Of Cats and Crows (Sugawara Koushi)

Healing Pains

Suga was at Mitsumi's apartment the next Monday morning before classes with Kuroo and Bokuto. They were sitting at her kitchen table staring at each other. There was a weird tension between the four of them. Despite having won the first slot for Nationals, Mitsumi was in a weird funk. Originally, Suga was going to join her for breakfast. But then the other two idiots turned up with him once they found out where he was headed. 

"Look guys," She started with a huff. "I love all of you. And I'm sorry for acting up. But, I just need some space right now." Mitsumi was insisting that she had time to process everything that had happened. Plus she needed to brace for impact just in case her midterm grades were posted.

Bokuto puffed his cheeks out, "Yeah right. You just haven't realized that you actually made the team win." He retorted and put his hands on the table.

"What do you mean?" She scoffed in disbelief. Her injury actually motivated a win? That was highly unlikely. "Matsuki is a veteren player, so she is the one who carried the defense-"

Suga shook his head, "They didn't want you to lose your first college tournament. So, they played for you." He stared at Mitsumi in the eyes from across the table. There was no need to hide or sugarcoat anything. Everyone needed to lay everything on the table.

"Look, Kuroo told us about everything you know." Bokuto tapped his fingers on the table. He was actually being serious for once in his life. "Everyone has been worried since you turned your phone off." The trio had banged on the girl's door until she was forced to let them in.

Mitsumi narrowed her eyes at the golden-eyed brother figure. "You did, what?"

"I only told these two. Don't worry. Tch." Kuroo turned his head away. "But that's not the point. Shimura and Yuki were saying that they would have lost if you hadn't put yourself at risk during the third set."

"You were wickedly on point out there." Bokuto tried to break the tension with a compliment. "Like seriously, you deserve an MVP award. You were that awesome. After you left, Matsuki was saying that you had managed to expose the rest of Waseda's magic tricks." He was talking with his hands in a very expressive manner. "Plus your cool little thingy was really gutsy. You didn't have to go for the ball."

Hearing this brought a solemn smile to Mitsumi's face. Bokuto really knew how to make things brighter. "Thanks, Bo. But, I'm still down for the week."

"But you and the girls don't have to worry about the qualifiers. So, you have a full three months to prepare for Nationals." Suga leaned across the table and put his hands on her cheeks and gave them a firm squish. "You have plenty of time to rest and train. We have a second go-around in three and a half weeks. Consider yourself lucky!" He shook her head around while her lips were puckered up like a fish. 

There was another silence. He was right. Again.

After a few minutes, Mitsumi pried his hands off of her face and held them. "Thanks, guys." She grabbed her crutches and stood up. "I need to start walking to class. But, I really appreciate the chat. I needed it." She hugged her three best friends tightly.

"If I were you right now, I'd be using this time to sleep as much as I want." Kuroo had finally started to feel the effects of University life. 

"I'd be going out to eat at all the barbeque places." Bokuto was drooling at the mere thought of the sizzling meat he loved a little too much. "And then I would sleep off the food comas."

Mitsumi rolled her eyes. Why was she still friends with them? "Now get out of my apartment, bozos. I didn't invite either of you over and you ate my food." She could take care of herself perfectly well. "I'm not some princess who refuses to do things for herself."