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miyaa-atsumu · 6 years ago

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Of Brothers, Birthdays and Begginings

‘‘Awww, Osamu, were you worried?’‘ Suna coos, making little baby noises and laughing under his breath.

‘‘What? No. Why would I be? Worried, I mean. I dont worry. It’s not like that.’‘

‘’Sure, ok, you’re not worried. You also don’t play as a wing spiker here at Inarizaki, you hate eating, especially puddings, and you CERTAINLY don’t have an idiot twin brother who’s been, for whatever reason, avoiding you for the past 3 weeks.’‘

Well, shit. Osamu really hates getting called out like this.

[Or, Atsumu’s been acting weird lately and Osamu wants to know why]

Warning: long fic ahead!

‘’Osamu.Hey, Ooooooossssaaaaaammmmuuuuuuu.Wake up.’’

Startled, Osamu dropsthe ball he was holding, and turns his head to look at Suna, who stares at him with a smug look on his face.

‘’Stop spacing out, man,’’ Suna drawls, ‘’we gotta start the pratice match in like 15 minutes and you still haven’t done any of your stretching exercices.’’

Osamu picks the ball back up, and then sits down next to his teamate.

‘’I wasn’t spacing out.I was, uh.I was meditating’’, he says. Suna shoots him a knowing glance, wiggles his eyebrows and mutters ‘’Sure Jan’’. Osamu turns around as he hears Suna shuffling closer.

‘’You ok, Osamu?’’ he asks, ‘’you look like you got something on your mind.’’

‘’I....’’ he hesitates, because how can he formulate his thoughts without sounding weird? ‘’I guess that I-’’

Before he can finish his sentence, a LOOK OUT OSAMU!!! is heard troughout the gym. He barely has time to duck his head as a volleyball flies right above him, missing his skull by a mere two inches. It rebounds against the wall in a loud thud, and then some really inventive cursing is heard.

Osamu slowly turns his head towards the source of the cursing. He has an inkling of who just failed that serve because those kinds of serves are mostly only done in this team by Alan and Atsumu, and Alan doesn’t curse that much, so it only left his twin.

He was right. He sees Atsumu approaching, and he glares at his brother.

‘‘Watch your aim, dumbass’‘, he hisses at Atsumu. He’s expecting a biting retort in return, something along the lines of well ‘s not my fault your big head’s in the way, ain’t it ‘Samu? Yet Atsumu merely glances at him, scrunches up his face and mutters a barely audible ‘‘whatever’‘ before dragging his feet away to go fill up his water bottle.

Both Osamu and Suna stare at his retreating back, a dumbfounded look on their faces.

‘‘The hell is up with Atsumu?’‘ Suna asks, sending him a pointed look over his shoulder. Before he has a chance to answer, though, another loud noise is heard; Atsumu had just tripped on the spare T-shirt that Alan always left lying around next to the water fountains, resulting in a very unmanly yelp.

Oddly, Suna has not gotten his phone to record Atsumu yet, like he usually does whenever he or any of his teamates fuck up. His collection of embarassing videos and pictures about every single member of the team (exept Kita-san) is impressive, and he wouldn’t miss out on an occasion to make fun of Atsumu of all people. And yet.

‘’My question still stands, you know.’‘

Oh. Right. How should he know what the fuck his brother’s deal is? They may be twins, but he sure as hell can’t read Atsumu’s mind (thank the gods for this, who knows what he’s thinking about on a daily basis?) nor instantly know what he’s feeling.

Rather, he can decipher Atsumu’s moods better than anybody else, but that’s just the result of spending his entire life with him. Osamu can read him like an open book most of the time, and it’s not like Atsumu is a sublte person anyway. Having the same face also helps recognise certain emotions that he displays sometimes.

But right now, he has no idea. And it kinda bothers him. A lot.

‘‘I don’t know,’‘ Osamu shrugs, ‘‘and anyways ‘Tsumu can take care of himself.’‘ Suna huffs, and both of them go back to their stretching exercises. Atsumu walks past them without even a glance, and goes to pick up a ball.He continues further, to the limits of their gym, and starts to toss the ball up in the air. He stays by himself, each time throwing it a little higher. After a few minutes, he seems to grow tired of it and turns to toss agaist the wall instead.

However, Osamu can clearly see that Atsumu is not in top shape. He messes up on a unusually high number of tosses, and he’s not even doing anything fancy. Not that he’s not allowed to make mistakes, but amateur ones like these?

