"I used to walk with confidence...

Now I walk with apologies." ~Unknown

-Mikia's POV-

With a gasp for air, I shot up in bed and took several deep breaths as my eyes adjusted to the darkness around me. I let out a silent sigh of relief as my surroundings slowly came into focus.

Soft snores came from a warm, firm body beside me, a strong arm wrapped securely across my lap as I gently carded my fingers through the mess of shaggy brown hair and gazed down lovingly at the olive skin of the man keeping me hostage in the bed. The sleeping figure of Asai Katashi, my boyfriend of three years was a good reminder that what I had just experienced was only a dream. Then, why were my hands still trembling? Not wanting to wake the sleeping man, I quit stroking his hair and allowed my eyes to scan our bedroom, taking in familiar sights that allowed me to further ground myself.

The maroon curtains hanging from our window were pulled clsoed to reduce the amount of light coming in from outside. On the nightstand on my side of the bed was a framed picture of us smiling together at Universal Studios Japan. On Katashi's side was a plaque signifying an award he won at a Super Smash Bros tournament a couple of months back. Yep. Katashi was a pro gamer, which helped pay the bills most of the time. On the occasions when it wouldn't, I would work odd jobs for land lady who had a kind heart and was always more than willing to pay me to do different jobs from repainting a room that needed to be done or doing her grocery shopping for her.

With my survey of the room complete, I let out a sigh of relief once again. It was definitely just a dream. My father couldn't reach me here, not that he wanted to. He and my mother had kicked me out of the house at age 18, not caring whether or not I had a place to go or if I would be stuck on the street.

What was their reasoning? I had decided to go to Keizai University, where I had been offered a full-paid academic scholarship and a place on the judo team. They had wanted me to attend Tokyo University, where while I had gotten accepted, I would have had to taken out copious amounts of student loans and would not be allowed to even try out for the judo team. As soon as I told them, I had found myself locked out of the house with only the clothes and laptop in my backpack. I lived in a homeless shelter briefly until I was able to gain access to my dorm that was paid for by the university.

Refusing to let my mind go a single step further down that dark road, I checked the time on my phone. 4:45am. No use going back to sleep just to wake up in an hour. Might as well grab breakfast and a hot tea on my way to morning practice. With that thought, I quickly threw on a breathable, athletic fabric-made charcoal gray turleneck shirt with a red polo over it along with some simple straight-legged khaki pants. On my way out the door, I grabbed my keys, wallet, backpack, and slung my purple athletics bag over my shoulder, slipping into some simple black Adidas tennis shoes as I opened the door and headed out.

As I was walking towards the apartment lobby, I took the dark gray hair tie I was holding in my teeth and quickly pulled my long, curly, deep caramel brown hair into a secure high messy bun. However, as soon as my hair was up, I bumped into something, or my like someone, falling on the floor.

An involuntary wince crossed my features as an irrational fear began to claw its way up my spine and various spots on my body whined in protest. Not now, Mikia. With that thought, I lifted my gunmetal blue eyes and met the gaze of a man with large amber eyes and a head of spiky silver hair with black streaks.

"Hey, hey, hey!" the man exclaimed loudly with a worried expression as he offered me a hand to help me up, "Are you okay? Sorry I ran into you! I didn't expect anyone else to be up this early!" His voice was way too full of energy for me to deal with this early in the morning, especially without some sort of caffeine in my system.

Despite my inner annoyance, I gave a polite close-eyed smile and opted for getting up on my own as I gave a slight bow in apology. It's times like these where I found myself regretfully thanking my father for the training he and my mother put me through. Forcing a smile is something one could say I was a bit of an expert in as well as finding ways to make any situation my fault.

"No, I'm sorry. I was in a hurry and wasn't paying attention to where I was going," I replied before quickly trying to leave, "Please excuse me." As I went to move past him, his hand shot out and grabbed my arm firmly, turning me around and causing me to flinch slightly as pain radiated from my more recent bruises. Noticing this, the man quickly released my arm, rubbing the back of his neck with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry sorry! I just wanted to get your name since me and my partner just moved in this past weekend. I'm Bokuto Koutarou," he introduced with a friendly grin as he pointed a thumb at himself.

Even with his friendly and genuine demeanor, I found myself becoming ever-aware of the panic from earlier that was quickly beginning to show its claws once again as my eyes flitted nervously around the hallway. I needed to end this conversation. NOW.

"I'm Endou Mikia. Now, please excuse me, Bokuto-san," I responded hurriedly as I pushed past him, using all of my willpower not to sprint down the hallway. Through the pounding of blood in my eyes, I could just barely make out my new neighbor calling out, "See you later, Endou-chan! Nice to meet you!" at a volume way too damn loud for 5:30am. His volume made me panic ever more as well as his words. I could almost feel the new bruises forming under my turtleneck as I finally made it out of the apartment.

Standing in the fresh air, an exhale of a breath I didn't know I had been holding came out in a slight puff as I began to my walk towards the coffee shop to start my day. Looking up at the gray September sky, a bittersweet smile found its way onto my lips as I silently acknowledged the impending storm.

-

Song: Home by Cavetown

A/N: This will be the last shorter chapter (I'm hoping.). I hope y'all are enjoying this story so far. Kuroo is coming soon I promise :) 3 Also, I will follow some parts of the canon and some I won't depending on if it fits my story. I won't denote which ones are which, so I guess some spoilers for the time skip I guess as far as some of the characters' jobs and stuff.

Also, the picture for this chapter is a drawing I did of Mikia :)