𝚂𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝙳𝚊𝚢 𝙵𝚘𝚘𝚕 - 𝙺. 𝚂𝚊𝚔𝚞𝚜𝚊 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

Chapter Seven - Magic

Chapter Seven

In one of the smaller gyms within the sports complex that was home to the MSBY Black Jackals, Sakusa and his cousin Motoya Komori finished some basic stretching and did some catching up before parting to opposing sides of a divided court. It wasn't as if they didn't talk often, Komori's parents had Sakusa over for dinner frequently these days, but their closeness also meant that no one was more surprised than Komori when he heard Sakusa had strayed so far from his norm.

"You went where?" Komori guffawed, his eyes momentarily widening in disbelief.

"The aquarium."

Komori pursed his lips to hold back his laugh when the perfect pun popped into his head. "On porpoise?"

Sakusa sighed, shaking his head. "Yes, on purpose. It was rather...spontaneous though."

Komori blinked incredulously. He practically grew up with Sakusa as a brother and spontaneous certainly was never a word he'd use to describe the pro athlete. "You? Spontaneous?" Komori bounced the volleyball he was holding against the gym floor two times before tossing it in the air and serving it over the net. "I hardly believe that."

Sakusa effortlessly received the ball and sailed it back towards his cousin to start a rally. "It's not as if it was my choice."

Komori's mouth made the shape of an O while he shook his head to get his slightly overgrown light brown hair out of his face. "So one of the guys on the team dragged you out?"

"Not exactly. There's this woman I met who–"

"Kiyoomi!" Komori clutched the volleyball and stood still, grinning. "Why didn't you start with that!!! So you went on a date?! Tell me, is she cute? She must be, right?"

"It wasn't a date, I hardly know her," Sakusa pointed out. "We only met last weekend."

"That's literally why people date. Getting to know each other better is the whole point," Komori laughed. "Man, mom and dad are gonna be thrilled!"

Sakusa's expression soured at the mention of his aunt and uncle. They had never pushed him in any way to settle down and marry, but there was always a brief question in each interaction to see if he'd decided to get back into dating. "It's pointless to get their hopes up over nothing. It wasn't a date, I was roped into helping Sajima find inspiration to write her manga, that's all."

Komori's smile remained firmly in place as he tossed up the ball to volley it once again. "Inspiration for manga, huh? Does she write shojo?"

"No. She has an ongoing series that Shonen Jump picked up," Sakusa explained, spiking the ball back and smirking when his cousin missed the receive. There was a bit of a skill difference and while Komori was still a great player, this conversation only made him more satisfied to steal a point from him. "Apparently she works all day and night but has been stuck. I gave her some advice when I ran into her again and somehow that dragged me into all of this."

"You could've just said no if you really didn't want to."

"I did."

"So then what changed your mind?"

Sakusa thought back to the day before, wondering what it actually was that convinced him to go. He was curious about her, that was certainly part of it, but it was more than that. "She came to our last game because Miya has a big mouth but she said it was the first time in a long time that she had fun. I guess that made me feel kind of bad for her."

That wasn't the whole truth and Sakusa knew it. He knew that he wanted to figure her out and that he wanted to help her, but it was more than that. Sajima thought he was fun, that he was someone she could enjoy spending time with and he didn't know that was something he wanted until she said it. Not that he was about to admit that.

"Oh...so it was a pity kinda thing, then?" Komori's smile fell, he knew if it was him in Sajima's place that he wouldn't exactly be happy to know that. "That's a bummer."

Sakusa tried to focus on the task at hand, falling silent in the process until his cousin loudly sighed. "Did you enjoy your trip to the aquarium at least?"

The first thing that came to mind each time he thought of yesterday was how she looked in the water gate. The dark blue reflection of the water darkened her complexion while broken rays of light flickered across her face, her eyes catching the radiance every so often made the image even harder to forget. Of course, with that he immediately would recall her catching him staring and he would internally cringe. That said, Sakusa knew he enjoyed the time they spent there; his favourite part was when she sat beside him and worked. It may have seemed unusual to others, but he liked that she was so dedicated to her work and that they could simply be in each other's company without any pretense. "Yeah, I did."

•·················•·················•

"I love this!"

Sajima looked over at her assistant Kaneshi from the desk beside hers that she'd purchased especially for him. They both preferred for him to be with her when he was helping out and Sajima knew how taxing it could be sitting hunched over a kotatsu so she couldn't just let him suffer while he was helping her. "Which part?"

"Having Charles reveal some of his backstory to Yusuke was a smart idea but that wasn't part of the original plan, right? What changed your mind?"

A smile curved Sajima's lips as she recalled her time with Sakusa the day before. Sure, he wasn't exactly excited to have been dragged along with her, but she could tell that he enjoyed himself most of the time. The more time they spent marvelling at the sea creatures, the more he seemed to relax around her and when he encouraged her to continue drawing after he pointed out a helpful moment, Sajima found herself wondering if she had won even a little piece of his friendship. "I went out yesterday morning and a friend helped me find some inspiration. At least I think he's my friend now."

Kaneshi put his cutting tool down and swivelled his desk chair to look over at the mangaka. This was the first time Sajima had mentioned a friend besides their group from work. "You have a new friend? Should I be jealous they're going to steal you away from us?"

Sajima laughed and waved her hand dismissively as she went back to completing the screentone on one of the last few panels of the chapter. "Surprising, right? But no, you don't have to worry. It won't change anything."

"It's already changed something. What did you guys get up to that helped?" Kaneshi cringed as soon as he said it, concerned that it could have been more than just an outing between friends. "Nevermind, don't answer that."

"Get your head out of the gutter, Eshi. We went to the aquarium. I haven't been since I was a tiny li'l kid," Sajima moved her free hand down to the seat of her chair to emphasize her former height. "Knee-high to a grasshopper kind of little."

"Oh...but staring at fish gave you an idea like this? I didn't even know that Charles was once a full-fledged human who was cursed." Kaneshi returned his chair to its original position and continued the task.

"I guess I just realized that opening up to people helps to gain more understanding and isn't always a bad thing," she hummed before using a sharp breath to push some stray hair out of her eyes. "I can't imagine another way Yusuke would agree to help Charles. He's a nice guy but he's lazy as hell. There's no way he'd do it without a good reason."

"That and he thinks he's losing his mind because he's seeing a centaur everywhere he goes."

"Also that," Sajima agreed. "How could he take a chance on something he's so suspicious of? They needed a mutual understanding, which resulted in some fine-tuning of Charles' backstory. You like it though?"

"Yeah, it's great!" Kaneshi's smile turned into a smirk and he tossed a scrap of paper scrunched up into a tiny ball at Sajima's head. "So what do you think you're gonna get up to next? For inspiration, I mean. Unless this was enough, which would be awesome."

Sajima hummed as she pondered the question, but she didn't want to overthink it. She just hoped whatever it was, she'd be able to snag Sakusa to come along. "I think it's best to let that be spur of the moment. If I plan it out then there's not as much magic."

"Magic, huh?" The younger artist laughed and leaned back in his chair to stretch his arms. "Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of your next outing."

A soft smile rested upon Sajima's lips as she cautiously pulled off a piece of the screen for her panel. "Yeah, me too."