"Sorry-!"
He apologized and went beet red when he realized how weird he was being, but the girl beside him just mumbled something and started snoring softly. He let out a quiet laugh at how she kept falling asleep like that. It was cute, but also a little odd to say the least. Like she was used to sleeping whenever and wherever she could. That thought soured his mood a little bit, and he looked back to her hand. The one that was held so lightly in his own, covered in scars and warm despite the bitter January air around them. There were remnants of black polish on her nails, kept short. Her palm was warm, but the fingertips were starting to get cold the longer they were outside.
"Hey," he whispered. A weak attempt to wake her up so they could go back, before one of them caught a cold. He wanted to do that, for sure, but something else took over in that quiet little moment.
Before he could shut out the thought, his own hand was pulling hers closer to his face. His fingers wrapped around hers, caressing her hand softly. He was at odds with his impulse, lips pulling tight and trembling while the hand pulled her fingertips upward. Slowly, freezing when his breath brushed over her skin and she stirred again. She didn't wake, though, just let out a little sound and adjusted her position so her head rested in the crook of his neck. His breath caught in his throat, which he was almost grateful for. That tiny lapse in his mental state was enough, however, and in that passage of milliseconds his lips connected with the hand he was holding. Colder than expected on his lips, soft despite the scars, and with the lingering smell of sports tape and sweetened coffee.
"There you two are!"
A sudden callout from the other side of the sign they were hidden behind startled him something fierce. He ended up tightening his grip on Kitsuna's hand and jolting back into the wall, which was enough to wake her up. She blinked a few times, slowly, but didn't sit up immediately. She felt something warm on her hand, in a shaky but steady pattern. There was a pressure around her fingers, too, which she found strange. A gust of wind kicked up and she curled into the little barrier beside her, finally realizing that the barrier was in fact a person. A very specific person, who was holding her hand at an odd angle and frozen stiff.
"Suga?," Kitsuna finally sat upright and used her other hand to wave in front of the boy's face.
"Oh, you found them Tanaka? Good," a voice from nearby got her attention instead and she looked around for the source. Her eyes landed on Tanaka's form, standing stiff by a sign with hands raised almost defensively.
"What's up?," Ennoshita's voice again. He peeked around the sign, eyes widening for a moment in understanding. There was a call from Daichi somewhere further away, and Ennoshita joined Tanaka in sudden fight or flight response.
"Hey! We're loading up for afternoon practice," Ennoshita called over to the pair sitting against the building and pulled Tanaka away.
Kitsuna yawned and stood up, her joints creaking from being out in the cold like that. She stretched out toward the sky expecting to be joined by her teammate, but after another long yawn she was still the only one standing there. She let her arms fall roughly and spun around to look down at Sugawara. He was still spacing out hard, and staring at his hand. Kitsuna offered her hand, but went ignored.
"Dude," she knelt down in front of him and stuck her cold hands under the collar of his jacket. He reacted then, his voice cracking with the yelp he let out that made Kitsuna laugh.
"Wh-huh? Hey!"
Suga couldn't get out a single sentence, or word even. That made Kitsuna laugh even more, nearly doubling over. Suga puffed out his cheeks, retreating further into the collar of his jacket and muttering something.
"D'you sleep with your eyes open or something? C'mon," Kitsuna held out her hand again and pulled him up with her. They dusted off their clothes as they rounded the corner of the building, with Kitsuna sneezing from the dust irritating her nose.
"So just what were you two up…to?," Daichi started in on them, pushing past the other two boys roughly. He trailed off at the end upon seeing the two wildly different reactions. Kitsuna's face went blank and she averted her eyes. Suga's went red and he also looked away. Both were strangely silent. The team captain narrowed his eyes but decided to leave them be for now.
The team loaded onto the bus and had a long practice until late evening. They loaded up after clean up and ate a hearty dinner, prepared by Takeda with permission to use the hotel's kitchens. After bathing, the team members and managers were once again all spread out and milling about. Kitsuna was playing a game again, with a small group of boys hanging out around her in their room. Two of the third years left, one giving a stern warning about bed times as he practically dragged the other through the door.
"Hey. What happened with you two earlier?," Ennoshita leaned close and whispered to Kitsuna.
"Hm? What d'you mean?," she was deeply entrenched in focus on her game, nearing the end of a long fight. She got the enemy down to single-digit HP, but got taken out by a sudden new move and died right at the end.
"Fuckin-! Here," she passed it over to Noya who had been waiting his turn at it. Kitsuna yawned while Noya and Tanaka got absorbed in the game, leaning somewhat into Ennoshita. He tensed up for a second but didn't complain or push her away at all.
"Are you gonna explain or just leave it at that?," she spoke quietly so that only he could hear her.
"Well, I mean. You two did kinda sneak off and were gone for a while. Plus, the way Daichi dragged him off, and how Tanaka found you," Ennoshita trailed off a little bit, expecting some sort of strong reaction.
"Hm? Well, I did go to sm-um, y'know," she caught herself just before she said her worst-kept secret out loud. It wasn't really a surprise for several of the boys now, but it was probably better to try and keep it under wraps.
"Hm," Ennoshita narrowed his eyes and didn't seem satisfied with that answer. Kitsuna's brow furrowed, and she tried hard to figure out why the reactions had been so off since the afternoon.
"What? Were you expecting something else?"
"No, no! Well, maybe? I-it just looked, um, like we were interrupting something," the boy blurted all that out so fast it took Kitsuna a minute to process and catch up. She held a hand over her mouth as she tried to recall anything else.
She had sunk down onto the ground and sat down, partially to get out of the wind and the view of others. Then Suga joined her on the ground, and they were talking about something, she honestly couldn't remember what. Then she drifted off to sleep while he unwrapped the sports tape from her wrist, and…?
"Well, I fell asleep and-"
Just then, the way her breath felt on her hand. It pulled something else up, a vaguely familiar feeling of something pressing into her hand. Something warm, like when she held her hands over the vents in the school halls during colder days. And something soft. She ran her finger against her lips, confirming something. Then she went red and froze on the spot, dropping her hand into her lap.
"Kitsuna?," Ennoshita nudged her shoulder gently but she didn't respond at all. It seemed almost as if she had stopped breathing.
"Hey, Kitsuna-huh?," Noya looked up from the screen, now in Tanaka's hands, at the interesting pair sitting across from him. Ennoshita's face was tense, and Kitsuna's was bright red. She was half-collapsed into his chest, leaning over his shoulder, and not responding at all to the boy's attempts at rousing her.
"Dude, what'd you do?," Noya poked at Kitsuna's face, also getting no reaction.
"I didn't do anything!," Ennoshita half-yelled back.
"Quit yelling, there are other people you'll wake up!," Daichi returned just then, along with a very exhausted Suga. His shout got Kitsuna's attention, her eyes snapping over to the two of them. Daichi observed the strange scene in the middle of the room with a look that made the others feel extremely uneasy.
"Right! I'm gonna head out, 'night guys!," Kitsuna was at the door in an instant. She pushed right past Suga and bolted through the partially opened door before anyone could react. She rushed down the hall and to the girls' room, sliding the door shut in a hurry and sinking down to the floor on the other side of it. Yachi started to freak out and ask if she was okay, but Kiyoko pulled her back and urged her to just leave the other girl alone for now.
"What the hell?," Kitsuna whined after a while. She finally realized her surroundings, and climbed into her futon for the night. She rolled onto her side, holding her right hand with her left, close to her chest. Her face was so hot it was almost unbearable under the covers as she drifted off to sleep.