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He launched a flying kick at the boy with the dyed blue hair and he crumpled instantly as blood practically flew from his nose like tiny bullets that weren’t very effective. Behind him, he was aware of Suo chopping at opponents coming at him, expertly dodging out of the way, making it look easy. Nirei was off to the side where Sakura could somewhat see him. No fighters had come after him yet. They were all too busy with Suo and Sakura who were currently tearing up a (normally) quiet street in Makochi, protecting him from a group of morons who’d started shouting and bothering an old man for his wallet. Obviously, as members of Bofurin, they couldn’t let that slide. When the last moron was finally on the ground, eyes rolled so far back in his head that if they’d kept on going, they would’ve come around the front again, Sakura and Suo, standing back to back, stood for a moment, breathing heavily. Sakura smirked and Suo returned with a similar expression.
Nirei, who had been watching it all go down, finally joined his friends in the middle of the street. “That was very efficient.” he commented. Sakura watched in curiosity as Nirei kneeled down and tied the morons’ shoelaces together. A final devastating blow to their defeat and certainly not a move that Sakura would’ve expected of Nirei. He supposed that even sweet, kind, innocent Nirei had a petty side when he really wanted to. Suo nodded in approval of Nirei’s actions, wiping sweat off his face with a napkin. Did he just carry that around? Suo’s clothes looked fancy so he guessed it wasn’t completely out of character for him. Sakura’s shirt was sticking to his skin from sweat and while he wasn’t about to strip there and then to get rid of the feeling, he was going to pull the sweat-soaked collar of his shirt out to air it a little.
“Stop shouting! You’re hurting my ears!” Sakura screamed, his hands pressed firmly over his ears, his index fingers trying to burrow deeper and deeper just to get rid of the noise entirely. The other kids at the home were playing tag in the garden while he was forced to sit in the shade (he refused to put on sunscreen). The manga he was reading lay forgotten on the patio floor as Sakura opted to block out the shrieking with his knees pressed up to his chest to hide his face. He could feel the piercing gazes of the other kids, watching him break down over the noise, right there. It was humiliating. He was already seen as weird and now he’d just gone and made it worse. One of the kids stepped forward and Sakura pushed himself back, settling in the corner where the backdoor and the wall were parallel.
A younger girl ran back inside as Sakura felt tears prickling at the corners as he tried to keep them from spilling over. He felt like his heart was going to jackhammer through his ribcage, the volume felt overwhelming and he, Haruka Sakura, problem child, tough brawler, disrespectful, distrusting of anyone, couldn’t handle it.
He didn’t really want to go to the fireworks display but Nirei looked at him with tiniest hint of disappointment and Sakura and Suo had caved almost immediately. Bofurin were also helping set up all the fireworks which could go badly or really well. It wasn’t like Choji Tomiyama was running around because then Sakura would’ve stayed far away from him. Togame could deal with the feral gremlin who desperately needed to go to therapy. So, here he was, shoving fireworks into the ground, grumbling all the while as other Furin students on the same task milled about.
He had a plan for the noise. He would wear his cheap foam earplugs that he got in a pack of ten for 200 Yen and hopefully reduce the obnoxious sound of the fireworks exploding and prevent the way he usually got after having to deal with that bullshit. Well, there were a few ways it could go and Sakura liked none of them. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. He just hated loud noises and when he tried to explain that to the people he met before he came to Furin, he just became more of a target to them. The freak with two different hair and eye colours and a penchant for beating up anyone who got on his bad side, overwhelmed by loud noises.
Nirei tapped him on the shoulder and Sakura dropped the fireworks he was carrying onto the ground in surprise “Sakura-san, they want to test one or two of the fireworks so we can’t be here.” Sakura nodded and followed Nirei to a safe distance where Suo, Tsuguera, Kirya and Sugishta were. Suo and Kirya were engaged in a lively conversation and Sakura slipped towards the back of the group to put his earplugs in. When he first got them, he had no clue how to make them work but now, after to consulting of the internet, he now knew to squeeze the soft foam before putting it into his ears and allowing it to expand while holding it in place and after a minute or so, everything around him was lowered about twenty decibels. Just in time for the two fireworks to shoot up into the sky.