Atsumu isn’t called <<best high school setter in Japan>> for nothing, and rookie moves like this aren’t his style. Or at leats it hadn’t been his style since they were like, 8 years old or something. It’s not normal.

Osamu feels something poke at his arm.

‘‘You really got no clue what’s gotten him to be so bad today?’‘ Suna quips, and the adds ‘‘you’re aware that if you keep frowning like that, your face is gonna get stuck this way forever.’‘

The wing spiker frowns even more, and then takes a deep breath to relax his face. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d been frowning in the first place.

‘‘That’s not true. Mythbusters debunked that one a long time ago’‘, Osamu argues, ‘‘and about ‘Tsumu, maybe it’s the oysters he ate yesterday that are giving him a bad stomach today.’‘

‘‘So what, all of this ‘cause of a little idigestion? Unlikely’‘, he says. ‘‘Amd if that’s what he has then I guess you’re gonna have it too since you ate the same oysters for lunch today.’‘

‘‘.......Maybe. Not a lot I can do about it now,’‘ Osamu answers carelessly, ‘‘those oysters were delicious either way. If I had to redo it, I would.’‘

Suna chuckles, then turns around to rummage through his bag. He gets his phone out and places it on the ground right next to him, then looks back at Osamu as if waiting for something.

Osamu squints at Suna’s phone, then back to him.

‘‘What?...Do I got something on my face or?...’‘

‘‘No. I’m keeping my baby here with me jsut in case you start sneezing or some shit like that. Don’t wanna miss it’‘, he says smugly.

Osamu snorts, but says nothing else. Maybe he will indeed get sick in a few days, but he’s certainly not sick Right Now, so he dicides not to care about the way Suna’s greedy little fingers twitch towards his phone whenever he makes a move.

The middle blocker suddently does grab his phone, but he aims it somewhere outside of Osamu’s eyesight and starts recording. Osamu’s 95% sure, without even looking, that it has to do with Atsumu.

He’s proven right when he hears his twin’s voice, shouting and cursing at someone. He doesn’t want to look, tells himself it’s just ‘Tsumu being stupid like usual, but then he hears Alan’s voice shouting back at his brother. Oh oh. He slowly turns around.

The scene they make is, in retrospective, pretty funny; it looks a little like a weirdly specific renaissance painting, exept the painting is moving a lot and screaming loudly.

Alan is splayed on the ground, with Atsumu on top of him. His legs are bent at really odd angles, one of his feet is stuck in Atsumu’s jersey and his hands are flying uselessly around, pushing hard on Atsumu to try to dislodge him. His brother, on the other hand, is shoving against the ground to try to get up but he keeps getting caught up in Alan’s legs and thus, failing miserably.

Osamu’s first thought is poor Alan-kun, almost getting his spare shirt ripped appart and now getting toppled over by ‘Tsumu....though day. Then he thinks, oh shit, ‘Tsumu.

He makes a motion to get up, but stops halfway in his tracks. Both Atsumu and Alan have managed to get up now, and are argueing loudly. Atsumu seems relatively unscratched, but Osamu still notices that his eyes look a little bit haggard, almost like a wild animal caught in an unespected situation. But in all honesty, his brother is going to have to own it up on this one because there’s no way he’s interfering between him and Alan. He would loose, for one, and it’s technically not his business.

The wing spiker lets out a little sigh of relief when he sees the approaching form of one Kita Shinsuke, only true voice of reason in the team. Nobody would dare fight in front of Kita; that would be foolish, suicidal and stupid.

He hears a small chuckle next to him, and there Suna is, still recording his twin and the ace, looking back at him with a knowing smirk that Osamu hates having directed at him.

‘‘Awww Osamu, were you worried?’‘ Suna coos, making little baby noises and laughing under his breath.

‘‘What? No. I wasn’t..Why would I be? Worried, I mean. I don’t worry. It’s not like that’‘. Osamu knows that he probably sounds stupid, stuttering like a 12 year old with a crush, but he can’t find it in himself to care.

It has to be the stress, he thinks, yeah that’s it. He’s has a stressful month, what with all the extra practice to prepare for the winter cup and also the upcoming exams.

Satsified with his explanations, he focuses back on Suna, who stares at him as if to say I cannot believe that you are being this stupid, Miya Osamu.

Osamu really hates getting called out like this. Especially by Suna, of all people. But more because it’s the truth.

Something weird was indeed going on with his brother. Osamu has no idea what, but it’s clear that Atsumu’s not acting the same as usual.

