He never asked for powers. Honestly, who would? The world was a cold and unaccepting place. Anyone different was to be feared. To be shunned. Different meant change. No one liked change. Sure sometimes people found it in their hearts to accept small differences in their day to day lives. A new neighbor? No problem! A different route to work due to construction. Not ideal but not the end of the world. A new office building. I guess that could work. People developing unnatural powers? A threat to humanity.

No one even tried to get to the bottom of what had happened. The second people began presenting their powers, they were thrown into facilities to evaluate and monitor the threat at a safe distance. They thought they could stop the development of such mutations if they locked away the ones who were already "infected". Quarantine the problem. Keep the rest of the batch free from exposure. It hadn't worked. Why would it have? There was no logical reason to believe that what was going on was an illness. Of course, there was no telling what the cause could be. No one gave it a chance to be studied. The government hastily declared it bioterrorism against the country of Japan. Many people called bullshit on that, and rightfully so. What country would want to weaken another country by giving its people superhuman abilities? Nothing added up. Of course, maybe they knew that Japan would react in such a manner. That its people would be sent into a frenzy. That the government would put all of its resources on containment and raids to capture the infected.

To Koushi Sugawara it didn't matter how it started, or the cause. All that mattered to him was keeping it a secret. Staying cautious and on his toes at all times. Keeping up with the news. Listening to police radios reporting mutants to make sure no one got too close. Waiting for his name to be spoken, god forbid he be found out and sold out. There was no such thing as too cautious in Suga's book.

So far he was lucky. When his powers first presented, his parents were out on a business trip, and being an only child, the house was empty. It was night and the blinds were drawn. No eyewitnesses. No one but Koushi and his thoughts. He hadn't expected his big toe to shatter into little glass shards when he stubbed his toe on the edge of the refrigerator, and he certainly didn't expect the shards to reform into his appendage seconds after. To say he was panicked would be a severe understatement. It turns out Koushi hadn't experienced true fear until that moment. His heart stopped in sync with his stomach plunging into his feet. Into the toe that just shattered into glass. It had to be his vision messing with him. Yup. That was the only plausible explanation. If he were to do it again, surely his toe would still be intact and for sure not shattered glass laying on the kitchen floor. No way. With a painful breath held in his lungs, he slammed his toe into the edge of the fridge again.

For the second time that night, his heart refused to beat. He stumbled backward into the table, knocking over a chair. The shattered glass remained where it was. Koushi's chest heaved, his lungs burning from lack of oxygen. He looked at his foot right foot, which now only possessed four toes. This could not be happening. Maybe he was drugged. LSD gave people crazy visions, right? Maybe he accidentally did LSD. Made perfect sense, except for the fact that it didn't. Where would he even get drugs from? He was a good kid. He was a good kid up until he made the mistake of stubbing his toe.

Koushi sunk to the ground, his eyes wide open in disbelief. Clutching his hair in his shaking hands, he stared at the fragments on the floor. They caught the overhead light and reflected it up onto the ceiling, creating quite beautiful mirages on the plaster. Had the source been anything but his body, he would've believed that the glass was quite stunning. Since it was though, it was disgusting. It was sick. He was a sick kid. Tears leaked out of his eyes as he drew his knees up to his chest and buried his face into his palms. This couldn't be happening, and yet here he was. Curled on the kitchen floor, tears soaking his face, and missing one toe. He let himself cry for a little bit. It was the only natural part about this whole situation.

After thirty minutes, he snapped his head up. No one could find out. If he kept it his dirty little secret he'd be fine. There would be nothing to worry about. Things didn't have to change. Determined, whipped the old tears off his cheeks. First thing first, he needed to get his toe back on his foot. The first time, the glass shards automatically reformed within seconds of shattering. What had been different between the two occasions? Koushi had no clue. Maybe he should wish his toe back. He closed his eyes and prayed to whatever god was listening. Nothing happened. Maybe if he thought really hard. So he did, with veins popping in his forehead. Still only nine toes in the house. Ok. What to do next? Imagine his toe reassembling? He couldn't even begin to picture that. There were so many shards and he had no idea how to complete the puzzle. Maybe he was too tired to do it now? He did feel rather drained.

Koushi hobbled over to the dustpan and broom hanging in the closet and swept up his toe before waddling to his bed. He'd keep it in his room overnight just in case his toe miraculously decided to rejoin its friends residing on his right foot.

Luckily when Koushi woke up to the harsh buzz from his alarm clock, his toe was happily settled on his right foot, right where it belonged. It was given a little test wiggle before its owner crawled out of bed to get ready for morning practice.

