*BEEP BEEP*
The ringing of Amami's alarm clock blared through her ears making her frantically look for her cellphone with her eyes still closed. After almost a minute she finally found the device of terror somewhere underneath her blanket. Her screen stuck on an unfinished text message towards Kagami.
Rubbing the dried up drool from her cheek she groaned, it felt like she barely slept. Her limbs seemingly made of lead, required more effort to move. Not wanting to be late she finally rolled out of bed, literally. Groaning some more at the cold sensation the floor gave when she hung half out of her bed, her leg gotten stuck in her blanket.
"Ah.. it's going to be one of those days huh.." She darkly muttered as she started to kick her trapped leg furiously, disentangling herself. After several minutes she finally got up to her feet and made her way towards the bathroom to get ready. Shoving a piece of toast in her mouth that she had quickly rammed in the device before she decided to head out, having wasted enough time already when trying to get out of bed. She took her belongings and quickly put on her shoes and coat, ignoring the calendar on the wall when she opened the door.
Halfway towards university she was standing still in front of a red light, sitting on her moped. Trying to keep herself awake she started to lean from left to right, swaying while standing still. It was then that her eyes landed on a big screen of an electronics store next to her.
'30th May.'
It took Amami another twenty seconds before her eyes widened in shock. Amami wasn't one to swear out loud, but at that moment she was glad that she wore her helmet, blocking out the string of curses that would make a pirate proud. Quickly checking her rear-mirror and her surroundings she turned around when the lights hit green. The wheels screeching on the asphalt as she did, before making her way back home.
"Can't believe I almost forgot the assignment.. 'I don't accept your works on computer, I want a proper folder with your work.' Welcome to the 21st century, Tachibana-sensei!" Her mood became more gloomy by the second. She pushed her key in the door, opening it before making her way towards her room where the culprit was waiting on her desk. She took hold of the quite thick folder and shoved it in her bag so she could make her way back towards university once more. It was when she was halfway through the small corridor of her apartment, passing by the others' bedroom, that she heard something unfamiliar, making her stop. She stood there for a few moments, hearing nothing.
'Am I hearing things...?' When she was met by silence she shrugged her shoulders and moved once more until she heard the noise again. This time it was louder and came from Takao's bedroom. 'Huh.. I thought everyone was out for class..?' Inching closer towards his door, making sure she wasn't becoming crazy.
"Shiin..-channn~.."
Amami's eyes grew the size of saucers when she heard Takao's voice in such a lewd way. This was one of the rare moments in her life where her brain decided to completely shut down. In any other circumstance she would just giggle and brush it off thinking it was only natural for her best friend to take care of his urges. But the fact that her best friend was uttering her other friends name.. that completely caught her off-guard.
'Kazu.. Shin-chan..?' She wondered if she was so blind that she never realized such a thing.
"I-Is this good..?"
This time her eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline, she slapped her hand over her mouth, not wanting to make a noise when she heard Midorima's voice. Her brain now officially frazzled, she scrambled back towards the front door, trying not to make too much noise when she did.
'Kazu-chan.. and.. Mido-kun..?' She couldn't stop repeating that question in her mind as she was on her way to university once more. Barely mustering enough focus on the road while her brain was trying to make sense of what she had heard. She stood in front of a red light only a few minutes away from her destination when she finally managed to calm down a bit. Her brain now able to rationalize things again.
"Kazu-chan and Mido-kun.. together." She whispered into her helmet, a small smile curving her lips unknowingly. The more she thought of the idea of her two best friends as a couple, the more she found herself thinking that it only made sense. Sure she didn't really know their sexual preference, but besides that they always seemed to fit well together, in her opinion at least. Just up until now she always only saw that in a friendship kind of way though. It was then that a multitude of other questions started to pop up. 'Since when..', 'How did they..'. The more she wondered about those, the more she was smiling. She was happy for both of them, she cared for both men deeply and the idea of her two best friends making each other happy only added to that. But what was that strange feeling grinding against that happiness? 'Why didn't he tell me..' That last question hit her like a train. The two childhood friends shared everything and knew every single embarrassing moment they had, so why didn't he tell her he liked Midorima? Why didn't he tell her that they were a couple? Didn't he trust her enough with such delicate information? Did he think she would respond in a negative manner? Hadn't she always been open-minded without judging people?