It was nothing big, at first. Atsumu would stay behind after school, insisting that he had some very very important business to take care of. Osamu had shrugged then, answering something along the lines of well, whatever bye, and he had taken off on his own. The first few days, he had enjoyed the peace and quiet of his walk home; usually they always went together, and Atsumu never stopped talking,blabbering away like it was his last day on earth and he needed someone to absolutely hear about his entire life.

But after a week and a half, Osamu began to find the lack of sound suffocating, the scenery boring and dull, and he sometimes turned around to tell something to his twin out of habit, only to find himself staring at the empty road.

They were never apart for long; they lived together, shared the same room, went to the same school, were in the same volleyball club and, even though they fought, argued and complained about it, almost all of their free time was spent together as well. It was hard, suddently not having something that he was used to, so used that he had began to take it for granted.

As time passed, Atsumu kept finding more and more excuses to stay behind, each one more extravagant than the previous one. It went from go ahead, ‘Samu, I gotta few questions to ask the teacher. see ya! to sorry ‘Samu, there’s this old lady who found a cat this morning and she asked me to help her take care of it and stuff. bye!

So everynight, Osamu walked home alone, and it left him with a heavy pressure deep in his chest that he really didn’t like.

Then, Atsumu started to leave for school extra early. Usually, Osamu was the first one awake, the loud blaring noise of the alarm clock ripping him away form his slumber. He had always been a light sleeper, whereas Atsumu slept as heavily as a rock. He would then proceed with his morning routine; taking his shower, getting dressed, packing his bag, all the while Atsumu continued to snore loudly.

He would then climb the ladder leading to the top bunk of their beds, and he would ppoke and shove at his brother until he oppened his eyes, groggily swatting him away and mumbling.

Once, Osamu had wanted to see if Atsumu would even wake up on his own if he didnt intervienne, so he’d tried it. His twin had ended up being almost 3 hours late to school, and their mom and scolded both of them so bad that he made sure to always wake his brother up afterwards.

But now, when the loud beep beep of the alarm clock resonated through their room, Osamu would find his brother’s bed empty, and Atsumu already halfway out the door, yelling his goodbyes and eating his toasts like a madman. Osamu didn’t know what on earth he could be doing at this hour, considering that the school wasn’t even oppened, and neither was the clubroom.

Now he barely even saw his brother anymore. Only during volleyball practice, since they weren’t in the same class. And Atsumu didn’t look so good, these days. There were dark circles under his eyes, he yawned all the time and slouched like he never had before. He spaced out often and generally looked like a perfect zombie imitation. It espevially showed in his poor performances, like today.

It is kind of ironic, now that Osamu thinks about it. Atsumu had always been the most expressive one between the 2 of them but recently, his deadpan look really made him look like Osamu. One of the first years from the cheer squad actually mistook his twin for him, and in return had gotten a weak glare and a wrong one, scrub directed at him.

All of those signs sent red flags in Osamu’s mind: something is clearly wrong with his brother. The trouble is finding out what.

Osamu blinks, and comes out of his reverie to find Suna still smirking at him,

‘‘Shut up’‘, he mutters, and amn if he could’ve done a lot better on that last retort, but his brain seems to be turning into mush.

‘‘You tried confronting him about it?’‘

‘‘.....Yeah, but he’s never home these days, and when he is he looks like multiple heavy trucs ran him over.’‘

‘‘well,’‘ Suna says while getting up, ‘‘whatever the issue is, you’re gonna have to fix it soon. We have a practice match with Kyuushu High in 2 weeks, and I don’t want our setter looking like a clumsy zombie.’‘

He yawns, blinks slowly, and starts walking away. But after a few feet, Suna stops, and calls out:

‘‘And anyway, isn’t you guys’ birthday next week? Like, Friday or something? Just saying’‘

Right. Their birthday. To be honest, with all of the things that had happened lately, their birthday had kind of slipped his mind. Sure, he remembers, but he still hasn’t bought anything for Atsumu yet.

Osamu sighs, and gets up slowly. Kita is motionning for the team to come forward, and everybody does so without questions or protests. You don’t make Kita-san wait. Ever.

He’ll have to take a nice bath when he arrives home, because he’s sure he’ll be extra sore after this.

Osamu finally arrives home, soaking wet and trembling from the heavy rain that seems to have settled deep in his bones. He says a vague hello to his parents, and then goes straight up to his and Atsumu’s room.

While he changes into dry clothes, Suna’s words keep resonating inside his head. He hadn’t wanted to admit it earlier but the other boy had really struck a cord. Osamu is worried.

