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Sakura noticed that something was off about Suo before the trio even finished their walk to school.
It started when Sakura fumbled a pop culture reference, misunderstanding something that Nirei had said. On any normal morning Suo would have jumped on the chance to playfully tease Sakura for this, or try to emphatically insist on some ridiculous truth (which Sakura would believe until Nirei intervened). Today, though, nothing. Even Nirei seemed to hesitate a second before launching into his explanation of the reference, as if subconsciously noticing this gap.
After that, Sakura kept a close eye on Suo. And more was revealed.
Suo didn’t engage in much conversation, and didn’t seem as attentive as he normally was even when sitting back from conversation. Upon closer look, he even seemed a little disheveled, at least for Suo standards. The strap of his eye patch didn’t lay quite right in the back and had a piece of hair out of place, there was a slight tangle in the tassels of one of his earrings.
But what really gave it away, what made Sakura connect the dots to what happened, was his eye patch. It was subtle, something you would only notice if you would think to look for it, but there was some slight red irritation on the skin surrounding the eye patch. Just a small sliver was shown, just a little at the very edge, but it was enough information for Sakura.
He remembered that night, about a month ago now, when he had caught Suo awake in the middle of the night. He’d been having to deal with changing the dressings that were usually hidden beneath his eyepatch, the ones that only Sakura knew about. He must have been up with that again last night, leaving him with very little sleep.
Sakura knew that there wasn’t much he could do to help, not really. He couldn’t go back in time and make the night easier for Suo, and with how defensive Suo got about his privacy there wasn’t much he could do now without breaking it either. But he had to do something.
It was afternoon by the time he put his plan in action. The class was preparing to head out to go help a shop that had been vandalized recently. While they did that, Sakura approached Suo.
“C’mere,” he said, nodding his head to the door to show he wanted Suo to follow him out the classroom door. “Captain stuff.”
Suo looked at him quizzically, but didn’t question it. He followed Sakura into the hallway. Which turned into following him to the next hallway and the next hallway, until they were in a more secluded part of the school.
“Um, Sakura?” Suo finally broke the silence. “What captains business have we got over here?”
They’d approached the middle landing of a stairwell in a quiet area. There weren’t windows nearby, making the place comfortably dim.
“You’re going to get some sleep,” Sakura said bluntly.
Suo looked taken aback. “Sakura,” he said cheerily, “It’s the middle of the day. Why would I need sleep?” His smile never wavered.
“Cut the crap,” Sakura said. “Save us all some time. I don’t know exactly what happened last night, but I can tell you were dealing with all your-” He didn’t say anything, instead just vaguely waving his hand to indicate Suo’s face. “And I can’t have you falling asleep in a bucket of paint.”
Suo stiffened ever so slightly at the mention of his medical issues. It hadn’t been a voluntary choice to let Sakura know about them, and Sakura knew that. He wasn’t the trusted holder of some privileged information, just someone that had been too stubborn to back down when told to. But while Suo may not like it, Sakura was not going to pretend he had seen nothing.
“I assure you,” Suo said, the cheery disposition not leaving his voice, “I am perfectly fine. I can handle painting a couple of walls.”
Sakura gave a shrug at that. “Your choice,” he said. “I can’t force you to stay here.”
“I am glad we are on the same page there,” Suo said. “Now we should really get going, if we leave now we can catch up before everyone reaches the- what are you doing?”
He looked down to where Sakura had plopped down on the floor, sitting against the wall. Sakura was settling in, like he planned to be there for a while.
“Oh, you can go ahead,” Sakura said. “I told Nirei that we would finish up our project and meet with them at 3, and I don’t plan on going back on my word. But you go catch up.”
They were in a standoff now. Sakura knew that Suo wouldn’t be able to go back alone. He would have to explain why he was back and not Sakura, and what was going on with their whole ‘captains meeting’ that led to that. It would draw far more attention to the situation than simply showing up at the delayed, but planned, time. And he knew that if there was anything that Suo tried to avoid when it came to himself, it was attention.
“I see you thought this through,” Suo said.
Sakura gave a shrug at that, but he honestly was proud of himself for the plan he had come up with.
“Alright,” Suo conceded. “Just until three.” He straightened out his uniform jacket before gracefully sitting down on the floor beside Sakura. Sakura had left him a spot near the corner, so he could rest his head against the wall, and Suo settled in there.
Despite his earlier instances that this was not necessary, Suo was asleep in mere moments. He still had that perfect posture, just ever so slightly letting his head rest against the corner wall. Sakura pulled out his phone, figuring he would pass the time until Suo woke up.
They were about ten minutes into this built-in fifteen minute break when Suo shifted. Sakura didn’t think much of it at first, after all, while it was better than nothing, sleeping sitting up on the floor of a stairwell was not the most comfortable. But then Suo shifted directions, and instead of leaning against the wall he was leaning against Sakura’s shoulder.
Sakura immediately stiffened under the contact.
He looked over. Suo was still sleeping peacefully, head resting gently on Sakura, completely unaware of the shift he had made in his sleep.
After an internal panic where he tried to figure out what to do, Sakura decided it wasn’t a bad thing, and after a moment was able to make his muscles relax under Suo’s weight. Not fully, but at least not as rigid as he was. He found that the weight was comforting, stabilizing. Suo was warm. The warmth of human contact still caught him off guard sometimes. He could feel the steady rise and fall of Suo's breathing, and found that unconsciously his own changed to match.
The five minutes was both the longest five minutes of Sakura’s life and over way too soon. When his phone lit up with the time, he realized he didn’t know how to proceed. He had planned on simply standing up and getting ready to go when time was up, knowing that the noise of movement would wake Suo as well. But that was the plan when Suo had been leaned against the wall, not up against Sakura, and Sakura couldn’t just stand and let the other fall to the ground.
In the end, he did the best he could. He gave Suo’s arm a firm poke, and repeated the action a second time when Suo slept through the first. He must have been more tired than even Sakura had realized.
The second poke worked, though, and Suo woke up. He lifted his head from Sakura’s shoulder, and only then realized what had been happening.
“My apologies, Sakura,” he said, giving a slight laugh. “You should have woken me earlier, I would have moved.”
Sakura felt his face flush completely red and he looked away from his friend. “It’s whatever,” he said, trying to wave off the topic of conversation. “We should get ready to go.”
Sakura gave Suo a second to compose himself, straightening out his jacket and making sure his eye patch strap was still in place and had not slept during sleep, before they headed off together.
As they walked, Suo spoke again. “Really, Sakura,” Suo said, his voice soft and genuine. “Thank you.”
Sakura stamped down his urge to bolt from the thanks and instead faced it, as he had been trying to learn how to do. “Whenever you need,” he mumbled. “Can’t have my vice captain going on patrol sleep deprived.”
Suo smiled at him, though Sakura found the twinkle in his eye to be unreadable. “Maybe I’ll have to take you up on that,” he said. “After all, you make a fantastic pillow.”
Sakura’s face flushed bright red at that. “Shaddup!” He said, stalking off ahead to get back on track to joining patrol. Suo followed behind, chuckling with amusement.