Heroes Without Capes

Deal

He was so not looking forward to today.

Groaning, Kimishita reached out from where he lay under his warm, comfy blanket, turned off the alarm and scrambled out into the cold room, ignoring the urge to stay in bed and go back to sleep. His head hurt. He hadn't slept nearly enough last night, and his entire body was aching for rest. The three hours he'd had today barely counted as more than a nap.

Still, he couldn't sleep now. He had to go to school, and to morning practice before that, and he couldn't afford to be late. So he yawned, stretched, and shuffled off to the bathroom.

Kimishita splashed a handful of cold water in his face, looked into the mirror and sighed. His reflection squinted back at him, pale, red-eyed and sleep-deprived, a miserable-looking mess with dark bags under his eyes that seemed to have grown even more prominent since yesterday. You need to stop, it seemed to say. Forget Kiichi, if you show up to school looking like this the entire world will notice you're wearing yourself out.

Part of him wondered if he should take the day off. Just stay at home, catch up on much-needed rest and allow his body and mind to recover before facing the world outside again tomorrow. But of course that wasn't an option. With the exams coming up he couldn't afford to miss a single class, the team needed him too, and with the way sales were going he couldn't allow himself to close up the store for an additional day either. Besides, Kiichi was still on alert. If he suddenly didn't show up to school, his vice-captain would pay him another unwanted visit for sure.

Kiichi. He scowled at the thought of his teammate, shaking off the memory of yesterday's visit. Kiichi had offered him his help, and Kimishita had reluctantly accepted it, but what would happen now? Would he actually try to do something? Would he make a fuss over how worn out Kimishita looked? Would he act as insistent and annoying as he had yesterday? The thought was enough to make his motivation drop. His life was stressful enough without the threat of constant human interaction looming over his head.

Still squinting at his reflection in the mirror, Kimishita ran a hand through his hair, reached for his toothbrush and wondered if investing in concealer would be worth the trouble.

---

Ooshiba was early. That alone was a fact most of the team would have instantly dismissed as an April Fools joke if they hadn't witnessed it firsthand, and yet here he was, ready to start practice fifteen minutes before it was scheduled to start, and twenty before he usually arrived. But today that wasn't even the weirdest thing about his behavior. No, what was truly weird was the way he was standing at the locker room entrance like a doorman, arms crossed, looming over everyone who tried to walk in, tapping his foot impatiently as he stared at a point in the distance.

Ooshiba checked his watch for what felt like the ninety-fifth time, intensifying his glare into the distance. What was taking Kimishita so long? He'd always thought of his captain as the type to be over-punctual, arriving everywhere ages before the scheduled time, and now here he was, waiting as Kimishita took his sweet time and starting to seriously regret getting up at ungodly o'clock in the morning.

He just hoped Kimishita was okay. Maybe he wasn't doing well and had chosen to stay at home, or maybe something had happened to him and he hadn't made it to school. Maybe he'd collapsed or injured himself or– dammit, where was he? What the hell was taking him so abnormally long?

His hand instinctively closed around his phone. He wondered if he should call, or at least send a text, just to check if Kimishita was doing alright, but part of him hesitated. The others were already giving him odd looks as things were, making a wide berth around him and staring at him with intimidation on their faces; there was no way in hell he'd show his worried side to everyone and their mothers. And knowing Kimishita, he'd probably just ignore his calls or texts, leaving him none the wiser.