Maybe he can talk to Kita about it Monday, he muses. The captain is, after all, Atsumu’s boyfriend so perhaps his brother had told him things that he wouldn’t tell to Osamu. But that would also be weird. They usually tell each other pretty much everything, no matter what, and they don’t really have any sort of privacy either. Sure, they had some secrets, but not for each other.

But honestly, Osamu jsut wants to know what’s been happening for the last month or so. He doesn’t like not knowing, especially when it comes to Atsumu, so if to have answers he has to go look ridiculous in front of Kita, so be it.

The weekend passes slowly, and monday finally arrives. Osamu spends most of his day searching for Kita. His captain isn’t hard to find, per se, but Osamu needs to choose the perfect moment. He can’t go to him during practice, because he needs to talk to Kita ALONE and there’s no way he’ll ever achieve that with all the gossips in the team. Since they’re not in the same year, they don’t share any classes either.

The other time would be during lunch, but Kita usually spends it with Atsumu himself and, for obvious reasons, he can’t talk to their captain with his brother being there. That leaves only one option, and it’s to corner Kita after practice on his trip home. It’s a bit creepy, but Osamu has no other choice.

Atsumu is, apparently, studying with Ginjima so Osamu has plenty of time to follow Kita after school. He’s a guy of habit, their captain, so the wing spiker has no difficulty spotting him turning on the same little road behind the school. He waits until they’re really alone, takes a deep breath to steady himself, and opens his mouth.

‘‘Did you need something, Osamu?’‘

Osamu finds himself face to face with Kita, who stares at him with his usual penetrating gaze that makes you feels small. A bit like he was looking through you, directly at your soul.

‘‘Uh....hi, Kita-san.’‘ He stops there, unsure of what to say next. To be frank, Osamu still has a hard time to believe that his brother is dating Kita, of all people. Not that Kita isn’t a good person, on the contrary; he seems too good for Atsumu. The thought of anyone liking his brother in a romantic way is pretty absurd, especially someone as nice, honest, dilligent and helping as Kita Shinsuke.

He can’t even look at Kita for too long sometimes, because before actually dating their captain, Atsumu had had a crush on him since their first year. It was always Kita-san said this and Kita-san did that and did you see how beautiful Kita-san looked today? Osamu has heard enough rants about Kita’s apparently <<sexy eyes, handsome face, perfect hair and nice ass>> to never be able to look at him straight in the eyes again without hearing his brother’s voice as a background description of Kita.

But it turns out that his twin’s feelings had been mutual, since he and Kita had been going steady for almost 7 months now. Osamu remembers his own surprise when Atsumu had come one crying at laughing at the same time, almost hysterical, and announcing that he now had a boyfriend.

Kita seems to be waiting for something, and Osamu remembers the question. He arms himself with courage.

‘‘It’s about ‘Tsumu,’‘ he begins, then stops. Kita nods to encourage him to continue. ‘‘You’re still hanging out with him, right?....’‘

‘‘Yes, Atsumu and I usually spend our lunchtime together. We also go on dates, and see each other during club activities, as I’m sure you know.’‘ He pauses. ‘‘What is this about, Osamu?’‘

He technically does know all of these facts, and he feels a bit stupid for asking like that. Even if his twin didn’t tell him everything these days, he’s pretty sure that he would’ve heard about it if he had broken up with Kita.

Osamu inhales. ‘‘Nothing big, Kita-san, sorry for wasting your time I guess-’‘

‘‘It’s not wasting my time if it’s something that’s bothering you, Osamu’‘, Kita counters, face neutral as always. ‘‘It’s my job as team captain, and especially as your brother’s boyfriend, to make sure that you are feeling optimal. So go ahead and tell me what’s wrong.’‘

‘‘It’s just...I dunno, maybe I’m imagining it, but I got the feeling that ‘Tsumu’s been acting weird lately, doing shit like...like....’‘

‘‘Like avoiding you?’‘

Osamu stares at him, dumbfounded. First Suna, and now Kita too? What the hell, had everybody noticed but had decided to not talk to him about it? Rude.

‘‘Yeah. I thought that aybe he....had told you something,’‘ Osamu drones out, ‘‘something like why the heck he’s doing that and also why he looks like he’s gonna faint if someone breathes too hard on him.’‘

Kita tilts his head to the left, and hums softly.

‘‘Atsumu has indeed mentionned some...things....about your situation,’‘ he says, ‘‘But he has also explicitly asked me to not tell you anything.’‘

Osamu feels his heart clench. He feels sick. So it is about something he did. His shoulders sag, and he heaves a difficult breath. An unpleasant heaviness settles deep in his stomach, and he tries his best to ignore it. He’s not sure what’s worse, not knowing what’s wrong with his brother or knowing wothout question that it’s somehow his fault.