They were green and pink and they exploded successfully in a merry explosion that lit up their faces. While Sakura could hear the booms, they weren’t as loud as they could’ve been. Nirei was staring at the sky in awe,a complete contrast to Sugishta who was looking at the ground, long blue hair falling over his face. Tsuguera hollered something while Kiryu and Suo, ever the nonchalant, simply observed from where they were. Once the test was over, they returned to the tedious task of setting up the fireworks, the smell of burning lingering in the air.
If Sakura could survive that, maybe he could handle the fireworks display after all.
He very quickly discovered that he could not. Two minutes in, his earplugs suddenly weren’t enough so he put his hand over the top of them which did not help at all. On the bright side to all this deafening noise, he wasn’t surrounded by random people. Suo and Nirei were right by his side.
As it continued, his threshold got lower and lower, despite the vivid colours illuminating the dark sky. He curled in on himself, hoping to go unnoticed but Nirei noticed Sakura’s anxious movements. “Sakura-san? What’s wrong?” he said, Sakura read his lips, the noise of the fireworks too loud. Nirei bumped Suo’s shoulder with his own. Suo turned around, his gaze catching on Sakura. He wore the same concerned expression as Nirei.
Sakura wanted to tell them what was wrong but the words felt choked in his throats and his lips felt glued together and he didn’t want to add more noise to the exploding and the cheering and the laughing and the thunder and the talking. He squeezed his eyes shut as a hand on his back that made him flinch momentarily, guided him through the crowd. Sakura didn’t open his eyes until the noise had mostly dissipated.
Suo and Nirei stood in front of him, that same look of concern they’d been wearing earlier. Sakura tried to laugh it off at first but Nirei and Suo, who seemed to be communicating telepathically at this point merely stood there, Suo’s hand resting lightly on his shoulder as his thumb moved up and down in a steady rhythm. In the somewhat silence, Sakura quietly said “I’ve always been sensitive to loud noises. Dunno why. It just happens.”
“Ah,” Suo said “That would explain your reaction back at the fireworks.”
“If you knew it was going to do this to you, why did you go, Sakura-san?” Nirei asked, his head tilting slightly.
Sakura took another breath, ears still ringing. “I…like spending time with you guys. I’ve never really had friends. Also, Nirei, it's impossible to refuse you when you look disappointed.” That was the raw truth and while he felt embarrassed for Nirei and Suo having to drag him out of there, he supposed that maybe, just maybe, a little bit of vulnerability wouldn’t be taken advantage of. Nirei looked a little guilty.
It felt like a leap of faith. Like the one he’d taken already, jumping off that tightrope, except now, he was lowering the walls around him. The ones that he had constructed to be practically impenetrable were all coming down in less than twenty minutes. His friends’ faces softened and Nirei pulled him into a hug which was promptly joined by Suo.
Sakura’s body went stiff for a second but he realised that this contact wasn’t to hurt him but to show that he was cared about. He wrapped his arms around both of them, holding onto them tightly because God forbid they ever let go.
On April 1st, Sakura woke up and began to get ready for the day. He threw on his jacket, taking a moment to neaten up the collar which was something he did that he’d rather die than admit. He opened his door (still broken) and found a parcel sitting innocently on the ground. He flipped over the tag to read who it was to and who it was from.
Dear Sakura,
Happy birthday!
Sakura tore open the package and pulled out a card with big letters on the front saying ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ which he opened to read as glitter fell out in a massive shower of sparkle, coating his trousers in gold as ‘Happy Birthday’ played, the melody replaced by meowing cats. Sakura closed the card but the cats did not stop.This card was signed by everyone in class 1-1, even Sugishita had signed it! Sugishita!
He then noticed a smaller card in the box and he picked it up, relieved to find no cats and no glitter. This one was written in Nirei’s neat handwriting.
To Sakura,
The glitter card was a collective agreement. Sorry about that. Suo-san and I got you the present in here though. We figured you may not have wanted to open it in front of the class as we don’t know if you’ve told anyone else about your noise sensitivity. We figured it would help out more. Anyway, we’re really happy you came to Makochi and we’ll see you later today because we’ve put the parcel on your doorstep at 3am.
From,
Nirei and Suo
Sakura let a rare smile spread across his face. He carefully shifted aside the tissue paper to find a pair of black noise-cancelling headphones. When he put them on, the cat card still going off, the whole world fell blissfully silent. He would absolutely have to thank them when he saw them later.
He moved the parcel inside, gold glitter still clinging to his trousers, headphones around his neck before setting off to Furin, smiling all the way, provided that there was nobody around.
When he got home, that damn cat card was still going.