MARTINI BLUE oikawa tooru

ten. MOMMY ISSUES

          "That setter from Karasuno was so good." Mariko's bouncing slightly as she walks with her older sister and her boyfriend to school, unknowingly rubbing salt into Tooru's tender wounds. He does his best to ignore the pain by holding Tahji's hand.

          "Of course he's good, he's my precious junior from Kitagawa Daiichi. I taught him everything he knows." Tooru replies coolly, as he pulls the sister's close around him, his elbow can literally rest on Mariko's shoulder.

          "I wish I could play with him," Mari pouts. She wants to learn how to do insane quicks like that duo too. Besides, the orange haired one was really short but really fast. She wants to know his jump, she wants to know everything about him.

Tooru rolls his eyes, but he's squeezing Tahji a little too tightly for this to be called comfortable. "I can set for you after practice if you want."

Mari sends a look of alarm to her older sister, she smoothly takes control of the situation. "We have a family thing tonight, can't hang out. Sorry babe." Tahji kisses him on the cheek as they stop at a crosswalk responsibly. It's not like the Okonome sisters are lying to Oikawa Tooru, they just aren't telling him the entire truth. They've never told anyone the entire truth, people like Kiyoko Daya and Aoki Daniel just happened to find out and that itself took years and a series of exceedingly unfortunate events for them to uncover.

          The rest of the day goes something like this: Tooru and Tahji are both hiding something from each other, but neither of them feel bold enough to confront the other about it. So they hide behind pretty lies and stencil-like conversation for the sake of keeping up appearances in front of their classmates whom already think their lack of public sightings is suspicious.

They're good at it, Tooru and Tahji are good at pretending. But it's like they've stuck their hands into a leaking dam to prevent further cracking. But something's got to give.

          Tahjiko and Mariko, the two serpentine sisters, are nervous. Tahji's knee is bouncing up and down like she's some kind of energizer bunny and Mari's pacing treadmarks into the tile. Their father isn't doing too much better but he conceals his nerves in his shaking hands as the three wait for their fourth counterpart to meet them in the station. Okonome Chihiro, the entire reason why her family's lives were wrecked was still adored by her daughters and husband.

            Chihiro left them not long after the school year began when they were still at Nekoma. Tahji had come home to find her mother bleeding out on the linoleum tiles of their bathroom. She stomached the blood and dialed 911 and stayed with her mother until she finally woke up in the hospital four days later.

There was a time when Okonome Chihiro wasn't suicidal. There was a time when she had the world at her fingertips. And then the scandal broke loose, she lost one of her beloved daughters, her power, her dignity, and then she lost control of her emotions. Her husband went into a workaholic downward spiral and her daughters were combating the consequences as they progressed through their education. Every ten or eleven months she would fall into a cycle of fierce depression accompanied by trying ever release possible, it was painful for the rest of her family to watch so eventually she started taking the trips to her aunt's beach house. It was her last relative that didn't cast her away, and it helped.

She would stay at the beach house until she could pick herself up again and then she would return to her family, it was the safest probability for all of them and it was cheaper than booking her into a rehabilitation facility.

          "My girls, my beautiful girls and my dashing husband." Chihiro croons with her suitcase in hand as three heads snap over toward a stunning woman with sea salt in her hair and sand glass in her eyes. The ocean has blessed Okonome Chihiro. They rush in for a hug as their father drives them home in his car.

The mother of his children is chatty and it revives the Okonome family. Suddenly they're a family that laughs and smiles and shares ridiculous snippets from their day. Everything's been so grey since Chihiro left and they exited Tokyo but now the sun was shining and colors were more vibrant than ever.

          "My girls are in high school." She repeats, they're all cuddled into a mess of limbs and junk food on their parent's bed watching the television show as their father handles a work call. "So who cooks around here I saw the eggs in the refrigerator?" She asks, looking down at Mari expectantly. It was apparently common knowledge that Tahji sucked at cooking.

          "One of Tahji's friends comes over and cooks sometimes." The younger girl shrugs, the light from the television is reflected on her face as their father returns with apple slices and peanut butter for his precious girls.

          "Friends or friends?" Chihiro wiggles her eyebrows up and down as Tahji hides her face in the covers. Ruel settles on the bed next to his youngest daughter as he sighs deeply. It's been a while since he's been so content. Of course her parents don't know about what Tahji does in her free time but that doesn't make her any less inclined to tell them what she does. Even her little sister can barely discern what she does or doesn't do.

          "Oh are we talking about Oikawa-kun? He walks the girls home and to school every day. He's a sweet boy" He says fondly, completely unaware to the possibility that Tooru and Tahjiko could be dating.

Chihiro sits up, her mom senses triggered heavily as she gives Tahji the glare that could pin people to walls and makes them afraid to even twitch. Tahji knows because it's the one she perfected. Chihiro won't expose her daughter in front of her anxiety-prone father but there was definitely a confrontation in the near future.

            Tahji can feel her soul collapsing into a black hole, she's not ready for the end.