At least Kita doesn’t sugar coat it. That’s one thing he can be sure of: Kita always tells the truth, no matter what.

Osamu straightens his coat, and bows.

‘‘Alright.Thanks anyway, Kita-san. Imma head home now.’‘ he says, and starts to turn back around. A hand on his shoulder makes him stop.

‘‘.....Osamu. Wait.’‘

Kita seems to be hesitating, a very rare occurence when it comes to him. He lets go of Osamu, and takes a step back to stare at him. There is a moment of silence, and then he speaks.

‘‘Look, Atsumu may act weird towards you these days, but I can assure you that it’s nothing bad.’’

‘’So it’s not ‘cause of something I did? Or said?’’ Kita’s eyebrows furrow a little, giving him an unusual expression in between a frown and a disapointed look.

‘’No, nothing of the sort.’’

‘’.......But you can’t tell me what it is.’’

‘’.....No.’’

Osamu sighs. He feels a little less sick, but the pressure is still there.

‘‘Ok then, Kita-san. Thanks again. See you tomorow.’‘

‘‘Yes,’‘ Kita nods approvingly. ‘‘See you tomorow. Don’t be late. Take care of yourself and also, stop worrying.’‘

Osamu bristles indignantly. ‘‘I’m not worrying.’‘

Kita sends him an unimpressed glance. ‘‘You’ll understand soon enough, Osamu. On this note, enjoy your evening.’‘

He walks away on his usual route, leaving Osamu behind him. Osamu wonders how it’s possible to learn so much and yet, so little at the same time form just one conversation. Oh well.

His talk with Kita was yesterday, but Osamu still has another big issue, though: he doesn’t know what to get Atsumu for their birthday, and he only has 2 days left. He rattles his brain, trying to come up with a genius idea or something. he knows his twin by heart, it should be easy and yet, he can’t think of anything right now. Nothing comes to mind.

Maybe he could buy him new shoes? He had noticed that Atsumu’s shoes looked really worn out.

No. Bad idea. They always bought their volleyball gear themselves, and anyway it isn’t even a great present to give to anyone. This year, Osamu plans to outdo himself. He wants to win.

Ever since they were little, it had become kind of a competition (like 95% of the things they do) to see who could give the other the better gift on their birthday. So far, he and Atsumu had 4 wins each, and Osamu wants to take the lead this time. But to achieve that, he needs a good idea and luck doesn’t seem to be on his side for now.

The wing spiker is sitting at his desk, staring at the wall and frowning like it had personally offended him. Usually, he chooses something out of the numerous ideas that Atsumu gives off-handedly when they talk. But Atsumu’s been avoiding him for almost a month now, so Osamu’s not sure if what his brother wants is still the same.

He sighs. He can’t think of anything, and just sitting there won’t help him. He gets up. srtolls over to their beds, and throws himself on the bottom bunk. Contrary to popular belief whenever anybody found out they shared bunkbeds, <<who gets the top bunk and who gets the bottom bunk>> was not a subject that they had ever fought about. Osamu isn’t a fan of heights, so when Atsumu had called dibs on the top bunk he had let him have with without much protests.

Osamu opens his phone, and begins to scroll down on his news feed. Not a lot is happening right now, though, and the only interesting article he finds is on the apparently special virtues of purple cauliflower. He puts his phone on his pillow, and turns to stare at the wall again. Maybe he could play some videogames to pass time.

A soft ding makes him turn his attention back on his phone. It’s a text from Suna, a link with the caption << thought abt u when i saw this ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) >> and Osamu opens it wearily, never really knows what to expect when it comes to Suna.

It’s a video of some idol he doesn’t know, dressed in an intense pink monochrome, dancing in front of a badly made green sceen showing the sea, all of it with a peculiar remix playing in the background.

Osamu winces when the girl starts to sing; it’s not that it’s bad, per se, but the levels her voice can reach are way too high for his liking. He goes to close the tab and send Suna a snappy text back, when something catches his eyes.

He actually knows that idol. Atsumu had made him watch one of her videos once, happily comenting on how she was the <<best singer ever>> and <<if more people were like her, the world would be a better place>> and <<if I wasn’t dating Kita-san, she would be a pretty close candidate, just saying>>.

What is her name again. Momoi Sakura Neko Neko-can or something.