She parked her moped on the parking lot of the university before making her way towards her first class. Clutching her bag towards her chest tightly as she made her way through the hallways. It wasn't until she felt her shoulder being shaken that she realized she had been standing still.
"Amami-kun, are you alright?"
Locks of red hair came into view when she slowly realized what was going on. Her head snapped up towards the man, her eyes wide as if Akashi just grew a second head right in front of her.
"Amami-kun.. are you not feeling well?" Akashi brushed his hand up against her forehead, checking if she had a fever. Not feeling much of a difference of temperature between their two bodies he sighed slightly out of relief. His eyebrows knitted together thoughtfully. He never had seen Amami in such a confused state. He opened his mouth once more, wanting to call out to her again when he got interrupted.
"S-Sorry.. I was spacing out.." She finally croaked out, as if her answer told the man what he didn't know already.
"You can say that again.." He looked around, they were both standing still in the middle of the hallway. Dozens of students brushing by them hurriedly for their class, some of them even muttering curses and giving the two dirty glances. "Come, let's go inside so we won't block the hallway any further." Akashi gently pressed against her back, urging her towards the door of their class.
They both took seats next to each other in the back of the class, well away from the rest of their classmates.
Not wanting to press the issue any further he dropped the subject. "Did you bring our assignment with you? We'll have to turn it in after this class."
"Yes, I have it right here." She tapped on her bag which was still lying on top of her desk before diverting her gaze towards the front of the class. The professor had arrived, making Amami pull the bag off of her desk and getting ready for his lecture.
After class they both walked out, making their way towards the professor, giving him their assignment. The professor merely nodded, acknowledging their existence when they placed their work on his desk. The rest of the day had been rather uneventful until Amami finally made it back home.
Pushing the key in the lock she opened the door before entering it.
"I'm home." She announced while she kicked her shoes off and placed her coat on the coat rack.
"Welcome home!" Takao chirped, flipping his head over the couch to greet his best friend. Midorima nodded with a small smile, sitting in the relax-chair they owned.
It vexed Amami, knowing that they would go to such an extent to hide an important thing from her. She felt her stomach clench once more at the hurt she felt when she walked towards her bedroom, quickly shutting the door behind her.
She flung herself on her bed, feeling exhausted and in general still confused and filled with questions. If they didn't tell Amami about their relationship they most likely wouldn't like it when other people would know either, so she couldn't consult someone on the matter. When she inhaled deeply she wanted to groan loudly in her pillow, but the click of her door prevented her from doing so.
"Seo-chan.. are you okay?" Takao opened the door slowly, he was never one to wait for an invitation. When he glanced towards her bed he could see her body froze up and her face buried in her pillow. "Seo.. what's wrong?" He moved towards her bed while having a bad feeling at the same time.
When she felt her bed give in to the man's weight she slowly turned around to face him. Her eyes calculating as she remained quiet for a moment. She honestly didn't know how to address the 'issue', even wondering if she should to begin with. She was immensely happy for the two of them but she felt left out by him. No, not by only him, by both of them. Even when she didn't expect Midorima to be an open book, she did think that he would at least share such important information with her. For how long did they plan to hide this anyway?
"Seo-chan.." He began once more, noticing the contemplating look she was showing. He knew her too well, something was bothering her big time. Before he could ask her again she finally decided to speak up.
"I.. forgot my assignment this morning, the deadline was today.." She paused, trying to think of a better way to broach the subject.
Takao read the pause as the ending of her statement and huffed slightly. "It's not the end of the world, Seo-chan.. I'm sure your professor will give you a second ch-"
"I realized it when I was on my way towards university, so I turned around to retrieve it." She interrupted him, showing him that that wasn't the problem. She paused once more, not sure if she should continue or not. But Takao only kept staring at her, waiting expectantly. 'He doesn't realize it..' She cursed mentally. "So.. I came back home to grab it.. passing your bedroom on my way back out.." She stared pointedly at him now, her stomach clenching, not sure on how her friend was going to react. Heck she didn't even know herself how to react to this situation.
It was after a few seconds that Takao's brain started to put the last pieces of the puzzle in place. His skin became pale suddenly, looking with wide eyes towards Amami who tried her best to smile, making it awkward. "Y-You.. passed by my bedroom..? You.." Takao started to ruffle his hair furiously, trying to form a clear sentence as realization dawned upon him.
Amami placed a hand on his other hand, gently squeezing it and showing a more sincere smile this time. "I'm happy for you two.. Kazu-chan.."
