after years, your best friend's older brother makes an earth shattering appearance back into your life. and suddenly, a shared secret not only turns your lives upside down but forces you two to be closer together than ever.
est. may 2023
YOU LET OUT A tired groan as you stretched your limbs, a yawn following soon after. the cloudless sky allowed the sun to shine at its full potential this morning, bathing the room in blinding amounts of natural light sourced from the enormous windows of amaya's house and the skylight up ahead. it was so bright you could barely keep both eyes open as you walked down the stairs.
it was a little past noon, and you were just waking up, already plagued with a pounding headache from the measly 3 hours of sleep you got. you hadn't slept in months, but once kei's stress-inducing ass stepped into your life, you couldn't deny you felt more energetic yet tired than ever. too much worrying. too much thinking.
half of the time, when you got the few seconds of shut-eye the universe so mercifully granted you, your brain was filled with pictures of that night. the night you found your best friend's brother slumped on her couch at 4 am, bruised and bloody and on the verge of bleeding out. the thought of that happening again chased away any (rare) chance you had of a good night's sleep.
you walked into the kitchen to find tsukishima standing there. he was leaning over the island counter with his hand holding his chin, concentrated as he scrolled on a laptop.
too tired to speak, you hummed a greeting and sent him a half-hearted wave as another yawn racked your body.
you heard him make a sound, something light and airy that made you smile a bit—you were pretty sure he just laughed at you. it was the only laugh that tsukishima ever did, that sharp blow of air through his nose.
"morning, sunshine," he responded sarcastically, "someone got their full 8 hours of sleep last night."
"ha, i wish," you scoffed, more at your sleep deprivation vuu than his sarcasm. that, you were used to. you rubbed your scalp and ran your fingers through your hair, which was probably filled with chlorine from last night's swim. "fuckin' insomnia..." you cursed; you thought brushing your teeth would've helped, but the minty taste in your mouth did nothing to help wake you up.
"i don't understand how you're always so energized," you walked over to the cup cabinet to search for your favorite coffee mug. "i know you don't sleep that much, so it's beyond me."
"'energized' isn't the word i would use," tsukishima mumbled offhandedly.
"yeah, yeah, you know what i meant—hey!" you frowned, glaring up at the cabinet. "who put my favorite mug up there?!" you usually kept it on the lowest shelf—the first of four—so you could quickly grab it and go, but now, you could see it peeking out from the second to last shelf.