He clicks on the link leading to her personal website. Like her, it’s very pink, but the information is surprisingly well put and organised. It says all of her bio, where she’s at now, when her next shows are, all with tons and tons of pictures. And a lot of pink. There’s also a flashing message on the top right corner, which says Get the whole package and complete experience!!! Buy in the next 48 hours and get a ticket for the next show, a VIP session with Sakura Neko-chan, all of her DVDs, CDs + 10 posters!!!! Limited offer!!!!!

Hmm. That could be...interesting. But does Atsumu like her enough to want all of that? Plus, the show is pretty far, so he would have to buy train tickets. Maybe even a night at a hotel, since the show plays in the evening. It would be very expensive. Osamu doesn’t have that kind of money.

Exept that, technically, he does.

Unlike his brother, Osamu has no plans of going pro after high school. Sure, he likes volleyball a lot, but he doesn’t want that as a long term career. He had recently gegan to consider photography as a possible option. Maybe wildlife, nature and things like that. And to show that he was being serious about the possibility of photography, he had started to save money to buy a proffesionnal camera, one of the best ones out there.

Osamu opens another tab, and looks over his bank account. He has just enough money to go buy the camera now, he had only been waiting until the winter break to be able to purchase it in peace. But that money is also just enough to buy the deal.

But it had taken him almost a year to save all of that. He had worked hard, he had earned it....

Oh well, he muses and he clicks on the bright pink BUY NOW!!!!!! , there’s still another year before university. He has plenty of time to save more money then.

One day passes, and he receives nothing in the mail. The website had said 24 to 48 hours, but he was kinda hoping it would be more like 24 rather than 48. Obviously, no such luck. Their birthday falls on friday; he hopes that he’ll have his order before then. Giving a late birthday present to his brother would be kind of embarassing.

Thursday arrives, and Osamu begins to feel nervous. Still nothing in the mail. The day passes oh-so-slowly, and to be honest he’s only half paying attention to his surroundings. When the bells fianlly rings after hours and hours of pure torture, he’s the first one out he door. They don’t have practice today, so he plans on heading straight home.

‘‘‘Samu! Hey, ‘Samu, wait up!’‘

Startled, Osamu stops in his tracks. He hadn’t heard Atsumu arrive behind him at all. Guess he had been lost really deep in his thoughts.

‘‘What’s up, ‘Tsumu?’‘

His brother looks out of breath, heaving loudly with his hands on his knees. His hair is tousled, his uniform a bit out of place and his bag hangs loosely from his shoulder, half oppened.

‘‘Just wanted to tell ya not to wait for me,’‘ he say way faster than necessary, ‘‘and also tell ‘ma and dad that I won’t be back ‘till, like, 11h00 pm.’‘ Osamu blinks. 11h00 pm, that��s...pretty late.

‘‘Yeah ok ‘Tsumu. Will do.’‘ Atsumu grins, before lightly punching his shoulder.

‘‘Thanks ‘Samu! See ya!!’‘ he shouts, before taking off running in the opposite direction.

Osamu watches him go, a pang of hurt resonating in his chest. Even now, Atsumu is avoiding him. He just hopes that the weird atmosphere and strange aura around them won’t ruin the birthday party that he knows their mom has planned for them tomorow.

When he arrives home, the first thing he does is check if he has any mail. Technically, it’s a good thing that his twin isn’t there with him like he used to before, otherwise it would’ve been a lot harder for him to hide.

Bingo. Osamu sees the big, yellowish enveloppe with the company logo on it, and CONGRATULATIONS!!! written in big, bright pink letters on the back. He puts it in his bag and enters the house.

Supper is pretty quiet, when Atsumu isn’t there. His parents talk softly to each other, conversation shifting from subject to subject in one continuous flow. Usually, he and Atsumu would be arguing and bantering about all and nothing, but right now Osamu can only stare at his plate. His parents seem to have forgotten that his twin isn’t there with them, so he has no one to talk to. The oppressive feeling starts to come back.

‘’Imma go back to my room, not feeling well. See you tomorow.’‘ His mom and dad exchange a glance, and his mom looks back at him with a worried expression on her face.

‘‘Are you ok, Osamu honey?’‘

He shrugs, picking up his plate and rinsing it before putting it in the dishwasher.

‘‘Yeah, I’ll be fine. Guess I just need more sleep, but don’t worry. I’ll be top shape for tomorow.’‘ he says while offering his parents a small reassuring smile.

They both smile back and nod, telling him goodnight as he climbs the stairs up to his room. Once inside, he shuts the door, opens the bedside lamp and slumps down on his bed. The wing spiker gets the yellow enveloppe out of his bag, and stares at it. He should make a little effort.