Morning practice. That's right. He played volleyball. A sport that required him to smash his arms into a leather ball. Smash his arms. Shatter his arms. He couldn't play. Of course, he didn't know for sure how his powers worked. For all he knew the only thing that could shatter was his right big toe, but he couldn't take any chances. Koushi heard of what happened to people with powers. Nothing good. Nothing he wanted to go through. Maybe he would ditch. Daichi would be on his case though. Daichi was always on his case. He loved the guy and the attention, but right now Koushi would've preferred his best friend didn't know he existed. Call out sick? Then it would make no sense for him to be at school, and he was not missing. No way. His parents would have his head. Fake an injury? Could work. Still risky though. It was the best bet he had though. What kind of injury to fake though? Best to stay away from ankles and knees, it would be too hard to fake for the entire day. He should stick with his hands. A sprain. No, those haven't ever stopped him before even though they should've. Burnt hands. Those could get him somewhere. Should he actually burn them, for authenticity? That way in case anyone were to doubt him, he could show them proof? No, that was completely absurd. But what would he rather, burnt hands for a little bit, or for everyone to find out his secret? Burnt hands it was.

Sighing, he turned the oven on and slid a metal cooking tray inside. What was he doing? None of this was necessary. His finger hovered over the off button on the oven. He dropped his hand. In a way, he almost deserved to be punished. He was a freak, something horrible, something sick, a threat to Japan. It's what he deserved.

While the pan heated up, Koushi grabbed some breakfast and got dressed in his uniform. No sense in changing into gym clothes if he couldn't play. He draped his school jacket across his packed bag and rolled up the sleeves of his button-up shirt. On his way back to the kitchen, he grabbed the first aid kit and set it down on the dining table. Time to check his pan. It was probably hot enough. Not ready to injure himself yet, Koushi grabbed oven mitts and retrieved the tray and placed in on the stove on top. He flicked the oven mitt aside and shook his hands out. Of course, he was nervous. No one wanted to burn their hands on purpose. It had to be done though, and if he wanted any chance of patching himself up, he'd better do it now.

His lungs sucked in a deep breath and held it. His brain empty, he thrust both his palms onto the hot metal. Instantly his eyes shot open in shock and pain. Yet he held his hands there for a few seconds longer. Once the pain became completely unbearable, he yanked them away, scurried over to the sink and ran them under cool water. Tears pricked at his eyes as he looked at his hands. They were an angry red. Parts of them swollen and slightly blistered. It was probably a second-degree burn, which was more than he intended to give himself, but that didn't matter now. It was done and he only had fifteen minutes to bandage them up before he had to meet Daichi and Asahi on the corner.

He carefully wrapped his palms and fingers as gently as his time limit allowed. They hurt like a bitch, but Koushi would just have to deal with it. He deserved it. Koushi grabbed his bag and ran out the door before carefully putting on his shoes. Tying them seemed to be too big of a challenge, so he painfully tucked them into his shoes using his pinky fingers, as they were the least burnt part of his hands.

With no time to waste, he began running over to the meeting spot, taking a shortcut through the park near his house. Within fifteen minutes he arrived at the corner. It seemed as he was the last one there, which hadn't happened since his second year of high school.

"Ah, there is!" Daichi called out, giving a big wave. "It's about time! What kept you so long? You're usually on time." His eyes trailed to Koushi's shoddily bandaged hands. "Suga, what happened?" His voice filled to the brim with concern. The taller male reached his hands out to take Koushi's before deciding against it.

Suga chuckled lightly, pain seeping through his voice despite his best efforts. "I burnt my hands a little this morning making breakfast. I don't think I'll be able to play for a bit." He threw in a soft smile for good measure, hoping to lighten the mood and take away some of the concern from his friends, one of which looked panicked enough to pass out. "Asahi, I'm fine! A little burn never killed anyone!"

"They have though. Burns have definitely killed people before." Asahi muttered. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Completely fine. In a little bit of pain, but other than that, I couldn't be better!" That was one of the biggest lies he's ever told.

The three of them set off to the gym, resuming normal chatter. Everything was fine. No one knew. They were too concerned about his hands to notice anything. Besides, nothing even happened. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.

Famous last words.

The gym was quiet when the three third years arrived. Of course, they were the first ones to get there, as most of the club duties concerning setting up fell upon their shoulders. They only had around twenty minutes top to get the net out, fill the water coolers, and retrieve the balls from the closet before Hinata and Kageyama arrived. Those two were almost too eager for their own good.

The third years began getting to work.

"Suga, how about you get the balls out? Can you handle that?"

"It wouldn't be a problem." Suga pushed the closet open with his bicep and stomped the peg down so that the door wouldn't close, before rolling the cart out using the underbelly of his wrists to guide it. He was doing good so far. He seemed chill as a cucumber. He could do this. It's not like he was a clumsy person. He was actually quite the opposite. He inherited a lot of his mother's traits, one of them being her gracefulness. He often heard that everything he did was delicate, flowing, almost pretty. He usually found it to be quite annoying, but now he was thanking his lucky stars.

