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Suo was running on exactly two hours of sleep. Even then, it was broken up by nightmares and just general disturbance of the kids above him who were still awake at three in the morning. So yes, he got two hours of sleep, woke up at five, meditated, got ready to go to Furin, mediated between breakfast options with stubborn ten year olds and then he walked to Makochi.
Didn’t take a train (there wasn’t one between Bankoku-Gai and Makochi).
Didn’t drive (Suo didn’t have a driver’s licence).
Didn’t bike (He didn’t know how to ride a bike).
Walked.
He walked two hours to Makochi and then twenty minutes to Furin.
His sleep schedule was interesting. He knew that. Between school-work, patrols with Bofurin, patrols with the Red Chanpuru, travel, dealing with younger kids at the dojo, sleep had been the last thing on his mind. Now, on two hours of sleep, he was going to have to be his usual smiley self and somehow survive the day when all he really wanted to do was cry. Suo didn’t think crying was a sign of weakness; he just didn’t want to do it himself. He was vaguely aware that he was at his limit and he’d either be able to push it down and carry on with life or he’d break.
He got into class 1-1 where students were just starting to gather. Nirei, Kiryu and Tsuguera were already there. Nirei liked getting up early. Kiryu was trying to escape his awful household and Tsuguera worked out in the mornings the same way that Suo meditated. With a practiced smile and his usual flare, he sat down on his seat to listen to the conversation. Well, he was trying to listen. Really, he was. But he sort of zoned out during the whole conversation. “What do you think, Suo-chan?” Kiryu asked. That snapped Suo out of his reverie. “What do I think? Um, I don’t really know.”
“About child trafficking?”
Okay, Suo had clearly missed a very important memo.
“No. Child trafficking is obviously bad.” Now the other three were looking at him strangely. Great. Absolutely fantastic. He really screwed this one up. Awkwardly, Nirei changed the subject just as Sakura walked in.
By the afternoon, Suo just felt worse. His eyelids were drooping every few seconds and he wanted nothing more than to sleep. He sat at his desk, listening to one of the teachers droning on about maths. He was so warm and it would feel so good to surrender to sleep right about now. He couldn’t fight it. His pen dropped out of his hand onto the floor as he closed his eyes and let the rush of dreams take him away.
The pen dropped in the otherwise silent classroom and naturally, everyone looked over to see what had happened. Suo was slumped over his desk, head buried in his arms. Sakura didn’t wait, he darted quickly to his feet, Nirei not far behind. He shook Suo’s shoulder, ignoring the teacher who was saying that he’d handle it and he ought to sit down. “Suo! Hey, Suo!” Nirei called. “I think he just fell asleep.” Sakura said. Suo opened his eye blearily and rubbed it, sitting back up. Sakura and Nirei were looking at him as if he was going to fall asleep again. “Oops.” Suo said. “I’m fine, guys.”
Nirei raised an eyebrow as if Suo had just told him that the sky was green. “Back to your seats, you two!” the teacher said. Sakura was tempted to keep arguing but Suo squeezing his wrist told him not to so he trudged back to his seat as did Nirei but that didn’t stop either of them from glancing at their friend, deep bags under his eye, pen moving slowly.
Sakura didn’t know much about Suo’s homelife but then again, no one did. He was a mystery wrapped in mystery like an onion. Sakura had a feeling that this was an accumulation of everything that Suo had pushed aside over the years. After all, he’d never once seen Suo without his smile and somebody who can have a smile on their face all the time has to be hiding something.
When class was over (it was finally lunch), he made a beeline for Suo, crouching down next to him. Suo had his head resting on his arms and he didn’t protest when Sakura felt his forehead. “No fever…” Sakura muttered as Nirei walked over to them. “Suo-san? Can you hear us?”. At that Suo shifted “我可以。” (I can). They looked at him with absolute confusion. What the…”Suo?” Sakura said “Can you repeat that?”
“I can hear you.” he murmured quietly.
Nirei shrugged at Sakura; he didn’t know what had happened either. Whatever Suo had said, it wasn’t in Japanese. “You can sleep if you’re this tired, Suo-san.” Nirei said. Suo took this as an invitation as his whole body went motionless against the desk, his breathing slowing down completely.
Nirei didn’t know what it was that caused Suo’s whole body to tense up ten minutes later. All he knew was that it made him scream and clutch at his eye patch.
Not quietly either.
It was loud. Louder than Suo had ever spoken. Immediately, all eyes turned to their writhing classmate who was yelling out words that no one could understand, gripping onto the table. The entire room froze and Nirei and Sakura dashed over quickly. “Suo-san! Suo-san! It’s just a dream. Wake up!” Nirei said, resting a hand on his shoulder. Suo had tears running down his face now. Nirei’s grip got tighter as Sakura shook him, trying to rouse him from whatever nightmare had tangled Suo in its webs.
Suo gasped and his eyes flew open, still half-dazed and confused as his frantic hand reached for his chest and his breathing came in short, sharp gasps that no one had ever heard from calm, cool and composed Suo before. “他们要挖掉我的眼睛!” (They’re going to gouge out my eye). Shrill, high-pitched, panicked. “Suo, calm down, it’s alright. We’ve got you.” Sakura said in a voice that Nirei rarely heard. Neither of them could understand any of what Suo was saying but they could understand his distress. “他们将要—” (They’re going to-) Suo got cut of as he cried harder.
To their credit, the rest of 1-1 looked away, providing the trio with some semblance of privacy as they dealt with their inconsolable friend who appeared to be breaking all at once. Sakura’s fingers combed through his red hair as Nirei whispered soft words to him. He didn’t know how to comfort him as they had no clue what he was crying over.
Suo’s eyes darted around nervously, seeming not to recognise where he was but one hand grasped Nirei’s jacket as they tried to get him to slow down his breathing. “Look, Suo-san.” Nirei said, guiding Suo’s hand to rest on his chest “Can you copy that?”. Sakura’s fingers were still tangled in Suo’s hair but they moved down to wipe away some of his tears.
Slowly, painstakingly, Suo’s breathing slowed and evened and before Nirei or Sakura could say anything else, he was asleep again.
The next time Suo gained awareness, he realised he was being carried outside, down the quiet Makochi streets. He looked up at his captor to see familiar heterochromatic eyes. Sakura. He tapped Sakura’s shoulder with his hand causing Sakura to glance down at him and then at Nirei. “He’s awake.”
“Suo-san!” Nirei practically shouted “Are you okay? You fell asleep and started screaming and speaking weirdly.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah,” Sakura said, “You had a nightmare and spoke in a language neither of us understood.”
For Suo, this was his ‘oh shit’ moment.
Juggling around multiple languages inside your head was harder than most people gave credit for. Words would sway from one language to another and so would grammar rules and there would be some words that had a translation in another language but it wasn’t quite what it meant and translating idioms was a nightmare. Sometimes, Suo would forget words in his native language which meant he was stuck standing there like a malfunctioning computer as he forgot the words in every other language he ever spoke too.
“Probably was just my sleep-addled brain making incomprehensible Japanese. Let me down, Sakura-kun.”
Sakura gently put him down. Much gentler than Suo would’ve expected from the normally rough around the edge delinquent. And then, grumpy as ever “Just get some sleep tonight, yeah? You’ll make yourself sick if you keep going on like this.”
“Sakura-san’s right. I’ve heard it can lead to hallucinations.” Nirei said
Suo knew that for a fact.
“Well, I ought to head home.” Suo said leaving no room for conversation. He was embarrassed about the day’s events and so he quickly speedwalked home, leaving them standing there, watching him go.