Chapter Text
Suo woke up to pain. He sighed. It must be raining already for his phantom pain to be acting up so early in the day.
Despite only darkness coming in from the window, he didn’t turn on the light as he got up from his futon and made his way out of his room. Using the railing by the stairs, Suo made his way to the first floor. He stumbled into the kitchen, still groggy from just waking up and distracted by the pain from his missing eye. His hip hit the kitchen table as he walked past it. Suo winced and rubbed at the tender spot. He should’ve accounted for his lesser depth perception, but he was too out of it to care.
He reached the fridge and opened the door to the freezer. Like clockwork, he grabbed the small icepack and closed the freezer door. He took the cloth that he kept next to the fridge and wrapped it around the icepack. He closed his right eyelid before placing the bundle against his eye socket. He flinched at the sudden coldness, but didn’t pull away. He knew it would make the pain more manageable once he got used to it.
He glanced at the clock in the kitchen and saw that he still had two hours until the time he usually left for the park. It had become custom for him to meet with Sakura and Nirei there so they could walk to Furin together.
He headed for the back door and saw through the glass doors that he assumed correctly when he woke up in pain: it was raining heavily. Suo frowned. He usually liked to meditate a bit before meeting up with his friends, and he usually liked to meditate outside. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that this morning without getting drenched.
Suo went back to the kitchen and made himself a cup of white tea. Once it was ready, he placed the cup on the kitchen table to cool. He grabbed a cushion and brought it over to the sliding glass door at the back of the house and placed the cushion on the ground, against the door. He went back to the kitchen to put the icepack in the freezer and grab his cup of tea. Then he went to the cushion and sat down, crossing his legs, his back to the glass door. He pressed his back to the glass for a moment, letting the chill soak through his thin sleepshirt and then straightened his back again. The chill helped wake him up. He sat there for the next few minutes, just sipping his tea and listening to the rain hitting the glass behind him.
He relished the quiet darkness of the empty house. His master had left him in charge of the house and the garden in the backyard, while she was out on a year-long trip to China. Sure, the empty house could feel lonely, but Suo enjoyed it. He had enough loudness at school and in the town that the calmness of the big house relieved him. It was his calm that soothed him before the inevitable busy day, and after, when he comes home to decompress.
After finishing his tea, Suo set the cup to the side. He checked the time. He still had an hour and a half before he had to meet up with his friends. He immediately planned out his morning. He would meditate for thirty minutes, practice his fighting skills for another thirty minutes, take a shower, get ready for the day, then make himself some more white tea.
Suo let his eyelids drift closed, relaxing his body while keeping his posture perfect. He didn’t have to set a timer on his phone, he would know when the thirty minutes of meditation were up. As he shifted into the mindset for meditating, the pain in his eye drifted away. Suo ignored the relief, having to keep his mind steady as he meditated. The distant feeling from his body that he gets while meditating was always a benefit when he was feeling the common phantom pain from his missing eye.
Once the thirty minutes passed. Suo breathed in deeply through his nose, filling his lungs with as much air as he could, then he blew the air out of his mouth in a steady breath until all of the air was out of his lungs. He opened his eye and his breathing became normal and controlled again. He stood and did a few stretches to get his muscles loose and ready for practicing his fighting skills.
Another thirty minutes later, Suo was panting as sweat dripped down his face. He practiced harder than he’d ever have to fight while at Furin. His friends had never seen him break a sweat and Suo planned to keep it that way.
It wasn’t just so that he could save face. There was a reason that he didn’t put his eyepatch on when he woke up. While in the safety of the house, Suo usually kept the eyepatch off. He especially kept it off while he practiced his skills. He had made the mistake of keeping the eyepatch on one time while practicing, and he had to immediately take it off the moment he was done. The sweat that had gathered under the eyepatch had burned and irritated his empty eyesocket. He knew from that moment on that he would never be able to sweat in front of people. It would mean that he would have to take his eyepatch off in front of whoever he was around, and he wasn’t comfortable with that.
Suo grabbed the empty tea cup and the cushion he had sat on, and put both of the items where they belonged. He looked at the time. He had timed his meditation and practice perfectly; he still had thirty minutes to shower, get ready, and make more tea.
Once he was out of the shower, he pulled on his normal Chinese-style clothes and his Furin jacket. He tied his eyepatch on, keeping it slightly looser than normal so as not to rub insistently on his eyesocket. Looking in the mirror, Suo saw that he had a small dark circle under his left eye. He grabbed some concealer and applied it to the darkened skin, messing with the makeup until it looked natural.
