn’t ask, but of course, as soon as he saw him, Umemiya grinned.
“How was patrol with Sakura yesterday?”
Sugishita gave him a look that clearly said ‘what do you think?’ and Umemiya laughed loud.
“Let me guess, that bruise is from him?”
Sugishita looked back at the plants, and that was answer enough for Umemiya.
“I’m sure you two had a good talk.” Umemiya hummed, and Sugishita went back to watering the plants until Umemiya spoke up again like he’d just noticed something. “Hey, where’s your jacket?”
Sugishita looked at Umemiya with wide eyes, and then whipped his head away, scowling at nothing. Umemiya didn’t push, didn’t force any answer out of him. He just stood there, watching, and Sugishita huffed softly. Somehow, this technique seemed to always get him to talk.
“That bastard has it,” Sugishita grumbled, refusing to look at Umemiya and see whatever smug expression he was definitely making.
A hard slap to his back made Sugishita spill water on the ground, and Umemiya sounded absolutely delighted as he laughed. “Wow! You actually gave it to Sakura?! I never would’ve expected that from you!”
Sugishita felt a bit of heat rush to his face, and he pulled away from where Umemiya slammed his hand on his back over and over. He focused back on his watering, letting his hair cover his face as he huffed out a disgruntled, “Shut up.”
To make things even worse, when Sugishita finally got to the classroom, ready to take a nap, the room went silent. He wouldn’t have cared about it were it not for the fact that his uniform jacket was sitting on his desk and Sakura refusing to look at anyone as his face started to turn red. So clearly, everyone knew Sakura had his jacket. Everyone knew he had given it to Sakura.
Sugishita went to his desk, not saying a word, even as Suo and Kiryu exchanged amused looks and Nirei looked back and forth between him and Sakura. Sugishita’s hair hid his face as he picked up his jacket, sliding it on like it didn’t matter, like nothing was weird and his jacket didn’t smell like fucking cherry blossoms.
Except, before he could sit down, Sugishita was suddenly surrounded by what seemed like half the class. Sugishita choked, awkwardly trying to pull away as questions and teasing comments were thrown at him.
Sugishita might have to start saying no to Umemiya.