My eyes opened into a peering squint, the light bright enough to blind me from behind my eyelids. Groaning I sat up and rubbed my eyes. With a yawn, I dragged my feet to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Finishing up I splashed my face with water and headed into the kitchen. Mother was sitting on the couch playing one of the many videogames, a cup of coffee on the table in front of her. "Morning, hon," she smiled turning to me.
"Morning," I grumbled back.
"There's some coffee in the kitchen if you want any. If you're anything like me or your brother, I know you'll need it to wake up," she teased. Smiling softly, I headed to the kitchen, pouring myself some coffee and cream before taking a seat beside her.
"Since when did you and Testu-nii become such gamers?" I asked taking a sip of the bittersweet drink.
"Oh please," she chuckled. "All of these are Kenma's. He's here so often that he just leaves some of them here," she explained. A soft curse escaped her lips as the character she was controlling flew off the screen, another bundle of pixels swooping at her with a weapon of sorts. "Wanna try?" she offered handing me the controller. I shook my head.
"I like watching you," I replied softly taking another generous sip. Mother laughed and took a sip of her own drink before resuming her game.
"Any plans for today?" she questioned nonchalantly, although I could tell she was genuinely interested.
"Just volleyball practice in the afternoon," I hummed. She chuckled and nodded her head enthusiastically.
"I'm glad you two took to volleyball so well," she grinned. It was because of you. "Hey, why don't you go wake up your brother? He has practice later today too," she suggested. I downed the rest of my cup and headed over to my brother's room. From the other side of the door, I could hear his alarm going off. Opening it, I immediately saw why he didn't hear it. Yanking one of the pillows crushed to the side of his head away, he instantly jolted awake.
"Keiji?" he mumbled with tired eyes.
"Mother wants you up," I informed. Rolling onto his side, he groaned loudly.
"I don't want too," he whined.
"Really, Nii-chan?" I sighed starting to pull the covers away from him. With a little more persistence, he finally got out of his bed. When I returned to the living room, Mother had moved onto another game. She gave me a knowing smiled and patted the empty seat beside her.
"After practice, maybe I can take you two out," she chirped.
"Are you sure you'll be okay playing for my school's tuition?" I blurted out bluntly. My mother paused the game and turned to me with a smile.
"What? Worried about little old me?" she smirked. "Please Keiji, you're my son. Even if I didn't have the money to pay for it, I'd find a way. I'm not going to make this any harder on you than it has to be. You already moved homes, you don't need to move schools too. And I know you worked hard to get in there; I'm not going to let that all go to waste for naught," she comforted kissing my forehead. "I just want you to be happy, don't worry about all the details behind the stage," she reassured.
"Thank you," I mumbled softly.
"Of course, what are mothers for?" she smiled ruffling my hair and getting up. "I'll go make a snack for you and your brother for your practice. Go eat some breakfast," she advised walking into the kitchen. As I got up to follow her, Tetsu-nii entered from the hallway and nudged me lovingly. The two of us greeted one another, eating the leftovers from last night's dinner. I returned to my room to change and pack my gym bag. As the two of us left the house, our mother handed us three paper sacks—one of them for Kenma.
"So, what's it like being back here?" my brother mused as we walked next door to get Kenma.
"Odd, but pleasant," I replied. The blond exited his house sluggishly, a piece of toast stuffed a quarter way into his mouth.
"Mmmmm," he muttered in greeting.
"Good morning to you too, Kozume," I grinned softly. Biting off the piece that was in his mouth, Kenma swallowed.
"Just Kenma is fine," he stated looking down at the ground. Smiling, I nodded my head.
"Alright then, Kenma," I hummed. He smiled delicately and we headed down the block to the train station. As we walked, Tetsu-nii did most of the talking, Kenma playing on his handheld game console and I having nothing interesting to say. At some point, he began pestering the younger boy about his opinion on something.
"Leaving me alone, Kuro. I'm playing my games," he mumbled impatiently.
"Videogames are all nice and fun Kenma, but have you ever thought about how pretty Keiji's eyes are?" he mused casually. Kenma looked up from his game and stared at Tetsu-nii with a vexed expression.
"Nii-chan!" I barked. "Just ignore him—" I paused as my eyes met with gold.
"They are nice," he replied turning back to his game. "Sometimes they look blue, other times they look green… it's nice," he muttered softly. I glared at my brother who merely shrugged and grinned. The rest of the way to the station and the ride itself was peaceful, Tetsu-nii once again filling the silence with random content.
"This is our stop," he stated getting up, Kenma following after instinctively.
"See you at home," I replied, giving them a bow with my head. Tetsu-nii lifted his hand in response and the two exited the train. Dramatically, I sighed and looked at the time. I had forgotten to account for the extra time it would take me to reach Fukurodani, considering I had moved. I dialed up Shirofuku and sighed again.
"Yo, Akaashi. You okay?"
"I'm fine, thank you. I'll be arriving late though. I'll explain there," I replied.
"Okay, I'll give everyone the heads up," and with that she hung up. Placing my phone back into my pocket, I looked around the car. A young couple about my age sat across from me. The man had his arm wrapped around the girl's shoulder and they were cuddling, happily chatting away. Several seats down from them was a boy sitting in between who I assumed were his parents, talking about some children's cartoon. His parents held either of his hands, listening closely to every blissfully naïve word he had to speak. A young girl sat by herself at the end of the car, staring intently at the phone trapped in her clutches. As time went on, I continued to observe the passengers as they boarded and left for their own lives. And it made me marvel at the thought that as I lived out my own life, simultaneously, everyone else was living their own.
