Thursday practice turned into Friday school, which lead to early out and early practice. Shiro, instead of sitting in his corner of the gym, found himself back home, laying in bed wondering if he should call Miyabi.
He felt... horrible to put it bluntly. He knew it was just nerves; a mix of his normal anxiety and a new douse of self-loathing and anger that made his stomach so upset, but he hated it. He hated feeling sick, and he hated feeling sick over something so dumb.
Shoyo deserved the world, and who was Shiro to deny him.
That morning Shoyo had come to wake him up per usual, offering a cold mask when Shiro had said he was sick, but he just couldn't bring himself to get out of bed. He'd played it off as a stomach bug due to his weakened immune system from the accident and his general dislike for people, but in reality, he was just disgusted with himself.
Emica had tutted at him softly, bringing him a couple of water bottles before laying a chaste kiss on his forehead. She'd returned a few minutes later to remove Natsu, who had climbed into his bed when she'd heard he was feeling sick, and bring her to school, and then Shiro had been left alone. He'd managed to fall back asleep, waking up only to be feeling mildly better and to a barrage of text messages.
The majority of them were from Shoyo, unintelligible things that the reader on Shiro's phone struggled to get out, asking if he was better and if he needed to pick anything up on the way home. There were a few from Emica, telling him to stay hydrated and take some medicine if needed, and one from Miyabi asking if she needed to come over. He responded to them all, slowly and methodically, but the ones that he stalled over the most were from Tanaka and Sugawara.
He was, to be completely honest, surprised that they had texted him at all. He'd gotten Tanaka's number the very first day, and had gotten Suga's only a day later, but neither of them had texted him until now. Tanaka had only sent one text, asking if he was alright to which Shiro replied that he'd gotten a small stomach bug, "probably food poisoning" he lied. Tanaka responded almost immediately despite being in class, but Shiro chose to ignore it in favor of listening to the two texts Sugawara had sent him.
The first just said that Shoyo had told him that he'd gotten sick and was indisposed, hoping that he felt better when he read this and that he made a speedy recovery. It was very sweet; a kind gesture from someone that Shiro had met not even a week ago, and it made him feel even more guilty.
The second text, which was actually only from about thirty minutes ago, was short and curt; Sugawara saying that he was skipping out on practice and coming over for tutoring.
It- ...
It made sense in a way, as long as you didn't look too far past the surface. Shiro was smart, he was way above the average for kids his age, but Suga coming over for tutoring didn't make any sense. Suga was smart, he probably didn't need tutoring, so it was for something else all together.
Shiro found himself looking up at his bedroom ceiling with unseeing eyes, laid sprawled in a way that made Natsu whine at him for taking all the covers when he normally did it, and he found himself drifting in his confusion until a sharp knock at the front door sounded through the house. At first, he ignored it, thinking it was just a delivery being dropped off, but when it sounded again he groaned, grabbing his phone and struggling to get it to tell him the time before the third round of knocks sounded along with a soft, "Shiro, I know you're here, Hinata said you would still be home!"
At Suga's voice, Shiro found himself freezing in place. He'd listened to the text message multiple times, he knew that Suga was coming over unprompted, and yet it all seemed like a dream. He hadn't actually expected the other male to show up, he hadn't expected him to make the thirty-minute trek up the hill to his house from school.
The blind male forced himself to sit up, phone in hand as he stared blankly at the wall in front of his bed. Sugawara had shown up, he'd made the 30-minute trek up the hill to his house and was now at his front door...
Sugawara was at the front door!
Shiro flailed, throwing his blankets to the side as he fumbled to get out of bed. He skidded a bit on the hardwood floor, free hand scrambling for his fold-up cane before he managed to get out of his room and down the hallway. Suga was knocking again, but this time it was softer, almost as if he didn't want to be heard, and Shiro's heart lurched at that.
"Coming!" he managed to yell before he slipped, a yelp following after as he just barely managed to catch himself from falling. Socks, hardwood flooring, and trying to hurry never matched up well together. He slid into the genkan, beating one of Natsu's shoes away from the door with his cane before pulling it open.
Shiro was hit with a soft breeze, the smell of cypress and wildflowers entering the house along with whatever Sugawara had washed his hair with. Almonds? Shiro forced himself not to take an obvious deep breath, but yes, Sugawara smelled of sweet almonds.
"Hi," Shiro said softly, out of breath from his struggle to the front door. Suga let out a soft giggle, and Shiro found himself wanting to hear it again.
