It was a three days of awkward silence and quick glances before classes started for the semester, and Takumi was secretly glad to have something to do. His friends whined, but Takumi knew that he felt his worst when he was doing nothing.
His Monday schedule was easy enough: his political science lecture in the morning, enough time in the afternoon for lunch and archery practice, and his 'History of War and Peace' lecture in the evening.
Monday's morning workouts went about as planned, Takumi working his core with Kjelle's workout plan, and Hinata off doing whatever it was he did (assuming he did more than flirt with girls in the Kendo training room). Oboro had joined him this morning as well, taking a jog on the treadmills instead of doing Takumi's grueling workout with him.
By the time he was done with his core circuits (which had taken him longer than he thought they would),Takumi had little time to do anything else. With his core tired at the strain and only thirty minutes to get to his first lecture of the semester, he rushed to say goodbye to Oboro, and asked her to make sure Hinata didn't do anything stupid, to which she just snorted breathlessly and continued running.
He all but ran back to his dorm to grab his toiletries and take a quick shower, just to get the stink of a workout off.
When he returned to his room, hair wrapped in a towel and shorts hanging low on his waist, Leo was already half awake, staring tiredly at his own reflection in the mirror above the sink. They both gave the other half glares and continued their own morning routines.
As soon as Leo was finished combing his hair in the mirror, Takumi stole it from him, brushing his hair back into his signature ponytail quickly. It was then that, in the reflection of the mirror, Takumi noticed Leo pull his v-neck shirt over his head backwards.
Leo grabbed his bag and headed for the door. Should Takumi say something, or just let Leo embarrass himself? The latter option was so appealing, but Kamui's words of second chances echoed in his head, and his heart dropped into stomach with guilt.
"Leo." He called out, as Leo opened the door to leave. He was met with a glare. "Your shirt's on backwards." Takumi flinched as the blond slammed the door shut without a second thought, looking down at his collar with a mortified expression. That mortified expression was gone in a second, replaced with one of anger.
"Perhaps I like my shirts on backwards." Leo's said, sounding both embarrassed and displeased. Takumi just shrugged at him, looking unimpressed as he went back to fixing his hair.
Out of the corner of his eye, Takumi could see Leo flip his shirt around quickly and leave through the door.
His lecture went about as planned: a rereading of the syllabus and a quick overview of the schedule, important test dates, etcetera. All the boring stuff really.
When the class was over, Takumi rejoiced, practically running back to the gym to sign into the archery range. It was practically empty, to Takumi's enjoyment. The only other people there were a pink haired archer a couple of rows down, and a blue haired man watching her intently from the wall behind her, arms crossed. Neither noticed when he picked up a bow, and they weren't talking so Takumi was free to focus on his own archery.
It was only about ten minutes of silence before the pink and blue pair decided to leave, and Takumi lowered his bow as they passed behind him out of courtesy.
He waited for the door of the range to shut before he nocked another arrow. He was beginning to pull the bowstring back when a smooth voice snapped him out of his focus. He let the string go, watching in annoyance as the arrow barely made it in the outer ring, before he turned to face the owner of the voice.
His eyes narrowed at the man behind him. "Niles," he ground out, lowering his bow once more. The annoyance was leaning on the wall behind Takumi, arms crossed over his chest and an insufferable smirk on his face. "How did you even get in here? Go away." He turned back to the target.
"Now, is that any way to greet a friend?" Takumi groaned, nocking another arrow.
"You are no friend of mine. Please leave." Takumi pulled the bowstring back quickly, before releasing. The arrow hit the dead center of the target. Takumi smirked in satisfaction before he froze.
"Your brother was worried about you." Niles voice whispered in his ear, and Takumi dropped his bow on the range floor. His voice was too close to his ear, hot breath wafting over the shell, and Takumi felt both uncomfortable and intrigued.
Takumi jumped away as soon as he could, turning to face the arrogant man. "W-when did you get behind me?" He stuttered out, reaching down to pick his bow up from the ground. The man in front of him did nothing but stare down with one menacing eye. Takumi returned the stare with his own, straightening out to his full height. "What do you want anyways?" The man before him laughed, and Takumi furrowed his eyebrows in anger. He wanted to get back to his archery practice, but he didn't know what would happen if he turned his back to this man again.
"Like I said, your brother was worried about you." Niles' smirked widened into a pleased grin. "He texted you a couple hours ago about lunch but you never responded." Takumi groaned in an exaggerated motion. "I believe he wanted to talk to you about something, but he wouldn't say what."
"Hinoka." Takumi said, massaging his tense face with one hand as he hurriedly placed the bow he had been using back on the rack. Niles watched him cautiously, following his every move with one eye.
"Hinoka?" Niles said, question lingering in his tone, though Takumi chose to ignore him. They were both silent before Niles spoke up once more. "What does Hinoka mean?"
"It's none of your business." Takumi spat as he gathered up his bag. He had to keep up this angry facade long enough to get Niles off his back, because his heart was about to burst from his chest. He didn't want to see her. He wasn't strong enough to handle seeing her again this early.
He walked to the door, hearing Niles follow behind him. The grip on his bag tightened as his eyes brimmed with tears. He couldn't see her. He just couldn't.