I got off the train and hurried to the club activities room, where I changed into my usual volleyball attire and headed to the gym. When I arrived at the building, I could already hear the sounds of sneakers squeaking and balls colliding into every surface of the structure. Konoha was the first to notice me, waving and grinning as I approached. "Akaashi's here!" he shouted. The sound of my name felt odd to hear and a part of me felt sick for thinking like that.
"What took you so long? Playing hooky again?" Shirofuku teased as everyone stopped what they were doing to huddle around me.
"I was moving yesterday, that's why I couldn't make it to practice. I'm late today because I left at my usual time, but forgot that I now live father away," I explained.
"As long as you're here now," our coach replied. For the next two hours we did our usual regime and routine, then we took our break.
"Akaashi!" Bokuto garbled plopping down beside me. "Practice isn't fun unless you're here! I couldn't do any awesome spikes," he complained.
"My apologies," I hummed as I pulled the food out of the paper bag given to me this morning. I smiled softly at the sight of onigiri and began eating as Bokuto went on about how practice went yesterday. Eventually, the rest of the first string as well as the managers sat beside us.
"Akaashi, you gotta stop eating those convenient store food. It ain't good for you," Komi lectured. As I swallowed the food in my mouth I looked down at the other onigiri in my hand.
"These aren't store bought," I replied coming to the realization that I hadn't had anything homemade in a long time.
"Where'd you get them then?" the libero questioned eating from his own bento.
"My mother made them," I murmured devouring another one.
"You're mom?" Onaga echoed. "You hardly ever talk about her. Actually, I'm pretty sure this is the first time you've ever mentioned her," he noted. I nodded continuing to eat. It was true. I hardly ever spoked about my mother; it's not like I saw her enough throughout my years to have anything interesting to say. When I looked up from my food, Konoha's eyes met with mines, and something told me he knew what I was thinking.
"Akaashi, are you listening to me?" Bokuto whined suddenly; he had supposedly been talking this entire time.
"Sorry Bokuto, you just sound like white noise to me," I replied bluntly. Bokuto complained, but the team easily cheered him up, giving our captain our full undivided attention. Another two hours had passed and practice came to an end.
"You guys want to go karaoke or at least grab a bite somewhere?" Sarukui asked.
"I'm up for either; Yukie and Suzumeda would probably tag along to," Konoha reasoned. Several other members agreed, but I declined the invitation.
"I made plans, maybe next time," I stated gathering my things.
"Ah, wait! Akaashi! Give me your new address before you go!" Bokuto chirped pulling out his phone.
"Why?" I frowned.
"So, I can come over!" he shouted back. Suddenly everyone chimed in in agreement. Sighing, I gave them my address.
"You weren't kidding when you said it was far," Komi snickered. "Why the hell did you move out there?" he asked.
"It's the only place I had left to go," I answered honestly, although confusing my senior more than anything.
"Hey! Isn't Nekoma in that area?" Bokuto grinned delightedly. Suddenly, Shirofuku barged into the room.
"You guys done yet? I'm getting hungry," she mused, Suzumeda behind her trying to pull her away. Guys who were still changing, shrieked in horror as our manager stood unfazed in the doorway. Smiling softly, I bid farewell to my teammates and headed to the only place I had left to go. While on the train ride back, I got a message from Konoha:
"I know it's none of my business, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm all ears. Bokuto—although not the brightest—would always be willing to hear you out too. You're Bokuto's caretaker, our vice-captain, our setter, and our backbone, but you're also our friend. We don't like you because we have to."
"Thank you." I wasn't sure what else to say. I was overwhelmed and overly flattered by his offer, but there was nothing to talk about. By the time I reached home, it was early evening.
"Welcome home," Mother called. She was sitting on the couch reading with the TV running in the background as filler noise. "Tetsu is out buying groceries with Kenma; they'll be back soon enough. The bath is ready for you, if you want to take it though," she informed. I thanked her and went to go clean myself off. As I soaked in the water, I decided to reflect on Konoha's word. Given by the way he looked at me, I was sure he pieced together the basis of my current situation. Shirofuku probably has a hunch as well.
Exhaling, I brought my knees up to my chest. Although this was the house I had grew up in and although it wasn't new to me, I still felt like I was in a foreign environment. The harder I thought about it, the more I realized that it wasn't because of my new—yet simultaneously old—setting, but the entire atmosphere about it; home cook meals, quality family time, a sibling who was around. All of it was being reintroduced to me, like waking up from an everlasting dream into the life I had before.
My father wasn't a bad man; I never thought he was—I still don't think he is. Misguided maybe, yet he is entitled to his own beliefs. Even if those beliefs were the very thing that destroyed our relationship, as well as the one he had with my mother. Back at home—at my old home, were things are still so vividly familiar—I had been alone. I'm not ashamed to tell my team anything, yet I don't want to burden them, nor do I want them to treat me differently.
Sighing, I left the bath and dressed myself into something casual. With a towel on my head I walked into the living room, Kenma playing videogames with Tetsu-nii on the other side reading a book of his own; Mother was nowhere in sight. Tetsu-nii noticed me and motioned me over. As I took a seat in between them, Kenma turned to me, giving me a bow of his head in acknowledgement. I bowed my head back in returned and watched him play as I dried my hair. An hour passed and Mother appeared from her room, dressed up for the public. Kenma declined her offer of dinner and returned to his own house. Tetsu-nii and I changed into more suitable clothing and the three of us head out for dinner.