gnasher | 1495 inbox ✘ hollyheights [ CLOSED ]

tonight? that's fine.

[...]

i could help. get stuff or prepare whatever, i mean.

help with preparing is good! rice or noodles?

[tho really, next time, she'll aim to get them grocery shopping together, because that sounds nice.]

[...]

which do you like better?

which do YOU want? i asked first.

you're already making kimchi, i like that. don't make a fuss.

[why is it so hard to sibling without feeling like he's eating his foot every 5 seconds]

fair enough. noodles it is!

[she feels a little bad, reading him well enough.]

see you soon <3

[Rin shows up at home promptly about 45 minutes later, a gym bag slung over his shoulder. he's obviously just gotten out of the pool, his hair still drying at the ends and his face a little tired. he'd given Haru a run for his money, tonight, but maybe pushed things a little too far. it's on days like this he misses having a real coach, who'd say when enough was enough. it's not like he's at risk for overtraining, or anything, not with Sousuke around, but he misses the structure of having that authority figure]

[speaking of authority figures (just who was, between them???)]

Gou, I'm home.

[called out absently as he pulls off shoes, coat, hat; he hopes she's back from the store and he's not talking to an empty house]

[empty houses are temporary but even temporary aloneness casts shadows. gou understands this, recognizes for her own self the significance of being called out to as well as the opportunity which words such as "welcome home" encapsulate. if she missed out on formative times when her brother was in another country, if she misses out on plenty of things now with her brother at samezuka, well it is what it is. what holly heights offers, however, is not a replacement but an addition.

when gou was younger, she would do her homework to the ambient silence of the matsuoka home. she doesn't mind quiet. but she would fill those hours of solitude with thoughts of rin matsuoka who had left to pursue something bright and difficult. the rin from then and now seem worlds apart yet they are the same. and she loves all the versions of him, if selfishly the one she gets to keep the closest.

and so when he calls 'I'm home' it's only natural to say,]

Welcome home.

[this, called from the kitchen where she's just unpacking the small assortment of groceries as planned: kimchi, noodles, eggs, and some skirt steak because protein....!!!! when she sees him, she smiles but it shifts quickly into a pinched expression, brow furrowed.]

Your hair's still wet.

[just the ends, sure, but still! a seasonal cold will accept any invitation.]

[(it still rattles something uncomfortably in his chest, when he hears the response)]

[Rin appears in the kitchen, down to his Samezuka jacket and typical sweats. he's got his gym bag in one hand, and he'll be tossing them in the washing machine next]

I didn't want to take too long.

[a shrug, but a slight flush, too; as much thought and planning as Rin puts into things, he tends to kneejerk react, when it comes to Gou. she'd wanted him home, and he'd finished his laps, done a cursory shower and blow-drying, and come home. that's all there was to it]

It'll dry on its own. [he wants to poke the furrowed brow. it's cute. he's too awkward, though, and arms lay stiffly at his sides] Is that everything you need?

1495 inbox ✘ hollyheights [ CLOSED ]

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