Suo had gotten ready fast. He still had fifteen minutes to spare when he sat down with his fresh cup of white tea. Having woken up so early, Suo had more time to try to get used to the phantom pain that was still persistent. It was worse than it usually is when it rains. Suo knew it was because he had been asleep when the rain had started, so he had woken up to more pain than if it just slowly came on. He hadn’t had any time to get used to a slow rise in his pain, instead he had been hit with it immediately after waking up. It had happened a few times before, but luckily it had been on days that he hadn’t needed to leave the house.
He knew that the pain would get worse once he was outside in the chilly air, so he planned to leave early so that he could get used to the pain before he saw his friends. He finished his tea and grabbed two umbrellas, assuming that Sakura wouldn’t have one. He left the house, locking the front door behind him. Once he was out from under the awning of the door, he opened the umbrella. It wasn’t raining as hard as it had been when he first woke up, but it was still coming down steadily – luckily, straight down so that Suo didn’t have to worry about angling the umbrella to block the rain.
Unsurprisingly, Suo was the first to arrive at the park (ten minutes earlier than normal) where he, Sakura, and Nirei gather before heading to Furin. There was a sheltered bus stop near the park, so Suo headed over to it. He’d been right when thinking that the pain would get worse once he was outside. He closed his umbrella and sat down on the bench at the bus stop. He started working on schooling his face to its normal pleasantly calm expression while he waited for his friends to arrive.
Sakura was the next to arrive. As Suo had assumed, he didn’t have an umbrella. He came running with his jacket pulled over his head. Once he got under the covering of the bus stop, he straightened the jacket and shook his head. Suo grimaced as raindrops flew from his monochrome friend’s hair.
“Delightful,” Suo said with his practiced smile. “How are you feeling this morning, Sakura-kun?”
Sakura glared at him.
Suo chuckled, holding a hand in front of his mouth. “You look like a cat that was thrown into a bathtub!”
“Hey!” Sakura snapped. “It’s not my fault! I tried to buy an umbrella on the way here, but no one was open because of the heavy rain earlier!”
“You’re lucky to have me, then,” Suo said, holding out the extra umbrella he brought.
Sakura froze as he looked down at the umbrella. A blush crept onto his face as he took it from Suo, grumbling his thanks as he looked away.
Had Suo not been in pain, he would’ve poked some more fun at his class captain, but he instead chose to close his eye and face forward again, listening to the rain. He hoped the dull, thrumming pain would die down throughout the day.
Nirei arrived a while after Sakura, later than usual for the blond. He had an umbrella, but his pants were damp up to his knees and his shoes were caked with mud.
“Sorry I’m late!” Nirei apologized, a bit winded.
“Did you go frolicking in puddles?” Suo asked, glancing at the boy’s soaked pant legs.
Nirei looked down and cringed. “Ah, no,” he said. “I was helping my mom straighten up the front yard. Some of our outdoor decorations were blown around because of the wind. I was helping her pick some stuff up before leaving.” He pulled at his pant leg, frowning when the fabric stuck to his skin. “I didn’t realize how drenched my pants were.” He groaned. “Now I’m gonna be uncomfortable all day!”
Suo only smiled, wishing he could mention how uncomfortable he was, too.
“Maybe there’re extra pants at the school,” Sakura said. “A lost-and-found or something.”
“Our captain is so thoughtful,” Suo mused.
The blush came back to Sakura’s face. He opened his umbrella, muttered something about assholes and just trying to be helpful, and started walking away from the bus stop, heading for Furin. Suo and Nirei followed.
The rain lightened as they walked, but the umbrellas were still needed. The sky was getting brighter, but there was still a thick blanket of clouds above them.
“It’s kinda pretty,” Nirei said, looking at the sky. “Calming, too.”
Sakura shrugged. “It’s okay.”
“What do you think, Suo-san?” Nirei asked.
“I’m not a fan of the rain,” said Suo.
“Really?” Nirei asked. He pulled out his notebook and started writing quickly. “Hm. I would think that you would like it. You seem like the type of person who would like watching the rain while reading a book or something.”
“How would I read a book and also watch rain, Nirei-kun?” asked Suo.
Nirei rolled his eyes, ignoring his friend’s typical sarcasm. “Why don’t you like the rain?”
