this was requested by tallemy on tumblr sometime ago! good to finally post it on ffn and ao3 too. i had fun writing it, honestly ww
It's one in the goddamn morning and Sena Arata can't sleep.
There's school tomorrow and here he is, lying in his bed in his room, tossing and turning for hours now before he finally gives up and throws the blankets off of him.
He groans loudly. Is he becoming an insomniac?
It's like the third night in a row where he goes to sleep and can't stay asleep. It's frustrating because he has no idea why he can't sleep. It's not like any of his neighbours are being super loud deep into the night or anything. Everything's just as it's supposed to be.
If he can't damn sleep, then he might as well do something useful about it.
He gets up and turns on the light on his bedside table. Maybe he can try reading. He's hoping that it'll bore him enough to make him drowsy. He finds a book he borrowed that he's only half-done with and hasn't picked up in months. Haruki's been nagging at him to have the book back anyway, so he might as well try.
Arata realizes too late that his plan didn't work when he reads the last page of the book and sees that it's 3AM.
He sighs.
Leaving the book on his study so he won't forget to bring it tomorrow (or is it later?), he plops himself back on his bed, feeling dejected and grumpy and tired. There's something hard on his elbow and he finds that it's his phone.
Arata stares at the screen for a while, before he decides to type in a random number and press call.
It's all out of impulse, really, the numbers. He didn't memorize it; he doesn't even know whether or not it's an actual number in service. Expecting it to go dead, imagine his surprise when the line actually connects and someone answers before Arata can cut the call.
"Hello?" the voice on the other line says, dreary yet gentle.
"Uh…" Arata says with his eyes wide and mind drawing a blank. It takes him a few moments later of silence before he breaks into laughter.
The other line makes a confused disgruntled sound, before they say, "If this is a prank call, I swear—"
"No! No, I mean," Arata says in between breaths, trying to control himself from laughing anymore. "I'm. I'm sorry to disturb you, but it's just that I can't sleep, and it's like three in the morning, and then I dialled a random number, and holy crap I really wasn't expecting anyone to pick up at all." He's finally stopped laughing by then, but there's still a large smile on his face. "I'm really sorry about this."
The voice on the other side sounds soft. "So you can't sleep either?"
"Does that mean you can't too?"
The other end chuckles. "It is 3AM here too. I guess that does equate to not being able to sleep."
Arata joins them in laughing. "I guess us insomniacs should stick together and wallow in tiredness."
"I don't see why not."
A comfortable silence falls between them for a while, as Arata adjusts his position on the bed. "So how long has it been since you've had a proper good night's sleep…?" he asks, the gentleness in his voice surprising himself.
"I guess a little more than a week by now… You?"
"That's intense. How are you still alive? I've only been up for like, three nights in a row, and I really don't know how I'm still functioning. Maybe it's the naps I take in class."
The other person laughs again, clearly sounding amused. "I don't know, after a while I kind of got used to it." For some reason, Arata can imagine the other person shrugging their shoulders, even though Arata has no idea how they look like. "I take it this is your first time having insomnia?"
He doesn't even have a name to go with the voice on the line.
Arata smiles into his phone. "Yeah, it is."
They continue to talk after that, for some reason. They don't stop or cut off the call. The conversation goes on with occasional quiet pauses, from one topic to another, from getting little tips on dealing with insomnia to hearing about the other person in the call rant about their elder sister. He tells stories too, of how his friends saved him when he was in trouble and how they like to think of him as their adopted son.
When Arata sees the sunlight peek in from his curtains, he feels an odd sense of reluctance and wonder.
"The Sun's rising…" he mutters into his phone.
The other person hums in agreement. "You're right…"
"I need to get up soon and get ready for school…"
"Me too…"
But neither of them makes the move to say goodbye. Instead, Arata finds himself pulling the curtains back from the window beside his bed and watch as the world around him brightens slowly in an orange hue.
Later, when he meets Hikaru on the way to school, the first thing that the blond does say instead of Good morning is, "You look terrible."
But Arata has a smile on his face, and he doesn't exactly feel like shit the same way he felt just yesterday, so Hikaru telling him that he looks worse than trash doesn't even bother him.
Okay, maybe a little, since he's still cranky from the lack of slumber, but he shrugs in response. "Better than you," he counters, smirking at Hikaru's offended expression.
They see the high school loom closer and join the crowd of students entering the premises, the chatter filling up the air. They meet up with Haruki at the shoe lockers.