A hand gripped his shoulder, but he just brushed it off, turning to give a weak glare at the man behind him. Niles recoiled a bit, just now noticing the tears, and Takumi cursed.
"Fuck off," Takumi wiped an eye, giving Niles a proper glare before he left the archery range.
When he got back to his room, Takumi collapsed into his desk chair. The stinging in his eyes was overwhelming. The room was dark. He laid his head on his desk, letting the tears fall from his eyes.
His whole chest felt tight. His breathing quickened as he thought about his oldest sister, and the guilt hit him straight in the gut. The worst part about all of this was the guilt.
When the knock on his door came, his eyes were already puffy, itchy, and dry, having cried out his frustrations in restrained sobs. His head throbbed with a dull pain, and, as he stood, his vision swayed. Takumi stilled himself on his bed frame momentarily, before he opened the door to an irritated Kamui with his nose stuck in his phone.
"Takumi, I thought we had plans to visit Hinoka today, and then you just bail on me?" Kamui finally glanced up from his phone, taking in the state of his younger brother. His face immediately softened. "Takumi," his brother started, stepping a bit closer, dropping a hand on his shoulder. "It's her birthday." In a move Takumi knew was supposed to be comforting, Kamui squeezed his shoulder. "You have to see her."
"I can't." Takumi's whisper was choked as tears threatened to fall once more.
"Takumi.." Kamui squeezed his shoulder again, and all he could feel was overwhelming guilt.
"He said he can't go." Leo's voice was hard, borderline venomous, and Takumi's head shot up, as did Kamui's. The blond was standing behind them, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed. His glare, for once, was not pointed at Takumi.
"This doesn't pertain to you, Leo. This is a family matter." Kamui turned away from him, starting to pull Takumi away from the safety of his room.
"Regardless of what you might think, Kamui, this does pertain to me." Leo spoke up again, stepping between Kamui and Takumi, forcing the former to release his grip on Takumi's shoulder. "Whatever it is that you want him to do, Takumi already has plans. With me."
"Oh, are you family now? What right do you have to tell me what my brother is or isn't doing?" Takumi could tell that Kamui was getting more and more agitated as the conversation continued, but Leo just stood there in between them, taking the brunt of Kamui's anger for him.
There were a couple more angry words from Kamui before he sighed. "Takumi," he started, speaking to his brother from over Leo's shoulder. "Is there anything you want me to tell Hinoka." Kamui's eyes were searching for some sort of excuse he could soften the news of Takumi's absence with.
"Tell her I'm sick. And to have a happy birthday." Kamui nodded, starting down the hallway towards the stairs. Leo continued to stand in front of him until Kamui had disappeared down the stairs, before he turned around to look at Takumi.
"You look miserable." Takumi's head shot up to glare at Leo, expecting to see his face curled in arrogance, but the emotion on Leo's face was untraceable.
Takumi turned away from Leo with an utterance of 'shut up' and made his way back into his dorm room. Leo followed, closing the door behind them and stopping by the mini fridge to grab an energy drink from it.
"You really did a number on your desk." Leo stated, staring at the wetness that permeated the top of the desk, and Takumi snorted. Leo's voice was still untraceable.
"Yeah, I did." Takumi grabbed one of his hand towels and began to wipe at his desk, looking up when Leo placed the energy drink on his desk. Takumi gave him a confused look, and Leo nodded towards the drink.
"I wasn't lying when I said you looked miserable. Your head probably hurts, right?" Takumi nodded. "You're dehydrated from the crying. It's giving you a headache." Leo turned away from Takumi to sit at his own desk.
"You're just giving this to me?" Takumi lifted up the bright blue drink, staring at the back of Leo's head.
"No, clearly not, I'm totally not doing something nice, I would never." Leo turned back towards Takumi, sarcasm dripping from his voice and he gave Takumi a sour look that made him backtrack slightly.
"I just thought," Takumi started, flinching at Leo's look of annoyance. "I just thought you hated me." Leo laughed, and Takumi could feel his face flush. He had one of those cute laughs that were super contagious.
"You think I hate you?" Leo's mouth cracked a grin. "Trust me, there's only one person in this world that I hate, and it's definitely not you."
"I can't believe you thought I hated you." Leo laughed out, gripping the straps on his backpack as he walked alongside Takumi. They both had their evening history lecture together. "Like seriously, what even gave you that idea?" Takumi rolled his eyes.
"Oh, I don't know, literally everything you did or said seemed to be mean." Takumi huffed, re-adjusting his messenger bag on his shoulder. "You kept glaring at me too."
"Well, uh, sorry about that. At the very least, if we stay mad at each other this is bound to be a shitty year." Leo stopped and turned to extend his hand towards Takumi. "Acquaintances?" Takumi frowned.
"Leo, we live together."
"Friends then?"
"Fine." Takumi sighed, taking Leo's hand and giving it a firm shake, and Leo's face curled into a smirk.
"Holy shit, your hands are so small."
"Shut up Leo!"
A/N: sorry this is so late! I meant to get this chapter done weeks ago but real life kicked me in the butt. at least my boys are on goodish terms now, so thats a plus.
also thank you for all the comments! they really helped me get this chapter done