Osamu stands up and goes over to his desk, and gets out a smaller enveloppe, kind of textured and whiteish. He puts Atsumu’s gift inside, and then seals it with a volleyball shapped sticker. He looks at the enveloppe, hesitates, then writes TO TSUMU with a purple gel pen on the front. Satisfied, Osamu puts it under his pillow, and lies back on the bed.

For a few minutes, he does nothing but stare at the ceiling. He then huffs, and bends over to pick up one of the discarded game controlers lying on the ground. It’s only 7 pm, so he can’t go to sleep yet, but at the same time he doesn’t feel like doing something productive like homework, so videogames will have to do.

Osamu picks up Minecraft, puts it on, and slouches back. He’ll play maybe until 10h00 pm, it seems like a reasonable hour since he has school tomorow. Atsumu had said he’d only be back around 11h00 pm, so hopefully by then he’ll be sound asleep.

As he chooses the settings, he finds himself humming a song from Momoi Sakura Neko Neko-chan. He freezes momentarily, ands stops.

A loud noise wakes him up from his slumber rather brutally. He squints, trying to identify it without success. He also realises at the same time that he fell asleep while he was playing Minecraft, his controler lying uselessly on his stomach. He grabs it, closes the game and yawns as he gets up to stretch his legs.

Osamu takes a look at his alarm clock. 11h32 pm, it reads. The noise must’ve been Atsumu coming back. His guess is proved accurate when he hears the shower running. He grabs a pajama bottom, and starts to change. He takes the hoodie he was wearing, and hides it in the space between his bed and the wall. It’s one of his favourite hoodies, and he doesn’t want Atsumu to steal it.

He then closes the bedside lamp, snuggles under his blankets and shuts his eyes. He knows that he just slept, but he really doesn’t feel rested. He just hopes that he can easily fall back asleep, and fast.

But not even 10 minutes later, the bedroom door is violently swung open, and Atsumu strolls inside, whistling. He throws his bag on the ground next to Osamu’s and sighs loudly. He then reaches out and grabs one of Osamu’s pajamas and starts changing.

Atsumu forgot to turn off the lights in the hallway, so Osamu gets simmers of light straight into the eyes, so he turns around to face the wall. His brother doesn’t seem to notice, though, as he shuts the door with his foot and climbs the ladder leading to his bed.

Osamu feels the bed shifting as Atsumu tries to get himself comfortable. That operation usually lasts about 5 minutes, and then he will drop dead asleep like a rock until the next morning. Osamu shifts a bit as he waits for his brother to stop moving and shaking the bed along. He should stop in any seconds, now.

But he doesn’t stop. It’s been almost 20 minutes, and Atsumu is STILL turning, groaning and huffing relentlessly. Osamu is This Close to getting up and hitting his twin in the face so he stops moving. It’s annoying. It’s been a terrible month, a terrible day, and Osamu just wants to sleep. Atsumu gives a shove against the wall, and suddently Osamu’s HAD IT.

‘‘‘Tsumu, you absolute shit, if you move one more time I swear-’‘

‘‘Is it 12h00 am yet?’‘

Osamu stops talking, surprised by his brother’s sudden outburst. ‘’....What?’‘

‘‘I said,’‘ Atsumu says in that extra slow and high pitched voice that he knows irritates Osamu to no end, ‘‘is it 12h00 am yet?’‘

Will the knowledge of the time help his brother to stop rolling around so he can finally sleep? He’s willing to try anything at this point, so he glances at his alarm clock.

‘‘.....Yeah. It’s 12h04 am, asshole. Now stop moving and go to sleep, we got school tomorow.’‘

Osamu closes his eyes again, hoping for some peace and quiet when suddently he hears Atsumu climbing down the ladder, and then searching for something inside the bag that he had thrown on the floor earlier.

‘‘....What are you doing, ‘Tsumu?’‘ He sits up to look at his brother, half bent over the bag and his tongue hanging out a bit in concentration. He finally seems to find what he was looking for, and holds it trumphantly in the air.

‘‘TADAAA! Lightning fast, ‘Samu!’‘, he yells, and throws it at him. He barely catches it before it could land in his face, and he’s about to start shouting at his twin until he notices the ugly wrapping around the box.

It’s a gift. Atsumu always uses the same wrapping when he gives gifts, so he knows without a doubt what it is. That explains why he wanted to know the hour.It’s technically their birthday right now. He glances at Atsumu, who steps forward and flops down the corner of Osamu’s bed.

