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Spending time with the Miya twins is not for the weak, Rintarou realizes. Especially when one of them—Atsumu—is his best friend, and Rintarou keeps exchanging sidelong glances with the other—Osamu—that Atsumu isn't meant to pick up. Sidelong glances meant for each other only.
It's a small thing they started when Atsumu got scolded during practice, but lately it's been a means of simply looking.
Looking at what, Rintarou doesn't exactly know yet. Sometimes he notices things about Osamu, sometimes Osamu notices things about him. Other times, it's a normal and routine action.
As it stands, Rintarou was bound to catch something suspiciously akin to that of a crush.
The worst part is the fact that Atsumu is (allegedly) his best friend. No one will tell him, but Osamu's been fitting the definition a lot more lately.
Either way, telling Atsumu would probably result in a fight between the Miya twins. And while Rintarou would love to record and upload it everywhere, he doesn't think he wants Atsumu to know anyway. Not for any reason in particular, just that he doesn't want to admit that he does feel something for Osamu.
His suspiciously crush-shaped feelings will be buried deep inside until he gets a few more sidelong glances in to really see if it's a fluke or not.
It is not a crush. The feelings are love-shaped. Rintarou realizes this a few days later when Osamu gives him a rice ball from his bento. It's the littlest thing ever, just a rice ball, but Osamu never shares his food. Not even with Atsumu! And Rintarou didn't even ask, Osamu just—gave!
And by God, Rintarou is lucky Atsumu is out sick because he doesn't know what he would've done if he saw Osamu sharing food with Rintarou but not him.
So he looks at Osamu. Really looks at him. And Osamu really looks at him, too.
Rintarou looks at his reflection in Osamu's eyes, then down at how his hands have stilled, resting on the edge of his bento box.
Yeah, Rintarou is in deep.
But it seems like Osamu is in deeper. Rintarou wants to squirm underneath his gaze, but in a way it feels good to know how high the chance of those love shaped feelings being reciprocated are.
So he lets Osamu take him apart with his eyes, trying to understand everything just by looking. Rintarou is thankful for the lack of words. He doesn't know what he'd say, but it'd probably be something so embarrassing, he'd have to switch schools.
Finally, though, Osamu looks back down at his food and breaks the silence with words impulsively spewn out. "I think—'m gonna quit volleyball after high school."
Rintarou processes the information for far longer than he should've. It leaves an uncomfortable silence that he rushes to fill.
"Why?" It was a simple word—Rintarou thinks he should've just stayed quiet and let Osamu finish on his own.
"Think I should starta restaurant. Maybe. Ya think Tsumu'd be happy about that?"
"...No, he wouldn't," Rintarou admits absentmindedly. Well, not entirely absentminded, it was just common knowledge that Atsumu expected the two of them to continue volleyball together.
Osamu sighs, "I know," like he was unsure of why he asked that in the first place.
The silence continues until lunch ends.
𓆝𓆟𓆞
Atsumu decides to go to practice that day—while sick—and drags Rintarou down with him.
Rintarou should be grateful. Hell, he doesn't want to go to school, anyway! But he'd take talking to Osamu over laying in bed any day, which is saying something considering it's one of his favorite pastimes.
Well, it's almost time for school to end. Maybe he could text Osamu about something mundane. Like, notes...but it's obvious Rintarou doesn't care about that. Or maybe to get...
Okay. Thoughts interrupted by whoever is at his door at two in the afternoon. He was going to ignore it until his phone buzzed with a message from Osamu telling (not asking) him to open the door.
Begrudgingly, he gets up. His head is spinning and he just feels cold, but he continues his trek to the front door.
Opening it, he remembers one thing. "School isn't out yet."
Osamu blinks. "Yah. I got Tsumu ta get us both excused."
"Okay," Rintarou steps aside so Osamu can come in. He doesn't even care how Osamu got here. "I hope you atleast brought me something."
Maybe it's a little too much to ask.
"I did. Medicine and chuupet. But ya can't eat 'em 'til yer better."
Or not. "Boo. I'll eat them whenever I want."
Rintarou moves through his house and into his kitchen with Osamu following him. "But give me the medicine. Please. I feel like I'm dying."
Osamu places the convenience store bag on the counter, fishing out the medicine and pouring it into a small cup for Rintarou, who drinks the medicine before immediately pouring himself a glass of water.
"Did you have to pick the worst tasting one?"
"'s the one I buy for Tsumu..?"
"...That makes a lot of sense."
Rintarou looks in the bag, staring at the chuupet. "You're sure I can't eat them until I get better? Not even one?" He frowns, watching as Osamu pulls the bag away.
"Hey. I'm serious, Rin. No chuupet 'til yer better."
Uh...Rin?
Holy shit, did he just say Rin? Like, not even Sunarin? Just Rin? He's Rin, now?