"Hi," Sugawara returned, voice just as soft but with a laughing tilt to it. He seemed happy, which was good, Shiro could do with some happiness right now.
Shiro stood there for a moment, mind blanking out as he let his imagination wander. It wasn't until another breeze came by and made him shiver that he realized he was standing in his doorway like an idiot. "Right! Sorry," Shiro moved back, letting Sugawara actually enter the house to which he was met with a light laugh, the shorter male entering the genkan to remove his shoes as Shiro closed to door behind them.
The blind male could feel that his face was on fire, blushing over his embarrassment over being awkward to interact with, and embarrassed that he was still in his sleep clothes. It was just a plain pair of gym shorts and tank top, but it was still far more skin than he was used to showing people.
After the accident Shiro was used to covering up; his skin in places looked more like swiss cheeses and in some, it was only a major discoloration that told you there was an issue, but he was used to covering it up due to not wanting others to see it.
Currently, Sugawara could see almost all of it.
The other male hadn't said anything about it, and Shiro was thankful. He could take the staring, could take the silent questions, but once it was said out loud Shiro couldn't help but think of how different he was.
Of how lucky was to be alive today.
"You said you needed tutoring?" Shiro prompted softly, trying to get his mind away from the burns and back to the present. Sugawara, who had wandered into the doorway between the living room and the kitchen, smiled brightly at the blind male. He knew Shiro couldn't see it, but it just felt right to do.
"Right," Sugawara said, voice carrying an odd breathless quality to it, "Hinata said you were out of high school classes but could help with most things." Shiro listened to him dig through what was probably his school bag for a moment before stepping forward, awkwardly holding a hand out to stop him.
"We can move this to the couch, or to the table so you can set your stuff down." Shiro flinched slightly when his hand met Sugawara's shoulder, or at least he was hoping it was his shoulder. He was met with a soft laugh; a bright sound, bells or wind chimes, and Shiro found himself putting his hand firmer onto Sugawara's shoulder.
The two of them moved to the kitchen table at Suga's request so he could spread out the things he needed; the sound of books and papers settling while pencils and pens clattered in a plastic case to create a symphony at a usually quiet time. Shiro folded up his cane while he waited for Sugawara to sort through his things, listening to the soft humming he seemed to be doing subconsciously.
It was obviously a song of some kind, but Shiro couldn't recognize the melody at all; he was content to listen regardless of it being familiar or not.
"Do you want something to drink?" he asked softly once he'd realized that Suga needed a few minutes to sort through his things. The shorter male paused in his paper ruffling before letting out a hum of agreement. "Please, if you don't mind."
Shiro shrugged lightly, a small, almost bashful smile coming to his face. "I'm offering so, of course, I don't mind." He got up from his seat at the table, moving into the kitchen, all while being oblivious to the flush across the grey-eyed boy's face. Sugawara watched as Shiro, without his cane, moved around the kitchen with ease.
It was.... nice to see Shiro move with confidence. Sugawara felt his face flush darker and was thankful, and a little guilty at his thankfulness, that Shiro couldn't see how dark his blush had gotten. Shiro moving with confidence was nice, and that was as far as Sugawara was going to let that thought go.
"Here," Shiro said softly, setting a glass of ice water onto the table along with a bottle of... diet coke? Suga watched as Shiro unscrewed the lid and took a drink, immediately forcing his eyes down as his face flushed once more.
He was here to get help with school work, not to thirst over the blind male.
"So what exactly did you need help with?" Suga looked over to Shiro again, the other male's eyes were looking to the far wall, unfocused and a little twitchy, but it was interesting to see him so relaxed.
"It's just my maths class," he sighed. "Normally I'm on top of this stuff but this one unit just isn't making a lot of sense to me." Shiro hummed, hands coming to rest on the table, fingers tapping idly.
"Well, I'll do what I can for you Suga!" the blind male smiled, head tilting off to the side like a confused puppy, and Sugawara felt his heart melting.
"Right," he said distractedly, soft and airy, "of course, thank you."
-
[Maaaaaa can you believe it's been 3 months????
whoops
lol anyways, I apologize for the mega delay, and the rather shortness of this chapter but I felt I needed to get something out since it had been so long
Tell me your thoughts on this, tell me things about your day or literally anything honestly
I thrive off comments
anyways! thank you for reading!
toodles!]