As Asahi and Daichi fumbled with the net, Suga pushed the water coolers out of the closet with his thighs and feet.

"You better no be filling those up, Suga." Daichi called, not even looking up from the task in front of him. His voice was stern, almost daring Suga.

"I can do it." Suga responded, still lightly kicking the coolers over to the training room.

"Don't you dare."

Suga rolled his brown eyes, fully aware that his friend wasn't looking his way. "I can do it. Don't make me feel useless." He teased.

The doors burst open. Hinata and Kageyama flew in chaotically, bumping into and stumbling over each other, arguing as usual.

"Hinata, Kageyama, fill the water coolers." Daichi ordered.

The two snapped out of their argument and raced over to the water coolers Suga was kicking across the gym.

"Morning Suga!" The words were called over the red head's shoulder as he ran to the trainer's office.

"Daichi, I could've done that."

"I bet you could've." Asahi and the captain finished with the net, stepping back to check their work. Satisfied Daichi turned towards Suga. "There are more pressing issues at hand, like that patchwork on your hands." Suga glanced towards his hands, noticing that the bandages were unraveling in places. It was likely that the ointment was the only thing holding the job together. "If I weren't smart, I would've thought a toddler played doctor on you in the dark. You should really fix that."

"Haha. Very funny. I was short on time, ok?" Red flesh was peeping out of the white bandages. Suga's tone sobered up fast. "I should, shouldn't I?"

"Practice doesn't start for another fifteen minutes. Need some help?"

As much as Suga wanted to deny, he couldn't move his fingers all too well at the moment. "Sure," He replied.

Daichi jogged over to the closet and pulled the first aid kit out while Suga straddled a bench, gingerly unraveling his hands. They looked almost worse now than they did when he first burnt them. The welts were angry and red, and the swelling had only gotten worse.

"Shit, Suga." Daichi breathed out. "What happened?" The captain opened the kit and began taking out the needed supplies.

"I told you, breakfast mishap."

"Looks like you pulled something out of the oven with no mitt." It was a joke. It was too close to the truth.

Suga looked away, remaining silent.

"You aren't serious." Daichi paused his work. When Suga didn't stay anything he continued. "Oh my god. Suga. What has gotten into you?"

"I was tired and I wasn't paying attention. It happens to the best of us."

Daichi shook his head in disbelief. "No, it doesn't. Look, I've noticed that you've been getting more and more reckless lately. Caring about yourself less."

"What?"

"Don't play dumb." He finished with the bandages and returned them to the kit. "I know you haven't been sleeping well, I can see it under your eyes. You eat less than before. Your dives are the most reckless I've ever seen them. And now this? Somethings up."

Suga was officially lost. He had no idea what Daichi was on about. Sure he was staying up later, school was intense for third years. And maybe he had been eating less, but that was only because he was too busy to eat. Had his dives been getting reckless? He didn't think so. Maybe sitting on the sidelines was affecting his technique.

"What are you implying?" He said defensively.

The captain shook his head and sighed. "Look, I don't like pinning labels on people, but are you depressed?"

"Wha- no!"

"Are you trying to hurt yourself?"

"Where did you even get that idea?"

"You're acting off today. You seem tenser and on edge. Somethings wrong. You should just tell me what's up. I'm going to get to the bottom of it anyway."

Suga blinked a few times. What had just happened? The whiplash he'd gotten from that conversation was something in itself. Was he acting off this morning? No way. He tried to hard to seem normal. Leave it to Daichi to see through all his defenses. Sometimes Suga felt positive that Daichi knew him better than he knew himself.

"Woah there, calm down. Nothing is wrong. I'm fine. I appreciate the concern, I really do, but I'm ok! Maybe a little sleepier than usual, but other than that I'm completely normal." What a lie. He was the opposite of normal. As of last night, he was a freak. He watched as Daichi eyed him once more before standing up.

In a softer tone, Daichi added "You know you can talk to me about anything, and I mean anything. That's not the team captain talking, it's your best friend. I won't judge, you got that?"

Suga nodded. "I know." He said quietly. If only Daichi knew how much of a lie that was. The second his best friend figured out was Suga was, he'd turn his back. Recant their friendship and alert the authorities. His kind wasn't welcomed and Suga acknowledged that. He understood. While it didn't seem entirely fair, that's just how things went. He was disgusting and a danger to be around, he wasn't sure how he could be a danger yet, but he was sure he was one. He'd honestly be upset if Daichi didn't reject him. Suga couldn't risk putting him in danger and he knew he wouldn't have the strength to leave the dark-haired male on his own accord.

"Yeah, of course." His tone was too distant. Too shaken. He felt a gentle squeeze on his shoulder.

"I care about you. You know that, right?"

"Yeah." Still too distant. Far too shaken. Daichi didn't look convinced. Not at all. Suga would just have to try harder.