"Still can't sleep?" Haruki asks after greeting him good morning. Arata gives a weary smile and a shrug.
"Maybe you should see a doctor about it." Haruki suggests as they make their way to their classroom.
Arata shakes his head. "It'll go away sooner or later." He doesn't really want to see a doctor either. It seems too simple of a case to bring up in front of a doctor. Sure, the occasional headaches and sporadic naps get annoying, but he'll handle it for now.
Haruki seems to want to argue against Arata's stubbornness, this time with Hikaru backing him, but before he can say anything, Arata runs into someone the moment he makes a turn at the corner.
He falls right on his ass from the impact and yelps in pain. He barely registers hearing the person that crashed into him yelping too. He cracks open an eye to see his two friends staring at him worriedly.
"Are you okay?" Haruki asks as Arata rubs his sore jaw. "Yeah, I'm fine…" the redhead turns his attention to the other guy—a guy with blond hair a deeper shade than Hikaru's, holding his forehead and definitely groaning in pain more than he should be. "Hey, are you okay man?" he asks, approaching the blond in worry. He notices a white and black hat on the ground next to the guy and picks it up.
The other guy nods his head, before looking up and smiling warily. "S-Sorry for crashing into you…"
Something tickles inside Arata's chest at the way the guy speaks, but he pays it no mind. He dusts the hat that he's holding. "This is yours right?"
The guy opens his eyes and Arata almost gasps at how purple they are. That's not all, either. The guy has prominent eyebags under his purple eyes, dark and heavy. Though he's still smiling as he takes back the hat from Arata's hands. "Yeah, it's mine. Thanks." Then he stands up and Arata stands with him, and before the redhead can say anything more, the blond runs off. "I'm sorry again!"
Arata and the gang watches as the blond guy with the hat runs off, seemingly in a hurry as he snakes through the morning crowd of students.
"That was something." Hikaru comments and Arata looks at him with curiosity.
The blond sees the look Arata's giving him and sighs before he turns to follow Haruki to classroom 2-5. "You don't know him, do you?" Arata hears Hikaru ask when he catches up with their pace.
"Am I supposed to?"
"He's the genius mathematician, Kojou Takeru."
"Ah, so I'm not supposed to know him."
Hikaru shakes his head as they enter their classroom. "You're hopeless. He's pretty famous for solving intense problems that even university researchers have struggles with."
"Eeh… someone like that attends our school, huh…"
"If I'm not wrong, he has a sister who's a famous model too."
Arata looks at Hikaru with a blank expression as they take their respective seats next to each other. Haruki and Sakuya are already deep in their own conversation, oblivious to the way Arata's looking at Hikaru with suspicion.
"You surprisingly know a lot about that Kojou Takeru guy." Arata deadpans.
Hikaru seems a little startled by Arata's observation. "I have to know the competition."
"It sounds to me like you've got a crush on him instead. Hey, are you stalking him?"
Now it's Hikaru's turn to look at Arata like he's grown two heads. "Where in the name of hell did you get an idea like that?"
Arata throws up two hands in defence with a playful grin. "I'm just saying!" he laughs. Hikaru huffs at him, clearly not wanting to drag the topic any further, but Arata can still tell that Hikaru finds it amusing.
The rest of the school day drags on, with Arata inevitably falling asleep every five minutes before jolting awake. Hikaru helps wake him up if he ever notices the redhead slumped over his desk, and Sakuya gets him medicine during lunch to help him with his headaches.
See what I mean by my friends treating me like I'm their adopted son?
…is what he catches himself thinking as Haruki yet again suggests he see a doctor after he wakes Arata up from a really short nap when the last bell of the school day rings. He had thought of the person who accompanied him throughout the night until this morning, wanting to tell that to them and hear how they'd react. Arata thinks they'd laugh.
Arata realizes he likes listening to their laugh.
And then he imagines that Kojou Takeru guy smiling at him and he startles awake, eyes wide in surprise.
Weird.
He yawns loudly, slinging his bag over his shoulders as he tries to stand up. He wobbles though, and finds himself leaning against his desk. He tries to grin at his friends but it falls just a little. "Man, I'm soooooo tired."
"Your eyebags are worse than yesterday, you know." Sakuya points out with a worried crease in his brow.
Arata waves him off. "Someone told me it'll go away in another week or two. Maybe even three if I'm unlucky. So I'll be fine in no time!"
