I Don't Think I Regret it

You Can't Wear Out Your Welcome if You Were Never Invited in the First Place

The squeak of the gym doors, the smell of rubber, the sultry summer competing with the crunchy chill of autumn. Ai could smell body odor melding with the scent of deodorant. She heard the squeal of rubber soles against the shiny wooden floors of the gymnasium. It was cooling down, sure. The leaves were turning different hues and the air in the morning was less humid and a bit crisper. When She walked with Kuroo and Kenma to school, she had Kuroo's long sleeved warm up jersey on over her uniform. She would hold hands with Kuroo and watch Kenma play his video games as they walked. Yes, this transition between summer and autumn was connected with memories Ai never had before. She looked forward to waking up for school now. She didn't spend all of her nights holed up in her room, drinking. She had a boyfriend, friends, and most importantly, her life had the stability that she didn't realize she never really had before.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. This happy moment between summer and autumn was no exception. It all soured the day she came back home with Kuroo after volleyball practice to find Akihito at the door, prepared to buzz the doorbell. Her hands clenched but released when Kuroo put a hand on her shoulder as if to tell her to play nice.

With a short sigh, she faced Akihito Yoshida with neither a smile nor a scowl. "Hello, Akihito." She greeted him with no formalities or honorifics.

He nodded at her, a little shaken. When he turned to her, she could see the bruise across his cheek. Her eyes widened for a moment and she hastily unlocked the door to her apartment. She rushed him inside, and tugged him into the kitchen. "Kuroo," she barked, Kuroo knew what she needed and immediately opened the cupboard under the kitchen sink to retrieve the first aid kit. "Thanks." She grabbed a beer out of the fridge and opened another drawer where they kept the clean tea towels. She wrapped the can of beer in the tea towel and set it on the counter before rummaging through the kit for antiseptic spray. There was a little bit of scraping on his cheek, but not enough to warrant a bandage. "Close your eyes," Ai ordered before spraying antiseptic on his cheek. "You baby," she mocked as he hissed at the sting "it can't hurt any worse than being hit, now can it?". She pressed the beercan to his cheek. "Now," Ai said, going back to the fridge to pull out two more cans of beer, "what happened?"

They all sat on the couch, Ai had her legs thrown across Kuroo's lap and leaned her head onto his chest. She had changed out of her uniform into one of Kuroo's shirts and a pair of leggings. Kuroo couldn't have drank more than half of his beer in the few sips he took throughout Akihito recounting the events of the past week. Ai drank her own beer without any semblance of amusement as she listened. She was neither surprised nor disappointed. Her father had always been a deadbeat, but despite her lack of reaction to the news, she had never suspected him to be capable of something like this. All while she had been growing up he had never been physically or particularly verbally violent, even when drunk. Ai couldn't even imagine what had happened to throw her father off the edge.

But of course, it was when he lost a large sum of money and Akihito refused to give him any of the money his mother had left him to fuel his father's gambling habits. Hearing this painted her father in a new shade. Not the neglect and careless indifference that she had seen growing up, but the snapping of a brittle rubber band. She sighed, even if she didn't like Akihito, there was no way she was going to kick him out. "Did you call the police department?" Ai asked, setting her empty can down.

Akihito shook his head. He had a small bag of things with him along with his school bag, but Ai could tell he wouldn't go back even if she forced him to. "I didn't know what to do." He seemed a bit stunned, not that his father had been violent with him, but that he was now having to deal with the aftermath. "I did call my mother, she didn't answer so I left a voicemail." Akihito said.