Suo hesitated. He couldn’t say the usual thing about the dark spirit that rests in the chasm of his missing eye. Sakura and Nirei weren’t always the brightest, but Suo knew that if he mentioned something about his eye not liking the weather, they would keep a close watch on him throughout the day. Suo was good at hiding his discomfort, but he did have a slip every now and then, and if his friends were constantly watching, they were sure to witness a small wince at some point.
He would just have to pretend to be mysterious.
He lifted a finger to his lips in a hush motion. “I can’t tell you all my secrets, Nirei-kun,” he said with a smile.
Nirei huffed and put his notebook away.
The rest of the way to Furin, Suo remained quiet. Sakura and Nirei entertained each other with idle chatter. Suo was so focused on keeping his expression neutral, he didn’t notice the few times that his friends looked at him, expecting him to chime in, only for Suo to not be paying attention. He also missed the looks they gave each other as Suo remained silent for the entire walk.
꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜
The trio arrived at Furin and made their way to Class 1-1. Mostly everyone was already there. Their classmates greeted them as they made their way over to their desks.
“Good morning!” Tsugeura said, energized as ever.
“Morning,” Kiryu said, not looking up from his phone.
Before the three of them could reply, the speaker at the front of the room screeched to life as Umemiya’s voice boomed out: “CLASS 1-1 CAPTAIN AND VICES, COME UP TO THE ROOF!”
“You don’t have to scream when you’re that close to the mic,” Hiragi’s voice followed, quieter than the previous boy’s announcement.
“Whoops, sorry!” Umemiya said, speaking quieter. “Sakuraaaaa, come up to the roof and bring your vices!”
Sakura groaned. “I didn’t even get to sit down and he’s already calling us to the roof. Why is he even calling us to the roof? It’s still raining!”
“Come on, Sakura-kun,” Suo said, heading for the door, umbrella in hand. He opened the door and paused as he spoke. “I thought you and Nirei enjoyed the rain with the way you were praising it on the walk over.”
“I don’t like it enough to have a meeting in it,” Sakura grumbled as he marched past Suo, Nirei close behind.
Suo let the two of them pass him before he followed behind them. He mentally grimaced at the thought of going back outside in the rain. He made sure to keep his face neutral just in case his friends looked back at him.
At least they didn’t have to do the patrols for that day, Suo thought, selfishly relieved.
꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜
“You three will have to do the patrols for today!” Umemiya announced as the Class 1-1 captain and vices joined him at the table on the roof. He was grinning, as if he was delivering the best news ever.
Suo wanted to strangle him. Keeping his composure, he resorted to clenching his fists in his lap.
It seemed he wasn’t the only one outraged by this update.
“What?!” Sakura snapped. “Why us?”
“Because you’re our trustworthy underclassmen!” Umemiya said.
“And no one else wanted to,” Hiragi added.
“What happened to the originally assigned students for today’s patrol rotation?” Suo questioned.
Umemiya’s smile faltered. “One of them has an old knee injury that acts up when it rains. He didn’t feel up to walking around after school. They volunteered to take the next patrol of whoever takes theirs today. So, you three won’t have to patrol next Wednesday!”
Suo really wanted to strangle him. Just because someone else’s injury pain was acting up, he was going to have to stay outside even longer while his phantom pain got worse? That didn’t seem fair. Just because he could suck it up and deal with his pain, he had to replace someone who couldn’t do the same? Just because he was stronger, he was being pushed to feel more pain?
“Suo,” Umemiya said, a hint of concern in his voice, “you okay?”
Suo blinked. He hadn’t realised that his inner turmoil had manifested as a small frown on his face. He was quick to flash his usual confident smile.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked smoothly.
Umemiya chuckled, unsure. “You looked pretty pissed off for a second there.”
Suo closed his eye and shook his head. He regretted the movement instantly as a sharp pain stabbed through his head, he made sure to not let it show on his face as he kept smiling.
“Hardly,” Suo said. “I was only thinking how convenient it is for the rain to water my garden at home. Meaning I won’t have to worry about rushing back after school to tend to my plants.”
Umemiya brightened at the answer. “Right? Isn’t rain just the best? It’s so helpful! Sugishita didn’t even have to come up and water the plants this morning thanks to the weather!”
Suo struggled to keep the smile on his face.
“Which patrol are we covering?” Nirei asked, steering the conversation back to the reason they were called to the roof.
“The route that takes you down by the river,” Umemiya said.
“It’s the same one your class covered last week,” added Hiragi.
Suo wanted to bash his head on the table. Wonderful, he thought, the wind off the river would be just perfect for his pain. Nothing like a chilly breeze during rainy weather to make his phantom pain better…