‘‘Well? Ain’t ya gonna open that, ‘Samu?’‘ he says, looking expectantly at him. Osamu stares at his brother for a few seconds, then starts tugging the wrapping agressively. He can see a vague logo, but he can’t pinpoint exactly what it is.

He stops breathing. He knows that logo. It’s the logo of the company that sells high quality and professionnal cameras. Like the one he wants to buy.

The one who, apparently, he won’t have to buy anymore because he is currently holding it in his hands.

‘‘Well? Waddaya think, uh? Pretty cool, amirite?’‘ Atsumu looks so proud of himself, and Osamu stares at him, speechless. He doesnt’t know what to say.

Also, that camera is extremely expensive. How on earth had Atsumu gotten so much money?

‘‘Did you steal it?’‘ is the first thing that comes out of his mouth.

Atsumu frowns at him, looking so offended that Osamu almost starts to laugh at him, but he doesn’t.

‘‘The hell do ya mean, I stole it? You ass! Ya said that ya wanted that camera so fricking bad you were always whining about it-’‘

That’s not true. He had mentionned it a few times, yes, but there had been no whining involved.

‘‘-so I thought, why not give it to ‘Samu for our birthday? But I looked it up and it was expensive as fuck-’‘

Indeed, the more sophisticated and performant the camera, the higher the price.

‘-so I worked my goddamn ass off every day and night for an entire MONTH so I had enough money to buy it, ya little ungrateful prick-’‘

Oh. OH. Everything falls into place in Osamu’s mind, and he finally understands. He had been misunderstanding the situation the whole time. Atsumu hadn’t been avoiding him at all.

He looks at his brother, and it feels like a huge boulder has just been lifted off his chest.Atsumu is still ranting, his hands making weird movements as he talks.

Atsumu, who had been sacrificing sleep and practice time to work and get Osamu his camera, even though he gave no shits about photography.

Atsumu, who had been spending less time with his own boyfriend recently, because he was too busy saving the money.

Atsumu, his idiot twin brother who, sometimes, can be surprisingly forward and attentionate. He feels a pang of fondness go through him, and he smiles imperceptively. It’s still a bit ironic, though, that Atsumu just bought him the camera that Osamu could’ve bought, but had spend the money on his twin’s birthday present instead.

He grabs the enveloppe from under his pillow, and Atsumu suddently stops talking. He shoves it at his brother, who takes it wordlessly. He sees Atsumu’s eyes gaze over the TO TSUMU written in purple, and quirks an eyebrow at him.

The setter rips the top of the enveloppe open, and tugs the contents out. Osamu sees his eyes widen as he reads over the letters, coupons and instructions for his trip, and he snaps his head back.

‘‘‘Samu! You-’‘ he stops, and his grin is so large now that Osamu fears it’s gonna split his face in half,’‘You bought me tickets to go see Momoi Sakura Neko Neko-chan!!’‘

‘‘Yeah’‘, he says softly while looking at his own birthday present, ‘‘I did.’‘

But he can’t move anymore as Atsumu flings himself in his arms, trapping him in a bone-crushing hug. It only lasts a few seconds, not even enough time for Osamu to reciprocate, before his brother is already standing, gushing about the idol.

Osamu looks at him, and gets him camera out of the box, points it at his twin, who stops moving when he gets a flash in his eyes.

‘‘Ack! The heck was that!!’‘ he screams, rubbing furiously at his eyes.

‘‘I was just testing my camera, damn, stop overeacting’‘, Osamu answers, glancing down at the picture he had taken. It shows Atsumu slightly out of frame and blurry, laughing and carefree, like he hasn’t got a care in the world.

‘‘Well anyways ‘Samu, I think we should go to sleep now, eh?’‘ Osamu looks at his camera mournfully, before putting it safely on the nightstand.

‘‘Yeah, you’re right for once.’‘

He hears Atsumu mutter a ‘‘whaddaya mean, for once?’‘ while climbing the ladder to his bed.

Osamu shuts his eyes again. He can hear Kita’s words again in his mind. You’ll understand soon enough, but I promise it’s nothing bad. Like usual, their captain had been right.

‘‘....Hey, ‘Samu. You think ma’s gonna be mad we gave each other our presents before the party?’‘

Osamu doesn’t answer, but smiles softly.

(Their mom ends up getting really mad. Osamu doesn’t really care, though. He’s just glad to have Atsumu back at his side. When their mom asks if he’s tried his camera yet, he answers no. Atsumu glances knowingly at him as if to say ha, you liar. He still doesn’t delete the picture, though)

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