to greater things beyond the unknown||RK96000||

Chapter 4: Biology Test

ao3 - RK96000

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Shouyou wakes up with a feeling he hasn't had since high school had begun- the faint sizzling of bacon wafting from downstairs and the muffled clatter of plates clanging against each other- a feeling torn between nostalgia and resentment, brewing underneath the surface of skin.

Blinking blearily as he shoves himself up from Kunimi's bed, Kunimi long gone, judging by how cold the space next to Shouyou is.

Kunimi had been nice enough to let him join him on the bed, rather than have to rough it on the floor due to not having a bed roll like Kindaichi did.

"Sleep well?" Kindaichi asks, innocently enough, and it's only after a long moment of staring as Shouyou tries to figure out the nicest way of saying it was really cold- that Shouyou finally realizes, from the smallest tug of Kindaichi's mouth, that he's teasing him.

Shouyou huffs, flinging off the blankets to show just how manly he was, before the chill sends a jolt up his spine and he flings back the blankets on him just as quickly.

For whatever reason, Kunimi, that absolute bastard, liked to sleep with the AC on blast all throughout the night. Even worse, Kindaichi is prepared and used to the cold, wearing a large sweater, and just snickers when Shouyou huddles further into his blankets and glares out of his little cocoon.

The door is nudged open and then, just like that, the freezing air is blasted away by the warmth of the rest of the house.

A woman- Kunimi's mother, he thinks- pokes her head in, softening when she sees Shouyou, still hidden away from the world, only his eyes peeking out. She pushes the door open the rest of the way and Shouyou shudders, this time not from the cold but the pleasant warmth, like a mug of warm hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) after a long snow day outside, and lets the blankets fall away.

Kunimi's mother smiles at Kindaichi and pushes him out of the room, who just smiles back before making a beeline down the hallway in the direction of the scent of breakfast.

She laughs softly and ruffles Shouyou's hair and it's all Shouyou can do to pretend that he doesn't lean into the aching, familiar warmth of a mother's love.

"Honestly," Kunimi's mother scolds, but without any degree of coldness to her voice, and tosses him a large sweater from her son's closet. "Akira should've at least offered one of his sweaters."

"It's fine," Shouyou immediately replies and wiggles into Kunimi's sweater, its scent faintly of salted caramels (which was genuinely kind of worrying- Did Kunimi just guzzle a pack every day? Was that healthy? How was he functioning-) and then frowns when the sleeves hang past his hands. "I smelled breakfast!"

"You smelled correctly," Kunimi's mother agrees easily with an ease suggesting she was more than used to teenage boys and their appetites, especially when they were volleyball athletes. "Hinata, right? Akira used to only ever talk about Kindaichi. I'm glad he made a new friend!"

Shouyou nods, a rush of warmth from the word friend, stepping out of Kunimi's freezer of a bedroom, and then following Kunimi's mother close behind as she leads him closer and closer to the mouthwatering smell of-

"No," Shouyou says, even as he grins. "Tamago kake gohan!" He cheers and dives for the closest seat before digging in.

"That's my sweater," Kunimi points out, with the usual amount of indifference.

Kindaichi rolls his eyes and points at himself. "This is also your sweater."

Kunimi squints, before shrugging and turning his attention back to his breakfast, a simple meal of buttered toast and bacon, along with the phone in his lap.