If the previous few minutes didn't make it clear, it did now. She knew and now he knew she knew! He started to panic even further, his mouth opening and shutting like a idiotic fish trying to say something but nothing came out.
"It's alright, Kazu-chan, I won't tell anyone either if that's what you two want. For what it's worth, I support you two. Congratulations..?" She grinned, slightly awkward, while hugging her best friend. She decided not to say anything further for the moment and wisely opted to give him some time to compose himself again. Squeezing him tightly against her own body.
Takao rasped out a deep breath in the crook of her neck as he was holding onto her for dear life. He felt scared and insecure but at the same time, because of the way she was hugging him, he felt safe and more importantly, accepted by her. It felt like a heavy load was lifted from his shoulders, relieved that his best friend had accepted, not only him, but his relationship with Midorima. Japan still had an old fashioned attitude in its society when it came down to gay relationships, so it was scary and daunting for both of them.
A small sniffle reached Amami's ears, making her realize that the crook of her neck had become rather moist all of a sudden. "Hey now, no need to cry over this, this is happy news, right?" She grabbed his head between both her hands, looking him straight in his eyes, reassuring him that it's fine.
"I'm.. so sorry.. Seo-chan.." His voice hitched, trying to calm himself. "I should have.. told you sooner.. I was so scared.. n-not an excuse.. sorry.." His voice shrank into a whisper, guilt wracking his body for not having trusted his friend he had known for almost his entire life now.
The moment she heard him utter the word 'sorry' she instantly felt the hurt melt away. Her body relaxed more, placing a kiss against his temple on his head. "It's alright Kazu-chan and your secret is safe with me if that's what you want." She realized it couldn't have been easy on the man, having to deal with his sexual preference, being scared of what people might think of both him and Midorima and feeling guilty for not having told his friend about it. She rubbed lazy circles on his back when she heard footsteps coming closer.
"Kaz-.. Takao?" Midorima's heart sank as he found Takao in such a state. 'What the hell happened in this short period of time.' He wondered.
"Mido-kun.." Amami softly smiled as she released her hold on Takao, allowing him to look towards his boyfriend.
"Ah.. Shin-chan.. y-you may want to sit down..." Takao let out a raspy chuckle while ruffling his hair once more.
"Is something the matter..?" Midorima quickly questioned both of his friends but obeyed nonetheless.
Takao took the initiative to explain everything towards his lover carefully, not wanting to spook him too much. Amami could only warmly smile at the man as his expressions went from utter shock, disbelief, complete embarrassment and eventually to anger. "I told you we shouldn't have done it!" "Shin-chan, you came to my bedroom...remember?" Making the shooting guard blush an even deeper shade of red.
"Hey, does that mean we'll have a spare room..? You know, you two could share a bedroom, think of the extra room we could have.." Amami chirped, already thinking of having her own couch and tv for herself instead of watching the usual basketball games or weird documentaries on how soap is being made. For some reason Midorima was always riveted by those.
"Most definitely not, nanodayo!" Midorima barked out, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
They ended up giggling and chatting together for the rest of the evening, the three of them all feeling more relieved now that Amami knew. They came to the agreement that she would indeed keep it a secret for now but decided that it would be indeed best for them to at least tell their friends and eventually their family about their relationship. Like Amami pointed out towards them, you can't hide such things forever and perhaps it was best to bite the bullet rather sooner than later. But for now it was still a secret until they both felt ready to take the next step in outing themselves.
Back in university the assignment both Akashi and Amami had made had been praised by their professor, having not seen such an intricate and well-informed work like this before. It was elaborate but without any over-abundance of information making it the perfect presentation. It was to be expected from Akashi and Amami, they both showed true promise with their work.
The rest of the year had gone by in a blur, life at university was hard and busy and before they knew it, they were already cramming for their exams at the end of their school year. Amami wasn't surprised, but it surely was her first time to experience 'being second' when the results of their exams came out. Akashi obviously took the honor but felt deep respect for Amami who was not far behind him. As for the others? Midorima had done a great job himself as well and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his life in med-school. Takao did an alright job, he was more than pleased with his results but glad to be going back to normal life after having studied so much in the past few weeks. Kagami.. well.. he passed.. the results still weren't something to write home about, but he made sure he could move on towards the next year, albeit with some help from his girlfriend and friends.