The group walks out of class, trailing after one another and letting the students on duty do their job. They're in the hallway just like the rest of the student population eager to go home, talking and joking, when Arata feels something ram into his chest.
More like, someone.
He grabs the person by their shoulders on instinct, and when he opens his eyes from the impact, he sees a white-black hat and blond hair.
He can't help the chuckle that escapes him.
"Is this how we're always going to meet?" he says, as Kojou Takeru takes a step back from Arata's hold after recollecting himself.
Takeru blinks for a moment, before realization dawns in his purple eyes. "Ah! It's you from this morning!" and then there's a tint of pink on his cheeks. "Oh my God, I'm really sorry. For, you know, bumping into you again."
"Hey, don't sweat it." Arata says, amused. "At least neither of us is on the ground this time."
Takeru laughs and Arata feels that tickle in his chest again.
"You're right."
"Maybe next time you shouldn't be running in the hallways, though."
Takeru just grins. "Sorry, but I can't do that. I'm always in a hurry. See ya!" and then he speeds off, somehow better at dodging people this time.
Arata watches as the shorter blond runs away, feeling a vague sensation trickle in his mind.
Then he hears his friends calling for him and he forgets the notion.
It's the fourth night in a row that he can't sleep. But this time, Arata's actually anticipating it.
He's forgotten to return Haruki's book, so he spent his time rereading the parts that he liked, keeping a close eye on the clock for it to strike three. He has his phone right beside him too, just in case the other person decides to be the one to call tonight.
Arata's not completely disappointed when he doesn't get a call. He was the one who had dialled the random number last night anyway, so it's understandable that the other person wouldn't know whether or not it's okay to call back.
It's 3AM, and Arata's calling the number from last night again.
It doesn't take long for the other side to pick up.
"Can't sleep?" they say and Arata chuckles.
"You know it."
"You caught me right on time then. I just finished this maths problem I've been agonizing over since last week."
"Wow, is that homework?"
"Mmm. I guess you can call it that."
Then Arata hears a hiss of pain from the line and he panics a little. "Are you okay?"
"Ah, yeah, I'm fine." The other person laughs. "It's just that I ran into someone twice today, literally. He had a sharp chin. My forehead's been hurting sporadically since."
Arata hums, before a slow realization slithers in. "That… sounds bad. Are you sure you're okay?"
Twice. Sister. Maths.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you? Did you stay awake in class?"
He brings a hand up to his chin, and finds that it's still slightly sore.
"Is that even an option?"
"That bad?"
"You should see how my friends were fussing over me! One kept telling me to go to a doctor, another kept me awake by flinging his eraser at me, and the other got me meds for my headache. I felt so loved."
The other person laughs, and Arata sees blond hair, a black-white hat, and purple eyes with heavy eyebags.
They talked all the way to sunrise again, and once more both of them were reluctant to hang up. But they did in the end, and on his way to school Arata ponders on everything's that happened since he made the first call.
He almost doesn't realize when Hikaru greets him good morning, and almost misses the entrance to the school too. Hikaru's giving him weird looks, he can tell from the corner of his eye.
"You're more out of it than usual today. The lack of sleep finally getting to you?"
Arata shrugs. "More or less."
Hikaru doesn't push him after that, and he's grateful for it. They catch up with Haruki at the shoe lockers and everything's just the same usual routine every morning, just the way it should be.
He's just finished putting on his indoor shoes, when Arata catches a glimpse of deep blond hair and a black-white hat, and promptly follows with his eyes.
Takeru opens his locker, taking out the black shoes he uses in school. He's surrounded by people Arata assumes to be his friends, a guy taller than him and a girl with an accent, before the two strangers excuse themselves to go ahead.
Arata ponders on his options, before he grins to himself and decides, to hell with it.
He approaches Takeru and it doesn't seem like the blond really notices him coming. He can feel his friends watching him in confusion, but right now he doesn't care.
"Good morning," Arata says when he's close enough.
Takeru looks up, momentarily surprised, before he smiles. "Good morning. It looks like we didn't bump into each other this time."
Arata chuckles. "Yup. How's your head though? I heard you say my chin was sharp."
Takeru opens his mouth to answer, before his smile drops a little and he looks stunned. He turns to face Arata slowly, his eyes blinking in confusion. Arata thinks it's a cute reaction. "Where did you hear…?" Takeru begins to say, but then he stops short again as realization hits him.
Arata finds himself laughing when Takeru gasps, "Oh my God, you're the one who called me at three in the morning!"