"Mm...Okay." Rintarou mumbles, still thinking about the name. Rin, huh?
He could get used to that.
Unfortunately, Osamu ushered him right back to bed once the medicine began to kick in. What's the point of taking medicine if you're just going to sleep through it nullifying your symptoms?
Rintarou definitely doesn't see the logic in that, but Osamu does. Rintarou finds he quite likes doing what Osamu wants.
So laying in bed it is.
"You're not even gonna stay?"
"Yer sick..? Why would I?"
Rintarou hums, "I want you to, at least."
Osamu doesn't say anything, and for a moment Rintarou is worried that he said the wrong thing. Like, the completely wrong thing.
But he finally answers. "How do you mean that? In—In what way, Rin?"
"I like you enough to let you stay." Rolling over in bed takes Osamu's face out of Rintarou's vision. He's glad he can atleast do that much to avoid the possibility of rejection. "Or I just like you, y'know."
"Ya do?" He can't tell what the tone of Osamu's voice is supposed to mean. Really, he can't. The lack of a facial expression to read really doesn't help either.
Rintarou subconsciously curls in on himself, blanket hugged to his chest and covering his mouth enough to muffle the words, "Yeah, I do."
"Then we're datin' now."
Huh. That was easy.
Rintarou only nodded, uttering a small okay as he felt sleep take him.
When he woke up, there was a suspiciously warm (but empty) spot in his bed next to him and food that seemed suspiciously like Osamu's cooking in his fridge.
𓆝𓆟𓆞
Hiding such a thing from Atsumu was actually easier than it seemed like it'd be. He overlooked the way Rintarou would constantly be at their house, and the way Osamu no longer had problems with people touching his food when it came to Rintarou.
Okay, maybe he didn't overlook it entirely. He still made comments like, "Why's Sunarin got special treatment?" But he never dwelled on it for too long.
It was still a little hard to believe that Rintarou and Osamu were dating, mostly because of the way it'd been decided.
Cool. We're dating now.
What?! You can just decide that so casually?
But Rintarou had to admit, it felt nice warming each other's hands in empty hallways away from everyone else. And eating Osamu's cooking more than ever. And wordlessly communicating with the sidelong glances that started off as just that—sidelong glances.
That isn't the point, though. Hiding it from Atsumu is easy—until it isn't.
Until he gets a text from Osamu saying that Atsumu was probably going to figure them out. That Atsumu had asked about Osamu's feelings about Rintarou.
Well, it'd only been hidden for two weeks. Atsumu knows Osamu better than anyone, if anything, it's baffling it took him this long to notice.
Atsumu's question for Rintarou comes a few days after Osamu's text.
They're eating lunch together without Osamu, who was...Jeez, God knows where, actually. Rintarou, why don't you keep track of your boyfriend? Don't give him that crap.
"Sunarin. Ya think Samu'd be a good boyfriend?" Atsumu's voice cuts through the peaceful silence while Rintarou is mid chew. He tries to answer—automatically, okay?!—and ends up with food lodged in his throat. Bummer.
After briefly allowing Atsumu to panic over possibly killing his brother's crush (boyfriend), Rintarou answers. "What—makes you say that?"
"Just...Y'know. He's yer eye candy..? Yer eating the bento he made ya." Atsumu pointed out before continuing, "'nd his eyes go to ya a lot durin' practice."
Rintarou wants to laugh. He wants so desperately to laugh. Instead, he places his chopsticks on top of his bento box for a moment before answering, "You see all that?"
Atsumu's voice comes a little quieter this time, "Er..Yah. It's pretty damn obvious."
At that, the dam finally breaks and Rintarou finally finds relief to laugh in his face. "Holy shit. Atsumu!"
"What? Wha—Why're ya laughin' at me, ya little shit?!" Atsumu is fighting the urge to laugh at the sheer contagiousness, but it's clear he still wants answers.
Answers, he will get.
"Atsumu—" Rintarou huffs out another laugh, "—We've been dating this whole time!"
"You've been—wha—datin'?!" Atsumu is in complete disbelief. He really thought he had Rintarou and Osamu figured out before everyone else, huh?
Okay. It's a little funny.
Atsumu is still a little angry about being kept in the dark even after multiple apology snacks from both Rintarou and Osamu.
With his new revelation, though, Rintarou and Osamu can annoy him with as much PDA as humanly possible. It's a great pastime, annoying Atsumu.
It's even better when he comes home to find them peppering each other with kisses on their living room couch.
"Gross! Get yer PDA out of my house, Sunarin!" He shouts, covering his eyes like they've just been burned.
"It's Osamu's PDA too—"
"Get yer PDA out of our house, Samu!"
To that, Osamu finally answers, "Is it PDA if it's in the house?"
Rintarou wonders, in the back of his mind, if he'd like to stay a part of this family forever.
He thinks he does.