Kitsuna retrieved her jacket, and a few other items from her bag. Two she tucked into her pocket and kept a hand on, not wanting to get caught with them again. Then she slid on her shoes and headed toward the door to the balcony. It was up a small set of stairs, and she heard voices on the other side of the door.
"Shit. Whatever," she returned to the steps and sat there at the top. She would have to wait, so she pulled out her headphones to listen to some music.
"Can you not make things harder right now with that?"
"Whe-shit!"
A sudden jab from around the corner startled Kitsuna, and she dropped her phone. It clattered loudly down the stairs, picked up and handed back by the second-to-last of the people she wanted to know she was sneaking around. Ennoshita laughed at her reaction, and joined her for a few minutes on the steps.
"Man. I really suck at keeping secrets," Kitsuna sighed. She kept one earbud out, and fiddled with her phone.
"Well, Daichi's the one you really need to watch out for. Or anyone who's a hard ass about that," he didn't say the word, but she knew full well he meant her little habit. She groaned, unable to argue on that at all.
"I was messin' with Tanaka earlier, but you're almost more frustrating to deal with," Ennoshita switched topics suddenly. Kitsuna glanced at him but didn't say anything, no longer following.
"I mean about, um. One of the guys that's out there right now," Ennoshita had somewhat more tact than the others, pointing at the door that led to the balcony currently occupied by the third years.
"Oh not you, too," Kitsuna groaned and held her head in her hands. Ennoshita laughed, and she lightly punched him in the arm.
"Come on, you two aren't exactly discreet. Staying up all night like you do, and the way you poke at each other sometimes. Probably the only two who haven't figured it out are those two first years," Ennoshita teased just a little more until his arm was sore from repeated jabs.
…
Outside, the third years decided to let Asahi have his whole sentimental moment now. They were past it, and messing around now, when they heard a clatter from behind the door and a loud curse. They all recognized the voice without question, but when the door didn't open they continued their chatter for a while longer. Finally the bitter air was getting to them, and they moved to go inside.
"Suga, sorry. Can you stay here for a little longer?," Daichi pulled the shortest of the group aside and made a weird request. Suga complained at first, but Daichi's will was always the strongest in the end. The other two went inside, Ennoshita joining them on the way down the steps. Daichi gave a stern warning, which Ennoshita predicted several minutes prior and laughed about. Kitsuna waited til they were long gone before she pulled herself up and eased the steel door open.
She knew it already, but the sudden gush of cold air nearly made her turn back around. She braced herself though, turning on the hand warmer in her pocket, and forced her legs to carry her outside. She checked the windows behind them, making doubly sure there weren't any other stragglers, and slid down toward the other end of the balcony. If she saw Suga leaning over the railing at all, she said nothing. Just lit up in silence and leaned over the rail, thinking.
Suga watched the people down in the street that was still partially decorated from Christmas. There was even a huge maypole christmas tree, made of string lights, just down the street from their hotel. Kitsuna's eyes followed some of the people as well, the only sound being the wind that occasionally blew away the smoke from her hand. Suga waited, but after a while was getting too cold to stand it and really wanted to go warm up. He sighed, and Kitsuna glanced at him for the first time before turning away again toward the street below.
"Are you sure you aren't mad about something?," Suga finally asked. Kitsuna's face didn't change at all, he would have noticed if it did. The warm light from below framed her features, and her eyes were nearly aglow with the reflected lights. She took a deep breath, flicking the last cherry of her cigarette and leaning back off the rail. She stomped out the cigarette, picking up the butt to throw away later, and turned toward him. Or toward the door, he thought, as she slowly approached where he was standing. She stopped before she was past him, though, and he pulled back off the rail to face her.
"Not mad. Sorry. Um," Kitsuna's head was bowed slightly. She wouldn't look at him for some reason, despite claiming not to be upset with him. She fidgeted, picking at a loose thread on her sleeve. The silence was deafening, and the cold made this tiny moment feel like it dragged on endlessly.
"I! Well," she accidentally started with a yell, then lowered her voice to a painfully quiet tone. She took another sharp inhale, holding it for a moment before starting again.
"There's already a ton of stuff going on. I mean, school stuff. Game stuff tomorrow. I'm sure you already have a lot on your mind, so.."
Suga raised one eyebrow, and she trailed off. She was more fidgety than usual. Her hands picked at anything they could find. A loose thread, zipper, whatever wasn't too big to hold between two fingers. Her eyes shifted all around him, but never quite landed on his form. The collar of the jacket and the tightly bundled scarf pushed her cheeks up a little bit, with the way she had her head angled slightly downward. Like a turtle retreating into its shell. Puffs of steam rose from her face, irregular and out of time.
"I was gonna wait til after the tournament. Or maybe finals. I dunno. I guess I keep finding a new thing to use to put it off, but it's really starting to bug me. So, sorry. But I gotta get it off my chest and outta my head somehow for now, so I can give it my best shot tomorrow."
"What're you trying to say?," Suga asked.
She flinched, but it was impossible to know what that meant. Any other time he was sure he could read her like a book, but right now he really was too preoccupied with other things and had admittedly been neglecting some things due to that. He was still trying to process that when he was ripped out of his head by a sudden impact. Something soft brushed his nose, and the wind didn't tear at his chest like it was just a minute before. Where a girl stood before was empty space, where the cold pricked at his neck and shoulders, two bundled up arms wrapped around and held tight. Too tight at first, then they relaxed a little bit when he tapped her shoulder. He rested his hand there, gingerly, hovering just away but not too far. They stayed there like that for a long minute. The kind where you're painfully aware of every tiny detail, every millisecond. He felt her chest rise and fall, against his own where his heart was pounding so hard he was sure she would hear it too. He could feel the heat radiating off her cheek, painfully close to his own.
"Sorry," she finally spoke again, breaking the silence at least. Her next words were hard to make out, and he would kick himself over that later.
"What? Tsukki?," he asked for clarification, mishearing something he was sure. He felt the girl's shoulders tense up, and her jaw.
"Idiot," she pinched his ear at that, but not hard enough to actually hurt. Then she took another deep breath, the exhale steadier than she had been so far.
"I..like you. Not just in a friend way," she tried again, just a little louder this time, as she pulled back from the awkward embrace. She pulled his hand down and slid something into it. It was warm, and he could easily guess what it was. She stared down hard at the ground, her cheeks and ears burning hot red. And not from the cold, either. She chewed her lip for a second and pulled his sleeve, but shook her head and hastily made her retreat.
Suga was left standing there in the cold, the door squealing open and clanking shut behind him. He heard hurried footsteps down the stairs, and then it was silent except for the city below. He looked down at the electronic hand warmer that he had been left with. It was warm, almost painfully after his hands had gone numb while waiting out there with her. Still dazed, he headed inside while holding the warmer with both hands wrapped tightly around it. The heat inside was pleasant, and he turned the corner to make his way to the room. Lost in thought, or the lack of thought.
"Good luck getting that smell out," Daichi's voice hit his ears and startled him. Suga looked up, seeing his friend leaning against the wall just beside the large windows that looked out over the balcony at the Tokyo skyline. Suga finally realized that his face was burning hot under his layers, and he felt flustered all at once. Daichi chuckled, but didn't say anything further and walked to the room with Suga.